Listen to Best Full Audiobooks in Fiction, Historical Popular Authors

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Title: The Tsarina's Daughter

Author: Carolly Erickson

Narrator: Susan Jameson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-22-09

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 42 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

The Tsarina's Daughter centers around young Tania, who lives a life of incomparable luxury in pre-Revolutionary Russia, from the magnificence of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to the family's private enclave outside the capital.

Critic Reviews:

"Suspenseful and detailed, the novel captures a dramatic moment in history and will sear you with sorrow for this doomed daughter of the last tsar." (People)

"Erickson...never lets harsh fact impede a good story....Although the particulars of the Romanovs' fall are familiar from other treatments, including Erickson's biography of Alexandra, the suspense never flags....More entertainment than history, but all the better for it." (Kirkus Reviews)

Members Reviews:

A touch too childish for the adult reader. Slow.

A slow start. A dragging tale. Alot of fantasy. Really? Frued and a Russian Grand Duchess who goes and comes as she pleases. Not Erickson's best work.

A good listen

I thought this was a very good book. I have listened to/read and liked other books by the author. Since most of the books about the Romanov daughters seem to be about Anastasia, this has a different viewpoint. Although this is fiction, her descriptions of the era and family ring true. The reader was new to me, but did an excellent job.

Enjoyed It

The writing was excellent. It truly brought the world of Czarist Russia to life. The only issue I had with it was that, despite the fact that I knew it was a novel, I couldn't keep the actual fate of the family, including Tatiana, out of my mind. It somehow took the edge off my enjoyment.

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Título: La sombra del templario [The Shadow of the Templar (Texto Completo)]

Autor: Nuria Masot

Narrador: Francisco Rivela

Formato: Unabridged

Duración: 12 hrs and 7 mins

Idioma: Español

Fecha de publicación: 11-10-08

Editor: Recorded Books

Calificaciones: 4 de 5 de 18 votos

Categorías: Fiction, Historical

Resumen del editor:

Please note: This title is in Spanish.

Opiniones de los miembros:

Excelente!

Fabuloso relato. Se acerca muy bien al misterioso secreto escondido en las excavaciones del Templo. me gustó

Ya lo había leído

Y disfrute muchisimo escucharlo. Me ha acompañado en mis viajes y actividades, un relato magnífico.

made a mistake

the second part of the book is lost, and let me know if I can try again, thanks

Erica Pfendler

Don't miss it!

Wonderful and interesting. You can't stop listening. I hope I can find more books like this one.

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Title: Things Invisible to See

Author: Nancy Willard

Narrator: George Guidall

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-06-08

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 7 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

A young soldier during World War II attempts to save his own life and the lives of his boyhood friends by making an unusual wager with death: he pits his local sandlot team against some of the greatest baseball players of all time.

©1984 Nancy Willard; (P)1991 Recorded Books,LLC

Members Reviews:

Ben is good looking, athletic

The basic story is about non-identical twins Ben and Willie Harkissian. Willie has the brains but is lacking in moral fiber.Ben is good looking, athletic, and honorable. Ben has the misfortune of hitting a baseball out of the park in into Clare Bishop's head causing permanent physical damage. Willie warns his brother to keep silent, and Ben does, but he becomes a love interest in Clare's life. Clare has psychic powers which allows her to journey with "the Ancestress," and she ultimately shares this information with Ben. There are a mixture of adventures that challenge credulity, but the reader is asked to go along with the "magical realism" that is somewhat akin to that of Gabriel García Márquez and others.

What sets this book apart and makes it worth the time is the poetic writing of Nancy Willard. It mixes baseball, war, love, death, fate, and fantasy all into one bag and shakes them all together. I picked up the book to read because of two factors: the title and Nancy Willard. I almost put it down when it seemed that it was going to be a book about baseball; however, like other books or films about sports, baseball in particular (i.e. "Field of Dreams"), her book was more about love and relationship than it was about baseball. Somewhere along the way in Willard's story, Ben meets the personification of Death who has the fortune of having some of the great players of the sport on his baseball team. Death's team and Ben's team plays a game to the, well, death. It's worth reading to find out the score!

