Briar Patch Books

Category: Audio Books

  • Heroes and myths

    Paul O’Connor, who’s putting his summer break from teaching aspiring journalists to good use, reviews a book about the Doolittle Raiders, who struck back against the Japanese just months after Pearl Harbor. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor TARGET TOKYO: JIMMY DOOLITTLE AND THE RAID THAT AVENGED PEARL HARBOR. By James M. Scott. Read by L.J.…

  • History is what we make it

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson I approached this book with hope but also some trepidation, having loved The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society so much that I read it in print AND listened to it as an audio book. Annie Barrows co-wrote that wonderful book with her aunt, Mary Ann Shaffer. As its…

  • Who will be the next prey?

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson. GATHERING PREY. By John Sandford. Read by Richard Ferrone. Penguin Audio. 9 CDs, 11 hours. $40. Also available in hardcover from G. P. Putnam’s Sons. When a novelist has a long-running successful series, as John Sandford certainly does with his ‘Prey” thrillers starring Lucas Davenport, fans know what to expect.…

  • Great achievement, great story

    Paul O’Connor takes a look at a new book from a master storyteller about the brothers whose genius transformed the world in 1903. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor THE WRIGHT BROTHERS. By David McCullough. Audible.com. Read by the author. 10 hours, 2 minutes. $17. Also available in hardback from Simon & Schuster. 336 pages. $30.…

  • The real Reagan

    Paul O’Connor has tackled an exhaustive (and exhausting?)  but worthwhile new biography of Ronald Reagan. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor  REAGAN: THE LIFE. By H.W. Brands. Penguin Random House Audio. Read by Stephen Hoye. 32 hours. $60. Also available in hardcover from Doubleday. 737 pages. $60. My mother really liked Ronald Reagan. She considered him…

  • Just in time for the movie

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson I’m hearing good things about the new movie version of Far From the Madding Crowd, and I hope to see it sometime. But before seeing a movie adaptation of a classic novel, I wanted to read the novel. Despite having been an English major, I’d never read this book. Fortunately,…

  • The real dangers on campus

    Paul O’Connor is a father. He’s a veteran journalist. And he teaches college students. He has considerable insight into this book, and he says that every parent should read it. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor MISSOULA: RAPE AND THE JUSTICE SYSTEM IN A COLLEGE TOWN. By Jon Krakauer. Read by Mozhan Marno and Scott Brick.…

  • A different view of Bunker Hill

    About  a year ago, Paul O’Connor acquired an audio version of a history of Bunker Hill and the origins of the American Revolution, and then promptly forgot it. Recently he found the book, began to listen – and found there was a lot to learn about that history. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor BUNKER HILL:…

  • Mixed results

    By Linda C. Brinson I didn’t read Sara Gruen’s 2006 novel Water for Elephants, but I heard high praise for it from a number of people. Back then, I was editing and writing for a newspaper’s weekly book-review page, and I rarely had the luxury of reading a book that someone else was going to…

  • A liberal arts education, plus survival skills

    Paul O’Connor finds that frequent digressions make this book all the more rewarding. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor NATURAL BORN HEROES: HOW A DARING BAND OF MISFITS MASTERED THE LOST SECRETS OF STRENGTH AND ENDURANCE. By Christopher McDougall. Random House Audio. 16 hours. $45. Read by Nicholas Guy Smith. Also available in hardcover from Knopf.…