Download Popular Authors Audiobooks in Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

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Title: Great Classic Love Stories

Author: Anton Chekhov, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Willa Cather, James Joyce, Guy de Maupassant, William Shakespeare

Narrator: uncredited

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-25-10

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

The world-class writers featured in this collection are adept at conjuring the depth of passion that surrounds all stories of love and loss. The short story form is perfect for capturing the uplift and dizzying heights that accompany a new object of affection, as well as the queasy unease and bottomless longing of lost loves.

Includes: "The Lady with the Dog" by Anton Chekhov; "Love Sonnets" by William Shakespeare; "Rappuccini's Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne; "The Piazza" by Herman Melville; "Coming, Aphrodite!" by Willa Cather; and "The Dead" by James Joyce.

Various narrators.

Members Reviews:

Love Stories of depth and complexity.

Each of these six stories is a small masterpiece. Each is complex and extraordinary rendition of meaning and animation of love. The Meliville is an exploration into love and the search for sanity. The Lady with a Dog is particualrly exquisite. The Hawthorne is a horror story of the power of love.All are perfect. A wonderful colection.

rather boring. uninteresting readings by the readers

Pretty boring. Uninteresting readings by the readers ... (sigh)

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Title: Scission

Author: Tim Winton

Narrator: Samuel Johnson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-28-09

Publisher: Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Ratings: 1.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

Tim Winton's first collection of stories deals with men, women and children whose lives are coming apart and whose hearts are breaking. These spare, jagged stories, in which people struggle with change and disintegration, are vintage Winton.

©1985 Tim Winton; (P)2009 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Editorial Reviews:

Scission is the first short story collection from acclaimed Australian writer Tim Winton - whose 1995 novel, The Riders, was shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

Wonderfully narrated in tense, gravelly tones by Samuel Johnson, the hardscrabble and often bleak stories collected here are lyrically rich in their gritty depictions of struggle, heartache, and human despair. However, hopeful rays of something resembling sunshine do penetrate the pain at times - making Scission a redemptive listen as well. Fans of Tim Winton should also seek out the similarly gritty works of Mississippi writer, Larry Brown.

Members Reviews:

Tim Winton fan

This is a great little book. I'm not really all that fond of short stories, but I really like Tim Winton's work, and this didn't disappoint. Winton takes risks with his work; no two are all that similar unlike other authors who seem to come up with a "formula" and just change the names from story to story. The stories are probably somewhat "uneven" but it was amazing to see how he could tell whole stories with so few words. A lot of the background is implied in these stories, but they generally work. The last story, Scission, was the longest in the book, and it was probably my favorite, if such a story can be a "favorite". Read it and you'll see why I question the word "favorite" as the subject matter is gruesome. If you like to read, and you haven't tried any of Tim Winton's work, you should do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of "Cloudstreet". He is a great story-teller, and he has a great imagination. If anyone reads "The Riders" and they understand the part about the riders, please email me and explain it. That one was also a great story, but the part about The Riders left me scratching my head. Overall, this guy can really write!

Stories about everyday life

These stories are wonderful. Some of them from the perspective of children, others adult. I could line up some superlatives, but really - I'm speachless. There's something there under Your skin, all the way: He knows, from the inside. And the language is so spicy.

Early Winton but classic!

I've been a huge fan of Tim Winton since I first read one of his novels. This collection of short stories is from the early '80's before his better known novels but is still magic from the master's pen. If you're an Australian you will appreciate Winton's treatment of the realities of Australia's physical as well as cultural presence.

Boring!!

So boring and I couldn't finish it - interesting as Tim Winton's books are normally very good. Wouldn't recommend

Captures some of the magic of Cloudstreet

The first story in this collection was so dark I put the book away. I am Winton fan, but of late he hasn't been able to scale the same heights as Cloudstreet, The Riders or The Turning. On a slow weekend I rediscovered it, and the weekend flew past in a whirl of Winton Goodness. This is the old master back at his craft.

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Title: Female Trouble

Subtitle: Stories

Author: Antonya Nelson

Narrator: Eileen Stevens, Veronica Taylor, Nancy Wu

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-17-09

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

Female Trouble features 13 wise, funny, and startlingly perceptive stories about the vagaries and revelations of womanhood. Named by The New Yorker as one of the 20 best writers of her generation, Antonya Nelson explores the broad notion of family from myriad angles in Female Trouble.

