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On this second episode of the Audiobooks.com Podcast, we review the biography that gives us a deeper look into the man who brought us PayPal, Telsa Motors, SpaceX and Solar City. It may sound like we’re describing a blockbuster character when talking about Elon Musk but were we entertained when learning about him? What did you think of Fred Sanders, the narrator?
 
The episode does not end there, we also dive into some new releases and books that will soon be on the big screen like Mockingjay, The Maze Runner and more. Join us right now by pressing play! 
This Episode Covers:
 

This week’s top audiobook releases
Felicia Day and her new book
Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance - audiobook TRUE review
Where we recommend you spending your credit on the Elon Musk biography
From Page to Screen review
and lots more!

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Books & Resources Mentioned
 
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance | Narrated by Fred Sanders
 
This Week’s Top Releases
 
You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day | Narrated by Felicia Day
 
From Page to Screen in 2015
 
Eragon: Inheritance, Book 1 by Christopher Paolini | Narrated by Gerard Doyle
 
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins | Narrated by Carolyn McCormick
 
 

AB 02 | Elon Musk & Innovation Reborn

Along with having over 60,000 audiobooks to choose from at Audiobooks.com, we now bring you a weekly show to give you the stories behind the books. Your hosts, The Real Brian and Addy, interview your favorite authors, narrators, audiobook lovers and keep you in the loop of what’s hot. Never miss an episode by subscribing to the show and download the free app at www.audiobooks.com/podcast today!

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Welcome back to the Audiobooks.com Podcast! We're wrapping up this year in audiobooks with the Best of 2015. We've coalesced this list of top audiobooks based on sales and public response and segmented them by fiction and non-fiction so we can dish it up for you with some color commentary. 
You'll recognize several titles on these two lists from previous discussions on the podcast. We talked about Elon Musk in episode 2. Why Not Me, Go Set a Watchman and Girl in the Spider's Web in episode 12. And even though Addy has been struggling to read a Stephen King novel, we got a voicemail from a listener encouraging her to give it another go!
Reflecting back on 2015, we see trends amongst the most popular books. One is gender flipping, such as with Grey by E. L. James, when an author, who has written from one gender’s point of view, writes another novel in the voice of another gender in the original, or a novel that jumps between the point of view of a man and a woman. 
Another trend is comedians writing autobiographies, or otherwise works of non-fiction. In addition to Aziz Ansari and Mindy Kaling on the non-fiction list below, 2015 also saw books from David Spade, Rainn Wilson, Tim Hawkins, Amy Poehler, and Judd Apatow. We’re not complaining!
The final trend is similar to the second but even more, indicative of how much our culture is changing. YouTubers and Bloggers are also writing books, which brings us new authors like Miranda Sings, Shane Dawson, and Jenn McAllister, amongst a shocking number of other book deals from the visual internet mediums.
Without further ado, here are the lists! Let's see if they match up with your top 10 of 2015!
Fiction
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Grey by E.L. James 
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee 
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz
Finder's Keepers by Stephen King
Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham
See Me by Nicholas Sparks
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
Non-Fiction
Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
Down the Rabbit Hole by Holly Madison
The Wright Brothers by David McCullogh
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitana by Erik Larson
Why Not Me by Mindy Kaling
Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology by Leah Rimini
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Road to Character by David Brooks
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear Elizabeth Gilbert
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Books & Resources Mentioned

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Gray by E.L. James 
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee 
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz
Finder's Keepers by Stephen King
Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham
See Me by Nicholas Sparks
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
Down the Rabbit Hole by Holly Madison
The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
Why Not Me by Mindy Kaling
Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology by Leah Rimini
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Road to Character by David Brooks
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert


AB 24 | The Best Audiobooks of 2015

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A love of a particular book arises for many reasons. A premise, a concept, a theme often draws us to the book, but an author’s imagination is usually what makes us stay. This week on the Audiobooks.com Podcast, we speak with an author who has that envious and covetous imagination which brings books to life in a multidimensional sort of way. Lee Stephens, author of Dawn of Destiny, part of the Epic series, created a full production audio drama out of his first novel and joins us for a little chat!
To give you an idea of just how involved and exciting the audiobook is, we play a short clip of his epic science fiction adventure. In this clip we hear both the description of the action and the sound effects that accompany it. We hear unique voices for each characters. And, most importantly, we hear the result of four and a half years of commitment to a project Lee believed in and wanted to share with the world.
The plan for the Epic Universe is an 8-book series. Four are currently available, but only Dawn of Destiny is available in audiobook form. The fifth book, Lee promises, is nearing completion. We asked Lee if he has plans to turn the other books into the same type of audio drama as he did with the first one. You’ll have to tune in to the podcast for the answer!
The story featured here in this podcast, Dawn of Destiny, follows a young man heeding a call to war. Earth has been invaded by three alien species, and Scott Remington is one of a handful of young men that lead outstanding excursions onto the battlefield, coming up with the impossible, and igniting an action-packed story. This book explores though-provoking themes about the human condition, about God and faith, and about what it means to answer a call on one’s life.
A huge thank you to Lee for being on the show this week! Take a moment to go check out Lee’s website, epicuniverse.com, and then show him some love on Twitter: @epicuniverse. His first, and only, audiobook (thus far) is available at Audiobooks.com! Check out the Books and Resources section of this post to be redirected.
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Books & Resources Mentioned

