Inkspell

Inkspell / Cornelia Funke; read by Brendan Fraser.— New York : Listening Library, 2005.

16 sound discs (18 hr., 46 min.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in.

Unabridged edition

Compact discs

English translation of Tintenblut by Anthea Bell

Sequel to: Inkheart

ISBN: 9780307281623

1. Fantasy fiction. 2. Books and reading -- Fiction.

833.914

Desperate to return to his own world, Dustfinger finds a reader, a pale, flabby oaf with a magnificent voice, who’s willing to send him and his apprentice fire-eater Farid there—for a price. But when Farid is left behind, he goes to Meggie in the hopes that she has inherited her father’s gift and can send him after Dustfinger. Because she so wants to see for herself the exotic world that her mother has described to her, she takes them both there and immediately regrets her decision.

In Inkheart characters from the book sprang to life in this world. In its sequel people from this world are transported to the richly imaginative fantasy world of the book. Funke’s characters are vivid and distinctive in both worlds and Fraser’s superb acting ability makes this an excellent realization of her work.

Inkdeath

Inkdeath / Cornelia Funke ; English translation by Anthea Bell ; read by Allan Corduner. -- New York : Listening Library, p2008.

16 sound discs (19 hr., 46 min.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in.

Sequel to: Inkspell

"Final tale in the Inkheart trilogy"--Container.

Unabridged.

Compact discs.

ISBN: 9780739363003

1. Books and reading – Fiction. 2. Death – Fiction. 3. Fantasy fiction.

833.914

In the aftermath of the disastrous attack on the Castle of Night, in a city occupied by hostile forces, Orpheus is struggling to find a way to bring his hero Dustfinger back to life. He hopes that the bookbinder, Silvertongue who was mortally wounded, and so close to death that the White Women, the daughters of death, came to take him, will be able to bring them close to Orpheus. He wants to bargain with them. But Death sets its own conditions for Silvertongue, and they are quite different from the ones that Orpheus so desperately wants.

Allan Corduner’s narration meets the high standard set by Lynn Redgrave’s reading of Inkheart and Brendan Fraser’s reading of Inkspell. Funke’s well-drawn characters give verisimilitude to her fantasy novel set in a fantasy novel. One that can be reached and changed by the most skillful of oral readers. In addition to a marvelous adventure yarn she gives a thoughtful portrait of death and the prods the reader to wonder about the nature of reality.

tttyl

ttyl / Lauren Myracle. -- New York : Amulet Books, 2005, c2004.

209 p. ; 18 cm.

Sequel: ttfn

ISBN: 0810987880 (pbk.)

1. Epistolary fiction. 2. Female friendship – Fiction. 3. Friendship – Fiction. 4. High schools – Fiction. 5. Instant messaging -- Fiction. 6. Interpersonal relations – Fiction. 7. Schools – Fiction.

813.6

Zoe, Maddie, and Angela have been bff since the seventh grade, now as they enter the tenth grade they vow to keep it that way no matter what happens. But a lot does happen in their sophomore year of high school. There are new friends, male and female, that strain and test their friendship. There are also extreme social faux pas that test their individual resiliency and loyalty to one another.

The emotionally exciting and harrowing adventures of adolescent relationships are presented in a series of IM messages between the three girls. There’s plenty of girl talk about clothes, parents, the opposite sex, what someone said. There’re also intimate confidences that are only shared with trusted friends about sex, bodily emissions, confessions of self-doubt and mistakes made. Myracle has very successfully captured this in a well crafted and dramatic story.

Acronyms decoded for IM as a second language speakers:

bff best friends forever

IM Instant Messaging

ttfn ta-ta for now, good-bye

ttyl talk to you later

And here are some other opinions about the book from Round Rock, Texas:

Round Rock chief removes contested book from middle schools
Author defends book pulled from middle schools in Round Rock district

The Invasion of the Body Snatchers

The Invasion of the body snatchers / Jack Finney; read by Kristoffer Tabori.-- [Ashland, Or.] : Blackstone Audio ; [Boulder, Colo. : Made available electronically by] NetLibrary, 2007

1 sound file : digital, wma file (95808 KB) : (6 hr., 40 min.)

ISBN: 9781433283901 (electronic audio bk.)

1. Extraterrestrial beings -- Fiction. 2. Horror fiction. 3. Human-alien encounters -- Fiction. 4. Mill Valley (Calif.) -- Fiction. 5. Science fiction.

813.54

There’s something rotten in Mill Valley and Dr. Miles Bennell and his girlfriend Becky are going to find out what it is. People are convinced that their relatives and friends are not really their relatives and friends, even though they speak, act, and look exactly like them. At first it’s just a few, and then more and more, and then suddenly everyone decides that they were wrong and everything is all right now. But the clever reader knows (because he or she has read the title of the book) that it’s really not all right; it’s really all wrong and Miles and Becky are in big trouble unless they get out of town fast.

