Olivia Vinall has narrated 7 audiobooks on Listento.it by 6 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.6★ across 57 ratings. The most-rated is The Two Lives of Lydia Bird.
The Two Lives of Lydia Bird
Summary
Two lives. Two loves. One impossible choice. From the number one New York Times best-selling author of the Reese’s Book Club Pick One Day in December... “I read The Two Lives of Lydia Bird in a single sitting. What a beautiful, emotional gift Josie Silver has given us.” (Jodi Picoult) Written with Josie Silver’s trademark warmth and wit, The Two Lives of Lydia Bird is a powerful and thrilling love story about the what-ifs that arise at life’s crossroads, and what happens when one woman is given a miraculous chance to answer them. Lydia and Freddie. Freddie and Lydia. They’d been together for more than a decade and Lydia thought their love was indestructible. But she was wrong. On Lydia’s 28th birthday, Freddie died in a car accident. So now it’s just Lydia, and all she wants is to hide indoors and sob until her eyes fall out. But Lydia knows that Freddie would want her to try to live fully, happily, even without him. So, enlisting the help of his best friend, Jonah, and her sister, Elle, she takes her first tentative steps into the world, open to life - and perhaps even love - again. But then something inexplicable happens that gives her another chance at her old life with Freddie. A life where none of the tragic events of the past few months have happened. Lydia is pulled again and again through the doorway to her past, living two lives, impossibly, at once. But there’s an emotional toll to returning to a world where Freddie, alive, still owns her heart. Because there’s someone in her new life, her real life, who wants her to stay.
©2019 Josie Silver (P)2019 Random House Audio
Shiver
Summary
In this propulsive locked-room thriller debut, a reunion weekend in the French Alps turns deadly when five friends discover that someone has deliberately stranded them at their remote mountaintop resort during a snowstorm. When Milla accepts an off-season invitation to Le Rocher, a cozy ski resort in the French Alps, she's expecting an intimate weekend of catching up with four old friends. It might have been a decade since she saw them last, but she's never forgotten the bond they forged on this very mountain during a winter spent fiercely training for an elite snowboarding competition. Yet no sooner do Milla and the others arrive for the reunion than they realize something is horribly wrong. The resort is deserted. The cable cars that delivered them to the mountaintop have stopped working. Their cell phones - missing. And inside the hotel, detailed instructions await them: an icebreaker game, designed to draw out their secrets. A game meant to remind them of Saskia, the enigmatic sixth member of their group, who vanished the morning of the competition years before and has long been presumed dead. Stranded in the resort, Milla's not sure what's worse: the increasingly sinister things happening around her or the looming snowstorm that's making escape even more impossible. All she knows is that there's no one on the mountain she can trust. Because someone has gathered them there to find out the truth about Saskia...someone who will stop at nothing to get answers. And if Milla's not careful, she could be the next to disappear....
©2021 Allie Reynolds (P)2021 Penguin Audio
And So It Begins
Summary
Who will believe your story if the only witness is dead? "What a storyteller Rachel Abbott is...I was hooked from the start." (Cara Hunter) "A truly compelling, twisty, enthralling and satisfying read.... Absolutely amazing!" (Angela Marsons) Cleo knows she should be happy for her brother Mark. He's managed to find someone new after the sudden death of his first wife - but something about Evie just doesn't feel right.... When Evie starts having accidents at home, her friends grow concerned. Could Mark be causing her injuries? Called out to their cliff-top house one night, Sergeant Stephanie King finds two bodies entangled on blood-drenched sheets. Where does murder begin? When the knife is raised to strike, or before, at the first thought of violence? As the accused stands trial, the jury is forced to consider - is there ever a proper defense for murder? "I raced through this compelling, twisty novel. Loved it." (Laura Marshall) "Brilliant.... The twists came so quickly I almost got whiplash." (Jenny Blackhurst) "An unnerving, twisting tale that you won't be able to put down." (Caroline Mitchell)
©2018 Black Dot Publishing Limited (P)2018 Headline Publishing Group Ltd (P)2019 Audible, Inc.
Middlemarch
Summary
George Eliot's beloved story of life, love and politics in an English town. A jewel in the classic literature crown, Middlemarch was selected as one of the BBC’s 100 Novels That Shaped Our World. Its epic arc takes in politics, tragedy, romance and comedy, interweaving multiple narratives to make up a thrilling ensemble tale. Set in the 1830s, this ‘study of provincial life’ introduces us to young, idealistic Dorothea Brooke, who accepts a proposal from scholarly Edward Casaubon, hoping to forge a loving partnership of intellectual equals. But on honeymoon in Rome, she swiftly becomes disillusioned. Trapped in an unhappy marriage, she finds solace in her friendship with Casaubon’s cousin, Will Ladislaw - only for her controlling husband to suspect her of betrayal and set out to test her loyalty. Meanwhile, mayor’s son Fred Vincy embarks on a steep economic learning curve, risking his burgeoning relationship with Mary Garth. When he contracts typhoid, he is treated by the town’s new medical man, Tertius Lydgate, who becomes drawn to Fred’s sister, Rosamond. Eager to win her hand, the Doctor seeks help from the wealthy Mr Bulstrode - a decision he will come to regret.... As their stories shift, viewpoints twist together and lives collide and realign in a compelling ‘convergence of human lots’ that shows us an entire world in microcosm. Juliet Aubrey stars as the Narrator, George Eliot, with Olivia Vinall as Dorothea, Charles Edwards as Casaubon and John Heffernan as Dr Lydgate. Also featured is a bonus edition of In Our Time, in which Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Eliot’s classic novel, described by Virginia Woolf as ‘one of the few English novels written for grown-up people'. Cast and credits: The Narrator, George Eliot - Juliet Aubrey Dorothea - Olivia Vinall Edward Casaubon - Charles Edwards Dr Lydgate - John Heffernan Will Ladislaw - Joseph Quinn Arthur Brooke/Caleb Garth/Mr Trumball - Neil McCaul Sir James Chettam - Hugh Skinner Rev Farebrother - Miles Jupp Nicholas Bulstrode - Adrian Scarborough Celia - Lucy Reynolds Peter Featherstone/Standish/John Raffles - Clive Hayward Fred Vincy/Auction bidder - Will Kirk Rosamond - Laura Christy Mr Vincy/Mr Bambridge - Rick Warden Mrs Cadwallader/Mrs Plymdale - Jessica Turner Adolf Naumann/Barman - Adam Courting Dr Hawley/Clerk - Greg Jones Servant/Mrs Abel - Sinead MacInnes Tantripp/Mary Garth - Scarlett Courtney Mrs Garth - Alison Belbin Letty Garth - Grace Doherty Farmer/Mr Hopkins - Ikky Elyas Tertius Lydgate - John Heffernan Harriet Bulstrode - Rosie Cavaliero Mrs Vincy/Farebrother’s aunt - Heather Craney Written by George Eliot. Adapted by Katie Hims. Directed by Jessica Dromgoole and Tracey Neale. First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 23 November-7 December 2019.
