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Title: 66 Days Adrift

Subtitle: A True Story of Disaster and Survival on the Open Sea

Author: William Butler

Narrator: Nick Hahn

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 1 min

Language: English

Release date: 12-16-13

Publisher: New Street Communications, LLC

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 26 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

The lure of paradise was unmistakable, and Bill Butler was on a quest to find it with his wife Simonne - riding the Pacific currents on their sloop Siboney, with a world of possibilities ahead. But,1200 miles from land, the alluring ocean showed its deadly side when, without warning, a pod of pilot whales attacked their sailboat, battering it until it sank beneath the waves.

The dazed couple was left drifting in midocean in a leaky six-foot raft meant for coastal waters, with only a few hastily grabbed provisions to sustain them. Simonne, who had never truly shared Bill's dream of circumnavigating the globe, blamed him bitterly for their desperate plight.

In this powerful account of their 66-day odyssey, Butler tells a gritty, harrowing tale of their battles against nature, despair, and their own demons. He reveals how he and Simonne found the strength to survive despite the ravages of hunger, storms, and sharks. Based on Butler's faithful log entries, 66 Days Adrift is both a chilling cautionary tale for sailors with big ideas and an inspiring story of love, faith, and survival against long odds.

Members Reviews:

Great story of adventure and survival!

I thoroughly enjoyed this true story of adventure and survival on the high seas! As a sailor myself, Bill Butler's account is sure to make me a more careful seaman, since I often assume the best while out on my sailboat.

Riveting story... but.

really a riveting true story, and an incredible tale of real survival. um... but I was not a fan of the voice performance. my gf heard it, and initially thought it was a done by a text to speech synthesizer. Despite my unhappiness with the voice narration, I was unable to stop listening because the story was so good. a must read in the genre of true survival.

Excellent story and well narrated

This is an excellent and well narrated story and kept me very interested for the entire length of this audiobook. I just wish there was a movie about this.

Daily activities with a spouse in a restreint area for a long time.

The angle used to describe such a dificult event makes it very captiviating

I just loved it.

Butler

Although Butler is a dumb ass, I feel sorry for him for being stuck on the raft with his crazy wife.

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Title: Rescuing Riley, Saving Myself

Subtitle: A Man and His Dog's Struggle to Find Salvation

Author: Zachary Anderegg, Pete Nelson

Narrator: David Marantz

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-06-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 41 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

While hiking on a solo vacation in a remote, uninhabitable region of Arizona, Zachary Anderegg happened upon Riley, an emaciated puppy clinging to life, at the bottom of a 350-foot canyon. In a daring act of humanity that trumped the deliberate savagery behind Rileys presence in such a place, Zak single-handedly orchestrated a delicate rescue.

What didnt come out in the initial burst of publicity this story received is that Zak and Rileys destinies were intertwined long before they improbably found each other. For much of Zaks childhood, he was at the bottom of a veritable canyon himself - a canyon whose imprisoning depth and darkness was created by bullies who just wouldnt quit and parents who werent capable of love. From the age of five, Zak was everyones favorite target.

When Zak came upon Riley, the puppys condition bespoke his abusers handiwork - three shotgun pellets embedded beneath his skin, teeth turned permanently black from malnutrition. The meeting was one of a man and a dog singularly suited to save each other. As a former US Marine sergeant, Zak was one of only a few people with the mettle and physical wherewithal to get Riley out. And in rescuing him, Zak was also attempting to save himself, conquering the currents of cruelty that swelled beneath his early life and always threatened to drown him.

Editorial Reviews:

In Zachary Anderegg's touching memoir, Rescuing Riley, Saving Myself, the former US Marine sergeant recounts his heroic tale of saving a starving, abused puppy from the bottom of an Arizona canyon - and ties the act back to his own experience with bullying as a child. Brutally honest, Anderegg's story is a tale of suffering, and also of redemption: In rescuing Riley, Zak was able to overcome his own personal obstacles. Voice actor David Marantz's sympathetic narration helps make this inspiring tale a powerful listening experience.

Members Reviews:

It's not about the dog.

What disappointed you about Rescuing Riley, Saving Myself?

