Technology Tuesday: Online Audiobook Libraries

As a child of the eighties, I still slip up from time to time when I'm talking about "books on tape."  Of course, there's now a huge variety of ways to hear a book without having to drag our your old cassette player - and it's getting easier to get your hands on audio books every day!

First - and most recently - we have Audiobooks.com, who as of today are rolling out a new service that will let you access as many audio books as you want - out of their collection of 11,000 - for a fixed monthly fee.  This is new in the online world of audio books - usually there's a cap in how many recordings you can tap into each month.  For anyone with a long commute - this could be a lifesaver!  Read more about it on Mashable.

For those of you who want the audio book experience for free, there are alternatives!  Books with expired copyright can be recorded and shared online without charge.  Ranging from Sherlock Holmes books to stories by Edgar Allan Poe, you might be surprised by what you can find here.  For some quality book and short story recordings, you can check out LibriVox (where you can both record and listen to audio books), Verako, or the Telltale Weekly.

LibriVox: http://librivox.org/
Verako: http://verkaro.org/
Telltale Weekly: http://alexwilson.com/telltale/catalog/


Are you an audio book fan?  Where do you go to download your favorite books?

Book Review: Now You See Her and Tick Tock by James Patterson

by Michelle Silver

Now You See Her is a fast-paced moving mystery about how the mistakes we make in our youth can come back to bite us.  An innocent young girl on spring break makes a foolish mistake - now she is running for her life.  An up-and-coming attorney in the big city enjoys a respectable life with her daughter.  She has worked hard to provide a good life for her child and a promising career for herself.  How can trying to save an innocent man from death row change everything you have worked so hard to accomplish?  Will the past not only ruin your career but cost you your daughter and possibly your life?  Love, lies, and murder - or was it?

Tick Tock is a part of one of James Patterson's most popular series, relating the stories of Detective Mike Bennett, a single parent of ten adopted children from different backgrounds.  He is a devoted father and hardworking officer who, with the help of a nanny and an old priest, effectively fights some of the hardest cases New York has ever experienced.  In Tick Tock, a bomb in the library, an explosion at Grand Central Station and a homicide in an industrial area bring Detective Mike Bennett to the scene of crimes that resemble past serial killers.  Taunting messages directed at the detective make it almost seem personal.  Are these cases the work of one man or a cult?

James Patterson is a great author who introduces characters we can relate to.  In his novels, the main characters are well-respected people that you get to know personally.  I have read just about everything he has written and have never been disappointed.  The books are a fast read and move swiftly along so as not to allow boredom or loss of interest.  I would highly recommend any James Patterson novel.