Get Most Popular Full Audiobooks in Fiction, Literary Top Rated

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Understudies

Author: Ravi Mangla

Narrator: Daniel Penz

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs

Language: English

Release date: 12-24-13

Publisher: Ravi Mangla

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

A high school teacher begins to question the course of his life after a famous young actress moves into town. In the starlet's shadow, his girlfriend, his mother, his neighbor, and his students take on strange new dimensions. Told in a series of snapshots, Understudies presents a sharp, funny, and heartbreaking study of beauty, celebrity, and everyday needs.

Critic Reviews:

Funny, moving, perceptive, artful-these are the first words that came to mind when I tried to describe Understudies to a friend. And then, to better capture its spirit, I began reading it aloud and marveled all over again at Ravi Mangla's ability to tell us, with precision and wit, what deserves to be known. (Joanna Scott)

Ravi Mangla's delightingly tight, micro-chaptered Understudies is an unassumingly beautiful and moving debut. It's elegantly and hilariously precise about everything it touches, and it touches almost everything human. (Gary Lutz)

Ravi Mangla's Understudies is a brilliant meditation on the private cost of celebrity, the longing to transcend the ordinary, and the seductive nature of performance. Darkly funny, sharply-observed, and terrifically moving, Understudies is an essential debut. (Laura van den Berg)

With the absurdist realism of A.M. Homes and the perverse randomness of Miranda July, Ravi Mangla's Understudies asks is the unacknowledged life worth living,' and-in a prose as original as the novel itself-answers, definitively, yes. ( Courtney Maum)

Members Reviews:

Fast paced

Any additional comments?

I received this audiobook for free in order to review, but the opinions are my own. I enjoyed this short and fast paced book. It is written in a different style with lots of short choppy chapters. It took a while to get use to this, but once I did, I liked it and is worked with the story. I liked the characters in this book, flaws and all. Not much happened, but everyone moved forward in their own way. I would not have spent a credit on this book, mainly because it was so short, but if the author wrote something else, I would check it out. It would make a great Audible Daily Deal for less than $5. Narrator did an excellent job.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Other Miller

Author: Tobias Wolff

Narrator: Anthony Heald

Format: Unabridged

Length: 32 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-19-13

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 1 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Miller is unlucky. That's why he's in a foxhole with the rest of Bravo Company. That's why his dad is gone and his mother remarried. That's why his teeth are falling out. Then, when the first sergeant tells Miller his mother has passed away, Miller thinks he's finally gotten lucky. Surely it's another Miller's mother, and now he can get away from the battalion for a couple days thanks to the Army's error. But Miller knows the future rarely has happiness in store.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Next Door

Author: Tobias Wolff

Narrator: Anthony Heald

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-19-13

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 1 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

An introspective story of neighbors, movies, and marriage from short-story master Tobias Wolff.

Lying stiffly in their separate beds, a husband and his wife are woken in the middle of the night to the sound of their fighting neighbors. There are three of them - a man, a woman, and a young child. With their blasting stereos, violent interludes, and steamy make-up sessions, the wife has had enough. The husband, however, is preoccupied with other thoughts - sex, movies, and humanity's capacity to adapt and change. Understated yet poignant, Next Door is a reflection on the spectrum of human companionship, from mundane restraint to explosive passion.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Sins of Orville Sand

Author: Phil Locascio

Narrator: Noah James Butler

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-19-13

Publisher: Celeritas Unlimited LLC

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Orville Sand is on a mission, a deadly assignment he is bound to carry out. Throughout the Midwest, wherever he goes, people die in mysterious accidents. He carries with him a great red book containing the names of the unfortunates with whom he must rendezvous. Where his shadow passes, tragedy will befall some unsuspecting innocent. Perhaps a child will drown, or a wall will collapse unexpectedly on a pedestrian, or a woman will tumble down a flight of stairs. Only one man, Gerald Mizzaro, knows the truth. As a child, his life crosses innocently with Orville Sand's while the man rents a room from Gerald's widowed mother. The fatherless boy and the older man forge a bond based on the emotional void they both feel. But when death visits the neighborhood during Sand's short stay, Gerald suspects his involvement. As he grows older, a coincidental second encounter with Sand provides Gerald with the irrefutable truth he cannot ignore. Now Gerald must act to stop the man he both cares for and abhors. He must put away all the frivolous concerns a college student dwells upon and face a grave responsibility only he can assume. And when Sand discovers Gerald's attempts to stop him, he is forced to deal with the young man or meet a fate more unspeakable than the death he himself suffered decades before.

Members Reviews:

recommend it

Reviewed by Ellen Hogan for Reader Views (10/06)

Whenever Orville Sand is around someone dies. It is always said to be an accident. Orville has a book with a list of names, their addresses, date of birth and date of death.

