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Title: In One Person

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: John Irving

Narrator: John Benjamin Hickey

Format: Unabridged

Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-08-12

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 771 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

A compelling novel of desire, secrecy, and sexual identity, In One Person is a story of unfulfilled lovetormented, funny, and affectingand an impassioned embrace of our sexual differences. Billy, the bisexual narrator and main character of In One Person, tells the tragicomic story (lasting more than half a century) of his life as a sexual suspect, a phrase first used by John Irving in 1978 in his landmark novel of terminal cases, The World According to Garp.

His most political novel since The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irvings In One Person is a poignant tribute to Billys friends and loversa theatrical cast of characters who defy category and convention. Not least, In One Person is an intimate and unforgettable portrait of the solitariness of a bisexual man who is dedicated to making himself worthwhile.

Critic Reviews:

"A profound truth is arrived at in these pages. It is Irving at his most daring, at his most ambitious. It is America and American writing, both at their very best. (Abraham Verghese)

"His most daringly political, sexually transgressive, and moving novel in well over a decade." (Vanity Fair)

In One Person is a rich and absorbing book, even beautiful. (Esquire)

Members Reviews:

VINTAGE IRVINE AT ITS BEST!

I have been a devoted fan of John Irving for decades. He has the rare talent needed to wrap hard issues in literate laughter. In One Person is Vintage Irving. His signature symbols and character types are all present. As in his earlier books, from Garp through Twisted River, Irving continues to address socio/political controversies thoughtfully and fearlessly.

The themes in this book remind us of Robert/Roberta the pro football player defender of Nurse Jenny, of Dr. Larch, the non-practicing homosexual who gave women choices and orphans second chances, of Frannie who learned how to live after gang rape, of Owen who tried to understand his religious parents as he lived out his own dream and even of the twisted multi-generational hatreds in Twisted River. And bears, of course.

It is set in a private boys (originally) school in New England where we are reminded of elderly professors freezing in the snow and of warm, padded wrestling rooms, and a year in Vienna. And while it is fun to encounter the archetypes from his previous books, the social and political questions still remain to be explored and confronted. As he carefully built his arguments for questioning the status quo opinions, social norms, natural morals and blind prejudices of earlier generations about prostitution, abortion, sexual orientation, womens rights, racial justice, child abuse, the handicapped etc, he again argues for Questioning and questing and for sympathy. In Irvings words, dont categorize me before you even know me. He asks for tolerance, even for tolerance of the intolerant. To all of this, add Irvings tragicomIc writing genius and his story telling skills and we have another thoughtful provocative John Irving book.

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Title: The Black Arrow

Subtitle: A Tale of the Two Roses

Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

Narrator: Gildart Jackson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-28-12

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 28 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

In this swashbuckling novel set in 15th-century England, young Richard Shelton discovers that he has been betrayed by the guardian who raised him - a man involved in the murder of his father. Seventeen-year-old Richard joins the fellowship of the Black Arrow to avenge the death, rescue the woman he loves, and participate in the struggle between the Yorks and Lancasters in the War of the Roses.

Though history records two sides fighting for control of England,The Black Arrowpresents a third side: the exploited commoners joined together by their black-arrow weaponry. To survive the war, Richard must rely on his cunning. Through adventures in castles, villages, forests, and aboard a ship, Richard outfoxes captors, bargains his way out of crises, and ultimately proves himself worthy of knighthood.

Critic Reviews:

The time is 15th-century England, and Richard Shelton, the young hero, overcomes one obstacle after another." (School Library Journal)

Members Reviews:

A goodly storywell written, and well read

Written in wonderful, archaic, almost poetical prose, this delightful story will seem familiar to all, with its intrigues, disguises, chivalry, battles, and damsels in distress.

Gildart Jackson's reading is beautifully rendered, lending excellent clarity to what might have been difficult to understand in the hands of a less skillful narrator.

Ultimately, it's Stevenson's use of language, and his characterizations that set this book apart. For me, listening to this book was an education in prose, storytelling, and diction. Truly, time well spent.

The Black Arrow

I was disappointed in this book. I had high expectations since it was R.L Stevenson. I loved treasure island. But this particular book, while written and broken down in a similar way, did not have nearly as interesting a story. It was a little to convoluted for me. The setting of the story was also difficult. This made it hard to understand not only what people we saying, but what they were feeling and why they felt the way they did. I may try it again to see if I get more out of it.