I thought this book was a journey about a dog's tale of abuse and recovery. Instead, it was about the tale of the author's abuse and recovery. While I do not want to belittle his story for it is a story that will help many, I bought this book to learn about Riley's journey. With the exception of getting her out of the canyon and initial vet visits, there is very little about Riley. I will be asking for my credit back. Sorry Zachary

What could Zachary Anderegg and Pete Nelson have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Talk more about Riley's recovery process, the little successes she achieved on her rode to health. The healing of her mind and spirit.

You didnt love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Yes, the fact that Zachary cared enough to save him! Thank you!

Needs More

It was interesting especially the struggle Zachary had growing up. My heart ached for him and as a child I wanted to hug him and let him know he was loved. However the story drops after he took the dog home from the vet. I would have loved to learn more about how Riley adjusted and became part of the family. Seemed to skip over that part. But overall was a good listen!

bullying

Was Rescuing Riley, Saving Myself worth the listening time?

This book should be promoted as more of a bullying book, rather than a dog rescue story.

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Title: Girl with Glasses

Subtitle: My Optic History

Author: Marissa Walsh

Narrator: Margie Lenhart

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-15-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 616 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Being a Girl with Glasses isn't just a style choice; it's a way of life. If you've ever had your specs steam up when walking into a bar, squinted into the sun on the soccer field, or laid eyes on a new haircut only after your locks are strewn across the floor, you know what it's like to be a GWG. Marissa Walsh has worn glasses since third grade. Now - 10 pairs of glasses, one pair of prescription sunglasses, and endless pairs of contacts later - she has fully embraced her four-eyed fate. As she recounts her optic history through the lenses of each pair of glasses - from the Sergio Valentes and the Sally Jessy Raphaels to the pseudo John Lennons and the dreaded health plan specs - at last she found them...the perfect pair. Marissa's comic look at a life behind glass is at once a poignant personal journey and a wry, canny exploration of just what it means to be a glasses-wearing kind of girl. Peppered with pop culture references and complete with appendixes of resources, classic GWG moments, and helpful tips on finding the right frames for your face, Girl with Glasses will give you reason to commiserate with your shortsighted sisters and celebrate your less-than-perfect vision.

Editorial Reviews:

In her humorous memoir, Marissa Walsh uses the history of her eyesight and eye apparel as a lens (no pun intended) into her life. Listeners of a certain age will relate to her adolescence spent watching Nickelodeon, reading Judy Blume, and listening to Prince. Even as a GWG ("girl with glasses"), Walsh has a sharp eye for detail and a 20/20 memory that can still dredge up comic scenes from her past.

Margie Lenhart's winsome performance adds another layer of charm to Walsh's prose. Though the trials and tribulations of having poor vision might not compare to growing up in a war zone or an orphanage, this book's universal and timeless themes of teenage identity formation transcend its superficial focus.

Members Reviews:

I could not finish!

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

better distinction between the chapters or sections. I didn't know where one ended and the next began

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I could get past the first 30 minutes

What didnt you like about Margie Lenharts performance?

She was reading to fast. I couldn't tell where a paragraph ended and the next one began! Everything was strung together like a giant stream of conciousness.

You didnt love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

no

This was awful!

This book was terrible! There was zero direction. It's like starting 30 or 40 books and never finishing them! There was no connection between chapters, no flow. This is probably one of the only books I have ever considered putting down and NEVER picking back up again.

Behind the Lenes?

I haven't been a GWG (girl with glasses) and I thought this would be a look behind the lenses but nope. I didn't any unique or different perspective on being a woman growing up wearing glasses and how the world response to you. I got the history of frames and frame picks. What is the point?

Cute book for a quick listen

Quirky tale of a girl who wears glasses.

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Title: One Hundred and Four Horses

Subtitle: A Memoir of Farm and Family, Africa and Exile

Author: Mandy Retzlaff

Narrator: Polly Lee

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs

Language: English

Release date: 10-08-13

Publisher: HarperAudio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 21 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

There is little in this world that a family cannot endure, if endure they must. For we all have it within us to lose everything, absolutely everything, and still find strength in the most simple, beautiful things.

