Audio Book- Hell's Corner by David Baldacci

Hell's Corner by David Baldacci, read by Ron McLarty and Orlagh Cassidy

In the last year I've read a lot of literature and short stories. I love them but I think because they're typically dialog driven I've been in the mood lately for good of fashion action stories. Something fast passed with lots of twists, bullets, bombs and miraculous escapes by lots of catch phrasey kind of heroes. This book completely hit the spot. The story starts with an old retired spy/government assassin Oliver Stone, who apparently has been in a lot of Baldacci books, almost get blown up in Lafayette Park right across from the White House by being at the wrong place at the wrong time. From there the twists and turns were the right amount of incredulous and often with an explosion or a fist/boot/knee/bullet to the face/throat/gut/side of the knee. He partners up with a MI-6 agent Mary Chapman and goes after the bad guys. He has a group of friends called the Camel Club that he is constantly pushing away so they won't get into danger then involving them when they immediately get into danger. Everyone gets hurt at one point or another but the bad guy gets it in the end, well mostly and there are 2 really kick ass female characters. Seems like pop fiction has finally figured out a lot of readers love tough women rather than old fashion broads that faint on command only to be saved by someone with a chin dimple you could drive a truck through. Oh and did I mention that there's a traitor all up in the government keeping one step a head of Stone and Chapman the entire time? No? Well, there is and if you listen to the awesomeness that is this book you'll hear about it every 3 minutes or so.

To sum up, fun book which made my commute almost fun, which says a lot.



The narrators, Ron McLarty & Orlagh Cassidy

I'm becoming more and more interested in voice actors. A good voice actor can make an audio book or animated movie that much better but a bad voice actor can completely derail the story. Both of these actors were great. McLarty had great range going from super tough guy to intellectual nerdy guy with easy. Orlagh was also great playing all the female parts which required her to rock out an English and southern accent.


Ron McLarty



Who stands in their publicity shot in front of a wall-o-gold? Ron #$%&'in McLarty that's who! Guys killing it! When former president Bush decided he's only reading the short abridged version of his book who'd they bring in for the unabridged version? You guessed it! Don't hate the player...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_McLarty



Orlagh Cassidy



It would be really cool to know how to pronounce Orlagh. I sound like a pirate whenever I try to say it out loud. According to Wikipedia and other websites she's best known for her long standing role as Doris Wolfe on The Guiding Light. Apparently her 2004 role in The Pornographer: A Love Story was less memorable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlagh_Cassidy

Zoetrope: All Story Vol. 15 No. 1

The Serrambi Case: Frances de Pontes Peebles
This story was amazing. It's about the rape and murder of two young affluent girls in a poor tourist community. It's told from the point of view of almost everyone connected with the girls and investigation. This is a story that will stick with me for a long time.

The Butler's Lament: David Means
This story is about a mental patient who comes from a very blue collar background but his mental illness has him pretend to be a butler at almost all times.

French Lessons: Johanna Skibrund
Martha is an immigrant to Paris who takes care of an old woman. The language barrier causes a major miss-communication between them.

Rothko Eggs: Keith Ridgway
This story is about a teenage daughter of a broken home where the father is a homicide detective. The brilliance in this story is that the author deftly deals with so many issues in a relatively short story. The main character has her first boyfriend who has homosexual tendencies, her dad's profession makes her nervous, her mom is dealing with grief that she doesn't understand and her biggest interest is art. Great story.


Everything Must Go by Raymond Carver with an introduction by Will Ferrell



The last story is all the episodes of Zoetrope that I've read have all been short stories that have become the inspiration for a movie. This episodes story by Raymond Carver inspired the new Will Ferrell movie of the same name. The story was fantastically sad and eloquent in it's indirect handling of the story themes. Sad & excellent.

19 of 30- The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson

Just finished reading this book on my Kindle and liked it enough to immediately start reading the second book in the series. While I liked the book I'm torn with what to write. The last thing I want to do is ruin the plot but it's hard to get into it a little bit without giving away too much. Basically, there were a few main stories going on that surrounded the 2 primary character Mikael Blomkvist & Lisbeth Salander. The primary mystery gets wrapped up early so it was definitely anticlimactic as that's the most exciting part but I can't see any way around it given the timing of events. There was a lot of violence that at times became graphic but for me it was disturbing because of the theme of the violence rather than the description of the acts. Hard to explain but if you've read the book you'll understand. As the primary mystery unfolded the author did a great job of maintaining the suspense & tension. The writing itself was uncomplicated with the only major challenges in understanding all the references to Swedish pop culture & history.

