Literary Shopper
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The Folded Clock
- By: Heidi Julavits
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Like many young people, Heidi Julavits kept a diary. Decades later she found her old diaries in a storage bin and hoped to discover the early evidence of the person (and writer) she'd since become. Instead, "The actual diaries revealed me to possess the mind of a paranoid tax auditor." The entries are daily chronicles of anxieties about grades, looks, boys, and popularity. After reading the confessions of her past self, writes Julavits, "I want to good-naturedly laugh at this person. I want to but I can't."
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No
- By Geoff Rothschild on 07-27-15
- The Folded Clock
- By: Heidi Julavits
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
anecdotes of privilege and success
Reviewed: 05-26-25
She is an engaging writer, but it's hard to relate to one story of success and prosperity after another. So busy! So in demand! Off on another fun trip that yields minor insights! I found myself resenting this book when I wanted to fall in love, but it might appeal to people craving an escapist beach read about a writer's life.
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Inside Out
- A Memoir
- By: Demi Moore
- Narrated by: Demi Moore
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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For decades, Demi Moore has been synonymous with celebrity. From iconic film roles to high-profile relationships, Moore has never been far from the spotlight - or the headlines. Even as Demi was becoming the highest paid actress in Hollywood, however, she was always outrunning her past. Throughout her rise to fame and during some of the most pivotal moments of her life, Demi battled addiction, body image issues, and childhood trauma that would follow her for years - all while juggling a skyrocketing career and at times negative public perception.
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I loved this Memoir
- By mrsbee19 on 09-25-19
- Inside Out
- A Memoir
- By: Demi Moore
- Narrated by: Demi Moore
doesn't say anything you don't already know ...
Reviewed: 10-17-24
... but that voice!
If you've been around for a couple of decades, you've read and seen everything Moore writes about here. But listening to her voice for six and a half hours can be very pleasant. There's a surprising wealth of information about Blame It on Rio, which Moore assesses in a way appropriate to the era in which she is writing.
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Vladimir
- A Novel
- By: Julia May Jonas
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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A provocative, razor-sharp, and timely debut novel about a beloved English professor facing a slew of accusations against her professor husband by former students—a situation that becomes more complicated when she herself develops an obsession of her own.
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Please do not judge this book by its cover
- By Sabrina N. Frang on 02-18-22
- Vladimir
- A Novel
- By: Julia May Jonas
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
beware the twist
Reviewed: 10-17-24
I loved about half of this book--great job showing the complicated situation that arises when a long-term husband and philanderer becomes a cause celebre at the college. The protagonist is well drawn and complex, and she had me rooting wholeheartedly for her and some other memorable characters ... until that plot twist, which doesn't seem to arise from character and sent reverberations back through the rest. This book could have been great if the author hadn't felt the need to do something high-drama and bigger than life. I'll be looking for her next one with high hopes.
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The Puzzle Master
- A Novel
- By: Danielle Trussoni
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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All the world is a puzzle, and Mike Brink—a celebrated and ingenious puzzle constructor—understands its patterns like no one else. Once a promising Midwestern football star, Brink was transformed by a traumatic brain injury that caused a rare medical condition: acquired savant syndrome. The injury left him with a mental superpower—he can solve puzzles in ways ordinary people can’t. But it also left him deeply isolated, unable to fully connect with other people.
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Nope
- By scubadiversong on 06-25-23
- The Puzzle Master
- A Novel
- By: Danielle Trussoni
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
disappointing potboiler
Reviewed: 10-17-24
Trussoni has written two good books, a clumsy sequel, a cleverly conceived genealogical thriller that relies heavily on coincidence and found texts, and ... this. It's a potboiler, sure, intended as an intellectual thriller, and can't be held to high literary standards--but still, it is asking for standards and reaching for them, then just getting stuck in some rather silly situations and twists. The effort to make head injury survivor Mike into a hero of mythic proportions shows the strain all too obviously. Trussoni wants to be better at all this than she is. And she has proven she can be a fine writer; maybe she needs to abandon genre writing, or maybe she needs to give each manuscript more time than she's been doing.
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The Asylum
- By: John Harwood
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Confused and disoriented, Georgina Ferrars awakens in a small room in Tregannon House, a private asylum in a remote corner of England. She has no memory of the past few weeks. The doctor Maynard Straker tells her that she admitted herself under the name Lucy Ashton the day before and then suffered a seizure. When she insists he has mistaken her for someone else, Dr. Straker sends a telegram to her uncle, who replies that Georgina Ferrars is at home with him in London: "Your patient must be an imposter." Suddenly her voluntary confinement becomes involuntary....
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Mesmerizing
- By Tracey Rains on 06-03-13
- The Asylum
- By: John Harwood
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
Completely absorbing 85% of the way through
Reviewed: 05-04-24
But in the end, did not stick the landing, and the unsatisfying end reverberated backward through the story. Harwood's best is The Seance; this one's a decent second. Wish he'd written more of them.
