Fiction
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Such a Fun Age
- By: Kiley Reid
- Narrated by: Nicole Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living, with her confidence-driven brand, showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains' toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store's security guard, seeing a young Black woman out late with a White child, accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make things right.
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This is embarrassing!
- By Anonymous User on 01-31-20
Kiley Reid came to play
It's been a long time since a novel stole my heart, but I've been obsessed with Such a Fun Age from the instant I clicked "play." Kiley Reid's voice is so fresh and fast-paced that listening to her debut feels just like watching the season's edgiest new dramedy. The story centers on a young black babysitter in Philly, her well-intentioned white employer, and whether a work relationship can ever really turn into family. I relished the moments I saw myself in the story, thinking, "yes, that's exactly what it's like to throw a three-year-old's birthday party for people you don't even like!", while at other moments I felt like a voyeur lapping up delicious soap opera-esque gossip. Reid's insights are so sharp and spot-on, serving up a fresh take on race and class. Finally, I couldn't talk about this book without taking a moment to sing the praises of newcomer Nicole Lewis, who is anointed by the narrator gods. Her exhilarating performance is a true delight from beginning to end.
Nonfiction
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Why We Can't Sleep
- Women's New Midlife Crisis
- By: Ada Calhoun
- Narrated by: Ada Calhoun
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Ada Calhoun found herself in the throes of a midlife crisis, she thought that she had no right to complain. She was married with children and a good career. So why did she feel miserable? And why did it seem that other Generation X women were miserable, too? Calhoun decided to find some answers. She looked into housing costs, HR trends, credit card debt averages, and divorce data. At every turn, she saw a pattern: sandwiched between the Boomers and Millennials, Gen X women were facing new problems as they entered middle age, problems that were being largely overlooked.
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Generation X Chick
- By Kristina on 01-25-20
Here we are now, validate us
Being "seen" is a decidedly Gen Z and millennial aspiration, but even us aging Gen-Xers—famously misanthropic, pessimistic, and nonconformist—have a primal need for acknowledgement. As a 45-year-old mother of two, child of divorced parents (one of whom is of failing health), I felt 100% #seen by Ada Calhoun’s glorious paean to the plight of the modern middle-aged woman. Informed by her extremely viral article for O magazine ("The New Midlife Crisis"), Why We Can’t Sleep is sensitively reported, exhaustively researched, and full of so-funny-because-it’s-so-painfully-true moments. If you feel the full weight of the mental load of parenting up, down, and sideways, I promise you’ll feel validated by Calhoun’s message.
Fiction
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American Dirt
- A Novel
- By: Jeanine Cummins
- Narrated by: Yareli Arizmendi
- Length: 16 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Lydia Quixano Pérez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while there are cracks beginning to show in Acapulco because of the drug cartels, her life is, by and large, fairly comfortable. When Lydia’s husband’s tell-all profile of Javier, the jefe of the newest drug cartel that has gruesomely taken over the city, is published, none of their lives will ever be the same.
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Completely unrealistic
- By Marlene L Marquez on 02-12-20
A timely story
If you haven’t heard of American Dirt yet, prepare to get familiar with the title quickly. It’s one of the "buzziest" audiobooks of the New Year! Jeanine Cummins weaves together a tale of a bookseller, Lydia, and her son who are fleeing Mexico towards the US border after an attack by the local cartel has made Lydia a widow. Performed by Yareli Arizmendi, this timely story gives voice to a social issue that deserves all of our attention.
Sci-Fi
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Terminus
- By: Peter Clines
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Murdoch’s past has finally come crashing down on him. His former girlfriend. His Family. He’s been happily avoiding them for ages, trying to live something close to a normal life. But now he’s been drawn back into another one of their ludicrous attempts to bring about the end of all things. Anne is tired of living in the past. She’s finally looking to the future and embracing her destiny. She’s going to lead the Family forward on their greatest, final crusade to destroy the hated Machine of their long-time adversary.
