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Title: Into the Valley

Author: Ruth Galm

Narrator: Eliza Foss

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-04-15

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Ruth Galm's spare, poetic debut novel, set in the American West of early Joan Didion, traces the drifting path of a young woman as she skirts the law and her own oppressive anxiety.

Into the Valley opens on the day in July 1967 when B. decides to pass her first counterfeit check and flees San Francisco for the Central Valley. Caught between generations and unmarried at 30, B. doesn't understand the new counterculture youths. She likes the dresses and kid gloves of her mother's generation but doesn't fit into that world either. B. is beset by a disintegrative anxiety she calls "the carsickness", and the only relief comes in handling illicit checks and driving endlessly through the valley. As she travels the bare, anonymous landscape, meeting an array of other characters - an alcoholic professor, a bohemian teenage girl, a criminal admirer - B.'s flight becomes that of a woman unraveling, a person lost between who she is and who she cannot yet be.

Members Reviews:

Transporting

The day disappeared while I read this yesterday on the beach. I was pulled into the desert and my mind went blank with the sun. Ms. Galm's writing is evocative and spare--her pacing is calm and steady and while B.'s mind is unfathomable, her character is sympathetic. Perfect beach read, given the setting (although I'm sure it's equally transporting in the dead of winter).

What a treat!

I loved the different pace and structure of the book. The detail of Ms. Galm's writing is impressive. There was a "darker" edge to it, yet it included social commentary and was pleasing to read. It was an engaging journey into the valley and kept me wondering what would happen to B. Hope she (the author) has more to come!

Into the Bin

Sorry, went right into the bin when I was done. The brighter spots of "Didion-esque" writing were not nearly enough to save a depressingly pointless story about a self-absorbed grifter. Still, it is her first novel, and I would definitely take a look at her next one.

A realist Picnic at Hanging Rock for our generation, ...

A realist Picnic at Hanging Rock for our generation, located firmly in the juncture where landscape meets culture meets the quirks and twists of the individual mind.

Weird

This is a well-written, weird book. Hard for me to explain exactly why I found it weird. That's how weird it is. As I read I would wonder what would happen next yet not really want to know. And yet I kept reading as the protagonist did one more stupid, strange, or otherwise weird thing after another.

This is not a bad book. As I said, it's well-written and tells a story in a way that shows talent. It's not a book I would encourage my friends to read because, well, guess! You got it. . .it's weird.

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Title: America's Diplomats: The Road to Attleboro

Author: John W. Huffman

Narrator: Rich Miller

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 34 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-28-15

Publisher: Lonestar Ventures, LLC

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

All wars spawn simple heroes from youthful naivety as boy-soldiers evolve into weathered combat veterans. Young Jay Sharpe is no exception. Born into a long lineage of patriots, he never questions his generation's call to arms. Filled with wanderlust and rarely sure of what he wants, but knowing precisely what he does not want - a predictable marriage to his high school sweetheart and looming job at the local sawmill in his small hometown after graduation - he gallops off to the nearest Army recruiter to become Private John Joseph Sharpe, all-American hero. After rigorous training, he emerges as one of the Army's elite paratroopers and eagerly sails off to Vietnam and the golden opportunities awaiting him there - a near fatal encounter with the 9th North Vietnamese "Ghost" Regiment in the legendary battle of Attleboro, the largest land engagement of the entire war effort. His gripping tale of the trials of a soldier in our nation's most controversial confrontation is a graphic chronicle of love, hate, hope, and despair in an era of uncertainty and misdirection.

Members Reviews:

Awesome as always!

We lost an awesome author in John...the world is a sadder place and I for one will miss him!

Slow start, strong finish

I received a free copy of this audio book for an honest review.

In listening to the first few chapters I wasn't sure I was going to finish. But I realized that I had been comparing it to other stories where the authors claimed perfection in their own character. After I adjusted to the idea that this was an honest telling, including flawed though eventually corrected thinking, I really began to enjoy the story.

There were some slower parts throughout the story but life, and war, aren't 24-7 action despite what the movies, or more recent books would have us believe.

