Dr. J. Adrienne Roth
- 76
- reviews
- 10
- helpful votes
- 350
- ratings
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Hold Strong
- A Novel
- By: Robert Dugoni, Jeff Langholz, Chris Crabtree
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Sam Carlson is a projectionist in small-town Minnesota, where fantasies unspool in glorious black and white—for him and for his sweetheart, college-bound math whiz Sarah Haber. When the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, Sam is sent to the Philippines and captured as a POW. Brutalized but unbroken by the Bataan Death March and POW camps, Sam is one of eighteen hundred starved and weakened prisoners herded into the cargo hold of a barbaric hell ship called the Arisan Maru, his survival doubtful.
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Historically Grounded, Amazing Book
- By MAC on 02-20-25
- Hold Strong
- A Novel
- By: Robert Dugoni, Jeff Langholz, Chris Crabtree
- Narrated by: Will Damron
The history
Reviewed: 07-11-25
Captivating. The only fault I found was that the long episodes of misanthropy, torture, chaos, misery seems difficult to believe in the survival. Too much seemed contrived, though I know it was based on true stories.
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Long Island Compromise
- A Novel
- By: Taffy Brodesser-Akner
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Taffy Brodesser-Akner
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1980, a wealthy businessman named Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway, brutalized, and held for ransom. He is returned to his wife and kids less than a week later, only slightly the worse, and the family moves on with their lives, resuming their prized places in the saga of the American dream, comforted in the realization that though their money may have been what endangered them, it is also what assured them their safety.
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We need more from Taffy Brodesser-Akner!
- By Ximena Enriquez on 08-31-24
- Long Island Compromise
- A Novel
- By: Taffy Brodesser-Akner
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Taffy Brodesser-Akner
The worst waste of time
Reviewed: 06-26-25
Trite. Boring and repetitive. just uninteresting. Commentary of a society that is boorish and poorly executed.
Totally disappointing. Could barely get through the first two chapters.
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The Drowning Game
- By: Barbara Nickless
- Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Sisters Nadia and Cass Brenner are heirs to Ocean House, a decades-old empire that builds superyachts for the rich and powerful: emirs, oligarchs, and titans of industry throughout America and Europe. They’re a next-generation success with the design of their soon-to-be-commissioned megayacht for a Chinese billionaire. But the sisters’ entrée into the coveted Asian market is tragically cut short when Cass falls from a fortieth-floor hotel balcony.
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Great story
- By OceanGirl on 02-10-25
- The Drowning Game
- By: Barbara Nickless
- Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
Too many plots; but creative
Reviewed: 05-10-25
It was hard to keep up with all the plots, the various characters, at the machinations of mysteries. It was too contrived to hold together very well.
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The Boy from the Woods
- Wilde, Book 1
- By: Harlan Coben
- Narrated by: Steven Weber
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Thirty years ago, Wilde was found as a boy living feral in the woods, with no memory of his past. Now an adult, he still doesn't know where he comes from, and another child has gone missing. No one seems to take Naomi Pine's disappearance seriously, not even her father - with one exception. Hester Crimstein, a television criminal attorney, knows through her grandson that Naomi was relentlessly bullied at school. Hester asks Wilde - with whom she shares a tragic connection - to use his unique skills to help find Naomi.
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Coben could do a whole series on Hester!!!!
- By shelley on 03-18-20
- The Boy from the Woods
- Wilde, Book 1
- By: Harlan Coben
- Narrated by: Steven Weber
Intriguing
Reviewed: 04-28-25
Fascinating puzzle, which was solved and kept me on the edge; but a bit too contrived
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Persuasion
- Penguin Classics
- By: Jane Austen
- Narrated by: Erin Doherty
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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At 27, Anne Elliot is no longer young and has few romantic prospects. Eight years earlier, she had been persuaded by her friend Lady Russell to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a handsome naval captain with neither fortune nor rank. What happens when they encounter each other again is movingly told in Jane Austen's last completed novel. Set in the fashionable societies of Lyme Regis and Bath, Persuasion is a brilliant satire of vanity and pretension, but, above all, it is a love story tinged with the heartache of missed opportunities.
