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Title: The Household Spirit

Author: Tod Wodicka

Narrator: Robert Fass

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-16-15

Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

There's something wrong next door. At least that's what neighbors Howie Jeffries and Emily Phane both think. Since his daughter and wife moved out, Howie has been alone. Emily couldn't be more different: She's irreverent, outgoing, and seemingly well adjusted. But when Emily returns from college to care for her dying grandfather, Howie can't help but notice her increasingly erratic behavior. The thing is although they've lived side by side since Emily was born, Howie and Emily have never so much as spoken. Both have their reasons: Howie is debilitatingly shy; Emily has been hiding the fact that she suffers from a nighttime affliction that makes her terrified to go to sleep and question the very reality of her waking life. It is only when tragedy strikes that their worlds become joined in ways neither could ever have imagined.

Members Reviews:

I have no idea what this book is about

Any additional comments?

I listened all the way through hoping it would become clearer and would be better but I simply didn't get it.

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Title: Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys

Author: Will Self

Narrator: John Lee

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-16-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys is a new collection of corkscrewed tales from the author of Great Apes.

The Guardian (London) describes Will Self as "a wayward genius", and you can find out why when you observe the author's pitiless dissection of the foibles of men, women, and the Volvo 760 Turbo.

Self's world is a no-funhouse of warped mirrors. A man is seduced into a misanthropically charged symbiosis with the insects infesting his cottage; he has entered "Flytopia".

In "A Story for Europe", a two-year-old English child utters his first halting words...in business German.

In "Caring, Sharing", status-conscious New Yorkers navigate the perils of dating along with their very literal inner children.

In "The Rock of Crack as Big as the Ritz", a black Londoner discovers an enormous rock of crack cocaine underpinning his house and quickly turns it into an efficient little empire.

In the title story, a psychoanalyst strips away all the sangfroid of his professionalism to find beneath...precisely nothing.

And in the short novella The Nonce Prize, a man framed for a sex crime he didn't commit finds that his only way out is to win a short-story competition.

Sharp, funny, and packed with verbal fireworks, Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys confirms yet again Will Self's stature as one of the most accomplished and original writers of his generation.

Members Reviews:

Better without the gimmicks

Will Self borrows a gimmick used by Kafka, Borges, and in one not-very-succesful story by Fitzgerald (A Diamond as Big as the Ritz) and, to some extent, used in all science fiction. An impossible or supernatural event is treated naturalistically, or accepted deadpan without comment by the characters.(Isaac Asimov Magazine stories do this well).

Another trademark, reminiscent of the dirty Scottish shock-writers, is descriptions of drug and alcohol use from the point of view of the user. He also favors effects that used to be called Grand Guignol and are now called splatterpunk.

These devices are used as the hinges of his plots and the entertainment values of his stories often depends on how compelling you find them. Apart from them he is a witty and perceptive satirist with some wonderful prose such as his description of the small Suffolk town "landlocked by the shifting dunes of social trends" where "the landlords of the three desultory pubs on the main street drew pints for themselves in the cool, brown, afternoon interiors of their establishments."

A bit light

The whole book seemed less dense than The Quantity Theory of Insanity, for example, or maybe I just don't get it because I've never done crack.

Still, I finished this one before the others on my night stand. Maybe his stories would be deeper if Self found a character or two to like.

Many Deft Touches

The story, "Flytopia" is the standout entry in this collection. It's a wonderful miniature -- proportioned exquisitely, rhetorically balanced, a near-perfect short story. And yup, Self shares talents with Nicholson Baker: they both render griping dark fantasies, have a fine sense for physical detail, and fret over style. Baker writes more mechanically precise and tighter prose.

