Don’t forget–June is Audiobook Month!
Celebrate the greatest (in our humble opinion) month of the year by listening to titles from your favorite authors and narrators. And everything is on sale for the month of June. What could be better!!!
June Is Audiobook Month!
June 4th, 2014 by Kay Weiss · Uncategorized
Narrators Announced for The Future for Curious People
May 7th, 2014 by Josh Brown · Author/Narrator News
HighBridge is pleased to announce that Heather Corrigan and Justin D. Torres will be narrating The Future for Curious People, a unique and clever new novel by author Gregory Sherl. The Future for Curious People imagines a world in which an “envisionist” can tell you whether your partner is really your soulmate. With this sort of information at your disposal, how could the course of true love not run smooth? Evelyn and Godfrey are about to count the ways.
Heather Corrigan is an actress and voice over artist in NYC. She has narrated scores of books in many different genres, including the recent The Art of Secrets for HighBridge. She received a starred review in Publishers Weekly for her work on When She Woke by Hilary Jordan, also a HighBridge audiobook.
Justin D. Torres is an accomplished voice over actor in New York City. His voice can be heard on countless audiobooks, websites, commercials, industrials, and videogames. If you’re in New York, you can catch him on any of his weekly improv teams at the Magnet or the PIT.
The Future for Curious People will be available on audio CD and digital download this September.
→ No CommentsTags: algonquin·audiobook·Future for Curious People·greg sherl·heather corrigan·Justin D. Torres·narrators·Publishers Weekly·readers
Middle-Grade Historical, Literary–and Funny–Mystery Series
May 7th, 2014 by Steve Lehman · Acquisition News
I’m not usually one to have much to say about middle-grade literature, but the first book in a new series is so much fun, I want to let everyone know that it’s coming. The series is The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency by Jordan Stratford, and HighBridge has rights to all three books. 
The first is The Case of the Missing Moonstone, and it’s a book that former English-major parents will delight in reading right along with their middle-grade child. It takes place in London, 1826, and unites, in a slight but wonderful temporal mash-up, eleven-year-old Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron and a math genius credited with being the first computer scientist, with fourteen-year-old Mary Godwin, later Shelley, author of Frankenstein, or, the Modern Prometheus. The two form the secretive Wollstonecraft Detective Agency in order to unravel the mystery of a stolen heirloom and expose a false confession. The prose is witty, whimsical, fast-paced, and humorous throughout, teeming with clever word-play, while the story abounds with literary and historical references and features cameo appearances from childhood versions of other famous literary figures. The Case of the Missing Moonstone is coming in January 2015 and will be followed in August of that year by The Case of the Girl in Gray, and if you haven’t yet picked up on the literary references in those two titles, it’s time for you to review that syllabus from your Nineteenth Century British Novel class! (Or you could just click on the hyperlinks, I suppose.)
→ No CommentsTags: Ada Lovelace·audiobook·detective fiction·HighBridge·Jordan Stratford·mary Shelley·middle-grade fiction·mystery·Romantic Period·young reader
Soon I Will Be Invincible
May 6th, 2014 by Josh Brown · Uncategorized
Invincible
in·vin·ci·ble
/in-ˈvin-sə-bəl/ adjective
1. impossible to defeat or overcome
2. incapable of being conquered, overcome, or subdued
What would you do if you were invincible? Would you save the world? Or would you destroy it? Would you be a “good guy,” or a “bad guy”?
I wasn’t even into the first hour of Soon I Will Be Invincible, and I began asking myself, “Why am I rooting for the villain?” As the story unfolds further, the reason why becomes clearer. Sure, Doctor Impossible wants to take over the world (or destroy it, not sure it really matters to him), but once we get to the root of why he wants to exert total world domination, it’s easy to feel for the guy. Shunned, ignored, and at times bullied as a child genius, he perhaps comes across as the most human character among a cast of super-powered misfits (trust me, they’re all misfits, no matter which side they are playing for).
I can hear you saying, “But superheroes are for comic books, not novels or audiobooks!” Author Austin Grossman easily proves that notion false. His engaging prose grabs you almost immediately and doesn’t let go until the end. The story is full of wit and is an absolute riot — sprinkled with clever nods and tributes to the Golden and Silver ages of American comic books throughout.
The narrative bounces back and forth between supervillain Doctor Impossible, fresh out of prison and on a mission to take over the world (again), and superhero Fatale, a female super-cyborg who is the latest recruit of a group of young heroes (think Justice League). It’s easy to see Grossman’s inspiration for many of the characters, especially Blackwolf, who, unless I am completely missing something, is a tribute to Batman.
The interesting thing about the story is that Grossman explores the human side of the heroes and villains, most pointedly Doctor Impossible and Fatale. What’s it really feel like to be invited to join the most elite super team in the known universe? Self-conscious superheroes? Yup. What’s it really feel like to be the smartest human being in the world, only to be ignored by said world? How do you respond to that? You try to take over the world, time and time again, that’s how you respond. And even though you are foiled every time, you keep trying. In this case, attempts at world domination are really just a cry for attention.
Superherodom brings with it a celebrity status. Supervillaindom, on the other hand… well, that’s another story. I mean, when you attempt to take over the world about a dozen times, you’d expect at least someone to recognize you on the street. Sadly, Doctor Impossible is just a poor shmuck who wants some attention.
I’m trying to resist a comparison to Alan Moore’s Watchmen here, but I can’t help myself. Similar to Watchmen, Grossman’s Soon I Will Be Invincible explores the personal struggles and human emotions of super-powered beings – beings that are portrayed as God-like in most traditional comic books of the past. Turns out, heroes and villains have real-life feelings and real-life problems just like the rest of us. Who knew? But unlike Watchmen, a dark and twisted tale, Grossman’s story comes off as a playful tribute to the history of American comic books. Not to mention the ending of Soon I Will Be Invincible makes a lot more sense than Watchmen’s ending. (Don’t get me wrong, I loved Watchmen, but 25 years later I still can’t quite figure out what the heck Moore was trying to say with that ending.)
J. Paul Boehmer is absolutely brilliant as Doctor Impossible. And Coleen Marlo gives Fatale’s voice the touch of humanity that I believe author Grossman was going for. These two narrators completely pull you into the story, placing you smack dab in the middle of a comic book, the panels and pages in your mind.
One other interesting thing to note is that the cover (see picture above) was designed by Chip Kidd. That name may not mean much to you unless you work in the publishing industry, but you need to know that Kidd is a highly celebrated graphic designer known for his striking book covers (USA Today called him a “rock star” of graphic design)… oh, and he just happens to be a huge comic book fan himself.
So go download and listen to Soon I Will Be Invincible today. Who knows, you might even get inspired to save the world (or destroy it!).
→ No CommentsTags: audiobook·Audiobooks·Austin Grossman·champions·Coleen Marlo·comic book·fatale·impossible·J. Paul Boehmer·power·Soon I Will Be Invincible·superhero
Featured Audio Giveaway – May 2014 – The Hidden Child
April 30th, 2014 by Kay Weiss · Featured Audio Giveaways
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  The Hidden Child
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The latest in the Fjällbacka Mysteries series!Crime writer Erica Falck is shocked to discover a Nazi medal among boxes in her late mother’s attic. Haunted by a childhood of neglect, she resolves to dig into her family’s past to finally uncover the reasons why.Her inquiries lead her to the home of a retired history teacher who had been among her mother’s circle of friends during the Second World War, but her questions there are met with bizarre and evasive replies. Two days later the man is brutally murdered in a house he shared with his brother, a Nazi war criminal investigator with the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
Detective Patrik Hedström, Erica’s husband, on paternity leave with their newborn child, soon becomes embroiled in the murder investigation. Who would kill so ruthlessly to bury secrets so old? The answers may lie in Erica’s mother’s wartime diaries, but can they find them before dark secrets from over sixty years ago surface to destroy them all? Other volumes in the series (not included in the giveaway):
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How to Win This Audio CD
1. Send an email to newsletter@highbridgeaudio.com
2. Put the word “Hidden” in the subject line.
Entries must be received by no later than 5/16/2014.
See the Program Details for more information.
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Last Giveaway Winner
Congratulations to SUE DITTMAR, winner of the previous giveaway, The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry. Thanks to all who participated.
→ No CommentsTags: audiobook·camilla lackberg·featured audio giveaway·fjallbacka·hidden child·Simon Vance
Nicola Barber to Narrate Jackaby
April 23rd, 2014 by Josh Brown · Author/Narrator News
HighBridge is excited to announce Jackaby by William Ritter, a new young adult supernatural mystery from Algonquin Young Readers, releasing this September. We are equally excited to announce that two-time Audie Award winner Nicola Barber will be narrating the audiobook.
Already being billed as a “Doctor Who meets Sherlock,” Ritter’s debut novel features a detective of the paranormal as seen through the eyes of his adventurous and intelligent assistant in a tale brimming with cheeky humor and a dose of the macabre.
Kirkus Reviews has given Jackaby a starred review, stating: “Ritter’s debut skillfully blends science with the supernatural and balances whimsy with violence. The smartly paced plot wraps up neatly, but the rich world of this debut demands sequels.”
Nicola Barber is an Award-Winning British voice actor originally from London. She has more than 12 years of voice acting experience. In 2013, she was nominated for an Audie Award for Call The Midwife (also available from HighBridge) in the Solo Female Narration category, which is the highest award offered by the APA. Recently, she has lent her voice to both Call the Midwife follow-ups: Shadows of the Workhouse and Farewell to the East End.
Jackaby will be available on CD and digital download in September.
→ No CommentsTags: algonquin·Algonquin Young Readers·Jackaby·Nicola Barber·William Ritter
The Power and Peril of Words: The Transcriptionist by Amy Rowland
April 21st, 2014 by Steve Lehman · Uncategorized
Isolated on the 11th floor of the Record, a venerable New York newspaper in the midst of making the awkward transition to the digital age, Lena Respass, the title character of Amy Rowland’s
novel The Transcriptionist, spends her days typing other people’s words. These words, the dictations of reporters for the Record, flow in through her ears and out through her fingers. They also invade her sleep. “She awakens in the morning with someone else’s words, someone else’s thoughts, ribboning around her brain . . . mixed in with the flotsam of dreams until she does not know anymore what is real.”
The question of what words do to illuminate or obscure reality is Lena’s bete noire and the source of her social and professional reclusion. She knows that her analog job is an anachronism, that soon it will disappear before the inexorable advance of the digital age, just as info-tainment and profiteering are steadily eroding the idea of journalism as avatar of truth and protector of democracy (however much Howard, the Record’s publisher, wants to pretend otherwise). Her philological crisis of faith—she dropped out of a literature graduate program when she was “cured” of the naïve belief that language could save people—has left her in a soul-numbing retreat from the world. All she has left are quotations to fill the void where language should be the bridge. It’s the very definition of alienation.
This all begins to change when she comes across a story in the Record of a blind woman who apparently committed suicide by climbing the fence and swimming the moat in the lion exhibit at the Bronx Zoo, allowing herself to be mauled to death. When Lena sees the accompanying photo, she realizes she had met the woman just days before in a chance encounter on a bus. The dead woman, Arlene, had been a court reporter who, like Lena, transcribed stories of loss and conflict—other people’s stories, other people’s words. Lena reflects that “Arlene was not reporting, she was recording. She was transcribing exactly what other people were saying, all day, every day. It was a very difficult job, I mean not only the work, the concentration, the, well, submission to listening to people’s tragedies all day.”
