Download New Releases Full Audiobooks in Fiction, Literary

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Title: At the Bottom of Everything

Author: Ben Dolnick

Narrator: Chris Patton

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-09-13

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 22 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

This stunning novel of friendship, guilt, and madness tells the story of two friends torn apart by a terrible secret - and the dark adventure that neither of them ever meant to embark upon.

It's been ten years since the "incident," and Adam has long decided he's better off without his former best friend, Thomas. Adam is working as a tutor, sleeping with the mother of a student, spending lonely nights looking up his ex-girlfriend on Facebook, and pretending that he has some more meaningful plan for an adult life. But when he receives an email from Thomas' mother begging for his help, he finds himself drawn back into his old friend's world and to the past he's tried so desperately to forget. As Adam embarks upon a magnificently strange and unlikely journey, Ben Dolnick spins a tale of spiritual reckoning, of search and escape, of longing, and of reaching for redemption - a tale of near hallucinatory power.

Members Reviews:

Truth or Dare

This novel explores the power of secrets, both to harm lives and to lead to a greater truth. Two misfit boys become friends in grade school, then lose touch after a reckless mistake leads to tragedy. (The narrator doesn't seem like a misfit, but as you learn more about his messed-up 20s, he is not doing well.) The secret of that tragedy leads both boys to troubled adulthoods, and only by ultimately confronting their mistake can they move on. The novel deals with some great young-adult themes, like bravery, loyalty and duty. And the last third includes some great adventures, suspenseful and stirring.

Ben Dolnick writes with flair. His similes and metaphors are underplayed but well done, all in the right tone for the narrator.

Having said all that, the novel turns on several absurd coincidences. It is not especially believable. Thomas, the narrator's friend, is not always credible either. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the story.

Chris Patton did an excellent job narrating the novel. He had the right tone of wonder and enthusiasm that kept the reader's interest throughout.

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Title: The Isles of Unwisdom

Author: Robert Graves

Narrator: Barnaby Edwards

Format: Unabridged

Length: 17 hrs and 14 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-16-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

The Isles of Unwisdom is a historical novel based on the ill-fated expedition of General Álvero de Mendaña de Neirato, who set out from Peru in 1595 to pacify and colonise the Solomon Islands.

When Mendaña died, his young widow Dona Ysobel Barreto assumed command of the fleet, exercising the absolute power bequeathed to her by her late husband.

Graves tells the story with surprising twists, in which some characters turn out to be quite different from how they are first portrayed....

Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 - 7 December 1985) was an English poet and novelist, scholar, translator and writer of antiquity, specialising in Classical Greece and Rome. During his long life he produced more than 140 works. Graves's translations and innovative analysis and interpretations of the Greek myths, the memoir of his early life, Good-bye To All That, and his speculative study of poetic inspiration, The White Goddess, have never been out of print.

Graves earned his living by writing popular historical novels, including I, Claudias (for which he was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize), King Jesus, The Golden Fleece and Count Belisarius. He was elected Professor of Poetry at Oxford in 1961 and made an honorary fellow of St Johns College, Oxford, in 1971.

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Title: Middle Men

Subtitle: Stories

Author: Jim Gavin

Narrator: T. Ryder Smith, Jonathan Todd Ross, Chris Sorenson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-08-13

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

In Middle Men, Stegner Fellow and New Yorker contributor Jim Gavin delivers a hilarious and panoramic vision of California, portraying a group of men, from young dreamers to old vets, as they make valiant forays into middle-class respectability. In "Play the Man", a high-school basketball player aspires to a college scholarship; in "Elephant Doors", a production assistant on a game show moonlights as a stand-up comedian; and in the collection's last story, the immensely moving "Costello", a middle-aged plumbing-supplies salesman comes to terms with the death of his wife. The men in Gavin's stories all find themselves stuck somewhere in the middle, caught halfway between their dreams and the often crushing reality of their lives. A work of profound humanity that pairs moments of high comedy with searing truths about life's missed opportunities, Middle Men brings to life a series of unforgettable characters learning what it means to love and work and be in the world as a man, and it offers our first look at a gifted writer who has just begun teaching us the tools of his trade.

