How I Listen to Full Audiobook in Fiction, Contemporary Most Popular

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Title: Joe

Author: Larry Brown

Narrator: Tom Stechschulte

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-27-04

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 85 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

The Mississippi countryside is Joe Ransom's world. There, whiskey, fast trucks, and a hard right fist are the badges of manhood. But middle age is approaching, and Joe tries to not think too much about the future. At 15, Gary Jones' life is painful and unpredictable. His days are spent avoiding his brutish father and caring for a damaged mother and sister. When Joe's and Gary's paths cross, the resulting friendship is a bizarre rite of passage for both of them.

Throughout the story, Brown deftly maintains a balance between action and destruction, compassion and compulsion. His characters are riveting; the conclusion is shocking. This novel will leave you astonished and grateful for Larry Brown, a major talent.

Critic Reviews:

"Powerful...Brown comes into his own." (Publishers Weekly) "Brown delivers....This raw and gritty novel ranks with the best hard-knocks, down-and-out work of Jim Thompson and Harry Crews. It's lean, mean, and original." (Kirkus Reviews)

Members Reviews:

Larry Brown

I cannot be objective about anything Larry Brown ever wrote. His humanity grabs me every time...with such a powerful grip that I would follow him page after page wherever he chose to take me. I shall miss him terribly. We have lost a giant.

Gritty Southern Alcoholism

What made the experience of listening to Joe the most enjoyable?

4.5 StarsLarry Brown always gave us gritty reality a southern-baked, distilled variety of reality. And, Joe is another big dose. If youre not up for riding around with Joe in his pickup while he guzzles vast amounts of whiskey and beer, you may want to put off reading Joe until you are. If you are not ready for heavy measures of the southern vernacular and watching degenerate alcoholics abuse all who love them and many others who do not, you may want to make a sunnier reading selection. On the other had if you are up for a taste of reality a la Larry Brown, get ready for another great bumpy ride through rural Mississippi. Oh, and you may want find your local Al-Anon meeting.

Larry Brown the best

Larry Brown may be the best writer of the American south ever. He uses a style all his own.

Powerful narrative

Strong characters, compelling story, what more could you ask? Though set in Mississippi, this is not a story of the Southern condition - it's a story of the Human condition.

mesmerzing

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

yes - this superb reader builds a character with his voice - the story comes alive in a whole new way. His voicing of old man Wade is especially memorable.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Joe?

one of the funnier parts of the story was when Gary has his first encounter with a hooker and she tells him to go brush his teeth

Joe's relationship with the law is also memorable

What about Tom Stechschultes performance did you like?

so much to like. He handles the different voices so well without sounding contrived or affected - and his handling of the southern accent is remarkable. He gives each character such close attention. Wade sounds evil and Gary sounds pure and lost - its all Tom's doing

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Title: First Among Equals

Author: Jeffrey Archer

Narrator: Martin Jarvis

Format: Abridged

Length: 3 hrs and 46 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-28-04

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 29 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

From strangers to rivals, these four men embark on a journey for the highest stakes of all, the keys to 10 Downing Street. Unfolding over three decades, their honor will be tested, their loyalties betrayed, and their love of family and country challenged. But in a game where there is a first among equals, only one can triumph.

Critic Reviews:

"Archer invests his novels with drama, irony, and suspense, First Among Equals is no exception....fascinating." (The Boston Herald) "Cunning plots, silken style....Archer plays a cat-and-mouse game with the reader." (The New York Times)

Members Reviews:

... written but not my kind of book since I hate politics and furthermore

Well written but not my kind of book since I hate politics and furthermore, interior British politics, elections and all that jazz!

There's no plot, no intrigue. To me a disappointment!

Awesome if you like politics, it's like House of Cards!

I picked up this book by chance. At first, it was hard to get into. But as it unfolded, it became very intriguing. It's definitely for those who like the intricacies of political fiction. Not for those who are inpatient as the development of the plot takes a while and if you are unfamiliar with English politics, it can get confusing. Unfortunately, readers today want something that they can get into quickly, and dispose of just as quick. This book is complex, makes you think, at times, even go back and re-read a page. I think it speaks volumes that it can still be a great read so long after it was written!

Three Stars

Was slow reading, not as gripping as his others

An amazing read...

Archer really captures the history of the time in his novel, and certainly keeps you guessing. It is a book for now, even though it is set from the sixties to the nineties. I highly recommend it!

