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Title: We Were Strangers Once

Author: Betsy Carter

Narrator: Suzanne Toren

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-18-17

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 12 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

For listeners of The Nightingale and Brooklyn, an exquisitely moving novel about friendship, love, and redemption in a circle of immigrants who flee Europe for 1930s-era New York City.

On the eve of World War II, Egon Schneider - a gallant and successful Jewish doctor, son of two world-famous naturalists - escapes Germany to an uncertain future across the sea. Settling into the unfamiliar rhythms of upper Manhattan, he finds solace among a tight-knit group of fellow immigrants, tenacious men and women drawn together as much by their differences as by their memories of the world they left behind.

They each suffer degradations and triumphs large and small: Egon's terminally acerbic lifelong friend, best-selling author Meyer Leavitt, now wears a sandwich board on a New York street corner; Catrina Harty, the headstrong daughter of a dirt-poor Irish trolley driver, survives heartbreak and loss to forge an unlikely alliance; and Egon himself is forced to abandon his thriving medical practice to become the "Cheese Man" at a Washington Heights grocery. But their spirits remain unbroken, and when their little community is faced with an existential threat, these strangers rise up together in hopes of creating a permanent home. With her uncanny ability to create indelible characters in unforgettable circumstances, Betsy Carter has crafted a gorgeous novel that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt adrift and longed for home.

Critic Reviews:

"This is a gorgeous, heartbreaking book...beautiful in its characters' resilience and reminders of the contributions immigrants have made to this country...Carter has created a vivid world.... Their stories are unique and distinctive, and yet their struggles feel familiar. Could this be required reading for anyone who seeks to keep refugees out of this country?" (Historical Novels Review)

"In this sharply observed historical novel, a web of friendships connect German Jews in pre-Hitler Germany after they emigrate to America. In their complex relationships and struggles both emotional and cultural, we are given insight into life at its most resilient and joyous. An important book to remind us of the humanity in the current wave of immigrants, and how much they have to offer us." (Alice LaPlante, New York Times best-selling author of Turn of Mind)

Members Reviews:

because they were fortunate enough to have escaped that by immigrating a decade ...

I was going to hold off on reading this, having read several books in the last year or so on the refugee experience. This one though, didn't take place in the current day, but before WWII and I thought about immigrants from our history even earlier than this time when my grandparents came to this country. It's probably something that many of us think about with the current focus on immigration and the title certainly resonated for me and then the dedication "To everyone from somewhere else". The epigraph sealed the deal. I couldn't hold off after reading : "My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too." - Barack Obama

I thought I'd be taken immediately to New York where this group of German Jews, are connected by knowing each in Germany. We come to know them at first when they are still in Germany in the 1930's.

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Title: For Two Thousand Years

Author: Mihail Sebastian, Philip Oceallaigh

Narrator: Simon Vance

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-12-17

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

This literary masterpiece revives the ideological debates of the interwar period through the journal of a Romanian Jewish student caught between anti-Semitism and Zionism. Although he endures persistent threats just to attend lectures, he feels disconnected from his Jewish peers and questions whether their activism will be worth the cost. Spending his days walking the streets and his nights drinking and conversing with revolutionaries, zealots, and libertines, he remains isolated, even from the women he loves. From Bucharest to Paris, he strives to make peace with himself in an increasingly hostile world.

For Two Thousand Years echoes Mihail Sebastian's struggles as the rise of fascism ended his career and turned his friends and colleagues against him. Born of the violence of relentless anti-Semitism, his searching, self-derisive work captures a defining moment in history and lights the way for generations to come - a prescient, heart-wrenching chronicle of resilience and despair, resistance and acceptance.

Critic Reviews:

"His prose is like something Chekov might have written - the same modesty, candor, and subtleness of observation." (Arthur Miller)

Members Reviews:

Timely despite having been written 80 years ago

The author's struggles with being Jewish and Romanian are well captured in this semi autobiographical work. This book raises issues for those of us who love our country but see it going down such a wrong path.

Three Stars

The "plot" wandered all over the place.

An amazing book. Too many great things to say about ...

An amazing book. Too many great things to say about it in this short space. But ifyou are interested in pre-WW2 fascism this is the book!

Two Stars

Interesting setting, a bit gloomy.

An excellent read

I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, and Penguin Classics - Other Books in exchange for an honest review. This manuscript was originally published in Romanian in 1934. This 2017 release is the first English language translation of this work.

