Audio CDs I'm Listening To This January 2014

I've had some surgery this fall that's made it difficult for me to keep up with all the books I wanted to catch up with from 2013, so I've decided to "read" a few of them via audio book.  Here are some of the ones I've chosen to start the year out.  I hope you'll like them when review time comes up, and that you may decide to listen along with me!

OVERVIEW of "Light in the Ruins":

From Barnes & Noble

While World War II raged all around them, the Rosatis lived quietly in the pastoral tranquility of their ancient villa in Tuscany. Then their solitude was broken, first by a simple request by two Axis soldiers to visit their Etruscan burial site; then by a virtual invasion of uniformed Nazis who turn their sanctuary into a prison. Ten years later, the events of those days reverberate when the surviving members of the family are a targeted by a relentless serial killer. Another arresting novel by the author of The Sandcastle Girls.

Produced by Random House Audio

 

Overview

A New York Times Notable Book • A Time Top Fiction Book • An NPR "Great Read" • A Chicago Tribune Best Book • A USA Today Best Book • A People magazine Top 10 Book • A Barnes and Noble Best New Book • A Good Reads Best Book • A Kirkus Best Fiction Book • A Slate Favorite Book

National Book Award Finalist and shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning, best-selling author of The Namesake comes an extraordinary new novel, set in both India and America, that expands the scope and range of one of our most dazzling storytellers: a tale of two brothers bound by tragedy, a fiercely brilliant woman haunted by her past, a country torn by revolution, and a love that lasts long past death.

Born just fifteen months apart, Subhash and Udayan Mitra are inseparable brothers, one often mistaken for the other in the Calcutta neighborhood where they grow up.  But they are also opposites, with gravely different futures ahead. It is the 1960s, and Udayan—charismatic and impulsive—finds himself drawn to the Naxalite movement, a rebellion waged to eradicate inequity and poverty; he will give everything, risk all, for what he believes. Subhash, the dutiful son, does not share his brother’s political passion; he leaves home to pursue a life of scientific research in a quiet, coastal corner of America.

But when Subhash learns what happened to his brother in the lowland outside their family’s home, he goes back to India, hoping to pick up the pieces of a shattered family, and to heal the wounds Udayan left behind—including those seared in the heart of his brother’s wife.

Masterly suspenseful, sweeping, piercingly intimate, The Lowland is a work of great beauty and complex emotion; an engrossing family saga and a story steeped in history that spans generations and geographies with seamless authenticity. It is Jhumpa Lahiri at the height of her considerable powers.

Published by Random House

 

Publishers Weekly

After 13 years as a memoirist, Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love) has returned to fiction, and clearly she’s reveling in all its pleasures and possibilities. The Signature of All Things is a big, old-fashioned story that spans continents and a century. It has an omniscient narrator who can deploy (never heavy-handedly) a significant amount of research into the interconnected fields of late 18th- and early 19th-century botany, botanical drawing, spiritual inquiry, exploration, and, eventually, the development of the theory of evolution. The story begins with Henry Whittaker, at first poor on the fringes of England’s Kew Gardens, but in the end the richest man in Philadelphia. In more detail, the story follows Henry’s daughter, Alma. Born in 1800, Alma learns Latin and Greek, understands the natural world, and reads everything in sight. Despite her wealth and education, Alma is a woman, and a plain one at that, two facts that circumscribe her opportunities. Resigned to spinsterhood, ashamed and tormented by her erotic desires, Alma finds a late-in-life soul mate in Ambrose Pike, a talented botanical illustrator and spiritualist. Characters crisscross the world to make money, to learn, and, in Alma’s case, to understand not just science but herself and her complicated relationship with Ambrose. Eventually Alma, who studies moss, enters into the most important scientific discussions of the time. Alma is a prodigy, but Gilbert doesn’t cheat: her life is unlikely but not impossible, and for readers traveling with Henry from England to the Andes to Philadelphia, and then with Alma from Philadelphia to Tahiti to Holland, there is much pleasure in this unhurried, sympathetic, intelligent novel by an author confident in her material and her form. Agent: Sarah Chalfant, the Wylie Agency. (Oct. 1)

Produced by Penguin Group

 

SUMMARY:

Ken Follett’s Fall of Giants, the first novel in the extraordinary historical epic Century Trilogy, was an international sensation, acclaimed as “sweeping and fascinating, a book that will consume you for days or weeks” (USA Today). Now Winter of the World picks up right where the first book left off, as its five interrelated families—American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh—enter a time of enormous social, political, and economic turmoil beginning with the rise of the Third Reich, through the Spanish Civil War and the great dramas of World War II, to the explosions of the American and Soviet atomic bombs and the beginning of the long Cold War.