A very good read.

A good story by a master story teller. I enjoyed the way how the author used actual history as the background to the story. A person can actually feel and see the story as it unfolds and that makes it very believable. In a way you are given a history lesson on the working of British politics and their Parliament. The is book is not boring but a real page turner.

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Title: Joe Jones

Author: Anne Lamott

Narrator: Barbara Rosenblat

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-04-03

Publisher: HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 40 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Lamott weaves a complex tale that moves along breezily with great heart and humor, but skim the surface and you will find human frailty, remorse, and loss. Back in print after fifteen years, Joe Jones is a testament to the ways in which humor heals and binds.

Critic Reviews:

"Anne Lamott is a cause for celebration. [Her] real genius lies in capturing the ineffable, describing not perfect moments, but imperfect ones...perfectly. She is nothing short of miraculous." (The New Yorker)

"Funny and candid....Lamott brings invaluable humor, imagination, and magnanimity to the conversation about faith." (Booklist)

Contact me for any questions: [email protected]

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Title: Sacred Time

Author: Ursula Hegi

Narrator: Bobby Cannavale, Mercedes Ruehl, Annabella Sciorra

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-27-03

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 62 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

In December 1953, Anthony Amedeo's world is nested in his Bronx neighborhood, his parent's Studebaker, the Paradise Theater, Yankee Stadium, and in his imagination, where he longs for a stencil kit to decorate the windows like all the other kids on his street. Instead, he gets a very different present: his uncle Malcolm's family.

Malcolm is in jail for stealing, once again, from his latest new job, and Anthony's aunt and twin cousins settle into the Amedeos' fifth floor walk-up. Sharing a room with girls is excruciating for Anthony, despite his affinity for the twins. But the real change in Anthony's life comes one evening when he causes the unthinkable to happen, changing each family member's life forever.

Evoking all the plenty and optimism of postwar America, Sacred Time spans three generations, taking us from the Bronx of the 1950s to contemporary Brooklyn. Keenly observing the dark side of family, and its gracefulness, Hegi has outdone herself with this captivating novel about childhood's tenderness and the landscape of loneliness.

Hegi reveals how the transforming power of a singular event can reverberate through a family for generations.

Critic Reviews:

"[Hegi] vividly evokes the Italian-American community of the Bronx, and readers will recognize her skill at capturing the complex dynamics of large families." (Publishers Weekly)

"The dialogue is stripped down and funny; the family's problems are increasingly absorbing....expressed in language that often floats above the page....Sacred Time becomes more structurally intricate and more satisfying as it progresses." (The New York Times Book Review)

Members Reviews:

Wonderful Story and Narration

This is a wonderfully rich story, interweaved with unique characters possessing fears, quirks and frailities that meld together to form a complex tale of ethnic family life in the Bronx. The narration is wonderful and the ending poignant.

Just lovely

An extraordinary way of telling this story, with multiple characters telling their story, but in sequence--the story moves along with each new narrator. Ursula Hegi has a lovely ear for the language. I'm confused by the reviewer who had a problem with the "narrator's sardonic tone" since there are three narrators and they are all award-winning actors; I found them captivating.

awfully depressing and constant tone of narration

It's difficult listening; I've discarded it before finishing. The narrator has been reading in the same sardonic tone from the first sentence. I'll avoid this author and narrator in future.

Another Hegi masterpiece

Would you listen to Sacred Time again? Why?

Yes, The readers/voices are wonderful. Very engaging. I was sorry it was over.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you just read the book?

Their voices are better than the ones in my head - I don't do too many good accents I am from Northern California !

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Title: Brief Lives

Author: John Aubrey

Narrator: Brian Cox

Format: Abridged

Length: 2 hrs and 37 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-26-00

Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

William Shakespeare, Sir Walter Raleigh, Thomas Hobbes - three of the greatest Englishmen who ever lived. They, and many others, are here remembered by another great Englishman, John Aubrey, whose Brief Lives are some of the wittiest and most moving miniature portraits ever written. Aubrey - a scholar, antiquarian and close observer of both the foibles and courage of this contemporaries - lived through the upheavals of the English Civil War in the 17th century. His little biographies are amusing, ribald, moving; a testament to the brevity of human existence and one of the most precious relics of a distant age.

