AudioBookSync.Com Summer Reading List

Sync is a program that offers two free audio book downloads each week during the summer. Each pair includes a Young Adult novel and a Classic novel matched through similar themes. Each book is only offered for seven days, so you much download the titles during that time.

Week 1: This summer began May 7th. Through May 14th they offered Beautiful Creatures, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl and Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier. Beautiful Creatures will be our June book-of-the-month so I hope you were able to download it while it was available!

Week 2: 5/14-21 Dodger, by Terry Pratchett and Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens. I'm very excited about this week! I love Terry Pratchett, he has such a great voice. And, I'm a little embarrassed to say, I've never read Great Expectations. I seemed to have missed it in all of my English classes. So this is one for the bucket list! Also, Great Expectations has been adapted to the big screen 10 times, count them t-e-n times! and apparently, they span the the spectrum. We may have to make this one a book-of-the-month soon as well.

Week 3: 5/21-28 X: A Novel, by Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon, and Here in Harlem, by Walter Dean Myers. X is about the young man who becomes Malcom X. Here in Harlem is a collection of poems. Both tell the stories of Harlem and its struggles.

Week 4: 5/28-6/4 The Ring and the Crown, by Melissa De La Cruz, and Sea Hearts, by Margo Lanagan. I have enjoyed a few novels by Melissa De La Cruz, so I am interested in this title, even though I hadn't heard of it previously. Sea Hearts and The Ring and the Crown are about love, magic, and human weakness.

Week 5: 6/4-11 A Corner of White, by Jaclyn Moriarty and Dracula, by Bram Stoker. I honestly have no idea what A Corner of White is about. I've read the synopsis, and I still don't know. Dracula is about a vampire (obviously).

Week 6: 6/11-18 The Living, by Matt de la Pena and The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger. Both are about catastrophic events and the characters that try to survive. The Perfect Storm was adapted into a movie in 2000.

Week 7: 6/18-25 Rose Under Fire, by Elizabeth Wein and Anne Frank Remembered, by Miep Gies and Alison Leslie Gold. These are not for the faint of heart, both are about the Nazis, the war, and concentration camps.

Week 8: 6/25-7/2 Monster, by Walter Dean Myers and Lord of the Flies, by William Golding. Lord of the Flies is another of the classics that I didn't read in school. (I went to a few different high schools, so my program wasn't very predictable.) But to be honest, I was never really interested in it. Still, free is free, and a movie was made.

Week 9: 7/2-9 Echoes of an Angel, by Aquaneta Gordon and Chris Macias and Buddha Boy, by Kathe Koja. Both are stories of overcoming hardship. Though very different, they are both moving.

Week 10: 7/9-16 The Explorers Club, by Nell Benjamin and Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne. I can't wait to read both. I remember watching the 1956 Around the World in Eighty Days movie as a kid, I loved it! I may have to go digging around to find it again.

Week 11: 7/16-23 Crows and Cards, by Joseph Helgerson and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. Misadventures in the South.

Weeks 12: 7/23-30 March, by Geraldin Brooks, and Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott. March is the story of the Little Women's absent father, so they are best read together. Little Women came to the big screen in 1994.

Week 13: 7/30-8/6 Courage Has No Color, The True Story of the Triple Nickles, by Tanya Lee Stone and John Ball's In the Heat of the Night, by Matt Pelfrey. Overcoming prejudices and differences on the police force in the south and fighting on the battlefield in WWII. In the Heat of the Night was released in theaters in 1967.

Week 14: 8/6-13 Under A War-Torn Sky, by L.M. Elliot and The Old Brown Suitcase, by Lillian Boraks-Nemetz. Two more WWII stories and what freedom can cost. Both look like they will be very interesting.

There you have it, 14 weeks and 28 books.

Which ones are you interested in? Should we add any to our book list?

Pride & Prejudice Review

I've finished this month's book, Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austin. Have you finished it yet?

This is a copy of the review I posted on to Google Books:

As a club we read Pride & Prejudice in May 2015. Personally, I've read it at least five times. It is one of my favorite stories. A classic, and used as an inspiration for so many other stories.

Pride & Prejudice is a historical fiction romantic comedy. In this one novel, Jane Austin tells numerous stories of love and courtship. She writes of how love can grow so slowly you don't even know it happened. How it can be a spark that lights a burning fire from the moment you meet someone. And, that love and marriage do not always go hand-in-hand. Some marry for comfort; some marry because they want to be married - not necessarily in love.

I believe that this novel has held its popularity for so long because Austin allows there to be many reasons for love. Everyone is able to relate with the story, and everyone wants to have a love as deep as Elizabeth's and Darcy's, as passionate as Jane and Bingley's, and as comfortable as Charlotte and Collins'.

If you haven't read the book, do so. If you have, then do it again. I always find sometime new and wonderful between those pages.

Read my review and others HERE.

How would you review Pride & Prejudice?

AudioBookSync.com

I mentioned this briefly in my initial post, but I wanted to mention it again since it starts today!

Audiobooksync.com is offering two free downloadable audio books each week this summer. Each week they will offer a contemporary Young Adult book and a classic that shares similar themes.

The first week, today through the 14th, they are offering Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl and the classic Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier.

The reason I mention this is simply that we will be reading Beautiful Creatures in June, so why not get a free copy?

I have grown to love audio books. They let me "read" while doing other things - driving, washing the dishes, or cleaning the house! I love anything that helps me multitask.

That's really all for today.

Have you found me on twitter yet? (no I haven't tweeted, but I started working on my profile...)

How are you coming along with Pride and Prejudice?

Happy Reading!