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Title: Knight of the Purple Ribbon

Subtitle: Baron de Graffenried's Colonial Adventures

Author: Jennifer Leigh Wells

Narrator: Richard Thomas

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 5 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-13-13

Publisher: Jennifer Lafferty

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Based on the true-life adventures of the charming Swiss nobleman Baron Christoph de Graffenried, (ancestor to former First Lady Laura Bush and author Ellen Glasgow), and his founding of New Bern, the second oldest town in North Carolina, in 1710, Knight of the Purple Ribbon is filled with drama, romance, and suspense. Penned by his descendant, Jennifer Leigh Wells, this sweeping historic novel follows de Graffenried as he goes from being the reckless black sheep of his illustrious family to the head of a colonial settlement, carved out of the wilderness, with his beautiful, spirited bride at his side, whose love sustains him though the struggles and hardships. Set against the backdrop of such monumental events as Cary's Rebellion and the Tuscarora War, this amazing journey transports the listener from the castles of Switzerland to the decadent British court to the wilds of the New World.

Members Reviews:

From Switzerland to the New World

A look at life in the early North Carolina, this book is based on solid research. The story of Baron Christoph de Graffenried and his struggles with the founding of New Bern with Swiss German settlers is all the more intriguing because the hero is the author's illustrious ancestor. The formal writing style is perfectly suited to the time period portrayed. The Baron was a true Renaissance man, being ahead of his time in his dealing with the Native Americans and the ordinary folks who set out for the New World. But he is not perfect, having had a hand in a romantic scandal. The colonists have setbacks that those of us living today would find hard to survive. A clash of heroes and villains is inevitable. The book is a reminder of the courage of those who came before us. A must read for those interested in the local history tales of North Carolina.

9th great grandfather

Maybe it is strictly vanity, but i loved it. You see I am a descendant of the Baron. I'm giving the book to all my nieces and nephews.

Just awful!

Poorly written and historically inaccurate in the extreme. Waste of time and money. I have NO interest in "historic" fiction that takes such liberties with facts.

Making history fun & interesting

This book made history fun and interesting. It's amazing all the first settler's went through, to start up a town in the early days of the United States. Especially in the Baron Christoph and his young wife Jane, both being raised in wealthy, high class families. It's exciting to hear about all they went through to survive, and to help all the settler's in New Bern.

I was lucky enough to have the audio book format. Which is great for me, because of health issues. It is also good for people who don't think they have time to sit down and read a book. Also nice to listen to while commuting.

I didn't really like the narrator's voice, it was sometimes monotone. For the most part the book was interesting.

Knight of the Purple Ribbon-Romantic adventure

Jennifer Leigh Wells transports the reader from Bern, Switzerland to London, England, then to the wilds of North Carolina in 1710, as her Swiss ancestor Baron Christoph de Gaffenried begins a new life in the New World.

The firstborn son of a family with royal blood, he was expected to become a statesman and run the family estate.

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Title: Where I'm Bound I Can't Tell

Author: Jeremy Lee

Narrator: Jerry Witkop

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 1 min

Language: English

Release date: 05-06-13

Publisher: Jeremy Lee

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

In a century that set out to tame, civilize, and revolutionize the world, Teddy always managed to stay a step ahead and find the last wild places. Where I'm Bound I Can't Tell opens with a troubled kid in the nineties named Lee smart-mouthing his way through community service, yet meeting one old man will forever change his life. Born in 1900, Teddy could never stand still, running away to join the French Foreign Legion as a boy he never returns to the states until the 1980's.

Along the way he crosses deserts, explores the Amazon, bears witness to Gandhi's movement, sails oceans, hunts with Zulu, and becomes an aid worker in Africa. While Lee struggles to grow up and learn what kind of man he is going to be, Teddy teaches him about the infinite possibilities and devastating tragedies of life.

Most of the book is a journey through The Great War and the last gasping era of exploration through the 1930's, ranging from the trenches to the deserts of the Middle East and on into Africa and then the South American jungles. Then Teddy plunges into the nightmare wrought by the Nazis and World War II, and from there he journeys the world once more, attempting to heal and find his place in a world slowly but surely passing him by.

