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Monsters of Templeton
- Narrated by: Nicole Roberts
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
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Publisher's summary
In the wake of a disastrous affair with her older, married archeology professor at Stanford, brilliant Wilhelmina Cooper arrives back at the doorstep of her hippie mother-turned-born-again-Christian's house in Templeton, New York - a storybook town her ancestors founded that sits on the shores of Lake Glimmerglass. Upon her arrival, a prehistoric monster surfaces in the lake, bringing a feeding frenzy to the quiet town. And Willie learns she has a mystery father her mother has kept secret for Willie's entire life.
The beautiful, broody Willie is told that the key to her biological father's identity lies somewhere in her twisted family tree. She finds more than she bargained for as a chorus of voices from the town's past, some sinister, all fascinating, rise up around her to tell their side of the story. In the end, dark secrets come to light, past and present day are blurred, and old mysteries are finally put to rest.
This is a fresh, virtuoso performance that will surely place Groff among the best young writers of today.
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Editorial reviews
In Monsters of Templeton, Lauren Groff invents a charming yet quirky upstate New York town, Templeton, hometown to protagonist Wilhelmina Cooper. Willie shows up at her mother's doorstep defeated after an embarrassing affair with her archeology professor and soon begins the summer-long project of trying to uncover a family secret. In the process, the listener learns of the soap-opera-worthy affairs, illegitimate children, and deceptions that have taken place in this tiny town over the past 400 years.
Nicole Roberts imbues the multiple characters that take turns telling the tale with distinct personalities, making each one more fun than the last. The Running Buds, a group of middle-aged joggers who pound the Templeton pavement each morning, are breathless and stern as they update you on the town gossip. While Charlotte Temple, one of Willie's many female ancestors, has a quiet voice and perfect pronunciation, exemplifying the Quaker sensibilities of her time. Each new voice is introduced not just by name, but with Irish brogues, thick southern inflections, varying pitches, and other audible adornments.
Roberts' reading (and Groff's characters) also evolve throughout the story. Willie's mother Vi, for example, is introduced as a flip, detached, and indignant 18-year-old hippie, and grows into the present-day Vi, a born-again Christian who is wry, wise, and weary with slow-paced speech and an edgy, throaty voice. Listeners may have a hard time keeping track of the 400 years of town history and many-branches of family genealogy unraveled throughout Monsters of Templeton, but it's fairly easy to follow who's talking thanks to Roberts' deft narration. A downloadable family tree helps to somewhat clear up who fathered who, but you're best suited to give up on the details and simply get lost in the story, and Roberts' alluring voice. Erin Hobday
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- By: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Anju and Sudha formed an astounding, almost psychic connection during their childhood in India. When Anju invites Sudha, a single mother in Calcutta, to come live with her and her husband, Sunil, in California, Sudha foolishly accepts, knowing full well that Sunil has long desired her. As Sunil's attraction rises to the surface, the trio must struggle to make sense of the freedoms of America - and of the ties that bind them to India and to one another.
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Vine of desire
- By Mz Shantay on 03-27-21
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The Hawley Book of the Dead
- A Novel
- By: Chrysler Szarlan
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Revelation "Reve" Dyer grew up with her grandmother’s family stories, stretching back centuries to Reve’s ancestors, who founded the town of Hawley Five Corners, Massachusetts. Their history is steeped in secrets, for few outsiders know that an ancient magic runs in the Dyer women’s blood, and that Reve is a magician whose powers are all too real. Reve and her husband are world-famous Las Vegas illusionists. They have three lovely young daughters, a beautiful home, and what seems like a charmed life. But Reve’s world is shattered....
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It sounded like something I could really love.....
- By Andrea on 10-01-14
By: Chrysler Szarlan
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Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories
- By: Kelly Link - editor, Gavin J. Grant - editor
- Narrated by: Sarah Coomes, Nico Evers-Swindell, Shannon McManus, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Imagine an alternate universe where romance and technology reign. Where tinkerers and dreamers craft and recraft a world of automatons, ornate clockworks, calculating machines, and other marvels that. Where scientists and schoolgirls, fair folk and Romans, intergalactic bandits, and intrepid orphans - decked out in corsets, clockwerk suits, and tall black boots - solve dastardly crimes, escape from monstrous predicaments, consult oracles, and hover over volcanoes in steam-powered airships.
