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Title: Copperhead

Subtitle: Starbuck Chronicles, Book 2

Author: Bernard Cornwell

Narrator: David Rintoul

Format: Abridged

Length: 3 hrs and 12 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-24-05

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

He is given no choice but to travel from a prison cell in Richmond, Virginia, to the secret centre of the high Northern command in a desperate attempt to thwart Yankee strategy which threatens to overwhelm the South.

Starbuck plays a difficult and complex game of bluff and betrayal in a winner-takes-all effort to save his own life and return to the Legion, but at a high cost to his personal and professional loyalties as a friend and a man of war.

Members Reviews:

Copperhead

Wanders about a bit. The reader's voice is boring and therefore my mind kept wandering away from the book.

What can I say?

This is yet another great book from Bernard Cornwell a prolific writer. Looking forward to the next book>

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Title: Falling Angels

Author: Tracy Chevalier

Narrator: Kati Nicholl, Isla Blair

Format: Abridged

Length: 3 hrs and 40 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-24-05

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

As the girls grow up, and the new century finds its feet, as cars replace horses and electricity outshines gas lighting, the nation emerges from the shadows of oppressive Victorian values to a golden Edwardian summer. It is then that the beautiful, frustrated Mrs Coleman makes a greater bid for personal freedom, with disastrous consequences, and the lives of the Colemans and Waterhouses are changed forever.

Members Reviews:

PERCEPTIONS AND DECEPTIONS...

This book covers the period in the lives of two families that stretches from January 1901, the end of the Victorian era, to May 1910, the end of the Edwardian one. The lives of these two families, the Colemans and the Waterhouses, converge and become inextricably woven together when they inadvertently meet at a cemetery while paying their respects to deceased loved ones. Unbeknownst to them, their lives are moving inexorably towards a tragic denouement, one that is to have ramifications for both families.

Two of the daughters of these respective families, Lavinia Waterhouse and Maude Coleman, find that they have formed the beginning of a friendship during the brief interlude at the cemetery. The two girls also befriend Simon Field, the son of one of the gravediggers at the cemetery. The friendship of the two girls is cemented when they later discover that they are to be neighbors, as through happenstance the Waterhouse family moves onto a property adjacent to that of the Colemans. Despite differences in social class and personal taste, as the Waterhouses are definitely sentimentally bourgeois and the Colemans have pretensions to more refinement, the families are brought together, however unwillingly, through the friendship between Lavinia and Maude.

The mothers of these two girls are unable to form a true friendship, as stolid Gertrude Waterhouse and pretty Kitty Coleman are unable to find much common ground. Gertrude is bound in tradition, while Kitty, dissatisfied with her marriage and her life, is looking to escape tradition and expand the role allotted in society to women. Never the twain shall meet, as these women will never see eye-to-eye, despite the friendship between Lavinia and Maude.

This is a well-plotted novel with each character adding his or her perspective to the events that unfold, many of which are of a secretive nature. Even the husbands, Albert Waterhouse and Richard Coleman, have something to say that contributes to the development of the story, as does Richard Coleman's mother, Edith, as do the Coleman's maid, Jenny Whitby, and their cook, Dorothy Baker. Lavinia's younger sister, Ivy May, who plays a small but pivotal role, also has her say, as does Kitty's admirer, John Jackson. There are also a number of twists and turns in the tale.

The story is told in the clean, spare prose that fans of the author have come to expect. It is told through first person narratives, and it is almost as if the narratives were taken from the personal diary or journal of each character. Therein lies the rub, as the author is unable to make the voice of each character truly distinguishable from that of the others. The book suffers somewhat from the failure of the author to develop a truly unique voice for each one. This is, however, the only failing of this otherwise absorbing and intriguing story that is suffused with period detail.

