Download New Releases Full Audiobooks in Fiction, Literary

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Title: The Love Song of Jonny Valentine

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Teddy Wayne

Narrator: Kirby Heyborne

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-05-13

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 50 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

For fans ofA Visit from the Goon Squadand Joyce Carol OatesBlonde, here is a scathing and enthralling new novel about Americas monstrous obsession with fame from the winner of a 2011 Whiting Writers Award.

Megastar Jonny Valentine, 11-year-old icon of bubblegum pop, knows that the fans dont love him for who he is. His image, his voice, and even his hairdo have been packaged - by his LA label and by his hard-partying manager-mother - into bite-size pieces for easy digestion, sliding down the gullet of mass culture, the biggest appeal to the widest demographic. But somewhere inside the relentless marketing machine is still a little boy, devoted to his mother and determined to find his absent father among the countless, faceless fans - isnt there?

A twisted, brilliant, and viciously funny coming-of-age story set inside corporate arenas and luxury hotel suites, Teddy WaynesThe Love Song of Jonny Valentineexplores with devastating clarity the underbelly of fame in 21st-century Americas celebrity culture, told through the eyes of one of the most unforgettable child narrators since Holden Caulfield. This novel is a literary masterpiece from the award-winning and critically acclaimed author ofKapitoil - one of the standout writers of his generation.

Teddy Wayne is the award-winning author of Kapitoil and a journalist who contributes to a variety of national publications.

Critic Reviews:

"The Love Song of Jonny Valentinetakes us deep into the dark arts and even darker heart of mass-market celebrity, 21st-century version. In the near-pubescent hitmaker of the title, Teddy Wayne delivers a wild ride through the upper echelons of the entertainment machine as it ingests human beings at one end and spews out dollars at the other. Jonnys like all the rest of us, he wants to love and be loved, and as this brilliant novel shows, thats a dangerous way to be when youre inside the machine." (Ben Fountain,New York Timesbest-selling author)

"Id wanted to go slowly and readThe Love Song of Jonny Valentineover the course of a week or two, but once Jonnys voice got into my head, I was hooked and kept picking it back up, and so I ended up on the last page, reading that final, amazing sentence, at like three in the morning. This novel is a serious accomplishment. America as we know it, with laughs on every page, but also a book that doesnt take one cheap shot. And at the swirling core, you have an 11-year-old boy trapped by his fame and trying to figure out how to move through the world, and who wants nothing more than to find his father. This is a book with a runaway narrative engine, tremendous ambitions, and an even bigger heart.

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Title: Daughters Who Walk This Path

Author: Yejide Kilanko

Narrator: Claudia Alick

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-29-13

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 12 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

An authentic, wrenching novel chronicling a young girls coming of age in turbulent, bustling, contemporary Nigeria.

Spirited and intelligent, Morayo grows up surrounded by school friends and family in busy, modern-day Ibadan. An adoring little sister, their traditional parents, and a host of aunties and cousins make Morayos home their own, so theres nothing unusual about her charming but troubled cousin, Bros T, moving in with the family. At first Morayo and her sister are delighted, but in her innocence, nothing prepares Morayo for the shameful secret Bros T forces upon her.

Thrust into a web of oppressive silence woven by the adults around her, Morayo must learn to protect herself and her sister from a legacy of silence shared by the women in her family. Only her Aunt Morenike provides Morayo with a safe home and a sense of female community that sustains her as she develops into a young woman in a bustling, politically charged, and often violent country.

Critic Reviews:

"Uplifting. graceful and unmistakably authentic." (

Quill & Quire)

"[Kilanko] tells us stories about Nigerian womens emotional strength, their remarkable network of support and the travails that afflict many of them in a country where women still provide the domestic backbone. It is a book that can make you laugh and cry, and if you arent a feminist, Kilankos book will turn you into one - whether you're male or female. Kilankos characters are affecting and admirable; her storytelling agile and persuasive; her dialogue convincing and funny. Kilankos primary job in social work and child protection allows her a deep understanding of victimization. She leaves us with a sense of a Nigerian woman's heroism in the face of social prejudice. Morayo and her aunt Morenike walked us down a path we hope we will be able to meet them on again." (

Toronto Star)

Members Reviews:

Inauthentic reading

I really enjoyed this story, but was very disappointed in the reading. The reader was completely unfamiliar with the novel's setting and consistently mispronounced names of cities and other important details. If you know nothing about Nigeria this will not likely be an issue. However, if you are Nigerian or have ever heard a Nigerian speak, skip the audio version and just read the book.

