Reviews of new audio book titles, author interviews, and award winners.
Audio Reviews 11/24/2008
Fiction Jesus: A Story of Enlightenment Deepak Chopra , read by the author. BBC Audiobooks America , unabridged, six CDs, 7 hrs., $29.95 ISBN 978-1-60283-495-8 Chopra's new novel expands on the themes advanced in his recent nonfiction title The Third Jesus. The narrative focuses on the mysterious span of time in Christ's life between the ages of 12 and 30.
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Audio Reviews 10/27/2008
Fiction The 19th Wife David Ebershoff , read by a full cast. Random House Audio , unabridged, 15 CDs, 19 hrs., $49.95 ISBN 978-0-7393-7453-5 This sweeping epic is a compelling and original work set in 1875, when one woman attempts to rid America of polygamy. Ebershoff intertwines his tale with that of a 20th-century murder mystery in Utah, allowing the two stories to twist and turn into a ma...
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Audio Reviews 09/29/2008
Fiction Fresh Kills Bill Loehfelm , read by Gary Wilmes. Penguin Audio , unabridged, eight CDs, 10 hrs., $39.95 ISBN 978-0-14-314297-0 Staten Island native Loehfelm takes readers on a thrilling journey as one man searches for his father's killer while trying to come to terms with his troubled past.
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Downloads Gain in 2007 09/22/2008
The spoken-word audiobook market grew again in 2007, with sales up 12%, to just over $1 billion, and the percentage of adults who now listen to audiobooks increased from 25% in 2006 to 28% last year, according to the Audio Publishers Association's annual sales and consumer surveys. Sales of CDs and downloads increased in the year, while sales of cassettes declined.
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Playaway's Military Victory by Craig Morgan Teicher - 09/01/2008
On July 25, Playaway, a division of Ohio-based Findaway World that manufactures preloaded audio book players, sold its millionth unit as part of an order placed by the military for shipment overseas to soldiers and their families. The Playaway device is a compact audio player that comes preloaded with one digital audio book and has a headphone jack and basic playback controls.
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Audio Reviews 08/25/2008
Fiction I, Claudius Robert Graves , read by Derek Jacobi. CSA Word , abridged, four CDs, 5 hrs., $26.95 ISBN 978-1-93499-7017 Graves’s legendary tale of Claudius, a nobleman in the corrupt and cruel world of ancient Rome during the rule of Augustus, Tiberius and Caligula, is a truly compelling listening experience.
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BBC Audiobooks America Tunes into Retail by Kevin Howell - 06/16/2008
When BBC Audiobooks America released Alex Haley's Roots and Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist in March 2007, it was the audio publisher's first step into the retail market after more than 11 years of supplying product to libraries and institutions. The expansion into the retail channel helped to spark a 30% increase in total sales at the company last year, according to president and p...
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