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Audiobooks
Archives: February 2007 - June 2007

The Lowe-Down on Audiobooks - June 2007
Audiobooks Reviewed by Jonathan Lowe

We all do it. After all, it's so easy to do. Just type out a letter or message, and two seconds later hit the "Send" button. Was it a mistake? Quite possibly, according to David Shipley and Will Schwalbe, authors of SEND: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home. For in sending an electronic letter, which you didn't have to print and fold and insert and stamp--and then take to a mailbox-- there wasn't time to reconsider your email's wording or necessity or possible effect. And then there's the punctuation to consider, and the innate tendency for an email's tone to be misconstrued. And what are the legal ramifications, since emails can now be introduced into court as evidence, as happened with Enron? Should you cc or bcc someone, or not? What happens if you attach a file to an email without asking permission first, and your recipient needs to get to a vital email just past yours in a hurry? How are your blunders and intrusions likely to predispose a client toward you, in such a case? People have been fired for sending emails to fellow office workers. People have been jailed over emails. But after listening to this sometimes amusing audiobook, read by the authors (who switch back and forth to preserve pacing and clarity) , you will definitely think twice before hitting the Send button, and that alone is worth the price of admission. In the meantime, they suggest picking up a pen or a telephone instead, which is sometimes the better choice anyway. (Random House Audio--2 hours abridged)

What is the definition of a pirate? You might be surprised, after hearing EMPIRE OF BLUE WATER by Stephan Talty. It's the true story of Henry Morgan, a Welshman who attacked a major Spanish port in the Caribbean in a decisive battle for the New World in the late 17th Century, and delivered a shocking result. The complex relationships revealed about this age of empire and exploration, together with the world views expressed by those in England and Spain, make the book interesting in itself. Add some bizarre characters, given life by narrator and actor John H. Mayer, and you have a fascinating tale of hard times set on the briny sea, where subterfuge and bold cunning matter just as much, if not more, than cannon shot. The fact that Morgan did not consider himself to be a wild man or pirate, but rather a faithful servant to the Crown, bears its own irony, too, and enables him to transcend the cliched image of the pirate perpetuated by Hollywood. As real life usually does. (Random House Audio--6 1/2 hours abridged)

In THE CANON author Natalie Angier presents "A whirligig tour of the beautiful basics of science." Starting with an in depth examination of what science is--and is not--she describes the scientific method, including some definitions of terms. For instance, the word "theory" as used by scientists is quite different than the same word used by laymen. A "theory" is more like an established, proven fact, whether it be the "theory of evolution" or the "theory of gravity." What follows is an overview of physics, biology, chemistry, geology, and astronomy. Having interviewed hundreds of scientists over the course of her career as a science writer, Angier is also conscious of her audience enough to know that a straightforward presentation of so many facts is likely to daze as much as dazzle. So she adds a plethora of witticisms and metaphors to illustrate the concepts, with an ear for word play and irony. What exactly is electricity or stem cell research or gravity? One needs only enough curiosity to look beyond the sports page to this book for the fascinating answers. Narrator and actress Nike Doukas deserves no small credit, as well, for enlivening the engaging text with her own amiable personality, standing in for the author with her gift for inspiring enthusiasm. (Highbridge Audio--13 hours unabridged)

THE SECRET is a curious bestseller. Mostly hype without substance, it began as a website, much like "Blair Witch Project," and claims to reveal the great secret of wealth and fulfillment, employed by geniuses throughout the ages. What is this incredible secret? Think about what you want, and it will be attracted to you. Author Rhonda Byrne narrates, along with a host of motivational speakers, and even a wacky quantum physicist who has signed on to the idea that there's something mystical going on here. We are all like massive radio towers, Byrne says, broadcasting our thoughts to the universe, which senses the vibrational energy emitted, and responds accordingly. Aided by endless commentary of the "I agree, I agree" sort, the few points made by the book are repeated like indoctrination, while a moody yet beatific sound track lends it all the air of revelation. Want a Hummer or a private jet? That could be in your future, too, if you concentrate hard enough on it. Never mind global warming, or whether you SHOULD want more and more. Never mind the Biblical admonition that the love of money is the root of all evil, either, or any Eastern values concerned with accepting what is. Byrne, the Anti- Christ of popcorn psychology, would have you focus your thoughts on riches instead of seeking one's identity beyond thoughts--the traditional goal of meditation. This is why she picked people like Jack Canfield, author of the Chicken Soup books, instead of Eckhart Tolle or Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche as one of her "seers." While it is true that one's thoughts influence one's direction or destiny, it is also true that thoughts are fleeting, obsessive, compulsive vapors of the mind, and shouldn't be believed without question. The secret to happiness is therefore not in acquiring and possessing as many symbols of wealth as possible via thought control, but in realizing that once you are no longer a prisoner of your thoughts--or others-- you will not need those things in the first place. (Simon & Schuster Audio/4 hours unabridged)

