Washington Post Book Reviews
For You
Saturday June 26, 2010
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THE LAST HERO: A Life of Henry Aaron
Howard Bryant
Random House Audio
ISBN NA
Abridged, Random House Audio, 8 CDs, 9 1/2 hours, Unabridged, Books on Tape, 17 CDs, 21 3/4 hours pages
$8 CDs, 9 1/2 hours, $35. audible.com download, $28, 17 CDs, 21 3/4 hours, $50. audible.com download, $42
Reviewed by Katherine A. Powers
Dominic Hoffman delivers hours of absorbing baseball and American history in his narration of Howard Bryant's outstanding biography of the reserved, misjudged, prickly man who, among other formidable accomplishments, broke Babe Ruth's lifetime home run record. This is a big book, long and wide, and it is well worth springing for the unabridged version, which retains all the detail of the countless tributary stories. They move through the business of baseball, the role of the press and race relations in the United States, especially in the crucial decades of the 1950s and '60s. The book is deeply insightful about Aaron the man and the obstacles, including death threats, that he grimly surmounted. Hoffman has a grave, matte-finished voice and reads in a measured, deliberate manner, distinguishing between the work's extensive quotations and its narrative text through skillful pacing and inflection. While this is a book for listeners who are interested in baseball, it encompasses far, far more than simply the game.
Katherine A. Powers, who regularly reviews audio books for The Washington Book World, writes a literary column for the Boston Globe.
Copyright 2010 Washington Post Writers Group
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STILL MIDNIGHT
Denise Mina
BBC Audio
ISBN NA
Unabridged, 11 hours pages
$9 CDs, $29.95. audible.com download, $20.97
Reviewed by Katherine A. Powers
Denise Mina's witty and unexpectedly moving crime novel set in Glasgow is enthralling enough on its own, but I can see listening to it just for the pleasure of hearing Jane MacFarlane's wonderful Scottish voice. The story involves a kidnapping perpetrated by a couple of ex-bouncers and a junkie who have blundered out of their depth. Detective Sgt. Alex Morrow, an ambitious woman with a chip on her shoulder, is on the trail, all the while doing battle with members of her own police force. Any number of other characters pop up to cause mischief and mayhem, presenting MacFarlane opportunities for well-executed regional accents, including those of Ulster and Lancashire. This is an audio book for a long drive, say 11 hours -- shorter than that will find you parked, stuck in your car, unable to turn off your player.
Katherine A. Powers, who regularly reviews audio books for The Washington Book World, writes a literary column for the Boston Globe.
Copyright 2010 Washington Post Writers Group
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DEATH OF A DOXY
Rex Stout
BBC Audio
ISBN NA
Unabridged, 5 hours pages
$5 CDs, $29.95. audible.com download, $28
Reviewed by Katherine A. Powers
Though it appeared over three decades after orchid-doting, woman-chary, homebody Nero Wolfe solved his first case, "Death of a Doxy" is just as snappy and riddlesome as any episode in that ageless epicurean's career. Orrie Cather, one of Wolfe's occasional assistants, is going to marry an airline stewardess, but a vengeful paramour -- make that "doxy" -- wants Orrie for her own. When the doxy shows up dead, Orrie looks like the culprit. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's legman and Boswell, is right in the middle of it, relating events with his customary thoroughness and wit. Veteran narrator Michael Prichard is a perfect fit for Goodwin, brandishing an ample, old-fashioned voice with a suitably wised-up delivery. His rendering of the fastidious, condescending Wolfe, too, is flawless in tone and interpretation, right down to a vintage, dismissive "phooey!"
Katherine A. Powers, who regularly reviews audio books for The Washington Book World, writes a literary column for the Boston Globe.
Copyright 2010 Washington Post Writers Group
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THE ESPN WORLD CUP COMPANION: Everything You Need to Know About the Planet's Biggest Sports Event
David Hirshey and Roger Bennett
Ballantine/ESPN
ISBN 978-0345517920
251 pages
$30
Reviewed by Sean Callahan
"The ESPN World Cup Companion" can help you join the conversation. This coffee-table book provides a lighthearted but thorough look at the tournament, which was first held in Uruguay in 1930. On almost every page, the book digs up a nugget of soccer history gold. For example, authors David Hirshey and Roger Bennett tell us that Brazil won its first World Cup in 1958 in Sweden after undergoing extensive preparations, including the extraction of "more than 300 teeth ... from 33 players, who had never been to a dentist." Pele, playing in his first World Cup at 17, also may have been a factor.
The authors identify cult figures, such as England's Nobby Stiles, a midfielder who helped the team win the 1966 World Cup and who "spooked opponents merely by removing his dentures before a game." And they select the winner of their "World Coiffure Cup": Carlos Valderrama, who sported a blondish Afro for Colombia in 1990.
Sean Callahan is an editor at Crain Communications and the author of "A is for Ara" and four other children's books.
Copyright 2010 Washington Post Writers Group
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