Worth the read/listen
345813
So honest and so helpful! Love these guys and their guests
3819654
I really enjoyed this book. Reading some parts and listening throughAudible for most of it.  This is my first experience with listening to a book. A good way to go.  Great story, everyone will enjoy.
2021202
I remember when the show was on and a few friends of mine raved. I kept thinking, it cannot be that good.

But then, I binged on it and when the movie came out, made that a birthday present for me. So, when I saw the book, especially audible with Kristen Bell, I just had to listen.

While it is not a literary masterpiece (there were some places that needed a bit of editing), it is a worthwhile listen for the fans.
The die-hard fans will lap this up, ignoring passive voice and the expectation of first person, especially in some scenes.

The mystery is nicely paced. Even when you think youve got it, there is still a bit more you need to know. The story even has a few surprises unrelated to the main plot line.

The audible version is completely worth it, although the next book has a different narrator. Having heard a sample, it really is disappointing not to hear Kristens voice, and I think when the time comes, Ill stick to the print.

If you're a fan, you should definitely listen to this one.
2484154
Just finished this audiobook today on the way home from work. I really enjoyed it. Often times, I've found that the reader can make or break an audiobook. The reader on this book is very good. And the content is very good as well.
2097406
I've listened to it twice. It is well said/written and liked it but wanted to highlight and remember what I was learning so I later bought the book. Which is, of course, just as good.
2186250
I recommend the audible version because the author narrates.  It was a quick listen over 2-3 days--a good summer read.  Beck gives you insight into the world of a 20-something as well as working in the White House and belonging to a political administration.  You could tell early on that she is very bright, so I looked up where she went to college and sure enough, she went to Wesleyan, a top academic institution, so no surprise at her intelligence; it comes through in her writing.  Her enthusiasm for her ultimate boss (POTUS) comes through and if you love Obama, as I do, then you are so happy to hear the enthusiasm in the voice of a young person.  This isn't a book about political policy.  It is instead both a particular view into the day-to-day workings of an administration and a memoir of a young person determining what kind of life she wants to lead and who does she want to share it with.  I'm old enough to be her mother and I would be proud to be her mother, but there were many times as a mother when I wanted to say as I listened--

1. Sam is never going to be the one.
2. STAY AWAY from Jason--he is toxic
3. You are consuming way too much alcohol socially; I'm hoping you will outgrow this stage.
4. People at work are colleagues not really friends; it is dangerous to view them in the same way as friends you have outside of work.  You can be very friendly with colleagues, you can have a really close bond with colleagues, but keep a certain distance, a line that isn't crossed.

I'm still trying to figure out who Jason was; he deserves to be unmasked because he is the type of man women in the workplace encounter all to often, a relationship sociopath, a liar, a cheat, and yet he will rise through the ranks at work.
2924109
Generally when it comes to books, I'm a reader, not a listener. I like turning pages and looking at the pretty pictures, okay? But a friend was insistent on giving me a couple of audiobooks for Christmas, I'd been wanting to read Kicking and Dreaming, and when I saw it was read by Ann and Nancy themselves, I was sold.

Nancy's voice is sweet, and she has a way of inflecting sentences in the MIDdle, almost as if they are a QUEStion. Ann's voice is richer and lower in timbre, but was also somewhat raspy, and I wondered if she recorded her narration with a cold.

There are also sections read by their sister Lynn, and by others, like their co-songwriter Sue Ennis, and the band's former manager (and Ann's ex) Mike Fisher, lead guitarist (and Nancy's ex) Roger Fisher, Howard Leese, and more. It surprised me a bit that the exes would cooperate to the point of recording audio material.

Memorable Moments - so many:

Ann and Nancy didn't want to be the Beatles' girlfriends, like their friends did - they wanted to BE the Beatles; to play their own music, write their own songs, to be feminine and sexy and powerful.

K & S discusses Ann's struggles with her weight going back to pre-adolescence, and the pressure this put upon her, and the band - as if the ONLY accepted standard of beauty is thin, and the only measure of musical quality for a femme-led band is not voice, nor songwriting quality, nor musical performance, but the size and shape of the female members.

Ann talking frankly about her love/obsession for Michael Fisher. Quitting the band and taking off for Canada (whence M. Fisher had gone to escape the Vietnam draft), and living with him in a little round house over a stream, in a bed built on driftwood branches.

Nancy and her own similar but differing ideas and in the end, determination to find her own way.

* The intriguing details about the Magazine album, and finishing it under armed guard.
* I loved hearing about the "birth" of one of my favorite songs, Mistral Wind.
* The many stars who tried (and failed) to bed the Wilson sisters, either separately or together.
* Ann referring to "the song writing me," something I often feel about a story.
* The glimpses of the birth of the Seattle grunge movement, and Ann as one of its "mothers," down to sheltering its stars in her home and (platonically) in her bed.
* I cannot now remember which Heart band member wore unitards so as to show off his third nipple.
* The birth of the Lovemongers acoustic group.
* The 1995 official Heart hiatus as Nancy needed to work on babymaking.

I suspect that genuine Heart fanatics who've followed every Rolling Stone and Circus and fanzine interview may feel like there's nothing genuinely new here. But for those like me, who genuinely enjoy the music, but haven't hung onto every interview beyond the lyrics, there's a lot of insight here. It's also a fascinating look at the growth and changes in the music industry over the decades.
709831
I listened to this on audible and I am glad I did, the narrator was excellent.

