better late than never: the first week of Sync 2014

Audiobook Sync, the annual summertime audiobook extravaganza, started early this year. Week one is already underway.

Sync's offerings this week (through Wednesday, May 21, 2014) are:

Warp: The Reluctant Assassin by Eoin Colfer
Listening Library edition, narrated by Maxwell Caulfield
and
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
Listening Library edition, narrated by Derek Jacobi

Riley, a teen orphan boy living in Victorian London, has had the misfortune of being apprenticed to Albert Garrick, an illusionist who has fallen on difficult times and now uses his unique conjuring skills to gain access to victims' dwellings. On one such escapade, Garrick brings his reluctant apprentice along and urges him to commit his first killing. Riley is saved from having to commit the grisly act when the intended victim turns out to be a scientist from the future, part of the FBI's Witness Anonymous Relocation Program (WARP) Riley is unwittingly transported via wormhole to modern day London, followed closely by Garrick.
In modern London, Riley is helped by Chevron Savano, a nineteen-year-old FBI agent sent to London as punishment after a disastrous undercover, anti-terrorist operation in Los Angeles. Together Riley and Chevie must evade Garrick, who has been fundamentally altered by his trip through the wormhole. Garrick is now not only evil, but he also possesses all of the scientist's knowledge. He is determined to track Riley down and use the timekey in Chevie's possession to make his way back to Victorian London where he can literally change the world.

When the Time Traveller courageously stepped out of his machine for the first time, he found himself in the year 802,700--and everything has changed. In another, more utopian age, creatures seemed to dwell together in perfect harmony. The Time Traveller thought he could study these marvelous beings--unearth their secret and then return to his own time--until he discovered that his invention, his only avenue of escape, had been stolen.

Go here to get this week's downloads.

Note: these books don't expire like the e-audiobooks you get from the library. So, be sure to download the books even if you don't think you'll get around to listening to them right away.

More information about Sync and this year's schedule of offerings is available in this post.

Sync this week: short stories

I'm not particularly excited about the Sync offerings this week, but I do want to get back into doing this these reminder posts.

Sync's offerings this week (Thursday, July 12 through Wednesday, July 18, 2012) are:

Guys Read: Funny Business, edited by Jon Scieszka

and
The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Stories
by Mark Twain

Here it is! Volume 1 [of the Guys Read Library of Great Reading]. A lot of something funny for everyone. 10 original short stories by Mac Barnett, Eoin Colfer, Christopher Paul Curtis, Kate DiCamillo & Jon Scieszka, Paul Feig, Jack Gantos, Jeff Kinney, David Lubar, Adam Rex, and David Yoo.
You should be able to find something you like in here. This volume is guaranteed to contain an intro joke, a sneaky friend, a super-villian, an origin story, an idiot friend, a cranky author, a homicidal turkey, brother torture, a crazy grandpa, parents who give their kid's bedroom to a biker, self surgery using rusty pliers, and lots of laughs.

"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is a wild yarn involving a case of mistaken identity, a gambler who’d bet on anything, and a very unusual frog named Daniel Webster. First published in The Saturday Press in 1865, the tale was immensely popular, and in 1867 an expanded version was published with 26 additional short stories, told as only Mark Twain could tell them.

Note: these books don't expire like the e-audiobooks you get from the library. So, be sure to download the books even if you don't think you'll get around to listening to them right away.

More information about Sync is available in this post.

selected holiday shopping (3)

Because books are the best presents...

(Scroll down for the first and second of these little teasers)

The other kids in my family are getting Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, Pirate Girl by Cornelia Funke and Kirsten Meyer (illus.), and Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief by Wendelin Van Draanen respectively:


My dad is getting a few books from his wishlist, including Charles de Lint's The Blue Girl: