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: Under The Volcano

Author: Malcolm Lowry

Narrator: Christopher Cazenove

Format: Abridged

Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-18-09

Publisher: Audio Holdings, LLC

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

The horrors of alcoholism have never been so vividly, so comprehensively, or so sympathetically described as they are in Under the Volcano. Equally vivid is the picture of alcohol's attractions: the blessed painlessness that beckons from within the bottle. Against a backcloth, brilliantly described, of the magnificent, uncaring Mexican mountains, the Consul examines his disastrous life; he understands the pain he is causing to all who love him; he is aware that salvation is within his grasp; and yet he cannot save himself; he does not want to save himself...

©1965 Margerie Bonner Lowry; (P)2009 Audio Holdings, LLC

Members Reviews:

Let it marinate and macerate your mind...

What a masterpice.... It is haunting, insightful, poetic and tragic -- but it takes a gentle spirit and an open heart to appreciate its mysteries. It is similar in topic and theme to Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim by Conrad. It also helps to have had some experience in traveling throughout Mexico (not staying at a resort) to appreciate the sense of doom and desperation of the people and to become sensitized to the tragic sense that pervades Mexican culture and traditions. But this is not absolutely necessary. If I were teaching a class with Under the Volcano, I would include the sociological and historical events that envelop its characters, show videos of Mexican fiestas, and present some of the realities of 500 years of colonial oppression. Alchoholism is of course not significant in itself, except in its relation to the deliberately self-destructive trajectory of the narrator.

This novel reminded me also of Lord Jim by Conrad.

Five Stars

difficult but amazing book.

Liked this better on first read.

It is not always such a good idea to re-read once much-liked books as you are often disappointed the second time around. This, unfortunately, is the case with this book for me. However, a newcomer to Lowry's book would get an enjoyable read and some good chuckles as well as insight into an interesting period in Mexico and find some characters who are well worth meeting.

Five Stars

nice reading

a drunken very real look at life now and forever

Writing at its very best, Volcano is an emotional roller coaster of love, fear, ideas and world affairs blended like a margarita so the essence of all shines through the blur of reality.

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 Dead Father

Author: Donald Barthelme

Narrator: Dennis Holland

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-13-09

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 40 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

The Dead Father is a gargantuan half-dead, half-alive, part mechanical, wise, vain, powerful being who still has hopes for himself - even while he is being dragged by means of a cable toward a mysterious goal.

In this extraordinary novel, marked by the imaginative use of language that influenced a generation of fiction writers, Donald Barthelme offered a glimpse into his fictional universe.

As an added bonus, when you purchase our Audible Modern Vanguard production of Donald Barthelme's book, you'll also receive an exclusive Jim Atlas interview. This interview where James Atlas interviews Tracy Daugherty about the life and work of Donald Barthelme begins as soon as the audiobook ends.

Editorial Reviews:

"It's no easy task to bring to life the words of one of the most celebrated post-modern fiction writers who influenced a generation of novelists. When the focus of a story is on wordplay and sentence fragments as it is in Donald Barthleme's best work - including this short novel The Dead Father - it's all too easy for the genius to be lost in narration. But Dennis Holland rises to the challenge and succeeds. His technique? A matter-of-fact cadence, with a bit of playfulness that softly highlights the absurd. It's this hint of wonder in his voice that lands his aural rendering somewhere between a dedicated teacher reading aloud from a manual and the narrator of the Dr. Seuss movie classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

"The Dead Father offers a world so absurd, that the absurdity is normal. The title character is a mostly-conscious, part-machine being who, though he speaks and acts and reasons, is, apparently, dead, and on one last journey. Fragments and simple sentences move the book along; everything is at once related and unrelated, as in this passage: 'They continue to hold hands. And the Dead Father also gropes a bare foot with the hand that is not holding hands. Julie retracts foot. Thomas smokes. Events in the sky. Star falls, scattering in the dark part. Clouds moving implacably left to right. Offstage, toward the wings. Thomas smoking.' And though the words alone may seem devoid of emotion, the novel ends in a heartbreaking scene - emotional because of the words and the events, but also because of the gentle narration that both pushes the narrative and floats along with its tide. Holland's performance of The Dead Father offers both an excellent introduction to a fiction master's work, and a fresh perspective for Barthleme devotees." (

)

Members Reviews:

I love this little book

When I was an undergrad, The Dead Father is the only postmodernist work I really understood and loved, and it helped me laugh at traditions of all kinds. I teach this novel in my classes now, and the students think it's like nothing they've seen before (if they can get past the antinomial cussing, sex, and "nudity" all of which are absurdly rendered). Yet there are heart wrenching themes about the problems fathers and sons face as they struggle to communicate or even just coexist. Barthelme continues to make me laugh and think each time I read it or any of his works. Still a great read, and the audio narrator adds an extra layer of absurdity and tenderness to the piece.

