March Audiobooks

12 books started and 10 finished this month. 
There are two big disappointments among the books this month but the are well balanced with a lot of winners. All-in-all it was a great month of listening. As I look back over the list Id have to say that my 2 favorites are both non-fiction. I loved Spaceman and Indestructible.
What have you been reading? Anything to recommend?
​If you have different opinions of any of the books I review I invite you to leave a comment. I know we all like different things and appreciate other opinions.

The Late Show
By Michael Connelly, Narrated by Katherine Moennig

This is a new Connelly series and features detective Renee Ballard. She is the daughter of a surfer who died surfing and she basically lives on the beach surfing during the day and working the midnight shift of "the late show".  She ended up on the late show because she brought a sexual harassment  complaint against her superior officer and was politically punished for it. 
Blah, blah, blah.....fill in the blanks with cliche hardened female actions.

Connelly says that he wanted this character to be "fierce" and she is. She's also really stupid at times and she, seriously, lives out of her van camping on beaches. In this book she's picked up a case on the late show and she can't let it go. Her behaviors are believable in Harry Bosch because Bosch has decades of experience and a proven track record. Ballard doesn't. I sure wouldn't want to have to work with her.

If you are a Connelly fan this one is worth trying because the next Bosch book is also the second Ballard book. But I recommend reading this book (instead of listening) because the narration is terrible.

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Spaceman
Written and Narrated by Mike Massimino

You know I usually hate books that are narrated by the author but I have to make an exception for this one. This book needed to be narrated by Mike Massimino.

You may recognize him from The Big Bang Theory. He's the astronaut that gave Howard Walowitz his space nickname of Fruit Loops. I seriously didn't know that he was a real astronaut! Turns out he made 2 trips into space to work on the Hubble Telescope.

This is one of the most interesting autobiographies that I've ever read and that explains the 4.8 (out of 5) rating that it has on Audible. This book isn't about engineering and technical terms. It's about the ambition of an individual who fulfilled the dream of a 6 years old boy from The Bronx. When you finish this book you hope for an opportunity to meet this man who, for a spaceman, is incredibly down-to-earth.

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The Buried Book
By D.M. Pulley, Narrated by Luke Daniels

It's 1952 and Althea Leary is leaving her 9 year old son, Jasper, with her brother's family on a rural Michigan farm. Althea then disappears leaving Jasper a few clothes and a child's bible.
Life on a farm is difficult and there's no time to answer Jasper's questions. Instead he starts looking for her on his own. He finds her diary on the abandoned, mostly burned, house where his mother grew up and as he reads it he gets to know her better. His search for information leads him into some very tawdry and dangerous places.

I'm not yet sure how I feel about this book. I write my reviews immediately after I finish listening so that my thoughts and opinions are fresh. I picked this book because I loved The Dead Key by the same author. This one is so different! 

I couldn't put the book down so it's well-written but it's very dark and depressing. The time period is depressing. The adult people around Jasper are doing their best and probably behaving very typical of that time period but I think she has given this 9-year-old naive boy a lot more maturity than he should have. It's not a bad tale at all, it's just quite dark. This is a book that you can judge by the cover because that cover image really sums up the overriding feeling of the story.

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Beneath a Scarlet Sky
By Mark Sullivan, Narrated by Will Damron

This book came out last year and I've seen it on a lot of recommended reading lists. Usually that's a bad sign for me but I finally gave in and I'm glad I did!

This is a novel but it's based on the real life on Pino Lella. Pino was 17 years old and lived in Milan in the middle of WWII. As the Nazis took over Milan he was sent to Northern Italy to attend school. The Priest there is also running an underground railroad of sorts to help Jews escape over the Alps into Switzerland. Pino is one of the leaders of these expeditions.

That would be story enough on it's own but there's so much more. It's a fascinating story about a real person that's brought to life through the vehicle of a novel. I'm glad I read it.

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The Inside Dark
By James Hankins, Narrated by Bon Shaw (aka R.C. Bray)

Holy cow, this was a dark tale. 
Jason Swike was abducted 5 days ago by the Crackerjack killer. He and another abductee were able to kill Crackerjack and escape.

Jason is now a hero and a new book deal means that he will be able to pay for his son's expensive medical treatment. 

But it seems that the story isn't quite over and his life is about to become even more terrorizing.

It's a very interesting premise and the story really held me but it could have benefited from some tighter writing. For example, the killer is called Crackerjack because he whistles "take My Out to the Ballgame" but how would anyone know that because ALL of his previous victims are dead. But if you like dark psychological thrillers you might like this one.

