My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Author: Gayle Forman

Narrator: Dan Bittner

Length: 5 hrs., 21 mins.

Publisher: Penguin Audiobooks

Publisher’s Summary:  It’s been three years since the devastating accident… three years since Mia walked out of Adam’s life forever.

Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Juilliard’s rising star and Adam is L.A. tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock-star status and celebrity girlfriend. When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chance brings the couple together again, for one last night. As they explore the city that has become Mia’s home, Adam and Mia revisit the past and open their hearts to the future – and each other.

Told from Adam’s point of view in the spare, lyrical prose that defined If I Stay, Where She Wentexplores the devastation of grief, the promise of new hope, and the flame of rekindled romance.

©2011 Gayle Forman (P)2011 Penguin

Author: E.L. James

Narrator: Becca Battoe

Length: 19 hrs., 47 mins.

Publisher: Random House

Publisher’s Summary:  Please note: This audiobook contains graphic adult content.

Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.

When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of his success—multinational businesses, vast wealth, a loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.

©2011 E L James (P)2012 Random House

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Author: Stephen King

Narrator: Stephen King

Length: 9 hrs 49 mins.

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publisher’s Summary: In The Wind Through the Keyhole, Stephen King returns to the rich landscape of Mid-World, the spectacular territory of the Dark Tower fantasy saga that stands as his most beguiling achievement.

Roland Deschain and his ka-tet—Jake, Susannah, Eddie, and Oy, the billy-bumbler—encounter a ferocious storm just after crossing the River Whye on their way to the Outer Baronies. As they shelter from the howling gale, Roland tells his friends not just one strange story but two . . . and in so doing, casts new light on his own troubled past.

In his early days as a gunslinger, in the guilt-ridden year following his mother’s death, Roland is sent by his father to investigate evidence of a murderous shape-shifter, a “skin-man” preying upon the population around Debaria. Roland takes charge of Bill Streeter, the brave but terrified boy who is the sole surviving witness to the beast’s most recent slaughter. Only a teenager himself, Roland calms the boy and prepares him for the following day’s trials by reciting a story from the Magic Tales of the Eld that his mother often read to him at bedtime. “A person’s never too old for stories,” Roland says to Bill. “Man and boy, girl and woman, never too old. We live for them.” And indeed, the tale that Roland unfolds, the legend of Tim Stoutheart, is a timeless treasure for all ages, a story that lives for us.

King began the Dark Tower series in 1974; it gained momentum in the 1980s; and he brought it to a thrilling conclusion when the last three novels were published in 2003 and 2004. The Wind Through the Keyhole is sure to fascinate avid fans of the Dark Tower epic. But this novel also stands on its own for all readers, an enchanting and haunting journey to Roland’s world and testimony to the power of Stephen King’s storytelling magic.

My Review: As a long time fan of the Dark Tower series I found myself immediately intrigued to learn that there was more to the story.

I knew without a doubt that I would be experiencing this book in the audiobook format so I immediately looked to see who would be narrating. I had made the assumption that George Guidall would be the obvious choice so I was surprised and a little disappointed to learn that Stephen King was narrating it himself. In general I’m not a big fan of books narrated by the author. (Notable exceptions are books written by Malcolm Gladwell and Neil Gaiman) So I had to talk myself into going ahead with this audiobook. I told myself that it would prove to be very interesting to hear this story directly from the author’s mouth. It would be a unique opportunity to hear the language of Mid-World as Stephen King has always imagined it.

As the book began it seemed to feel a little weird to pick up Roland’s ka-tet in the middle of their journey. The ka-tet is travelling along The Beam when Oy starts acting funny. His odd behavior turns out to be an early warning system for one hell of a storm.  When Roland, Eddie, Jake, Susannah and Oy take shelter they ask Roland to tell them a story to pass the time.

Roland begins his story and you go back further in time to when Roland was just a teenage gunslinger.  The story that unfolds here is a fascinating look into Roland’s history. His experiences here tracking the shape shifter are classic Mid-World lore and fits perfectly with everything that you already knew about gunslingers. Basically they are bad asses.

As much as I enjoyed this section of the book I have to admit that my favorite section was the story that the teenage Roland tells to the young witness of the shapeshifter’s murderous escapades. This story, from the Magic Tales of Eld is basically a Mid-World fairytale that blurs the edges of time and space. Familiar characters and themes are there to be found within this tale.

This story, within a story, within a story seems a little disorienting when the stories begin and end. While they are being told though I tended to completely forget about the story I had just left and found myself completely engrossed by what adventure I was just dropped into. As the fairytale ended I knew that things were starting to draw to a close. I have to admit that I was a little depressed. I kept wondering will this be my last trip to the Dark Tower series?

Finally we find ourselves back with our ka-tet after they had just rode out the storm. Roland’s story seems to have helped take everyone’s mind off the storm and it also seems to have had a cathartic effect on himself as well. Knowing what is in store for Roland as he travels down The Beam,  it was nice to see that he was able to find a little bit of closure on one of the most stressful experiences in his life.

Audio Production: Stephen King is not a great narrator. This audiobook isn’t one that I would recommend to a first time audiobook listener but it certainly is one that I would recommend to long time Stephen King fans who love audiobooks.

