Jim Cuddy has narrated 2 audiobooks on Listento.it by 2 authors. The most-rated is The Bloviator.
The Bootlegger's Friend
Summary
Bootlegger’s Friend is based on the true story of Johnny Lazia, a gifted politician who is admired and respected in Kansas City. Lazia embodies rough-and-tumble politics in the 1920s. He meets Giovanni Blando, recent immigrant from Sicily and nephew of Lazia’s mentor. Giovanni becomes a bootlegger and Johnny’s closest friend despite their outward differences. The men discover shared interests in liquor, poker, and politics. For a decade, the friends live decadent lifestyles in Kansas City, defy Prohibition, and ignore election laws. Convinced Prohibition will be short-lived, Giovanni begs Johnny to pursue honest endeavors, but Johnny’s association with the underworld leads to the infamous Union Station Massacre, and he conspires to help one of the thugs escape the city. Johnny is blind to the danger and Giovanni is distressed to be involved in the conspiracy. The criminal gets away, but Giovanni fears for his friend’s safety and pressures Johnny to quit the criminal activities that are crumbling the world around them. It begins to work until a shocking crime changes Kansas City forever.
©2009 Clare Ann Blando (P)2019 Clare Ann Blando
The Bloviator
Summary
1923: Faced with impending personal and political scandals (corrupt cabinet members, drinking, gambling, failing health made worse by a quack physician, blackmailers attempting to exploit his numerous affairs and bastard children, murders, and suicides), President Warren G. Harding embarks on a cross-country train trip, from Washington D.C. to Alaska, in an effort to rehabilitate his chances for re-election - something he is unsure he even wants. But the GOP have lost faith in Warren. However, they have taken a liking to the idea of running the first-ever female president: Florence, his smart, and ambitious wife. After all, it had been Florence who had spearheaded the innovations that not only got Warren elected in 1920, but which are still used today: the creation of solicitation-telephone calls, celebrity endorsements, photo-ops, news reels, radio ads, direct marketing...and it was Florence who is both the brains of the outfit, and the star of this show. Harding is simply the handsome, good-natured, overly-trusting, face. Based on the true, last (and unbelievably bizarre) six months in the life of America's 29th President, The Bloviator tells the story of sex, drugs, scandals, blackmail, murder, suicides - and the presidency. The Bloviator is a "fiction fueled by fact" in that while some elements are constructions, they are well with-in the plausible, and probable, range of the facts. The Bloviator is an epic; a massive and sprawling work; history as absurdity, as if it were being filtered through a cracked prism - but the prism is not cracked. Most of the story told here is unbelievably, incredibly, based on true events.
©2012 Jim Yoakum (P)2019 Jim Yoakum