Discover the Libray of Best Audiobooks in Fiction, Literary

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Titel: Oma lässt grüßen und sagt, es tut ihr leid

Autor:: Fredrik Backman

Erzähler: Heikko Deutschmann

Format: Unabridged

Spieldauer: 14 hrs and 11 mins

Sprache: Deutsch

Veröffentlichungsdatum: 06-25-15

Herausgeber: Argon Verlag

Bewertung: 4.5 von 5 von 13 Stimmen

Kategorien: Fiction, Literary

Zusammenfassung des Herausgebers:

"Versprich mir, dass du mich noch lieb hast, wenn du erfährst, wer ich gewesen bin. Und versprich mir, auf das Schloss aufzupassen. Und auf deine Freunde." Oma zu Elsa.

Oma ist 77, Ärztin, Chaotin und treibt die Nachbarn in den Wahnsinn. Elsa ist 7, liebt Wikipedia und Superhelden und hat nur einen einzigen Freund: Nämlich Oma. In Omas Märchen erlebt Elsa die aufregendsten Abenteuer. Bis Oma sie eines Tages auf die größte Suche ihres Lebens schickt - und zwar in der wirklichen Welt.

©2013 / 2015 Verlag Forum, Stockholm, Fredrik Backman / S. Fischer Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt am Main. Nach Vereinbarung mit der Bonnier Group Agency, Stockholm. Übersetzung von Stefanie Werner (P)2015 Argon Verlag GmbH, Berlin

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Title: A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me

Subtitle: Stories and a Novella

Author: David Gates

Narrator: Lesa Lockford, Eric Michael Summerer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-19-15

Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Gates' characters, young or old or neither, are well educated, broadly knowledgeable, often creative, and variously accomplished, whether as a doctor or a composer, an academic or a journalist. And every one of them carries a full supply of the human condition: parents in assisted-living - or assisted-dying - facilities, too many or too few people in their families and marriages, the ties that bind a sometimes messy knot, age an implacable foe, impulses pulling them away from comfort into distraction or catastrophe. Terrifyingly self-aware, they refuse to go gently - even when they're going nowhere fast, in settings that range across the metropolitan and suburban Northeast to the countryside upstate and in New England.

Members Reviews:

Well-Written But Every Story Seems To Be About The Same Thing

As others have mentioned, the stories themselves are nicely done when taken on an individual basis. But joined together in a collection, there's a numbing sameness about them. There's a well-off dysfunctional family in a college town somewhere between Albany and Vermont. There's a lot of infidelity and copious amounts of alcohol. A sense the narrator has squandered his or her life. An unhappy ending.

More than once, I accidentally lost my place in the book and when I picked it up again, it took me a page or two to realize I was on the wrong story--that's how similar they all feel. There's also that Writer's Workshop thing, where no one actually works in an office or has the sort of job 99% of us have, so they are either academics or truck stop waitresses. Nothing in between.

That said, Gates writes well and the stories, the opening novella in particular, are well done.

An excellent book from a respected author

I first read David Gates when he wrote for the New Yorker. His article on bluegrass great Ralph Stanley was one of my favorite articles. Ever.

This book is a delight. I highly recommend it.

not sure how I can best describe the tone - "laconic" maybe

Very engaging writing, not sure how I can best describe the tone - "laconic" maybe. The short story format was a bit challenging since I felt that I hadn't quite learned as much as I would have liked about the subject characters. Highly recommend this book.

Make up your own mind

Several themes emerge and surface frequently. Enjoyed the writing, not always the content but each to her/his own preference. Different strokes of the pen for different folks and that's as it should be.

Gates at His Best

David Gates hits so many high notes in this collection. Subtle notes, but high. "Banishment," with its deft, chameleonic use of the female point of view, is particularly strong--telling us much about both men and women. Buy this book!

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Title: The Making of Zombie Wars

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Aleksandar Hemon

Narrator: Chris Patton

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-12-15

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 10 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Script idea #142: Aliens undercover as cabbies abduct the fiancée of the main character, who has to find a way to a remote planet to save her. Title: Love Trek. Script idea #185: Teenager discovers his girlfriend's beloved grandfather was a guard in a Nazi death camp. The boy's grandparents are survivors, but he's tantalizingly close to achieving deflowerment, so when a Nazi hunter arrives in town in pursuit of Grandpa, he has to distract him long enough to get laid. A riotous Holocaust comedy. Title: The Righteous Love.

