SYNC Summer 2016: Week 15 #AudiobookSYNC16 ~ ***The Starry-Eyed Revue***

Summer is officially here, so you know what that means! SYNC recently announced the list of audiobook pairings up for grabs this summer, and today kicks off week fifteen -- the final week -- of the program for 2016. Here's what you can grab through Wednesday of next week...for free!

The young adult title this week is Bone Gap by Laura Ruby, performed by Dan Bittner for HarperAudio.

Everyone knows Bone Gap is full of gaps—gaps to trip you up, gaps to slide through so you can disappear forever.

So when young, beautiful Roza went missing, the people of Bone Gap weren't surprised. After all, it wasn't the first time that someone had slipped away and left Finn and Sean O'Sullivan on their own. Just a few years ago, their mother hightailed it to Oregon for a brand-new guy, a brand-new life. That's just how things go, the people said. Who are you going to blame?

Finn knows that's not what happened with Roza. He knows she was kidnapped, ripped from the cornfields by a dangerous man whose face he cannot remember. But the searches turn up nothing, and no one believes him anymore. Not even Sean, who has more reason to find Roza than anyone and every reason to blame Finn for letting her go.

As we follow the stories of Finn, Roza, and the people of Bone Gap—their melancholy pasts, their terrifying presents, their uncertain futures—acclaimed author Laura Ruby weaves a heartbreaking tale of love and loss, magic and mystery, regret and forgiveness—a story about how the face the world sees is never the sum of who we are.

This week's complimentary title is Classic American Short Stories by O. Henry, Jack London, Ambrose Bierce, Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, Kate Chopin, and James Fenimore Cooper; performed by William Roberts, Garrick Hagon, and Liza Ross for Naxos AudioBooks.

A special bundle just for SYNC listeners. Represented here are 16 short stories by seven great American writers, dating from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Different in atmosphere and writing style, they nevertheless caught the mood and concerns of the day in a way that was distinctly American. Kate Chopin's Regret is a reflective moment in the life of a woman without children, forced to look after children; Bierce's An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge leaves echoes in the imagination; the stories by Crane and London recall the themes of the Civil War and the Klondike for which they are well known. Twain's humor is to the fore in The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and O. Henry's sharp observation makes his neat tales a joy to listen to. There is even an elegiac description of an eclipse by James Fenimore Cooper, author of The Last of the Mohicans.

Read with sensitivity and skill by Garrick Hagon, Liza Ross, and William Roberts.

I've heard great things about Bone Gap, so I'll definitely be grabbing that one. And who doesn't like classic short stories by the likes of Mark Twain?

Will you be picking up either of these titles? Remember, they're only available through Wednesday, and new titles will be put up on Thursday for download. To download this week's titles, just click here to be taken to the SYNC download page.

I hope you take advantage of this program. I've been doing it for the last several years, and I've had the opportunity to listen to a ton of great audio for free. If you've never tried audiobooks before, it's a great opportunity to do so without the obligation of buying one that you might not enjoy. And if you love audiobooks, well, it's a great time to stock up on some titles you may have missed or discover new ones. Win/win. =)

Happy listening!