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MMMM, Orca Bacon
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 09-14-13
By: Kelly Link - editor, and others
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The Lost Girls
- A Novel
- By: Heather Young
- Narrated by: Alice Rosengard, Laurel Schroeder
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1935, six-year-old Emily Evans vanishes from her family's vacation home on a remote Minnesota lake. Her disappearance destroys the family - her father commits suicide, and her mother and two older sisters spend the rest of their lives at the lake house, keeping a decades-long vigil for the lost child. Sixty years later, Lucy, the quiet and watchful middle sister, lives in the lake house alone. Before her death, she writes the story of that devastating summer in a notebook that she leaves, along with the house, to the only person who might care: her grandniece, Justine.
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Engaging story spanning three generations.
- By LilMissMolly on 09-23-16
By: Heather Young
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The Wishing Thread
- By: Lisa Van Allen
- Narrated by: Amy Rubinate
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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The Van Ripper women have been the talk of Tarrytown, New York, for centuries. Some say they're angels; some say they're crooks. In their tumbledown "Stitchery", not far from the stomping grounds of the legendary Headless Horseman, the Van Ripper sisters - Aubrey, Bitty, and Meggie - are said to knit people's most ardent wishes into beautiful scarves and mittens, granting them health, success, or even a blossoming romance. But for the magic to work, sacrifices must be made - and no one knows that better than the Van Rippers.
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Wonderful
- By Angela on 02-22-15
By: Lisa Van Allen
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Rush Home Road
- By: Lori Lansens
- Narrated by: Ruby Dee
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Abridged
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When a 70-year-old woman finds a five-year-old girl abandoned on her doorstep, she is thrust into a sorrowful past that can only be conquered with the help of the girl who opened her memory - the very girl she is trying to save. This first novel, according to author Jacquelyn Mitchard, is one of "exquisite power, honesty, and conviction...quite nearly without flaws."
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filthy language and violent content
- By Anna on 12-16-11
By: Lori Lansens
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Love Walked In
- By: Marisa de los Santos
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Award-winning poet Marisa de los Santos crafts an irresistibly touching debut novel. Love Walked In is a contemporary tale, steeped in nostalgic, cinematic charm, of love in all its forms. Unapologetically idealistic about love, Cornelia Brown appears to catch the break of a lifetime when the dashing Martin Grace, her own personal Cary Grant, comes strolling into her life. But it is Martin's connection to 11-year-old Clare Hobbes that touches Cornelia's heart in ways she never imagined.
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Dreadful audio quality
- By Marenghi on 09-16-11
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Angel of Harlem
- By: Kuwanna Haulsey
- Narrated by: Brenda Pressley
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Inspired by the extraordinary events of Dr. May Chinn’s life, Angel of Harlem is a deeply affecting story of love and transcendence. Weaving seamlessly scenes from the battlefields of the Civil War, during which her father escaped from slavery, to the Harlem living rooms and kitchen tables where May is sometimes forced to operate on her patients, this fascinating novel lays bare the heart of a woman who changed the face of medicine.
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Really Enjoyed!
- By Amazon Customer on 08-08-19
By: Kuwanna Haulsey
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Honor
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marno, Piter Marik
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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An honor killing shatters and transforms the lives of Turkish immigrants in 1970s London. Internationally best-selling Turkish author Elif Shafak’s new novel is a dramatic tale of families, love, and misunderstandings that follows the destinies of twin sisters born in a Kurdish village. While Jamila stays to become a midwife, Pembe follows her Turkish husband, Adem, to London, where they hope to make new lives for themselves and their children. In London, they face a choice: stay loyal to the old traditions or try their best to fit in.
