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Alain

professor. like great and VERY good books, fiction and history, mainly

santa Fe, NM, United States | Member Since 2005

96
HELPFUL VOTES
  • 19 reviews
  • 205 ratings
  • 0 titles in library
  • 19 purchased in 2013
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  • War and Peace

    • UNABRIDGED (60 hrs and 50 mins)
    • By Leo Tolstoy
    • Narrated By Frederick Davidson
    Overall
    (940)
    Performance
    (431)
    Story
    (423)

    Often called the greatest novel ever written, War and Peace is at once an epic of the Napoleonic wars, a philosophical study, and a celebration of the Russian spirit. Tolstoy's genius is clearly seen in the multitude of characters in this massive chronicle, all of them fully realized and equally memorable.

    James says: "Audible listens!"
    "War and Peace"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    This is an experience everyone should have at least once in a lifetime -- and, with luck, multiple times. Listen and read simultaneously for even more exquisite hours. The reader is fabulous.

    5 of 5 people found this review helpful
  • Marie Antoinette: The Journey

    • UNABRIDGED (20 hrs and 26 mins)
    • By Antonia Fraser
    • Narrated By Donada Peters
    Overall
    (153)
    Performance
    (25)
    Story
    (26)

    France's iconic queen, Marie Antoinette, wrongly accused of uttering the infamous "Let them eat cake", was alternately revered and reviled during her lifetime. For centuries since, she has been the object of debate, speculation, and the fascination so often accorded illustrious figures in history. Married in mere girlhood, this essentially lighthearted child was thrust onto the royal stage and commanded by circumstance to play a significant role in European history.

    Barbara says: "Great if you can survive the narrator"
    "UTTERLY CAPTIVATING"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story
    Where does Marie Antoinette rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

    I HAE LISTENED TO SO MANY... BUT THIS IS AMONG THE TOP.


    Who was your favorite character and why?

    THE PROTAGONIST


    What about Donada Peters’s performance did you like?

    SHE IS CURRENTLY MY FAVORITE READER -- SUCH INTELLIGENCE AND SENSITIVITY IN HER VOICE -- AND SHE CAPTURES THE IRONY AND HUMOR, AS WELL.


    Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

    NO, I'D RATHER SAVOR IT.


    Any additional comments?

    LISTEN TO IT!

    0 of 0 people found this review helpful
  • Justine: The Alexandria Quartet

    • UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 58 mins)
    • By Lawrence Durrell
    • Narrated By Jack Klaff
    Overall
    (14)
    Performance
    (6)
    Story
    (6)

    Set amid the corrupt glamour and multiplying intrigues of Alexandria, Egypt, in the 1930s and 1940s, the novels of Durrell's Alexandria Quartet (of which this is the first) follow the shifting alliances - sexual, cultural and political - of a group of quite varied characters. In Justine, an English schoolmaster and struggling writer falls in love with a beautiful and mysterious Jewish woman who is married to a wealthy Egyptian.

    Alain says: "Ruined..."
    "Ruined..."
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    ...by the reader. The Alexandria Quartet is a fascinating series of novels, and could have been a delightful listen. But the reader is simply atrocious -- affects such mannered voices for all characters that he spoils the prose. For instance, the voice of beautiful, young Justine sounds like an eighty-year-old woman who has smoked all her life. It would be wonderful if Audible would get these books by another reader.

    0 of 0 people found this review helpful
  • Wolf Hall

    • UNABRIDGED (24 hrs and 19 mins)
    • By Hilary Mantel
    • Narrated By Simon Slater
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (1387)
    Performance
    (724)
    Story
    (721)

    Winner of the prestigious Man Booker prize for fiction. In the ruthless arena of King Henry VIII's court, only one man dares to gamble his life to win the king's favor and ascend to the heights of political powerEngland in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years, and marry Anne Boleyn.

    S. Marie says: "A unique perspective of history"
    "Wonderful!"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    I couldn't stop listening to this book. Cromwell is one of the most finely drawn 'historical" characters I have ever experienced. The whole fascinating world of Henry VIII, Thomas Moore, etc. comes alive and is amazingly fresh. Mantel is an accomplished writer. The reader is up to the task.

    3 of 4 people found this review helpful
  • Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris

    • UNABRIDGED (13 hrs and 38 mins)
    • By Graham Robb
    • Narrated By Simon Vance
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (143)
    Performance
    (39)
    Story
    (40)

    This is the Paris you never knew. From the Revolution to the present, Graham Robb has distilled a series of astonishing true narratives, all stranger than fiction. A young artillery lieutenant, strolling through the Palais-Royal, observes disapprovingly the courtesans plying their trade. A particular woman catches his eye; nature takes its course. Later that night, Napoleon Bonaparte writes a meticulous account of his first sexual encounter....

    Myrna Minkoff says: "Difficult....but worth it"
    "What a journey!"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    Robb brings the City of Light to life in a unique and fascinating way, through the lives of people who have lived there. Napoleon, Mme. Zola, Hitler, and others unknown but remarkable. It makes one want to take the book to Paris and trace the stories. Wonderful, and beautifully read.