Editorial Reviews:

Aubrey (1626-97) was an antiquarian and bon vivant who took little time out from his partying to finish any of his projects. So someone else had to publish Brief Lives after his death. A random sampling of interesting personages, Lives is filled with gossipy anecdotes about the famous and not-so-famous. If you want the lowdown on Sir Walter Raleigh, Francis Bacon, Shakespeare, et al. - here's the place to get it. The distinguished actor Brian Cox portrays Aubrey sitting with us before the hearth of an evening. He thus does a fine job of delivering the author's personality, though his treatment of content is a bit inconsistent. Naxos's signature bridges of period music are, as usual, a definite plus.

Members Reviews:

I have listened to it over and over

I heartily recommend it. The writing is very original and Brian Cox is superb, as always: I think John Aubrey himself could not have narrated it better. He captures the spirit of the writing. For me it's an all-time classic, and phrases and whole passages from this recording (which I first had as a CD from Naxos years ago) are my constant companions. But again, as I believe one reviewer has said, don't expect autobiographies: these are vignettes. But in terms of vignettes, I have never seen anything to compare with them.

A whimsical antique

Regrettably, when I purchased this I did not realize that John Aubrey lived and wrote in the 1600's. This might be a fascinating piece of 'period' language, but it is woefully uninformative by the current standards of biography.

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Title: True Story

Subtitle: A Comedy Novel

Author: Bill Maher

Narrator: Bill Maher

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 21 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-16-99

Publisher: Phoenix Books

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 35 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Only Bill Maher, the star of Comedy Central's Politically Incorrect and a regular guest on The Tonight Show, could have written True Story...so he did. The place: New York. The time: the early 1980s. The scene: the red-hot comedy clubs, very late at night. The cast: five would-be stand-up comics, their egos, and their girls. The result: a downright hilarious novel about trying to be funny for fame, fortune, and fornication. This is Bill Maher's report from the front, a stageside table at the birth of the comedy boom. You'll laugh in all the right places.

©1994 by Bill Maher; (P)2005 Phoenix Audio

Critic Reviews:

"This is the novel I would have written about stand-up comedy if I was a sick egghead like Bill Maher." (Roseanne)

"Anyone considering a career in stand-up comedy should read this book, then consider something else, because all this great stuff is over." (Jerry Seinfeld)

Members Reviews:

True story - lying description

Despite what it says this is not unabridged. It just leaves out a lot of the storylines that are in the book, here they are just mentioned and then dropped unresolved

Sadly not that funny

I don't know what I was expecting but the end result certainly was not it. The stories of up-and-coming comedians working the lower rungs of the circuit was just slow and boring. About the most interesting thing about the book is the realization that all boring jobs are... boring.

Original and Thought Provoking

I'm a big fan of Bill Maher and never really got around to reading this book until today. This is an awesome novel set in Omniscient view point about Buck (I believe is Bill) and a few other comedians he encountered in his early career.

If you have ever thought about being a comedian or just up for an interesting success story accompanied with a laugh, then buy this book!

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Title: Dearest Dorothy, Are We There Yet?

Subtitle: Welcome to Partonville, Book 1

Author: Charlene Ann Baumbich

Narrator: Cynthia Darlow

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-27-09

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 27 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Dorothy Jean Wetstra, 87, is the town matriarch in Partonville, Illinois. Fully aware of both her strengths and flaws, she often asks "the Big Guy" in heaven for help: "Dear Lord, DO SOMETHING!"

Members Reviews:

Fun and God with Dorothy

Today I found the first book in an older series that entertained me immensely. 87 year old Dorothy Jean has lived on her 180 acre farm in Partonville (Pardon me ville), Illinois, for her whole life. Her husband and daughter are dead, and her two boys and grandchildren visit infrequently, but Dorothy lives a brilliant life amongst all of the folks in her small town. An old friends's daughter and grandson are coming to town from New York, to close out her aunt's home. And she hopes to get in and out of town as quickly as possible. But she finds her heart strangely opened by Dorothy and her friends.

Baumbich is a Christian humorist and she does a bang up job with Dorothy Dearest, who is always talking to " The Big Guy" with a conclusion of "Dear Lord--Do SOMETHING". The situations are realistic but are handled with a prayerful touch, mixed with a large dash of fun!! Filled will a full cast of strangely lovable people, the is the beginning of more hopefully great reads for me. I listened to this on audio and highly recommend it to everyone .

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE DEAREST DOROTHY

Dearest Dorothy is one of my all time favorite series. I love Dorothy's relationship with God, and all the people of her town. The stories all have happy endings and that is a plus. These are great books, do miss a chance to read them!

