Kate’s 2¢:” A calamity of souls” by David Baldacci

”A calamity of souls” by David Baldacci

 NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares her thoughts about what she reads. Inho…

   One day I heard a PODcast “Books in Three Bytes” when David Baldacci was being interviewed. It was anew book and hadn’t been recorded by NLS at that time. Eventually, I was hooked on reading Baldacci’s books.

   Sometimes, a court drama is long and rather boring, but Baldacci’s court room scenes move right along and get to the point. He is a cameo narrator along with Kiiri Sandy,  Sisi Aisha Johnson, Cary Hite,  and MacLeod Andrews. Having multiple readers enhanced my listening pleasure, not to mention how the story kept me glued to my Victor Trek Reader  until the twist at the end.

www.davidbaldacci.com

David Baldacci, known by his pseudonym David Baldacci Ford (born August 5, 1960) is an American novelist. An attorney by education, Baldacci writes mainly suspense novels and legal thrillers.[1]

Early life and education[edit]

David Baldacci was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. He graduated from Henrico High School and earned a B.A. in political science from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law, after which he practiced law for nine years in Washington, D.C.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

A calamity of souls DB120798

Baldacci, David. Reading time: 14 hours, 31 minutes.

Read by Kiiri Sandy; Sisi Aisha Johnson; David Baldacci; Cary Hite; MacLeod Andrews.

Suspense Fiction

Legal Fiction

“Set in the tumultuous year of 1968 in southern Virginia, a racially-charged murder case sets a duo of white and Black lawyers against a deeply unfair system as they work to defend their wrongfully-accused Black defendants in this courtroom drama from #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci. Jack Lee is a white lawyer from Freeman County, Virginia, who has never done anything to push back against racism, until he decides to represent Jerome Washington, a Black man charged with brutally killing an elderly and wealthy white couple. Doubting his decision, Lee fears that his legal skills may not be enough to prevail in a case where the odds are already stacked against both him and his client. And he quickly finds himself out of his depth when he realizes that what is at stake is far greater than the outcome of a murder trial. Desiree DuBose is a Black lawyer from Chicago who has devoted her life to furthering the causes of justice and equality for everyone. She comes to Freeman County and enters a fractious and unwieldy partnership with Lee in a legal battle against the best prosecutor in the Commonwealth. Yet DuBose is also aware that powerful outside forces are at work to blunt the victories achieved by the Civil Rights era. Lee and DuBose could not be more dissimilar. On their own, neither one can stop the prosecutions deliberate march towards a guilty verdict and the electric chair. But together, the pair fight for what once seemed impossible: a chance for a fair trial and true justice. Over a decade in the writing, A Calamity of Souls breathes richly imagined and detailed life into a bygone era, taking the reader through a world that will seem both foreign and familiar.”– OCLC. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

Downloaded: June 20, 2024

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Kate’s 2¢: “The Locked Door” by Freida McFadden

“The Locked Door” by Freida McFadden

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, s              setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares her thoughts about what she reads. Inho…

   Whether your fear is of being on the outside of a locked door or on the inside of a locked door, it is a universal fear issue. Although this story was a bit gory, it was quite suspenseful and will keep you reading to find out the surprise ending.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

www.freidamcfadden.com

Freida McFadden (born May 1) is an American author and practicing physician specializing in brain injury from New York City.

Biography[edit]

McFadden self-published her first book through Amazon KDP in 2013. Her 2022 book The Housemaid was an international bestseller. A movie adaptation of the book is set to be adapted for Lionsgate with Rebecca Sonnenshine to pen the screenplay, and Hidden Pictures’ Todd Lieberman and Alex Young to produce.[1]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The locked door DB119313

McFadden, Freida. Reading time: 8 hours, 19 minutes.

Read by Shaina Summerville.

Suspense Fiction

Mystery and Detective Stories

Psychological Fiction

“Some doors are locked for a reason . . . While eleven-year-old Nora Davis was up in her bedroom doing homework, she had no idea her father was killing women in the basement. Until the day the police arrived at their front door. Decades later, Nora’s father is spending his life behind bars, and Nora is a successful surgeon with a quiet, solitary existence. Nobody knows her father was a notorious serial killer. And she intends to keep it that way. Then Nora discovers one of her young female patients has been murdered. In the same unique and horrific manner that her father used to kill his victims. Somebody knows who Nora is. Somebody wants her to take the fall for this unthinkable crime. But she’s not a killer like her father. The police can’t pin anything on her. As long as they don’t look in her basement.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

Downloaded: June 20, 2024

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Kate’s 2¢: “Beloved beasts: fighting for life in an age of extinction” by Michelle Nijhuis

“Beloved beasts: fighting for life in an age of extinction” by Michelle Nijhuis

ISBN 9781324001690)

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares her thoughts about what she reads. Inho…

   I enjoyed this well researched and written story read by Christina Delaine.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nijhuis was born and raised in Poughkeepsie, New York. She graduated from Reed College in 1996[2] and began interning at High Country News, in Paonia, Colorado, in January 1998.

Career[edit]

Nijhuis is the Contributing Editor of High Country News.[3] She also holds the title of Contributing Writer for Smithsonian magazine.[4] She has also published in The New York Times,[5] Nature,[6] Scientific American,[7] National Geographic, Audubon, and Orion, among many other outlets. She gave the 2008 commencement address at her alma mater, Reed College.[8]

With journalist Thomas Hayden, Nijhuis is the co-editor of The Science Writers’ Handbook, released in spring 2013.[9] Nijhuis blogs regularly at The Last Word on Nothing.[10] In her book, Beloved Beasts, published in 2021, she traces key turning points in the development of conservation biology that considers the restoration of ecological processes with an emphasis on the impact of an animal upon the ecosystem beyond the importance of an individual species.[11] Beginning with the conservation of American bison, the book describes chronologically both well known campaigns and obscure efforts to protect animals along with key people and organizations.[12] Turning points in the history of the conservation movement are told through the biographies of interesting, often flawed and contradictory people.[13] She doesn’t avoid the realities of where conservation was built on a foundation of nationalism, sexism, and racism.[14] The movement, with roots in elite circles in North America and Europe, often overlooked the ability of people to manage the species they live alongside.[15]

Nijhuis appeared in the 2023 Ken Burns documentary The American Buffalo.[16]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Beloved beasts: fighting for life in an age of extinction DB114556

Nijhuis, Michelle Reading time: 10 hours, 31 minutes.

Christina Delaine

Nature and the Environment

“In the late nineteenth century, as humans came to realize that our rapidly industrializing and globalizing societies were driving other animal species to extinction, a movement to protect and conserve them was born. In Beloved Beasts, acclaimed science journalist Michelle Nijhuis traces the movement’s history: from early battles to save charismatic species such as the American bison and bald eagle to today’s global effort to defend life on a larger scale. She describes the vital role of scientists and activists such as Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson as well as lesser-known figures in conservation history; she reveals the origins of vital organizations like the Audubon Society and the World Wildlife Fund; she explores current efforts to protect species such as the whooping crane and the black rhinoceros; and she confronts the darker side of conservation, long shadowed by racism and colonialism. As the destruction of other species continues and the effects of climate change escalate, Beloved Beasts charts the ways conservation is becoming a movement for the protection of all species–including our own.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

Download Beloved beasts: fighting for life in an age of extinction DB114556

Kate’s 2¢: “Killer Instinct” by Howard Roughan with James Patterson

“Killer Instinct” by Howard Roughan with James Patterson

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares her thoughts about what she read.  I’m just saying…

   Blend together a  beautiful, straight,  white gal, two white, gay guys, and a sweet little, adopted South African girl; add in a few huge lies between friends; stir in terrorists with their bombs and drones; shake, and try to figure out which end is up.

   Edoardo Ballerini did a good job of reading this novel.