A Poem of a Book

One of my favorite poems of all times is "The Snow Arrives After Long Silence" by Nancy Willard. When I heard that she had written a novel that I had never heard of, I knew I had to read it. I downloaded it on my Kindle, and was totally blown away. A fairy tale, an accounting of the struggle between good and evil, an evocative novel of small town life past, a baseball story, a piece of North American magical realism--it's all of these.

I loved this book

After reading about it in the New York Times, I wanted to read it because it was set in Ann Arbor, MI. It reminded me of The Book Thief, but only in the main character is death. Worth a read.

My Favorite Book.

Hands down, this IS my favorite book. I read this back in 1986 and lost my book somewhere during my many travels. I am so glad I found this on Amazon and bought it. Excellent writing. And...this one is out of the park!

Full of poetic imagery

I grew up in Ann Arbor. I am a littleolder than Nancy and knew her sister Anne. This book touched me like no other. I am so gratefull.

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Title: My Jim

Author: Nancy Rawles

Narrator: Brenda Pressley

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 58 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-27-08

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 8 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

A retelling of the story of escaped slave Jim from Huckleberry Finn. This novel shifts the focus to Jim's wife Sadie.

©2006 Nancy Rawles; (P)2006 Recorded Books, LLC

Members Reviews:

It was well-written but difficult to read about the amount ...

It was well-written but difficult to read about the amount of suffering endured by the main characters. It described slavery in very graphic terms and made me very angry to think that people were mistreated for so long in America.

The tragedy of "My Jim" is to never read it

Can't help but channel Alice Walker and her wonderful novel of three decades ago, "The Color Purple" when reading "My Jim ". It is a painful but sweet story of one woman's loss, love , and tenacity during America's era of unrelenting slavery. I cried through the tragedies and left spellbound by the eloquence.

Powerful take on the reality of life on the Mississippi ...

Powerful take on the reality of life on the Mississippi with Huck. Jim'S story comes alive and Rawles gives him and his wife the humanity Mark Twain denied Jim in Huckleberry Finn.

Easy, interesting read...

'My Jim' was a interesting love story. I have never read 'Huckleberry Finn', but I will now. I would like to know Jim from Mark's point of view. Although the story was told in the ending days of slavery, the lives of Jim and Sadie are so similar to black men and women's lives today. Men are setting out to find whatever and leaving their families behind, often making new ones along their journey. Meanwhile, the woman waits behind trying to hold to the love and the keep the family together.

Not my favorite.

I didn't like this book very much. I do know many people who thought it was fantastic.

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Title: Walk Through Darkness

Author: David Anthony Durham

Narrator: Kevin Free

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-24-08

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 8 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

David Anthony Durham has won the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Fiction Award and a Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award. Walk Through Darkness is the story of a fugitive slave in search of his pregnant wife, and the lethal hunter who is tracking him. As these two quests intertwine, they form a fascinating mosaic of the Civil War era.

©2002 David Anthony Durham; (P)2006 Recorded Books LLC

Critic Reviews:

"Poetically graceful ... Combines history and morality with a dynamic intelligence." (The New York Times)

Members Reviews:

A chilling account of slavery in the ante-bellum south

WALK THROUGH DARKNESS is a chilling account of slavery in the ante-bellum south. William is a slave who is about to become a father. His woman, Dover, is taken away by her white mistress. But William cannot take life without her, or their child, and so he decides to follow her north. What follows is an incredible tale of courage and determination, mixed in with greed, cruelty and sordidness. Through it all, William never falters, and I loved the plot twist at the end of the novel.

If you are interested in what it felt like to be a slave, you should read this book. David Anthony Durham writes in a way that engages your senses, and makes you see the multiple viewpoints on both sides of the color divide. I highly recommend this novel. Five stars.

Wonderful story...or two stories...

