FREE/BARGAIN — Audiobooks

[skinmaan]

Hi guys. Hope all is well with you this Memorial Day. I know you haven't seen a lot of me lately - that's a combination too busy and a severe lack of good freebies. Since I have some time I thought I would post some things that are not necessarily top-line.

I'll start off with some books-as-podcast.

• FREE -- Jar of Hearts -- Jennifer Hillier, January LaVoy / 10.6 hrs --> Thriller

The current season, season 4, is an exciting anthology series featuring Jennifer Hillier’s hit thriller, Jar of Hearts. This standout story features three best friends, a murder, and a search for the truth. How far will they go to unearth the past? Listen to find out, but only for a limited time. Download or subscribe by June of 2022 to hear the whole thrilling story.

This is available through most podcast platforms. Several are linked at the site above. Sorry for the lateness of this, but I just came across it. Hope it works for you.

Enjoy!
skinmaan
Your audiobook bloodhound

[skinmaan]

AudioFile Magazine just recently wrapped up their latest season.

• FREE -- Pride and Prejudice -- Jane Austen, Alison Larkin / 14.5 hrs --> Classic

Journey to Pemberley for Season 3 of AudioFile’s Audiobook Break! The story of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy begins February 15th, 2022. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a chapter! Narrator Alison Larkin and host Jo Reed will have a discussion about all things Jane Austen on February 14th to prepare listeners for all the fun.

Read the full review of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, published by Alison Larkin Presents, on AudioFile Magazine’s website.

Enjoy!
skinmaan
Your audiobook bloodhound

[skinmaan]

Stories From Among the Stars is Macmillian's Science Fiction podcast. This one is just starting so it'll be a bit before it is complete. These books are available only for a limited time so if you're interested don't delay.

• FREE -- A Psalm for the Wild-Built -- Becky Chambers, Em Grosland / 4.1 hrs --> Science Fiction

For anybody who could use a break... It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and wandered into the wilderness, never to be seen again. Tired of the city, Dex decides to make a big change in their life. Starting new, however, is just the beginning, and the journey is not an easy one. A Psalm for the Wild-Built at Macmillan's website

Enjoy!
skinmaan
Your audiobook bloodhound

[skinmaan]

A rare (nowdays) short freebie from Audible. Sorry (in advance) for the politics

• FREE -- Choice -- Jodi Picoult, Therese Plummer / 0.6 hrs --> Women's Fiction

Margot and James are broken up—for good this time. James made sure of it when he dropped the bomb on Margot: that he doesn’t want kids, ever.

Then, on the biggest morning of his life, James—an ambitious lawyer at a high-powered firm—wakes up pregnant. He realizes with dread that he is part of a recent epidemic of men suddenly and inexplicably becoming pregnant. His condition obvious to the higher-ups, James is denied the promotion he was expecting, sending him reeling.

Meanwhile, Margot, a social worker, must handle the influx of desperate, pregnant teenage boys suddenly seeking her help. When she receives a call from James with the same problem, the challenge of navigating post-Roe America hits even closer to home.

Enjoy!
skinmaan
Your audiobook bloodhound

[skinmaan]

One more Audible. This one will take slightly longer to finish than the last.

• FREE --
  Home Fires: An Intimate Portrait of One Middle-Class Family in Postwar America -- Donald Katz, Joe Barrett / 28.3 hrs --> Historical

Home Fires is the powerful saga of the Gordon family--real people, names unchanged. Spanning nearly five decades, from the end of World War II to the early 1990s, their story has the scope, depth, wealth of incident, and emotional intensity of a great novel, and an abundance of humor, scandal, warmth, and trauma--the recognizable components of family life. This is also a masterful chronicle of the turbulent postwar era, illuminating the interplay between private life and profound cultural changes.

