Winter Audiobook by Ali Smith

Munich Audiobook by Robert Harris

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ [https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/] to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Munich Subtitle: A Novel Author: Robert Harris Narrator: David Rintoul Format: Unabridged Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins Language: English Release date: 01-16-18 Publisher: Random House Audio Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 57 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: From the internationally best-selling author of Fatherland and the Cicero Trilogy - a new spy thriller about treason and conscience, loyalty and betrayal, set against the backdrop of the fateful Munich Conference of September 1938. Hugh Legat is a rising star of the British diplomatic service, serving at 10 Downing Street as a private secretary to the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain. Rikard von Holz is on the staff of the German Foreign Office - and secretly a member of the anti-Hitler resistance. The two men were friends at Oxford in the 1920s, but have not been in contact since. Now, when Hugh flies with Chamberlain from London to Munich, and Rikard travels on Hitler's train overnight from Berlin, their paths are set on a disastrous collision course. And once again, Robert Harris gives us actual events of historical importance - here are Hitler, Chamberlain, Mussolini, Daladier-at the heart of an electrifying novel. Members Reviews: Gripping I have always enjoyed books by Robert Harris. I particularly enjoyed reading his Imperium Trilogy about Cicero. Harris is a master of historical novels. Munich is the German City where British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Adolf Hitler in September 1938 in a desperate attempt to preserve peace in Europe. This meeting is the focal point of this book. The meeting was to discuss Hitlers demands that the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia be handed over to Germany. Harris used two fictional characters: one English, Hugh Leget; one German, Paul Von Hartmann. The two had been friends while attending Oxford and now serve as aides to the real-life senior diplomats. The book is well written and researched. Harris is a master at weaving fictional characters into a historical situation so the reader is able to develop a personal understanding of the event. The characters are interesting and the plot is clever. Harris takes his time developing the story, but then it takes off at a rapid pace. I was sad when the story ended. I wanted it to continue. I guess I got carried away with the storyline. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and highly recommend it. The book is just over nine and a half hours. David Rintout does a good job narrating the book. Rintout is a Scottish stage and television actor and audiobook narrator. Superb, brilliant! Another Robert Harris Winner. This has never been a period of history that I have a deep interest in. It was a horrendous time and it makes me so uptight. It is never a good thing to want to go postal when you are supposed to be enjoying a good book wouldnt you agree? I read 'Munich' because I am a fan of Robert Harris. He never fails to please the amateur historian that is renting space in this avid reader. Munich grabbed me from the first paragraph. It has it all with historical accuracy added to make it even more enjoyable. There is intrigue. It touches on a love story from years past. There is the obligatory adultery and then we have the major political players who are so well written that you feel that that you are there, sitting quietly in the corner of The Berghof. There were times when I thought that I could smell cigarettes, you know, when they have been hastily extinguished underfoot. Robert Harris breaths life into his characters and to me they feel alive.

Red Clocks Audiobook by Leni Zumas

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ [https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/] to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Red Clocks Subtitle: A Novel Author: Leni Zumas Narrator: Erin Bennett, Karissa Vacker Format: Unabridged Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins Language: English Release date: 01-16-18 Publisher: Hachette Audio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 18 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: A Popsugar most anticipated book of fall A Ploughshares most anticipated book of fall One of Publishers Weekly's most anticipated titles of fall 2017 Five women. One question. What is a woman for? In this ferociously imaginative novel, abortion is once again illegal in America, in vitro fertilization is banned, and the Personhood Amendment grants rights of life, liberty, and property to every embryo. In a small Oregon fishing town, five very different women navigate these new barriers alongside age-old questions surrounding motherhood, identity, and freedom. Ro, a single high-school teacher, is trying to have a baby on her own while also writing a biography of Eivr, a little-known 19th-century female polar explorer. Susan is a frustrated mother of two, trapped in a crumbling marriage. Mattie is the adopted daughter of doting parents and one of Ro's best students, who finds herself pregnant with nowhere to turn. And Gin is the gifted, forest-dwelling herbalist, or "mender", who brings all their fates together when she's arrested and put on trial in a frenzied modern-day witch hunt. Red Clocks is at once a riveting drama whose mysteries unfold with magnetic energy and a shattering novel of ideas. In the vein of Margaret Atwood and Eileen Myles, Leni Zumas fearlessly explores the contours of female experience, evoking The Handmaid's Tale for a new millennium. This is a story of resilience, transformation, and hope in tumultuous - even frightening - times. Members Reviews: One of the best books Ive listened to in a while I really loved the style and themes, which are complex, thought-provoking, real. Dreamy quality to the writing, beautiful imagery. I desperately wanted to like this book During extremely brief periods of this novela , I had reaffirming feelings of how I would die before a females choice to reproduce would be infringed upon. It is an opinion I had going into the book, that was strengthened. I also will ask my wife what would make her happy because apparently the female existence is excruciating at its best. Other than that, I feel really sorry for this author. I have no doubt in her original draft ,she felma and Louised a storyline she built up. Then when it was edited out, she paid that character no mind toward the end. She basically compares the female experience to living in a concentration camp from conception until the sweet release of death. Technically I made the female experience sound better than she did in my prior sentence. I have a feeling when she writes grocery lists , she assigns a feeling to each item. I hope that makes her existence as a survivor of this world better, otherwise it's an odd line of thought to opt into. at any point people can make a stand and sacrifice themselves for womankinds greater good. Or they can be selfish and destroy everything for nothing but themselves. Because they're bored and disenfranchised. ya.....That's worth thinking about and writing about. This book could be taking place in Ohio right now band is playing out in prisons all over the United States under the Trump Administration. this book should be labeled under current events.