Members Reviews:

Stories of purgatory in LA

in his short story collection, Middle Men, Jim Gavin explores the world of men stuck somewhere between their dreams and reality. Appropriate for a book on purgatory, these stories are primarily set in Los Angeles. The sun-blasted landscape of the city looms large in Middle Men. Characters escape to the freeway or Del Taco to ease their troubles.

In an interview at the end of the book, Gavin explains that Middle Men is about mastery. It's about growing up, learning a trade and accepting your fate in a very uncertain economy. The men in the book start out young dreamers - they're slackers and standup comics and aspiring screenwriters - and end up grizzled vets grimly hanging on to their piece of the American dream.

There are a couple of great short stories in the book - Illuminati and Elephant Doors - that perfectly describe the entertainment business in Hollywood, stripping away the glamor and revealing an industry in which very few find success. As a failed screenwriter in the book says, "Nothing always happens. The literature of Hollywood is depressingly consistent on this point." Middle Men should be required reading for anyone seeking fame in LA.

California Men in various stages of disaster, funny as heck!

I loved this collection of short stories, each featuring men (except for a teenage boy in one) in various stages of disaster. I'm a bit hungry for tales of California, and this book fills that need nicely. Most of them are set in the Southern California area, though one story (Bewildered Decisions in Times of Mercantile Terror) is set in my neck of the woods (San Francisco and Berkeley). The stories have a theme--usually men failing at some particular point in their lives--and how they realize one particular course of action is probably futile. I love Gavin's sense of humor and I laughed out loud several times while reading. All the stories are excellent, but here are some of the funniest:

Bermuda: Ever fall in love with someone who was totally strange and a bit indifferent? But couldn't help yourself? This one is for you.

Elephant Doors: Adam becomes a production assistant on a game show that bears a striking resemblance to The Price is Right.

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Title: Children of the Jacaranda Tree

Author: Sahar Delijani

Narrator: Mozhan Marno

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-18-13

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 24 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

A country divided by revolution. A people united by love.

Neda is born in Tehrans Evin Prison, where her mother is allowed to nurse her for a few months before the arms of a guard appear at the cell door one day and, simply, take her away. In another part of the city, three-year-old Omid witnesses the arrests of his political-activist parents from his perch at their kitchen table, yogurt dripping from his fingertips. More than 20 years after the violent, bloody purge that took place inside Tehrans prisons, Sheida learns that her father was one of those executed, that the silent void firmly planted between her and her mother all these years was not just the sad loss that comes with death, but the anguish and the horror of murder. These are the Children of the Jacaranda Tree.

Set in post-revolutionary Iran from 1983 to 2011, this stunning debut novel follows a group of mothers, fathers, children, and lovers, some related by blood, others brought together by the tide of history that washes over their lives. Finally, years later, it is the next generation that is left with the burden of the past and their countrys tenuous future as a new wave of protest and political strife begins.

Children of the Jacaranda Tree is an evocative portrait of three generations of men and women inspired by love and poetry, burning with idealism, chasing dreams of justice and freedom. Written in Sahar Delijanis spellbinding prose, capturing the intimate side of revolution in a country where the weight of history is all around, it is a moving tribute to anyone who has ever answered its call.

Members Reviews:

life in Iran for disbelievers

First time author that I heard about on National Public Radio. This is the fictionalized story loosely based on experiences of the author's family in Iran. After the Islamic revolution around 1980 there were lots of Iranians that weren't supportive of the new Islamic government and it strict religious way of life. They were the dissidents. Many of them were arrested and possibly executed over the next several years. This story tells how this affected one extended family and extended friends; the parents, the spouses, siblings, children, all of them and affect them it did. Then twenty five years later a new generation is young and they don't remember how dissidents were treated the first time around and again many are arrested and possibly executed. They were protesting rigged elections, maybe you remember it, it wasn't that long ago. There is no rehabilitation to this, it's just punishment and destruction. If you've ever wondered what life in Iran is like for dissidents you'll enjoy this story. It's not hard to think that those living there and aren't supportive of the Islamic regime find it terrible and brutal. This is that story. This isn't a particularly happy story but it is interesting. Many Iranians yearn to be free and be able to decide themselves how they want to live. It will happen someday but I don't know that it will be in my lifetime.

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Title: The Return

Author: Roberto Bolano

Narrator: Walter Krochmal

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-15-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 11 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

A stunning collection of short stories - mostly dealing with the sex trade - by the late Chilean master and author of The Savage Detectives.

The Return contains thirteen unforgettable stories that seem to tell what Bolano called "the secret story," "the one well never know." Bent on returning to haunt you, Bolanos tales might concern the unexpected fate of a beautiful ex-girlfriend, or soccer, witchcraft, or a dream of meeting the poet Enrique Lihn: They always surprise. Consider the title story: A young partygoer collapses in a Parisian disco and dies on the dance floor. Just as his soul is departing his body, it realizes strange happenings are afoot around his now dead body - and what follows next defies the imagination (except Bolanos own).

Members Reviews:

Fantastic in every way.

Great stories by a great writer, well translated and inspiringly read. A great read and listen.

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Title: A Place of Greater Safety

Author: Hilary Mantel

Narrator: Jonathan Keeble

Format: Unabridged

Length: 33 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-22-13

Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 28 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

A tour-de-force of historical imagination, this is the story of three young men at the dawn of the French Revolution. Georges-Jacques Danton: zealous, energetic, debt-ridden. Maximilien Robespierre: small, diligent, and terrified of violence. And Camille Desmoulins: a genius of rhetoric, charming, handsome, but erratic and untrustworthy.

As these key figures of the French Revolution taste the addictive delights of power, they must also come to face the horror that follows.

Members Reviews:

No cast of characters available

I'm sure I will love this book when I can get hold of the cast of characters - it is in the print edition and the kindle edition and is vital to keeping track of the story with hundreds of minor characters. Unfortunately the Kindle sample has the list at the end (so it's not in the free sample and you would have to buy the book to get it). The only failing of the audiobook format.

For Hilary Mantel's other books (Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies) a friend sent me a photo of the first few pages of her hard copy and I referred to them frequently as I was listening.

Some solution to this problem from Audible would be much appreciated!!

Living breathing flesh on history's bare bones

If you've learned about the French Revolution at school, you've probably assembled a jumble of facts about the dramatic actions of the revolutionaries and the mob and the outcome of it all. Hilary Mantel dives beneath that to breathe life into the characters who populated the events.

In this well-researched book, she draws flesh and blood portraits of the leaders of the revolution and what led them to the events of that stormy time. You feel embedded in it, experiencing what drove them from crisis to crisis and directed their actions. You see their relationships, their trials and their temptations. Although the details have to be surmised, they are based on careful analysis of the writings of the real people involved, drawing out their motivations and beliefs.

This is an immensely powerful book, a tour de force, which drew me so into the times that I found it difficult sometimes to relate to my day-to-day 21st century life after a session of listening.

Jonathon Keeble's brilliant performance, complete with consistent and identifiable voices for the characters, enhanced it further, making it an experience I won't readily forget. I felt I lived the times. I look forward to further offerings from this author and this narrator.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose -

If you could sum up A Place of Greater Safety in three words, what would they be?

Detailed, very detailed

What was one of the most memorable moments of A Place of Greater Safety?

One, and I stress only one, of the most memorable descriptions is that of the execution of Marie Antoinette. Little snippets, like having had her hair dressed up and off her neck because she anticipated that it would be necessary, the executioner hacks it off to the required length anyway - and burns it, so that it will never become a relic.

This may be how it was for Madame Guillotine, or it may be the author's detailing, but this happens over and over again.

What does Jonathan Keeble bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you just read the book?

I don't think I could read the book.

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Title: Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Jessica Soffer

Narrator: Kathleen Gati, Kate Reinders

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-16-13

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 33 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

This is a story about accepting the people we love - the people we have to love and the people we choose to love, the families were given and the families we make. Its the story of two women adrift in New York, a widow and an almost-orphan, each searching for someone shes lost. Its the story of how, even in moments of grief and darkness, there are joys waiting nearby.

