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Title: Little Exiles

Author: Robert Dinsdale

Narrator: William Rycroft

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-05-13

Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

When one evening in December 1948, Jon Heather's mother leaves him at Chapeltown Boys' Home of the Children's Crusade, he is certain she will come back.

But just weeks later, he finds himself on a boat set for Australia. Promised paradise, Jon soon realises the reality of the vast Australian outback is very different.

So begins an odyssey that will last a lifetime, as Jon and his group of unlikely friends battle to make their way back home.

Critic Reviews:

"A superb novel" (Daily Mail)

"A heartbreaking story, very powerfully dramatised" (The Times)

Members Reviews:

Moving and beautifully written

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

Yes. I didn't know about this story so it really opened my eyes. It's such a tender book about friendship.

What about William Rycrofts performance did you like?

Really well read.

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

I finished the book after an emotional roller coaster and looked up expecting everyone around me to have been affected too. I was surprised to see my family carrying on as though nothing had happened.

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Title: Long Gray Line

Subtitle: Black Knights of the Hudson Book IV

Author: Beverly C. Gray

Narrator: Steven Roy Grimsley

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-03-13

Publisher: Beverly C. Gray

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Black Knights of the Hudson is a series of audiobooks relating the saga of the fictional MacKendrick Army family from the Civil War through World War II.

Long Gray Line is the fourth audiobook in the story of the MacKendrick Army family; who live by West Point's motto of Duty, Honor, Country. The war with Spain is over and the United States has moved beyond its continental boundaries. With new inventions on the horizon, the United States at last takes its place in the world order and the MacKendricks are quick to answer the challenge. The cousins Fitzjames and Jackson Lee MacKendrick arrive at West Point to assume their own places in West Point's fabled Corps of Cadets.

Jackson Lee, classmate of the impressive Douglas MacArthur, demonstrates a quiet competence and is marked closely for later advancement by the senior officers. Fitzjames, son of a legendary officer of the United States, barely survives the tender mercies of the Yearlings in Beast Barracks when he is hazed brutally for his effrontery in bearing such a famous name.

In Long Gray Line, the MacKendricks march forward to greet the new century and its bewildering array of inventions. From the football field of the annual Army-Navy Game, where the canny Charlie Daly leads the Cadets against the Midshipmen, into the growing clouds of a world war, Jack and Fitz assume their fathers' mantles as the next generation of West Point's famed Corps of black knights. Attractive, engaging, from a background of wealth and privilege, the MacKendrick cousins prove to be fair game to the Army brats, college girls, New York society women, and English Ladyships who seek to join the equally important line of Army wives who have taken Milton's words as their own motto: 'they also serve who only stand and wait.'

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Title: The Bastard King

Author: Jean Plaidy

Narrator: Jilly Bond

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-01-13

Publisher: Isis Publishing Ltd

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

William the Conqueror is destined to succeed his father as the Duke of Normandy but questions about his legitimacy mean he consistently faces challenges from potential usurpers in the Duchy to retain the title.

He marries Matilda, the equally intelligent and ambitious daughter of the King of Flanders, and together they have many children. In 1066, he crosses the channel from Normandy to England and seizes the crown from King Harold, Edward the Confessor's popular successor.

This is the roller-coaster account of his efforts to become sovereign and the events in his life afterwards, including his turbulent relationships with various members of his family.

Members Reviews:

William the conqueror

I have really enjoyed this book. I had heard of Jean plaidy but it is only after exhausting Phillipa Gregory's novels that I have actually turned to Plaidy's novels. Looking forward to exploring her views on history.

William the Conqueror - a powerful story

I loved this book and have always meant to re-read it after my first reading back in the 1970s. It set me on a path to reading many of Jean Plaidy's historical novels.

To revisit it on audio has been thoroughly enjoyable. A great story, engagingly read by Jilly Bond who brought the characters to life.

I suspect I'm back on the journey with the Normans and the Plantagenets now and I'm ready to order the next two books in this trilogy.

Worth the wait - almost 40 years!

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Title: Some Day I'll Find You

Author: Richard Madeley

Narrator: Jane McDowell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-19-13

Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Richard Madeley's first novel plays beautifully into the heart of commercial fiction, a love story with intrigue and betrayal at its core.

James Blackwell is sexy and handsome and a fighter pilot - every girl's dream partner. At least that is what Diana Arnold thinks when her brother first introduces them. Before long they are in love and marry hastily just as war is declared.Then fate delivers what is the first of its cruel twists: James, the day of their wedding, is shot down over Northern France and killed. Diana is left not only a widow but pregnant with their child.

Ten years later, contentedly remarried, Diana finds herself in the south of France, sitting one morning in a sunny village square. A taxi draws up and she hears the voice of a man speaking English - the unmistakable voice of someone who will set out to torment her and blackmail her and from whom there can be only one means of escape...

