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Title: The Canterbury Tales

Author: Peter Ackroyd

Narrator: Seán Barrett, Anita Wright

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 25 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-19-09

Publisher: ISIS Audio Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Peter Ackroyd's fresh, modern retelling infuses The Canterbury Tales with new and vigorous life. Here are the best stories ever told, reborn for a new generation.

Members Reviews:

What a revelation!

Now I know why this has survived so many centuries. The version I was taught at school was entirely devoid of spirit, interest and life - they should be teaching this version instead! The intro was excellent giving a background to the language, Chaucer and life at the time. The sample provided by Audible was the intro - I took a chance that when it got to the tales it would not be incomprehensible and indeed it wasn't - instead the material came to life as never before. You just need to get throught the Knight's tale which was just a boring as could be - but it's worth it to get to the Wife of Bath (which was laugh out loud funny - she's my new hero!) and many of the others.

Good performance, disappointing translation

The readers here are excellent, and the stories entertaining, but the more unusual choices in the translation prove gimmicky and distracting rather than revealing. The few glimpses into the original that are provided make you wish versification had been kept.

The translator explains his choices (no verse, plenty of f-words) as an attempt to woo the modern reader, but his assumption that a modern reader cannot enjoy verse, and requires innuendoes to be turned into explicit swear-words feels patronising, and doesn't really add anything to the text.

Superb re-telling of a timeless classic

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I have both read and listened to the stories from The Canterbury Tales several times, but I found Peter Ackroyd's version one of the most enjoyable.

What other book might you compare The Canterbury Tales to, and why?

I don't think there's another that comes close! For all our present-day enjoyment of historical novels, the medieval mindset which is expressed in the original can never be captured by the modern author.

Have you listened to any of Seán Barrett and Anita Wright s other performances? How does this one compare?

I'm not sure, but I really like the interplay between the male and female story-tellers.

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

It is too long for one sitting, but the individual stories make for easy breaks .... even though I always wanted to get on to the next one!

accessible delight

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

i never read the print version.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The stories are all very good, even if themes are somewhat repetative.

Any additional comments?

I came to the book via Pasolinis wonderful film version (in my top 20 films ever, alongside at least 2 other pasolini films)...this was accessible and easy to follow, which i suspect the original might not be for me, a good job done by ackroyd, whom will help keep these tales alive for new generations.

Classic but not for me

I enjoyed some of the stories but some were long-winded and others just too cruel.

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Title: Checker and The Derailleurs

Author: Lionel Shriver

Narrator: MacLeod Andrews

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-04-09

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 7 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

The members of his band, The Derailleurs, are passionately devoted to their guiding spirit, as are all who fall under Checker's spell. But when another drummer, Eaton Striker, hears the prodigy play, he is pulled inexorably into Checker's orbit by a powerful combination of envy and admiration. Soon The Derailleurs, too, are torn apart by latent jealousies that Eaton does his utmost to bring alive.

Critic Reviews:

"More compelling even than the plot turns are Shriver's insights into human nature....Checker and The Derailleurs, like its beguiling protagonist, is hard to forget." (People)

Members Reviews:

Still haven't finish

I loved Lionel's book "We have to talk about Kevin" it was amazing. This book wasn't even in same league. What Happened?

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Title: A Long Way from Verona

Author: Jane Gardam

Narrator: Kate Sachs

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 19 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-06-09

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Jessica Vye's 'violent experience' colours her schooldays and her reaction to the world around her - a confining world of wartime restrictions, Viyella dresses, nicely restrained essays, and dusty tea shops. For Jessica has been told that she is 'beyond all possible doubt' a born writer.

With her inability to conform, her absolute compulsion to tell the truth, and her dedication to accurately noting her experiences, she knows this anyway. But what she doesn't know is that the experiences that sustain and enrich her burgeoning talent will one day lead to a new - and entirely unexpected - reality.

Critic Reviews:

'The flavour of this brilliantly witty and agonisingly true-to-life novel is impossible to convey. One even wants to quote endlessly.' (TLS)

'A fiercely funny, eccentric and personal novel.' (The Economist)

Members Reviews:

A wonderful Read

Wry, funny, joyful, moody, like growing up itself. In this novel set in England during WW ll, which seems strongly autobiographical, Jessica Vye, a young English schoolgirl, convinced by a chance encounter that she is indeed going to be a writer, follows--and nudges along--the fate of a poem she has written, which is also a metaphor for the journey she herself is making towards who she is going to be. I found it an irresistible journey, through a world of beautifully realized characters.