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Title: The Butcher's Sons

Author: Scott Alexander Hess

Narrator: Michael Pauley

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-27-15

Publisher: Lethe Press

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

This darkly lyrical and violent family saga set in a butcher shop in New York circa 1930 tells the story of three Irish brothers struggling to find their roles - to define their lives and express their dreams - amid the poverty of a broken home, an alcoholic father, and the violent society of Hell's Kitchen. Dickie is guided by an almost animal desire to get what he wants and, as a fighter, is fearless in his pursuit of being respected by mobsters. Walt, the middle brother, romances a woman whose educated father sees the lad as gutter trash. Then there is frail Adlai, who finds himself on the most perilous path - an illicit affair with his oldest brother's best friend. The Butcher's Sons is an engaging read about desperate young men determined to do whatever they can to find something gilded amid the grime of old New York.

Members Reviews:

Hess gives the reader is a realistic slice of life in 1930's New York City, more specifically Hellâs Kitchen

Often times when you read a short story you feel that it should be expanded to a bigger, lengthier book, with more time to envelope yourself in the characters and see where else the story can go. It is rarer to read a novel and feel that way, but Scott Alexander Hessâ THE BUTCHERâS SONS is just that book. It seems that 254 pages about three Irish brothers in 1930s arenât nearly enough. Hessâ wonderfully-written characters deserve the whole Puzo treatment. That being said, what Hess gives the reader is a realistic slice of life in New York City, more specifically Hellâs Kitchen. Dickie, the eldest, wants to be a gangster; middle brother Walt, with his uptown girlfriend, wants to be a doctor, and the youngest brother, Adlai, is not sure what he wants, but when he finds it he canât let it go. The brothers work at the family butcher shop, passed down from generations, a neighborhood gathering place that emits heat and smells, with father Pat still in a haze over the loss of his wife years earlier. Hess incorporates a rewarding same-sex love story, a well-crafted gangster story and a star-crossed lovers story in one book, keeping the momentum going throughout. I would love for Hess to revisit these characters â they are fascinating and have much potential, but if he doesnât he has left in place a unique book that happily doesnât fall into any clichéd genres.

In the hearts of men

Honestly, if I hadn't known the author, I am not sure I would have picked this book to read. I am glad that I did. The fact that it was written by a guy from my decidedly suburban high school in St. Louis made it all the more interesting. The book immediately took me to the era in New York when life was tough and gangs of immigrants sought to rise to the top of the heap. I could visualize nearly every scene. It also never really occurred to me that gay men have struggled through history and had to constantly hide their actions and their true loves. I found it fascinating that Dickie, who entered the dangerous waters of loving a black woman, but could not bear the thought of his young brother being in love with a man. Gay men were more than closeted...they were not even a possibility in the minds of heterosexuals. The book kept me on the edge of my seat wondering how these boys would survive their loves.

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Title: The Hourglass Factory

Author: Lucy Ribchester

Narrator: Lucy Scott

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-18-15

Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

It's 1912, and London is in turmoil....

The suffragette movement is reaching fever pitch, but for broke Fleet Street tomboy Frankie George, just getting by in the cutthroat world of newspapers is hard enough. Sent to interview trapeze artist Ebony Diamond, Frankie finds herself fascinated by the tightly laced acrobat and follows her across London to a Mayfair corset shop that hides more than one dark secret.

Then Ebony Diamond mysteriously disappears in the middle of a performance, and Frankie is drawn into a world of tricks, society columnists, corset fetishists, suffragettes, and circus freaks. How did Ebony vanish, who was she afraid of, and what goes on behind the doors of the mysterious Hourglass Factory?

From the newsrooms of Fleet Street to the drawing rooms of high society, the missing Ebony Diamond leads Frankie to the trail of a murderous villain with a plot more deadly than anyone could have imagined....

With a major film, Suffragette, starring Meryl Streep, Helena Bonham-Carter, and Carey Mulligan, coming soon, suffragettes will be back in the limelight once again, nearly 100 years after they fought for votes for women.

Members Reviews:

Old Fashioned Mystery

Wonderful reading by Lucy Scott. Very Victoraian!

Good story with interesting historical background and images. Particularly regarding the forced feeding of prisoners at that time. If you like historical novels with a bit of humour and a twist... you will like this.