Members Reviews:

A read that make's you think

I went into this book not sure what to think, but it's different than the slew of coming-of-age tales that have been coming out. The Teddy stories brought history home for me, they threw me into the middle of events that I've read about in non-fiction books from an entirely different point of view. The Lee stories reminded me of that awkward time when you aren't sure who you are, or who you're going to be, and you're scared to not fit in with your friends. Exciting, fast, and though provoking.

Where I'm Bound I Can't Tell

This book told parallel stories of two young men in two different times and settings as they set out on their own journeys through life. It was great to see the current day character come into his own just as his elderly friend left this life. I'll be sure to watch for more recorded Jeremy Lee stories and hope that Jerry Witkop narrates them all. Jerry was exceptional in making each character believable and unique.

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Title: Lightning in a Drought Year

Author: Michelle Black

Narrator: Kris Faulkner

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-19-13

Publisher: Books in Motion

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

A forbidden friendship turns to love amidst the social and economic turmoil that would lead to the Populist Uprising.

As women seek political equality with men, an unlikely heroine steps forward to make history. When her father's death forces Laurel McBryde to leave her beloved childhood home in the Flint Hills to live with the Hartmoors, a prosperous banking family, she feels like a lonely outcast among the prim and proper Victorians of Chisholm, Kansas. Soon a growing attraction to radical politics and to Carey Fairchild, a tenant farmer on Hartmoor land, change Laurel's life forever.

Members Reviews:

Michelle Black is a treasure

On the great prairie lands of the United States, in the late 1880s, Laurel McBryde's life with her widowed father is exactly what she wishes it to be. She reads, makes photographs and is treated as an equal by her father. But when he dies on her twenty-first birthday, leaving her in the hands of her mother's family, Laurel's life changes radically. She is expected to marry, and to that end the Hartmoors press her to give up her most unfeminine behavior, her radical ideas and her belief that she is the equal to any man. Only one man in Chisholm appreciates Laurel for what she is, and he is not only married and of a different class, but there is a shadow over his past that threatens even their friendship.

Boy, can Michelle Black write! Her "Lightning in a Drought Year" is a tremendously moving, compelling novel about life in gilded-age Kansas. The plot is simple; it's a coming-of-age story involving the best sort of romantic heroine, a woman who has learned to think for herself, and it requires her to butt heads with those who uphold the status quo. But while her presence changes them, as it will in all good novels of the type, they change her as well, and this is tremendously refreshing because it acknowledges that any person at any age, no matter how enlightened they may seem, can have room for change and growth in their lives. Watching Laurel come to care for a family which at first seems horrid and stifling is one of the joys of this book. The story is told with a less-is-more restraint that compels readers to do a lot of the work for themselves, to bring their own feelings and experiences to the act of reading, which I find the most satisfying sort of storytelling.

One of Black's major strengths is characterization. She doesn't show her hand too quickly, but is careful to remain in Laurel's point of view, allowing the reader to see and understand only what Laurel does. Moments of extreme discomfort are broken by touches of unexpected kindness and humor, which are in turn squashed by rigid attitudes and expectations. It's an effort to get to know the Hartmoors, but the effort pays off. By the end I might not have agreed with any of their attitudes, but I felt a true affection for them. They are sublimely human and prone to all the human weaknesses as well as strengths. They do things for selfish reasons, but when a situation calls for selflessness and honesty, they come through, sometimes grudgingly, sometimes with infectious good humor. By comparison, Carey Fairchild, Laurel's lover, is not quite as well drawn as the others, but that's not necessarily a drawback.

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Title: The Collector of Lost Things

Author: Jeremy Page

Narrator: Tom Lawrence

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-18-13

Publisher: Hachette Audio UK

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Perhaps I would be too late to save them. The last dozen had been spotted on a remote island in the North Atlantic, on a bare ledge of rock, but it was already rumoured the final breeding pair had been killed - their skins sold to private collectors - and the single egg between them needlessly crushed. These were only rumours, I kept telling myself. But as I set out for the Liverpool docks, on that breezy April morning in 1845, I couldn't help hoping that I might be able to reach them in time, the last of the birds. I pictured myself surrounded by an inlet of seawater, listening to their strange and deep murmurs. An empty ocean in front of us, crisscrossed with the lines of migration that only they could sense, the fluxes in magnetism that has flowed through them for countless years. I would stand there, in awe, and I would be a barrier for them, beyond which there was only one thing: extinction.