Delightful

Charming story of a young girls desire of becoming a writer and the somewhat harrowing journey she took to get there. It's frequently funny and just an enjoyable read

Another of Jane Gardam's best!

Jane Gardam's ability to create interesting and believable characters is unsurpassed. If you liked God on the Rocks, you will love this one, too.

Another terrific read by Gardam

This book will quite sweep you away. At this you find yourself thinking this is more interesting than your own "real life".

rings very true

I had enjoyed the Old Filth trilogy and was very pleased with this book as well. The characters are wonderful and well drawn.

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Title: The Great Lover

Author: Jill Dawson

Narrator: Patience Tomlinson, William Rycroft

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-17-09

Publisher: ISIS Audio Books

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

So Nell turns her mind to 1909 when, as a seventeen-year-old housemaid, she first encountered the young poet. He was already causing a stir - not only with his poems and famed good looks, but also by his taboo-breaking behaviour and radical politics. Intrigued, soon Nell realised that despite her good sense, she was falling for him.

But could he love a housemaid? Was he capable of love at all?

Critic Reviews:

"A compelling portrait of a failed love affair and of a damaged man." (Telegraph)

"Strong, satisfying and memorable." (Times, London)

"Clever, moving, sexy and with a mesmerising feel for the magical, optimistic but doomed time before the great war." (Daily Mail)

Members Reviews:

A lovely story, beautifully told

I greatly enjoyed listening to this audiobook, which tells the story of the poet Rupert Brooke, from his point of view and from that of a housemaid who works in the place where he stays while in Cambridge. The story is told in alternating voices, Nelly and then Rupert. I think the author used a great deal of information from Brooke's life and letters; with the exception of the invented character of Nelly, much of it seemed quite accurate. The reading of it is lovely and the whole story very touching (despite Brooke's classism and self-absorbtion and agonizing over things:). By the time I got to the end and the narrator read Brooke's poem, "The Great Lover," as a kind of epilogue, I was pulled over to the side of the road, weeping. I recommend it.

Review for the unabridged audio version.

This is a difficult book to review, given that it is based on the life of a poet who lived early last century (1887 - 1915). It is therefore a bit pointless to bemoan the fact that he appeared entierly self-centred and sexually obsessed, presumably that is how he was, but it didn't make for enjoyable listening. This is another audiobook that I may well have abandoned if it had been a regular book.

Rupert Brooke lived a relatively brief life, dying from septacemia from a mosquito bite while on active duty in WWI. He is probably best known for his highly charged war poems.

This narrative is largely told from the point of view of Nell, a ficttional character, who cares for him while he is living at The Orchard, Granchester. It is a flippant time, with Rupert and his fellow Cambridge students, wealthy and without a care beyond boating and sex. It's not all of the heterosexual variety either. Nell becomes just another of his potential conquests, though there does appear to be something meaningful lurking there, if he could ever have a meaningful relationship?

The story is pulled together by a letter sent from Tahiti, supposedly written by Rupert's daughter from his relationship with a Tahitian beauty, Taatamata, wanting to know more of the father she had never met. The letter finds its way into the hands of Nell, one of the many who had fallen in love with Rupert during his brief life.

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Title: The Year That Follows

Author: Scott Lasser

Narrator: Mel Foster and Tanya Eby Sirois

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-09-09

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Cat is a single mother living in Detroit when her brother is killed in New York, and she sets off in search of his child. Her search is still under way when she gets a call from her father. Sam is 80 and carrying the weight of a secret he has kept from Cat all her life. He asks her to visit him in California, intending to make his peace.

Cat's journey - toward her father, and her brother's infant son - and Sam's journey toward his daughter, his lost son, and a new relationship to both his future and his past are woven into this superbly realized novel about families and the mysteries and ambiguities that inhere in our most primal relations. The result is a deeply stirring work that explores the complexities of home and heritage, and the bonds that even death is powerless to diminish.

Members Reviews:

Don't miss this deeply moving, masterfully told novel

In his previous books---Battle Creek, and All I Could Get---Scott Lasser proved himself to be one of those rare literary writers who not only has important stories to tell, but who also knows how to tell them. In both of those novels, Lasser offers compelling, flesh-and-blood characters who are not afraid to face the world and fight for what they want and for what they believe in. Lasser explores life-and-death themes---fathers and sons, fear and desire, the compromises we all must make to live in the real world---but does so in stories that rocket forward, barely leaving readers time to catch a breath

The Year That Follows, Lasser's newest, offers all the same pleasures of the previous novels and more. In it, Lasser has compressed a powerful family saga into the confines of a short novel that reads as briskly and effortlessly as a detective mystery.

Set during 'the year that follows' 9/11, the novel tells the story of a family struggling to accept the death of Kyle---son, brother---who dies in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Kyle's father, Sam, determines to properly mourn his son and insists the family observe the anniversary of Kyle's death according to Jewish tradition. He admits this is looking back---but what more can a father nearing the end of his own life do? Kyle's sister, Cat, on the other hand, has committed to looking forward: she has decided to find and possibly raise the child of Kyle and a woman she has never met.

These twin strands make up the main storyline of the novel---but along the way we learn much more about Cat, Sam and what it means not only to be part of a family living through sudden loss, but just how fluid and resilient the definition of family can actually be. Though we barely meet him, the presence of Kyle haunts the book and provides a stunning, deeply felt rendering of grief and loss, while at the same time reaffirming the power of family, love and commitment.

Lasser has created a world filled with joy and grief, where what we take for granted one day can be suddenly revoked on another. But he goes beyond that, showing not only what follows but what endures after unthinkable tragedy.

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Title: The Assassin's Song

Author: M. G. Vassanji

Narrator: Firdous Bamji

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-27-09

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 7 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

The Assassin's Song is the story of Karsan Dargawalla, who leaves India for a new life before attempting to come to terms with his heritage - and the father he left behind.

Members Reviews:

Thoughtful, complex, worthwhile.

Having enjoyed "The In-Between World of Vikram Lall" by the same author it pleased me to find this on Audible. I found the Assassin's Song intriguing with complex characters and topics (spirituality, religion, loyalty to family & tradition, differences between modern countries, illusion v. reality). The author's interesting style of reflective writing make it much more than the mere memoir so common in much of modern literature. This isn't an all-out happy or sad story with a 'wrap it up nicely' ending. Many of the author's simple questions in the face of life's apparent complexity are thought provoking and left unanswered. The narrator was excellent and the book moves along without lagging throughout. I prefer novels with dynamic characters who develop deeply throughout the course of a book and authors who want to take the reader through the range of human emotion and experience: M.G. Vassanji does just that.

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Title: Life Without Summer

Author: Lynne Griffin

Narrator: Tanya Eby Sirois

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-14-09

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Tessa begins to confide in her therapist Celia. Listeners learn Celia is remarried to Alden, a man whose outward demeanor is centered and safe; a man her son Ian despises. In sharp contrast is her ex-husband Harry, an animated, sensitive man who dealt with the loss of his own beloved daughter by drowning his family in alcohol. As Ian descends into depression, Celia, a strong advocate for counseling for everyone but herself, fights Harry to get Ian help.

The investigation stalled, Tessa vows to find out Abby's murderer herself. She becomes obsessed with a list of repeat drunk driving offenders in the area. She's desperate to do anything to keep herself from falling into the grief abyss, and hopes the list will lead to answers about what happened to Abby. As Celia inadvertently brings Tessa closer to finding and accepting the truth about what happened to Abby, Tessa unknowingly brings Celia closer to facing the death of her own daughter. The women's lives converge when the answers one needs turn out to be the other's only chance for peace.

Members Reviews:

Riveting

How could the telling about the death of a beloved child be riveting? How could feeling the emotional pain with the parents, their despair, their anger, their frustration, their need for justice, their hope rivet someone. That's just how good this story and story-teller is. The topic is one a mother hopes never to experience yet it was so sell crafted, so realist, so well narrated that it did keep me listening, hoping and yes at the end, satisfied. You too would enjoy this tale.

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Title: Time's Arrow

Author: Martin Amis

Narrator: Steven Pacey

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-31-09

Publisher: Audible Studios.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 15 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Time's Arrow tells the story, backwards, of the life of Nazi war criminal, Doctor Tod T. Friendly. He dies and then feels better, breaks up with his lovers as a prelude to seducing them and mangles his patients before he sends them home.

©1991 Martin Amis; (P)2008 BBC Audiobooks Ltd

Members Reviews:

Original and thought-provoking

The way this story is told makes it even more disturbing.

Martin Amis' masterly prose is matched by Steven Pacey's narration which at times can send shivers down your spine.

