Top picks from audio books

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Take a look. You. Take a look.

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Hello and welcome to here. This this is the Vision Australia Library Program, talking about books in the Vision Australia Library collection. And today we've got a terrific sample of audio books for you to listen to, and I do hope you enjoy today's show. How would you like to have your say in what we do on Vision Australia Radio? Plus the chance to win a $100 gift card. Our annual listener survey is on now, so we'd like to know what do you like about our radio service? Where are you tuning in from? We're from around Australia. Are you listening from and how are you listening? Are you listening on the radio? Do you listen to podcasts and do you have a favourite program? Help shape the future of the Vision Australia Radio and gain the chance to win one of five $100 Coles gift cards. If you would like to take part, visit RVA Radio. Org that's RVA radio. Org. And click on the home page link to take part. The survey closes October the 1st, so only a couple of more weeks to go, so don't delay. We are really, really interested and it's always fascinating hearing people's feedback. It's completely anonymous as well. You don't have your name attached to the feedback unless you particularly want to. I know that we talk a lot about the reader feedback on Vision Australia radio and I do a lot in here this as well. And that's simply because we are community driven. We really need your feedback to be able to know that we're performing in the right way and giving you the right information and always having our ears open to what our listeners tell us. So please, if you have the time, don't hesitate to give us some feedback on the Vision Australia Radio survey. Once again, go to VA radio. Org that's RVA Radio. Org. Click on the home page link to take part. On last week's program, we had an interview with the wonderful author Tracy Chevalier and a couple of samples of her books. That interview was from back in 2018 when Tracy was out here for the Melbourne Writers Festival. But we do have other books in the collection by Tracy Chevalier, who has such a beautiful way of writing. And this is a book I particularly enjoyed. It's called The Last Runaway Honor. Bright is a sheltered Quaker who has rarely ventured out of 1850s Dorset when she impulsively emigrates to America, opposed the slavery that defines and divides the country. She finds her principles tested to the limit when a runaway slave appears at the farm of her new family. In this tough, unsentimental place where whiskey bottles sit alongside quilts, honor befriends two spirited women who will teach you how to turn ideas into actions. Let's hear a sample of the Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier. It's narrated by Laurel Lythgoe.

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She could not go back. When Honor Brite abruptly announced to her family that she would accompany her sister, Grace to America when she sorted through her belongings, keeping only the most necessary when she gave away all of her quilts, when she said goodbye to her uncles and aunts and kissed her cousins and nieces and nephews when she got into the coach that would take them from Bridport. When she and Grace linked arms and walked up the gangplank at Bristol, she did all of these things with the unspoken thought I can always come back. Layered beneath those words, however, was the suspicion that the moment her feet left English soil honors life would be permanently altered. At least the idea of returning drew the sting from her actions in the weeks leading up to their departure, like the pinch of sugar secretly added to a sauce to tame its acid. It allowed her to remain calm and not cry, as her friend Biddy did when Honor gave her the quilt she had just finished. A patchwork of brown, yellow and cream diamonds pieced into an eight point star of Bethlehem, then quilted with harps and the running feather border she was known for. The community had given her a signature quilt, each square made and signed by a different friend or family member, and there was not room for both quilts in her trunk. The signature quilt was not so well made as her own, but of course she must take it. Tis best left with thee to remember me by, she insisted as her weeping friend tried to push the Star of Bethlehem Quilt back at her. I will make more quilts in Ohio.

