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Title: Heart and Soul

Author: Maeve Binchy

Narrator: Maureen O'Brien

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-23-09

Publisher: Orion Publishing Group

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 30 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Clara Casey has more than enough on her plate. Her daughters are a handful, and Clara, a senior cardiac specialist, has a new job to cope with....

For Ania, meeting Clara Casey is a miracle: she had never intended to leave her beloved Poland, but after the love of her life has turned sour, her world seems rather empty. Perhaps a new job in a new country will mend her broken heart.

Declan is looking forward to joining the clinic - but what should have been a straightforward six-month posting brings him far more than he expected. Then there's Father Brian Flynn, whose life is turned upside down when his reputation is threatened, and the beautiful, cheerful nurse, Fiona, who can't leave her troubled past behind....

Members Reviews:

Fans won't be disappointed.

OK, it's not great literature and the cosiness of all these rapidly forming bonds is a bit fantastical, but you'll be warmed from the inside out. A great bonus is catching up with glimpses of characters from several previous Binchy novels including Whitethorn Woods, Scarlet Feather, Nights of Rain and Stars, and my personal favourite: Evening Class. Most other MB audiobooks are narrated by her cousin Kate, who does a terrific job, but I got used to this narrator after a bit. If you're a Binchy-phile, you'll like this one.

All Neatly Told

This is an interesting tale with many characters, some good, some bad, many with a range of frailties, but all viewed with a humorous and kindly eye. The various strands of the story are all brought together in the end in a neat package.

Heartwarming tale!

Maeve Binchy did it again by writing another heartwarming tale about the staff and patients of a Dublin heart clinic. As always, many of the characters from previous books are back to take us along on another part of their journey. The narration is, to my ears, perfect. Maureen O'Brien makes a gallery of characters come alive with her beautiful, rich voice.

It is always pure pleasure to spend time with Maeve Binchy and all her friends.

enjoyable holiday read

When you are after a feel good story, this is it. Maeve Binchy captures modern family life in Ireland with interesting and varied characters some woven in from her previous novels. If you don't know them it doesn't take away from this story. There are themes that will ring a bell for different readers such as hard working conservative parents who are mystified by their teenage children whose values are quite different to theirs and the theme of sharp Irish humour. Romance and successful overcoming of problems runs through this entertaining story. I did enjoy it. Recommended if you want a light read with a happy ending.

Good Listen

Devotees of Maeve Binchy will not be disappointed. This was a good listen with all her usaul hallmarks. There is a certain amount of inevitability in the yarn, but it has well drawn characters brought to life with humour and a great understanding of the human condition & the odd circumstances we often find ourselves in. There were times when I laughed aloud at the understated humour & irony.

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Title: Man Gone Down

Author: Michael Thomas

Narrator: Beresford Bennett

Format: Unabridged

Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-29-08

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 14 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Named to the New York Times Book Review's annual 10-best list, this blues-tinged novel tells the story of an unnamed black man estranged from his white wife and their three children. As he struggles to pull money together to provide for his children, his story emerges as a powerful statement about American society.

©2007 Michael Thomas; (P)2008 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic Reviews:

"... drawing on Melville and Ellison, Thomas has written a rhapsodic and piercing post-9/11 lament ..." (Booklist, starred review)

Members Reviews:

All it needs is Sonny Rollins practicing under the Bridge

`It's a strange thing to go through life as a social experiment, especially when the ones that conceived the experiment, the visionaries with sight of the end, with an understanding of the means, are all gone.'

The Narrator of Man Gone Down.

One of the flaws to the Blue Sky view is seldom is there clear instruction on what to do when the storm clouds show up.

