07/3/12

Get 4th of July by James Patterson on Audiobook

With it being the 4th of July tomorrow, what better book to discover than James Patterson’s 4th of July.

Celebrate the holiday wrapped up in a vivid page-turner that’s is available on audiobook for listening while laying on the beach or relaxing on your day off.

From an OnTheGoBooks.com review…

Very enjoyable! Can’t wait for the next one in this series!

Here’s a quick recap of the suspenseful audiobook…

The Women’s Murder Club reconvenes under the worst circumstances. After a routine arrest goes terribly awry, a young woman is caught in the crossfire and killed. Lieutenant Lindsay Boxer must defend herself against charges of police brutality in a case that has made coast-to-coast headlines. In this high-anxiety atmosphere, Boxer and her Women’s Murder Club buddies are also searching frantically for clues to a series of Half Moon Bay murders.

Enjoying listening to James Patterson stories on audiobook?

Find more at OnTheGoBooks.com!

06/28/12

3 Must Listen Audiobooks Books for June 2012

June is Audiobook Month – so, what are you listening to?

Here are our top 3 Must Listen To audiobooks for June:

Fifty Shades of Grey – audiobook by E.L. James

This book is the Spring/Summer hit of the publishing world with more than 10 Million books sold. If you’re searching for an erotic listen, this book will deliver…and deliver…and deliver.

And though it’s not written all that well – reviews have lambasted the poor writing and story development – the story itself is compelling enough for listeners to devour this book and its two sisters within the trilogy.

When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.

Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.

Suffice to say – this book is intended for mature audiences

In The Garden of Beasts – audiobook by Erik Larson

Searching for more insight into the Germany of the 1930′s and 1940′s? This book delves into a frank review of what you may know about Hitler and his cronies – and what you may not.

The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history.

A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the “New Germany,” she has one affair after another, including with the suprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance—and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition.

Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Göring and the expectedly charming–yet wholly sinister–Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.

Full Black – audiobook by Brad Thor

Summer is all about digesting thrillers at a lightening pace. This is the time of the year when you can listen to multiple books while on vacation, traveling or sitting on the beach. Brad Thor delivers again with a page-turner.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor brings readers his darkest and most intriguing thriller yet—a terrifying story of espionage and betrayal—brilliantly paced with superb nonstop action. Born in the shadows and kept from heads of state, there are some missions so deadly, so sensitive, that they simply don’t exist. When one such mission goes horribly wrong, a wave of dramatic terrorist attacks is set in motion. Their goal: the complete and total collapse of the United States.

With the CIA’s intelligence abilities hobbled, former Navy SEAL Team 6 member turned covert counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath launches an audacious plan to infiltrate the terrorists’ network and prevent one of the biggest threats the United States has ever faced. Simultaneously, a foreign wet work team has been sent to California. Their target: one of Hollywood’s most famous filmmakers.

While working on a secret documentary project, movie producer Larry Salomon has unknowingly exposed one of the world’s wealthiest and most politically connected powerbrokers—a man with a radical anti-American agenda poised to plunge the nation into deadly, irreversible chaos. As the plots rocket to their pulse-pounding conclusion and the identities of the perpetrators are laid stunningly bare, Harvath will be left with only one means to save America. Unable to trust anyone, he will be forced to go Full Black.

06/20/12

June Is Audiobook Month – What Are You Listening To?

Per the  Audio Publishers Association

Every June, the APA carries out a campaign to enhance visibility, awareness and popularity for audiobooks by directly reaching out to consumers

The idea is to help keep the audiobook industry healthy and active. The more that people listen to audiobooks, the more audiobooks are produced and the more people are employed within the industry as:

  • writers and editors
  • narrators
  • sound engineers
  • directors
  • publicists and marketers

Audiobook listeners, without much active thought, are the foundation for the economic prowess of the industry. So enjoy your audiobooks – others are enjoying the fact that you are!

So, with June being Audiobook Month – What Are You Listening To?

  • James Patterson?
  • Laura Hillenbrand?
  • Stephen King?
  • Political books per the upcoming election?
  • Summer favorites?
  • The Classics?

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below…we’d love to hear from you…

06/18/12

Maximizing Your Audiobook Listening Experience

Listening to Audiobooks can be quite pleasurable. A narrator reads the book and you listen. It’s a very simple process really.

By listening – instead of reading – you involve other senses which allow you to appreciate the written word in a different way.

But there is a secret to maximizing the pleasure you receive while listening to an audiobook – avoid distractions!

This advice is a bit counter-intuitive. One of the benefits of listening to books is so you can multi-task while you listen. Driving, ironing, gardening and other activities are common tasks taken on while listening to a book.

While we won’t dissuade you from multi-tasking of course, we would try and persuade you to devote some time to ‘just listening‘. That means carving out some time to just sitting alone with your audiobook in a quiet surrounding.

By doing this, you will become fully enveloped within the story. With no distractions, you’ll hear everything and process words, meanings and metaphors more quickly and more efficiently. You won’t need to stop and rewind like you may have to do while driving or doing house work.

This is just a tip on how to get more pleasure, more enjoyment, out of your audiobook listening experience.

Enjoy your audiobooks!

 

06/17/12

Celebrate Father’s Day With An Audiobook

One way to celebrate Father’s Day is with an audiobook.

If you’re a dad and have some ‘alone’ time throughout the day, why not enjoy the listening pleasure of an audiobook mystery or historical novel?

If you’re searching for a great gift for your father or husband, an audiobook rental membership is a wonderful idea. Dads can choose the types of books on CD that they want to listen to from a list of thousands of titles.