Lorca spends her life poring over cookbooks, making croissants and chocolat chaud, seeking out rare ingredients, all to earn the love of her distracted chef of a mother, who is now packing her off to boarding school. In one last effort to prove herself indispensable, Lorca resolves to track down the recipe for her mothers ideal meal, an obscure Middle Eastern dish called masgouf. Victoria, grappling with her husbands death, has been dreaming of the daughter they gave up forty years ago. An Iraqi Jewish immigrant who used to run a restaurant, she starts teaching cooking lessons; Lorca signs up. Together, they make cardamom pistachio cookies, baklava, kubba with squash. They also begin to suspect they are connected by more than their love of food. Soon, though, they must reckon with the past, the future, and the truth - whatever it might be. Bukra fil mish mish, the Arabic saying goes. Tomorrow, apricots may bloom.

Members Reviews:

Tomorrow there Will be Apricots

This book was a joy to read, even while tackling important topics of grief, longing, and loss. At times it is frustrating because of the suppositions made by the characters, but it is well worth your time and credit.

Characters assume things about others, then are so disappointed why things are not the way they thought. Sometimes this is good, sometimes not so much.

I am glad the author chose not to go the route of complete cliche; it would've made me return the book if she had!

I loved these characters, wanted to give many of them comforting hugs, and then in the next breath tell them to get out of themselves.

Maybe this is why I liked the book so much; the characters made me feel something. Perhaps that was its biggest drawback, as the book didn't really GO anywhere.

A third narrator fr Joseph's portions might have been a good idea as well, but that opinion is my own.

I wonderful read about family, loss and love.

Where does Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots rank among all the audiobooks youve listened to so far?

It is one of my favourites. I have recommended it to all my female friends.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The daughter

What does Kathleen Gati and Kate Reinders bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you just read the book?

I normally do not like separate readers but I really enjoyed the two voices telling the story from two separate point-of-views.

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

Many...but I do not want to give anything away. Be warned that you will be hungry while reading this book with all the cooking scenes. Luckily the recipes can be found on the author's web-site.

Any additional comments?

I really did not know much about the motivations and problems of "cutting" before reading this novel.

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Title: The World Without You

Author: Joshua Henkin

Narrator: Zach Villa

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-28-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 16 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

National Jewish Book Awards 2012, Finalist

JJ Greenberg Memorial Award for Fiction

From the author of the New York Times Notable Book Matrimony ["Beautiful...Brilliant." (Michael Cunningham)], a moving, mesmerizing new novel about love, loss, and the aftermath of a family tragedy.

Its July 4, 2005, and the Frankel family is descending upon their beloved summer home in the Berkshires. But this is no ordinary holiday. The family has gathered to memorialize Leo, the youngest of the four siblings, an intrepid journalist and adventurer who was killed on that day in 2004, while on assignment in Iraq.

The parents, Marilyn and David, are adrift in grief. Their 40-year marriage is falling apart. Clarissa, the eldest sibling and a former cello prodigy, has settled into an ambivalent domesticity and is struggling at age 39 to become pregnant. Lily, a fiery-tempered lawyer and the family contrarian, is angry at everyone. And Noelle, whose teenage years were shadowed by promiscuity and school expulsions, has moved to Jerusalem and become a born-again Orthodox Jew. The last person to see Leo alive, Noelle has flown back for the memorial with her husband and four children, but she feels entirely out of place. And Thisbe - Leos widow and mother of their three-year-old son - has come from California bearing her own secret.

Set against the backdrop of Independence Day and the Iraq War, The World Without You is a novel about sibling rivalries and marital feuds, about volatile women and silent men, and, ultimately, about the true meaning of family.

Members Reviews:

Uggg What a Bear

This was a very underdeveloped story. I didn't understand why people did what they did when...seems like scenes were added just because someone said 'you need more sex' or make them do something 'crazy'. It was disjointed and weird. If I wasn't just listening I would have stopped reading and I ALWAYS finish books. Take a pass on this snooze.

