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Title: Confusion

Author: Elizabeth Jane Howard

Narrator: Eleanor Bron

Format: Abridged

Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-19-07

Publisher: Pan Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

As the war enters its fourth year, chaos has become a way of life. Both in the still, peaceful Sussex countryside, and in air-raid-threatened London, the divided Cazalets begin to find the battle for survival echoing the confusion in their own lives.

Critic Reviews:

"Howard creates a nearly palpaple world, peopled with the sort of well-conceived characters that linger long in the reader's mind." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Lovely book and great reader.

The four Cazalet novels by Elizabeth Jane Howard are lovely. Eleanor Bron is a good reader too, very important when listening to a story. Unfortunately the last book Casting Off has a bad reader.

The stories are interesting with many good characters, growing up and getting old so it is worth reading them in order.

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Title: Measuring the World

Author: Daniel Kehlmann

Narrator: David Timson

Format: Abridged

Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-23-07

Publisher: Quercus Publishing Ltd

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

At the end of the 18th century, two brilliant and eccentric young scientists set out to measure the world.

Measuring the World recreates the parallel but contrasting lives of two geniuses of the German Enlightenment - the naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt and the mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss. Towards the end of the 18th century, these two brilliant young Germans set out to measure the world.

Humboldt, a Prussian aristocrat schooled for greatness, negotiates savannah and jungle, climbs the highest mountain then known to man, counts head lice on the heads of the natives, and explores every hole in the ground.

Gauss, a man born in poverty who will be recognised as the greatest mathematician since Newton, does not even need to leave his home in Göttingen to know that space is curved. He can run prime numbers in his head, cannot imagine a life without women and yet jumps out of bed on his wedding night to jot down a mathematical formula.

Measuring the World is a novel of rare charm and accessibility, distinguished by its sly humour and unforgettable characterization. It brings the two eccentric geniuses to life, their longings and their weaknesses, their balancing act between loneliness and love, absurdity and greatness, failure and success.

Critic Reviews:

"Kehlmann is one of the brightest, most pleasure-giving writers at work today, and he manages all this while exploring matters of deep philosophical and intellectual import. He deserves to have more readers." (Jeffrey Eugenides)

"A dazzling success.... Fantastically imagined." (Daily Telegraph)

"Pulsing with fictional energy.... Here for once is a popular hit as sophisticated as it is engaging." (Sunday Times)

Members Reviews:

Didn't draw me in...

Just didn't read well as dialogue or plot. I had expected more from summary and reviews. Perhaps it is the translation, but I never felt like I was "in the time" or cared about the characters.

Measuring the World

Kehlmann constructs a fictional narrative comparing and contrasting the explorations of Alexander von Humboldt with the mathematical insights of Carl Friedrich Gauss. Humboldt was an eager explorer, vigorous, indefatigable and seemingly impervious to fatigue, illness, or accident. Gauss disliked travel, he was sickly, tentative, and cautious in his social dealings. Yet each made important contributions to human knowledge.

Kehlmann attempts to enliven his narrative by creating extended observations and conversations carried on by his two protagonists--these may or may not be representative of real life occurrences. The overall perspective is probably representative of the lives of these two scientists, but one may wonder how much literary license has been taken by the author in imagining their personal feelings and conversations.

Wonderful!

A delightfully funny book. I wish I could read it in the German. There is a dry sense of humor that runs through the prose. This is the German ode to Gabriel Garcia Marquez' 100 Years of Solitude. It has the same madness but coupled with a maddening but lovable German love of precision and accuracy and a fanatic scientific curiosity about the world.

Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Friedrich Gauss

. . . are both great mathematicians of the late 18th and early 19th Centuries in Germany.

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Title: Adam Runaway

Author: Peter Prince

Narrator: David Thorpe

Format: Unabridged

Length: 18 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-21-06

Publisher: Oakhill Publishing Ltd

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

As Adam attempts to overcome these obstacles he is handicapped by a certain personal trait. Not, he insists, that he is a coward exactly, but he is inclined to boldly put himself in dangerous situations and then at the last minute run away from them; hence the nickname given to him by friends who had observed this failing once too often.