If prepared for post-modernist comedy, drive on!

If what you enjoy is a straightforward narrative told in straightforward prose, turn around now.

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 Music of Chance

Author: Paul Auster

Narrator: Marc Vietor

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-11-09

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 71 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

In a Pennsylvania meadow, a young fireman and an angry gambler are forced to build a wall of 15th-century stone. For Jim Nashe, it all started when he came into a small inheritance and left Boston in pursuit of "a life of freedom". Careening back and forth across the United States, waiting for the money to run out, Nashe met Jack Pozzi, a young man with a temper and a plan. With Nashe's last funds, they entered a poker game against two rich eccentrics, "risking everything on the single turn of a card". In Paul Auster's world of fiendish bargains and punitive whims, where chance is a shifting and powerful force, there is redemption, nonetheless, in Nashe's resolute quest for justice and his capacity for love.

As an added bonus, when you purchase our Audible Modern Vanguard production of Paul Auster's book, you'll also get an exclusive Jim Atlas interview that begins when the audiobook ends.

Critic Reviews:

"All the suspense and pace of a best-selling thriller." (The New York Times)

"A thriller with a conscience, The Music of Chance is one of the best American novels of the year." (Entertainment Weekly)

"In his lucid, captivating yarn, Auster quietly raises disturbing questions of servants and masters, of loyalty, freedom and the inexplicable urge to kill." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

loved that I hated it

The unanswered questions!?! I hate when authors leave their endings open. However, it would have been a disservice to it's title. Does jackpot live? Did he he ever make it to the hospital? Did Tiffany really call?

All questions left up to chance.

It keeps you reading... but whats the point?

The start of the book was odd and the end was boring... The middle was good and I wish there was more of a point.

love the ambiguity of this story

very good. i really like paul auster and very glad i have done this one now

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: Something to Remember Me By

Subtitle: Three Tales

Author: Saul Bellow

Narrator: Jennifer Van Dyck, A. C. Fellner, Kevin Pariseau

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-11-09

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

A collection of three novellas:

A Theft

A clever but tender novella is also Bellow's first book to feature a woman as its principal character. A 40ish executive of an international publishing group, Clara is "the czarina of fashion writing"; the breadwinner of her family. Clara's powerful facade is vulnerable to the demands of her heart. Two youthful love affairs gone sour had precipitated suicide attempts, and now she is unnerved by the theft of her emerald ring an engagement ring from a brilliant man she never married but still adores.

The Bellarosa Connection

The aging, lonely, and nostalgic narrator, a memory specialist, summons from the past the book's story within a story concerning his onetime acquaintance, Jewish refugee Harry Fonstein. Saved from the hands of the Nazis by an Italian underground movement spearheaded by Broadway showman Billy Rose, Fonstein immigrates to America, where he prospers in business and in his marriage to an obese and brilliant woman. But his obsessive efforts to thank Rose are thwarted by the charismatic yet obnoxious, even deviant personality.

Something to Remember Me By

The remembrance back in Chicago of 1933 of a 17-year-old boy's first encounter with a hooker, this is a wonderfully comic episode, occurring against the somber backdrop of the lingering death of the boy's mother by cancer. The story brims over in the riches of Bellow's observing eye and his pulse-perfect renderings of life's textures in immigrant Chicago during a dreary Depression winter.

As an added bonus, when you purchase our Audible Modern Vanguard production of Saul Bellow's book, you'll also receive an exclusive Jim Atlas interview. This interview where James Atlas interviews Azar Nafisi about the life and work of Saul Bellow begins as soon as the audiobook ends.

Critic Reviews:

"Among American novelists of the latter half of the twentieth century, Saul Bellow stands out as one of the giants, perhaps the giant." (The New York Review of Books)

Members Reviews:

Collectible, at Least For Me

Good stories by the Nobel winner. My copy even came with his autograph- the real one; I checked it against his cursive. Couldn't have been better as a purchase.

