Creator: Michael Gould
Edition: Abridged
Publication date: 1997-04-30
Dewey code: 792.102908
RRP: £13.99
Price: £6.88
Review Dracula (Classic fiction) / Naxos AudioBooks:
Creator: Stephen Fry
Edition: Adult Ed
Publication date: 2003-09-22
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £75.00
Price: £52.24
Review Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5 - Unabridged Audio CD Set - Adult Edition) / Cover to Cover Cassettes Ltd:As his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry approaches in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 15-year-old Harry Potter is in full-blown adolescence, complete with regular outbursts of rage, a nearly debilitating crush, and the blooming of a powerful sense of rebellion. It's been yet another infuriating and boring summer with the despicable Dursleys, this time with minimal contact from our hero's non-Muggle friends from school. Harry is feeling especially edgy at the lack of news from the magic world, wondering when the freshly revived evil Lord Voldemort will strike. Returning to Hogwarts will be a relief… or will it? Book five in JK Rowling's Harry Potter series follows the darkest year yet for our young wizard, who finds himself knocked down a peg or three after the events of last year. Over the summer, gossip (usually traced back to the magic world's newspaper, the Daily Prophet) has turned Harry's tragic and heroic encounter with Voldemort at the Triwizard Tournament into an excuse to ridicule and discount the teenager. Even Professor Dumbledore, headmaster of the school, has come under scrutiny from the Ministry of Magic, which refuses to officially acknowledge the terrifying truth: that Voldemort is back. Enter a particularly loathsome new character: the toad-like and simpering ("hem, hem") Dolores Umbridge, senior undersecretary to the minister of Magic, who takes over the vacant position of defence against dark arts teacher-and in no time manages to become the high inquisitor of Hogwarts. Life isn't getting any easier for Harry Potter. With an overwhelming course load as the fifth years prepare for their examinations, devastating changes in the Gryffindor Quidditch team line-up, vivid dreams about long hallways and closed doors, and increasing pain in his lightning-shaped scar, Harry's resilience is sorely tested. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, more than any of the four previous novels in the series, is a coming-of-age story. [+]Harry faces the thorny transition into adulthood, when adult heroes are revealed to be fallible, and matters that seemed black and white suddenly come out in shades of gray. Gone is the wide-eyed innocent, the whiz kid of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Here we have an adolescent who's sometimes sullen, often confused (especially about girls), and always self-questioning. Confronting death again, as well as a startling prophecy, Harry ends his year at Hogwarts exhausted and pensive. Readers, on the other hand, will be energised as they enter yet again the long waiting period for the next title in the marvellous magical series. -Emilie Coulter.
Creator: Christopher Lee
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2007-11-05
Dewey code: 823.912
RRP: £29.99
Price: £14.99
Review The Children of Hurin / HarperCollins Publishers Ltd:
Creator: Anton Lesser
Edition: New title
Publication date: 2004-10
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £13.99
Price: £7.00
Review A Christmas Carol: Unabridged (Classic Fiction) / Naxos AudioBooks:
Creator: Joely Richardson
Publication date: 2007-09-06
RRP: £12.99
Price: £5.69
Review Matilda / Puffin Books:
Creator: Tony Robinson
Publication date: 2007-04-05
RRP: £12.99
Price: £7.34
Review Truckers (Nomes Trilogy) / Random House Children's Books:The nomes are tiny little people who, up until now, lived happily beneath the floorboards of Arnold Bros (est 1905) department store. But their tiny, comfortable little world is shattered when they discover that the store is to be demolished and they have to find away of getting to The Outside-a mystical place they never really believed in until a small tribe of Outsiders, led by the intrepid Masklin, infiltrated Arnold Bros (est 1905). The only escape route is via one of the huge trucks that Humans use to deliver goods-but first the nomes all have to be educated by the Sationari, and to do that the bickering between departments simply has to stop. The plot, the characters, and the sheer delicious irony of Pratchett's writing help to make this off- beat and absolutely hilarious fantasy adventure story into an absolute classic that has to be read to be believed. -Susan Harrison.
Creator: Robert Powell
Publication date: 2002-04-02
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £15.99
Price: £10.83
Review Captain Corelli's Mandolin: As Heard on BBC Radio 4 (BBC Radio Collection) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:Captain Corelli's Mandolin is set in the early days of the second world war, before Benito Mussolini invaded Greece. Dr Iannis practices medicine on the island of Cephalonia, accompanied by his daughter, Pelagia, to whom he imparts much of his healing art. Even when the Italians do invade, life isn't so bad-at first anyway. The officer in command of the Italian garrison is the cultured Captain Antonio Corelli, who responds to a Nazi greeting of "Heil Hitler" with his own "Heil Puccini", and whose most precious possession is his mandolin. It isn't long before Corelli and Pelagia are involved in a heated affair-despite her engagement to a young fisherman, Mandras, who has gone off to join Greek partisans. Love is complicated enough in wartime, even when the lovers are on the same side. And for Corelli and Pelagia, it becomes increasingly difficult to negotiate the minefield of allegiances, both personal and political, as all around them atrocities mount, former friends become enemies and the ugliness of war infects everyone it touches. British author Louis de Bernières is well known for his forays into magical realism in such novels as The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord and The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman. Here he keeps it to a minimum, though certainly the secondary characters with whom he populates his island-the drunken priest, the strongman, the fisherman who swims with dolphins-would be at home in any of his wildly imaginative Latin American fictions. Instead, de Bernières seems interested in dissecting the nature of history as he tells his ever-darkening tale from many different perspectives. [+]Captain Corelli's Mandolin works on many levels, as a love story, a war story and a deconstruction of just what determines the facts that make it into the history books.