Finally, there is the TWINKIE, DECONSTRUCTED. Author Steve Ettlinger is aided by the personable voice of actor Mark Lund in this ear- opening road trip through the ingredient label of the iconic snack cake. Who knew that it would take six hours to describe how all these ingredients are mined, processed, and packaged? Due to Homeland Security, access to some of the chemical plants that create these additives is limited, but the author has done his research, and so takes the listener on a mind boggling tour of where emulsifiers like polysorbate 60 come from, how they are manufactured, and what other uses the common ingredients of processed baked goods have in products as diverse as paint or herbicides. Does it scare you to learn that it is more likely, when you bite into a creamy filling, that you're eating a former petroleum byproduct than you are eggs? Surprisingly, the author doesn't worry much about it. It is not his purpose to denigrate the food industry for focusing on taste, appearance, and shelf life as the Holy Trinity of profit. Rather, he cites FDA approval and industry cooperation in neglecting to name names "out of courtesy." So the book is not an expos� so much as a layout of the complex and sometimes secretive processes by which dyes, fillers, emulsifiers, and preservatives are produced in huge vats, and then subjected to high heat, acids, atomizations, extrusions, and a hundred other transformations before being added to foods that are cleverly packaged, shipped--and may wait in storage for months before being consumed. Crack an egg and try to do that. (Listen & Live Audio--6 hours unabridged)

(These audiobooks may be rented at Audio Adventures by calling 1-800-551-6692. Be sure to ask for FAME ISLAND, a satirical adventure about a Powerball winner who disappears right after picking up his check because he intends to be famous for more than just 15 minutes.)

The Lowe-Down on Audiobooks - May 2007
Audiobooks Reviewed by Jonathan Lowe

If you want to see what it's like for an award winning literary novelist to cross over into the mystery genre, give CHRISTINE FALLS a listen. Author Benjamin Black is actually Englishman John Banville, whose 2005 novel "The Sea" won the Man Booker Prize. Banville, here writing under a pseudonym, has conjured up a Dublin pathologist named Garret Quirke, who follows Christine's corpse into Catholic high society, where a conspiracy lurks. The novel floats atop an ocean of psychological tension, and is replete with the same finely detailed observations that eddied through "The Sea." One can only speculate why the genre change for Banville, but even without former James Bond actor Timothy Dalton at the helm as narrator, there would still be enough authority and believability here to propel any lifeboat to shore. Suffice it to say that the pacing, tone and accent are unerringly on track under Dalton's careful guidance, since, being the most serious of Bond actors, Dalton is, after all, a classical trained Shakespearean actor who also appeared in "Wuthering Heights" and "The Lion in Winter." As for the novel itself, it is conventional in structure and yet as quirky as real life--or the name of its protagonist. Combine great writing with strong narration, and this production emerges like a pearl of originality surfacing from an abyss of murky banality, revealing a whole that is more than the sum of its parts. (Audio Renaissance--9 1/2 hours unabridged)

Next, and more traditional in development and convention, is another mystery set within the Catholic church: GOD'S SPY by Juan Gomez- Jurado. Here, a serial killer has been targeting cardinals and priests. When some of them turn up not only dead but tortured, a police inspector gets help from an American priest and former Army intelligence officer who is examining sexual abuse within the church. Not without irony, the two men are led to suspect someone within the Vatican is protecting the killer. Narrated by the wonderful Kate Reading, whose accolades are legion, the novel moves with compelling purpose from the lives of its principal characters-- which come to life in Reading's sympathetic rendering--into that shadowy world behind the lofty hallowed walls of Rome. An international bestseller, the novel will appeal to murder mystery fans of all types. (Penguin Audio--10 1/2 hours unabridged)