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And that was the last runaway by Tracy Chevalier. And that was narrated by Laurel Lefcourt, who's a brilliant narrator, does a lot of narrating for Audible.com. And that book goes for eight hours and 50 minutes. Other books by Tracy Chevalier that weren't mentioned in last week's program are Reader I Married Him, which is a collection of short stories celebrating Charlotte Bronte, stemming from the immortal words from Jane Eyre. There's 21 stories in that reader. I married him book. It's not only Tracy Chevalier that has contributed to that. She has brought together the finest voices in fiction today. There's also Burning Bright, and that's Jim Kellaway and his family feel far from home. The Kellaway struggle to find their place in the tumultuous London City alive, with repercussions from the blood splattered French Revolution at the edge of the orchard set in Ohio, 1838, a single thread set after the losses of the First World War. And as she mentioned in her interview, she usually picks a particular piece and weaves a story around that. So in the last runaway quilting, women's quilting circles has a symbolic resonance within the plot. But her understanding of human nature and being able to speak in voices that are so real is a wonderful talent that she has. I hope there's many more books to come from. Tracy Chevalier. The next book is by Australian author Vicki Patricia's. It's called The Unbeliever. And even small Towns Have Their Share of Secrets. When senior detective Antiguan Pollard moves to the coastal town of Deception Bay, she is still in shock and grief. Back in Melbourne, one of her cases had gone catastrophically wrong and to escape the guilt and the haunting memories, she'd requested a transfer to the quiet town she'd grown up in. But there are some things you can't run From A month into her new life, she is targeted by a would be rapist at the pub and realises why there have been no convictions following a spate of similar sexual attacks in the surrounding district. The male witnesses in the pub back her attacker and even her boss doesn't believe her. Hers is the Firstrillioneported case in Deception Bay, but soon there are more. Let's hear a sample of the Unbeliever by Vicki Petrakis. It's narrated by Maria and Jellicoe.

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Sally's husband, Herb was ready at dawn for the round up. He headed outside while she got started in the kitchen, the whiny sound of his dirt bike, followed by the thunder of small hooves, always brought her to the veranda. The breeze was blowing inland and she could smell the sea. Their farm bordered a national park that boasted a convergence of cliffs known as the Devil's Corner. Jagged rocks and a current that swirled and writhed beneath a deceptively calm surface. Over the years, the area had snared many a fishing boat, dragging strong men to early graves. But for Sally and Herb, the rugged beauty of the sweeping Deception bay coastline was often ignored for more pressing duties like shape. The paddocks were golden at this time of morning in early spring, like scurrying children in fleecy pyjamas. The sheep moved in waves, reined in by herb on the bike and the dogs circling the herd in a frenzy of barking. Sally straightened her apron and went back inside. She had the shearer's breakfast to finish. Half an hour later, Sally was covering a baking dish of scrambled eggs when the bang of the wire door announced Herb. Bloody millet hasn't turned up again. Will you get on the phone and see where he is? Sally sighed. She had little time for Brett Millard. Unreliable shearers were the worst. When he turned up, Brett could match the other blokes sheep for sheep. But it fell to Sally to chase him when he was a no show.

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That was a sample of the unbeliever by Vicki Petraeus. Now all spell her name. Vicki is v double chi v double chi. Petraeus is Petra. Itis Petra itis. And that book goes for nearly ten hours. So nine hours and 56 minutes to be precise. And a big congratulations to Vicki. This book was released or this novel in 2022. It was shortlisted for the best debut crime fiction in the Davitt Awards for 2023. And it was the overall Reader's Choice Winner Award at the David Awards for this year, published by Alan and Anwen. Vicky is no stranger to crime. She's best known for her true crime books, including the best selling book The Frankston Murders, about serial killer Paul DNA, which we don't have in the library. She also wrote another book called The Phillip Island Murder. In her true crime books, Vicky has covered everything from police dogs to lawyer X, the Russell Street bombing and sex crimes. Her expertise lies in interviewing police and victims to create compelling narratives. Her two hugely successful podcast series with case file presents have topped charts around the world and have been downloaded millions of times. So the unbelievable is her first work of fiction, but comes with a mountain of research and experience behind her. She runs creative writing workshops and short courses in schools and local libraries. Another Australian writer to congratulate is Omar Sacra for Son of Sin, and this is his longlisted for the Indie Book Awards for 2023. It's in the long list for debut fiction An estranged father, an abused and abusive mother, an army of relatives, a tapestry of violence woven across generations and geographies from Turkey to Lebanon to western Sydney. This is the legacy legacy left to Jamal Smith, a young queer Muslim trying to escape a past in which memory and rumour trace ugly shapes in the dark when every thread in life constricts instead of connects. How do you find a way to breathe? Torn between faith and fear, gossip and gospel, family and friendship, Jamal must find and test the limits of love. Let's hear a sample of Sun of Sin by Omar Sarker. It's narrated by Hasan Qamar.