The narration is really good and Bon Shaw is actually R.C. Bray, someone who has narrated several of my favorite books. If you want a good chuckle you can read his post about why he uses Bon Shaw.

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The Providence Rider
By Robert McCammon, Narrated by Eduardo Ballerini

This is the 4th book in the Matthew Corbett series. It's early 1703 and Matthews #1 nemesis, Professor Fell, is in Matthew's life again. He is forced to go to Bermuda to meet Fell and do a job for him. He encounters all sorts of dangerous and interesting characters as he tries to protect himself and his friends while doing Fell's bidding.

If you like the Corbett series you will enjoy this one. But that said, I'm probably done with this series. #5 is a quite short book and the reviews indicate that it ends in a big cliffhanger that's picked up in book #6. Cliffhanger books annoy me.  Preston and Child did that in one of the Pendergast series books and I never read another.

But this particular Corbett book is well written and well narrated.

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Caesar's Last Breath
By Sam Kean, Narrated by Ben Sullivan

Last June I read one of Kean's other books, The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons so I looked forward to delving into this history if air.

Kean takes us back to the earliest studies of air and atmosphere and takes us through the fascinating history of the discovery of each of the elements of air. There are also a lot of side tracks, for example, the development of the nuclear bomb. 

While I thought the pure science part of this book was interesting, he, like many modern authors, just cant' keep political issues out of it.
(Spoiler alert: Our only hope is to emigrate to other planets.)
But aside from that last chapter, I found the book interesting but with a writing style that might be too clever by half. Although, with a science topic for those of us who aren't scientists that might be a bonus. 

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The Midnight House
By Alex Berenson, Narrated by George Guidall

This is the 4th nook in the John Wells series. Wells is a CIA agent who has saved New Your City from being blown up, stopped Russia from setting off bombs in 2 US cities and the only CIA agent too infiltrate Al Qaeda. 

This time he's called to DC to investigate the murders of members of an 11-member interrogation team that had operated out of a secret location in Poland called The Midnight House.

The story jumps back and forth between activities in The Midnight House over the 2 years it was active and the current investigation into the deaths of the team members. It's fast paced and full of twists.

I'm enjoying this series and I'm happy to see that I'm not even half way through it and that George Guidall is the narrator for the entire series.

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Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West
By Hampton Sides, Narrated by Don Leslie

I like a good history book. I don't like history textbooks and this reads much more like a textbook than a "reading" book. If you are into Southwest history you might find it interesting. But if you really are into Southwest history I bet you have already read other books that are more interesting than this one.

Take my review with a grain of salt though. It's got GREAT reviews on Audible. Personally, I couldn't finish it.

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The Song of Achilles
By Madeline Miller, Narrated by Frazer Douglas

Well, here's something that doesn't often happen to me: two books I disliked in a row! I think I picked up both of these on sale.

This one is a retelling  of the story of Achilles. I generally enjoy Greek myths retold in language that I can pronounce. This one, however, diverts so far from the Illiad that it's absurd.

In the original mythology Patroclus is older and wiser than Achilles and named as one of Achilles "henchmen" and is a adviser to Achilles. In this book they meet as boys and Achilles selects Patroclus to be his friend. Patroclus is physically and emotionally much weaker than Achilles and isn't wise at all. He follows Achilles around like a lap dog. The story is really a vehicle for creating a love story scenario between Achilles and Patroclus. It appeals to our modern-day tropes and obsessions but if you know the Illiad I think you might not be a fan of the portrayal of Patroclus. I was disappointed.

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Silence in Hanover Close
By Anne Perry, Narrated by Davena Porter

After the last 2 books I needed something reliable and chose #9 in the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series by Anne Perry. We're back in Victorian England and Thomas Pitt is asked to investigate a 3 year old burglary/murder case that was never solved.

It's a great, reliable Anne Perry story and Charlotte and her sister, Emily, have major roles in this one. 
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Indestructible
By John R. Bruning, Narrated by Brian Troxell

It's books like this one that make taking risks on Deal of the Day books worthwhile. I probably wouldn't have found this gem any other way. 

It's the story of Paul I. "Pappy" Gunn. It's not about his career as a Navy Chief and naval pilot in WWI and it's not about starting Hawaiian Airlines and Philippine Airlines after the way. That would have been a life well lived.

This book is about the heroic work he did during WWII as a Captain of the Army Air Force modifying airplanes and flying missions in the Southwest Pacific Theater while his family spent 3 years in a Japanese Internment Camp in the Philippines. Gunn really did change the course of WWII with his work and earned a Silver Star, 2 Distinguished Flying Crosses, Legion of Merit, Air Medal and NINE Purple Hearts. 

It reads like a novel and was a great book to end the month on.

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