Download Best Sellers Audiobooks in Fiction, Literary

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Title: Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It

Author: Maile Meloy

Narrator: Kirsten Potter, Bronson Pinchot

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-22-10

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 72 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Award-winning writer Maile Meloys return to short stories explores complex lives in an austere landscape with the clear-sightedness that first endeared her to fans.

A ranch hand falls for a recent law-school graduate who appears unexpectedlyand reluctantlyin his remote Montana town. A young father opens his door to find his dead grandmother standing on the front step. Two women weigh love and betrayal during an early snow. Throughout the book, Meloy examines the tensions between having and wanting, as her characters try to keep hold of opposing forces in their lives: innocence and experience, risk and stability, fidelity and desire.

Knowing, sly, and bittersweet, Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It confirms Maile Meloys singular literary talent. Her lean, controlled prose, full of insight and unexpected poignancy, is the perfect complement to her powerfully moving storytelling.

Editorial Reviews:

Maile Meloys tender, transcendent collection of 11 short stories, Both Ways Is The Only Way I Want It, examines the aftermath of ordinary human ambiguity and betrayal as narrated by Bronson Pinchot and Kirsten Potter, two superb readers who breathe pathos and wry humor into each tragicomedy with haltingly paced, loaded silences that mimic awkward conversations in real time.

The concept of dual narrators isnt gimmicky here. Like campfire singers passing a harmonica, Pinchot and Potter are in total sync, taking turns chronicling Meloys morally confused cast of ranchers, doctors, teachers, and lawyers. Like many of us, these characters are so tethered to the safety of routine, theyd rather bicker, ski, drive around strangers named Bonnie and Clyde even horse ride straight into affliction, than commit a single life-altering action. The Children introduces Fielding, a cheater who ultimately settles for his wife. A braver man, or a more cowardly one, would simply flee, Fielding notes. A happier or more complacent man would stay and revel in the familiar... He seemed to be none of those things.

Rural Montana, with its bleak, glacial skies, anchors much of Both Ways, and its austere setting captures the hardship and risk of loving. In Nine, Valentinas caring mother is too distracted by a sour boyfriend to notice shes steamed and served a slug for dinner, along with fresh vegetables from the garden. Existing in survival mode may be honorable in this world, but Potter and Pinchot reject the constant climate of prickliness by pitching their voices low and earthy. Their murmurs, sweet and smoky as black cherry jam, elevate the spare, contained beauty of Meloys prose, all exquisite lines and bones, into the fiction writing equivalent of Audrey Hepburns face.

Critic Reviews:

[Meloy] is such a talented and unpredictable writer that Im officially joining her fan club; whatever she writes next, Ill gladly read it. (The New York Times Book Review)

Meloys lean, targeted descriptions and her ultimately compassionate eye make this journey hurt so good. (Los Angeles Times)

"[R]eads like a Bruce Springsteen album sounds: raw with a tender wildness and loaded with adolescent ache. (O, the Oprah Magazine)

Members Reviews:

The beautiful ache of the unattainable

Maile Meloys stories, mostly set in Montana, are studies of people caught between conflicting desires or in unsustainable moments. The plots are pretty minimalist, focused less on what happens than on what goes on in the minds of the protagonists.

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Title: A Dance to the Music of Time: Second Movement

Author: Anthony Powell

Narrator: Simon Vance

Format: Unabridged

Length: 20 hrs and 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-19-10

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 195 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Anthony Powell's universally acclaimed epic encompasses a four-volume panorama of twentieth century London. Hailed by Time as "brilliant literary comedy as well as a brilliant sketch of the times," A Dance to the Music of Time opens just after World War I. Amid the fever of the 1920s and the first chill of the 1930s, Nick Jenkins and his friends confront sex, society, business, and art.

In the second volume they move to London in a whirl of marriage and adulteries, fashions and frivolities, personal triumphs and failures. These books "provide an unsurpassed picture, at once gay and melancholy, of social and artistic life in Britain between the wars" (Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.).

The third volume follows Nick into army life and evokes London during the blitz. In the climactic final volume, England has won the war and must now count the losses. In the background of this second volume of A Dance to the Music of Time, the rumble of distant events in Germany and Spain presages the storm of World War II. In England, even as the whirl of marriages and adulteries, fashions and frivolities, personal triumphs and failures gathers speed, men and women find themselves on the brink of fateful choices. Includes the novels: At Lady Molly's, Casanova's Chinese Restaurant, and The Kindly Ones.

