Audiobooks discussion

New month finds me about halfway through The Maltese Falcon, read by Eric Meyers. Never saw the film, and glad I decided to listen rather than read it in print as the narrator does a great job.
I've got about an hour to go with Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome: A Memoir of Humor and Healing, and while I appreciated the author's effort and findings (mostly), to be honest I'd recommend this one in print over audio. She visits 30 different places on her journey, which kind of ran together to me. Also, perhaps I was spoiled by listening to Dirty Chick: Adventures of an Unlikely Farmer recently where the author does a good job, but I think I would've preferred a professional narrator for this book. Your Mileage May Vary (as they say).

Like a lot of you will be going through, I'm currently a few hours into The Aeronaut's Windlass. It has been getting better as I have been progressing through it and I feel like the narrator is getting better too!

Just started Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling. If you like her, you will enjoy it. But it's not something that I would have picked up if I didn't know who she is. It's only 5 hours too, which is a bit short.

I started The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury, this is my first Ray Bradbury novel, its quite fun getting myself into holiday mood.

I decided to read a few spooky books this month, just to see if horror is my genre or not. I'm planning on starting The Shining tomorrow.

Liz wrote: "Just started Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling. If you like her, you will enjoy it. But it's not something that I would have picked up if I didn't know who she is. It's only 5 hours too, ..."

My library has it, so it's on my TBR, but I have never experienced her before. I hadn't known about Felicia Day, but really liked You're Never Weird on the Internet.

John wrote: "Liz wrote: "Just started Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling. If you like her, you will enjoy it. But it's not something that I would have picked up if I didn't know who she is. It's only 5..."

Wow, well I plan on reading You're Never Weird on the Internet soon and now I guess I'll have to pick up Why Not Me?! You people are giving me too many suggestions!

Vishakha, If you liked the Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury see if you can find his Something Wicked This way Comes. Or the more mellow and nostalgic Dandelion Wine. It's been years since I read them but remember them fondly. Author narrates well if I remember correctly.

I finished The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher. Really like the characters and their stories. The narrator did very good voices for the characters and helped bring them to life. Now that I've finished and know what each of the terms in the title means... can anyone tell me why Jim Butcher called it that? The ship featured in the book wasn't a windlass.

I finished the Post Human series. I liked it. Really is something to think about.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

I decided to give AJ another chance. The last time I was very tired and narrator Scott Brick was putting me to sleep with his soft voice and reading. I think it will be better the second time around.

John wrote: "Liz wrote: "Just started Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling. If you like her, you will enjoy it. But it's not something that I would have picked up if I didn't know who she is. It's only 5..."

That's a good point. I'd be curious to hear what people think of Why Not Me if they don't know who Mindy is. I had never heard of Felicia Day either so I've been ignoring her book but I just listened to a sample and it seems pretty interesting so I might give it a shot.

Just started Christine

Margaret wrote: "Vishakha, If you liked the Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury see if you can find his Something Wicked This way Comes. Or the more mellow and nostalgic Dandelion Wine. It's been years since I read the..."

Yeah, they both are available on Overdrive, so I'm thinking to go for it, I've never read any Halloween books, I'm not familiar with the culture so its kinda fun reading these.

Which one should I be reading first Dandelion Wine or Something Wicked This Way Comes? Are they both independent of each other?

I'm also planning to catch up on the animated movies after the books.

Liz wrote: "John wrote: "Liz wrote: "Just started Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling. If you like her, you will enjoy it. But it's not something that I would have picked up if I didn't know who she is..."

I have zero interest in (role play) gaming, or fantasy in general, so that shouldn't put folks off from reading Felicia's book. It's a really well written memoir (she's only in her 30's), but she did graduate from University of Texas with a 4.0 double major in math and music (admitted as a prodigy at 16), so I would expect her to write well.

Vishakha wrote: "Margaret wrote: "Vishakha, If you liked the Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury see if you can find his Something Wicked This way Comes. Or the more mellow and nostalgic Dandelion Wine. It's been years..."

Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes are completely unrelated books. It's been a while since I read it, but I don't recall Dandelion Wine having anything to do with Halloween, nor is it scary.

i'm finishing up Archangel's Enigma (have about an hour and a half left and have to drive to the airport today) - for flying, I have The Aeronaut's Windlass on my itouch - seems folks here have liked it

I just finished Take the Stairs: 7 Steps to Achieving True Success this morning. It was pretty good. Basically: get off your but and do what needs to be done. Always good to get a little reminder and pep me up every so often.