Dearest Dorothy and Partonville for all ages!

Listened to this series years ago. This second go-around was just as enjoyable as the first. On to book 2!!

Great!!

What did you love best about Dearest Dorothy, Are We There Yet??

This was funny and I was sad when it was finished.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Dorothy; she's a hip old lady that doesn't mind getting into anything and she has her faith in God that keeps her going.

What does Cynthia Darlow bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you just read the book?

I absolutely LOVE how she narrates a story. She really brings the characters to life.

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

It made me laugh so much! I listened on my commute to work or when I travel and I know people thought I was nuts because I would laugh out loud.

Any additional comments?

Just keep the Dearest Dorothy stories coming! She is hilarious!!

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Title: Old Buildings in North Texas

Author: Jen Waldo

Narrator: Sally Vahle

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-13-17

Publisher: Audible Studios

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Olivia is 32 and living back home with her mother in Caprock, small-town Texas. Her therapist is a girl she went to high school with, her promising career in journalism has dwindled to nothing and she spends her days hawking jewellery in a mall following a favour from a friend. Life is back on an even keel after her descent into drug abuse, but it's a far cry from the one she imagined....

Then, under pressure to take up a hobby, she decides to try urban exploration. Soon she's poking through derelict homes, churches and schools across North Texas. But Olivia knows her therapist would disapprove. What began as a harmless distraction soon becomes a lucrative business as she collects and sells antique fittings and fixtures online. Her newfound freedom starts to spiral out of control. Victimless trespass is fast evolving into criminal behaviour, and the path her rehabilitation is taking leads Olivia to question her own moral code. She's not supposed to withhold information from her therapist - yet she does. Nor is she supposed to be stashing money in a secret account when she owes so much to so many - and although she's supposedly prohibited from communicating with people from her past, old friends keep showing up, making demands and threats. To add to it all, her baby sister has turned up pregnant, the question of their absent fathers has once more been unearthed, and her prescribed medication is inducing an unnatural detachment that makes her feel as though she's not present in her own life.

Tackling difficult subjects with a warmth and humour, and creating an unforgettable protagonist, Jen Waldo brings an electrifying tone to fiction - she is an astonishing new American voice who will stop you in your tracks.

Members Reviews:

Novel set in NORTH TEXAS

Olivia was a successful journalist in Dallas, but she had a cocaine habit that led to a heart attack and a criminal record. She is released into her motherâs care in Caprock, a town in the Texas Panhandle where nothing happens. Her mother controls every aspect of her life â itâs just like being a kid again. She also has a court appointed therapist and a court appointed probation officer âlooking afterâ her.

Her very pregnant, but unmarried, sister appears on the doorstep. Olivia and her sister, Chloe, are boredâ and Olivia is encouraged by her therapist to find a hobby. She chooses âurbexingâ (urban exploration) and soon they are involved in the semi-legal activity of obtaining access to boarded up and derelict buildings. Semi-legal because they are not actually breaking and entering â just finding access routes (like an unlocked first floor windowâ). When âurbexingâ you are not supposed to remove anything, but temptation proves too much for Olivia. They remove some antique items from an old dilapidated mansion outside Caprock, which Olivia then sells online. And then (after the birth of Chloeâs baby) she moves up the illegal scale â forcing entry into some buildings and stealing valuable content. She has a nice little business going for herâ

Meanwhile she is all the time dodging the obsessive presence of her mother, and working round the appointments with her therapist and probation officer â who just might not approve of the hobby she has found herself.

Old Buildings In North Texas is an amusingly written and well worked book â with many an interesting sideline.

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Title: Sympathy

Author: Olivia Sudjic

Narrator: Penelope Rawlins

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-04-17

Publisher: Audible Studios

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

At 23 Alice Hare leaves England for New York. She becomes fixated on Mizuko Himura, a Japanese writer living in New York, whose life story has strange parallels to her own and whom she believes is her "Internet twin". What seems to Mizuko like a chance encounter with Alice is anything but - after all, in the age of connectivity, nothing is coincidence. Their subsequent relationship is doomed from the outset, exposing a tangle of lies and sexual encounters as three families across the globe collide, and the most ancient of questions - where do we come from? - is answered just by searching online.