Pat and Mandy Retzlaff lived a hard but satisfying farming life in Zimbabwe. Working all hours of the day on their sprawling ranch and raising three boisterous children, they savored the beauty of the veld and the diverse wildlife that grazed the meadows outside their dining room window. After their children, the couple's true pride and joy were their horses.

But in early 2001, the Retzlaffs' lives were thrown into turmoil when armed members of President Robert Mugabe's War Veterans' Association began invading the farmlands owned by white Zimbabweans and violently reclaiming the land. Under the threat of death, the family was forced to flee, leaving behind a lifetime's possessions and becoming exiles in the only country they had ever called home.

As other families across the country fled, they left behind not only their homes but dozens of horses. Devoted animal lovers, Pat and Mandy - now essentially homeless themselves - vowed to save these horses: Shere Khan, the queen of the herd; Tequila, the escape artist forever breaking free and trying to walk back to his original home; Grey, the silver gelding and leader; Princess, the temperamental mare; and the numerous others they rescued along the way.

One Hundred and Four Horses is a love story and an epic tale of survival and unbreakable bonds - those that hold us to land and family, but also those between man and the most majestic of animals, the horse.

Members Reviews:

Historical perspectives

Interesting insight into the world of a rapidly changing continent and the people who tried to shape it.

A Gripping Story

Would you consider the audio edition of One Hundred and Four Horses to be better than the print version?

No - I am afraid that the narrator was not for me.

Any additional comments?

A gripping book which I have read before. A unique piece of history from my time.

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Title: In the Shadow of Greatness

Subtitle: Voices of Leadership, Sacrifice, and Service from America's Longest War

Author: Joshua Welle (editor), John Ennis (editor), Katherine Kranz (editor), David Gergen (foreword)

Narrator: full cast

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-13-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 9 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Their stories needed to be told. And classmates working together, under a blanket of trust and friendship, was the only way to allow people to open up. It was a three year journey into the hearts and souls of America's youngest heroes to gather these important historical accounts, but it was worth every hour spent. Inside this book are the voices the first Annapolis graduates into a decade of war and they remind us that America is in good hands. They were walking to class on 9/11, wearing Naval Academy summer working blues, when the towers were struck. The campus went to general quarters, battle stations. They would be the first class after this attack to graduate into a nation at war and would be faced, like so many past graduates, of rising to the challenge to keeping America great. President Bush and Vice President Cheney articulated a world at the crossroads, and the U.S. would preemptively in seek enemies who threatened the national interest, America would not again be terrorized.

In the Shadow of Greatness addresses issues that go beyond one USNA class; it explains the trials of most military veterans of this era. Understanding how a young person enlists to serve, deploys to the fight, and returns home is unknown to most Americans. Veterans pack up their uniforms, but never lose the call for service when the return to civilian society.

The profiles in this book represent the "Next Great Generation" of American leaders. Men and women who lost their innocence in battle and their youths to a decade of deployments, throughout which they never gave up hope. In exchange for down range scars, they gained an unbreakable sense of purpose to America's ideals of freedom, equality, and democracy.

In the Shadow of Greatness was edited by Joshua Welle, John Ennis, Katherine Kranz, and Graham Plaster. Narrators include Piper Goodeve, Vanessa Johansson, Gabra Zackman, and Ben Bartolone.

Members Reviews:

Excellent True Stories on War

This was an excellent book about the Navy Academy and the stories of war. There was so much that I did not know about the wars my generation has gone through, but know I have a much better understanding.

Thank you for sharing theses stories.

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Title: The Blue Cotton Gown

Subtitle: A Midwifes Memoir

Author: Patricia Harman

Narrator: Abby Craden

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 1 min

Language: English

Release date: 09-03-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 59 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Heather is pale and thin, seventeen and pregnant with twins when Patricia Harman begins to care for her. Over the course of the next five seasons Patsy will see Heather through the loss of both babies and their father. She will also care for her longtime patient Nila, pregnant for the eighth time and trying to make a new life without her abusive husband. And Patsy will try to find some comfort to offer Holly, whose teenage daughter struggles with bulimia. She will help Rebba learn to find pleasure in her body and help Kaz transition into a new body. She will do noisy battle with the IRS in the very few moments she has to spare, and wage her own private battle with uterine cancer.