Moving

This piece forces you to face your secrets and begin to heal hidden wounds. The author's words ring with empathy for those she will never know. I appreciate her voice, passion, and creativity. This is a must read for anyone holding deep hurts.

wonderful story!

very interesting book. found myself wanting to listen to it from beginning to end all at once.

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Title: Old Town

Author: Lin Zhe, George A. Fowler (translator)

Narrator: Emily Woo Zeller

Format: Unabridged

Length: 22 hrs and 45 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-10-12

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 18 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Lin Zhe is one of Chinas foremost authors. In this gripping novel, Zhe incorporates the War of Resistance against Japan, New China's arduous journey from Liberation in 1949 through Mao's Cultural Revolution, and up to the present day to form a compelling backdrop for her portrayal of three generations of a Chinese family struggling to survive war, revolutionary politics, the demands of a timeless patriarchal social order, and the conflict between family obligations and individual aspirations.

With the smooth translation by George A. Fowler, listeners are immediately engrossed in this fast-paced story that covers a century of change in every aspect of life in China. Whether the books characters are in the far reaches of western China or small-town California, we share their loves and their hopes, their terrors and despair, and, finally, their survival and evolution. The author, who has published 14 novels, reminds us just how unbreakable the human spirit is.

Members Reviews:

Interesting if Confusing

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I don't know if I would have included the translators notes.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

I would, as it might be easier to keep track of the characters.

Major family saga

Would you listen to Old Town again? Why?

Yes, it was excellently read and listening again would probably reveal cultural details missed at first listening.

Would you recommend Old Town to your friends? Why or why not?

Yes but they would need to be interested in the delightful small details of life within the broad politcal scope of the story.

Did Emily Woo Zeller do a good job differentiating each of the characters? How?

Yes.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Both. This family saga pulls at the emotions by sharing the joys and sadness of all the lives involved. However the story had a detachment which at times has a documentary style.

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Title: The Child's Child

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Barbara Vine

Narrator: Sarah Coomes

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-04-12

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 56 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

When their grandmother dies, Grace and Andrew Easton inherit her sprawling, book-filled London home, Dinmont House. Rather than sell it, the adult siblings move in together, splitting the numerous bedrooms and studies. The arrangement is unusual, but ideal for the affectionate pair - until the day Andrew brings home a new boyfriend. A devilishly handsome novelist, James Derain resembles Cary Grant, but his strident comments about Graces doctoral thesis soon puncture the houses idyllic atmosphere.

When he and Andrew witness their friends murder outside a London nightclub, James begins to unravel, and what happens next will change the lives of everyone in the house.

Just as turmoil sets in at Dinmont House, Grace escapes into reading a manuscript - a long-lost novel from 1951 called The Childs Child - never published because of its frank depictions of an unwed mother and a homosexual relationship. The book is the story of two siblings born a few years after World War One. This brother and sister, John and Maud, mirror the present-day Andrew and Grace: a homosexual brother and a sister carrying an illegitimate child. Acts of violence and sex will reverberate through their stories.

The Childs Child is an enormously clever, brilliantly constructed novel-within-a-novel about family, betrayal, and disgrace. A master of psychological suspense, Ruth Rendell, in her newest work under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, takes us where violence and social taboos collide. She shows how societys treatment of those it once considered undesirable has changed - and how sometimes it hasnt.

Members Reviews:

Wha?

I've read and loved everything by Ruth Rendell AND by her as Barbara Vine. Especially loved her as Barbara Vine. But this book is just a mess. Two stories are told, one with barely any plot at all, the other (within the first story but at length) with a sort of a plot and three of the most unpleasant, uninteresting characters in all of fiction. There's no rhyme or reason here. At all. When the music came up at the "end" my mouth dropped open and I said, aloud, "You've gotta be kidding." I don't know what's happened, here, but it's depressing and really annoying. I did listen all the way through, tho. I mean, it is Ruth Rendell (or it's supposed to be) and I kept hoping that at some point it would all make sense. It didn't.

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Title: Identity

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Linda Asher (translator), Milan Kundera

Narrator: Richmond Hoxie

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 53 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-31-12

Publisher: HarperAudio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 19 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

There are situations in which we fail for a moment to recognize the person we are with, in which the identity of the other is erased while we simultaneously doubt our own. This also happens with couples - indeed, above all with couples, because lovers fear more than anything else "losing sight" of the loved one.

