Spark

At one point in this audiobook, producer Julie Burstein explains how her pioneering NPR show, "Studio 360," was born and why she didn't want host Kurt Andersen to simply read from a text. Alas, that lesson wasn't carried over to this production. Though the bulk of this audiobook is derived from "Studio 360" interviews with diverse artists such as Roseanne Cash and Kevin Bacon, surprisingly, the listener only hears a single thirty-second snippet from each interview (perhaps for legal reasons). In the rest of each chapter the author rehashes the subject's musings. Burstein is a decent narrator with an NPR vocal style. But overall, she missed an opportunity to do something extraordinary with this audiobook. R.W.S. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine