AudioBook "Home Front" by Kristin Hannah

About the AudioBook: The blockbuster bestselling author of Night Road and Firefly Lane delivers a masterful novel that explores the sacrifices of one American family and illuminates the true cost of honor, duty, and love.
From a distance, Michael and Joleen Zarkades seem to have it all: a solid marriage, two exciting careers, and children they adore. But after twelve years together, the couple has lost their way; they are unhappy and edging toward divorce. Then the Iraq war starts. An unexpected deployment will tear their already fragile family apart, sending one of them deep into harm’s way and leaving the other at home, waiting for news. When the worst happens, each must face their darkest fear and fight for the future of their family. An intimate look at the inner landscape of a disintegrating marriage and a dramatic exploration of the price of war on a single American family, Kristin Hannah's HOME FRONT is a provocative and timely portrait of hope, honor, loss, forgiveness, and the elusive nature of love.

About the Author: Kristin Hannah was born in September 1960 in Southern California and grew up at the beach, making sand castles and playing in the surf. When she was eight years old, her father drove the family to Western Washington which they called home.
After working in a trendy advertising agency, Kristin decided to go to law school. "But you're going to be a writer" are the prophetic words she would never forget from her mother. Kristin was in her third-and final-year of law school and her mom was in the hospital, facing the end of her long battle with cancer. Kristin was shocked to discover that her mother believed she would become a writer. For the next few months, they collaborated on the worst, most clichéd historical romance ever written.
After her mom's death, she packed up all those bits and pieces of paper they'd collected and put them in a box in the back of her closet. Kristin got married and continued practicing law.
Then Kristin found out she was pregnant and was on bed rest for five months. By the time she'd read every book in the house and started asking her husband for cereal boxes to read, she knew she was a goner. That's when her husband reminded her of the book she'd started with her mom. Kristin pulled out the boxes of research material, dusted them off and began writing. By the time their son was born, she'd finished a first draft and found an obsession.
The rejections came, of course, and they stung for a while, but each one really just spurred her to try harder, work more. In 1990, Kristin got "the call," and in that moment, she went from a young mother with a cooler-than-average hobby to a professional writer, and has never looked back. In all the years between then and now, she have never lost her love of, or her enthusiasm for, telling stories. Kristin feels truly blessed to be a wife, a mother, and a writer.

My Review: This audio book comes in a 12-CD compilation, read by Maggi - Meg Reed, with a running time of 15 hours (unabridged).

This is a very well written book, telling us the story of soldier girl named Joleen. She had a very difficult childhood with alcoholic parents that were killed in an accident. She was alone in the world and she enlisted herself in the army and received training as an helicopter pilot. She ended working for the National Guard and marry a guy named Michael Zarkades, a workaholic lawyer. They have two daughters, Betsy (twelve years old) and Lulu (four years old). The marriage is starting deteriorating when she is deployed to Iraq, with her best friend Tami, also an helicopter pilot. This book touches many delicate issues about the support our government is giving to our soldiers when they return. The author does a superb job describing situations that some of us would prefer to close our eyes to them and ignore. Cheers to Mrs. Kristin Hannah for a magnificent work! I definitely will read other books from her.

The narration of Maggi - Meg Reed makes this listening very entertaining. Excellent option for a long commuting.

This is a great addition to the permanent library of any fiction lover.

This audiobook was published by Macmillan Audio in January 2012 and Amazon.com was kind enough to provide this audiobook for me through their Vine Program for reviewing and I was not request to provide a positive review. Opinions expressed here are my own.

If you read this review, fell free to leave a comment!