Script idea #196: Rock star high out of his mind freaks out during a show, runs offstage, and is lost in streets crowded with his hallucinations. The teenage fan who finds him keeps the rock star for himself for the night. Mishaps and adventures follow. This one could be a musical: Singin' in the Brain. Josh Levin is an aspiring screenwriter teaching ESL classes in Chicago. His laptop is full of ideas, but the only one to really take root is Zombie Wars.

When Josh comes home to discover his landlord, an unhinged army vet, rifling through his dirty laundry, he decides to move in with his girlfriend, Kimmy. It's domestic bliss for a moment, but Josh becomes entangled with a student, a Bosnian woman named Ana, whose husband is jealous and violent. Disaster ensues, and as Josh's choices move from silly to profoundly absurd, The Making of Zombie Wars takes on real consequence.

Members Reviews:

Not Recommended

Entertainment Weekly recommended this book and the description sounded entertaining. Very unlikable lead character. Story goes nowhere. Truthfully, I'm not sure why I continued to listen.

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Title: A Slant of Light

Author: Jeffrey Lent

Narrator: Stephen McLaughlin

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-07-15

Publisher: Audible Studios for Bloomsbury

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 27 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

At the close of the Civil War, weary veteran Malcolm Hopeton returns to his home in Western New York State to find his wife and hired man missing and his farm in disrepair. A double murder ensues, the repercussions of which ripple through a community with spiritual roots in the Second Great Awakening. Hopeton has gone from the horrors of war to those far worse, and arrayed around him are a host of other people struggling to make sense of his crime. Among them is Enoch Stone, the lawyer for the community, whose spiritual dedication is subverted by his lust for power; August Swarthout, whose wife has left earthly time and whose eye is set on eternity; and a boy who must straddle two worlds as he finds his own truth and strength. Always there is love and the memory of love - as haunting as the American Eden that Jeffrey Lent has so exquisitely rendered in this unforgettable novel.

A Slant of Light is a novel of earthly pleasure and deep love, of loss and war, of prophets and followers, of theft and revenge, in an American moment where a seemingly golden age has been shattered. This is Jeffrey Lent on his home ground and at the height of his powers.

Members Reviews:

A real treat, but the ending....grr!

Would you listen to A Slant of Light again? Why?

I would if I knew there would be more to the story. It seemed to end at a point that made you wonder if you had only been listening to part one.

Have you listened to any of Stephen McLaughlins other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

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

Many

Any additional comments?

One of the best of the year, but be prepared to be a bit dumbfounded at the end.

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Titel: Unterwerfung

Autor:: Michel Houellebecq

Erzähler: Christian Berkel

Format: Unabridged

Spieldauer: 7 hrs and 48 mins

Sprache: Deutsch

Veröffentlichungsdatum: 02-18-15

Herausgeber: Der Audio Verlag

Bewertung: 4.5 von 5 von 16 Stimmen

Kategorien: Fiction, Literary

Zusammenfassung des Herausgebers:

Paris, 2022: Der Literaturprofessor François führt ein einsames Leben. Seine einzige Leidenschaft gilt dem dekadenten Schriftsteller Huysmans. Tiefergehende Beziehungen interessieren ihn ebenso wenig wie aktuelle politische Ereignisse. Doch als in Frankreich gewählt wird, gerät sein ruhiges Leben ins Wanken. Um den als wahrscheinlich geltenden Sieg des Front National zu verhindern, koalieren die bürgerlichen Parteien mit der Bruderschaft der Muslime: Neuer Präsident wird deren charismatisches Oberhaupt Mohammed Ben Abbes. Nach und nach beginnt sich die französische Gesellschaft zu wandeln - und auch François muss jetzt neue Wege gehen.

Das neue Buch von Michel Houellebecq handelt vom Zusammenprall der Kulturen und vom Verhältnis von Orient und Okzident, von Judentum, Islam und Christentum - ein Buch so aktuell wie nie zuvor!