To me I think the biggest draw to the book outside of the sex and violence is the character of Lisbeth Salander. She's tough yet vulnerable at the same time, off the charts smart but has social issues that are very true to life for what has been relieved about her so far. Definitely looking forward to the next two books.

How Lethal Weapon 2 led to all these political sex scandals

Picture this, it's 1989 and you're a young affluent man with big dreams. You take your big haired, shoulder padded, hoop earring wearing date to see the new Lethal Weapon movie hoping she'll get all hot and bothered watching Mel Gibson's windblown hair and acid washed jeans so you can take her home and seal they deal by showing off your new laser disc collection. You're really excited about this plan thinking it has a chance as Mel Gibson has yet to show that he's a racist nut job rather than an 80's heart throb and laser discs are amazingly cool in 1989. As the movie starts you're worried that sequels never live up to the original but man alive are you wrong! It's amazing, with more crazy antics, great 1 liners the best of which is given to Danny Glover for a change, Riggs dislocates his shoulder to escape death, Joe Pesci is hilarious with a monologue about the unfair nature of drive through windows, Riggs gets lucky with a lady who's just barely acceptably hot for 1989 and best of all the bad guys are all cool politicians who are above the law! This is the best movie ever! Dreams of political aspirations are born right then and there in that dark, dirty movie theater. You could be that d-bag who has no accountability, lots of cash and can egregiously abuse his office for personal gain! Genius has struck! Right then and there you decide that as soon as you try "monster in the popcorn" on your vapid date you'll go home and pick whichever political party your parents have more rich friends in.

Fast forward to present day. You're a powerful governor/IMF director/senator feeling pretty damn good about yourself. You've found yourself with an impressive amount of influence and wealth that you've built through manipulating contacts, buying influence, lying whenever possible and other inscrutable things you'd rather not think about. You're finally above the law and you can fully listen to what you're penis is telling you to do. No more being cautious about whipping it out wherever and whenever it wants to get some. Do you have to worry about photographs, videos, witnesses, victims, spouses, etc? No way! Just like your fictional South African politician heroes you're way too big a deal for any of that to get in the way of Mr. (insert pet nickname for your penis here) getting some strange on the regular! Should you pay attention to history? Maybe read up on similar men in similar situations? Clinton, JFK, Clarence Thomas, etc? No way! You're way smarter than those chumps! You'd never hook up with a thick assed honey in the oval office! (Marilyn Monroe was a size 12 but I bet you only thought of Monica, shame on you! Personally I think Marilyn Monroe was stupidly hot and Monica had her moments but that was probably because she's freaky. I mean, who lets someone put a cigar all up in her biznatch?). But I digress. So anyways, that's nothing for you to worry about as you are WAY better than those suckers could ever dream of being. You are after all;

Governor Arnold who liked to bang his housekeeper bareback and had an illegitimate kid born within days of your legitimate kid. No way you'll get caught thanks to your non distinctive looks and immunity to paternity tests.


IMF director Strauss-Kahn who liked jump out of a bathroom naked like some demented jack in the box in a $3,000 a night suite and force the maid to give you a hummer. Completely ridiculous that she'd go to the cops with her jizz stained dress, she'd be begging for more of your hairy, saggy balls coming at her like the most disgusting Muppet ever.


Congressman Weiner who liked to sext shirtless pics and got off on double entendres. Who wouldn't find your cat picture adorable with that pussy willow reference just so cleaver? Next time you'll want to double check the spelling of the porn stars twitter account before you chat her up with your A game.


Other congressman Lee who also liked to take shirtless pics and text them to sexy ladies he met on craigslist.org. What's more legit than one of the most powerful non mobster in NY hitting on someone with a craigslist posting? This plan is bound to get you laid, it's fool proof!


Other congressman Craig who liked to tap his foot under airport bathroom stalls in hopes of orally satisfying a unidentified man to kill time on a layover. Why go through all the bother of finding a discrete gay bar with your off time when the public bathroom is a great place to pick up some man meat? Plus no one would ever know it's you, they'll only be able to see your shoes. Another totally legit plan.


Other congressman Edwards who liked to have a long term affair with a sea hag while his wife was being treated for cancer. Why stick by a loving wife when she's in all that pain, fighting for her life? Too much trouble when you have a campaign to run and will need some stress relief after a long day of internal debate about who has better hair between you and Trump.


