Dave Barry is funny, but Dick Hill's reading is overly enthusiastic. Hill reads clearly in a resonant voice, but often too loudly and with overdone expression. It isn't hard to miss a Dave Barry joke, so some of the humor wears thin as Hill rattles off the lines in a staccato fashion. Most of the humor is recursive, that is, returning to the same topics over and over again. While Barry's material may be difficult to imbue with a sense of surprise or tension, Hill's reading is too obvious. R.F. 2004 Audie Award Finalist (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine
Of course, there’s material about women, income taxes, and a running debate with North Dakota. The formula (“seriously, folks”) may be running a bit threadbare, but any Federal Statute or Law of Nature notwithstanding, he’s still funny. If you don’t think so, you are a Bad Person. Also included: Barry’s two somber and acutely written pieces on the events of 9/11. Boogers remain all his, though(10 line drawings)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2003
Duration: 6 hrs
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Narrator Lisa Flanagan has a wonderful vocal personality--lithe with a broad palette of pitch patterns and a range of believable emotional tones. Her friendly voice works well with this lighthearted overview of how dramatically the Internet has changed the world in the past 30 years. Though being digitally connected has improved life in many ways, the author says we've lost many of the interpersonal experiences that used to sustain us. We have less privacy, don't need all those reference books, and have largely forgotten how to have vocal conversations with other people. The audiobook is entertaining nostalgia for anyone who feels incompetent navigating the World Wide Web, and a soothing reminder that those of us who miss the simplicity of the pre-Internet era are not alone.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
Duration: 5 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780593418055
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Craig Brown tickled our ear with 99 GLIMPSES OF PRINCESS MARGARET, a brisk, irreverent assembly of tiny chapters that ran a satisfactory 12+ hours. For the Beatles, he adds 51 more glimpses and another eight hours, with a proportionally diluted effect. Brown himself, Kate Robbins, and Mark McGann share the narration, which is interesting, insightful, well performed, and packed with some new and a lot of old information. All of it is shaped by Brown's propensity for "easing sense into nonsense." The self-mocking Beatles are harder to deflate than a pretentious princess, but Brown's accounts of touring Beatles sites in Liverpool and his histories of Beatles contemporaries swept up--and aside--by their spectacular rise will amaze and beguile listeners.
Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
Duration: 20 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781250770127
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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