This is an exceptional story, written as a journal or diary, by a young Romanian Jew as he moves through the late 1920's early 1930's. Sharing these glimpses into the difficult daily life of young Mihail Sebastian as he struggles through his schooling and into a career as an architect is heart wrenching. As the world crumbles around him, there is so much to learn of this time, this place. The first and hardest lesson is absorbing the fact that Mihail expects and accepts the bullying and harassment he encounters at school and on the streets without resentment. Add in the fact that you know what is coming for this community, this country, this young man, For Two Thousand Years can break your heart.

There is a lot out there to read in an effort to understand about World War II from the aspect of Europeans who suffered through these hard times. I have not found a great deal about Romania written by Romanians. I was most pleased to find this treasure. It will go into my history bookcase to read again at leisure. Thank you, Other Books, for bringing this work into our world. With more understanding of what folded our world into World War II perhaps we can back up and avoid WWIII.

Recommends This Book

Strongly

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Title: The Queen of Beauty

Subtitle: The Century Trilogy, Book 3

Author: Petra Durst-Benning, Edwin Miles - translator

Narrator: Teri Clark Linden

Format: Unabridged

Length: 17 hrs and 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-27-17

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 42 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Petra Durst-Benning's captivating historical novel pays homage to the trailblazing women of the early twentieth century - like Elizabeth Arden and Estée Lauder - who shaped culture, shattered convention, and strived to make the world around them more beautiful.

Despite all that Clara Berg has achieved as a wife, mother, and chemist - especially for a woman in turn-of-the-century Berlin - ending her abusive marriage comes at great cost. The judge hands her inheritance - her parents' pharmacy - over to her ex-husband. Now, with her reputation in near ruins thanks to the scandal that rocked her marriage, no reputable chemist will hire her. Worst of all, she has lost all rights to her young son and daughter. Only her dearest friends, Josephine and Isabelle, themselves no strangers to hardship, remain steadfast.

With their encouragement, Clara decides to start over in the spa town of Lake Constance, where she creates a homemade cream and launches a cosmetics revolution. Against all convention, she teaches other women and herself how to face the challenges of each new day with confidence and beauty. Soon her renown brings prestige, professional accolades, even new romance. But through it all, her heart beats for her beloved children - will success finally bring the reunion she longs for?

Members Reviews:

Queen of Beauty

Great story to end the adventures of three friends when it had yet become a woman's world.

The trilogy is finally here!

I was so happy to see that the trilogy, ending with 'The Queen of Beauty', was finally published and on audible! I listened to the previous books and felt as if it was an entire year until this one came out. I was not disappointed...

The overall story could have been about 3 hours less, it had a tendency to lag also, but listening to Teri Clark Linden had me completely intrigued.

I highly recommend this last book to everyone...I also wish the story of these amazing women wasn't over. Loved it!

Very enjoyable story, terrible narration

Any additional comments?

The final part of an excellent trilogy by an author who is a very popular German novelist. I patricularly enjoy that all her books I have read so far are based upon trades such as glass blowing, hair collecting, champagne production etc - a pleasant change from upstairs/downstairs and gentry/royalty type historical novels. The details of the trades are fascinating, and of course European based. The translations seem good but oh how the narrator ruins the books. Ive read all the others as Kindle books but since I had a free trial of Kindle Unlimited I thought Id try listening to the free audiobook version and swapped halfway through. The linkage between the two versions works well and the narration started at the top of the page I had just read. Unfortunately the narrator has a very strong American accent. The firrst few words seemed so mechanically read that I started wondering if Alexa or Siri was reading it to me. Then the dialogue started... I couldnt believe my ears it was so bad - slow whiny spoilt brat American voices - for novels rooted very firmly in Europe. I have no objection to American accents for the narration of American novels, if anything it improves them, but this really jarred and totally ruined the beautiful German or European atmosphere of the novels.

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Title: Yiddish for Pirates

Author: Gary Barwin

Narrator: Peter Berkrot

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-20-17

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Winner of the $15,000 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour

Shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and nominated for the Governor-General's Award for Literature, a hilarious, swashbuckling yet powerful tale of pirates, buried treasure, and a search for the Fountain of Youth, told in the ribald, philosophical voice of a 500-year-old Jewish parrot.