Members Reviews:

Pleasantly surprised...

Its a great book! Not the best piece of literature I have ever read, but all the same, a very good read! I usually stay away from this kind of book, preferring more Thriller/Horror, so this was a nice diversion. I read a few reviews saying it was bad, but it was on offer cheap on the kindle, so I bought it...

I wasn't disappointed. There are a few unnecessary pages that dont really add much to the story, but otherwise, I don't see the harm in it.

I have even bought the second book by Richard Madeley (I understand it is a standalone book, but it about one of the characters - I wont spoil it by telling you who!)

Give it a go - if you find it rubbish, I apologise, but you might be surprised like I was!

Not just another 'celebrity' novel ...

I am hesitant before reading any book published by a 'celebrity' who is a celebrity for being anything other than an author. I often find them too light for my tastes. I was recommended this book by someone who knows my reading tastes extremely well, so I took them up on their recommendation.

I enjoyed this novel. I didn't love it and I didn't hate it. Don't enter into reading this novel with the view of finding something high-brow and literary because it isn't and it isn't trying to be. The storyline is extremely unique from any other war based novel I have read. War novels typically depict heroes, but James Blackwell is far from being painted in this light. I found this such a refreshing change, although I did find some aspects of the story over-simplified and a little far-fetched.

I am confident that this novel would have been published without the name of Richard Madeley being attached to it.

The title is misleading. In order for this review to remain spoiler-free I cannot say why, but it implies a search for someone being the main focus of the novel, and it just isn't.

Enjoyable

What did you like most about Some Day I'll Find You?

Contrary to a number of other reviews about the book (rather than the audiobook), I really enjoyed this one. I read Richard Madeley's Fathers and Sons (a superb piece of writing, by the way) beforehand and it was written so fluidly, I wanted to check out his first novel.

The story? Its a romance but not sickeningly so, its a drama but not so deep it loses you...

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Title: The Bounty Hunters from Coffin Creek

Author: Norm Bass

Narrator: Mark Carrell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 17 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-18-13

Publisher: Norm Bass

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Two years after Custer and 267, men from the Seventh Cavalry are killed at the Little Big Horn, a government survey party - mapping the remote Colorado backcountry - discovers that the inhabitants of a small mining camp have all been killed, scalped, and mutilated. Fearing that the massacre will trigger panic and widespread reprisals against the friendly Ute Indians, government officials cover up the massacre.

Although the massacre has all the earmarks of an Indian attack, government officials later discover that a gang of white men may actually be responsible for the raid and two representatives from the Bureau of Indian Affairs seek out a ruthless bounty hunter to track down and secretly eliminate the men responsible.

Members Reviews:

Fun Full Of Action Western

Easy read and full of action. Well written with good descriptive words in every chapter. I truly enjoyed this book.

The bounty hunters

This is a good story with out a doubt. The characters are well chosen and the tale is fast moving and full of adventure. While there is a lot killings that is understandably tire with a bounty hunters will when dealing with hard criminals. Read it and ENJOY.

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Title: Bigfoot and Gettysburg

Subtitle: The Bigfoot Stories

Author: Bill Lee

Narrator: Bill Lee

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-15-13

Publisher: Bill Lee

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

It's late June, 1863 and the Civil War is in full swing. Confederate troops are on the move northward following their victory at Chancellorsville, Virginia. They're headed for a showdown with Union troops at Gettysburg and unknown to either side, the Sasquatch witnesses one of the bloodiest battles in American history. What must these elusive, hairy giants think of the violent white man?

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Title: The Strange Affair of Adalaide Harris

Author: Leon Garfield

Narrator: Ron Keith

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-05-13

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

When two British schoolboys decide to test the truth of the ancient Spartan tale of Romulus and Remus, they are soon stuck with the task of recovering a missing baby and making up ever-more elaborate lies to cover their tracks. This highly imaginative madcap farce could only have been crafted by Leon Garfield, the award-winning author of Black Jack.

Members Reviews:

