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Title: Sipping From the Nile

Subtitle: My Exodus from Egypt

Author: Jean Naggar

Narrator: Jean Naggar

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-14-12

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 22 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

In this coming-of-age memoir about a privileged, protected childhood in the exotic milieu of 1950s Egypt, author Jean Naggar describes a magical time that seemed as if it would never end. But Egypts nationalizing of the Suez Canal would set in motion events that would change her life forever. An enchanted existence suddenly ended by international hostilities, her family is quickly scattered far and wide, and Naggar is eventually swept into adulthood and the challenge of new horizons in America. Speaking for a different wave of immigrants whose Sephardic origins explore the American Jewish story through an unfamiliar lens, Naggar traces her personal journey through lost worlds and difficult transitions, exotic locales and strong family values. The story resonates for all in this poignant exploration of the innocence of childhood in a world breaking apart.

Critic Reviews:

An intriguing way of life that no longer exists. Glamorous, exciting, filled with the sophisticated life of a Jewish family living in Europe and the Middle East, Naggar documents times of elegant lifestyles, to the tumultuous struggles of war. And like every family, there is passionate love and loss, but always there is the undercurrent of delight and an indomitable will to do more than just survive. (US Review of Books)

Members Reviews:

Traveling back in

Would you consider the audio edition of Sipping From the Nile to be better than the print version?

The print version contains the pictures while the audio version allows me to listen during my commute.

What did you like best about this story?

Time travel is real! I felt like I had actually traveled back in time to be a friend of an Egyptian family. The descriptions were so vivid describing sights, sounds, aromas, tastes and touch. I felt as if I was transported to another time. I listened to the audio version while commuting and looked at the photos in the book at home. Reading the book I lost the intonation, excitement and the presence of someone who was there. Jean Nagar is a master at taking all the senses on a trip back in time to her childhood. I pulled up Google Earth to look at the streets and imagined walking down the streets and into the houses and shops as she described them. I looked up the girls school in England where she spent some of her school years and used Google Earth to walk around the school and the local town. One day I will travel to Egypt to see the places she has described to fulfill my adventure back in time.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Many times Jean describes a scene with all the senses, taste, touch, smell, sounds and sight. I loved them all. I have never read any novel, non-fiction or fiction that included all the senses in describing a scene. One of my favorite scenes was the description of making a holiday food. I hope to make that dish.

Any additional comments?

I read some comments that criticized the book because it didn't talk about the tragedies of the time....but I guess the reader didn't read the description saying the book was a personal view of Jean Nagar's life...not another rendition of the tragedies going on at the time of which there are many many books.

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Title: Basketball Junkie

Subtitle: A Memoir

Author: Chris Herren, Bill Reynolds

Narrator: Peter Berkrot

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-13-12

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 38 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

At basketball-crazy Durfee High School in Fall River, Massachusetts, junior guard Chris Herren carried his familys and the citys dreams on his skinny frame. His grandfather, father, and older brother had created their own sports legends in a declining city; he was the last, best hope for a career beyond the shuttered mills and factories. Herren was heavily recruited by major universities, chosen as a McDonalds All-American, featured in a Sports Illustrated cover story, and at just seventeen years old became the central figure in Fall River Dreams, an acclaimed book about the 1994 Durfee teams quest for the state championship. Leaving Fall River for college, Herren starred on Jerry Tarkanians Fresno State Bulldogs team of talented misfits, which included future NBA players as well as future convicted felons. His gritty, tattooed, hip-hop persona drew the ire of rival fans and more national attention: Rolling Stone profiled him, 60 Minutes interviewed him, and the Denver Nuggets drafted him. When the Boston Celtics acquired his contract, he lived the dream of every Massachusetts kid - but off the court Herren was secretly crumbling, as his alcohol and drug use escalated and his life spiraled out of control.

Twenty years later, Chris Herren was married to his high-school sweetheart, the father of three young children, and a heroin junkie. His basketball career was over, consumed by addictions; he had no job, no skills, and was a sadly familiar figure to those in Fall River who remembered him as a boy, now prowling the streets he once ruled, looking for a fix. One day, for a time he cannot remember, he would die.