Five Stars

a very special read

Three Short Stories by Saul Bellow the American Nobel Prize Winner for Literature

Saul Bellow grew up in Chicago though born in Montreal. He emerged from Jewish culture and was one of the most intellectually and gifted authors in American literary history. The Penguin Classics Edition contains three good stories by Bellow.

The Bellarosa collection is a humorous story of the attempts made by Harry Fonstein to thank Broadway producer Billy Rose for helping him to escape from Fascist Italy. The story is narrated by a man who has known the Fonsteins for many years. An interesting story about Jewish life at them midcentury in a New York milieu which no longer exists.

A Theft is a story about Clara Velde a wealthy, beautiful and much married woman who loses a jewel given her by her longtime lover Teddy Regler.

The story is told by Bellow with warmth and wisdom.

Something to Remember Me By is a Great Depression era story set in Chicago. A young boy is enticed into a sexual encounter in a hotel room by a woman who steals his clothes.

Saul Bellow is always worth reading.

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 Missing

Author: Tim Gautreaux

Narrator: Henry Strozier

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-15-09

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 49 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

In this spellbinder by critically acclaimed author Tim Gautreaux, Sam Simoneaux returns from World War I to rebuild his life. But when a girl is snatched from the New Orleans department store where he's working, he hops aboard a Mississippi steamboat to find her - and dredges up ghosts from his painful past.

©2009 Tim Gautreaux; (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

Members Reviews:

The Missing

I really liked this book. The author takes you on a journey that puts you in the Narrator's pocket and "doesn't let you out" until the very end. Wow, what a thrilling ride.

Poignant period fiction

Would you consider the audio edition of The Missing to be better than the print version?

I feel that Henry Strozier's reading enhances an excellent and readable story.

What did you like best about this story?

The character Sam Simoneaux seems like a real person -- kind, gentle, flawed, a man with realistic ambitions and unfortunate luck who perseveres. All the characters in Mr. Gautreaux's story are unique and realistic, some more fleshed out than others. The story flows along with the ups and downs and drama of ordinary life in a difficult time in American history.

What about Henry Stroziers performance did you like?

I seek out books read by Henry Strozier. His voice soothes my mind, as well as bringing characters to life. He paces a book perfectly so every word has the significance intended by the writer.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

A story of loss and living.

Any additional comments?

This is one of my favorite books read in the last several years. He is a wonderful Southern writer. I have shared with friends who also enjoyed 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: The Matisse Stories

Author: A. S. Byatt

Narrator: Nadia May

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 36 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-04-09

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 17 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

In "Medusa's Ankles", a distinguished translator visits a hair salon hoping to regain a hint of her youthful looks. Hung on the wall before her is one of Matisse's iconic portraits.

In "Art Works", the three inhabitants of one household - a generous wife, her petulant husband, and their regal housekeeper - make very different artists.

And in "The Chinese Lobster", a self-tortured, anorexic art student confronts the smug opulence of Matisse's nudes while pondering suicide.

Critic Reviews:

"Full of delight and humor...studded with brilliantly apt images and a fine sense for subtleties of conversation and emotion." (San Francisco Chronicle)

"Virtually every phrase is a treat for the ears....[Nadia May] knows how to make each word count." (Philadelphia Inquirer)

"May's...excellent pacing and authoritative grip on the material won me over. Her narration commands attention from beginning to end." (KLIATT)

Members Reviews:

A dazzling feast for the senses

Byatt dazzles us with all the voluptuous warmth, color, and sensuality of Matisse's art in this trio of stories from 1993. How difficult it is to write about the visual arts, and how admirably Byatt transcends that limitation here!

In "Medusa's Ankles," an aging Susannah visits the hair stylist to whom she has "entrusted her disintegration" in his Matisse-decorated salon. Little does she suspect that this will be the venue in which she experiences a dramatic catharsis.

The Matisse painting, "Le silence habité des maisons" provides the visual introduction to the story "Art Work," and its unlikely trio. On the first floor of a house in the Alma Road, a design editor for a magazine writes; upstairs her self-indulgent husband paints. Mrs. Brown, the housekeeper, whom these two look down upon from their lofty eminence, takes care of the dreary realities of childcare and cleaning. But the unregarded Mrs. Brown has talents of her own, as this family will discover.