©2015 Dumont. Übersetzung von Norma Cassau und Bernd Wilczek (P)2015 DAV

Mitglieder Bewertungen:

A formidable parable on our inabiliy or unwillingness to submit to realities

Is Houellebecq getting moderate? Given the hype prior to the release of this book in connection with the events in Paris, I would have expected a much more controversial story. But most of the book is essentially an intellectual reflection on the literary opus of a rather unknown author of a gone century, sometimes quite lengthy. I am still rating the book with a five star, because like no other famous author he reminds us of prevalent prejudices, stereotypes, and hidden fears - and the inability of societies in Europe to deal with them.

Food for thought

Haunting and very plausible. Nothing new, really, but the inevitable explained at the hand of a disillusioned intellectual.

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Title: The Rabbit Back Literature Society

Author: Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen

Narrator: Kate Rawson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-11-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 71 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

A highly contagious book virus, a literary society and a Snow Queen-like disappearing author...

She came to realise that under one reality there's always another. And another one under that.

Only very special people are chosen by children's author Laura White to join 'The Society', an elite group of writers in the small town of Rabbit Back. Now a 10th member has been selected: Ella, literature teacher and possessor of beautifully curving lips.

But soon Ella discovers that the Society is not what it seems. What is its mysterious ritual, 'The Game'? What explains the strange disappearance that occurs at Laura's winter party, in a whirlwind of snow? Why are the words inside books starting to rearrange themselves? Was there once another 10th member, before her? Slowly, disturbing secrets that had been buried come to light....

In this chilling, darkly funny novel, the uncanny brushes up against the everyday in the most beguiling and unexpected of ways.

Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen, born in 1966, is one of Finland's best-kept secrets. A novelist and short-story writer, he is well known for his fantasy and sci-fi narratives and has twice won the Kuvastaja Fantasy Prize given by Finland's Tolkien Society and four times won the Atorax Award for Fantasy. He teaches Finnish language and literature and is the father of three sons.

Critic Reviews:

"The Rabbit Back Literature Society Mixes the small-town surrealism of Twin Peaks with the clandestine-society theme of Donna Tartt's The Secret History The List Unnerving, enigmatic... Hints of Let the Right One In and Haruki Murakami's elliptical early science fiction novels flavour a creepy tale about mutating books, buried secrets and ghostly encounters" James Lovegrove, (Financial Times)

"Wonderfully knotty... a very grown-up fantasy masquerading as quirky fable. Unexpected, thrilling and absurd" (Sunday Telegraph)

"Charming, chilling and gripping from its very first page" (Bizarre)

"Sly wit... characterises The Rabbit Back Literature Society" (Metro)

"Charming and intriguing, switching from playful to creepy to heartfelt and back again... good fun" (The Bookbag)

"The Rabbit Back Literature Society is a lobster pot of a book... an exquisite balance of suspense, precision-engineered structure and darkly playful humour... fascinating. And fun." 5-star review, (SFX)

"A novel about big questions ... wonderful characters... amazing" (TQR Stories)

Members Reviews:

doesn't live up to the hype

this book was good, not great. interesting concept. well written, sort of. there was not a lot there for me to grab onto or care about. the mystery at the heart of the story, never solved...so disappointing there. the magical realism in the story was cool, until it wasn't....because it went nowhere and kind of just made me ask more questions that were never answered.

i don't need all questions answered in a book. i'm not the "wrap this up and make everything happy" type of reader. but it would be nice to have SOME resolution. i felt that everything in this book just led to more questions and more and more and more.

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Titel: Ein ganzes Leben

Autor:: Robert Seethaler

Erzähler: Ulrich Matthes

Format: Unabridged

Spieldauer: 3 hrs and 50 mins

Sprache: Deutsch

Veröffentlichungsdatum: 07-23-14

Herausgeber: tacheles! / Roof Music

Bewertung: 4 von 5 von 1 Stimmen

Kategorien: Fiction, Literary

Zusammenfassung des Herausgebers:

Robert Seethaler erzählt von dem Seilbahnarbeiter Andreas Egger, über den die Zeit hinweggeht, dem Unglück und Glück widerfährt und der am Ende staunend auf die Jahre blickt, die hinter ihm liegen. Es ist eine einfache und tief bewegende Geschichte. Die Geschichte eines ganzen Lebens.