Patricia Harman, a nurse-midwife, manages a women's health clinic with her husband, Tom, an ob-gyn, in West Virginia-a practice where patients open their hearts, where they find care and sometimes refuge. Patsy's memoir juxtaposes the tales of these women with her own story of keeping a small medical practice solvent and coping with personal challenges. Her patients range from Appalachian mothers who haven't had the opportunity to attend secondary school to Ph.D.'s on cell phones. They come to Patsy's small, windowless exam room and sit covered only by blue cotton gowns, and their infinitely varied stories are in equal parts heartbreaking and uplifting. The nurse-midwife tells of their lives over the course of a year and a quarter, a time when her outwardly successful practice is in deep financial trouble, when she is coping with malpractice threats, confronting her own serious medical problems, and fearing that her thirty-year marriage may be on the verge of collapse. In the words of Jacqueline Mitchard, this memoir, "utterly true and lyrical as any novel...should be a little classic."

Editorial Reviews:

Patricia Harman likens her examination room to a confessional early on in her intimate, deeply personal memoir based on her experiences operating a women's health clinic in West Virginia, which served as a refuge for women of myriad ages and backgrounds dealing with medical, psychological, and familial issues.

This striking mosaic of stories is delivered with an urgency, compassion, and integrity by Abby Craden, who captures the gamut of emotions both Harman and these fascinating women courageously display.

Members Reviews:

Timeless, introspective, enlightening

Where does The Blue Cotton Gown rank among all the audiobooks youve listened to so far?

Fairly high. I have read some very very good books, and this is a good addition to my library. It is at turns a tale of a medical practice, a marriage, a woman... and more.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Patsy because it is her story; Nilla for her fierce devotion to her children.

Which character as performed by Abby Craden was your favorite?

Nilla, Heather. Though their stories are different, Abby Craydon did an admirable job with tone and inflection with them.

If you could give The Blue Cotton Gown a new subtitle, what would it be?

Life and death befor elife and other tales

Any additional comments?

This is a good book related to a seldom explored aspect of medical practice. The points of view change from present and past tense, which is a bit confusing, and the book is unnecessarily sexually graphic in unexpected places, which is the reason I cannot give it five stars.

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Title: I Kiss Your Hands Many Times

Subtitle: Hearts, Souls, and Wars in Hungary

Author: Marianne Szegedy-Maszak

Narrator: Marianne Szegedy-Maszak

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-27-13

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 32 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

A magnificent wartime love story about the forces that brought the authors parents together and those that nearly drove them apart

Marianne Szegedy-Maszáks parents, Hanna and Aladár, met and fell in love in Budapest in 1940. He was a rising star in the foreign ministry - a vocal anti-Fascist who was in talks with the Allies when he was arrested and sent to Dachau. She was the granddaughter of Manfred Weiss, the industrialist patriarch of an aristocratic Jewish family that owned factories, were patrons of intellectuals and artists, and entertained dignitaries at their baronial estates. Though many in the family had converted to Catholicism decades earlier, when the Germans invaded Hungary in March 1944, they were forced into hiding. In a secret and controversial deal brokered with Heinrich Himmler, the family turned over their vast holdings in exchange for their safe passage to Portugal.

Aladár survived Dachau, a fragile and anxious version of himself. After nearly two years without contact, he located Hanna and wrote her a letter that warned that he was not the man shed last seen, but he was still in love with her. After months of waiting for visas and transit, she finally arrived in a devastated Budapest in December 1945, where at last they were wed.

Framed by a cache of letters written between 1940 and 1947, Szegedy-Maszáks family memoir tells the story, at once intimate and epic, of the complicated relationship Hungary had with its Jewish population - the moments of glorious humanism that stood apart from its history of anti-Semitism - and with the rest of the world. She resurrects in riveting detail a lost world of splendor and carefully limns the moral struggles that history exacted - from a country and its individuals.

