NPR Road Trips: Fairs and Festivals: Stories That Take You Away . . . by Noah Adams

NPR Road Trips: Fairs and Festivals: Stories That Take You Away . . . Reviews

• 
  Sheri

  I enjoyed the stories of the familiar to me fair elements such as butter sculpting, foods on a stick, and farm and home exhibits of animals and canned goods and the like. It was easy to recall taking in all the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of the fair. However, I most enjoyed the stories of the unfamiliar to me unusual attractions such as pig racing and the husband-calling contest. Those stories made me want to visit a fair in a part of the country outside the Midwest to see what unique offerings other areas have to show off.
  
  This is probably more interesting to a fair-goer than a non-fair-goer; it's a short listen at 1 hour. Interesting enough for a short duration, but I admit I would have abandoned a longer listen.
• 
  Tamara

  A lighthearted listen for a road trip. Nothing exceptional, but it kept me awake and entertained!
• 
  Jay French

  Expectations. I expected that an NPR collection would really contain compelling audio, great radio bits that got behind the scenes and left you knowing more and enjoying the experience. Not so much this set. The shortness of the bits, mostly a couple of minutes, didn't allow the drama to come out like some of the better (often longer) stories in other collections. There was one story about a sideshow act that pounded metal spikes into his nose that was obviously visually interesting but didn't make the leap to being a good audio story -- why include something that really doesn't work? There were a few times where the background audio was interesting, but the stories didn't hold up. In all the topics were good, but the execution was not. At least it was only an hour. I'd suggest trying another NPR collection before this one.
• 
  Everett

  Fun radio segment. Learned about a lot of festivals and fairs I didn't know existed. Really made me rethink my career goals too lol maybe I should be selling cotton candy.
• 
  Chris

  I love NPR!
• 
  Patrick

  Thinks it’s Walden.
• 
  Carol Havlik

  Testing audiobook on Libby I consider it more of a podcast then book
• 
  Terry

  A great collection of stories from NPR. I remembered the smells, tastes and sounds of my trips to fairs. It has inspired me to visiting fairs in other parts of the country.
• 
  Kelly Whitt

  I’m not a big fan of fairs, but there were some nice stories here and it’s good family listening.
• 
  Holly

  4 stars. Very fun. Many memories from the past and more to come.
• 
  Dale

  Lots of fun.
  
  Published by HighBridge in 2012.
  Multicast
  Duration: about 1 hour.
  
  My family and I are avid fans of fairs and festivals. We like to wander around and experience the hullabaloo of all of the people, the noises of the midway, the incessant sales pitches of the guys trying to sell replacement windows or guttering and, of course, the animals.
  
  We just attended the Indiana State fair last weekend and spent an astounding 13 hours wandering around the giant circle of the fair (it is built around a one mile dirt track) seeing everything from Star Wars Stormtroopers to a petting zoo filled with week-old calves to a giant carving made of cheese (still being carved as we watched!). I learned about $261,000 John Deere Tractors, heard an acoustic blues band, bought a wallet and saw a clown marching band performance - all before we hit the midway!
  
  So, when I found this little audiobook of stories collected from NPR over the years about fairs and festivals I knew this was right up my alley. There are 18 little stories here that originally broadcast on the air from 1999 to 2011. Most are two to five minutes long, the longest being a little over ten minutes...
  
  Read more at:
  http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2012/...
• 
  Dolly

  This audiobook offers a collection of NPR stories about the oddities and humorous tales about the myriad fairs and festivals around the United States. It's not very long and is a pleasant diversion while I'm taking a long walk around the neighborhood with our dog.
  
  The tales are interesting and it's nice to learn more about the ins and outs of what goes on at these events. I loved the mathematics discussion about the statistical difficulties of winning a carnival game.
  
  I'm a fan of NPR and I enjoyed listening to this collection. I will certainly look for more of them at our local library.
  
  
• 
  Karen!

  Maybe my standards are too high.
  Maybe my expectations are too high.
  Maybe it's because I am from the Midwest.
  Maybe this book suffers from coming after two exceptional texts.
  
  Whatever the circumstances, NPR, I am disappointed.
  
  This was the third in a slew of NPR audio collections, the first two of which were Fan. Tastic! However, this book sucked. It wasn't informative. It wasn't funny. It wasn't enriching. Sad face.
• 
  Drew Weatherton

  NPR always has an interesting perspective on what makes a story, and I think they did well in this collection with the subject matter they had. It just wasn't the most interesting subject in the world. Worth a listen though (if you like NPR), as this is just over an hour ;)