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Titre: Les chaussures italiennes

Auteur: Henning Mankell

Narrateur: Marc-Henri Boisse

Format: Unabridged

Durée: 9 hrs and 50 mins

Langue: Français

Date de publication: 06-16-15

Éditeur: Sixtrid

Evaluation: 2 sur 5 sur 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Résumé de l'éditeur:

À soixante-six ans, Fredrik Welin vit reclus depuis une décennie sur une île de la Baltique avec pour seule compagnie un chat et un chien et pour seules visites celles du facteur de l'archipel. Depuis qu'une tragique erreur a brisé sa carrière de chirurgien, il s'est isolé des hommes. Pour se prouver qu'il est encore en vie, il creuse un trou dans la glace et s'y immerge chaque matin. Au solstice d'hiver, cette routine est interrompue par l'intrusion d'Harriet, la femme qu'il a aimée et abandonnée quarante ans plus tôt. Fredrik ne le sait pas encore, mais sa vie vient juste de recommencer.

©2009 Editions du Seuil (P)2011 Sixtrid SAS

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Titre: S'abandonner à vivre

Auteur: Sylvain Tesson

Narrateur: Sylvain Tesson

Format: Unabridged

Durée: 4 hrs and 57 mins

Langue: Français

Date de publication: 06-02-15

Éditeur: Gallimard

Evaluation: 5 sur 5 sur 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Résumé de l'éditeur:

Devant les coups du sort il n'y a pas trente-six choix possibles. Soit on lutte, on se démène et l'on fait comme la guêpe dans un verre de vin. Soit on s'abandonne à vivre. C'est le choix des héros de ces nouvelles. Ils sont marins, amants, guerriers, artistes ou voyageurs, ils vivent à Paris, Zermatt ou Riga, en Afghanistan, en Yakoutie, au Sahara. Tous ont choisi une "résignation joyeuse, désespérée face à ce qui advient". Sylvain Tesson nous livre une lecture toute personnelle de ses 19 nouvelles où l'ironie, l'humour et la vivacité nous transportent au cœur des contrées qu'il affectionne, celles de l'humanité ordinaire et universelle.

©2014 Éditions Gallimard (P)2014 Éditions Gallimard

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Title: The New Valley

Subtitle: Novellas

Author: Josh Weil

Narrator: Macleod Andrews

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-06-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

The three linked novellas that comprise Josh Weil's masterful debut bring us into America's remote and often unforgiving backcountry, and delicately open up the private worlds of three very different men as they confront love, loss, and their own personal demons.

Set in the hardscrabble hill country between the Virginias, The New Valley is populated by characters striving to forge new lives in the absence of those they have loved. Told in three varied and distinct voices - from a soft-spoken middle-aged beef farmer struggling to hold himself together after his dad's death; to a health-obsessed single father desperate to control his reckless, overweight daughter; to a mildly retarded man who falls in love with a married woman intent on using him in a scheme that will wound them both - each novella is a vivid, stand-alone examination of Weil's uniquely romanticized relationships. As the men battle against grief and solitude, their heartache leads them all to commit acts that will bring both ruin and salvation.

Written with a deeply American tone, focused attention to story, and veneration for character, The New Valley is a tender exploration of survival, isolation, and the deep, consuming ache for human connection.

Members Reviews:

I like, but don't love

This book is absolutely outstanding. I like, but don't love, Weil's novel, but this collection of novellas is written with such efficiency, clarity, feeling, poise, energy. A truly perfect book.

In Depth Character Studies...But Didn't Keep Me Engrossed

The author certainly gets to the core of his characters and is able to let us see the world through their eyes and experience their emotions. In fact, one emerges 'feeling their world' as it were, which is a world that is certainly quite different from my own.

However, while the stories are satisfying and emotional, particularly the one about Stillman, I found them rather slow moving. This is particularly true of the last one, during which my interest was lost long before the ending. Definitely less grabbing than the other two. Nonetheless, I found myself wanting more than just seeing and feeling through the characters eyes. In short, I felt like there simply wasn't enough happening to really keep me wanting to continue through the stories.

I know this one got wonderful reviews from The NYT Book Review etc, and while I thought it was good, I just didn't find it to be THAT good. A solid three stars, at least that was what it did for me.

Jim Harrison is correct.

