Year: 2018

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Final week of Sync with uncommon journeys

Do you like mysterious adventures and strange worlds? Then the FINAL WEEK of SYNC 2018, will be the best one yet.

Monstrous Beauty

Written by Elizabeth Fama and narrated by Katherine Kellgren.
There is nothing like a great Mermaid story and this one is a beauty… Fierce, seductive mermaid Syrenka falls in love with Ezra, a young naturalist. When she abandons her life underwater for a chance at happiness on land, she is unaware that this decision comes with horrific and deadly consequences. Almost one hundred and forty years later, seventeen-year-old Hester meets a mysterious stranger named Ezra and feels overwhelmingly, inexplicably drawn to him. For generations, love has resulted in death for the women in her family. Is it an undiagnosed genetic defect… or a curse? With Ezra’s help, Hester investigates her family’s strange, sad history. The answers she seeks are waiting in the graveyard, the crypt, and at the bottom of the ocean – but powerful forces will do anything to keep her from uncovering her connection to Syrenka and to the tragedy of so long ago.

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The Lost World – a Classic

This is the predecessor of Jurassic Park… the original! Somewhere in South America, there is a plateau. And roaming in its forests are dinosaurs… Only one man has ever been there and his reports are so astonishing that no-one is prepared to believe him; except the extraordinary, Professor Challenger. He decides to take a trip to prove beyond doubt that this lost world really does exist. With the daredevil journalist Edward Malone, meticulous and skeptical, Professor Summerlee and the professional adventurer, Lord John Roxton, Challenger sets out on a mission as dangerous as it is thrilling. Inspiring endless imitations, The Lost World is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic adventure of discovery.

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Sync week of which witch?

This is a frightful week of curses, witch hunts and survival in a world of lies.

How to Hang a Witch

Read by the author. Get you free copy from SYNC, this week.

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Salem, Massachusetts, is the site of the infamous witch trials and the new home of Samantha Mather. Recently transplanted from New York City, Sam and her stepmother are not exactly welcomed with open arms. Sam is the descendant of Cotton Mather, one of the men responsible for those ancient trials, and almost immediately she becomes the enemy of a group of girls that call themselves the Descendants.
If dealing with that wasn’t enough, Sam also comes face to face with a real live (well, technically dead) ghost. A handsome, angry ghost who wants Sam to stop touching his stuff. But soon Sam discovers she is at the center of a centuries-old curse affecting anyone with ties to the trials. Sam must come to terms with the ghost and find a way to work with the Descendants to stop a deadly cycle that has been going on since the first accused witch was hung. If any town should have learned its lesson, it’s Salem, but as Sam and her enemies soon find, history may be about to repeat itself.

A Classic… The scarlet letter

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By Nathaniel Hawthorne.
A stark and allegorical tale of adultery, guilt, and social repression in Puritan New England, The Scarlet Letter is a foundational work of American literature. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s exploration of the dichotomy between the public and private self, internal passion and external convention, gives us the unforgettable Hester Prynne, who discovers strength in the face of ostracism and emerges as a heroine ahead of her time. As Kathryn Harrison points out in her Introduction, Hester is “the herald of the modern American heroine, a mother of such strength and stature that she towers over her progeny much as she does the citizens of Salem.” Don’t miss out on your Free copy here!


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Week 11: Stories looking beyond assumptions and preconceptions

Week 11 of the SYNC for Audiobook listeners is upon us. Follow these girls lives and how we need to be looking beyond assumptions and preconceived ideas, to find the truth.

Girls Like Us

Written by Gail Gilies and narrated by two voice talents, Lauren Ezzo and Brittany Pressley.

A 2015 Schneider Family Book Award Winner.
With gentle humor and unflinching realism, Gail Giles tells the gritty, ultimately hopeful story of two special ed teenagers entering the adult world.
“We understand stuff. We just learn it slow. And most of what we understand is that people what ain’t Speddies think we too stupid to get out our own way. And that makes me mad.”
Quincy and Biddy are both graduates of their high school’s special ed program, but they couldn’t be more different: suspicious Quincy faces the world with her fists up, while gentle Biddy is frightened to step outside her front door. When they’re thrown together as roommates in their first real world apartment, it initially seems to be an uneasy fit. But as Biddy’s past resurfaces and Quincy faces a harrowing experience that no one should have to go through alone, the two of them realise,they might have more in common than they thought; and more important, that they might be able to help each other move forward.
Hard-hitting and compassionate, Girls Like Us is a story about growing up in a world that can be cruel, and finding the strength, and the support to carry on.

The Invisible Girls’. A memoir

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Narrated by Kirsten Potter.
A girl scarred by her past. A refugee mother uncertain of her future. Five little girls who brought them together.
After nearly dying of breast cancer in her twenties, Sarah Thebarge fled her successful career, her Ivy League education and a failed relationship on the East Coast, then starting over in Portland, Oregon. She was hoping to quietly pick up the pieces of her broken life, but instead she met Hadhi and her daughters, which sets her out on an adventure she’d never anticipated.
Hadhi was fighting battles of her own. A Somali refugee abandoned by her husband, she was struggling to raise five young daughters in a culture she didn’t understand. When their worlds collided, Hadhi and the girls were on the brink of starvation in their own home, “invisible” in a neighborhood of strangers. As Sarah helped Hadhi and the girls navigate American life, her outreach to the family became a source of courage and a lifeline for herself.
Poignant, and at times shattering, Sarah Thebarge’s riveting memoir invites listeners into her story, finding connection, love, and redemption in the most unexpected places.