With stunning artfulness in expanding and playing variations on the meaningful moment, Milan Kundera has made this situation - and the vague sense of panic it inspires - the very fabric of this novel. Here brevity goes hand in hand with intensity, and a moment of bewilderment marks the start of a labyrinthine journey during which the reader repeatedly crosses the border between the real and the unreal, between what occurs in the world outside and what the mind creates in its solitude.

Of all contemporary writers, only Kundera can transform such a hidden and disconcerting perception into the material for a novel, one of his finest, most painful, and most enlightening - which, surprisingly, turns out to be a love story.

Members Reviews:

Identities in the Making

The story of Chantal and Jean-Marc, as told by Milan Kundera, is an old one, but it merits retelling. It reminds us what we are and how we got that way, and it enriches our understanding of the over-used and too often trivialized idea of relationship.

Whether or not the eyes are windows to the soul, they serve quite well as mirrors. We see ourselves reflected in the eyes and responses of others. We put ourselves in their place and ask what would have produced these reflections, what would have elicited these responses. Our interpretations, over time and with many others, constitute our identities. We see ourselves not as others see us, but as we interpret their responses upon seeing us. If we are fortunate, we are able to temper our interpretations with our own accounts of ourselves, identities already formed and strengthened in the world we share with others. We also recognize that being loved, valued, and cared for is not dependent on perfection, and we may retain these gifts even as we become old, frail, and ugly.

If we are fortunate, we have others to whom we are close, with whom we interact frequently, who respond in ways that enable us to feel intelligent, attractive, effective, helpful, compassionate -- in a word, good. Otherwise, we may share the world with those whose responses we interpret, whether correctly or not, to mean that we are stupid, ineffectual, unattractive, and of no real value. If we are fortunate, however, we may also see the that the interpretations we attribute to unkind or indifferent others may be misunderstood, erroneous, and self-serving, and our established knowledge of ourselves may be out of synch with what we take to be others' dismissal or condemnation. We seek remedies through rebellion or escape, through seeking out and interacting with those who appreciate us.

Perhaps the least fortunate among us are those who are close to no one, forced to rely on incidental, passing responses, or lack of same, that provide a fragile, uncertain identity that is unstable, easily shaken, disagreeably malleable, and really non-existent.

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Title: Juliet in August

Author: Dianne Warren

Narrator: Cassandra Campbell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-05-12

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 28 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Audie Award Nominee, Solo Narration - Female, 2013

Juliet, Saskatchewan, is a blink-and-you-miss-it kind of town - a dusty oasis on the edge of the Little Snake sand hills. It's easy to believe that nothing of consequence takes place there. But the hills vibrate with life, and the town's heart beats in the rich and overlapping stories of its people: the rancher afraid to accept responsibility for the land his adoptive parents left him; the bank manager grappling with a sudden understanding of his own inadequacy; a shy couple, well beyond middle age, struggling with the recognition of their feelings for each other. And somewhere, lost in the sand, a camel named Antoinette.

Critic Reviews:

"I was reminded of Carol Shields and the creation of unassuming, matter-of-fact characters who are, in truth, generously complicated. The writing is understated, wry, laconic - as if the place itself could not produce any other kind of story." (David Bergen)

Members Reviews:

Don't Stop..Don't Stop...I want More

My review headline refers to the only part of the book that kept me from giving the story a full 5* rating....the abrupt ending, the only part I didn't like.

So what is good about this book?......Ms. Warren creates a mood and story that is something like sipping a lovely cool drink beside a babbling brook in a quiet meadow on a very hot day. She entwines her characters, the listener/reader knowing each one intimately, their intricate lives set in the desert plains in the tiny town of Juliet, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Ms. Warren writes this lovely haunting book, making her characters come alive with subtle beauty and such deep feelings leaking out between the words.

At times in the beginning listening to this book it was difficult for me to follow who was who, but it was well worth the bit of confusion when all gelled and the cohesive story of the different families emerged in this gem of a book. The narrator did a very good job too. I didn't want to leave these folks in Juliet and I wish I could return for more. This one is a YES YES YES

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Title: Freedom

Author: Jonathan Franzen

Narrator: David Ledoux

Format: Unabridged

Length: 24 hrs and 8 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-01-12

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 30 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Patty and Walter Berglund were the new pioneers of old St. Paul - the gentrifiers, the hands-on parents, the avant-garde of the Whole Foods generation. Patty was the ideal sort of neighbor who could tell you where to recycle your batteries and how to get the local cops to actually do their job. She was an enviably perfect mother and the wife of Walters dreams. Together with Walter - environmental lawyer, commuter cyclist, total family man - she was doing her small part to build a better world.