©2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
The Drama of Celebrity
Summary
A bold new account of how celebrity works Why do so many people care so much about celebrities? Who decides who gets to be a star? What are the privileges and pleasures of fandom? Do celebrities ever deserve the outsized attention they receive? In this fascinating and deeply researched book, Sharon Marcus challenges everything you thought you knew about our obsession with fame. Icons are not merely famous for being famous; the media alone cannot make or break stars; fans are not simply passive dupes. Instead, journalists, the public, and celebrities themselves all compete, passionately and expertly, to shape the stories we tell about celebrities and fans. The result: a high-stakes drama as endless as it is unpredictable. Drawing on scrapbooks, personal diaries, and vintage fan mail, Marcus traces celebrity culture back to its 19th-century roots, when people the world over found themselves captivated by celebrity chefs, bad-boy poets, and actors such as the “divine” Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923), as famous in her day as the Beatles in theirs. Known in her youth for sleeping in a coffin, hailed in maturity as a woman of genius, Bernhardt became a global superstar thanks to savvy engagement with her era’s most innovative media and technologies: the popular press, commercial photography, and speedy new forms of travel. Whether you love celebrity culture or hate it, The Drama of Celebrity will change how you think about one of the most important phenomena of modern times.
©2019 Sharon Marcus (P)2019 Princeton University Press
Doris Lessing
Summary
Dramatisations and readings of novels and short stories by Nobel laureate Doris Lessing - plus a bonus documentary, 'Open Book', examining her life and career. One of the most celebrated and important authors of the 20th century, Doris Lessing was awarded a Nobel Prize for the ‘visionary power’ of her fiction, which spans a variety of genres and explores themes such as racism, feminism and social and political upheaval. This collection includes the radio productions of three of her acclaimed novels and four short stories, as well as a fascinating discussion of her life and work. 'The Good Terrorist' - Olivia Vinall stars in this adaptation of Doris Lessing’s satire of incompetent revolutionaries in a London squat. 'Lucy Grange' - Exiled from the sophistication of her homeland, stylish Lucy seeks solace and comfort and learns 'to accept the second-rate'. Read by Estelle Kohler. 'The Grass Is Singing' - In this powerful exploration of racial politics in 1940s Rhodesia, adapted from Doris Lessing’s first novel, a white woman’s troubled relationship with her black houseboy comes to a violent end. Starring Alison Pettit and Tracy-Ann Oberman. 'Flight' - A laughing, teasing granddaughter and a dovecote full of strutting birds are an old man's only escape from his cold family home. Read by Jack Klaff. 'The Golden Notebook' - Susannah Harker stars in this dramatisation of Doris Lessing’s groundbreaking novel about marriage, motherhood, mental breakdown and communism. 'The Death of a Chair' - A lived-in chair is bought at auction, where it begins its final journey towards discovery and destruction. Read by Barbara Marten. 'Open Book: Doris Lessing' - Mariella Frostrup talks to Doris Lessing about her long and extraordinarily varied writing career.
©2019 BBC Worldwide Ltd (P)2019 BBC Worldwide Ltd
The Invitation
Summary
That’s the thing about old friends...they never let you forget. The first time Jemma and Matt were invited to Polskirrin - the imposing ocean-view home belonging to Matt’s childhood friend Lucas Jarrett - it was for an intimate wedding that ended in tragedy. Jemma will never forget the sight of the girl’s pale body floating listlessly towards the rocky shore. Now, exactly one year later, Jemma and her husband have reluctantly returned at Lucas’s request to honor the anniversary of an event they would do anything to forget. But what Lucas has in store for his guests is nothing like a candlelight vigil. Someone who was there that night remembers more than they’ll admit to, and Lucas has devised a little game to make them tell the truth. Jemma believes she and Matt know nothing about what happened to that woman...but what if she’s wrong? Before you play a deadly game, make sure you can pay the price.... From the four-million-copy best-selling author of Sleep Tight comes a psychological thriller that will have you gripped until the last word. Perfect for fans of Something in the Water, The Woman in the Window, and The Silent Patient.
©2020 Rachel Abbott (P)2020 Headline