Pink Flame of Liberty
- 23
- reviews
- 5
- helpful votes
- 79
- ratings
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The Great Fire of Rome
- The Fall of the Emperor Nero and His City
- By: Stephen Dando-Collins
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 48
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 34
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Story4 out of 5 stars 34
In A.D. 64, on the night of July 19, a fire began beneath the stands of Rome’s great stadium, the Circus Maximus. The fire would spread over the coming days to engulf much of the city of Rome. From this calamity, one of the ancient world’s most devastating events, legends grew: that Nero had been responsible for the fire, and fiddled while Rome burned, and that Nero blamed the Christians of Rome, burning them alive in punishment, making them the first recorded martyrs to the Christian faith at Rome.
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1 out of 5 stars
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my baloney has a first name...
- By Pink Flame of Liberty on 10-04-10
- The Great Fire of Rome
- The Fall of the Emperor Nero and His City
- By: Stephen Dando-Collins
- Narrated by: John Lescault
my baloney has a first name...
Reviewed: 10-04-10
Awful. His complete ad-hoc fantasies over the followers of Isis in his odd zeal to prove that Christians were not persecuted in Rome are so vapid that I feel stupider after just reading it.
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6 people found this helpful
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The Time Traveler's Wife
- By: Audrey Niffenegger
- Narrated by: Fred Berman, Phoebe Strole
- Length: 17 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 13,931
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 10,386
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 10,405
Clare and Henry have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was 36. They were married when Clare was 23 and Henry was 31. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity from his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing.
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5 out of 5 stars
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One of my favorite books
- By Joey on 01-13-08
- The Time Traveler's Wife
- By: Audrey Niffenegger
- Narrated by: Fred Berman, Phoebe Strole
A nice ride
Reviewed: 06-15-10
I really enjoyed this book. The time travel was enough to keep one's mind occupied and never fully satisfied pondering the paradoxes and turns. I had a hard time getting into it at first, but I stuck with it, and am glad that I did. I really want to see the movie now. Another reviewer noted (and perhaps I read disapproval into it) that no big social issues were address and that it was a nice stroll through middle-classdom. And I say hurray! I am tired of social issues shoved down my throat, and I am happily and unembarassedly middle class. It was an enjoyable romance with a good mix of ups and downs. The characters are likeable and memorable.
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The Postmistress
- By: Sarah Blake
- Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 676
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 327
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Story4 out of 5 stars 327
Alternating between an America still cocooned in its inability to grasp the danger at hand and a Europe being torn apart by war, The Postmistress gives us two women who find themselves unable to deliver the news, and a third woman desperately waiting for news yet afraid to hear it. Sarah Blake's The Postmistress shows how we bear the fact that war goes on around us while ordinary lives continue. Filled with stunning parallels to today, it is a remarkable novel.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Reasonably enjoyable, but too full of stereotypes
- By Babs on 02-16-10
- The Postmistress
- By: Sarah Blake
- Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy
A Beautiful Yawn
Reviewed: 06-15-10
It was definitely beautifully written, but beautiful doesn't cure boring. It was like that girl you look at with some nice features, but when they are all put together she falls just shy of being pretty, like Celine Dion. One of the main characters, Frankie, is just plain whiny and annoying. Iris has her phreak on with her Cerificate of Virginity (I still never understood what that was supposed to be all about), and it was just life, senseless and random. I dunno, but I just don't see life like that. I liked the question it raised about what happens at the edges of "the stories" we hear about daily, but when the edges are revealed here, they make you just want to stick your head in an oven they are so depressing.