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Title: The Dog of the South

Author: Charles Portis

Narrator: David Aaron Baker

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 1 min

Language: English

Release date: 02-16-12

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 83 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Charles Portis has drawn widespread critical acclaim for his inventive prose. In The Dog of the South, Ray Midge is on the trail of his wife, Norma, whos headed for Mexico with her ex-husband. On the way Ray meets the eccentric Dr. Reo Symes, a man with more get-rich-quick schemes than common sense. Together, theyll have to overcome tropical storms, grifters, and plenty of car trouble en route to their destinationwherever that may be.

Members Reviews:

A Gem that Defies Description

Reviewers typically give up when it comes to the work of Charles Portis, saying in one way or another that it simply cant be described. Thats just how I feel after hearing A Dog of the South and learning of him for the first time, long after I should have. It is a rambling little yarn of the Deep South in the 1970sso Deep that it rambles into Belize. The characters are a tattered, mismatched bunch of shifty failures, grifters, evangelists, shallow dreamers and a couple of weird children, all of whom, for some reason, are easily imagined as shadowy figures in the dim light of a bare bulb in some rundown hotel.

Ray Midges friend has stolen his wife and his car and headed to Mexico and beyond, and Ray goes after themto retrieve his car. The people and puzzlements he encounters are beyond imagining. The plot is a barely-necessary device to support the authors hilarious and inventive prose. For example, he arrives at the steamy, seedy Fair Play Hotel in Belize and meets the night clerk:

She woke a small Negro boy named Webster Spooner, who slept in a box in the foyer. It was a pretty good wooden box, with bedding in it. I knew his name because he had written it on a piece of paper and taped it to his box. At the foot of his makeshift bed, there was a tomato plant growing in an old Texaco grease bucket.

The first sentence would be plenty good by itself, but Portis piles on unexpected details that yield rich and riveting descriptions of an exceedingly strange world. It is deliciously funny.

As I said, it cant be described. The soft Southern accent of David Aaron Baker provides the perfect first-person voice for Ray Midgea decent fellow with good intentions and vague ambitions you know he will never realize. But listening to his zany adventure unfold is an excellent way to spend eight hours. You wont regret it.

America's Gogol

I tell you I can't answer questions like that. You see me as a can-do guy from the States, but I don't have all the answers. I'm white and I don't dance but that doesn't mean I have all the answers.

Charles Portis, The Dog of the South

Charles Portis isn't God. But I believe he can do no wrong and can walk on water when I read his books. In fact, while reading his novels, the exact feeling I get can only be described as eating an overcooked eucharist; some crunchy, holy, wafer of truth that has been burnt by the absurdity of the modern world. I open the world-weary pages of a Portis novel and suddenly I am taken-up in a vision that contains the body and the blood of all that is great with American Fiction. He reminds me of some unholy combination of Cormac McCarthy and Walker Percy -- with a bit of Saul Bellow thrown in for flavor.

Let's get out of the way: the truth. This is the same dude from Arkansas that wrote True Grit. Great book. Fantastic novel and both movies were fantastic. Great. Good. Hallelujah! Now let's put that away.

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Title: Night Train to Lisbon

Author: Pascal Mercier

Narrator: David Colacci

Format: Unabridged

Length: 17 hrs and 13 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-04-12

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 63 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Raimund Gregorius teaches classical languages at a Swiss lycée, and lives a life governed by routine. One day, a chance encounter with a Portuguese woman inspires him to question his life - and leads him to an extraordinary book that will open the possibility of changing it. Inspired by the words of Amadeu de Prado, a doctor whose intelligence and magnetism left a mark on everyone who met him and whose principles led him into a confrontation with Salazars dictatorship, Gregorius boards a train to Lisbon. As Gregorius becomes fascinated with unlocking the mystery of who Prado was, an extraordinary tale unfolds.

Critic Reviews:

A treat for the mind. One of the best books I have read in a long time. (Isabel Allende)

A rare reading pleasure. (San Francisco Chronicle)

One of the great European novels of the past few years. (Page des libraires, France)

Members Reviews:

Took me a LONG time to finish this one!

First of all, I want to get out of the way that I had no real problem with the translation, being hooked almost right away into the premise of Gregorious abruptly jettisoning his academic rut to pursue the "mystery" of an obscure Portuguese author's story. Nor did I mind the narration, which I felt was fine. The first half went by quite quickly, with our protagonist deciding spontaneously to leave for Lisbon, traveling by train for a couple of days, and then settling down there to look into the background of Dr. Prado, author of the book. I liked the description of the city, and Gregorious' sense of wonder at the places he sees and new people he meets.

