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Title: The Tenants

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Bernard Malamud

Narrator: LJ Ganser

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 29 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-16-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

With a new introduction by Aleksandar Hemon

In The Tenants (1971), Bernard Malamud brought his unerring sense of modern urban life to bear on the conflict between blacks and Jews then inflaming his native Brooklyn. The sole tenant in a rundown tenement, Henry Lesser is struggling to finish a novel, but his solitary pursuit of the sublime grows complicated when Willie Spearmint, a black writer ambivalent toward Jews, moves into the building. Henry and Willie are artistic rivals and unwilling neighbors, and their uneasy peace is disturbed by the presence of Willie's white girlfriend Irene and the landlord Levenspiel's attempts to evict both men and demolish the building. This novel's conflict, current then, is perennial now; it reveals the slippery nature of the human condition, and the human capacity for violence and undoing.

Members Reviews:

For Writers Who Need Motivation

If you're a writer and you're having trouble being motivated, focused or being interrupted by selfish people who don't take your writing time seriously, this is the book for you. If you want examples of two writers who take their writing seriously and puts it first, then read this book. It's a page turner, I've read it several times, and the movie, very ironically starring Snoop Dog, is just as good.

Katie

honest

read the assistant instead.

Worth the dialogue alone ...

It wasn't "The Assistant" for me, but it was a pretty good read (the dialogue alone was worth the price of admission). Malamud handled the diversity of characters very well and although I wasn't over joyed at the ending, I didn't expect to be. A sometimes angry, sometimes funny read.

Basically, a book that makes you hate and distrust blacks more than you already do.

Basically, a book that makes you hate and distrust black people even more than you already do. It's hard to find a book written in the past (Hell, it's difficult to find now) where a black character is admirable unless he's a slave and telling Huck Honey to get back on the boat. Most black characters are seen as vicious, untrustworthy individuals (who don't talk in complete sentences), and Malamud continued with that tradition. The only book I can really think of that had a redeemable, respectable black character was The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, and that character was a doctor juxtaposed with other black characters who loathed him for being so different. It was an interesting character study to say the least, and it was refreshing to read.

But I digress.

Why the four stars for this book that I clearly found offensive? Well, because it's good. The characters, though unlikable, are clear and three-dimensional, and the story is told in a meta fashion, which impresses the writer in me. The story concerns two tenants, a Jewish man and a black man (Though one only pays the rent. Guess which one), who are both writers. The black man feels he has to write about the black experience, sort of like Richard Wright. But the problem is, he isn't disciplined like the Jewish writer. The moment he receives even the slightest bit of criticism, he gets upset and does something stupid. It's infuriating to see such a bum of a character, even though he works hard at his craft.

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Title: Potiki

Author: Patricia Grace

Narrator: Wiki Oman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-12-14

Publisher: Penguin Books NZ

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

In a small coastal community threatened by developers who would ravage their lands, it is a time of fear and confusion - and growing anger. The prophet child Tokowaru-i-te-Marama shares his people's struggles against bulldozers and fast-money talk. When dramatic events menace the marae, his grief and rage threaten to burst beyond the confines of his twisted body. His all-seeing eye looks forward to a strange and terrible new dawn.

Patrica Grace's second novel is a work of spellbinding power in which the myths of older times are inextricably woven into the political realities of today.

Members Reviews:

Highly recommend this for those interested in Maori storytelling

A really great story about Maori traditions, and the value of homeland (even when Pakeha are trying to offer you money so they can build a strip mall and a resort on your land). Uses various elements of storytelling, oral tradition, and magical realism to create a read that I couldn't put down.

A must read.

This is a wonderful read. I haven't read much literature from New Zealand nor about the Maori culture. This was a great place to start. The writing is really fabulous and the characters really engaging. The book was bought to read while touring around New Zealand for the first time. It was a really nice confluence of reading a great novel and trying to imagine it happening in the place I was traveling.

Uneven

I had a hard time reading this book -- there were parts of it that I found lyrical & compelling (like the introduction, and many of the chapters narrated by toko) and parts that seemed very heavy-handed (especially the telling of the history of protests over land that had been claimed by the gov't during wartime and the chapters narrated by hemi). Especially early in the book I found it easy to set it aside for periods of time, but I got more engaged as I got to the second section.

One major weakness is that there's no glossary or translation of any of the Maori terms, so it's a much more difficult read for someone who is trying to become more familiar with the people and culture than someone who already is.

A beautiful story of stories

This was a mandatory book in a Pacific Literature class. Lucky for me. It is filled with complex symbolism that tells not only of a land struggle for a people who are holding on to their traditions, but how they learn, and choose what they take from "Western" ideas in order to fight for what little of their own land that the government has left for them. A lot of other people -including Hawaiians- are going through this now, which makes this book as relevant today as it was when it was written.

