Thursday, May 29, 2014

sync this week: Confessions of a Murder Suspect and Murder at the Vicarage

Sync's offerings this week (Thursday, May 29 through Wednesday, June 4, 2014) are:


Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
Hachette Audio edition, narrated by Emma Galvin
and
Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
Harper Audio edition, narrated by Richard E. Grant


James Patterson returns to the genre that made him famous with a thrilling teen detective series about the mysterious and magnificently wealthy Angel family... and the dark secrets they're keeping from one another.
On the night Malcolm and Maud Angel are murdered, Tandy Angel knows just three things: 1) She was the last person to see her parents alive. 2) The police have no suspects besides Tandy and her three siblings. 3) She can't trust anyone — maybe not even herself. Having grown up under Malcolm and Maud's intense perfectionist demands, no child comes away undamaged. Tandy decides that she will have to clear the family name, but digging deeper into her powerful parents' affairs is a dangerous — and revealing — game. Who knows what the Angels are truly capable of?


Murder at the Vicarage marks the debut of Agatha Christie’s unflappable and much beloved female detective, Miss Jane Marple. With her gift for sniffing out the malevolent side of human nature, Miss Marple is led on her first case to a crime scene at the local vicarage. Colonel Protheroe, the magistrate whom everyone in town hates, has been shot through the head. No one heard the shot. There are no leads. Yet, everyone surrounding the vicarage seems to have a reason to want the Colonel dead. It is a race against the clock as Miss Marple sets out on the twisted trail of the mysterious killer without so much as a bit of help from the local police.

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.

Friday, May 23, 2014

sync this week: Cruel Beauty and
Oedipus Rex

Sync's offerings this week (Thursday, May 22 through Wednesday May 28, 2014) are:


Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge and
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles


Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom--all because of a reckless bargain her father struck. And since birth, she has been training to kill him.
Betrayed by her family yet bound to obey, Nyx rails against her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, she abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, disarm him, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.
But Ignifex is not what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle--a shifting maze of magical rooms--enthralls her. As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. But even if she can bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him?
Based on the classic fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast," Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.


The edition of Cruel Beauty offered by Sync is narrated by Elizabeth Knowelden, courtesy of Harper Audio.

One of the greatest of the classic Greek tragedies and a masterpiece of dramatic construction. Catastrophe ensues when King Oedipus discovers he has inadvertently killed his father and married his mother. Masterly use of dramatic irony greatly intensifies impact of agonizing events. Sophocles' finest play, Oedipus Rex ranks as a towering landmark of Western drama.

The version Oedipus Rex (aka Oedipus the King) offered by Sync is performed by Michael Sheen and a full cast, courtesy of Naxos AudioBooks.

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.


Sunday, May 18, 2014

2014 Sync schedule


Sync YA literature into your earphones with
two free audiobook downloads each week
May 15 - August 13, 2014


Teens and other readers of young adult literature will have the opportunity to listen to bestselling titles and required reading classics this summer. Each week from May 15 to August 13, 2014, Sync, a program sponsored by AudioFile Magazine, will offer two free audiobook downloads.

The audiobook pairings will include a popular YA title and a classic that connects with the YA title's theme and is likely to show up on a student's summer reading lists.

SYNC Schedule:


May 15 - May 21
May 22 - May 28
  • Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge,
    Narrated by Elizabeth Knowelden (Harper Audio)
  • Oedipus the King by Sophocles,
    Performed by Michael Sheen and a full cast (Naxos AudioBooks)

May 29 - June 4

June 5 - June 11
  • All our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill,
    Narrated by Meredith Mitchell (Tantor Audio)
  • Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare,
    Performed by Richard Dreyfuss, JoBeth Williams, Stacy Keach, Kelsey Grammer, and a full cast (L.A. Theatre Works)
June 12 - June 18
  • Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (highly recommended, see post),
    Narrated by Morven Christie and Lucy Gaskell (Bolinda Audio)
  • The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
    Narrated by Bernadette Dunne (christianaudio)
June 19 - June 25

June 26 – July 2
July 3 - July 9
July 10 - July 16
July 17 – July 23
July 24 – July 30
July 31 – August 6
August 7 – August 13
  • Living a Life that Matters by Ben Lesser,
    Narrated by Jonathan Silverman and Ben Lesser (Remembrance Publishing)
  • The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick,
    Narrated by Yelena Shmulenson (HighBridge Audio)
Another important note is that these books don't expire like th e-audiobooks you get from the library. So, be sure to check in each week to download the books even if you don't think you'll get around to reading them right away.

More information about Sync is available on the Sync website.

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.