Episode Notes

We review our first rom-com. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

About the book:

Gemma Jacobs has life figured out. She’s upbeat, positive to a fault, and the master of her own destiny. She has a wonderful career in social media marketing, lives in a trendy apartment with her fiancé Josh Lewenthal, and is pregnant with their much-loved baby. Her life is wonderful. Absolutely perfect. Except... What really comes after the happily ever after? Josh Lewenthal is laid-back, fun-loving, and always finds the humor in life. He writes a wildly successful web-comic series and can’t wait to marry Gemma—the woman of his dreams. His life is amazing. Terrific. Except... What happens when everything changes? Suddenly Josh and Gemma’s lives are turned upside down, and their love and their future together are at risk. They realize their happily ever after isn’t the end; it’s just the beginning—and now they have to fight for it. They confront a devastating separation, the return of world-infamous Ian Fortune, and the question of whether or not their love can truly survive when everyone says it’s already gone.

It is narrated by Erin Mallon

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Episode Notes

No new episode this week. We're re-uploading an episode from the archives. Unfortunate Stars: A Wartime Confession by Susan Lanigan.

This episode was brought to you by Alexandra Park BJJ - visit their website to book your free trial class. https://www.alexandraparkbjj.co.uk/

About the book:

Thanks to Susan for the ARC. You can learn more about her books here: https://susanlanigan.com/ About the book: Czechoslovakia, 1938 - Friedrich Pflommer, a married man with two children, has fallen hopelessly in love with the most unsuitable person possible - the young, volatile Kai, an exchange student living under his own roof. As Nazi forces gather on the border, Friedrich is playing a high-stakes game and risks losing everything. France, 1915 - as a young lieutenant in wartime, Friedrich is badly injured during a failed counterattack, but a meeting with an Englishman during battle changes everything. Unfortunate Stars is a short story of romantic love and deep friendship between men, of what it is to surrender to our own truth, and to live it even in the hardest of circumstances. It is narrated by Greg Patmore Support Audiobookish by contributing to their Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/audiobookish Find out more at https://audiobookish.pinecast.co This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-8a93af for 40% off for 4 months, and support Audiobookish.

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This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-8a93af for 40% off for 4 months, and support Audiobookish.

Episode Notes

We discuss Nubia: The Awakening By Omar Epps and Clarence A. Haynes as read by Amir Abdullah, Emana Rachelle, and Jeorge Bennett Watson.

A powerful saga of three teens, the children of refugees from a fallen African utopia, who must navigate their newfound powers in a climate-ravaged New York City. For Zuberi, Uzochi, and Lencho, Nubia is a mystery. Before they were born, a massive storm destroyed their ancestral homeland, forcing their families to flee across the ocean to New York City. Nubia, a utopic island nation off the coast of West Africa, was no more, and their parents’ sorrow was too deep for them to share much of their history beyond the folklore.

But New York, ravaged by climate change and class division, is far from a safe haven for refugees, and Nubians live as outcasts, struggling to survive in the constantly flooding lower half of Manhattan, while the rich thrive in the tech-driven sky city known as the Up High.

To many, being Nubian means you’re fated for a life plagued by difficulties and disrespect. But Zuberi, Uzochi, and Lencho are beginning to feel there might be more. Something within them is changing, giving each of them extraordinary powers. Extraordinary and terrifying powers that seem to be tied to the secrets their parents have kept from them.

And there are people Up High watching, eager to do anything they can to become even more powerful than they already are. Now Zuberi, Uzochi, and Lencho will be faced with the choice—do they use their inheritance to lift their people, or to leave them behind? The fate of their city, and their people, hangs in the balance.

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Episode Notes

We discuss The Timewaster Letters Compendium by Robin Cooper (aka Robert Popper) as read by Robert Popper, Dawn French, Peter Serafinowicz, and Jonathan Keeble.

