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Title: How the Dead Live

Author: Will Self

Narrator: Nancy Linari

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 45 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-04-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Will Self possesses one of the greatest literary imaginations of any writer working today. How the Dead Live is his most extraordinary book, yet a novel that will challenge, entertain, and truly astonish.

Lily Bloom is an aging American transplanted to England who has lost her battle with cancer and lies wasting away at the Royal Ear Hospital. As her two daughters, lumpy Charlotte, who runs a hugely successful chain of stationery stores called Waste of Paper, and beautiful Natasha, a junkiebuzz around her, and the nurses pump her full of morphine, Lily slides in and out of the present, taking us on a surreal, opinionated trip through the stages of a lifetime of lust and rage. A career girl in the 1940s, a sexed-up, tippling adulteress in the 1950s and '60s, a divorced PR flak in the 1970s and '80s, Lily presents us with a portrait of America and England over 60 years of riotous and unreal change.

And then it's over: Lily catches a cab with the aboriginal wizard Phar Lap Jones, her guide to the shockingly banal world of the dead. It's a world that is surreal but familiar, where she again works in PR and rediscovers how great smoking is, where her cohabitants include Rude Boy, the son who died at age nine and now swears a blue streak, and three eyeless, murmuring wraiths, the Fats composed of the pounds, literally the whole selves, she lost and gained over her lifetime. As Lily settles into her nonexistence, the most difficult challenge for this staunchly difficult woman is how to understand that she's dead, and how to leave the rest behind.

How the Dead Live is an unforgettable portrait of the human condition, the struggle with life and with death. It's a novel that will disturb and provoke, the work, in the words of one British reviewer, "of a novelist writing at the height of his powers".

Members Reviews:

Depressing

Well, I said I would pass on this author but since I bought two together, I decided to read. Although I found the writing amazing...one really has to study his words...I constantly had to look things up..(that's good, by the way), in the end I guess it just went on too long - the first half of the book concerns the woman who is dying, her relationships with her children and various men, all with brutal honesty and I enjoyed that. The second half I struggled through. I mean once you can adapt to the idea that the dead are really "living" on the other side, the way these spirits roam around doing essentially nothing....was just too too far for me to get into. I finally gave it up about 3/4 of the way into the book.

Mesmerising

As I read my way through the Factory Series I cannot understand why the author is not better known. This, the third book, finds our protagonist investigating the disappearance of a prominent inhabitant of a small village, where the local police have done nothing to investigate it. It is exciting, funny and very moving. Derek Raymond is one of the greatest crime writers, ever.

Amazing Work

I am so glad to have read about this series in a Ken Bruen interview. Really great stuff. I'm sad there are only five in the series and that the author has passed. But what better excuse to read through them again!

Five Stars

Fantastic book!

Disappointing

Self's How the Dead Live was not at all what I was expecting.

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Title: The Broken

Author: Tamar Cohen

Narrator: Jane Collingwood

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-23-15

Publisher: Whole Story AudioBooks

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 91 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Best friends tell you everything - about their kitchen renovation, about their little girls schooling. How one of them is leaving the other for a younger model.

Best friends dont tell lies. They dont take up residence on your couch for weeks. They dont call lawyers. They dont make you choose sides.

Best friends dont keep secrets about their past. They don't put you in danger. Best friends dont always stay best friends.

Critic Reviews:

"A chillingly real psychological drama that had me in a total reading frenzy. I absolutely loved it." (Lisa Jewell)

"A brilliant and skillfully plotted depiction of the unexpected breakdown of a friendship between two couples, with one of the most chilling twists I've read in a long time. I couldn't put it down." (Louise Millar)

Members Reviews:

The opposite of a feel good book...

I had no problem finishing the book, because it moved along at a decent pace, and I wanted to know what happened next, and in the end. But having said that, most of the book is just listening to people argue and complain, and because of that, I can't recommend it.

Slow start, but great book

The story started off slow, but I stuck with it because the reviews were so good. I'm happy I did finish because the twist was unexpected! I wish Hannah and Josh weren't so nice all the time, because Sasha really got on my nerves. All in all, it was a good book. If you're like me and need to be hooked right away, stick with it, it's gets better!

No thanks

It went in for much too long. Got boring and confusing. Don't waste your time or your money!

Buy a different book!