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Super dope entry in the Threshold series
- By Sandra L. Etemad on 01-30-20
My author/narrator one true pairing
Here at Audible, there are a very sacred handful of author-narrator pairings that are regarded as sheer perfection, and in sci-fi, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better duo than Peter Clines and Ray Porter—especially this wonderful, quirky, creepy, mysterious series. Terminus is a true standalone sequel to 14 and The Fold, which takes place on an uncharted island (Hi, Peter. If you’re reading this—can we schedule to compare LOST theories sometime?), and features a new reality-bending storyline told from multiple perspectives—perfect for the multi-faceted voice of Ray Porter.
Mystery/Thriller
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Unspeakable Things
- By: Jess Lourey
- Narrated by: Caitlin Kelly
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Cassie McDowell’s life in 1980s Minnesota seems perfectly wholesome. She lives on a farm, loves school, and has a crush on the nicest boy in class. Yes, there are her parents’ strange parties and their parade of deviant guests, but she’s grown accustomed to them. All that changes when someone comes hunting in Lilydale. One by one, local boys go missing. One by one, they return changed - violent, moody, and withdrawn. What happened to them becomes the stuff of shocking rumors. The accusations of who’s responsible grow just as wild, and dangerous town secrets start to surface.
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Oof
- By Derek Brown on 01-07-20
Unspeakable crimes, unpauseable suspense
Accomplished author Jess Lourey drew on one of her childhood’s defining memories—the famous abduction of 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling in Paynesville, Minnesota—to craft this intensely suspenseful and haunting novel. Told from the perspective of 12-year-old Cassie McDowell, it starts as a coming-of-age tale set in the 1980s—think Trapper Keepers, Pac-Man, and references to "Chester the Molester." But as that last one suggests, the dread creeps in fast. Something isn’t right in the McDowell family…or their town, where boys start to disappear and then return, their changed demeanors hinting at shocking trauma. Lourey is a master at building unrelenting suspense, and prolific narrator Caitlin Kelly delivers an excellent portrayal of Cassie’s ordeal—and the process by which an entire community comes to terms with its deep, collective grief.
History
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The Minuteman
- By: Greg Donahue
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 1 hr and 54 mins
- Original Recording
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Greg Donahue’s The Minuteman, tells the story of one of Newark’s native sons; ex-prizefighter and longtime Zwillman enforcer Sidney Abramowitz, a.k.a. Nat Arno, who took over leadership of the Minutemen in 1934 and made it his personal business to put an end to what he saw as the Bund’s “anti-American” activities. For six years, Arno and his crew of vigilantes battled Newark’s Nazis at every turn. The Minuteman is a story of the ethics of violence in the face of fascism; a forgotten legacy that is as relevant now as it was nearly a hundred years ago.
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Interesting listen, but worrying message
- By Ian on 01-12-20
Nazis targeted NJ in the ‘30s. Newark fought back.
As a New Jersey native, armchair historian, and someone who works in Newark every day, I probably should’ve known the inspiring story about the Minutemen in the 1930s. Pro-Nazi groups tried to recruit American immigrants, and enjoyed early, sinister success. A faction of Jewish mobsters, ex-boxers, students, and factory workers defended Jewish interests in Newark, led for a time by Nat Arno, the Minuteman of the title. Greg Donahue, a talented documentary storyteller, and Jonathan Davis—one of my favorite narrators—bring forgotten history to life with nuance and a hint of contemporary urgency. Who knew? Now we all do!
Fiction
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Followers
- By: Megan Angelo
- Narrated by: Jayme Mattler
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Orla Cadden is a budding novelist stuck in a dead-end job, writing clickbait about movie-star hookups and influencer yoga moves. Then Orla meets Floss - a striving, wannabe A-lister - who comes up with a plan for launching them both into the high-profile lives they dream about. So what if Orla and Floss’s methods are a little shady - and sometimes people get hurt? Their legions of followers can’t be wrong.