AudioBook "Glow (Sky Chasers)" by Amy Kathleen Ryan

About the Book: If a violent battle destroyed the only world you’ve ever known, would you be brave enough to save who was left? Would love be strong enough to survive the fight? Either way, there’s no turning back.
The Empyrean is the only home 15-year-old Waverly has ever known. Part of the first generation to be successfully conceived in deep space, she and her boyfriend Kieran will be pioneers of New Earth. Waverly knows she must marry young in order to have children who can carry on the mission, and Kieran, the handsome captain-to-be, has everything Waverly could want in a husband. Everyone is sure he’s the best choice. Still, there’s a part of Waverly that wants more from life than marriage, and she is secretly intrigued by the shy, darkly brilliant Seth.
Suddenly, Waverly’s dreams are interrupted by the inconceivable – a violent betrayal by the Empyrean's sister ship, the New Horizon. The New Horizon’s leaders are desperate to populate the new planet first, and will do anything to get what they need: young girls. In one pivotal moment, Waverly and Kieran are separated, and find themselves at the helm of dangerous missions, where every move has potentially devastating consequences, and decisions of the heart may lead to disaster.
Pulse-pounding and addictive, GLOW begins the most riveting series since The Hunger Games.

About the Author: Born in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Amy Kathleen Ryan is a graduate of the New School Creative Writing Program. She lives in Colorado. Visit her website at: www.AmyKathleenRyan.com.

My Review: This audio book comes in a 8-CD compilation, read by Ilyana Kadushin and Matthew Brown, with a running time of 10 hours (unabridged).

This is a very well written book, telling us the story of an expedition headed to the new earth in a far away galaxy. Two spaceships are traveling to this new world. One of them solved the problem of procreation on space while the other claims sabotage when receiving the information about this solution, that prevent their females to produce eggs. This causes a major conflict between the two spaceships and from there the story unfolds in a series of unexpected twists. Brilliant overall, you have all the ingredients to captivate the attention from the beginning and you really start cheering for your personal heroes. You have the love triangle, you have traitors, heroes, greedy people etc, that guarantees the success of the story. My only complain is that the continuation of this story is not published yet.

The narration of Ilyana Kadushin and Matthew Brown makes this listening very entertaining. Excellent option for a long commuting.

This is a must have in the permanent library of any  science-fiction lover.

This audiobook was published by Macmillan Audio in September 2011 and Amazon.com was kind enough to provide this audiobook for me through their Vine Program for reviewing and I was not request to provide a positive review. Opinions expressed here are my own.

If you read this review, fell free to leave a comment!

AudioBook "The Puppy Diaries: Raising a Dog Named Scout" by Jill Abramson

About the Book: An instructive and marvelously entertaining chronicle of a puppy's first year, by the executive editor of The New York Times. One sparkling summer day, Jill Abramson brought home a nine-week-old golden retriever named Scout. Over the following year, as she and her husband raised their adorable new puppy, Abramson wrote a hugely popular column for The New York Times's website about the joys and challenges of training this rambunctious addition to their family. Dog-lovers from across the country inundated her with e-mails and letters, and the photos they sent in of their own dogs became the most visited photo album on the Times's site in 2009. Now Abramson has gone far beyond the material in her column and written a detailed and deeply personal account of Scout's first year. Part memoir, part manual, part investigative report, The Puppy Diaries continues Abramson's intrepid reporting on all things canine. Along the way, she weighs in on such issues as breeders or shelters, adoption or rescue, raw diet or vegan, pack-leader gurus like Cesar Millan or positive-reinforcement advocates like Karen Pryor. What should you expect when a new puppy enters your life? With utterly winning stories and a wealth of practical information, The Puppy Diaries provides an essential road map for navigating the first year of your dog's life.

About the Author: Jill Ellen Abramson (born March 19, 1954) is the executive editor of The New York Times. Assuming the position in September 2011, she became the first woman in this role in the paper's 160-year history. A native of New York City, Abramson received her high school diploma from Ethical Culture Fieldston School and a B.A. in History and Literature from Harvard University in 1976. While a student at Harvard, she worked at Time magazine from 1973 to 1976 and subsequently spent nearly a decade as a senior staff reporter for The American Lawyer. In 1986, she was appointed as editor in chief of Legal Times in Washington, D.C., serving for two years. From 1988 to 1997, she was a senior reporter in the Washington bureau of The Wall Street Journal, eventually rising to deputy bureau chief. She became the chief of The New York Times Washington bureau upon her move to the newspaper in 1997. Abramson was the Times' Washington Bureau chief during the turbulent period of Spring 2003 during the run-up to the war in Iraq and the Jayson Blair scandal, which led to the resignation of Executive Editor Howell Raines and Managing Editor Gerald Boyd. Abramson was named to the news Managing Editor position (with co-Managing Editor John M.Geddes) by Raines' successor Bill Keller. In 1995, Abramson and her The Wall Street Journal colleague (and Fieldston alumna) Jane Mayer co-authored Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas, which detailed circumstances surrounding the confirmation hearings of Justice Clarence Thomas. Maureen Dowd would later write of having bonded with Abramson during that time. From 2000–01, she was a professor at Princeton University. She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001. In February 2007, Abramson testified in the perjury trial of Scooter Libby, United States v. Libby. She was called as a defense witness to undercut the credibility of Judith Miller. On June 2, 2011, it was announced that Abramson would become the executive editor of the Times in September 2011, replacing Bill Keller who would step down from the position to become a full time writer. An unabashed dog lover, she has long been fascinated by the complex relationship between dogs and their owners. She, her husband, and Scout live in New York City and Connecticut.