Finally, if, as a publisher, you're going to pick a narrator for your next major biography, you could hardly choose better than actor Edward Herrmann. Here is a narrator whose gentle authority and gift of disappearing behind the fluidity of a timeline entrance the listener to the same degree that a Grover Gardner or a Will Patton enliven a regional fictional tale by the sheer bravura of precisely realized dialog, or by the understated charm of a carefully lilting exposition. Given the subject of Walter Isaacson's new biography-- even though his last was "Benjamin Franklin"--you also need Herrmann's steady, unpretentious tutelage to guide your listeners into the secrets revealed in EINSTEIN: HIS LIFE AND UNIVERSE. After all, this subject was not merely Man of the Year, or even Man of the Decade, but was awarded Man of the Century by Time Magazine, due largely to two astonishing papers that forever changed our concepts of time, energy, motion, and gravity. A rare genius, able not only to visualize complex mathematical relationships in his mind, but to express them as easily understood thought problems, Einstein is here revealed, perhaps for the first time, as a complete person, both scientifically and personally, through both his public and personal life. This is partly thanks to new personal letters and papers released in 2006. What comes to light is a man without political ambitions, who hoped for world government as an end to nationalism. A gentle, kindly and unassuming man with a sense of humor, who prized imagination over intellect. A rebel who believed God was bigger than anyone imagined, yet who also believed the ultimate answers were symmetrical, elegant, simple, and just out of reach. One of America's first true celebrities, Einstein lived in an age when modesty was still respected, and vanity was considered a weakness. He transcended it all with a surprising humility, and so will be remembered throughout the ages as a man for all ages. An icon worth listening to. (Simon & Schuster Audio or Recorded Books--21 1/2 hours unabridged)

(These audiobooks may be rented at Audio Adventures by calling 1-800-551-6692. Be sure to ask for FAME ISLAND, a satirical adventure about a Powerball winner who disappears right after picking up his check because he intends to be famous for more than just 15 minutes.)

The Lowe-Down on Audiobooks - April 2007
Audiobooks Reviewed by Jonathan Lowe

Former Presidents remain under security, which is one of the benefits--and drawbacks--of holding the nation's highest office. So when former chief executive Kal Wilson needs to accomplish his own personal investigation, involving political dealings in Panama--and his wife's so-called "accidental" death--he needs help to disappear. Enter Randy Wayne White's protagonist Doc Ford, who inadvertently saves Wilson's life on an island off Florida's west coast, and thereby teams with Wilson in an adventure of intrigue. HUNTER'S MOON is read by audiobook pioneer George Guidall, whose prolific narrative power is legendary, lending balance and poise to this somewhat unlikely suspense. Wilson's short speech at the climax is one of the most remarkable ever penned, for its jolting authenticity and spontaneity, while Guidall's mastery of tone provides the perfect vehicle of understated conveyance. This is a raft that does float despite repeated boardings, thanks as much to the subtle shiftings characterizing its passengers as to the roaring engine of its plot. (Penguin Audio/8 1/2 hours unabridged)

We live in a society obsessed with "stuff." After we buy it and use it, we tire of it and end up storing it. Then we're off to buy more stuff. Some people can't part with any of their stuff, due to unending commercials that brainwash us into believing that bigger is better, and more is favorable to less. Is it really true, though? Is a big heart attack better than a small one? Is more anxiety better than less? According to Peter Walsh, life is not necessarily improved by accumulation, (any more than cholesterol in arteries by supersized meals.) His new audiobook is titled "IT'S ALL TOO MUCH-- An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life With Less Stuff." Written and read by the author, this audiobook takes listeners by the ear, room by room, to discover what they need and what they don't. Some of it is pretty obvious, of course. Less obvious are things you might be surprised to discover that you haven't used in months. Get rid of the clutter, and you may feel like a weight has been lifted. The final CD is enhanced with a PDF file of lists taken from the print book. Recommended for people with over ten pairs of shoes, or over two drawers full of kitchen utensils. (Simon & Schuster Audio/ 6 hours unabridged)

Once the clutter in your house is under control, Byron Katie and Stephen Mitchell have a formula for the rest of your life. Because if you can accept whatever you have, then wanting something else becomes superfluous. Their new audiobook is appropriately titled "A THOUSAND NAMES FOR JOY--Living In Harmony With the Way Things Are." Read by the authors in the same unemotional manner that characterized Eckhart Tolle reading "The Power of Now," this audiobook asks you to accept EVERYTHING, no matter what it is, and claims that this is the path to happiness and peace. As such, it's a bit different than "The Secret," which inevitably causes one to expect more. While it does seem fatalistic to accept disaster and even death, what's undeniable is that such a person is no longer at odds with reality, and so once you stop looking for the future to save you, you can be happy in the present. The instructions for self inquiry, including how to stop believing every one of your idle thoughts, can also be an eye- opener. (Random House Audio/6 hours abridged)