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I'm conflicted
- By BadExampleMan on 06-25-20
The price of fame
I imagine that Orla Cadden would balk at recent news that Instagram is testing removing likes. When we meet the blogger in 2015, at the height of "celebrity culture", her entire life is focused on making her New York City roommate, Floss, famous. After a fateful incident on the stairs at an Urban Outfitters store catapults them both to fame, these overnight celebrities end up getting more than they bargained for. Unlike Orla and Floss, Marlow doesn’t want to be famous. It’s 2051, she lives every moment of her life on a reality show set in Constellation, CA (think Calabasas on speed), and she can’t get out. Until one day she does, and jets off to NYC to find the truth about her past, hurtling her toward a reckoning with events that happened 35 years ago. Megan Angelo’s debut novel is not only an engrossing story of these three women and their desire to be liked, but an important lesson for us all in this influencer-fueled world where we’ll do anything for the ‘gram’, but at what cost?
Sci-Fi
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Trapped
- Fleet Ops, Book 1
- By: Scott Bartlett, Joshua James
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Years after defeating aliens bent on burning down the galaxy, the Interstellar Union is breaking apart, its member species undermining each other at every opportunity. When an interdimensional distress signal arrives, only humanity is interested in helping. Captain Vin Husher is sent in with a task force....
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Great Sci-Fi and Space Opera
- By Chris C. on 01-08-20
Another out of this world collaboration
Scott Bartlett writes action-packed military sci-fi full of world-building detail. Mark Boyett has narrated every one of Scott’s books—over 15 of them and counting. So I know I can depend on the pair to bring the latest entry in their ongoing collaboration to life. Trapped starts a new series in a familiar universe, and provides a fantastic (in both senses of the word) jumping on point for fans of space operas, battle-tested starship captains, and a bio-engineered super-species created by an artificial intelligence intent on taking over the galaxy!? Where do I enlist?
Fiction
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When We Were Vikings
- By: Andrew David MacDonald
- Narrated by: Phoebe Strole
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A heart-swelling debut for fans of The Silver Linings Playbook and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. When We Were Vikings is an uplifting debut about an unlikely heroine whose journey will leave you wanting to embark on a quest of your own, because after all...we are all legends of our own making.
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Foul language
- By Jo on 06-09-20
A new vinátta
If, like me, you love a story with an unforgettable lead character—let me introduce you to Zelda. At 21 years old, Zelda has long-adapted to her diagnosis of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. What defines her the most is how she is utterly and completely obsessed with all things Viking. Zelda is also intensely loyal to her family and friends and is on a quest to become legendary. Yes, she calls it an actual, real-life, quest and yes, she wants to become the thing of legends as big as the Viking tales she can't get enough of. Narrator Phoebe Strole's performance perfectly captures Zelda's undaunting positivity and charming determination. The more I listened, the more I found myself not simply rooting for Zelda, but becoming completely invested in her journey. You will want her to be your new best friend—I certainly do. And you know what? I think she would welcome all of us into her tribe.
Mystery/Thriller
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Agency
- By: William Gibson
- Narrated by: Lorelei King
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Verity Jane, gifted app whisperer, takes a job as the beta tester for a new product: a digital assistant, accessed through a pair of ordinary-looking glasses. "Eunice", the disarmingly human AI in the glasses, manifests a face, a fragmentary past, and a canny grasp of combat strategy. Realizing that her cryptic new employers don’t yet know how powerful and valuable Eunice is, Verity instinctively decides that it’s best they don’t.
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reads like a treatment for a bad movie
- By Ronke on 02-10-20
The future is now!
