Reader's Link

---

Browsing all posts tagged 'audiobook'

New boxes

Title: Moonglow
By: Michael Chabon

I listened to this book on CD and was so impressed with Michael Chabon’s semi-fictional memoir about his grandfather that I also read the book. While presented as a novel, it is based to some degree on his conversations with his grandfather and other family members, and is a fascinating ... [Read more]

Posted on June 9, 2018
Tags: fiction, audiobook

A constant joy

Title: Trigger warning
By: Neil Gaiman

Ever since I picked up the graphic novel series The Sandman and discovered the wonderful creativity of Neil Gaiman, I've been in love. His book Neverwhere saved my life on a terrible camping trip. No other writer has so thoroughly affected my imagination. His words make me laugh, cry, think, ... [Read more]

Posted on Feb. 26, 2018
Tags: audiobook

Not your average superhero

Title: Hero
By: Perry Moore

Thom Creed is a pretty average kid except for a few minor details: his dad is an Ex-Superhero, and Thom is Gay. In this action-packed and heart-wrenching novel, Thom struggles to keep his father in the dark about his sexual orientation and the fact that he has joined the League ... [Read more]

Posted on April 30, 2016
Tags: fiction, audiobook, teen fiction

Deceptively calm

Title: San Miguel
By: T. Coraghessan Boyle

San Miguel Island is the westernmost of eight Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara. This book starts off with a deceptively calm historic setting. Then, true to form, T.C. Boyle’s characters begin to develop stronger personalities that hint at future conflicts. Perhaps because this book is based on ... [Read more]

Posted on Nov. 29, 2014
Tags: fiction, audiobook

Like stepping stones in a river

Title: On Canaan's Side
By: Sebastian Barry

This tender story is told through the reminiscences of Lilly, now in her eighties, who was forced to flee her native Ireland in her early twenties. Her family was caught up on the wrong side of the Irish independence struggle. The lasting and tragic impact on her did not destroy ... [Read more]

Posted on July 30, 2014
Tags: fiction, audiobook

Collateral damage

Title: The Memory of Love
By: Aminatta Forna

This is a gripping novel concerned with the residual damage to society and individuals following the 1991-2002 civil war in Sierra Leone. Three love stories are interwoven throughout the book, and these narratives become the device through which we learn much else about what has happened. Aminatta Forna’s characters are ... [Read more]

Posted on April 24, 2014
Tags: fiction, audiobook

Magic and loss, loneliness and escape

Title: The ocean at the end of the lane
By: Neil Gaiman

On impulse, I downloaded the new Neil Gaiman book from OneClick Digital onto my iPhone (ah, technology, you great multifaceted beast!). I was delighted to learn that the author was also the narrator, and this audiobook would not proffer any misrepresentations of tone or misinterpretations of characters. If anyone could ... [Read more]

Posted on March 22, 2014
Tags: fiction, science fiction, audiobook

In the room with Louis

Title: Oh Play That Thing
By: Roddy Doyle

A beautiful performance by actor Christian Conn, who creates the gorgeous Irish voices, varied New York accents, and a believable rendition of Louis Armstrong. Conn gives every word its worth, adding meaningful richness to the often spare dialogue. Oh Play That Thing is the second title in The Last Roundup ... [Read more]

Posted on Nov. 26, 2013
Tags: fiction, audiobook

Spellbinder

Title: W is for Wasted
By: Sue Grafton

I have to confess I was not a Sue Grafton fan. For some reason, I used to be turned off by her formulaic, alphabetically ordered treatments of titles, not to mention her typecast characters and plot-driven story lines in the Kinsey Millhone mystery series. In response to public requests, SCPL ... [Read more]

Posted on Nov. 25, 2013
Tags: mystery, audiobook

Many voices

Title: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
By: David Mitchell

This is a beautifully interpreted performance of a romantic, imaginative historical fiction by David Mitchell, an author with a deep interest in Japan. During the Edo period, when the entire country is closed to foreigners, only the small island outpost Dejima permits a few Dutch traders to live and trade ... [Read more]

Posted on Nov. 25, 2013
Tags: fiction, audiobook

I didn't see that coming!

Title: The Storyteller
By: Jodi Picoult

I just finished listening to The Storyteller, and there were times when I had to pull my car over to the side of the road because I was so emotionally involved with the story. Picoult tells a tale of three generations of a Jewish family, intertwining the horror of the ... [Read more]

Posted on June 26, 2013
Tags: fiction, audiobook

An audible treat

Title: Prodigal Summer: a novel
By: Barbara Kingsolver

If you enjoy Barbara Kingsolver’s writing, you are in for an audible treat. I read Prodigal Summer a few years ago, but it didn’t make a big impression on me until I happened to listen to the audiobook, read by the author herself. Barbara Kingsolver deftly contributes all the appropriate ... [Read more]

Posted on June 17, 2013
Tags: fiction, audiobook

Marvelous invention

Title: My Invented Country
By: Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende’s moving memoir about the country she loved and left is read so perfectly by Cristine McMurdo-Wallis that I almost want to say: Don’t read this book; you must listen to it! The many voices of Allende’s writing -- irony, tenderness, humor and harshly honest journalistic modes -- are ... [Read more]

Posted on May 2, 2013
Tags: non-fiction, biography, audiobook

Old Friends and Terrorists

Title: The Weekend
By: Bernhard Schlink

On the face, The Weekend is a novel about a reunion at an isolated German estate of old friends who haven't seen each other for years. They are brought together to greet Jorg who has been in prison for 24 years for unspecified acts of terror. Each guest has a ... [Read more]

Posted on Oct. 12, 2011
Tags: fiction, audiobook

The Glass Castle

Title: The Glass Castle
By: Jeannette Walls

At once heartbreaking and heartening, Walls describes her peripatetic childhood taking on adult responsibilities at an extremely young age because her parents, though physically present, lived mostly in their own worlds. They obviously loved their children but felt no need to parent them in the conventional sense. At the age ... [Read more]

Posted on Sept. 21, 2011
Tags: biography, audiobook

Outstanding!

Title: Maisie Dobbs
By: Jacqueline Winspear

Aren’t you glad when a book is narrated well? It makes such a difference. I listened to the first book in the popular “Maisie Dobbs” mystery series by Jacqueline Winspear with the actress Rita Barrington reading aloud as I leisurely puttered in the backyard. I enjoyed getting to know the ... [Read more]

Posted on March 31, 2011
Tags: mystery, audiobook

Justice and Atonement and Capital Punishment

Title: Change of Heart
By: Jodi Picoult

Change of Heart is a thought provoking and compelling novel about religion, murder, incest, organ donation, and the death penalty. As the characters in the book reevaluate their beliefs and feelings about these issues, the reader is compelled to do the same. Picoult skillfully weaves together a story of all ... [Read more]

Posted on Jan. 11, 2010
Tags: fiction, audiobook

Friends Forever

Title: The Girls from Ames
By: Jeffrey Zaslow

Imagine a group of friends that you have known literally all your life. You grew up in the same small town, knew each others' families, attended the same schools, went to the same parties, went off to different colleges and jobs, moved to different parts of the country, married, had ... [Read more]

Posted on Dec. 17, 2009
Tags: non-fiction, audiobook