Set in the vividly rendered Midwest, these moving stories are dark and honest portraits of people in moral quandaries, gray areas, unclear circumstances -- from the three-timing 30-year-old man of the title story to the divorced mother of a turbulent teen in "Incognito" to the sexually adventurous daughter of an adulterous mother in "Stitches."

With Female Trouble, Nelson has created a cast of memorable characters who reveal us to ourselves with disturbing clarity and conscience.

Members Reviews:

One of the worst books I have ever read.

This is the most morose collection of stories I have ever read. I wish I could get a refund of the purchase price and a refund on the time I wasted reading it. I honestly cannot find one redeeming thing to say about the book. The characters are depressed and depressing, pitiful and mostly morally bankrupt human beings.

Female trouble

Not a good read. To confusing. Sometimes you must read a. So so book in order to enjoy a good one.

impressive

I pulled this book up on Amazon to order it for a friend and I couldn't believe no one had reviewed it. I bought it in hardback when it first came out and was so impressed with the stories that I tracked down Ms. Nelson's earlier collections of stories, Land of Men, and The Expendables. I am glad I did as they each contain some gems. Female Trouble, though, is full of gems. They showcase Ms Nelson's talent for finding the fresh way of looking at the moral questions and difficult relationships that are the fodder for much of fiction. And while this is serious stuff, Ms. Nelson handles it with clarity and sensitivity and even humor. The first story is about a woman who returns to her childhood town with her young daughter and while reading the newspaper comes across something that forces her to confront her own troublesome youth. The device that drives this story is so compelling and creative that I was anxious to see i f Ms Nelson could sustain that level of creativity throughout the entire collection. She did. I believe you will find several characters and stories that stay wtih you long after you've put this one on your "A" shelf. ....

Rebel Rebel

Antonya Nelson's stock in trade is her laser-like understanding of and her affinity for the foibles and miss-steps of we mortal human beings. Anyone familiar with her "Nobody's Girl" or in particular "Living to Tell" can attest to that.

In "Female Trouble" she sets her sights on a close to her heart, I would assume subject, women: Professional women, divorced women, suicidal women, mother-earth women, young women and old women, pregnant women and the men who are fortunate enough to cross their paths.

"Female Trouble" is a short story collection. The Short Story is probably the most difficult prose form for an author to master:a short story should be all of a piece. You should not crave for more.

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Title: Murder on the Short List

Author: Peter Lovesey

Narrator: Gordon Griffin

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-01-09

Publisher: ISIS Audio Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

This is Peter Lovesey's short list of his best-ever stories, including the Crime Writers' Association's best short story of 2007, 'Needle Match', and featuring some of his most popular detectives: Bertie, Prince of Wales, Sergeant Cribb, and Rosemary and Thyme.

Surprises are guaranteed, as elephants appear in a London side street; a gang of geriatrics goes on a hearing aid heist; and an underworld boss searches for a harp. Join the author in a brush with Adolf Hitler and take a walk on Beachy Head - the UK's favourite suicide spot.

Members Reviews:

Nice to see Sergeant Cribb again, even briefly...

I wish Lovesey would have continued Sergeant Cribb in at least a few more novels, but at least I get to see him in action again in this short story collection. He actually appears in two of the short stories, but the second is as a part of another Lovesey novel character's short story. Still, I liked most of the others, though I felt that a few had been written too hastily and lacked depth of character and plot. However, the others had tighter writing and a nice twist at the end, which made this Lovesey book worth adding to my collection.

PETER LOVESEY IS ONE OF THE BEST OF ALL TIME

Peter Lovesey is one the best authors of all times. I don't like short stories, as a rule, but I have e copy of everything he has ever written so I had to have this one for the collection. These are good because he is such a wordsmith. (and he always likes a bit of comedy in his work)

Short Story Crime at its best

Great short stories by a master. Well worth it.

Another Excellent Collection from on of UKs best

Peter Lovesey, the master of the surprise ending once again gives us a collection of his short stories. So for those of you who can't subscribe to every mystery fiction magazine here is your chance for some excellent reading time.

Peter Lovesey is the best!

Peter Lovesey is one of the reasons I became a mystery author. His easy writing style, taut plots, and dry Brit wit charmed me from the first. This is a collection of short stories that shows his range of abilities. Truly enjoyable.

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Title: The Orphaned Swimming Pool

Author: John Updike

Narrator: Jane Alexander

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-11-09

Publisher: HarperAudio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

A selection from the John Updike audio collection.

Listen to more in

.

