I took a new position with my company in 2018, and it saw my 4-mile drive turn into a 70-mile drive. This additional time spent behind the wheel, though, was not completely lost as I discovered the wonderful world of audiobooks. While stuck in the unrelenting traffic this past year, I was able to dive…
Book Review – Branden Chowen on The Last Days of August by Jon Ronson
Title: The Last Days of AugustAuthor: Jon RonsonPublished: 2019Publisher: Audible StudiosAudiobook Narrator: Jon Ronson — The Last Days of August is a fascinating look inside a tragedy that most of the world ignored because it happened to a porn actress. Jon Ronson set out on this journey because he believed the reason the beautiful, 23-year…
Branden’s Top 5 Film Discoveries of 2018
2018 was a year unlike any other in my life. My spending was focused on things unrelated to media, which means my movie collection barely grew at all this year. Instead, my focus was on keeping my wife happy and comfortable, and preparing our home for our first child. My movie collection, which was previously…
Book Review – Branden Chowen on Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle
Title: Planet of the Apes Author: Pierre Boulle Published: 1963 Publisher: Vanguard Press Audiobook Narrator: Greg Wise — The world of Planet of the Apes is one of my favorite media franchises of all-time. I don’t remember when I first saw the film, but it left a mark on me because the premise behind it…
Book Review – Branden Chowen on Lullaby by Jonathan Maberry
Title: Lullaby Author: Jonathan Maberry Published: 2018 Publisher: Audible Studios Audiobook Narrator: Scott Brick — This was the first – and so far, only – Audible Original that I was actually excited to pick out. I knew of Maberry by name, and Twitter, but though I’ve wanted to check out his work before, I never…
Book Review – Branden Chowen on Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident by Donnie Eichar
Title: Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident Author: Donnie Eichar Published: 2013 Publisher: Chronicle Books Audiobook Narrator: Donnie Eichar — I’m (mildly) obsessed with YouTube, especially in the last year since we’ve gotten rid of cable, and in this last year, I’ve also discovered “BookTube”. For those not in the…
Book Review – Branden Chowen on The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Title: The Haunting of Hill House Author: Shirley Jackson Published: 1959 Publisher: Viking Audiobook Narrator: Bernadette Dunne — I decided recently to put together an extremely non-definitive, definitive list of the “scariest novels ever written”. I put this together by googling that quoted search term, and then using 28 different lists from (seemingly) reputable sources,…
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