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Free Audio Talking Books Download ReviewsReviews of audio talking books and downloads |
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U Is for Undertow by Sue Grafton
Calling T is for Trespass “taut, terrifying, transfixing and terrific”, USA Today went on to ask, “What does it take to write 20 novels about the same character and manage to create a fresh, genre-bending novel every time?”
It’s a question worth pondering. Through 20 excursions into the dark side of the human soul, Sue Grafton has never written the same book twice. And so it is with this, her 21st. Once again, she breaks genre formulas, giving us a twisting, complex, surprise-filled, and totally satisfying thriller.
It’s April 1988, a month before Kinsey Millhone’s 38th birthday, and she’s alone in her office doing paperwork when a young man arrives unannounced. He has a preppy air about him and looks as if he’d be carded if he tried to buy booze, but Michael Sutton is 27, an unemployed college dropout. Twenty-one years earlier, a four-year-old girl disappeared. A recent reference to her kidnapping has triggered a flood of memories. Sutton now believes he stumbled on her lonely burial when he was six years old. He wants Kinsey’s help in locating the child’s remains and finding the men who killed her. It’s a long shot, but he’s willing to pay cash up front, and Kinsey agrees to give him one day.
As her investigation unfolds, she discovers Michael Sutton has an uneasy relationship with the truth. In essence, he’s the boy who cried wolf. Is his current story true, or simply one more in a long line of fabrications?
Grafton moves the narrative between the 80s and the 60s, changing points of view, building multiple subplots, and creating memorable characters. Gradually, we see how they all connect. But at the beating center of the novel is Kinsey Millhone, sharp-tongued, observant, a loner – “a heroine”, said The New York Times Book Review, “with foibles you can laugh at and faults you can forgive.”
Don’t miss the other titles in the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mystery Series.
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The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
The Lost Symbol, the stunning follow-up to The Da Vinci Code, is a masterstroke of storytelling – a deadly race through a real-world labyrinth of codes and unseen truths…all under the watchful eye of a terrifying villain. Set within the unseen tunnels and temples of Washington, D.C., The Lost Symbol accelerates through a startling landscape toward an unthinkable finale.
Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol. Within minutes of his arrival, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object – artfully encoded with five ancient symbols – is discovered in the Capitol Building. The object is an ancient invitation, meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of hidden esoteric wisdom. And when Langdon’s mentor Peter Solomon – prominent Mason and philanthropist – is kidnapped, Langdon’s only hope of saving Peter is to accept this invitation and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon finds himself plunged into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations…all of which seem to be dragging him toward a single, inconceivable truth.
The Lost Symbol is exactly what Dan Brown’s fans have been waiting for…his most thrilling novel yet.
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Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin
One year ago, Sarah Palin burst onto the national political stage like a comet. Yet even now, few Americans know who this remarkable woman really is.
As chief executive of America’s largest state, Sarah Palin had built a record as a reformer who pushed through changes other politicians only talked about: energy independence, ethics reform, and the biggest private-sector energy infrastructure project in U.S. history. While revitalizing public school funding and ensuring the state met its responsibilities to seniors and Alaska Native populations, Palin also brought Big Oil to heel.
She was a Main Street American woman: a working mom, wife of a blue-collar union man, and the mother of five children. But as the presidential campaign unfolded, Palin became a lightning rod for both praise and criticism. And few knew the real Sarah Palin.
In this eagerly anticipated memoir, Palin paints an intimate portrait of growing up in the wilds of Alaska; meeting her lifelong love; her decision to enter politics; the importance of faith and family; and the unique joys and trials of life as a high-profile working mother. She also opens up for the first time about the 2008 presidential race, providing a rare, mom’s-eye view of high-stakes national politics – from patriots dedicated to “Country First” to slick politicos bent on winning at any cost.
Going Rogue traces one ordinary citizen’s extraordinary journey, and imparts Palin’s vision of a way forward for America and her unfailing hope in the greatest nation on earth.