I used my monthly credit to buy this book. What a waste.....the characters were so irritating, supposed to be friends but none of them were people any normal person would want to be friends with. The 'amazing twist' was so predictable. The worst audio book I have ever listened to. I did read lots of reviews before purchasing this book and should have listened to the person who said 'did I read a different book to everyone else?'. I loved girl on the train and other books this has been compared to.....it's not thrilling it's just annoying.

Loved it, didn't want to put it down, but . . . .

Any additional comments?

This really held my attention, mainly because the characters were so richly written. It was easy to be concerned about what happened to each one of them, even those who were not so likeable! The narration was near perfect (only the Scouse accent was a bit iffy). The ending was somewhat disappointing however. I felt it merited several more chapters.

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Title: The Disappearances

Author: Linda Byler

Narrator: Piper Goodeve

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-10-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 9 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Sadie may be married now, but she's as spirited as ever, and her life is no less tame. In fact, soon after she and Mark are settled into the farmhouse Mark is renovating, she's visited by three FBI agents who question her about the two children who mysteriously appeared one day at the ranch. Before the agents leave, they warn Sadie that her beloved horse, Paris, is highly valuable, and that she and Mark may be in grave danger because of Paris.

This news, on top of Mark's unexpected black moods, leaves Sadie sometimes wishing she could go home, "lay her head on Mam's shoulder, and ask why she hadn't warned her". But when Sadie is kidnapped at gunpoint by two men in ski masks, her stubborn strength is tested beyond her imagining. Mark disappears emotionally without warning. Now Sadie has disappeared, leaving Mark and her family wracked with worry. And Anna, Sadie's youngest sister, desperate for Neil Hershberger's attention, refuses to eat, plagued by an eating disorder as she fades away. And yet Mark's younger brother, Timothy, appears, bringing unexpected life and hope to the family. Mercifully, healing and courage reappear in unexpected times and places in this concluding volume of the Sadie's Montana series.

Members Reviews:

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I love these books about Amish tradition , anything with horses and mysteries is also a plus, good read for winter

Moved quickly

An action filled story...moved very quickly.

It was very realistic, marriage reality, struggles with eating disorders etc. Gave insight into the Amish life.

Great book

Another great book by this author. She tied this in with the previous books so well. It was a pleasure to read and will wait for more books by this author.

Love and Patience

The personalities are varied and each is real. The horses are loved and part of the family through each season and trial.

A good story

I just started reading Linda Bylers books and so far have not been disappointed, this was a very good book and I can't wait to read the second in the series if I ever get it from Amazon as it has been on back order for some time.

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Title: Wild Horses

Author: Linda Byler

Narrator: Piper Goodeve

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-10-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 10 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

The Miller family's move from Ohio to Montana was, for the most part, uneventful, except that Sadie Miller had to leave her beloved horse, the palomino named Paris. Still, she likes the Montana snows and her job at Aspen East Ranch, serving the ranch hands. Unexpectedly, Ezra appears, the man who seems to be perfect in every way and fully intends to marry Sadie. But does she love him back? And who is this fascinating Mark who helps to rescue a dying horse and shows up at the Amish hymn-sing though he is English? Why can't she get his dark eyes and tall stature out of her mind?

Now Sadie's own close-knit family is falling apart. Mam claims her head is cluttered and unclear, and she no longer trusts herself to make a chocolate cake from scratch or to cut Reuben's hair in a straight line. The worst part is, Dat refuses to acknowledge Mam's struggles. Sadie finds some refuge in Nevaeh, a black and white paint. But when a dreadful accident involving wild horses occurs, Sadie must move forward into the unknown future. Will Dat let Mam seek professional help? Will Mam be willing to go? Will Mark be at the next hymn-sing? Is he Amish or English? Will he like her favorite pink dress? Will she see the wild horses again? Why do these phantomlike animals take her breath away every time they appear on the horizon?

Members Reviews:

good story with a good plot

a good amount of characters with things going on in their lives. also enough of unknowns to keep you interested. a few mistakes by narrator such as calling male horse a her but that's not a big deal just an example. can't wait to read the rest of the series.

Good story.

i really liked the story and thought the narrator did a really good job p=senting the story.

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Title: The War Between the Tates

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Alison Lurie

Narrator: Judith West

Format: Unabridged

Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-18-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

When a wife reaches her breaking point, and her husband begins an ill-advised affair, civil war breaks out within their family.