Carla von Ulrich, born of German and English parents, finds her life engulfed by the Nazi tide, until daring to commit a deed of great courage and heartbreak....American brothers Woody and Chuck Dewar, each with a secret, take separate paths to momentous events, one in Washington, the other in the bloody jungles of the Pacific....English student Lloyd Williams discovers in the crucible of the Spanish Civil War that he must fight Communism just as hard as Fascism....Daisy Peshkov, a driven social climber, cares only for popularity and the fast set, until war transforms her life, while her cousin Volodya carves out a position in Soviet intelligence that will affect not only this war but also the war to come.

Produced by Penguin Group



I've currently started "The Lowland" which I also started in hard copy last month.  It's clearly a wonderful story, but I need some "rest" time and I know I'll continue to enjoy it though someone else is reading it to me!!  The narrator is excellent....

So, I encourage you to listen to an audio book yourself as this season's business draws to a close and the new year whips up quickly with its own business.  I love to stitch and knit quietly while I listen to my "stories."  What do you do?

Sending hugs to everyone this end of the holidays!!

Deborah 

Audiobooks~December 2013

SUMMARY :

Poignant, raw, and insightful, Jennifer Gilmore's third novel is an unforgettable story of love, family, and motherhood. With a "voice [that is] at turns wise and barbed with sharp humor" (Vanity Fair), Gilmore lays bare the story of one couple's ardent desire for a child and their emotional journey through adoption.

Jesse and Ramon are a loving couple, but after years spent unsuccessfully trying to get pregnant, they turn to adoption, relieved to think that once they navigate the bureaucratic path to parenthood they will have a happy ending. But nothing has prepared them for the labyrinthine process - for the many training sessions and approvals; for the constant advice from friends, strangers, and "experts;" for the birthmothers who contact them but don't ultimately choose them; or even, most shockingly, for the women who call claiming they've chosen Jesse and Ramon but who turn out never to have been pregnant in the first place.

Jennifer Gilmore's eloquence about the human heart - its frailties and complexities - and her razor-sharp observations about race, class, culture, and changing family dynamics are spectacularly combined in this powerful novel. Suffused with passion and fury, The Mothers is a taut, gripping, and satisfying book that will stay with readers long after they turn the last page.


*I'm just finishing this fabulous Audiobook and highly recommend it.  The narrator is just awesome...very relatable and speaks like I would think Jesse does.  I love the story!  Jennifer Gilmore is a little known author who really deserves more recognition.  She's a wonderful author.

I borrowed this Audiobook from my local library through the Overdrive sharing method.

SUMMARY :

The bestselling author of The Madonnas of Leningrad returns with a breathtaking novel of love, madness, and devotion set against the extravagant royal court of eighteenth-century St. Petersburg.

Born to a Russian family of lower nobility, Xenia, an eccentric dreamer who cares little for social conventions, falls in love with Andrei, a charismatic soldier and singer in the Empress's Imperial choir. Though husband and wife adore each other, their happiness is overshadowed by the absurd demands of life at the royal court and by Xenia's growing obsession with having a child—a desperate need that is at last fulfilled with the birth of her daughter. But then a tragic vision comes true, and a shattered Xenia descends into grief, undergoing a profound transformation that alters the course of her life. Turning away from family and friends, she begins giving all her money and possessions to the poor. Then, one day, she mysteriously vanishes.

Years later, dressed in the tatters of her husband's military uniform and answering only to his name, Xenia is discovered tending the paupers of St. Petersburg's slums. Revered as a soothsayer and a blessed healer to the downtrodden, she is feared by the royal court and its new Empress, Catherine, who perceives her deeds as a rebuke to their lavish excesses. In this evocative and elegantly written tale, Dean reimagines the intriguing life of Xenia of St. Petersburg, a patron saint of her city and one of Russia's most mysterious and beloved holy figures. This is an exploration of the blessings of loyal friendship, the limits of reason, and the true costs of loving deeply.

*Just starting this one tomorrow!!  Love anything having to do with Russia...love story...tragedy.. 

OVERVIEW :

National Book Award Finalist

Shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning, best-selling author of The Namesake comes an extraordinary new novel, set in both India and America, that expands the scope and range of one of our most dazzling storytellers: a tale of two brothers bound by tragedy, a fiercely brilliant woman haunted by her past, a country torn by revolution, and a love that lasts long past death.

