Book Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3 / 5 stars)
Audio Book Performance: ★★★★★ (5 / 5 Stars)
Total Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3 / 5 stars)
Do you have a desire to listen to more cynical tales? Well Nick Offerman is back with an array of stories to warm that cold heart of yours. Or, well, ice it over. Once again, we journey back into our story books to learn about a woman cursed to be a frog, Amelia Bedelia’s illness, and the Little Drifter that Could…plus more! But don’t expect these stories to have a happy ending. Far from it. So sit back, relax, and take enjoy a moment of schadenfreude.
All-in-all, this second group of stories is better than the first. With more time to invest into each tale, an narrators as talented as Sir Patrick Stewart, we’re bound to have some laughs! Yet just as with the first audio book, some stories stick, while others don’t. They’re crude, not for everyone, and many might just turn away in disgust. In fact, while I’m generally not easily offended, there was one story I could not listen to in this narrative about a dog. It just hit a little too close to home for me and made me uneasy.
Overall, More Bedtime Stories for Cynics is still an amusing listen…and there is bound to be a gem or two that you’ll enjoy. Plus, with narrators as great as these, who can keep away?
What’s it about?
Nick Offerman and his posse of high-profile guests present this series of 12 short stories written in the style of classic kid’s tales, but with a decidedly adult approach.
If children’s literature is any guide, we should all be able to magically fall asleep simply by saying goodnight to the things we can see from our beds. But any adult knows that our work anxieties and shameful memories would rather stay up all night and chat. That’s where Offerman and Co. come in—with clever and occasionally downright dark parodies of the classic kids genre. What really happened after Snow White died, from the perspective of the one medically trained dwarf? A naive wizard professor reports back from the trenches of an underprivileged school of magic. A middle-aged man is haunted by the voices of his own aging body. The stories will make you laugh, cry and probably squirm a little.
Performers include: Patrick Stewart, Alia Shawkat, Jane Lynch, Aparna Nancherla, Harry Goaz, Mike Birbiglia, Ellen Page, Rachel Dratch, Gary Anthony Williams, Nicole Byer, and Matt Walsh.
E.S. Barrison 