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The audiobook category is expanding every day, and we certainly cant listen to everything.
I wouldnt even really call this narration.
Its more like a full-on performance.
Some line readings I particularly appreciated include: Can Rosie ODonnellevensing?
said by Porter about auditions for a revival ofGreasestarring the former TV host.
Put your 50-year-old fuckingpantson, he tells himself as motivation.
Porter is clearly a tough customer, and following his own path brought many ups and downs.
But theres a lot to glean here about how important it is to trust your instincts.
We were aFalcon CrestandDallasfamily, not aCagney and Laceyone.
But once I started, I couldnt stop.
Thats part of the fun of a celebrity memoir when it justgoes therewith no filter and pretension.
And Gless is a brassy dame.
(One chapter here is called Americas Sweetheart: Not Me.)
She endows every alcohol escapade and every Hollywood anecdote with so muchemotion.
That doesnt happen enough at Hollywood get-togethers these days.
She owns a bookstore calledParnassusin Nashville.
Shes friendly with Tom Hanks (who read the audio of her last book,The Dutch House).
Theres something so dreamy, kind, and soothing about her voice.
Reading it is special enough.
Listening to Patchett read it is magic.
(I sobbed.)
You dont get the milieu of contemporary Paris in a lot in thrillers these days.
What I most enjoyed here wasPottersnarration.
Her British accent adds even more sophistication to this creepy, insular ballet world.
Theyre both amalgams of memoir and self-help.
McConaughey speaks in terms of red lights and green lights guiding him through life.
Smith uses buildings as a metaphor.
An opportunity is just another brick waiting to be laid.
But Smith got his hooks into me once he started singing from the musicalPurlie.
The way he describes his calculations to become the biggest movie star in the world are fascinating, too.
Its another thing to hear Ivory narrate his exploits so un-self-consciously.
Hes just the right combo of goofy dad jokes and comforting.
I may start alternating with this strange and short audiobook.
Pera, a boyish comedian, simulates a palliative 15 minutes in the bathroom.
Its somehow funny, inspiring, helpful, and true.
You could say Tampa, Tampa, but its not the same.
I dont think Ive gotten better advice all month.
Its possible that he seemed younger to me because I doubled the speed of his audiobook.
Still, talking for 15 hours is a lot for anyone, let alone a 95-year-old.
Porter, for example, reenacts acceptance speeches from the Tonys and the Emmys.
I find it a little canned.
Brooks takes things a step further and re-creates comedy schtick, songs fromThe Producers, full scenes fromBlazing Saddles.
Could I have done without some of them?
But hes Mel Brooks, hes 95, and Id completely forgotten about Daphne Zuniga and the 1987 movieSpaceballs.
