Audiobooks discussion

A few hours into Kate Reading's reading of Cousin Bette, where she's doing a terrific job with the material, though it's off to a slow start - having seen the 1971 video production (with a very young Helen Mirren!) it's easier to stick with it as I know the action will heat up, but if I were starting "from scratch" I'd be a bit frustrated I fear.

Kate Reading is my favourite...narratrix? She does the Wheel of Time series with a co-narrator, and I just love her.

I found she did a great job reading The Painted Veil, which is why I was enthusiastic about trying this book.

The wife and I commuted back from Austin together, and we started our latest "couples" book. I picked this one out based on a NYT book review I read. It was a powerful recommendation... "George Saunders Has Written the Best Book You’ll Read This Year".

Well I don't know about that. The Tenth of December is a collection of short stories. There are 10 stories:

"Victory Lap" (The New Yorker, 2009)
"Sticks" (Harper's, 1995)
"Puppy" (The New Yorker, 2007)
"Escape from Spiderhead" (The New Yorker, 2010)[2]
"Exhortation" (part of "Four Institutional Monologues" from McSweeney's #4, 2000)
"Al Roosten" (The New Yorker, 2009)
"The Semplica Girl Diaries" (The New Yorker, 2012)
"Home" (The New Yorker, 2011)
"My Chivalric Fiasco" (Harper's, 2011)
"Tenth of December" (The New Yorker, 2011)

I am not sure how I feel about this book yet. I can tell you when we started listening to the first book without benefit of introduction we each got that WTF look on our faces. Eventually we got it.... we were inside the minds of a 14 year old girl and next door neighbor male geek admiror and another (I won't say who). Inside the heads of those characters, we hear the echo of voices close to the character - mother, father, etc. I like the story - more in retrospect than on first hearing.

"Puppy" is another POV tale. Things are not always what they seem. It was pretty good.

"Sticks" gives new meaning to the word "short". Read it for yourself here and come back and 90 seconds...

http://www.unm.edu/~gmartin/535/Stick...

Escape from Spiderhead is Sci Fi. Think Clockwork orange. I liked it fine.

Ehortation is written in "memo from the head office" style. I didn't care for it. I would probably liked it better if I had not listened to it but read it. For a bit I had the inclination it was a followup to the Sci Fi story, but it isn't.

"Al Roosten" was a big "eh" for me. "The Semplica-Girl Diaries" the same eh.

But again, take a few minutes and judge for yourself. The story is about 10 pages and is here:

http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/feat...

The story is too cute by half. What the heck are Semplica-Girls? Turns out they are only referred to as SGs in the story and you have to read the accompanying interview with the suthor to find that this is a close but not same reality as ours and SGs derive from a dream. I can tell you it is a difficult concept to grasp while navigating I-35.

And that's where we left it. The rest of our stories will have to wait for our commutes.

George Suanders is reading his own work and normally that is a misstake. In this case, it isn't too bad. But you have to listen closely and the book moves quickly between one story and the next without much break. With one word titles, the stories at times seem to flow into each other when they shouldn't. If you have a choice between listening and reading... this is a better book to just read, imho.

John wrote: "I found she did a great job reading The Painted Veil, which is why I was enthusiastic about trying this book."

Yes! I loved this book! And Kate Reading.

I'm about to finish The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry . I didn't think I was going to like it and was just slugging through it - but am finding the 2nd half quite good. Can't wait to hear the ending tonight.

Next up is South of Broad . It has been on my "to read" list for forever...

Nancy, I'll be interested in hearing what you think of what I consider the book's central twist. (view spoiler)[ The revelation of the son's suicide (hide spoiler)] sorted out some of the issues I had initially.

Bill: I'm planning on reading Tenth of December in print for an upcoming discussion - thanks for the preview!

Jennifer wrote: "Nancy, I'll be interested in hearing what you think of what I consider the book's central twist. [spoilers removed] sorted out some of the issues I had initially."

Ohhhh - a teaser... I'm now more anxious to finish!

Glad to oblige!

I just started The Martian narrated by R.C. Bray, it's really good so far.

Bray has me cackling because of the way he does some of the exclamations.

John wrote: "Bill: I'm planning on reading Tenth of December in print for an upcoming discussion - thanks for the preview!"

Great. Will be interesting to hear your perspective.

I am listening to the third book The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place The Unseen Guestby, Maryrose Wood Fabulously narrated by, Katherine Kellgren this is a great series!