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He was beyond saving, and still he chose to pray. The choreography of faith was new to him, although witnessed a million times as numerous as birds in the sky. This was the first time he'd tried to fly alone. Jamal raised his hands to his temple as if laying on a crown. God is greater folded his arms right hand over the left. I seek refuge in Allah from the Outcast Devil. He silently recited the fatiha, knowing the Arabic sounds by rote, a music without meaning. He was praying in his auntie's bedroom, which everyone knew was off limits and everyone used when they wanted privacy. The door opened and his baby cousin Amani poked her head in goggling. Jamal put his eyes back to the ground. The red prayer mat under his feet, trying to focus. It wasn't meant to look up at The door was still open and he was starting to sweat. He had to get this right. It was Laylat Alcazar the night of power, on which the Archangel Gabriel first revealed the Koran to the Prophet Muhammad with the word read. On this night, the angels would descend to the earth. Prayers would be heard. Sins erased from their records. This one night in Ramadan was worth a thousand months. A lifetime.

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That was Son of Sin by Omar Sakar and Omar is spelled Omar Sarkar is Sakr. Sakr. That book goes for 8.5 hours. Omar Saka has won the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry in 2020 for his collection The Lost Arabs. But this is his first major work of fiction. Mark Rubbo in the Readings Bookstore blog finishes his review with. We read fiction for many reasons, but one of the great pleasures for me is gaining an insight into worlds and feelings that are unknown to me. This is a marvelous book that will speak to many people from different marginalized communities directly. But in showing us a common humanity, Saka's impressive novel also gives many other readers an insight into experiences unfamiliar to them. And that is one of the major, wonderful things about reading fiction from all sorts of people's perspectives. So that was Son of Sin by Omar Sakr. And now to another poetry writer, an award winning poetry writer who has turned their hand to writing a novel. And this novel, Pearl, has been a long listed for the Booker Prize for 2023. The author is Shan Hughes. Marianne is eight years old when her mother goes missing, left behind with her baby brother and grieving father in a ramshackle house on the edge of a small village, she clings to the fragmented memories of her mother's love, the smell of fresh herbs, the games they played and the songs and stories of her childhood. As time passes and those around her seem to move on, Marianne struggles to adjust, fixated on her mother's disappearance and the secrets she's sure her father is keeping from her. Discovering a medieval poem called Pearl and Trusting in its promise of consolation, Marianne sets out to make a visual illustration of it, a task that she returns to over and over, but somehow never manages to complete. Tormented by an unmarked gravestone in an abandoned chapel and the tidal pool of a river in rainfall, her childhood home begins to crumble as the past leads her down a path of self destruction. Let's hear a sample of Pearl by Shan Hughes. It's narrated by Laura Bryden.

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At the end of every summer, I take Suzanna back to my home village for a sort of carnival called the Wakes. There's a fancy dress parade and a few fairground rides. A whole ox is roasted on a spit in the playing field. When I was a child, there was a thing called the pram race. The rules of the race were a team of two men to push a pram to the next village and back one running, one in the pram. They both had to drink a pint of beer at every pub along the way. Each two man team dressed as mother and baby, one of them in a grotesque old nightie filled with balloon breasts, with smeared on lipstick and hair in curlers, the other in a bib bonnet and bath towel nappy. When they set off the giant baby would be in the pram, pushed by the man in curlers and lipstick. But to stand any chance of winning the needed to take it in turns. So by the first corner they would swap over the baby, leaping out of the pram, the mother leaping in, balloons popping nappies unravelling, and the bearded baby would take his turn, pushing the bearded mother. There's no pram race now. The roads are too dangerous. So the police stopped it. The Wakes has been going on here for a long time. It started off as rush bearing, and that still happens. Back when the churches had floors made of rushes, this was the time of year when they took the old floors out and brought in fresh ones. What we do now is we dress our family graves in rushes halfway down, ducking turn lane. We pull into a gateway behind the old clay pigeon shoot to find some rushes in one of the pits.