Rental plans are relatively inexpensive. Their benefit is that they offer hours of listening pleasure – great for driving to work, jogging, traveling and other times when you’ve got free time to devour a good book.

At On The Go Books, we hope you have a wonderful Father’s Day!

And here is some great advice on how to be a good dad…from NPR.

 

06/8/12

Fifty Shades of Grey Books Sell 10 Million Copies Over The Last 6 Weeks!

Unbelievably, the adult fiction trilogy, Fifty Shades of Grey, has sold more than 10 million copies in the past six weeks.

That’s an astounding number of books. And apparently, the demand for the book continues to grow.

Reports are that the three books have accounted for 25% of the adult fiction market over these past six weeks. 25%!

To call it a New York Times # 1 Best Seller is quite the understatement.

While success has come fast and quick, some libraries and bookstores across the country have refrained from selling or offering the salacious books.  The graphic nature of the book makes it both a lightening rod for hungry readers and audiobook listeners as well as those opposed to its content.

E. L. James, author of the Fifty Shades of Grey novels must be ecstatic that her characters and storytelling have struck such a mark. She has the entire book and audiobook industry all abuzz!

06/7/12

Where Do Audio Book Listeners Live?

It’s an interesting question – where do the people who listen to audio books live?

Well, the simple answer is that audio book listeners live all over the country (and around the world of course). We knew that…it’s pretty obvious.

But we started looking at where our customers live, and well, the answers surprised us a little bit.

Here are the Top 10 audio book listener locations – by state – for On The Go Books customers:

  • Florida
  • California
  • Texas
  • Rhode Island
  • New York
  • South Carolina
  • Arkansas
  • Indiana
  • Georgia
  • North Carolina

We might have guessed that Florida, California, Texas and New York would be in the Top 5 because the populations of those states are so large.

But Rhode Island? And then the states from South Carolina to North Carolina. Those are not overly populated states!

And 6 of the 10 states are Southern States. Does that mean that Southerners, know for telling great stories, are also avid listeners to great stories? Are people living in the South more likely to rent audiobooks?

We don’t know. We might guess that the Southern States – especially Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina – have an increasing number of retirees and snowbirds who just might have more time on their hands to listen to books. Perhaps that’s a partial answer.

Red states verse Blue states? It doesn’t look like political leanings play a role in who is listening to audiobooks.

We found this information interesting. Maybe you do as well. What state do you live in? Please share in the comment section below.

06/7/12

What Is The Audio Publishers Association?

The Audio Publishers Association is an advocacy group for the audiobook industry.

From the Audio Publishers Association website….

The Audio Publishers Association (APA) is a not-for-profit trade association that advocates the common, collective business interests of audio publishers. The APA consists of audio publishing companies and allied suppliers, distributors, and retailers of spoken word products and allied fields related to the production, distribution and sale of audiobooks.

What are Audie Awards?

Each year the APA recognizes the best audiobooks. Similar to a Grammy Award or a Golden Globe, the Audio Publishers Association distributes Audie Awards for outstanding work.

Awards are given out across more than 30 categories including Audiobook Adaptation, Biography/Memoir, Business, History, Children’s Lit, Classics, Fantasy, Humor, Non-Fiction, Audiobook of the Year, and Distinguished Achievement in Production.

The 2012 Audie Awards show was held June 5, 2012.

You can even join the APAclick here to do so.

06/7/12

Tina Fey Wins 2 Audie Awards For Bossypants Audiobook

Congrats to Tina Fey for winning two Audie Awards Tuesday evening – June 5.

She won Audio Book of the Year and best Biography/Memoir for the narration of her autobiographical comedy Bossypants. If you’ve not listened to the book, you can rent Bossypants on audio by clicking through to On The Go Books.

In Bossypants, Tina Fey, best known as a writer and actor on both Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock, writes about her time on SNL and her transition to 30 Rock. During this time she’s talks about becoming pregnant, the rigors of growing up and how to deal with so many of life’s issues that affect women – all with a subtly hilarious outlook on life.

The 2012 event recognized many great authors and narrators. See a list of all Audie Award winners here.

In upcoming posts, we’ll feature other winners of the 2012 Audie Awards

05/31/12

How Do Audiobook Narrators Approach Their Work?

We came across this blog post from Paul Allen Ruben, an award-winning producer and director of audiobooks. His blog, Audio Book Narrators, is well worth a read if you’re looking for insight into the approach and direction taken by those men and women who vocalize the written word for our enjoyment.

audiobook

How Do Narrators Read Audiobooks?

In this particular post, Ruben poses the question of how do audiobook narrators work – do they try and satisfy the listener or do they try and satisfy the author of the book.

Certainly, the author will have strong opinions on how their individual book is produced audibly. How does the written word come to life? What are the accents of the characters? Are they portrayed by the narrator as the author perceived or intended them?

Here is a snippet from the blog post…

I think what’s at stake is that narrators – particularly those who work alone, or with an engineer, or without the benefit of sub textual feedback from a director – may have a tendency to prioritize their vocal technique (ironically, especially if they are experienced, facile storytellers) over the author’s intent, rather than the reverse.

Why? I’m not sure. But I suspect that at least some of this desire is perpetuated by a kind of low hanging and tempting performance fruit: accolades and congratulatory notices from listeners and reviewers who mistake rock ‘em, sock ‘em energy for storytelling.

Read the full post here.

This is something to think about the next time you’re driving to work listening to a book. How much preparation went into the production of the book? How much direction was given from a producer/director or even from the author?

Listening to audiobooks brings great enjoyment. Narrators most often do wonderful jobs at bringing the stories to life. It’s interesting to get a better understanding of how they approach their work.