July 2005 Audiobook Reviews

Car Talk Maternal Combustion: Calls About Moms And Cars
by Tom Magliozzi, Ray Magliozzi

HighBridge Audio
CD
ISBN# 1-5651-1980-0
Suggested Retail Price: $13.95

As a long-standing fan of the NPR radio show, Car Talk, I feel I am well qualified to rave about this offering. Tom and Ray Magliozzi have been doing a talk show every week for years.

They have never been dull. The object of the show is a call-in format. You have some car trouble and they try to solve it. Funny huh? Well it is. It's delightful and hysterically funny. No one is laughing harder than the boys themselves or their loyal audience. Every one of their CD's is a delight.

This title is exceptionally good. Lots of laughs and lots of sighs. The relationship between the boys who are not young and their mom is something to aim at. As I listened to this wonderful CD I realize that their mom is gone now but here she is visiting the show as she did many times. She talks to the callers and we giggle about the relationship between parent and kids that unfolds. At the same time we are learning about cars as about relationships.

There may have been a time when most of the listeners were men who speak "car talk" better they think. It doesn't take long to hear the women that call in with problems about their cars and they sound pretty knowledgeable too. Sometime the problem is easy like brakes or oil filters. Sometimes the problems get funny like a mouse that has crawled in somewhere in the dashboard and expired. Now the air from the AC smells awful.

Best of all on this particular release is to meet the Italian mother who raised these two guys and still kept their respect and shared her humor gene with them. She sounds like a really special mom and I loved hearing her stories and answers to the caller's questions.

The Adventures of Guy Noir : Radio Private Eye
by Garrison Keillor

Highbridge Audio
CD
ISBN# 1-5651-1956-8
Suggested Retail Price: $24.95

Straight from the pen of the Lake Wobegon author, Garrison Keillor comes the exciting adventures of Guy Noir, Private Eye. It sounds like the old Maltese Falcon days when hardboiled detectives dominated the radio waves. Guy sits in his office above the streets of a "city that knows how to keep its secrets". The building that houses his office is called the "Acme" building.

You might expect Bugs Bunny to appear under the awning that says, "Acme"

Cases come in his door in the form of tough guys making threats and good looking "broads" who need help. You get the picture.

The CDs bring eleven of the exciting adventures to you and what a collection of delightful spoofs on the great mystery writers of the 40's. The tales are always fun and this whole collection will give you more that 2-hours of fun. You will play it again and again.

Broken Prey
by John Sandford

Penguin Audio
CD
ISBN# 0-1430-5759-6
Suggested Retail Price: $39.95

Depending on the time you have to spend while you enjoy another "Prey" tale you can either choose to purchase the abridged form which is short and well produced or you can enjoy the whole book in it's unabridged format.

For the plot the first body is found on a Minneapolis riverbank. It's the body of a young woman. Then three weeks later another body is found this time it's a man but there is a similarity in the two deaths that can't be ignored.

Now a newly paroled man who must wear an ankle alarm like Martha Stewart has managed to dump the warning jewelry and he has vanished. In the interim a predator waits in the wings to scare us.

Sixteen "Prey" mysterious have all been big top sellers. You cannot go wrong if this is the genre that attracts you.

The Thin Man
by Dashiell Hammett, William Dufris

The Audio Partners, Mystery Mast
Cassette
ISBN# 1-5727-0442-X
Suggested Retail Price: $27.95

Sweet Bliss! This is not William Powell and Myrna Loy trading quips over an endless stream of cocktails. But William Dufries does a superb job of bringing this great couple to life and their adventures are always among the greatest mysteries.

We are introduced to Nick Charles, the detective, and his rich wife Nora. Then one night at a speakeasy a pretty blonde spots Nick and begs him for help. Her father is missing. The father is an eccentric inventor. Nick feels that he has to help so he and Nora set out to solve the mystery.

It's an understatement to say that this is a wonderful example of the sort of tale that only audio books can bring to you now. The books are available at your library I think. The films are available, maybe through, Amazon. But this is the next best think and it is a new voice telling the story and holding the suspense. Far grittier than the popular movies, the original text by Hammet is an entirely different experience.

My Life So Far
by Jane Fonda

RH Audio Voices
Cassette
ISBN# 0-7393-1983-3
Suggested Retail Price: $34.95

Jane Fonda is not an easy woman to get to know. Her mother committed suicide. Her father was a major Hollywood star but not too much of a father. Jane tells us all about how she learned to be an actress. She has been a star since her fist movie, Klute, made in 1971. You will want to hear about all of her marriages. "Barbarella" is the film that many people know her from. She was a sex goddess warrior in that one. As the years went by her talents became more noticed. In the last film her father made before his death she and Henry played a father and daughter. This was somewhat of a peek into the real relationship between Fonda and his daughter. It was defining time for her as she mended the fences that had grown between them over time.

Yes, she talks about her most recent marriage to Ted Turner and her Oscars and Emmys. Well worth a shot. You may have some very hard feeling about Jane's trip to Saigon and even today some people still hate her for it. She admits it wasn't a smart move. I wonder if spitting on her at a book signing made that man feel better. It was a shameful display.

You can't beat hearing the scoop from Jane herself.