Alarums and excursions

Leon Garfieldâs stories of 18th-Century England are generally Dickensian thrillers, but this one is more like a Shakespearean comedy (without the poetry, but filled with characters working at cross-purposes to one another). Bostock and Harris, lifelong friends, might be called the Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer of Brighton, a town just transitioning from fishing village to seaside resort. Harris is the son of a local physician and has grown up the only boy in a houseful of sisters; Bostock is the sole child of a retired sea captain who has become a Justice of the Peace. Bostock is strong but not exactly the sharpest knife on the table when it comes to thinking; Harris is a brilliant schemer whom his friend admires as a genius. One day in Ancient History class at Dr. Bunnionâs School for the Sons of Merchants and Gentlefolk, their teacher, Mr. Brett, explains how the Spartans were wont to âexposeâ babies who were considered physically unfit. Inspired by this and by the legend of Romulus and Remus and the she-wolf, Harris conceives the notion of âexposingâ a baby (his seven-week-old sister Adelaide) and watching to see if âa vixen with full dugsâ may come along and suckle it (since of course there are no wolves left in England). But then the arithmetic masterâs daughter, Tizzy Alexander, and the school directorâs son, ladiesâ man Ralph Bunnion, out for a moonlight stroll, happen upon the child and bear her off before the boys can stop them. Thinking sheâll be left on the church doorstep, Bostock and Harris go there and find, indeed, a babyâa Gypsy boyâwhich in desperation they smuggle into Adelaideâs cot, a substitution thatâs quickly discovered. Before the friends quite know whatâs happened, Dr. Harris has fetched in Mr. Selwyn Raven, a clubfooted âinquiry agent,â to find out what has become of his youngest child. There follows a succession of erroneous assumptions as Mr. Brett, whoâs desperately in love with Tizzy, is sucked into a duel between her father and Ralph, Bostock and Harris discover Adelaideâs whereabouts and scheme to get her back, and Mr. Raven somehow gets the idea that the infantâs fate (whatever it may be) is tied up with a plot to commit murder! Like all Garfieldâs work, this novel is filled with the flavor and language of its place and time (and is therefore best suited to youngsters 11 and up), but will also leave them gasping with laughter as they see how the two boysâ more or less innocent experiment in natural history brings on unlooked-for consequences that threaten to engulf the entire town.

Leon Garfield at his funniest

The two boys at the center of this plot are unlikely heroes: âHarris was as weak as a kitten and Bostock was as thick as a post.â This farce revolves around their plan to leave Harrisâs infant sister Adelaide outside in a field to see whether she will be adopted by foxes (the area doesnât happen to have any wolves).

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Title: The Candlestickmaker

Author: Dennis McDougal

Narrator: Michael Meenan

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-31-13

Publisher: Dennis McDougal

Ratings: 1 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Aboard the spy ship U.S.S. Argosy in the war-tossed waters off the coast of Vietnam, three young American sailors form an unlikely bond. Each has fled an America they were raised to love but somehow no longer understand. When forced to choose whether to face combat or stay and fight the war in the streets, they sign up for a war that reflects the conflict that raged inside each of them. The one thing of which they were certain was that the only people in the world they could depend on were each other.

As their friendship deepens in the bars and brothels from Hong Kong to Subic Bay, Ernie Brigham and his companions slowly become aware of a dark secret aboard the U.S.S. Argosy. Upon their return to the America they left behind, they are changed at best, lost and damaged at worst, but ultimately sobered by a war that never should have been fought.

In the tradition of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke, and Philip Caputo's A Rumor of War, The Candlestickmaker recalls a Vietnam that seared disenchantment into a post-World War II generation who learned to question authority at all levels. A coming-of-age story bookended by revelations that shatter readers' illusions about patriotism, government, and the nature of modern warfare, The Candlestickmaker takes listeners on a voyage that will guarantee they never read the Mother Goose nursery rhyme to their children in quite the same way again.

Members Reviews:

The Candlestickmaker

This book held my interest throughout!! Great story. The relationship of the 3 men in the tub was touching. After reading the story I went back to the beginning and reread the part describing the lawyers office. Very funny. Will read again just to see what else I missed in the first reading. Brought back memories of that sad time in our history.

McDougal Genius

I'm so impressed with McDougal's writing. I couldn't stop reading once I started; not in a frantic way, but with a deep interest in the life of the story. This is GREAT storytelling.

Was this story going anywhere?

I was compelled to finish this book because I kept trying to figure out where the story was going. I felt zero connection with any of the characters; the mains seemed only half developed, and there were too many other minor characters. So much time was spent on introducing a multitude of characters that I found myself unable to recall who each was (how many Roberts do we need?), why he was important and what he had to do with the great secret of the ship. A secret that's described in the beginning and "revealed" with little detail or actual revelation in the final chapter. None of the information pulls together the described events, which seem typical and not instigated by secret government programs. The whole experience seemed like an excuse to highlight rape, racism/homophobia, rampant drug use, military impropriety/impunity and confused youth without actually provoking any real thought or making any new comment. I had little expectation for this book, yet I was disappointed in the end.

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Title: Cataclysm in Blue Water

Author: Renee Louise Johnson, John Douglas Pitts

Narrator: Terry Rose

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-26-13

Publisher: Pitts and Associates, LLC

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

The desperate wish of a half-Egyptian half-Minoan boy, who crafts a granulated gold starfish pendant in 1886 B.C. to honor his mother, is the heart of this novel.

It is an epic journey filled with intrigue, romance, thievery, murder, and natural disaster over the course of four thousand years.