As I stayed with the story I became more comfortable with the writer's style. I found some of his references and and large words somewhat jarring when he was attempting to describe what William was thinking. It was as if William could only think such grand thoughts, not actually speak them aloud. I have decided he needed to do just that to convey the complex struggle that pushed William forward. I figured out the ending much too early, but it was a satisfying ending nevertheless. I would have liked to have lived a little longer with Dover. Her character was not as deep as I would have liked. I saw love, strength and resolve but I was looking for more from her.

A Special Place on My Book Shelf

While historical texts and documents are the tools providing scholars access to the horrors of ante-bellum slavery, Walk Through Darkness transforms a painful glimpse into our American past into a veritable first-person, right-now life experience. Tumbling backwards in time, the overwhelming abuse, despair, and harsh injustice endured by the fugitive slave become the anguish of our own personal reality. Through the skill and empathy of author David Anthony Durham, the results of the skewed sense of morality that pervaded America for a tortuous two hundred years become plain as day. The untold, long-buried drama of nameless men, women, and children has finally found a collective poetic voice in this gripping novel certain to haunt the reader for weeks to come.

A soul in pursuit of freedom

The institution of slavery in America is a chapter rife with the shame of profit made on the backs others. But even more pervasive is the system that allows this condition, not only to exist but to thrive. The damage to the human spirit of enslaved individuals remains immeasurable, but the strength of character and heroic survival against incredible odds is written on the pages of history.

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Title: Honor's Reward

Subtitle: Rocky Mountain Legacy #5

Author: Kristen Heitzmann

Narrator: Suzanne Niles

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-05-08

Publisher: Books in Motion

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 25 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

When rumors of the evil, vengeful Crete Marlowe and his unsavory band of comrades reach Rocky Bluffs, Cole knows he must bring them to justice. Can Abbie ever forgive Cole for allowing honor to once again jeopardize their love and happiness?

Members Reviews:

Mixed

I enjoyed the story, but I don't care for the narrator. She overdoes the accents and she mispronounces a lot of words. The narrator detracts from the story-line. The story is good and inspiring, but the narrator ruined it for me.

Where is Kate Forbes?

Not to be too critical, but after listening to Kate Forbes in the narration of the Honor's series, I cannot listen to Suzanne Niles without thinking that I am missing the true character's voice in this book. What a wonderful narrator is Kate Forbes! I only realize this when it is not her voice bringing life to the characters. Excellent book, but somewhat lost in the translation.

wonderful christian book

I have enjoyed all the books that I have listened to in this series of books. i had to keep listening to find out what happened. a clean book with lots of sadness...yet joy at the end.

Great story

I enjoyed this conclusion to Abbie Martin Ferrel Jasper's saga. It was wonderful and interesting to read!

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Title: Snow Angels

Author: Stewart O'Nan

Narrator: Malcolm Hillgartner

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-18-08

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 31 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Arthur Parkinson is 14 during the dreary winter of 1974, experiencing the confusing pangs of adolescence and the pain of his parents' divorce. His world is shattered further by the sudden and violent death of Annie Marchand, his beloved former babysitter. Narrated by the adult Arthur, who continues to be haunted by memories, the story of a young man's unraveling family and the circumstances leading up to Annie's death form the backdrop for an intimate tale of the price of love and belonging, told in a spare, translucent, and unexpectedly tender voice.

©1994 Stewart ONan (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic Reviews:

"O'Nan is a skilled writer....The novel's elegiac tone is perfectly controlled, and angst and the lingo of male adolescence are rendered with wry fidelity." (

Publishers Weekly)"O'Nan weaves together....seemingly disparate small-town tragedies...with consummate skill, seamlessly shifting the focus among characters he wishes to make the reader care about." (

Library Journal)

Members Reviews:

excellent read

I have had this book on my shelves for awhile, recommended to me by a fellow poster. This is my first O'Nan book and I really enjoyed it. It is told mostly through Arthur,a 14 year old boy who is trying to get by despite his parents' divorce and the changes that ensue. The parallel story line is the events leading up to the death of Annie, Arthur's former babysitter. Annie is separated from her recently suicidal husband and trying to raise her young daughter. There is a lot to like and a lot to criticize about Annie. The story is heart-breaking but unsentimental, a straight-forward plot.