From Wikipedia:

Howard Roughan is an American author. He has two novels in print: The Up and Comer (2001) and The Promise of a Lie (2004). Roughan also co-wrote the novels Honeymoon , You’ve Been Warned , Sail , and Don’t Blink with best-selling author James Patterson .

From Wikipedia:

James Patterson books have sold more than 300 million copies and he was the first person to sell 1 million e-books. In 2016, Patterson topped Forbes’s list of highest-paid authors for the third consecutive year, with an income of $95 million. His total income over a decade is estimated at $700 million.

   In November 2015, Patterson received the Literarian Award from the National Book Foundation, which cited him as a “passionate campaigner to make books and reading a national priority. A generous supporter of universities, teachers colleges, independent bookstores, school libraries, and college students, Patterson has donated millions of dollars in grants and scholarships with the purpose of encouraging Americans of all ages to read more books.”

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Killer instinct DB96850

Patterson, James; Roughan, Howard. Reading time: 7 hours, 28 minutes.

Read by Edoardo Ballerini.

Suspense Fiction

Mystery and Detective Stories

Bestsellers

Dr. Dylan Reinhart and Detective Elizabeth Needham, from Murder Games (DB 88443), reunite to stop the most sinister terrorist plot against New York City since 9/11. As it unfolds, Needham does something courageous that makes her a prime target for the ruthless murderer behind the attack. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller. 2019.

Kate’s 2¢: “The best American science & nature writing 2023” edited by Carl Zimmer

“The best American science & nature writing 2023” edited by Carl Zimmer

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares her thoughts about what she reads. Inho…

   These essays were read by a variety of narrators, which gave each essay a special vibe. I didn’t necessarily agree with all of the issues, and I started to bookmark points of interest to list as ‘take-aways’. I found I made so many notes that I think you’ll have to read this book to make up your own mind without my suggestions.

www.carlzimmer.com:

Carl Zimmer reports from the frontiers of biology, where scientists are expanding our understanding of life. New York has called him “the country’s most respected science journalist.” 

Zimmer has contributed reporting to the New York Times since 2004, and has been a columnist since 2013. In his “Origins” column, he explores how life’s diversity came to be. His journalism has won many awards, including the Stephen Jay Gould Prize, awarded by the Society for the Study of Evolution to recognize individuals whose sustained efforts have advanced public understanding of evolutionary science.

In addition to his reporting, Zimmer is the author of fourteen books about science. His latest book is Life’s Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive.  The New York Times named it a Notable Book of 2021, and it was a finalist for the 2021 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna praised the book, saying, “Carl Zimmer shows what a great suspense novel science can be. Life’s Edge is a timely exploration in an age when modern Dr. Frankensteins are hard at work, but Carl’s artful, vivid, irresistible writing transcends the moment in these twisting chapters of intellectual revelation. Prepare to be enthralled.” 

Zimmer started his journalism career at Discover, where he went on to serve for five years as a senior editor. He has also written for other magazines including National Geographic, Wired, and The Atlantic. In 2003, Zimmer launched “The Loom,” an award-winning blog which has been hosted by Discover and National Geographic. 

Zimmer is a two-time winner of an Online Journalism Award. He won in 2017 for his reporting on genomes for STAT. In 2021, his Covid-19 vaccine coverage was part of the package that earned the New York Times  an award for general excellence. Zimmer is a three-time winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Journalism Award, twice for his work for The New York Times and once for the Loom. Zimmer won the National Academies Science Communication Award in 2007 for “his diverse and consistently interesting coverage of evolution and unexpected biology.” In 2015, the National Association of Biology Teachers awarded Zimmer with their Distinguished Service Award. His work has been anthologized in both The Best American Science Writing series and The Best American Science and Nature Writing series.  In 2023, Zimmer served as the editor of The Best of American Science and Nature Writing. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he contributed to the coverage that won the New York Times the public service Pulitzer Prize in 2021. 

In 1998, Zimmer published his first book, At the Water’s Edge: Fish with Fingers, Whales with Legs, and How Life Came Ashore and Then Went Back to Sea.

