The World of Joel

There are very few times that I have been truly captivated by a story, but A Prisoner of Birth by Jefferey Archer was one of the best novels I have ever read (or I should say listened to). A Prisoner of Birth was my latest book I purchased from Audible.com. I will get to the novel in one moment but first let me just say that my hat goes off to Roger Allam who did the narration for this book. Roger Allam a somewhat known British Actor couldn’t have done a better job bringing this story to life. After listening to the 16+ hour book you could see his acting shine through with so many different accents and personalities that really made this book a privilege to listen to.

The book itself tells the story of Danny Cartwright a simple down to earth man who goes out to celebrate his engagement to the love of his life with his best friend. The bad timing among other things finds Danny in jail and from there the story is something out of the pages of The Count of Monte Cristo. In fact Jefferey Archer who does an interview at the end of the audio book tells of this comparison and tells of how he thinks his story is better, which having read both, I 100% agree.

I listened to this novel with Jenn and we would get giddy before sitting down to read. This was the first audio book that Jenn has asked me if I wanted to listen to it, it was that good. The story has such a good soul that if your wanting to try an audio book this is the book that truly shows how great of a medium audio books really are. If you have a commute into work, time to spare, or just wanting to give an audio book a chance then A Prisoner of Birth would be the best choice I could ever think of. Its truly one of the best and most engaging novels I have ever had the privilege of listening to.

Favorite Quote: “Think like Danny, act like Nick” (When you read the book you will 100% understand it)

I have read now my fair share of audio books, in fact Jenn and I are currently running through another one right now. With our big trip this summer coming up, and school wrapping up I did stop my Audible account at least for now. With that being said the last book I bought with my Audible subscription is Playing for Pizza a book by John Grisham. I read The Broker by Grisham a few months ago and loved it. The Broker was set mostly in Italy, and after reading online it seems as though the country had a big place in the heart of the author as Playing for Pizza also sets itself into this location, this time in Parma, Italy. The book was about an NFL Quarterback who had some pretty bad stints in the league, and was hated so much that they really through him out of the country, and he ended up playing in the Italian NFL.

What was so interesting was that the main character Rick was one of the few paid athletes on the Parma Football team and in fact the majority of the Italian Football players literally played for the fun of the game which is why this book was so entertaining, it was refreshing to hear people playing for the love of the game. The book was a quick read, short and sweet, nothing to deep, nothing to jaw-dropping, just a good story and a good read. If you need a quick book this isn’t a bad choice by any means.

I have never read a book by Cormac McCarthy, in fact I have heard some mixed things about his style of writing but I read the brief summary for his book The Road and decided that this would be a great quick read. I started The Road on Friday February 15 on my way to school and finished it on my way back from work on Saturday the 16th. The book was only six hours and I felt a bit like I might not be getting my money value on buying this book with my Audible subscription. However the book was a Pulitzer Prize winner as well as a book on Oprah’s Book Club so I decided to give it a go.

The book itself is about a father and son’s journey in a post apocalyptic world. The names of the father and son are never given. What happened in the world to cause this massive devastation is never told nor is it ever necessarily discussed. The book follows the father and son’s journey down “The Road” south to get to warmer climates. I am not going to give anything away in this book because the encounters that the father and son go through are so intense and so heart wrenching that I can’t even describe sitting in rush hour traffic listening to the book on tape.

Tom Stechschulte who did the narration for this book was excellent. He had two tones, one for the dad and one for the son, and the way in which he captured both of those characters was beyond impressive, it really made the book. I can’t imagine reading the book without having Tom Stechschulte read it. He truly brought this book to life.

Favorite Quote: The word “ok” was used in the book I would say over 1,000 times throughout the book. If you read this book you see the different ranges of the word, and how the son and dad use the word. I was captivated by the relationship and just the struggle for survival.

If you haven’t read this book, and don’t have much time to do a big read, this is a perfect book. Its a quick read, its a read that I would really recommend, just be warned its a pretty dark read.

I have been asking Jenn since reading The Kite Runner to sit through an entire audio book with me. It took a few more books, and I finally convinced her. So for the past few weeks when it is my turn to drive my car we have been listening to an audio book, this one A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini the same author of The Kite Runner one of my favorite books of all time. This book however not necessarily the same sort of up beat tempo as his original. If you read the reviews of Khaled’s sophomore trial you would think that this book was going to be even better, and I have to say I was a bit let down. However when you consider The Kite Runner easily being one of my Top 3 favorite books of all time, thats a tough measure to surpass.

Without giving a lot of the story away, A Thousand Splendid Suns follows the lives of two Afghani women who both have major struggles in their lives. The book focuses a lot on the struggles that these women and many other Afghani women have to face even to this day. More then anything this book was a wakeup call to not on the class struggle in Afghanistan but also the effects on religious rule.

