What More is Behind the Royal Command….”Thrawn: Alliances (Star Wars), by Timothy Zahn

Thrawn AlliancesAs the Star Wars saga continues, Thrawn #2, written by author, Timothy Zahn proves to be yet another hit among the several novels that comprise Star Wars. When you read the words, “I have sensed a disturbance in the Force”, pondered by Emperor Palpatine, you know that trouble is once again brewing for the Empire. The Emperor is so concerned, that he pairs Thrawn and Vader for the crucial mission. What they do not know is what more is behind the royal command. But, as in the past, these two join forces hesitantly, finding out what dangers lie ahead as they go.

There are two working stories being told in Thrawn #2. The first is the one about Anakin and Thrawn’s interaction during The Clone Wars, and then, Vader and Thrawn’s teaming up during the finale of Star Wars…… they were working on two halves of the same mystery decades apart. Anakin and Vader quickly learn that Thrawn is always right.

There is Padme, who has her get it done attitude, Thrawn, is most noted for his intellect and powers of deduction, and Darth Vader was the mixed bag…..a fierce warrior on one hand, then not so impressive on the other. Anakin was very impulsive and brash. But somehow, this eclectic group managed to get their missions accomplished.

Readers might enjoy knowing that Disney’s new Star Wars theme park, which opens in 2019, features Batuu and the Blacksburg Outpost, both featured in this novel…….Thrawn #2.

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6 Things Audiobooks Can Do That Books Can’t

Audiobooks Can Do

There are so many advantages to an audiobooks download. Not only are they an increasingly popular way to enjoy books, there are a few other reasons why they are amazing. Here are 6 reasons why audiobooks are the best way to consume books!

1. Multi-Tasking
Audiobooks are great for finishing a book while completing other tasks around your home or office. You can enjoy having a book read to you while you work on another mindless task, such as washing dishes, going for a jog, or sitting in traffic. So make laundry fun, with an audiobooks download.

2. Provide Company
In a world that is full of people, we can sometimes still feel alone. This is where audiobooks can be a great companion. Need someone to accompany you on a long road trip? Audiobooks are great to take with you! Need a soothing voice to help you fall asleep? There are audiobooks for that too.

3. Make Reading Accessible for Everyone
The wide range of books that are available in audio format is incredible. Everyone regardless of their reading ability, eyesight, or physical or mental ability deserves the chances to escape into the worlds created by books. Audiobooks allow everyone to enjoy a good book!

4. Help Reluctant Readers Learn to Love Reading
Anyone who struggles to read, may not have had the privilege of experiencing the joys that can be found in books. Sometimes listening to books instead of reading them is the ticket to get them exposed to the joys of reading and the secrets that are contained within books.

5. Fit in Your Pocket
Audiobooks can be downloaded to your smartphone or an MP3 player, meaning that they can easily fit in your pocket and take it everywhere with you. You’ll never have to worry about not having your book with you, as they will be in your pocket!

6. Read in the Dark
Power out? Trying to sleep? No problem, audiobooks allow you to still enjoy your favorite books! Audiobooks can be consumed and enjoyed anywhere, at any time.

AudiobooksNow is a great place to find your favorite audiobooks. Enjoy your favorite pastime without having to carve out time to sit down with a print book. Always take your book with you and never be left in suspense.

A Bit Gentler…A little Kinder….”Medium Raw”, by Anthony Bourdain

Medium RawAnyone who is familiar with food critic, Anthony Bourdain, is familiar with his most of the time brash and bawdy language when he is describing food and restaurant experiences. In his first book, Kitchen Confidential, there were many who criticized his, what they observed as, overuse of tawdry language. He contends that it was the descriptively best to use in rants about food and cooking failures along the way. After serving as a journeyman cook, he became a world traveler giving elaborate prose on what he has seen and heard from the most prestigious chefs in the world.

In his newer work, Medium Raw, it has been said that he is a bit gentler in his descriptive language, and just a little kinder to those that he had previously ripped apart. Some give kudos to his status change as a father to a three year old daughter. It was humorous to read that he is already educating his daughter as to the evils of American fast food. One quote had him telling her……the fast food industry is the enemy……that Ronald McDonald has cooties and stinks like…..poo! Poor child!

In Medium Raw, Bourdain gives a witty and insightful view of the culinary world. He describes the many changes that have taken place in the subculture of chefs, cooks, the restaurant business, and in his personal life in the ten years since he wrote Kitchen Confidential. One recommendation was to listen to an audio book version of the book. Hearing his own voice tell the stories gives the book another added dimension.