Born just fifteen months apart, Subhash and Udayan Mitra are inseparable brothers, one often mistaken for the other in the Calcutta neighborhood where they grow up.  But they are also opposites, with gravely different futures ahead. It is the 1960s, and Udayan—charismatic and impulsive—finds himself drawn to the Naxalite movement, a rebellion waged to eradicate inequity and poverty; he will give everything, risk all, for what he believes. Subhash, the dutiful son, does not share his brother’s political passion; he leaves home to pursue a life of scientific research in a quiet, coastal corner of America.

But when Subhash learns what happened to his brother in the lowland outside their family’s home, he goes back to India, hoping to pick up the pieces of a shattered family, and to heal the wounds Udayan left behind—including those seared in the heart of his brother’s wife.

Masterly suspenseful, sweeping, piercingly intimate, The Lowland is a work of great beauty and complex emotion; an engrossing family saga and a story steeped in history that spans generations and geographies with seamless authenticity. It is Jhumpa Lahiri at the height of her considerable powers.

*Note:   This is the next Audiobook I'll be starting hopefully at the end of December...I'm now on the waiting list for it at my library.  It's supposed to be fabulous, but I don't have time to read it otherwise, so I'm choosing this method.  Once I start it, I'll report back.  I may end up buying the hard copy if I get into it!  I didn't read "The Namesake" but I know this author is well-loved and her books are awarded, obviously.


 
Are you listening to any books over the holidays?  Please let me know if you've heard these, above.

Deb

Audio Books~ November 2013

SUMMARY :

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge.




I TOOK A NOTION to collect some audio books for listening over the next couple of weeks.  I have a love hate relationship with them.  First of all, I see them as a convenience more than a pleasure...  When I grab one, it's usually because I want desperately to read a certain book, but can't find a way to fit it into my otherwise slammed schedule. 

I tend often to find the narrator's voice grating.  Rarely do I find it fits the tone of the book.  When it does, it's really a slam dunk.  When it fails badly, it can completely ruin a book for me.  Usually, it's just a tinnitus in the background that I can learn to live with after a couple of chapters.

It's a wonder to me when I come across blogs and vlogs with those who spend a good deal of time "reading" audio books.  Where do they listen to them?  What are they doing when they listen?  I find it unbearable to just sit still and listen.  I have to be doing something.  The times I've traveled and listened to a book on CD have been the most rewarding to me.  I also knit, do needlework and quilt while I listen.  I really do wonder what others do...

Audio books are a sort of necessary evil to me.  I love the convenience of them, and their being available as a sideline when I can't get time to read the book I've had on a long list.  I applaud the good they do to a community of booklovers who may be unable to get to books or read them otherwise. 

This week, I've been tasting a couple and thoroughly enjoying myself.  I'll just share them in summary here and say that I recommend them highly.  :]

SUMMARY :

The brilliant new novel in the New York Times bestselling series by Louise Penny, one of the most acclaimed crime writers of our time

 

No outsiders are ever admitted to the monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, hidden deep in the wilderness of Quebec, where two dozen cloistered monks live in peace and prayer. They grow vegetables, they tend chickens, they make chocolate. And they sing. Ironically, for a community that has taken a vow of silence, the monks have become world-famous for their glorious voices, raised in ancient chants whose effect on both singer and listener is so profound it is known as “the beautiful mystery.”

 

But when the renowned choir director is murdered, the lock on the monastery’s massive wooden door is drawn back to admit Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir of the Sûreté du Québec. There they discover disquiet beneath the silence, discord in the apparent harmony. One of the brothers, in this life of  prayer and contemplation, has been contemplating murder. As the peace of the monastery crumbles, Gamache is forced to confront some of his own demons, as well as those roaming the remote corridors. Before finding the killer, before restoring peace, the Chief must first consider the divine, the human, and the cracks in between.

Winner of the 2012 Agatha Award for Best Novel

OVERVIEW:

"It is 1940. France has fallen. Bombs are dropping on London. And President Roosevelt is promising he won't send our boys to fight in "foreign wars." "But American radio gal Frankie Bard, the first woman to report from the Blitz in London, wants nothing more than to bring the war home. Frankie's radio dispatches crackle across the Atlantic Ocean, imploring listeners to pay attention - as the Nazis bomb London nightly, and Jewish refugees stream across Europe. Frankie is convinced that if she can just get the right story, it will wake Americans to action and they will join the fight."