"The Chinese Lobster" is a disturbing story of two academics who meet in a restaurant to discuss a troubled student who has some serious issues about Matisse, as well as a more distressing problem. The aquarium containing shellfish provides a visual metaphor for our detachment and indifference from those whom we do not wish to know, about those for whom we cannot find a reason to care.

I recommend this brief, intensively sensuous collection to fellow artists and lovers of Matisse's painting. Nadia May is perfect throughout, transposing visual and literary art into a delicious narration.

Listen to this audiobook free with a 30-day trial. Go to http://hotaudiobook.com/free

Title: Manual of Detection

Author: Jedediah Berry

Narrator: Pete Larkin

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-19-09

Publisher: HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 72 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

In an unnamed city slick with rain, Charles Unwin toils as a clerk at an imperious detective agency. His job: writing reports on cases solved by the palindromic Detective Travis Sivart. When Sivart goes missing and his supervisor is murdered, Unwin is promoted to detective, a rank for which he is woefully unprepared. His only guidance comes from his sleepy new assistant and the pithy yet profound Manual of Detection.

Unwin mounts his search for Sivart but soon faces impossible questions: Why does the mummy at the Municipal Museum have modern-day dental work? Where have all the city's alarm clocks gone? Can the man with the blond beard really read his thoughts? Meanwhile, Unwin is framed for murder, pursued by goons, and confounded by a femme fatale. His only choice: to enter the dreams of a murdered man.

Critic Reviews:

"Berry's ambitious debut reverberates with echoes of Kafka and Paul Auster." (Publishers Weekly)

Contact me for any questions: [email protected]

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 Sacred Book of the Werewolf

Author: Victor Pelevin

Narrator: Cassandra Campbell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-04-08

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 85 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Forced to advertise on the Internet, she comes to the attention of an intelligence officer who also happens to be a werewolf.

Victor Pelevin's new work of fiction is both a supernatural love story and an outrageously funny satirical portrait of modern Russia. With all his characteristic humor and metaphysical ambition, Pelevin introduces us to an unforgettable cast of perverts, former KGB agents, oil tycoons, and amorous werewolves.

Translated by Andrew Bromfield.

Critic Reviews:

"Strange, frenetic and beguiling....Victor Pelevin (is) one of the most exciting writers to emerge from new Russia." (The Guardian, London)

"Full of tour de force passages, and full of sex, the novel yet succeeds in not being one of those showy, sexy, cold-hearted books. The fantasy is fueled by passion, the humor by grief." (Ursula K. Le Guin)

"Pelevin belongs to one strand of the great Russian tradition that goes back as far as Gogol and Dostoevesky, in which metaphysical locutions about the mystery of existence clash with the grotesque banalities of life as it is actually lived." (New York Times Book Review)

Members Reviews:

okokok people

if you're looking for a bodice ripping, two-dimensional, paranormal romance with vampiric and lycanthropic sex, you've come to the wrong place.

this book was frigging awesome. and because some short-sided reviewers chose to bash it, less and less people will try it. that really bums me out.

the narrator was brilliant. i wouldn't call the story's progression slow, i'd call it gradual. and i wouldn't call it boring. just because a novel doesn't give you what you want doesn't mean it isn't good. Hamilton and Feehan fans may be expecting a smaller calibar of novel. THIS IS NOT PELEVIN'S FAULT.

this novel has some fantasy elements but they exist to tilt the earth off-center a bit, not to generate an entire fanciful universe. its more surrealistic than science fiction, to a purpose other than simple diversion. Pelevin's story has a point. it's a socio-political commentary on post-soviet russia...with werewolves, werefoxes, and taoist immortals. i'd tell you more, but i dont want to ruin it (for those who are brave enough and sharp enough to try it out despite other negative, unfair assessments).

frankly, i loved it.

Victor Pelevin has written better books than this.

The problem with this book ISN'T that people want a titillating fantasy story and got a long philosophical text instead, those people are just uninformed consumers and their opinions are garbage. Do a quick Google search before you make a purchase, how hard can that be?

The problem with this book is that everything is delivered from the narrator's perspective, and Pelevin indulges far, FAR too much exposition and philosophizing. Having the narrator go on tangents explaining the rules of these fantasy creatures, or over-philosophizing about Daoist concepts gets obnoxious fast, in the way he writes the narrator's conversational voice addressing the audience. As far as my disappointment with the book, a quick bout of research on Google shows that this book is somehow well liked amongst people that like Pelevin, which I find baffling.