Gerald Mizzaro is a young boy the first time he meets Orville. Gerald lives with his mother and she rents out a room for extra money. When Orville came to town he rented the room and got to know Gerald and his mom. Gerald didn't know his father and kind of looked at Orville as a substitute father while he was there. One day Gerald was snooping in Orville's room and found the book of names. It was an accident when Gerald ripped out one of the pages.

After high school Gerald attended Northern Illinois, where he met Myron Reeding. During this time his friends were into drinking and drugs. They were driving along one day when Gerald sees Orville standing on the side of the road. It wasn't until Myron died that Gerald remembered the book and the page that was torn out. When he was home visiting his mother he retrieved the page and saw what he thought he had remembered --Myron's name was on the page.

Gerald decides he has to stop Orville from causing any more accidents. So, he goes to the helpless shelter that Sister Mary Vitello works at. He gets a job there himself to keep an eye on her and deter any accident she might have. Orville finds out that he is there and manages to get him out of the kitchen. While Gerald is gone the Sister has her accident and she dies. For the next name Gerald decides that he will kidnap Emily and keep her safe. This is where the story gets interesting. Needless to say good will triumph over evil but you will have to read that for yourself.

This book was very hard to get into. In fact, it really didn't grab me until I was about half to three quarters of the way through. The ending is quite suspenseful though and I found I couldn't put it down until it was finished.

The writer told the story well and I would recommend it.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Desert Breakdown, 1968

Author: Tobias Wolff

Narrator: Anthony Heald

Format: Unabridged

Length: 56 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-19-13

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Mark's parents have never done a thing for him. When he got out of the army and married Krystal, they were against it, just as they are against his moving to Los Angeles. But Mark has a dream, a dream of being an entertainer, of having a show in Las Vegas. So he packs Krystal and their son, Hans, into their car and starts driving from Arizona to California, determined to show his parents how wrong they are to doubt him. But when the car breaks down at a small gas station in the desert, Mark and Krystal are forced to face realities about their future and their marriage.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Lady's Dream

Author: Tobias Wolff

Narrator: Anthony Heald

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-19-13

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Lady, suffocating in the car on a hot summer's day, slips into a feverish dream. Robert, her husband, watches her slip into unconsciousness as he drives. He's a soldier, a man of principle, well-educated and well-adjusted. But Robert is also a man with an agenda; he has married this young, wild lower-class girl to spite his father, and now he regrets it. How much does Lady know about Robert's intentions, and how far will he go to set things straight?

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Please Love Me

Author: Penelope Przekop

Narrator: Rebecca Roberts

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-05-13

Publisher: Penelope Przekop

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

For as long as she can remember, 17-year-old Peyton Bound has struggled to remain strong despite being lost in the whirlwind of her emotionally disturbed mother's life...then she finds Matthew Adler at a frat party. He's the first boy who kisses her with open eyes; Peyton finally sees herself in their sparkling reflection. She's sure that her fairytale moment has finally arrived, the day when everything will magically fall into place, and the burdens of her disturbing childhood will begin to lift. But when everything goes wrong, Peyton can no longer run from the truth about herself. Something is missing, and no one can save her.

Artist and writer Penelope Przekop grew up in Louisiana during the 1970s and 80s. Despite fictional elements, Please Love Me is her memoir; she is Peyton Bound, a character she created as a young adult to understand how she fell into a destructive relationship that led to a suicide attempt, and violent public cry for help. As she wrote the book, she realized it was about much more than first love gone wrong. It was about her dysfunctional childhood, her mentally ill mother, and her desperation to break free.

Please Love Me gives a raw voice to some of the deepest issues contributing to teenage suicide. It is an honest look into the human spirit's need for love and truth in a world full of craziness, and just how far some will go to find it.

Members Reviews:

Dysfunctional, yet moving

If you could sum up Please Love Me in three words, what would they be?

Please love yourself

What other book might you compare Please Love Me to and why?

I don't think I've ever read anything quite so unsettling before. Maybe Stephen Kings "Carrie", but less extreme, and without the bloody/scary parts.

Have you listened to any of Rebecca Robertss other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes, I've listened to several. I think she consistently does a really good job with all of the books she narrates . I don't feel like I have to concentrate, and can just let her voice flow through my brain. When she changes characters, there is no jarring change in her demeanor, she just assumes the voice of the character as if people are rely having a conversation.

If you could take any character from Please Love Me out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Peter. He was the only person I had any affection for.

Any additional comments?

This was a really dark story. Peyton had some really hard psychological issues that a lot of teenage girls face. Low self esteem, lack of social etiquette, and some really dysfunctional family relationships all played a part in this girl's selfish and erratic behavior.

I got pulled in by the narration

This is not my typical kind of book but was recommended to me by a friend. At first I was not that interested but the narration kept me listening long enough to get involved in the character's stories. As someone who spends a great deal of time listening to books, I find that the narrator can often make or break a listening experience and that was certainly the case here. It's great when you can forget that there is someone reading the book and just hear the story.