It was with great sadness that the world learned of Bourdain’s suicide by hanging in June of this year, while in France.

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A Possible Traitor In the Cabinet…”The President Is Missing”, by James Patterson & Bill Clinton

Three Days in MoscowOn his latest thriller, The President is Missing, James Patterson solicits the assistance of former President Bill Clinton to provide inside information about every day happenings in the life of someone holding the highest office in this country.

As the story begins, there are unprecedented threats against Washington, involving espionage and even the presence of a traitor among those in the President’s cabinet. Even the President becomes a suspect, then all of a sudden, the President disappears. President Jonathan Duncan is a former military hero, who now finds himself the object of a witch hunt. His daughter had a run in with a female assassin in France, so he decides that disappearing is best for the safety of his family and himself. The assassin is portrayed a little differently than most by being not just a female, but a pregnant female. Duncan must go into disguise to try to see who is setting him up.

The President is Missing gets mixed reviews, some reviewers have not been too kind to the book because it is very slow in getting to the point.

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What Makes a Great Narrator?

Audiobooks Hand and Microphone

Have you ever been excited to start a new audiobook, only to find that you didn’t have the stamina to endure listening to the narrator speak for eight hours? We’ve all been there. Narrating is an art. A good voice actor can put you in the book, making you feel like you’re in the orphanage with Jane Eyre or the Chamber of Secrets with the “Boy Who Lived.” When you download audio books with great narrators, you may even find that you enjoy pulling weeds or commuting to work. But what makes a great narrator?

Authentic
A good narrator is true to the characters. This includes gender, accents, and time-period. Does the male narrator reading Anne Shirley’s dialogue sound out of breath? This is a trap that many male narrators fall into when voicing female characters. Anne’s character is anything but weak, but yet a breathy voice can undermine her vibrant personality and make her seem timid.

Everyone loves a good accent. Good accents can make the character more authentic and take you to the place and era where the book is set. But a bad accent can completely ruin a book. A good narrator knows when to, and more importantly, when not to use an accent.

Consistency
As I’m sure everyone reading this knows, audiobooks are not narrated in their entirety in one sitting. Narrators will take bathroom breaks, eat lunch, and run to the grocery store halfway through a book. While necessary, this can sometimes cause distracting variations in volume, pitch, tone, etc. Narrators don’t always remember how close to the microphone they were before lunch. But a good narrator will try to maintain a certain set of guidelines that are consistently followed.

Additionally, if you’re going to do an accent or gendered voices, commit to it. Narrators should maintain consistency in dialects, voices, etc. throughout the duration of the book.

Engaging
Have you ever listened to a narrator and thought maybe they loved their job a little too much? And on the flip side, have you ever thought the narrator hated everything about the book they were reading? When a narrator enjoys when they’re doing, changes in volume, pitch, and tone feel natural. When there’s emotion behind the narrator’s words, the book feels real.

In the end, a bad narrator is distracting. If you download audio books and the narrator is taking away from the book, rather than adding to it, they aren’t doing their job. In contrast, a good narrator can take a yawner and make it engaging, exciting, and leave you sobbing in your car in the office parking lot. At Audiobooks Now we understand the importance of good narrating. Browse our collection today.

Why Are Audiobooks So Great?

Books In Headphones

Downloading audiobooks onto smartphones and tablets has revolutionized the way we consume books. Audiobooks make it possible for us to breeze through more books, especially when finding the time to sit down and read a traditional book is increasingly hard to do. Because audiobooks allow you to listen to books while doing other things, audiobooks are a great way to sneak in a great read. Here are 5 reasons why audiobooks are great.

1. Listen Anywhere
Audiobooks allow you to listen to your favorite authors while your eyes are preoccupied, but your mind is free! Whether you are driving, doing yard work, or at the gym, you are able to listen to your favorite books without having to sacrifice your full attention.

2. Enjoy More Books
Because you are able to listen to books nearly all the time, you are then able to enjoy more books than you would normally be able to. Additionally, audiobooks don’t take as much time to listen to as they would take the average reader to read, which is another reason as to why you are able to enjoy and discover more books with audiobooks.

3. Master Storytellers Bring Books to Life
When you listen to books read by their authors or even masterful storytellers, the book takes on a whole new dimension. For some, it can be easier to fully immerse themselves in a story when they hear the voice of the characters coming to life. Non-fiction books can be easier to understand with a narrator emphasizing important points through inflections in their voice.

