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Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright -- Ernie Harwell, Detroit's Legendary Sportscaster

The name William Earnest "Ernie" Harwell may not be universally known, but for anyone who had anything to do with the city of Detroit over the past 50 years, he was a household name, broadcasting the play-by-play as "the voice of the Detroit Tigers".

Prior to his 4-decade-long career in Detroit, Harwell broadcast for the Brooklyn Dodgers (standing in for Red Barber) from 1948-1949. From '50 to '53, he was the announcer for the New York (baseball) Giants, and from '54 to '59, he worked for the Baltimore Orioles. In 1960, Harwell moved to Detroit and began announcing for the Tigers. Except for a one-year stint with the California Angels (he was brought back to Detroit by popular demand), he stayed with them until 2002.

Harwell's death on May 4th at the age of 92 made national news and unleashed a wave of nostalgia on the part of the legion of listeners he reached over the years with his trademark expressions such as "That one is LONG gone"; "He stood there like the house by the side of the road, and watched it go by" (after a strikeout); and "It's two for the price of one!" (after a double play).

On July 1, 2010, Playaway releases Ernie Harwell's Audio Scrapbook, a one-of-kind, four-hour audio documentary of the legendary sportscaster, featuring hours of reminiscences by Ernie himself; archival interviews with baseball legends Connie Mack, Ted Williams, and Joe Dimaggio; and classic calls from Ernie's earliest days with the Atlanta Crackers to his 42-year career as the "Voice of the Tigers".

For a taste of the Ernie Harwell story, view the online trailer for the Audio Scrapbook.

Ernie Harwell earned a place in the Sportscasters Hall of Fame and lives on in the memories of the many Michigan sports fans he touched over the decades.  Ernie Harwell's Audio Scrapbook is an enduring contribution to sports history and deserves a place in any library's sports collection.

** Visit Playaway at Booth #4077 @ BEA. **

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Posted by David Perrotta, MLIS
Playaway Senior Content Strategist
Twitter: david_perrotta

Philip Pullman: Good Man or Scoundrel?

Philip Pullman's retelling of the Gospels will not be everyone's cup of theological tea (as evidenced by its underwhelming first print run of only 50,000 -- the "His Dark Materials" series has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide -- and its publication in the U.S. by independent press Canongate rather than by Random House). But for inquisitive students of Christianity, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ is a thought-provoking exploration of myth-making and morality.

The book was published in print in the U.S. on April 1 (by Canongate U.S., now a division of independent publisher Grove-Atlantic). The Playaway version launches May 20, simultaneously with other audio formats.

Pullman is not the first fiction writer to imagine an alternate version of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov presented the disciple Matthew as a not-so-reliable reporter of Jesus' time in Jerusalem. And Fyodor Dostoevsky, in The Brothers Karamazov, imagined a Jesus who returned to earth and found himself at odds with the Church.

Pullman's story also fits within a very well-developed body of scholarship on the historical and literary process of Biblical canonization. In Pullman's tale, Jesus' twin brother, Christ, is an ardent admirer of the preacher of Galilee but also a skillful author and editor in his own right.

All of this might be more than a little confusing to a Sunday school class who's only exposure to the Bible has been in the context of religious instruction. But for those students -- young and old, both believers and non-believers -- who are interested in a scholarly approach to religion, Pullman's work has much to offer.

Beyond whatever philosophical points Pullman may be trying to make with his book (a self-described atheist, he has spoken publicly about his desires to de-mystify and undermine Christian beliefs -- statements that have made him an enemy to many practicing Christians), The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ is also a carefully crafted and captivating story.

And the audiobook version is magnificently narrated by the author himself. If you've heard the Random House Audio productions of the "His Dark Materials" books, featuring Pullman and a full cast, you'll know what a talented reader he is. If you haven't heard him before, this engaging three-and-a-half-hour work is a good way to introduce yourself to his skills as a voice actor.

For more of the man himself, take a listen to NPR's recent story about Pullman and his latest work. Among other things, he recounts his discussion with the Archbishop of Canterbury and says he hopes his book will send readers back to the Bible for their own re-examination of the Gospels.

And, if you're interested in critical Bible studies, here are a few Playaway titles to consider as companion listening:

Bart Ehrman: The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot (2008), and, available on Playaway from Recorded Books: Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (2005).

Garry Wills: What Jesus Meant (2007); What Paul Meant (2007)

Mikhail Bulgakov: The Master and Margarita

Fyodor Dostoevsky: The Brothers Karamazov (particularly the section known as "The Grand Inquisitor").

Off to Book Expo America next week. If you'll be attending, come visit Playaway at Booth #4077.