Erica Tate wouldn't mind getting up in the morning if she enjoyed her children more. Until puberty struck, Jeffrey and Matilda were absolute darlings, but in the last year they have become sullen, insufferable little monsters. Erica's husband, Brian, is so deeply immersed in university life--and the legs of a half-literate flower child named Wendy--that he either doesn't notice his wife's misery or simply doesn't care. Worst of all their pleasant little neighborhood is transforming into a subdivision. And with each new ranch house that springs up around their lot, Erica's marriage inches closer to disaster.

Admitting she is sick of her family is only the first step. When the Tate household tips into full-scale emotional combat, Erica must do her best to ensure she comes out on top. In this darkly comic tale, there is nothing more important than having a good exit strategy.

Members Reviews:

I love Lurie

Very subtle writing that has held up with the passage of time. An absolute pleasure to read, as are all of Lurie's novels.

Typical 70's, a funny-sad look at women's lib.

A bit wordy and long-winded in the writing compared to the more minamalist writing of today--but I've always enjoyed the book thru the years and I finally had it downloaded on my Kindle and re-read it.

...Lurieâs bid for the Updike-Cheever-Yates club is an amusing, evocative account of the obliteration of a New England marriage

Alison Lurieâs bid for the Updike-Cheever-Yates club is an amusing, evocative account of the obliteration of a New England marriage. Brian Tate works as a political science professor at the fictitious Corinth University. His wife Erica is a stay-at-home mom to two horrid teenagers, who spends her time as the âwifey,â making sure that his shirts are ironed, his dinner is cooked and his children are raised. Think Mr. Banks if he one day decided to have an affair with a hippie student named Wendy. That is how THE WAR BETWEEN THE TATES starts, with Erica discovering that her husband is having an affair with a flighty free-spirited grad student from the psychology department. The book covers over a year, beginning in March of 1968, a cold New England that sees new developments developing around the farm where the Tates live, as well as a new encroachment when Erica discovers a letter from Wendy to Brian. The rest of the novel is a beautiful balance between campus politics, the rise of alternative education and sex after forty. Lurie paints with Updikeâs brush, with clever turns of phrase and unflattering, though probably in the end realistic, characterizations of the Tate children, an overzealous veterinarian and even Wendy herself, whose every dirty foot and blowsy pound is chronicled as a personal detriment. I remember when I was younger there was an Erma Bombeck book illustrated by Bil Keane. It was from around this time and as I read the Tates back and forth that most un-similar book rattled around in my head. JUST WAIT TILL YOU HAVE CHILDREN OF YOUR OWN it was called. The things we think of.

An Enjoyable Novel From A Gifted Writer

Alison Lurie is a great writer whose "War Between the Tates" had a very high profile in the 1970's when it was made into a movie.

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Title: Don't Let Him Know

Author: Sandip Roy

Narrator: Tania Rodrigues

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-29-15

Publisher: Audible Studios for Bloomsbury

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 27 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

In a boxy apartment building in an Illinois university town, Romola Mitra, a newly arrived young bride, anxiously awaits her first letter from home in India. When she accidentally opens the wrong letter, it changes her life.

Decades later, her son Amit finds that letter and thinks he has discovered his mother's secret. But secrets have their own secrets sometimes. Amit does not know that Avinash, his dependable and devoted father, has been timidly visiting gay chat rooms, driven by the lifelong desires he never allowed himself to indulge.

Avinash, for his part, doesn't understand what his dutiful wife gave up in marrying him - the memories of romance she keeps tucked away. Growing up in Calcutta, in a house bustling with feisty grandmothers, Amit has been shielded from his parents' secrets. Now he's a successful computer engineer, settled in San Franscisco yet torn between his new life and his duties to the one he left behind.

Moving from adolescent rooftop games to adult encounters in gay bars, from hair salons in Calcutta to McDonald's drive-thrus in California, Don't Let Him Know is an unforgettable story about family and the sacrifices we make for those we love. Tender, funny, and beautifully told, it marks the arrival of a resonant new voice.

Critic Reviews:

"Tania Rodrigues is a wonderful choice to narrate this story of repression, passion, and sacrifice because of the warmth in her tone. Through her subtle cadence, the listener is drawn into a culture in which silence, familial duty, and taboos prevail over individual rights. Rodrigues's Indian-accented English is believable and lends credibility to her characterizations of Romola, a widowed housewife who is coping with the memories of her husband's hidden homosexual passions." (AudioFile)

Members Reviews:

another great book by Roy

narrator was excellent with different voices. story was typical Roy, interesting, thought-provoking without any pat answers.

