FREE/BARGAIN — Audiobooks

[tubemonkey]

Downpour -- Rental of the Week -- exp 08 May

• $1.99 -- Summit -- Harry Farthing/ Harry Farthing --> 17.6 hrs --> suspense

A summit is a summit, and the truth is the truth. But the view from 8,848 meters isn’t always so clear. Two men, seventy years apart, push for the top of Mount Everest, driven by forces beyond their control and something inside that says climb.

After eight successful summits, Mount Everest guide Neil Quinn is confident he can handle anything the mountain throws his way. But then disaster strikes steps from the top, leaving him with a lot of questions and a very old swastika-embellished ice axe that should never have been so high on the mountain—not if Everest’s meticulously documented history is accurate.

But before Quinn can even catch his breath, the combined wrath of his vengeful employer and an angry client drives him out of the Himalayas and back to Europe, where the newly blackballed English guide struggles to make ends meet and discover the truth of what happened that fateful day. He soon uncovers the story of Josef Becker, a Nazi climber who sought the top of the world seventy years before, when Europe teetered on the brink of the Second World War.
Quinn’s innocent queries into Becker’s expedition soon have neo-Nazis, assassins, and history buffs vying to take possession of the axe—proof of Nazi alpine superiority, and strong evidence that a German climber was the first to summit Mount Everest.

Beautifully written and meticulously researched, Summit follows two climbers across two continents as their stories and movements intertwine across history, culminating in one final push for the top of the world.

[tubemonkey]

Downpour -- Deal of the Week -- exp 08 May

• $4.95 -- The Tortilla Curtain -- TC Boyle/ TC Boyle --> 11.8 hrs --> contemp

In this explosive and timely novel, T. C. Boyle explores an issue that is at the forefront of the political arena. He confronts the controversy over illegal immigration head-on, illuminating through a poignant, gripping story the people on both sides of the issue: the haves and the have-nots.

In Southern California’s Topanga Canyon, two couples live in close proximity and yet are worlds apart. High atop a hill overlooking the canyon, nature writer Delaney Mossbacher and his wife, real estate agent Kyra Menaker-Mossbacher, reside in an exclusive, secluded housing development with their son, Jordan. The Mossbachers are agnostic liberals with a passion for recycling and fitness. Camped out in a ravine at the bottom of the canyon are Cándido and América Rincón, a Mexican couple who have crossed the border illegally. On the edge of starvation, they search desperately for work in the hope of moving into an apartment before their baby is born. They cling to their vision of the American dream, which, no matter how hard they try to achieve it, manages to elude their grasp at every turn.

A chance, violent encounter brings together Delaney and Cándido, instigating a chain of events that eventually culminates in a harrowing confrontation. The novel shifts back and forth between the two couples, giving voice to each of the four main characters as their lives become inextricably intertwined and their worlds collide. The Rincóns’ search for the American dream, and the Mossbachers’ attempts to protect it, comprise the heart of the story. In scenes that are alternately comic, frightening, and satirical, but always all “too real,” Boyle confronts not only immigration but social consciousness, environmental awareness, crime, and unemployment in a tale that raises the curtain on the dark side of the American dream.

[tubemonkey]

Penguin Random House -- exp unknown

• FREE -- A Spy Among Friends -- Ben Macintyre, et al/ John Lee --> 11.0 hrs --> history

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal

Master storyteller Ben Macintyre's most ambitious work to date offers a powerful new angle on the 20th century's greatest spy story.

Kim Philby was the greatest spy in history, a brilliant and charming man who rose to head Britain's counterintelligence against the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War - while he was secretly working for the enemy. And nobody thought he knew Philby like Nicholas Elliott, Philby's best friend and fellow officer in MI6. The two men had gone to the same schools, belonged to the same exclusive clubs, grown close through the crucible of wartime intelligence work and long nights of drink and revelry. It was madness for one to think the other might be a communist spy, bent on subverting Western values and the power of the free world.

But Philby was secretly betraying his friend. Every word Elliott breathed to Philby was transmitted back to Moscow - and not just Elliott's words, for in America, Philby had made another powerful friend: James Jesus Angleton, the crafty, paranoid head of CIA counterintelligence. Angleton's and Elliott's unwitting disclosures helped Philby sink almost every important Anglo-American spy operation for twenty years, leading countless operatives to their doom. Even as the web of suspicion closed around him, and Philby was driven to greater lies to protect his cover, his two friends never abandoned him - until it was too late. The stunning truth of his betrayal would have devastating consequences on the two men who thought they knew him best, and on the intelligence services he left crippled in his wake.

Told with heart-pounding suspense and keen psychological insight, and based on personal papers and never-before-seen British intelligence files, A Spy Among Friends is Ben Macintyre's best book yet, a high-water mark in Cold War history telling.

