Tag: Holter Graham

I’m a few weeks behind on this, but that “To Write About” stack is still calling. Time for me to do a few more of these—emphasizing pithiness, not thoroughness.

Rabbit Cake

by Annie Hartnett, read by Katie Schorr

DETAILS:
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Publication Date: March 7, 2017
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 7 hrs., 7 min. 
Read Date: March 9-13, 2026

This is told from the point-of-view of a very bright 10-12 year-old girl (named Elvis) grieving the recent death of her mother. She has an older sister who is having some pretty severe mental health challenges (likely inherited from the mother)—and it’s unclear about Elvis’s mental health, too.

This covers roughly a year in the life of the family—dad and the two daughters trying to deal with it (our protagonist has an internal calendar in her head for when she’ll be done grieving). There’s some mild comedy, some strong emotional moments–all learned.

I think I came into it expecting something different than what it was. I thought it was…fine? A little better than fine—I enjoyed it, and assume many people will click with it better than me.

The Cyclist

by Tim Sullivan, read by John Heffernan

DETAILS:
Series: The DS Cross Mysteries, #2
Publisher: W. F. Howes Ltd
Publication Date: November 4, 2021
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 7 hrs., 26 min.
Read Date: March 13-16, 2026

I think I read this too close to the previous one—it seemed to hit a lot of the same notes for the same reason. I get that we’re not going to see a lot of growth in DS Cross. That’s just not him. But it feels like the characters around him should be learning from their time with him—and how does his father not know how to introduce changes to him at this point in life?

The mystery felt a little more convoluted than complex—but the solution was pretty satisfying (although I was faster by a few chapters than our DS), as was the reveal.

Wholly satisfying and entertaining—just not quite what I was expecting. I’m hoping with a little more distance that the third mystery won’t be overshadowed by The Dentist the way this was.

Blind Date with a Werewolf

by Patricia Briggs, read by Holter Graham

DETAILS:
Series: Alpha and Omega
Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Publication Date: October 21, 2025
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 8 hrs., 5 min. 
Read Date: March 17-18, 2026

I’ve read one (maybe two) of these stories in various anthologies before—they’re all fine. Asil is a fun character to read, but I don’t know that he’s enough to sustain my attention for that long. Well, maybe if there was a novel-length plot—but this series of stories gets pretty redundant quickly. I think the gimmick turned me off a bit, too.

The characters that Asil interacts with are amusing enough, I suppose. Asil seems better as a supporting/secondary character. There’s some nice character growth for him, and I’m curious to see what that looks like in Briggs’ future works.

The Spellshop

by Sarah Beth Durst, read by Caitlin Davies

DETAILS:
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Publication Date: July 9, 2024
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 12 hrs., 29 min. 
Read Date: March 18, 2026

You’ve got a librarian—with a sentient talking fern—who is chased from the Capitol city during a coup. She returns to the home her parents abandoned when she was a child and sets up a jam shop/black market potions shop. Adventure and found-family ensue.

Okay, this is technically (according to some, anyway) a romance. And I know some of my readers will be scared away by this. It’s pretty tame on that front—and I just don’t mean it’s PG. I mean, the love story is pretty tame and mixes in pretty well with everything else that one could be forgiven for not thinking of it as a Romance. Like I do.

I had a blast with it, and am looking forward to getting my paws on Durst’s follow-up.

Nav’Aria: The Marked Heir

by K.J. Backer

DETAILS:
Series: Nav'Aria, #1
Publication Date: January 18, 2019
Format: Paperback
Length: 390 pg.
Read Date: March 26-31, 2026

This is a fun, sort of porthole fantasy—Darion has been sent by his parents to Earth with some caretakers. He doesn’t know he’s from this different world—he just thought his parents had weird hobbies for him—martial arts, a lot of time in the forest, hunting, and so on.

