FREE/BARGAIN - Audiobooks - 2016

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Audible's updated the Whispersync freebie for the month, but it's one that been free before: The Phantom of the Opera. "Buy" the free Kindle book; get the audiobook, narrated by Ralph Cosham.

Thanks for the reminder, but Amazon was early this time and skinmaan beat you to the punch a week and a half ago

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Thanks for the reminder, but Amazon was early this time and skinmaan beat you to the punch a week and a half ago

Oops.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by skinmaan

You know, looking over the first post for this forum I just noticed a free audiobook that is missing. It's possible it never got posted here; if so sorry for the oversight. The NEA every year for the past several years has done something called "The Big Read." It's basically a nation-wide (maybe even world-wide) book club, mostly for classical literature. Sometimes (though I haven't found any new ones lately) they release a free version of the book on audio to go along with that.

Perhaps the most ambitious undertaking the Big Read did was Herman Melville's "Moby Dick." Once a week they would release a chapter of the book, each one read by someone different. Not all the readers were famous or professional narrators, but there are some recognizable names. That's 135 chapters of free audio. While the master website has disappeared, the site's Soundcloud for the audios still exists. If you're interested in listening you can find it here.

Enjoy!
skinmaan
Your audiobook bloodhound

Thanks - added to OP

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Thanks - added to OP

Perhaps you would like to add SoundCloud's trial offer to the OP, also.

I'm having a little trouble getting a "handle" on SoundCloud. I know that they have streaming (and maybe downloadable, I dunno) audiobooks, from the information in skinmaan's post. The rest of it looks like a music subscription service.

SoundCloud's blurb about their trial offer:
Get an expanded catalog offline and ad-free, for 30 days on the house and $9.99/month after.

To find out the highlights of what they're, I recommend that you navigate to this webpage.

Oh, I said that I was having a little trouble getting a handle on SoundCloud. However, I found one nice feature that you can access without even being a member--some nice free streams, of the more obscure artists/bands. For example, SoundCloud had the entire album Wild Child of Tyler Bryant and the Shakedownan, an up and coming bluesy rock band that I've been following, available for free (https://soundcloud.com/tylerbryantmusic).

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

Perhaps you would like to add SoundCloud's trial offer to the OP, also.

I'm having a little trouble getting a "handle" on SoundCloud. I know that they have streaming (and maybe downloadable, I dunno) audiobooks, from the information in skinmaan's post. The rest of it looks like a music subscription service.

SoundCloud's blurb about their trial offer:
Get an expanded catalog offline and ad-free, for 30 days on the house and $9.99/month after.

To find out the highlights of what they're, I recommend that you navigate to this webpage.

Oh, I said that I was having a little trouble getting a handle on SoundCloud. However, I found one nice feature that you can access without even being a member--some nice free streams, of the more obscure artists/bands. For example, SoundCloud had the entire album Wild Child of Tyler Bryant and the Shakedownan, an up and coming bluesy rock band that I've been following, available for free (https://soundcloud.com/tylerbryantmusic).

I didn't know they had a membership plan. I'll add SoundCloud to the Audiobook Rental Plans. Thanks for pointing it out.

Edit: entry added to Audiobook Rental Plans -- see this post and this post for details
.

[tubemonkey]

Downpour -- Editor's Pick -- exp unknown

$22.39 -- View from the Cheap Seats -- Neil Gaiman/ Neil Gaiman --> 15.5 hrs/ R-4.6 --> essays

The View from the Cheap Seats

Whispersync: no deals at this time | Audible ($22.04)

An enthralling collection of nonfiction essays on a myriad of topics—from art and artists to dreams, myths, and memories—observed in #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman’s probing, amusing, and distinctive style.

An inquisitive observer, thoughtful commentator, and assiduous craftsman, Neil Gaiman has long been celebrated for the sharp intellect and startling imagination that informs his bestselling fiction. Now, The View from the Cheap Seats brings together for the first time ever more than sixty pieces of his outstanding nonfiction. Analytical yet playful, erudite yet accessible, this cornucopia explores a broad range of interests and topics, including (but not limited to): authors past and present; music; storytelling; comics; bookshops; travel; fairy tales; America; inspiration; libraries; ghosts; and the title piece, at turns touching and self-deprecating, which recounts the author’s experiences at the 2010 Academy Awards in Hollywood.

