Barbara

I won't waste time talking about the worth of this classic story. In my 50+ years on this earth I somehow never read it, dismissing it as "young adult fiction", and I am sorry and shamed now, because it is not that at all. It is one of the finest books I've ever listened to.

HOWEVER, because it was new to me, I was very sorry to hear the introduction (not skippable, because it is not separated from the first chapter) which GAVE AWAY all the key parts of the story at the end of its schmoozy praise of the novel. Really, really disappointed to have a spoiler like that for such a great book - it should have been featured AFTER the story. The narrator is quite good and I love her way with accents, but she should learn that "suite" is pronounced "sweet" and not "suit". Also disturbing is the weird incidental jazz music, not at all indicative of 1911 when the story begins, which breaks startlingly, alarmingly between chapters. It's out of character for the story and jarring to the ear.

I've been painfully disappointed in Stephen King many times. From his pompous re-write of the perfectly lovely original "The Stand", adding 500 pages an editor had wisely removed, to his obnoxiously adolescent wind-up of the otherwise pleasant character studies of "Under The Dome".
I had no intention of reading 11-22-63 until several online friends in an eBook club recommended it. I knew they had also felt the same misgivings about the novelist, so I finally decided to take the gargantuan plunge.
I'm so glad. This book is wonderful in both its humility and its enormity. The passionate protagonist is entirely believable and lovable, and his opinions become your opinions, his experiences, your experiences.
I had some misgivings about Craig Wasson, whose voice at first struck me as too ordinary for a monumental story, but I was wholly in the wrong. Wasson's voice is a perfect fit, his accents are wonderful, his characterizations superb. He "gets it" when it comes to voicing a female character, as well, casting his voice slightly lighter but not doing the falsetto which mars many a reading. I definitely detected an imitation of Jimmy Stewart in one character, and James Mason in another, but those were beautifully done and gave distinction to each male speaking.
No spoilers, I won't betray the ending, or any particulars, but to say, for a change, you can TRUST the author to handle the ending of this delicate work with satisfying energy. It's NOT the ending I feared, it's NOT the ending I guessed! And it doesn't disappoint.
Best book I've ever read? Nah! Best Stephen King book ever? Nah! But entirely worth the investment, especially the Audible version.

When I choose a "cozy" mystery centered in traditional women's worlds of cookery, needlecraft or typing, I look forward to clever story told with warmth and humor. This story had a fairly surprising windup at the end (rather abruptly), but the characters were tired and not very likable. Two sisters who know nothing of one another's lives, yet there is no explanation of an estrangement. They had a happy childhood and are close in age. One falls on hard times and comes to live with the other knowing NOTHING about her sister's life, career, friendships or finances. They treat each other as virtual strangers. One is surrounded by friends and everyone loves her, so why has she been so cold to her sister? It would have made more sense to make them old college roommates just back in touch. Anyway, it was a completely humorless tale and the writing was mechanical at best. The solution to the mystery comes out of left field at the end. Susan Boyce did a fine job reading. I found her delivery a little stilted after a while but I don't think there was much more she could do with the prose she was given.

An almost perfect presentation of a brilliant, engaging, clever, wry and gripping story. The characters are brand-new, yet so tenderly brought to life that you feel you'd recognize them on the street. This book packs an emotional wallop and still manages to be wholly believable. I just learned that the second book in the series is out, and I know what I'm listening to next!

The main character may be closer to a charming Andy Carpenter or young Spenser, but his story places him in sinister company and surroundings more familiar to readers of Robert Crais, Michael Connelly, Adrian McKinty and Dennis LeHane. Anyone who appreciates great storytelling and flawless characterizations will love this audiobook.

I saw the film when it came out about 15 years ago, but had not realized that the book was the first of a series until Audible advertised it that way. I bought the first and am so happy that I did. Patricia Highsmith's prose is flawless, her storytelling and character development without peer. The narrator, Kevin Kenerly, does a remarkable job, even elegantly mispronouncing the words that Tom mispronounces in his head. His voice is fluid, naive and arrogant - all perfect for this genteel madman. I'm definitely going to continue with the series. Highsmith had an astonishing gift for accurate portrayal of a sociopath, even while psychiatry was struggling with a medical definition. The book is so classic, as it exists within our lives of motorcars and airplanes and telephones, and yet so far removed. Could Tom Ripley have gotten away with anything had there been computers, DNA, Interpol? Fax machines? Video cameras? Cell phones? I'm so pleased that Audible is including such classics in its library.