As an added bonus, when you purchase our Audible Modern Vanguard production of Anthony Powell's book, you'll also receive an exclusive Jim Atlas interview. This interview where James Atlas interviews Charles McGrath about the life and work of Anthony Powell begins as soon as the audiobook ends.

Critic Reviews:

"Anthony Powell is the best living English novelist by far. His admirers are addicts, let us face it, held in thrall by a magician." (Chicago Tribune)

"A book which creates a world and explores it in depth, which ponders changing relationships and values, which creates brilliantly living and diverse characters and then watches them grow and change in their milieu.... Powell's world is as large and as complex as Proust's." (New York Times)

"Simon Vance is a master of differentiating characters and conveying a complexity of emotions while allowing listeners room to experience their own reactions. Vance skillfully guides us through Nick's London of artists, musicians, and writers; the several faces of marriage; and the odd mix of hope and fear as the world slips once again into a nightmare." (AudioFile)

Members Reviews:

"the Future is ever the Consequence of the Past."

BOOK FOUR (At Lady Molly's): We begin the 2nd Movement with the fourth book of 12. If you prefer to think of Anthony Powell's (rhymes with pole's, not towel's) masterpiece cycle in terms of months, 'At Lady Molly's' is April.

This novel, like most all of Powell's novels so far, brings in new characters, allows old characters to flow through, and generally pushes time forward a few years. I've heard many descriptions of Anthony Powell's narrative. Some describe it as a dance (obviously) that Powell choreographs. Some describe it as a symphony where themes and instruments appear, play their part, and remain silent for a couple minutes only to reappear in slightly different circumstances and dress.

I am reminded a bit of Degas' experimentations with monotypes. He loved to play with the process of printmaking.

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Title: The Bishops Man

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Linden Macintyre

Narrator: Graham Rowat

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-23-10

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 39 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Award-winning Canadian journalist Linden MacIntyres The Bishops Man claimed the Scotiabank Giller Prize. This compelling tale follows Father Duncan MacAskill, who serves as an Exorcist for his bishop by disciplining other men of the cloth who have forsaken their vows.

Members Reviews:

Couldn't put it down

I hesitated getting this book. After all, who isn't sick to death of hearing about the priest scandals. I have to hand it to Lynden MacIntyre though, he did an excellent job of telling the story. The story is intriguing and it keeps you interest piqued until the last words of the last chapter.

I know the tale is fiction, but in light of recent news reports, it makes you wonder if you know the characters in real life. The fiddler Archie MacIsaac comes to mind, but there are quite a few other characters that seem familiar as well.

The only downside of the book was that the narrator didn't know how to pronounce common place names in Nova Scotia such as Antigonish or Debert, even though he managed a pretty decent Gaelic.

Gave it a second chance...glad I did

The first time I listened, I was outraged at the narrator's mispronounciation of Antigonish and couldn't get by it. It coloured my whole experience and I wrote the book off with a "two star" and some regret that I'd "wasted" a credit.

On holiday this year, I decided I should give it another go - the book has won the Governor General's award & I like Lyndon MacIntyre. How glad I am that I did!

The story unfolds in layers & the characters with it. It is both fresh & familiar. I love this book.

A new point of view

Loved this book-- even when the narrator doesn't quite get the pronunciation of Antigonish. First, it is an unusual story but I believe my enthusiasm comes from seeing another's point of view. It is only with hindsight that we now know how terribly world-wide spread these crimes were and how the church really believed that each one could be buried by sending the perp away. Recommended reading for anyone - in or out of the church.

We are all human

The writing is excellent. McIntyre manages to communicate how his characters think and feel, but the topic is difficult.

Powerful story, excellent deliver

A morning story about a difficult subject. The story and narration captured so well the character and challenges of a region of Canada. I found it moving on sp many levels.

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Title: The November Criminals

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Sam Munson

Narrator: Sam Munson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-20-10

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 47 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

A darkly funny, pot-infused novel of teenage maladjustment in the tradition of Beautiful Children from a compelling new voice in American fiction.

For a high school senior, Addison Schacht has a lot of preoccupations. Like getting into college. Selling drugs to his classmates. His complicated relationship with his best friend (NOT his girlfriend) Digger. And he's just added another to the list: the murder of his classmate Kevin Broadus, and his own absurd, obsessive plan to investigate the death. When presented with an essay question on his application to the University of Chicago - "What are your best and worst qualities?" - Addison finds himself provoked into giving his final, unapologetic say about all of the above and more.