Dawn of Destiny
Epic Universe


AB 23 | Audio Theater with Lee Stephen

Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast  | Email: podcast@audiobooks.com
In 2012, the world was made aware of a strange, desert town in the Southwestern United States. Details of this town were provided through advertisements and news segments on a bi-monthly basis. The name of this town? Night Vale.
This week on the Audiobooks.com Podcast we had the pleasure of speaking with the creative minds behind Welcome to Night Vale, the very podcast that made Night Vale one of the most popular fictional towns in the world. Or, at least, on the Internet. Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor developed and released Welcome to Night Vale in June of 2012, providing bi-monthly installments since then, and became the most-downloaded podcast of 2013.
In the ongoing wake of the podcast’s popularity, the men wrote a novel which hit our hungry bookshelves in October 2015. Set within the same town, but narrated by two characters fans of the podcasts will recognize, the novel is for new fans and seasoned fans alike! We catch up with Joseph and Jeffrey just a couple months after the book’s release to learn about their motivation for writing it, their creative process and storytelling techniques, and how the book has been received by fans.
Joseph and Jeffrey, as well as many of the Night Vale cast members, belong to the New York-Neo-Futurist performance organization, which is known for its long-running show Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. For 50 weeks a year, the Too Much Light family puts on a different show, consisting of 30 plays in 60 minutes. The show format is quick, comic and light, the audience gets involved, and the plays are written by the performers. Both men say that they borrowed significantly from their experiences writing for a variety of people and styles, week after week, to make Welcome to Night Vale into what it is today. If you’re ever in New York, catch a show!
A huge thank you to both Joseph and Jeffrey for their time with us this week! Go show them some love on Twitter and Facebook. And then, listen to the book!
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Books & Resources Mentioned

Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor
How To Be Both by Ali Smith
Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart
Welcome to Night Vale podcast
Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind


AB 22 | Welcome To Night Vale with Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast  | Email: podcast@audiobooks.com
Can you handle the truth? The Real Brian and the One and Only Addy serve it up on a silver platter in this week’s installment of the Audibooks.com Podcast! We had the great privilege of speaking with Neil Strauss, author of 2005 New York Times bestseller The Game and the newly released The Truth. From an elite player in a secret society celebrating the artistry of picking up women to a father and committed monogamist, Neil tells us about the amazing journey of writing The Truth that lead him away from being a monogamy nay-sayer.
Having already exposed his pick-up methods and encounters in a very detailed manner throughout The Game, and later Emergency, we were interested in learning about how his approach to the new book differed from his approach to the earlier ones. How did the writing process change for him? Did he continue to learn more about himself as he put it into words?
To our great surprise and interest, Neil says that he started out writing The Truth as a means to redefine relationships and speak out against monogamy, coming at the book with all sorts of research that exposed the inefficiencies of that lifestyle. But at one point, while re-reading his own words, he reflected on the voice coming from the page and thought he sounded like a man scared of intimacy and commitment. This reflection redirected his course and turned The Truth into what it is today, an uncomfortable book about relationships.
Neil leaves us with some excellent advice that corresponds directly to the wonderful conversation we had in the course of getting to know him and his new book. He gives this advice: “Lovingly and compassionately question and challenge yourself, question your presuppositions and the bases on which you have your thoughts. Challenge yourself to break habits and routines, to get outside your comfort zone.”
We want to thank Neil for being a guest on our show this week and hope that you will too! You can find him on Twitter, @NeilStrauss and keep up with his latest projects by visiting his website, neilstrauss.com. Check out his available audiobooks in the Books & Resources section in this blog post.
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Books & Resources Mentioned

The Game by Neil Strauss
The Truth (An Uncomfortable Book About Relationships) by Neil Strauss
The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski
Life Is Elsewhere by Milan Kundera
Ask the Dust by John Fante
If On A Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino


AB 21 | Relationships & The Truth with Neil Strauss

Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast  | Email: podcast@audiobooks.com
What better way to close out the month of November on the Audiobooks.com Podcast than with an author, and a book, that would make for a great Christmas gift! By the next time we’re streaming into your ears, we’ll be beyond Thanksgiving and into the season of shopping and of gift giving. For children, and for those with childlike imaginations, we recommend the novelette The Tale of Nottingswood by J.R. Young.
To help seal the deal on this gift, we had the wonderful opportunity of speaking with Justin himself, who, before writing this book has made a name for himself in acting, voice acting, and public speaking. We get to ask Justin about how he made the leap into writing, what the process was for turning his book into an audiobook, and the aftermath of releasing both.
The Tale of Nottingswood is written in verse and, as Justin says himself, needs to be read aloud. Deeply thought provoking, moving, and enlightening, the tale follows a boy and a girl, twins, who live in a land which cast out their majestic guardian, built a wall to block out the sun, and find contentment in decay. But then this brother and sister stumble across a Creature who changes their lives forever, and thus The Tale is born
We play a clip from the audiobook, which Justin recorded himself, to give you a quick glimpse into just how wonderful this story is. If you end up giving this gift as a Christmas gift, please follow up with us after the book has been opened and read and share the experience you had while reading it aloud or listening to it! Based on the feedback Justin has received thus far, and the opportunities it’s provided him to speak with schools and students, we have no doubt that great conversations can be had from that experience.
Get in touch with J.R. Young! We encourage you to reach out to him, buy his book AND audiobook, because the illustrations alone are a sight to be seen, and share your experiences with the book with him. Justin says the best way to keep in touch and be updated on what’s going on is to visit Nottingswood.com. He can also be found on Facebook.
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Books & Resources Mentioned

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Armada by Ernest Cline
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
The Tale of Nottingswood by J.R. Young


AB 02 | Elon Musk & Innovation Reborn

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