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The Last Cruise
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
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Publisher's summary
From the acclaimed PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author of The Great Man comes a riveting high-seas adventure that combines Christensen's signature wit, irony, and humanity to create a striking and unforgettable vision of our times.
The 1950s vintage ocean liner Queen Isabella is making her final voyage before heading to the scrapyard. For the guests on board, among them Christine Thorne, a former journalist turned Maine farmer, it's a chance to experience the bygone mid-20th century era of decadent luxury cruising, complete with fine dining, classic highballs, string quartets, and sophisticated jazz. Smoking is allowed but not cell phones - or children, for that matter. The Isabella sets sail from Long Beach, California, into calm seas on a two-week retro cruise to Hawaii and back.
But this is the second decade of an uncertain new millennium, not the sunny, heedless '50s, and certain disquieting signs of strife and malfunction above and below decks intrude on the festivities. Down in the main galley, Mick Szabo, a battle-weary Hungarian executive sous-chef, watches escalating tensions among the crew. Meanwhile, Miriam Koslow, an elderly Israeli violinist with the Sabra Quartet, becomes increasingly aware of the age-related vulnerabilities of the ship herself and the cynical corners cut by the cruise ship company, Cabaret.
When a time of crisis begins, Christine, Mick, and Miriam find themselves facing the unknown together in an unexpected and startling test of their characters.
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Critic reviews
"Entertaining and elegantly written.... Kate Christensen demonstrates there's life to be found in what may appear to be the creakiest of fictional premises.... [She] is a sharp observer, not only of the layered social world of the Queen Isabella but of the shifting relationships between her characters...I kept thinking of Barbara Pym, another novelist who wrote astute novels about contained worlds. Like Pym - who has been described as the most under-rated writer of the 20th century - Christensen is easy to misjudge, but, as she demonstrates in The Last Cruise she's quite capable of navigating deep waters." (Maureen Corrigan, NPR)
“A smart, fast-paced adventure story, two poignant love stories, and a shrewd and chilling warning to us all. What is not to love about The Last Cruise?” (Lily King, author of Euphoria)
"Christensen is a master at drawing us into the interior lives of her characters, toeing the line between satire and sympathy...comedy and humiliation.... Having gathered these disparate people together, Christensen gently rolls and pitches the stage, dislodging stones of sadness that had been safely stuck in the crevices of their everyday lives. That discombobulation is the key to the story's appeal, its unstable mix of romantic comedy, class oppression and spiritual angst - as though Cynthia Ozick wrote an episode of 'The Love Boat.' Christensen also deconstructs the aura of the cruise ship.... Mysterious and existential.... She’s interested in the most intimate and profound changes we’re willing to make only when tossed by the tempest of life." (Ron Charles, The Washington Post)
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It is 1994, and in the desert near Tillman, Arizona, 40 miles from Tucson, a grand experiment involving the future of humanity is underway. As climate change threatens the Earth, eight scientists, four men and four women dubbed the Terranauts, have been selected to live under glass in E2, a prototype of a possible off-Earth colony. Their sealed three-acre compound comprises five biomes - rain forest, savanna, desert, ocean, and marsh - and enough wildlife, water, and vegetation to sustain them.
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Aggravating Narrator Ruins Great Book
- By Laura Coen on 12-02-16
By: T. C. Boyle
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Love with a Chance of Drowning
- A Memoir
- By: Torre DeRoche
- Narrated by: Candice Moll
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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City girl Torre DeRoche isn’t looking for love, but a chance encounter in a San Francisco bar sparks an instant connection with a soulful Argentinean man who unexpectedly sweeps her off her feet. The problem? He’s just about to cast the dock lines and voyage around the world on his small sailboat, and Torre is terrified of deep water. However, lovesick Torre determines that to keep the man of her dreams, she must embark on the voyage of her nightmares, so she waves good-bye to dry land and braces for a life-changing journey that’s as exhilarating as it is terrifying.
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True Adventure and Romance--I Loved It!!
- By Kathy in CA on 09-08-15
By: Torre DeRoche
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A Killer Plot
- Books by the Bay Mystery Series #1
- By: Ellery Adams
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
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Olivia Limoges is the subject of constant gossip. Ever since her mysterious return to the small coastal town of Oyster Bay, North Carolina, Olivia has kept to herself, her dog, and her unfinished novel. With a little cajoling from charming writer Camden Ford, she agrees to join the Bayside Book Writers to break her writer's block and even make a few friends. But when townspeople start turning up dead with haiku poems left by the bodies, anyone with a flair for language is suddenly suspect.
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My new favorite Cozy Mystery Series!
- By Christina on 09-21-15
By: Ellery Adams
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Summer Love
- A Novel
- By: Nancy Thayer
- Narrated by: Whitney Dykhouse
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Twenty-six years after that amazing summer, Ariel, Sheila, Wyatt, and Nick reunite at the hotel where they first met. Now it’s called The Lighthouse and Nick owns the entire operation with his wife and daughter. Ariel and Wyatt, married for decades, arrive with their son, and Sheila’s back too, with her daughter by her side. Life hasn’t exactly worked out the way they had all hoped.
