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Title: Wrinkles

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Charles Simmons

Narrator: Thomas Stephen, Jr.

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 48 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-24-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

A brilliantly original examination of the many aspects that make up a life - from birth, up and over the hill, and into the wilderness of old age

A truly astonishing and original work of fiction, Wrinkles is the story of a life lived 44 times, from childhood to adulthood to old age. It is a story of one man, a writer, who is born, who grows, who loves, who stops loving; who eats, sleeps, smokes, lies, boozes, cheats, regrets, has sex, has dreams, and lives. In short yet intimately detailed chapters, each covering a single aspect of his life from youth through old age, we get to know this person fully through the small yet telling incidents that make him who he is. He remembers the taste of a cigarette, the feel of his army uniform, the scent of a lover, the strange and unexpected touch of a college professors hand, and so many more small experiences that can never be shaken off.

At once poignant, funny, and troubling, Charles Simmonss Wrinkles is a dissection of an ordinary existence made extraordinary through reflection - a brilliant celebration of the not-so-simple act of being alive.

Members Reviews:

Not a novel, but a test of reader's perseverance.

This piece is a series of short vignettes that are connected only by their theme of the pointlessness of life. It has zero literary value and no style. Each chapter deals with random events in a different man's life. The events are not profound. many are about immature sexual observations. Maybe Mr. Simmons is only 12. That would explain a lot.

I decided in Chapter 8 that it was a reader's endurance test. In Chapter 12 I failed the test.

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Title: Pig's Foot

Author: Carlos Acosta, Frank Wynne (translator)

Narrator: Ray Chase

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-14-14

Publisher: Audible Studios for Bloomsbury

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 8 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

The Korticos are from a well-endowed pygmy tribe in West Africa; the Mandingas are descended from a tribe of tall Ghanaians. Both families have been brought to Cuba as slaves. Oscar Kortico and Jose Mandinga, inseparable friends, marry a pair of sisters, and in the tiny hamlet of Pig's Foot (Pata de Puerco), five generations of these families will live out their colorful lives through the tumultuous sweep of Cuban history. That history extends from slavery through the war of independence, exploitation, dictatorship, and compromised freedom, to the present day, when teenager Oscar Mandinga goes seeking the fabled village of his ancestors.

Carlos Acosta's first novel is a swiftly plotted island folktale with warmth, humor, magic, and a light allegorical touch. It's a history grounded in sights and smells and human foibles. And it's an enchanting and unexpected debut from an author of many talents.

Members Reviews:

Very good

Don't be put off by either the title or the fact that this is a translation.

I really enjoyed this book which does not give you a chance to get bored as it moves from scene to scene with a good rhythm.

The narrator tells the story well and brings the characters to life. He does a grand job and gives a believable performance.

Much of the story is told through the first person, but at other times the reader takes the role of story teller. Whichever viewpoint is being used doesn't detract from the overall story which held my interest throughout.

The story has many facets. There is the human interest aspect,history, morality, good and bad fortune, love , bitterness and death. This book has all that humanity has to offer, both good and bad.

The end of the book is a total surprise (I won't spoil it by letting on). The end was not at all what I expected, but it WAS very good and brought a smile to my face. Pig's Foot is unlike anything I've read before. I'm glad I took a chance on an unknown.

Go on and give it a try!!!

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Title: Three War Stories

Author: David Mamet

Narrator: Jim Frangione

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-14-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 7 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Spanning centuries and continents, Mamet uses war and its players to explore, among other themes, redemption and forgiveness as they unfold in the context of conflict in the form of three novellas.

In The Redwing, the first of the three novellas, a 19th-century Secret Service naval officer turned prisoner, then novelist, and finally memoirist recounts his own transformations during the course of his service and imprisonment.

The protagonist in Notes on Plain Warfare examines religion through the prism of the American Indian wars. Finally, The Handle and the Hold is a vivid, dialogue-driven tale of two ex-military men who steal a plane in the month before the Israeli War of Independence.

Finely wrought, Mamet eloquently depicts the psychological brutality conflict raises in the landscape of the mind.

Members Reviews:

Uneven when not just flat

The magic of Mamet is that his (better) characters push themselves or are pushed to the breaking point, and then beyond. They then reveal the depths of their weaknesses and perhaps strengths they didn't know they had. The peaks and valleys are gaping. This book does not go there.

It is a collection of three stories, all connected to wars.

Redwing takes up more than half the book. Its conceit is that an old sailor, who no longer has need to lie or protect or seek gain, tells the truth about his life and experiences. He gets to compare it all to an autobiographical novel he published earlier, correcting and "quoting" liberally. He has had adventures - dealing with pirates, being imprisoned in a foreign land for years, and doing battle with the seas. But he never makes a connection to the reader.