Once I got involved with the book though, I had to know how it would end.

desperate for love

Where does Please Love Me rank among all the audiobooks youve listened to so far?

This book falls somewhere in the middle among all of the audiobooks that I've read.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Tough Boy Sonatas

Author: Curtis Crisler

Narrator: Kevin R. Free, Deon Graham, J. D. Jackson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 22 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-04-13

Publisher: Recorded Books

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Wherever your home is, its probably not as tough as Gary, Indiana. Gary has been called a lot of things. The Armpit of Chicago. The Land of Robbing Hoods. Hell.

For the children of Gary, living often boils down to surviving. Maybe these kids get caught up in games of gin rummy. Maybe they spin tops as a way to scratch something fun out of their desperation. Maybe they stand by helplessly as their tenement buildings go up in flames. Or maybe they get held up at gunpoint by somebody who wants more money than he could steal from his church collection box.

Award-winning poet Curtis L. Crislers work gives voice to the children of Gary, shedding some light on their experiences. Kevin R. Free, Dion Graham, and JD Jackson provides a haunting performance of Crislers bittersweet poems.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Paternity

Author: Susan Baruch

Narrator: Karen Krause

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-25-13

Publisher: Susan Baruch

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Joel Berger's charmed life is fast slipping away. Determined to father a child before he dies, Joel makes one desperate appeal to the women of his dinner group for help. Soon he is surrounded by a colorful cast of female characters, including his iron-willed yet oddly endearing mother, Sylvia. You'll laugh and cry along with the Bergers as the story of their patchwork family unfolds, taking some deliciously unexpected turns along the way.

Members Reviews:

Great reading

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

Karen has an excellent, steady reading voice and pulls off different accents and tones quite nicely. You could tell the difference between the characters quite easily by the voice she used. The two Jewish parents were a little hard to tell apart as the accent was the same but the voice was otherwise not too much different. However otherwise I thought the reading was flawless. The story itself I found a bit disappointing. It was an interesting premise for a story but I didn't feel like the characters were all that relate-able, and despite dramatic moments that didn't really go anywhere it was a bit dull and kind of plot-less. Ultimately great work by Karen Krause, and I hope to hear more from her, hopefully with a story more deserving of her talents.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

It didn't seem all that conclusive. I found myself wondering what the overall point to the story was at the end. It seemed to be just kind of quickly and randomly wrapped up.

Which character as performed by Karen Krause was your favorite?

I really enjoyed the grandmother Silvia I think and the Jewish accent was beautiful. However I also really enjoyed the voice of Celeste which was a bit cautious and reserved and reflected the character perfectly.

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

Probably not. :-/

Sweet and unusual romantic tale

Would you listen to Paternity again? Why?

Paternity is sweet, endearing and fun story about a dying childless man who wishes to continue his family line. Although his story is short the remainder of the novel follows the children he bears and the quirky characters in his life.

What did you like best about this story?

I loved the somplicity of the story, simple romance and family life. No complicated story lines to follow.

Which scene was your favorite?

I loved Joel's wedding--the silly and sweet words they spoke with each other.

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

Karen Krause's performance was good; she has good inflection and clarity. I wasn't a big fan of her voice--a little too high pitched.

Delightful!

During a small dinner, Joel Bergers has a small gathering where he gives his women friends a note. He does ask that they not open the letter yet, rather wait to read them when they go home or when he's not around. The letter's were Joel's last temp to bring children into the world. This being his last attempt to have his life and name carried on. Joel has a problem, a HUGE one, he's dying. The cancer he has is eating away at his body and he can't be saved. Joel worries that there won't be anyone to carry on his name and keep him alive in spirit. He even worries about his mom and how she with react to his death. He thinks by giving her a grandchild or even grandchildren will help ease her pain.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Remember How I Told You I Loved You?

Author: Gillian Linden

Narrator: Kate Rudd

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-13-13

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 1.5 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

From a brilliant new literary voice, a collection of stories that follow a young woman from college into her early thirties - from delayed adolescence to (delayed) adulthood. Through college, careers, love affairs, and marriages, Lindens characters try to sort out what separates the passing from the permanent, the actual from the possible, and exactly how involved you really have to be in the basic questions of your life. From familiar patterns like ambiguous friendships, uncertain love affairs, and unfulfilling jobs, Linden has created something new: a sharp and intimate take on romance and infidelity, trust and betrayal.

A deadpan narrative, cool and precise, about hesitation and doubt and how to rid your apartment of mice, Remember How I Told You I Loved You? is by turns witty, moving, and darkly humorous.

Members Reviews:

eh... slow, but funny

What would have made Remember How I Told You I Loved You? better?

better story, stronger characters. more details

Any additional comments?

Remember how I told You I Loved You. By Gilliam Linden

This is a very short read. The book is overall funny but weak in character development. This story has very little detail about anything. Cute read but defiantly not the best selection compared to other books.