Way Off the Road

CBS News personality Bill Geist, known for his quirky enthusiasms, has shown viewers a stand-still parade, a cow photographer, a one-woman town, and many other scenes of small-town life. Geist's audiobook re-creates some of his reports, along with a few rants on airports, motels, and rental cars. Patrick Lawlor's cheerfully excited narration brings out Geist's descriptions of such experiences as eating at a Texas barbecue joint. Lawlor also adds a sarcastic tone to Geist's stories and projects Geist's occasional dislike for some of his topics, such as figure-eight school-bus racing. Fans of Geist's reports might prefer to hear his voice, but, for the most part, his anecdotes of rural America are still entertaining as delivered by Lawlor. J.A.S. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

April 30, 2007
CBS roving correspondent and author Geist offers up an amusing and expansive collection of America's quirky, strange and offbeat nooks. The "Land of Lost Luggage" in Scottsboro, Ala., for instance, is where the millions of bags airlines "lose" every year wind up and "every day is like Christmas" for the locals. In New Glarus, Wis., photographer Kathy DeBruin has a reputation as the "Annie Leibovitz of cow portraiture." And then there's Boston's Museum of Dirt, where, among other amazing dirt is a display of dirt taken from Barry Manilow's driveway. While mirth is in plentiful supply, some of Geist's stories are real nail biters, such as his trip via mule train to deliver mail to the Havasupai Native American tribe. (Its members live on the floor of the Grand Canyon.) Geist's low key, deadpan humor hits the mark, and he has a gentle way of writing just to the point of ridicule before he backs off. Readers will find nearly 30 tales that will amaze and amuse and maybe inspire some extra stops on their next road trip.

October 15, 2007
Writers from John Steinbeck to Bill Bryson to Charles Kuralt have made generations of people smile with their wry, humorous looks at American life off the interstate. Small towns retain a sense of community spirit that is all but lost in big cities. Little towns are proud of small accomplishmentsa headless chicken that lived for several months, a hamburger place located in a church, a parade that stands still and lets visitors walk around itthat would often be overlooked in the crowded news pages of a metropolis. Geist is a commentator for CBS News (as was Kuralt), and his travels around America showing the weird, the wild, and the wonderful are popular features. Earphones Award-winning reader Patrick Lawlor captures the humor of Geist's writing, never presenting these people as small-town hicks but as clever grass-roots entrepreneurs who know how to seize some obscure person or event and make it into a celebration that people actually want to attend. It's a bit sad to say, but for economic survival many of these off-the-wall spots depend on getting tourists to their peculiar festivals. Listeners will enjoy the stories of these people who have, indeed, taken lemons and made some mighty sweet lemonade. Highly recommended for all collections.Joseph L. Carlson, Allan Hancock Coll., Lompoc, CA

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.