 "Meanwhile, in Franklin, Massachusetts, a small town on Cape Cod, Iris James hears Frankie's broadcasts and knows that it is only a matter of time before the war arrives on Franklin's shores. In charge of the town's mail, Iris believes that her job is to deliver and keep people's secrets, passing along the news that letters carry. And one secret she keeps are her feelings for Harry Vale, the town mechanic, who inspects the ocean daily, searching in vain for German U-boats he is certain will come. Two single people in midlife, Iris and Harry long ago gave up hope of ever being in love, yet they find themselves unexpectedly drawn toward each other."

 "Listening to Frankie as well are Will and Emma Fitch, the town's doctor and his new wife, both trying to escape fragile childhoods and forge a brighter future. When Will follows Frankie's siren call into the war, Emma's worst fears are realized. Promising to return in six months, Will goes to London to offer his help, and the lives of the three women entwine."

Alternating between an America still cocooned in its inability to grasp the danger at hand and a Europe being torn apart by war, The Postmistress gives us two women who find themselves unable to deliver the news, and a third woman desperately waiting for news yet afraid to hear it.


 

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN LISTENING TO LATELY?

WHAT DO YOU DO WHILE LISTENING?  Just curious....


Deborah/TheBookishDame

"Dream When You're Feeling Blue" by Elizabeth Berg~Young Women in Chicago WWII

SUMMARY:

New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Berg takes us to Chicago at the time of World War II in this wonderful story about three sisters, their lively Irish family, and the men they love.

As the novel opens, Kitty and Louise Heaney say good-bye to their boyfriends Julian and Michael, who are going to fight overseas. On the domestic front, meat is rationed, children participate in metal drives, and Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller play songs that offer hope and lift spirits. And now the Heaney sisters sit at their kitchen table every evening to write letters–Louise to her fiancé, Kitty to the man she wishes fervently would propose, and Tish to an ever-changing group of men she meets at USO dances. In the letters the sisters send and receive are intimate glimpses of life both on the battlefront and at home. For Kitty, a confident, headstrong young woman, the departure of her boyfriend and the lessons she learns about love, resilience, and war will bring a surprise and a secret, and will lead her to a radical action for those she loves. The lifelong consequences of the choices the Heaney sisters make are at the heart of this superb novel about the power of love and the enduring strength of family.


AUDIO BOOK/PARTICULARS:

Produced by:  Random House
Discs:  8
Hours:  10
Cost:  $44
Author:  Elizabeth Berg
Also comes in novel format
Can be purchased:  Amazon


ABOUT MS BERG:

 

Elizabeth Berg won the NEBA Award for fiction for her body of work, and was a finalist for the ABBY for Talk Before Steep. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, and the New York Times Magazine. She has also taught a writing workshop at Radcliffe College. She lives near Boston, Massachusetts.

 

 

BOOK TRAILER:

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THE DAME'S REVIEW:

Captivating story read by author Elizabeth Berg!  As most of you know, I love stories set in WWII.  This one was no exception.  The "voice" given by the writer of the book made it all the more real, and lifted the spirit of her book into my heart.  This is an audio book well worthwhile.

Characters here are so alive.  Kitty and Louise, the older sisters just break your heart in their strength of spirit and love for their sweethearts. And little sister Tish is a scream with her "just over" teen-aged shenanigans so typical of girls her age in any era.   Their interactions with young soldiers typify the times, and they also bring into mind our times with young men separated from their families and loved ones.  This is a book that really touched me at the core.

Other characters such as the girls' little brothers and parents also became personal to me.  Especially the little brother who felt the war so desperately in his own spirit.  They struggled in other ways than the girls, but the whole family was affected by the war.  The storyline is moving and it's the characters who clutch you as you read.

Elizabeth Berg has been writing best selling books for years.  I have to say that I haven't been reading them.  Sometimes I drag my feet when too many people are reading a book, especially best sellers.  I'm one who likes to pick out a book that isn't getting a lot of hype...find a hidden gem, I guess.  I'm glad I found this one.  And, I intend to go back and find Berg's other books. I'm sorry I missed her on the first go-round.

If you like women's history set in fiction and from the perspective of WWII, you can't miss this one.
I listened to it on a round trip to pick my mother up 5 hours away.  She also enjoyed the last bit.  It's a book for women about women left home when their men are far away and in danger.  Women who love and support them, though their hearts are slightly broken...women who "dream when they're feeling blue."

You'll love this one on audio!

5 stars                 Deborah/TheBookishDame