My Review: This audio book comes in a 4-CD compilation, read by Beth MacDonald, with a running time of 5 hours (unabridged).
This is a very well written book, telling us the story of the first year of Scout living with her new owners. It begins with the initial accommodation after being separated from her mother, but still living in a farm environment in Connecticut. Later the adaptation to live in New York City. The author describes in all details all her struggles to make their lives proceed with this new family member. Sometimes being very comical, sometimes sarcastic, she tells about all the services available for dogs in NYC that mimic services for humans, sometimes being even more expensive for dogs than the equivalent ones for humans. All training efforts are very well described and all the worries about health care and vet also are presented in this book. She also describes the interaction between Scout and the other dogs in the neighborhood and her personal interpretation on many situations lived by them.
The narration of Beth MacDonald makes this listening very entertaining. Excellent option for a long commuting. If you have to drive for about one hour, this should last for a week's worth of entertainment.

This is a must have in the permanent library of any dog lover.


This audiobook was published by Macmillan Audio in October 2011 and Amazon.com was kind enough to provide this audiobook for me through their Vine Program for reviewing and I was not request to provide a positive review. Opinions expressed here are my own.

If you read this review, fell free to leave a comment!

AudioBook "Only Time Will Tell" by Jeffrey Archer

About the AudioBook: From the internationally bestselling author of Kane and Abel and A Prisoner of Birth comes Only Time Will Tell, the first in an ambitious new series that tells the story of one family across generations, across oceans, from heartbreak to triumph. The epic tale of Harry Clifton's life begins in 1920, with the words "I was told that my father was killed in the war." A dock worker in Bristol, Harry never knew his father, but he learns about life on the docks from his uncle, who expects Harry to join him at the shipyard once he's left school. But then an unexpected gift wins him a scholarship to an exclusive boys' school, and his life will never be the same again. As he enters into adulthood, Harry finally learns how his father really died, but the awful truth only leads him to question, was he even his father? Is he the son of Arthur Clifton, a stevedore who spent his whole life on the docks, or the firstborn son of a scion of West Country society, whose family owns a shipping line? This introductory novel in Archer's ambitious series The Clifton Chronicles includes a cast of colorful characters and takes us from the ravages of the Great War to the outbreak of the Second World War, when Harry must decide whether to take up a place at Oxford or join the navy and go to war with Hitler's Germany. From the docks of working-class England to the bustling streets of 1940 New York City, Only Time Will Tell takes readers on a journey through to future volumes, which will bring to life one hundred years of recent history to reveal a family story that neither the reader nor Harry Clifton himself could ever have imagined.

About the Author: Jeffrey Archer was educated at Oxford University. He has served five years in Britain's House of Commons, fourteen years in the House of Lords and two in Her majesty's prisons, which spawned three volumes of highly acclaimed Prison Diaries. All of his novels and short story collections--including Kane and Abel, Sons of Fortune, and False Impression--have been international bestsellers. Archer is married with two children and lives in London and Cambridge.

My Review: This audio book comes in a 10-CD compilation, read by Roger Allam and Emelia Fox.