Overall: The Wind Through The Keyhole is a fascinating trip back to Mid-World. King’s narration is a bit of a double edged sword. Audiobook newbies won’t be converted into audiobook lovers based upon his performance. However, long time fans of King’s work will be able to find simple enjoyment of listening to the world of Roland Deschain and his ka-tet unfold directly from the master storytellers lips.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this audiobook from the publisher 

Check out my review of Kill Shot here: Kill Shot by Vince Flynn

There are lots of ways to enter.. scroll down past the publisher’s summary and follow the instructions to enter for your chance to win.

A winner will be drawn on Monday, April 16, 2012.

Publisher’s Summary: #1 New York Times best-selling author Vince Flynn is back with another nail-biting political thriller that follows the young Mitch Rapp on a deadly mission to hunt down the men responsible for the Pan Am Lockerbie terrorist attack.

For months, Mitch Rapp has been steadily working his way through a list of men, bullet by bullet. With each kill, the tangled network of monsters responsible for the slaughter of 270 civilians becomes increasingly clear. He is given his next target: a plump Libyan diplomat who is prone to drink and is currently in Paris without a single bodyguard.

Rapp finds him completely unprotected and asleep in his bed. With confidence in his well-honed skills and conviction of the man’s guilt, he easily sends a bullet into the man’s skull. But in the split second it takes the bullet to leave the silenced pistol, everything changes. The door to the hotel room is kicked open and gunfire erupts all around Rapp. In an instant the hunter has become the hunted. Rapp is left wounded and must flee for his life.

The next morning, the news breaks in Washington that Libya’s Oil Minister has been killed along with three innocent civilians and four unidentified men. The French authorities are certain that the gunman is wounded and on the loose in Paris. As the finger pointing begins, Rapp’s handlers have only one choice – deny any responsibility for the incident and pray that their newest secret weapon stays that way, avoiding capture and dying quietly. One person in the group, however, is not prone to leaving things to chance. Rapp has become a liability, and he absolutely cannot be allowed to be taken alive by the French authorities. But it will soon become clear that nothing is more dangerous than a wounded and cornered Mitch Rapp.

©2012 Vince Flynn (P)2012 Simon & Schuster Audio

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My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Author: Todd Burpo, Lynn Vincent

Narrator: Dean Gallagher

Length: 4 hrs 16 min

Publisher: Oasis Audio

Publisher’s Summary:  When Colton Burpo made it through an emergency appendectomy, his family was overjoyed at his miraculous survival. What they weren’t expecting, though, was the story that emerged in the months that followed – a story as beautiful as it was extraordinary, detailing their little boy’s trip to heaven and back.

Colton, not yet four years old, told his parents he left his body during the surgery – and authenticated that claim by describing exactly what his parents were doing in another part of the hospital while he was being operated on. He talked of visiting heaven and relayed stories told to him by people he met there whom he had never met in life, sharing events that happened even before he was born. He also astonished his parents with descriptions and obscure details about heaven that matched the Bible exactly, though he had not yet learned to read. With disarming innocence and the plainspoken boldness of a child, Colton tells of meeting long-departed family members. He describes Jesus, the angels, how “really, really big” God is, and how much God loves us.

Retold by his father, but using Colton’s uniquely simple words, Heaven Is for Real offers a glimpse of the world that awaits us, where, as Colton says, “Nobody is old and nobody wears glasses.”

My Review:

Heaven is for Real is a very moving story of a young family’s struggle through the severe illness of their child.

The first part of the book details the illness and the subsequent trips from one doctor to the next in search of the cause of Colton’s problems. Any parent who has had a sick child in the hospital can relate to the emotional roller coaster that the Burpo’s must have been riding.

The second part of the book elaborates upon Colton’s claims that he visited Heaven. Colton’s account comes out in short bursts that leave his parents speechless. His story is encouraging and captivating when taken at face value.

Unfortunately I found this very difficult to do.

I sincerely want to believe that everything described in the book actually happened, however the skeptic in me kept rearing it’s ugly head. It’s much easier to believe that the Burpo’s are simply out to make a buck than that their son was in Heaven for three minutes with God, Jesus, John the Baptist, etc.

I didn’t find anything in this book that contradicts scripture. The only thing that really bothered me was how Colton was so nonchalant about the whole experience. I have a 4 yr old myself and I think that if he had the experience that Colton described then it would probably be the first thing he told me as soon as he was out of surgery. I expect that his story would all come out at once as soon as he was able to relay it. He is always asking my wife and I questions about Jesus and God so I have no doubt that he would tell us immediately if he actually sat in Jesus’ lap while the angels sang to him.

All this being said I have to admit that I did enjoy the book. It is encouraging if nothing else. I have personally spoken with several people who feel like this book has strengthened their faith and given them comfort so in that way at least this book might be useful in bringing people closer to God. However, it is a little discouraging to see people putting so much faith and belief into this little boy’s story instead of what has already been revealed about Heaven and Eternity by God in the Bible.

Audio Production: Dean Gallagher did a pretty good job narrating this book. It certainly wasn’t one of my favorite performances but he did a solid job.

Overall: The skeptic in me probably kept me from enjoying this book as much as several of my friends seemed to. While it is a nice quick listen I found it hard to hear this book without feeling that I was being duped. I want to believe the Burpo’s. I don’t want to think that this was a story generated solely for the purpose of earning money. But I sort of do..

Disclosure: I purchased this audiobook. 

Disclosure: I downloaded this audiobook from Audible.com. All opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.