FREE/BARGAIN — Audiobooks

[tubemonkey]

Amazon Alexa -- Monthly Offer -- exp 30 Sep

• FREE -- Tom Sawyer -- Mark Twain/ Nick Offerman --> 7.9 hrs --> adventure

Note: streaming only

FREE Listens on Echo, Dot, and Tap, presented by Audible
This month listen to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain and narrated by Nick Offerman for free on Echo, Dot, Tap, and Fire devices. Available through 9/30. Just ask: “Alexa, read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer from Audible.”

Spoiler:

Things to Try

"Alexa, read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"

Enjoy a new take on a Mark Twain classic, free from Audible.

"Alexa, what's free from Audible?"

Each month Audible offers free audiobooks on Echo devices.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (book 1 of 4)

"Being paid to perform such a gratifying activity as reading Mark Twain aloud felt powerfully akin to Tom Sawyer hoodwinking other boys into paying him for the privilege of whitewashing a fence. Let's keep that between us." (Narrator Nick Offerman)

With The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, not even Twain could have known that when he introduced readers to the inhabitants of the fictional town of St. Petersburg, Missouri, he would also be introducing two characters - one a clever and mischievous scamp, and the other a carefree, innocent ragamuffin - whose stories would ultimately shape the course of American literature. But whereas its sequel and companion piece, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, would harken an end to childhood, the story of Tom Sawyer is one that depicts the excitement and adventure of boyhood along the Mississippi.

Revisit this enduring classic and you will be struck not only by Twain's skill at capturing a time and place so vividly but also by his uncanny ability to crystallize those oftentimes tumultuous and conflicting emotions that a child experiences at the precipice of adulthood: a longing to be free from the rules and obligations of adults while enjoying the laxity inherent in childhood; a love of all things macabre, like blood oaths, cemetery cures, and haunted houses, that reveal a true innocence - an unawareness of real-life consequences and one's own mortality; and the pangs of guilt when knowing the right thing to do and doing the right thing appear to be at odds.

A natural storyteller and raconteur in his own right - just listen to Paddle Your Own Canoe and Gumption - actor, comedian, carpenter, and all-around manly man Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation) brings his distinctive baritone and a fine-tuned comic versatility to Twain's writing. In a knockout performance, he doesn't so much as read Twain's words as he does rejoice in them, delighting in the hijinks of Tom - whom he lovingly refers to as a "great scam artist" and "true American hero" - while deftly delivering the tenderness and care Twain gave to his own characters.

[tubemonkey]

Tantor Media -- Monthly Offer -- exp 30 Sep

• FREE -- Vanity Fair -- William Thackeray/ Wanda McCaddon --> 28.8 hrs --> classic

Short Synopsis
Vanity Fair is a story of two heroines—one humble, the other a scheming social climber—who meet in boarding school and embark on markedly different lives. Amid the swirl of London's posh ballrooms and affairs of love and war, their fortunes rise and fall. Through it all, Thackeray lampoons the shallow values of his society, reserving the most pointed barbs for the upper crust. What results is a prescient look at the dogged pursuit of wealth and status—and the need for humility.

Full Synopsis
A deliciously satirical attack on a money-mad society, Vanity Fair, which first appeared in 1847, is an immensely moral novel, and an immensely witty one. Vanity Fair features two heroines: the faithful, loyal Amelia Sedley, and the beautiful and scheming social climber Becky Sharp. It also engages a huge cast of wonderful supporting characters as the novel spins from Miss Pinkerton's academy for young ladies to affairs of love and war on the Continent to liaisons in the dazzling ballrooms of London. William Makepeace Thackeray's forte is the bon mot, and it is amply exercised in a novel filled with memorably wicked lines. Lengthy and leisurely in pace, the novel follows the adventures of Becky and Amelia as their fortunes rise and fall, creating a tale both picaresque and risque. Thackeray mercilessly skewers his society, especially the upper class, poking fun at their shallow values and pointedly jabbing at their hypocritical "morals." His weapons, however, are not fire and brimstone but an unerring eye for the absurd and a genius for observing the foibles of his age. An enduring classic, this great novel is a brilliant study in duplicity and hypocrisy—and a mirror with which to view our own times.