4. Speed Through Books
When listening to audiobooks, you have the ability to speed up or slow down the pace. This is a nice feature to have at your fingertips, especially when the narrator is going at a pace that is too slow or too fast for your liking.

5. Improve Your Vocabulary
When you read along while listening to an audiobook, you can improve your vocabulary. Reading along allows you to learn how to correctly pronounce various words that you wouldn’t know how to otherwise. Additionally, when you are reading along, you can pause the audiobook to look up definitions of words that you aren’t familiar with.

Downloading audiobooks to add to your collection is a great way to experience new books and broaden your horizon. Audiobooks are great for families, adults, teens, and kids to get involved and fall in love with reading and books!

Taking the Reading to the Edge of Horror…”The Outsider”, by Stephen King

The OutsiderOnce again, the “King” of horror and mystery author, Stephen King, has given his fan base another hit book in The Outsider. It has mystery, but also subject matter that will seem over the top for some readers. But, that is what the author thrives on……providing such subjects that take the reader to the edge of horror, then snapping them back to a sort of literary reality. When the victim is an eleven year old boy, that gives an indication of how distasteful the crime is.

There are several characters that are woven together in The Outsider. Some are victims, some appear to be perpetrators, but aren’t, and then some complete the stories. Oh yes, there will be no mention of the actual villain……the reader can find that out as they go.

The Outsider has been added to the top five Stephen King novels by some reviewers. One such review gave this order: (1) The Outsider; (2) Bag of Bones; (3) Revival; (4) Pet Semetary; (5) It
They add……that is how good this book is.

“King constructs a propulsive plot, and a race against time to uncover the identity of a terrifying and diabolical killer who has left victims…..and “perpetrators”……and across the country, and who is on his way to his next horrific act”.

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Accomplishing What His Predecessors Could Not, “Three Days in Moscow: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of the Soviet Empire by Bret Baier

Three Days in MoscowThree Days in January, Fox News anchor and author, Bret Baier, gives an enlightening description of the leadership style of President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the beginning of the Cold War. In Baier’s new book, Three Days in Moscow, he gives a detailed look into the previous and post view of the Soviet Union, then Russia. President Ronald Reagan was able to accomplish what his predecessors could not.

On May 31, 1988, Reagan was the first American president to stand on Russian soil with thousands of people listening to him talk about human rights and freedom. He begged the Soviet people to join him in completing his new vision for the future. Less than a year later, the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union began disintigrating. That end to the Cold War was a defining historical moment not to be forgotten.

Baier’s writing style is easy to read, and his research is very detailed without getting in the way of presenting the picture of Reagan and his accomplishments. It also shows the change made in American reporting of the news. It was with Reagan that news media started putting their own interpretation of the events happening in the Reagan administration. Prior to that time, the media sheltered Presidents from negative reporting and covered mostly positive situations. But, with Reagan, they all but ignored his great accomplishments and many times made him out to be an aging old clown. Of course, he was anything but that fraudulent description. Many would say that the “fake news” sources are doing the same to President Trump now. And they did the same to President George H. W. Bush. They always made their readers and audience think that he was not very intelligent. A very sad commentary for the importance of the truth.

President Ronald Reagan brought down a murderous, debilitating, and horrific regime without bombs or huge numbers of human lives being lost. It has been said that for that, he can never be given enough credit.

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Following Leads Wherever They May Take Her…”The 17th Suspect”, by James Patterson

The 17th SuspectHas something gone terribly wrong within the San Francisco Police Department itself? That is what Sergeant Lindsey Boxer is beginning to suspect as she investigates another methodical, but unpredictable murder. Once again, she gets too wrapped up into the current murder case, developing nasty medical symptoms and taking her queries outside of her jurisdiction, which is not sanctioned by her department. The Women’s Murder Club urges her to not get so personally involved in the case. With more lives at stake, she does not have the luxury of heeding their advice…….she must follow leads wherever they may take her.

The main characters, Yuki Castellano, and Boxer are racing against time to try to bring a murderer to justice. The homeless population is in extreme danger. Could their desperate situation have anything to do with the murders? That is what Boxer is trying to determine, so that the case can be successfully prosecuted by Yuki. Again, Lindsay’s Murder Club friends beg her to just let it go. But, they already know that doing so is not in her nature.

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