Set in the years around 1492, Yiddish for Pirates recounts the compelling story of Moishe, a Bar Mitzvah boy who leaves home to join a ship's crew, where he meets Aaron, the polyglot parrot who becomes his near-constant companion.

From a present-day Florida nursing home, this wisecracking yet poetic bird guides us through a world of pirate ships, Yiddish jokes, and treasure maps. But Inquisition Spain is a dangerous time to be Jewish and Moishe joins a band of hidden Jews trying to preserve some forbidden books. He falls in love with a young woman, Sarah; though they are separated by circumstance, Moishe's wanderings are motivated as much by their connection as by his quest for loot and freedom. When all Jews are expelled from Spain, Moishe travels to the Caribbean with the ambitious Christopher Columbus, a self-made man who loves his creator. Moishe eventually becomes a pirate and seeks revenge on the Spanish while seeking the ultimate booty: the Fountain of Youth.

This outstanding New Face of Fiction is filled with Jewish takes on classic pirate tales - fights, prison escapes, and exploits on the high seas - but it's also a tender love story, between Moishe and Sarah, and between Aaron and his "shoulder", Moishe. Rich with puns, colorful language, post-colonial satire, and Kabbalistic hijinks, Yiddish for Pirates is also a compelling examination of mortality, memory, identity, and persecution from one of this country's most talented writers.

Members Reviews:

What is not to like? Read this and laugh

incredibly funny book along the lines of Sot Weed Factor. Ribald and fantastic. Plus you get to lear a little Hebrew, a little more yiddish, what is not to like??

Five Stars

Rollicking good fun mate! Have recommended it to friends and sailors!

Good read

Enjoyable yarn with a darker edge.

so the use of language was fun! I did find the story didn't keep me ...

I know Yiddish, so the use of language was fun! I did find the story didn't keep me engaged enough. Too many monologues

and I enjoyed it so much after reading it

It is a very clever book, and I enjoyed it so much after reading it, that i bought a copy for a friend.

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Title: A Pocket Full of Shells

Subtitle: Irish Family Saga, Book 1

Author: Jean Reinhardt

Narrator: Michael Healy

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 26 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-14-17

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 2 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

In 1846 a baby girl is born to a young Irish fisherman and his wife. It is the second year of the Great Hunger and the young couple choose to remain in Ireland, while family and friends are leaving. Their story takes place in the fishing village of Blackrock, Dundalk, but with the cities of Liverpool and Sunderland playing a critical part in their lives. Is their love for each other and their homeland enough to sustain them, or will they be forced to join the one and a half million who emigrate? This is the story of a young man's love for his wife and child and the struggle to provide for his family in one of the darkest periods of Ireland's history.

Members Reviews:

I found this very boring

I am nearly finished with book 1. I just can't get into it. The book has not been character driven, so I did not bind with any of them. The author tells you about the people. There is very little dialog amongst the characters, you only learn about them thru descriptions. Author tells you about Ireland famine, but reader does not feel it. I think it is very boring so will not read the rest of the saga.

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Title: The Widow Nash

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Jamie Harrison

Narrator: Elisabeth Rodgers

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-13-17

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 36 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

It is New York, 1904, and Dulcy Remfrey, despite an idiosyncratic, traveling childhood, faces the predictable life of a woman of the time. But all that changes when her eccentric father returns from his expedition to Africa without any of the proceeds from the sale of a gold mine. It seems he's lost his mind along with the money, and Dulcy's obsessive ex-fiancé (and her father's business partner) insists she come to Seattle to decipher her father's cryptic notebooks, which may hold clues to the missing funds. When her father dies unexpectedly, taking the truth with him, Dulcy looks at her future, finds it unbearable, and somewhere in the northern Rockies, disappears from the train bringing her father's body home.

Is it possible to disappear from your old life and create another? Dulcy travels the West, reading stories about her own death, and finds a small Montana town where she's reborn as Mrs. Nash, a wealthy young widow, free from the burden of family. But her old life won't let go so easily, and soon her ex-fiancé is on her trail, threatening the new life she is so eager to create.

The Widow Nash is a riveting narrative, filled with a colorful cast of characters, timeless themes, and great set pieces - Europe in summer, New York in fall, Africa in winter, and the lively, unforgettable town of Livingston, Montana. This is a book that surprises with its twists and turns, ribald sensibility, and rich historical details. And in Dulcy, Jamie Harrison has created an indelible heroine sure to capture the hearts of listeners everywhere.

