STAFF PICK: Her Pretty Face by Robyn Harding

Posted on July 10, 2018 by admin

Post by Laura Laidman

Title: Her Pretty Face
Author: Robyn Harding
Narrator: Kirby Heyborne, Cassandra Campbell, Rebekkah Ross

Frances Metcalfe has a secret; a secret that could tear apart her home, her family, and the one real friendship she has managed to forge. But in Robyn Harding’s Her Pretty Face, Frances isn’t the only one holding on to a dark secret that lies in waiting just below the surface of her life.

Between her distant husband, her difficult son, and the gossiping mothers at her son’s school, Frances finds solace in Kate Randolph. Kate is everything Frances is not – confident, beautiful, successful, and happy. It’s with her that Frances finds motivation to come out of her shell and move past the pain that haunts her. Unfortunately for Frances, Kate isn’t everything she seems. Darkness looms in Frances’s new friend, one that might be worse than anything Frances herself has to hide away from the world.

Told from three perspectives, Frances herself, Kate’s rebellious teenage daughter Daisy, and DJ, a young man with a haunting past of his own, Her Pretty Face is a perfect pick for fans of domestic dramas and thrillers alike. Each perspective is read by its own narrator, with Kirby Heyborne (Gone Girl), Cassandra Campbell (Small Great Things), and Rebekkah Ross (All The Missing Girls) all giving amazing performances. They bring Frances, Daisy, and DJ to life with the passion and desperation that each character radiates.

Full of twists and turns, Her Pretty Face was an audiobook I just couldn’t press pause on. Each chapter brought the characters deeper down their own dizzying rabbit holes, which twisted together as the story progressed. Fans of true crime will love this one too, with its subtle influences from famous crimes that were interesting to pick up on. Her Pretty Face is the perfect listen for those long summer nights.

STAFF PICK: The Woman In The Woods by John Connolly

Posted on June 11, 2018 by admin

Post by Miranda Winters-Sayle

Title: The Woman In The Woods
Author: John Connolly
Narrator: Jeff Harding

A young woman is found buried in the Maine woods, her body showing signs that she gave birth shortly before her death. Private detective Charlie Parker is hired to recover the missing child — but he isn’t the only one looking him. Someone else is interested in the whereabouts of the child, and they are leaving a trail of bodies in their wake.

The latest installment to John Connolly’s Charlie Parker series has something for lovers of various genres: mystery, paranormal thriller, and horror. What makes the audiobook even more exciting is that it isn’t a typical “whodunit” mystery — in fact, the reader is made aware of the whereabouts of the child within the first few chapters. The question is: Who will find him first?

I was a little hesitant to listen to this book as a first time Connolly reader. Launching headfirst into the 16^th title in a series can be intimidating. However, the author does a fantastic job of giving enough information that I felt like I knew Charlie Parker without being overwhelmed with exposition of the events from previous titles in the series.

Listeners are able to follow both Charlie Parker and his adversary Quayle as they search for the missing child. This was hands-down my favorite part of the novel, as many authors do not allow the reader inside the head of the antagonist. Quayle is the perfect villain: clever, cruel, and absolutely creepy.

Fans of previous Charlie Parker audiobooks will be pleased to know that Jeff Harding continues narrating the series. His tone matches what you would expect from the protagonist in a gritty detective novel that doesn’t disappoint.

7 Books That Prove Wasting Time isn’t a Waste of Time

Posted on May 29, 2018 by Lena Yang

Ever feel like there just aren’t enough hours in a day to get everything done?

Living in a frenetic, connected world has pushed us to fill every waking second of our days with work for fear that wasted time will mean wasted potential. But, this isn’t healthy, and we must find a way to cope with the overwhelming stress fueled by our addiction to speed.

These seven books will help you do just that. Take a step back, relax, and discover why wasting time may just be the best way to use your time.

1. In Praise of Wasting Time by Alan Lightman, narrated by Alan Lightman

In this timely and essential book that offers a fresh take on the qualms of modern day life, Professor Alan Lightman investigates the creativity born from allowing our minds to freely roam, without attempting to accomplish anything and without any assigned tasks. Break free from the idea that we must not waste a single second, and discover how sometimes the best thing to do is to do nothing at all. Read more and sample the audio.

2. The Art of the Wasted Day by Patricia Hampl, narrated by Patricia Hampl

The Art of the Wasted Day is a picaresque travelogue of leisure written from a lifelong enchantment with solitude. Patricia Hampl visits the homes of historic exemplars of ease who made repose a goal, even an art form. The real job of being human, Hampl finds, is getting lost in thought, something only leisure can provide. Read more and sample the audio.

3. Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, narrated by Adam Sims

Overwork is the new normal. Rest is something to do when the important things are done—but they are never done. Looking at different forms of rest, from sleep to vacation, Silicon Valley futurist and business consultant Alex Soojung-Kim Pang dispels the myth that the harder we work the better the outcome. “Deliberate rest,” as Pang calls it, is the true key to productivity, and will give us more energy, sharper ideas, and a better life. Read more and sample the audio.

4. Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self by Manoush Zomorodi, narrated by Manoush Zomorodi

Has your smartphone become your BFF? Do you feel bored when you’re not checking Facebook or Instagram? Bored and Brilliant: Rediscovering the Lost Art of Spacing Out explains the connection between boredom and original thinking and explores how we can harness boredom’s hidden benefits to become our most productive selves. Read more and sample the audio.

5. In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed by Carl Honre, narrated by Carl Honore

We live in the age of speed. We strain to be more efficient, to cram more into each minute, each hour, each day. Living on the edge of exhaustion, we are constantly reminded that the pace of life is spinning out of control. Realizing the price we pay for unrelenting speed, people all over the world are reclaiming their time—and living happier, healthier, and more productive lives. A Slow revolution is taking place. Read more and sample the audio.

6. An Oasis in Time: How a Day of Rest Can Save Your Life by Marilyn Paul, narrated by Vanessa Daniels

Now, more than ever, people are seeking a reprieve from the constant pressure to achieve, produce, and consume. While many turn to mindfulness and meditation, organizational change expert Marilyn Paul, Ph.D. offers a complementary solution that is as radical as it is ancient. Read more and sample the audio.

7. The Art of Stillness by Pico Iyer, narrated by Pico Iyer

In this age of constant movement and connectedness, when so many of us are all over the place, perhaps staying in one place and locating everything we need for peace and happiness there is a more exciting prospect and a greater necessity than ever before. Read more and sample the audio.

The Other Side of the Castle: 6 Fairy Tales as Told by the Villains

Posted on May 24, 2018 by Lena Yang

For centuries, fairy tales have delighted the young and the old. Passed down through fireside fables and aged storybooks, these stories have been told and retold, yet they continue to captivate readers. As the tales typically go, good triumphs while evil is punished. Yet, nothing is ever what it seems. There are stories untold even in the most classic and familiar tales. Step into the shoes of some of the most infamous villains with these new spins on classic fairy tales.

1. All the Ever Afters: The Untold Story of Cinderella’s Stepmother by Danielle Teller, narrated by Jane Copland

As rumors about the cruel upbringing of beautiful newlywed Princess Cinderella roil the kingdom, her stepmother, Agnes, who knows all too well about hardship, privately records the true story. The story of their relationship reveals that nothing is what it seems, that beauty is not always desirable, and that love can take on many guises. Read more and sample the audio.

2. Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust, narrated by Jennifer Ikeda

Frozen meets The Bloody Chamber in this feminist fantasy re-imagining of the Snow White fairy tale.
After the death of her mother, Mina forms a plan: win the king’s heart and become queen. The only catch is that she’ll have to become a stepmother to fifteen-year-old Lynet. Girls Made of Snow and Glass traces the relationship of two young women doomed to be rivals from the start. Read more and sample the audio.

3. Caroline: Little House, Revisited by Sarah Miller, narrated by Elizabeth Marvel

In this novel authorized by the Little House estate, Sarah Miller vividly recreates the beauty, hardship, and joys of the frontier in a dazzling work of historical fiction, a captivating story that illuminates one courageous, resilient, and loving pioneer woman as never before—Caroline Ingalls, “Ma” in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s beloved Little House books. Read more and sample the audio.

4. Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao, narrated by Kim Mai Guest

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns reimagines The Evil Queen legend as a tale of one peasant girl’s quest to become Empress. Growing up in a forgotten village on the edge of the map, Xifeng longs to fulfill the destiny promised to her by her cruel aunt, the witch Guma, who has seen glimmers of Xifeng’s majestic future. But, in order to achieve greatness, Xifeng must embrace the darkness within her. Read more and sample the audio.

5. Hiddensee: A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker by Gregory Maguire, narrated by Steven Crossley

Hiddensee recreates the backstory of the Nutcracker, re-imagining how this entrancing creature came to be carved and how it magically guided an ailing little girl named Klara through a dreamy paradise on a snowy Christmas Eve. It also brings to life the mysterious godfather Drosselmeier, the ominous, canny, one-eyed toymaker who presents the Nutcracker to Klara, his goddaughter. Read more and sample the audio.

6. Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes, narrated by Moira Quirk

Dinah, the future Queen of Wonderland, has not yet seen the dark depths of her kingdom; she longs only for her father’s approval and a future with the boy she loves. But when a betrayal threatens her throne, she is launched into Wonderland’s dangerous political game. Queen of Hearts brings to life the epic origin of Wonderland’s infamous villain. Read more and sample the audio.

Dynamic Duos: 7 Literary Collaborations that You Didn’t Know About

Posted on May 18, 2018 by Lena Yang

The stars have aligned and it is Gemini’s time to shine! In honour of the sign’s representative twins, Castor and Pollux, here are some reads penned by authors who are actually duos writing collaboratively in disguise.

1. Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren, narrated by Erin Mallon
Duo: Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings, friends who met over fanfiction

Macy Sorensen is settling into an ambitious if emotionally tepid routine: work hard as a new pediatrics resident, plan her wedding to an older, financially secure man, keep her head down and heart tucked away. But when she runs into Elliot Petropoulos—the first and only love of her life—the careful bubble she’s constructed begins to dissolve. Read more and sample the audio.