Donald Katz begins his account in 1945, when Sam Gordon comes home from the war to his young wife, Eve, and their two-year-old, Susan, eager to move his family into the growing middle class. After a few years in the Bronx, Sam and Eve move to a new Long Island subdivision and have two more children. As the '50s yield to the '60s, the younger Gordons fly out into the culture like shrapnel from an artillery shell, each tracing a unique trajectory: Susan, early into rock 'n' roll and civil rights, Vassar girl, feminist, author of "The Politics of Orgasm", and recovering drug addict; Lorraine, teenage beatnik and leftie, onetime member of a women's rock band, longtime follower of an Indian religious teacher; Sheila, the "good" daughter who married then remarried, with a big suburban house, two kids, and a therapist; and Ricky, the youngest, witness to the family traumas and cause of a few himself, openly gay, eclectically New Age, and a successful songwriter and composer. And all Sam and Eve ever wanted--like millions of others who had experienced the Depression and the war--was a "normal family".

Katz tells the Gordons' story--from the unraveling of Sam and Eve's American dream to the slow, hopeful reknitting of the family--marshaling a vivid cast of supporting characters. Deftly juxtaposing day-to-day family life with landmark public events, Katz creates a rich and revealing portrait of the second half of the 20th century in America.

Enjoy!
skinmaan
Your audiobook bloodhound

[skinmaan]

At first I thought this one was a pricing error (which I generally don't publish) but when Kobo linked it on their free e-books page (audiobooks section) I guess it's legit.

• FREE -- The Story of lululemon -- Chip Wilson / 10.7 hrs --> Business

This is a book about ordinary people who took an opportunity to be creative, to be innovative, and to maximize their potential.

Chip Wilson is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, loving husband and a father to five boys. As the founder of Westbeach and yoga-inspired clothing company lululemon athletica, Chip is a globally recognized innovator in the field of technical apparel. He is widely credited with starting the “athleisure” retail category, now a $100-billion-a year global business.

At lululemon, Chip was known for his people-before-product leadership approach. He surrounded himself with like-minded individuals: creative, driven, athletic locals with a love for work-life balance inspired by the West Coast. This cohesive culture fueled the innovation and growth of the brand. In 2007, lululemon athletica was taken public and Chip remains its largest individual shareholder and biggest cheerleader.

Published on Audible as "The Story of Lululemon: Little Black Stretchy Pants."

Enjoy!
skinmaan
Your audiobook bloodhound

[skinmaan]

I don't know if Libro.fm owns Pear Press, Pear Press owns Libro.fm, or if these guys just have a good partnership. Several of their titles are free right now. TM has several of them linked in the 1st post of this thread. Here are the newer ones.

• FREE -- Deathstroke -- Richard Kelley, Will Damron / 20.8 hrs --> Science Fiction

*After watching the movie Jaws, you stayed out of the water. *
*After reading Deathstroke, you'll stay out of the forest.*

"Hurry! It's coming!" A desperate young mother shoves her infant son deep into a crevice between two logs. Will her baby survive? Will anyone? "Hurry! It's coming!"

That scene, and the hundreds of others like it, are everything Algar Kersek could have hoped for. The alien general has traveled deep into the Sonora desert to be present for the recording of the memories of a dying human. Dr. John Richardson is the last surviving witness to the horrors of a Prosian Deathstroke. His memories of the event will be captured on a crystal, there to be copied and distributed to every corner of the Empire. It is the most eagerly awaited crystal in history. The sights, the sounds, even the sense of touch will soon be available for every Prosian to experience for himself. For the first time, everyone will know what it was like to face the Gorgoth, the ultimate weapon of mass destruction.

As the recorder's probe burrows deep into Richardson's mind, the terrifying flow of his memories shows how an unsuspecting world was plunged into a desperate struggle for survival. In that struggle, the very soul of humanity is laid bare. Deathstroke is a chronicle of humanity's darkest hour. So, too, is it the story of mankind's finest.

But above all, Deathstroke is a warning. It is an allegory of an approaching world brought on by an exploding population utterly addicted to carbon: storms of unprecedented violence, lethal viruses, and most of all, a species that devours everything in its path. Do we not see the coming reality? Will we act in time? Deathstroke can be our call to action, or it can be our epitaph.

Enjoy!
skinmaan
Your audiobook bloodhound

[skinmaan]

You might have heard of this one...

