Book 009 - Doctor De Soto
by William Steig
Publisher
Weston Woods Studios, a subsidiary of SCHOLASTIC Inc
OverDrive Video
File size: 53993 KB
Number of parts: 1
Duration: 10 minutes
Release date: Apr 14, 2006
OverDrive (Because it is available as an eBook and there are a few audio versions plus the video -- I'm giving you the link to the search results, which include a few other books besides William Steig's delightful Doctor De Soto)
Audible (Again, the book -story- is available as a stand-alone book or as part of a collection, so once again, I am giving you the search results page. William Steig wrote other books besides Doctor De Soto, including Shrek, and these also appear on the search results page.)
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ICFTL 001 -- At War With The Army
Starring Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin
(It Came From the Library)
I was looking through the listings of movies available through our library's OverDrive service -- and the selection, in the past, has been generally rather dismal. BUT ... then this movie popped up as available. And I paid a little more attention to the list of movies and have plopped a bunch into my "wish list" for when I am in the mood for a movie rather than a book. :D
This movie is typical "B Movie" (or maybe a C Movie, if I am honest) stuff. It is typical Jerry Lewis / Dean Martin piffle. Jerry is the sap and Dean is the bully / jerk. Yet ... this movie sits in a soft spot for me. And it is almost silly to explain how that happens to be the case.
I'm not even sure how many years ago it was but probably 20 or more ... I had promised my brother I would help him wrap Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve when he got home from work. As the maître d' of an Atlantic City casino award-winning steak house, that made it late, late when he got home. I was still busy wrapping my own gifts, sitting on the floor with my back against the chair, the cushion off the ottoman and over to the side, the TV on and a pile of packages to wrap using the ottoman as a table, rolls of paper and a clutter of tape, ribbons and bows strewn all around me. The TV was playing a really stupid movie but since I would have to climb out from under all this stuff to get at the TV to change the channel (yep, BEFORE wireless remotes) -- I let the movie play on.
It was At War With The Army and it had already made an impression on me -- with a scene early in the movie where Jerry is working in the mess hall serving up slop of some sort -- apparently a bean dish of some sort because he sings a song that says, "Oh the Navy gets the gravy but the Army gets the beans ..."
I got the call from my brother about half an hour from the end of the movie. So, I missed the end. Over the next few years I kept an eye on the TV listings booklet that came in the Sunday paper to find the movie again so I could catch the end. It took quite a while but I did finally get a chance to watch the entire movie.
And, when I saw it was available from the OverDrive streaming video library, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to see it one more time. Silly as it is, it is a good diversion for about an hour and a half (without those pesky commercials that made it 2 hours long on Christmas Eve so long ago ...)
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(1)
Narrated by: Gabrielle Kruger
Book 010 - The Eyre Affair
Thursday Next Series, Book 1
by Jasper Fforde
(1)
Narrator: Susan Duerden
Awards - Alex Award & American Library Association
Title Information-
Publisher - Books on Tape
OverDrive MP3 Audiobook
File size: 344898 KB
Number of parts: 10
Duration: 12 hours, 14 minutes
ISBN: 9781415966655
Release date: Dec 29, 2009
(2)
Narrated by: Gabrielle Kruger
Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
Series: Thursday Next Novels, Book 1
Unabridged Audiobook
Release Date:03-11-13
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
(3)
Narrator: Elizabeth Sastre
Narrator: Elizabeth Sastre
Date: 01-JAN-2002 (added to Audible site)
Provider: HighBridge Audio
Provider: HighBridge Audio
OY! When I tried to track down the info on this book, I was startled to discover that there are actually 3 recordings of it and all three are unabridged versions. The version I have is the one recorded by Elizabeth Sastre, but is no longer available from Audible. I have in a "hold" request for the Susan Duerden version from the OverDrive service of my local public library. I listened to the sample of it, just to make sure it isn't a renaming of the narrator (something I suspect has occurred on a couple of other books, but I am not sure). And the reading voice is definitely different. The third narrator is also definitely someone else -- as a few reviewers at Audible claim, she speaks way too fast. And you can tell, there is a 3 hour difference in the length of the recording. I was not impressed with the sample of that recording at Audible at all. 
(Um, I checked my Elizabeth Sastre recording from Audible and it totals 9 hours and 19 minutes ... hmmm ...)
(Um, I checked my Elizabeth Sastre recording from Audible and it totals 9 hours and 19 minutes ... hmmm ...)
I decided to make the Thursday Next and Nursery Crime novels my first "series" for the year. It really wasn't that long ago that I had listened to them all -- but for some reason, I was in the mood on the 3rd. **grin**
My first introduction to the series was when "This Is Audible" did a short interview with the author when the third book of the series came out and Thursday had moved into the Bookworld, and lived and worked there. I thought "what a ludicrous idea!" And thought no more about it.
But then hubby got me a copy of "Lost in a Good Book" (book 2 of the series) and I eventually listened to the cds and decided I liked this series after all. I went on to book 3 before going back to the first book -- I'd never read Jane Eyre (still haven't read it, nor listened to it) and felt I would probably not like this book.
**sigh** Oh the silly things we think!
You don't need to know or like Jane Eyre to enjoy this book. Trust me on that.
This book is so many things that it is hard to describe ...
This book is so many things that it is hard to describe ...
Alternative History
Spec. Fic.
Fantasy
Sci-Fi
Mystery
and just plain FUN!
And, the author demonstrates an understanding of the world and has a sly way of handling irony and satire ...
I was going to try to quote a line but can't find it to get it right but I will say this about it -- it refers to the huge multi-national corporation, Goliath, (which had rebuilt the UK after WWII) as less of a "benevolent uncle" and as something more "despotic" these days -- which, for the book is the mid-1980s.
My usual way of dealing with series of books is to start with any book in the series except the first one, unless the book description or reader reviews indicate that I would miss out on important information necessary to understand or follow later books in the series. However, even though I did not start with the first book when I first got into the series, it is well enough written to recommend that starting here would be a good idea but not necessary to understanding later books in the series. Just make sure you come back to it at some point.
One quick thought, you will probably find what appears to be "continuity errors" throughout the series. They aren't. I won't explain. I'm fairly intelligent, even above average (or used to be), but it took me a while to figure out that there really are no continuity errors in the series ...
I recommend this book in audio IF you can get the Elizabeth Sastre version. Once I listen to the Susan Duerden version, I'll let you know what I think of that.
OverDrive (both the Susan Duerden and Elizabeth Sastre versions are available as audio versions of the book through OverDrive, so once again, I'm giving you the link to the search results for The Eyre Affair -- find out if a library near you offers this book by clicking here)
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