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Title: White Horse Regressions

Author: Steve Lindahl

Narrator: Michelle Haynes

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-05-15

Publisher: All Things That Matter Press, Inc.

Ratings: 1 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

The soul is eternal, and no more so than in Steve Lindahl's White Horse Regressions. It is the story of a group of individuals destined to share their lives throughout time, be it in ancient China during the Han dynasty, in 19th-century London during Jack the Ripper's reign of terror, or in a small town rocked by murder in present-day Vermont.

It's been almost a year since Hannah Hersman's girlfriend was killed, and the police still have no leads, no suspects, and no one in custody. Undeterred and longing for closure, Hannah calls in Glen Wiley, a renowned hypnotist, as a last resort.

Glen quickly discovers that in a past life, Hannah was a prostitute in Victorian London named Rose, and her girlfriend was Annie Chapman, a victim of Jack the Ripper. In fact many of Hannah's friends and acquaintances were similarly connected to her, not just then in London but in multiple lives and multiple places throughout history. In all these incarnations, their existence is tied to a murderous plot that Hannah and Glen must uncover to ensure their future lives can avoid the pain and misery of losing their loved ones.

White Horse Regressions is a compelling supernatural thriller that drops you down the rabbit hole and spits you out into the filthy streets of a not-too-long-ago London, the palatial estates of a long-forgotten China, and the seedy underbelly of small-town America.

Members Reviews:

Engrossing

White Horse Regressions is a mystery novel in the richest sense; it is delicately layered and immediately engrossing. As in Steve Lindahl's previous novel Motherless Soul, the setting and details are vivid, yet the story is built with deliberation. The characters, familiar and no, are both believable and dynamic. What sets this book apart from other mysteries I've read is the depth of the personal journey as well as the collective. It begins as what seems a simple murder that opens and expands, creating a cosmic enigma that remains on the reader's mind long after the story is complete, perhaps forever.

A Karmic Dance of Twists and Turns

What begins as a murder mystery evolves into a hypnotic investigation that uncovers the centuries-old connections between a cast of characters fated to repeat the circumstances, intrigues and tragedies of their past lives. Through a series of sessions in which the participants regress to Victorian London and ancient China, stories within the story unfold, relationships are defined and rituals revealed, more questions raised than answered until a disturbing and seemingly unbreakable pattern emerges.

Mr. Lindhal's suspenseful novel moves backwards and forwards in a karmic dance that also twists and turns; a profound and poignant narrative about reincarnation as it relates to love and friendship, vulnerability and power, the myth of inevitability and the possibilities for better times to come.

DM Denton, author of A House Near Luccoli.

Finding Lives in the Past

Past life regressions flourish in Steve Lindahlâs second book in the Glen Wiley Past Lives series. This time the reader meets a number of characters, some already dead and some fated to be so in the course of the novel. We learn from the Prologue of the murder of a young actress, whose friends subsequently team up to learn why she was killed, as the story opens.

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Title: The Girl in the Photograph

Author: Kate Riordan

Narrator: Julia Barrie

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-04-15

Publisher: Isis Publishing Ltd

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

It's the summer of 1933, and Alice Eveleigh has arrived at Fiercombe Manor in disgrace. Hiding her shame in this isolated house concealed within a Gloucestershire valley in the care of housekeeper Mrs Jelphs, Alice soon begins to sense that something isn't quite right within this beautiful manor. For one thing she is being watched....

There are secrets at Fiercombe that those who remain there are determined to keep. Tragedy haunts the empty rooms, and foreboding hangs heavy in the stifling heat. Traces of the previous occupant, Elizabeth Stanton, are everywhere, and Alice discovers Elizabeth's life eerily mirrors the path she herself is on. The past is set to repeat its sorrows and with devastating consequences.

Members Reviews:

relaxing and joyful

I found this easy to listen to and was entranced at how well the stories of the past were entwined with the present

High standard historical Neo Victorian Fiction

Impecable narrative, Riordan's interweaved the haunting and spectrality of different women in different eras in England. Riordan's contribution to glance at missunderstood facts as were "puerpural insanities and hysterical manias" making use of objects, pictures and ghosts, providing a refreshing turntaking solution, Is what grants this novel to be included into the Neo Victorian Fiction.