Lena’s quest to understand what drove Arlene to such a strange and tragic end evolves into an urgent desire that Arlene, despite being buried in a potter’s field, not be erased from memory . What finally has to emerge for Lena to know what she must do, however, is a reckoning of the cost that an estrangement from words can exact upon the human psyche.
The Transciptionist is wry, tragic, moving, ironic, melancholy, funny, intelligent. And, in the end, hopeful. The writing is graceful, at times lyrical, and the melodic, subdued reading by Xe Sands perfectly captures these qualities. If you’re looking for a rewarding and thoughtful book club offering that will elicit a multifaceted discussion of the modern world and human condition, I highly recommend The Transciptionist.
→ No CommentsTags: algonquin·amy rowland·highbridge audio·journalism·language·literary fiction·newspapers·novel·The Transcriptionist·Xe Sands
New Tom Cook Novel Coming This September from HighBridge
April 16th, 2014 by Steve Lehman · Acquisition News
HighBridge will publish the audio edition of Thomas H. Cook’s new novel, A Dancer in the Dust, which will release this fall in print from Mysterious Press. It will be narrated by the estimable Ray Chase. 
Cook’s most recent book, Sandrine’s Case, is a well-deserved finalist for the 2014 Edgar Award for Best Novel, but as great as that book is (and it’s terrific), I think A Dancer in the Dust is even better. Cook returns to themes he explored with great success in The Crime of Julian Wells,
notably the human (particularly male) capacity for false confidence bordering on arrogance that can lead to disastrous unintended consequences for others (particularly female others). As in Julian Wells, genocide provides the macro manifestation of such consequences, and as in that novel and Sandrine’s Case, it is the hubris of men who think they are in control and know what is best for others that is the germinal condition of both private tragedy and the larger devastations. No one mines the depths of human anguish that result from self-delusion with more acuity and poignancy than Thomas Cook. A Dancer in the Dust may be his masterpiece.
→ No CommentsTags: A Dancer in the Dust·Africa·audiobook·genocide·HighBridge·mysterious press·mystery·Sandrine's Case·The Crime of Julian Wells·Thomas H. Cook
Car Talk Classics: The Pinkwater Files
April 16th, 2014 by Peter · Uncategorized
Peter here, blogging from Minneapolis. For many years now I have been listening to Tom and Ray, the Magliozzi brothers out of WBUR-FM Radio in Boston. I am not a car guy. I don’t even own a car any longer, but I do recall the joys and heartbreak of owning a used Toyota. My upbringing was in the suburbs, so life revolved around the family car. These days I only bus and bike it and frankly I don’t miss the long commutes of my youth. That being said, I love Car Talk, the weekly car advice program from NPR. It’s more than a how-to program. From years of listening, I can confidently state that Car Talk is a rich slice of Americana where the average listener may spend a few moments in the car, in front of the radio listening to kindly uncles offering life advice, car advice and some good old-fashioned humor. For me, Car Talk is public radio at its best, and I will always be a fan of the wisdom of these gentle souls.
Car Talk Classics: The Pinkwater Files is a four disc set from HighBridge Audio offering listeners a memorable collection of audio fun where Tom and Ray offer advice about cars to their regular listeners.
I highly recommend this collection to both the novice and seasoned Car Talk listener.
Some of my favorite moments from this collection include: the puzzler segment, stump the chumps, and the caller of the moment, Mr. Pinkwater himself.
Daniel Pinkwater, the beloved humorist and author has been a regular commentator on public radio for many years. He has been a frequent guest on the Car Talk program, calling in as a non-celebrity and offering a unique twist to the show’s storied history. This collection of humorous moments offers classic bits that listeners have enjoyed for decades. This is a perfect gift for any friend or relative who enjoys cars or who might find humor in the pitfalls of driving and maintaining a treasured vehicle.
With Dad’s and Mom’s days coming up, this cd set would make a perfect gift for you to say thanks for letting me use the car all those years, and I am sorry for not keeping the tank half full as requested.
