News Briefs

Holiday-themed series entries available in multiple audio formats this month: Kate Jacobs's third "Friday Night Knitting Club" title, Knit the Season (Blackstone Audio), read by Carrington MacDuffie, and A Christmas Promise (BBC Audiobooks America), Anne Perry's seventh Victorian-era holiday novella, read by Terrence Hardiman. More info on both titles at www.blackstoneaudio.com and www.bbcaudiobooksamerica.com, respectively, where you can also find all previous titles in the series.

This month, Naxos AudioBooks releases Jane Austen: The Complete Novels (69 CDs. unabridged. 83 hrs. ISBN 978-962-634-274-9. $250), read by Juliet Stevenson and Emilia Fox and including two unfinished Austen works: The Watsons and Sanditon. An abridged version will follow in 2010, to coincide with an all-new four-hour BBC production of Emma scheduled to broadcast on PBS. More info at www.naxosaudiobooks.com.

Out Loud Audiobooks, the Maine-based company behind the "Knitting Out Loud" series of narrative and instructional audiobooks, will be introducing a new "Cooking Out Loud" series in 2010, whose first entries will include Edna Lewis's The Taste of Country Cooking and Claudia Roden's The Book of Jewish Food. Out Loud titles are available on CD, as preloaded Playaway digital units, and as digital downloads (via OverDrive). More info at www.knittingoutloud.com.

Newly available from MTV Books: Matthew Specktor's That Summertime Sound, a debut hardcover novel set against the 1980s Columbus, OH, music scene. Accompanying the book are audio recordings of readings by actors Jeremy Irons, James Franco, and Gwyneth Paltrow and musicians Even Dando (The Lemonheads) and J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.). More info at www.thatsummertimesound.com.

The latest addition to Macmillan's Quick and Dirty Tips podcast series (see Audio NewsBriefs, LJ 6/1/09) is The Dealista, in which financial experts Linsey Knerl and Lynn Truong (coauthors, 10,001 Ways To Live Large on a Small Budget) share tips on getting the best deals and smart ways to save money. Among the podcast series' current top-rated shows are Grammar Girl, Sales Guy, Get-It-Done Guy, and Nutrition Diva. More info at www.quickanddirtytips.com.