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3 people found this helpful
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The Unnamed
- By: Joshua Ferris
- Narrated by: Joshua Ferris
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 132
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 61
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Story4 out of 5 stars 61
The Unnamed is a dazzling novel about a marriage, family, and the unseen forces of nature and desire that seem to threaten them both. He was going to lose the house and everything in it. The rare pleasure of a bath, the copper pots hanging above the kitchen island, his family-again he would lose his family. He stood inside the house and took stock. Everything in it had been taken for granted. How had that happened again? He had promised himself not to take anything for granted and now he couldn't recall the moment that promise had given way to the everyday.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Thought provoking, beautifully written, well read
- By P. Bergh on 01-27-10
- The Unnamed
- By: Joshua Ferris
- Narrated by: Joshua Ferris
sad and boring
Reviewed: 05-22-10
I get the impression that I am supposed to like and be impressed by this book, but I just wasn't. If it wasn't the audiobook, I am sure I would have stopped reading out of boredom. The audiobook is read by the author which added a unique interest and spark. It isn't as if sucked... it was.... was. The story didn't really have a point it was leading to, and it was just very depressing. I suppose that was the point, but usually something depressing can be used to spur us on to something.. but this just left me bummed out.
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3 people found this helpful
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The Memory of Earth
- Homecoming, Volume 1
- By: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,486
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,823
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,832
High above the planet Harmony, the Oversoul watches. Its task, programmed so many millennia ago, is to guard the human settlement on this planet, to protect this fragile remnant of Earth from all threats...to protect them, most of all, from themselves.
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1 out of 5 stars
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I keep hoping, but, alas, ...
- By Ole Hippie on 02-22-10
- The Memory of Earth
- Homecoming, Volume 1
- By: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
meh
Reviewed: 03-02-10
Meh, its okay. I would probably listen to the rest of the series just because it is pretty mindless, and it doesn't suck, but it is a pretty transparently shallow attempt to rewrite the Biblical story... and somewhat insulting at that to a devout Christian. Fortunately, I am secure enough in my faith to just be slightly disappointed that the attempt was
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Under the Dome
- A Novel
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Raul Esparza
- Length: 34 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 29,124
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 22,322
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 22,330
On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when - or if - it will go away.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Glad I Listened to 11-22-63 First
- By Russell on 02-09-12
- Under the Dome
- A Novel
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Raul Esparza
It's a small town, and we all support the team
Reviewed: 02-24-10
I finished listening to "Under the Dome" by Stephen King, and I think it was his best book yet. Highly recommended.
The one downside is that King's growing hostility toward religion in general, Christianity in particular, is pretty evident. Also, and I don't know if the text contains these errors, or whether they exist in the written book (I would be VERY curious to know) but there are multiple places where the dreaded "S" is placed at the end of Revelation which is as bad as a huge "Kick Me, I Know Enough About the Bible to be Stupid"sign on one's back, but it is omitted in others. At first, I thought it was intentionally done to show the redneckish error of people who painted the verses on the side of the building, but the dreaded "s"is also present in the "narrator's" point of view at times, and absent at others, and absent in the spoken words of the very redneckish guy who put the verses on the wall. So... perhaps the guy who did the reading for the audible book slipped up and added a "s" where none was present in the book in those places. I would be VERY curious to know. This is near the end of the book.
If these errors are in the book, it is unforgiveable for someone of King's stature and long history of working with Biblical themes. Further, in the author's end notes, he stated that he had a fact-checker working with him to insure accuracy in the fact-based areas of the story. If this is just an Audible voice actor's error, King WIN and Audible FAIL, but if it is in the book, inexcusable King FAIL.
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1 person found this helpful
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Paris 1919
- Six Months That Changed the World
- By: Margaret MacMillan
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 25 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,415
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,073
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,064
Winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize, renowned historian Margaret MacMillan's best-selling Paris 1919 is the story of six remarkable months that changed the world. At the close of WWI, between January and July of 1919, delegates from around the world converged on Paris under the auspices of peace. New countries were created, old empires were dissolved, and for six months, Paris was the center of the world.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good book, well narrated
- By W. F. Rucker on 02-07-09
- Paris 1919
- Six Months That Changed the World
- By: Margaret MacMillan
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
audible kids? no way
Reviewed: 01-28-10
The intro that this is for audible kids was a shocker. I was an avid reader as a kid, but this book is way too tedious for a child, it would have caused me to jump out a window. However, as an adult, it is a very good and thorough history lesson. I learned more though about that period in American history (and indeed world history) than I ever knew before. Just when I thought the world leaders actually knew what they were doing, you find out that they were basically winging it.