Imagine being called to an oil rig in the North Atlantic to diagnose a mysterious illness, only to discover that no one there is drilling for oil. This is the mystery that Dr. Peter Crane attempts to solve in DEEP STORM by Lincoln Child. It's a high concept cross-genre science fiction novel from Douglas Preston's usual coauthor, sometimes writing suspense novels on his own. The oil rig is actually a cover for a top secret project, ostensibly to discover Atlantis, two miles below the seabed. There is a signal being heard from below, which may be causing the illness, but it's definitely not Atlantis that they will discover. It's far more dangerous than that. Narrated by Scott Brick, who has the skill to make each revelation believably new and real to the listener, the audiobook is what I call "a CD changer" (audio equivalent to the page-turner), with an intriguing plot that propels listeners to a twist finish. My advice? They should make this one a movie, and get Brick to play Crane. (Random House Audio/7.5 hours abridged)

Finally, first time novelist and former JPMorgan broker Dana Vachon has a book out titled MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS, about a Georgetown grad who lands a job as an investment banker for J. S. Spenser, a company whose clients pony up millions for the privilege of making billions. Tommy Quinn and his young friends get drunk on power, money, sex, and prestige as they plum the depths of corruption present on Wall Street. It's quite a ride, and both the author and his narrator, Kirby Heyborne, are young and relatively inexperienced enough to seem in awe and envy themselves, even while the predictable denouement involving death and disillusionment unfolds. Donald Trump will probably have this one on his iPod. For the rest of us, it's a vicarious thrill, not without humor, but a little like rubbernecking. (Penguin Audio/10 hours unabridged)

(These audiobooks may be rented at Audio Adventures by calling 1-800-551-6692. If you play the lotto instead of the stock market, be sure to ask for FAME ISLAND, about a Powerball winner who disappears right after picking up his check because he intends to be famous for more than just 15 minutes!)

The Lowe-Down on Audiobooks - March 2007
Audiobooks Reviewed by Jonathan Lowe

Suppose you're an ex con artist trying to go straight when you're approached by two people in succession. First, the wife of a billionaire looking to swindle her abusive hubby, and then your own son, who tells you he needs big money to make good on a bad bet with the Russian mafia, or they're going to kill him. That's the setup to CON ED by Matthew Klein, an enjoyable romp through the life of one Kip Largo, a luckless yet intelligent sap whose fear of a lonely old age motivates him to attempt the dangerous repair of failed relationships. The story is told in the first person by narrator Norman Dietz, who couldn't be more believable as this wistful and wise observer of human foibles. Sympathy is earned here, in this must-hear tale about a con man's swan song to the ironies greed, betrayal, and fatherhood. (Brilliance Audio/9 hours unabridged)

Tyler Perry is described as a playwright, author, producer, director, composer, actor, star, reader, writer, and "entrepreneurial force," all within one paragraph on the back of his new audiobook DON'T MAKE A BLACK WOMAN TAKE OFF HER EARRINGS: MADEA'S UNINHIBITED COMMENTARIES ON LOVE AND LIFE. On the cover Perry (a big young man) is dressed as an overweight black woman with silver hair, and so, as you might suspect, this is an offbeat humorous advice book, and is based on the two movies that Perry created around the character of this pistol-packing grandmother with an attitude. With subjects ranging from sex to beauty to religion, Madea dishes out a comprehensive yet unorganized monologue consisting of snippets of memory and wisdom. Doesn't seem scripted, but that's the charm. Not everything here is side splittingly funny, but happily most is at least amusing. Now if only Madea would tour the airport hotel conference circuit like those self help seminar nuts do, then maybe that trend would finally end. (Penguin Audio/4 1/2 hours)

What did Jackson Pollock, Saul Steinberg, Fairfield Porter and Jean Stafford have in common? Well, these artists and writers all lived and worked on the east end of Long Island, along with Frank O'Hara and Willem de Kooning. In DE KOONING'S BICYCLE critic Robert Long recreates an era prior to the nouveau riche takeover of the Hamptons by trust fund babies, when art (and not ostentation) was modus operandi. Read by perhaps the most listenable of narrators, Grover Gardner, the book "captures the spirit of modernism as filtered though New York's rural past," according to Publisher's Weekly. It is available in Mp3 disk format, for download to iPod, which is definitely modern, or perhaps post-modern. A new canvas, you might say, for the appropriate inner landscape of the audio documentary. (Blackstone Audio/5 1/2 hours unabridged)

