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SomervilleWhereElse

Somerville, MA | Member Since 2007

173
HELPFUL VOTES
  • 40 reviews
  • 46 ratings
  • 852 titles in library
  • 30 purchased in 2013
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FOLLOWERS
39

  • The Middlesteins: A Novel

    • UNABRIDGED (6 hrs and 56 mins)
    • By Jami Attenberg
    • Narrated By Molly Ringwald
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (115)
    Performance
    (97)
    Story
    (97)

    For more than 30 years, Edie and Richard Middlestein shared a solid family life together in the suburbs of Chicago. But now things are splintering apart, for one reason, it seems: Edie's enormous girth. She's obsessed with food - thinking about it, eating it - and if she doesn't stop, she won't have much longer to live. When Richard abandons his wife, it is up to the next generation to take control. With pitch-perfect prose, huge compassion, and sly humor, Jami Attenberg has given us an epic story of marriage, family, and obsession.

    Lisa says: "Great story - Narration leaves A LOT to be desired"
    "Good writing"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    This well written book isn't for everyone. Not one character is likeable, but the writing is very good and kept me listening to the whole story. Molly Ringwald is an awful reader for this book. All of the Yiddish words, or Jewish expressions, were mispronounced. The rest of the reading was flat.

    2 of 2 people found this review helpful
  • Among Righteous Men: A Tale of Vigilantes and Vindication in Hasidic Crown Heights

    • UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 12 mins)
    • By Matthew Shaer
    • Narrated By Pete Larkin
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (2)
    Performance
    (2)
    Story
    (2)

    Inside the hidden world of Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn's Crown Heights--a close-knit but divided community. On a cold night in December, the members of a Hasidic anti-crime patrol called the Shomrim are summoned to a yeshiva dormitory in Crown Heights. There to break up a brawl, the Shomrim instead find themselves embroiled in a religious schism which has split the community and turned roommate against roommate, neighbor against neighbor. At the center of the storm is Aron Hershkop....

    SomervilleWhereElse says: "Boring and poorly read"
    "Boring and poorly read"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    This book was a police procedural in a small insular community. It was boring, and only interesting at all because of where it was set. So the reading was particularly important--to pronounce the the people and places correctly. Pete Larkin did an embarrassing job. Why was he picked? Sorry I bought it.

    0 of 0 people found this review helpful
  • Brideshead Revisited

    • UNABRIDGED (11 hrs and 33 mins)
    • By Evelyn Waugh
    • Narrated By Jeremy Irons
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (70)
    Performance
    (64)
    Story
    (62)

    Evelyn Waugh's most celebrated work is a memory drama about the intense entanglement of the narrator, Charles Ryder, with a great Anglo-Catholic family. Written during World War II, the story mourns the passing of the aristocratic world Waugh knew in his youth and vividly recalls the sensuous pleasures denied him by wartime austerities; in so doing it also provides a profound study of the conflict between the demands of religion and the desires of the flesh.

    Renee says: "Extraordinary"
    "First time this has every happened with Audible"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    Performance and story are a perfect match. However, this recording was bad. It sped up, slowed down, faded in and out and was like the problems that I sometimes have with CDs and never have had with Audible. I cannot imagine the issue. Anyway, back to the book. I saw the PBS Brideshead years ago with the gorgeous Jeremy Irons and his performance on this book is as good as it was then. His voice is like eating ice cream and having a massage at the same time. Great!

    0 of 0 people found this review helpful
  • The Mansion of Happiness: A History of Life and Death

    • UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 41 mins)
    • By Jill Lepore
    • Narrated By Coleen Marlo
    Overall
    (18)
    Performance
    (16)
    Story
    (16)

    Renowned Harvard scholar and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore has composed a strikingly original, ingeniously conceived, and beautifully crafted history of American ideas about life and death from before the cradle to beyond the grave. How does life begin? What does it mean? What happens when we die? “All anyone can do is ask,” Lepore writes. “That’s why any history of ideas about life and death has to be, like this book, a history of curiosity.” As much a meditation on the present as an excavation of the past, The Mansion of Happiness is delightful.

    Sean says: "Disappointing"
    "Not As the Title Suggests"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    This book was awful. The narrator spoke at a speed that was not good for my ears or brain. The book isn't about life and death or people's attitudes toward them at different time periods. It is about board games and trivia. It should have a different title and then maybe people interested in what it is about could purchase it. A waste of a credit.

    0 of 0 people found this review helpful
  • Pushing Ice

    • UNABRIDGED (19 hrs and 39 mins)
    • By Alastair Reynolds
    • Narrated By John Lee
    Overall
    (1371)
    Performance
    (1109)
    Story
    (1112)

    2057. Humanity has raised exploiting the solar system to an art form. Bella Lind and the crew of her nuclear-powered ship, the Rockhopper, push ice. They mine comets. And they're good at it. The Rockhopper is nearing the end of its current mission cycle, and everyone is desperate for some much-needed R & R, when startling news arrives from Saturn: Janus, one of Saturn's ice moons, has inexplicably left its natural orbit and is now heading out of the solar system at high speed.

    Jesse says: "Proof that a good story doesn't require a trilogy"
    "Great Science Fiction"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    I can't believe this book hasn't been made into a movie. It is a wonderful story, well told, and beautifully read. It is really science fiction--having a story written by an astrophysicist, makes for great science along with the fiction. The characters were believable and story huge in scope and time. It was fantastic listening all the way.

