August 9, 2007
Alan Bennett – Triple Bill
Alan Bennett – Triple Bill is an audiobook containing three classic Alan Bennett adaptations, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and released for the first time.
A Visit from Miss Prothero
Since Mr Dodsworth retired, he has had all the time in the world. Then he has a visitor from his old firm – Miss Prothero, who is eager to tell him all the news…
Say Something Happened
A naive, inexperienced social worker calls on an elderly couple – but does she need more help than they do?
Two in Torquay
A middle-aged man and a middle-aged woman engage in polite conversation in a hotel on the Cornish Riviera. But neither is quite who they appear to be. Who is deceiving whom?
Amusing, ironic and affectionate, these three adaptations feature Hugh Lloyd, Patricia Routledge, Judi Dench, Thora Hird, Brian Wilde, Imelda Staunton and Alan Bennett himself.
January 22, 2007
Assassination Vacation Audio Book
Assassination Vacation is an audio book by Sarah Vowell. It’s a seven hours abridged audio book published by Simon & Schuster.
Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious conundrums of American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor. With Assassination Vacation, she takes us on a road trip like no other–a journey to the pit stops of American political murder and through the myriad ways they have been used for fun and profit, for political and cultural advantage.
From Buffalo to Alaska, Washington to the Dry Tortugas, Vowell visits locations immortalized and influenced by the spilling of politically important blood, reporting as she goes with her trademark blend of wisecracking humor, remarkable honesty, and thought-provoking criticism. We learn about the jinx that was Robert Todd Lincoln (present at the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley) and witness the politicking that went into the making of the Lincoln Memorial.
The resulting narrative is much more than an entertaining and informative travelogue–it is the disturbing and fascinating story of how American death has been manipulated by popular culture, including literature, architecture, sculpture, and–the author’s favorite–historical tourism.
Though the themes of loss and violence are explored and we make detours to see how the Republican Party became the Republican Party, there are lighter diversions into the lives of the three presidents and their assassins, including mummies, show tunes, mean-spirited totem poles, and a nineteenth-century biblical sex cult.
IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE:
Conan O’Brien Robert Todd Lincoln
Eric Bogosian John Wilkes Booth
Stephen King President Abraham Lincoln
Dave Eggers Mike Ryan
Catherine Keener Gretchen Worden
Jon Stewart President James A. Garfield
Tony Kushner John Humphrey Noyes
Brad Bird Charles Guiteau & Emma Goldman
Daniel Handler President William McKinley
Greg Giraldo President Theodore Roosevelt
David Rakoff Leon Czolgosz
About the Author:
Sarah Vowell is a contributing editor for public radio’s This American Life and has written for Time, Esquire, GQ, Spin, Salon, McSweeneys, The Village Voice, and the Los Angeles Times. She is the author of Radio On, Take the Cannoli, and The Partly Cloudy Patriot. She lives in New York City.