Nathaniel

I love Flannery O' Connor and I can't state this enough for all my reviews for the O' Connor audible collection. This was the first book (a collection of stories) that I read by her years ago - and I enjoyed revisiting these stories immensely. Some of the stories, upon hearing them, came flooding back to me. Some of them I did not remember as well. Stories that did not leave much of an impression on me before, left a huge impression on me this time around (esp. The Enduring Chill).
These stories are not for the faint of heart. These stories also have many levels of meaning - and I know that these are stories that I will get something different from each time I read or listen to them.
The narration of these stories, for the most part, is excellent. I fell in love with Bronson Pinchot's and Lorna Raver's voices. Listening to Karen White was like visiting an old friend as she is the narrator of The Little Friend, another book I enjoyed.
Question yourself no longer. This book is worth a credit.

This is my first Dostoevsky experience and I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Prior to listening to Crime and Punishment I knew little of Dostoevsky except that he was Russian and best known for Crime and Punishment, a notorious classic. I don't really remember what prompted me to use a credit on this book, except the little I knew, and just for the sake of being able to say one day, "Yes, I've read Crime and Punishment" A part of my decision to download this audio book was the sample of the narrator who has a great voice and did a terrific job bringing this entire story to life. On the book itself, I was surprised at how straight forward it was. I assumed that the text would be difficult and dry to fallow, but I was completely wrong. The only difficulty I had fallowing this book was that some of the characters have similar or the same names, which, at times, was confusing. Now that I can say “Yes, I’ve read (listened) to Crime and Punishment” I can say that I have read better classics. The story goes into so many different directions and some of the directions were more intriguing to me than others and for this reason I won’t give Crime and Punishment five stars. I found the book to be presumptuous and boring at times. Some of the scenes described in this book I know I will never forget though because they were so exciting, intense, original, and most importantly, real. There are lessons to learn in this book, for sure, but now that I have learned them I am moving on to the next book. I could see myself revisiting this book in ten or fifteen years.

I listened to The Warden/Barchester Towers after listening to The Way We Live Now (my first Trollope venture) and for that reason, I believe, I was not as entranced with the first two Barsetshire novels as I was with my first. The books are similar, in that they deal with issues of the time and the affairs of the many characters found throughout the book, but upon starting the Barsetshire books I was lost from the beginning because of all the religious terminology. I had to do a bit of research on the subject before I continued so I would not be completely lost. The Warden should be listened to first to get the feel for some of the main characters of Barchester Towers. Like The Way We Live Now, Trollope develops great characters we can really care for and really dislike. Trollope’s characterization is what keeps me coming back for more. Regarding the story, it is entertaining and funny and sometimes slow and boring. Sometimes I had no idea what Trollope was going on about, but I always soon found myself back on track with the story and, having finished the story, feel that I didn’t miss that much when I was spacing out at the more tedious bits. Timothy West does an excellent job narrating and I must admit that his narration is another reason why I can’t quite give up on Trollope’s writing. After taking a little break, I attend on listening to Doctor Thorne and then, eventually, the rest of the series. All in all, this is pretty good story telling.

I'm sad that this was the last Flannery O ' Connor audiobook left for me to listen to after finishing the other three weeks ago. Regardless, this will be an audiobook I will listen to again...and again. I read this years ago, but listening to it was an even better experience. Bronson Pinchot brings this story to life and very much gives it the zest O ' Connor regarded to in the introduction of this novel. This story is so many things; crazy, funny, weird, and thought provoking. I love her flawed, crazy characters and getting in their heads to understand why they do the crazy things that they do. Flannery is one of my favorites and I look forward to listening to all of these audiobooks again.

This is the first book I've read/listened to by Anthony Trollope. I was compelled by the reviews for this book to give it a try and I'm glad that I did. Although the book was published in 1875 the story rings true to "the way we live now" in a universal way that I suppose always will. I have never known a story with so many flawed characters and the trial and errors of these characters, though exasperating at times, are fasanating. I found myself annoyed and compelled all at the same time with these characters- the way I feel about a lot of the people I know and care about in my own life. This book, although slow at times (I dazed through some of the chapters) all in all is well worth the time I invested listening to it. Now on to the next Anthony Trollope novel!

This book is selling like hotcakes right now with the new remake of the movie out AND do you know what I think about that? (as our young herione would say here) Great! I stumbled upon this by looking up Donna Tarrt and put it on my wish list quite sometime ago. Well, taking advantage of that fab. extra 20% off week, I downloaded this book and listened to it in a couple of days. First off, I love strong female characters in any book and boy does this book have one of those. I thought Donna Tarrt did a good job narrating as well.

I enjoyed listening to Rebecca. I was not familiar with the story before and I had heard many good things about it and was curious. I don't know if I would listen to this story again, however. After listening to the book I watched the movie and although they are not completely the same - I felt justice was done. I would suggest anyone who is curious about this story to watch the movie first and if they REALLY want to use a credit to get the audiobook go for it!

Can somebody tell me what this book is about? I tell you what this book it is about - it is about 200 pages too long! But seriously - the message in this book is so important and Ayn Rand does a fab job at pounding that message in our head - over and over again - Parts of these book I thought were amazing and I really enjoyed - Other parts were slow and dragged on way too much - I started to lose interest after a while. If one wants the Ayn Rand gest I'd suggest Anthem - Pretty good nutshell.

I enjoy the works of Flannery O' Connor though I do prefer her shorter stories. The Violent Bear It Away is a bit all over the map at the beginning - past to present to even further in the past, etc - and can make for a confusing listen, but when this novel hits it stride somewhere in the middle the story flares. The narrator does a decent job bringing the story to life. I would suggest using your credit on A Good Man is Hard To Find or Everything That Rises Must Converge first.

I love Flannery O' Connor - I read all of her fiction years ago and was happy when I saw her work on audible. There is so much to learn from all of these stories and I love how, even though her times are now dated, the messages and themes in these stories never will be. On a sidenote, however, a lot of these stories are sad and extremely depressing especially to those who are sad or extremely prone to depression.