Addison Schacht finds good company among American literature's cadre of unsettled, restless youth, from Huck Finn to Holden Caulfield. The November Criminals takes on the terrain of the classic adolescent truth-telling novel and with nerve and erudition carves out its own unique territory.

Editorial Reviews:

Almost every review of Sam Munsons guiltily good debut novel, The November Criminals, reports that the main character is a modern Holden Caulfield. If only J.D. Salinger had done us all the favor of recording himself reading his cult classic, The Catcher in the Rye! The stories have in common a certain style, a kind of moderately autobiographical rant from the perspective of the authors teenage hero except freaked out dropout Holden could learn a thing or seven from Munsons narrator, Addison Schacht.

Holden is obsessed with the mystery of sex; Addison gets laid regularly, thanks to his un-girlfriend, Digger. They arent dating, they just have an agreement. Also, her real name is Phoebe, which happens to be the name of Holdens little sister. Both Phoebes have important sidekick roles, and both Phoebes much more regularly engage in heroic behaviors than the so-called protagonists. Holden gets liquored up and makes a fool of himself everywhere he goes; Addison gets stoned and mostly plays it cool, even if hes trembling with fear and loathing inside. Holden feels immense pressure; Addison feels no pressure at all, with his mother six feet under and his weakling father teaching pottery classes all day. Holden is failing out of school because he just doesnt see the point of education; Addison is in the gifted program, an avid translator of the most difficult Latin, and eagerly applying to colleges.

Addison is applying to the University of Chicago (from which Munson graduated in 2003), answering an essay question concerning his best and worst qualities. The novel-length response to this prompt is comprised of both a diatribe against the various disgusting elements of life in Baltimore (where of course Munson himself grew up) and the specific details of his quest to solve the murder of a fellow student. But Addison doesnt really know the student, who is African American in repeatedly relevant ways, and the murder itself doesnt really need much solving. So this very light thread of mystery is woven into a complex, meandering self-portrait of Addison where Addison is pretty much Sam Munson, and Sam Munson is doing the narrating.

Munson spews forth his rant with a genuine vitriol and an impeccable sense of timing. He cracks Holocaust jokes and rages against mediocrity. He sounds a little like Henry Rollins, a lot like Seth Rogen, and entirely like himself.

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Title: Closing Time

Author: Joseph Heller

Narrator: Elliott Gould

Format: Abridged

Length: 4 hrs and 18 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-25-10

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 32 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Thirty-three years and over ten million copies later...the classic story continues. Yossarian returns - older, if not wiser -- to face a new foe.

An instant classic when published in 1961, Joseph Heller's Catch-22 still ranks among the funniest - and most serious - novels ever written about war. Now Heller has dared to write the sequel to his 10-million copy best seller, using many of Catch-22's characters to deftly satirize the realities and the myths of America in the half century since they fought World War II.

In Closing Time, a comic masterpiece in its own right, Heller spears the inflated balloons of our national consciousness -- the absurdity of our politics, the decline of society and our great cities, the greed and hypocrisy of our business and culture -- with the same ferocious humor that he used against the conventional view of warfare. Back again are characters familiar from Catch-22, including Yossarian and Milo Minderbinder, the chaplain, and little Sammy Singer, as they come to the end of their lives and the end of the century - all linked, this time, in uneasy peace and old age...fighting not the Germans, but The End.

Outrageously funny and totally serious, and as brilliant and successful as Catch-22 itself, Closing Time is a fun-house mirror that captures, at once grotesquely and accurately, the truth about ourselves.

Members Reviews:

a gorgeous second part

This work confirms how great was Heller as writer. The ability to sustain the story towards the end is what makes this writer enjoyable even in his most bitter satire.

The characters are alive showing the best and worse in each human being. The sense of friendship , solidarity and surrealism are possible only through the magical pen of Heller. I read both and I will read them again . The more the work is read the more rich become

If I were in front of the screen choosing a book it would be this especially if I read Catch 22, because it is important the basis to understand "Closing Time"

I love this book

I love this book. I'm not finished yet but the absurdist and poignant observations of life are very powerful. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who has read Catch-22 and wants more of the characters and Joseph Heller's take on society and politics.