Football player* (Favre) who loved his johnson so much that he too a picture with his camera phone in hopes of bedding a NY Jets staffer while his wife was being treated for cancer. Why retire with class as one of the best quarterbacks of all time while your sister is having all the fun getting busted in meth labs?



I it was me, I'd use Lethal Weapon 2 as part of my defense but I'd probably lose as the jury, consisting of a cross section of normal life, would instantly see through your bullshit.


*I know, I know, but the pattern fits if you just swap out Lethal Weapon 2 for Rudy then pretend Rudy was a complete piece of shit and did all the things the other people did while hiding behind his mad football skills. (Rudy is my all time favorite sports movie but the only other one from the time period I could think of is Brian's Song and I'd have to be a bigger dink than the list above to joke about that movie. Seriously though, Rudy is awesome)

Audio Book- Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Just finished listening to Norwegian Wood written by Haruki Murakami, translated by Jay Rubin & read by James Yaegashi.

First thoughts first. Murikami is a complete perv. Not that I'm complaining much but there were a couple of awkward moments when I was stuck in traffic listening to a descriptive bj scene that made me laugh. Secondly, the narrator did a great job but the first couple of discs he kept making these small sounds every time he started to speak that sounded like his tongue was unsticking from the roof of his mouth. It was pretty distracting but either went away or I failed to notice it around disc 3 or 4.

Those two small thoughts out of the way the story was really good. Sad enough to put Jeff Buckley to shame but still beautiful and elegantly written. Murikami is amazing and I love how Japanese people think and the structure of their language. At least the translated versions as I don't speak a word of Japanese. Well technically I know konichiwa, number 1 & suitcase but that's about it. The way they'll say something then end the sentence with an affirming question is interesting. The story is about a young college student living in Tokyo Toru Watanabe who is dealing with a friends death and falls in love with two girls who both are dealing with some serious issues of their own. It's a coming of age story that is sad at times and uplifting at others while capturing the true confusing nature of growing up and never over simplifies the real situations the characters are going through. Murikami's descriptions of urban and rural Japan are amazing and just reinforce my desire to go there as one of the top places I'd like to go on a dream vacation.

As I was looking for a picture for this post I saw that the book was made into a movie in 2010 in Japan. I'll have to check it out.

18 of 30- McSweeney's 37

Another great issue of McSweeney's. I started this and another book at the same time thinking I might need a break from short stories after finishing McSweeney's 36 but I couldn't put this one down. I'll have to say content wise I loved it, art design wise where the 2 dimensional pages are drawn to look 3 dimensional with cool interior art was great. The binding sucked, both Heather's and my copy the binding ripped off completely. It made it hard to read and was distracting as I like to take care of my books. The issue was that there wasn't enough give to the spine and when the pages were open in the middle of the book it leveraged the spine off of the book. The inside art that was made to look like the spine of the book were amazing. I looked up who did it and one of the artists was included in McSweeney's 36 Sophia Cara Frydman. I'm insanely jealous of her skill as an illustrator and would love to own one of her pieces one day.

The book was structured with a letters section, a general selection of short stories & essays then 4 stories from modern Kenya with a brief discussion about Kenyan literature. One of the first things that stands out is that this was another issue relatively free of political agenda unlike some of Egger's war themed issues that got a little tiresome. I was obviously expecting all of the Kenyan stories to be about oppression and human rights violations but they were all completely different and enjoyable.

The book started out with a story by Jonathan Franzen, Ambition that was about a couple who start off great together because of their lack of ambition but as the story moves forward it turns into something more for him. Great story and a great begging. Some others that stood out were a story by Nelly Reifler, Grove that was amazing, told from the perspective of a clairvoyant bunny. Etgar Keret's story was great and he reminds me of a funnier Nathan Englander. Joyce Carol Oats wrote a story about a bird trapped in the waiting area of a airport that was thought provoking and smart. J. Malcolm Garcia writes an article about a crime in Ireland through to be perpetrated by the IRA that was brutal and enlightening. For some reason I find Irish accents funnier in print. Joe Meno writes a fantastic story about a man who's life crosses path with an interesting foreign woman who's obsessed with being eaten by a lion. Jess Walter's piece about living in Spokane Washington was funny & flowed surprisingly well for being written in list form. One of my favorite stories about a man lost after divorce is here written by Kevin Moffett. The alcoholic father has his teenage daughter for the weekend, is self destructive and struggling to make his life work. Loved the way the story ended.

I'm all out of McSweeney's to read unless I crack into Heathers collection but the farther I get along in this pinkie swear I realize I want to stick to my own books first and I still have a long way to go before I get through half of what I own.