2. The Last Mrs. Parrish: A Novel by Liv Constantine, narrated by Suzanne Elise Freeman, Meghan Wolf
Duo: Sisters Lynne Constantine and Valerie Constantine

Amber Patterson is tired of being a nobody. She deserves more—a life of money and power like the one blond-haired, blue-eyed goddess Daphne Parrish takes for granted. Amber’s envy could eat her alive…if she didn’t have a plan. Before long, Amber is Daphne’s closest confidante. But a skeleton from her past may undermine everything that Amber has worked towards. Read more and sample the audio.

3. Wildcat by Max Monroe, narrated by Jeremy York, Ava Erickson
Duo: Secretive friends Max and Monroe

Wildcat: a football formation in which the ball is snapped, not to the quarterback, but to another player lined up in the quarterback position.
Wild, Cat: a beautiful woman from the sky, who hooked me against the rails, and has me on the ropes. Sweet like honey, with a hint of sass burning behind her pretty brown eyes, she took over my heart without warning.
Read more and sample the audio.

4. Sunday Silence: A Novel by Nicci French, narrated by Beth Chalmers
Duo: Nicci Gerrard and Sean French, an English husband-and-wife team

After a body is discovered beneath the floorboards of Frieda’s house, Frieda finds herself a person of interest in a murder case. The corpse is only months old, but the chief suspect appears to have died more than seven years ago. Except as Frieda knows all too well, he’s alive and well and living in secret. And it seems he’s inspired a copycat…Read more and sample the audio.

5. A Casualty of War by Charles Todd, narrated by Rosalyn Landor
Duo: Mother-and-son writing team, Charles and Caroline Todd

Though the Great War is nearing its end, the fighting rages on. While waiting for transport back to her post, Bess Crawford meets Captain Alan Travis and later becomes entangled in the mysterious relationship between Alan and his cousin, Lieutenant James Travis. Bessie’s search for answers will lead her into unexpected danger and bring her face to face with the wounds of war that not even peace can heal. Read more and sample the audio.

6. The Hand That Feeds You by A.J. Rich, narrated by Ann Marie Lee
Duo: Established authors Amy Hempel and Jill Ciment

The duo paired up for this book, which their dying friend Katherine Russell Rich didn’t have time to write. When Morgan Prager’s fiancée, Bennett, is mauled to death, Morgan attempts to locate Bennett’s parents. In the search, she finds that he has several fiancées, and fits the clinical definition of a sociopath. When these other women are murdered one by one, Morgan’s research into Bennett suddenly takes on the urgency of survival. Read more and sample the audio.

7. A Death in the Family by Michael Stanley, narrated by Nyambi Nyambi
Duo: South African writing team, Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip

Faced with the violent death of his own father, Assistant Superintendent David ‘Kubu’ Bengu is baffled. Who would kill such a frail old man? Kubu’s frustration grows as his boss bans him from being involved in the investigation. When Kubu defies orders and sets out on the killers’ trail, startling and chilling links emerge, spanning the globe and setting a sequence of shocking events in motion. Read more and sample the audio.

The Most Boring Audiobook You’ll Ever Listen To

Posted on May 10, 2018 by Michelle

Title: This Audiobook Will Send You To Sleep
Author: Professor K. McCoy and Dr Hardwick
Narrator: Bruce Alexander

Have you been itching to listen to an audiobook that’s more boring than watching paint dry? We’ve got just the thing! This Audiobook Will Send You To Sleep by Professor K. McCoy and Dr Hardwick is so boring, even the most caffeine-induced night owl will be sure to fall asleep after just a few short, colorless chapters. Some of the chapters include The Economic Statistics from the First Two Five-Year Plans in the Soviet Union. Another is Railway Gauges: An Overview. Even if these subjects sound mildly interesting to you, it is explained in such dull terms that you’ll be fighting to keep your eyes open.

Professor K. McCoy, a specialist in the analysis of hypnotic states and somnambulism (sleepwalking) and Dr Hardwick, an expert in stereotypical lethargy, wrote the book to help people achieve a desirable state of mind (boredom, lassitude, and disinterest) to fall asleep.

Narrator Bruce Alexander does a phenomenal job of remaining monotone throughout the audiobook, pausing frequently and sleepily. He succeeds in making the measurement of linear density of fibre, administrative bureaucracy of the Byzantine Empire, and Belgian political crisis even less exciting than one might have originally imagined. Due to the staleness of these subjects and danger of falling asleep, I do not recommend anyone listen to this audiobook while driving or cooking with the stove on.

If counting sheep and aromatherapy just aren’t cutting it for you anymore, listen to This Audiobook Will Send You To Sleep and get the best sleep of your life. Even if you don’t, at least you’ll be well-versed in the growth pattern of holly and recent developments in the taxonomy of molluscs.

Tag Archives: audio

Dynamic Duos: 7 Literary Collaborations that You Didn’t Know About

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