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Title: The Lady and the Unicorn

Author: Tracy Chevalier

Narrator: Kati Nicholl, Isla Blair

Format: Abridged

Length: 3 hrs and 32 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-24-05

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Tapestries give an appearance of order and continuity, as if designed and made by one person, belying the complicated process required to create them. Weavers, patrons, designers, artists, merchants, and apprentices were involved in their making, and behind them were the wives, daughters, and servants who exercised influences over their men. Like the many strands of wool and silk woven together into one cloth, so these people came together in a complex dance to create the whole picture.

Jean le Viste, a newly wealthy member of the French court, commissions the tapestries to hang in his chateau. Nicolas, his chosen designer, meets le Viste's wife Genevieve and his daughter Claude, both of whom take a keen interest in the tapestries. From Paris, Nicolas moves to a weaver's workshop in Brussels.

The creation of the tapestries brings together people who would not otherwise meet, their lives become entangled, and so do their desires. As they fall in love, are shunned, take revenge, find unrequited love, turn to the church or to pagan ideals, the tapestries become to each an ideal vision of life, yet all discover that they are unable to make this ideal world their own.

Critic Reviews:

"Tracy Chevalier gives the kiss of life to the historical novel." (Independent)

Members Reviews:

Hated the characters, bored by the plot

I really enjoyed Tracy Chevalier's novel Girl with a Pearl Earring. Read it multiple times. So I purchased this hoping I would like it as well. While I did still really like the high quality writing style and technique of the author, I was very disappointed by the plot and characters in this book. They were not at all what I wanted to be reading about. (No spoilers!) Some of the characters I outright hated and the remainder I merely disliked. It may just be a personal preference, but I do want there to be at least one sympathetic character in a novel. The storyline I found very boring. Nothing really happened that was particularly intriguing or exciting. Maybe I didn't care what happened to these characters, or maybe I just didn't care about these events? I don't know, but either way, I didn't care.

Very much recommended audiobook!

The audiobook greatly recommended! Each chapter read by two different readers; a dramatized story is an interpretation from perspective of different heroes of the novel, based on historical sources how the famous Lady and the Unicorn tapestry was made.. Tracy Chevalier, well known author of the "The Girl with the Pearl Earring", here she made sometimes humorous sometimes dramatic story that is quite fun to listen to, on long commutes to work!

Five Stars

excellent book - highly recommend

Great Read

Loved the historical fiction. I liked when the story focused on life in the 1490's, the tapestries, and how they were produced. That being said it was hard to keep track sometimes as to who was speaking in each chapter. There were times I had to stop and look back to the beginning chapter to see who was talking. That being said I stuck with the story and am glad I read it.

I liked him and understood his choices

The Lady and the Unicorn resonated for me. It was especially interesting because the main character struck me as a jerk at the outset, but by the end of the book, I liked him and understood his choices.

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Title: Treason's Harbour

Subtitle: Aubrey-Maturin, Book 9

Author: Patrick O'Brian

Narrator: Robert Hardy

Format: Abridged

Length: 2 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-20-05

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Much of the novel's plot concerns intelligence and counter-intelligence, the field in which Aubrey's friend Stephen Maturin excels, and there is action and excitement aplenty, but it is the atmosphere of Malta that is so freshly and vividly conveyed here, crowded with senior officers waiting for news of the French and wondering whether the war will end before they get their turn for prize money and fame.

Critic Reviews:

"Aubrey and Maturin are men to believe in as they come to terms with their comfortable flaws against an exceedingly accurate Maltese backdrop in this, the ninth Aubrey novel. "(The Times)

Members Reviews:

the English are losing the intelligence war

Perhaps more than in any other of the previous 7(!) books in the Aubrey-Maturin series, Treason's Harbour occupies the real and messy world of international intrigue, espionage, and politics. Whereas a man-of-war, even one as small as Jack Aubrey's beloved 28(?)-gun HMS Surprise, is self-contained, the ports and towns of Europe in the throes of the Napoleonic Wars are rife with enemy agents, unscrupulous dockyard managers and, in the case of colony ports, disaffected locals. Thus, the Maltese port of Valetta, where HMS Surprise is laid up for refit, is a place of both opportunity and danger for British intelligence agent Stephen Maturin. The danger lies in the existence of high-ranking French agents who well know his activities and identity. The opportunity lies in Laura Fielding, wife of a captured English officer whose welfare in a French prison relies (according to her handlers) on her successfully seducing and turning Stephen Maturin's intelligence operation.

Because of the intrigue, "Lucky" Jack Aubrey is sent off on a couple of missions that are doomed to fail. This is not normally the plot of a rousing adventure story, but of course O'Brian is a master storyteller, sending Aubrey and Maturin off across the desert with a train of camels and a diving bell (!), and in another place trapping Surprise in a Mediterraean bay with three French warships closing in. I guess Jack uses up all his luck in escaping such traps, and has nothing left over for any victories, but that still gives us modern readers lots of Napoleonic naval detail and action to keep us entertained.

This is the 8th book in the series, so if you've made it this far, I assume there's not much I can say that would induce you to purchase the book, or to even read the reviews! I know I'm going to read this book anyway (and the next one, and the next one) no matter what the reviews say. If you have got this far, though, I want to assure you that you'll find what you're looking for - more of the great O'Brian writing we've come to expect. Definitely as good as any other book in the series so far.

The best, period.

The best nautical historical fiction ever written, period. O'Brian researched exhaustively and infused a lifetime of passion, expertise, and emotion into every volume. The books are not only infinitely readable, they're page burners, each and every one, with laudable character development and environmental description that put you firmly in the midst of what you're reading, There is such a wealth of description, you'll want a dictionary, thesaurus, and an atlas at hand when you dive in.

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Title: The Nutmeg of Consolation

Subtitle: Aubrey-Maturin, Book 14

Author: Patrick O'Brian

Narrator: Robert Hardy

Format: Abridged

Length: 2 hrs and 56 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-16-05

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

The Nutmeg of Consolation opens with Jack Aubrey and his friend the intelligence agent Stephen Maturin stranded, following a shipwreck, on an uninhabited island in the Dutch East Indies, under siege by ferocious Malay pirates. They contrive their escape, but after a change of ship, find themselves caught up in a night chase in fiercly tidal waters and then embroiled in the much more insidious conflicts of the terrifying penal settlements of New South Wales.

© Patrick O'Brian; (P)1999 HarperCollins UK

Critic Reviews:

"Robert Hardy's reading gives a real feel of salt spray, not to mention a taste of the lash." (The Times)

Members Reviews:

Thank you Patrick O'Brian

Reading his books or even watching 'Master & Commander' as a worthy film still somehow doesn't bring these wonderful books truly to light as Robert hardy has managed so well to do. His ability to take you all over the ship of the line, as O'Brian wanted us to understand is quite remarkable.

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Title: The Ionian Mission

Subtitle: Aubrey-Maturin, Book 8

Author: Patrick O'Brian

Narrator: Robert Hardy

Format: Abridged

Length: 2 hrs and 53 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-16-05

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

A sudden turn of events takes him and Stephen off on a hazardous mission to the Greek Islands. All his old skills of seamanship and his proverbial luck when fighting against odds come triumphantly into their own.

Members Reviews:

Action packed with plenty of balance

What a great story! Aubrey is in trouble by land and sea because of bad decisions and yet brilliant at sea when it comes to sailoring and battle tactics where O'Brian has never swayed with regard to the captain. Aubrey is endeared to me as a reader because he's brilliant, doesn't know it or dwell on it, in his element. He is the polar opposite of brilliant in personal matters, knows it and dwells on it. What a great balance in story telling because I, as a reader, worry about Aubrey every moment one foot is ashore and I'm concerned for him at sea but feel that every sea encounter will end as well as it can which doesn't mean with success. This is another great installment by O'Brian and I highly recommend it.

A stirring tale of ships and men

For men of steel who love ships of wood, this, the 8th book in a roughly 20 volume fictional saga of Britain's naval roll in the Napoleonic War is must read. While the series is fictional, it is based upon original sources so finely detailed that the line between truth and fiction is hard to spot.

