My Rating:

Author: Thomas M. Sullivan

Narrator: Skip Mahaffey

Length: 5 hrs., 11 mins.

Publisher: Coolbeat Audiobook Publishing

Publisher’s Summary:  A satirical telling of the author’s experiences as a Drivers Ed instructor. Being an instructor for a private Drivers Education company sounded like the launch of a career that would last a lifetime…. Not! Thomas’s “carma”, was a short, but colorful, stint in the instructor’s seat. The author learned more than he wanted about driving cars better suited for the junk yard, nice kids with angry parents, suburban angst, and being a buckled-in therapist. It’s an irreverent account of one man’s descent from hope to a struggle to escape the chaos of subprime suburbia. Life in the Slow Lane celebrates the humor, resolve, and intelligence teenagers use to survive the dysfunctional world their elders have created. Let’s just say they were lucky to have Thomas controlling the brakes.

©2011 CoolBeat Audiobooks (P)2011 CoolBeat Audiobooks

My Review: Life in the Slow Lane was a hilariously fun listen. This audiobook boasts great stories as we follow Thomas Sullivan’s endeavor into driver’s education instruction. Tom’s real life experiences in the passenger seat of a beaten up driver’s ed car will make you chuckle and might bring up some fun memories.

Like the redneck friend Tom mentions in his audiobook, I grew up in the country. I learned to drive a big John Deere tractor before anything else. Feeding cows, bush hogging and turning donuts in the field for fun.

When I turned 15, my parents asked me if I wanted to take the Driver’s Ed class or if I wanted the money to put towards my first car. Since the class was 20 minutes away at my high school and started at 6:15 a.m., I voted “heck no” to the class. My dad promised to teach me all the ropes as soon as I got my learner’s permit. In Indiana, the law stated you can get your learner’s permit without taking the class 30 days after your 16th birthday. So I did.

My dad, being a retired truck driver of 30 years was the perfect teacher. He had patience and understanding, even when I almost hit mailboxes, ditches and wildlife creatures venturing into the road. Since we lived in the boondocks, most of the roads I practiced on were gravel roads full of curves, craters (aka giant potholes) and thick piles of loose gravel. By the time he let me get some real road time on the paved state highway I was pro!

He preached at me to be patient and always be ready for someone else to make a mistake. “Keep your eyes open, put your cell phone down, don’t play with the radio, stop digging in your purse… “

Anyways, back to the regularly scheduled review of Life in the Slow Lane by Thomas M. Sullivan. I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook and listening to it brought back great memories I shared with my dad. Tom has a great writing technique that puts you in the story and riding along with him.

Narrator Review: Skip Mahaffey was the perfect narrator for Life in the Slow Lane. He added so much personality and humor to story. His voices for the teenagers were hilarious and spot on. Skip did a great valley girl voice that had me cracking up.

Download Life in the Slow Lane now!

Disclosure: I received a copy of this audiobook from the publisher.