Eliane
- 16
- reviews
- 1
- helpful vote
- 29
- ratings
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Witches Abroad
- Discworld, Book 12
- By: Terry Pratchett
- Narrated by: Nigel Planer
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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What could be easier than preventing a servant girl from marrying a prince, especially for three clever witches? But Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick face more than they bargained for when they journey to the distant city of Genua. For one thing, their power is limited to Mrs. Gogol's weak voodoo spells, a one-eyed cat and a secondhand magic wand that works only on pumpkins.
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recording was broken in places :(
- By Emma Fox on 19-02-2017
- Witches Abroad
- Discworld, Book 12
- By: Terry Pratchett
- Narrated by: Nigel Planer
Vintage Pratchett, a joke every sentence
Reviewed: 10-09-2020
Once again, Sir Terry surpasses with brilliantly funny characters, dense plotting and a stunningly clever meta-theme on story telling and fairy tales. So good. Nigel Planer captures Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax perfectly, although I'm not 100% sold on his younger female characters - particularly Magrat - they all sound a bit dopey. But really who cares when something is this consistently funny?
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Born a Crime
- Stories from a South African Childhood
- By: Trevor Noah
- Narrated by: Trevor Noah
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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The compelling, inspiring (often comic) coming-of-age story of Trevor Noah, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed. One of the comedy world's brightest new voices, Trevor Noah is a light-footed but sharp-minded observer of the absurdities of politics, race and identity, sharing jokes and insights drawn from the wealth of experience acquired in his relatively young life.
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Best audiobook I've listened... Ever!
- By Nyasha on 18-12-2016
- Born a Crime
- Stories from a South African Childhood
- By: Trevor Noah
- Narrated by: Trevor Noah
Brilliant on every level
Reviewed: 04-07-2020
What an amazing work. Trevor Noah's story is a fascinating insight into pre and post Apartheid South Africa, told with humour, pathos and a searing intelligence. It is also very much the moving and at times heartbreakingly profound relationship between Noah and his beautifully strong willed mother. His chapters are by turns hilarious, outrageous, shocking and tragic, and the denouement had my heart racing. Noah is, of course, a brilliant reader, with perfect comic timing and a multilingual capacity that is mind blowingly clever. I can't rate this book 6 stars, so 5 will have to do. Don't hesitate to buy it! I promise you I have no relation to Noah, I just think this audiobook is uniquely fantastic.
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Hag-Seed
- The Tempest Retold
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: R. H. Thomson
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Felix is at the top of his game as artistic director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival. His productions have amazed and confounded. Now he's staging a Tempest like no other: not only will it boost his reputation, it will heal emotional wounds. Or that was the plan. Instead, after an act of unforeseen treachery, Felix is living in exile in a backwoods hovel, haunted by memories of his beloved lost daughter, Miranda. And brewing revenge. After 12 years revenge finally arrives in the shape of a theatre course at a nearby prison.
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so captivating!
- By Anonymous User on 11-10-2020
- Hag-Seed
- The Tempest Retold
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: R. H. Thomson
A stunning retelling of The Tempest
Reviewed: 01-05-2020
I love this book. This is Atwood at her best. The writing is tight, clever, sardonic and pleasurable to listen to. The themes she explores, like the themes explored in The Tempest, are so deep: incarceration, power, gender, racism, sexism, slavery, colonialism; yet because Atwood's writing is so entertaining and clever, and because it's all set within the context of a theatrical production, you don't feel like you are being lectured to. RH Thompson's reading is brilliant. His characterisations are so well defined and his choice of delivery is perfect. I didn't want it to end.
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Thief of Time
- Discworld, Book 26
- By: Terry Pratchett
- Narrated by: Stephen Briggs
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Time is a resource. Everyone knows it has to be managed. And on the Discworld that is the job of the Monks of History, who store it and pump it from the places where it's wasted (like the underwater; how much time does a codfish need?) to places like cities, where there's never enough time. But the construction of the world's first truly accurate clock starts a race against, well, time for Lu Tze and his apprentice Lobsang Ludd.