[tubemonkey]

Audible UK -- Daily Deal -- exp 03 May

• £2.99 -- Not Alone -- Craig Falconer --> sci-fi

[tubemonkey]

Amazon Whispersync

• $2.98 -- Not Alone -- Craig Falconer/ James Cronin --> 23.0 hrs --> sci-fi

Whispersync --> Kindle ($0.99) | Audible ($1.99)

Aliens exist, the government knows, and Dan McCarthy just found the proof. When Dan McCarthy stumbles upon a folder containing evidence of the conspiracy to end all conspiracies - a top-level alien cover-up - he leaks the files without a second thought. The incredible truth revealed by Dan's leak immediately captures the public's imagination, but Dan's relentless commitment to exposing the cover-up and forcing disclosure quickly earns him some enemies in high places. For his whole life, Dan McCarthy has searched for a reason to believe. Now that he finally has one, he might soon wish he didn't.... Not Alone is a stand-alone tale of contact and disclosure for the 21st century.

[tubemonkey]

Daily Deals -- exp 03 May

• Audible ---> $3.95 -- The Book of Lost Things -- John Connolly --> suspense
  
• BN Nook --> $6.95 -- The Velvet Hours -- Alyson Richman --> literary

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

<snip>
May I make a short political statement? Thank you. I think that far more defendants at Nuremberg and other post-War trials (U.S. Army, et al.) should have been hung. Same goes for Japanese who participated in atrocities. There was far too much leniency, IMHO. If Lord Russell was fired for revealing the truth, shame on those responsible for firing him!
<snip>

As I drifted off to sleep last night, it occurred to me that I think that the correct word is "hanged," when dealing with this subject, not "hung." A quirk in the English language, I suppose?

[tubemonkey]

Audible UK -- Daily Deal -- exp 04 May

• £2.99 -- Broken Faith -- Toby Clements --> historical

[tubemonkey]

Daily Deals -- exp 04 May

• Audible ---> $3.95 -- Starman Jones -- Robert Heinlein --> sci-fi
  
• BN Nook --> $3.99 -- Dear Amy -- Helen Callaghan --> suspense

[tubemonkey]

Sync Audio -- Weekly Offers -- exp 11 May @ 7 AM ET

Week 2 of AudiobookSYNC 2017 features a pair of audiobooks that take us into possibilities for the future of humanity. Both have been popular in audio since they first became available, and every new listener can quickly understand why.

Links --> Details | FAQs & Help | Geo-Restrictions


FREE -- Feed -- MT Anderson/ David Baker --> 5.0 hrs --> YA social

For Titus and his friends, it started out like any ordinary trip to the moon—a chance to party during spring break and play with some stupid low-grav at the Ricochet Lounge. But that was before the crazy hacker caused all their feeds to malfunction, sending them to the hospital to lie around with nothing inside their heads for days. And it was before Titus met Violet, a beautiful, brainy teenage girl who has decided to fight the feed and its omnipresent ability to categorize human thoughts and desires. Following in the footsteps of George Orwell, Anthony Burgess, and Kurt Vonnegut Jr., M. T. Anderson has created a not-so-brave new world—and a smart, savage satire that will captivate listeners with its view of an imagined future that veers unnervingly close to the here and now.

FREE -- Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy -- Douglas Adams/ Stephen Fry --> 5.9 hrs --> sci-fi

NOT Avail in UK or British Common (except Canada)

Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.

Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide ("A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have") and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox--the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod's girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years.

Where are these pens? Why are we born? Why do we die? Why do we spend so much time between wearing digital watches? For all the answers stick your thumb to the stars. And don't forget to bring a towel!

[badgoodDeb]

Been waiting for that Hitchhiker's Guide one! (So has my brother.) Oh, and read by *Stephen Fry* ??? Huge win!!

[skinmaan]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Been waiting for that Hitchhiker's Guide one! (So has my brother.) Oh, and read by *Stephen Fry* ??? Huge win!!

You know, I've always found this version funny. It's an audiobook made from a book made from what was an audio edition of a radio program. That's just confusingly amusing enough that you'd think Douglas Adams himself wrote it.

[Catlady]

Well, I'm glad someone is happy with this week's SYNC offerings!

[badgoodDeb]

It's the only one of the whole SEASON that interested me, though I did pick up Dorian Gray last week.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

It's the only one of the whole SEASON that interested me, though I did pick up Dorian Gray last week.

I meant to pick up Dorian Grey, but I forgot.

I'd have wanted the Stacy Schiff book about the Salem witches if I hadn't listened to it six months ago. As for the rest, I'm really just interested in Metamorphosis.