The massive best-selling Timewaster Letters books featured the wonderfully silly letters of Robin Cooper (a.k.a. Friday Night Dinner creator Robert Popper) in which he shared his madcap ideas - and even madcapper inventions - with everyone from the British Halibut Association to the Peanut Council. The resulting replies, as well as Cooper’s replies-to-these-replies, had a nation in hysterics.  

Letter-writing was never the same again.... 

And now, exactly 15 years, 5 months and 26 days after the first Timewaster Letters book hit our shelves, you can listen to these hilarious letters, as they’re brought to life in this Audible exclusive by comedy giants Dawn French, Peter Serafinowicz and Robert Popper.

The Timewaster Letters Compendium brings together The Timewaster Letters and Return of the Timewaster Letters along with exclusive audio content. There’s a new Introduction by Popper, a chat with Serafinowicz reflecting on the 20 years since Popper sent off his first fateful letter. Plus, a world exclusive - The Cement Murder Mystery, the first thriller story penned by Robin Cooper himself and read by Jonathan Keeble. We don’t want to make promises, but it might also be the worst-written story of all time.

You’ll also get to hear a selection of Popper’s world-famous prank phone calls, in which he poses as the hapless and hopeless Robin Cooper. 

Robert Popper is a writer, producer and performer, best known for creating the Channel 4 smash hit comedy_ Friday Night Dinner_, as well as the award-winning spoof BBC2 science show Look Around You. He has also worked on many of Britain’s top comedy shows including Peep Show, The Inbetweeners, The IT Crowd and Stath Lets Flats, as well as writing on South Park. 

This episode was brought to you by Alexandra Park BJJ - visit their website to book your free trial class. https://www.alexandraparkbjj.co.uk/

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Episode Notes

We discuss The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak as read by Daphne Kouma and Amira Ghazalla.

Two teenagers, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, meet at a taverna on the island they both call home. The taverna is the only place that Kostas and Defne can meet in secret, hidden beneath the blackened beams from which hang garlands of garlic and chilli peppers, creeping honeysuckle, and in the centre, growing through a cavity in the roof, a fig tree. The fig tree witnesses their hushed, happy meetings; their silent, surreptitious departures. The fig tree is there, too, when war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to ashes and rubble, when the teenagers vanish. Decades later, Kostas returns - a botanist, looking for native species - looking, really, for Defne. The two lovers return to the taverna to take a clipping from the fig tree and smuggle it into their suitcase, bound for London. Years later, the fig tree in the garden is their daughter Ada's only knowledge of a home she has never visited, as she seeks to untangle years of secrets and silence, and find her place in the world.

Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize 2022, A Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick, A top 10 Sunday Times best seller. Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award 2021.

This episode was brought to you by Alexandra Park BJJ - visit their website to book your free trial class. https://www.alexandraparkbjj.co.uk/

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Episode Notes

We chat with Tharusha Gunawardena of Two Medics Podcast about his favourite audiobooks.

Find out more about the Two Medics Podcast here: https://www.twomedics.com/ or support them via https://www.patreon.com/twomedics

You can find Tharusha on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/TharushaGunawa4

This episode is brought to you by Alexandra Park BJJ. To book your free trial class email: [email protected] or visit their website www.alexandraparkbjj.co.uk

Support Audiobookish by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/audiobookish

Find out more at https://audiobookish.pinecast.co

This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-8a93af for 40% off for 4 months, and support Audiobookish.

Episode Notes

We discuss Bob Mortimer's autobiography And Away... as read by Bob Mortimer.