Notwithstanding the clearly evident parallels with Ellison's literary classic, Invisible Man, MGD shares some thematic commonalities with Alice Randall's more recent Pushkin and the Queen of Spades. In each case, the reader is introduced to a protagonist, a child of the embryonic stages of the era of diversity, now in adulthood, who is forced by circumstance to enter a phase of self-reflectiveness, and hopefully, self-actualization. While Randall's heroine may exhibit the accoutrements of undeniably greater material success, many of the ethnically unique stresses and encumbrances she experienced, or implied compromises she was forced to make during her developmental years, are suffused in Thomas' work as well.

In sum, the reader of this book is taken on a four day non-linear assessment of a 35 year old African American man's life experience, commencing at the most critical juncture he has yet encountered. As is the case with the overwhelming majority of blacks in this society, his ethnicity is a mosaic however, socially prescribed attribution precluded, as it still does, any universally accepted designation other than one based entirely on phenotype. At face value, that circumstance has not modulated in over 480 years but with the imposition of the legislation of the Civil Rights era, and the inculcation of the prior generation's aspirations, he was placed situations where self-awareness and self-assuredness could not naturally evolve, while any external associations would most often only exacerbate emotional instabilities.

As he stands on the precipice of personal implosion, psychologically imprisoned, socially isolated and occupationally adrift, we eventually learn of all of the experiences and developmental short circuits that led him to near reclusiveness with stewardship of a slowly deteriorating goldfish in the bedroom of an immeasurably more successful acquaintance's six year old son.

While the book is written in stream of consciousness format, I cannot recall a more accessible text of the form. The flow is easy to follow and the transitions seldom seem incongruent. Michael Thomas' style is smooth, melodious and enjoyable, it is the conceptualization that most discomforts. It is a long and often meandering novel yet it grabs and holds one's attention from inception to what, regrettably, I found to be a less than sustaining conclusion.

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Title: Good-bye and Amen

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Beth Gutcheon

Narrator: Joyce Bean

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-10-08

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

The complicated marriage of the gifted Danish pianist Laurus Moss to the provincial American child of privilege Sydney Brant was a mystery to many who knew them, including their three children. Now, Eleanor, Monica, and Jimmy Moss have to decide how to divide or share what Laurus and Sydney have left them without losing one another.

Secure and cheerful Eleanor, the oldest, wants little for herself but much for her children. Monica, the least-loved middle child, brings her youthful scars to the table, as well as the baggage of a difficult marriage to the charismatic Norman, who left a brilliant legal career, though not his ambition, to become an Episcopal priest. Youngest and best-loved Jimmy, who made a train wreck of his young adulthood, has returned after a long period of alienation from the family surprisingly intact but extremely hard for his sisters to read.

Having lived through childhoods both materially blessed and emotionally difficult, with a father who could seem uninvolved and a mother who loved a good family game of "let's you and him fight," the Mosses have formed strong adult bonds that none of them wants to damage. But it's difficult to divide a beloved summer house three ways and keep it too. They all know what's at stake---in a world of atomized families, a house like Leeway Cottage can be the glue that keeps generations of cousins and grandchildren deeply connected to one another. But knowing it's important doesn't make it easy.

Critic Reviews:

"An undeniably rich, no-holds-barred portrait of an American family. Strongly recommended." (

Library Journal)

Members Reviews:

OK, but not as good as Leeway Cottage

Leeway Cottage was such a fantastic book with well developed characters and distinct voices. "Leeway" was so good that as soon as I finished it, I immediately re-read the whole book. I'm half through this sequel but "Goodbye...Amen" just doesn't have the depth of the first book. It's more like wandering through a cocktail party and overhearing different conversations without really knowing what's behind the comments or even who all the characters are. This book does have a secondary storyline that offers a comforting theory on the hereafter...one which we'd all like to believe. Read Leeway Cottage for sure then decide whether you want to give this one a shot.

SIFTING THROUGH BELONGINGS & REDEFINING RELATIONSHIPS: A FAMILY'S GOOD-BYE

How does one say good-bye to the parents who have died and left behind not only their possessions but a host of memories? The grown children of Sydney and Laurus Moss must discover the answers as this story takes us from the process of dividing up things in the old summer cottage in Maine to the sorting out of moments that defined each of them.