Members Reviews:

High adventure and an extraordinary ending.

I loved this gripping adventure story with its captivating descriptions of the Arctic, its fascinating creatures and eccentric inhabitants. I felt I was sailing with the dishevelled crew and repressed passengers aboard the Amethyst, on their perilous expedition to find the last great auk, and much more. Although its set in the 1840s there are powerful messages relevant to our time. The ending was one of the most satisfying I have come across.

Not for me

I wanted to love this the story outline spoke to me it sounded just like the kind of thing that I would like but it was slow plodding and I just couldn't listen I tried 3 times incase I wasn't in the mood or something. But I guess it's not for me

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Title: The Banner of Passing Clouds

Author: Anthea Nicholson

Narrator: John Sackville

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-04-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

The Banner of the Passing Clouds depicts life under the totalitarian communist regime in Georgia from the 50s to 90s, when Georgia gained independence from the USSR. Its narrator, born on the day Stalin dies, is given Stalin's name by hospital nurses - Iosif Dzhugashvili. When Iosif learns of his link to the 'man of steel', he becomes convinced that Stalin has found a new dwelling place within his chest, a burden he both welcomes and fears.

In Iosif, Anthea Nicholson has created a unique narrator: a victim of the regime, which dictates all aspects of his and his family's life, who is also complicit in its ideology and practises. As an unquestioning citizen of communism, he is disconcertingly unpleasant, yet he remains a curiously pathetic and moving figure. It is only when Iosif unwittingly destroys his family's happiness that some kind of redemption for him is possible.

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Title: Beyond the Blue

Author: Andrea MacPherson

Narrator: Carla Mercer-Meyer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-29-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 2 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

In a Scottish mill town purged of men by war, four unforgettable women navigate a treacherous time, guided only by the bonds of family and their bold dreams of escape.

In 1918, rainy Dundee is nearly emptied of men. The Great War has left the towns women both newfound freedom and servitude. They toil in the deadly jute mills, taking in the children of perished family members and praying their own bodies - and spirits - do not fail them too.

A grateful widow of the war, Morag shelters her daughters as best she can: beautiful Caro schemes to escape the working class with well-calculated seduction, while Wallis works in the mill alongside her mother, slowly fortifying both spirit and pocketbook for a more radical departure. Morags orphaned niece, Imogen, seeks to understand her fragile mothers death, and the return of the father who abandoned them.

Infused with the longing, courage and passion of its indelible cast of characters, and steeped in the faith and terrors of its time - from the suffragettes and the Easter Uprising to the influenza pandemic and the Tay Bridge disaster - Beyond the Blue is a lyrical, reflective novel about finding purpose and freedom in a place without hope.

Editorial Reviews:

Beyond The Blue is a tale both tragic and hopeful, dramatic and historic. In a wholly poetic tone, Carla Mercer-Meyer unleashes a forlorn beauty with her performance of Andrea MacPherson's work. Set in Dundee, a small Scottish mill town devoid of men - due to the Great War - the story follows four women who must survive the grueling conditions of a jute mill, failing health, and what feels like endless amounts of loss. With Ms. Mercer-Meyer's weighty voice, the presentation of the four women, is brilliant; in addition, it also evokes the sometimes overwhelming austerity of Dundee during this time. This is a beautiful story filled with courage and faith that can't be recommended enough.

Members Reviews:

I really wanted to like this

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would not recommend the audible version.I'm only half way through so have yet to find out how the story concludes, but it is very slow moving. I'm hoping the end is worth waiting for.I'm an ex-pat Scot living in the USA and it pains me greatly to hear the butchered accents in this audible version of the book. I'm very tempted not to finish listening to it as it grates on my nerves. It is truly awful and the mispronunciation of place names, and words in general, is insulting - why not ask someone who knows before making it up?