The Immortalists Audiobook by Chloe Benjamin

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ [https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/] to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: The Immortalists Author: Chloe Benjamin Narrator: Maggie Hoffman Format: Unabridged Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins Language: English Release date: 01-09-18 Publisher: Penguin Audio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 179 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: A dazzling family love story reminiscent of Everything I Never Told You from a novelist heralded by Lorrie Moore as a "great new talent". If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life? It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children - four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness - sneak out to hear their fortunes. Their prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden-boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in '80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician, obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy; eldest son Daniel seeks security as an army doctor post-9/11, hoping to control fate; and bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality. A sweeping novel of remarkable ambition and depth, The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion, this world and the next. It is a deeply moving testament to the power of story, the nature of belief, and the unrelenting pull of familial bonds. Members Reviews: Inaudible unfortunately Would you try another book from Chloe Benjamin and/or Maggie Hoffman? From Chloe Hoffman yes, but from Maggie Hoffman no. How could the performance have been better? The performance is read in such a monotone - like Ms Hoffman is a somnambulist sleepreading the script. Any additional comments? So many amazing performers on Audible bring even tough pithy books alive. Was so excited to hear this selection but will delete it and go back to reading the text version. This book is good but . . . I really enjoyed this book until the end. It kept me interested and surprised and I finished it in 3 days. The ending doesnt really resolve anything, it just ends. It could use a prologue or something, I felt like it was in the middle of a chapter and just stopped, but nope that was it. Mysticism vs. the Self-fulfilling Prophecy As the summary says, during the summer of 1969, four siblings in New York, Varya - 13, Daniel -11, Klara - 9, and Simon - 7, are contemplating another boring, miserably humid day on the Lower East Side when Daniel tells them he heard about a lady, a psychic, claiming the power *to tell fortunes and something else...she can say when you'll die.* Varya argues she doesn't want to know, Klara and Simon agree to go, and gradually the four make a pact to combine their savings and make a secret visit to the lady on Hester St. Varya is the last to meet with the woman. After manipulating the young girl's palm she tells Varya she'll die in 2044, at the age of 88. *How do you know?* Varya asks. The woman says everything is contained in the hand, quoting the Greek philosopher, Heroclytus: *A man's character is his destiny.* (Personally, I'm not sure how the author has tied destiny to longevity.) When she reunites with her siblings outside, Danny is stony, Klara's cheeks are streaked with tears, and Simon is quiet and distant then refuses to eat dinner. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the author is throwing us a glimpse into the future. Potato, potahto...the first little manipulation by the author, in my opinion, a step at setting into motion the prophecies.