At first I didn't like the writing style of presenting short snippets of the story from each character's point of view, but as I gradually grew accustomed to it, I could see how it gave a unique voice to the family and friends who "told" the story.

When at first it seemed as though Jimmy, the youngest, who immediately laid claim to the baby grand piano, was selfish and "entitled," by the end of the book there was another version of Jimmy.

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Title: Bed & Breakfast

Author: Eshkol Nevo

Narrator: Liat Shnapp

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-24-08

Publisher: SonicBooks Ltd.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Eshkol Nevo's best-selling books have been translated into many languages.

Please note: This title is in Hebrew.

Members Reviews:

In Hebrew

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

If it had been in English!

Has Bed & Breakfast turned you off from other books in this genre?

I wish you indicated that the book was not in English

How could the performance have been better?

see above

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

see above

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Title: Brother of the More Famous Jack

Author: Barbara Trapido

Narrator: Jan Francis

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 1 min

Language: English

Release date: 08-05-08

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 7 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Years later, after much heartache of a different kind, she returns and meets the Goldmans again, who enable her to bury the past and face her own promising future.

Members Reviews:

Briiliant book, brilliant reading

Could listen to Jan Francis read every Trapido novel -she draws us into the life of Katherine and the Goldman family with immediacy, humour and vitality. One family we'd probably all like to meet - particularly father Jacob and mother Jane - their warmth and understanding make life a huge encouraging adventure even in times of despair.

Brother Of The More Famous Jack

A real treat for all boho liberal intellectuals...loved it.

Very much enjoyed tho not quite sure why!

This is a story about a girl/women's life in a relatively small time period of mid teens to I assume late 30s - and I think set in the 60's/70's/80's. I found it a little like JB Priestly 's 'Bright Day' (one of my very favourite books) where the main character gets caught up in another family's life. It's well written and exceptionally well read and I have thoroughly enjoyed. I will look to see what else has been done by this author and by reader. 4 rather than 5 stars purely because there was no plot and therefore there is no beginning or ending!

Perfect delivery of an enchanting story

I was completely compelled by this book. Its funny, witty, complex, and the characters are beautifully realised. The delivery as an audio book is excellent. The best kind of audio books enhance your enjoyment of the book beyond if you'd read it on the page, and the narration of this does exactly that. Can't believe I'd never heard of this book. It deserves to be known as a classic.

Easy Read

Narrator was very good. Story was easy to listen to, but lacked that bit of spark for that added interest.

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Title: The God of War

Author: Marisa Silver

Narrator: Scott Brick

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-29-08

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 25 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

When an anonymous dead body floats in from the sea, Ares, on the cusp of his adolescence, is inspired to enact elaborate fantasies of mortal combat. But it is his troubled family that makes Ares a casualty of a different kind of war.

His brother, Malcolm, is mentally handicapped, and his mother, distrusting authorities, chooses not to do anything about it, leaving the burden to Ares to protect his vulnerable brother from a world that sees him as "a retard".

As he fights to define himself and to see a future for himself outside of the suffocating box of his home, Ares befriends a dangerous older kid. And what was once play becomes terrifyingly real, as violence changes his life forever.

Members Reviews:

It's a good book

The author definitely knew a bit about psycho-neurology and life-span development. So it was a well laid out book in a very interesting setting. It captured adolescence perfectly. Overall I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good short novel.

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Titel: Feuchtgebiete

Autor:: Charlotte Roche

Erzähler: Charlotte Roche

Format: Unabridged

Spieldauer: 5 hrs and 35 mins

Sprache: Deutsch

Veröffentlichungsdatum: 03-26-08

Herausgeber: Random House Audio, Deutschland

Bewertung: 2.5 von 5 von 3 Stimmen

Kategorien: Fiction, Contemporary

Zusammenfassung des Herausgebers:

Nach einer missglückten Intimrasur liegt Helen (18) im Krankenhaus. Sie wartet auf ihre geschiedenen Eltern. Unterdessen nimmt sie Bereiche ihres Körpers unter die Lupe, die gewöhnlich als unmädchenhaft gelten.Mutig und radikal rebelliert Roches Roman gegen den standardisierten Umgang mit dem weiblichen Körper - und erzählt dabei die wunderbar wilde Geschichte einer ebenso genusssüchtigen wie verletzlichen Heldin.

