Gather ‘Round the Sound: Holiday Stories from Beloved Authors and Great Performers Across the Globe

by Paulo Coelho, Yvonne Morrison, Charles Dickens

Gather 'Round the Sound: Holiday Stories from Beloved Authors and Great Performers Across the Globe

2017 has been a monumental year for Audible, having just celebrated our 20th anniversary, a milestone that would have never been possible without our wonderful and loyal listeners. One of our major commitments is bringing new and diverse audio experiences to our members, so this year, as our gift to you, we pulled together a collection that reflects a little bit of everything we've been up to recently: a surprising and heartwarming documentary, a selection of stories from our partners around the world, and even some improvised comedic carols we hope will make you laugh as much as they did us.

The lineup includes:

Zip Code 12345

This mini-documentary centers around a peculiar holiday tradition at General Electric's headquarters in Schenectady, NY. For two decades, GE has been receiving thousands of letters from kids - children who think they're reaching Santa Claus. And every year, a handful of GE employees give up their December lunchbreaks to respond to each and every letter.

An Aussie Night Before Christmas, by Yvonne Morrison, performed by Magda Szubanksi

This rollicking rewrite of the famous old poem 'Twas The Night Before Christmas gives the original version a hilarious Aussie twist. Magda Szubanski, Australia's most trusted personality, caries this incredibly fun romp. Kangaroos pulling the sleigh, a beer for Santa, and all the over-the-top Australian lingo, it's everything you'd expect.

The Music Coming from the House, by Paulo Coehlo, performed by Daniel Frances-Berenson

In this magical story from the author of The Alchemist - the master of the modern parable - a disguised king visits a poor village, and what he sees through the window of a house changes his life, and those of the occupants.

The Signal-man, by Charles Dickens, performed by Simon Callow, Dan Starkey, and John Banks

For literature lovers, the holiday season needs a little Dickens. We dug up a story of his that you may not be familiar with, originally published in the Christmas edition of a Victorian short story periodical. Of course, ghosts are involved in this 19th century work told by Simon Callow (Outlander) and Dan Starkey (Dr. Who).

A Very Improvised Holiday Musical

What would the holidays be without some carols? Vern, a New York City-based improv troupe, performs a few improvised holiday songs.

Genres: Audiobook, Fiction, Christmas, Short Stories, Holiday, Anthologies, Classics

1 pages, Audible Audio

Published December 8, 2017

About the author

The Brazilian author PAULO COELHO was born in 1947 in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Before dedicating his life completely to literature, he worked as theatre director and actor, lyricist and journalist. In 1986, PAULO COELHO did the pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostella, an experience later to be documented in his book The Pilgrimage. In the following year, COELHO published The Alchemist. Slow initial sales convinced his first publisher to drop the novel, but it went on to become one of the best selling Brazilian books of all time. Other titles include Brida (1990), The Valkyries (1992), By the river Piedra I sat Down and Wept (1994), the collection of his best columns published in the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo entitle Maktub (1994), the compilation of texts Phrases (1995), The Fifth Mountain (1996), Manual of a Warrior of Light (1997), Veronika decides to die (1998), The Devil and Miss Prym (2000), the compilation of traditional tales in Stories for parents, children and grandchildren (2001), Eleven Minutes (2003), The Zahir (2005), The Witch of Portobello (2006) and Winner Stands Alone (to be released in 2009). During the months of March, April, May and June 2006, Paulo Coelho traveled to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostella in 1986. He also held surprise book signings - announced one day in advance - in some cities along the way, to have a chance to meet his readers. In ninety days of pilgrimage the author traveled around the globe and took the famous Transiberrian train that took him to Vladivostok. During this experience Paulo Coelho launched his blog Walking the Path - The Pilgrimage in order to share with his readers his impressions. Since this first blog Paulo Coelho has expanded his presence in the internet with his daily blogs in Wordpress, Myspace & Facebook. He is equally present in media sharing sites such as Youtube and Flickr, offering on a regular basis not only texts but also videos and pictures to his readers. From this intensive interest and use of the Internet sprang his bold new project: The Experimental Witch where he invites his readers to adapt to the screen his book The Witch of Portobello. Indeed Paulo Coelho is a firm believer of Internet as a new media and is the first Best-selling author to actively support online free distribution of his work.