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Awesome all round.
- By Gretta on 26-02-2015
- Thief of Time
- Discworld, Book 26
- By: Terry Pratchett
- Narrated by: Stephen Briggs
Vintage Terry Pratchett
Reviewed: 18-05-2019
Clever, funny, a total nerd fest (and I say this as a nerd), this is classic and perfect Trey Pratchett. Enjoyable on every level and, as always, read brilliantly and flawlessly by Stephen Briggs.
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Identity Crisis
- By: Ben Elton
- Narrated by: Ben Elton
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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A series of apparently random murders draws amiable, old-school Detective Mick Matlock into a world of sex, politics, reality TV and a bewildering kaleidoscope of opposing identity groups. Lost in a blizzard of hashtags, his already complex investigation is further impeded by the fact that he simply doesn’t ‘get’ a single thing about anything anymore. Meanwhile, each day another public figure confesses to having ‘misspoken’ and prostrates themselves before the judgment of Twitter. Begging for forgiveness, assuring the public 'that is not who I am'.
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Ben Elton at his best
- By Bridget Devlin on 13-04-2019
- Identity Crisis
- By: Ben Elton
- Narrated by: Ben Elton
Brilliant, clever, laugh out loud funny
Reviewed: 20-04-2019
I loved every minute of listening to Ben Elton reading his own book, Identity Crisis. It’s extremely topical, whip smart and so funny I had to stop the reading sometimes just to laugh. It’s full of wonderful characters, all of whom Elton brings to life perfectly, both in his writing and his reading. The story is also a murder mystery, so it has plenty of dramatic tension - you won’t want to stop listening. But underneath all that it’s also full of heart and compassion, and is a very nuanced and intelligent exploration of ‘identity politics’. Bravo Mr Elton!
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The Land Before Avocado
- By: Richard Glover
- Narrated by: Richard Glover
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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There’s plenty of nostalgia right now for the Australia of the past, but what was it really like? In The Land Before Avocado, Richard Glover takes a journey to an almost unrecognisable Australia. It’s a vivid portrait of a quite peculiar land: a place that is scary and weird, dangerous and incomprehensible, and now and then surprisingly appealing. It’s the Australia of his childhood. The Australia of the late '60s and early '70s. Let’s break the news now: they didn’t have avocado.
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OPTIMISM GALORE
- By Pam G on 13-11-2018
- The Land Before Avocado
- By: Richard Glover
- Narrated by: Richard Glover
Funny, clever, insightful - important reading for all ages!
Reviewed: 01-01-2019
I really loved this book; I was born in 1968 and brought up in Canberra, so there was so much in here that resonated with my experiences. There are many, many laugh out loud moments. I listened to it in the car with my 18 year old daughter and it sparked several interesting discussions about our childhoods. Great research, great insights, great fun. My one criticism is that the reading is a little forced at times. There are jokes that I can tell could be funnier if read differently. It feels like there’s a director in the background saying ‘Slow down! Enunciate! Speak more clearly!’ and as a result Richard doesn’t read with the natural easy style he has on radio. A small quibble, but I’ve noticed this same phenomenon in another Bollinda reading (Nine Perfect Strangers), where it sounds again as if the reader has been asked to slow down to a forced, unnatural pace. I find it disconcerting. Otherwise, The Land Before Avocado is great and I’ll definitely buy a copy for my Dad’s Birthday. But maybe not the audio version...
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Nine Perfect Strangers
- By: Liane Moriarty
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 16 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Could 10 days at a health resort really change you forever? Nine perfect strangers are about to find out.... The 10-day retreat at boutique health-and-wellness resort Tranquillum House promises healing and transformation. Nine stressed city dwellers are keen to drop their literal and mental baggage and absorb the blissful meditative ambience while enjoying their hot stone massages. They are all on a path to a better way of living. Or at least a better waistline....
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Need to speed up vocals!