While Adam's mother and sisters wait in England for him to rescue them from poverty, Adam is preoccupied with more compelling women: the beautiful, older half-Portuguese lady Maria Beatriz Hutchinson; the spoiled, rich Gabriella Lowther; and his charming young cousin Nancy. But Adam commits a social faux pas so severe he forever ruins his chances for making a good match, yet no one dares tell him what he has done wrong!

Adam certainly has a lot to learn. The Inquisition is in control of Portugal, and those who befriend Adam may not be who they seem to be. He catches glimpses of things he does not understand, he is innocent enough to be horrified by things others take for granted, and he is swept up in a struggle that will require him to come into his manhood: the struggle between wickedness and humanity. It seems Adam will never find his way to success, to love, or to peace with the life fate has given him.

Critic Reviews:

"In the tradition of Fielding and Dickens, a pleasant story about a young man trying to make a place for himself in the world." (Library Journal)

Members Reviews:

A Tedious Bore

The author brilliantly takes one of the most fascinating cities ever in its most exciting time, and manages to come up with a real page snoozer. Nothing really happens, and what does happen, happens off-stage. (The Great Lisbon Earthquake mentioned by another reviewer takes up one sentance at the end as a flashback!)If you want to spend hours with a character with NO character, no backbone, little street sense and not a whit of maturity, then this is for you. I finished it because it was the only book I had brought to the beach, but in the end I realized that the sound of waves crashing was a lot more interesting.

A young man seeks his fortune

Set in early 18th century Lisbon, Adam Hanaway is a man on a mission. Fleeing London after the financial ruin and death of his father, Adam has traveled to Portugal in hopes of restoring the family fortune. Known by his contemporaries as "Adam Runaway", for his penchant for flight in crisis, Adam hopes to establish himself through the good offices of his uncle, Felix Hanaway. Uncle Felix was also hurt by the market crash, but has retained enough of his fortune to survive with dignity and some comfort. Felix leaves the decisions to his clerk, Bartolomeu Gomes, a Portuguese who is jealous of his position and has no intention of letting young Adam usurp his place in the pecking order. Unfortunately, Felix allows Gomes to determine Adam's manner of employment, so Adam is kept from any prospective success, working side by side with the laborers until such time as he is allowed to take over some of the bookkeeping duties.

Adam has found adequate, if rough, lodgings at the Baixa district in Lisbon and it is there that he meets an elderly Englishman, Allen Hutchinson and his daughter, the widowed Dona Maria Beatriz Fonseco. Dona Maria is kind to the much younger man and becomes a great friend and confidant, as does her father.

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Title: The Kingdom of the Rose

Author: Margaret Bacon

Narrator: Jacqueline King

Format: Unabridged

Length: 17 hrs

Language: English

Release date: 02-01-06

Publisher: Oakhill Publishing Ltd

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

With the death of her first love in the Great War, independent-minded Eglantine Thorpe decides to devote herself to school teaching. Rejecting a proposal of marriage, she weathers the storms ahead alone, until young Nell enters her life. Bright, fearless, and outspoken, Nell becomes the daughter Eglantine never had.

©1982 Margeret Bacon; (P)2005 Oakhill Publishing Ltd.

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Title: Those Who Save Us

Author: Jenna Blum

Narrator: Suzanne Toren

Format: Unabridged

Length: 16 hrs

Language: English

Release date: 02-01-06

Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 7 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

For 50 years Anna Schlemmer has refused to talk about her life in Germany during World War II. Her daughter, Trudy, was only three when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy's sole evidence of the past is an old photograph: a family portrait showing Anna, Trudy, and a Nazi officer, the Obersturnfuhrer of Buchenwald. Driven by the guilt of her heritage, Trudy, now a professor of German history, begins investigating the past and finally unearths the dramatic and heartbreaking truth of her mother's life.

©2004 Jenna Blum; (P)2005 W.F. Howes Ltd.

Critic Reviews:

"This is a poised, hair-raising debut." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Tried but could'nt do it

As I am from a generation that didnt have to live through this era I have always had an interest in both sides of the story. Try as I might I couldnt get into this book. I kept coming back to it hoping I was in a better frame of mind to listen but eventually I gave up.

I think the narrator was wrong- she sounded like a litlle girl and which was off-putting as well as very irritating. It got to the point where i didnt care what happened anymore !! which is quite disturbing as it sounded like a story that needed to be told.

I will just have to rely on reviews and hopefully be able to work out what happened.