Members Reviews:

Engaging and satisfying

An excellent performance of a well written story. I enjoyed the strong heroine. At times there felt like a few too many odd characters but isn't that what you found in the pioneers willing to strike out in newer frontiers?

All in all I highly recommend.

Not a favorite

I learned more about (historically) syphilis than I ever care to. The writing was good and I wanted to find out the story's end.

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Title: Fly Me

Author: Daniel Riley

Narrator: Vanessa DeSilvio

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-08-17

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 29 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

A nation on the verge of a new era - and a girl caught between her past and the ever-expanding present.

The year is 1972, and the beaches of Los Angeles are the center of the world. Dropping into the embers of the drug and surf scene is Suzy Whitman, who has tossed her newly minted Vassar degree aside to follow her older sister into open skies and the borderless adventures of stewardessing for Grand Pacific Airlines.

In Sela del Mar, California - a hedonistic beach town in the shadow of LAX - Suzy skateboards, suntans, and flies daily and nightly across the country. Motivated by a temporary escape from her past and a new taste for danger and belonging, Suzy falls into a drug-trafficking scheme that clashes perilously with the skyjacking epidemic of the day.

Rendered in the brilliant color of the age and told with spectacular insight and clarity, Fly Me is a story of dark discovery set in the debauchery of 1970s Los Angeles.

Members Reviews:

Summer Reading 2017

I found this book by a google search of summer reading 2017. The narration was very good.

The worst part about this book was the constant use by the author of tie-ins to periods in time to authenticate his timeline. Not that that isn't always done but in this case, the examples drone on and on.

The ending of the book is unbelievably weak. It's as if the correct number of words had been reached. The last line might as well have been "Okay, we're finished here."

The perfect summer read

What made the experience of listening to Fly Me the most enjoyable?

Extraordinary characters and atmosphere, a breathless and gripping peek into a young woman's adventure as she leaves behind her Vassar diploma to become a stewardess based in a Southern California beach town in the early 70s.

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Title: The Mothers of Lovely Lane

Subtitle: Lovely Lane, Book 3

Author: Nadine Dorries

Narrator: Georgia Maguire

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-02-17

Publisher: Lamplight Audio

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 15 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Noleen Delaney is one of an army of night cleaners at St Angelus hospital in Liverpool. Since her husband was injured in the war, she has supported her five children and the family; she just about gets by.

When Finn, her youngest, passes the 11-plus exam, Noleen feels faint. Allowing Finn to attend the grammar will stretch her purse too far. As the nurses of Lovely Lane near their final exams, Noleen will find herself tested and her heart broken. Just how far can a mother's love stretch?

Critic Reviews:

"As heart-warming as it is heart-breaking, this novel is unputdownable." (Sunday Express)

"Dorries knows what people want." (The Mail on Sunday)

Members Reviews:

the mothers who held their families together..

What did you like most about The Mothers of Lovely Lane?

I loved how the author not only showed us the lives of the nurses of this brilliant series but we also get introduced to those mothers who went to work night after night, cleaning the hospital when everyone slept.

What did you like best about this story?

There was danger from those who fought against the law, but it took the bravery of a fourteen-year-old who stood up against the evil that tried to take over Liverpool through fear and so much more.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

I would not like to describe a scene as I do not want to ruin the storyline for other readers but there is one near the end when ghosts from the past are finally laid to rest.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

the whole book moved me as it was full of wonderful writing and excellent narration from the narrator Georgia Maguire.

Any additional comments?

simply a book which contained so many emotions and so much more simply highly recommended.

A Fantastic Follow Up

In this third instalment of the series, Nadine Dorries expands further on the lives and loves of the four Nurses. Also, as before, she explores the support, togetherness and resilience of the community.

Once again very well narrated by Georgia Maguire. I love this series - it begs for a fourth edition to the story.

As good as ever

Love these books. Could keep on listening and feel lost when they end. Narration is brilliant-well done Georgia McGuire. Can't wait for the next one.

Great book

Found it a lovely story for my first Audiobook more the same next time please.

Disappointing ending to a wonderful trilogy

I found the final book very disappointing. I wasn't expecting Happy Ever Afters all round, but I was left with a sense of incompletion when it was finished.

