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Title: A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax

Author: Dorothy Gilman

Narrator: Barbara Rosenblat

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-12-11

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 901 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Emily vacations at an opulent Swiss resort in the hope of locating nine pounds of hijacked plutonium intended for an atom bomb.

Members Reviews:

Cozy mystery, but weak

Mrs. Pollifax is in Switzerland to help find some missing plutonium. No one takes her seriously, including Interpol and the bad guys! But with the help of a jewel thief, a little boy, and an invalid, she saves the day! This is one of the weakest of the Mrs. Pollifax books. A cute story, but unlikely enough to make it absurd. Still, it has the charm of all the books, but with few laugh-out-loud moments. And no hats! Barbara Rosenblat does her usual excellent job of narration. Worth the credit if you love Mrs. Pollifax like I do.

Mrs Pollifax is a delight

I started reading the Mrs. Pollifax series back in the middle 1960s. I have read them off and on whenever I came across a book. I understand the Dorothy Gilman died in February 2012 so there will be no more books. In this book Mrs. Pollifax is off to Switzerland to a spa hotel for a "rest from the flu" as a cover for her spy job for the CIA. Mrs. Pollifax is a retired teacher, she was bored so applied to the CIA for a part-time job. She is looking for missing plutonium. Of course, she solves the case in a delightful, sometimes funny way but the book is also full of action, suspense, murder, kidnapping, and at times a bit of how did she do that. The book is a great change of pace and leaves one feeling good. Barbara Rosenblat is one of my favorite narrators and she did her usual great job.

Delightful, As Usual

A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax provides another delightful adventure for that most unlikely of spies, Mrs. Emily Pollifax. In her fourth mission for Carstairs of the CIA, the middle-aged widow from suburban New Jersey goes to a Swiss luxury clinic/resort in search of stolen plutonium believed to be in the area. At the spa, she encounters a large cast of widely varied characters, some good and some bad.

Not surprisingly in a Mrs. Pollifax story, a number of things go wrong with Mrs. P's mission. She must overcome adversity with the help of several of her new acquaintances in order to complete the mission and she triumphs in the end. While the skeleton of the plot may seem to be rather bland and dull, Dorothy Gilman peoples her books with such wonderful characters that the stories are interesting and charming.

As usual, Barbara Rosenblat gives an excellent performance as narrator.

I love the character, plot, and performance

What made the experience of listening to A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax the most enjoyable?

It is a good book in and of it's self but I enjoy the fact that it is a series. I enjoys how characters grow in a series.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Mrs. Pollifax is my favorite. She is wise, kind, straight forward, and brave.

What about Barbara Rosenblats performance did you like?

I like Mrs. Pollifax's voice.

Great Cozy Mystery

What did you love best about A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax?

Mrs. P is a good read for clean, cozy mystery. Nobody does her better than Barbara Rosenblat. I believe this is the 5th in the series. You can read them out of sequence but it helps to have read Book 1, the Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax. I love the series and wish there were more.

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Title: Night Road

Author: Kristin Hannah

Narrator: Kathleen McInerney

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-22-11

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1513 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

For 18 years, Jude Farraday has put her childrens needs above her own, and it shows - her twins, Mia and Zach, are bright and happy teenagers. When Lexi Baill moves into their small, close-knit community, no one is more welcoming than Jude. Lexi, a former foster child with a dark past, quickly becomes Mias best friend. Then Zach falls in love with Lexi and the three become inseparable.

Jude does everything to keep her kids on track for college and out of harms way. It has always been easy - until senior year of high school. Suddenly she is at a loss. Nothing feels safe anymore; every time Mia and Zach leave the house, she worries about them. On a hot summers night her worst fears are realized. One decision will change the course of their lives. In the blink of an eye, the Farraday family will be torn apart and Lexi will lose everything. In the years that follow, each must face the consequences of that single night and find a way to forget... or the courage to forgive.Vivid, universal, and emotionally complex, Night Road raises profound questions about motherhood, identity, love, and forgiveness. It is a luminous, heartbreaking novel that captures both the exquisite pain of loss and the stunning power of hope. This is Kristin Hannah at her very best, telling an unforgettable story about the longing for family, the resilience of the human heart, and the courage it takes to forgive the people we love.