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13 people found this helpful
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The Bonfire of the Vanities
- By: Tom Wolfe
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 27 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,007
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,145
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,135
Tom Wolfe's best-selling modern classic tells the story of Sherman McCoy, an elite Wall Street bond trader who has it all: wealth, power, prestige, a Park Avenue apartment, a beautiful wife, and an even more beautiful mistress - until one wrong turn sends Sherman spiraling downward into a humiliating fall from grace. A car accident in the Bronx involving Sherman, his girlfriend, and two young lower-class Black men sets a match to the incendiary racial and social tensions of 1980s New York City.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Big mistake
- By karen on 08-31-14
- The Bonfire of the Vanities
- By: Tom Wolfe
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
great drama
Reviewed: 01-18-10
I really enjoyed this book. It was so tragically sad in the way it portrayed the utter worst of every group involved. I think the one line that really gripped me was "And Sherman's regal chin sunk to his chest." When a book has a line that grips my heart, it is an important book for me
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3 people found this helpful
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An Echo in the Bone
- Outlander, Book 7
- By: Diana Gabaldon
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 45 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 26,458
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 22,440
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Story5 out of 5 stars 22,350
Jamie Fraser knows from his time-traveling wife Claire that, no matter how unlikely it seems, America will win the Revolutionary War. But that truth offers little solace, since Jamie realizes he might find himself pointing a weapon directly at his own son - a young officer in the British army. And Jamie isn't the only one with a tormented soul - for Claire may know who wins the conflict, but she certainly doesn't know whether or not her beloved Jamie survives.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Read all of Gabaldon's stuff before this one
- By Charles on 10-17-09
- An Echo in the Bone
- Outlander, Book 7
- By: Diana Gabaldon
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
what I didn't like
Reviewed: 11-29-09
First, I loved the book. I don't think I can highlight its great points better than others, so I am going to take a few words to say what I didn't like, and that I can't believe others did. The sex scenes are embarrassingly stupid. Perhaps that is a good thing for as a born-again Christian I don't want to be tempted to get engrossed in those areas. Right now the only thing I am tempted to do is laugh my tail off. Actually that is my only big complaint with the book and has always been with the series. The rest is epic even if somewhat predictable. I do know that I wanted to go back through a few stones myself and slap Jenny across the face.
If you haven't listened to this audio version narrated by Davina Porter, then you are missing out on a lot. You will fall in love with the series all over again. And the sex scenes are even stupider in audio so I guess if you thought they were good in writing, you will be in soft-porn rape-fantasy heaven with the audio. Ugh. Freud would have a field day with Gabaldon.
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1 person found this helpful
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An Echo in the Bone: International Edition
- Outlander, Book 7
- By: Diana Gabaldon
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 45 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 21,389
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 18,037
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Story5 out of 5 stars 17,969
Jamie Fraser knows from his time-traveling wife, Claire, that, no matter how unlikely it seems, America will win the Revolutionary War. But fighting for the eventual winner is no guarantee of safety. And worse still, the possibility of pointing a weapon at his own son - a young officer in the British army - haunts Jamie's every thought.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Read all of Gabaldon's stuff before this one
- By Charles on 10-17-09
- An Echo in the Bone: International Edition
- Outlander, Book 7
- By: Diana Gabaldon
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
what I didn't like
Reviewed: 11-29-09
First, I loved the book. I don't think I can highlight its great points better than others, so I am going to take a few words to say what I didn't like, and that I can't believe others did. The sex scenes are embarrassingly stupid. Perhaps that is a good thing for as a born-again Christian I don't want to be tempted to get engrossed in those areas. Right now the only thing I am tempted to do is laugh my tail off. Actually that is my only big complaint with the book and has always been with the series. The rest is epic even if somewhat predictable. I do know that I wanted to go back through a few stones myself and slap Jenny across the face.
If you haven't listened to this audio version narrated by Davina Porter, then you are missing out on a lot. You will fall in love with the series all over again. And the sex scenes are even stupider in audio so I guess if you thought they were good in writing, you will be in soft-porn rape-fantasy heaven with the audio. Ugh. Freud would have a field day with Gabaldon.
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1 person found this helpful