In his own words, Chris Herren tells how he nearly lost everything and everyone he loved, and how he found a way back to life. Powerful, honest, and dramatic, Basketball Junkie is a remarkable memoir, harrowing in its descent, and heartening in its return.

Critic Reviews:

"A sobering, cautionary tale for star-athletes-to-be." (

Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Thanks

This and the documentary changed my life. Made me think about everything I was doing and made me find sobriety plus find happiness in everything I have.

Great Book!!

If you are a fan of Chris Herren, basketball, or any of the teams he played for. This boom is a MUST!! Great behind the scenes look at the struggles he went through and the NBA lifestyle. Easy 5 stars!!

inspirational

Inspirational accounts for anyone, especially if you're in need of help or know someone struggling

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Title: Welcome to the Departure Lounge: Adventures in Mothering Mother

Author: Meg Federico

Narrator: Tamara Marston

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-28-11

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 17 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

When Meg Federico's eighty year-old mother and newly minted step-father were finally forced to accept full-time home care, she imagined them settling into a Norman-Rockwellian life of docile dependency. With a family of her own and a full time career - a thousand miles away from her parents - Federico hoped her mother and step-father would be able to take care of themselves for the most part, and call on their children when they really needed them. After all, why else would an eighty-year old woman remarry? But after a fall while vacationing in Florida, Federico's mother, Addie, sits bolt upright on her gurney and yells, "I demand an autopsy!" before passing out again. It's the first in a string of moments both heartbreaking and hilarious that make Welcome to the Departure Lounge such a riveting read. As she watches from the sidelines with horror, Federico's parents turn into terrible teens - with licenses to drink and drive. Fighting off onslaughts of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, Addie and Walter, forbidden to drink by doctors, conspire to order cases of scotch by phone; Addie's attendant accuses the evening staff of midnight Voodoo; Walter's inhibitions decline as dementia increases and mail-order sex aides arrive at the front door. The list of absurdities goes on and on as Federico tries to take some control over her parents' lives - and her own. With her fresh and easy voice, Federico writes a story for the huge generation now dealing with the care of their parents. You'll laugh and cry as you take the raucous ride with Meg Federico in this powerful debut.

Members Reviews:

Great writing and narration, story itself ...

I give the book a high rating because the story is told so well, backed up by solid narration - I felt as though I were (vicariously) living the events as they unfolded. At the risk of re-hashing the plot (something I frown upon generally), Federico's mother and step-father have managed to "fake" their way along as their mental health deteriorated; her mother was losing her sight as well. On vacation in Florida, however, Addie suffers a traumatic episode, triggering a "crisis" situation, until her death (it wasn't clear to me how much time elapsed, a couple of years perhaps). Addie and Walter had been married and widowed, bringing children to the union, but The Brady Bunch this is not - toleration, not cooperation, best describes the kids' relationship; he had sold his house and moved into hers after the wedding.

Getting Addie home to New Jersey was a story in itself (Walter's daughter had taken him back alone shortly after the incident). She's placed in a facility, which ... doesn't work out. Various health aides are hired in shifts to look after the couple at home from then on, with the author and her siblings doing their best to "supervise" things long-distance. The step-sister, who lives nearby it seems, is implied to do as little actual work as possible. She's mentioned only a couple of times, once as she had "taken her father to New York for the day in a limo." The implication being that she's lazy and self-centered.

Meanwhile, he becomes more verbally and physically abusive to everyone in the house, including Addie.

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Title: The Climb

Subtitle: Tragic Ambitions on Everest

Author: Anatoli Boukreev

Narrator: Richard Davidson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-01-11

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 114 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Anatoli Boukreevs first-hand account of the worst human disaster in the history of Mt. Everest will hold listeners spellbound. A top-rated guide and high altitude climber, Boukreev dictated the raw and powerful details of this ill-fated trek from memories and notes recorded just five days after the catastrophe. In May of 1996, 33 people went up the mountain, but only 28 returned. As two commercial expeditions climbed the worlds highest peak, poor planning, miscommunication, and an unpredictable blizzard conspired to defeat them. Although the author made it back to the safety of his tent, he defied his own pain and exhaustion to go back up the mountain. His rescue attempt saved the lives of three climbers. The events of those two fateful days prompted researchers at MIT to develop new technology that could prevent the recurrence of such a disaster. Narrators Richard M. Davidson and Nelson Runger sensitively convey the full scope of a drama and a tragedy the world hopes never to see again.

Members Reviews:

No Hype. Pure facts.

if you're interested in hearing the details of what happened on that terrible day on Mount Everest then this book paints a very good picture. There are details here that only someone who was part of the event could talk to nd the facts are breathtaking

Excellent mountaineering book

A must read as an additional perspective to the tragedy on Everest as told in "Into Thin Air." I enjoy Krakauer's books, but his engaging style comes at the price of a nuanced perspective on complex events. "The Climb" is clearly a defense of Boukreev. I found his defense to be well worth listening to.

Kraukauer is meh

I've slowly learned to distrust krakauer. This book obviously has an agenda, but I appreciate a different viewpoint besides krakauer.

A must read if you already read Into Thin Air

Would you consider the audio edition of The Climb to be better than the print version?

Haven't read the print version

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Climb?

The rescue efforts by Anatoli

Which scene was your favorite?

Same

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The survival of the few left on the open on that night

Any additional comments?

none

As dry as a Kumbu cough

Interested to hear the other side of events regarding May 10, 1996 on Mount Everest. Infuriating to hear of Jon Krakeur's willful ignorance of the facts on summit day. However, the rest of this book is not dissimilar to those last few hundred plodding, painful meters to the summit, but lacking any of the glory or beauty, the text is just too wordy and lacks any soul.

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Title: Maphead

Subtitle: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks

Author: Ken Jennings

Narrator: Kirby Heyborne

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-20-11

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 151 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

It comes as no surprise that, as a kid, Jeopardy! legend Ken Jennings slept with a bulky Hammond world atlas by his pillow every night. Maphead recounts his lifelong love affair with geography and explores why maps have always been so fascinating to him and to fellow enthusiasts everywhere. Jennings takes listeners on a world tour of geogeeks from the London Map Fair to the bowels of the Library of Congress, from the prepubescent geniuses at the National Geographic Bee to the computer programmers at Google Earth. Each chapter delves into a different aspect of map culture: highpointing, geocaching, road atlas rallying, even the "unreal estate" charted on the maps of fiction and fantasy. He also considers the ways in which cartography has shaped our history, suggesting that the impulse to make and read maps is as relevant today as it has ever been.

From the "Here be dragons" parchment maps of the Age of Discovery to the spinning globes of grade school to the postmodern revolution of digital maps and GPS, Maphead is filled with intriguing details, engaging anecdotes, and enlightening analysis. If you're an inveterate map lover yourself---or even if you're among the cartographically clueless who can get lost in a supermarket---let Ken Jennings be your guide to the strange world of mapheads.

Critic Reviews:

"[Jennings is] alive to the larger meaning of maps as they overlay knowledge, desire, and aspiration onto the mute reality of terrain. The result is a delightful mix of lore and reportage that illuminates the longing to know where we are." (Publishers Weekly Starred Review)

Members Reviews:

A Romp through Maps

I approached Ken Jennings new book, Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks, without expectations. I was pleasantly surprised with what I found. In autobiographical chapters he tells of his early interest in maps and considers the type of people who are drawn to maps (pardon the pun). Jennings spends some time telling the reader about the rarified world of map collectors and of the national geography competition entertained by high school students across the country. The more interesting sections to me were related to the development of Google Maps and their impact on map making and our conceptualization of the world. He describes Google Maps as a one-to-one representation of the globe and wonders if Google Maps will bring the end to map making as we have known it. Essentially, I found Maphead to be an engaging, entertaining, interesting, and informative romp through everything map related. Kirby Heybone does a grand job of reading the text.

Interesting, engaging, and laugh out loud funny

Even as someone who isn't that into geography, this was something that kept my attention all the way through. Funny anecdotes, interesting ideas and good pacing.

Also, I want to highlight Mr. Heyborne's narration - it really added to the experience. I usually prefer when a book is read by the author, but I can't imagine anyone doing a better job adding life to the text.

Fun

As a geek and map lover- this was a fun book to read over break. I learned a few new things, but just as importantly got to have the moments of " it is not just me".