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Title: Traps

Author: MacKenzie Bezos

Narrator: Dina Pearlman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-12-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 37 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

In this tautly woven tour de force, the paths of four very different women intersect, briefly but significantly, in ways that will change each of them forever. MacKenzie Bezoss Traps is a propulsive exploration of the snares we build for ourselves, and of how lifes trials and reversals can lead to startling freedoms.

Dana is a beautiful young security guard trained in special ops can disarm a bomb or suture a wound but is terrified of committing to the man she loves. Lynn is a fiercely independent older woman living alone in Nevada and running a ranch for rescued dogs. Jessica is a reclusive movie star and mother of two whose father keeps selling her out to the paparazzi. Vivian is a 17-year-old prostitute who will do anything to protect her twin babies. Bezos brings deep intelligence and rich texture to her portraits of four women whose fates, though only tangentially connected, are linked in miraculous ways.

With infallible comic timing and enormous emotional generosity, Bezos mines the interior lives of her heroines: their fears, their longings, and above all the remarkable reservoirs of inner strength they bring to their struggles. Instantly engrossing, powerfully moving, and impossible to stop listening to, Bezoss pause-resisting novel reminds us that sometimes our greatest gifts may come to us disguised as our greatest obstacles.

Members Reviews:

Memories/fears create the traps of our lives

MacKenzie Bezos has written a very compelling story of four women, each of whom is struggling with something painful in her life--bad relationship with a father, loss of a daughter, loss of innocence, and letting go of defenses that keeps her from closeness with others. Dana, Jessica, Lynn and Vivian are beautifully portrayed with a sensitive hand by the author, as their lives intersect in sometimes surprising ways, while they are being transformed through facing their fears.

I found myself unable to turn this off and go to sleep--so engaging was it. I rarely listen to a book straight through, but I didn't turn this off till the wee hours of the morning. It felt to me that to have turned it off for a while would have been like a surgical cut in the middle of it--[I felt] it was meant to be heard as a whole--just as the lives of these women had to keep moving toward each other as they did in order to face their fears and be transformed in their encounters. There seemed an internal unity to the story--and I just could never find a place that I could stop listening--as though it might have broken that unity.

I feel that the author has good insight into the internal struggles of women, and can sensitively describe those feelings and needs--partly by leading the reader into their inner minds, and partly by designing situations that reveal what they have been dealing with. Her descriptions are given with a very creative view toward painting a picture of each woman's life that fleshes out what they are facing.

Dina Pearlman does a wonderful job with many different voices--making each one distinct so that it was easy to distinguish which character was speaking.

I will be recommending this book to all my friends. I think it would be good if read, but I believe it is great to have listened to it. Brought it all so much more alive for me--as the women (and people around them) all were clearly distinct, thanks to the narrator.

Yawn

What would have made Traps better?

I wish I had more insight into the characters. The story is told as if you are watching it.

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Title: Voice of Our Shadow

Author: Jonathan Carroll

Narrator: George Newbern

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-06-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 11 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

A lonely expatriate encounters a mysterious American couple

Even as a child, Joseph Lennox was happy to live in his older brother Rosss shadow. Sadistic and charming, Ross was blossoming into a teenage rebel when one day, down by the train tracks, Joe inadvertently shoves him onto the third rail. After that fatal afternoon, Joe tried to blend into the shadows, fleeing to Austria as soon as he graduated college. Now he lives in Vienna, enjoying the cozy dullness of empty cafés and old movie theaters, doing his best to forget the day he watched his brother die. But death is not through with Joe Lennox.

India and Paul Tate are the first Americans he has befriended since settling in Vienna, and it isnt long before their budding friendship takes a strange turn, exposing a dark passion that Joe thought he left behind long ago, beside his brothers electrocuted body and the hot third rail.

Members Reviews:

Might be better story with different narrator

My title says it all. The narrator isn't very good which ultimately distracts from the story. He lacks depth and reads the story far too glibly. Or perhaps it's the book itself. I don't recommend this book, even it's free.

Meh

It a whatever book. Pick it up only if you want to prove negative review wrong. You might be disappointed in the truth of them.