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Breathless Unabridged By Dean Koontz Narrated by Jeffrey Cummings
Grady Adams lives a simple, solitary life deep in the Colorado mountains. Here the 35-year-old carpenter works out of a converted barn, crafting exquisite one-of-a-kind furniture. There’s little about this strong yet gentle man to suggest the experiences that have alienated him from the contemporary world. But that is about to change.
One day, while hiking, Grady spots a pair of stunningly beautiful furred animals unlike anything he’s ever seen. They flee the instant they detect his presence, but the mystery of that brief encounter remains. In the days ahead, Grady will approach the creatures again, gaining their trust but coming no closer to solving their mystery. For this he enlists the help of an old friend, veterinarian Camellia “Cammy” Rivers, who, in turn, is stunned – and enchanted – by Grady’s new “pets.” But while Grady and Cammy carefully observe these enigmatic animals for clues to their origin, they, too, are being watched.
Soon Grady’s home and hundreds of square miles of surrounding wilderness will be placed under quarantine by Homeland Security. And Grady, Cammy, and the two creatures they’ve come to feel they must protect at all costs find themselves virtual prisoners – and the unwilling focus of an army of biologists, naturalists, and research scientists. But it’s a stunning event no one could have foreseen that convinces Grady and Cammy to do the unthinkable: to escape with the two creatures on a riveting race for freedom.
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The Help Unabridged By Kathryn Stockett
Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid, Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her 17th white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women – mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends – view one another.
This edition now includes the afterword “Too Little, Too Late – Kathryn Stockett in Her Own Words”, as read by the author.
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I, Alex Cross by James Patterson
Detective Alex Cross is pulled out of a family celebration and given the awful news that a beloved relative has been found brutally murdered. Alex vows to hunt down the killer, and soon learns that she was mixed up in one of Washington’s wildest scenes. And she was not this killer’s only victim.
The hunt for her murderer leads Alex and his girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, to a place where every fantasy is possible, if you have the credentials to get in. Alex and Bree are soon facing down some very important, very protected, very dangerous people in levels of society where only one thing is certain–they will do anything to keep their secrets safe.
As Alex closes in on the killer, he discovers evidence that points to the unimaginable–a revelation that could rock the entire world. With the unstoppable action, unforeseeable twists, and edge-of-your-seat suspense that only a James Patterson thriller delivers, I, Alex Cross is the master of suspense at his sharpest and best.
Solve another case with Alex Cross.
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Under the Dome: A Novel by Stephen King
On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as “the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when–or if–it will go away.
Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens–town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing–even murder–to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s running out.
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The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I am a big fan of world building done well – and Collins has built a rich vision of a far distant future both more technologically advanced and more brutal than what we might expect. In this far future, children from across former North America (now called Panem) are forced to fight to the death in a carefully wrought creation that is part reality TV, part survivor and part Roman Colosseum. The tension between the ivory tower of the capitol and the impoverished and heavily restricted lives of those in the twelve districts which support it stretches from start to finish. There is a lot to chew on here.
Against this backdrop we get to know Katniss. Katniss Everdeen is 16 and lives in the coal country of District 12 with her mother and younger sister. Katniss spends most of her time each day hunting, gathering, or trading for enough food for her little family to survive. She has been fighting to keep herself alive for years. The transition from being the girl who brings people meat to being a tribute from District 12 fighting for her life is less startling than you might expect.
Katniss has watched the Games every year (the power never goes out when the Games are on) and she does everything she possibly can to increase her chances of survives. Collins reveals details of how things work in this world gradually. Right up to the end of the story we are learning about Panem and learning about Katniss. I appreciated hearing this story from her perspective. It makes all her choices and experiences feel closer to the surface. Even when we understand things that she cannot, usually in the emotional attitudes of those around her, we see only what she sees.