He is, to his knowledge, the only writer after whom both a species of tapeworm and an asteroid have been named.  

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The best American science & nature writing 2023 / DB119248

Read by Nikki Massoud; Em Grosland; Shahjehan Khan; Johnny Rey Diaz; Jeena Yi; Katharine Chin. Reading time: 11 hours, 16 minutes.

Science and Technology

Health and Medicine

Literature

Nature and the Environment

“The essays in this year’s Best American Science and Nature Writing probe at the ordinary and urge us to think more deeply about our place in the world around us. From a hopeful portrait of a future for people with Alzheimer’s disease, to a fascinating exploration of the rise of nearsightedness in children, to the heroic story of a herd of cows that evaded a hurricane, these selections reveal how science and nature shape our everyday lives. With tremendous intelligence, clarity, and insight, this anthology offers an expansive look at where we are and where we are headed.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

Kate’s 2¢: “The Great Longing” by Marcele Möring

Translated by Stacey Knecht

“The Great Longing” by Marcele Möring

Translated by Stacey Knecht

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, s              etting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares her thoughts about what she reads. Inho…

   Phil Regensdorf did a good job of reading this translation by Stacey Knecht of  Marcele Möring’s book. I like reading stories by authors from all countries. They usually have a different take of issues they write about.

   I suggest that, if the readers pay attention to Sam’s dreams, they will come to what really happened when the children’s parents died.

Copilot GPTs

About 112,000 resultsFiltered by Any time

Marcel Möring. Marcel Möring (born 5 September 1957, in Enschede) is a Dutch writer. He received the Ferdinand Bordewijk Prijs in 2007 for his novel Dis, translated into English under the title In A Dark Wood. He received the Anna Blaman Prijs in 1996.

Marcel Möring – Wikipedia

Stacey Knecht – Wikipedia

WEBStacey Knecht (born 1957 in Brooklyn, NY) is an American translator and editor. She translates literary works from Hungarian, Czech, Dutch and Flemish into English and is Editorial Director at Sticking Place Books.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The great longing: a novel DB43531

Möring, Marcel. Reading time: 7 hours, 47 minutes.

Read by Phil Regensdorf. A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress.

Psychological Fiction

Sam van Dijk lost all memory of his childhood up to age twelve, when his parents died in a car wreck. Now, as a young adult, Sam is reunited with his brother and sister, who help him recover his past. With that, Sam is able to pursue his “great longing” for identity and love. Strong language and descriptions of sex.

Download The great longing: a novel

Kate’s 2¢: “The Bathysphere book: effects of the luminous ocean depths” by Bradley Fox  

“The Bathysphere book: effects of the luminous ocean depths” by Bradley Fox  

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares her thoughts about what she reads. Inho…

   This was one of seven books on a cartridge NLS sent me, so I read it. I didn’t think it would hold my interest, however, Fox included fairly detailed biographies of each person as they appeared during the journey to the bottom of the ocean in the Bathysphere. Doug Tisdale Jr. did a good job of reading this book.

Copilot GPTs

www.nationalbook.org/people/brad-fox/

Brad Fox is a writer, journalist, translator, and former relief contractor living in New York. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review Daily, Guernica, and other venues. His novel To Remain Nameless was a finalist for the Big Other Book Award for Fiction and a staff pick at The Paris Review.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The Bathysphere book: effects of the luminous ocean depths DB115305

Fox, Brad, (Bradley) Reading time: 7 hours, 49 minutes.

Doug Tisdale Jr.

Science and Technology

Biography

Nature and the Environment

“A gorgeous account of William Beebe’s 1934 Bathysphere expedition, the first-ever deep-sea voyage to the otherworldly environment 3,024 feet below sea level.” — Provided by publisher.

Kate’s 2¢: “Bluebottle: a Lew Griffin novel” by James Sallis

“Bluebottle: a Lew Griffin novel” by James Sallis

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares her thoughts about what she reads. Inho…

   Chuck Young did a good job of narrating this story. I appreciated his clear enunciation.  I enjoyed the ins and outs of this story and how the author wove it together in the end.