If you have a Saturday project to do and want to have a great background laugh track for your listening pleasure while doing chores, pick up a copy of Car Talk Classics: The Pinkwater Files. Tom and Ray and their steady laughter will give you some great moments to cherish while you get the job done. A full range of Car Talk audios are available from HighBridge, including my second favorite: The Best and the Second Best of Car Talk, but this cd is a great place to start with two of public radio’s charming radio hosts, Tom and Ray Magliozzi, the Car Talk guys.
→ No CommentsTags: Boston·Cambridge MA·car talk·Click and Clack·Magliozzi·Pinkwater·Shameless Commerce·stump-the-chumps·WBUR-FM
Beowulf translated and read by the late Seamus Heaney
April 11th, 2014 by Josh Brown · Uncategorized
When I first read Beowulf in college I was immediately captivated. As an English major, and a huge fan of fantasy literature, I was familiar with the story, but until then had never actually read the verse. I had an amazing Medieval Literature professor who set me on a path to which I began devouring works such as Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and a ton of Shakespeare (thank you Professor Twu!). I even got together with some like-minded nerds for a group reading of Paradise Lost – in one sitting (it took over ten hours). But for some reason Beowulf has always remained my favorite, and I have re-read (and listened to) it several times since. (I also enjoyed the 2007 animated film from director Robert Zemeckis, screenplay by Neil Gaiman, even though it diverges greatly from the source material.)
I honestly don’t remember which version/translation it was that I read in college, but Irish poet, playwright, translator Seamus Heaney’s translation came out about the time I graduated, and it made an impression. It seems I wasn’t alone, as Heaney’s translation – and reading – is now widely regarded as the gold-standard. Heaney was an incredible man, and it would be impossible to summarize his life, works, and accomplishments in this blog post, but the well-loved and incredibly popular Irish poet taught at Harvard and Oxford and published quite a bit of poetry in addition to prose, plays, and translations.
It is my sincere hope that my kids will be studying Seamus Heaney’s work in high school and college, along with the great poets of the past who made an impression on me in school (Yeats, Dickinson, Whitman, Frost, Shakespeare, Coleridge – I could go on and on). But I digress…
Reading Beowulf can be difficult. But translating Beowulf, the oldest surviving epic poem of Old English, to me seems like an impossibly daunting task, even for the most skilled scholar and translator. Aside from the fact that it was in Old English, Beowulf makes heavy use of alliteration and abundant kennings. Kennings are compound words, usually hyphenated, that allude to a simpler idea or thing. It is basically Old English’s alternative to a noun. These kennings would have been instantly recognizable to the people of the time, but many are not so recognizable in modern times. For example, it might be obvious that “war-gear” refers to armor, but maybe not so obvious that “word-hoard” refers to the mind/brain. And then you can have several kenning that mean the same thing, such as “whale-road,” “sail-road,” “swan-road,” or “whale’s way,” all of which refer to the ocean or sea (and all of which appear in Beowulf).
Seamus Heaney’s translation is absolutely incredible. It really does capture the feel and the rhythmic quality of the original, and transports you into Beowulf’s world of horror, death, monsters, destruction, and heroism.
Sure, reading Beowulf is great, but this is a story that was always meant to be read aloud. This is a story that was passed down orally for generations upon generations before it was ever written down. And Heaney’s soft Irish accent is an absolute pleasure to listen to. For me, the only way to experience Beowulf is to have Seamus Heaney read you his translation. Period.
I highly recommend this audio to students, poetry buffs, fantasy fans, and lovers of great literature.
Beowulf translated and read by Seamus Heaney is available on CD (retail or library edition) or as a digital download from HighBridge.
→ No CommentsTags: audiobook·BBC·Beowulf·classic·English·epic·grendel·Literature·Medieval·old english·poem·poet·poetry·scholar·Seamus Heaney·student·translation