These stories will have you laughing and crying. A Must Get while you can on SYNC!


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DUNE – Frank Herbert Review

Dune – Audiobook Review

This has a **** Star from me. It is an epic battle of the finest where you must watch your back, otherwise you will never survive.

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Wow! What an adventure! This is a brilliant read and a well laid out story, set on the desert planet ‘Dune’. A place where the universe is battling to control the ‘Spice’ found on this wretched land. This is a story of corruption, control and universal domination between various races who will betray one another at the drop of the hat. Whoever pays the highest price get’s the greatest army, or so they think. Baron Harkonnen thinks he has the new planet administrator, ‘The Duke of Atreides’, wrapped around his fat finger and so he does, but the Baron had not accounted for The Dukes prophesied son Paul. Paul is a long awaited production of the ‘Bene-Jeseret’ experiment, which has been in development for many generations. A Bene-Jeseret is born and raised through a selection process of the highest order and of the best training known. Once Paul Atreides comes of age, he is put through the terrible ‘Jongebar’ test which could cost him his life and he survives with unprecedented results. A brutal plot is afoot to take absolute control of ‘The Spice’ and The Atreides family line is destroyed, only Paul and his mother survive and go into hiding and become allied with the planets local natives. They will rise again, a most powerful army that sets the universe on its edge. It’s a long trilogy and sometimes hard to follow, but certainly worth your time. I listened to the audiobook version of this (over 22 hours) and was a little disappointed with this, as the characters voices and narration changed constantly. This is the only reason I’ve given it a 4 star. I found that the main narrator sometimes played the individual characters, which is fine, but other times there were other people doing those same characters so there was no real consistency to the audio flow. I found this distracting because I was expecting a particular character voice to be heard and it would have been even more enjoyable if the production company got this one right. They should have stuck to either the single narrator, or the different character voices playing their parts throughout… one, or the other but definitely not both.


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Week 10 – of Curses and Murder

Yet another week of SYNC FREE AUDIOBOOKS…
This time, if murder, curses, witches and false promises are up you alley then it’s all here.

Starting with Shakespeare and…

Macbeth

Infamously known as the cursed Scottish play, Macbeth is perhaps Shakespeare’s darkest tragedy. When General Macbeth is foretold by three witches that he will one day be King of Scotland, Lady Macbeth convinces him to get rid of anyone who could stand in his way – including committing regicide. As Macbeth ascends to the throne through bloody murder, he becomes a tyrant consumed by fear and paranoia.
An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring: James Marsters as Macbeth; Joanne Whalley as Lady Macbeth; Josh Cooke as Banquo and others; J.D. Cullum as Macduff and Second Murderer; Dan Donohue as Ross; Jeannie Elias as Second Witch and others; Chuma Gault as Lennox and Servant; Jon Matthews as Malcolm; Alan Shearman as Angus and others; André Sogliuzzo as Donalbain, Third Witch and others; Kate Steele as Lady Macduff, First Witch and Apparition; Kris Tabori as Duncan and others.

The Curse of Crow Hollow

Written by Billy Coffey and beautifully narrated by Gabe Wicks.

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With the “profound sense of Southern spirituality” he is known for (Publishers Weekly), Billy Coffey draws us into a town where good and evil—and myth and reality—intertwine in unexpected ways.
Everyone in Crow Hollow knows of Alvaretta Graves, the old widow who lives in the mountain. Many call her a witch; others whisper she’s insane. Everyone agrees the vengeance Alvaretta swore at her husband’s death hovers over them all. That vengeance awakens when teenagers stumble upon Alvaretta’s cabin, incurring her curse. Now a sickness moves through the Hollow. Rumors swirl that Stu Graves has risen for revenge. And the people of Crow Hollow are left to confront not only the darkness that lives on the mountain, but the darkness that lives within themselves.
“Coffey spins a wicked tale . . . [The Curse of Crow Hollow] blends folklore, superstition, and subconscious dread in the vein of Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery.’”
—Kirkus Reviews
I can just hear those finger nails scrawling over a blackboard right now!!
Don’t miss these FREE AUDIOBOOKS this week. Get them from AUDIOSYNC Now


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Week 9: Sync Free Audiobooks – Pride and lables

Another week of free audiobooks is up! This week will be about Pride and the Labels we’re given

Doctor Cerberus

Written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and performed by various talents in the L.A Theatre Works

This is a coming-of-age, coming-out cocktail with a twist of terror. Thirteen-year-old Franklin Robertson is trying to survive adolescence. His parents don’t understand him, his brother torments him, he has no friends and he’s more interested in the high school quarterback than any girl. The one bright spot in his life is the glow of the black-and-white TV in his parents’ basement. Here, he worships at the altar of the Saturday Night Horror Movie, hosted by the eerie Dr. Cerberus. Before long, Franklin is convinced that only by going on the show will his life be redeemed – by Dr. Cerberus himself!

Openly Straight

Written by Bill Konigsberg and narrated by various characters.

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Rafe is a normal teenager from Colorado. He’s been out since 8th grade, accepted by his peers & championed by his progressive parents. And while that’s important, all Rafe really wants is to be a regular guy. To have his sexuality be a part of who he is, but not the headline, every single time. So when Rafe transfers to an all-boys’ boarding school in New England, he decides to keep his sexuality a secret — not so much going back in the closet as starting over with a clean slate. But then he sees a classmate breaking down and realizes his own labels aren’t well-concealed. And most of all, he falls in love with Ben…who doesn’t even know that love is possible.

Get them, while they’re still free at SYNC