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great listen
- By Becca on 07-14-20
- Persuasion
- Penguin Classics
- By: Jane Austen
- Narrated by: Erin Doherty
Manner ed
Reviewed: 02-12-25
My least favorite Austin story. It is so laden with manners that it is a bit of a drug. Her first and worst.
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This Strange Eventful History
- By: Claire Messud
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Over seven decades, from 1940 to 2010, the pieds-noirs Cassars live in an itinerant state—separated in the chaos of World War II, running from a complicated colonial homeland, and, after Algerian independence, without a homeland at all. This Strange Eventful History, told with historical sweep, is above all a family story: of patriarch Gaston and his wife Lucienne, whose myth of perfect love sustains them and stifles their children; of François and Denise, devoted siblings connected by their family's strangeness; of François's union with Barbara; of Chloe, the result of that union.
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Be Prepared for a Jarring Narration
- By Thomp/Suis on 05-17-24
- This Strange Eventful History
- By: Claire Messud
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
Beautifully written. Needed editing.
Reviewed: 01-05-25
I love generational novels, and this one brought me to new lands, new cultures in their influence on the characters. I think the story itself was too long and much that was discussed was not necessary
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I Will Ruin You
- A Novel
- By: Linwood Barclay
- Narrated by: George Newbern, Johnathan McClain
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s a question everyone asks themselves, but few have to face in real life. English teacher Richard Boyle certainly never thought he would find himself talking down a former student intent on harming others, but when Mark LeDrew shows up at Richard’s school with a bomb strapped to his chest, Richard immediately jumps into action. Thanks to some quick thinking, he averts a major tragedy and is hailed as a hero, but not all the attention focused on him is positive.
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It could have been me
- By Beguiling on 06-29-24
- I Will Ruin You
- A Novel
- By: Linwood Barclay
- Narrated by: George Newbern, Johnathan McClain
Moral conflicts
Reviewed: 12-31-24
Mystery that kept me involved. Creative structure
A l l. Characters well developed. Sadly relevant setting
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Not Another Christmas Rom Com
- By: A. J. Pine
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt, Teddy Hamilton
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Original Recording
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It’s the flight before Christmas and Molly just got an unexpected gift: a free first-class upgrade on her plane trip home for the holidays. Bring on the complimentary cocktails! But after one too many, she spills all her secrets to the hot guy seated next to her—only to wake up mortified when her buzz has worn off. At least she never has to see Liam again ... or so she thinks. When Molly arrives at Christmas House, the festive rental home that she and her family are sharing with her sister’s fiancé and his wealthy family, she discovers that Liam is one of the new in-laws. Oops.
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cute, funny, and short
- By Bsr on 12-06-24
- Not Another Christmas Rom Com
- By: A. J. Pine
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt, Teddy Hamilton
Corny; but perfect for listening to while prepping for Christmas
Reviewed: 12-24-24
See above. Moral: secrets can destroy. Be careful trying to control others and happily ever after is not a bad way to end a Christmas story.
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The Empusium
- A Health Resort Horror Story
- By: Olga Tokarczuk
- Narrated by: Antonia Lloyd-Jones, Natasha Soudek
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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September 1913. A young Pole suffering from tuberculosis arrives at Wilhelm Opitz’s Guesthouse for Gentlemen in the village of Görbersdorf, a health resort in the Silesian mountains. Every evening the residents gather to imbibe the hallucinogenic local liqueur and debate the great issues of the day: Monarchy or democracy? Do devils exist? Are women born inferior? War or peace? Meanwhile, disturbing things are happening in the guesthouse and the surrounding hills. Someone—or something—seems to be watching, attempting to infiltrate this cloistered world.
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Never ending Misogyny
- By Nina O on 10-11-24
- The Empusium
- A Health Resort Horror Story
- By: Olga Tokarczuk
- Narrated by: Antonia Lloyd-Jones, Natasha Soudek
Tedious
Reviewed: 12-18-24
Too abstract and fantastical for my liking. Perhaps different character characters done by different people would have helped.
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Beautiful Ruins
- By: Jess Walter
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying. And the story begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lot - searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier.
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My mind wandered
- By Ella on 11-25-12
- Beautiful Ruins
- By: Jess Walter
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
Geography as characters
Reviewed: 11-09-24
Sequencing was more jarring than intriguing. Some of it seem too contrived. Despite some character complexity, I found there was too much caricature.
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