Als Andreas Egger in das Tal kommt, in dem er sein Leben verbringen wird, ist er vier Jahre alt, ungefähr - so genau weiß das keiner. Der Bauer Kranzstocker nimmt ihn widerwillig bei sich auf, als junger Mann schließt er sich einem Arbeitstrupp an, der eine der ersten Bergbahnen baut. Dann kommt der Tag, an dem Egger zum ersten Mal vor Marie steht, der Liebe seines Lebens.

©2014 Hanser Berlin (P)2014 ROOF Music

Mitglieder Bewertungen:

Five Stars

A great novel by a great writer

Five Stars

bitter süß ,unendlich menschlich

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Title: Never Let Me Go

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro

Narrator: Kerry Fox

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-03-14

Publisher: Canongate Faber Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 11 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

In one of the most acclaimed novels of recent years, Kazuo Ishiguro imagines the lives of a group of students growing up in a darkly skewed version of contemporary England.

Narrated by Kathy, now 31, Never Let Me Go dramatizes her attempts to come to terms with her childhood at the seemingly idyllic Hailsham School and with the fate that has always awaited her and her closest friends in the wider world. A story of love, friendship, and memory, Never Let Me Go is charged throughout with a sense of the fragility of life.

Members Reviews:

Haunting and thought provoking

Would you listen to Never Let Me Go again? Why?

I think I would. Not right away but in time yes.

It forces you to question what it is to be human and what the value you of that is.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Strangely my favourite character isn't a person, it's the atmosphere. The tone of the story and the atmosphere of the book really are a character in itself. I can't really describe it... It's almost somber meet anticipation.

Which character as performed by Kerry Fox was your favourite?

I love all the characters prostrated by Kerry Fox, I thought she did a wonderful job with all. However, the biting attitude of Ruth was brilliantly bought forward.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

What is the real purpose of YOUR existence?

Any additional comments?

A truly haunting story. Horrific without even uttering a word of horror. Truly thought provoking and leaves you thinking, WHY? Not in a dramatic sense but questioning why the situation in this book would ever exist. Hailsham, should never exist... I hope to god it doesn't.

It's the first book I have read that is sweet and gentil throughout but filled with background atrocities that will haunt you and make you question the importance of the fellow man.

Tragic and enigmatic

To begin with, the book is enigmatic. There is the hint of something sinister in the idyllic life of Hailsham. As more details become clear, it's all dealt with very matter of factly, like the sex, as though examining it from a detached scientific point of view. Even the effect off the big reveal at the end on the characters isn't explicitly discussed, although their subsequent actions are clearly related. But don't let that put you off. It's a deeply moving and tragic story and you can't help but love the three central characters for all their flaws. The problem with listening to an audio book when your driving is that keeping the car on the road when your sobbing loudly is quite hard! The narration is of a high quality, particularly of the female characters, but I feel her representation of Tommy is a little unfair.

Deeply disturbung, I could not stop listening

I ordered this book after finding it in a Buzzfeed Booklist of 53 Books you can't put down. Classified as a fantasy, there is no magic, swords or sorcerers. It is written, as if by the main protagonist, who describes her life, growing up in a boarding school for 'special' children bred to become donors. The lack of emotion, her lack of horror, made it even more horrific for the reader. It is a fantastic, and absorbing book. I could not find fault with one word or concept, it is perfectly executed, beautifully crafted.

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Title: I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You

Author: Courtney Maum

Narrator: Sam Deveraux

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-24-14

Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 133 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Despite the success of his first solo show in Paris and the support of his brilliant French wife and young daughter, 34-year-old British artist Richard Haddon is too busy mourning the loss of his American mistress to appreciate his fortune. But after Richard discovers that a painting he originally made for his wife, Anne, has sold, it shocks him back to reality and he resolves to reinvest wholeheartedly in his family life - just in time for his wife to learn the extent of his affair. Rudderless and remorseful, Richard embarks on a series of misguided attempts to win Anne back while focusing his creative energy on a provocative art piece to prove that he's still the man she once loved.