(c) + (p) 2008 Random House Audio, Deutschland

Redaktionelle Rezensionen:

Sex, Krankheiten, Körperflüssigkeiten diese drei Stichworte umschreiben ganz gut die Themen, die den Hörer hier Minute um Minute beschäftigen. Nur, dass die Autorin von "Feuchtgebiete", Charlotte Roche, nichts umschreibt, sondern gern ins Detail geht. Die Handlung ist leicht erzählt: Ein junges Mädchen liegt im Krankenhaus, erzählt über ihre Fetische und Eskapaden und verliebt sich in den Pfleger. Eine an sich seichte Story, die dadurch interessant wird, dass die Autorin sie mit sehr anstößigen Erzählungen aus dem Leben eines schwer traumatisierten Mädchens spickt.

Die Autorin Charlotte Roche spricht im Hörbuch selber. Ihre gleichförmige, mädchenhafte Art zu sprechen, passt perfekt zum Schreibstil. Denn hier geht es nicht um große Emotionen, sondern um ein verstörtes, gelangweiltes Mädchen, das nüchtern seine Welt schildert.

Charlotte Roche hat ein Hörbuch erschaffen, das ehrlich, schonungslos und in seiner Art neu ist. Eine interessante Erfahrung.

Audible wünscht gute Unterhaltung!

Kritik Bewertungen:

Radikal, drastisch und ebenso zart. Ich erinnere mich nicht, ein Debüt-Manuskript in der Hand gehabt zu haben, so sicher, so mutig und so voller Gegenwart wie dieses. Roger Willemsen

Mitglieder Bewertungen:

Einfache Kost, teilweise eklig

Das Buch lebt hauptsaechlich von den detaillierten Ausschmueckungen, die Story an sich ist relativ flach. Wer hart im Nehmen ist und etwas zum ,runterlesen, sucht, sollte es lesen, allein schon um den Hype zu verstehen, wenn er es guenstig gbraucht bekommt oder leihen kann.

Overrated

The only significant and alarming aspect of this popularized book is that it reflects a currant boredom and superficiality in society.

some stones are better left unturned...

infantile and quite frankly disgusting. I realise that that was precisely the Point, but IMHO, a waste of time.

A lot of humor but in a harsh style

Charlotte likes to shock her readers with her dirty stories. Well, in the beginning you can be shocked with her dirty thoughts and behaviour, sometimescI was really amused but then I started to get used to it and even to be bored by it. You niss nothing if you don't read this book, but by reading it, it may raise the bar for you before you will start to get shocked by other peoples dirty behavior and thoughts.

A best seller in Germany

I'm surprised this has not been a best seller in the United States. With the plot trends in television it will most probably be picked up for the 2014 season.

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Title: Something to Die For

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Travis Hunter

Narrator: Ezra Knight

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs

Language: English

Release date: 12-24-07

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 20 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Travis Hunter, founder of the Hearts of Men Foundation, has captivated millions with best-sellers like Married but Still Looking and Trouble Man. A story of redemption and reconciliation, Something to Die For follows one upstanding man's personal journey to win back the hearts of the loved ones he scorned.

©2006 Travis Hunter; (P)2007 Recorded Books

Members Reviews:

entertaining

I really enjoyed this book. It had a wide range of things that I ejoyed. Love, action and suspence. I had a hard time putting it down. The narrator did a great job also. I recommend this book.