I've also enjoyed the Incorrigible Children series and look forward to book 4. Some of the more farcical aspects bothered me while I was reading, but I couldn't get those kids out of my mind and kept going until I had no more to go ;)

Jennifer, love the title "narratrix".

BTW, the "Reply" function didn't work when I clicked on it... unless the partial quote shows up when it's actually posted.

Hubby and I finished up Succubus Revealed, and now on to 14 by Peter Clines. He is also listening to The Alexandria Cipher.

Last night I finished The Meaning of everything by Simon Winchester. He wrote and narrated this story about the making of the OED. Being a word-nerd this book was right up my alley and I enjoyed it very much. Winchester is also a very good narrator of his own work.

Almost finished "The Odyssey" (odd ... the "add book / author" link isn't working for me today), narrated by Sir Ian McKellen. I've not read it before and I don't know anything about Greek mythology, so I'm sure that lots of it has sailed over my head. Interesting to listen to though, and McKellen is an excellent narrator. That said, the sound quality of the recording is variable: sometimes very clear, sometimes a little muffled, at times a bit too loud and at others a bit too soft.

Kim wrote: "Almost finished "The Odyssey" (odd ... the "add book / author" link isn't working for me today), narrated by Sir Ian McKellen. I've not read it before and I don't know anything about Greek mytholog..."

I have this one in my TBR pile. Thanks for the warning about the sound quality.

Monique wrote: "and now on to 14 by Peter Clines."

14 is one of my favorites, tell us what you think.

I have completed Washington: A Life and I do recommend it. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Moving on to Eventide, which I have chosen b/c I enjoy the author's writing. Immediately I am sucked in. In the first chapter, someone is leaving. The writing perfectly depicts how one feels when someone dear to you leaves..... Dam, this guy can write! The audiobook narration by George Hearn has instantaneously captured the mood.

Now listening to The Obituary Writer by, Ann Hood narrated by, Tavia Gilbert

I'm in my library's hold queue for that one, Miss Susie

And, a P. S. to my post re: Cousin Bette above ... the narrator is shown as Johanna Ward, an a/k/a of Kate Reading it seems.

Oh! I'll have to watch for "her"!

Just finished The Time Keeper, which I found very disappointing. The narrator was great, but the story itself was preachy with unlikable characters.

Also finished Gone Girl which delivered the roller coaster ride that was promised. I enjoyed it as an entertaining read, but it didn't make the favorites list. It was the first book I had listened to with more than one narrator - I really enjoyed that aspect.

Just started Under the Dome and it seems to be starting a little slowly. At over 1000 pages, I hope this is just the pace for the beginning/world building, and will not be the pace for the whole novel.

I decided to go through my Audible wishlist and see what was available on Overdrive and to remove titles I added just for narrator and decide which ones I would actually like so now my unwieldy 24 page audible wishlist is now pared down to a somewhat wieldy 18 page wishlist...I tried I really did!

Knew you all would understand my dilemma!

There was a long spell where day after day nothing grabbed me in the Just Added listings. However ... in the past couple of days I've added several, but still my list is only three pages.

That's an excellent idea - I have to be more organized in planning my TBR (TBL?)

John wrote: "There was a long spell where day after day nothing grabbed me in the Just Added listings. However ... in the past couple of days I've added several, but still my list is only three pages."

John you have more self control than I do!

Jeanie wrote: "Last night I finished The Meaning of everything by Simon Winchester. He wrote and narrated this story about the making of the OED. Being a word-nerd this book was right up my alley and I enjoyed ..."

me too, I really liked The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. That is the only one I have read by the author. Can you suggest the next one to try?

Not really - more that I'm very picky. Also, my library always comes in near the top of Overdrive holdings lists, so I'm kind of spoiled that way. I don't like spending a credit on a book under eight hours or so, but once in a while I go ahead and splurge. Eighteen pages must contain a lot of series titles I'd think!

I also went through my Audible WishList and deleted those books I could find in OverDrive - I set up a new shelf in My Books to keep track of these; this will work well if OD doesn't stop offering my choice of books.....

I still wound up buying 10+ books in the $9.95-and-under sale that just ended, but at least I knew that I really wanted to own the editions.

Chrissie wrote: "me too, I really liked The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. That is the only one I have read by the author. Can you suggest the next one to try? "

Chrissie, if you've only read "The Professor and the Madman" by him, I'd really recommend reading the one Jeanie mentioned,
The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary which is also about the OED, but it's about a much bigger picture than the one covered in "The Professor and the Madman".

Tim, oh, I didn't realize that was a different book! Thank you.