The landscape is a very real character in The New Valley and it is so skillfully rendered, you can smell the cow pasture and feel the cold bite of the wind. Weil's stark portraits of his rural characters are both realistic and respectful. Read this first work and you'll find yourself happily anticipating the next Weil project. Jim Harrison's quote appears on the front of the book jacket, and he is right, "...It is a very rare but clear case of the sky being the limit for a young author."

Watch for this to become a Pulitzer

I am an avid reader, especially of newly published fiction. This is right up there with the Pulizer-winning Olive Kitteridge (2008) by Elizabeth Strout. The book consists of three separate, but inter-linked, short novels set in the hardness that life offers those who live it out in America's backcountry.

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Title: A Season for Martyrs

Author: Bina Shah

Narrator: Saad Haroon

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 1 min

Language: English

Release date: 03-10-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

A harrowing account of the last three months of Benazir Bhutto's life.

October 2007. Pakistan's former prime minister Benazir Bhutto returns home after eight years of exile to seek political office once more. Assigned to cover her controversial arrival is TV journalist Ali Sikandar, the estranged son of a wealthy landowner from the interior region of Sindh. While her presence ignites fierce protests and assassination attempts, Ali finds himself irrevocably drawn to the prodemocracy People's Resistance Movement, a secret that sweeps him into the many contradictions of a country still struggling to embrace modernity. As Shah weaves together the centuries-old history of Ali's feudal family and its connection to the Bhuttos, she brilliantly reveals a story at the crossroads of the personal and the political, a chronicle of one man's desire to overcome extremity to find love, forgiveness, and even identity itself.

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Title: Kattens bord [The Cat's Table]

Author: Michael Ondaatje

Narrator: Dan Schlosser

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-25-15

Publisher: Viatone

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

ret er 1954. Skibet Oronsay stvner ud fra havnen i Ceylon med kurs mod England. For den blot 11-rige dreng Michael bliver den 21 dage lange srejse over Det Indiske Ocean, gennem Suezkanalen og Middelhavet p alle mder en opdagelsesrejse. I skibets spisesal placeres han ved 'kattens bord', s langt vk fra kaptajnens bord som man kan komme. Her bliver han venner med de jvnaldrende drenge Cassius og Ramadhin og mder et farverigt galleri af medpassagerer, som bner for hidtil ukendte verdener, hvor venskab, krlighed og en vgnende seksualitet sidder til bords med halsbrkkende vovemod, heksekunst og mordere.

Please note: This audiobook is in Danish.

Critic Reviews:

"Jeg elsker den her bog: drengene i fuld frihed under den lange sejlads, hvordan en voksenverden som de ikke forstr, benbarer sig, tabet af fortiden og begyndelsen p fremtiden, og tilmed en slags thriller midt i det hele! Og sprogets sknhed. Perfektion." (Salman Rushdie)

"Kattens bord er skrevet med et sknt overskud. Ondaatje har nydt at skrive sig op imod Mark Twain, den klassisk raske drengebog, og bde Kipling og Conrad rumsterer i kulissen. Men Kattens bord er meget mere end en pastiche. Som erindringsroman gemmer den p personlige erfaringer. Ud af drengen Michael springer selvportrttet af romanens voksne forfatter som et menneske, der p den hrde mde tidligt lrte at passe p sig selv og holde hjertet p behrig afstand. S Kattens bord er blandt meget andet ogs en bog om livet, der glider forbi og forvandles til kunst. En alkymistisk proces, Michael Ondaatje har gode forudstninger for at udfre." (Kim Skotte, Politiken, 5 hjerter)

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Title: Shadow of Ashland

Author: Terence M. Green

Narrator: Chris Sorensen

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-19-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Things have to be settled, or they never go away. "Only weeks before she dies in March, 1984, Leo Nolans mother shows her son a rose she says was just given to her by her brother, Jack, who disappeared 50 years earlier. After her death, letters from Jack begin to arrive at the family home. They are postmarked 1934. The final one is from Ashland, Kentucky.