Six years after William Gibson’s The Peripheral, the groundbreaking writer returns with a follow-up sci-fi thriller that continues the timeline hopping fun The Agency. It’s a must-listen for anyone who is a fan of Gibson’s thought-provoking prose. Award-winning narrator Lorelai King’s performance more than keeps up with the fast-paced storyline that bounces between an alternative 2017 and a future London in a different timeline. You first get to know Verity Jane, an app whisperer, as she tests out a new AI named Eunice and assesses the true power it holds. Then there’s Wilf Netherton and his boss Lowbeer, who play with the past in a way that will impact Verity and Eunice. There’s a bit of a runway before it all comes together but it’s a fun ride the whole way.
Romance/Fantasy
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Make Mine Magic
- By: Shanna Swendson
- Narrated by: Karissa Vacker
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Original Recording
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Story
Jilted at the altar, small-town librarian Claire is forced to go on her romantic honeymoon in New York City alone. After enduring one too many meals for two as one, Claire invites a seemingly harmless little old lady to join her for afternoon tea at the Plaza. Unbeknownst to Claire, said little old lady is actually a grand wizard, who bestows Claire with a magical amulet that makes her the sitting queen of the magical community. Claire is swept into the gilded world of New York City wizards - and a bitter power struggle for the throne.
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Clean read
- By Pink Mama T on 02-04-20
When your superpower is research
I absolutely adored this charming story about a suburban librarian named Claire who, despite being jilted at the altar, decides to use her honeymoon trip to explore a big city famous for its arts culture, historic sites...and undercover magical community (!). Claire, whose Texas-tinged voice is narrated wonderfully by Karissa Vacker, gets tangled up with wizards who take her on an unintentional journey of intrigue, self-discovery, and potential romance. She learns first-hand how power—including supernatural powers—can corrupt, but when used wisely can also restore one’s confidence and ability to help the commonwealth. The many nods to book lovers was a bonus. If you're craving a feel-good listen for the new year, this is it.
Mystery/Thriller
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Long Bright River
- A GMA Book Club Pick (A Novel)
- By: Liz Moore
- Narrated by: Allyson Ryan
- Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In a Philadelphia neighborhood rocked by the opioid crisis, two once-inseparable sisters find themselves at odds. One, Kacey, lives on the streets in the vise of addiction. The other, Mickey, walks those same blocks on her police beat. They don't speak anymore, but Mickey never stops worrying about her sibling. Then Kacey disappears, suddenly, at the same time that a mysterious string of murders begins in Mickey's district, and Mickey becomes dangerously obsessed with finding the culprit - and her sister - before it's too late.
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Narration was good
- By Kelli avid listener on 01-14-20
A literary thriller that boasts plot and character
I worked in a high school in Kensington, Philadelphia back in 2010 when the Kensington Strangler murdered at least 3 women and hid their bodies in an abandoned row home near the school. Looking back on it, the whole situation was really intense, but every day in Kensington was (and is) so intense that I think most people didn’t have the energy or the resources to fully care. In Kensington overdose deaths are incredibly common, and poverty strains and taxes every facet of daily life. To see Liz Moore, an author I’m a huge fan of for her previous work The Unseen World, turn her emotionally adept and aesthetically precise eye to a time and place that was so powerful for me, felt immediately personal. And you don’t have to know Kensington for Long Bright River to hit close to home. It boasts a riveting plot but at every step works to establish the character of and give voice to an incredibly resilient community that has seen far more than its share of misfortune.
Fiction
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Topics of Conversation
- A Novel
- By: Miranda Popkey
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Miranda Popkey's first novel is about desire, disgust, motherhood, loneliness, art, pain, feminism, anger, envy, guilt - written in language that sizzles with intelligence and eroticism. The novel is composed almost exclusively of conversations between women - the stories they tell each other, and the stories they tell themselves, about shame and love, infidelity and self-sabotage - and careens through 20 years in the life of an unnamed narrator hungry for experience and bent on upending her life.
