by Stephen King
read by John Slattery

Since Stephen King is as much an institution as a writer, I should clarify where I stand on HIM before addressing this audiobook specifically. I have always been a fan of his writing. The Stand is one of my favorite books ever, and I’ve enjoyed nearly everything I’ve read by him on some level. I do not find his writing scary. For me, he’s all about the internal dialogue of key characters. And that’s why most of the movies based on his books have been so unsatisfying. They go for the horror, for the external stuff…which is nothing more than the context in which the story occurs. For me, his talent is for revealing what’s going on inside their heads…not good topics to try to communicate on screen.
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by Ken Follett
read by John Lee

I had seen this book on Audible’s 100 Recommended Titles list awhile back and considered getting it then. I saw the movie adaptation of Follett’s Eye of the Needle back in the Eighties and enjoyed it, and his name had stuck with me since then. Also, I had immensely enjoyed the movie adaptation of Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose back in the Eighties, which was sort of a Sherlock Holmes mystery set in a monastery…and since this story was in a similar setting, I thought it might be a good read. But the final straw for me was when I visited my friend Diane’s blog (WhatDianesReading.com) and saw that she had it at the top of her Best Books Ever list. So, even though the unabridged version clocked in at about 40 hours, I decided to go for it.
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by Michael Pollan
read by Scott Brick

An extensive expose of how the Western diet has gotten into the sad shape where we now find it. Pollan argues that we’ve lost our way. We’ve left behind what food meant to our lives and our culture, and we’ve allowed ourselves to be seduced by food marketers and faulty science. Thus, he argues, the key is to get back to “real food”…away from prepackaged food, preservatives and the rush of stuffing something down our gullets so we can get back to work.
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