Reviews

[Anniken Haga · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've learned to mistrust things that are for free, but Audible usually has some nice christmas gifts.
This one may have been the worst of them yet, but it wasn't all bad. I enjoyed "Zipcode 12345", although I wish it was longer and vi could actually get a snippet from the Adoption Box — I think I know what was in them, though.
I also liked the story from Dickens. I haven't read much by him before, but it's always fun to get a sneak peak into the different classic—authors, as I haven't read many of them.
The poem and the songs at the end were just kinda weird, though, and not for me

[Rachel Aranda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well this was an unexpected listen in March haha. Decided to do a listen of the lowest rated story on my TBR and this was it. To be honest, I forgot I had this on my TBR until I tried this experiment. It was a freebie from Audible back in December 2017, so I grabbed it and completely lost track of it working hard on finals in uni. Overall, I liked this more than I thought I would. There are 5 different parts of this anthology that kept the Christmas theme going in interesting ways. The ratings I would give each part were 4, 3, 4, 4, and 1. I fully believe the low ratings are from the improve musical at the very end. It is HORRIBLE and didn’t need to exist. Everything else was enjoyable.

[Angie Dokos · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was cute and entertaining. I enjoyed listening to the letters to Santa in 12345.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

All my reviews can be found at: http://jessicasreadingroom.com
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This review will post on my site on December 12th
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Gather Round the Sound was free on Audible and there was a good reason for that: It really did not need to be made into a compilation of short stories/performances. This one was a big miss for me. The best short was Zip Code 12345: I really enjoyed it and wish it had been expanded. If this had been the whole ‘book’ that would have been fine with me!

Apparently I am not a Dickens fan as The Signal-man wasn’t for me. When it was over I had no idea what had happened. Maybe it was the narrators with their accents that ruined it for me. The ‘musical chapters’ were also subpar. They were meant to be funny and entertaining, but were far from that.

I cannot recommend this compilation: I say listen to the first chapter: Zip Code 12345 and skip the rest. I hate saying this, but it just did not deliver.

[Donna Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short collection of writings isn’t what I was expecting. It’s an odd collection of musicals, poetry, and stories. If it had been longer, I would have lost my focus.

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I downloaded this freebie from Audible and it was my first Christmas read of the season. It had everything: a little nonfiction, some fiction and some singing! I wasn't sure about the singing and the Dickens story wasn't particularly Christmassy. But all in all, it was entertaining. My favourite part was An Aussie Night Before Christmas. A nice gift from Audible!

[TraceyL · Rating 1 out of 5]

Good thing this audiobook was free because it was pretty bad. Didn't like the actual recording. Music was awful. It's just bad.

[❤Marie Gentilcore · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was okay. It features several short Christmas-themed stories including one by Charles Dickens.

[Janice · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know what I was expecting exactly but this wasn't it. I loved the Dickens reading and Zip Code 12345. The musical at the end was awful. What about beautiful Christmas music? A reading of the Gift of the Magi? This had such potential but really was just "not much." But again, it was free . . .

[Barbara (The Bibliophage) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is holiday-themed, and was a perfect listen while prepping and recovering from a holiday brunch.

[Jen]

I downloaded this freebie book on December 10, 2017, and I think I listened it on either December 12th or 13th, so I'm going to say I started it very late on the 12th and finished it in the wee hours of the morning on the 13th for recording purposes.