But now, in the new millennium, the Berglunds have become a mystery. Why has their teenage son moved in with the aggressively Republican family next door? Why has Walter taken a job working with Big Coal? What, exactly, is Richard Katz - outré rocker and Walters college best friend and rival - still doing in the picture? Most of all, what has happened to Patty? Why has the bright star of Barrier Street become a very different kind of neighbor, an implacable fury coming unhinged before the streets attentive eyes?

In this instant number-one best-selling novel, Jonathan Franzen charts the mistakes and joys of these intensely realized characters as they struggle to learn how to live in an ever more confusing world. An epic of contemporary love and marriage, Freedom is a deeply moving portrait of our time.

Members Reviews:

Audio problems

Audio cuts out at 7:32:09 and is choppy for 10 secs.

Listened to this for a school project.

It's alright, I'm 7 hours in and the audio has problems. Not sure how to file a complaint on tablet. Will update when I finish reading.

I've tried

I have attempted this book a few times, but it eludes me. I just don't like the characters because they don't ring true. I've heard how much people enjoy Franzen's writing. I'm not one of them

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Titel: Der Nachtzirkus

Autor:: Erin Morgenstern

Erzähler: Matthias Brandt

Format: Unabridged

Spieldauer: 14 hrs and 9 mins

Sprache: Deutsch

Veröffentlichungsdatum: 03-16-12

Herausgeber: HörbucHHamburg HHV GmbH

Bewertung: 4.5 von 5 von 3 Stimmen

Kategorien: Fiction, Literary

Zusammenfassung des Herausgebers:

Er kommt ohne Ankündigung und hat nur bei Nacht geöffnet: der Cirque des Rêves - Zirkus der Träume. Um ein geheimnisvolles Freudenfeuer scharen sich fantastische Zelte, doch hinter den Kulissen bereiten zwei verfeindete Magier ihre Kinder darauf vor, zu vollenden, was sie nie geschafft haben: den Kampf auf Leben und Tod zu entscheiden. Von ihren Vätern unlösbar an den Zirkus und ihren tödlichen Wettstreit gebunden, ringen sie verzweifelt um ihre Liebe, ihr Leben und eine traumhafte Welt, die für immer unterzugehen droht.

©2012 Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH (P)2012 Hörbuch Hamburg HHV GmbH

Mitglieder Bewertungen:

Are You Ready to Visit the Circus of Your Dreams?

Who has enjoyed visiting the circus? I enjoyed visiting the circus when I was a kid. I havenât really seen one recently, but I did read about one The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. This circus is supposed to be the circus of dreams, but is it?

Synopsis:

Celia and Marco are given rings when they are little by their instructors. These rings bind the two together in a game. The instructors know the rules but they are not forthcoming with sharing them with their pupils. Such as how does the game end? What will happen when Celia and Marco meet for the first time? They meet when Celia applies to be an illusionist for the night circus. She gets the job and somehow ends up collaborating on this circus with Marco to make it a success. What happens when they fall for one another will they be able to finish the game?

My Thoughts:

This novel was recommended to me by a colleague at work. I love historical fiction. This story is set back in the late 1800s. I just didnât enjoy how much I was in the dark about what would happen next. I felt that the story jumped all over the place. I found myself losing interest in the story.

The setting is London England and various countries such as France, Germany, Austria, and United States. She did have some interesting characters in this story.

I hope that I will enjoy her next novel more!

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Title: The Vanishers

Author: Heidi Julavits

Narrator: Xe Sands

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-13-12

Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 56 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Julia Severn is a student at an elite institute for psychics. Her mentor, the legendary Madame Ackermann, afflicted by jealousy, subjects Julia to the humiliation of reliving her mother's suicide when Julia was an infant. As the two lock horns, and Julia gains power, Madame Ackermann launches a desperate psychic attack that leaves Julia the victim of a crippling ailment. But others have noted Julia's emerging gifts, and soon she's recruited to track down an elusive missing person who might have a connection to her mother. As Julia sifts through ghosts and astral clues, everything she thought she knew of her mother is called into question, and she discovers that her ability to know the minds of others goes far deeper than she ever imagined.

Critic Reviews:

"...wry, witty...magical...Julavits's often acerbic prose generates laughs despite the sad reality of Julia's life." (Publishers Weekly)

"...searing...Intelligent and ambitious..." (Kirkus Reviews)

An absorbing meditation on female competition with Hitchcockian twists (Entertainment Weekly)

Members Reviews:

i didn't hate it but i didn't love it

What did you like best about The Vanishers? What did you like least?