Good book, well read

I enjoyed this audiobook. I think the narrator was excellent, managing to produce performances that were believable and skilled. The story, although predictable, was full enough with intrigue to keep me listening. On the strength of this novel, I have downloaded another, and hope I enjoy it as much,

Intriguing and unusual

This was a good listen, with the two different times very well defined.

Good research had been done for both centuries. Enjoyable

Dull

Bought this audiobook on the basis of the other reviews, but I personally found it quite dull and the narrator grating! Took me a long time to finish (I always tend to persevere!) and it's not something that will stay with me...

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Titre: Une femme à Berlin

Sous-titre: Journal 20 avril - 22 juin 1945

Auteur: auteur inconnu

Narrateur: Marianne Basler

Format: Abridged

Durée: 5 hrs and 27 mins

Langue: Français

Date de publication: 06-02-15

Éditeur: Gallimard

Evaluation: 5 sur 5 sur 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Résumé de l'éditeur:

La jeune Berlinoise qui a rédigé ce journal, du 20 avril 1945 - les Soviétiques sont aux portes - jusqu'au 22 juin, a voulu rester anonyme, lors de la première publication du livre en 1954, et après. À la lecture de son témoignage, on comprend pourquoi. Sur un ton d'objectivité presque froide, ou alors sarcastique, toujours précis, parfois poignant, parfois comique, c'est la vie quotidienne dans un immeuble quasi en ruine, habité par des femmes de tout âge et des hommes qui se cachent:une vie misérable, dans la peur, le froid, la saleté et la faim, scandée par les bombardements d'abord, sous une occupation brutale ensuite. S'ajoutent alors les viols, la honte et la banalisation de l'effroi...

©2002 Hanelore Marek (P)2009 Éditions Gallimard

Avis des membres:

On comprend pourquoi les anciens nazis ne voulaient pas voir

Hitler et ses aides moribonds et entièrement soumis continuent à résister contre un ennemi gigantesque quils nauraient jamais dû attaquer faute de prendre une raclée en retour et de faire entrer lUnion Soviétique bien à lintérieur de lAllemagne et pour les 50 prochaines années. Devant un tel déploiement dimbécilité de la part des prétentions nazis où les soldats allemands tuent, violent et exterminent en masse pendant 4 ans, on voit dans ce livre la description dune berlinoise qui devra coucher avec des soldats soviétiques pour continuer dexister, et qui se trouve dénoncée par ceux daprès guerre, qui ne veulent toujours pas entendre parler des répercussions dû à leur ancienne servitude et surtout au prix de leur violence animale quil faut finalement payer.

Aujourdhui les jeunes générations allemandes lisent et comprennent lhorreur de cette histoire hitlerienne et sont encore stupéfaits, comment de hommes on pu se comporter comme cela pendant plus de 10 ans? Une histoire terrible qui pèse et qui devrait inspirer les hommes politiques daujourdhui qui nont pas compris que beaucoup dentre nous peuvent être réduits à létat de chien enragé en quelques courtes années par des gens qui savent bien parler aux foules.

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Titre: Du domaine des murmures

Auteur: Carole Martinez

Narrateur: Isabelle Carré

Format: Unabridged

Durée: 5 hrs and 5 mins

Langue: Français

Date de publication: 05-27-15

Éditeur: Gallimard

Evaluation: 4 sur 5 sur 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Résumé de l'éditeur:

En 1187, le jour de son mariage, devant la noce scandalisée, la jeune Esclarmonde refuse de dire "oui" : elle veut s'offrir à Dieu, contre la décision de son père, le châtelain régnant sur le domaine des Murmures. La jeune femme est emmurée dans une cellule, avec pour seule ouverture sur le monde une fenestrelle. Mais elle ne se doute pas de ce qui est entré avec elle dans sa tombe... Loin de gagner la solitude à laquelle elle aspirait, Esclarmonde se retrouve au carrefour des vivants et des morts. Depuis son réduit, elle soufflera sa volonté sur le fief de son père et ce souffle l'entraînera jusqu'en Terre sainte.

Carole Martinez donne ici libre cours à la puissance poétique de son imagination et nous fait vivre une expérience à la fois mystique et charnelle, à la lisière du songe.

