Richard
- 21
- reviews
- 55
- helpful votes
- 35
- ratings
-
Birnam Wood
- A Novel
- By: Eleanor Catton
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 754
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 627
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 626
A landslide has closed the Korowai Pass on New Zealand’s South Island, cutting off the town of Thorndike and leaving a sizable farm abandoned. The disaster presents an opportunity for Birnam Wood, an undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic guerrilla gardening collective that plants crops wherever no one will notice. For years, the group has struggled to break even. To occupy the farm at Thorndike would mean a shot at solvency at last. But the enigmatic American billionaire Robert Lemoine also has an interest in the place.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Outstanding thriller w/ exceptional character development
- By Bradley T. Collins on 04-21-23
- Birnam Wood
- A Novel
- By: Eleanor Catton
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
Good book
Reviewed: 06-26-23
Catton knows how to write. Ending is predictably not predictable (or at least entirely so) without providing spoilers.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
The Family Game
- A Novel
- By: Catherine Steadman
- Narrated by: Catherine Steadman
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,994
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,764
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,756
It’s the holiday season and Harriet Reed, a novelist on the brink of literary stardom, is newly engaged to Edward Holbeck, the heir of an extremely powerful family. And even though Edward has long tried to sever ties with them, news of the couple’s upcoming marital bliss has the Holbecks inching back into their lives with one invite after another.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Why do she have to use “Jesus Christ” all of the time
- By Kells Bells on 03-11-23
- The Family Game
- A Novel
- By: Catherine Steadman
- Narrated by: Catherine Steadman
Mysteries have to be believable
Reviewed: 03-30-23
This story has so many holes and leaps that it just doesn’t hang together. Want to grab the author and say “come on, make it believable”!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
The Maid
- A Novel
- By: Nita Prose
- Narrated by: Lauren Ambrose
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 21,368
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 18,823
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 18,738
Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by. Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life’s complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Great narration. Dumb story.
- By Anne Bonny on 01-16-22
- The Maid
- A Novel
- By: Nita Prose
- Narrated by: Lauren Ambrose
Is the maid dimwitted or the author?
Reviewed: 05-19-22
I could try and go along for the ride of a good mystery but it is excruciating to get through this. I guess we were supposed to chuckle but if I heard "and Mr Black was dead in his bed" (as a rhyme) one more time I was going to break my phone. And I. think she uses the word "akimbo" about 10 times in the book to describe disorder in the room etc. And I think we all suspect taht there is going to be some "big reveal" but when it comes it is not believable as the character development of Molly doesn't support this outcome.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
How Beautiful We Were
- A Novel
- By: Imbolo Mbue
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi, Janina Edwards, Dion Graham, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 596
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 526
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 522
We should have known the end was near. So begins Imbolo Mbue’s powerful second novel, How Beautiful We Were. Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, it tells of a people living in fear amid environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of cleanup and financial reparations to the villagers are made - and ignored. The country’s government, led by a brazen dictator, exists to serve its own interests.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
As relevant as it is heart-wrenching
- By Anonymous User on 10-18-21
- How Beautiful We Were
- A Novel
- By: Imbolo Mbue
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi, Janina Edwards, Dion Graham, JD Jackson, Allyson Johnson, Lisa Renee Pitts
Love letter to Africa. Hate letter to corporations
Reviewed: 03-17-22
Just not worth it at all. There is so little drama and just a bunch of filler narratives from the characters in the story. "Paxton" the evil US corporation is beyond evil and the people of the Village are so full of humanity that it is all excruciating to listen to. 14 hours of listening??? Nope.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
The Lincoln Highway
- A Read with Jenna Pick (A Novel)
- By: Amor Towles
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Marin Ireland, Dion Graham
- Length: 16 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 22,942
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 20,235
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 20,112
In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I'm totally opposite
- By Meaghan Bynum on 10-10-21
- The Lincoln Highway
- A Read with Jenna Pick (A Novel)
- By: Amor Towles
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Marin Ireland, Dion Graham
Good fun book
Reviewed: 01-17-22
Good, fun book with very good writing and excellent narration. I cared about the characters and the ending was surprising (at least to me).