10+ for both story and narrator

A fantastic moving story.

The narrator is first class.

Worth a download.

Enjoyable

Really enjoyed this book. It really gets you thinking...a good storyline following the lives of a mother and her daughter..as well as the horrific stories of the 2nd world war and the effect it had on everyone involved.

Those Who Save Us

An excellent, gripping, thought provocking 'story book'. My only problem with it was some of the historical facts - the American & Russians liberating Germany and not a British Regiment in sight - but I won't hold that against the author, as the rest of the book was superb.

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Title: The Ghost Road

Subtitle: The Regeneration Trilogy, Book 3

Author: Pat Barker

Narrator: Paul McGann

Format: Abridged

Length: 2 hrs and 50 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-16-05

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Challenging and harrowing, brilliantly incisive yet always compassionate, Pat Barker's Booker Prize-winning novel is magnificent listening.

Members Reviews:

Eye-opening perspective on WWI

Fascinating read. Not at all what I expected, and definitely earned the privilege of a reread later on!

a good end to the trilogy

Although the first two books in this trilogy are perhaps more satisfying, this one provides a powerful, although predictable, coda. Billy Prior is a fascinatingly complex character.

Interesting and Different!

I read book one for my book club and was hooked. Soon after I read the other two books in the trilogy.

Great insight into the effects of war

Pat barker amazingly presents us with a glimpse of what it was like to have experienced World War One. As neither a soldier nor a man, she gives a detailed view of what it was like. It is relevant still.

Excellent read and history telling

No fancy words here ... just moved and moved again by Pat Barker's words.

Excellent read and history telling.

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Title: The Eye in the Door

Subtitle: The Regeneration Trilogy, Book 2

Author: Pat Barker

Narrator: Paul McGann

Format: Abridged

Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-16-05

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

The Eye in the Door is the richly deserving winner of the 1993 Guardian Fiction Prize, the second volume in Pat Barker's brilliant Regeneration Trilogy. Written with immense power, it is the story not just of one young man suffering from the trauma of war, but of a generation condemned to the unending slaughter of the trenches, and all the charged agony of class and gender that had its own bitter harvest. But for all the pain she portrays, Barker's novel, with its wry humour and exquisite observation, explodes with life.

©1993 Pat Barker; (P)1996 HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Members Reviews:

an interesting crossroads of social class, sexuality and morality

In Pat Barker's sequel toRegeneration, Billy Prior is the primary focus of the story rather than Sigfried Sassoon. This change of focus allows her to manipulate, examine and critique a wider number of issues: social class (Prior is of working-class origins, but can "pass" for a gentleman), of sexuality (he is enthusiastically bi-sexual), and of course the morality of war, as Prior is treated by Army psychiastrist Dr. Rivers who continues to wrestle with the ethical delimna of "curing" the shell-shocked only to return them to the hellish situation that created their nuroses in the first place.

In _Eye in the Door_ we get a stronger sense of who Dr. Rivers is (the character is loosely based on a real-life psychiatrist), but the primary focus of the story is Prior - a charming character with a wickedly sharp mind and a cynical outlook, the setting more in London than Craiglockhart hospital. As much as I liked Prior, I much preferred the back-and-forth between Sasson and Rivers that is such a crucial part of _Regeneration_. However, its not the characters that make this such a tremendous book (and such a powerful series), its Barker's social commentary: the waste of life in a pointless conflict; the place and role of women as objects - for sex and for labor asmunitions workers; of the differing attitudes towards (and between) social class. This is the real heart of the story. The glaring light under which Barker shows the inconsistencies and prejustices of the last century and her sharp critique of early 20th century British society earns the book five-stars.

Book Two of the Regeneration trilogy.

This is book two of the trilogy "Regeneration". The series explores the doctors and soldiers being treated for shell shock during World War I, especially the "conchies", conscientious objectors, and homosexuals. The doctors' job is to get them back in action.

Regeneration, Part II

The trilogy is the best depiction of the impact of trench warfare on the British office/poofter class I've read. The series strength lies in the use of detailed, insightful psychological analysis conducted by the real life Dr. W. H. R. Rivers and the inter-relation between the various patents and Rivers' own mental states. Particularly moving and prominent in this book, is Rivers' fight against barbaric methods of treatment popular at the time.

