I was in the mood for something a little lighter. I’ve always found Shatner an interesting character. I was a huge Star Trek fan when I was younger, but I’ve enjoyed him over the years in other roles as well. I just think he’s an interesting blend of ego and self-deprecation. This 6-hour audiobook goes by pretty quickly. Shatner reminisces over his entire career.

One of the things that’s amazing about him is how OLD he is. As of this writing, he’s SEVENTY-SEVEN years old…but doesn’t look a day over 65! Born in Canada and (like Leonard Nimoy) of Jewish heritage…he had a successful career on stage and in movies before landing the part of James Tiberius Kirk in Star Trek…that little show (just 79 episodes) that changed the face of television.

This is no “gotcha” memoir. He’s quite kind, and never cruel. He speaks frankly about co-stars (whom he got along with and whom he didn’t), but never rubs anyone’s nose in anything. He’s very funny…whether talking about Kirk/Trek, T.J. Hooker or Denny Crane…whether talking about beautiful female co-stars, or his 4 marriages. He talks about his very early days…working with other actors who would later become very famous: Christopher Plummer, Lorne Greene, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman

Shatner’s delivery is very relaxed, but about 5% too fast for my taste…there are moments where I wish I’d had a few moments to absorb what he was saying. I’m sure they just didn’t want it to drag on and on. His easy humor is on display…and you’ll laugh out loud a few times, or certainly at least crack a smile.

Other than the account of the alcoholism and drowning death of his third wife, there was very little in the way of heavy subject matter. But the story was consistently interesting. I’m glad I took the time, and I’m happy to recommend it to anyone who enjoys the Shatman’s work.

I was intending to wait awhile before listening to this book, as it had only been a few months since I’d listened to The Pillars of the Earth. However, I had enjoyed that one so much, and the reviews were quite good on this one, that I didn’t want to forget about it. Also, it clocked in at over 52 HOURS…and I was in the mood to listen to something substantive. After listening, I must say…I made the right decision.

I’m not sure if one of these books is better than the other. They are both grand, sweeping epics…filled with love stories, political machinations, grand tragedies…all set against the background of a world very unlike our own…and yet, with many very human things in common.

Stated as simply as possible, this story begins in 1327 in the fictional town of Kingsbridge in the UK…the same town Follett used as the backdrop for Pillars of the Earth. Four children (two brothers - Merthin and Ralph, a young rich girl - Caris and a younger beggar girl - Gwenda) go off into the forest and see something they shouldn’t see. The story follows these four through the next 40 years or so, as they grow up, fall in love, achieve, suffer crushing defeats and fight to survive. The story incorporates unthinkable tragedies…some local, and some world-famous…such as The Plague.

While these books probably have a bit of the “bodice-ripper” to them, they have plenty of violence as well. There’s also quite a bit of sex. So it’s an interesting blend. Follett tells a wonderful story…and I must say, I’ve never heard a better narrator than John Lee…and I do a bit of that kind of work myself…so my standards are pretty high. Lee is amazing…52 hours of reading, and he is consistent from the first to the last…slipping comfortably between accents and dialects, without ever losing the passion of the story. Quite remarkable!
There are other characters…the church itself, as a religious and (sadly) political institution…revealed most in the person of its leaders…the prior and prioress, the subprior, the bishops… and the culture…what they wore, what they ate, how they made their living. It’s quite a sprawling canvas…and yet, the story never gets lost…only enhanced by it.

Like Pillars, this one gets an unqualified thumbs up from me…I enjoyed it on so many levels that I simply can’t express them all.

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.

Duma Key is the story of Edgar Freemantle, a multimillionaire who’s made his fortune in the contracting business. A crane accident has taken his right arm and scrambled his brain. On the advice of his doctor, he relocates to the Florida Keys and takes up painting…to take his mind off his rage issues and depression. What follows is a story of friendship and discovery that’s very satisfying. But, wait…who wrote this again? Ah, yes…Stephen King. So it must be a supernatural thriller with a healthy dose of gore thrown in, right? Well, of course.
However, I think this is one of King’s most mature stories to date. His touch is gentler. His characters are richer…much more sane, much less psychotic. He still handles words with amazing deftness and paints remarkable word pictures. And he relies less on the frenetic insertion of cultural references. They’re there…but it’s not as ping-pongy as much of his other work. Many reviews and articles have referred to the fact that King himself suffered a near-fatal injury some years back, and that that has fueled this particular work…the anger, the slow recuperation, the depression. Probably so. And probably, he’s figured out by now that he has nothing left to prove. I just noticed a much gentler tone here…and it suits him well.
Prepare to enjoy this story…these characters…and this story that traces back nearly a hundred years. Freemantle finds that he can influence reality thru his painting. It’s an interesting device, not unlike the Ted Dekker device of writing in ancient blank books to create reality. But it’s only one element, not the whole story. It could have gotten silly if Freemantle sat madly painting for the entire story…trying to make the boogey-man go away. Instead, it’s simply a doorway to another world…a world inhabited by a young girl and her family, and a sinister entity who threatens to destroy them all…in the past and in the present.
The audiobook is read by John Slattery. This the first thing I’ve heard him read, but hopefully not the last. He’s one of the most unaffected readers I’ve ever heard. A gentle touch…almost transparent. Comfortably bringing the characters to life. I’ve never heard anyone better. He sets the pace and never lets go. It’s very difficult to maintain that kind of consistency over such a long period (21 hrs). Two big thumbs up for this guy!