Insightful, incisive, witty, and wise, The View from the Cheap Seats explores the issues and subjects that matter most to Neil Gaiman—offering a glimpse into the head and heart of one of the most acclaimed, beloved, and influential artists of our time.

[tubemonkey]

Penguin Random House Free Offers --> Sep 2016

• FREE -- Book of Unk Americans -- C Henríquez/ various --> 9.2 hrs/ R-4.1 --> literary
  
• FREE -- Short Stories (7 titles) -- various/ various --> sci-fi, literary, humor
  
• FREE -- LA Dead -- Stuart Woods/ Tony Roberts --> 10.8 hrs/ R-4.3 --> suspense
  
• FREE -- Project Alpha -- DJ MacHale/ R Daymond --> 5.5 hrs/ R-4.8 --> sci-fi
  
• FREE -- Nova -- Margaret Fortune/ Jorjeana Marie --> 9.2 hrs/ R-3.6 --> sci-fi
  
• FREE -- Blue Monday -- Nicci French/ Beth Chalmers --> 11.2 hrs/ R-4.0 --> detective
  
• FREE -- Templar Legacy -- Steve Berry/ Brian Corrigan --> 7.0 hrs/ R-3.3 --> thriller

Note: these free offers are subject to change without warning

Spoiler:

The Book of Unknown Americans --> details --> exp 30 Sep @ 11:59 AM ET

Spoiler:

“A triumph of storytelling. Henríquez pulls us into the lives of her characters with such mastery that we hang on to them just as fiercely as they hang on to one another and their dreams. This passionate, powerful novel will stay with you long after you’ve turned the final page.” —Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

A boy and a girl who fall in love. Two families whose hopes collide with destiny. An extraordinary novel that offers a resonant new definition of what it means to be American.

Arturo and Alma Rivera have lived their whole lives in Mexico. One day, their beautiful fifteen-year-old daughter, Maribel, sustains a terrible injury, one that casts doubt on whether she’ll ever be the same. And so, leaving all they have behind, the Riveras come to America with a single dream: that in this country of great opportunity and resources, Maribel can get better.

When Mayor Toro, whose family is from Panama, sees Maribel in a Dollar Tree store, it is love at first sight. It’s also the beginning of a friendship between the Rivera and Toro families, whose web of guilt and love and responsibility is at this novel’s core.

Woven into their stories are the testimonials of men and women who have come to the United States from all over Latin America. Their journeys and their voices will inspire you, surprise you, and break your heart.

Suspenseful, wry and immediate, rich in spirit and humanity, The Book of Unknown Americans is a work of rare force and originality.

Read by Yareli Arizmendi, Christine Avila, Jesse Corti, Gustavo Res, Ozzie Rodriguez, and Gabriel Romero

Short Stories (7 titles)

Spoiler:

Part 1: Sci-Fi --> Summer People | Ava Wrestles the Alligator
Part 2: Literary --> Alphin Land | To Reach Japan | Tenth of December | Part 1
Part 3: Humor --> No One Goes to Heaven to See Dan Fogelberg

LA Dead --> Stone Barrington Series (book 6 of 37) --> details

Spoiler:

Cop-turned-lawyer-and-investigator Stone Barrington ventures out to the west coast-and out on a limb-in this "stylish whodunit" (Detroit News) filled with romance and murder.

Stone's trip to Venice -with a fiery Mafia princess- is cut short by a frantic phone call from half a world away. A celebrity murder has Los Angeles in an uproar and has a former flame pining for Stone's help-in more ways than one...

Project Alpha --> Voyagers Series (book 1 of 6) --> details --> no longer free

Spoiler:

#1 New York Times bestseller D. J. MacHale launches this part sci-fi, all action adventure, multiplatform series.

Earth is about to go dark. Without a new power source, life as we know it will be toast. A global competition is under way to determine which four kids will join the secret mission that might just save us all. Project Alpha is a contest of physical challenges, mental puzzles, and strategic alliances. The battle is fierce. Who will lead the team? Who will pilot the most complicated space ship ever built? Who will be a friend? An enemy? And how will they survive over a year stuck on a space ship together?