James Sallis – Wikipedia

James Sallis (born December 21, 1944) is an American crime writer who wrote a series of novels featuring the detective character Lew Griffin set in New Orleans, and the 2005 novel Drive, which was adapted into a 2011 film of the same name . Sallis began writing science fiction for magazines in the late 1960s.

From NLS/BARD/LOC;:

Bluebottle: a Lew Griffin novel DB58288

Sallis, James. Reading time: 4 hours, 22 minutes.

Read by Chuck Young.

Mystery and Detective Stories

Psychological Fiction

New Orleans, 1960s. African American private detective Lew Griffin is shot while leaving a downtown bar with a white woman he just met. Lew had been on his way to meet Eddie Bone–who later turned up dead. Lew recovers and looks for answers. Strong language, some descriptions of sex, and some violence. 1999.

Downloaded: April 25, 2024

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Kate’s 2¢: “Blindness” by José Saramago

Translated by Giovanni Pontiero

“Blindness” by José Saramago

Translated by Giovanni Pontiero

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares her thoughts about what she reads. Inho…

   Terence Aselford did a good job of narrating Giovanni Pontiero translation of this book by a Portuguese author. I suppose this is similar to “Animal Farm” and other stories that show how a community can fall into chaos, panic, and turmoil. I thought there were a lot of stereotypes that were explored and exploited.

    It would be nice, if in real life, the blind really did regain their sight.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In this Portuguese name, the first or maternal family name is Sousa and the second or paternal family name is Saramago.

José Saramago

José de Sousa Saramago GColSE GColCa (Portuguese: [ʒuˈzɛ ðɨ ˈsozɐ sɐɾɐˈmaɣu]; 16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010) was a Portuguese writer. He was the recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature for his “parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony [with which he] continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality.”[1] His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the theopoetic human factor. In 2003 Harold Bloom described Saramago as “the most gifted novelist alive in the world today”[2] and in 2010 said he considers Saramago to be “a permanent part of the Western canon”,[3] while James Wood praises “the distinctive tone to his fiction because he narrates his novels as if he were someone both wise and ignorant.”[4]

More than two million copies of Saramago’s books have been sold in Portugal alone and his work has been translated into 25 languages.[5][6] A proponent of libertarian communism,[7] Saramago criticized institutions such as the Catholic Church, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. An atheist, he defended love as an instrument to improve the human condition. In 1992, the Government of Portugal under Prime Minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva ordered the removal of one of his works, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, from the Aristeion Prize’s shortlist, claiming the work was religiously offensive. Disheartened by this political censorship of his work,[8] Saramago went into exile on the Spanish island of Lanzarote, where he lived alongside his Spanish wife Pilar del Río until his death in 2010.[9][10]

Saramago was a founding member of the National Front for the Defense of Culture in Lisbon in 1992.

Biography[edit

Saramago was born in 1922 into a family of very poor landless peasants in Azinhaga, Portugal, a small village in Ribatejo Province, some one hundred kilometres northeast of Lisbon.[9] His parents were José de Sousa and Maria da Piedade. “Saramago”, the Portuguese word for Raphanus raphanistrum (wild radish), was the insulting nickname given to his father, and was accidentally incorporated into his name by the village clerk upon registration of his birth.[9]

In 1924, Saramago’s family moved to Lisbon, where his father started working as a policeman. A few months after the family moved to the capital, his brother Francisco, older by two years, died. He spent vacations with his grandparents in Azinhaga. When his grandfather suffered a stroke and was to be taken to Lisbon for treatment, Saramago recalled, “He went into the yard of his house, where there were a few trees, fig-trees, olive trees. And he went one by one, embracing the trees and crying, saying goodbye to them because he knew he would not return. To see this, to live this, if that doesn’t mark you for the rest of your life,” Saramago said, “you have no feeling.”[11] Although Saramago was a good pupil, his parents were unable to afford to keep him in grammar school, and instead moved him to a technical school at age 12.

