Julie Davis's Blog, page 8

Free Advent Audiobook: God is in the Manger by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Christian Audio has a dilly of a deal for their free audiobook this month:

God Is in the Manger is the Advent devotional written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the 20th century's most admired and beloved Christians. This devotional includes daily selections for the four weeks of Advent and twelve daily selections for Christmas and Epiphany. In each devotional, Bonheoffer expresses his beliefs that Christ's strength is portrayed the best during times of trial and weakness and God is often heard most clearly by those in distress.

Many of the writings compiled in this book were written while Bonhoeffer sat in prison for two years after being arrested by Nazi authorities for his involvement in anti-Nazi activities. In his writing, he emphasizes the discipline of waiting, which is a common theme of Advent. After experiencing many different instances of helplessness, Bonhoeffer explains his time of struggle and waiting to the Christian who waits for the redemption of Christ.

With thanks to Westminister John Knox Press, we are pleased to offer God Is in the Manger as our December Free Audiobook of the Month!

Jane Eyre or Katniss?

What do our heroines say about our culture?

Heroines Past and Present is the topic of discussion at A Good Story is Hard to Find.

Joseph Susanka and two other guests (including my own daughter Rose) join Scott and me for our first "topic" discussion.

2013 Books Chosen for Elements of Faith Book Club

Hey, it isn't every faith-based book club that includes The Hobbit and Unholy Night on the reading list. It's just one of the reasons I love this group!

January: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

February: Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales

March: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

April: Yours is the Church by Mike Aquilina

May: The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey

June: The Dumb Ox by G.K. Chesterton

July: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (note: this is one of our big books and we encourage beginning reading several months before we will discuss it)

August: Joan of Arc by Mark Twain

September: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

October: Confessions by St. Augustine (note: another of our big books which we encourage spending several months reading before discussion)

November: Unholy Night by Seth Grahame-Smith

Classic Tales audiobook sale: buy one, get one free

For a limited time, buy one of our most popular titles priced at $9.99, and get another absolutely free! This includes not only favorites like She, A History of Adventure, Captain Blood and The Phantom of the Opera, but also many new titles like Hamlet, The 39 Steps and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. This offer is available for a limited time only, so click the text link below and start saving!

Buy One, Get One Free!

If you aren't downloading The Classic Tales podcast already then you need to begin doing so. B.J. Harrison is a superb narrator. He doesn't leave his recordings up forever though. At some point, they get moved to his store and sold as audiobooks.

Harrison also sells audiobooks that he's recorded aside from the podcast, though a few of these sale items have appeared on Classic Tales.

At a price of $10 per book they are a good deal. A two-for-one sale is real value. Be sure to check it out.

4 Things Science Fiction Needs to Bring Back

Beginning with optimism.

A great list from Cracked.com.

Keep in mind that this is Cracked and they will use offensive language. Count on it.

Still, it is a great list and perhaps the reason why I still enjoy listening to old science fiction from LibriVox. It's usually got those four things.

It's the end of the world. Who do you choose? The Dark Man or Mother Abigail?

Scott and I discuss that classic tale of good versus evil, The Stand by Stephen King, at A Good Story is Hard to Find.

Free Jack Vance ebook!

Jack Vance is not only a great sf writer, but a great American writer. He started out writing fairly standard pulp adventure sf (albeit very clever and well-written pulp), but over the years, his eccentric writing style, biting view of human nature, humor, and skill at building strange new worlds became more and more important, although they are still allied closely with pulp adventure and tons of plot in a small space. He never loves his sentences more than the whole. He’s a lot like Cabell, if Cabell had written better women and had had more interest in sf and sense of wonder.

Cabell would never have written a character saying, “I would offer congratulations were it not for this tentacle gripping my leg.”

[...]

Anyway, his friends and relatives have made an ebook of The Chasch (aka City of the Chasch) available for free, till the end of August. What a deal! It is part of the thrilling ‘Tschai’ or ‘Planet of Adventure’ series, in which an interstellar scout investigating an old distress call shipwrecks in the middle of an undeveloped planet full of alien (and alien human) cultures, and has to get to the spaceport. It turns out that all of the planet’s alien species (native and not) have variously enslaved or formed odd relationships with the descendants of humans that landed on the planet, so it’s not easy to get around. The weird societies which have resulted, and how the main character disrupts them by his actions, are pretty much the star of the show. There are four books in the series. ...

Maureen from Aliens in This World sums up why you want to try this book. (She says more about the author and his work so do click through.) Pick up the ebook at Jack Vance's site. You do have to register and log in, but it is simple.

Free Audiobooks: "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" and "A Tale of Two Cities"

Every week SYNC gives away a contemporary book paired thematically somehow with a classic novel. This is directed at YA readers to get them to listen to a book if they won't pick one up to actually read.

What is SYNC?

• SYNC is the audiobook publishers’ and AudioFile Magazine’s commitment to introducing the listening experience to the young adult audience.

• SYNC will give away 2 FREE audiobook downloads each week for 10 weeks this summer.

• The weekly SYNC audiobook pairings will offer a popular Young Adult title and a related Classic.

• SYNC hooks readers by introducing a free download of a Young Adult “first in series” or prolific author.

