Shannon P. Duffy

An Exquisitely Inventive Tale Superbly Told

Revisado: 04-25-25

This is truly a triumph of storytelling. I found it compelling from the opening scene and gripping throughout. What's so clever here is that this big cat is a keen observer of humans. I hesitate to say too much lest I spoil the marvelous gift of hearing this story fresh. Kudos to Pete Cross for his masterful narration. I'm adding him to my list of favorites and I plan to hunt down his other top-rated titles.

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Funny, Heartbreaking and Unflinchingly Honest

Revisado: 04-07-25

I enjoyed this book immensely. It's easy to breeze right into the surreal premise - that Harriet Tubman is alive today and needs help creating some music to reach today's audience. Bob is a terrific narrator and here he infuses his characters with strong opinions and authentic emotions. I've been a fan of Bob's comedy and drag and commentary and podcasts for years, so it's especially thrilling to see him flex new muscles here. This book is so wonderfully inventive and the dialogue is so real and self-assured that I found myself daydreaming about how it could be cast as a miniseries. Make sure to keep listening because the audiobook includes two songs that are a perfect coda to this superb story. Thank you, Bob! What's next? A movie script? A play? I'm a fan of whatever content you create.

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Enjoyable, Honest, Funny and Unexpected

Revisado: 04-01-25

I’m a big fan of Michael Kosta, so I started off biased in his favor. But this book delivered so much more than I expected. Like a well crafted joke where every word matters, this memoir is a carefully curated series of memorable stories. They add up to the life lessons that launched a career. The thrill for me was how Kosta managed to retain the verbal cadence and delivery that gives his comedy its distinct brand while adapting it to the very different task of narrating an audiobook.

The glimpse into the sprawling and difficult world of professional tennis was enlightening. It’s a fun ride because Kosta is unflinchingly candid about his flaws and screw ups, and unafraid to boast about the best moments. You come to realize that he worked hard to get this book right, and for me that was the overarching lesson. Hard work pays off. Self assessment and honest introspection is essential to finding one’s path. And an athlete’s awareness about how one can blow a big lead can become a comedian’s secret to maintaining his cool when the gig of a lifetime finally comes along.

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Read This One First!

Revisado: 01-18-25

This is a terrific listen! Andrew wrote two books and this is childhood up to and into his acting career. But his most famous roles come in the next book.

I urge you, dear reader, to read this one first. They're both delightful and you'll enjoy Uncle of the Year much more if you arrive with this book already in your head.

This memoir is not an airbrushed glamor headshot. You'll feel like he's in your living room and just telling the unvarnished story of his life. It's not writing and it's not careful. He really is this unassuming, adorable, honest kid from the heart of the Midwest. Amazingly determined and talented and passionate, yet still believably a bit surprised at every successful step.

If you've seen him on chat shows, you know he's hilarious. This is more of a kitchen-table, everyday kind of hilarious. He's not delivering a stand-up routine, but his timing and cadence and wordplay are endlessly amusing.

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As Always, Unflinchingly Honest

Revisado: 03-05-24

I am a longtime fan of Kara’s writings and podcasts so I wondered if I would learn anything in this book. I learned a lot. Including a few new words. Damn, this woman can write! What makes this book so enjoyable is its 30,000-foot view of the entirety of the modern tech sector’s roots and growth. Kara was there at all the important moments, and in this book she proudly displays the receipts of the many instances when she predicted what was soon to happen. She waxes philosophic just enough. These are the best moments, when she reflects on how she now feels about one of the many stories she broke in a career riddled with killer scoops. She doesn’t waste time gloating, but instead just provides the context and historical importance that can only be seen after some time has passed. If I haven’t sold you yet, it’s also fabulously funny throughout. The wisdom is always delivered with wit.

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Brilliant and Engaging and Witty and Joyous

Revisado: 01-15-24

So wowed am I by this gem of a book that I have vowed to read (listen to) every title by Dan Jones. The chapters whiz by as Dan delivers delicious tidbits of queer perspective. It's global and spans all eras of human existence. He's a scholar, but he never gets stuck in academic mire. I'm a lover of mythologies, but I learned something new in every chapter. Especially fun are the Asian, African and Native American tales. And then he has the audacity to weave in more modern myths in TV, comics, novels and movies - from American Gods to Xena, Warrior Princess. Thank you, Dan! This is a book I will listen to again and again.

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Five Things at Once - All Splendid and Exquisite

Revisado: 12-02-23

What a gift to the world! This gay, Black, Harvard grad, comic book nerd, New Yorker, pagan, world traveler and world-class birder delivers a memoir that glistens with the beauty and wonder of a well rendered fractal. The narration is so skilled you'll find yourself hoping he takes up book voicing as a profession. Masterfully woven here in one man's coming of age story are important threads from the gay and Black civil rights movements, the AIDS epidemic, the Marvel and Star Trek universes, and one family's struggle to survive the explosive anger of a mixed-race dad who never fully recovered from being abandoned by his mother. So many parts of this book will stick with me, but most of all is the enduring love of birds and the joys to be found in observing them in nature and reveling in their glorious diversity,

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Loved This Coming of Age Farm to Fable

Revisado: 09-27-23

Meryl Streep's performance drew me in, but I left this book a newly minted fan of the brilliance of Ann Patchett. This book is a love letter to old Hollywood and a cautionary tale about the bruising heartlessness and dangerous egoism that are simply inescapable in the theater. The structure is genius. Our heroine passed up the life of an actress to marry an orchard owner in the upper Midwest where they have raised three delightfully different daughters. Mom has marvelous secrets from her days on the stage and the daughters are dying to pry the details from her.

I loved every last morsel of this book and Patchett is rightly beloved for her many skills, including authentic dialogue, masterful establishment of a sense of place and perfect pacing in unspooling a multi-layered love story. Kudos to Streep for deftly differentiating the daughters' voices and for setting a cadence and tone that matched this marvelous and meandering tale. Now I need to go find my next Patchett book to devour.

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Good Story, Superb Performance by the Narrator

Revisado: 07-01-23

But don’t waste a full credit on Book 2. It’s just a little more than an hour and I’m a bit annoyed.

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Spectacular Narrator, Great Story

Revisado: 06-10-23

I fell in love with this audiobook from the first minute because this narrator knows what's he's doing and his Aussie accent is delightfully lilting and musical. His voicing of every character - male and female, young and older - is masterful. Although I found a few of the characters utterly unlikable, the main characters are worth rooting for - even if they do get in their own way at times. Note: a major setting of the book is a local amateur theater's production of "Chicago." So if you've never seen the show, do yourself a favor and watch the movie before you listen to this book. It'll help you catch the references.

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