Swimsuit
by James Patterson, Maxine Paetro
Reader: Christian Rummel
Audio CD
List Price: $34.98
Published in 2009
ISBN-10: 1-60024-591-9

My Take:
This audio book is good company while I was catching up with my laundry from vacation trips. Laundry for 7 people is a mountain, even it it’s just 3-day trip. I finished this book right around the time I was loading the last 3 loads of laundry.

I like the reader, Christian Rummel. He makes this thrilling story more breath-taking. It’s creepy, and scary. But then this is the same James Patterson of Kiss the Girls. I like the build-up, and the pace of the story until the ending. It just seem abrupt. It comes to a grinding halt with pieces neatly tied up. The ending didn’t feel like a James Patterson ending.

I didn’t mind so much because other than the abrupt ending, it’s a good book to listen to. I would like to thank Anna of Hachette Book Group for the chance to listen to this story.

About the Book:
Syd, a breathtakingly beautiful supermodel on a photo shoot in Hawaii, disappears. Fearing the worst, her parents travel to Hawaii to investigate for themselves, never expecting the horror that awaits them.

LA Times reporter Ben Hawkins is conducting his own research into the case, hoping to help the victim and get an idea for his next bestseller. With no leads and no closer to uncovering the kidnapper’s identity than when he stepped off the plane, Ben gets a shocking visit that pushes him into an impossible-to-resist deal with the devil.

A heart-pounding story of fear and desire, Swimsuit transports listeners to a chilling new territory where the collision of beauty and murder transforms paradise into a hell of unspeakable horrors.

©2009 James Patterson; (P)2009 Hachette Audio

The Giveaway:
Contest open to US and Canadian address. No PO Box addresses.
Three (3) winners on September 15.
Must subscribe to this blog’s feed to find out if you’re a winner.
Winners will be posted within a week of draw date.

How to win:
I found this game in my favorite BB. I don’t remember exactly who started the game, I just scrolled though tons of post, but couldn’t find it. Anyway, it’s called non-sequitur comments.

Basically, you can leave a comment about anything and make sure that it’s not related to anything anyone have already left.

The first comment could be lamenting about the missing shoelace; then your comment could be about this nice burger you had for lunch. And it goes on. You can come back and leave your non-related comments as often as you can, just make sure there’s 2 other people between your comments.

If you find this confusing, feel free to contact me. If you can tweak the game better, let me know.

Tags: Hachette Book Group, James Patterson, Maxine Paetro, Reader: Christian Rummel

The Scarecrow (Unabridged audio)
Michael Connelly (author)
Peter Giles (reader)

About this audio:
Forced out of the Los Angeles Times amid the latest budget cuts, newspaperman Jack McEvoy decides to go out with a bang, using his final days at the paper to write the definitive murder story of his career.

He focuses on Alonzo Winslow, a 16-year-old drug dealer in jail after confessing to a brutal murder. But as he delves into the story, Jack realizes that Winslow’s so-called confession is bogus. The kid might actually be innocent.

Jack is soon running with his biggest story since The Poet made his career years ago. He is tracking a killer who operates completely below police radar–and with perfect knowledge of any move against him. Including Jack’s.

About the author: (from his website)
Michael Connelly decided to become a writer after discovering the books of Raymond Chandler while attending the University of Florida. Once he decided on this direction he chose a major in journalism and a minor in creative writing — a curriculum in which one of his teachers was novelist Harry Crews.

After graduating in 1980, Connelly worked at newspapers in Daytona Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, primarily specializing in the crime beat. In Fort Lauderdale he wrote about police and crime during the height of the murder and violence wave that rolled over South Florida during the so-called cocaine wars. In 1986, he and two other reporters spent several months interviewing survivors of a major airline crash. They wrote a magazine story on the crash and the survivors which was later short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. The magazine story also moved Connelly into the upper levels of journalism, landing him a job as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times, one of the largest papers in the country, and bringing him to the city of which his literary hero, Chandler, had written. [read more here]

The Giveaway:
Thanks to Anna and Hachette Book Group.
Open to US and Canada addresses. No PO Boxes please.
Three (3) winners will be choosen on July 21.

How to Win:
+1: Do reader make or break the book?
+1: Who is one of your favorite reader and which book did he read?
+1: How and when do you listen to your audio book?
For example, I can only listen to my audio book if I am doing chores, running or driving. Otherwise, I tune out and fall asleep. I listed to more than 60 audio books last year. Lots of chores, really.

+1: Who is your favorite reader?
+1: What book have they read?
+1: Subscribe to my feed (current subscriber welcome)
+1: bring a friend. Make sure to tell your friend to mention your name when they leave a comment so I can add another entry with your name.
+1: blog about this contest, or add a link in your sidebar

Tags: Michael Connelly, Peter Giles