This is a pretty good thriller. Reader Kristoffer Tabori gives Miles a tired and tense voice that helps convey the character’s sudden and vacillating alterations from skeptical disbelief to horrified realization that everyone’s about to be replaced by a pod person from outer space. Although set in 1976, the book has more of the atmosphere of small-town America in 1955, the year of its publication, than the year of the bicentennial. The 1956 film version of the book is justifiably famous, but be prepared for a different ending in the original. Interestingly, reader Tabori is the son of that film’s director Don Siegel.

Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 / Ray Bradbury ; read by Christopher Hurt.— [Ashland] : Blackstone Audiobooks, 2005.

1 audio file (73998 KB) : (5 hr., 9 min.)

Unabridged

Downloadable audio file

Title from title screen

Requires OverDrive Media Console

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

ISBN: 9780786153107 (sound recording : OverDrive Audio Book)

1. Book burning -- Fiction. 2. Censorship -- Fiction. 3. Political fiction. 4. Science fiction.

813.54

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, and he enjoys his job. But he has a secret dread hidden in the ventilation ducts above his ceiling. Lately he thinks that his hands are betraying him. They keep snatching and hiding the things he’s supposed to burn. One day he encounters an eccentric teenaged girl on the way home from work. What she says begins to worry him. He’s not sure why. But things are not right. His wife has attempted suicide several times, but she doesn’t want to talk to him about it. She does not want to believe that it happened. She just wants to watch “The Family” on the wall-sized television. She just wants to be happy and normal.

Listening to this books decades after first reading it, I was surprised by how good the writing is and how well Bradbury’s 1953 vision of the future has stood the test of time. What he had to say then is as relevant now as it was in the midst of the McCarthy era and the beginning of television. Montag’s turbulent and painful transformation from book burner to truth seeker is well wrought by both author and reader.

This edition includes an afterword by the author in which he describes the alternative versions of the book including Francois Truffaut’s 1966 film and his own stage adaptation, and his emphatic reasons why he has not altered the novel to fit current sensibilities.

The Texas City Disaster

The Texas City disaster / by Linda Scher; consultant, Archie P. McDonald.— New York : Bearport Pub. Co., c2007.

32 p. : ill. (some col.), col. maps ; 26 cm.

(Code red)

Includes bibliography, index and glossary

Audience: Grades 4-6.

ISBN: 9781597163637 (lib. bdg.)

1. Disasters -- Texas -- Texas City -- History -- 20th century. 2. Explosions -- Texas -- Texas City -- History -- 20th century. 3. Fires -- Texas -- Texas City -- History -- 20th century. 4. Grandcamp (Ship) -- Explosion, 1947. 5. High Flyer (Ship) -- Explosion, 1947. 6. Texas City (Tex.) -- History -- 20th century.

976.4139063

This is an excellent short book about the explosions and fire that devastated the port of Texas City, Texas on April 16-17, 1947, “the worst industrial accident in United States history.” Smoldering fertilizer being loaded for export caught one ship on fire. While firefighters were attempting to extinguish the flame, it exploded. The shock wave downed two overhead aircraft and triggering a fifteen-foot tidal wave. Flaming debris set a chemical plant ablaze. The following afternoon another freighter caught fire and exploded. By the time it was over 550 people were dead and 3,500 injured.

While written in a simple and direct style for beginning readers the book vividly covers the facts. The illustrations are well selected, and the book’s layout is superb.

Doctor Who : The Faceless Ones

Doctor Who : The Faceless Ones.— [Bath:] BBC Audiobooks, 2005, ©2002.—

1 audio file (34791 KB) : (2 hr., 25 min.)
(Doctor Who (Television program : 1963-1989))
Downloadable audio file.
Title from title screen
Cast: Patrick Troughton (the Doctor), Frazer Hines (narrator, Jamie), Michael Craze (Ben Jackson), Anneke Wills (Polly), Pauline Collins (Samantha Briggs)
Originally published as a set of Compact Discs by the BBC in 2002, this edition is an audio version based on the television serial “The Faceless Ones,” first broadcast as part of the BBC television series “Doctor Who” between April 8 and May 13, 1967. The script for the serial is by David Ellis and Malcolm Hulke. This audio version incorporates parts of the television soundtrack with additional narration.
Requires OverDrive Media Console
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
ISBN: 9781405696593

1. Alien abduction--Drama. 2. Doctor Who (Fictitious character) -- Drama. 3. Science fiction radio programs. 4. Science fiction television programs.

791.447

The Doctor and his three human companions land in the middle of a Gatwick Airport runway in 1966. After dodging an incoming flight they run off to the terminal only to discover that, "Inspector Gascoigne was murdered with a ray gun. A weapon that has not yet been developed on this Earth!" And that’s not all, there are some nefarious aliens skulking about the airport, and running a body-snatching scam in the guise of a charter airline (cleverly called Chameleon Tours) offering bargain priced tours to young people. Tours from which they never return.

The narration helps fill in for the loss of visual images in this adaptation of a television series to an audio only drama. Since most of the original TV version is now lost, this makes this version a vital one for obsessive fans, and a pleasant science fiction radio drama for others.