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The Blind Contessa's New Machine
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Aasne Vigesaa
- Length: 5 hrs and 58 mins
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The Blind Contessa's New Machine
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Publisher's summary
Carolina Fantoni, a young contessa in 19th-century Italy, is going blind. But nobody believes her: neither her parents nor her fiancé, the town’s most sought-after bachelor. Only her friend Turri, the eccentric local inventor, understands. But as darkness erases her world, Carolina discovers one place she can still see — in her dreams. In them, she can not only see, but fly, exploring new worlds in her own mind.
Losing her sight isolates Carolina. Even writing letters with pen and ink proves almost impossible — until Turri invents a new machine: the world’s first typewriter. His gift ignites a passionate love affair that will mark both of their lives forever.
Based on the true story of the blind woman who inspired the invention of the typewriter, The Blind Contessa’s New Machine is an iridescent jewel of a novel that celebrates the triumph of the imagination and proves that love is the mother of invention.
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- Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 256
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 234
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Story4 out of 5 stars 235
All her life, 19-year-old Liesl has heard tales of the beautiful, mysterious Goblin King. He is the Lord of Mischief, the Ruler Underground, and the muse around which her music is composed. Yet, as Liesl helps shoulder the burden of running her family's inn, her dreams of composition and childish fancies about the Goblin King must be set aside in favor of more practical concerns. But when her sister Kathe is taken by the goblins, Liesl journeys to their realm to rescue her sister and return her to the world above.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Muddled
- By Ingrid on 03-13-17
By: S. Jae-Jones
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Ironskin
- By: Tina Connolly
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 123
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 112
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 113
Jane Eliot wears an iron mask. It's the only way to contain the fey curse that scars her cheek. The Great War is five years gone, but its scattered victims remain—the ironskin. When a carefully worded listing appears for a governess to assist with a “delicate situation”—a child born during the Great War—Jane is certain the child is fey-cursed, and that she can help.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Light Fantasy With A Compelling Story
- By Jeff Jackson on 11-14-12
By: Tina Connolly
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Od Magic
- By: Patricia A. McKillip
- Narrated by: Gabrielle de Cuir
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,091
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 920
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 923
Brenden Vetch has a gift. With an innate sense he cannot explain to himself or describe to others, he is able to connect to the agricultural world, nurturing gardens to flourish and instinctively knowing the healing properties each plant and herb has to offer. But Brenden's gift isolates him from people and from becoming part of a community - until the day he receives a personal invitation from the Wizard Od.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great to have a McKillip, but not with this reader
- By Ambagious on 05-26-09
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The Thirteenth Princess
- By: Diane Zahler
- Narrated by: Jenna Lamia
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 38
Zita is not an ordinary servant girl—she’s the13th daughter of a king who wanted only sons. When she was born, Zita’s father banished her to the servants’ quarters to work in the kitchens, where she can only communicate with her royal sisters in secret. Then, after Zita’s 12th birthday, the princesses all fall mysteriously ill. The only clue is their strangely worn and tattered shoes. With the help of her friends, Zita follows her bewitched sisters into a magical world of endless dancing and dreams.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Interesting but not complete
- By THoward on 11-18-15
By: Diane Zahler
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The Unseen
- A Novel
- By: Katherine Webb
- Narrated by: Clare Wille
- Length: 15 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 48
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Story4 out of 5 stars 44
A vicar with a passion for nature, the Reverend Albert Canning leads a happy existence with his naive wife, Hester, in their sleepy Berkshire village in the year 1911. But as the English summer dawns, the Cannings' lives are forever changed by two new arrivals: Cat, their new maid, a disaffected, free-spirited young woman sent down from London after entanglements with the law; and Robin Durrant, a leading expert in the occult, enticed by tales of elemental beings in the water meadows nearby.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great book!
- By Dana on 09-03-12
By: Katherine Webb
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The Woodcutter
- By: Kate Danley
- Narrated by: Sarah Coomes
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,137
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 999
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,001
Deep within the Wood, a young woman lies dead. Not a mark on her body. No trace of her murderer. Only her chipped glass slippers hint at her identity. The Woodcutter, keeper of the peace between the Twelve Kingdoms of Man and the Realm of the Faerie, must find the maiden’s killer before others share her fate. Guided by the wind and aided by three charmed axes won from the River God, the Woodcutter begins his hunt, searching for clues in the whispering dominions of the enchanted unknown. But quickly he finds that one murdered maiden is not the only nefarious mystery afoot....