• SYNC demonstrates that Required Reading can be completed by listening.

YA or not, they've featured some interesting books. I've been tempted. However, until this week none of the books have tempted me enough to make me fight my way through the jungle of the specialized download software needed to get the files ... Overdrive Media Console.

However, I love Simon Preeble who lured me through "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" when I simply couldn't get into the printed page. He narrates "A Tale of Two Cities" which is a book I adore.

Also, I have had "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" on my To Read list since trying a sample on my Kindle.

So both those made it worth picking up the machete and venturing into the jungle. It wasn't easy. It certainly wasn't "organic" and I had to feel my way, but I finally got that darned software to download mp3 files. Those files did pop right into iTunes when I clicked them, so it was all worth it in the end.

These stories will be available for a week so drop by SYNC and check it out!

Free or Cheap Classics "Classes" on the Internet

I must say that I have never been so interested in so many truly classic books as right now. My interest has been piqued by various bloggers and podcasters whose discussions are so interesting that I swim in the wake of their enthusiasm. With such guides as these, I am diving deep into the classics and having a grand time.

These are all underway but it is easy to track back and start at the beginning:

The Flannery O'Connor Summer Reading Club  - blog
For a simple reader like me, some help is necessary to understand O'Connor's short stories. The reading club has been looking at a different short story each week and I have been enjoying it immensely. Blogger and club host Jonathan Rogers has a book about O'Connor coming out soon and, based on this, it is definitely worth reading.

The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot  - blog
I've always been so intimidated by this poem. Its reputation looms large for complexity. Plus, I'm not that into poetry. However, Melanie Bettinelli loves poetry, Eliot, and this poem. She's going through it a few lines at a time which has been very good for helping me digest it. Oddly enough, often my personal feelings about the lines lead to completely different interpretations of Bettinelli's but that is all to the good in this case. Because it means I'm engaged with the poem and her discussion is making me think about it more than I would just sitting down and reading it through.

The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer - podcast
I've also always been intimidated by Chaucer. (Yes, if it is an old classic then I'm intimidated ... let's not discuss Beowulf, please). However, I am now going to get it spoon-fed with some of the best help possible ... from Heather Ordover at Craft Lit.

If you support the Craftlit podcast by subscribing for $5/month, then Heather gives all sorts of delightful goodies which are CraftLit Originals. One is that her husband, Andrew, is narrating his book Cool for Cats, and a wonderful narrator he is of this mystery which I much enjoyed. The other is that she is offering Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Having just gone through the introductory episode I can say that my anxiety is eased already. Heather is an experienced teacher who truly loves Chaucer and she's recruited a fantastic reader. She is also offering an enhanced version which will have the text, images from that time and much more.

CLARIFICATION: you must subscribe to receive the Chaucer podcast. Here is the link to Heather's explanation and her PayPal spot.

The Odyssey - podcast
Jesse and Scott at SFFaudio have been working their way through The Odyssey four chapters at a time. They're close to the end, but that doesn't mean you can't catch up. I've been reading along in time to their discussions and it has been a good way to experience the entire thing.

Classic Fantasy and Horror Authors - blog
Kindle Review is a great place to find free and discounted Kindle books. There is a list every day, sorted by category. Recently, there has been an extra bonus for those of us who like fantasy and horror. Using the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series as a guide, there has been a series of posts briefly covering various authors and linking to some of their major works that are free for the Kindle. The Ballantine series, which began in 1969, showcased fantasy and horror writers who had long been long out-of-print or only published in pulp magazines such as Weird Tales.

I know, these aren't the true classics such as the other listings, but they are classics in their own right and difficult to find sometimes.

Eternal Rest Grant Unto Ray Bradbury, O Lord

The father hesitated only a moment. He felt the vague pain in his chest. If I run, he thought, what will happen? Is Death important? No. Everything that happens before Death is what counts. And we've done fine tonight. Even Death can't spoil it.

Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes

He seemed timeless somehow, that grand old man of science fiction. But of course no one is timeless and Ray Bradbury died today at age 91.

Somehow it seems appropriate that he died when summer is just beginning to bloom. One of the memories that showed up repeatedly in his stories and novels was that of Midwest neighborhoods with Victorian houses, green lawns, and lemonade sipped by genteel gentlefolk. Reading that you'd never know that his forte was a blend of science fiction and fantasy, often mixed with horror, written in almost lyrical style.

So many of his stories are part of my mental reading landscape. The Veldt, Usher II, The Halloween Tree, The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, and Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Recently I was finishing off a gift certificate and splurged by adding my own money to pick up The Stories of Ray Bradbury. I thought that I'd recognize many of the 100 stories in this anthology. As I have leisurely dipped in, here and there, I've been surprised that I do not recognize them and that many show a depth that resonates far beyond science fiction. Which, as I think of it, should not surprise me at all.

Bradbury was not only prolific but he is one of those gifted souls who raised his chosen genre far above the ordinary level. Not only did he entertain, but he taught us lessons for the heart. I also loved his optimistic spirit and his no nonsense grounding. He understood what was real, what was not, and what mattered.

We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.

Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

I am thankful that his stories, imagination, and humanity have enriched my life so well.

Eternal rest grant unto Ray Bradbury, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.