The Audiobooks.com Podcast | Let Us Tell You A Story

Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: podcast@audiobooks.com Welcome back to the Audiobooks.com Podcast! We're wrapping up this year in audiobooks with the Best of 2015. We've coalesced this list of top audiobooks based on sales and public response and segmented them by fiction and non-fiction so we can dish it up for you with some color commentary. You'll recognize several titles on these two lists from previous discussions on the podcast. We talked about Elon Musk in episode 2. Why Not Me, Go Set a Watchman and Girl in the Spider's Web in episode 12. And even though Addy has been struggling to read a Stephen King novel, we got a voicemail from a listener encouraging her to give it another go! Reflecting back on 2015, we see trends amongst the most popular books. One is gender flipping, such as with Grey by E. L. James, when an author, who has written from one gender’s point of view, writes another novel in the voice of another gender in the original, or a novel that jumps between the point of view of a man and a woman. Another trend is comedians writing autobiographies, or otherwise works of non-fiction. In addition to Aziz Ansari and Mindy Kaling on the non-fiction list below, 2015 also saw books from David Spade, Rainn Wilson, Tim Hawkins, Amy Poehler, and Judd Apatow. We’re not complaining! The final trend is similar to the second but even more, indicative of how much our culture is changing. YouTubers and Bloggers are also writing books, which brings us new authors like Miranda Sings, Shane Dawson, and Jenn McAllister, amongst a shocking number of other book deals from the visual internet mediums. Without further ado, here are the lists! Let's see if they match up with your top 10 of 2015! Fiction The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins Grey by E.L. James Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz Finder's Keepers by Stephen King Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham See Me by Nicholas Sparks Seveneves by Neal Stephenson Non-Fiction Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari Down the Rabbit Hole by Holly Madison The Wright Brothers by David McCullogh Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitana by Erik Larson Why Not Me by Mindy Kaling Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology by Leah Rimini Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates The Road to Character by David Brooks Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear Elizabeth Gilbert Show us some love! Tweet this episode: http://ctt.ec/3eLZ5 Subscribing, rating and reviewing the show: iTunes Books & Resources Mentioned The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins Gray by E.L. James Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz Finder's Keepers by Stephen King Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham See Me by Nicholas Sparks Seveneves by Neal Stephenson Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari Down the Rabbit Hole by Holly Madison The Wright Brothers by David McCullough Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson Why Not Me by Mindy Kaling Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology by Leah Rimini Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates The Road to Character by David Brooks Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert

Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: podcast@audiobooks.com In 2012, the world was made aware of a strange, desert town in the Southwestern United States. Details of this town were provided through advertisements and news segments on a bi-monthly basis. The name of this town? Night Vale. This week on the Audiobooks.com Podcast we had the pleasure of speaking with the creative minds behind Welcome to Night Vale, the very podcast that made Night Vale one of the most popular fictional towns in the world. Or, at least, on the Internet. Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor developed and released Welcome to Night Vale in June of 2012, providing bi-monthly installments since then, and became the most-downloaded podcast of 2013. In the ongoing wake of the podcast’s popularity, the men wrote a novel which hit our hungry bookshelves in October 2015. Set within the same town, but narrated by two characters fans of the podcasts will recognize, the novel is for new fans and seasoned fans alike! We catch up with Joseph and Jeffrey just a couple months after the book’s release to learn about their motivation for writing it, their creative process and storytelling techniques, and how the book has been received by fans. Joseph and Jeffrey, as well as many of the Night Vale cast members, belong to the New York-Neo-Futurist performance organization, which is known for its long-running show Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. For 50 weeks a year, the Too Much Light family puts on a different show, consisting of 30 plays in 60 minutes. The show format is quick, comic and light, the audience gets involved, and the plays are written by the performers. Both men say that they borrowed significantly from their experiences writing for a variety of people and styles, week after week, to make Welcome to Night Vale into what it is today. If you’re ever in New York, catch a show! A huge thank you to both Joseph and Jeffrey for their time with us this week! Go show them some love on Twitter and Facebook. And then, listen to the book! Show us some love! Tweet this episode: http://ctt.ec/3eLZ5 Subscribing, rating and reviewing the show: iTunes Books & Resources Mentioned Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor How To Be Both by Ali Smith Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart Welcome to Night Vale podcast Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind

Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: podcast@audiobooks.com What better way to close out the month of November on the Audiobooks.com Podcast than with an author, and a book, that would make for a great Christmas gift! By the next time we’re streaming into your ears, we’ll be beyond Thanksgiving and into the season of shopping and of gift giving. For children, and for those with childlike imaginations, we recommend the novelette The Tale of Nottingswood by J.R. Young. To help seal the deal on this gift, we had the wonderful opportunity of speaking with Justin himself, who, before writing this book has made a name for himself in acting, voice acting, and public speaking. We get to ask Justin about how he made the leap into writing, what the process was for turning his book into an audiobook, and the aftermath of releasing both. The Tale of Nottingswood is written in verse and, as Justin says himself, needs to be read aloud. Deeply thought provoking, moving, and enlightening, the tale follows a boy and a girl, twins, who live in a land which cast out their majestic guardian, built a wall to block out the sun, and find contentment in decay. But then this brother and sister stumble across a Creature who changes their lives forever, and thus The Tale is born We play a clip from the audiobook, which Justin recorded himself, to give you a quick glimpse into just how wonderful this story is. If you end up giving this gift as a Christmas gift, please follow up with us after the book has been opened and read and share the experience you had while reading it aloud or listening to it! Based on the feedback Justin has received thus far, and the opportunities it’s provided him to speak with schools and students, we have no doubt that great conversations can be had from that experience. Get in touch with J.R. Young! We encourage you to reach out to him, buy his book AND audiobook, because the illustrations alone are a sight to be seen, and share your experiences with the book with him. Justin says the best way to keep in touch and be updated on what’s going on is to visit Nottingswood.com. He can also be found on Facebook. Show us some love! Tweet this episode: http://ctt.ec/3eLZ5 Subscribing, rating and reviewing the show: iTunes Books & Resources Mentioned Ready Player One by Ernest Cline Armada by Ernest Cline Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein The Tale of Nottingswood by J.R. Young

Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: podcast@audiobooks.com From Tamara Ireland Stone to Fred Godsmark to Tucker Max, we’ve had a lot of authors and audiobook business persons featured on the podcast, so this week we get back to the receiving end of audiobooks. Welcome business coach and audiobook lover Ellory Wells to the discussion! Ellory lends us his perspective on the listening experience and gives us a lot of recommendations for audiobooks to explore. The Experience We’ve discussed on the podcast before the differences between listening to an audiobook for entertainment purposes versus listening to an audiobook for reasons of time constraints or circumstance. It is much easier, and safer, to listen to an audiobook while stuck in traffic, for example, than reading a hardcover book! If the purpose we have to listen to an audiobook is entertainment, then the narrator contributes a great deal to that experience. The book series that Ellory is currently reading, Undying Mercenaries written by B. V. Larson, keeps him engaged largely because of the narrator, Mark Boyett. Earth is visited by visitors from another galaxy in this book series, and instead of being exterminated, mankind joins with their visitors and go on adventures in space. Ellory says they’re easy reads, but are engaging and he enjoys the way Mark Boyett brings the characters to life. The entertainment value is high. The same goes for The Martian, a book and audiobook we’ve discussed previously on this podcast, and one that continues to receive good reviews. The narrator for The Martian does a fantastic job of conveying Mark Watney’s, the main character, personality. Heavily sardonic, but an articulate intellectual, who has been well trained to survive in circumstances that normal people do not face. The narrator brings charm to Watney’s voice and a deep emotional connection with the man living alone on Mars. Is It Cheating to Listen? Does the method of consumption contribute to the legitimacy of an experience? Do we lose something by listening to, rather than reading, a book? This is one of the questions we ask Ellory, and his response is very interesting! We’re going to let you listen to the podcast to hear his perspective, but in the meantime, let’s take another look at this concept. It should come as no surprise that in our modern, 21st-century culture, scientists have explored the differences of effects between reading and listening to books when it comes to how the brain processes and absorbs information. Researchers have done studies for decades about listening comprehension versus reading comprehension and their correlation to different personalities and different learning styles. But even through all of this research there seems to be inconclusive evidence that a person absorbs or understands