Very lyrical

Story line very engaging and lyrical. The reader brought out the poetry of the prose. Few unsuspecting surprises as the story unfolds.

A vital and touching book, worth the listen

Sandip Roy's stories, which span decades and continents, are vivid, funny and touching, without any exaggeration or false notes. His family of characters, their hopes and dashed dreams are familiar and totally believable. The stories make it clear, in a simple, non-didactic way, what the cost of homophobia, entrenched stigma and rigid gender expectations is on people's everyday lives. A vital book, well worth the listen. Tania Rodrigues's narration is lively and engaging--she seems to really know the people in these stories--with a mellifluous voice that is easy on the ear.

A peak into Indo-American secrets

Delicious, just like a good hot curry! Midnight in the Garden of Evil-tandoori style...

Prim and proper Indian family discovers the patriarch had a taste for guys and dutiful matriarch knew all about it. Namaste indeed!

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Title: Blood Sports

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Eden Robinson

Narrator: Matthew Josdal

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-20-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

A young man with a questionable past must survive a nightmare of terror and torture in this dark and powerful thriller from one of Canada's most acclaimed contemporary authors.

The Downtown Eastside in Vancouver, Canada, is about as close to urban hell as you can get in the Western Hemisphere. Yet in this cauldron of drugs, shattered dreams, and extreme violence, Tom Bauer and his girlfriend Paulie - both ex-junkies and parents of baby Melody - are trying to make a life for themselves. For years, Tom, an epileptic, was firmly under the thumb of his psychopathic criminal cousin Jeremy, who dragged Tom down into a netherworld of addiction, prostitution, pornography, sadism, and murder. But those days are over, or so Tom believes - until the day that he returns home from work to find two vicious thugs waiting for him and Paulie, and little Mel gone. What happens next will change Tom's life forever and outdo every horror that still dwells in the shadows of his memory.

In this sequel to her critically acclaimed novella Contact Sports, author Eden Robinson returns to the gritty urban landscape of inner-city Vancouver and offers a disturbing view of human lives on a razor's edge. A story that jumps freely backward and forward in time, presented in a brilliant and unconventional tapestry of literary styles, Robinson's second novel is truly a mind-blowing experience that will thrill, move, enthrall, and horrify listeners in equal measure.

Members Reviews:

Loved it

The ending was unexpected and badass

Wish it didn't just jump to different stories

Is a must read if you like R rated material

Knowing this exists doesn't make one want to read about it in detail

California has East LA, BC has Vancouver's East Side. This is a story of people who live there and cope with its demise. I didn't look at the other reviews for this book and decided to read it based upon the fact I'd read Monkey Beach. Knowing that drug culture involves torture, depravity, murder, degradation does not make one ready to spend hours reading about it in detail. Some books make one decide that's life's too short.

Frightened me but I needed to keep Reading

I didn't love this book. In fact it scared me. Drugs, pornography, murders and random violence. This is a world that is so foreign to my comfortable, middle class existence. It kept me on the verge of tears, and created a knot in my stomach that threatened to tighten with each violent act.

Tom and Paulie are trying to escape all this for the sake of their young daughter Melody. They are having a rough go of it. Paulie attends daily NA (Narcotics Anonymous) meetings and has kept clean for 3 years. Between his alcholic mother and his psycopath cousin Jeremy, Tom's not having much success. He has done things with and for his cousin that few of us could ever imagine. Using a sledge hammer to pound human bones to shards being one that made me cringe.

This story is gritty and it gets right into your soul. I'm not going to embrace it and remember it fondly. Its going to come back and haunt me. I am going to see each of these characters as I walk along some dank, shadowy alley.

One thing that I found made this book so successful at conveying this creepy feeling was the way the story jumped around in time. If it had been told beginning to end, I could have dealt with that. I was kept unbalanced by not knowing when I was at all times.

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Title: The Faraway Nearby

Author: Rebecca Solnit

Narrator: Rebecca Solnit

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-13-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Gifts come in many guises. One summer, Rebecca Solnit was bequeathed three boxes of ripening apricots, which lay, mountainous, on her bedroom floor - a windfall, a riddle, an emergency to be dealt with. The fruit came from a neglected tree that her mother, gradually succumbing to memory loss, could no longer tend to. From this unexpected inheritance came stories spun like those of Scheherazade, who used her gifts as a storyteller to change her fate and her listener's heart.