You're welcome. I actually prefer it, which is why I originally recommended it to Jeanie. I hope you like it.

I've just started listening to Dracula, with a full cast. The narrators include Alan Cumming, Tim Curry, Simon Vance, Katherine Kellgren, Susan Duerden, John Lee and Graeme Malcolm. Just a few years ago I wouldn't have dreamed of reading (or listening to) this novel, as I don't like horror or supernatural tales. But three chapters in and I like it a lot.

Tim, have you read Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded? Actually, it is that book that most interests me. Could you advise me?

I just finished the 15 books of the Liaden Universe by Steve Miller and Sharon Lee. Great series. I always feel a little sad when I end a series. So am listening to Thereby Hangs a Tail for a little light hearted fancy.

Kim wrote: "I've just started listening to Dracula, with a full cast. The narrators include Alan Cumming, Tim Curry, Simon Vance, Katherine Kellgren, Susan Duerden, John Lee and Graeme Malcolm. Just a few yea..."

I didn't do it with a full cast, just one narrator, but I enjoyed it, and I HATE the horror genre. But I also didn't listen to it too closed to bedtime...lol

Jennifer wrote: "Nancy, I'll be interested in hearing what you think of what I consider the book's central twist. [spoilers removed] sorted out some of the issues I had initially."

You were right - this twist changed EVERYTHING. I ended up loving this book.

I'm so glad, Nancy. I found that once I understood the context, everything (the emotions, the erratic behaviour, the journey) suddenly made sense.

Kim wrote: "I've just started listening to Dracula, with a full cast. The narrators include Alan Cumming, Tim Curry, Simon Vance, Katherine Kellgren, Susan Duerden, John Lee and Graeme Malcolm. Just a few yea..."

I have this one up next on the pile - looking forward to it

Chrissie wrote: "Tim, have you read Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded? Actually, it is that book that most interests me. Could you advise me?"

I'll be interested in that answer, too. I really enjoyed Winchester's writing and his voice was very pleasant and expressive. He wasn't required to do character voices so that didn't become an issue. If he handles other topics as well as he did the OED then any topic should be interesting. Of course, the fact that he wrote two books on the OED may indicate a particular passion that may or may not be reflected in other works.

Chrissie wrote: "Tim, have you read Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded? Actually, it is that book that most interests me. Could you advise me?"

Sorry, I haven't read it. Hopefully, someone else has because I'm curious about it as well.

Tim, OK.

Sandra aka Sleo wrote: "I just finished the 15 books of the Liaden Universe by Steve Miller and Sharon Lee. Great series. I always feel a little sad when I end a series. So am listening to Thereby Hangs a Tail for a li..."

Did you read or listen to this series? I was tempted to buy the audio versions, since they were all in the $9.95 sale, but I wasn't terribly impressed with the narrators. I've read most of the series, and it's great.

I finished Little Women read by Kate Reading the other day and have started The Tin Roof Blowdown narrated by Will Patton. I've just started this but Patton's voice seems perfect for this story!

Jeanie wrote: "Last night I finished The Meaning of everything by Simon Winchester. He wrote and narrated this story about the making of the OED. Being a word-nerd this book was right up my alley and I enjoyed ..."

That's good to hear about Jeanie . . . I have a few of his books as eBooks but no audio . . so I'll file that info away for future buys.

Today I finished the first book in the Albert Campion series by Margery Allingham, The Crime at Black dudley. Of course Campion is a fascinating character and this is his premier--in a supporting role. Audible only recently filled in the many missing books in the series and I started reading it knowing that the narrator changes back and forth from time to time. Knowing this in advance I can accept it, although I really prefer one reader, but getting to read it is more important in this case. The first reader was David Thorn--I initially thought of Steven Thorn and was disappointed when I listened to the sample--who did a variable job. His narration of the text was quite pleasant, but his character voices were attrocious. It is bearable--barely--but I think I'll be happy for each interlude in the series by another narrator. The story of the book itself was good for the start of a series but definitely has room for improvement.

Chrissie wrote: "Jeanie wrote: "Last night I finished The Meaning of everything by Simon Winchester. He wrote and narrated this story about the making of the OED. Being a word-nerd this book was right up my alley..."



Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded. I liked it more than The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Tim wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "Tim, have you read Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded? Actually, it is that book that most interests me. Could you advise me?"

Sorry, I haven't read it. Hopefully, someone else ..."

As I replied to Chrissie,
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded was better than The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary in my opinion. I also listened to The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom and really enjoyed it also. Winchester delivers solid nonfiction.