The plot is quite interesting and will keep you entertained and paying close attention till the end. The author tells us the saga of the Clifton's family, a lower class family of dock workers from which Harry Clifton is a talented son from Maisie, and the Barrington's family, a wealthy family from which Giles and Emma, children of Hugo and Elizabeth, turn to be and important part of Harry's life. The story starts with Harry fighting to rise in life through his studies. He finds  an old man named Jack leaving in the docks, who tutors him and both ended up being great friends. And as he progress with studies through scholarships, life presents very tricky to Harry, with bullies and real friends crossing his path. The story is full of twists, some predictable, but the end is really unexpected.
This is suppose to be the first part out of five book series that is called "The Clifton's Chronicles", this first one in particular covering the period between 1920 and 1940. The whole story is told from different perspectives. There is an introduction from Harry's mother, Maisie, followed by the main stream by Harry, back to his mother, them to Hugo Barrignton, Old Jack, Emma and Giles points of view, before returning to Harry for the final part.
The only detail is that as this book is the first part of a series, the story does not wrap up on itself, on the contrary, it is left open on a hook for the next part.

Overall this is a masterpice composed by Mr. Jeffrey Archer, where each character is described in rich details and the voice that Roger Allam uses for each one is simply priceless. The female characters are read by Emelia Fox. Their narration is superb and contributes a lot to the success of this audiobook. Excellent fiction novel, a must have in the permanent library of any reader that enjoys this genre.

This audiobook was published by Macmillan Audio in August 2011 and Amazon.com was kind enough to provide this audiobook for me through their Vine Program for reviewing and I was not request to provide a positive review. Opinions expressed here are my own.

If you read this review, fell free to leave a comment!

AudioBook "A Trick of the Light" by Louise Penny, read by Ralph Cosham

About the Book: “Hearts are broken,” Lillian Dyson carefully underlined in a book. “Sweet relationships are dead.”
But now Lillian herself is dead. Found among the bleeding hearts and lilacs of Clara Morrow's garden in Three Pines, shattering the celebrations of Clara's solo show at the famed Musée in Montreal. Chief Inspector Gamache, the head of homicide at the Sûreté du Québec, is called to the tiny Quebec village and there he finds the art world gathered, and with it a world of shading and nuance, a world of shadow and light. Where nothing is as it seems. Behind every smile there lurks a sneer. Inside every sweet relationship there hides a broken heart. And even when facts are slowly exposed, it is no longer clear to Gamache and his team if what they've found is the truth, or simply a trick of the light.

About the Author: LOUISE PENNY is an award-winning journalist who worked for many years for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She lives in a small village south of Montréal where she writes, skis, and volunteers. Her bestselling first mystery, Still Life, was the winner of the New Blood Dagger, Arthur Ellis, Barry, Anthony, and Dilys awards; and her second, A Fatal Grace, won the Agatha Award for Best Novel in 2008. Visit her website at http://www.louisepenny.com/.

My Review: This audio book comes in a 9-CD compilation, read by Ralph Cosham.
The plot is quite interesting and will keep you paying close attention till the end. Clara Morrow is an artist that has her own solo show at the MAC in Montreal. After the vernissage, there is a party at her house in Three Pines. In the morning following this party, a body is found on her garden. Chief Inspector Gamache and his number two in command start working on the case. they had being at the vernissage, as they were friends of Clara and other people from Three Pines where previously they solved a murder case. But in this Art World nothing is as it seems. The person who was murdered is identified as Lillian Dyson, an art critic and an old friend of Clara, before changing into a foe. Nobody is this art world seems to like her. But she vanished from scenes long ago to reapear eight months ago, back from NY into Montreal. Her "new life" is different and her art improved, but somehow now she is dead. Chief Inspector Gamache and his team have to figure out what happen while dealing with some internal issues due to a deadly attack on their team the year before.
Overall this is a masterpice composed by Mrs. Louise Penny, where each character is described in rich details and the voice that Ralph Cosham uses for each one is simply priceless. His narration is superb and contributes a lot to the success of this audiobook. Excellent murder mystery, a must have in the permanent library of any reader that enjoys this genre.

This audiobook was published by Macmillan Audio in August 2011 and Amazon.com was kind enough to provide this audiobook for me through their Vine Program for reviewing and I was not request to provide a positive review. Opinions expressed here are my own.
If you read this review, fell free to leave a comment!