Cynthia Freeman
- 8
- reviews
- 2
- helpful votes
- 78
- ratings
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On the Road
- 50th Anniversary Edition
- By: Jack Kerouac
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 4,488
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,829
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Story4 out of 5 stars 3,823
Few novels have had as profound an impact on American culture as On the Road. Pulsating with the rhythms of 1950s underground America, jazz, sex, illicit drugs, and the mystery and promise of the open road, Kerouac’s classic novel of freedom and longing defined what it meant to be “beat” and has inspired generations of writers, musicians, artists, poets, and seekers who cite their discovery of the book as the event that “set them free”.
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5 out of 5 stars
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My Favorite Narration and a Wonderful Book
- By Guillermo on 09-17-09
- On the Road
- 50th Anniversary Edition
- By: Jack Kerouac
- Narrated by: Will Patton
Not sure why it's so famous
Reviewed: 08-20-21
The narrator was very good. The story was so so. Maybe it was more interesting in the time period it was written. Now, it just seems kind of sad and more than a bit misogynistic.
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The Second Coming
- By: Walker Percy
- Narrated by: David Hilder
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 156
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 134
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Story4 out of 5 stars 137
Will Barrett of Linwood, North Carolina, is a depressed widower with a peculiar tendency to fall down in strange places. Allison, the girl in the greenhouse, has just escaped from a mental institution and is working hard to make a new life for herself. When their paths cross in a most unusual manner, a relationship begins that will help restore two struggling outcasts to new life. What follows is by turns touching and zany, tragic and comic, as Will undertakes his own Pascalian wager in search of proof that God exists.
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5 out of 5 stars
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No Easy Hothouse of Consecration
- By Darwin8u on 11-27-12
- The Second Coming
- By: Walker Percy
- Narrated by: David Hilder
I Wished the Author Would Just Get On With It
Reviewed: 03-29-13
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
Probably not to most of my friends. This book is kind of an intellectual exercise. Most of my friends would probably not be thrilled by that. Not to insult my friends' intellect, it's just that this book doesn't really have a compelling plot.
What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)
That was it!!! I was expecting a little bit more of a resolution.
Have you listened to any of David Hilder’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Not that I'm aware of.
Do you think The Second Coming needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?
No, I can't see where another book would go. It seems like more of a stand-alone story to me. There's not a plot that lends itself to a sequel.
Any additional comments?
This book is well written but I wouldn't call it a truly compelling read. There were few places in the book where I was all that interested in finding out what was going to happen next.
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1 person found this helpful
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Gone Girl
- A Novel
- By: Gillian Flynn
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 19 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 59,522
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 52,670
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 52,738
On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Demented, twisted, sick and I loved it!
- By Theodore on 01-20-13
- Gone Girl
- A Novel
- By: Gillian Flynn
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Kirby Heyborne
Not a Happy Story
Reviewed: 09-08-12
Where does Gone Girl rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
It's pretty far down the list. Although it's well done, it's pretty depressing.
What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?
The book was full of plot twists. Not what you expect.
Did Julia Whelan and Kirby Heyborne do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?
They did a good job of portraying the characters. They brought out my emotions.
Any additional comments?
This book is pretty evocative but the plot is not really my cup of tea. Call me old fashioned but I like to have at least one character that I really like and this book didn't offer that. In fact, I kind of felt like I needed to take a shower after I finished to wash off the depressing remnant of the ending. If you're looking for a happy ending, this is not the book for you.
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The Twelve Caesars
- By: Suetonius
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 17 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 37
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
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Story4 out of 5 stars 30
As private secretary to the Emperor Hadrian, the scholar Suetonius had access to the imperial archives and used them (along with eyewitness accounts) to produce one of the most colorful biographical works in history. The Twelve Caesars chronicles the public careers and private lives of the men who wielded absolute power over Rome, from the foundation of the empire under Julius Caesar and Augustus, to the decline into depravity and civil war under Nero and the recovery that came with his successors.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Heavily modified and softly translated
- By NeoAtreides on 12-03-15
- The Twelve Caesars
- By: Suetonius
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
Dry, Dry, Dry
Reviewed: 01-07-12
This book wasn???t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
You have to be a hard-core historian to really enjoy this book.