Members Reviews:

Took awhile to get into but worth it

I understand why one reviewer would say it's geared toward teenagers except for the mothers perspective and depth of loss would be too much for a younger person to relate to. It took a bit to get into, but the author takes her time to develop the intricacies and inner turmoils of the relationships with the characters so once the true drama begins you are so familiar with them that it was worth going thru.

Oh for heaven's sake

The storyline was good. I did appreciate the fact that it didn't sugar coat the issues in the book. It presented them realistically and kept the message going throughout the story. When my kids are teenagers, this is a story I'd like them to hear.

However - the mother - she spent the first half other the book smothering her children with everything her time and money could provide - and the second half of the book, she litterally checked out. Of course until the last 1hr 44min. Then somehow she put herself back together in the span of a day or two... even though she apparantly couldn't function for years. I was so irritated with her behavior - that I found myself cringing.

The best Kristin Hannah stories I've read

I thought the author's writing style was very descriptive and vivid. Her tone was conversational and engaging. The narrator brought everything to life. I was just blown away.

Night Road introduces us to a young woman named Alexa Lexi Baill, who was a product of a heroin addicted mother. She was in and out of various foster homes until a great-aunt named Eva Lange came to claim her. I knew this book would leave me in tears when Lexi met her great-aunt for the first time and said If you keep me, you wont regret. I swear it. I knew then that this young woman was going to captivate me.

This book weaves a story about 3 teenagers pushing boundaries, learning responsibilities, making choices and living with the consequences of those choices.

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Title: Gideon's Sword

Author: Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

Narrator: John Glover

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-22-11

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1926 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Introducing Gideon Crew: trickster, prodigy, master thief....

At 24, summoned to his dying mother's bedside, Gideon learned the truth: His father was framed and deliberately slaughtered. With her last breath, she begged her son to avenge him.

Now, with a new purpose in his life, Gideon crafts a one-time mission of vengeance, aimed at the perpetrator of his father's destruction. His plan is meticulous, spectacular, and successful.

But from the shadows, someone is watching. A very powerful someone, who is impressed by Gideon's special skills. Someone who has need of just such a renegade.

For Gideon, this operation may be only the beginning....

Members Reviews:

Gideon simply doesn't rise to his potential

the character Gideon was full of promise. Brilliant revenge can make for a sharp, page turning, uplifting story. But i think the authors fell short of their abilities. Certainly it's fun but the reader often has to suspend their intelligence. Gideon engages in highly risky and uncertain actions, when vastly simpler methods exist to achieve the same objective. UsuallyLee and Child's craft scenarios that have realistic contraints forcing the protaganist into difficult and critical situations. But in Gideon's Sword, the pretext for the contraints are weak at best. Usually just a request by Gideon's employer. But Gideon's uniqueness and strength is that abides by no rule but follows a higher moral code. I feel like the book was rushed to market and needed another major re-write so that most of the action sequences could be justified through a more thoughtful plot foundation.

A weak and helpless child watches as his father is killed and family name ruined; at his mother tells him on her death bed that his father was a patriot, honest, courageous and his alleged treason plus shooting was really a murder all created to provide a certain U.S. general with a scapegoat for a bad decision.

Gideon spends the next 10 years mastering his independence of people and entanglements earning his doctorate in applied physics while also secretly engaging in 2nd tier art museum theft for the his own appreciation needs and to fund his education and revenge expense, After graduating he gets a job as a junior scientist at Los Alamos helping make the next generation of nuclear bombs; he pursues trout fishing and planning to avenge his father's scapegoating and murders. Early in the book, he gets an information break with his 24/7 homemade, survelilance and hacking software- pursues and executes his revenge plan which with only one hiccup that is resolved in his favor due to the integrity of maybe his newest friend is completed successfully and he's back fishing.

Gideon's revenge is not the focus of the book, but really the calling card that gets him recruited into an alleged, private think tank and operations group run by its founder and enigmatic, mysterious man. The group allegedly provides contract services for U.S. federal agencies. the plot would be of interest to a multitude of federal agencies, but supposely it's all been contracted to this private company. There's no foundation for why this group is undertaking the assignment which become's the novel's primary plot.

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Title: The Corrections

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Jonathan Franzen

Narrator: George Guidall

Format: Unabridged

Length: 21 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-29-10

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1648 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

National Book Award, Fiction, 2001

The Corrections is a grandly entertaining novel for the new century - a comic, tragic masterpiece about a family breaking down in an age of easy fixes. After almost 50 years as a wife and mother, Enid Lambert is ready to have some fun. Unfortunately, her husband, Alfred, is losing his sanity to Parkinson's disease, and their children have long since flown the family nest to the catastrophes of their own lives.