My biggest problem with the book was that it was a bit slow. Not that I wanted there to be more struggle, because there was plenty of it. I just think, and Jenn agrees, that there were a few portions that didn’t need to be in the final draft. WIth that being said I have to give Khaled Hosseini credit, he is one brilliant writer. He is working with many readers including myself who know very little to nothing about Afghanistan but after reading this book I feel like I know the streets of Kabul. The way he brings things to life, and the shear magnificence of even the smallest detail is one of his strongest suits.

I have to say that even with it being a bit slow I still really enjoyed this novel, and find Khaled to be one of my favorite new authors. He has such talent, and the stories he tells are things that you just don’t forget, there unique. Fans of The Kite Runner, or really anyone just interested in our fellow humans in the middle east this is not only a good tale, it is a good education lesson as well.

Favorite Quote: “One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs / Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls”

So it has been a while since I have had a book review, with school starting I haven’t been listening to my audio books which I get from Audible.com as much. However yesterday I finished my latest audio book from Audible, which was The Time Traveler’s Wife written by Audrey Niffenegger. Why did I choose to read this book? I had heard great things from some of my readers of Journeyman Blog and many spouted off the numerous similarities between the book and show. After reading the book there are some obvious similarities, but in a lot of ways the book is much darker, much more complex then I think the show ever could be. But how was the book?

You know this is the first audio book I have listened to since being a member of Audible that I struggled to get through. It was not only drawn out way to far, but the time traveling that the main character Henry has makes the book feel overly convoluted quite a bit of the time, and also makes you scratch your head and try to figure out where the book is going. If you haven’t read it I would say hold off. One of the things I told Jenn while reading the book was that it would make a much better movie then book, and in fact this year there is a movie based off of the book. The book was long, way to drawn out, I don’t mind when a author goes beyond the norm in there descriptions of events, but the book takes a long time to describe things and doesn’t go very far with it.

Favorite Moment: Unfortunately when I got to the end. I struggled to get through the book. If I had to actually pick a favorite part/moment in the book however I would say when you learn about Henry traveling back to when his mom was killed in a car accident.

Before I read The Kite Runner a week or two back I hadn’t even thought about reading, I just never thought time would allow it. But then I heard about Audible, thought I would give it a shot, and was amazed with how much I enjoyed my read through of The Kite Runner. For those that don’t know I make an hour plus commute to Irvine everyday, and some days you need something to help get you through it. Jenn and I drive together for two of the days, and we drive separate (due to work schedules) on the other days. So the days I am not with Jenn I have been starting to listen to audio books. Choosing a second book was really a tough process, I know very little about authors, or even my taste in books, and after such a great run with Kite Runner I wasn’t sure where to go. So I decided to go with a name that I was at least familiar with, John Grisham, and I bought his book from a few years ago, The Broker.

I found out later that this was one of Grisham’s few ventures outside of the courtroom. The book was mostly set in Italy, a country I fell in love with a year ago, and it seems as though Grisham did as well. The way in which the book describes the country is so accurate, and in many ways can be a terrible book to read when your hungry with all of its descriptions of four course meals and a nice glass of wine. It was a bit slow, there was so much build up that the final climax that it did fall a bit flatter then I thought. I read the book in a week’s time (I drove a lot in the past week) it was a ten hour book and you figure 2+ hours a day of driving and you can see how I can get through a book pretty quickly. If you haven’t read it and want to hear about Italy, and a decent thriller its a good book, but from all the praise I have heard given to Grisham I was expecting a bit more.

Most Memorable Part: There was a time in the book where the main character Joel (can you see why I chose the book) is in Italy learning Italian from his tutor, and his tutor talks about her one experience in America. She says something along the lines of that she never understood America, it seemed like everyone is going everywhere so fast, and in fact they really aren’t going anywhere. You can’t get a more accurate interpretation of American lifestyle.

I don’t read much, if ever. However after listening to an episode of TWIT, I heard about the service Audible. They were giving away a 14-day trial where you got a free audio book. I picked the book, downloaded it, put it on my iPhone and listened to it on day’s Jenn and I didn’t drive together to UC Irvine a good hour drive from where I live. I have read books like this before, back in middle school instead of reading assigned reading I would get books on tape. It’s always been a challenge for me to sit down and read a book so when I heard you could get audio books for a reasonable price online I was game to give it a shot.

The book Kite Runner was actually a very fascinating tale, one that started off really slow and really took flight about 1/3 of the way through. For those who keep up on the movie industry you may know that there is a movie based on the book being released in limited showing in two weeks and I can guarantee you I am going to search for it. What I liked about Kite Runner is that it felt oh so real, the stories felt like something that could have easily taken place in Afghanistan and Pakistan two of the more prominent locations in the book. The book also had some really interesting perspectives on US culture from a different point of view. I think what really made this book for me was that the author read his own book, you could see he was definitely from a Middle Eastern country and really gave a great read through of his book.

If you have never tried Audible, I would highly recommend it, its a great service. And as for Kite Runner it wasn’t necessarily my favorite book of all time, but I would say I haven’t been that engrossed in a book in a long, long time.

My favorite quote: “For you a thousand times over” If you have read the book you know what an amazing quote that is.