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4 out of 5 stars
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Fantasy for fairy tale lovers
- By A. Sines on 03-25-15
By: Kate Danley
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The Garden of Evening Mists
- By: Tan Twan Eng
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 724
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 639
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 642
Malaya, 1951. Yun Ling Teoh, the scarred lone survivor of a brutal Japanese wartime camp, seeks solace among the jungle-fringed tea plantations of Cameron Highlands. There she discovers Yugiri, the only Japanese garden in Malaya, and its owner and creator, the enigmatic Aritomo, exiled former gardener of the emperor of Japan. Despite her hatred of the Japanese, Yun Ling seeks to engage Aritomo to create a garden in memory of her sister, who died in the camp.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The best
- By Susan Gardner Bowers on 03-11-13
By: Tan Twan Eng
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The Bards of Bone Plain
- By: Patricia A. McKillip
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Charlotte Parry
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 147
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 106
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 105
Scholar Phelan Cle is researching Bone Plain - which has been studied for the last 500 years, though no one has been able to locate it as a real place. Archaeologist Jonah Cle, Phelan's father, is also hunting through time, piecing history together from forgotten trinkets. When they unearth a disk marked with ancient runes, Beatrice pursues the secrets of a lost language that she suddenly notices all around her, hidden in plain sight.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Bards of Bone Plain
- By John on 12-30-10
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The Stolen Child
- By: Keith Donohue
- Narrated by: Andy Paris, Jeff Woodman
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 543
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 178
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 181
Seven-year-old Henry Day is kidnapped and renamed "Aniday" by changelings, ageless beings who inhabit the woods near his home. The changelings also leave behind one of their own, who flawlessly impersonates Henry except for one noteworthy detail: the new Henry is a prodigiously talented pianist.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Not Anything Close to the Hype
- By Jon on 06-20-06
By: Keith Donohue
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The Crown's Game
- By: Evelyn Skye
- Narrated by: Steve West
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 344
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 320
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 321
Vika Andreyeva can summon the snow and turn ash into gold. Nikolai Karimov can see through walls and conjure bridges out of thin air. They are enchanters - the only two in Russia - and with the Ottoman Empire and the Kazakhs threatening, the tsar needs a powerful enchanter by his side.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Great world building, slow pacing, love triangle
- By Amazon Customer on 08-08-16
By: Evelyn Skye
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Madame Bovary
- By: Gustave Flaubert
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 364
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 258
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 260
Emma Bovary is not content to be the mere dutiful wife of a French country doctor. She yearns for excitement and a sense of romance that pulls at her so strongly she is powerless to resist, even though pursuing her dreams will exact a terrible price. Learn why Gustave Flaubert's compelling heroine has enchanted and puzzled readers for centuries.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Now Here's a Story
- By P. Giorgio on 09-06-03
By: Gustave Flaubert
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A Strange Scottish Shore
- By: Juliana Gray
- Narrated by: Gemma Massot
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 64
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 57
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Story4 out of 5 stars 56
Scotland, 1906. A mysterious object discovered inside an ancient castle calls Maximilian Haywood, the new Duke of Olympia, and his fellow researcher Emmeline Truelove north to the remote Orkney Islands. No stranger to the study of anachronisms in archeological digs, Haywood is nevertheless puzzled by the artifact: a suit of clothing that, according to family legend, once belonged to a selkie who rose from the sea and married the castle's first laird. But Haywood and Truelove soon realize they're not the only ones interested in the selkie's strange hide.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Time travel escape
- By M M on 11-07-17
By: Juliana Gray
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Bloodleaf
- By: Crystal Smith
- Narrated by: Nicola Barber
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,167
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,067
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,065
Princess Aurelia is a prisoner to her crown and the heir that nobody wants. Surrounded by spirits and banned from using her blood-magic, Aurelia flees her country after a devastating assassination attempt. To escape her fate, Aurelia disguises herself as a commoner in a new land and discovers a happiness her crown has never allowed. As she forges new bonds and perfects her magic, she begins to fall for a man who is forbidden to rule beside her.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Not Understanding All the Praise
- By GPChlorine on 08-23-19
By: Crystal Smith
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Autumn Castle
- By: Kim Wilkins
- Narrated by: Richard Aspel
- Length: 19 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 15
-
Performance3 out of 5 stars 6
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Story4 out of 5 stars 6
Berlin in autumn: Christine Starlight lives in an artists' colony with her lover Jude, whose patience and beauty have eased her battle with chronic pain. But Christine begins to be haunted by childhood recollections of a little girl's disappearance and the flapping of a blackbird's wings. Then her world is rocked by the return of a childhood friend... Mayfridh rules over a land where a wolf is the queen's counsellor, fate turns on the fall of an autumn leaf and mortals feel no pain.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Great Story, Horrible Narration
- By KathyDB on 03-24-15
By: Kim Wilkins
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The Book of Magic
- By: Gardner Dozois - editor, Scott Lynch, Elizabeth Bear, and others
- Narrated by: Karissa Vacker, Sile Bermingham, Maxwell Caulfield, and others
- Length: 24 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 170
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 155
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 154
Hot on the heels of Gardner Dozois's acclaimed anthology The Book of Swords comes this companion volume devoted to magic. How could it be otherwise? For every Frodo, there is a Gandalf... and a Saruman. For every Dorothy, a Glinda... and a Wicked Witch of the West. What would Harry Potter be without Albus Dumbledore... and Severus Snape? Figures of wisdom and power, possessing arcane, often forbidden knowledge, wizards and sorcerers are shaped - or misshaped - by the potent magic they seek to wield.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Very Good, With One Objection
- By Kindle Customer on 05-05-20
By: Gardner Dozois - editor, and others
What listeners say about The Blind Contessa's New Machine
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- higgie's mom
- 10-28-19
So sloooooooow.
Waited forever for the story to begin. Never seemed to get to it at all. Would not recommend.
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