Winter Audiobook by Ali Smith

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ [https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/] to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: Winter Author: Ali Smith Narrator: Melody Grove Format: Unabridged Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins Language: English Release date: 01-09-18 Publisher: Recorded Books Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 8 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: From the Man Booker-short-listed and Baileys Women's Prize-winning author of How to be both, the highly anticipated second novel in the acclaimed Seasonal series, which both continues the arc of the series and is also an extraordinary stand-alone listen. In Winter, life force matches up to the toughest of the seasons. In this second novel in her acclaimed Seasonal cycle, the follow-up to Ali Smith's sensational Autumn, Smith's shape-shifting quartet of novels casts a merry eye over a bleak post-truth era with a story rooted in history, memory, and warmth, its taproot deep in the evergreens: art, love, laughter. It's the season that teaches us survival. Members Reviews: Too Weird For Me I was disappointed in this book. Ali Smith is an award-winning literary star but this book failed to shine. The stream of consciousness storytelling fell flat and the style of the writing was too weird to enjoy. Maybe this book was too offbeat, too cerebral, too clever even. This book is about the dysfunctional family, anger, and with odd characters that just didnât gel for me. The floating head of a child was very disturbing and set me off from the start. The story structure is quirky with lots of flashbacks and memories if you like backstory threads. I found the story to veer in scattered directions and jumps in time. Some of the prose was beautifully done, okay, this lady can write--I get it--but what is the story here? Furthermore, I didnât like that the dialogue had no quotation marks. This is a modern trend now and used by intellectually elite authors, supposedly artful, clean, and elegant. I think it comes off pretentious and vague and burdens the reader. The characters donât speak, only the writer does. We canât âhearâ the characters talking because the lines stiffen into the narrative voice and exposition. In one scene we have dialogue with the attribution of the speakers in parenthesis about 20 times, identifying volleys between the aunt and the mother: [I cannot be near her f*****g chaos a minute longer. (His mother talking to the wall) â (His aunt speaking to the ceiling) â (His aunt) â (His mother) â(His aunt.)â(His mother)â]. Came off choppy and distracting like watching a movie with the mute button on. In the end I was dissatisfied with the story as a whole. I do recognize that for some readers who are in the Ali Smith fan club, they might love this kind of blurred jabberwocky. Not for me. What WINTER lacks in plot is more than compensated for by Ali Smithâs characteristic wit and keen observation of character Following less than a year after her 2017 novel, AUTUMN, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Ali Smithâs WINTER is the second in a projected quartet of âseasonalâ novels. Like its predecessor, this book trades a conventional narrative structure for a collection of scenes that center on one small familyâs celebration of a contemporary Christmas in a sprawling Cornwall mansion. What WINTER lacks in plot is more than compensated for by Smithâs characteristic wit, her keen observation of character, and her unabashed sense of delight in the pleasure of well-deployed language. Sophia Cleves, one of the foursome of WINTERâs principal characters, lives in the aforementioned dwelling, where, as the novel opens, sheâs haunted, but far from terrified, by a floating, shape-shifting head thatâs become her constant companion.

This Could Hurt Audiobook by Jillian Medoff

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/ [https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/audiobook/79/] to download full audiobooks of your choice for free. Title: This Could Hurt Subtitle: A Novel Author: Jillian Medoff Narrator: Sean Crisden, Nick Podehl, Madeleine Maby, Andrea Gallo, Saskia Maarleveld, George Newbern Format: Unabridged Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins Language: English Release date: 01-09-18 Publisher: Harper Audio Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 22 votes Genres: Fiction, Literary Publisher's Summary: A funny and deeply felt novel that illuminates the pivotal role of work in our lives - a riveting fusion of The Nest, Up in the Air, and Then We Came to the End that captures the emotional complexities of five HR colleagues trying to balance ambition, hope, and fear as their small company is buffeted by economic forces that threaten to upend them. Rosa Guerrero beat the odds as she rose to the top of the corporate world. An attractive woman of a certain age, the longtime chief of human resources at Ellery Consumer Research is still a formidable presence, even if her most vital days are behind her. A leader who wields power with grace and discretion, she has earned the devotion and loyalty of her staff. No one admires Rosa more than her doting lieutenant Leo Smalls, a benefits vice president whose whole world is Ellery. While Rosa is consumed with trying to address the needs of her staff within the ever-constricting limits of the company's bottom line, her associate director, Rob Hirsch, a middle-aged, happily married father of two, finds himself drawing closer to his "work wife", Lucy Bender, an enterprising single woman searching for something - a romance, a promotion - to fill the vacuum in her personal life. For Kenny Verville, a senior manager with an MBA, Ellery is a temporary stepping-stone to bigger and better places - that is, if his high-powered wife has her way. Compelling, flawed, and heartbreakingly human, these men and women scheme, fall in and out of love, and nurture dreams big and small. As their individual circumstances shift, one thing remains constant - Rosa, the sun around whom they all orbit. When her world begins to crumble, the implications for everyone are profound, and Leo, Rob, Lucy, and Kenny find themselves changed in ways beyond their reckoning. Jillian Medoff explores the inner workings of an American company in all its brilliant, insane, comforting, and terrifying glory. Authentic, razor-sharp, and achingly funny, This Could Hurt is a novel about work, loneliness, love, and loyalty; about sudden reversals and unexpected windfalls; a novel about life. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio. Members Reviews: Surprised me. I almost regretted this book. It took a while for me to get into the story which I blame a bit on how they introduce the characters. I think it made sense for reading a book but on audible it made it seem like they were going to chronicle true stories or something. Anyways this turned out to be an awesome book. I loved how the characters overlapped and how each story showed their perceptions on things going on.