• FREE -- The Velveteen Rabbit -- Margery Williams, Xe Sands / 0.4 hrs --> Classic

The bestselling children's classic with millions sold around the world. This version, read by Xe Sands, will delight listeners of all ages with its story of wisdom and boundless love.

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

Enjoy!
skinmaan
Your audiobook bloodhound

[skinmaan]

One more short one.

• FREE -- The Science of Sleep -- John Medina / 0.8 hrs --> Health

The Science of Sleep, by developmental molecular biologist Dr. John Medina, gives you the facts—and the prescription to sleep well—in his signature engaging style. Adapted from Medina's Brain Rules for Aging Well:10 Principles for Staying Vital, Happy, and Sharp, in this chapter you'll learn how the sleep cycle is born of a constant tension between hormones and brain regions vying to keep you awake, and hormones and brain regions trying to make you go to sleep. This is called opponent-process theory. Sleep, scientists are finding, doesn’t have as much to do with energy restoration as it does with processing memories and flushing out toxins in the brain. As you grow older, your sleep cycle becomes more fragmented, particularly the part of the cycle during which toxins are flushed out of the brain. Accruing good sleep habits by middle age (a stable sleep routine; no caffeine, alcohol, or nicotine six hours prior to going to sleep) is the best way to avoid sleep-related cognitive decline in old age. You may already be experiencing the sometimes-unpleasant effects of the aging process. Or you may be deeply concerned about your loved ones who are. Either way, The Science of Sleep or Brain Rules for Aging Well is for you.

Enjoy!
skinmaan
Your audiobook bloodhound

[skinmaan]

And finally one not quite so short.

• FREE -- Europe on a Budget: Real Stories from Studying Abroad and Backpacking Around Europe That You Won't Find in Any Guidebook -- Mark Pearson & Martin Westerman / 6.6 hrs --> Travel

This collection of 42 first-person accounts about backpacking in Europe will awaken a taste for adventure in those who have yet to travel, and bring back memories for those who have. Romance, surprise, discovery and wisdom all bubble through these authors’ riveting pieces.

• Find a surprise romance in the fresh sea air of Cinque Terre
• Dance the flamenco in Granada or sleep beneath the stars on a Barcelona beach
• Sneak past Vatican guards to see Michaelangelo's Pieta
• Lose your wallet, your passport, your entire pack—or maybe just your old ways of thinking

If you’ve ever wanted to backpack or study abroad in Europe...

If you want to relive your adventures...

If you love good travel writing...

Then sit back and enjoy Europe on a Budget – and feel your love for travel come alive in this one-of-a-kind collection of unique travel tales.

Enjoy!
skinmaan
Your audiobook bloodhound

[tubemonkey]

Audible UK -- Daily Deal -- exp 31 May @ 11:59 pm BST (3:59 pm PDT)

• TBA -- Them: Adventures with Extremists -- Jon Ronson -- NF political science

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by skinmaan

Hi guys. Hope all is well with you this Memorial Day. I know you haven't seen a lot of me lately - that's a combination too busy and a severe lack of good freebies. Since I have some time I thought I would post some things that are not necessarily top-line.

...it was going great until you showed up. Egads, this will keep me busy for a month of Sundays adding these to the OPs.

Anyway, thanks for posting these finds. It's much appreciated

[skinmaan]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

...it was going great until you showed up. Egads, this will keep me busy for a month of Sundays adding these to the OPs.

Anyway, thanks for posting these finds. It's much appreciated

[tubemonkey]

Daily Deals -- exp 31 May @ 11:59 pm PT

• Audible US ---> $2.95 -- Hold Me Forever (series) -- Layla Hagen -- romance
  
• Audible CA ---> $4.95 -- The Black Witch (book 1) -- Laurie Forest -- fantasy
  
• Downpour ----> TBA

[tubemonkey]

Audible AU -- Daily Deal -- exp 01 Jun @ 11:59 pm AEST (6:59 am PDT)

• TBA -- Atonement -- Ian McEwan -- literary