Part Two nearly lost me entirely. The 3rd quarter of the story consists almost entirely of flashbacks to Prado's past, with Gregorious nearly absent altogether, except as a catalyst for Mercier to provide all that backstory; I ended up fast forwarding through correspondence between Prado and his father. That issue eased up later when Gregorious decides to head for Finisterre, Spain based upon Prado's obsession with medieval concepts of the land beyond the end of the (known) world. Didn't really fit in with the overall story to me, but anything to get us back to the present day! Ending was a bit unresolved to me, but I was left feeling that the adventure had, indeed, changed Gregorious' life.

A wonderful and worth reading book

I really, really enjoyed this book. The story is, at least I think, absolutely fantastic. The main characters time in Portugal, learning about these other people, is such a great thing to witness.

We never know what could have happened if we'd taken this or that turn in life, and Pascal Mercier does a great job of fleshing that out.

Probably my favorite part of the book is when Gregorius is talking with an old friend of Amadeu and she says something like, "His biggest regret seemed to be that we didn't go to Avila together."

The narrator did a good job. His work with the accents and different European names was really well done.

At times his narration was a little airy, there were times, too, towards the second half of the book, where it kind of carried on and on, and it got a little old hearing the airiness of the narrator's voice talking about tea, but, in a sense, this has more to do with the characters and text the narrator is working with rather than the man himself.

Overall, though, this book is definitely worth reading.

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Title: Death with Interruptions

Author: Jose Saramago, Margaret Jull Costa (translator)

Narrator: Paul Baymer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-20-11

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 76 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Nobel Prize-winner Jose Saramago's brilliant new novel poses the question: What happens when the grim reaper decides there will be no more death? On the first day of the new year, no one dies. This of course causes consternation among politicians, religious leaders, morticians, and doctors. Among the general public, on the other hand, there is initially celebration - flags are hung out on balconies, people dance in the streets. They have achieved the great goal of humanity: eternal life. Then reality hits home - families are left to care for the permanently dying, life-insurance policies become meaningless, and funeral parlors are reduced to arranging burials for pet dogs, cats, hamsters, and parrots.

Death sits in her chilly apartment, where she lives alone with scythe and filing cabinets, and contemplates her experiment: What if no one ever died again? What if she, death with a small d, became human and were to fall in love?

Critic Reviews:

Saramago being Saramago, he turns what could be the stuff of late-night stoner debate into a lucid, playful and politically edgy novel of ideas.... Saramago adds two satisfying cliffhangershow far can he go with the concept, and will death succumb to human love? The package is profound, resonant andbonusentertaining." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Excellent

well written, fantastic story. written in a laconic Portuguese style. the kind of story that some will think a waste of time and others will adore

interesting but slightly boring

fell asleep listening to this book a few times. there are very interesting concepts it's just not the most exciting book

Not for me

I just didn't like it. It wasn't a book for me. It was very hard to keep up.

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Title: The History of the Siege of Lisbon

Author: Jose Saramago, Giovanni Pontiero (translator)

Narrator: Robert Blumenfeld

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-20-11

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 24 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

"If proofreaders were given their freedom and did not have their hands and feet tied by a mass of prohibitions more binding than the penal code, they would soon transform the face of the world, establish the kingdom of universal happiness, giving drink to the thirsty, food to the famished, peace to those who live in turmoil, joy to the sorrowful... for they would be able to do all these things simply by changing the words...." The power of the word is evident in Portuguese author José Saramago's novel, The History of the Siege of Lisbon. His protagonist, a proofreader named Raimundo Silva, adds a key word to a history of Portugal and thus rewrites not only the past, but also his own life.

Brilliantly translated from the Portuguese by Giovanni Pontiero, The History of the Siege of Lisbon is a meditation on the differences between historiography, historical fiction, and "stories inserted into history". The novel is really two stories in one: the reimagined history of the 1147 siege of Lisbon that Raimundo feels compelled to write and the story of Raimundo's life, including his unexpected love affair with the editor, Maria Sara. In Saramago's masterful hands, the strands of this complex tale weave together to create a satisfying whole.

Critic Reviews:

"Saramago raises provocative questions about the nature of history and language. Serious readers willing to devote the time the book deserves will be dazzled by Saramago's inventiveness, intelligence, and wit. Offered in a superb translation, it is not to be missed." (Booklist)

"The best work we've seen yet from a consummate artificer who may well be one of the greatest living novelists." (Kirkus Reviews)

"Narrator Robert Blumenfeld does a fine job of rendering the spirit and manner of the great Portuguese fabulist..." (Audiofile)

Members Reviews:

Worthwhile book and interesting read

This was an interesting book to read though the reader probably didn't appreciate it enough. This is a "what if" story based on a translator intentionally adding a word to a translation which significantly changes the history the book writes about. This probably could have been a short story but the author uses his character well, adds detail, writes one of the lter native history, adds a romantic/business interest and turns it into good book.