Once chosen, the Voyagers will journey to the far reaches of space, collecting unique elements and facing unbelievable dangers. The future of our planet is in their hands. Sure, they’ll be the best in the world . . . but can they save the world?

The action is on the page, on your device, and out of this world! And you don't have long to wait, 6 books are coming all in one year!

Do you have what it takes to be a Voyager? Find out at VoyagersHQ.com

Nova

Spoiler:

*36:00:00*

The clock activates so suddenly in my mind, my head involuntarily jerks a bit to the side. The fog vanishes, dissipated in an instant as though it never was. Memories come slotting into place, their edges sharp enough to leave furrows, and suddenly I know. I know exactly who I am.

My name is Lia Johansen, and I was named for a prisoner of war. She lived in the Tiersten Internment Colony for two years, and when they negotiated the return of the prisoners, I was given her memories and sent back in her place.

And I am a genetically engineered human bomb.

Lia Johansen was created for only one purpose: to slip onto the strategically placed New Sol Space Station and explode. But her mission goes to hell when her clock malfunctions, freezing her countdown with just two minutes to go. With no Plan B, no memories of her past, and no identity besides a name stolen from a dead POW, Lia has no idea what to do next. Her life gets even more complicated when she meets Michael Sorenson, the real Lia’s childhood best friend.

Drawn to Michael and his family against her better judgment, Lia starts learning what it means to live and love, and to be human. It is only when her countdown clock begins sporadically losing time that she realizes even duds can still blow up. If she wants any chance at a future, she must find a way to unlock the secrets of her past and stop her clock. But as Lia digs into her origins, she begins to suspect there’s far more to her mission and to this war, than meets the eye. With the fate of not just a space station but an entire empire hanging in the balance, Lia races to find the truth before her time—literally—runs out.

Blue Monday --> Frieda Klein Series (book 1 of 5)

Spoiler:

The stunning first book in a new series of psychological thrillers introducing an unforgettable London psychotherapist

Frieda Klein is a solitary, incisive psychotherapist who spends her sleepless nights walking along the ancient rivers that have been forced underground in modern London. She believes that the world is a messy, uncontrollable place, but what we can control is what is inside our heads. This attitude is reflected in her own life, which is an austere one of refuge, personal integrity, and order.

The abduction of five-year-old Matthew Farraday provokes a national outcry and a desperate police hunt. And when his face is splashed over the newspapers, Frieda cannot ignore the coincidence: one of her patients has been having dreams in which he has a hunger for a child. A red-haired child he can describe in perfect detail, a child the spitting image of Matthew. She finds herself in the center of the investigation, serving as the reluctant sidekick of the chief inspector.

Drawing readers into a haunting world in which the terrors of the mind have spilled over into real life, Blue Monday introduces a compelling protagonist and a chilling mystery that will appeal to readers of dark crime fiction and fans of In Treatment and The Killing.

The Templar Legacy --> Cotton Malone Series (book 1 of 7) --> details

Spoiler:

The ancient order of the Knights Templar possessed untold wealth and absolute power over kings and popes . . . until the Inquisition, when they were wiped from the face of the earth, their hidden riches lost. But now two forces vying for the treasure have learned that it is not at all what they thought it was–and its true nature could change the modern world.

Cotton Malone, onetime top operative for the U.S. Justice Department, is enjoying his quiet new life when an unexpected call to action reawakens his hair-trigger instincts–and plunges him back into the cloak-and-dagger world he thought he’d left behind.

It begins with a violent robbery attempt on Cotton’s former supervisor, Stephanie Nelle, who’s far from home on a mission that has nothing to do with national security. Armed with vital clues to a series of centuries-old puzzles scattered across Europe, she means to crack a mystery that has tantalized scholars and fortune hunters through the ages by finding the legendary cache of wealth and forbidden knowledge thought to have been lost forever when the order of the Knights Templar was exterminated in the fourteenth century. But she’s not alone. Competing for the historic prize–and desperate for the crucial information Stephanie possesses–is Raymond de Roquefort, a shadowy zealot with an army of assassins at his command.