Creator: Tim Pigott-Smith
Publication date: 2008-05-02
RRP: £13.00
Price: £5.94
Review The Diamond Hunters / Macmillan Digital Audio:
Creator: Tim McInnerny
Publication date: 2002-08-05
Dewey code: 817
RRP: £15.99
Price: £7.50
Review Blackadder II AUDIO CD / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Creator: David Tennant
Edition: Abridged Ed
Publication date: 2006-09-15
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £14.99
Price: £7.98
Review Whiteout / Macmillan Audio Books:
Creator: Rob Inglis
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2002-09-16
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £45.00
Price: £24.99
Review The Hobbit (Unabridged 10 Audio CD Set ): Complete and Unabridged / HarperCollins Audio:
Creator: Harry Secombe
Publication date: 1998-02-02
Dewey code: 817
RRP: £7.00
Price: £3.81
Review The Goon Show Classics: Needle Nardle Noo! Vol 14 (BBC Radio Collection) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Publication date: 2007-03-05
RRP: £9.99
Price: £4.44
Review Sophie is Seven (BBC Audio) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Publication date: 2006-09-04
RRP: £25.00
Price: £6.98
Review The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: (Complete and Unabridged) (BBC Audio) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Authors
- Charlotte Bronte
- Joanna David
- Carol Rosen
Publication date: 2003-10-30
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £14.99
Price: £7.79
Review Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics) / Penguin Audiobooks:
Publication date: 2006-11-02
Dewey code: 792.102908
RRP: £4.99
Price: £1.14
Review Tigger Comes to the Forest (Winnie the Pooh) / Hodder Children's Books:
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2007-07-01
Dewey code: 823
RRP: £16.99
Price: £9.16
Review The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes: v. 1 (Complete Classics) / Naxos AudioBooks:
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2007-10-25
RRP: £13.00
Price: £6.81
Review Danny, the Champion of the World / Puffin Audiobooks:
Edition: New edition
Publication date: 2001-07-05
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £7.99
Price: £0.50
Review The Gingerbread Woman / Headline Review:In The Gingerbread Woman, Jennifer Johnston again demonstrates her ability to create memorable and affecting characters. Clara, who at 35 makes her living doing "odd jobs for newspapers", is recovering from a serious operation and spends her days wandering around the cliff tops at Dublin Bay. Like the The French Lieutenant's Woman, she stares out to sea, trying to rediscover the direction in her life. One rainy afternoon, she encounters Laurence (Lar), a teacher who has run away from his life in Northern Ireland as he tries to come to terms with a family tragedy. The novel describes how these two unconventional people form a fragile friendship. Alternating the narrative voice, Johnston lets their stories unravel gradually. Both characters are trying to come to terms with loss and the novel examines the contrasting ways they cope: Clara is self-depreciating and humorous but can't shake off the knowledge that haunts her; Lar is bitter and coiled, bottling up his pain in an ever-present anger. Johnston has no difficulty in keeping the reader intrigued as the plot is never a foregone conclusion. The Gingerbread Woman is a short book but not a light read-it investigates loss, tragedy, loneliness and apparent hopelessness but does not weigh the reader down in doing so. It also considers the complexities of emotions not always recognised or voiced and their impact on everyone involved. [+]This is a book that lingers. -Christina McLoughlin.
Creator: Geoffrey Palmer
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2004-11-25
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £13.00
Price: £7.33
Review A Christmas Carol / Penguin Classics:
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Models & Brands:
Dracula (Classic fiction), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5 - Unabridged Audio CD Set - Adult Edition), The Children of Hurin, A Christmas Carol: Unabridged (Classic Fiction), Matilda, Truckers (Nomes Trilogy), Captain Corelli's Mandolin: As Heard on BBC Radio 4 (BBC Radio Collection), The Diamond Hunters, Blackadder II AUDIO CD, Whiteout, The Hobbit (Unabridged 10 Audio CD Set ): Complete and Unabridged, The Goon Show Classics: Needle Nardle Noo! Vol 14 (BBC Radio Collection), Sophie is Seven (BBC Audio), The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: (Complete and Unabridged) (BBC Audio), Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics), Tigger Comes to the Forest (Winnie the Pooh), The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes: v. 1 (Complete Classics), Danny, the Champion of the World, The Gingerbread Woman, A Christmas Carol |