If you only read one war book -- make it 3 -- this trilogy!

This is #2 of the Pat Barker trilogy about World War I, and this second book is as important as anything you're going to read about war in this challenging season (fall '01).

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Title: Battle Flag

Subtitle: Starbuck Chronicles, Book 3

Author: Bernard Cornwell

Narrator: David Rintoul

Format: Abridged

Length: 3 hrs and 8 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-01-05

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Starbuck's courage is tested to the limit in his desperate manoeuvres to retrieve his own and the Legion's honour in this the third narrative of Bernard Cornwell's sweeping epic of the America Civil War.

Members Reviews:

The Best Historical Fiction That I Have Ever Read.

I thought I was a student of the Civil War, but I got such a different perspective of the Civil War. I never understood the motivation for non slaveholders to fight for the Confederates cause. I also did not fully appreciate how the South was able to be so successful in the early years of the War when they effectively had no established military system of supply or support for their soldiers. He does not gloss over, or apologize for the slavery, he portrays it for what it was, brutal and beyond civilized.

This may be a novel but I think that Cornwell used the facts to give a fairly accurate portrayal of the South's actions in the War Between the States. So much of the book intertwines both the North's and South's motivations and actions.

Ok, I do have one major complaint about the Starbuck Chronicles; Cornwell stopped after only four books. I could not, or my wife, put them down.

This may be a novel but I think that Cornwell used the facts to give a fairly accurate portrayal of the South's actions in the War Between the States. So much of the book intertwines both the North's and South's motivations and actions.

Ok, I do have one major complaint about the Starbuck Chronicles; Cornwell stopped after only four books. I could not, or my wife, put them down.

Then I bought all the Arthurian books and loved them as well

I started reading Cornwell's Viking series and read every one of those books. Then I bought all the Arthurian books and loved them as well. Right now I'm on this civil war series and they're just as good. If you like historical fiction, there's no one that does it better. Full of good writing and excellent battles. I plan to buy all the Sharpe books when I'm done with what I'm currently reading. If you're looking for comparisons...I'd say similar to Conn Iggulden

Excellent historical fiction

Another well written historical war fiction set in the US Civil War (or War of Yankee Aggression). The descriptions are riveting and the characters well rounded. I actually stopped reading this book for a while when I was upset by the poor decisions of a main character that I liked. I did not want to read about the probable bad results of their decision, because I cared for that fictional individual! Naturally, the plot helped them evade the logical bad results and all was well (Whew!). Bottom line is that I found the story engaging and enjoyable. The only quibble is that at times the directions seem to be incorrect so that someone that I thought should be in one place was actually in another, which is a little disorienting.

Cracking read

Some reviews of this book have criticised the historical content - I am not qualified to comment, but I do say that - for me at least - Bernard Cornwell has made history come to life.

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Title: Stonehenge

Author: Bernard Cornwell

Narrator: Tim Pigott-Smith

Format: Abridged

Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-24-05

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

One summer's day, a stranger carrying great wealth in gold comes to the settlement of Ratharryn. He is killed in the old temple. The people assume that the gold is a gift from the gods. But the mysterious treasure causes great dissension within the tribe and beyond.

The three sons of Ratharryn's chief each perceive the great gift in a different way. The eldest, Lengar, the warrior, harnesses his murderous ambition to be a ruler and take great power for his tribe. Camaban, the second son and an outcast, becomes a great visionary and feared wise man, and it is his vision that will force the youngest brother, Saban, to create the great temple on the green hill where the gods will appear on earth.

It is Saban who is the builder, the leader, and the man of peace. It is his love for a sorceress whose powers rival those of Camaban and for Aurenna, the sun bride whose destiny is to die for the gods, that finally brings the rivalries of the brothers to a head. But it is also his skills that will build the vast temple, a place for the gods certainly, but also a place that will confirm for ever the supreme power of the tribe that built it. And in the end, when the temple is complete, Saban must choose between the gods and his family.

Stonehenge is Britain's greatest historic monument, a building, created four millenia ago, which still provokes awe and mystery. Stonehenge is first and foremost a great historical novel. Bernard Cornwell is well known for the realism and imagination with which he brings an earlier world to life. Here he uses all his skills to create an extraordinary cast of characters and the world of primitive Britain, and to solve the mysteries of who built Stonehenge, how, and why.