My favorite passage from the novel: "I heard the door open and my mother outside, her voice tiny and stretched, screaming at him as he made for the Nova. I sat on the edge of my bed, calmly parting my hair. Like everything else that happened this winter, I was not going to let this stop me from being happy."

O'Nan is an excellent writer and I can't wait to read some of his others, especially Last Night at the Lobster and Songs for the Missing. Snow Angels is also a movie with Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell. It's in my Netflix queue and I hope it is true to the book.

Terrific Writer, Terrific Book

Just a brilliant read. O'Nan's first. The characters, the setting, the writing, all superbly done. A page turned with thriller elements, but much more than that. O'Nan is one of our best writers and really worth a read. After you finish this, check out his LAST NIGHT AT THE LOBSTER.

Nobody does such real characters as O'Nan

I was watching EBERT AND ROEPER one night and was delighted to learn that one of Stewart O'Nan's books, SNOW ANGELS, had been made into a movie. Since LAST NIGHT AT THE LOBSTER has been one of my favorite books this year, I decided to give O'Nan's first novel a go. I was surprised to learn he wrote it so long ago, 1994.

O'Nan has a gift for characterization far beyond anything you will find on the best-seller list. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought LAST NIGHT AT THE LOBSTER was non-fiction. That's also the case here.

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Title: His Illegal Self

Author: Peter Carey

Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-15-08

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 46 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

One afternoon, the prediction appears to come true. Soon Che, too, is an outlaw, fleeing into the subway and pitched into a journey that leads to a hippie commune in the jungles of tropical Australia. Here, Che slowly, bravely confronts his life, learning that nothing is what it seems.

Critic Reviews:

"Peter Carey's enthralling new novel is psychologically taut [and] starkly beautiful." (New York Times Book Review)

"A beautiful and emotionally compelling novel....at its core [this] is an ancient and magnificently eerie fairy tale, about a child wise beyond his years, stolen away to the forest, undergoing every kind of mortal trial, and surviving, in a surprising state of luminous grace." (O Magazine)

"Psychologically astute and diabolically suspenseful." (Booklist)

Members Reviews:

Stunning

Just finished this audiobook and was dismayed to read the poor reviews especially those directed at the narrator. I thought the narrator was right on target with both characters (child, grandmother, hippies etc.) and accents (ok maybe brooklyn/new jersey were not perfect). In fact, he made the book come alive for me, don't think I would have enjoyed it as much as a book read vs. this audio version. As far as the plot, I think it was brilliantly done. The movement back and forth between past and present, and among thoughts of the characters, kept my attention, stimulated my interest, and pleased me with its cleverness. It definitely contributed nicely to the forward movement of the story. Slowly, steadily it all comes together. Another great from one of my favorite authors!

Deeply Confusing Book

Firstly: 3 stars for the book, 0 stars for the narrator -- his new 'yawk', boston, and australian accents all sounded the same -- like some horrible hybrid of the three. Every time he switched into an accent I prepared to cringe.

So the book may have been better read than listened to, but I don't know...it was basically a thoroughly confusing story that went nowhere, something which normally sounds pretty good to me, except that there's always a suggestion that something is GOING to happen...

I'm a big fan of Peter Carey, and would recommend this book lastly among the ones he's written.

good reviews bad book

while this might be an entertaining short story it was a predictable and contrived novel - not worth a credit to download or the time it took to listen to the tortured prose.

Listener beware...

I have long been an avid fan of Peter Carey, and happily devour each new title he conjures up from the wondrous depths of his imagination. This one I would sooner have left on the shelf. The narrator is monotonous and his accents are bewildering at best. The plot is so contrived, the prose so forced and un-Carey-like that I actually had to check the cover to ensure that he was indeed the author. Sadly for him, he was.

wild tale

Great and interesting story.