Critic Reviews:

Starred review. "An honest, staggeringly realized journey... Equally funny and touching, the novel strikes deep, presenting a sincere exploration of love and monogamy. These characters are complex, and their story reflects their confusion and desire... An impressive, smart novel." (Publishers Weekly)

"A gem of a novel about the tangles of love, regret, and hope that might or might not hold a marriage together. Courtney Maum's deft, beguiling debut charms with its wit and glows with compassion." (Maggie Shipstead, author of Seating Arrangements)

"Courtney Maum writes with such honesty and verve about how we struggle to deserve the people we love. Intensely personal and engagingly complex, I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You is a moving, complicated, big-hearted novel." (Kevin Wilson, author of The Family Fang)

"Antic, sexy, satirically deft, and of course funny, this novel is also, on both the personal and political levels, smart about the bottomlessness of our capacities for self-sabotage, and moving about the fierceness of our yearning to make good." (Jim Shepard, author of You Think That's Bad; and Like You'd Understand, Anyway )

"Maum's witty and insightful novel captures a lifetime of falling in and out of love. It's an investigation of marriage which often combines its utter clear-sightedness and its tremendous warmth in the very same sentence. So agile and fully realized." (Ned Beauman, author of The Teleportation Accident)

Members Reviews:

Not feeling enlightened

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The first half was a page turner. I was sufficiently entertained.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I would develop the women characters. I would develop the lover Lisa in particular and not throw her away so easily by the stories narrarator. I would take the insights from the very end and disperse them in the second half. The installation "art" was disturbing.

What three words best describe Sam Deverauxs voice?

Sounds Like Colin Firth, or is it Hugh Grant?

Did I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You inspire you to do anything?

It made me think, but did not make me have new thoughts.

Any additional comments?

Dialogue and the main character's thoughts tell the story. This was a useful format to stay in one man's head, albeit an annoying head.

A tremendous romp through the Paris art world

Where does I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You rank among all the audiobooks youve listened to so far?

It is up near the top.

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Title: BUtterfield 8

Author: John O'Hara, Lorin Stein (introduction)

Narrator: Gretchen Mol

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-29-14

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 41 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

The best-selling novel that became an Oscar-winning film starring Elizabeth Taylor about New York's speakeasy generation.

A masterpiece of American fiction and a best seller upon its publication in 1935, BUtterfield 8 lays bare with brash honesty the unspoken and often shocking truths that lurked beneath the surface of a society still reeling from the effects of the Great Depression. One Sunday morning, Gloria wakes up in a stranger's apartment with nothing but a torn evening dress, stockings, and panties. When she steals a fur coat from the wardrobe to wear home, she unleashes a series of events that can only end in tragedy. Inspired by true events, this novel caused a sensation on its publication for its frank depiction of the relationship between a wild and beautiful young woman and a respectable, married man.

Members Reviews:

Wildly Uneven

I've always found John O'Hara a wildly uneven writer, and this classic is no exception. His dialogue can be brilliantly witty, tart, and revealing about his characters in one chapter and lazily chatty and long-winded in the next. His famous observations about class and society are shrew and precise on one page and dissolve into pointlessly long lists of the names of speakeasies or jazz musicians a few pages later. He was known for being shockingly frank about sex, and indeed, this tendency gives this and other novels an honesty and relevance about people and real life that rivals Balzac or Zola. (And is far more interesting than the coy reserve of most of his contemporaries.) And yet, there are places where you feel he's simply trying to shock the reader or (worse still) titillate himself with references to lesbianism and exhibitionism and orgies and abortions. The book takes place over the course of a few days, and O'Hara seamlessly weaves together the perspectives of a large cast of characters whose lives touch each other significantly or tangentially. But his long digressions about his characters' pasts sometimes feel like filler that should have been edited down or out.

Despite rough patches, this book has incredible power. There's something fresh about the blunt writing, and the story gathers steam leading up to its explosive ending. Although he's often compared with Fitzgerald, the prose couldn't be more different. A more apt comparison might be Dreiser. Even the uneven writing contributes somehow to its power--as if the writer was rushing headlong to get it all down.

Gretchen Moll's reading is good but undistinguished. It works well for the journalistic aspects of the novel, and her voice has a tone that feels appropriate for the period--the 1930's. But she doesn't do much to bring individual characters to life and doesn't help to make Gloria the tough but sympathetic character O'Hara created.

a little drab for me

As much as I liked Appointment in Samarra, I was let down by this. Overall I tired of the pointless drunken existence of these people.

On the other hand, I do think that it gives a sense of the times; the "lost generation"; the rote daily existence; those who don't take responsibility for their actions, or at least seek easy solutions; the constant alcoholism; double standards; aimlessness.

I guess I felt it was rather directionless compared to other "classics" of the period, even his own Samarra.