Homo Zapiens is better.

If possible, Audible needs to produce an audiobook of Homo Zapiens or Omon Ra, etc.

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: Don Juan

Author: Lord Byron

Narrator: Frederick Davidson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-04-06

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 51 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Written in ottava rima stanza form, Byron's Don Juan blends high drama with outrageous farce. Sprinkled with digressions on wealth, power, society, chastity, poets, and England, Don Juan is a poetical novel of satirical fervor and wit.

Members Reviews:

Glad to have it

It's nice to see this finally has become available online. Do not let Davidson's accent put you off. He does a fine job and ably conveys Byron's uproarious wit.

He does make one rather appalling mistake: he pronounces Juan as the Spanish pronounce it. As almost any English lit major will tell you, it is to be pronounced: "JOO-un".

A vastly entertaining poem by a truly great poet.

Forget Davidson, Bethune, Griffin, and Keeble

Try listening online to Peter Gallagher's wonderful free performance of five selected cantos and you'll wonder why Audible hasn't commissioned him to do the entire poem. Until then, Michael Sheen's reading of a 22-minute selection from Canto One on the "Great Poets of the Romantic Age" anthology is not to be missed (but who is the uncredited actress who splendidly takes on the women's parts?).

unimaginable experience

Where does Don Juan rank among all the audiobooks youve listened to so far?

I must say that Don Juan is ranked in my mental list among the best books I've listened

What was one of the most memorable moments of Don Juan?

The whole book is composed of memorable moments, I don't think I'll forget the episode when Don Juan is almost caught, hiding under the bedsheets at Donna Julia's, nor when Lambro, the pirate father of Haidee discovers Don Juan sleeping with his daughter or the Dudù episode.

Which scene was your favorite?

I don't know if Don Juan must be remembered by scenes; rather I think it is the verse, his opinions, etc. which make the book have favorite parts. The poet is very witty and outspoken, but perhaps most importantly, very creative and intelligent. I'm always smiling with things like: "The world is full of strange vicissitudes, and here was one exceedingly unpleasant: A gentleman so rich in the world's goods, handsome and young, enjoying all the present, just at the very time when he least broods on such a thing is suddenly to sea sent, wounded and chained, so that he cannot move, and all because a lady fell in love". Etc.

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

Yes, the book made me laugh the whole time and also gasp with amazement at all the incidents.

Any additional comments?

I am very happy with this audio book. It has been an amazing experience, better than I expected.

Hard to follow

I have listen to numerous books. This has been one of the hardest to follow. The accent of the reader and story line was to much for me. I tried to listen to this book but after 1 hour I could not stand it any more. Save use your credit for another book.

Strong British accent

The narrator has a strong British Accent. Sometimes, it is barely understandable.

I have listened to a lot of audiobooks in English, including TMS and TTC letures on physics, philosophy, psychology, mathematics and biology.

Given, I am not a native English speaker. But I have never had any trouble understanding and following much more complex content than this.

Escuche este audio libro completo gratis en https://hotaudiobook.com

Título: Servidumbre Humana [Of Human Bondage]

Autor: William Somerset Maugham

Narrador: Fabio Camero

Formato: Abridged

Duración: 3 hrs and 1 min

Idioma: Español

Fecha de publicación: 10-12-05

Editor: Yoyo USA, Inc

Calificaciones: 3 de 5 de 2 votos

Categorías: Fiction, Literary

Resumen del editor:

Philip Carey, un estudiante de medicina, se une a la camarera Mildred Rogers, una mujer sin escrupulos, cruel y sin ningun afecto ni moralidad. Ella se aprovecha de la deformidad de Philip para humillarlo y cuando finalmente se arruina y tiene que interrumpir sus estudios lo abandona. El relato de como acaba por sobreponerse es el final de esta novela, un distinguido retrato humano.

Philip Carey, a medical student, joins the waitress Mildred Rogers, a woman without scruples, cruel, and without any affection nor morals. She takes advantage of Philip to humiliate him and when he finally goes to ruin and must interrupt his studies, she leaves him. The story of how he overcomes this situation is the end of this novel, a distinguished human picture.

Please Note: This audiobook is in Spanish.