A riveting modern mystery weaves in and out of an ancient mystery. From the royal workshop of King Amenemhet II of the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt - to the Bronze-Age world of the Minoans and the horrific volcanic eruption of Santorini - to the professor who discovered the ash-covered village known today as Akrotiri - and to our unrelenting modern-day heroine, Krista, who uncovers the truth - the reader is swept along an amazing and breathtaking journey.

Krista's unforgettable cruise in the Mediterranean is shrouded in mystery.

This novel is based on historical and geologic truth. The reader will enjoy a fresh approach to an enduring enigma. While focused on the human drama in the lives of several fascinating ancient characters, the reader is given a ground-zero view of one of the greatest volcanic eruptions of all time. Through the eyes of the nature-loving, sophisticated, and technically-advanced Minoans, who were living in the midst of geologic madness, the reader gets a glimpse of what is likely the birth of the legend of Atlantis.

Members Reviews:

mixed quality

I enjoy historical fiction. The quality in this book was confusing to me, as was the incredibly poor editing. The Minoan story, while stilted at times, was enjoyable and created a picture of what that culture may have been like. The "lectures" were also readable and informative. The present day story was crammed with story lines that were not fleshed out, the characters were well conceived, but thinly drawn. Combined with the poor editing, typos, grammar, and incorrect word choice, this book made for a less than engrossing read. The historical element was very good, but hard to understand the award it received, in light of the overall quality of the writing.

Cataclysm in Blue Water

This was an intriguing read. Kudos to the author for seamlessly combining a contemporary mystery concerning an ancient piece of jewelry presumably crafted by an ancient lost civilization (Minoan) and managing to incorporate geological facts about the eruption of a volcano in the area of the current Santorini Islands as well.

Well done!

I enjoyed all the descriptive natural scenes

The multiple story lines are well written. I enjoyed all the descriptive natural scenes.

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Title: The Silent

Author: Jack Dann

Narrator: Christopher Kipiniak

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-21-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

From the critically acclaimed author of The Memory Cathedral comes perhaps the most powerful, haunting, and unforgettable novel of the Civil War - or any war - ever written. Provocative, poetic, and disturbing, it introduces us to a young narrator, Mundy McDowell, whose voice rivals any in literature, bringing poignantly to life the surreal horrors of battle and its spiritual cost to human survival.I was scarce twelve the day the damn Yankees invaded the valley. I seen a lot that day I ain't never gonna forget.

Men blown apart, screamin' and dyin' all around me. I was wandering in the woods like I wasn't supposed to and wound up right in the middle of the battle. And that's what I suppose saved me.When I got back home the main house was burning to the ground. I saw two men wearin' bits and pieces of 'Federate and Yank uniforms. They killed Poppa right off, and Mother they dragged into the front yard before they killed her too. I reckon that was the day I first got the knack of being invisible.

The spirit dog seen me right off, though. He was big and black and smelled like burning. His eyes were like red coals and everywhere he went, it seemed death followed. Him and me, we mostly traveled together after that.

I passed through midnight fields of dead and dying soldiers, reeking makeshift field hospitals worse than hell itself; climbed into the mountains where the runaway slaves hid; and walked through towns shattered by the passage of the war.

I met a lot of people, some of them living and some of them just memories. There was Jimmadasin, the slave who died on my account, and Mammy Jack, who taught me to see visions; the gallant Colonel Ashby, who let me ride by his side, and, of course, the mulatto whore Lucy, who saved my life twice.

Last but not least, there was mad but brilliant General Jackson, who was probably responsible for putting more men in their graves than any other during the Shenandoah campaign. Whether he was a hero or a demon I never did determine, but I wish I had never met him at all.

And through it all I remained silent. The power of speech left me the day my parents were killed and I first saw the spirit dog. You see, the whole time I was wandering through that valley of death I was deciding on whether to go back to being human or to become a spirit myself, and that's what this book is all about.

Members Reviews:

"Most emphatically recommended." --Library Journal

"It was around the time I saw the spirit dog and became invisible that I forgot how to talk. Getting to be a spirit meant you had to lose things." This fine novel tells the horrific tale of a boy unable to escape from a hell he didn't make and can't begin to understand. Mundy McDowell, not even 13 yet, watches in silence as Yankee deserters kill his father, rape and murder his mother, and set fire to their home. He is struck dumb, his thoughts filled with recurrent `visions' of sex, death, and mutilation. The line between reality and fantasy is tenuous in his mind, all the more so because of constant hunger and illness. Mundy traverses a nightmare landscape, engaged on a demon quest, seeking an inner peace that no longer can be found. From the author of The Memory Cathedral, this is narrative storytelling at its best-so highly charged emotionally as to constitute a kind of poetry from hell. Most emphatically recommended.