    1 of 1 people found this review helpful
  • The Beautiful Mystery: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel

    • UNABRIDGED (13 hrs and 35 mins)
    • By Louise Penny
    • Narrated By Ralph Cosham
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (619)
    Performance
    (530)
    Story
    (524)

    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.”

    Sparkly says: "Engaging, entertaining, and heartbreaking."
    "Perfect match of narrator and material"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    I really enjoy this series. They are not exactly "cosy" mysteries, but they are not too gross or graphic. I like the characters, so this book was a revelation in what Louise Penny decided to do with the main ones. The setting in the abbey brought out things in the two main police inspectors that surprised me, but weren't out of character. It actually is something of a cliff hanger as I cannot wait to see if problems are resolved, or relationships torn apart forever. Ralph Cosham is just right as a narrator for this series; he knows how to pronounce the French place names and phrases, and keeps me interested in all that happens.

    0 of 0 people found this review helpful
  • The House at Tyneford

    • UNABRIDGED (14 hrs and 11 mins)
    • By Natasha Solomons
    • Narrated By Justine Eyre
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (196)
    Performance
    (166)
    Story
    (166)

    It’s the spring of 1938 and no longer safe to be a Jew in Vienna. Nineteen-year-old Elise Landau is forced to leave her glittering life of parties and champagne to become a parlor maid in England. She arrives at Tyneford, the great house on the bay, where servants polish silver and serve drinks on the lawn. But war is coming, and the world is changing. When Kit, the son of Tyneford’s master, returns home, he and Elise strike up an unlikely friendship that will transform Tyneford - and Elise - forever. An irresistible World War II story of a forbidden romance in a great English country house.

    Emily - Audible says: "Mixed Opinion"
    "A Winner!"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    I really liked this book. I have read other books and seen plays about this time in history when Jewish children were shipped to England to be safe during WW II. This story brought elements to light that I hadn't really thought about before (how it separated siblings, how the children were so worried about their parents, and so on). It is beautifully written and read. A very good listen.

    1 of 1 people found this review helpful
  • Broken Harbor: Dublin Murder Squad, Book 4

    • UNABRIDGED (19 hrs and 59 mins)
    • By Tana French
    • Narrated By Stephen Hogan
    Overall
    (1482)
    Performance
    (1256)
    Story
    (1229)

    In Broken Harbor, all but one member of the Spain family lies dead, and it’s up to Mick “Scorcher” Kennedy to find out why. Mick must piece together why their house is full of cameras pointed at holes in the walls and how a nighttime intruder bypassed all the locks. Meanwhile, the town of Broken Harbor holds something else for Mick: disturbing memories of a childhood summer gone terribly wrong.

    Miller says: "Best in the Series"
    "A little slow at the beginning"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    I very much like Tana French as an author. This book took a bit to get into. In fact, I started and stopped twice before I began again and then really enjoyed it. So be patient and stay with it. The narrator is excellent and the plot thickens nicely. A good fourth book in the series.

    1 of 1 people found this review helpful
  • Shadow of Night

    • UNABRIDGED (24 hrs and 30 mins)
    • By Deborah Harkness
    • Narrated By Jennifer Ikeda
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (3969)
    Performance
    (3530)
    Story
    (3511)

    Now, picking up from A Discovery of Witches' cliff-hanger ending, Shadow of Night plunges Diana Bishop and Matthew Clairmont into Elizabethan London, a world of spies, subterfuge, and a coterie of Matthew's old friends, the mysterious School of Night that includes Christopher Marlowe and Walter Raleigh. Here, Diana must locate a witch to tutor her in magic, Matthew is forced to confront a past he thought he had put to rest, and the mystery of Ashmole 782 deepens. Deborah Harkness has crafted a gripping journey through a world of alchemy, time travel, and magical discoveries.

    Hallie says: "Even better than A Discovery of Witches"
    "Even better than the first booK!"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    I really like books that put characters into different times and places--that make them a "stranger in a strange land". This book did that with characters I already knew from Book 1 (A Discovery of Witches), and it was wonderful. Jennifer Ikeda captured every voice just right. The story advanced and thrilled. Great second book!

    1 of 1 people found this review helpful
  • Canada

    • UNABRIDGED (13 hrs and 52 mins)
    • By Richard Ford
    • Narrated By Holter Graham
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (388)
    Performance
    (329)
    Story
    (323)

    When 15-year-old Dell Parsons' parents rob a bank, his sense of normal life is forever altered. In an instant, this private cataclysm drives his life into before and after, a threshold that can never be uncrossed. His parents' arrest and imprisonment mean a threatening and uncertain future for Dell and his twin sister, Berner. Willful and burning with resentment, Berner flees their home in Montana, abandoning her brother and her life. But Dell is not completely alone. A family friend intervenes, spiriting him across the Canadian border.

    Susan C. S. says: "After the last word, went right back to beginning"
    "Fabulous writing"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    The plot of Canada isn't all that interesting as it would be described--"Two childrens' lives are changed forever when their parents rob a bank". However, the writing is wonderful and the plot lifts off into something out-of-this world. The narrator is so good that you don't think about him twice. Sometimes a narrator soars with accents and voices, but Holter Graham simply reads this so well, that you can't imagine anyone else doing it. I enjoyed Canada so very much that I might listen to it a second time. I recommend it without reservation.

    10 of 10 people found this review helpful

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