There’s very little new or unexpected to this story—it doesn’t matter, it’s done well and is entertaining. It’s a very comfortable read in that sense. You’ve got a noble king and queen, a jealous upstart relative, loyal countrymen, oppressed citizenry…yada yada. We’ve all read it, we all like it (otherwise we’d find another genre). It’s in the telling, and some of the small touches. Backer shines there.

For example: The relation between dragons and unicorns—which we’re going to explore more in volume two—is pretty interesting. And unicorns at the top of the power structure? That’s cool.

And we’re not talking plush unicorns with rainbows and flowers. We’re talking big, strong animals who know that pointy thing can be used for. They have other cool magic abilities, too. Really, the unicorns alone are worth reading this.

My concern is that Darion seems to be shedding his Earth-ness for Nav’Arian as fast as Peter Pevensie did when he went back to Narnia in Prince Caspian, I’d like to see that hanging on a little longer. Otherwise, instead of Earth, he might as well have been sent to live in a hovel in a small town to hide. I’m back for more soon.

This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase from any of them, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

The Greatest Sentence Ever Written (Audiobook) by Walter Isaacson: Looking at Things Self-Evident

By HCNewton

On February 27, 2026

In Audiobook, History, Non-Fiction

he Greatest Sentence Ever Written

by Walter Isaacson, appendices read by Holter Graham

DETAILS:
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Publication Date: November 18, 2025
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 1 hr., 28 min.
Read Date: February 18, 2026

What’s the Description of The Greatest Sentence Ever Written?

To celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, Walter Isaacson takes readers on a fascinating deep dive into the creation of one of history’s most powerful sentences: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Drafted by Thomas Jefferson and edited by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, this line lays the foundation for the American Dream and defines the common ground we share as a nation.

Isaacson unpacks its genius, word by word, illuminating the then-radical concepts behind it. Readers will gain a fresh appreciation for how it was drafted to inspire unity, equality, and the enduring promise of America. With clarity and insight, he reveals not just the power of these words but describes how, in these polarized times, we can use them to restore an appreciation for our common values.

How Was the Narration?

If this is how his lectures go? Sign me up for a class. Isaacson comes across as a knowledgeable person just talking to you about something he cares deeply about–not as someone reading text (even text he wrote). There’s just enough personality to it to keep you listening, but not so much that it overshadows the material.

It’s just what this book needs.

So, what did I think about The Greatest Sentence Ever Written?

It feels strange to talk about a book that clocks in at 80 pages or 88 minutes in audiobook format (and that counts the appendices). But that’s how it’s being sold, so that’s how I’m going to talk about it. And really, he’d have had to tackle at least one more sentence

Do I wish he’d spent a little more time on a phrase or two? Did I really need as much detail has he gave on one thing or another? Yes to both. But I can’t remember what those things were now. And if I listened to/read it again today, I’d probably have other things I’d like to hear more/less about.

At the end of the day, this is a very nice meditation on that vital sentence, and a reminder that it’s still something important, something to rally around.

For the 250th anniversary of the Declaration, this is something important to think about. On the 249th or 252nd, it would be to. It’s sort of an evergreen idea. Probably an evergreen book, too.

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
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A Two-Fer: Back of Beyond and The Highway (Audiobooks) by CJ Box, Holter Graham: Thrills and Chills along the Highways & Byways (and wilderness) of Wyoming

By HCNewton

On November 21, 2019

In A-B, Audiobook, C. J. Box, Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

Trying something new here—one post about two books. Basically, I got so hooked by the first in this series that I listened to the second before I could write about it. Now I can’t think of them separately, so…

Back of Beyond

by C. J. Box, Holter Graham (Narrator)
Series: The Highway Quartet, #1
Unabridged Audiobook, 11 hrs., and 3 mins.
Macmillan Audio, 2011
Read: October 16-17, 2019
3.5 Stars

The Highway

by C. J. Box, Holter Graham (Narrator)
Series: The Highway Quartet, #2
Unabridged Audiobook, 9 hrs., and 49 mins
Macmillan Audio, 2013
Read: October 24-25, 2019
3 Stars

Cody Hoyt is your typical brilliant, but troubled, maverick cop. But he’s gone a little further than most—his alcoholism has cost him a job, his marriage, and son. He’s managed to find a job as a Sheriff’s Investigator in Montana, and has two months of sobriety. He’s called out to the scene of an apparently accidental fire that resulted in a death.