The oldest, Gary, a once-stable portfolio manager and family man, is trying to convince his wife and himself, despite clear signs to the contrary, that he is not clinically depressed. The middle child, Chip, has lost his seemingly secure academic job and is failing specatcularly at his new line of work. And Denise, the youngest, has escaped a disastrous marriage only to pour her youth and beauty down the drain on an affair with a married man - or so her mother fears.

Desperate for some pleasure to look forward to. Enid has set her heart on an elusive goal: bringing her family together for one last Christmas at home.

Stretching from the Midwest at midcentury to the Wall Street and Eastern Europe of today, The Corrections brings an old-fashioned world of civic virtue and sexual inhibitions into violent collision with the era of home surveillance, hands-off parenting, do-it-yourself mental health care, and globalized greed. Richly realistic, darkly hilarious, deeply humane, it confirms Jonathan Franzen as one of our most brilliant interpreters of American society and the American soul.

Members Reviews:

Contemporary Literature at it's best

Franzen and Guidall are a perfect formula for a successful literary novel. The Lambert family is so funny, sad, hopeful and disastrous that I was unaware that all the 568 pages had passed me by. Franzen's gift for allowing characters to drift, grow and develop their self awareness have made me a devotee of all his work so far.

Definitely recommended as worth your time and credit.

Even more meaningful than I remember the first tim

Read this for a second time after passage of a decade. Hadn't remembered how depressing the story was, and how frustrating the characters, but was stunned by how very deeply down the book made me feel without allowing me to separate from it. I had to keep reading. The prose is beautiful and continues to draw you in for even the saddest and most absurd developments. There is a line in this book that i love about how can one even stand when you don't understand how difficult another's life can be. It is such an amazing and critical line that it stays after with me long after I have finished the book. THat is why I read. I want to imagine how difficult it is to live someone else's life because that understanding makes life easier to live for me. I found this an amazingly honest and compassionate book despite how very uncompassionate it starts out.The reader is excellent although the woman's characters got sort of high-pitched voices that can be really irritating.Excellent narrator and interpretation. Highly recommended

A satisfying listen

I really got into this book and it stands out as one of my favorite listens. It's a character driven book and the story and characters felt really true to life in a quirky way. The observations woven into the story on life, family and marriage brought the story to another level for me.

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Title: The Athena Project

Subtitle: A Thriller

Author: Brad Thor

Narrator: Elizabeth Marvel

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-23-10

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1223 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Tucked away in a remote corner of North Carolina's Fort Bragg, behind rows of razor wire and heavily armed guards, lies the headquarters of the nation's most elite counter-terrorism unit: the United States Army's 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment Delta. Here, a brilliant new approach to combating terrorism has just been born. Its codename: The Athena Project.

The novels will follow an elite team of female warriors from their recruitment as top-level athletes, through their training, to their deployment on some of the most exciting and dangerous international assignments the fiction world has ever seen.

Brad Thor's listeners will be electrified as he employs his vast knowledge of covert operations and military intrigue to bring to life his most heart-pounding, globe-trotting thrillers yet.

Members Reviews:

Just Not Good

I'm a big Thor fan but I wish I would have listened to the other reviewers and passed on this book. This one lacks the realism of his other books. Character development is lacking, there is zero suspense, his females operatives don't come across as professionals with all the discussion of who's dating who, fashion choices, etc. It's just....not good, and not a representation of Thor's usual ability.

Nice spin-off, good listen

OK, I'm a Mitch Rapp, Scott Harvath, Alex Hawk, Jack Ryan, James bond fan. Yes, this book does not compare to those, but I believe the Project has promise. These ladies were introduced in "Foreign Influence" by Thor, so you should read that if you want more info on the new characters. I enjoyed the new addition to Harvath's circle of friends. I will definitely give this group of ladies another chance when Thor releases the next volume.

Only okay

This was an okay listen, although it seemed pretty formulaic. The "all ladies team" was an interesting idea, but the author's understanding of how women interact with each other is very, very limited. The story was fine and the narration was fine. One thing: although this is unabridged, it sounds abridged to me. It has odd little jumps and if it truly is unabridged, then it has some editing issues.

Athena Harvath lite?