The story is as flat as a pancake. It constantly drops names you don't know that will figure in later substories, but it never builds to anything. There is no climax, no attachment to any characters, and nothing to resolve. It's like Philippe Muray (See e.g. Festivus Festivus ) without the humor: a lot of miscellaneous philosophizing, all jammed together.

Notes on Plains Warfare is also the reminiscences of an old man, this time a Civil War solider who was then sent to kill Plains Indians. Mamet applies a lot of angles, giving him insight into Indian ceremonies, seeing things from their perspective, and combining the narrator's experience with other knowledge gained over a lifetime. It has more real detail and depth, but the voice is totally inauthentic: "The Zoroastrians indeed could have been inspired to their noted dualism by the selfsame process of delight and absolute aversion." This is not the incendiary Mamet you hope for.

The third story is called The Handle and The Hold. This last, shortest story, is more like the Mamet we've come to respect. It is entirely conversation instead of narration. It occurs among Vegas thugs, Jewish Vegas thugs, who recount World War II stories from home and abroad, as they steal an old bomber and fly it to Palestine with a load of contraband arms. There's lots to talk about and lots of time to kill. The banter is rapid and economical. There is a climax. There is a point. It saves the book, if one out of three is sufficient.

David Wineberg

Not his best

Big Mamet fan. But these stories are wordy and abstruse. He plays with styles -- all very well for a writer, especially someone who does a lot of screenwriting-- but I didn't find the faux 19th or early 20th century memoire style terribly readable.

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Title: Moskva i moskvichi [Moscow and Muscovites]

Author: Vladimir Giljarovskij

Narrator: Mikhail Kozakov, Artyom Karapetyan

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-03-14

Publisher: Cdcom Publishing

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Moskva i moskvichiJetoj knige net ravnyh i podobnyh v nashej literature. Znamenitye ocherki iz moskovskoj zhizni nachala XX veka privlekajut chitatelej raznyh pokolenij i jepoh ne stol'ko interesnymi faktami i neozhidannymi podrobnostjami (a ih v knige mnozhestvo), skol'ko pronzitel'nym oshhushheniem unikal'nosti i hrupkosti chelovecheskih sudeb, genial'no shvachennym perom Vladimira Giljarovskogo. Artisty, hudozhniki, studenty, izvozchiki, bulochniki i parikmahery togo vremeni uznavaemy i sovremenny. Takzhe kak i lavki Ohotnogo rjada, tajny Neglinki, pritony Hitrovki, Kolosovki i Grachevki s ih grjaznymi dvorami i promozglymi faterami, gde zhizn' na grosh, a ljubov' za kopejku...

Please note: This audiobook is in Russian.

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Title: Nile Shadows

Author: Edward Whittemore

Narrator: Kevin Stillwell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 21 hrs and 1 min

Language: English

Release date: 12-20-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

In 1941, a hand grenade explodes in a Cairo bar, taking the life of Stern, a petty gunrunner and morphine addict. His death could easily go unnoticed as Rommel's tanks charge through the desert in an attempt to open the Middle East to Hitler's forces. Yet the mystery behind Stern's death is a top priority for intelligence experts. Master spies from three countries converge on Joe O'Sullivan Beare, who is closer to Stern than anyone, in an effort to unravel the disturbing puzzle. The search for the truth about Stern leads O'Sullivan Beare through the slums of Cairo to a decaying former brothel called the Hotel Babylon.

Members Reviews:

One of the Great Novels of Humanity

I paid $330 for a copy of this book in 1999 and never regretted it, not even when i loaned it to never receive it again. I went on and bought this copy so that i could read it again in 2002, and i am not a rich person (sometimes dumb, but not rich.)

It is a depressing book because of the atmosphere and the feeling that all the characters are at the end of their times, yet full of the wonder of the days of humanity and the desire to live.

History and tragedy and comedy are all intermingled with two old socialite ladies who were originally maids, living on a houseboat and mummies whose dust pervade the dusky atmosphere. People who are wise beyond their status and foolish because of theirs roll in or sneak in, have their say and disappear to sometimes appear in other guises and other vices.

Whittemore grips you, pleases you, makes you both a participant and a ruthless observer, but never a judge or a jury.

You do not take sides when faced with a flood of water or emotion. You accept it for what it is, but always soak youself in it because it is there.

This is not an easy book to read. The terrific style (one must also give credit to Judy Karasik, the editor) is for the reader who enjoys good literature more than the reader who boasts of his speed-reading ability. The characters would be better appreciated by people who have traveled and met and observed other people and other cultures and other locations even if only in books, as long as they have tried to see from their perspective.