[tubemonkey]

LearnOutLoud -- Monthly Offer -- exp 30 Sep

• FREE -- The Confucian Analects -- Confucius/ Phil Chirco --> 3.3 hrs --> philosophy

Spoiler:

Note: I'm aware that they're charging $4.95 for this book. I fired off an email and am waiting for a response. They don't list a contact phone number.

Update 1: 07 Sep - still no response

Update 2: 15 Sep - still no response, but price corrected (thanks keithdt)

To give you an introduction to this text, watch this free lecture from The Great Courses: Introduction to The Analects of Confucius.

The Confucian Analects (literally translated as "discussion over Confucius' words") collects a record of the philosophy, discussions and day to day life of the great chinese scholar Confucius (551-479 BCE). Coming into existence during a particularly war-torn period in Chinese history know as the Spring and Autmn period, this text came about at a time of newfound literacy and burgeoning awareness in ancient chinese thought. Probably written posthumously over a period of many years by his disciples, Confucious' main values of propriety, rightiousness, loyalty and filial piety are repeated throughout the book via various examples and conversations. This code of ethics has come to form the backdrop of chinese conduct and is a core text in modern chinese education.

[skinmaan]

Amazon took the free Whispersync for Voice of the month title off of the Whispersync home page!

We'll miss you, semi-complicated freebies.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by skinmaan

Amazon took the free Whispersync for Voice of the month title off of the Whispersync home page!

We'll miss you, semi-complicated freebies.

I saw that earlier when I was posting the new sets of freebies. I figured it was them prepping for the new freebie, but too much time has elapsed since then for that to be true.

FYI - last month's selection is still free.

[Catlady]

I always look for the monthly freebie from the Audible Whispersync page, which doesn't seem to have changed; it still directs to the August freebie.

[tubemonkey]

Audible UK -- Daily Deal -- exp 02 Sep

• £2.99 -- The Liberation -- Kate Furnivall --> historical

[tubemonkey]

Daily Deals -- exp 02 Sep

• Audible ---> $2.95 -- The Wrecking Crew -- Kent Hartman --> history
  
• BN Nook --> $9.95 -- Front Burner -- Kirk Lippold --> memoir

* The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret

* Front Burner: Al Qaeda’s Attack on the USS Cole

[tubemonkey]

Audible UK -- Daily Deal -- exp 03 Sep

• £1.99 -- Heart of Darkness -- Joseph Conrad --> classic

[tubemonkey]

Daily Deals -- exp 03 Sep

• Audible ---> $3.95 -- AWOL on the Appalachian Trail -- David Miller --> memoir
  
• BN Nook --> $2.99 -- 15 Seconds -- Andrew Gross --> suspense

[tubemonkey]

Last Day -- Audible -- exp 03 Sep

• FREE -- Private --> details

[tubemonkey]

Audible UK -- Daily Deal -- exp 04 Sep

• £2.99 -- The Nix -- Nathan Hill --> literary

[tubemonkey]

Daily Deals -- exp 04 Sep

• Audible ---> $2.95 -- The Black Tower -- Louis Bayard --> historical thriller
  
• BN Nook --> $4.95 -- Jump Ship to Freedom (bk 2) -- J Collier, et al --> afro-amer

[ApK]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Daily Deals -- exp 04 Sep

• Audible ---> $2.95 -- The Black Tower -- Louis Bayard --> historical thriller
  
• BN Nook --> $4.95 -- Jump Ship to Freedom (bk 2) -- J Collier, et al --> afro-amer

Is it just me, or did anyone else immediately assume "Jump Ship to Freedom" was SF about an FTL voyage?

[tubemonkey]

Audible UK -- Daily Deal -- exp 05 Sep

• £1.99 -- The Easy Way to Control Alcohol -- Allen Carr --> how-to