What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

I heard this as an audio book narrated by a man. there are two timelines one is the history of the other. the historic one features two men (one wealthy the other not) one is fixated on tracking down folklore and peasant tales in an attempt to recreate magic,a young woman helps them with making copies of the information collected. The collector begins to go off the deep end and he and his friend eventually leave to study more (and go crazier??) the woman stays in the original city. one of the spells is for good health and long life-the woman has learned it and spends many years in the city and befriends a cheese making family. a whole community builds up around this (not the cheese-the friendship of the woman) and they eventually leave the city also...

interspersed in the historical story is the "present" story. boys of magical leanings get dumped off at a nearly inaccessible school. Mages are both feared and indispensable. the boys that get dropped off are placed in the harsh tutelage of a few men. each "class" (one class at a time/year?) will only graduate one student. the protagonist cheats-the boys are suppose to learn to create items from a large gem-starting with things like soap (if you don't make soap you cannot bath) then food (if you don't make food you cannot eat) to weed them down.. the protagonist finds a way to leave food out for those that don't catch on as quickly... they later learn to meld their mind with animals/insects...

oh the protagonist father breeds flying carriage and saddle horses...

***slight spoiler***
you are left with the feeling (perhaps more like a club to the head) the school is founded by the two guys (no big thought involved there) the historic characters are being brought forward... wished to see what the twist was going to be...

When did you listen to this, Maggie? Do you have any idea when the book was published? Any idea who the narrator was? How long was the book, and was it abridged or unabridged?

it was a couple of years ago-no idea when it was published. the reading was unabridged and it was fairly long (not lord of the rings long but long for a standard novel) very frustrating...

Skin Hunger

you are fantastic!!! ty very much that is the one