Would you ever listen to anything by Andrea MacPherson again?

I'll withhold final judgement until I finish the book

Would you be willing to try another one of Carla Mercer-Meyers performances?

Not if she intends to pretend to talk Scots!!

Could you see Beyond the Blue being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Nope

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Title: The Fringe Dwellers

Author: Nene Gare

Narrator: Shareena Clanton

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-29-13

Publisher: Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Set in a remote area of Western Australia, The Fringe Dwellers is the story of two part-Aboriginal sisters, Noonah and Trilby, who leave the mission they call home to return to their family's camp on the fringe of white society. Noonah is pragmatic and accepts her position, only wanting to raise money for the family. But Trilby refuses to believe that her current position will define the rest of her life.

First published in 1961, The Fringe Dwellers is a landmark novel in Australian literature. It was adapted into an internationally acclaimed (and award-winning) film in 1986 by Bruce Beresford.

Members Reviews:

The Fringe Dwellers

I really enjoyed reading this novel. Interesting characters and well written. I will look for more novels by this author. I was looking for another novel by this author but came across this one instead.

Very good, realistic story

This book covers an issue that many people (well I didn't) was not really familiar with. Very good, realistic story.

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Title: In the Time of the Angry Queen

Author: Mark Frutkin

Narrator: Dick Hill

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-29-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Mark Frutkin's classic novel In the Time of the Angry Queen was first published in 1923. The story follows an artist as he gets enveloped into the world of competitive chess. The florid language explores each relationship that the artist cultivates as he becomes involved in a different world.

Editorial Reviews:

Dick Hill has performed hundreds of audiobooks and received multiple awards for his work, and within minutes of In the Time of the Angry Queen listeners will understand why. Hill performs this third-person story with a rich authority, and flourishes to an even greater degree in his commitment to the dialogue. Mark Frutkins classic In the Time of the Angry Queen is in good hands with Hill, and listeners will no doubt find themselves quickly falling into artist Karl Grunfelds world as he himself falls into the world of competitive chess.

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Title: Come from Afar

Author: Gayla Reid

Narrator: Corrie James

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-29-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

In England, in the spring of 1939, Clancy, an Australian nurse, waits with her infant daughter for news of her lover, who was a volunteer with the Mackenzie-Papineau Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. As she waits, Clancy shares with her daughter the story of her own childhood in the Australian bush and her disastrous marriage to an English archaeologist. When the Spanish Civil War erupted, Clancy volunteered on the Republican side. Her chance for happiness amid the chaos came when she met the young Canadian Douglas Ross. She has not heard from him since the final desperate offensive.

The fourth work of fiction by the award-winning Australian-Canadian writer Gayla Reid, Come from Afar is a sweeping historical story of personal and political struggle.

Editorial Reviews:

Gayla Reids epic historical story is set in England, 1939, and is told from the first-person perspective of Clancy, an Australian nurse who volunteered for the Republican faction during the Spanish Civil War. During that tumultuous time, Clancy met Douglas Ross, who became her lover, but she has not heard from him since the final offensive. As she awaits news of his whereabouts, she tells her enthralling life story to her infant daughter. Corrie Jamess passionate performance as Clancy creates an intimate space, heightening the life-and-death stakes at play. Her British accent highlights the depth of Reids prose, enveloping the listener in a rich lyrical landscape.

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Title: The Growing Dawn

Author: Mark Frutkin

Narrator: Arthur Morey

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-29-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

The year is 1901, a stormy Atlantic isolates two continents. An insignificant letter S. void of meaning but full of life rides the waves. The missing link. The Growing Dawn

Editorial Reviews:

The life of scientist Guglielmo Marconi reaches a bright vividness with the superb biography The Growing Dawn, by Mark Frutkin. With what is definitely one of the most engaging performances of a biography, Arthur Morey enraptures listeners with the life, accomplishments, and even surreal dreams, of one of the world's most important figures. While not a household name anymore Guglielmo Marconi, and his pioneering work with long-distance radio transmission - a discovery which much of our modern communication rests on - make this a fascinating listen. Whether you are a fan of the sciences, history, or just a lover of great biographies this piece will be wholesomely satisfying.