Ahmed, the poet manager/receptionist (no blood relation to me), sums it up in the book "Life is a merciless and mysterious arrangement of logic for a futile purpose". Whittemore uses up all three adjectives to excellent effect in Nile Shadows in regard to people, their actions and world events: merciless, mysterious and futile.

Intriguing

These books are not for everyone by a long shot.. But if you enjoy a book that seems to not fall into any defined genre, and seem a bit "quirky" then you will love this four book series.

Brilliant

Whittemore's Jerusalem quartet is a funny, moving, bawdy, brilliant love song to the middle east. Completely non linear it may not be everyone's cup of tea. It requires some work from the reader, but I will r ear this series again and again.

BACK IN PRINT !

Old Earth Books will be reprinting this and the other 4 Whittemore novels. Google the web for "Edward Whittemore".

For others not for me

Could not get into this book.

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Title: The Chocolate Heart

Subtitle: Amour et Chocolat Series, Book 5

Author: Laura Florand

Narrator: Gayle Hendrix

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-17-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

No one hates Paris - except Summer Corey. The moody winters. The artists and their ennui. The inescapable shadow of the Tour Eiffel. But things go from bad to worse when Summer stumbles into brooding, gorgeous chef pâtissier Luc Leroi and indecently propositions the hero of French cuisine...

Luc has scrambled up from a childhood panhandling in the Paris Métro to become the king of his city, and he has no patience for this spoiled princess, even if she does now own his restaurant. Who cares if she smiles with all the warmth of July? She doesn't eat dessert! There is only one way to tempt her. A perfect, impossibly sweet seduction...

Members Reviews:

Loved the book but can't stand the narrator.

What didnt you like about Gayle Hendrixs performance?

She ends each sentance on an up note which is very annoying. Her speaking voice is deeper than the voice she uses for the hero- he sounds like a cartoon character.

Did The Chocolate Heart inspire you to do anything?

Switch to another book in the series narrated by someone else.

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Title: The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules

Author: Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg

Narrator: Patience Tomlinson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-16-13

Publisher: Pan Macmillan Publishers Ltd

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules is an incredibly quirky, humorous, and warm-hearted story about growing old disgracefully - and breaking all the rules along the way! 79-year-old Martha Andersson dreams of escaping her care home and robbing a bank. She has no intention of spending the rest of her days in an armchair and is determined to fund her way to a much more exciting lifestyle.

Along with her four oldest friends - otherwise known as the League of Pensioners - Martha decides to rebel against all of the rules imposed upon them. Together, they cause an uproar with their antics protesting against early bedtimes and plasticky meals. As the elderly friends become more daring, they hatch a cunning plan to break out of the dreary care home and land themselves in a far more attractive Stockholm establishment. With the aid of their Zimmer frames, they resolve to stand up for old-aged pensioners everywhere - Robin Hood style. And that's when the adventure really takes off...

Perfect for fans of The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Translated by Rod Bradbury.

Members Reviews:

Boring

I picked this book because of the narrator, lve enjoyed many of her books before, but story was very slow, l was glad when it finished

The Winner Takes It All; or Practise Makes Perfect

Is there anything you would change about this book?

It is a long book. Within it there are 3 sections in each of which a significant crime is committed. This is a great structure. But the book is filled with back story and explanation of character's observations and responses. Personally I think it needs a very severe edit in order to bring the focus much more clearly onto the crimes and their intentions and results.

What could Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Less words. Too many descriptions and backstories.

Which scene was your favorite?

None of the scenes was particularly memorable to me. In spite of all the explanations and descriptions, the characters did not come alive to me. Having said that, I still think the concept in the book is terrific - that of elderly people grabbing life by the throat and shaking the gold from it.

Did The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules inspire you to do anything?

I haven't started planning a crime spree, but I think I will be very vigorous in editing my own writing.

Any additional comments?

So - I think - listen to this story when you need a long and meandering tale that has excellent concepts in it - grey power and the Zimmer Frame Gang standing up against the inequalities in their world - and told in a slightly amused, slightly ironic voice. But don't expect anything profound.

Great for the first two hours...

The book started well, and I enjoyed the first couple of hours. It then got very silly and boring, and I didn't finish it.

The premise is a good one, and the characters, although extreme, are engaging. But the situation gets too unbelievable and silly.

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Title: The Disappearance of Emily Marr

Author: Louise Candlish

Narrator: Penelope Rawlins, Noreen Leighton

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-05-13

Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 7 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Arriving on the windswept Ile de Ré, Tabby Dewhurst is unable to even afford a room for the night. Overhearing a villager repeating the access code to her front door, she lets herself into the house, and so she enters the strange, hidden world of Emmie, whose sudden offer of friendship is at odds with her obsession with privacy.

