The Lucy Family Alphabet by Judith Lucy
15 November, 2008
Comedienne Judith Lucy says her family’s ‘view of normal wasn’t always everyone else’s’ and she’s not kidding! She had her first shower at 15.

The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville
15 November, 2008
The story of Daniel Rooke (based on the life of William Dawes) starts with a socially inept, solitary child with a passion for numbers and the stars.

The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet by Colleen McCullough
15 November, 2008
Austen-mania birthed several sequels to Pride and Prejudice-Colleen McCullough’s is the latest.

The Household Guide to Dying by Debra Adelaide
15 November, 2008
Delia Bennet has terminal cancer and is contemplating how to prepare herself and her young family for her inevitable demise.

Buddhism for Busy People by David Michie
15 November, 2008
David Michie seemed to have it all. Happily married, with a high-flying job in corporate PR in London, he was living ‘the life’.

Genesis by Bernard Beckett
1 October, 2008
In the year 2075, on the island Republic (once New Zealand Aotearoa), we witness young Anaximander before exacting examiners, seeking admission to the extremely elite Academy.

Maelstrom by Michael MacConnell, read by Sean Mangan
10 January, 2008
Relentless action marks this debut action thriller set in Boston and the US east coast. Harry Reilly, retired from active FBI duty, believes that a copycat killer is working in the shadows of other serial killers.

Turner’s Paintbox by Paul Morgan, read by Humphrey Bower
10 January, 2008
Paul Morgan’s first novel The Pelagius Book drew comparisons from some reviewers to the work of David Malouf. His second, Turner’s Paintbox, published earlier this year by Viking, is a more conventional story set in contemporary Sydney. Gerard Moyne is an art consultant who is on a steady trajectory to international success and wealth.

Audio Book Reviews
27 October, 2006
It is a thing of ‘moocow’ innocence, with childish thought and memory tenderly evoked. It is also a thing of great hunger for personal identity. Stephen Dedalus, the central character of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, visualises himself in terms of the world … the universe. Boundaries between himself and the greatness of everything are sought, defined and expressed with ever-increasing hunger for the knowledge of beauty, art and meaning. James Joyce’s remarkable semi-autobiographical novel is truly a great (and very accessible) work of literature, and its beautifully layered and lyrical quality is ideally realised in audio form.

Audio Book: Ice Station by Matthew Reilly, read by Sean Mangan
20 July, 2005
I suppose it’s appropriate for Reilly’s adventure, set in a US-run scientific base in Antarctica, to be read in an American (actually, a Canadian) accent. Nonetheless, it’s initially a little off-putting for an Australian production of an Australian novel. Sean Mangan’s reading is well-paced, if a little flat and ‘radio announcer’ in tone at first.

Audio Book: Are We There Yet? A Journey Around Australia by Alison Lester, read by Genevieve Mooy
20 July, 2005
An audio version of a picture book about a family’s journey around Australia is just the thing to have in the car. At 20 minutes running time Grace’s recount of a special year, when she and brothers Luke and Billy ‘missed school for the whole winter term’ to travel around Australia with Mum and Dad, might last to the supermarket rather than across the Nullabor but the imaginative and creative possibilities of the audio package could be lifelong.

Audio Book: Hating Alison Ashley by Robin Klein, read by Felicity Price
20 July, 2005
Erica Yurken—or ‘Yuk’, ‘Gherkin’ or ‘Erk’ to most of her peers, family and teachers—is convinced she is on her way to greatness. She survives the challenges of life at the ‘disadvantaged’ Barringa East Primary School, by having a fertile imagination and a precocious belief that she is in every way superior to all those around her. But then Alison Ashley arrives.

Audio Book: A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Grim Grotto, read by Tim Curry
20 July, 2005
The mystery and quirkiness that has made the print version of ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ so successful has been lovingly recreated and enhanced in this compact disc version of the 11th book. There is a lot to like about a dust jacket that warns you not to listen to the audio book, as the contents are both horrible and distressing. Those brave enough to place the CD into their stereo will be comforted to know that the intricacies of phenomenon known as the ‘Water Cycle’ have been carefully catalogued by Mr Snicket, so as to not delve into the despair of the Baudelaire orphans too early in the narrative.