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Reprieve
- A Novel
- By: James Han Mattson
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 128
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 112
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 111
On April 27, 1997, four contestants make it to the final cell of the Quigley House, a full-contact haunted escape room in Lincoln, Nebraska, made famous for its monstrosities, booby-traps, and ghoulishly costumed actors. If the group can endure these horrors without shouting the safe word, “reprieve,” they’ll win a substantial cash prize - a startling feat accomplished only by one other group in the house’s long history. But before they can complete the challenge, a man breaks into the cell and kills one of the contestants.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
creepy escape room story
- By Barbara S on 11-18-21
- Reprieve
- A Novel
- By: James Han Mattson
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
Straddling genres unsuccessfully
Reviewed: 01-17-22
Reviews seem to indicate that this book is good because it is part horror and part social commentary. It fails at both. Some of the dialog in the social commentary elements was promising/good, but the central premise of the haunted house contest was just badly done. The book is way too long for what if offers. It drove me crazy to finish it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
The Last House on Needless Street
- By: Catriona Ward
- Narrated by: Christopher Ragland
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 4,497
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,054
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 4,040
In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods lives a family of three. A teenage girl who isn’t allowed outside, not after last time. A man who drinks alone in front of his TV, trying to ignore the gaps in his memory. And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible. An unspeakable secret binds them together, but when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees may come back to haunt them all.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I can only listen in 1-2 hour segments!
- By Brenda on 10-04-21
- The Last House on Needless Street
- By: Catriona Ward
- Narrated by: Christopher Ragland
Not just bad, awful
Reviewed: 11-26-21
So many things to hate: the story, which from the teasers onsite promises a major plot twist late in the book but by the time I got there it was irrelevant as I hated the book so much. The narration with the cat meowing is torture on the ears to listen to. The writing is really bad and the metaphors laughable: her scent filled the air like a rain (or some such) for someone dead 11 years and does that smell like rain.
I am a highbrow reader and this goes down as one of the worst I have ever read
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Cloud Cuckoo Land
- A Novel
- By: Anthony Doerr
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland, Simon Jones
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 8,973
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 7,905
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7,870
Among the most celebrated and beloved novels of 2021, Anthony Doerr’s gorgeous third novel is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience, hope—and a book. In Cloud Cuckoo Land, Doerr has created a magnificent tapestry of times and places that reflects our vast interconnectedness—with other species, with each other, with those who lived before us, and with those who will be here after we’re gone.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Academic Snobbery
- By TVR on 10-03-21
- Cloud Cuckoo Land
- A Novel
- By: Anthony Doerr
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland, Simon Jones
Fabulous book
Reviewed: 11-09-21
Simply stated, Anthony Doerr knows how to write: plot, characters, dialog and emotions. Read this to embarrass so many other authors who are not in his league
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
The Premonition
- A Pandemic Story
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,686
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,881
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,876
For those who could read between the lines, the censored news out of China was terrifying. But the president insisted there was nothing to worry about. Fortunately, we are still a nation of skeptics. Fortunately, there are those among us who study pandemics and are willing to look unflinchingly at worst-case scenarios. Michael Lewis’ taut and brilliant nonfiction thriller pits a band of medical visionaries against the wall of ignorance that was the official response of the Trump administration to the outbreak of COVID-19.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Why not Michael Lewis?
- By Brian on 05-04-21
- The Premonition
- A Pandemic Story
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
Not his best
Reviewed: 09-22-21
Michael Lewis is great writer and this has its moments. But there are two big problems: He assumes that if we all had listened to the few protagonists mentioned in the story and not sure how much the needle on COVID would/could have changed. Book written pre Delta but it shows how hard it has been to contain this virus with lockdowns etc.
The narration is AWFUL. The speaking voice is grating and does SO little to convey the sometimes joviality of Lewis's writing
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Exit
- By: Belinda Bauer
- Narrated by: Rupert Degas
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 552
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 482
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 480
Felix Pink is retired. Widowed for more than a decade and a painfully literal thinker, he has led a life of routine. He occupies himself volunteering as an Exiteer - someone who sits with terminally ill people as they die by suicide, assisting with logistics and lending moral support. When Felix lets himself into Number 3 Black Lane, he’s there to keep a dying man company as he takes his final breath. But just 15 minutes later, Felix is on the run from the police. Now he must discover whether what went wrong was a simple mistake - or deliberate, a murder.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Funny and engaging
- By J. Belinda Yandell on 03-08-21
- Exit
- By: Belinda Bauer
- Narrated by: Rupert Degas
No man's land
Reviewed: 09-22-21
There might have been a better book here on end of life assisted suicides with more poignant analysis of the choices and repercussions on the people involved.
There might have been a better book that ignored some of that seriousness and went for a more cutting black humor (think Martin McDonough)
There might have been a late life romance to spur along our protagonist
This book does none of that and plods along with really, really not funny British farce comedy.
I hated it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful