The Measure > recordedbookreview.com

There should be and will be a measure of a good writer, which is the number of words it takes for the reader to be INSIDE the story. Up, up and away. Peter Robinson: 10. Kristin Hannah/Hannah Kristin: 25. Ernest Hemingway: 4.

19 Years of Reviews

Incongruous, unlovable, post-Vietnam: a weatherman and a reporter make the Minnesota TV newsroom hummm. Dixie Quinn locks into the weather and doesn't let go. Rick Beanblossom, burn-victim, works behind the scenes, behind his mask. Their curious, uneven characterizations are ambushed midway by a grim, hopeless plot. Quotes: "Y'all take care now" (The weatherman's lastThe Weatherman by Stephen Thayer read by George Guidall

Sharpen your pencils, open your looseleaf, sit up, take notes. This is an impressive, intelligent, well researched white-paper-thriller about silly, soppy, environmental theories and the well-funded, well publicized, well-established bureaucracies which profit by circulating them. 'State of Fear' is the coinage of a 'Mental Ecologist' whose hysterical critique of a toxicState of Fear by Michael Crichton read by George Wilson

Hitachi's beautifully directed High Definition video series called True Stories features a segment on "Coal's Comeback". A bunch of old em·phy·se·mic grandpas are fishing, muttering into the wind, when the voice of Bruce No of Hitachi America announces that Supercritical Technology is the new generation of Coal, the cleanSister Mine by Tawni O'Dell read by Renee Raudman

A catholic tailor used his life savings to go to the Vatican. When he returned his parish gathered to find out what he had seen. "What kind of a fellow is the Pope?" they asked him. "44 Medium," he said. This is the kind of obsession Buffet is lookingWarren Buffet's Management Secrets by Mary Buffett & David Clark. Performed by Mary Buffett.

At St. Alban's Church there is a stained glass window picturing a Roman soldier with a halo dressed as a Priest. The Roman soldier was Alban. When the Priest who converted him was sentenced to death, Alban switched clothes with him and died in his place. A soldier disguised as aAll Mortal Flesh by Julia Spencer-Fleming read by Suzanne Toren

Venice is an old small town of old small sins. The Venice, that is, of Commissario Guido Brunetti, who may want no more of life than to read Xenophon and wait for his wife to come home from the Rialto with soft shell crabs. It is a Venice ofFriends in High Places by Donna Leon::Anna Fields

Although less terrible than usual, Brick can't do funny. And this book can be funny. The ram rod straight CIA trainer; the queer, ruthless, demented Director of Operations; the stubborn, nerdish, accidentally lucky pseudo-operative determined to avenge his murdered girlfriend..... Then of course he bumps into a woman who The Amateur: A Novel of Revenge by Robert Littell read by Scott Brick

Lola is a puckish mostly happy 84 year old ex-motel keeper who works at a charity shop In Claire Australia .. She is much loved by her granddaughters whom she has mothered and marshalled like a general, and who drop in to complain about their husband their children and eachLola's Secret by Monica McInerney read by Catherine Milte

Ex-police chief and widow returns to her home town to help her daughter recover from a divorce and gets messily involved in a murder. Mildly uninteresting.The Fine Art of Murder by Emily Barnes read by Carrington MacDuffie

"Don't make any major changes in the first year" ... they say at AA. Matt Scudder has five or six weeks not to decide what he's going to do about Jan, a girl he sees Saturday night and Sunday morning ... "Some people say not to make any major changes forA Drop of the Hard Stuff by Lawrence Block read by Tom Stechschulte

Chris Faulkener has a new job and a new friend, and comes home to a beautiful mechanic named Carla, who is his wife. He doesn't believe in violence, but he works for a conflict investment firm, which studies, tracks and finances the small wars of the world.Market Forces by Richard K. Morgan read by Simon Vance

For those who do not like the Judge Knott series, Maron has penned this sweet perfectly turned out book about an heiress, an illustrator, granddaughter of a legendary children’s book publisher. Meek, sensitive, submissive as both wife and publishing executive, Amy Steadman finds herself alone, driving to theLast Days of Summer by Margaret Maron read by Kate Forbes

Even little old Canadian villages have murders, and artists. Jane Neal lived and painted in a big house and kept both her canvases and her home private. Except for the kitchen. To it she invited her circle of friends and fellow-artists, poor and English speaking. TheyStill Life by Louise Penny read by Ralph Cosham

He still thought wistfully of what he might have become... a Carrie Hawes, or a Paul or a Richard, but more than any of those, the name he most cherished -- and he had never revealed this to a soul -- was Lefty, Lefty Hawes. Was there a criminal anywhere in the worldLet's Hear It For the Deaf Man by Ed McBain read by Jonathan Marosz

"Your cigar fell down. You told me how good it was and how all the women liked your big cigar. We hardly started smoking and your cigar fell down." It is Havana radio. The whores are called hinateras, jockeys, to describe the way a girl might ride a pig.Havana Bay by Martin Cruz Smith read by Frank Muller