better either through reading or listening. A well-known phrase, coined by Marshall McLuhan in his 1964 book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, says this: “the medium is the message.” One of his first objectives is to demonstrate how the content of a particular medium is also a medium. In the case of audiobooks, if we were to ask what the content of an audiobook is, the answer might be “book”, whereas we’d say the content of a book is “the written word”. The question of whether it is cheating to listen to a book becomes a little different in this context because there is a degree of separation between the written word and the way it is absorbed. If scientists can’t find conclusive proof that we, as humans, understand better through reading or listening, then it’s difficult to say that listening is straight up cheating. There is certainly something to be gained by various learning styles from listening to audiobooks, but it can also neither be a blanket statement. In Understanding Media, McLuhan argues that a medium translates content. While reading a book, the written word translates the story for our brains to absorb; while listening to an audiobook, the narrator translates the story for our brains to absorb. In both cases, our brains still achieve direct access to the story; our mind’s eye must still create the story in our imaginations or our intellect must process the information for application. Is it cheating to listen to audiobooks? Science and social theory may never be able to give us a direct answer to that question. Perhaps that question is tied into a deeper social issue of the modern age as we witness other mediums fade into the category of obsolete technology. Whether we use technology as an excuse or a crutch to avoid a tedious task is also called into question. In the end, we love audiobooks for the similar reason we love the theater, or a film, or a rock concert: it is another medium through which we can absorb, learn, grow and be entertained. Get In Touch! As always, we would love to hear what you are currently listening to and what is in your queue! Send us an email or hit us up on Twitter. And while you’re at it, send Ellory a quick thank-you for talking with us this week! Show us some love! Tweet this episode: http://ctt.ec/3eLZ5 Subscribing, rating and reviewing the show: iTunes Books & Resources Mentioned Other works by B. V. Larson Andy Weir’s The Martian started as a series of blog posts Ellory Wells

Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: podcast@audiobooks.com "All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." — Edgar Allen Poe We’ve all heard of H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe, Stephen King, and Dean Koontz, but this week on the Audiobooks.com Podcast we’re talking with the founder of Audio Realms, Fred Godsmark. As Halloween is just a couple days away, we thought it appropriate to bring on an expert in the field of horror, someone knowledgeable about the books and audiobooks currently popular in the genre, and get some insight into current trends and demographics surrounding fans of horror. Niche Books There are fans, and then there are true fans. The dedicated masses. The fanatics. The ones that will paint their faces, dress up like a mascot or character; the ones that go to conventions, host themed parties, and follow the object of their fanaticism around the country. These kinds of fans undoubtedly inspire companies like Audio Realms to not just exist, but to thrive. These kinds of fans, in fact, create companies like Audio Realms! Fred himself is an avid reader of the horror genre and dedicated to bringing the authors and stories he loves into the light. He mentions that stories by H.P. Lovecraft sell just as well now as they did 10 years ago, but he also says that new authors come about every year with fascinating stories to tell that don’t get nearly the same attention as the pop culture horror authors do. To remedy this, Fred gives us a ton of recommendations to get a more thorough look into the genre of horror! At the forefront of his mind are Wolfland by Jonathan Janz, The Things That Are Not There by C. J. Henderson, and The Guns of Santa Sangre by Eric Red. Getting a Taste Audio Realms is currently working on a series of short story collections. Historically, Fred shares with us, the medium for horror was predominantly short stories. People would line up to buy these “old rags”! One such collection Audio Realms has produced is called Out of Tune, which has a really cool theme. They’ve taken a series of old ballads and wrote short stories to accompany them, and also a short explanation of the ballad. This collection was edited by Jonathan Mayberry. We’ve talked a couple times on the podcast about how the length of a podcast can be difficult to fully embrace. It’s true that listening to an audiobook is often faster than reading it, but audiobooks that are 20-30 hours long is a big commitment. When it comes to a road trip, the longer the better! Short stories, on the other hand, are ideal for commutes that aren’t quite of the same degree as a road trips. It could take 45 days to listen to a 30-hour audiobook, if your daily commute is 40 minutes. That’s over 2 months! If you’re someone who enjoys completing a task more quickly than that, then perhaps looking into Audio Realms’ short story collections is a good idea for you! Watch for new collections from Audio Realms to get a taste of horror for yourself. What Are You Listening To We’ve heard from Fred, now we want to hear from you! What was on your audiobooks playlist for the advent of Halloween? Show us some love! Tweet this episode: http://ctt.ec/3eLZ5 Subscribing, rating and reviewing the show: iTunes Books & Resources Mentioned AudioRealms.com Castaways by Brian Keene The Things That Are Not There by C.J. Henderson Limbus Inc. by Joseph Nassise, Brett J. Talley, Anne C. Petty, Jonathan Mayberry, Benjamin Kane Ethridge Author Jonathan Janz The Guns of Santa Sangre by Eric Red Stillwater by Maynard Sims Scares That Care

Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: podcast@audiobooks.com Welcome back to the Audiobooks.com Podcast! We’re so glad you’re joining us for this installment where we take a step back to check in on what we’re listening to and review a couple recently completed audiobooks. In addition to finally discussing Ready Player One, Addy also gives us a synopsis of and her reaction to Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone. Hopefully this will be a great segue into next week because we have the distinct privilege of speaking with the author of Every Last Word herself! We hope that you will join us for that interview. Popular, But Bad? Before jumping into our reviews of Ready Player One and Every Last Word, we explore a handful of books in popular culture that have been categorized as overhyped. Many books receive a lot of attention or a lot of praise either by the media or by a particular subset of people, but it doesn’t necessarily indicate a work of excellent fiction. In fact, in many circles, book lovers might classify these books as bad! We fully acknowledge that judgments of this sort are highly subjective. Books on this list include the likes of Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games series, and Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret, which all have enormous fan bases and have received critical acclaim in certain respects. It is interesting to see what people are reading, what is trending on the New York Times’ Best Seller List, and contrast that with the opinions and reviews of those books elsewhere. We found a surprising number of classics that often fall under this banner as well. One such book is Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, originally published in the U.S. in 1958. Shortly following its release in the United States, a columnist for the New York Times wrote a rather harsh review of the book, not just highly critical of the book’s content, but also critical of the snobbish intellectuals who gave the book so much momentum following its release in Paris several years earlier. At one point, the reviewer wrote: “There are two equally serious reasons why it isn’t worth any adult reader’s attention. The first that it is dull… The second is that it’s repulsive.” A contemporary of this reviewer for The Atlantic, had nearly the exact opposite reaction. He closes his review by stating: “It is one of the funniest serious novels I have ever read; and the vision of its abominable hero…brings into grotesque relief the cant, the vulgarity, and the hypocritical conventions that pervade the human comedy.” As Addy states on the podcast, it’s important to take each review and recommendation with a grain of salt, to understand the reviewer’s general interests and to understand the subtext of taste. For every person who raves about a novel, there will be someone else to cut it down. Another classic that got its start with a bad review is Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, originally published in 1936. The reviewer found it riddled with convention—conventional dialogue, conventional characters—and yet states that Mitchell’s style is rather unconventional for an early 20th century female novelist. The reviewer leaves the reader with a notion of puzzlement, as he praises the efforts of the author but has no distinct praise for the story. Now, over 75 years later, the book is regarded often as one of the greatest books of all times. In 2011, for the 75th Anniversary of the book’s publication, TIME Magazine published an article that claimed Gone With the Wind has transcended criticism, along with Star Wars, in that it will never lose its relevance. Shaping Our Time Despite the critical or common reviews of books in popular culture, it is clear that these are the books shaping our times. Books like Ready Player One might not be literary masterpieces, but they are highly indicative of modern culture along the projected continuum of human history by presenting realistic peeks into possible futures. Given a certain set of scenarios, and a little imagination, we get a raw look at what could happen. Perhaps we won’t see a future exactly like the one Wade Watts experiences in The Oasis, but the internet has certainly connected us to a virtual reality that is quickly becoming more fibrous than the physical world. The last century of books has brought with it an uptick in disturbingly possible dystopian future scenarios. Brave New World in 1932. 1984 in 1948. Fahrenheit 451 in 1953. A Clockwork Orange in 1962. The Giver in 1993. And then, more recently, cultural phenoms like The Hunger Games and Divergent. As much as our society can produce visionaries that seek to find solutions to the earth’s problems, we also have novelists to paint word pictures about unpleasant futures that seem to be a direct result of humanity left unchecked. All of the dystopian novels listed above are currently available for your listening pleasure at Audiobooks.com! What is your favorite dystopian novel of the last century? Halloween Cometh We’re just a few weeks away from Halloween, so we want you to be ready to freak yourself out! Check out one of our recommendations for seasonal listening: The Edgar Allen Poe audio collection, Dracula, and The Invisible Man. What are you listening to for the Halloween season? Let us know so we can pass along the tips! Show us some love! Tweet this episode: http://ctt.ec/3eLZ5 Subscribing, rating and reviewing the show: iTunes Books & Resources Mentioned Ready Player One by Ernest Cline Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection Dracula The Invisible Man Audiobooks.com App: iOS click here | Android click here

Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: podcast@audiobooks.com Welcome back to the Audiobooks.com Podcast! This week we have a very different show for you, but one we’ll hope you’ll enjoy as a book lover. To start things off, we discuss some of the audiobooks that were recently released and our interest in them, then get into some of the books we’ve been listening to. The core of our discussion revolves around some controversies occurring right now in the book industry. Many of the decisions that have been made surrounding these incidents bear a significant impact on the creative side to the business of books and audiobooks, and we wanted to take the time to explore some of these issues. Taking a serious look at them, we believe, makes us better consumers and equips us with the knowledge we need to make informed decisions and support those who need to be supported. Exercising our consumer rights can be the loudest weapon we have against the creative types who are being manipulated by the money-driven machine that fuels them. ON THE RADAR Mindy Kaling’s newest book, Why Not Me, was released on September 15, 2015. She reads much of the book herself, but also has other voices making appearances on the audiobook production, including Greg Daniels (known for his work on Saturday Night Live and The Office) and B. J. Novak (writer and fellow co-star on The Office). Kaling’s first book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), which was released in 2011, received mixed responses amongst critics. As her writing style ranges from prose to a more blogging-feel, Mindy herself reads the audiobook, with help from Michael Schur, and brings it to life with a more conversational tone. She covers topics from recounting experiences in Hollywood to childhood memories. Why Not Me is a collection of humorous essays of Mindy’s mission to find a balance of fulfillment and joy in life, from love to weight loss. And we hear it is one heck of a chuckler! Also on our radar is a book from singer-songwriter Jewel, entitled Never Broken: Songs Are Only Half the Story. As far as typical celebrity memoirs go, this one is on the longer side. The audiobook is 10 hours and 30 minutes long, but it is read by Jewel herself. We are familiar with Jewel’s early albums, such as her debut Pieces of You from 1995, but the singer has been releasing albums almost every year or two throughout the 2000s. This memoir isn’t the first publication Jewel has released. She published a book of poetry in 1998 entitled A Night Without Armor, and then an autobiography in 2000 called Chasing Down the Dawn, which chronicled her journey from Alaska to the world’s stage. Never Broken seems to be Jewel’s second stab at an autobiography, but one that is already being met with great reviews! We’re excited to check it out. Putting Up Guards Here at Audiobooks.com, we’re all about supporting the creative geniuses behind the books and materials we enjoy. As consumers, we have the poignant power to show publishing companies our opinions through choosing to purchase, or not purchase, a book or audiobook instead of complaining. However, we’re neither advocating nor supporting a boycott in these situations we bring up, rather we want to bring to light that when the creative process is mistreated by someone intent on making a sell, we have the opportunity to respond to that in kind. The two controversial situations we examine at length are Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman and the late Steig Larsson’s The Girl In the Spider’s Web. While some books are currently receiving heat for their accuracy, such as Wednesday Martin’s The Primates of Park Avenue, these books are brought to our attention because of the publisher’s role in releasing a creative work that the author, arguably, had no say in due to death or mental acuity. What makes matters difficult for fans, we think, is a desire to respect the creative process of an author while still having an insatiable curiosity to discover what the book holds. Fans of the first three novels released by Steig Larsson under the Millennium Series are no doubt anxious to read the rumored 7 books that remain. Following Larsson’s death in 2004, the hope of reading any further seemed to be dashed. In that same vein, Harper Lee’s 1960 novel To Kill A Mockingbird was an immediate success, winning Lee a Pulitzer. But the reactions by Lee and her family, following the books release, make it difficult to justify reading the book. How much of the book was changed from Lee’s original manuscript? Did she have a say in the changes that were made? Is this book really deserving of Lee’s name under the authorship? When controversy like this arises, what is your response? Do you find yourself interested to read the final product of a long, legal battle, or do you pass on the newly published work in favor of respect for an author? Or is there an option C? We’d love to hear opinions on this, because we’re at a crossroads over what the right course is to take. Coming Up Brian is still making his way through Ready Player One, but we promise that a full review of that audiobook is coming up soon! In the meantime, Addy is still learning Italian, so we may need a translator in an upcoming episode for when she becomes fluent! Show us some love! Tweet this episode: http://ctt.ec/3eLZ5 Subscribing, rating and reviewing the show: iTunes Books & Resources Mentioned Audiobooks.com Book Sale Mindy Kaling’s Favorties Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling Never Broken: Songs Are Only Half The Story by Jewel Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee The Girl in the Spider’s Web

Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: podcast@audiobooks.com This week on the Audiobooks.com Podcast, Addy and the Real Brian sit down to chat with Pat Flynn, author of the book Let Go, which was released in April of 2013 and narrated by the author, that shares the journey he took from architect to entrepreneur extraordinaire. What we love about this interview with Pat is the inspiration he is to countless people who find themselves in the same situation he was as depicted in his book. Now we have the special opportunity to ask him about his process, about his craft, and about what he is currently working on so that we get to share with you why his book is worth your credit. THE WORK An author, a podcaster, a business owner, a father, a husband, a friend. Pat Flynn wears many hats, but he’s making it work in a way he never could have imagined. Let Go is Pat’s very vulnerable, very authentic account of how he took his future by the horns and decided to either succeed or fail by his own merit. Doing so brought him through many trials, but ones that were necessary in order to get him to where he is now. Where Let Go was a memoir, of sorts, Pat’s new project is more intentional about providing actionable value to his readers. There are a lot of books on finding inspiration for ideas in all aspects of creative or entrepreneurial endeavors, and then there are a lot of books on how to build that idea. But Pat saw a gaping hole between those two popular points of assistance, and that is in how to determine whether the idea you’ve come up will work out for you. Pat says his superpower is being able to walk people through really complicated things in a simple way. By providing a series of thought experiments and metrics, he wants to enable his readers to analyze their current situation and walk away with a definitive plan of how to move forward. Whether that is giving yourself permission to pursue that idea, or to understand how the idea needs to evolve in order to move forward, he wants it to help people take action. We’re huge fans of Pat’s first book and cannot wait for the second! THE CRAFT In addition to talking about his next project, Pat also goes into his own process for writing and concept development. Whether you’re an aspiring writer or just like to hear about writers behind the scenes, it’s a treat to hear how Pat utilizes post-it notes in order to outline and develop his book. As we interview more authors and narraters it’ll become more and more evident that everyone finds a process that works for them and it’ll often be drastically different from anything we’ve heard previously. And yet there is always a process. Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft was hugely successful largely because of the popularity that King has seen with his fiction novels, but also because it is part memoir part exposé into his process of writing. Like Pat, King had to overcome obstacles in order to achieve his aspirations, and through it all he acquired knowledge, experience, and confidence which he chose to share in the form of this book. Passion drives us to act, and it is authors like Pat Flynn who want to help us act. We are very grateful to Pat for taking the time to discuss his process, share what he’s working on, and talk a bit about his journey to where he is today. PAT’S RECOMMENDATIONS Because he spends so much time writing non-fiction, Pat uses audiobooks in order to escape reality. He’s recently listened to The Martian by Andy Weir and Ready Player One, which we’ve talked about many times on this podcast and will be reviewing in the upcoming weeks. However, Pat’s recommendation for spending a single credit actually lands on Dale Carnegie’s How To Win Friends and Influence People. Go listen, and show Pat some love! Show us some love! Tweet this episode: http://ctt.ec/3eLZ5 Subscribing, rating and reviewing the show: iTunes Books & Resources Mentioned Let Go by Pat Flynn Smart Passive Income Ready Player One by Ernest Cline How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

