Killing Pablo –
Mark Bowden
Reviewed by Phillip Lopez
Company Driver
Overnite Transportation
Listening Time: 6 hours
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Retail: $25
Genre: Nonfiction
Plot:
This is the story of the rise and fall of the monstrous drug cartel in Medellin, Colombia, its leader Pablo Escobar and of one of the bloodiest times in that country’s history. It is about the power of money, the rich and corrupt Colombian landowners. It’s also about the general who tracked down the most notorious drug kingpin in Colombian history, a man still considered a folk hero by many of the country’s poor.
What was your favorite moment/scene in the book?
The killing of Pablo Escobar and the continued pressure of the United States to deal with the corruption and cartels in Columbia.
Which character was your favorite? Why?
Pablo Escobar.It was gripping to listen to his cunning and his rise from a poor peasant almost to the top ranks of the greedy landowners and leaders of Colombia.
Did the book have a message or a theme that stood out to you?
I felt it had a message that if you have enough money, you can do what you like, legal or illegal, but eventually you will pay the price.
What did you like about the book? Dislike?
I liked the facts about the corruption of the Colombian nation. I disliked how others got away with all the corruption, and the United States knowing this fact and probably not doing enough to curb the problem.
Would you recommend?
Yes, because I found it very interesting how money and corruption had its impact on the poor working class or peasants in Colombia while the rich landowners thrived because of their money and corruption in the Colombian government.
Narrator’s style:
I feel he read well with excellent facts of all the corruption of one nation.
How would you grade the book?
A+
Not Even for Love –
Sandra Brown
Reviewed by Barbara Watson
Company Driver
Tyson
Listening Time: 5 hours
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Retail: $26
Genre: Romance
Plot:
Jordan Hadlock moved from America to Lucerne, Switzerland, and runs a bookstore. While working there, she meets Helmut Eckherdt, a very wealthy businessman. She has been seeing him for about a year when Reeves Grant, a photojournalist, appears there to do an article on Helmut. Then every time the three of them get together for a photo shoot, something comes up forcing Helmut to have to leave to take care of his business, leaving Jordan and Reeves together. Things start happening between them. But will she leave Helmut, the very wealthy businessman, for Reeves, the globe-hopping photojournalist?
What was your favorite moment/scene in the book?
When they were on the mountainside having a picnic.
Which character was your favorite? Why?
Jordan. She did what a lot of us would like to do – move a world away and start over.
What did you like about the book? Dislike?
I liked the story. I disliked it having too much sex in it.
Would you recommend?
It depends; some people would be offended by the sex.
Narrator’s style:
Karen Ziemba is the narrator. I’ve listened to several books that she has read. She does a good job. The tone of her voice changes with the story. That makes for good listening.
How would you grade the book?
C
Notables
Drivers, here is your chance to review the latest audiobooks. Tell our readers what you like or dislike about the plot and characters, and why you would recommend it to other drivers. Below is one of the audiobooks available in the Truckers News audiobook library. Contact Kristin Walters at (800) 633-5953, ext. 1204, or via e-mail at [email protected] to reserve an audiobook. It will be sent to you free of charge for your review. Audiobooks are available on a first-call, first-served basis.
Sacred Time –
by Ursula Hegi
In December 1953 Anthony Amadeo’s world is nested in his Bronx neighborhood, his parents’ Studebaker, the Paradise Theater, Yankee Stadium – and in his imagination, where he longs for a stencil kit to decorate the windows like all the other kids on his street. Instead, he gets a very different present: his uncle Malcolm’s family.
Malcolm is in jail for stealing – once again – from his latest new job, and Anthony’s aunt and twin cousins settle into the Amadeo’s fifth floor walk-up. Sharing a room with girls is excruciating for Anthony, despite his affection for the twins. But the real change in Anthony’s life comes one evening when he causes the unthinkable to happen, changing each family member’s life forever.
Evoking all the plenty and optimism of postwar America, Sacred Time spans three generations, taking us from the Bronx of the 1950s to contemporary Brooklyn. Hegi reveals how the transforming power of a singular event can reverberate through a family for generations.
9 hours
Retail: $39.95
Simon & Schuster Audio