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That was Pearl by Shan Hues. Shan is spelled cyan. That's cyan hues is hug his hug his. And that book is a shortish one that goes for six hours and 40 minutes. And I'm reading here off the Indigo Press, an independent publisher website. Sian Hughes is a Welsh writer who grew up in a small village in Cheshire where the story of Pearl is set, and she returned to live there after her mother's death. She borrowed from the medieval poem Pearl to write this story, set in an old house that she cycled past every day as a child. It's a fairly recent novel I'm reading here from The Guardian. This is from Friday, the 25th of August 2023, a review by Barney Norris in The Guardian. He writes, as an attempt to portray harmful memory and the damage done by experiencing loss at a formative age. Pearl The novel is highly successful, and this book was released in Australia by the University of Queensland Press in in print. It's just wonderful to have it in the library collection. We're going to stick with the nominated, at least for awards books. This book is called History of Wolves. It's by Emily Friedland. Linda has an idiosyncratic home life. Her parents live in abandoned commune cabins in northern Minnesota and are hanging on to the last vestiges of a faded counterculture world. Her understanding of the world comes from her observations at school and from watching the seemingly ordinary life of a family she babysits for. As Linda insinuates herself into the family's orbit, she realizes they are hiding something. And this book was shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker Prize. Let's hear a sample of this book, The History of Wolves, by Emily Friedland. It's narrated by Kaitlin Thorburn.

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Mr. Adler's replacement was Mr. Grierson, and he arrived a month before Christmas with a deep, otherworldly tan. He wore one gold hoop earring and a brilliant white shirt with pearl buttons. We learned later that he'd come from California, from a private girls school on the sea. No one knew what brought him all the way to northern Minnesota mid-winter. But after the first week of class, he took down Mr. Adler's maps of the Russian Empire and replaced them with a large copies of the US Constitution. He announced he double majored in theater college, which explained why he stood in front of the class one day with his arms outstretched, reciting the whole Declaration of Independence by heart. Not just the soaring parts about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but the needling wretched list of tyrannies against the colonies. I could see how badly he wanted to be liked. What does it mean? Mr. Grierson asked when he got to the part about mutually pledging our sacred honour. The hockey players slept innocently on folded hands. Even the gifted and talented kids were unmoved, clicking their mechanical pencils until the lead protruded obscenely like hospital needles. They jousted each other across the aisles. En garde, they hissed contemptuously. Mr. Grierson sat down on Mr. Adler's desk. He was breathless from his recitation, and I realized in an odd flash, like a two bright light passing over him. He was middle aged. I could see sweat on his face, his pulse pounding under grey neck stubble. People, guys. What does it mean that the rights of man are self evident? Come on. You know this.

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That was the History of Wolves by Emily Friedland. Emily is Emily. Emily Friedland is Friedland for id l u n d And that book goes for eight hours and 45 minutes. Friedland grew up in Minnesota, born in 1979. She's an assistant professor at Cornell University in the Department of English and the History of Wolves. Yes. Was a finalist for the 2017 Man Booker Prize, and she writes a lot of articles for New Orleans Review, South Review, Southwest Review, sorry, Boston Review, History of Wolves was her first novel, and it was actually amplified from being a short story at first from book Browse. She was asked why she wanted to tell the story from Linda, and she says Linda's knowledge of the world is limited because of the remoteness of the place in which she grew up, as well as her unusual history. Linda is watching everything so carefully. She sees more than others in the book, and she's a pretty good judge of people. She observes their smallest actions and gestures, but she knows so little about some of the social conventions that are taken for granted in the wider world from her small counterculture world that she grows up in. And she has a lovely reflection on northern Minnesota, where she grew up. She says Minnesotans are at least the ones I grew up around are weather people. Some of the most intimate and passionate conversations I've had with my family over the years have been about weather, especially now that I live far away from the Midwest and don't share weathers with them anymore. Now let's get a little bit dark and noirish with the first in the Detective Dave Robicheaux series by James Lee Burke. This is called The Neon Rain, and it was published in 2010 when Detective Rebozo fishes a prostitute's corpse from a New Orleans bayou. He finds that no one, not even the law, cares about a dead hooker. Persistence results in his involvement with a drug dealing mafia, and he uncovers a web of corruption that some would kill to protect. Let's hear a sample of the Neon Rain by James Lee Burke. It's narrated by Will Patton.