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Titel: Der Spiegel im Spiegel (1. Staffel)

Untertitel: Der erste Buchstabe

Autor:: Michael Ende

Erzähler: Friedrich Schönfelder, Gudrun Landgrebe, Heinz Hönig

Format: Unabridged

Spieldauer: 2 hrs and 32 mins

Sprache: Deutsch

Veröffentlichungsdatum: 12-06-11

Herausgeber: steinbach sprechende bücher

Bewertung: 5 von 5 von 2 Stimmen

Kategorien: Fiction, Literary

Zusammenfassung des Herausgebers:

Ein großes Ensemble singt, spricht und spielt: Mario Adorf, Andreas Fröhlich, Jens Wawrczeck, Oliver Rohrbeck, Joachim Kerzel, Hans-Jürgen Wolf, Helmut Krauss, Frank Glaubrecht, Carlo v. Tiedemann, Tobias Meister, Annelie Krügel, Regina Lemnitz, Karin Buchholz, Erich Räuker, Gilla Cremer, Klaus Dittmann, Sven Dahlem, Peter Hawig, u.v.a.

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Title: The Mezzanine

Author: Nicholson Baker

Narrator: David LeDoux

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-29-11

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 51 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

In his startling, witty, and inexhaustibly inventive first novel, first published in 1986, the author of Vox and The Fermata uses a one-story escalator ride as the occasion for a dazzling reappraisal of everyday objects and rituals. From the humble milk carton to the act of tying one's shoes, The Mezzanine at once defamiliarizes the familiar world and endows it with loopy and euphoric poetry. Nicholson Baker's accounts of the ordinary become extraordinary through his sharp storytelling and his unconventional, conversational style.

At first glance, The Mezzanine appears to be a book about nothing. In reality, it is a brilliant celebration of things, simultaneously demonstrating the value of reflection and the importance of everyday human human experiences.

Critic Reviews:

"[A[ cheerfully original novel." (Publishers Weekly)

"A very funny, enjoyable novel by a writer whose work frequently appears in The New Yorker." (Library Journal)

Members Reviews:

Like William Carlos Williams Wrote A Novel...

You will never look at the every object or task the same way ever again! Wonderfully written book of nostalgia and insight into the things that make our lives easier, bearable and civilized.

Refrigerated by Interruption

"The mind is refrigerated by interruption; the thoughts are diverted from the principle subject; the reader is weary, he suspects not why; and at last throws away the book, which he has too diligently studied."

- Samuel Johnson, The Mezzanine

"Too fat, fat you must cut lean.

You got to take the elevator escalator to the mezzanine,

Chump, change, and it's on, super bon bon

Super bon bon, Super bon bon."

- Soul Coughing, Super Bon Bon Lyrics

This book is a literary scrimshaw of the mundane. It is basically a man breaking his shoe lace, using an office urinal, taking the escalator down to the first floor, visiting the CVS, buying a cookie and milk, and riding the escalator back up. That is it. I've totally ruined the plot for you. Sorry. The rest is just filigree and details fracturing and fractaling into discussions of straws, milk cartons, urinals, urination, papertowls, escalator etiquette, etc. This is Proust expanding on a urinal cake instead of a madeleine. This is a micro Ulysses. This is deuteroscopy of dust.

I remember first being exposed to Nicholson Baker right after I left high school. I read 'The Fermata' and 'Vox', two of Baker's early literotic efforts. 'Vox' was made famous because, if I remember right Bill Clinton gave Monica Lewinsky a copy of 'Vox' in celebration of their phone flirtations. Anyway, this novel isn't one of Baker's dirty bits. It is just an exploration of details and exploration of the bits. I think it was Stephen King who once remarked that Baker book Vox was a meaningless little finger paring. But that is really where Baker's genius lies. All those forgotten parings, those little details can be infinitely described. Like Microcosmos, you are invited to lower the glass and look at sand, or salt, or grass and you become lost in a whole new world. Baker glances at an escalator and describes a universe.

What a wonderful surprise!

I read this on the recommendation of podcast and what a pleasure it was. Funny, thoughtful and nostalgic--Baker's character grew up in many of the venues I did in Rochester, N.Y. and not much later in time.