©1969 John Updike; (P)2003 HarperCollins Publishers

Editorial Reviews:

In this short story, Updike likens a marriage to the mixing of chemicals to create a new compound. Performed by Jane Alexander with the same confidence and clear mindedness of the author, this exploration of the breaking apart of this union is sensitive and engaging. Alexander draws on her long career as an actress to portray the divorcing couple with a tinge of regret and anger. What had once been the symbol of their joy of being together is presented with a dour tone of devastating remorse by Alexander as the couple moves on with their separate lives.

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Title: Killing

Author: John Updike

Narrator: Jane Alexander

Format: Unabridged

Length: 29 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-11-09

Publisher: HarperAudio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 7 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

These extraordinarily evocative stories depict the generation born in a small-town America during the Depression and growing up in a world where the old sexual morality was turned around and material comforts were easily had. Yet, as these stories reflect so accurately, life was still unsettling, and Updike chronicles telling moments both joyful and painful. The texts are taken from his recent omnibus, The Early Stories, 1953-1975.

In describing how he wrote these stories in a small, rented, smoke-filled office in Ipswitch, Massachusetts, he says, "I felt that I was packaging something as delicately pervasive as smoke, one box after another, in that room, where my only duty was to describe reality as it had come to me -- to give the mundane its beautiful due."

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Title: Cat's Paw

Author: Bill Pronzini

Narrator: Stacy Keach

Format: Unabridged

Length: 42 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-19-09

Publisher: Audio Holdings, LLC

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 15 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

This is a "Nameless Detective" mystery story that starts with the thefts of several exotic animals from San Francisco's Fleishhacker Zoo - and ends with murder.

©1983 Pronzini-Muller Family Trust; (P)2009 Audio Holdings, LLC

Editorial Reviews:

In Bill Pronzini's "Cat's Paw", which won the "Best Private Eye Short Story" Shamus Award in 1984, the private investigator who's only known as "Nameless Detective" must solve the mystery of missing exotic animals at a San Francisco zoo. But the creature thefts soon escalate into human murder and the anonymous P.I. must piece together clues in order to save lives.

A listener is taken along for the tour of lion houses and animal enclosures by Stacy Keach, whom The New York Times once named "the finest American classical actor since John Barrymore". Keach has recorded a collection of Shakespeare plays as well as extensive narration for the Discovery Channel and PBS. Classical drama meets fast-paced, swampy mystery in "Cat's Paw".

Members Reviews:

Three Stars

the plot was good and the narration was good but the finishwas a little shaky

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Title: Sherlock Holmes

Subtitle: The Adventure of the Dancing Men

Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Narrator: Edward Raleigh

Format: Unabridged

Length: 58 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-11-09

Publisher: Audio Holdings, LLC

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

Sherlock Holmes' superb deductive abilities are truly tested in this adventure when a client asks the Great Detective to help him discover what is frightening his new wife. What seems to Watson to be just a child's drawing becomes the key to solving the mystery.

(P)2009 Audio Holdings, LLC

Editorial Reviews:

Though Sherlock Holmes delights in informally dazzling his colleague Dr. Watson with his chains of deduction, his true love is solving the mysteries brought to him by Baker Street clients. In "The Adventure of the Dancing Men", Detective Holmes is unable to prevent a fatality amongst his clientele, a tragic occurrence that Arthur Conan Doyle only replicated once, in "The Five Orange Pits". "Dancing Men" appeared in Doyle's collection The Return of Sherlock Holmes, which delves into the cases subsequent to Holmes' triumphant return after faking his own death. "Golden Voice" winner Edward Raleigh gives his impeccable English accent and delivery to these staid Victorian characters.

Members Reviews:

Encryption Learning

In this story, Mr. Hilton Cubitt of Ridling Thorpe Manor in Derbyshire visits Sherlock Holmes and gives him a piece of paper with a mysterious sequence of stick figures representing dancing men.

The little dancing men are at the heart of a mystery which seems to be driving his young wife Elsie Patrick to distraction. He married her about 3 years ago, and until recently, everything was well. She is American, and before the wedding, she asked her husband-to-be to promise her never to ask about her past, as she had had some âvery disagreeable associationsâ in her life, although she said that there was nothing that she was personally ashamed of. Mr. Cubitt swore the promise and, being an honorable English gentleman, insists on living by it, which is one of the things causing difficulty at Ridling Thorpe Manor.