At the end of a lethal game of conquest, rife with intrigue, treachery, and craven lust for power, lies a shattering discovery that could rock the civilized world–and, in the wrong hands, bring it to its knees.

.

[tubemonkey]

Audible Daily Deal -- exp 04 Sep

$1.95 -- The Art of Living -- Bob Proctor, et al/ LJ Ganser --> 4.3 hrs/ R-4.8 --> motivational

Whispersync: Audible ($1.95) | Kindle ($11.99)

In Stella Adler's The Art of Acting, her seminal work on the performing arts, transcripts from Adler's acting classes were lovingly transformed into a readable volume. In the same vein, The Art of Living presents transcripts from legendary business speaker and mentor Bob Proctor's most popular workshop - Matrixx - and brings this wisdom to a wider audience in book form.

With this audiobook, the listener will become a student of Bob Proctor as he teaches lessons and presents jewels of wisdom on living an extraordinary life. Listeners will marvel at Proctor's miraculous way of disseminating his decades of business wisdom into easy-to-understand parables and learn lessons on what our creative faculties are and how to use them, why we need to unlearn most of the false beliefs we've been indoctrinated with our whole lives, and how our intellects have the ability not only to put us ahead in life but also to be our biggest detriment.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Audible Daily Deal -- exp 04 Sep

$1.95 -- The Art of Living -- Bob Proctor, et al/ LJ Ganser --> 4.3 hrs/ R-4.8 --> motivational

A gem from the audio preview: "[self]discipline is the ability to give yourself a command and then follow it."

Otherwise, I wasn't impressed by the audiobook, based upon its preview. The ratings for "overall," "story," and "performance" are through the roof--each 4.8 stars--however.

[tubemonkey]

Nook Daily Find -- exp 04 Sep

$17.99 -- The Water Museum -- Luis Urrea/ Luis Urrea --> 6.4 hrs/ R-4.2 --> literary

Whispersync: no deals at this time | Audible ($16.52)

A new short-story collection from Luis Alberto Urrea, best-selling author of The Hummingbird's Daughter and The Devil's Highway.

From one of America's preeminent literary voices comes a new story collection that proves once again why the writing of Luis Alberto Urrea has been called "wickedly good" (Kansas City Star), "cinematic and charged" (Cleveland Plain Dealer), and "studded with delights" (Chicago Tribune). Examining the borders between one nation and another, between one person and another, Urrea reveals his mastery of the short form. This collection includes the Edgar Award-winning "Amapola" and his now-classic "Bid Farewell to Her Many Horses", which had the honor of being chosen for NPR's Selected Shorts not once but twice.

Suffused with wanderlust, compassion, and no small amount of rock and roll, The Water Museum is a collection that confirms Luis Alberto Urrea as an American master.

[koland]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Downpour -- Editor's Pick -- exp unknown

$22.39 -- View from the Cheap Seats -- Neil Gaiman/ Neil Gaiman --> 15.5 hrs/ R-4.6 --> essays

http://www.downpour.com/catalog/prod...ormat=Download

seems to be full price.

Deal of week - http://www.downpour.com/deals - The Godmakers

[koland]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

[*]FREE -- Secret Garden -- FH Burnett/ F Hughes --> 8.4 hrs/ R-4.6 --> kids classic[/LIST]
Note: these free offers are subject to change without warning

Thank you for visiting.
We're sorry - the free download of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is no longer available. If you'd like to purchase the audiobook please click here to visit our catalog page.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by koland

http://www.downpour.com/catalog/prod...ormat=Download

seems to be full price.

Deal of week - http://www.downpour.com/deals - The Godmakers

The Editor's Picks rarely give much of a discount. In this case, it's a bit less than five bucks.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by koland

Thank you for visiting.
We're sorry - the free download of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is no longer available. If you'd like to purchase the audiobook please click here to visit our catalog page.

Thanks for catching that. It was still free the last time I updated the list on 25 Aug. I'll remove it.

[koland]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

The Editor's Picks rarely give much of a discount. In this case, it's a bit less than five bucks.

True. but the link in the OP went to something else!