Well after months of waiting for another heafty dose of Thor, we get this female alomost thriller. Why?

It was an alright story but come on Brad, hows about a little meat next time please.

Still a fan in Houston.

Apparently women only think about sex...

Weak female characters who can't seem to focus on anything other than sex. These are supposed to be elite soldiers? How come they weren't written that way? Very disappointed

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Title: A Thread of Truth

Subtitle: The Cobbled Court Series, Book 2

Author: Marie Bostwick

Narrator: Pam Ward, Renée Raudman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-04-10

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 536 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Come home to Marie Bostwicks poignant novel of new beginnings, old friends, and the rich, varied tapestry of lives fully lived.

At 27, having fled an abusive marriage with little more than her kids and the clothes on her back, Ivy Peterman figures she has nowhere to go but up. Quaint, historic New Bern, Connecticut, seems as good a place as any to start afresh. With a part-time job at Cobbled Court Quilts and budding friendships, Ivy feels hopeful for the first time in ages.

But when a popular television quilting show is taped at the quilt shop, Ivys unwitting appearance in an on-air promo alerts her ex-husband to her whereabouts. Suddenly Ivy is facing the fight of her lifeone that forces her to face her deepest fears as a woman and a mother. This time, however, shes got a sisterhood behind her: companions as complex, strong, and lasting as the quilts they stitch.

Critic Reviews:

Stitched into the heartwarming second installment of Bostwicks contemporary New England quilters series is an unbreakable thread of friendship and faith. (

Publishers Weekly)

Highly recommended. (

Library Journal)

Members Reviews:

another great read by Marie Bostwick

This is the 2nd in the series and the 2nd Bostwick book for me. I again felt captivated with the new and returning characters from the first book. I love the way she continued developing the characters without forgetting their history from the first book. I was captivated from start to finish. Would recommend the series!

Truly one of my new favorite authors!

I never had any interest in quilting - ever! I was looking for a series with a good set of characters to replace those I had already finished and this author certainly filled that gap. The characters are endearing and when you finish the book you feel like you lost your best friends - these are the best kinds of book!!! Now, I want to learn to quilt!

"Comfort Listening"

Where does A Thread of Truth rank among all the audiobooks youve listened to so far?

Top 10%

What did you like best about this story?

The characters are everyday women with real trials and triumphs.

What does Renée Raudman and Pam Ward bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you just read the book?

They each bring their character to life.

Any additional comments?

This book is like "comfort food", it is good for your soul. It is easy to become involved in the lives of these great characters.

Easy listen

Characters picked right up from the previous story, which was good. I listened to the 4 stories in a row and now am going back to give the review. I did not make a mental note of any negative so that is good. I would recommend the stories series to anyone.

Compassion, Comrades, Connections & Confrontation

Another great in the Cobbled Court Series, the second installment finds Ivy Peterman fleeing her abusive husband, with her two kids, Bethany and Bobby . . . running from one women's shelter to another . . . until ending up in New Bern . . . where she finally finds some roots . . . and some wonderful accepting and loving friends . . . I was pleased as punch to "meet" Abigail, who is filthy rich, quirky as all get out, and her niece, who is the only one bold enough to talk back to her . . . as generous as she is rich, Abigail takes on Ivy's cause, as does, Franklin, Abigail's attorney boyfriend . . .

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Title: Wildflower Hill

Author: Kimberley Freeman

Narrator: Caroline Lee

Format: Unabridged

Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-22-10

Publisher: Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 1192 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

In 1920s Glasgow, Beattie Blaxland falls pregnant to her married lover Henry just before her nineteenth birthday. Abandoned by her family, Beattie and Henry set sail for a new life in Australia. But life is not about to follow the plan that Beattie had hoped for and fate will play her a cruel hand...

In 2009, London, prima ballerina Lydia Blaxland-Hunter is also discovering that life can also have its ups and downs. Unable to dance again after a fall, Lydia returns home to Australia to recuperate. But on arrival she is presented with some surprising news her recently deceased and much-loved grandmother Beattie Blaxland has left her Tasmanian property to Lydia. Told through the eyes of a young Beattie Blaxland and a contemporary Lydia Blaxland-Hunter, this is an emotionally charged, seductive tale of self-discovery, secrets and surprises.

Members Reviews:

Story telling at its best!