In its heady evocation of everything from Haruki Murakami to Patricia Highsmith to Edith Wharton, Sympathy is utterly original - a thrilling tale of obsession, doubling, blood ties and our tormented efforts to connect in the digital age.

Critic Reviews:

"'The reason to read this novel, aside from the au courant topic, is the luscious, absorbing writing." (Library Journal)

"The best fictional account I've read of the way the internet has shaped our inner lives. A literary thriller that confirms the arrival of a major new talent." (Alex Preston, Observer Fiction to Look out for in 2017)

"Filled with explosive intelligence and dark humour, Sympathy is both beautiful and raw, and captures the essence of personal responsibility in the digital age." (Elle, 'Author to Watch 2017')

Members Reviews:

long, muddled, over-written

Sympathy by Olivia Sudjic is a so-so overwritten novel focusing on obsession, stalking, and social media.

Alice Hare, 23, travels from England to NYC to stay with her ill grandmother. Even before she met her, Alice is obsessed with Mizuko Himura, a Japanese writer living in NYC who teaches creative writing at Columbia. Alice's fantasies and thoughts are fueled by her desire to meet and establish the relationship she knows she is supposed to have with Mizuko. Alice stalkes her and manages to meet her in person via a social media clue mentioning a coffee shop, and proceeds to tests boundaries with her relationship with Mizuko.

I could go on with the description, but honestly, I don't like the novel enough to spend more time on this. The narrative jumps around in time, without building a sense of continuity or some identifying theme that allows the readers knowledge to grow with each chapter. The novel is over-long and slow paced, but still feels so disjointed that it wasn't a pleasure as much as it was a chore to keep reading. Additionally I didn't care for any of the characters. If you are going to throw a long, muddled, over-written plot at me with all sorts of obsessive narcissistic social media obsessed characters, at least give me one person to care about. By the end of this novel I was just celebrating the fact that it was over. It is given the so-so rating simply for the final third of the novel.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Have sympathy on yourself...skip this book

I received a free copy of this audio book in exchange for a HONEST review.

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Título: Caballo de fuego: Gaza

Autor: Florencia Bonelli

Narrador: Martin Untrojb

Formato: Unabridged

Duración: 38 hrs and 59 mins

Idioma: Español

Fecha de publicación: 07-28-15

Editor: Audible Studios

Calificaciones: 4.5 de 5 de 34 votos

Categorías: Fiction, Contemporary

Resumen del editor:

Caballo de fuego: GazaMatilde y Eliah han vuelto a separarse. En el Congo, sus esperanzas de una vida juntos se desvanecieron al ritmo de los celos, las circunstancias hostiles y las bajezas. Matilde, cirujana pediátrica, se refugia en su pasión: el trabajo humanitario que lleva a cabo para la organización Manos Que Curan. Su nuevo destino es la Franja de Gaza, el territorio más densamente poblado del mundo, donde la consigna diaria es sobrevivir.

Eliah Al- Saud se impone olvidar a Matilde y acabar con la obsesión que lo ata a ella.En Bagdad, por su parte, Saddam Hussein da los últimos retoques para alcanzar su sueño: convertir a Irak en una potencia nuclear. Y en esta carrera diabólica, Matilde y Eliah se convertirán en piezas clave, debiendo emplearse a fondo no sólo para evitar una catástrofe mundial sino también para salvar la propia vida. A un ritmo frenético y con giros inesperados, Florencia Bonelli pone fin a su exitosa trilogía Caballo de fuego, una apasionante historia donde el espíritu humano trata de imponerse en un mundo presa de la violencia y el terrorismo, aunque también lleno de bondad y solidaridad.

Please Note: This audiobook is in Spanish.

Opiniones de los miembros:

caballo fuego gaza

si lees caballo de fuego paris.... leerás la trilogía completa. relato puede ser lento... pero lo escuché a x1.25

El mejor libro de la trilogía

Would you consider the audio edition of Caballo de fuego: Gaza to be better than the print version?

En realidad siempre prefiero leer que el audio libro; pero el formato de audio me acomoda mucho por que aprovecho los trayectos en auto de mi trabajo a mi casa.

What other book might you compare Caballo de fuego: Gaza to and why?

En mi opinión puedo compararlo con la obra de Julia Navarro "Dispara yo ya estoy muerto".

What about Martin Untrojbs performance did you like?

Excelente narrador, me impresiona.

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

Si.

Any additional comments?

Me encantó el libro, tiene de todo. La trilogía en si es muy buena.