Not very good, and certainly does not live up to "Catch-22"

Not very good, and certainly does not live up to "Catch-22". At time he seems to be trying to recapture the amusing quirkiness of the original, but never quite makes it.

Three Stars

Not his best book. He tends to ramble.

closing time

Closing Time is as hilarious and imaginative as Catch-22 and Good as Gold, two other stories by Heller that I've read.

I love the allusions to Dante's Inferno--that scene is rich with metaphor, the people on the steps/tunnel on one side of the door, separated from the good and the bad, the door between. And later on, the wires hanging separated, connections broken.

The story is chock-full of allusions to other art, written, performed, and painted. One need not be fluent in allusion to appreciate the story.

Many of the characters from Catch-22 are present and accounted for. There's a scene with ex-pfc Wintergreen and another...the name of which I've forgotten, Milo perhaps...that is truly hilarious.

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Title: Death in Summer

Author: William Trevor

Narrator: Simon Prebble

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-12-10

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 22 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

William Trevor has established himself among the most celebrated authors of the past century. In 1997, he was named honorary Commander of the British Empire for his contributions to literature.

A New York Times best-seller, Death in Summer is hailed as astonishing by the Los Angeles Times

Death in Summer is Trevor at his finesthis fluid, poetic prose and profound understanding of human nature make for an amazingly graceful novel. Simon Prebble delivers a sumptuous reading that equals the deep compassion of this remarkable book.

Critic Reviews:

"To open William Trevor's ... novel and begin to read is to step into a rarefied world as of a perfect English garden where tea is served on a golden afternoon. It is easy to be beguiled by its harmonies and its design although after a little while once could begin to find it enclosed and confining." (The New York Review of Books, Anita Desai)

"For all the wit and charm of Death in Summer, horror stories don't get much more hair-raising than this." (Time, Paul Gray)

"Trevor is a master at furnishing realistic detail and withholding it. He knows when to suggest, when to suspend, when to mystify and when to reveal. His narrative has the turns, the hesitations, the flashes of wit and the broken configurations of dance; he is a Balanchine of fiction." (The Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, Richard Eder)

Members Reviews:

Master of subtlety

It has been a bad summer for Thaddeus Davenant. His wife--who he married for her money, never loved, but had come to appreciate for her kindness--has been killed in a road accident. Left alone with an infant daughter, Thaddeus advertises for a nanny, but when none of the respondents seem to be acceptable, his mother-in-law moves in to care for little Georgina. But one applicant, Pettie, surprised that she didn't get the job, becomes obsessed with the much older Thaddeus, his sad story, and his privileged lifestyle.

Although they come from two different worlds, Thaddeus and Pettie have one thing in common: an inability to love, at least in a normal way. Thaddeus's upper class parents were distant and critical while Pettie, raised in an orphanage, only knew the kind of love extended by a "Sunday uncle." Surprised by his own feelings for his new daughter, Thaddeus begins to open his heart and to feel for others, including Pettie and a former mistress who calls him to her deathbed. Pettie's obsession, however, takes them all into darker, more dangerous territory.

Trevor is a master at depicting the broad divide between the upper and lower classes as well as the depths of the human heart and the psychological effects of a loveless childhood. Part of his mastery is that he is able to unfold all this subtly, without whacking his readers over the head with a purpose and a moral. While Death in Summer may not be Trevor's best novel, it is well worth reading.

Just not my kind of book.

I found this hard to follow and dreadfully boring. I recently listened to the unabridged The Count of Monte Cristo and, honestly, that felt like a shorter listen. TO BE FAIR: I probably lack the ability to enjoy subtle, elliptical narratives of ordinary people. If you love Terrence Malick movies, you should probably get this. The writing is beautiful.

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Title: The Unit

Author: Ninni Holmqvist

Narrator: Suzanne Toren

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-11-09

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 96 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

When Dorrit Wegner turned fifty, the government transferred her to a state-of-the-art facility where she can live out her days in comfort. Her apartment is furnished to her tastes, her meals expertly served, and all at the very reasonable non-negotiable price of one cardiopulmonary system. Once an outsider without family, derided by a society bent on productivity, Dorrit finds within The Unit the company of kindred spirits and a dignity conferred by 'use' in medical tests. But when Dorrit also finds love, her peaceful submission is blown apart and she must fight to escape before her 'final donation'.

