According to my Apple Watch this book is exactly what my Mom assured me it would be, a, “heart pounding thriller to the last page.” I realize I am not acclimated to reading action packed books but I literally scrubbed my walls while listening to this book because I could not sit still. This audiobook is not safe for listening to while operating heavy machinery.
President Bill Clinton and bestselling novelist James Patterson have written a spellbinding thriller, The President is Missing.
As the novel opens, a threat looms. Enemies are planning an attack of unprecedented scale on America. Uncertainty and fear grip Washington. There are whispers of cyberterror and espionage and a traitor in the cabinet. The President himself becomes a suspect, and then goes missing…
Set in real time, over the course of three days, The President Is Missing is one of the most dramatic thrillers in decades. And it could all really happen. The President Is Missing is Bill Clinton and James Patterson’s totally authentic and spellbinding thriller. Goodreads.
The audiobook version features the narration of Dennis Quaid, January LaVoy, Peter Ganim, Jeremy Davidson and Mozhan Marno. The majority of the book is read by Dennis Quaid. While he has an occasional unevenness to his delivery I genuinely enjoyed his narration of the story. It certainly helps that you could easily picture Dennis Quaid as President Duncan.
Perhaps that is because President Duncan is the type of President only fiction and Hollywood can bring us. President Jonathan Duncan was a Marine who was captured during a mission in the Middle East but never broke under torture. He has survived the loss of his adored wife to cancer while in office and remains a loving father to their daughter, Lily. Just to pile on sympathy (and an additional pressure facet), the President has a chronic blood condition which has flared and has to be constantly monitored by physicians. On top of everything else, the President is being investigated by the Speaker of the House for his dealings with terrorists and the word “impeachment” is being thrown around.
All of that is background for the stunning news that there is an imminent threat to the safety and security of the entire nation. President Duncan has received word that a cyber attack is coming that will return the United States to the Dark Ages. The question is, who is attacking? He should be able to turn to his well-stocked cadre of government officials but there is only one thing he knows for certain: there is a traitor in his inner circle.
I know that nothing I read in the book actually happened. Even though hour after hour I could not figure out how they would undo the damaging cyber attack or work around the need for secrecy, I thought that the resolution of the story would bring me an alleviation from the adrenaline rush this book provides. Instead, the story has stayed with me and I will admit to eyeballing books on preserving food and figuring out how much water I would need to stockpile for the end of modern times.
This espionage story has caught the attention of many readers who wonder, “How much did President Clinton really contribute to the book?” I don’t actually care what percentage belongs to each author but it was clear to me that certain passages can only come from a President. The insight into the office and the personal perspective of President Duncan just felt too accurate to not come from President Clinton. Not to mention that large portions of President Duncan’s impeachment troubles remind me of Benghazi. There is an excellent article about this subject from The Guardian if you are curious. Regardless of individual effort, this heart pounding thriller was non-stop action from the first page to the last!
Tell me, please!
Have you ever read a book that left you exhausted from the action?
I tried listening to a LOT of audiobooks over the past few weeks. I am burned out with a specific style and so I turned to a completely new genre. Well, a new audiobook book genre anyway. I borrowed The Princess, The Scoundrel and the Farm Boy by Alexandra Bracken from my local library. Admittedly, I briefly considered not listening to it when the introduction marked the book as a re-telling of A New Hope but this whole mood reading can only go on for so long. Sometimes you just have to suck it up and finish a book! I am so glad that I persevered because this is an excellent audiobook.
Clay Jannon needs a job. The Great Recession has caused his bagel company to rebrand and subsequently fold. When Clay sees an opening at the mysterious Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore he applies. Clay’s only goal is to avoid living in a tent and, even though this job will not develop any connections or skills for future jobs, it will keep him in rent money. That is no small feat for someone living in San Fransisco.
In 2013 Anton Yelchin stared as Odd Thomas in the film of the same name. I really enjoyed the movie and, like most great movies, I was unsurprised to find out that it was based on a book. I quickly added it to my Goodreads TBR shelf and forgot about it. But, since I am making a concerted effort to systematically work through my physical and electronic TBR, I borrowed the audiobook from my local library. Truthfully, I had forgotten what a wonderful writer Dean Koontz is and I quickly lost myself in Pico Mundo with Odd Thomas and all his ghosts.
And I loved it. Many have labelled this a coming of age story and, while that is accurate, it is also a story of metamorphosis. That enormous moment in time between being a child and becoming an adult when you suddenly understand that your parents are people (not simply your parents) and there is far more grey in the world than there is black and white.
I have never read Jenny Lawson’s blog, I didn’t follow her on Twitter and, honestly, she wasn’t on my radar at all. But, someone highlighted her book on WWW Wednesday and I dutifully added it to my to-be-read pile. Mostly, I fell in love with the hilarious taxidermy raccoon (Rory) on the cover of the book. When the audiobook caught my eye I downloaded it simply because I needed something to listen to during my commute and it was immediately available. All of these cosmic connections resulted in my listening to and falling deeply in love with Jenny Lawson. (I hereby promise I will not stalk you Jenny, tell Victor not to worry).
In Today I Will Be Different Eleanor Flood, her famous husband, Joe, and her son Timby live in Seattle. Eleanor and Joe are New Yorkers and atheists. While Joe has found grand success as a sought-after hand surgeon in Seattle, Eleanor has been struggling to fit into their community and especially with the parents at Timby’s school. She begins the morning by setting small obtainable goals that she feels will make today different. She makes a promise to herself to shower and get dressed, to take her son Timby to school and then attend her poetry lesson, and to initiate sex with her husband. But before she can quietly change her day in these small ways her son Timby plays sick. That small change in her plans, unintended by Eleanor, alters the course of her life dramatically.
I was thrilled that Carrie spent a great deal of time in her book addressing her lifelong relationship with her silver screen alter ego. Of course, there were some wonderful stories about her childhood and adolescence, her experience auditioning for Star Wars, and the long hidden affair she had with Harrison Ford. But her beautiful words about her ever-changing perception of herself and how being identified interchangeably with Leia affected her were truly life changing for me. Her story helped me redefine how to reconcile self-identification with the public’s perception of who they think you are.
He has wonderful stories of growing up in New York City and of his mother’s and father’s careers on Broadway. Truthfully, I didn’t realize how incredibly varied his talent was until I heard about his life. The sheer amount of work he put into honing his craft is impressive but learning that he attended the prestigious Bronx School of Science added an additional, and alluring, facet to the actor. Since he frequently plays neurotic or anxious individuals who are nerdy it is nice to know that he connects with these characters on a personal level.
As a materials profession Miodownik is well versed in the subject and understands how to communicate the information in a consumable manner. His writing style is beautiful but easy to comprehend. And, I appreciated that the explanations of the chemical makeup was understandable even when it veered into the anatomical explanation of materials. More importantly, Miodownik clearly loves materials and enthusiastically shares their uniqueness.