Audiobooks

Barry, Brunonia. The Lace Reader. HarperAudio, 2008.

This tale, told by self-professed liar Towner Whitney, meanders through the history of the Whitney women of Salem Massachusetts as well as the witch hunts that took place there so long ago. Eva Whitney can read fortunes with a piece of lace and May and her daughters Sophya and Lindley have similar gifts. It’s been over 10 years since Towner left Salem after her sister’s death but she returns when her beloved great aunt Eva is reported missing. Unfortunately, the police find Eva’s body not long after Towner arrives and her carefully built existence begins to spiral out of control. Was her great aunt’s death really the accident it appeared to be? Is her abusive uncle Cal involved? Is the story we get from Towner Whitney true? Shifting details, murky memories and real world Puritan witch hunters give this book a dark gothic feel that is almost spooky. It was one of my favorite books of 2008. - Holley Wesley, Emmett O’Neal Library

L'amour, Louis. The Daybreakers. (The Sacketts series) unabridged, 5 cds. Narrated by David Strathairn

Orrin and Tye Sackett are two brothers with very different personalities and ambitions. But they are both Sacketts who have settled in New Mexico. They work hard, respect others and are fair in business dealings. There are settlers in the area who want all the land for themselves and will take it from anyone in their way. Louis L'amour tells about life during those early days in New Mexico when land was desired by large outfits who would take advantage of the smaller landholders and those who were "different" in some way. Ranch hands tended to be loyal to their bosses and work hard but when they relaxed they read the penny novels of the day. Tye Sackett earned a reputation for being fast with a gun. Truth was he did not like to use it against another but he could when needed. When acting as Marshall he tried to clean up the territory without use of guns, running the bad influences out of the area. Orrin's reputation was a politician, a smooth talker and one who could explain whatever needed to be said. His marriage to the daughter of a large land holder was beneficial to his ambitions until he realized what his wife and father-in-law were really like. Orrin and Tye wanted to make the area a safer and more pleasant place to live. - Beth Hutcheson, Homewood Public Library

L'amour, Louis. Sackett. (The Sacketts series)  4 unabridged cds - read by David Stathhairn

William Tell Sackett finally decided to head west from the mountains of his homeland and family. He had been aware of gold coins from his childhood as his ancestor, Barnabas, had found many gold coins in his homeland years before and brought them to these shores. Those coins had meant trouble for Barnabas and trouble found Tell when he discovered gold and mined it. When you have gold and people are nice to you, are they liking the gold or you? Tell visited the land of his brothers and wives only to realize his life did not seem as fulfilled since he only had gold, not a life mate. - Beth Hutcheson, Homewood Public Library

 L'amour, Louis. Mojave Crossing. (The Sacketts series)  4 unabridged cds read by David Strathairn

The trip should have been 'simple'. Tell would travel to Los Angeles from Arizona with his gold and that of his partners to cash it in. But Tell meets a beautiful woman who also needed to go to L.A. for some unknown reason. He agreed to take her even though he had been warned about her. Soon it was apparent that a group was following them. Crossing the desert can be problematic for the best prepared travelers with no encumbrances. Dorinda was at least willing to long hours in the saddle and eating beans for supper. As the trip progressed Tell was more certain that she was less than honest with him about her dealings which caused her to make a hurried journey to L.A. Though he was an ethical and mainly a nice person he was confronted with people who were deceitful. The outcome for Tell was not assured. - Beth Hutcheson, Homewood Public Library

Larsson, Stieg. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

I read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo for my book group and LOVED it! I cannot wait for the second in this series, and may, in fact, order it from Amazon.UK. Although I would not naturally gravitate toward a story about corporate greed and dirty business dealings, the story sucked me in. Set in Sweden, the story opens with a wealthy businessman opening a birthday gift. He already knows what it is, because he receives the same gift every year, a framed, pressed flower in a frame. Above his desk hang many decade worth of the same gift. Why does he receive this gift? We don’t know, and neither does this character. We find out though, that he is a wealthy businessman whose favorite niece disappeared more than 30 years before and has never been found. He, and the rest of his family, assumes she is dead, but he hires an out of luck journalist to research his family and his niece’s fate. What this journalist finds is more disturbing than can be imagined, and very dangerous. The characters Stieg Larsson created were so thoroughly crafted - they felt truly real and three dimensional. I loved the girl with the dragon tattoo and can't wait to find out what happens to her, she was (odd as it may seem) my hero! I hope she finds happiness. I also enjoyed reading a novel set in Sweden. The locale was exotic as were some of the customs, I should have checked out a travel guide to Sweden to have at my side as I read this not-to-be missed thriller/suspense /mystery. You will miss out if you don’t pick up The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo! - Katie Moellering, Emmet O'Neal Library

 Peck, Richard. The Teacher’s Funeral. Listening Library, 2007.

This is a young adult title that I listen to several times a year. I also suggest it all the time for families getting ready to travel and looking for something everyone can enjoy. My mother also enjoyed it. The narrator, Dylan Baker, is a joy to listen to. Though the story takes place in turn of the century Indiana, Baker’s slow draw makes the listener feel like this story takes place in the South. Fifteen year old Russell Culver dreams of nothing else but hopping a train to the Dakotas to work in the wheat harvest and he feels the only thing standing in his way is the pesky requirement of going to school. When the teacher dies unexpectedly, Russell thinks his dreams are finally coming true only to be brought up short when his sister, Tansy, has the audacity to take over the classroom. What could be worse! Pranks galore (wrapping the school bell in a quilt, setting the outhouse on fire, etc) don’t quite get the response he expected and hilarity abounds. This is one of my favorite audiobooks EVER! - Holley Wesley, Emmett O’Neal Library

Winchester, Simon. The Professor and the Madman. Oxford University Press, 2002. Books on Tape, Inc. 2002. Narrated by David Case.

The subtitle says it all: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. Many readers who consult the OED on a regular basis would not have the least suspicion of the dramatic story behind the compilation of this standard reference work. This new dictionary, meant to replace Samuel Johnson’s and list all the words in the English language, was the brainchild of James A. H. Murray, a scholar and an authentic genius in the mastery of languages; he once applied for a position at the British Museum and claimed “intimate acquaintance” with Italian, French, Spanish, Catalan, and Latin, not to mention familiarity with Dutch, German, Danish, Portuguese, and more than half a dozen others. Knowing that the listing of every word in English would be a massive undertaking, Murray sent out flyers soliciting assistance from other scholars who would write definitions of words and select appropriate quotations demonstrating their proper use. One of the frequent contributors was William Chester Minor, an American surgeon and Civil War veteran who had moved to England after the war. Murray issued frequent invitations to Minor to come and visit him, invitations that went mysteriously unanswered, until the truth finally came out: Chester had committed murder and had been confined as a criminal lunatic in the Broadmoor Asylum. Although much troubled by delusions and paranoia, Minor had made something of a life for himself in Broadmoor, working as a researcher in surroundings that were, by the standards of that day, quite comfortable and humane. In his narrative of Murray and Minor, Simon Winchester’s ironic sense of humor is very much in evidence, but he deals compassionately with Minor’s mental illness and turns what could have been a very dry scholarly work into an exciting biography of two very different men who struck up a working relationship and, finally, a friendship under difficult circumstances. Winchester also makes the OED come alive in a way that will make readers eager to take another look at the work ― and wonder, perhaps, if the word they look up at random might be one of Dr. Minor’s contributions. Unfortunately, Winchester is not the reader of his own work for this audiobook version, but David Case does an admirable job of reading with clarity and precision, along with appropriate Scots, Irish, English, and American accents as required. Readers may also want to follow The Professor and the Madman with another work by Winchester, entitled The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary. - Mary Anne Ellis, Central Library