What three words best describe Clive Chafer???s performance?
Cultured, dry, emotionless
If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Twelve Caesars?
Some of the really long passages in Latin.
Any additional comments?
I was doing OK with this book even though it's pretty dry material. I expected it to be a bit on the scholastic side. I know enough about Roman history that I was getting by and enjoying some of the bits and pieces. You have to have a pretty good knowledge of that history to even have a chance at understanding what is going on and recognizing the names. There are so many names to keep track of.
And then, I ran into an extraordinarily long passage in Latin that just about put me to sleep before the narrator finished it. Maybe if I understood Latin, I wouldn't have found this so irritating but it would have been better done by translation to English. I can't imagine that there are many who have a full enough knowledge of Latin to understand the passage.
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7 people found this helpful
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Rose Madder
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Blair Brown
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,247
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 870
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 857
Escape from her macabre marriage is not as easy as fleeing to a new city, picking a new name, finding a new job, and lucking out with a new man. Not with a husband like Norman...
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2 out of 5 stars
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An Excellent Story With a Horrible Recording
- By Alyssa B. Goss on 11-07-10
- Rose Madder
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Blair Brown
A Little Outside the Norm
Reviewed: 11-22-10
Stephen King can write to evoke emotion, there's no doubt about that. My problem with most of his work is that it's so dark and the ending is usually pretty unhappy. That being said, this book comes the closest of anything of his I've read to having a happy ending.
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2 people found this helpful
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The Kitchen House
- A Novel
- By: Kathleen Grissom
- Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy, Bahni Turpin
- Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 11,936
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 9,430
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 9,425
Orphaned while onboard ship from Ireland, seven-year-old Lavinia arrives on the steps of a tobacco plantation where she is to live and work with the slaves of the kitchen house. Under the care of Belle, the master's illegitimate daughter, Lavinia becomes deeply bonded to her adopted family, though she is set apart from them by her white skin. Eventually, Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, where the master is absent and the mistress battles opium addiction.
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5 out of 5 stars
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This is a must!
- By AB on 09-04-10
- The Kitchen House
- A Novel
- By: Kathleen Grissom
- Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy, Bahni Turpin
Well Done
Reviewed: 11-22-10
Interesting book. I liked that characters and the plot was interesting and mostly plausible. The narration was very well done.
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The Secret History
- By: Donna Tartt
- Narrated by: Donna Tartt
- Length: 22 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 231
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 187
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Story4 out of 5 stars 188
The smartest murder-mystery you will ever hearA misfit at an exclusive New England college, Richard finds kindred spirits in the five eccentric students of his ancient Greek class. But his new friends have a horrific secret. When blackmail and violence threaten to blow their privileged lives apart, they drag Richard into the nightmare that engulfs them. And soon they enter a terrifying heart of darkness from which they may never return.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Not worth it
- By Meg on 01-11-11
- The Secret History
- By: Donna Tartt
- Narrated by: Donna Tartt
Interesting Book
Reviewed: 11-22-10
I thought this book was rather better than the other reviewers did. It probably could have been tightened up a bit without damage but I thought the characters were well drawn and the plot was interesting. The narrator did an OK job but she seemed to get mixed up a bit with ascribing East coast accents to the Californian protagonist in places.
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1 person found this helpful
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On Beauty
- By: Zadie Smith
- Narrated by: Peter Francis James
- Length: 18 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 818
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 375
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Story4 out of 5 stars 377
This wise, hilarious novel reminds us why Zadie Smith has rocketed to literary stardom. On Beauty is the story of an interracial family living in the university town of Wellington, Massachusetts, whose misadventures in the culture wars—on both sides of the Atlantic—serve to skewer everything from family life to political correctness to the combustive collision between the personal and the political. Full of dead-on wit and relentlessly funny, this tour de force confirms Zadie Smith's reputation as a major literary talent.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Somewhat Disappointed
- By Cherokee on 11-15-05
- On Beauty
- By: Zadie Smith
- Narrated by: Peter Francis James
Not Funny
Reviewed: 05-13-09
Contrary to the synopsis of this book, one thing this book is NOT, is funny. I mean, if you think it is, you must be a little twisted. It's well written and evokes a number of emotions but mirth is not one of them. I'm not terribly picky but this one is not really my cup of tea.
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