Overall a great book, I look forward to reading/listening to more books from the author and narrator.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5.
763851
Very well done audio. It was fun to listen to the story and hear the reader's interpretation, which kept my interest better than just reading it.  I gave it a 4 instead of 5 because the story itself cannot be among my favorites, but that's a matter of personal taste.
407887
Great read/listen (Dan Lyons is great on audible). As a long time resident of "the Valley", the author's cynicism and disdain were tiring at times, but the book is very relevant and well researched and downright funny. I wanted more when I finished it.

It is a glimpse into one person's (short) personal journey in one company (in Boston, not SV). The author uses his experience as an indictment of the entire Silicon Valley culture and in many ways he's right, but it does take multiple sides and many mistakes for something to go so incredibly wrong. He's certainly not the model employee, but that doesn't detract from many of his observations about tech investment, start-up culture or plain old bad management.

Completely worth the read if you are interested in or living in a start-up/internet/cloud world, but beware you may come out more cynical on the other side.
3823214
This was a very good audio production. Matt Godfrey did a fantastic job with the narration. The characters, pacing, tone and cadence were all spot on.

The synopsis (which I did not read ahead of time) says Haven is a compelling horror epic in the spirit of It or Summer of Night Damn, those are big shoes to fill. So heres the deal. While its not IT or SoN, it is pretty darn good. A (sort of) coming of age tale and (definitely) a creature feature. The story itself is probably a 3 to 3.5 star story, but since I listened to it on audio and Matt Godfrey nailed the narration, it was easily elevated to a 4+ star listen. Nicely done all around.

Dale the douche, road kill analytics, Moses reincarnated, kitties in the lake, government conspiracies and the Butcher is back in town.

**I was given a free review copy of this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.** Well, I requested it because I really wanted to check it out and I always honestly review what I read/listen to, so it wasn't that big of a stretch, but since its FTC regulations to add a disclaimer, there it is.
2654854
Good album, even better if you read the lyrics as the story plays out. 2x sfam
3364355
Great read all around. Really involving story and intriguing characters; very relevant to what's happening today, and a warning worth listening to. Ranks up there with the best of this author's previous novels.
4097987
By now, I'm sure you have either read the book, seen the TV show or live under a rock. I won't say a lot because much has already been said about this book, but I enjoyed it more than the show. I can definitely see why the show went in the direction it did as I do not believe people would've been able to follow it as closely if they used the book's story line word for word. It can be confusing at times for some, as the story jumps from character to character and Crouch's writing is very fast paced. But, I thought Paul Michael Garcia did a fabulous job with the narration and is definitely worth the listen. Overall, I am looking forward to the last 2 books in the series and will probably purchase the author's library for my own.
782562
I've been listening to "A Chord Too Far" for a few days now and I have to say, I'm glad Tony didn't just track all the songs in chronological order. Enough thought was put into the running order to keep things fresh and entertaining throughout. Also, it's forced me to reevaluate some of his later material which I had written off as uninteresting. I've had to partially rethink my opinion of "Still" which I didn't care much for in 1992.
I'm still unsure about some of the remixes, especially material from "The Fugitive" which, to my ear, feels the most altered, lacking some of the punch of the original. But as I said above, the entire package flows nicely.
I've also found that I prefer Tony's demos of the orchestral material to the final versions because it's always great to hear him play.
2591348
Having at one time been a huge fan, I had pretty much declared myself completely finished with reading or listening to Garrison Keillor--done with hearing him in love with the sound of breathing through his nose on the Writer's Almanac, done with his increasingly indulgent weekend radio show (and the sycophantic and pretentious NPR listeners that praise it), and done with that horribly boring and eventless movie based on his work--when someone gave me this.

I listened to it, for lack of anything else to listen to on my morning drive, and I have to say: I liked it.  It's good.

The characters, for the most part seem real and believable, the action is amusing, and the writing is clear and often funny.

"Pontoon" tells the antilinear story of a woman's death--of her life before it, of her family, of her neighbors, and it manages to entwine all of these lives into an amusing (if somewhat predictable and drawn-out and over-the-top) ending.  It's touching and funny at the same time, and is, with one or two exceptions, a fairly accurate portrait of how small-town life can be.

As another entry in the Lake Wobegon canon, it's solid--not as good as "Lake Wobegon Days" or even "Wobegon Boy," but much better than say, "Leaving Home."  On the audio version, Keillor does a good job of reading it, and I was grateful that some producer thought wisely enough to place the mic away from his wheezy nostrils.  I mean, seriously, listen to the Writer's Almanac some morning; it sounds as if he's just finished running before every episode, or as if he just chugged a pan of grease.  The guy's evidently in love with the sound of it, like a guitarist who likes to mic the sounds of his fingers squeaking down the frets.  You can almost hear his nosehairs rustling.

Anyway.  "Pontoon": a good book.  And a good audio book.

Check it out.
2855796
This was my first audiobook ever and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I listened to it during my daily commutes to work and finished it in about two weeks or so. I was a great alternative to the NPR News drone I usually listen to.

As for the content: it's excellent. Inspirational even. Seth Godin is one of those visionary, charismatic types - even if his voice gets a bit whiny and annoying at times. Although I'm not someone who is in the "new media" industry - I still found his points of view the sort that spur people to action no matter what field they are in.

Last note: at $30, get the iTunes/mp3 version and save yourself a few bucks.