Nora Ohanjanians
- 5
- reviews
- 2
- helpful votes
- 12
- ratings
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Cloud Cuckoo Land
- A Novel
- Written by: Anthony Doerr
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland, Simon Jones
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 288
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 250
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 250
Among the most celebrated and beloved novels of 2021, Anthony Doerr’s gorgeous third novel is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience, hope—and a book. In Cloud Cuckoo Land, Doerr has created a magnificent tapestry of times and places that reflects our vast interconnectedness—with other species, with each other, with those who lived before us, and with those who will be here after we’re gone.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A masterpiece
- By Alessandra on 2021-12-26
- Cloud Cuckoo Land
- A Novel
- Written by: Anthony Doerr
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland, Simon Jones
Absolutely Amazing
Reviewed: 2022-02-14
An imaginative, ingenious book, with multiple storylines spanning centuries, enchanting language, vibrant descriptions, carefully planned and executed. A must read.
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This Is Happiness
- Written by: Niall Williams
- Narrated by: Dermot Crowley
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 43
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 43
Seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe is idling in the unexpected sunshine when Christy makes his first entrance into Faha, bringing secrets he needs to atone for. Though he can't explain it, Noel knows right then: something has changed. As the people of Faha anticipate the endlessly procrastinated advent of the electricity, and Noel navigates his own coming-of-age and his fallings in and out of love, Christy's past gradually comes to light, casting a new glow on a small world.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Brilliant!
- By Robert Crosley on 2022-07-28
- This Is Happiness
- Written by: Niall Williams
- Narrated by: Dermot Crowley
I didn't want it to end
Reviewed: 2021-10-26
I loved This is Happiness for many reasons.
It was light and laugh out loud funny. It was unabashedly sentimental, and making fun of itself for being sentimental. The characters were very vivid and believable despite being quirky. And the writing was exquisite. Dermot Crawley's reading made it even more authentic and enjoyable. Highly recommended for readers who value more that just plot.
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1 person found this helpful
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Middlesex
- Written by: Jeffrey Eugenides
- Narrated by: Kristoffer Tabori
- Length: 21 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 135
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 125
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 123
In the spring of 1974, Calliope Stephanides, a student at a girls' school in Grosse Pointe, finds herself drawn to a chain-smoking, strawberry-blonde classmate with a gift for acting. The passion that furtively develops between them - along with Callie's failure to develop physically - leads Callie to suspect that she is not like other girls. In fact, she is not really a girl at all.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Narration was AMAZING!
- By Shelley Olson on 2019-06-04
- Middlesex
- Written by: Jeffrey Eugenides
- Narrated by: Kristoffer Tabori
A True Treat
Reviewed: 2021-04-28
An epic of a story, covering three generations and a few decades, written in an explosive prose, with a unique, distinct, passionate narrator, Middlesex is a profound examination of life, human behaviour and psyche, family, ethnicity, race, crime, religion, history, and many other topics.
This novel is a true treat.
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How to Pronounce Knife
- Stories
- Written by: Souvankham Thammavongsa
- Narrated by: James Tang, Kulap Vilaysack
- Length: 2 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 130
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 114
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 110
A young man painting nails at the local salon. A woman plucking feathers at a chicken processing plant. A father who packs furniture to move into homes he'll never afford. A housewife learning English from daytime soap operas. In her stunning Giller Prize-winning debut book of fiction, Souvankham Thammavongsa focuses on characters struggling to make a living, illuminating their hopes, disappointments, love affairs, acts of defiance, and above all their pursuit of a place to make their own.
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1 out of 5 stars
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So Disappointing
- By Len on 2020-11-22
- How to Pronounce Knife
- Stories
- Written by: Souvankham Thammavongsa
- Narrated by: James Tang, Kulap Vilaysack
Slim Volume - Deep Reach
Reviewed: 2020-12-12
A short story collection about the little guy. The immigrant, the marginalized, the unnoticed. Souvankham Thammavongsa delves into their world, with unique compassion, understanding and humour. She doesn't sentimentalize, use dramatic language or flamboyant characters. Her stories are ordinary, her characters reserved and her language economical. Yet she packs a powerful punch with each story with characters that are resilient, persevere and yes, sometimes score small victories. She's a skillful writer with a microscopic vision of the human nature. Check out her poetry collection, Small Arguments, and her website souvankham.thammavongsa.com
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1 person found this helpful
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Frankenstein in Baghdad
- A Novel
- Written by: Ahmed Saadawi
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 18
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 15
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Story4 out of 5 stars 15
From the rubble-strewn streets of US-occupied Baghdad, Hadi - a scavenger and an oddball fixture at a local café - collects human body parts and stitches them together to create a corpse. His goal, he claims, is for the government to recognize the parts as people and to give them proper burial. But when the corpse goes missing, a wave of eerie murders sweeps the city, and reports stream in of a horrendous-looking criminal who, though shot, cannot be killed.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great story based on a classic
- By Marcella Cooper on 2023-08-14
- Frankenstein in Baghdad
- A Novel
- Written by: Ahmed Saadawi
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Kaleo Griffith
A Tragicomedy on War
Reviewed: 2018-06-21
I liked Frankenstein in Baghdad because it’s written by a Baghdad resident about Bagdad after the invasion of the US. Most books we read about the non English speaking world are written by English speaking authors. This book is written by an Iraqi in Arabic and so is an authentic view. The translation is very fluent.
I liked it because it has magic realism. Ghosts talk to each other. Corpses and paintings come alive and a whole lot of weird stuff happens. It paints a vivid picture of the chaos, carnage, horrors and absurdity of war, but it’s easily readable and digestible because it mixes in a healthy dose of humor.
I also liked it because it’s philosophical. But the author, Ahmed Saadawi doesn’t dictate his philosophy. His third person narrator is objective and detached. Violence although omnipresent is impartial and impersonal. His characters are realistically a mix of positive and negative traits. As one of the characters says, “There are no innocents who are completely innocent and criminals who are completely criminal.”
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys learning about new places and likes a good story.
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