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Title: My Friend the Mercenary

Author: James Brabazon

Narrator: James Brabazon

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-13-11

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 114 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

James Brabazon is narrating this story of war, violence, and political intrigue. He wanted a war. And, for his sins, he got one. James Brabazon was an ambitious young war reporter when he entered the chaos of the Liberian Civil War in 2002. Running with the infamous LURD rebels, he survived numerous deadly ambushes, the privations of dysentery and a dramatic hundred-mile escape from Government troops through dense equatorial jungle. He even had a bounty put on his head.

Surrounded largely by child soldiers high on drugs, Brabazon was accompanied by Nick du Toit, a South African mercenary with a dark past. They quickly became best friends. Before long, Nick promised James the scoop of his life: a front seat, beside Simon Mann, in an audacious coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea. And the offer was too good to refuse.

Critic Reviews:

An outstanding memoir about the power of friendship in the morally complex theatre of war. James Brabazon is a fearless reporter and a brutally honest narrator. I couldn't put this book down. (Andy McNab)

Members Reviews:

Gripping

This is a truly fantastic book. I was totally bowled over by the story and couldn't stop listening. There's not much more to say, really, except that I recommend this book very, very highly.

The best book I have aborbed in years

What made the experience of listening to My Friend the Mercenary the most enjoyable?

The best part about this audiobook, in my opinion, is that James Brabazon reads it himself. You feel so much closer to the experience with the author reading it. He is telling his story. I loved that approach. More authors should read their own work for audible.com.

What did you like best about this story?

That a strong relationship forms between a young journalist who never really had a father an older mercenary who has a son but was never really was there for him growing up. James Brabazon and Nick du Toit take the place of the opposite's absent father and son. Nick, the father, the protector, the experienced one. James, the son, the motivator, the curious one. Very strong subtext in this story.

Which scene was your favorite?

All the adventures they experience in the jungles of Liberia. Also when 30 year old Brigadier-General Deku says goodbye to James. "We are ready. And we're prepared." A very powerful scene.

If you could give My Friend the Mercenary a new subtitle, what would it be?

By any means necessary.

Any additional comments?

Looking forward to listening to more book written and read by Mr James Brabazon. Bravo James, this book was phenomenal! Thank you!

Cool

Loved this book. The performance was not my favorite, but good enough. Highly recommend!

Least Enjoyable out of Dozens

Perhaps my expectations were wrong. I wanted a good story and instead got a long newspaper article. It was hard for me to listen until the end but I did. There was absolutely no plot and instead I got a historical report. As a parting shot I didnt believe a lot of the details of the torture scenes.

A must for photojournalists

I hung onto every word, Brabazon's recount of the things he faced in Liberia puts you right beside him and Nick. Highly recommended to anyone in photojournalism or interested in war / conflict reporting.

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Title: Wait Till Next Year

Subtitle: A Memoir

Author: Doris Kearns Goodwin

Narrator: Suzanne Toren

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 1 min

Language: English

Release date: 04-11-11

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 125 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Wait Till Next Yearis the story of a young girl growing up in the suburbs of New York in the 1950s, when owning a single-family home on a tree-lined street meant the realization of dreams, when everyone knew everyone else on the block, and the children gathered in the streets to play from sunup to sundown. The neighborhood was equally divided among Dodger, Giant, and Yankee fans, and the corner stores were the scenes of fierce and affectionate rivalries.

The narrative begins in 1949 at the dawn of a glorious era in baseball, an era that saw one of the three New York teams competing in the World Series every year, and era when the lineups on most teams remained basically intact year after year, allowing fans to extend loyalty and love to their chosen teams, knowing that for the most part, their favorite players would return the following year, exhibiting their familiar strengths, weaknesses, quirks, and habits. Never would there be a better time to be a Brooklyn Dodger fan.

But in 1957 it all came to an abrupt end when the Dodgers (and the Giants) were forcibly uprooted from New York and transplanted to California. Shortly after the Dodgers left, Kearns' mother died, and the family moved from the old neighborhood to an apartment on the other side of town. This move coincided with the move of several other families on the block and with the decline of the corner store as the supermarket began to take over. It was the end of an era and the beginning of another - and for Kearns, the end of childhood.

Critic Reviews:

"Ms. Goodwin has... made familiar events seem fresh again, as if they were happening for the first time only a couple of days ago." (Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times)

"Lively, tender, and... hilarious... [Goodwin's] memoir is uplifting evidence that the American dream still exists - not so much in the content of the dream as in the tireless, daunting dreaming." (Jodi Daynard, The Boston Globe)

"A poignant memoir.. .marvelous... Goodwin shifts gracefully between a child's recollection and a adult's overview." (Peter Delacorte, San Francisco Chronicle Book Review)

Members Reviews:

Reliving my own past

I may be prejudiced, but I absolutely LOVED this book. It reminded me so much of my own childhood. I was born in the same year as the author. Like her, I grew up in a suburb of New York city a huge baseball fan. Her memories of playing in the neighborhood mirror my own. And although we are of different religions and rooted for different teams, it doesn't matter. We still have so much in common that it was like reliving my own past.

The reader was very good, but I really would have preferred that the book be read by the author herself. Somehow I think it would have brought even more to the story. Nonetheless, if you were a child of the 50s, you're going to enjoy this book tremendously.

Easy read!

Loved how the author formulated her book around baseball in the 1950's. I particularly enjoyed how personal she got while describing her relationship with her family. I will definitely be reading more books by this author.

I"ll wear a Brooklyn Madcapoz hat for you...

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

Loved the stories of her family...the baseball stories reminded me why I fell in love with baseball.

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Title: Ahead of the Curve

Subtitle: Two Years at Harvard Business School

Author: Philip Delves Broughton

Narrator: Simon Vance

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-18-11

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 74 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

In the century since its founding, Harvard Business School has become the single most influential institution in global business. Twenty percent of the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are HBS graduates, as are many of our savviest entrepreneurs (e.g., Michael Bloomberg) and canniest felons (e.g., Jeffrey Skilling). The top investment banks and brokerage houses routinely send their brightest young stars to HBS to groom them for future power. To these people and many others, a Harvard MBA is a golden ticket to the Olympian heights of American business.

In 2004 Philip Delves Broughton abandoned a post as Paris bureau chief of the London Daily Telegraph to join 900 other would-be tycoons on HBS's plush campus. Over the next two years, he and his classmates would be inundated with the best - and the rest - of American business culture, which HBS epitomizes. The core of the school's curriculum is the "case" - an analysis of a real business situation, from which the students must, with a professor's guidance, tease lessons. Broughton studied over 500 cases and recounts the most revelatory ones here. He also learned the surprising pleasures of accounting, the allure of "beta", the ingenious chicanery of leveraging, and innumerable other hidden workings of the business world, all of which he limns with a wry clarity reminiscent of Liar's Poker. He also exposes the less savory trappings of business-school culture, from the "booze luge" to the pandemic obsession with PowerPoint to the specter of depression, which stalks too many overburdened students.

With acute and often uproarious candor, he assesses the school's success at teaching the traits it extols as most important in business: leadership, decisiveness, ethical behavior, and work/life balance.

Critic Reviews:

"The audio is valuable as people ponder deeply whether they should go to business school, given the current climate." (Library Journal)

Members Reviews:

Harvard

Interesting story...but to what end? It was written well, but I got to the end and could not figure out what the point was. Lots of Harvard details, some fascinating, others were a slog to get through.

Entertaining view of life at HBS

I have listened to the book twice and enjoyed the author's humor and insight. I was considering attending HBS and wanted to glean some insight and this book provides details about the school, courses and people of HBS that you may not find anywhere else. I recommend it highly.

U better know what u want out of HBS

Great story that resonated with my MBA journey. What u get out of ur investment in thought,effort, and results will weigh heavily on ur particular goals and objectives. In the end, u learn more about urself.

Good book

An excellent listen.. Very well narrated.. A different perspective by the author which I'm sure most of us have but are too afraid to acknowledge since we are busy in the 'Rat race'

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Title: Black Dog of Fate

Subtitle: A Memoir

Author: Peter Balakian

Narrator: Peter Balakian

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 21 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-08-11

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 35 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

The first-born son of his generation, Peter Balakian grew up in a close, extended family, sheltered by 1950s and '60s New Jersey suburbia. He was immersed in an all-American boyhood defined by rock 'n' roll, adolescent pranks, and a passion for the New York Yankees that he shared with his beloved grandmother. But beneath this sunny world lay the dark specter of the trauma his family and ancestors had experienced: the Turkish government's extermination of more than a million Armenians in 1915, including many of Balakian's relatives, in the century's first genocide.