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Sex with a Brain Injury
- On Concussion and Recovery
- By: Annie Liontas
- Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Annie Liontas suffered multiple concussions in her thirties. In Sex with a Brain Injury, she writes about what it means to be one of the “walking wounded,” facing her fear, her rage, her physical suffering, and the effects of head trauma on her marriage and other relationships. Forced to reckon with her own queer mother’s battle with addiction, Liontas finds echoes in their pain. Liontas weaves history, philosophy, and personal accounts to interrogate and expand representations of mental health, ability, and disability—particularly in relation to women and the LGBT community.
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Thank you Annie fir finding the words i couldn't.. In 13 yests
- By chiara maioni on 05-24-25
- Sex with a Brain Injury
- On Concussion and Recovery
- By: Annie Liontas
- Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
favorite memoir of the past year (or more)
Reviewed: 03-21-24
Beautifully and compellingly written, both deeply personal and meticulously researched. This book is a huge contribution to our understanding of the brain, its injuries, and its resilience--and to the dynamics of personality, hope, and the rest of the often messy business of being human.
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Holly
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Justine Lupe, Stephen King
- Length: 15 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency, hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly Gibney is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just passed away. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny’s desperate voice makes it impossible to turn her down. Meanwhile, mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. But they are also harboring a shocking, unholy secret.
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Investigations in the time of Covid
- By Victor @ theAudiobookBlog dot com on 09-05-23
- Holly
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Justine Lupe, Stephen King
Politics are fine; story goes off the rails.
Reviewed: 10-11-23
I applaud the handling of Covid, vaccines, and politics--not overwhelming--it's just life as was lived in that era (and still is, really). The story ticks along just fine until the last 20% or so ... The zaniness gets a bit out of hand, and the resolution isn't earned. Still an important addition to our body of literature about cannibalism.
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The Wicked Redhead
- A Wicked City Novel
- By: Beatriz Williams
- Narrated by: Dara Rosenberg, Julie McKay
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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1924. Ginger Kelly wakes up in tranquil Cocoa Beach, Florida, having fled south to safety in the company of disgraced Prohibition agent Oliver Anson Marshall and her newly-orphaned young sister, Patsy. But paradise is short-lived. Marshall is reinstated to the agency with suspicious haste and put to work patrolling for rumrunners on the high seas, from which he promptly disappears. Gin hurries north to rescue him, only to be trapped in an agonizing moral quandary by Marshall’s desperate mother.
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Improved from the Wicked City!
- By Meg on 06-17-21
- The Wicked Redhead
- A Wicked City Novel
- By: Beatriz Williams
- Narrated by: Dara Rosenberg, Julie McKay
forgettable
Reviewed: 08-16-23
The frame story is more interesting than the story of the redhead (who isn't all that wicked) ... Why has the novel been set up to make it seem as if Ella's problems will be solved by finding out more about the redhead? Spoiler alert: Not much connection. Nice descriptions of Florida. But I kept forgetting who the main men in the redhead's story were. I don't know if I can try another by this author or not.
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Book of Knives
- By: Lise Haines
- Narrated by: Eve Passeltiner
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Nora didn't expect Hidden Lake Camp to be in a state of ruin—dock full of rotten boards, smashed windows, cabins falling apart. To her new husband, Paul, the camp is the past he'd just as soon bury. Nora agreed to drive north with him to get his elderly parents settled while he makes enough repairs to sell the property, which will only take a few months. The summer camp, however, and its deep lake have other plans.
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an elegant slow burn pays off
- By Literary Shopper on 07-04-23
- Book of Knives
- By: Lise Haines
- Narrated by: Eve Passeltiner
an elegant slow burn pays off
Reviewed: 07-04-23
Elegantly written, although sometimes about very gritty things, this novel smolders at an unsettling slow burn, then bursts into thrills at the end. The characters are well and deeply drawn, the emotional situation complex and riveting.
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Pretty Things
- A Novel
- By: Janelle Brown
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Lauren Fortgang, Hillary Huber
- Length: 16 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Nina once bought into the idea that her fancy liberal arts degree would lead to a fulfilling career. When that dream crashed, she turned to stealing from rich kids in LA alongside her wily Irish boyfriend, Lachlan. Nina learned from the best: Her mother was the original con artist, hustling to give her daughter a decent childhood despite their wayward life. But when her mom gets sick, Nina puts everything on the line to help her, even if it means running her most audacious, dangerous scam yet.
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SO GOOD
- By sandraleeweston on 04-28-20
- Pretty Things
- A Novel
- By: Janelle Brown
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Lauren Fortgang, Hillary Huber
fewer unearned twists than usual
Reviewed: 06-26-23
The story points generally come from character, not from a crazy "Woo-hoo! I need to add a surprising twist!"--which is good.
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