Garrison Keillor has yet another collection of Lake Wobegon stories from his Prairie Home Companion radio show titled NEVER BETTER. I'm not sure if Garrison makes this stuff up off the top of his head, in ad lib, but whether he does or not, he certainly has a gift for offbeat characterization. He told me once in interview that Lake Wobegon is a real place, so one might naturally wonder if he reads the town newspaper and embellishes more boring stories, or if everything is made up of whole cloth. Suffice it to say that the eccentric people of Lake Wobegon are far from average, what with Flying Elvises on the 4th of July. Although the piece about Father Wilmer getting a new pair of underwear, or Roger Hedlund trying to escape his deer hunting pals does contain more than a kernel of truth. As they say in Lake Wobegon, "it could be worse." But what I think is that Keillor has never been better. (Highbridge Audio/2 hours unabridged)

Finally, you may remember Tracy Chevalier from the endearing historical mystery "Girl With the Pearl Earring," which was made into a somewhat less exciting film. She has been trying to repeat her success with that book (as have other authors) ever since, and comes close in BURNING BRIGHT, set in London in 1792. It's all about a sense of place here, with your stand-ins being the Kellaways, recently arrived from the countryside, and Maggie Butterfield, daughter of a local rogue. The circus, the mustard factory, Westminster Abbey, Cut-Throat Lane, and most of all poet and artist William Blake, are all influences here on a young girl growing up. Read by Jill Tanner, whose affecting rendition is informed by her time at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, this new historical novel is an escape from our current, dangerous era via the simpler--albeit baudy--route. (Penguin Audio/11 1/2 hours unabridged)

(These audiobooks may be rented from Audio Adventures by calling 1-800-551-6692. If you play the Powerball, be sure to ask for the lotto novel FAME ISLAND, read by Emmy-winning actor Kristoffer Tabori for BlackstoneAudio.com.)

The Lowe-Down on Audiobooks - February 2007
Audiobooks Reviewed by Jonathan Lowe

If you're in the delivery business, be it mail or oil or cattle or loaves of 12 grain bread, you probably feel under-appreciated at times. Perhaps you wonder what it might be like to switch from truck to tanker, or from barge to coal train. John McPhee's idea was just that in UNCOMMON CARRIERS, a non-fictional account of his job-hopping observations across the country and back again. Along the way, McPhee rides on an 18 wheeler hauling toxic chemicals to Washington state, then sits next to a towboat pilot negotiating the Illinois River, and finally climbs aboard the massive trains carrying coal out of Wyoming. With eyes and ears open, he portrays the transportation industry as a machine run by colorful people who are very aware of being invisible to the average folks on the street. Is it safe to crisscross your wave runner in front of a churning tugboat with massive propellers? Or your VW Beetle in front of a gasoline tank truck or a hauler carrying half a dozen SUVs? As one truck driver put it, "that guy strays any closer, and it's Beulah Land!" Near the end, McPhee visits the UPS hub in Kentucky, where "the sort" is accomplished for every parcel in the system. Thousands of conveyor belts churn inside a computer controlled building about as big as the Pentagon, next to a fleet of aircraft. Interestingly, UPS is also in the business of storing and fulfilling orders for other companies, so when you place an order for certain brands of shoes or cameras or printers, they don't come from those companies, but directly from UPS warehouses, where are placed in the sort, and then shipped that very evening. Many companies don't want you to know this, either, so the area is high security! As for the audiobook, it is narrated by McPhee himself, which is it's only flaw. Grover Gardner or another professional reader might have better enlivened the text, much like those commercials where an actor stands in for some ordinary Joe sitting in his own living room. (Recorded Books/9 1/2 hours unabridged)

According to Pat Benatar, it's a battlefield. Or is it a rose garden? Either way, love hurts. It also stinks, bleeds, inspires, confounds, you name it. For Rob Sheffield, a writer for Rolling Stone, love is the ultimate mystery--one he tries to sort out in LOVE IS A MIX TAPE, his personal anthem to a girl he met in the 90s named Renee. Renee loved him for a while, and then he lost her. The roller coaster ride that was Rob's life for that time (and afterward) is detailed in this new book about music and pop culture during the 90s. The memoir is arranged around fifteen mix tapes that coincide with Sheffield's brief relationship, and he reads the memoir himself, which does manage to bear the offbeat ring of truth. Whatever insights this young man has are rather shallow compared to his knowledge about songs, however, along with the 90s pop era when he grew up. . .not that there's anything wrong with that. As a bonus, the names of people Rob has met since working for Rolling Stone often arise, like when he once shared an elevator with Madonna. (Random House Audio/6 hours unabridged)