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The evening sky was streaked with purple, the color of torn plums, and a light rain had started to fall. When I came to the end of the blacktop road to cut through 20 miles of thick, almost impenetrable scrub oak and pine and stopped at the front gate of Angola Penitentiary. The anti capital punishment crowd, priests, nuns in lay clothes, kids from LSU with burning candles cupped in their hands, were praying outside the fence. But another group was there too. A strange combination of frat boys and rednecks drinking beer from Styrofoam coolers filled with cracked ice. They were singing Glow little glow worm and holding signs that read This Bud is for you. Messina and Johnny start your own Sizzler franchise today. I'm Lieutenant Dave Robicheaux, New Orleans Police Department. I said to one of the guards on the gate. I opened my badge for him. Oh, yeah. Lieutenant, I got your name on my clipboard. I'll ride with you up to the block, he said, and got my car. His khaki sleeves were rolled over his sunburned arms, and he had the flat green eyes and heavy facial bones of north Louisiana hill people. He smelled faintly of dried sweat, red man and talcum powder. I don't know which bunch bothers me worse.

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So that was the Neon Rain by James Lee Burke. And that's number one in the Dave Rebus Show series of detective and crime fiction. That book goes for eight hours and 15 minutes. James Lee Burke Three words. James JMS, JMS Lee l e l Double E Last last word. Burke. B u r k e. B u r k e. And I bring up James Lee Burke because his book In the Moon of the Red Ponies is a movie that's about to be released with Robert De Niro and a couple of really great actors In The Moon of the Red Ponies is a Billy Bob Holland novel, which is James Lee Burke's other series, despite being there being at least 22 Dave Rebus novels. And there's not that many in the collection, it's patchy. I can only think the library is gradually getting some James Lee Burke into the library because I remember years ago people used to request his books and we couldn't get them. We could get them as interlibrary loans, but we didn't have them in the collection. So it's good to see that the author growing in in the Vision Australia Library, James Lee Burke, was born in 1936. He is best known for this series, the Robicheaux Series. He's a two time winner of the Edgar Award and he was born in Houston, Texas, grew up on the Texas Louisiana Gulf Coast. His daughter, L'Affaire Burke, is also a writer who writes her own series featuring Samantha Kincaid, who was a district attorney. Her first book in the Samantha Kincaid series is Judgment Calls. So Terrific legal crime fiction by that author. And there's lots and lots of her books. She is also written in conjunction with Mary Higgins Clark, who was phenomenally popular in a series called Under Suspicion. That was James Lee Burke, his first book in the Dave Rebozo series The Neon Rain. Thank you so much for joining us on here this today. I'm Frances Kelland. If you would like to join the library or you'd like to ask the library any questions. If you're a library member, give them a call on 1300 654 656. That's 1300 654 656. Or you can email library at Vision Australia. Org, that's library at Vision Australia. Org. And another mention of just if you've got the time filling out the Vision Australia Radio survey. The survey online takes about 5 to 10 minutes to complete. Or if you'd like to find out how to fill in that survey without going online, you can call one (300) 847-4661. 308 47466. Which is the Vision Australia main calling centre. And they'll be able to guide you through how to fill out any of those survey questions. Have a lovely week and we'll be back next week with more here this.