    6 of 7 people found this review helpful
  • A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age

    • UNABRIDGED (11 hrs and 36 mins)
    • By William Manchester
    • Narrated By Barrett Whitener
    Overall
    (243)
    Performance
    (77)
    Story
    (79)

    From tales of chivalrous knights to the barbarity of trial by ordeal, no era has been a greater source of awe, horror, and wonder than the Middle Ages. In handsomely crafted prose and with the grace and authority of his extraordinary gift for narrative history, William Manchester leads us from a civilization tottering on the brink of collapse to the grandeur of its rebirth, the Renaissance.

    Wallen says: "Ruined by the narrator"
    "Weak for Mancheste"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    But what makes me give this interesting book only three stars is the reader. He might be OK at popular novels, but he has no refinement (lie-berry for library, etc.), mangles French words and names... What a poor choice! He's American, too, which is not appropriate.

    0 of 0 people found this review helpful
  • The Palace of Illusions

    • UNABRIDGED (12 hrs and 20 mins)
    • By Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
    • Narrated By Sneha Mathan
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (123)
    Performance
    (24)
    Story
    (24)

    The novel traces the princess Panchaali's life, beginning with her birth in fire and following her spirited balancing act as a woman with five husbands who have been cheated out of their father's kingdom. Panchaali is swept into their quest to reclaim their birthright, remaining at their side through years of exile and a terrible civil war involving all the important kings of India.

    Richard says: "timeless story"
    "Needs prior knowledge"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    A fun, albeit shallow, often silly, recounting of the Mahabharata. But you need to know the story to grasp it at all.

    1 of 1 people found this review helpful
  • I Am Charlotte Simmons

    • UNABRIDGED (31 hrs and 16 mins)
    • By Tom Wolfe
    • Narrated By Dylan Baker
    Overall
    (624)
    Performance
    (105)
    Story
    (109)

    Dupont University: the Olympian halls of learning housing the cream of America's youth, the roseate Gothic spires and manicured lawns suffused with tradition....Or so it appears to beautiful, brilliant Charlotte Simmons, a sheltered freshman from North Carolina, who has come here on full scholarship. But Charlotte soon learns, to her mounting dismay, that for the upper-crust coeds of Dupont, sex, Cool, and kegs trump academic achievement every time.

    Eric says: "Decadence through the eyes of a ?good girl?"
    "Disappointing"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    Silly story of shallow college life. After the wonderful Bonfire, this is truly a disappointment.

    3 of 3 people found this review helpful
  • The Bonfire of the Vanities

    • UNABRIDGED (27 hrs and 28 mins)
    • By Tom Wolfe
    • Narrated By Joe Barrett
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (645)
    Performance
    (249)
    Story
    (256)

    Tom Wolfe's best-selling modern classic tells the story of Sherman McCoy, an elite Wall Street bond trader who has it all: wealth, power, prestige, a Park Avenue apartment, a beautiful wife, and an even more beautiful mistress - until one wrong turn sends Sherman spiraling downward into a humiliating fall from grace. A car accident in the Bronx involving Sherman, his girlfriend, and two young lower-class black men sets a match to the incendiary racial and social tensions of 1980s New York City.

    Alain says: "The Reader !"
    "The Reader !"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    This is one book -- and a fine one, indeed -- where the reader makes listening perhaps even richer and more enjoyable than reading. There are a myriad of voices, accents, personalities, and he renders them with brilliant sensitivity. A stunning listen!

    18 of 18 people found this review helpful
  • What Maisie Knew

    • UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 49 mins)
    • By Henry James
    • Narrated By Flo Gibson
    Overall
    (11)
    Performance
    (3)
    Story
    (3)

    Shunted between warring and neglectful divorced parents and caring governesses and step-parents, little Maisie lives in a bewildering world in this heart-rending novel.

    Alain says: "Fine late James"
    "Fine late James"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    This book is a masterfully and uncannily astute and deep look into the mind of a child as she observes and is battered by the world of adults. James' deftly delicate treatment the story is moving and enchanting at the same time.

    1 of 1 people found this review helpful
  • The Count of Monte Cristo

    • UNABRIDGED (43 hrs and 11 mins)
    • By Alexander Dumas
    • Narrated By Richard Matthews
    Overall
    (102)
    Performance
    (19)
    Story
    (19)

    Set against the tumultuous years of the post-Napoleonic era, The Count of Monte Cristo recounts the swashbuckling adventures of Edmond Dantes, a dashing young sailor falsely accused of treason. The story of his long imprisonment, dramatic escape, and carefully wrought revenge offers up a vision of France that has become immortal.

    William says: "Fabulous"
    "Muscatel Grapes"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    Delightful book, even for grownups. A fantasy world that nonetheless is psychologically complex. And worth the read just to hear that line immortalized by Stephan Daedalus : "Madam, I never eat muscatel grapes!"

    0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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