Leo heads to Ashland, to track down the source of the letters. And to find out why they are arriving now, after 50 years.

Time shifts. Time runs underground, then surfaces. It is 1934, and Leo experiences the Great Depression and the ghosts of the past as no one has in 50 years, in Ashland, where dreams die and are born again.

Critic Reviews:

"The book you have to read." (Entertainment Weekly)

"A love story, time travel epic, ghost story, labor history, road novel and a bank heist, all with the added touch of Steinbeckian metaphysics. For me it was the surprise of the year, a rich evocation of 1934 small-town Kentucky that winds up completely unpredictable." (The Edmonton Journal)

"Top Fiction Pick of the Year - Green has devised a truly mysterious mystery, he writes with a real and rare sympathy for his characters." (The Atlanta Constitution)

"A jewel of a novel" (Booklist)

"A deceptive novel, one that begins and ends simply yet is filled with extraordinary events. Shadow of Ashland succeeds." (The New York Times)

Members Reviews:

Touching story, wonderfully told!

Well written tale of a man's journey into the past, searching for answers to a mystery to fulfill his dying mother's wish, who seems to find so much more than he expected. Great read!

The seller was very nice, and charged much less than I expected

I read this about 15 years ago, and the friend who loaned it to me had been looking for a new copy. It seems to be out-of-print, but thanks to Amazon, I was able to locate a store that had one copy left. The seller was very nice, and charged much less than I expected. My friend is delighted!

If you have a hankering to relive the 1930s and a low-tolerance for magical time-travel, this may be your book

This is a well-written and well-plotted book. I liked the main character and I remained curious throughout the story in finding out how it would end.

Nonetheless, the book didn't impress me and I doubt that it will stay with me.

The story begins with Leo Nolan's mother dying. It is 1984 and Leo's mother's last wish is to see her brother, Jack, who disappeared fifty years before. Leo starts on this project, but his mother dies before he can get anywhere. Suddenly, though, his father receives a letter from Jack, which is postmarked fifty years before. Leo decides to follow the postmark trail on Jack's belatedly delivered letters to Ashland, Kentucky. In Ashland, Leo stays at the hotel where Jack stayed, and he develops a love affair with a waitress at the Woolworth.

Then, for no explained reason, and without causing Leo any concern, Leo begins to see Jack. Then he starts to follow Jack. Then, he speaks to Jack and, for no particular reason, and without any particular reaction of surprise on the part of Leo, he ends up fifty years in the past where he can unravel some mysteries, including unknown relatives and Jack's fate.

The tone of the book is melancholy. Memory is the theme of the book.

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Title: Blue Stars

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Emily Gray Tedrowe

Narrator: Eliza Foss

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-17-15

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Ratings: 2 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Emily Gray Tedrowe has written an extraordinary novel about ordinary people, a graceful and gritty portrayal of what its like for the women whose husbands and sons are deployed in Iraq.

Blue Stars brings to life the realities of the modern-day home front: how to get through the daily challenges of motherhood and holding down a job while bearing the stress and uncertainty of war, when everything can change in an instant. It tells the story of Ellen, a Midwestern literature professor who is drawn into the war when her legal ward, Michael, enlists as a marine; and of Lacey, a proud army wife who struggles to pay the bills and keep things going for her son while her husband is deployed. Ellen and Lacey cope with the fear and stress of a loved one at war while trying to get by in a society that often ignores or misunderstands what war means to women today. When Michael and Eddie are injured in Iraq, Ellen and Lacey's lives become intertwined in Walter Reed Army Hospital, where each woman must live while caring for her wounded soldier. They form an alliance and an unlikely friendship while helping each other survive the dislocated world of the army hospital. Whether that means fighting for proper care for their men, sharing a six-pack, or coping with irrevocable loss, Ellen and Lacey pool their strengths to make it through. In the end,both women are changed not only by the war and its fallout but by each other.

Members Reviews:

Couldn't put it down.