Less obsessed with being cool? Even if you are a city slicker, you may want to step up on the porch of a handyman and expert boat builder for an afternoon. Robb White is certainly willing to tell you about his life, too, and it is more than likely to be quite different than yours. In HOW TO BUILD A TIN CANOE, this Southern charmer takes his listeners on a wry journey up the creeks and down the rivers of his back country world, with a few surprises, recipes, and homespun humor along the way. Sections include "Sheephead Soup," and "The Giant Catfish of Mobile," and "Terrible Torque and the Floorboard Man." In addition to CD format, the audiobook is also available on Audiofy chip, for direct download onto iPod via iTunes input, simply by plugging the flash drive chip into your USB connection while your iPod is connected. This revolutionary chip medium for audiobooks also fits into standard SD card slots for other devices, and the technology allows up to 70 hours of audio to be placed on a wafer not much bigger than your thumbnail. (Blackstone Audio/6 hours unabridged)

Next, James P. Connolly has THE MASTER PLAN. Or is he just deluding himself? Either way, it's funny. The standup comic's new album explores dating, personal fitness, being half Mexican, the American Dream, and walking on the wrong side of the law. The sections of his CD tend to blend into one another, without any obvious setup or rehearsal, so it comes off as more improvisation than act. His humor is fluid, like a conversation, not raunchy or reliant on one-liners. Meaning Connolly involves the audience, and isn't averse to making fun of himself as well. I recommend listening to it, then passing it along to some gangster rapper. Some of those guys need to lighten up, and a few laughs and self deprecating insights might just be the ticket. (Uproar Entertainment/1 hour unabridged)

Yasmin Crowther is a newcomer whose first novel, THE SAFFRON KITCHEN, portrays Maryam Mazar, an Iranian woman who returns home to Mazareh, fleeing England in the process, when some secrets about her past are revealed. Leaving behind her daughter Sara and her orphaned nephew, Maryam disappears back to the world of her childhood, while her family tries to piece together the reasons for her unhappiness, before plotting to bring her back home somehow. As such, the novel illuminates a different culture, and is told with some eloquence by actors Mehr Mansuri and Ariana Fraval. The author has an Iranian mother and a British father, so it also makes sense that, for a first novel, she would write about what she knows. (Penguin Audio/8 1/2 hours unabridged)

Finally, congratulations are in order for Scott Brick, chosen as Narrator of the Year by Publisher's Weekly. Scott is an avid book enthusiast, and one of the busiest performers in the industry today. I've known him for five years now, and have profiled him for several national magazines. So congrats to you, Scott! You can sample Scott's narrative skills in the new novel by Steve Berry titled THE ALEXANDRIA LINK, which is a kind of DaVinci Code mystery/thriller involving a rare book dealer whose son is suddenly kidnapped before his shop is burned to the ground by a cartel of wealthy moguls bent on discovering the secrets of the lost Library of Alexandria. Only Cotton Malone may have the key to uncovering the library's secrets, as a former U.S. State Department operative, but the clock is running on his son as Malone journeys around the world to secure the answers he needs. Brick narrates with his usual aplomb, conveying the protagonist's desperation while slowly revealing the clues to an ancient library that housed so many lost ideas, and which now lives only in myth and legend. An exclusive interview with the author follows Brick's performance. (Random House Audio/17 hours unabridged, or 6 hours abridged as read by Erik Singer)

(These audiobooks may be rented on CD from Audio Adventures by calling 1-800-551-6692. Or if you'd like to try the new audiobook chip technology, go to Audiofy.com and order Jonathan's suspense novel "Awakening Storm," narrated by Barrett Whitener on flash drive chip, which connects to your computer's USB port for instant play, or for download to portable devices like iPod.)

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What do you get the terrorist who has everything? How about an MP3 player built into the ammunition magazine of a Kalashnikov rifle! The "AK-MP3 Jukebox" comes with 20 GB storage capable of holding 3,000 hours of MP3 audiobooks. The AK-MP3 can be found at Audio Books For Free.com.