As she looks back on the year of apricots and emergencies, Solnit weaves her own story into fairytales and the lives of others - the Marquis de Sade, Mary Shelley and Ernesto 'Che' Guevara. She tells of unexpected invitations and adventures, from a library of water in Iceland to the depths of the Grand Canyon. She tells of doctors and explorers, monsters and moths. She tells of warmth and coldness, of making art and re-making the self.

Members Reviews:

Great book of essays, disappointing as a memoir.

I'm a big fan of RS's essays and well aware she can write circles around most people. I found this book disappointing in that it felt like she used three traumatic events (her mother's descent into Alzheimers, her own preventative breast surgery, and the end of a long relationship) as a jumping off point for very learned and engaging, but quite impersonal, essays. She strikes me as someone who would welcome you into her house with the warmest of smiles, but then use stories in the most beguiling of ways, to keep you at a good, safe emotional distance.

It's beautiful, it's not an easy read

Her writing is invitational. Unlike some who tell their stories as if their lives are linear, Solnit's story says "pay attention- this is how life is for me". I suppose it may not ask for us to pay attention as a teacher would demand of her students, but more gently, as a lover would say to her beloved. It's beautiful, it's not an easy read, but it's so wroth reading.

I get to enjoy the review from each of them who write to ...

Not only is this on my list of "all-time favorite" books, I have bought this for 7(!!) of my friends and mailed it all out to them in the last few months. Now, I get to enjoy the review from each of them who write to exclaim - and these are all well-read and picky about their literature...this book is beyond expression for me. I keep picking it back up and diving in. So delighted to have discovered it and been able to share it.

Beautifully written, but lacking in detail

While this is a lyrical and unique book- half memoir, half literary/cultural criticism - I did not connect with much of the author's issues related to her mother, or former boyfriend, or friend in crisis, or her own disease. This is because she is far too vague and lacking in any chunk of specifics in order to properly identify with her.

Passages regarding her travels also seem out of sorts with an otherwise cohesive work, compounding and building with each new piece of her puzzle, whether it is a historical figure, a work of art, or extended metaphor that is artfully carried well beyond its assumed shelf life.

Rebecca Solnit doesn't disappoint. An excellent book that examines the author's relationship ...

Rebecca Solnit doesn't disappoint.

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Title: Losing My Virginity

Author: Madhuri Banerjee

Narrator: Ramneeka Lobo

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-19-14

Publisher: Reado

Ratings: 1.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

I have finally made up my mind about my "problem". "What problem?" Aditi asked. "My virginity," I whispered into the phone. "Ah, that!" "I'm serious. I need help." "Okay then. Let's make it happen tonight, let's devirginize you! See you at the bar at 8, okay?"

Kaveri is 30, single, knows seven languages, is an interpreter by profession, has read all the books about men and how to get a date. Yet, she has not been able to figure out the language of love. Since the "the one great love" of her life has eluded her for 30 years and might never show up, she decides to take matters into her own hands. On her 30th birthday, she makes a resolution - love or no love, she is going to lose her virginity. Life, however, has other plans! This is a story of a spirited woman who plunges into a roller coaster ride filled with ideas, ideals, and adventures, each new day competing with yesterday to make her rethink and reevaluate life and love.

Members Reviews:

30 minute infomercial

This is simply a 30 minute advertisement for the book titled"Losing My Virginity: The Purity Myth." The author of the book as well as Suzy Bright maintain that "virginity" is an abstract concept and should be deleted from society. The main goal of the author seems to be to encourage young people to have sex as early as possible. Now that I've summarized, you don't have to waste your time and money on this.

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Title: The Calling of Dan Matthews

Author: Harold Bell Wright

Narrator: David Sharp

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-17-14

Publisher: Books In Motion

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 11 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

This is a story about a young man's journey into manhood and the discovery of his true calling in life. The story asserts the essential human right of each person to determine the course his or her life should take. But sometimes civilization gets in the way and lives don't unfold naturally. It is the backwoods nobility of big Dan Matthews, his gentle dignity, innocence, and powerful presence, as well as the love and admiration of a beautiful young woman, which ultimately sets things right in this wonderful story of the Ozarks.

Members Reviews:

Starts a little slow,....

.....but builds to quite a sastifying climax, well worth the trip to a world that is no more.