Sadly, the body is Cody’s AA Sponsor. Cody refuses to believe that he got drunk and accidentally caused a fire. With a fellow investigator, he starts putting the pieces together while trying to prevent the Coroner and Sheriff from rushing to declare it an accidental death.

Meanwhile, we meet Gracie Sullivan, a bookish fourteen-year-old and her older, appearance-obsessed sister Danielle. In an attempt to bond with his daughters during the short time he has custody, he drags them along on a Yellowstone wilderness trip.

This seems like an odd combination of storylines to combine—but Box does it. While unclear about why Hank was killed, the investigators decide the killer is on a Yellowstone Wilderness Trip (yup, that’s the one!). To add to the tension, Cody’s son is also on that trip—he’s with the man his mother is planning to marry, also in an attempt to bond. The idea of his son stuck with a killer is too much for Cody. So he sets off to find the tour while his colleague continues to investigate.

I’m not sure why so many adults want to bond with teens for a week in Yellowstone on the back of a horse, but maybe it’s something I should try. Then again, given the body count on this trip…

Bouncing back and forth between Gracie and Cody (and, occasionally, other points of view), we get to see what’s going on with the tour while we feel the tension from Cody’s hunt. No one on the tour is aware there’s any kind of problem, but things start going wrong and people start disappearing. The tour group is an interesting, and pretty believable mix of characters, and when things go wrong for them, it matters. I absolutely loved the contrast between the experienced, yet worried, Cody and the increasingly aware and innocent Gracie (I would’ve been more impressed with this if I hadn’t moved on to Box’s Open Season next where he’d done something very similar years before this).

Despite his many flaws—or probably because of the way that Box combined them and used them—I really liked Cody and was rooting for him. But Gracie? Gracie was fantastic. She’s smart, insightful, clever and determined—and she keeps her head in a dangerous situation.

There’s a lot of good twists (and even the one that you see coming from miles away, you only see part of it—and the motive will catch you off guard). All coming together in a good, solid, satisfying ending.

Then a few years later, in The Highway, we meet Cody again. In the meantime, things have gone really well for him, we can tell. And then things fall apart as we join him—he falls off the wagon, jeopardizing career and family.

Danielle is driving her sister Gracie from their home in Colorado to their father’s for Thanksgiving. Danielle makes a spur-of-the-moment choice to detour to see Cody’s son, Justin. Ever the horrible-teenage-driver, she’s texting him continually through their trip.

Suddenly, the texts stop and hours click by with no contact. Justin enlists his drunken father and a new investigator he’s training to search for them. Cassie Dewall is a driven, single mother, widowed when her husband was killed in Afghanistan. She’s younger and has a lot to learn (and to prove), but has the making of a good detective.

The girls have been kidnapped by, well, it’s in the official blurb so I can say this—a serial killer. Who does a lot more than kill his exclusively female victims. I think that says enough.

The perspectives jump between Cody, Cassie, Gracie and the killer keeping the tension high throughout the hunt. I almost stopped at several points, however. The looming threat to Danielle and Gracie was a lot to take, and hearing about what the other victims had gone through and endured was horrible. It was just a little too real and not at all entertaining for me.

I stuck with it, though. I wanted to see just how the hunt resolved and assumed (rightly or wrongly) that some sort of justice would be meted out. Also, I had to know what would happen to the girls. In the end, I’m glad I did, but it almost wasn’t worth it. A little more evil and it wouldn’t have been.

That said. I’ll be back for number three. Soon.