I love the series so much that I am reading it for a second time, and I am enjoying it even more that I did on the first read.

I find the discussion of Jack's home life and woes on land to be tedious. I guess we always want think of Aubrey ...

As is sometimes the case in the Aubrey-Maturin series, the plot does plod at times. I find the discussion of Jack's home life and woes on land to be tedious. I guess we always want think of Aubrey as the Russel Crowe version: large and in charge. His gullibility and financial irresponsibility knock holes in this image. This does serve to develop his character and makes the difference between the at-sea Jack and the landsman Jack that much more striking.

While it does take some time to get to the climax of the book, with a lot of diplomatic effort Jack and Stephen do get there, and one thing O'Brian excels at is narrating battles and chases at sea.

Excellent, as always.

Another excellent installment, with plenty of cloak and dagger suspense, surprised reactions to Aubrey's bargain powder purchase, a realistic section illustrating the day in, day out, boredom on blockade duty and dicey political waters to navigate in the Mediterranean.

This time it's Aubrey who must sort out the truth, deciding which minor ruler is the lesser of three evils, giving him the best chance to complete his mission. It adds a new dimension to Aubrey's character when he has to navigate dangerous waters on land.

Great Battle at the End

The description throughout is just as good as O'Brian always does . This one contains a thorough description of blockade duty - not exciting but very interesting and helpful in understanding what the British fleet went through during the wars with Napoleon. A good read.

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Title: The Surgeon's Mate

Subtitle: Aubrey-Maturin, Book 7

Author: Patrick O'Brian

Narrator: Robert Hardy

Format: Abridged

Length: 2 hrs and 51 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-16-05

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

The chase that follows through the fogs and shallows of the Grand Banks is as thrilling, as tense, and as unexpected in its culmination as anything Patrick O'Brian has written. Then, among other things, follows a shipwreck and a particularly sinister internment in the notorious Temple Prison in Paris. Once again, the tigerish and fascinating Diana Villiers redresses the balance in this man's world of seamanship and war.

Critic Reviews:

"The author, master of his period and of the techniques of ship under sail, keeps his story moving with panache and ingenuity." (The Daily Telegraph)

Members Reviews:

THE SURGEON'S MATE

A very good story but if you can get the American edition read by Tim Piggot-Smith he really brings the story alive with his vast ability to make each character individual, so that you believe it is a whole cast of actors that are reading, - not just one

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Title: The American Boy

Author: Andrew Taylor

Narrator: Alex Jennings

Format: Abridged

Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-10-05

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Then a brutal crime is committed, with consequences that threaten to destroy Thomas and all that he has come to hold dear. Despite his efforts, Shield is caught up in a deadly tangle of sex, money, murder, and lies, a tangle that grips him tighter even as he tries to escape from it. And what of the strange American child at the heart of these macabre events? What is the secret of the boy named Edgar Allan Poe?

Critic Reviews:

"A wonderful book, richly composed and beautifully written, an enthralling read from start to finish." (The Times)

"Jennings reads with such enormous variety that we are consumed by his characterizations." (AudioFile)

Members Reviews:

Ruined by abridgement and poor sound quality.

Lots of friends have recommended this book and I am a fan of Andrew Taylor's Lydmouth series (unfortunately not on Audible) so I was really looking forward to this listen. Unfortunately I really should have downloaded the unabridged version of this audiobook. I found that the story did not flow easily so it was very difficult to follow. Also I found the narrator really grated on me and the sound quality was very poor.

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Title: The Far Side of the World

Subtitle: Aubrey-Maturin, Book 10

Author: Patrick O'Brian

Narrator: Robert Hardy

Format: Abridged

Length: 2 hrs and 41 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-10-05

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

If they do not come up with her before she rounds the Horn, they must follow her into the Great South Sea and as far across the Pacific as she may lead them. It is a commission after Jack's own heart. Maturin has fish of his own to fry in the world of secret intelligence.