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.

I really, really enjoyed this book. Right from the beginning, I was transported back to the 12th century, where I began to be introduced to a cast of characters who I would get to know very well over the next 40 hours. Tom Builder…a simple,sensitive giant of a man whose one desire in life was to build a magnificent cathedral…Prior Philip, a devout and determined man of principle who ran the community at Kingsbridge…Ellen, a woman who was raised in a family of boys, but who grew up to become a fierce, independent mother, lover and friend…the beautiful Aliena, raped at 16, and who struggled to shake off the horror of that experience for most of her life…William Hamleigh, the evil son-of-an-Earl with seriously sadistic tendencies. All these and those who they loved and with whom they interacted. It’s an epic story.

This book was actually written nearly 20 years ago, but it’s still very popular…selling roughly 100K copies per year in paperback. It’s no surprise to me. This is the kind of book that you want to recommend to your friends. It’s a classic good-vs-evil struggle, but it’s so multi-layered (without becoming complex or convoluted) that it’s unfair to leave it at that.

There’s a heavy dose of religious themes (although Follett himself is an atheist, he handles the topics respectfully and even-handedly), mingled with politics, poverty, and the beauty of architecture. But none of those define the book. It’s still more a love story than anything else. Married love, unmarried love, love of family, love of God, love of art. Really special stuff.

If I had to say one thing that I didn’t care for in the book, it was the explicitness of the sexuality. It might possibly be that the language and terminology was appropriate for the time, but I found it a bit too much…too much detail and too crude. It didn’t ruin the book for me by any means…but if I’d had the ability, I would have dialed it down from an 8 to a 4 in that particular area.

Now, as to the reader: This is the first thing I’ve heard by John Lee. Holy Cow, this guy is good! He’s got such range and such excellent character definition that I was just blown away. I want to hear more of this guy in the future.

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.

I found his most powerful point to be his assertion that “food science” really doesn’t know what it’s talking about. It thinks it does…and in some areas it probably does. But since it’s a constantly-shifting base of knowledge (much of which invalidates bedrock beliefs of just a few years before), we make a mistake in assuming that it really has a handle on what’s going on. And, of course, we’ve all realized this in the back of our minds anyway…we don’t even get excited anymore when we’re told that something “causes cancer”. They’ve been wrong so many times before, who cares…right?

In the case of food, we need to understand that “we don’t know what we don’t know”…so simply running a scientific study on food and listing what it consists of doesn’t tell us a lot. There are micronutrients and other components that we don’t even know to look for yet. He bashes the religion of “nutritionism”…bascially the worship/elevation of nutrition rather than food. When we try to break food down to its component parts, then try to reassemble those parts to create the perfect human diet, we’re always missing something. We don’t understand the complexities of food, how it works for us, where it comes from…and it’s a mistake to abandon traditional diets and whole foods which have nourished us for many generations.

I heard Leonard Lopate’s interview with Michael Pollan recently, and enjoyed him so much…his manner, his points, his illustrations…that I didn’t even wait for my monthly audiobook credit to come thru. I went out and picked up the audiobook at B&N. Pollan has written a few books and is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine and is a Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley.

On many levels, I enjoyed the book. There was almost nothing that I disagreed with, and I felt like he built a strong case for returning food to its rightful place in our lives: thoughtful eating, time for eating in community, listening to our bodies and where to find real food…all this was informative and helpful.

However, I found myself ultimately disappointed in this book, for a number of reasons:

• Pollan himself was so engaging in the interview that I was sold on him as much as on what he was saying. He made it easy to listen to him, on a subject that doesn’t often interest me. However, the book wasn’t read by him. I can understand that he’s not a professional narrator himself…but I found myself thinking all the way thru that I wished I could just listen to another interview with him instead of this book.
• The narrator was a guy named Scott Brick. Since I was going to mention his name, I’ve just taken a quick peek online and found out that he has done around 300 audiobooks to date…many of them big titles, etc. I’ve never heard his work before, and I’m not saying I wouldn’t listen to him again…but his performance of this book was the biggest disappointment of all for me. His delivery was very nasal…almost whiny. I almost wondered if he had a bad head cold while recording. He also sounded…I don’t know…”snooty”? Sort of arrogant. And, IMHO, he overacted the material instead of just delivering it, even though I felt the writing was solid and accessible all on its own. I felt this way from the very first minutes of the audiobook, and couldn’t shake it thru 5 discs. I just believe he was a poor choice for this material.
• Lastly, I was disappointed for a very basic reason. Pollan never talked about “what to eat”. I don’t speak “food”…and I always appreciate examples when I’m in unfamiliar territory. I certainly understand that he didn’t want to be limiting or take responsiblity for telling people how they should eat…but when the motto for your book is “Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.”, I feel like that deserves some further scrutiny. Does he recommend eating plants for breakfast, etc? People who teach about food always tend to make the mistake of assuming that people know what they’re talking about, and Pollan assumed a certain level of knowledge in this case that didn’t apply to me as a reader. So I felt like I was left hanging.

The rest of the book was good stuff. It was a solid buildup, but there just wasn’t a payoff for me. Instead, I find myself longing to hear him interviewed several more times.