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Title: Longbow

Subtitle: The Saga of Roland Inness, Book 1

Author: Wayne Grant

Narrator: James Young

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-28-17

Publisher: Wayne Grant

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 17 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Roland Inness desperately needs meat for his starving family, but he takes the wrong deer on the wrong nobleman's land. Worse yet, he uses his longbow, a weapon outlawed and suppressed by the Norman overlords of England. Now they are coming for him. With one shot the 14 year old peasant boy is launched on a desperate flight that takes him from the mountains of Derbyshire to the wild frontier of Wales and on to the court of Richard the Lionheart. Along the way he is hunted by a paid killer, aided by a strange monk named Tuck, and taken in by a gruff Norman knight, who values his amazing skill with the bow. That skill and his courage are sorely tested as he fights to earn the trust of his new master. Longbow is the first novel in The Saga of Roland Inness. It is followed by Warbow, which takes Roland and his companions to the Holy Land on King Richard's Crusade, and The Broken Realm, which tells the story of his return to England to find a country in the midst of a civil war. The final book in the series, The Ransomed Crown puts Roland at the center of the struggle to save Richard's crown while he is imprisoned by the Holy Roman Emperor and his brother John seeks to usurp the throne.

Members Reviews:

Gripping Historical Adventure

If you could sum up Longbow in three words, what would they be?

Gripping historical adventure

What was one of the most memorable moments of Longbow?

Certainly the opening scene is extremely atmospheric.

Which character as performed by James Young was your favourite?

Roland. He's an ideal hero.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

There were several.

Any additional comments?

This is historical adventure that manages to be both exciting and entertaining. The style of storytelling is lively and descriptive. The novel makes more than a passing nod to the Robin Hood legend, and contains a colourful cast of characters, with all the makings of a fantastic hero. A promising start to the series.

longbow

a great story, all action and no flowery bits. looking forward to Roland's next adventure.

Such a shame about the narrator

While the story is standard for the genre, it would be entertaining if it were not for what must be the worst narration I have experienced. I have no idea how anyone could have thought the weak voices this narrator offers could possibly fit the characters. They all come across as wimpish and effeminate. Suitable for a children's story (up to 8 years-of-age) but hardly fitting for fighting men.

Dull

Dull story, dull reading. I can forgive the reader but what he had to read wasn't worth the effort. Shame, because the idea and concept are good but the end result just didn't engage me.

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Titel: Die fremde Königin (Otto der Große 2)

Autor:: Rebecca Gablé

Erzähler: Detlef Bierstedt

Format: Unabridged

Spieldauer: 28 hrs

Sprache: Deutsch

Veröffentlichungsdatum: 04-27-17

Herausgeber: Lübbe Audio

Bewertung: 5 von 5 von 1 Stimmen

Kategorien: Fiction, Historical

Zusammenfassung des Herausgebers:

"Könige sind wie Gaukler. Sie blenden die Untertanen mit ihrem Mummenschanz, damit die nicht merken, dass das Reich auseinanderfällt."

Anno Domini 951: Der junge Gaidemar, ein Bastard vornehmer, aber unbekannter Herkunft und Panzerreiter in König Ottos Reiterlegion, erhält einen gefährlichen Auftrag: Er soll die italienische Königin Adelheid aus der Gefangenschaft in Garda befreien. Auf ihrer Flucht verliebt er sich in Adelheid, aber sie heiratet König Otto. Dennoch steigt Gaidemar zum Vertrauten der Königin auf und erringt mit Otto auf dem Lechfeld den Sieg über die Ungarn. Schließlich verlobt er sich mit der Tochter eines mächtigen Slawenfürsten, und der Makel seiner Geburt scheint endgültig getilgt. Doch Adelheid und Gaidemar ahnen nicht, dass ihr gefährlichster Feind noch lange nicht besiegt ist, und als sie mit Otto zur Kaiserkrönung nach Rom aufbrechen, droht ihnen dies zum Verhängnis zu werden...

Rebecca Gablé, Bestsellerautorin und Schöpferin der populären Waringham-Saga, hat nun mit ihrem Historienepos "Otto der Große" ein weiteres Meisterwerk geschaffen. Nach "Das Haupt der Welt" ist "Die fremde Königin" der zweite Band der mittelalterlichen Romanreihe.

>> Diese ungekürzte Hörbuch-Fassung wird Ihnen exklusiv von Audible präsentiert und ist ausschließlich im Download erhältlich.

©2017 Bastei Lübbe (P)2017 Lübbe Audio

Mitglieder Bewertungen:

Five Stars

well written