Aubrey has to cope with a succession of disasters; men overboard, castaways, encounters with savages, storms, typhoons, groundings, shipwrecks, to say nothing of murder and criminal insanity. That the enemy is in fact faithfully dealt with, no one who has the honour of Captain Aubrey's acquaintance can take leave to doubt.

Members Reviews:

I've now sailed with Jack and Stephen for 10 books and have gotten to know them pretty well. Life at sea has been a hard ...

This is the Master and Commander book with the same title has the movie but it is a very different story. I've now sailed with Jack and Stephen for 10 books and have gotten to know them pretty well. Life at sea has been a hard life. We've had storms and a broken bowsprit, but nothing really amazing in this journey to the far side of the world. M&C books have a variety of sailing conditions, trips to islands, battles at sea and amazing discovery of rare species. The movie version of this had 3 sea battles. The book has a lesser battle on an island. Even a lucky captain like Jack Aubrey could not survive 3 major sea battles in every book. He already has scars and lost much of an ear.

MORE!!

Patrick O'Brian's characters get bigger and bigger. They are very funny. The stories are written so cleverly that you feel empathy with each person, despite opposing points of view. The detail is fascinating. I do not have much knowledge of the British Navy, but I know much more now. As much as the author loves the life, he is able to portray its tremendous abuses with clarity. I look forward to each novel and the resolution to some of the ongoing problems each of the major players. Spies, love affairs...or not, battles, the money chase, corruption,miraculous medical recoveries, addiction. This series is a fantastic read.

The Aurbey Maturin series is a treasure that can be enjopyed over and over again.

I started reading Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey - Maturin books in the mid 80's at the suggestion of one of my brothers. At that time there were only ten books in the series and, as I was traveling a lot in my job, I quickly went through those ten. When I expressed disappointment to my brother at having reached the end of the series he told me to start over from the beginning and that it would be as if I had never read the books. I was skeptical as I have found only a few books truly enjoyable the second time but I decided to give the O'Brian series a second read. I do not know what magic O'Brian used in writing but what my brother had said was true. It was if I had only a passing knowledge of the books when I started reading the series again.

Although I do read other novels and other authors I quickly yearn O'Brian and for what The Times Book Review has hailed as the "best historical novels ever written". I have read the entire series multiple times and every time found each of the books fresh and exciting.

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Title: Blood Royal

Author: Elisabeth McNeill

Narrator: Hilary Neville

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-30-09

Publisher: ISIS Audio Books

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Born Marie Stuart at Linlithgow Palace in 7th December 1542, she inherited the English throne at a mere six days old and almost immediately became the focus of opposing factions, desperate to control her.

This is a wonderfully researched fictionalised account of her life. We also see Mary Queen of Scots through the eyes of Nathan, a pedlar and seller of embroidery threads, who first sets his eyes on the queen as an infant being crowned at Stirling Castle. He follows her life, being one of the many who are drawn to her, and becomes more closely involved in her life than a mere pedlar could possibly imagine....

Members Reviews:

The life of Mary Queen of Scots.

Mary, Queen of Scots has appeared in several historical fiction books that I've read over the years, so it was interesting to read something that focused primarily on her for a change.

In this narration, the story of her life is alternated with that of a fictional peddler who sees her leave Scotland for France as a small child and continues to admire her as she returns to claim her throne at the age of nineteen. He manages to sell his fine cloth within the palace and meets her in person, and finally attends her death by beheading, although by now he is blind. While not necessary to the story of Mary, this peddler's tale did illustrate something of the life of the common man in the sixteenth century and made for a break in the somewhat dry telling of Mary's own life.

According to this version of events, Mary came back from France as a naiive but likable young lady who was easily swayed by men. Her brief marriage in France to the sickly Francis, Dauphin of France, appears to have been unconsummated and her second marriage, to her first cousin, Stuart Darnley was a complete disaster. By now she has become more scheming and less likeble, so she almost gets what she deserves with James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell. He, however does seem to be loyal and this costs him his life.

A light, informative telling of Mary's story, that has left me with little respect for her as a person, although I don't know how fair this is, historically speaking.

Well narrated by Hilary Neville.