Julia Fletcher has narrated 9 audiobooks on Listento.it by 3 authors, with an average listener rating of 5★ across 12 ratings. The most-rated is Harsh Cry of the Heron.
Harsh Cry of the Heron
Summary
An epic fantasy set in a mythical, medieval Japan, Lian Hearn's Tales of the Otori series has crossed genres, generations, and genders. Grand and complex in its themes, elegantly written, each book in the original trilogy has become a worldwide best seller. This surprise fourth installment (and real conclusion), The Harsh Cry of the Heron, achieves new heights of drama and action. 16 years of peace and prosperity have passed since Lord Otori Takeo united the Three Countries. Takeo and his beloved consort, Kaede, have three daughters and a happy family life. Their success has attracted the attention of the distant Emperor and his general, the warlord Saga Hideki, who covet the wealth of the Countries. Meanwhile, the violent acts and betrayals of the past will not lie buried, and other secrets will not stay hidden. Everything that Takeo and Kaede have achieved is threatened. In full ninja versus samurai fashion, Hearn delivers a kinetic, heartbreaking, and uplifting resolution to a thoroughly gripping saga.
©2006 Lian Hearn (P)2006 HighBridge Company
The Quest Begins
Summary
Three bears...one destiny. From the author of the nationally best-selling Warriors books comes a brand-new animal-fantasy series. Three young bears from different species - black, polar, and grizzly - are separated from their families when they are just young cubs. They find themselves brought together on a perilous journey. Fate is about to change all these bears lives forever, setting their paws on a path toward a future they cannot yet imagine.
©2008 Working Partners Ltd. (P)2008 HarperCollins Publishers
Heaven's Net Is Wide
Summary
As Tolkien's The Silmarillion is to The Lord of the Rings, Liam Hearn's Heaven's Net Is Wide is to Tales of the Otori. This is the back story fans have been yearning for. Set before the Tales begin, Heaven's Net recounts the life of Lord Otori Shigeru, the series' spiritual warrior-godfather and the adoptive father of the Tales' Takeo. We learn about Shigeru's training in the ways of the warrior and feudal lord; his relationship with the Tribe of mysteriously powerful assassins; his fateful meeting with Lady Maruyama, who would become his secret lover; the battle of Yaegahara, where his father is killed; and other turning points that shaped the Tales. The first four volumes gave us only glimpses. Now we are treated to rich detail and more of Hearn's fantastical Japanese world. Gripping and bewitching, Heaven's Net is a new beginning and a grand finale; a story of monumental battles, supreme loyalty, triumphant love, and heartbreak. It ends just before Across the Nightingale Floor begins, bringing the Otori epic full circle.
©2007 Lian Hearn. Recorded by arrangement with Riverhead Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc (P)2007 HighBridge Company
Great Bear Lake
Summary
Young black bear Lusa has left the comfort of the zoo, determined against all odds to make her way in the wild. It is there that she encounters grizzly cub Toklo and a mysterious changeling named Ujurak. Once united, the cubs find themselves on a journey toward a mystical place - if only they knew where. Meanwhile, separated from her family, polar bear cub Kallik trusts her intuition to lead her on a path traveled by many bears before her. At last the four cubs meet at the sacred Great Bear Lake, a place of peace and healing where bears gather to celebrate the longest day. But all is not harmonious. Danger lurks beneath the calm surface of the lake, and only if they put aside their differences and truly come together will the young bears have any chance of surviving the harsh realities of the wild.
©2009 Working Partners Ltd. (P)2009 HarperCollins Publishers
Smoke Mountain
Summary
There is a place where bears can live in peace, where there is sea-ice all year, where the forests are full of prey, where flat-faces never go. Polar bears Kallik and Taqqiq, black bear Lusa, grizzly Toklo, and the shape-shifting Ujurak believe that this fabled bear paradise must be the destination of their quest. But the path they follow is dangerous. The burning Smoke Mountains are more treacherous than anything the bears have faced before, and tensions run high as they encounter obstacle after obstacle. A rushing river and hostile flat-faces separate them from their goal, and a bear is pushed to the brink of death. Signs and omens point in different directions, and the bears, though traveling together, must each follow his or her own star...causing one bear to leave the group forever. But as the others travel on, they soon learn that it will take all their strength and determination to reach their destination. And, if they reach it at last, they may learn that what they thought was their quest's end is in fact a new beginning.