Critic Reviews:

I Kiss Your Hand Many Times is the sweeping story of Marianne Szegedy-Maszáks family in pre- and post-World War II Europe, capturing the many ways the struggles of that period shaped her family for years to come. But most of all it is a beautiful love story, charting her parents devotion in one of historys darkest hours." (Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief, the Huffington Post Media Group)

"In this panoramic and gripping narrative of a vanished world of great wealth and power, Marianne Szegedy-Maszák restores an important missing chapter of European, Hungarian, and Holocaust history." (Kati Marton, author of Paris: A Love Story and Enemies of the People: My Familys Journey to America)

"This family memoir is everything you could wish for in the genre: the story of a fascinating family that illuminates the historical time it lived through.... Informative and fascinating in every way, [I Kiss Your Hands Many Times] is a great introduction to World War II Hungary and a moving tale of personal relationships in a time of great duress." (Booklist)

Members Reviews:

Quite The Slog Fleshing Out The Family Tree

Let me start with what I liked about the book. When the author wrote about events and people she actually experienced first hand it was wonderful. It was engaging and kept me listening far past the point that I would ordinarily have given up. She captures the Budapest that I have experienced and I loved those parts.

The rest I'm afraid was written in an overly ornate and cumbersomely florid and stilted style.

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Title: Turn Here Sweet Corn: Organic Farming Works

Author: Atina Diffley

Narrator: Atina Diffley

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 9 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-19-13

Publisher: Atina Diffley

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 24 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

A Master Class in Organic Farming, a Lesson in Entrepreneurship, a Love Story, and a Legal Thriller.

When the hail starts to fall, Atina Diffley doesn't compare it to golf balls. She's a farmer. It's "as big as a B-size potato." As her bombarded land turns white, she and her husband Martin huddle under a blanket and reminisce: the one-hundred-mile-per-hour winds; the eleven-inch rainfall ("that broccoli turned out gorgeous"); the hail disaster of 1977.

The romance of farming washed away a long time ago. But the love? Never. In telling her story of working the land, coaxing good food from the fertile soil, Atina Diffley reminds us of an ultimate truth: we live in relationships - with the earth, plants and animals, families and communities.

A memoir of making these essential relationships work in the face of challenges as natural as weather and as unnatural as corporate politics, her book is a firsthand history of getting in at the "ground level," of organic farming. One of the first certified organic produce farms in the Midwest, the Diffleys' Gardens of Eagan helped to usher in a new kind of green revolution in the heart of America's farmland, supplying their roadside stand and a growing number of local food co-ops. This is a story of a world transformed - and reclaimed - one square acre at a time.

As Atina Diffley tells her David-versus-Goliath tale, she gives readers everything from expert instruction in organic farming to an entrepreneur's manual on how to grow a business, to a legal thriller about battling corporate arrogance, to a love story about a single mother falling for a good, big-hearted man.

Members Reviews:

Just listen to anything else on Audible, seriously

This book wasnt for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Few, if any, could enjoy listening to this narrator, not to mention the writing is just - strange.

What could Atina Diffley have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Paid for a narrator and an editor.

What didnt you like about Atina Diffleys performance?

Her writing and her voice

Any additional comments?

This book is very, very hard to follow. The narration is SO bad, but the writing only contributes to the confusion - it basically turns into a comedy you never wanted.

Not what you might expect from the description

What disappointed you about Turn Here Sweet Corn: Organic Farming Works?

"She gives readers everything from expert instruction in organic farming to an entrepreneur's manual on how to grow a business," is what it says in the description. I'm five chapters in and all the author's done so far is talk about her life, history, women's rights, and her failing marriage. All of this might be fine if that's what you are looking for, but this is just a personal diary about this woman's life without much practical education.

What was most disappointing about Atina Diffleys story?

I was led to believe this book would help me better understand what organic farming is all about. It's not.

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Title: Catch the Sky

Subtitle: The Adventures and Misadventures of a Police Helicopter Pilot

Author: Darryl J. Kimball, Allan T. Duffin

Narrator: Michael Sears

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-18-13

Publisher: Duffin Creative

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 36 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Darryl Kimball always wanted to fly. This is the story of how he accomplished his dream. It's the story of how a small town country boy found his way to San Diego, California, and eventually into the helicopter unit of one of the largest sheriff's departments in the country. In many ways it's a success story, a story of perseverance - one that says that when the odds seem to be stacked against you, or when your mind tells you you're not smart enough or good enough, or tells you to quit and go home, you don't listen. You stick it out, you move forward...and you persevere.

