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Browsing all posts tagged 'audiobook'
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Book Kits
To help your book discussion group, we've gathered a collection of popular paperback titles and sorted them into kits which can be sent to you upon request.
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Adult Book Discussion Group @ La Selva Beach
Thu, Aug. 11 (10:30 AM-12:00 PM)Location: La Selva Beach
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Room: Online
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Room: Online
Reading in the Redwoods Book Group
Wed, Aug. 24 (6:00 PM-7:30 PM)Location: Felton
Room: Felton Community Room