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Complex but Compelling
- By Cariola on 04-14-13
By: Elif Shafak
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Outer Banks
- By: Anne Rivers Siddons
- Narrated by: C. J. Critt
- Length: 15 hrs and 40 mins
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Elegant Kate, walking a tightrope over an abyss of lies...sensitive, sensible, self-contained Cecie...Ginger, the heiress, sexy, vibrant, richer than sin...and poor, hopeless, brilliant Fig. They came together as sorority sisters on a Southern campus in the '60s. Four young women bound by rare, blinding early friendship, they spent two idyllic spring breaks at Nags Head, North Carolina, the isolated strip of barrier islands where grand old weather-beaten houses perch defiantly on the edge of a storm-tossed sea.
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Rather Depressing Tho Good Storyline
- By Gracie on 02-16-18
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Fragile Things
- By: Neil Gaiman
- Narrated by: Neil Gaiman
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Marvelous creations, including a short story set in the world of The Matrix and others set in the worlds of gothic fiction and children's fiction, can be found in this extraordinary collection, which showcases Gaiman's storytelling brilliance as well as his entertaining (and dark) sense of humor.
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Perhaps a different format?
- By Karen on 11-03-10
By: Neil Gaiman
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“There have never been as many exquisitely built stories in existence than there are now,” proclaims guest editor Lauren Groff in her introduction. This abundance led to a volume of robust stories with the nerve to push against narrative expectations. The Best American Short Stories 2024 boasts a collection of twenty stories that “buzz with their own strange logic.” Daring and resonant, the stories in this volume invite in Groff “a feeling that both the author and I were simultaneously discovering something together.”
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What listeners say about Monsters of Templeton
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Kim W
- 01-12-18
A Rare Reread
I originally read this book 7 or 8 years ago but was delighted to hear that my book club selected it. It is completely unique with its beautiful language, historical fiction, wacky romances and bizarre happenings. There are murders, ghosts and monsters both human and otherwise. Our dear author reaches deep into an imagination shockingly more vast than the ordinary and presents us with the story of the girl next door in a world only a breath away from the one we see every day. Just listen.
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- Christine Kennedy
- 06-25-20
loved it. what a great layered story.
an interesting twist on familiar literary territory. i loved the layers if characters and perspectives.
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- Wendy
- 10-20-23
A wonderful read!
I love the characters, the history, and the monster. This is my second read. And I will reread it again. Can’t recommend this enough.
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- Peppermint
- 01-10-24
What a monster of a tale!
I first read this book approximately 12 years ago and fell in love with Lauren Goff's masterful art of storytelling. I've since discovered this book on Audible and had to listen to it. The narrator far exceeded my expectations. I could listen to this story forever. So delightful and so much fun.
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- Anne S
- 10-05-15
annoying stereotypes & demeaning characterizations
I really liked the book despite the heading. I wanted to keep up with the story but I became tired of the author's demeaning descriptions of the secondary characters - not ghosts or historical. Come on, did the mother really need to be described as flabby, etc? Be kinder to the residents of Templeton. The monster was a lovely invention.
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1 person found this helpful
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- MF Minnis
- 07-19-17
Light Readng
Fun characters, setting interesting. Good Beach reading
If you like a but of mystery there is that too
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Overall
- Randi
- 09-04-08
GREAT!
Disregard the one poor review of this book. It is well-written and keeps you listening. All the different stories are weaved together wonderfully.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Melinda
- 04-01-08
quite interesting
i found this to be a easy, enjoyable read from the start. i was unsure what to expect given the plot shifts from past to present but it really works in each occurance. i enjoyed the narrator and thought this was a very interesting story. i would happily recommend this to others.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 03-19-21
Delightful
I loved this book. Well written, very interesting, and parts of it made me laugh out loud. The characters were great and the narrator did a really good job with their voices.
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Overall
- flutterfli007
- 03-07-08
Delightful
I enjoyed this book so much. It was quirky and fun. I loved the characters. Willie is on a quest through the past. She must find the truth about her family history. And what an inventive and fantastical story unfolds. I highly recommend this one!
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5 people found this helpful