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Title: The Romance Reader

Author: Pearl Abraham

Narrator: Suzanne Toren

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-28-11

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Filled with laughter and tears, author Pearl Abrahams moving novel takes you behind the mysterious, closed doors of a Chassidic Jewish community in New York state. The Romance Reader is her absorbing tale of a headstrong, teenaged girl attempting to live in two worlds: one traditional, one modern. Since Rachel is the rabbis oldest child, everyone expects her to set a proper example for other young believers. But at night, after everyone is in bed, she hungrily reads books - forbidden books about romance and contemporary women. She wonders if the life she reads about in those pages actually exists. Do beautiful, daring women really travel alone? Can they choose their own gallant, broad-shouldered husbands? Soon Rachels search for answers clashes with the restrictive world she knows only too well. Having grown up in a Chassidic family enables Pearl Abraham to write with poignancy and authority about this intriguing, ultra-Orthodox lifestyle. Her sensitive story earned a chorus of praise from reviewers, and Library Journal named it a Best Book. With Suzanne Torens compelling narration, Rachel will become your friend, and you wont want to say good-by.

Members Reviews:

A Window into Rebellion

Enjoyed the book, very much. The beginning was slow, but it held my interest and opened the door to what it feels like to be part of a situation (her family) against one's thoughts. Actually, having thoughts and a mind in this scenario is what the problems is. As women are treated as non-people in these sects. Creatures to be led by men who live in the 19th Century. This world of marrying at a very young age, with little education and bearing upmteen children, is such a negative for women. Very provoking. A good read.

Debut novel

I love this novel. I do. I love it. Is it perfect? Hardly. But there's something I love about a debut--the rough edges, perhaps--that makes this one of my favorites.

It's also important to note that this book reads like a Yiddish novel in translation. The language is imperfect and at times imprecise, but honest and truthful in its own right.

Abraham's following novels are much more complex and mature, but this one has, and always will, ring with some truth to me.

A super book

Having grown up quite close to the orthodox community in Brooklyn, and having many Jewish friends and step-relatives, I have to admit that much of this material was familiar to me. I am not so sure that anyone who did not have a fair amount of exposure to this type fo community would understand everything the author has written about in the novel. Having said that, the main character can really represent any teen girl trying to find love and happiness and make her way in the world. Very poignant in places, funny in others, it is a wonderful debut novel.

Five Stars

great

Couldn't put it down

A fascinating glimpse into the world of Orthodox Jews and a bittersweet coming of age story. I read it in one day and thought about the charactors for days afterwards. I highly recommend this book.

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Title: 1Q84

Author: Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin (translator), Philip Gabriel (translator)

Narrator: Allison Hiroto, Marc Vietor, Mark Boyett

Format: Unabridged

Length: 46 hrs and 50 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-27-11

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 124 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.

A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver's enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realises, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 - 'Q' is for 'question mark'. A world that bears a question.

Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.

As Aomame's and Tengo's narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.

A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell's, 1Q84 is Haruki Murakami's most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.

BONUS AUDIO: Audible interviews the translators of 1Q84, Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel.

Critic Reviews:

"It is a work of maddening brilliance and gripping originality, deceptively casual in style...vibrating with wit, intellect and ambition." (The Times)

"Eerie, suspenseful and packed full of gorgeous ordinary details and provocative extraordinary events...funny, fresh and intensely surreal. Unmissable." (Marie Claire)

Members Reviews:

Imagine if you were a character within a book...

Imagine how it would feel if you were a character within a narrative world - and knew it. To top it off the pesky author of the novel you live in keeps changing his mind. There are subtle differences in the way your world is articulated - mirroring the editing process.

There is a sense of melancholy in that some characters, such as the Leader, are unable to be something other than how they are figured in the narrative. He is restricted by this story world. His communiaction with the little people suggests his constructedness - he is aware of his fictionality - he knows he is merely a figment of an author's imagination, and is bound to do what the little people tell him to do.

I don't think I could get through this book by reading the print version. I've read a lot of Murakami's novels before, but this one is particularly long. In addition, there is a lot of layering to this novel, where there is the slightly nuanced repetition of story lines. It was nice listening to them- they are like the receding and returning tides of the ocean (yes, a weird simile, but you'll get what I mean if you listen long enough).

I highly recommend this to people who enjoy fantasy,science fiction, magic realism, narrative studies, Eng Lit majors, people who love Japan, Murakami, etc. etc.

complex, surreal and very very long

I am a huge Murakami fan. I think his style is very suited to the audiobook format, especially as music features as almost another character.