Review: Holidays on Ice

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’ve read quite a few of David Sedaris’ more recent books, and realized that I had missed this one. Feeling in the holiday spirit, I picked up the audio. Sedaris seems changed. His stories are still a mix of outrageous, funny bits with cringeworthy episodes, the kind of humor that leaves me smiling with occasional guffaws. (That sounds a bit more like a weather forecast than I intended.) But his newer stuff is more personal, seems honed on real life situations, and is more wistful than this. Overall, this was quite fun, but if this is your first Sedaris, don’t stop here. I liked most of the stories here, the department store elf story that leads off the collection, “SantaLand Diaries”, was a narrow favorite.

View all my reviews

Review: The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West

The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West by David McCullough
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In some of the reviews I read of “The Pioneers” before I began listening to the audiobook, I got a sense that the book told too many stories of too many early settlers, and this concerned me. I don’t do well with books with huge casts that you had to keep track of. My worries were for naught – I enjoyed this story of the early settlers of Ohio and of the Ohio country and statehood. Being from Illinois and interested in early settler history, this felt very similar to reading about my area and the people that settled there. McCullough follows the stories of a few influential people involved in initial settlement, starting with a preacher/scientist who worked with congress to enable the initial “deal” creating the Ohio Company. McCullough then describes the travails of the initial group of settlers, including many Revolutionary War veterans, as well as leaders from subsequent waves of settlers. Mixed into the narrative are plenty of interesting stories, including a mention of Lafayette’s visit and salute to the old soldiers of freedom, and of Aaron Burr’s visit with the rich Blennerhassett family on their private island in the Ohio River to plot the overthrow of Mexico. I found the book held my interest throughout – McCullough found some great stories in this area and time and drew out the historical significance of events here.

View all my reviews

Review: The Convict and Other Stories

The Convict and Other Stories by James Lee Burke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Having listened to most of Burke’s mystery novel audiobooks, I didn’t know whether to expect short versions of his mysteries or something else. You get something else here, a collection of very readable short stories, many touching on the same themes Burke hits in his mysteries, especially his Dave Robicheaux stories set in New Iberia parish in Louisiana. I always said Burke knows how to write an atmospheric scene that drips humidity like bayou bald cypress trees in August, and he shows some of his writing expertise here. But there are also things missing in comparison to his novels. That’s not necessarily bad. Burke tends to write long, angsty, and over-literary inner monologues for his characters, and you don’t get as much of that in these short stories. I missed them. Burke also tends to repeat plot elements in his novels, but in these short stories he’s further afield than I am used to – there’s even a story about baseball here. (I’m currently reading Burke’s “The New Iberia Blues”, and it focuses around Hollywood filmmakers filming in rural Louisiana. I believe that means that more than 10% of his dozens of mystery novels revolve around this same theme – movie making in New Iberia. I suspect the Louisiana Film Board is way more successful in Burke’s novels than in real life! These stories must have preceded that plot theme.) Another interesting difference was the narrators of the audiobooks. Most of Burke’s unabridged audiobooks are narrated by Will Patton, and he has a way of amplifying Burke’s atmospheric descriptions. I would go out of my way to listen to Patton. Here, different narrators read each story. For this kind of collection, that worked fine. The variety helped separate the stories and keep my interest up. Overall, I liked these stories. They provided a taste of the writing of Burke without the deep investment required of his novels – kind of like a tourist version.

View all my reviews

Review: I Like Giving: The Transforming Power of a Generous Life

I Like Giving: The Transforming Power of a Generous Life by Brad Formsma
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have to admit that this was one of my guilty pleasures – reading touching stories about people that give to others and how those donations were received, especially right before the Christmas season and the overwhelm of Hallmark Christmas movies. There were a lot of personal stories here. Most were the touching, positive stories you’d expect, though the author included some stories that showed some of the issues involved in giving and receiving charity. Also of interest was the author’s personal story, building a business, then moving on to lead a non-profit. While I enjoyed many of the stories, I find on reflection, a week after reading, that I don’t recall any particulars beyond the author’s own stories. So for me, this was good for a relaxing and involving read, but more to set a mood than to provide guidance or examples.

View all my reviews

Review: Love the Home You Have: Simple Ways to…Embrace Your Style *Get Organized *Delight in Where You Are

Love the Home You Have: Simple Ways to…Embrace Your Style *Get Organized *Delight in Where You Are by Melissa Michaels
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So the author is a pastor’s wife. This book is about a pastor’s wife making an inviting home. It was interesting in the secret spectator way watching home shows is – you get an idea of how someone who highly values making the home inviting to visitors and livable for her family makes things come together. There were recommendations to declutter, no kidding, but not so much on organizing. This wasn’t your typical home organization book. I didn’t see much in her recommendations that I hadn’t seen previously, so this wasn’t as much of idea book as I expected. Instead, the parts I really enjoyed were her stories about buying new houses and decorating on a pastor’s budget, which was quite minimal. The author describes moving houses a number of times in her life, and how she made the best of her and her husbands house dreams given that tiny budget, including one “money pit” that had charm, and a ballroom, but also racoons and vermin in the kitchen. That made the book for me.

View all my reviews

Review: Hombre

Hombre by Elmore Leonard
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A fine story. I’ve read quite a few older Westerns recently, including a few Zane Grey’s. The first thing I thought of when I finished this short book was that it sounded so much different than Grey’s century-old prose. This was much tighter, with a knowing narrator. It felt modern and to me, an easier read. At times, Grey felt like he was paid by the word (and he likely was), but here you get appropriate levels of description and mood setting. I will be looking for more Leonard audiobook Westerns.

View all my reviews

Review: My Friend, Yvette Vickers: In Her Own Words, as Told to John O'Dowd

My Friend, Yvette Vickers: In Her Own Words, as Told to John O'Dowd by Yvette Vickers
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I don’t believe I had ever heard of Yvette Vickers before running across this audiobook. What drew me to listen was the promise of hearing the story of a starlet, with bit parts in Hollywood classics and leading parts in the kinds of horror movies I used to watch Saturdays at midnight on local TV. (In my area, the Quad Cities, her “Attack” movies would have been shown on Chuck Acri’s Creature Feature). And the book blurb promised her story “in her own voice”. How literal that ended up being.

The entire book, except for a few short introductory sections of a few minutes each at most, was recordings of Yvette talking. The first half of the audiobook consists of a set of recordings Yvette made to capture her biography, with the hopes of later turning her recorded notes into a book. Much of this first section is told with a light jazz band in the background. She apparently recorded this at a bar or with music playing at home. She includes many stories of her early life and her early career, including her belief that she was blackballed from good roles in Hollywood by Joanne Woodward after “partying” with Paul Newman while filming “Hud”. The second half of the book were, of all things, two hours of telephone messages Yvette left with her collaborator/interviewer – the “author” of this book. Here, Yvette told some additional stories of her life, about, for instance, the death of a beloved dog, and issues selling real estate, and reports of doctors appointments. Yvette was a friend to the author, and these messages showed her as a normal person, showing interest in him while also sharing details of her life.

Unexpectedly (to me), Yvette came across as a smart cookie, with an outgoing personality typical of a real estate seller. This made it easy to listen to the recordings. What ended up being odd was that the two things she was most known for – her horror movies and her bizarre death, were not part of this book. Obviously she couldn’t have narrated the details of her own death, but you don’t know from the blurbs if her recordings were all you would get. The author certainly could have written more on this. The author explains away the lack of horror movie detail by saying that Yvette had already had some magazine articles written that detailed those episodes in her life and she didn’t bother repeating them in her recordings here. These missing pieces were very noticeable, but what you are left with was really like being a fly on the wall as an older actress talked to a friend/potential biographer. The voyeur in me found this a lot like listening in to some old friends talking at a table near you in a coffee shop. I found it of some interest, but was glad it wasn’t longer.


View all my reviews