The story is told through Toko, a deformed child who has a special knowing. He is central figure in the book, and not only as a story teller. His "second mother", Roimata, is the other story teller. Although, everyone has a story, they are the only two who actually tell the stories. It is an enriching and enlightening book for anyone familiar or not familiar with Moari culture or the struggles between land developers, government, and native peoples of any country or island.

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Titel: Die Korrekturen

Autor:: Jonathan Franzen

Erzähler: Sascha Rotermund

Format: Unabridged

Spieldauer: 24 hrs and 42 mins

Sprache: Deutsch

Veröffentlichungsdatum: 05-08-14

Herausgeber: Der Hörverlag

Bewertung: 5 von 5 von 1 Stimmen

Kategorien: Fiction, Literary

Zusammenfassung des Herausgebers:

Nach fast fünfzig Ehejahren hat Enid Lambert nur ein Ziel: ihre Familie zu einem letzten Weihnachtsfest um sich zu scharen. Alles könnte so schön sein, gemütlich, harmonisch. Doch Parkinson hat ihren Mann Alfred immer fester im Griff, und die drei erwachsenen Kinder durchleben eigene tragikomischen Malaisen. Gary steckt in einer Ehekrise. Chip versucht sich als Autor. Und Denise ist zwar eine Meisterköchin, hat aber in der Liebe kein Glück...

Franzen verbindet einzigartig Familien- und Gesellschaftsgeschichte.

©2003 rororo (P)2014 Der Hörverlag

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Title: Great American Authors Read From Their Works, Volume 1

Subtitle: Philip Roth reading from Letting Go

Author: Calliope Author Readings, Philip Roth

Narrator: Philip Roth

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-04-14

Publisher: Calliope Author Readings

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Playing three roles with verve, Philip Roth gives a hilariously comic performance of two old men living in a cheap rooming house who pay a visit to a diffident graduate student to ask a convoluted and unusual favor.

Critic Reviews:

If Roth were not so good a writer it would be the worlds duty to force him onto the stage." Saturday Review (John Ciardi)

The Roth record is the best of this first group. (Detroit News )

"You get the exuberant surprise of Philip Roth not only reading, but acting two disillusioned, perpetually injured old boarding house inhabitants. (Joan Wickersham, Boston Globe, )

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Title: Secrets of the Sea House

Author: Elisabeth Gifford

Narrator: Cathleen McCarron, Douglas Russell, Sarah Barron

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-03-14

Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Scotland, 1860. Reverend Alexander Ferguson takes up his new parish, an isolated patch on the Hebridean island of Harris. His time there will change his life, but the Sea House, on the edge of the dunes keeps its silence long after Alexander departs. More than a century later, Ruth and Michael buy the grand but dilapidated building for the family they hope to have. But their dreams are marred by a shocking discovery.

Critic Reviews:

"An arresting tale of the things that haunt us." (Liza Klaussmann, author of Tigers In Red Weathe)"A sweeping summer read, packed with an epic tale of loss, love and hope." (Irish News)"Secrets of the Sea House is an arresting tale of the things that haunt us. But the real pleasure in this debut novel is Elisabeth Gifford's finely wrought prose; at turns acute, delicate and fierce." (Liza Klaussman)

Members Reviews:

Slow start but really enjoyable in the end.

Where does Secrets of the Sea House rank among all the audiobooks youve listened to so far?

Not the most outstanding but still one of the best. I had to make myself listen at first then couldn't stop.

What did you like best about this story?

I really enjoyed the Scottish accents of some of the narrators. I liked the fact that it switched between periods in time. I thought it had a good ending.

Which character as performed by the narrators was your favourite?

Ruth - I though she was quite boring at first but as the story progressed it became clear that there was more to her.

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

Mainly just wanting to keep listening to find out what happened.

Any additional comments?

An enjoyable story.

Secrets of the Sea House

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

I would definitely recommend this book to my friends. It is an amazingly touching story and the characters grow on you. I was sorry to reach the end.

What other book might you compare Secrets of the Sea House to, and why?

I think this story is a unique one and I wouldn't want to compare it to anything else. It is a mystery, a love story, a gothic tale, atomospheric in its setting of the northern islands and easy to just fall right into.

Which character as performed by the narrators was your favourite?

I loved all the characters as they were so beautifully presented by the narrators. Such beautiful accents!

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

I guess I will have to say that the feelings I experienced, I really can't give a name to.

Any additional comments?

No book is for everyone, but this one comes close.

Interesting explanation for mermen/maids!

I enjoyed this story and thought the use of different narrators worked well. The story developed in a way that made me want to find out more about Ruth and how her life interacted with the past, the links with the island and the previous inhabitants of the Manse. The story reached point where resolution was revealed but the conclusion was hurried. Perhaps this allows for the listener to assimilate their own conclusion but felt a little rushed.