I was sadly disappointed in this book, as Matheson is one of my favorite writers. I listen to the Audible recording of "Stir of Echoes" about once a year, and have read most of his works. This book, particularly as I hadn't read it before, is weirdly derivative. Anyone who knows Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House", which is almost a decade older, can't help but see the screaming similarities, and anyone who's read "The Shining", which came out nearly a decade after "Hell House", will see that Stephen King took many of the poorly-fleshed out ideas of "HH" and explored them more richly. The characters in "HH" are unoriginal and misogynistic, considering it was 1971 and not 1951. I have no complaints about the reader, but overall I thought the story had been done to death myriad times since the Civil War, and this version does not stand on its own merits.

I enjoyed this book although it wasn't among Joseph Finder's best. It was still pretty good, with vague supernatural overtones. Not super-intriguing, but easy to follow. I didn't have a problem with the narrator as others have, in fact, I found his voice suitable to the first-person narration, if a little hesitant. The characters were all well-fleshed out, the story takes some crazy leaps which one won't expect and perhaps the wind-up is a little bit contrived. But overall it's another fun, engaging novel of good people caught miserably in bad circumstances, using Extraordinary Powers to get unentangled, and maybe save the world!

I went back through my library to listen to the Andy Carpenter series from Book One, and I'm enjoying it more than ever. These books are modestly short, and wonderfully relaxing to listen to, and Grover Gardener's easy, youthful voice and vague NJ accent are a delight. This book was a pretty wild ride, but so far (this is the latest one I've heard, although I have 3 more downloaded, I think the David Rosenfelt is a genius at consistency. His plots are always clever, always dog-friendly but not cloyingly so, and his characters are beyond endearing. You have to LOVE these people. Very worth a credit, OR full price, as you can listen again and again. I can't wait to start the next one!

Listening to this dated recording of these classic-yet-aging stories, one can barely imagine the furor that the original publication of the title short story endured. Readers of The New Yorker canceled subscriptions over it, and threatening hate mail arrived for months. The story was banned overseas.

Now, the reader of these short stories plows through them witlessly. Her voice reminds me a bit of Cherry Jones, but her clear delivery is competent without finesse. The editing of these tapes-to-aa file is tragic, as the final, chilling line of "The Lottery" plows right in to the title of the next story without so much as a breath in between, and this happens at the end of every subsequent story as well. Without a hard copy of the book, it's extremely difficult to know when one story ends and the next begins.

On a sadly comical note, several times in the file a male voice breaks in and announce "Side Three" or whatever the next flip side of the tapes (or LPs?) would be. The recording is clean for such a badly edited copy. Anyone who isn't a connoisseur of 1940-60s short stories is bound to be very bored by these delicate tales, and without an appreciation of Jackson's larger works is apt to be confused as to how they were published in the first place. I happen to have loved her books since the 1960s, and knowing a great deal of her tragic personal life fleshes out these frail tales into a bold, heartbreaking bas relief.

This novels takes some dangerous, impressive twists and turns, winding up with a political diatribe which was fascinating and factual, but oddly placed. It's clear that after the success of his insane wordfest "Beat the Reaper" (my favorite book in the last 5 years), Josh Bazell felt comfortable enough to start forcing political statements into his novel. I personally agree with him 100%, or more, but I can see others being repelled or confused by the insertion.

The story is extremely strange, not nearly as cohesive as the first book, and I would strongly advise against reading the second without reading the first. Bazell isn't cautious at all about revealing many plot points from BTR, and there are spoilers galore in this second in the series.

The performances are flawless.I kept waiting for Stephanie Wolfe's voice to jump in, but it isn't until the afterword, which is where the amazing passion and intellect of Josh Bazell comes to a full boil.

For me, it was a great, fun book with Carl Hiassen-like assaults on the Right, the 1% and their disregard for - well, anybody but themselves. There are a lot of laugh-out-loud and gotta-write-that-down moments, and as with BTR, I also bought the Kindle version and will be listening to this audiobook again.

The author begins this book with a forward explaining he was inspired to try to write a "different" sort of novel after reading Andrew Klavan's "Man and Wife". M&W is a brilliant book, and a worthy model for this multi-perspective analysis of two marriages. I enjoyed the writing, found the author's management of my empathy masterful, and was very intrigued for about 4/5ths of the story. The ending was disappointing, but honestly, how else could it have gone? Stephen J Cannell was a Hollywood Guy, and this is a very Hollywood ending. I thought the whole package was worthwhile. Scott Brick's intense, deep, quavery voice suited the intensity of the emotions in the telling, and I always find him easy to listen to. Anyway, Cannell does what he set out to do - writes a very different, more-disturbing novel than his Shane Scully series, and I'm pleased to have found it on Audible!