Alex Hawkins
Lone Survivor
Vin Strong
I listened to a synthetic AI reader version. Save that there was no inflection I didn't twig the voice was artificial. There were squeals and squawks on the stream. It's sad to think that there is need for people such as this in this world of ours.
The Rise and Fall of Derek Cowell
Valerie Sherrar
High School Confidential.
Must say when I passed through those years all I wanted was to survive the experience, I had no knowledge or understanding of the social politics that went on in the background.
Unless you understand the world of social media this story will make absolutely no sense. And a lad with three sisters would get no bathroom time unless he had his own ensuite. Life was so different when you grew up with the two-holer down the path where gals were not loath to linger. How I date myself. At this age we barely had a telephone.
The girls in his life are manipulative or even blackmailing--three sisters. The tale is told by Derek in a frank stream of consciousness style with occasional dialog thrown in.
The 6:20 Man #1
The 6:20 Man
David Baldacci, Zachary Webber (Narrator), Christine Lakin (Narrator), Mela Lee (Narrator)
Book two has a complete new cast of readers. Travis appears to have switched careers from investment annalist here to former Ranger secondered to Homeland Security.
In fact we learn the Ranger Service entitled Travis to an MBA compliments of the GI Bill and he got recruited to do some clandestine investigating. Three young toughs learn the hard way you don't mess with a Ranger.
In the end the local situation unravels around Travis but the worldwide money laundering driving it proves too big and the repercussions too great to pursue it further.
Unfortunately foreign interference in internal affairs and Black Money are all too real.
Thunder Below!: The USS *Barb* Revolutionizes Submarine Warfare in World War II
Eugene B. Fluckey, Corey Snow (Narrator)
The author has an unfortunate name but suffers from no sense of humility. Definitely not Canadian. He owes a debt to the people who built a boat that survived depths beyond its rated soundings, hundreds of depth charges, and rode out a typhoon without diving.
What's unique here is an American Sub in Chinese and Japanese Waters rather than Germans and British in the North Sea.
As ship's captain he is quick to give credit to the men under him for his successful missions. Despite his daring-do he brings all his men back alive, no small feat where so many subs are lost.
He explains jargon when he uses it and spares the reader the tedium of naval protocol.
Dakota #2
Dakota Home
Debbie Macomber
Carly Robins (Narrator)
This book reads like a gossip column. Too many people and too many things happening for the reader to follow.
Codename Nemo: The Hunt for a Nazi U-Boat and the Elusive Enigma Machine
Charles Lachman, Qarie Marshall (reader)
The story of U-505. I've seen the fictitious U-571 which claims the US captured the enigma. History is bunk. Don't believe anything you read in print or hear or see on radio or TV, especially tabloids. Social Media.... And if you've ever been involved in an event reporters carried you'll wonder, where was I when that happened. Am I cynical....
The most remarkable part of this story is that the German Sailors aboard the sub were kept incommunicado in violation of the Geneva Convention until the end of the war and the thousands aboard the vessels involved in the seizure were sworn to silence on pain of death. Their superiors maintained the secret as well. How they hid a 200 ft sub is another matter.
Station Eleven
Emily St. John Mandel, Kirsten Potter (Narrator)
Set in Toronto initially at locations I've actually visited such as Allan Gardens, The Elgin, Queens Quay. I've ridden streetcars, the subway. I'm getting tired of attempting to follow novels that jump around in time and place. We have here a traveling troop of entertainers somehow linked to a former star actor/movie star. Throw in the EMT we meet in the initial stages.
At the heart of this tale is a Pandemic which figures in a story written 6 years before Covid. The troop attempts to make a living in a post-apocalyptic world. Described in detail are the inevitable tensions between the performers inevitable in any close-knit group.
I've assayed reading this book several times since it first came out and may make better progress listening to an audiobook.
The time and place are constantly changing back in time to earlier periods of key character's lives. Members of the orchestra are referred to by the instruments they play, not their names.
Station Eleven is a space station in a Graphic Novel.
The book begins and ends with the death of the character playing King Lear.