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Title: Days in the History of Silence

Author: Merethe Lindstrom

Narrator: Susannah Tyrrell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-24-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

From the acclaimed Nordic Council Literature Prize winner, a story that reveals the devastating effects of mistaking silence for peace and feeling shame for inevitable circumstances

Eva and Simon have spent most of their adult lives together. He is a physician and she is a teacher, and they have three grown daughters and a comfortable home. Yet what binds them together isnt only affection and solidarity but also the painful facts of their respective histories, which they keep hidden even from their own children. But after the abrupt dismissal of their housekeeper and Simons increasing withdrawal into himself, the past can no longer be repressed.

Lindstrm has crafted a masterpiece about the grave mistakes we make when we misjudge the legacy of war, common prejudices, and our own strategies of survival.

Members Reviews:

"No one knows who we are. No one except for me."

Days In The History of Silence is a book about the spaces between people, the silences that grow with time and become insurmountable.

Eva and Simon have been married for several decades and Simon is now stricken with a form of demential that has, as its primary symptom, almost total silence. Simon was a physician and Eva a school teacher before they retired. Neither of them had many friends and they kept to themselves. They have three daughters, all grown, none of whom they are very close to. Helena, the daughter that is most prominent in the story, has been trying to get Eva to put Simon in an assisted living facility. Eva has all the papers to apply for Simon's admission but she has not filled them out despite Helena's urging.

Eva and Simon's lives are filled with secrets. Simon's childhood was spent in hiding during the second world war and he has told no one other than Eva what happened to him during that time. He has thought many times of sharing this history with his daughters but he has never gotten around to it. Eva often thinks about an 'episode' in her life when the children were very little and a stranger made his way into their home. She was terrified and fearful for their lives. The stranger even moved one of the children outside while Eva's back was turned. Their daughters know nothing about their lives.

At one point, they had a housekeeper named Marija, with whom they were very close. She even lived with them for a period of time. Then something appalling happened and they fired her. The reasons for her firing only become clear only towards the end of the book and, again, they choose not to share this information with their daughters.

This is a novel filled with metaphors and written in lovely, poetic language. I found the story compellingly tragic but it failed to move me very much. Eva and Simon are both so removed from their lives and themselves that I felt removed from them. I could appreciate the beauty of the writing but I felt distanced from it at the same time. Simon had a desire to share his past. His inability to do so when he was able made this book seem unrealized to its full potential.

A Family Of Secrets

We all know what happens when we keep secrets, when we keep silent, when we don't allow the truth to enter our sphere and set us free.

Like strangers on a plane, Eva, opens her world to us. She is married to Simon, a physician, and she a teacher. Both retired now, and living a very quiet life. They are a middle class couple, living comfortably in Norway.

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Title: The Trench Garden

Author: L. C. Fiore

Narrator: Andre Montgomery

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-21-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

As the Second World War rages in Europe, two undergraduates in Tennessee work a summer job for a celebrated poetry professor, W. T. Harlan, as he supervises the clearing of a ravine to make a garden. At their side is a German POW, watched by military guard, who has been sent to help them with their task. One of the boys, Benjamin Mason, is from a wealthy family and aspires to be a poet; the other, Steven Darby yearns simply to escape his corner of America and explore the world. As they work, they will get to know the German soldier next to them and the brilliant, unhappy W. T. Harlan. By the end of the summer, through the experience of war, poetry, and tragedy, all of their lives will be transformed.

Ploughshares, the literary magazine of Emerson College.

Members Reviews:

Highly Recommended

It's 1943 and the war raging in Europe and the Pacific seems an unreal event to the summer residents of a rural Tennessee mountaintop -- at least until they're joined by a German POW and his silent but ever present MP guard. The presence of Torben the prisoner provides an added dimension to the story of two undergrads, each of whom took the summer job for very different reasons. Mason, the spoiled rich kid with aspirations of being a poet, arrived with a trunk full of classics and every intention of impressing the professor running the project. Darby, the poverty stricken student just wants to make enough to pay for the next yearâs schooling, unaware at first that he possesses the talent that Mason covets. When Darby succeeds, almost accidentally, in impressing Harlan, the brilliant but alcoholic poetry professor supervising the project, conflict between the two boys is inevitable and played out against a background of their different views of the war and treatment of the German POW.

The story plays out beautifully under Fioreâs deft hand. His character development is skillful, and dialogue a treat. His characters silences speak as loudly as their words.

Recommended. Highly.