The trouble began when Elsie received a letter from the United States, which evidently disturbed her, and she threw the letter on the fire. Then the dancing men appeared, sometimes on a piece of paper left on the sundial overnight, sometimes scrawled in chalk on a wall or door, even a windowsill. Each time, their appearance has an obvious, terrifying effect on Elsie, but she will not tell her husband what is going on. Holmes tells Cubitt that he wants to see every occurrence of the dancing men. They are to be copied down and brought or sent to him at 221B Baker Street. Cubitt duly does this, and it provides Holmes with an important clue. Holmes comes to realize that it is a substitution cipher. He cracks the code by frequency analysis. The last of the messages conveyed by the dancing men is a particularly alarming one.

Holmes rushes down to Ridling Thorpe Manor only to find Cubitt dead of a bullet to the heart and his wife gravely wounded in the head. Inspector Martin of the Norfolk Constabulary believes that it is a murder-suicide, or will be if Elsie dies. She is the prime suspect in her husbandâs death. Holmes sees things differently.

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Title: Ride the Lightning

Author: John Lutz

Narrator: Jerry Orbach

Format: Unabridged

Length: 41 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-08-09

Publisher: Audio Holdings, LLC

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

Despite his better judgment, Nudger takes the case, finding the trail cold and witnesses colder still. But, just as he prepares to abandon the case and leave Colt to his fate, Nudger comes across new evidence that convinces him that maybe Candy Ann is right, maybe the wrong man has been sentenced to 'ride the lightning'...

Editorial Reviews:

After John Lutz won an Edgar Award (Best Short Story 1985) for "Ride the Lightning", the Missouri author expanded the work into a novel. This Alo Nudger mystery follows the brilliant St. Louis P.I. as he seeks to prove the innocence of a man on death row.

Legendary actor Jerry Orbach delivers an exemplary, no-nonsense performance of Lutz's tricky and deeply satisfying tale. Orbach is best known for his roles in Dirty Dancing, Murder, She Wrote, and of course Law and Order, but he was also an accomplished musical theater actor. The "Living Landmark" (who passed away in 2004) brings a sort of music to this performance, with an impeccable sense of rhythm and seamless dialogue.

Members Reviews:

Lutz does it again

Very good book , never saw the ending ....very good

Can Nudger clear a man that doesn't want to be cleared?

A condemned man's fiance hires St. Louis PI Alo Nudger to prove his innocence. But is he really innocent? That's what Nudger aims to find out. Too bad the clock is ticking and he has less than a week...

Here we are, the fourth installment of John Lutz's Alo Nudger series. Nudger is not your average detective. He's not a hit with the ladies. He's terrified of damn near everything. He throws up at crime scenes and constantly chews antacids. I guess that's why he interests me so much.

In this case, like the others, Nudger takes a shit kicking but keeps on keeping on. I have to admit that Lutz really pulled the wool over my eyes in this one. I love a solveable mystery that I can't crack before the detective character does and Lutz gave it to me here.

As in all the Nudger books, the St. Louis locale is almost a character, much like the New York Lawrence Block crafts for the Matthew Scudder series. I always wind up comparing the two for some reason. I guess because neither detective is a super hero but both always manage to get the job done. Nudger's personal life hits some speed bumps in this one and I felt bad for the poor shlub, like I always do. I wonder how much of Alo Nudger is actually John Lutz.

The supporting cast, both the recurring ones like Claudia and Hammersmith, and the newbs like Candy Ann and the Colt family, really help drive the story along. Like I said, Lutz caught me napping on this one and I thank him for it.

Didn't See It Coming

I've read five or six of John Lutz's Nudger novels, and this is the one that I'll never forget. The fiancee of Curtis Colt, a man about to be electrocuted for murder committed during a robbery, hires Nudger to prove (on a very short deadline) that Colt was not the murderer. Nudger takes the case but gets nowhere because it's years after the murder and because nobody wants to talk about it. But then, just when things look bleakest, . . . Nudger comes up with new evidence. I didn't see the ending coming, but it all made sense. A book you won't easily forget.

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Title: The Wrong Shape

Subtitle: A Father Brown Mystery

Author: G. K. Chesterton

Narrator: James Arthur

Format: Unabridged

Length: 42 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-05-09

Publisher: Audio Holdings, LLC

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 10 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

Listeners will delight in these masterful chronicles of the adventures and mishaps of Father Brown. Small, round-faced, and engagingly innocent, Brown is a Roman Catholic priest from East Anglia. He also happens to be a top-notch detective, possessing that rarest of all gifts - an intuition that never fails.

(P)2009 Audio Holdings, LLC

Members Reviews:

Good entertainment

A short and entertaining tale. Good performance. Fun mystery series. Have purchased more of the dramatizations on sale and look forward to listening to them.