I couldn't put this book down. Beautifully written novel with strong characters and a compelling story. This multilayered novel explores several different relationships, mother/daughter, men/women, friendships between women. It also has a delightful snapshot of the politics of an academic university department. I kept thinking about the characters long after I finished the book. The growth of the characters over the course of the novel is very moving. Highly recommended. Great for book groups, lots to discuss here.

We all have an obligation to read this painful tale and to respond in some real world way ...

This novel succeeds on many levels. It is an important story that makes its point through the obvious intensive research by the author. After putting our soldiers through a meat grinder we fail to provide them the basic services they have earned. This is one of the big tragedies of our time and Emily Teadrow tells a story that will resonate with you every time you see a wounded veteran. We all have an obligation to read this painful tale and to respond in some real world way to the outrage it chronicles.

Meh...

This book was just O.K. I really had high hopes for it. However, there just really wasn't a lot that went on. I felt like the epilogue was written in a hurry, just to be done with the book. There really wasn't a conclusion for me, such as for the article with Shelby, what happened with Maisie, how is Ellen progressing in her job, etc. I just thought, in my opinion, that the story just kind of fell flat.

This book is amazing. There are so many layers to the characters ...

This book is amazing. There are so many layers to the characters and plot in this novel.

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Titre: After: Saison 2

Auteur: Anna Todd

Narrateur: Bénédicte Charton

Format: Unabridged

Durée: 18 hrs and 37 mins

Langue: Français

Date de publication: 02-05-15

Éditeur: Audible Studios

Evaluation: 3 sur 5 sur 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Résumé de l'éditeur:

Hardin n'a rien à perdre... sauf elle. Après leur rencontre la vie ne sera plus jamais la même.

Après un début tumultueux, la relation de Tessa et Hardin semblait bien partie. Tessa sait qu'Hardin peut être cruel, mais quand les origines de leur relation et son mystérieux passé lui sont révélés, cela lui fait l'effet d'une bombe. Tessa est hors d'elle. Hardin sera toujours... Hardin. Mais est-il vraiment le mec dont Tessa est tombé éperdument amoureuse, en dépit de son caractère colérique, ou est-il un étranger, un menteur depuis le début ? Doit-elle s'en séparer ? Ce n'est pas si facile. Le souvenir de ses bras autour d'elle... de sa peau qui l'électrise... de leurs nuits passionnées, trouble son jugement.

Pourtant, Tessa n'est pas sûre qu'elle pourra supporter une autre promesse non tenue. Elle a mis toute sa vie entre parenthèses pour Hardin - l'université, ses amis, sa relation avec sa mère, son petit ami, même son début de carrière. Mais elle a besoin de lui pour avancer. Hardin sait qu'il a fait une erreur, peut-être la plus grande de sa vie, mais il veut se battre pour elle ! Mais peut-il changer ? Va-t-il changer... par amour ?

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©2015 Hugo Roman. Traduit de l'anglais par Marie-Christine Tricottet (P)2015 Audible FR

Revues éditoriales:

La plus grande sensation de fan-fiction depuis "Nuances de Grey"

De la passion nourrie par Anna Todd pour le boys band "One Direction" et sa star Harry Styles est née "After", une histoire d'amour bouleversante qui ne vous laissera pas indifférent.

Comme beaucoup de fans du chanteur de "One Direction" Harry Styles, Anna Todd s'imagina une histoire à la fois romantique et dangereuse avec son idole. Et elle décida de publier sa romance sur internet sous le pseudonyme "Imaginator1D" pour la partager avec quelques amis et d'autres fans du boys band. Le petit groupe des amis a vite grandi pour compter des milliers de fans et atteindre le nombre incroyable d'un milliard de lecteurs !

Même si vous n'êtes pas une groupie de boys band, cette histoire de confusion des sentiments entre la jeune Tessa Young et Hardin Scott, le double troublant d'Harry Styles, vous tiendra en haleine. Car Anna Todd n'est pas seulement une fan ; elle démontre avec "After" qu'elle est une auteur de talent.

Audible vous souhaite une bonne écoute !