One of the best audiobooks I have listened to.

powerful & disturbing - needs concentration!

This is a story told backwards. It takes a bit of getting used to; you need to concentrate much harder, particularly with dialogue. The mysterious narrator, however, does not know that he is telling the story backwards, and his increasingly grotesque misinterpretation of events is both painfully funny and increasingly disturbing - particularly as it is all expressed in Martin Amis' quite brilliant prose. A very powerful and thought provoking book. Steven Pacey, who has narrated several of Ammis' books, turns in a tour de force - absolutely superb.

In short a disturbing book, but a very worthwhile book. I would strongly recommend it, but it is not a light listen!

Superb dark brilliance..

As ever Mr Amis has impressed. What a mind he has, to create such dark yet poetic marvellousness. Highly recommended.

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Title: Like a Watered Garden

Author: Patti Hill

Narrator: Andrea Gallo

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-25-09

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 9 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Owner of Perennially YoursGarden Design, Mibby Garrett loves her eccentric customers and her teenage son. She will need much support, though, when she finds out an intriguing secret about her former husband's past - he had a daughter he never told Mibby about.

Members Reviews:

Bloomin' in all the right ways

Downloaded this book early today - figured I could have an option to read while I waited at a doctor appointment - started reading and other than coming home from the doctor didn't get anything else done! Terrific story telling - I am also a widow and hesitated to read yet another sappy story that slapped a load of spiritual platitudes on my broken heart - well glad I took a chance 'cause this was SO good. Wish I were a real gardener not a buyer and planter of doomed vegetation but Mibby is a dear and I wish I could have her for a friend as well as a "garden designer". Wow I wanted to hate that Earring Girl too! Sighed over the hunky Ben and shuddered at the slobbery mess Blink left on everyone -- read this book - it'll make you glad God gives all His children blessings even if our parents didn't, couldn't, did not want to -- and family is the group of people you care about - not just someone who shares your DNA.

Thank you for writing, Patti Hill - I'm reading!

A Watered Garden..... Grows

In Like a Watered Garden we are introduced to Mibby who is struggling to deal with the loss of her husband. He was killed while riding his bicycle through town. She is not prepared to raise a son, who is also grieving, by herself. Fortunately, she has a small business designing and maintaining landscapes. Unfortunately, she must grow her business to pay all her bills.

One day, as Mibby was returning home, she saw an unfamiliar, beat up car pulling away from her house. Then while in the grocery store she realizes the young woman who has spoken to her several times while shopping is following her. Mibby runs out of the store trying to catch her but she's too late. She starts to worry when she sees the same car racing out of the parking lot. Who is this woman and what could she possibly want from her?

Patti Hill is a good storyteller who has the ability to engage her readers. I cared about Mibby and wanted to know what was going to happen next. Can she move past her grief to enjoy a relationship with her son? Can she believe in the possibility of sharing herself with new people who care for her? I liked the characters. The plot is interesting and uplifting in spite of the difficult issues it explores. There is just enough humor to break the tension that naturally occurs. I will be reading the second installment of this trilogy: Always Green. If you haven't discovered Patti Hill this is a good place to start.

Five Stars

I love every book Patti Hill has written. This is true of this book too.

Like a Watered Garden ...watered with love.

Oh my ... I laughed ... I cried. Like a Watered Garden is one of the most heartwarming books I've read in a long time. Mibby, the main character struggled to survive and succeeded in ways beyond comprehension. She fell to the depths of her soul and soared to new heights. She lost a husband and gained a daughter. She accepted love and friendship from her neighbor Louise who showed her God's way of helping and protecting us. Please, please read this book. You will NOT regret it.

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Title: Sister Water

Author: Nancy Willard

Narrator: George Guidall

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-06-09

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 13 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Sam Theopolis entered the Woolman household like a clown with treasures up his sleeve. He kept the absent-minded Jessie from permanently checking out of reality, and he brought an inconceivable joy to Jessie's younger daughter and grandson. But just when the current of their lives seemed smooth and untroubled, tragedy struck like a squall. With eccentric characters reminiscent of Anne Tyler, Willard takes the reader on a quirky journey of the heart.

©1993 Nancy Willard; (P)1993 Recorded Books

Members Reviews:

Lovely prose. but...

... I kept falling asleep. I rallied because it was a good story that was well-written. I can only blame the narration. I couldn't understand why a man narrated what was a woman's story... and, why the man chosen used such a prissy voice when narrating the female characters.