As a helicopter pilot with the elite air support unit of the San Diego Sheriff's Department, Darryl Kimball has hunted for missing children, extracted captured drugs and other contraband out of cramped locations, medevac'd injured hikers from valleys thick with boulders and brush, directed deputies during gun battles, and tracked carjackers as they tried to escape pursuing officers through heavy freeway traffic.

Catch the Sky is the first in-depth look at the life of a police helicopter pilot. Kimball pulls no punches, unfolding his nail-biting personal story in enthralling detail. From death-defying rescues to stories both bizarre and humorous, Catch the Sky puts you inside the helicopter cockpit for a breathtaking ride you'll never forget.

Members Reviews:

I always wanted to be a pilot

This was a good book telling a success story from patrol to pilot. I'm a 31 year LE veteran that always wanted to go into air support. Too bad Minnesota doesn't believe in it! I had given it thought to move to a larger department but starting over always held me back. Besides, my book will tell the story of a small town MN deputy sheriff!

For Non-Aviatorss

Probably pretty entertaining for non law enforcement /non-aviators. As a retired career dual rated pilot who over 35 years had seen it all, I thought I might find it a bit more entertaining. I didn't. Didn't find the reader all that entrancing either. Not my cup of tea.

Good book but horrible sound editing.

What did you love best about Catch the Sky?

It was an interesting topic and it progressed smoothly. The author told about his progress and challenges and threw in some humor as well.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Catch the Sky?

Some of the rescues that were described.

Have you listened to any of Michael Searss other performances before? How does this one compare?

N/A

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Parts of it made me laugh and parts of it made me sad. I wouldn't say either was extreme though.

Any additional comments?

The book had an overall good flow to it but the sound editor did a horrible job. You could tell when he spliced different takes together as they did not match at all and some seemed to repeat some words. I believe that the narrator did a fairly good job but the sound editor did not do him or the book justice. I still loved the book but was disappointed that the publisher would put out such low quality editing.

A Nice 'Popcorn' Book

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, if my friend shared my curiosity about what it must be like to get to be the officer who flies the spiffy police helicopter overhead.

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Title: The Longest Road

Subtitle: Overland in Search of America, from Key West to the Arctic Ocean

Author: Philip Caputo

Narrator: Pete Larkin

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-16-13

Publisher: HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 85 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

September 1996 found Philip Caputo on Barter Island, a wind-scoured rock in the Beaufort Sea populated by two hundred Inupiat and a handful of whites. As he gazed upon an American flag above the only school for a 150 miles, he marveled that the children in that school pledged allegiance to the same flag as the children of Cuban immigrants on Key West, almost six thousand miles away. Awed by Americas vastness and diversity and filled with a renewed appreciation for its cohesiveness, an idea began to form. With enough time, gas money, and nerve he could drive from the southernmost point to the northernmost point of the United States that is reachable by road, talking to people as he went and trying to better understand what holds our great country together.

Cicada-like, the idea went dormant, not to be reawakened for 14 years. In 2011, America was struggling through the greatest economic downturn since the Depression and was more divided than it had been in living memory. Caputo, who had just turned 70, his wife, and their two English setters took off in a truck hauling an Airstream camper from Key West, Florida, en route via back roads and state routes to Deadhorse, Alaska. The journey took four months and covered 17,000 miles, during which Caputo interviewed more than 80 Americans from all walks of life to get a picture of what their lives and the life of the nation are really about in the 21st century.

Critic Reviews:

"Pithily capturing...characters and opinions about the state of America, Caputo snares...devotees of a classic American theme, the road trip." (

Booklist)

"Caputo... rovides ample historical background to the trips sites and a nice dose of humor. Curious and genuine, he weaves these elements together to produce a continental tale that is always engaging and frequently reassuring." (

Publishers Weekly)

"Pure joy. The best thing to come along since

Blue Highways and

Travels with Charley." (Doug Stanton,

New York Times best-selling author of

In Harm's Way)

Contact me for any questions: [email protected]