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Posted by David Perrotta, MLIS
Playaway Senior Content Strategist
Twitter: david_perrotta

A "Pleasant" Experience

On May 1, Playaway launched two popular kid's titles from Harper Children's Audio: Skulduggery Pleasant (2007) and, the first of several sequels, Skulduggery Pleasant - Playing with Fire (2008). 

The third and fourth books, Skulduggery Pleasant - The Faceless Ones (2009) and Skulduggery Pleasant - Dark Days (published earlier this year), are coming soon.   A fifth book, Skulduggery Pleasant - Mortal Coil is due in the Fall. 

I don't want to get too deep into the literary merits of author Derek Landy's creation. Aspects of the story are really quite clever.  The title character is a skeleton detective -- not a Sam Spade type who searches for missing bones, but himself a walking, talking, fire-hurling skeleton in a sharp suit who fights the bad guys and stands up for the innocent.  

He also happens to be an ancient death-defying "mage" or wizard with a centuries-long grudge against the evil-doer who robbed him of his family and reduced him to his skeletal state.    

So far, so good.  Some of the other plot elements, however, may sound a little familiar to readers of contemporary young people's fantasy literature:  an evil wizard bent on world domination, a race to find the ancient magical object that will enable him to carry out his nefarious deeds (his name, by the way, is Nefarian Serpine), and a teenage girl named Stephanie, who's mistakenly under the impression that she's an ordinary misfit but discovers that -- get this! -- she's actually part of an exciting magical world she never new existed.  Can Stephanie and Skulduggery thwart the evil Serpine and save the world?  I wouldn't want to spoil it for you.

So perhaps it's not exactly the kind of book that will be regarded as a classic a hundred years from now, but for audiobook fans young and old, none of that really matters.  What does matter is the incredibly entertaining narration performed by the super-talented Rupert Degas. 

I listen to a lot of audiobooks, and it takes quite a bit to get me truly excited about a narrator's performance.  Degas makes the cut.  Take a listen to this short clip, and keep in mind that it's one guy doing all the voices. 

I actually couldn't believe it the first time I listened, but it's all Degas.  His vocal range is incredible -- from 12-year-old Stephanie to sub-baritone Skulduggery and everyone in between.   Say what you will about the umpteenth Harry Potter-esque plot line -- it's well enough written to be highly entertaining, and the Degas' rendition makes it an audiobook experience that should not be missed.  (I also really like the spooky-jazzy incidental music at the end of each chapter -- a nice touch for fun material of this sort.)

For a more grown-up -- and far less light-hearted -- listening experience, give a listen to Degas' rendition of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, produced by Naxos Audiobooks.  Degas is an Englishman by birth, but he has no trouble shifting from the Scottish locale of Skulduggery Pleasant to a completely credible American accent for McCarthy's heart-rending, suspenseful story of a man and a boy struggling to live on in a post-apocalyptic America in which everything has died, save for a few sad and dangerous people. 

McCarthy's book is a meditation on love, loss, the will to live, obligation, ecology, and the essentials of morality and survival.  Degas reads it with a great deal of heart, bringing to life the scared boy and his loving but increasingly desperate father.  His reading might even make you cry.  Not every narrator can do that.

The Naxos version is slightly abridged (about an hour shorter than the full-length version), but Degas' narration is so skillful that it's really worth a listen -- even for folks like me, for whom a post-apocalyptic "downer" isn't ordinarily the first choice in reading material. 

In all, Playaway currently offers eight titles narrated by the talented Mr. Degas.  I wouldn't hesitate to recommend any of them.

And you can also hear him as part of the full-cast reading of The Golden Compass, the first book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.  More on Pullman in an upcoming post.

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Posted by David Perrotta, MLIS
Playaway Senior Content Strategist
Twitter: david_perrotta

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

When I first heard about Going Bovine, I was immediately intrigued, in no small part due to the cover design: a cow standing upright, holding a garden gnome.  It started popping up on recommended and best-of lists for young adults.  Not long after, it won the prestigious Michael L. Printz Award for literary excellence in young adult literature.  The cherry on top is the video on Amazon of author Libba Bray talking about the book while dressed in a cow suit.  Pretty compelling!

The story starts out with a traumatic yet exhilarating catastrophe at Disneyworld’s It’s-A-Small-World ride, which sets the tone and the pace for Cameron’s story.  Now a sharp albeit unmotivated 16-year-old, Cameron is diagnosed with mad cow disease.  Sounds like a downer, but even in the midst of the serious subject matter, Bray is fiercely witty and draws some interesting though unsubtle parallels to Don Quixote.  Narrator Erik Davies does an excellent job with the sardonic tone often used to portray the intelligent disenchanted teen.  Though written for a young audience, the story and the writing make Going Bovine captivating for an adult audience as well.

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Posted by Caroline Duke, Playaway Collection Development Manager