©2009 Ninni Holmqvist; (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Editorial Reviews:

Just as ghost stories are better experienced aloud around a campfire, Ninni Holmqvists The Unit is best enjoyed through the intuitive narration of Suzanne Toren. Her sincere and direct intonation serves as a guide through the waters of a cautionary tale. As a listener, you feel the horrors of a controversial government-operative intensified by Torens rendition.

Shortly following her 50th birthday, Dorrit Weger is brought to the Second Reserve Bank Unit for biological material, where she will be provided a comfortable apartment surrounded by every luxury she could ask for - from state-of-the-art swimming and diving facilities to an elegant art gallery filled with contemporary exhibitions. She will flourish in her community, she will fall in love, and - best of all - she will never have to worry about finances for the rest of her life.

In Dorrits world, we are introduced to a society in which people are either needed or dispensable. Under this regime, once those who are dispensable reach a certain age, they are expected to sacrifice for the betterment of those who are needed - by checking into the Unit. Behind the walls of the Unit, Dorrit and her peers are required to serve as biomedical lab rats, participating in pharmaceutical experiments and organ donations that will ultimately lead to their death.

Holmqvists remarkable novel is a dystopia that asks us to question our contemporary world by holding up a mirror to our societal expectations. A writer and editor of moderate success, Dorrit enters her fifties without a husband or children of her own. She has led a life of quiet happiness with her career, her gardening, and a dog named Jock. But because her life has not contributed to what is conventionally expected of a woman, she is dispensable.

The authors keen characterization is punctuated by Torens narration. At the storys inception, Dorrit is an obedient individual who feels contempt for her situation but not desperation. But as the story develops, she undergoes a wealth of emotional changes that come alive through Torens voice. Furthermore, the novel offers a cast of characters that surround Dorrit, from other dispensables to the Units staff, that Toren aptly portrays through varying cadences.

The Unit will raise evocative questions that will linger in the days after youve finished listening. --

Members Reviews:

very depressing

I kept reading it hoping it would get better but it kept getting more depressing. she did do a good job captivating emotions and describing things.

Makes you think

This is not really an uplifting story, even though the tone is rarely negative. Instead the writer forces you to think about your political leanings.

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Title: When She Was Good

Author: Philip Roth

Narrator: Tanya Eby

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-15-09

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 41 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

When she was still a child, Lucy Nelson had her alcoholic failure of a father thrown in jail. Ever since then, she has been trying to reform the men around her, even if that ultimately means destroying herself in the process.

With his unerring portraits of Lucy and her hapless, childlike husband, Roy, Roth has created an uncompromising work of fictional realism, a vision of provincial American piety, yearning, and discontent that is at once pitiless and compassionate.

Critic Reviews:

"Roth is a living master." (Harold Bloom, The New York Review of Books)

"High, careful tragedy, nasty as life, and Roth emerges...as a Dreiser who can write!" (Stanley Elkin)

Members Reviews:

Narration was terrible

The performance was awful. She made every character sound juvenile, sophomoric and simplistic. Her interpretation made this book hard to listen too.

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Title: Look at the Birdie

Subtitle: Unpublished Short Fiction

Author: Kurt Vonnegut

Narrator: Christopher E. Welch

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-20-09

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 25 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

American literary icon Kurt Vonnegut enjoys immense popularity - and an equally immense amount of critical praise - for such works as his absurdist classic

Slaughterhouse-Five. A must-have for readers everywhere,

Look at the Birdie adds further insight into the author's body of work with a riveting collection of his previously unpublished short fiction.

©2009 The Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Trust; Foreward by Sidney Offit (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

Members Reviews:

Great stories and performances to match

These are all great stories-amusing, pleasant, mysterious, entertaining, astute, beguiling. And the performances are brilliant, so tuned and sensitive to the tone of the characters of the story. I read the stories while listening to the Audible performances which lent so much texture and a full appreciation to the stories; especially for Vonnegut.

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Title: The Five-Forty-Eight

Subtitle: The John Cheever Audio Collection

Author: John Cheever

Narrator: Edward Herrmann

Format: Unabridged

Length: 34 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-22-09

Publisher: HarperAudio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 29 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Here is one of twelve magnificent stories, originally part of The John Cheever Audio Collection, in which John Cheever celebrates with unequaled grace and tenderness the deepest feelings we have.

As Cheever writes in his preface, "These stories seem at times to be stories of a long-lost world when the city of New York was still filled with a river light, when you heard the Benny Goodman quartets from a radio in the corner stationery store, and when almost everybody wore a hat."