Tabby begins to form suspicions about Emmie, suspicions that lead her to a scandal with shattering consequences.

Critic Reviews:

"A story of scandal and tragedy it's a nail-biter until the very last pages" (Daily Express)

Members Reviews:

well written but frustrating

I had the same problem with this book that I seem to have with all Louise Candlish books which results in a bit if a love hate relationship... I really like her writing and her observations but I find her plotting frustrating. foreshadowing is a great tool but Candlish uses this, and dual narratives, so much that most of the time we've long worked out what's about to happen and are waiting for one of the characters to catch up. I was also infuriated by a double standard that went completely unchallenged or commented on in the book.

Disappointing ending

Loved the story and was riveted all the way through. Couldn't wait to find out what happened but was totally let down at the end. Don't know if it's just me but I didn't get it. What happened to eve and is it the real Emily Marr who lives with Arthur? What a let down.

In the positive I love Louise candlish books.

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Title: The Apartment

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Greg Baxter

Narrator: Peter Powlus

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-03-13

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 11 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

A powerful and elegant debut audiobook about love, memory, exile, and war.

One snowy December morning in an old European city, an American man leaves his shabby hotel to meet a local woman who has agreed to help him search for an apartment to rent.

The Apartment follows the couple across a blurry, illogical, and frozen city into a past the man is hoping to forget, and leaves them at the doorstep of an uncertain future - their cityscape punctuated by the man's lingering memories of time spent in Iraq and the life he abandoned in the United States. Contained within the details of this day is a complex meditation on America's relationship with the rest of the world, an unflinching glimpse at the permanence of guilt and despair, and an exploration into our desire to cure violence with violence.

An audiobook about how our relationships to others - and most importantly to ourselves - alters how we see the world, The Apartment perfectly captures the peculiarity and excitement of being a stranger in a strange city. Written in an affecting and intimate tone that gradually expands in scope, intensity, poetry, and drama, Greg Baxter's clear-eyed first audiobook tells the intriguing story of these two people on this single day. Both beguiling and raw in its observations and language, The Apartment is a crisp audiobook with enormous range that offers profound and unexpected wisdom.

Members Reviews:

Beautifully Written and Narrated; Not Satisfying

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

Not entirely. The book is beautifully crafted with precise wording. But there is a build up of intimacy between the two main characters that doesn't in my opinion go very far.

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

The intimacy that's there is nice but too superficial.

Have you listened to any of Peter Powluss other performances before? How does this one compare?

The narration is excellent and fits the book. This is my first time listening to a narration by Peter Powlus and I would happily listen to more.

Do you think The Apartment needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

I don't think a follow up book is called for unless the author is willing to go deeper and risk more. I doubt that he's ready for that.

Any additional comments?

The main character's lack of ambition wore on me and I felt at the end of the day the build up in the first part of the book went nowhere.

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Title: Strange Yesterday

Author: Howard Fast

Narrator: Christopher Kipiniak

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-12-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Five generations of Preswicks, living, loving, fighting, laughing, and dying in a surge of limitless power that paralleled the course of America. A full tale of a family that grew with America, of an Aristocracy that gained everything but reason to live. Two women bore John Preswick two children - one the daughter of a southern innkeeper, who nursed a broken Revolutionary soldier back to health, the other a girl in New York, who waited seven years for her lover to return from the war. From these children grew the two branches of the Preswick family, a strange tangle of incestuous love and restless longing, that stretches over one hundred and fifty years, to the World War and the South of today, living in the glory of its past.

All America walks past in Strange Yesterday. Old New York, shaking loose from the British occupation, privateers snapping at Britain's rule of the sea, preying free as pirates, men losing their bodies and souls in a mad dash for California and gold, men piling up fortunes in fantastic booms and ventures, men off to fight a war in France, returning lost and broken. Here is an original, thrilling tale of the love of a brother for his sister, of men for gold and death. It is a pageant, simply and powerfully told.

Editorial Reviews:

From the start of this ambitious story, narrator Christopher Kipiniak creates a sense of foreboding that hints at the upheavals to follow. Revolutionary War soldier John Preswick falls in love with the innkeeper's daughter who nurses him back to health even as his wife waits for him in New York. The two women bear John children, and Kipiniak vividly describes the lives of five generations of Preswicks as they are swept along the trajectory of American history. Kipiniak gives their stories the feel of a grand epic, and listeners will be fascinated by the depiction of important events such as the Civil War and the Gold Rush through the experiences of an American family.

Members Reviews:

Ho Hum...

I was hopeful for a good book after reading April Morning years ago. I didn't really enjoy this book. I finished it because I wanted to see how it ended. Got a little confusing, at times, because of the naming of the characters.