In elegant, moving prose, Black Dog of Fate charts Balakian's growth and personal awakening to the facts of his family's history and the horrifying aftermath of the Turkish government's continued campaign to cover up one of the worst crimes ever committed against humanity. In unearthing the secrets of a family's past and how they affect its present, Black Dog of Fate gives fresh meaning to the story of what it means to be an American.

Critic Reviews:

"A rare work of seasoned introspection, haunting beauty, and high moral seriousness." (Kirkus Reviews)

"Balakian writes with power and poignancy, confronting his past with justified outrage and transforming that outrage into art." (Library Journal)

Members Reviews:

couldn't put it down

this is last time I read an author-narrated book. the reading was infuriatingly bad. but in spite of his horrible & distracting phrasing, the story was so compelling that I read it straight thru. wonderfully written, lovely combination of personal family and graphic historical account of the Armenian experience.

Great book!

If you could sum up Black Dog of Fate in three words, what would they be?

Memoir

History

Shocking

Who was your favorite character and why?

Peter

What about Peter Balakians performance did you like?

Poetic intensity

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

. . . and you thought "Stand By Me" was a good story!

Any additional comments?

Loved it

Author /reader?

What did you love best about Black Dog of Fate?

I could not get past the reader's tedious monotone...if I had not needed to finish this book for a book group, I never would have made it to the end. I wanted to put it down after an hour.

Story everyone should read

It's been years that I had purchased the hard copy of Balakian 's book but unfortunately I've never read it. The audio version helped me to finish it in one week. Very convenient, even though sometimes I had to redo my make up. Thanks Balakian for writing this memoir to keep your grandmother' s and your people story alive.

Biased

What would have made Black Dog of Fate better?

More objective approach and factual claims

Has Black Dog of Fate turned you off from other books in this genre?

No

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The beginning is great. Memories of his childhood and with his grandmother are very fun to hear

Any additional comments?

This could have been a great book if only the author would have been less biased. The story is very sensitive in nature and requires a great deal of talent, which I think the author lacks. The beginning is lots of fun with his childhood memories, but once part one is over, his style changes dramatically.

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Title: Holy Ghosts

Subtitle: Or How a (Not-so) Good Catholic Boy Became a Believer in Things that Go Bump in the Night

Author: Gary Jansen

Narrator: Gary Jansen

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 58 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-22-10

Publisher: Gildan Media, LLC

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 128 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

In this extraordinary true story, the haunting of a Long Island household forces a respected writer and editor to reevaluate the mysteries of life and death as he struggles with the frightening truths of his childhood home and his towns past. Growing up in Rockville Centre, Long Island, Gary Jansen never believed in ghosts. His mothera devoutly Catholic woman with a keen sense for the uncannyclaimed that their family house was haunted. But Jansen never found anything inexplicable in how their doorbell would sometimes ring of its own accord or in the mysterious sounds of footsteps or breaking glass that occasionally would fill their home - or even in his mothers sometimes unnervingly accurate visions of future events and tragedies. Though he once experienced a supernatural encounter in a Prague church as a young man, Jansen grew up into a rationalist, as well as a noted writer and editor.

In 2001 Jansen moved back into the very same house where he had once grown up, to raise a family with his wife. In 2007 he encountered a frightening, full-blown haunting in his home. This was the first episode of a phenomenon that lasted a full year and eventually included unveiling the identities of the spirits who occupied his house, reliving a tragic murder in his hometown, encountering mind-boggling coincidences between local history and episodes in his household; and finallywith the help of Mary Ann Winkowski, the real-life inspiration for TVs Ghost Whispererridding his house of these uninvited visitors.

Holy Ghosts is not only a gripping true-life ghost story, but a wry and touching memoir, as well as a meditation on the relationship between religion and the paranormal, which are often considered at odds, but which the author shows are intimately linked.

Critic Reviews:

Holy Ghosts took me into a completely convincing but very different version of reality from the one we live in. It serves as a forceful and fascinating reminder that we do not see the world that is, but only the part we have chosen to see. There are dangers and wonders in the dark, and Holy Ghosts affirms that they are very real. (Whitley Strieber, author of Communion and The Omega Point)

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