Members Reviews:

Slow at first, but grew on me

With me, Cornwell tends to hit home runs or strikes out. Stonehenge was an "in between" listening experience (the audio book) for me. It developed slowly, but eventually captivated me to the extent I wanted to find out what happens to the main characters. But what happens is pretty predictable. Cornwell's best work doesn't necessarily have everything work out well, or at least the predictable way, for the protagonist. In Stonehenge there is much suffering and betrayal, but it was not surprising within the universe of the narrative. It was satisfying.

Another problem for me was the author's wavering back and forth between "modern" concerns and language choice and attempted replication of how we might imagine pre-literate people would be and how they would talk. It's a tough task. I don't think Cornwell achieved an optimal balance.

But an epic tale of the construction of Stonehenge as the story of three brothers, their wives, and tribes is an enjoyable way to learn more about what little is known about the megalithic culture of Britain. It is rich in detail and presents Cornwell's theory about the construction of Stonehenge. His "afterword" is very interesting in its explanation of what is known and how much is still unknown about Stonehenge.

Monsters of the Midway 1969: Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll, Viet Nam, Civil Rights, and Football

I like all Brrnard Cornwell's books and have about 10 of ...

I like all Brrnard Cornwell's books and have about 10 of them already. I bought this one because he was the author- I would rate this in the middle- it did go rather slow compared to other books- i.e.

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Title: Rebel

Subtitle: Starbuck Chronicles, Book 1

Author: Bernard Cornwell

Narrator: David Rintoul

Format: Abridged

Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-24-05

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Nathaniel Starbuck is a rebel, a young Yankee fighting for the South against the North in the American Civil War. It is the summer of 1861 when Nate arrives in Richmond, Virginia, suddenly to be rescued from a lynch mob by Washington Faulconer, who is raising his own Legion in the interests of the Confederacy. Personal and political loyalties are tested to the limit, and Nate quickly learns to fight in his own interests and those of his adopted country and friends while the United States of America tears itself violently, unforgivingly apart in the first bloody battles of the Civil War.

Don't miss the rest of

's literary masterpieces.

©1993 Bernard Cornwell; (P)1995 HarperCollins UK

Members Reviews:

I am learning and enjoying myself at the same time.

I really enjoyed this book. I have been reading most of Cornwell's books over the last year. I am drawn to historical fiction. In recent years I have been stuck in the days of Rome and recently in the pain of 900A.D. Britain.

This is a grand departure. This book is written in a way that helps me become a part of the narrative. I feel as if I am standing by watching this story unfold. I have read a lot of historical novels, journals and fictional accounts of this horrible time in the USA's history.

This book while wholly involved in the times also takes the time to immerse me into the life of the actors. I am a part of this drama and I like it. I am beginning book two in the series now.

It is one thing to know the outcome of events and it is wholly another to live them. I am reminded of the joke going around when the Titanic movie came out a few years ago....... 'Did you here the boat sinks at the end' Not earth shattering news and it did not affect my enjoyment of the movie. I know what is coming in these books but I do not know the actors.

I enjoy kindle books......it makes it so easy to look something up on Wikipedia or other sites and simply navigate back to the book.

Then I bought all the aurthurian books and loved them as well

I started reading Cornwell's Viking series and read every one of those books. Then I bought all the aurthurian books and loved them as well. This series is just as good. If you like historical fiction, there's no one that does it better. Full of good writing and excellent battles. I plan to buy all the Sharpe books when I'm done with these. If you're looking for comparisons...I'd say similar to Conn Iggulden

Another great series from the master of historical fiction

Another great historical fiction by Cornwell. The author is best known as the creator of Richard Sharpe and has written many books starring the rogue. He has also written the excellent Saxon Tales series (tied with the Archer's Quest as my favorite Cornwell books).

This man is arguably the best writer of historical fiction period. The only reason I give this book four stars and not five is because I don't find the time period as interesting as that of the Saxon Tales. You cannot go wrong with anything written by Cornwell. Be careful though as you may actually learn something about history along the way.

A good story - well told

Excellent narrative of the 1st battle of Manassas (Bull run). His description of 19th century Richmond Va. was so vivid I could almost taste it and a horse ride into West Virginia was beautifully described.