This week on the Audiobooks.Com Podcast, Brian and Addy are joined by Patrick Lawlor, an audiobooks narrator with over 300 recordings to his name spreading across multiple genres. We had a phenomenal discussion with Patrick on everything from what he is currently working on, to his process of choosing gigs and recording an audiobook, to the highs and lows of his career. NEWS We don’t spend a lot of time in the news section of the podcast this week, because there is so much goodness to share from our interview with Patrick, but there is one exciting thing worth sharing. Michael Crichton’s Terminal Man was made into an audiobook! Released at the beginning of this month, the 1972 novel is 6 and a half hours long and is read by Luke Daniels. Check out our website for more details! INTERVIEW The past few weeks we’ve been discussing the books we’ve been listening to and talking about the saturated book market, in terms of just how many choices there are for audiobooks these days. Chances are that newly published books will also be getting an accompanying audiobook. At the end of episode five of this podcast, our guest host, Mark, told us he’d spend a credit based on a narrator, rather than a specific book. We hope that through interviews, such as the one in this episode with Patrick Lawlor, we’re able to provide you with the voice of a narrator that will help you narrow down your next audiobook choice. Through Patrick’s chat with us, we hope you can get a great feel for his presence in an audio drama setting. Even though he is not the author, he is telling a story, and it lends a great deal of credibility, we believe, to hear about the narrator’s approach to reading a specific book. He has great, clear pronunciation and rhythm that lends nicely to a conversation about his craft. It is clear that Patrick takes his job very seriously, both on the mic and off. We had the opportunity to ask him about how he stays healthy and prevents his voice from becoming hoarse and mangled after all that talking (he says he’s on a kick, churning out a book a week!). Patrick has some great tips for how he keeps his voice sounding and feeling good, some of the changes he’s had to make personally in order to achieve those ends, and then goes into foods and drinks and supplements to avoid that are particularly damaging to the throat and vocal chords. Throughout the podcast, Patrick mentions several books and authors of which he is a fan, either through the enjoyment of recording the book himself or enjoying the audiobook as a fan. Patrick calls himself a mystery fan, cop dramas specifically, but also a romance fan. He mentions The Troubleshooters by Suzanne Brockman, a series about Navy Seals, private security, and the women who love them. He also mentions the Detective Jones series from author L. J. Sellers. And though he’s not currently listening to any audiobooks, Patrick is interested in getting his hands on Go Set a Watchman, the follow up, and sequel, to To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This book is narrated by Reese Witherspoon and the book itself rocked the New York Times best-seller list the week of its release this summer, selling 1.1 million copies. It was a pleasure to speak with Patrick and chat about his experiences in the audiobook narration realm. We certainly learned some unique aspects to the side of a business we don’t often hear about. One comment he made in particular that resonated with us was pertaining to the question of whether he reads the books before he begins to record them. Patrick says he does for a couple reasons, but one big reason is this: “In order to get some place successfully, you need to kind of know where you are going.” And, he says, it helps to read the book ahead of time. The full list of audiobooks that Patrick has read can be found at Audiobooks.Com! Show us some love! Tweet this episode: http://ctt.ec/3eLZ5 Subscribing, rating and reviewing the show: iTunes Books & Resources Mentioned Connect with Patrick Lawlor on Twitter Elvis and The Underdogs Merles Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog by Ted Kerasote Warriors by George R.R. Martin Go Set a Watchman Carl Hiaasen Books L.J. Sellers Suzanne Brockmann The Troubleshooters Series The Brave Ones Life in a Jar

Site: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | Email: podcast@audiobooks.com Welcome back to the Audiobooks.com Podcast! In this installment of the podcast, Addy and Brian discuss some exciting developments happening in the book world, then jump into reviews of audiobooks they’ve recently listened to. Whether it was intentional, or a happy accident, they both review an audiobook that have a theme of understanding other people. In The News Back in the beginning of July, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team won the World Cup for the first time in 16 years. It was an extremely exciting time for the United States and for soccer fans in general. The U.S. has a talented squad and was able to secure a win for the USA against Japan, which was the first World Cup rematch in the history of the women’s competition, as the USA faced Japan, and lost, in the 2012 World Cup final. A major component to that successful drive was Carli Lloyd, the starting midfielder for the U.S. Women’s National Team. Not only did Carli Lloyd record a hat trick (three goals) in the first 16 minutes during the World Cup final, she was involved in five very important goals that catapulted the USA from the last game in the knockout stage into the quarterfinals against China, and then semifinals against Germany. After Carli Lloyd scored her third goal in the 16th minute of play in 2015 Women’s World Cup final, one of the commentators said, “That’s not a fluke, that’s not luck. That’s Carli Lloyd.” But who is Carli Lloyd? The 33-year-old from New Jersey has become a household name after more than 200 appearances in international games for the United States over the last ten years. Her journey to that success is about to be explored. Lloyd recently signed a book deal to scratch out a memoir about her life and career. Lloyd has an incredible story to tell about commitment, about dedication, and about realizing that not everything in life can be solved by natural talent and ability. The memoir is certain to be inspiring! In other news, the author of Ready Player One, Ernest Cline, released a follow-up book to his first success this summer entitled Armada. Like his first book, this one is also narrated by Will Wheaton. Cline has already signed a huge deal for a third book, but in the meantime, Steven Spielberg will direct the film version of Ready Player One, due for release in December of 2017. The Art Of War Brian listened to The Art of War by Sun Tzu and narrated by Michael Scott. This book often gets a lot of attention in popular media, almost as a book of proverbs for businessmen and strategists. The book was written over 2,000 years ago and originally in Chinese, so Brian fought his way through the old-style language and funny narration to give us an idea of whether or not we should spend a credit on this book. The lessons from the book seem to have value in certain contexts, business and military strategy being among the most frequently cited. Reading the book simply for pleasure is not out of the question, particularly if you enjoy reading about strategy and understanding opponents, but it seems like much of the book’s value comes out of reading it in context. Having in mind a situation to apply its lessons to, such as a desire to understand one’s role as a leader or to improve one’s ability to understand and analyze a business opponent, could prove to be very valuable when choosing this audiobook. The Five Love Languages Also in the theme of understanding others is the book Addy recently listened to: The Five Love Languages written and narrated by Gary Chapman. Addy says Chapman has a great southern accent, but really flies through the book. She recommends that if you choose to listen to this book that you also buy a hard copy to reference and highlight. The conversation Addy and Brian have about this book is very interesting. The title of the book was constructed in such a way that may initially turn people off to its material. Love languages? Why would I want to read about that? Addy has many reasons for you to take a chance on this book that go beyond its promise to reveal the secret to love that lasts. The topic of conversation in this book centers around understanding how to love others and how others can love you; to realize that there are many ways to show love and realize that even though we might prefer to be loved through, for example, physical touch (i.e. hugs, hand holding, or simply proximity), someone else may prefer to be shown love through words of affirmation. Addy and Brian give some examples of how these love languages apply to them, as well as discuss misnomers surrounding the topic’s approach to relational conversation. Have you listened to a book recently that falls into the category of strategy or understanding relationships? Send us an email and let us know! Show us some love! Tweet this episode: http://ctt.ec/3eLZ5 Subscribing, rating and reviewing the show: iTunes Books & Resources Mentioned The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman | Narrated by Gary Chapman Art of War by Sun Tau | Narrated by Erick Abraham Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Stay Connected: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | email: podcast@audiobooks.com Ever wonder what it takes to create an audiobook? Wonder no more because on this episode we talk with Brian DePuy, the sound engineer at Audiobooks.com! From pages to narrator to audiobook app, Brian give us an inside look into the process of creating an audiobook from the sound engineering aspect. After all it’s the SOUND that brings us our favorite audiobooks to life. Play the episode now to hear all about it. This Episode Covers: What goes into creating an audiobook How sound really shapes the story Reading vs Performance Brian’s recommendation for getting the full listening experience What’s exciting the Audiobooks.com team and lots more! Show us some love! Tweet this episode: http://ctt.ec/3eLZ5 Subscribing, rating and reviewing the show: iTunes Resources Mentioned RECordio App Studio Headphones: http://amzn.to/1hIIgXa | http://amzn.to/1LgdTkE

Stay Connected: http://www.audiobooks.com/podcast | email: podcast@audiobooks.com On this second episode of the Audiobooks.com Podcast, we review the biography that gives us a deeper look into the man who brought us PayPal, Telsa Motors, SpaceX and Solar City. It may sound like we’re describing a blockbuster character when talking about Elon Musk but were we entertained when learning about him? What did you think of Fred Sanders, the narrator? The episode does not end there, we also dive into some new releases and books that will soon be on the big screen like Mockingjay, The Maze Runner and more. Join us right now by pressing play! This Episode Covers: This week’s top audiobook releases Felicia Day and her new book Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance - audiobook TRUE review Where we recommend you spending your credit on the Elon Musk biography From Page to Screen review and lots more! Show us some love! Tweet this episode: http://ctt.ec/3eLZ5 Subscribing, rating and reviewing the show: iTunes Books & Resources Mentioned Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance | Narrated by Fred Sanders This Week’s Top Releases You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day | Narrated by Felicia Day From Page to Screen in 2015 Eragon: Inheritance, Book 1 by Christopher Paolini | Narrated by Gerard Doyle The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins | Narrated by Carolyn McCormick