After graduating as a lathe operator, he worked as a car mechanic for two years. At this time Saramago had acquired a taste for reading and started to frequent a public library in Lisbon in his free time. He married Ilda Reis, a typist and later artist, in 1944 (they divorced in 1970). Their only daughter, Violante, was born in 1947.[9] By this time he was working in the Social Welfare Service as a civil servant. Later he worked at the publishing company Estúdios Cor as an editor and translator, and then as a journalist. By that time, in 1968, he met and became lover of writer Isabel da Nóbrega, the longtime partner of author and critic João Gaspar Simões. Nóbrega became Saramago’s devoted literary mentor, to whom he would later dedicate Memorial do Convento and O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis.

After the democratic revolution in 1974, on 9 April 1975, during the rule of Vasco Gonçalves, Saramago became the assistant director of the newspaper Diário de Notícias, and the editorial line became clearly pro-communist. A group of 30 journalists – half the editorial staff – handed the board a petition calling for the editorial line to be revised and for it to be published. A plenary was called and, following an angry intervention by Saramago, 24 journalists were expelled, accused of being right-wingers. After the Coup of 25 November 1975 that put an end to the communist PREC, Saramago, in turn, was fired from the newspaper.[12]

Saramago published his first novel, Land of Sin, in 1947. It remained his only published literary work until a poetry book, Possible Poems, was published in 1966. It was followed by another book of poems, Probably Joy, in 1970, three collections of newspaper articles in 1971, 1973 and 1974 respectively, and the long poem The Year of 1993 in 1975. A collection of political writing was published in 1976 under the title Notes. After his dismissal from Diário de Notícias in 1975, Saramago embraced his writing more seriously and in following years he published a series of important works including Manual de Pintura e Caligrafia (1977), Objecto Quase (1978), Levantado do Chão (1980) and Viagem a Portugal (1981).

Later life and international acclaim[edit]

Saramago did not achieve widespread recognition and acclaim until he was sixty, with the publication of his fourth novel, Memorial do Convento (1982). A baroque tale set during the Inquisition in 18th-century Lisbon, it tells of the love between a maimed soldier and a young clairvoyant, and of a renegade priest’s heretical dream of flight.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Blindness DB46904

Saramago, José; Pontiero, Giovanni. Reading time: 11 hours, 38 minutes.

Read by Terence Aselford.

Psychological Fiction

Written by the Nobel Prize- winning Portuguese author. Without cause people are suddenly becoming blind. A doctor’s wife is spared but pretends she is blind to remain with her husband. Quarantined by the government in an abandoned mental hospital, the blinded citizens create a reign of terror. Some strong language, some violence, and some descriptions of sex.

Downloaded: April 25, 2024

Download Blindness

Kate’s 2¢: “The Blue Guitar” by John Banville

“The Blue Guitar” by John Banville

“The Blue Guitar” by John Banville NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares her thoughts about what she reads. Inho…

   Jeremy Gage did a nice job of narrating the run-on reminiscences that comprise this story. The revelations at the end is an unexpected twist and ‘poetic’ justice.

A few take-aways:

–I do not steal for profit.

-The days smeared all over with sunlight dense and shiny as apricot jam.

–Orme made sure he had a good view of the two widows.

–The world, and women, are what they always were and will be.

–Polly was the lover. Gloria was his wife, who took him back.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

www.john-banville.com

William John Banville (born 8 December 1945) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, adapter of dramas and screenwriter.[2] Though he has been described as “the heir to Proust, via Nabokov”, Banville himself maintains that W. B. Yeats and Henry James are the two real influences on his work.[3][1]

Banville has won the 1976 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the 2003 International Nonino Prize, the 2005 Booker Prize, the 2011 Franz Kafka Prize, the 2013 Austrian State Prize for European Literature and the 2014 Prince of Asturias Award for Literature.[4] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2007. Italy made him a Cavaliere of the Ordine della Stella d’Italia (essentially a knighthood) in 2017.[5] He is a former member of Aosdána, having voluntarily relinquished the financial stipend in 2001 to another, more impoverished, writer.[6]