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Title: The Commoner

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: John Burnham Schwartz

Narrator: Janet Song

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs

Language: English

Release date: 01-22-08

Publisher: Books on Tape

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 65 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Met with cruelty and suspicion by the empress and her minions, Haruko is controlled at every turn. The only interest the court has in her is in her ability to produce an heir. After finally giving birth to a son, she suffers a nervous breakdown and loses her voice. Determined not to be crushed by the imperial bureaucrats, Haruko perseveres - 30 years later, now Empress herself, she plays a crucial role in persuading another young woman, "a rising star in the foreign ministry", to accept the marriage proposal of her son, the crown prince. The consequences are tragic and dramatic.

Told from Haruko's perspective, meticulously researched, and superbly imagined, The Commoner is the mesmerizing, moving, and surprising story of a brutally rarefied and controlled existence, at once hidden and exposed, and of a complex relationship between two isolated women who, despite being visible to all, are truly understood only by each other.

Critic Reviews:

"Schwartz pulls off a grand feat in giving readers a moving dramatization of a cloistered world." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

works on several levels

I usually wonder about the voice in novels whose protagonists' gender differs from the authors', let alone time period, age, and culture - but this novel seemed to ring true. -wonderful detail and perspective on post war Japan and a woman trapped in a culturally prescribed role. The narration was fantastic, too, and SO suitable to the character. It took a while to get into the novel but I found "The Commoner" a very satisfying and thought provoking listen, even if the ending was a bit fanciful - it fit.

Gender and Culture

A fairly interesting piece of bio-fiction, based on the life of Haruko, the young commoner who married the Japanese crown prince in 1957 (now the empress). Her daughter-in-law's similar situation--i.e., her difficulty in adjusting to the royal life--has recently been in the news again, and the book ends with an empathetic moment between the two women. (Since the current emperor has no son, there is a movement on to allow a female to rule.) Should be of interest to those who enjoy reading about upper class life in modern Asia.

Very slow beginning

I just could not do it. The other person's review said it was slow to get into and it was. I just couldn't finish it. I loved the narrator's voice and usually love this type of book but I could not get through the beginning.

It is really not fair for me to rate the book. My rating is based on the beginning, not the whole book.

My favorite of 112 audiobooks I've listened to.

If you could sum up The Commoner in three words, what would they be?

Very moving story

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Commoner?

The wedding ceremony

What about Janet Songs performance did you like?

She seemed to be at one with the characters

If you could take any character from The Commoner out to dinner, who would it be and why?

The main character. She had so much going for her and she gave her all to her husband and her country.

Any additional comments?

A very worthwhile read.

Such a sad life

Would you listen to The Commoner again? Why?

No, just a little depressing for me. I'm glad I listened to the book as I learned so much. The book is well written and the characters were well developed the story is interesting but depressed me a bit.

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Title: The Last Legion

Author: Valerio Massimo Manfredi

Narrator: Martin Shaw

Format: Abridged

Length: 4 hrs and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-20-07

Publisher: Pan Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 20 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

The film stars Colin Firth, Sir Ben Kingsley, John Hannah, Kevin McKidd (of BBC2's Rome), and Aishwarya Rai. Shot on location in Tunisia, Slovakia, and Capri, this is a Dino De Laurentiis production, directed by Doug Lefler (Dragonheart: A New Beginning).

Members Reviews:

Nothing really to do with a Roman legion

What disappointed you about The Last Legion?

I thought that it was going to be about a Roman Legion at the end of empire. It was about a guy who'd apparently been in a legion.

What was most disappointing about Valerio Massimo Manfredis story?

The characters are a bit thin, it's not in the least bit evocative of extraordinary times.

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

Martin Shaw can make an 'Items for sale' listing sound interesting.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment

Any additional comments?

The book was a really good idea - there is space for another version.