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Nice Summer Read
- By Raychelle Creech on 05-27-22
By: Nancy Thayer
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Notes on a Banana
- A Memoir of Food, Love, and Manic Depression
- By: David Leite
- Narrated by: David Leite
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Reminiscing about the people and events that shaped him, David looks back at the highs and lows of his life, from his rejection of being gay and his attempt to "turn straight" through Aesthetic Realism, a cult in downtown Manhattan, to becoming a writer, cookbook author, and web publisher, to his 23-year relationship with Alan, known to millions of David's readers and listeners as "The One", which began with (what else?) food.
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Finished it in a day!
- By Kathryn on 08-23-17
By: David Leite
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Sea of Love
- A Barberry Island Novel, Book 1
- By: Susan Donovan
- Narrated by: Amy McFadden
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Between Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket rests Bayberry Island, home to a bronze mermaid statue that promises to grant true love to anyone who asks with an open heart. For years Rowan Flynn distanced herself from Bayberry Island and its infamous mermaid legend. But after her investor fiancé lost what was left of her family’s fortune, Rowan reluctantly agreed to run the Safe Haven Bed-and-Breakfast, determined never again to fall for the ridiculous fantasy of the mermaid matchmaker.
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Oh My
- By Paula on 09-09-14
By: Susan Donovan
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The Road Home
- By: Rose Tremain
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Abridged
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Winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2008, The Road Home is the best-selling story of Lev, a middle-aged migrant from Eastern Europe, who moves to London in search of work after losing his wife and job. Lev's London is awash with money, celebrity and complacency. The world Tremain creates is both convincing and poignant.
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OK - nice narration - good characters
- By bea on 02-21-11
By: Rose Tremain
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Love Overboard
- By: Janet Evanovich
- Narrated by: C.J. Critt
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Stephanie Lowe decides Maine schooner captain and pirate descendent Ivan Rasmussen deserves to be called Ivan the Terrible. The house she just bought from him is falling apart and possibly haunted. He complains about her fish-eye stew and burnt chocolate chip cookies. He makes fun of her hair after she's had to comb it while using a toaster as a mirror. And on top of all that, he has the nerve to be charming, handsome, and overboard in love with her.
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Overbored? Read This!
- By Jami on 01-31-05
By: Janet Evanovich
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The Happy Man
- A Tale of Horror
- By: Eric C. Higgs
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 5 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Charles Ripley has a good job as an engineer, a pretty wife, and an expensive house in a fashionable San Diego suburb. But it isn't until Ruskin Marsh moves in next door that Ripley realizes how passionless his life really is. Marsh, a connoisseur of the arts, high-powered lawyer, model husband and father, and effortless seducer of women, is so supremely alive that Ripley finds himself irresistibly drawn to him. But after Marsh's arrival, local girls begin to vanish, marriages end violently, and horribly mutilated corpses are found.
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a neighborhood friend telling you a crazy story
- By Midwestbonsai on 04-15-18
By: Eric C. Higgs
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The Darkest Secret
- A Novel
- By: Alex Marwood
- Narrated by: Beverley A. Crick
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Real estate mogul Sean Jackson is throwing himself a splashy 50th birthday party, but trouble starts almost immediately: His ex-wife has sent his teenage daughters to the party without telling him; his current wife has fired the nanny; and he's finding it difficult to sneak away to his mistress. Then something truly terrible happens: one of his three-year-old twins goes missing. No trace of her is ever found. The attendees of the party, nicknamed the Jackson Associates by the press, become infamous overnight.
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Wow
- By Christina on 09-14-16
By: Alex Marwood
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Death at the Chateau Bremont
- Verlaque and Bonnet Provençal Mystery Series, Book 1
- By: M.L. Longworth
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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When local nobleman Étienne de Bremont falls to his death from the family château, it sets the historic town of Aix-en-Provence abuzz with rumors. The once-idyllic town suddenly seems filled with people who could have benefited from Bremont's death - including his playboy brother, François, who's heavily in debt and mixed up with some unsavory characters. But just as the list of suspects is being narrowed down, another death occurs. And this time, there can be no doubt - it's murder.
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Narrator is awful
- By F. Miller on 05-06-23
By: M.L. Longworth
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Where Sea Meets Sky
- By: Karina Halle
- Narrated by: Angela Dawe, Nelson Hobbs
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Joshua Miles has spent his early 20s spinning his wheels. Working dead-end jobs and living at home has left him exhausted and uninspired, with little energy to pursue his passion for graphic art. All that changes when he meets Gemma Henare, a vivacious out-of-towner from New Zealand. What begins as a one-night stand soon becomes a turning point for Josh. He can't get Gemma out of his head, even after she has left for home, and finds himself throwing caution to the wind for the first time in his life.