I did not love the reader. I felt that McCormick kept Katniss and the intensity of her world at arms length during the reading. It is hard to put my finger on what bothered me. The dialog was fine, with reasonable and recognizable voices for the characters. It was long stretches of narration that felt too rhythmic, too even-keeled somehow. It wasn’t enough to keep me from enjoying the story – but I kept catching myself trying to imagine what it might sound with a different reader.
Overall, it is an amazing ride and I am hunger for the sequel. Collins has created a terrifying world and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
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Rag and Bone Shop by Robert Cormier
The title alone would have made me listen to this audiobook. I am an obsessive W.B. Yeats fan, and the title of Cormier’s final novel quotes a line from the masterful “The Circus Animal’s Desertion;” Yeats’ musings on the possible collapse of his talent and career. I’m also a fan of Cormier’s work, which I encountered as a lit student considering teaching English.
The novel opens in an interrogation room, as Trent takes a confession from a murderer. Trent, who is burning out on his job, is called upon to interrogate suspects in a child murder case. Then we encounter 12 year old Jason Dorrant. Jason has a hard time making friends, preferring the company of his 7 year old friend Alicia to that of most of the kids his age. When Alicia is found dead, local authorities focus on Jason as their prime suspect, assuming he killed the girl after spending the afternoon with her. Trent is called upon to drag a confession out Jason. Because it’s a high-profile case, Trent faces external pressure to make Jason confess, no matter what.
As I listened, I felt myself constantly questioning Jason’s competence. He seemed slow, but then perhaps he was just a modest kid, but maybe . . . I really wondered whether Jason had some sort of unnamed impairment, and that frustrated me. As the novel progressed, I was furious that no adults seemed the least bit concerned with Jason’s safety. I’m sure Cormier wanted us to feel that way, but I kept wondering if he went bit too far. Is our justice system really this flawed? Do we protect child suspects so poorly? Are interrogators so craven? I don’t know the answers to those questions, but they haunt me. That, really, is Cormier’s greatest strength–he makes us question our justice system and the responsibilities adults have to children. But those moralistic threads can go too far. Cormier definitely liked to pound home lessons through his books, and in this instance I think the ending jumps to a conclusion I don’t think is realistic.
That said, I do like the book. Cormier had a great ability to get inside his characters’ minds, and he certainly does that here, with both Jason and Trent. Shina is a good, clear reader, and he makes himself comfortable in both Jason’s and Trent’s voice.
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The Monsters of Otherness (Erec Rex Book 2) by Kaza Kingsley
The Monsters of Otherness begins with Erec back at home with his family, far from the magical world we got to know in the first installment of this series (The Dragon’s Eye). Never fear, we quickly find a reason to go back to Alypium. Once there, Erec finds himself faced with a choice. Either he can take on the quests required of him to become King or step aside to let the evil Stain brothers take the thrown unchallenged.
There are a lot of things afoot in this story. We have missing baby dragons, rioting crowds who seem to hate Erec and an assortment of new monsters. Kingsley has done a nice job of pulling Erec (and the rest of us) back into the Kingdom of the Keepers. Erec still has his friends along for most of the ride, but as we get deeper into the book – more of the challenges rest squarely on Erec’s shoulders. Erec is not greeted with the adoring fans he expected – but rather brainwashed mobs who think he is a fraud. He has remember that he has people who believe in him, perhaps most importantly himself.
I like the way Kingsley sneaks in lessons about not judging others by either their appearance or by what others tell you. While I don’t appreciate heavy-handed morality in stories, Kingsley has truly woven the message into the fabric of her tale.
My six year old son loved this book – plowing through it faster than I could keep up with him. He did warn me that something sad happens near the end. When I asked him if it made him cry, he replied with ‘almost’.
Jones delivers another beautifully read story with distinct voices and an appealing style of narration. I think I would listen to him read just about anything, judging by how he handles this series. I recommend you join him for this fabulous fantasy.