Bob Mortimer’s life was trundling along happily until suddenly in 2015 he was diagnosed with a heart condition that required immediate surgery and forced him to cancel an upcoming tour. The episode unnerved him, but forced him to reflect on his life so far. This is the framework for his hilarious and moving memoir, And Away… Although his childhood in Middlesbrough was normal on the surface, it was tinged by the loss of his dad, and his own various misadventures (now infamous from his appearances on Would I Lie to You?), from burning down the family home to starting a short-lived punk band called Dog Dirt. As an adult, he trained as a solicitor and moved to London. Though he was doing pretty well (the South London Press once crowned him ‘The Cockroach King’ after a successful verdict), a chance encounter in a pub in the 1980s with a young comedian going by the name Vic Reeves set his life on a different track. And now, six years on, the heart condition that once threatened his career has instead led to new success on BBC2’s Gone Fishing. Warm, profound, and irrepressibly funny, And Away… is Bob’s full life story (with a few lies thrown in for good measure.)  

Thanks for listening. If you have any comments or recommendations, email us at [email protected]

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Episode Notes

We're back! We discuss what we have been listening to while we've been away and Einstein the Penguin by Iona Rangeley as narrated by Miriam Margolyes.

When the Stewarts spend a sunny, frosty December day at London Zoo, they’re enchanted by one small penguin. At the delight of young Imogen and Arthur, Mrs Stewart insists the penguin “must come and stay with them whenever he likes.” But not one Stewart expects the penguin to turn up at their door that evening, rucksack labelled “Einstein” on his back… The family’s new feathered friend helps Arthur to come out of his shell and makes massive demands on Imogen’s amateur sleuthing. But together, they must find out why Einstein came to them, and they must keep away from the mysterious white-coat man. And Einstein can’t stay forever, can he…? 

Thanks for listening. If you have any comments or recommendations, email us at [email protected]

You can sign up for a beginner's martial arts course at Alexandra Park BJJ here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/martials-arts-course-for-beginners-bjj-brazilian-jiu-jitsu-tickets-436132041677

Support Audiobookish by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/audiobookish

Find out more at https://audiobookish.pinecast.co

This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-8a93af for 40% off for 4 months, and support Audiobookish.

Episode Notes

We chat with the co-founder of XigXag Kelli Fairbrother about their favourite audiobooks and the future of storytelling.

Head over to https://xigxag.co.uk/ to find out more about the app and to start buying x-books.

About XigXag:

Xigxag, wants everyone to enjoy more books. Co-founders Mark and Kelli met in 2017 as colleagues and started XigXag in 2019 with the aim of revolutionising reading.

Together, they’ve built the XigXag app, offering users the first-ever fully integrated listen-and-read experience, at an affordable price without a subscription.

XigXag, created the first-ever fully integrated listening and reading experience for audiobook listeners, which they call the x-book®.

This powers first-ever features for audiobooks: now you can search, see illustrations, take notes, share quotes, lookup words and switch to reading or read along.

The last episode in the current season. We'll be back in July or August!

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Episode Notes

A Special Bonus episode. We repost our review of the winner of Book of the Year - Audiobook: Fiction. Congratulations to the Wizards of Once: Never and Forever by Cressida Cowell as narrated by David Tennant from HODDER CHILDREN'S BOOKS. This episode also contains Cressida's acceptance speech. #Nibbies #BritishBookAwards

Please get in touch via email at [email protected] or follow us on social media @audiobookishpod.

From the British Book Awards website:

Never and Forever is the fourth and final book in Cressida Cowell’s The Wizards of Once series. Our judges celebrated the return of David Tennant as the voice of the series; his “impish, agile” narration was “masterfully executed”. One judge declared that Tennant is a “reader at the heights of his powers”; it was a “natural match of writer, text and narrator”, added another. Never and Forever reveals the story’s hitherto-unknown narrator, which could have been a problem for the audiobook but the publisher found a clever solution. The attention given to the production “conjured a visual world” and an audio experience that was “pure heart from beginning to end”. Never and Forever was Hachette’s most pre-ordered audiobook ever, 47% up on previous titles in the series. It is “the benchmark” for kids’ audiobooks, the judges agreed

Support Audiobookish by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/audiobookish

Find out more at https://audiobookish.pinecast.co

This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-8a93af for 40% off for 4 months, and support Audiobookish.