©2009 Working Partners Ltd. (P)2009 HarperCollins Publishers
Spirits in the Stars
Summary
On the unforgiving Arctic Ice.... United once again, Toklo, Lusa, Kallik, and Ujurak continue across the ice. Conditions are harsh and especially treacherous for the black bear and grizzly bears who are not used to the brutal cold, never-ending snow, and limited food. But the bears are certain now that they're on the right course, and with the stars still guiding them, they push forward. When they reach land at last, the group is overjoyed, but something is not right. The bears who live here are ill. What's wrong with them? What can the foursome do to help? Is aiding these strangers the ultimate goal of their quest? Ujurak just might hold the key to their mission in his paws, yet it's Lusa the new bears are especially interested in. Three young cubs, each from different backgrounds, and their mysterious shape-shifting companion have grown up together in their long and dangerous journey to save the wild. Now, when their task appears more difficult than ever, the bears must make a critical decision... and for one bear the path ends here.
©2011 Working Partners Limited (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers
The Last Wilderness
Summary
Is this journey’s end . . .or just the beginning? Toklo, Kallik, Lusa, and Ujurak have finally reached the Last Great Wilderness, the legendary bear paradise they’ve been searching for. But while his companions think they’ve come to the end of their long journey, Ujurak feels a deep unrest. Is this truly where they¹re meant to be? In the Last Great Wilderness, one by one the bears begin to remember their true natures. Toklo feels the urge to hunt caribou and mark his territory as a brown bear should, and Kallik feels the pull of the ice within her. It¹s only Lusa, happy just to be in the wild, who fears the day when her friends will leave her to follow their own paths.As the bears adjust to this new life, disaster strikes. The friends are forced to venture into the world of the flat-faces to save the life of one of their own. Once there, the end of their journey seems farther away than ever, as a new path spreads out before them.
©2010 Working Partners Ltd. (P)2010 HarperCollins Publishers
Fire in the Sky
Summary
The spirits dance like fire in the sky... The three cubs—Kallik, Toklo, and Lusa—along with their shape-shifting companion, Ujurak, stand on the edge of the sea-ice under the blazing Northern Lights. The land has come to an end, but the bears' journey is far from over. Now they must put their trust in Kallik's paws, as she feels the ice pulling her out toward the ocean. Life on the ice is more difficult than the bears imagined. While Kallik struggles to remember her polar-bear roots, Toklo bristles in the unfamiliar territory and Lusa gets weaker by the day; black and brown bears don't belong on the ice. Meanwhile, Ujurak learns firsthand what lurks beneath the whorls and bubbles of the ice, and what he discovers will change everything. Just when it seems like they'll never survive in the frozen wilderness, a mystical encounter with a bear spirit assures them that all will be well. But this strange vision leads to even more questions, and ultimately it might tear the bears apart—this time for good—as the next steps of their journey come into focus.
©2011 Working Partners Limited (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers
To Hell with All That
Summary
It's not news that women work, have families, and are conflicted about it. No one needs to be reminded that motherhood is hard. Enter Caitlin Flanagan with a fresh, witheringly funny take on women's lives today, the weddings, nannies, overscheduled children, sex (and the lack of sex), the cult of the "domestic goddess" and its manias for home decorating and gourmet cooking, and the endless tension between working moms and stay-at-home moms. Part social history, part social commentary, part personal account of the author's own relationship with her mother and her children, To Hell with All That is about the things that interest Flanagan the most: women and children, households and marriages. Presented as a series of essays, it follows the natural course of women's lives. Without offering a prescription for happiness, it defines where Flanagan wants to be: in a world where a woman is depended on, and considered irreplaceable, by people who love her.
©2006 Caitlin Flanagan (P)2006 HighBridge Company