A small tale, well told

The Trench Garden is a gentle little story set in a turbulent time. As WWII rages in Europe, a pair of college boys â one born to wealth, the other from a meager background, and under the supervision of a brilliant - but often besotted - professor, get a summer job grubbing the growth and trash out of a ravine as part of an effort to turn it into a botanical marvel for the college. A German POW, under the constant guard of a military policeman, has also been assigned to the task. Fiore has drawn fine characters, set them in a memorable environment and provided nice detail. Brought together for a summer, the characters touch each otherâs lives in small but significant ways. We are left to wonder what part of the experience they will carry forward with them. This is a small tale, well told.

Wonderful Work Here

A wonderful story, well-written with strong characters. After reading the story, I did what I do when I read something that blows me away, I read it again.

At the end of the story you laugh and want more.....

A Perfect READ! One of the singles that makes you feel fortunate you read it! I loved the characters and the oddity of the subject, and how the author kept it moving. Just lovely. My hat is off to you L.C.FIORE. THANK YOU!

Gripping Story and Characters

This tale is beautifully told. My only regret is that it's a short story.

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Titel: Nichts als Gespenster

Autor:: Judith Hermann

Erzähler: Judith Hermann

Format: Unabridged

Spieldauer: 3 hrs and 10 mins

Sprache: Deutsch

Veröffentlichungsdatum: 03-20-14

Herausgeber: Der Hörverlag

Kategorien: Fiction, Literary

Zusammenfassung des Herausgebers:

Sie sind Freundinnen seit Kindertagen. Sie sind auf der Suche nach Liebe. Sie verlieben sich in den selben Mann.

Judith Hermann erzählt von Situationen und Begegnungen, die scheinbar einen Wendepunkt darstellen, jedoch nur eine kurze Flucht aus dem Alltag sind. Judith Hermann hat drei Erzählungen ausgewählt, die einen unwiderstehlichen Sog und unergründlichen Bann entwickeln. Sie liest sie hier mit der ihr eigenen Melancholie.

©2003 S. Fischer Verlag (P)2003 Der Hörverlag / Sender Freies Berlin

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Title: Earth and Ashes

Author: Atiq Rahimi, Erdag Goknar (translator)

Narrator: Neil Shah

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 27 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-07-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

"You know, father, sorrow can turn to water and spill from your eyes, or it can sharpen your tongue into a sword, or it can become a time bomb that, one day, will explode and destroy you."

Earth and Ashes is the spare, powerful story of an Afghan man, Dastaguir, trying desperately to reach his son Murad, who has left his village to earn a living working at a mine. In the meantime the village has been bombed by the Russian army, and Dastaguir, with his newly-deaf grandson Yassin in tow, must reach Murad to tell him of the carnage. The old man is beset on all sides by sorrow, that of his grandson, who cannot understand, that of his son, who does not yet know, and his own, made even crueler by the message he must deliver. Atiq Rahimi, whose reputation for writing war stories of immense drama and intimacy began with this, his first novel, has managed to condense centuries of Afghan history into a short tale of three very different generations. But he has also created a universal story about fathers and sons, and the terrible strain inflicted on those bonds of family during the unpredictable carnage of war.

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Title: Dead Air

Author: Iain Banks

Narrator: Peter Kenny

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-23-14

Publisher: Hachette Audio UK

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

A couple of ice cubes first, then the apple that really started it all. A loft apartment in London's East End; cool but doomed - demolition and redevelopment slated fro the following week. Ken Nott, devoutly contrarian leftish shock-jock attending a mid-week wedding lunch, starts dropping stuff off the rood towards the deserted car park 100 feet below.

Other guests join in and soon half the contents of the flat are following the fruit towards the pitted tarmac... just as mobiles start to ring, and the apartment's remaining TV is turned on, because apparently a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center....

Critic Reviews:

"Hugely entertaining" (Daily Telegraph)

"A thrilling read, it's a dazzlingly clever, edgy, suspenseful book" (Scotland on Sunday)

Members Reviews:

Some of Iain Banks best writing

Expletive littered and raw, this book captures one of Iain's best anti heros. A man so very likeable but with so many flaws, it's hard to turn away from the exciting conclusion. You be left wondering if he deserves it or now. A cracking read.

Good book

I'm a big fan of Iain Banks and this was good but not up to his usual amazing standard. Well read by the narrator

Another great Banks

A great book definitely recommend to any Banks fan. Or a good book for anyone. Good mix and humour too.

Not Bank's best, but still great.

As usual with Iain Banks's books, you spend a lot of this story wondering what it's actually about. I suppose, in essence, it's a love story. But it's the things that happen along the way that make the book.

Banks doesn't fall into the trap of having to make every event in the book tie in to a plot. Some do, some don't, but it's interesting, funny and thought provoking.

There were parts if the book that were genuinely anxiety inducing for me. A testament to Bank's writing and Peter Kenny's narration, but not my favourite feeling!

As usual, Kenny's narration and characterisation is excellent.

couldn't listen to it because of the accent

couldn't make out what was being said because of the narrators strong accent, and had to give up just a few page in.