A voice I could listen to ALL night

Ezra has done it again! His voice is so masculine and gripping. Made me picture some things in the love scenes! That said ... I didn't think I was going to like the main character. Sounded really selfish at first, but he turned out to be the best surprise. Noble, family-oriented, honorable, a man of his word and brave. With a good character and a good narrator, it was definitely a win-win for me.

Addictive

The main characters were so well-developed that I felt like I knew them. The story had everything: suspense, love, family dysfunction, revenge, humor, true friendship, family love, etc. I didn't want it to end.

great read

this book was funny, encouraging, suspenseful and keeps you guessing about wld happen to each character

Happy Black Man

Where does Something to Die For rank among all the audiobooks youve listened to so far?

I is great to listen to a book that looks at things through the black man eyes.

What other book might you compare Something to Die For to and why?

Some Dickeys earlier works

Have you listened to any of Ezra Knights other performances before? How does this one compare?

He did a great job!!

Who was the most memorable character of Something to Die For and why?

Each part made a whole

Any additional comments?

Need more!!

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Title: The Great Betrayal

Author: Millenia Black

Narrator: JD Jackson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-20-07

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 7 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

The Great Betrayal is an emotionally charged, irresistibly sensual tale of duplicity.

Members Reviews:

WEAK MOTHER

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

It was very well written but I didn't like the character Leslie at all. She was very weak, always crying, a coward, and self centered. It was all about how she felt about the death of her husband. She didn't think of anyone besides herself and made the same mistakes over and over hurting the people that did love her. I hated the way the author implied that Leslie should receive sympathy. Life goes on. Trajedy happens and you learn to move on. You don't use a trajedy as a reason to continuously be in a state of self pity and that was what Leslie was.

If youve listened to books by Millenia Black before, how does this one compare?

I didn't care for this one that much because I just really disliked the main character Leslie because of her actions.

Did JD Jackson do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Yes, every character was very well defined.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No.

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Title: Follow Your Heart

Author: Susanna Tamaro

Narrator: Joan Plowright

Format: Abridged

Length: 2 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-15-07

Publisher: Random House AudioBooks

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Driven by the fear of encroaching death, an elderly woman decides to write a long letter to her granddaughter, in the shape of a diary. Part love letter and part confession, it is most importantly a bequest from an old woman at last brave enough to acknowledge that she has too long repressed her feelings and submitted to convention. Reliving everything that has happened to her, she seeks to remind her granddaughter that the one worthwhile journey in life is to the centre of oneself, in search of that original voice we all guard deep inside.

© Baldini & Castoldi, Milano Translation by Avil Bardoni; (P) Random House

Members Reviews:

Followâs power is in its deep humanity and epic scope.

Followâs power is in its deep humanity and epic scope. You cannot read more than a few pages without deeply resonating with some aspect of this story. http://www.funnelmarketinggroup.com/follow-your-heart-the-world-in-180-pages/The Comedy of a Simple Soul: A Poem by Grant Polachek

... a book club pick for us and it was good but I have read better

This was a book club pick for us and it was good but I have read better, more interesting books recently.

STILL WATERS RUN DEEP

Our book club just finished reading Tamaro's "Follow Your Heart." The general concensus was that this very unasuming little book is a powerhouse. The saying "Still waters run deep" is so applicable here. The author uses a letter, which might never reach its destiny to entangle readers in a cross-generational web. A grandmother writing to her estranged granddaughter, (it can't get any simpler than that) and Tamaro takes her readers on a journey through four generations to teach us some very important life lessons. A most definately enchanting strategy.

"Follow your Heart" is a testimony for all women, everywhere. Mothers and daughters should read this book together and behold the unquestionable power that women have on each other, their marriages, and children. This influence is so very powerful that as Tamaro shows us it travels from one generation to another.

If you are looking for insightful reading, yet simple prose,

"Follow Your Heart" is an excellent choice.

a good Read, really enjoyed it

Such, a good Read, really enjoyed it, would recommend it highly.

Five Stars

fantastic book