The writing of this book was almost spare but at the same time so lushly full it boggled the mind. Words are carefully chosen to precisely get the image across so that the reader understands the places and characters deeply without being told everything in endless detail. At times I would have loved to have a picture of Wildflower Hill Farm written out in wordy excess and exactness. Then I found that I could imagine the place for myself based on the bits and pieces the author revealed. In the end that was better. The story's main focus was about people -- their interactions, flaws, treatment of others. It amazed me how Freeman, using just the right word when describing a person cut right to the heart of the matter.

Part mystery, part love story, part historical fiction spanning four generations but focused on the choices of one woman, the book was totally engaging. The sense of place was strong. The narration was excellent. Caroline Lee's voice pulled me along through the ups and downs of the book and held me hanging on every word. By the end I was sure that there had been a mistake. It couldn't be over yet! I didn't want the story to end--a sure sign that it was an excellent listen. Definitely a book I loved and can recommend whole heartedly.

Absolutely Enchanted!

Where does Wildflower Hill rank among all the audiobooks youve listened to so far?

This is easily one of the top 3 audiobooks I've listed to this year!

What was one of the most memorable moments of Wildflower Hill?

I was utterly absorbed in this story from start to finish. The writing is lovely, the characterization is rich, the pacing is perfect, the narrative switches between Beattie in the past and Emma in the present in all the right places. I think when Beattie gets what she desearves (and more) after the card game is one of the most memorable moments in the story. It was one of the most satisfying, fitting, and perfect endings I've listened to in a long time. I loved this story!

Which scene was your favorite?

The switching from present to past and back again made it impossible to choose just one favorite scene!

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

Honestly I don't think I could make one up that can match what a great film this book would make!

Engaging story with great historical points

I bought this on a 4.95 sale, and it was a very good choice. I was getting bogged down in "Bleak House" by Dickens, and this really kept me in the story.

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Title: Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk

Subtitle: A Modest Bestiary

Author: David Sedaris

Narrator: Elaine Stritch, Dylan Baker, David Sedaris, Sian Phillips

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs

Language: English

Release date: 09-28-10

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 1429 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Featuring David Sedaris's unique blend of hilarity and heart, this new collection of keen-eyed animal-themed tales is an utter delight. Though the characters may not be human, the situations in these stories bear an uncanny resemblance to the insanity of everyday life.

In "The Toad, the Turtle, and the Duck", three strangers commiserate about animal bureaucracy while waiting in a complaint line. In "Hello Kitty", a cynical feline struggles to sit through his prison-mandated AA meetings. In "The Squirrel and the Chipmunk", a pair of star-crossed lovers is separated by prejudiced family members.

Once again David Sedaris shows us the most outrageous, tender, absurd sides of ourselves in his "profoundly funny, well-crafted stories that somehow, magically, bring home a major point about fidelity or guilt or love...." (Christian Science Monitor).

Members Reviews:

Enjoyable Book

I loved this audio book!! The animals are much like the people we all know, love and dislike. Some are loving, others too gullible for their own good, and a few are outright greedy. This is not a 'happily ever after' group of stories, and neither is day to day life. There is a lots for us to laugh about however, and like life, if we did not have serious times, how would we appreciate the good times. I enjoyed every one of these stories and might listen to them again.

Awesome

I love the stories and ALL the performers are amazing. It's dark, absurb, funny, ironic and an incredible insight into human behavior - via woodland critters, of course.

Aesop Revisted

Purchase only, if you have a sense of humor. My view - What a delight! You have done it again Mr. Sedaris. I laughed out loud at many of the chapters. The narrators especially Ms. Stritch were on target. If you relish David Sedaris' right on commentary about human foibles, buy and enjoy. I hated to have it end.

Narration Matters

Most of this book is not narrated by David Sedaris, obviously, and this proves to be a huge mistake. I have heard the first story in this book narrated by both David Sedaris and the person who narrates it in this book, in the first case it was very funny but in the second you are left asking yourself what was the bigger waste of time - recording that story or listening to it. Narration matters and David Sedaris is one of the best there is and it just boggles the mind that he did not narrate this entire book.

Thanks, David

I am loving this book. To those who were disappointed that David Sedaris did not narrate every story, shame on you. The narrators are perfect for the stories and, just like when you read David Sedaris in print, his voice in his writing is palpable; you hear him even when he is not speaking. Dark? Well, yes! His humor is often dark and his comments on the human condition are stark and real. That's David. I have completely enjoyed every story.