Banville was born and grew up in Wexford town in south-east Ireland. He published his first novel, Nightspawn, in 1971. A second, Birchwood, followed two years later. “The Revolutions Trilogy”, published between 1976 and 1982, comprises three works, each named in reference to a renowned scientist: Doctor Copernicus, Kepler and The Newton Letter. His next work, Mefisto, had a mathematical theme. His 1989 novel The Book of Evidence, shortlisted for the Booker Prize and winner of that year’s Guinness Peat Aviation award, heralded a second trilogy, three works which deal in common with the work of art. “The Frames Trilogy” is completed by Ghosts and Athena, both published during the 1990s. Banville’s thirteenth novel, The Sea, won the Booker Prize in 2005. In addition, he publishes crime novels as Benjamin Black — most of these feature the character of Quirke, an Irish pathologist based in Dublin.

Banville is considered a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature.[7][8] He lives in Dublin.[1]

Early life and family[edit]

William John Banville was born to Agnes (née Doran) and Martin Banville, a garage clerk, in Wexford, Ireland. He is the youngest of three siblings; his older brother Vincent is also a novelist and has written under the name Vincent Lawrence as well as his own. His sister Anne Veronica “Vonnie” Banville-Evans[9] has written both a children’s novel and a memoir of growing up in Wexford.[10] Banville stole a collection of Dylan Thomas’s poetry from Wexford County Library while in his teens.[11]

Banville was educated at CBS Primary, Wexford, a Christian Brothers school, and at St Peter’s College, Wexford. Despite having intended to be a painter and an architect, he did not attend university.[12] Banville has described this as “A great mistake. I should have gone. I regret not taking that four years of getting drunk and falling in love. But I wanted to get away from my family. I wanted to be free.”[13] Alternately he has stated that college would have had little benefit for him: “I don’t think I would have learned much more, and I don’t think I would have had the nerve to tackle some of the things I tackled as a young writer if I had been to university – I would have been beaten into submission by my lecturers.”[14]

After school, Banville worked as a clerk at Aer Lingus, which allowed him to travel at deeply discounted rates. He took advantage of these rates to travel to Greece and Italy. On his return to Ireland, he became a sub-editor at The Irish Press, eventually becoming chief sub-editor.[citation needed] before The Irish Press collapsed in 1995,[15] Banville became a sub-editor at The Irish Times. He was appointed literary editor in 1998. The Irish Times, too, endured financial troubles, and Banville was offered the choice of taking a redundancy package or working as a features department sub-editor. He left.

Banville has two sons from a marriage to the American textile artist Janet Dunham, whom he met in the United States during the 1960s. Asked in 2012 about the breakdown of that marriage, Banville’s immediate thoughts focused on the effect it had on his children; “It was hard on them”, he said.[16] Banville later went on to have two daughters from another relationship.[16] He lives in Dublin.[1]

Writing[edit]

Banville published his first book, a collection of short stories titled Long Lankin, in 1970. He has disowned his first published novel, Nightspawn, describing it as “crotchety, posturing, absurdly pretentious”.[17]

As an unknown writer in the 1980s, he toured Dublin’s bookshops — “and we had a lot of bookshops back then” — around the time of the publication of his novel Kepler “and there wasn’t a single one of any of my books anywhere”. But, he noted in 2012, “I didn’t feel badly about it because I was writing the kinds of books I wanted to write. And I had no one but myself to blame if I wasn’t making money, that wasn’t anybody’s fault. Nobody was obliged to buy my books”.[16]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The blue guitar DB83729

Banville, John. Reading time: 9 hours, 39 minutes.

Read by Jeremy Gage.

Psychological Fiction

Artist and petty thief Oliver Orme returns to his hometown. Olly is suffering a mid-life crisis after his affair with his best friend’s wife is discovered, and he decides to quit painting. He tries to figure out where his life went wrong. Some descriptions of sex. 2015.

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