Audio Book: Thumbelina and Other Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen, various narrators
20 July, 2005
A good fairy tale is a splendid thing, richly decorated and as deceptively simple as a snowflake, crystal-woven with glittering images of sweetness and melancholy-edged gladness, immortal in its joyous appeal. The best writers of fairy tales can without exaggeration be called geniuses—and they don’t come better than Hans Christian Andersen.

Audio Book: Toad Rage, written and read by Morris Gleitzman
20 July, 2005
Morris Gleitzman was a perfect (and obvious) choice of reader for his book Toad Rage in audio format. In this unabridged adventure, listeners are treated to the fast-paced life of Limpy the cane toad and his endeavour to answer the question that plagues his mind and drives his mission—why do humans hate toads? Limpy, sick of being the local public enemy and watching his relatives through get run over by bloodthirsty truck drivers, decides to leave his family and travel Queensland to try to change all the toad-hating minds.

Audio Book News...
19 July, 2005
Got a few hours to spare? Why not curl up with a good novel on audio? Even if time is tight, the great majority of audio books have chapter breaks so you can stop and come back to where you left off.

More Audio Book News...
19 July, 2005
Last year MP3-CDs were the latest thing, and now they are an increasingly common format, especially for longer titles, fitting 10 or 15 hours onto just one or two discs. With seemingly every second person sporting the little white wires out of the ears that designate iPod addiction, it’s helpful to know that it’s an easy task to transfer an MP3-CD audio book onto a portable MP3 player.

Audio Book: Dirt Music by Tim Winton, read by Suzi Dougherty
12 July, 2005
As a reader, what I love about Winton’s books are his characters. Flawed, complex and very human, they make the story for me in all of his books. Listening to an audio version of Dirt Music, I found myself focusing on the dialogue, which is plain and circumspect. As a result, it took a lot longer for me to engage with the book when listening than it ever has when reading.

Audio Books: Do you like the sound of your own voice
19 June, 2005
Written by … read by … When producing an audio book, is the author the best reader; or would a professional do a better job? In pondering this, AB&P spoke with a publisher, an author who did read his own book, and a long-established author/reader pair.

The Tripp Diaries by Stig Wemyss
20 March, 2005
Audio releases are the secret weapon of canny parents trapped with their children on long-distance car trips. The Tripp Diaries have been specifically created for use on an Australian road trip. A stationary listen does not translate so well, but road-testing these discs confirms that they may be onto something. This sequel takes a while to get out of first gear but soon develops into an enjoyable character-driven mystery.

How to Make a Bird by Martine Murray
2 March, 2005
Readers familiar with Martine Murray’s writing will know this story of Mannie, a slightly eccentric 17-year-old, who sets off on a bicycle from her home in country Victoria, bound for Paris. As the story unravels, the reason behind Mannie’s secret early-morning flight from home and the strangeness of her behaviour are revealed.

The Philosopher's Doll by Amanda Lohrey, read by Tracey Callander
28 February, 2005
At over seven hours on eight CDs The Philosopher’s Doll may be a bit of a slog, or a feast for the ears if the unabridged words of Amanda Lohrey (read by Tracy Callander) are your thing. Lohrey’s text is highly detailed and descriptive while Callander’s delivery is clear and almost Shakespearian in its diction—although she still has lots of fun with the voices of the minor characters, from posh waiters to wayward youths.

Raw by Scott Monk, read by David Tredinnick
28 February, 2005
Brett Dalton is in trouble. He’s an angry young man, with a dangerous temper and no future. When a magistrate sentences him to three months at ‘The Farm’ for a break-and-enter, Brett is given the time, and support, to evaluate his life and learn painful lessons about friendship, trust, love, and loss. Monk’s engaging tale provides his readers with didactic elements on conflict resolution, and coping strategies that don’t involve using your fists.

The Mindless Ferocity of Sharks by Brett D'Arcy, read by Dino Marnika
26 February, 2005
With any new technology there is always going to be an awkward stage where what is possible is hamstrung by what people feel comfortable accessing. This scenario is playing out in the emergence of audio books on compact disk as an adjunct, or even alternative, to their print cousins.

Nights in the Sun by Colin Bowles
16 February, 2005