The Librarian Writer

It's that time of the year again, when the good people at Sync offer a weekly selection of YA audiobooks paired with classic titles. If you don't have OverDrive Media Console, you'll need to install if, but Sync offers a handy link to that on its website. Check out this year's offerings: May 7-14:   Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier May 14-21:   Dodger by Terry Pratchett Great Expectations by Charles Dickens May 21-28:   X: A Novel by Ilyasha Shabazz & Kekla Magoon Here in Harlem by Walter Dean Myers May 28-June 4:   The Ring and the Crown by Melissa De La Cruz Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan June 4-11:   A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty Dracula by Bram Stoker June 11-18:   The Living by Matt de la Pena The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger June 18-25:   Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein Anne Frank Remembered by Miep Gies & Alison L...

The good people at Sync are at it again ... offering free YA audiobooks and pairing them with audiobooks of classic literature. A new pair is released once a week throughout summer. Sign up and download free audiobooks all summer long. Sync will even send you a text or email reminder when the new audiobooks are available. Easy peasy, right? And, hells yeah, it's free! This year's line up is pretty awesome: May 15 – May 21 WARP: THE RELUCTANT ASSASSIN by Eoin Colfer, Narrated by Maxwell Caulfield (Listening Library) THE TIME MACHINE by H.G. Wells, Narrated by Derek Jacobi (Listening Library) May 22 – May 28 CRUEL BEAUTY by Rosamund Hodge, Narrated by Elizabeth Knowelden (Harper Audio) OEDIPUS THE KING by Sophocles, Performed by Michael Sheen and a full cast (Naxos AudioBooks) May 29 – June 4 CONFESSIONS OF A MURDER SUSPECT by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, Narrated by Emma Galvin (Hachette Audio) THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE by Agatha Christie, Narra...

I mentioned Sync in a previous blog post , but it's been a while and it certainly bears repeating. Especially this year, because Sync is offering an amazing collection of audiobooks. For free. Sync gives people a chance to experience audiobooks and pairs classic literature with a current YA release. A new pair is released once a week throughout summer. Just sign up and you can be downloading free audiobooks all summer long. Sync will even send you a text or email reminder when the new audiobooks are available. How easy is that? (And did I mention it is FREE!?!) The first pair --  Of Poseidon by Anna Banks, read by Rebecca Gibel and The Tempest by William Shakespeare, read by a Full Cast -- releases on May 30, 2013 and will available for download through June 5, 2013. You can see the full schedule of Sync audiobooks here . Happy listening!

Actually, you don't have to sign up. Or register. Or do anything but download free Young Adult audiobooks from Sync. Sync is offering two free audiobooks this summer on their website from July 1 - September 1, 2010. Their selections are a matched pair, a reading list title with one fun read. A week later the next pair goes live. The 1st pair is James Patterson's The Angel Experiment with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein , which sounds pretty freaking awesome to me. Librarians, educators, and bloggers are encouraged to spread the word. There's a PR tool kit with banners and posters and other goodies to help. There is also an audiobook community that you can join (if you really must sign up for something) to share ideas and social network with other audiobookphiles. Or whatever you call people who love audiobooks. Happy listening!

YA Author Cory Doctorow is giving away free downloads of his new sci-fi novel, Little Brother . The reviews on Amazon are beyond glowing from such YA titans as Neil Gaiman and Scott Westerfeld. I've downloaded it and am looking forward to the read. BUT ... would you give away your blood, sweat, and royalties so easily? Doctorow's contention is that obscurity is worse than piracy . Get the book out there, make people aware of it, and book sales will actually increase. It probably helps that the book is, according to reviews, a damn good one. Doctorow covers himself with a Creative Commons license that allows non-commercial sharing. Readers can create fan fic, which is especially important for YA readers, who become invested in the characters and like to continue the story on their own (I certainly wrote my share of comic book fan fic as a teen). But give away the whole novel? Seriously? Why not just the first three chapters to whet appetites? Would teens' short attention spa...