©2011 Éditions Gallimard (P)2012 Éditions Gallimard

Revues par les critiques:

À propos de ce titre

Prix Goncourt des Lycéens 2011.

Avis des membres:

Sorry--I can't remember whether the book is narrated in the ...

Sorry--I can't remember whether the book is narrated in the first or third person or alternating persons and don't have it with me to check.

As for the violence and sexual content questions, I guess that whether the violence and sexual content are "graphic" or "explicit" depends on your point of view. For some people, the violence and sexual content in this book would probably seem "graphic" and "explicit."

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Title: Fragments of a Young Conquistador

Author: Lincoln Michel

Narrator: Thom Rivera

Format: Unabridged

Length: 48 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-12-15

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

This story was originally published in Day One, a weekly literary journal dedicated to short fiction and poetry from emerging writers.

From award-winning author Lincoln Michel comes a surrealistic story that suffuses the past with modern twists.

His father bent on making him a true Spanish nobleman, romantic young Eduardo crosses the seas to join his bumbling, megalomaniacal uncle, Cortés. Once he arrives in the new world, Eduardo falls passionately in love with an Aztec princess yet still assumes his place as a reluctant conquistador, waging bloody battle against the natives. In this darkly comic adventure, Michel takes listeners on a wildly imaginative journey past gigantic sea beasts, gold-gobbling Spaniards, and rioting Aztecs to create a thought-provoking glimpse of history and its true authors.

Members Reviews:

This story will keep you entertained from beginnging to end

The young protagonist, Eduardo, a poet at heart, is swept by family duty into circumstances he must face in conquering a new land including; monsters at sea, danger at every turn, bloodshed and the unknown. He discovers romance along the way and his love for the beautiful Isabella is his driving force throughout the story. The ending offers a philosophical twist about the futility of war and conquest.

Finally, a Book You CAN Judge By Its Cover

An entertaining (and darkly funny) story about a young conquistador who would rather be a poet. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a short story this much!

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Title: The Italian Wife

Author: Kate Furnivall

Narrator: Jane McDowell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-11-15

Publisher: Hachette Audio UK

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

The Sunday Times top 10 best-selling author

Discover a brilliant story of love, danger, courage and betrayal, from the internationally best-selling author of The Betrayal.

Italy, 1932 - Mussolini's Italy is growing from strength to strength, but at what cost?

One bright autumn morning, architect Isabella Berotti sits at a café in the vibrant centre of Bellina when a woman she's never met asks her to watch her 10-year-old daughter, just for a moment. Reluctantly Isabella agrees - and then watches in horror as the woman climbs to the top of the town's clock tower and steps over the edge.

This tragic encounter draws vivid memories to the surface, forcing Isabella to probe deeper into the secrets of her own past as she tries to protect the young girl from the authorities. Together with charismatic photographer Roberto Falco, Isabella is about to discover that secrets run deeper and are more dangerous than either of them could have possibly imagined....

From the glittering marble piazzas to the picturesque hillside villages and winding streets of Rome, Kate Furnivall's epic new novel will take you on an breathtaking journey of intrigue, romance, and betrayal.

Critic Reviews:

"Breathtaking historical fiction." (The Times)

"Furnivall's descriptions are powerful...the plotting and pace are breathless." (Historical Novels Review)

"The setting is sweeping, the story big and the description vivid." (Courier Mail)

Members Reviews:

Pretty but dull

What would have made The Italian Wife better?

A stronger "mystery". The through line for the lead character seemed to be "who would shoot my unpleasant murderer husband" and the answer seemed to be "anybody, he was an unpleasant murderer". Then she was baffled as to why, again, see "unpleasant murderer".I really failed to understand how that element was in any way supposed to grip a listener.

What could Kate Furnivall have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

A less easily wrapped up plot, a better hook with the husband and fewer magical escapes just before it looks like it's all over.

Which character as performed by Jane McDowell was your favourite?

Jane McDowell read beautifully. Wonderful lilts of accents without making it hard to a non Italian speaker.

You didnt love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

It flowed and I finished listening to it. It's a fascinating setting and concept with some lovely description.

Brilliant.

Gripping. The twists and turns of the story kept me hooked right to the end.