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Narration great, story boring
- By Desiree on 09-27-20
By: Karina Halle
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Hemingway's Girl
- By: Erika Robuck
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In Depression-era Key West, Mariella Bennet, the daughter of an American fisherman and a Cuban woman, knows hunger. Her struggle to support her family following her father's death leads her to a bar and bordello, where she bets on a risky boxing match...and attracts the interest of two men: world-famous writer Ernest Hemingway, and Gavin Murray, one of the World War I veterans who are laboring to build the Overseas Highway.
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Robuck and Gilbert Lack "Aficion"
- By The Girl Who Reads Too Much on 08-28-13
By: Erika Robuck
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Marjorie Morningstar
- By: Herman Wouk
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 28 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Marjorie Morningstar is a love story. It presents one of the greatest characters in modern fiction: Marjorie, the pretty 17-year-old who left the respectability of New York's Central Park West to join the theater, live in the teeming streets of Greenwich Village, and seek love in the arms of a brilliant, enigmatic writer.
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Great story with really cheesy narration
- By James on 05-05-12
By: Herman Wouk
What listeners say about The Last Cruise
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- JohnatAmazon
- 08-15-18
Loved it!
Did not want it to end. Loved all the well developed characters! The
Narrator was excellent.
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- T. Davis
- 06-12-21
Creative writing textbook?
This could be a textbook in a college writing class where students get the opportunity to take developed characters and from a dramatic moment, write the denouement. It could be really fun.
I enjoyed the story and was excited to hear where the interesting characters ended their journeys but the story did not give us that. Everything had been pretty well thought out and progressions from scene to scene flowed well.
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- Fran R
- 12-16-23
What’s with the abrupt ending!?!
I loved this book up until the ending left me hanging and I shouted, “WHAT!?!?!?!” I needed so much more. Some of the resolutions were beautiful and the characters deep and complex like real humans.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Essleigh Ekstrom
- 11-30-18
Luxury's sharp edge plus even sharper love stories
Such a compelling portrait of beautiful, brutal America! What would happen if you got to luxuriate in a one-percenter's little folly, but weren't one of them? Who do you, and your integrity, become when something goes wrong? The newest novel from the fiercely intelligent Kate Christensen (one of this country's most consistently interesting writers) gives us several unlikely heroes who are just like us: smart, talented women and men struggling to survive in the new America and the turbulent wake of international corporate power.
The turquoise waters are delightful, but like anything in excess they also hide danger and despair. The tension here is not mortal: it is, like all of Christensen's books, moral. And so wonderfully complex. She refuses to deal in easy stereotypes: no one is simply good or bad. She lures us into this cruise with a delightfully stylish premise, all exquisite food and glamorous settings and vivid characters. Then she turns it all on its head to follow the money. And while chaos threatens, she deftly develops two of the most memorable romances I've ever enjoyed.
The narrator is very good, for male voices. I've given only 4 stars simply because there were so many interesting female characters, of all ages, that I found myself longing for a female voice, or at least a less rumbly male voice.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- BC from LB
- 05-04-19
The last cruise
If your a cruiser, you will enjoy this book . There is a storyline involving a few passengers , but the bulk of the story is about the food and entertainment departments and all the issues they face in serving the public . I enjoyed all the character development and the way things work behind the scenes when trouble occurs and the crew still has to do their job .
Barbara C
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- Colleen Farrar
- 07-26-18
Great story
Well written characters and plot. The narrator did an excellent job. He made me feel everything they were going through
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- Marly
- 03-10-24
Good story, excellent characters, but … the ending…….
I enjoyed this book. I really enjoyed it up until the end. The descriptions of the ship and the characters are all compelling. The story foretells something strange and terrible. There is a huge build up. And then…I feel like the author couldn’t find the right ending, so left it to the reader. Disappointing.
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- Leigh
- 01-29-20
WTF ending ...
Great narrator. Story was slow in parts. Ending was cheesy and abrupt.
Could’ve been so much better
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1 person found this helpful
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- cleo pirtle
- 02-28-20
Are you kidding me ???
The story was good but a bit draggy . The narration was good too but the ending ???? Seriously ? How could the author do that to leave you hanging like that? I mean that blew it . So only three stars .
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- Bibliophile
- 07-16-18
A truly great novel.
This book so consumed me, that I feel lost having finished it. The depth of characters, the nuance and texture of scene and experience became more real than my own existence. Life aboard the ship is richly explored, in its claustrophobic social hierarchy. Ultimately this “Upstairs/Downstairs” explodes, and the denizens of the ship find themselves in a floating dystopia, which encapsulates in miniature all the grievances, desires, essential needs, and limited resources of our entire planet. This novel is profound without being preachy. One is drawn right in by the engaging characters and the immediacy of the action. The dialogue and action play out like a good movie; and the narration is excellent.
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5 people found this helpful