- By Prue Walker on 22-09-2018
- Nine Perfect Strangers
- By: Liane Moriarty
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
Funny, moving, gripping and relevant
Reviewed: 05-10-2018
I loved Nine Perfect Strangers, and Caroline Lee's reading of it. The characters are drawn with great attention to detail - their failings humorously revealed but their journeys of self discovery treated with love and compassion. Moriarty is not shy do deal with some pretty hefty issues, and I was often brought to tears, but because she understands that tragedy and comedy can live side by side, it's a joy to be brought through their troubles. Lee understands this perfectly, and knows exactly when to undermine a character's self importance with a childishly petulant voice. Worth listening to again, both for the writing and the performance.
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China Rich Girlfriend
- By: Kevin Kwan
- Narrated by: Lydia Look
- Length: 15 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Kevin Kwan, best-selling author of Crazy Rich Asians, is back with a wickedly funny new novel of social climbing, secret e-mails, art-world scandal, lovesick billionaires and the outrageous story of what happens when Rachel Chu, engaged to marry Asia's most eligible bachelor, discovers her birth father. On the eve of her wedding to Nicholas Young, heir to one of the greatest fortunes in Asia, Rachel should be over the moon.
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Enjoyable from start to end
- By Josh Wood on 05-02-2020
- China Rich Girlfriend
- By: Kevin Kwan
- Narrated by: Lydia Look
Great fun, maybe too many brands
Reviewed: 07-09-2018
I really enjoyed listening to this book, particularly Lydia Look’s Asian accents, which are pretty spot on. Sometimes the lists of prestigious brands can get a bit tedious, although I get that this is intended. Sometimes the way Lydia has been directed to inflect certain sentences doesn’t always make sense and is a bit irritating e.g. when Ms Look reads ‘“Abc def,” Rachel said,’ the ‘Rachel said’ part is read as if it comes at the beginning of the sentence, not at the end. It’s annoying because you expect someone is going to say something, and then you realise they’ve just said something. That said, hats off for differentiating between all those different Asian accents - that’s quite a skill! Overall very enjoyable and a great story!
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Good Bones and Simple Murders & the Tent
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Laurence Bouvard
- Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In Good Bones and Simple Murders, Margaret Atwood displays, in condensed and crystallized form, the trademark wit and virtuosity of her best-selling novels. Among the jewels gathered here are Gertrude offering Hamlet a piece of her mind, the real truth about the Little Red Hen, a reincarnated bat explaining how Bram Stoker got Dracula all wrong, and the five methods of making a man. There are parables, monologues, prose poems, condensed science fiction, reconfigured fairy tales, and other miniature masterpieces. In The Tent, Margaret Atwood has penned a collection of smart and entertaining fictional essays.
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Classic short form Atwood delights
- By Eliane on 31-07-2018
- Good Bones and Simple Murders & the Tent
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Laurence Bouvard
Classic short form Atwood delights
Reviewed: 31-07-2018
Atwood’s acerbic wit, sharp intelligence and sinewy writing abound in these three collections of her short prose pieces. She turns myths, fairy tales and legends inside out, interrogating their logic with forensic intensity and savage humour. Pay attention, though: if you miss a word you may have missed the point!
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The House of Unexpected Sisters
- No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Book 18
- By: Alexander McCall Smith
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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The latest instalment of the irresistibly charming, perennially best-selling No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. Precious Ramotswe has always idolised her father, the late Obed Ramotswe. She feels that she knows all about his life - but does she? Sometimes our parents surprise us, and we discover that things were not quite what we thought them to be.
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Exceptional
- By Anonymous User on 18-07-2018
- The House of Unexpected Sisters
- No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Book 18
- By: Alexander McCall Smith
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
Intriguing new storylines
Reviewed: 18-04-2018
I loved this latest addition to the No. 1 Ladies Detective series. Without giving anything away, it centres on a most intriguing new development in Mma Ramotswe’s story, and of course has a juicy mystery to solve. Adjoa Andoh’s performance is, as always, impeccable. Her differentiation of the characters’ voices is masterful and so entertaining. I strongly recommend The House of Unexpected Sisters.