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Conversation Item
- By gian balsamo on 01-13-20
A strong debut to start off the decade
The great thing about a strong work of fiction is that it can, if done right, bring you into lives and worlds so different from your own. For me, that happens with such infrequency that I forget it’s even a possibility until it happens again. Well, it happened again. Miranda Popkey’s debut novel is a beautifully well-crafted story that gives an honest and difficult illustration of a woman coming of age, all while being told through her conversations with different women over 20 years—which is pulled-off brilliantly by Rebecca Lowman as narrator. I think this novel is going to be a big deal and I can’t think of a better way to start off the new decade than with some truly great storytelling.
Science & Technology
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Humble Pi
- When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World
- By: Matt Parker
- Narrated by: Matt Parker
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near misses, and mathematical mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman Empire, and an Olympic team, Matt Parker uncovers the bizarre ways math trips us up, and what this reveals about its essential place in our world. Getting it wrong has never been more fun.
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Fascinating & enlightening even for da mathphobic✏️
- By C. White on 01-23-20
Perfect for the math nerd AND the math-phobe
Let’s set the record straight: I am embarrassingly bad at math. But I think that’s part of the reason I was so engrossed by this audiobook. Matt Parker takes us through some of the more hilarious—or in some cases, disastrous—examples of what can happen when real-world applications of math go wrong. Parker’s performance of his own work brings out a delightful, almost conversational tone that can, at times, feel like a mathematics-themed standup act. And while some of the mistakes that engineers and mathematicians make don’t excuse my inability to perform simple mental math, it definitely made me feel at least a little bit better about it. Perfect for both the math-lovers and the math-haters out there, Parker presents a new side to what I used to consider my least favorite subject.
Mystery/Thriller
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I Choose You
- By: Gayle Curtis
- Narrated by: Esther Wane
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Thirty years ago, Elise and Nathaniel shared a horrific trauma that united them in grief. Now, grown up and married with a young family, they feel their worst nightmares are behind them. Until the day their daughter is abducted and murdered. Both Elise and Nathaniel lost their mothers to a notorious killer who manipulated innocent victims into taking their own lives. Could it be that "the Watcher" has returned for another round of the same sadistic game? Why now? And why are Elise and Nathaniel being targeted again?
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not great
- By mommy on 01-05-20
When it stops, no one knows…
Imagine being the target of a sick and cruel game, one where you’re offered two options: to either kill yourself or be killed by a murderer? Gayle Curtis kicks off her audio debut with I Choose You, a thriller packed with eerie twists and turns at every chapter. I was instantly intrigued by the plot, but I stayed for the character development and the performance. One thing that you learn right away while listening, the mystery of the story does not lie within the knowing who or what the killer is after. The mystery lies within the main characters, Elise and Nathaniel, and whether they are as reliable as they seem. The more you learn, the more questions you ask! Esther Wane beautifully delivers a very cold and daunting performance and will leave you wanting more and more.
Fiction
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A Long Petal of the Sea
- A Novel
- By: Isabel Allende, Nick Caistor, Amanda Hopkinson
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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In the late 1930s, civil war grips Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border. Among them is Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them desires.
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Impressive
- By Jean on 05-24-20
A favorite of 2019—now available in English
If you have read over our Best of the Year list (if you haven’t—you should!) you may know that we chose Largo Pétalo de Mar, the Spanish version of this book, as the best Spanish language title of 2019. I cannot accurately express how much I love this book. I could not stop listening to it from the moment I picked it up, and as soon as I finished it, I began to recommend it to any friend/family member with even a rudimentary grasp of Spanish. Which is why the release of the English translation has restarted my fervent evangelism of Allende’s latest novel; but now, my audience pool has doubled. A Long Petal of the Sea, tell the story of the Dalmau family. Forced to flee home as a result of the Spanish civil war, they find refuge on a ship of migrants headed to Chile and organized by the poet, Pablo Neruda. It is a beautiful expansive story of resilience, hope, assimilation, and even love during one of the western hemisphere’s most tumultuous periods. And if that is not enough to intrigue you, then know that every person who has accepted my recommendation has unequivocally loved it.