I liked the idea behind the story. It's not something that sounded familiar. I think I was hoping for something a more based on the reviews and summary. Overall just left me feeling a bit depressed and glad it was over.

Would you recommend The Vanishers to your friends? Why or why not?

I did recommend it...we listened to it at the same time and in the end both felt similar. So I don't think I would suggest it to someone else.

Would you be willing to try another one of Xe Sandss performances?

I didn't love this reader which may have been part of my dislike of the book. I felt I had to get past her voice to hear the story.

Was The Vanishers worth the listening time?

It made me think so I don't discount the time spent listening although I didn't thoroughly enjoy it.

annoying narrator

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator of this book sort of drifts off with each sentence. It's an affectation that I found very irritating.

One of my favorite books

Where does The Vanishers rank among all the audiobooks youve listened to so far?

Probably my favorite audio book

Who was your favorite character and why?

Too many to love. This is a quirky read.

Have you listened to any of Xe Sandss other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not heard her before but will be looking to listen to her again.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I did want to. Instead I wound up listening to it several times in a row.

Any additional comments?

A unique read. The narrative is complex, unusual, otherworldly. The narrator draws you in and hypnotizes you.

Marguerite Duras meets Thomas Pynchon

If books could mate and produce offspring, this novel would be the child of Thomas Pynchon and Marguerite Duras, with a healthy gene-splicing of Freud thrown in for good measure. Its been a long time since I read a novel that left me feeling simultaneously elatedfor its brillianceand disturbed (in a good way)because of the issues it explores. Not since The Ravishing of Lol Stein (Duras) have a I read a novel that so beautifully and almost seamlessly incorporates psychoanalytic theory.

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Title: The Starboard Sea

Author: Amber Dermont

Narrator: Alexander Cendese

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-28-12

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 65 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Jason Prosper grew up in the elite world of Manhattan penthouses, Maine summer estates, old-boy prep schools, and exclusive sailing clubs. A smart, athletic teenager, Jason maintains a healthy, humorous disdain for the trappings of affluence, preferring to spend afternoons sailing with Cal, his best friend and boarding-school roommate. When Cal commits suicide during their junior year at Kensington Prep, Jason is devastated by the loss and transfers to Bellingham Academy. There he meets Aidan, a fellow student with her own troubled past, and they embark on a tender, awkward, deeply emotional relationship.

When a major hurricane hits the New England coast, the destruction it causes brings with it another upheaval in Jasons life, forcing him to make sense of a terrible secret that has been buried by the boys he considers his friends.

Set against the backdrop of the 1987 stock market collapse, The Starboard Sea is an examination of the abuses of class privilege, the mutability of sexual desire, the thrill and risk of competitive sailing, and the adult cost of teenage recklessness. It is a powerful and provocative novel about a young man finding his moral center, trying to forgive himself, and accepting the gift of love.

Members Reviews:

Just enough wind to keep it sailing

I read the review in The New York Times and immediately purchased this title. I was drawn to the era, the late '80s, and to the prep school environment that we've all come to know from The Catcher in the Rye, A Separate Peace, etc. While I enjoyed the story, I was a bit disappointed by the manner in which the author gave such a perfuctory nod to so many aspects of the story. Few of the characters, besides the narrator, seemed fleshed out. Not that they weren't described, but they were not given life. The events of the story were often glossed over, as if the author were a tour guide, hurrying us along to the next piece of action before we had a chance to enjoy what was before us. There were storylines with certain characters (Leo, Officer Hardy to name two) that just faded away without resolution.

That said, I found myself engaged in the story throughout, and although we never know exactly how the critical event of the story actually unfolded, the author finds a way of making the resolution poigmant and appropriate. I loved the sailng scenes, and learning about navigation and the stars and the sea.

The biggest problem with the recording is the reader. I have never heard a book before this one that I thought would be better enjoyed if read instead of listened to. The reader, although passable as an 18 year-old young man, was terrible at creating voices of the other characters. I have heard many male narrators create wonderful women's voices, but the voices of the women in this novel came off as very bad charicatures, as did many of the men. There were also several words that were mispronounced--not a big deal, but a bit jarring for a professional production.

One thing that I did enjoy very much about the book is the way that a female author imbued the first-person narrative about a group of teenage boys with such a warmth and gentleness that belied its setting. I was never really concious of the author's sex, but I was concious of not worrying that the novel was going to digress into a crude boy's-school sex romp.