Even though I don't remember exactly when I listened to this book in December 2017, I do remember that I was VERY confused by it. The first story especially . . . It seemed like an ad! I was sooo confused; it didn't come across like a story at all for me (I was listening while playing a game). And sadly, this confusion set me up for failure when I continued past this first story. I didn't take in ANY of the stories. :-(

So, I know I read this, but I couldn't tell you what I read. (It didn't seem very Christmasy or Holiday-ish to me, though. THAT I remember. Though it's probably because of my confusion.) I had intended to try it again in December, but somehow I just never got around to it. I am not going to give this book a star rating until I do get to re-listen to it. Hopefully, I'll understand it better the next time around. :-/

UPDATE: I listened to this book for the second and third times in January 2018, for the #245thon. (Apparently, I didn't record any of my audiobooks as having been read for that 'thon. :-/)
Although I listened to it twice more, I didn't truly understand it any better. Or, at least, now that it's the end of February, I don't remember much about it any longer, so if I did understand it finally, who's to say? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. This was a free audible book offered during Christmas 2017. For a free book ... well, it lived up to that price at least. It was a little over an hour long. It wasn't much of a Christmasy sort of listen. There were a few interesting bits. There were a few weird bits. There were a few boring bits. I'm sure I will never listen to it again. I'm being pretty generous in giving this one two stars, but it's Christmas, so there.

[Andrea]

This is a short freebie of Xmas theme randomnalia - a documentary about letters to Santa, the Aussie version of Santa, a Dickens horror story, and some improv carols.

I kinda liked the horror story, but the rest was pretty meh.

[Liz Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story about the GE workers answering letters to Santa was fascinating. I also enjoyed the Coelho story. The Dickens story didn't seem very related to the holidays to me, but it was a good story.

[Sara (A Gingerly Review) · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you want a super quick listen, this is it. If you want something with enjoyable content geared towards the holidays, skip this one.

[Ed Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing like Christmas in June. I found this little free Audiobook on my way to the gym. The first little documentary about GE and Santa letters was the best.

[Colleen Houck]

Cute little audible bonus. I liked the feature on the company at zip code 12345 who help out with Santa's mail.

[Kami · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the stories were really good! And some were just eh.

[Cassandra Page · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a free Audible download to celebrate Christmas. It was a bit of a grab bag, with a podcast vibe. I liked all of it but the musical at the end - maybe improv is too chaotic for me?

[Elyse · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only really liked the first story. The rest were just alright. Glad it was short and it was free.

Read for Seasons of Reading's Christmas in July (7/28-7/31).

[Susan Crowe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was Audible's free gift for Christmas this year. It was ok. The first story was the best. Zipcode 12345. I had tears the entire time I listened. I loved Santa as a child. Well, I still do. Worth a listen. Pick it up if you're an Audible member.

[Megan (ReadingRover) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Freebie from Audible. Only one story, Zip Code 12345, was really entertaining for me. It was fun and interesting. I wouldn’t have minded hearing more about the people’s lives who were involved in that one. The rest were pretty bland.

[CS · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bullet Review:

Thank GOD this was free! The first story, Zip Code 12345, was fascinating - perfect podcast material. The rest was superfluous - the musical was actually detrimental to the quality of the rest of the audiobook. HORRIBLE.

Listen to the first story and don't bother with the rest.

[Joselyn Moreno · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an amazing gift from audible, the last story was super fun and crazy. The one from GE made me cry a little for some reason and the one from Charles Dickens was amazing, what's xmas without ghosts?

pretty cool to hear in this holidays.

[Mike Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5, the story about the GE Office workers reading children's letters was nice but the rest kinda sucked, especially the last thing, whatever it was.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice variety of holiday stories and songs. I didn't think I'd really enjoy it but it was surprisingly well done.

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the first story about the letters to the 12345 zip code the best, but it was an enjoyable listen for this time of year! Thank you Audio books for providing this as a gift!

[Shiloah · Rating 1 out of 5]

That was painful. 😖 I’m so glad I didn’t pay for it. The Dickens story is the only reason I gave it a star at all, though I wasn’t impressed with the narrator.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audible's free Christmas short stories.
The first one made me tear up, the others were a good mix of cute and spooky.

[Rmsooon · Rating 1 out of 5]

i didnt like the stories they didnt make sense