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Title: Safe Haven

Author: Nicholas Sparks

Narrator: Rebecca Lowman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-14-10

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 2743 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

When a mysterious young woman named Katie appears in the small North Carolina town of Southport, her sudden arrival raises questions about her past. Beautiful yet self-effacing, Katie seems determined to avoid forming personal ties until a series of events draws her into two reluctant relationships: one with Alex, a widowed store owner with a kind heart and two young children; and another with her plainspoken single neighbor, Jo. Despite her reservations, Katie slowly begins to let down her guard, putting down roots in the close-knit community and becoming increasingly attached to Alex and his family.

But even as Katie begins to fall in love, she struggles with the dark secret that still haunts and terrifies her... a past that set her on a fearful, shattering journey across the country, to the sheltered oasis of Southport. With Jo's empathic and stubborn support, Katie eventually realizes that she must choose between a life of transient safety and one of riskier rewards... and that in the darkest hour, love is the only true safe haven.

Members Reviews:

Safe Haven

Well I am hooked! This was my first purchase, I thought what the heck it didn't cost anything I will give it a try. What a great first book to try. I found myself volunteering to go to the store just to listen to the rest of it. The reader was wonderful!

This Was My First Nicolas Sparks Novel

I am not much into sappy love stories and this is what I expected when I decided to buy Safe Haven. I thought something easy on the ears would be a good choice to do housework by. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The characters had depth and substance and it wasn't pages and pages of verbal and physical love making. The twist at the end was enough to make me consider trying another Sparks novel. Recommended for the love story lovers as well as someone just interested in a good listen sans much sap.

Safe Haven

This was a great book to listen to. Suspenful, well writened and had a great ending. I hated for it to end. Nicholas Sparks showed his colors on this one and earns all the credits for being an awesome author.

Not Nicholas Sparks best, but ok

I normally love Nicholas Sparks book but this one was only so so. On the plus side, I really enjoyed the narrator's voice. She did a great job with the different characters. On the minus side, this book was predictable with a twist at the end that I really didn't care for. The Lucky One by Nicholas Spark touches on the same issue from a different perspective in a more interesting and creative way.

Slow, predictable, poorly written

This is probably a book better read than listened to. The writing was quite poor and the story line predictable - this is essentially "sleeping with the enemy".

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Title: Freedom

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Jonathan Franzen

Narrator: David LeDoux

Format: Unabridged

Length: 24 hrs and 14 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-31-10

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 4476 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

From the National Book Award-winning author of The Corrections, a darkly comedic novel about family.

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 Walter's 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 Walter's 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 street's attentive eyes?

In his first novel since The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen has given us an epic of contemporary love and marriage. Freedom comically and tragically captures the temptations and burdens of liberty: the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, the heavy weight of empire. In charting the mistakes and joys of Freedom's intensely realized characters as they struggle to learn how to live in an ever more confusing world, Franzen has produced an indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time.

Critic Reviews:

"The Great American Novel." (

Esquire)

"Its refreshing to see a novelist who wants to engage the questions of our time in the tradition of 20th-century greats like John Steinbeck and Sinclair Lewis . . . [This] is a book youll still be thinking about long after youve finished reading it." (Patrick Condon, Associated Press)

Writing in prose that is at once visceral and lapidary, Mr. Franzen shows us how his characters strive to navigate a world of technological gadgetry and ever-shifting mores, how they struggle to balance the equation between their expectations of life and dull reality, their political ideals and mercenary personal urges. He proves himself as adept at adolescent comedy as he is at grown-up tragedy; as skilled at holding a mirror to the world his people inhabit day by dreary day as he is at limning their messy inner lives . . . Mr. Franzen has written his most deeply felt novel yeta novel that turns out to be both a compelling biography of a dysfunctional family and an indelible portrait of our times." (Michiko Kakutani,

The New York Times)

Members Reviews:

Enjoyable book. Really liked the narration.

I am a non-fiction guy. I read (listen to) a lot of business books, history books and opinion based on fact (!) books, so it was rather odd that I purchased this nove. I had seen a very glowing review of it in National Review, so it caught my interest. I had just finished Ayn Rand's 51 hour epic, Atlas Shrugged, so I wasn't sure I was up for another stemwinder.

Some of the reviews of this audiobook disparaged David LeDoux's reading of it, especially his rendition of Lalitha, the Bengali girlfriend of Walter.