I just finished up The Girl in the Spider's Web which wasn't bad, but the first half was slow going, with too many characters and not enough Salander. Thank heaven it picked up and was ultimately pretty decent.

I'm currently listening to Dissolution and finding it excellent with a fine narration. This is the sort of historical fiction mystery that I dearly love. The period personalities and historic details [Tudor] seem accurate and the characters are clearly delineated. One thing is certain… even though I bought the Kindle version of the next [2nd] book in the Shardlake series when it was offered at a deal, the Audible version is also narrated by the excellent Stephen Crossley, so I may opt for the Whispersync version, as it's just $4.49.

I'm listening to The Long Way Home

Marilee wrote: "I just finished up The Girl in the Spider's Web which wasn't bad, but the first half was slow going, with too many characters and not enough Salander. Thank heaven it picked up and ..."

If you like that sort of historical fiction, have you read the Brother Cadfael series? Very good 12th century English mysteries.

i'm kind of a black sheep here. i think useless to listen to contemporary fiction, when the world is full of unexplored classic territory.

furthermore, i pride myself on being a history buff, so now i'm listening to 3 titles at the same time (with a couple of minor divertissements also)

- Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy (John Lee.) What a stylist this man was

- A History of the American People by Paul Johnson (Nadia May). Being in need of a survey on US History, i thought this title to be an acceptable compromise (i intend to complement this reading with What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 read by P. Cullen, who focuses on early 1800's... i tried The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789, the Middlekauff volume on the Revolution... ugh! a maelstrom of suffocating military minutiae...

- Caesar and Christ by Will Durant (Grover 'im gonna make your headphones explode' Gardner) [re-listening]. Talking bout surveys, this series is truly a magnum opus of history, culture, and art... far better than any novel!

Marilee wrote: I'm currently listening to Dissolution and finding it excellent with a fine narration. This is the sort of historical fiction mystery that I dearly love. The period personalities and historic details [Tudor] seem accurate and the characters are clearly delineated. One thing is certain… even though I bought the Kindle version of the next [2nd] book in the Shardlake series when it was offered at a deal, the Audible version is also narrated by the excellent Stephen Crossley, so I may opt for the Whispersync version, as it's just $4.49. "

I love that series Marilee - and you will need to pick up the audio for the next one! I'm getting ready to listen to number 3 of the series: Sovereign.

I started the Edith Grossman translation of Don Quixote. I have fond memories of the book from high school and was surprised when my teen daughter said her class hadn't read it. Not dark or morbid enough I suppose.

The 40 hour length of the book was putting me off, with the speed bumped up it will still take 24 hours. This seems like a lifetime when my average book is around 7 hours. Still, it doesn't touch the 63 hours I spent listening to Atlas Shrugged before I committed to listening at faster speeds.

George Guidall is doing a great job with the narration.

Simone wrote: "i'm kind of a black sheep here. i think useless to listen to contemporary fiction, when the world is full of unexplored classic territory.

furthermore, i pride myself on being a history buff, so n..."

I see you're in the Steven King Fan group here on goodreads, I'm not sure if King is old enough to be considered history. ;) I kid, I kid

Caesar and Christ sounds interesting.

King is a long standing passion, although after reaching the end of the 1st half of Doctor Sleep, i decided to put him (no, his newest efforts) on hold for a while.

I nonetheless have in my player 2 miscellaneous renditions (not commercially avalaible) of Night Shift and Skeleton Crew. Every now and then, i pick a story and listen. Vintage Stephen always rocks!

Simone wrote: "i'm kind of a black sheep here. i think useless to listen to contemporary fiction, when the world is full of unexplored classic territory.

furthermore, i pride myself on being a history buff, so n..."

I listen to some straight up history… as my interest is keen, but narrations can be problematic. At least when reading the written word of an articulate and compelling historian, one doesn't have to contend with a wheezy monotone narration, nor as Simone mentioned… listen to "a maelstrom of suffocating military minutiae". Some books, despite compelling subject matter, are just difficult and boring to listen to, I've learned the hard way.

I feel like I am slogging throughLord of All Things, It is a mix of the everyday and/or fantastical. Neither is really grabbing me and I think I only have about 5 chapters left.

I picked up Spiral of Need from the new PNR series, Mercury Pack, by Suzanne Wright. It's simply an extension of her other series, Phoenix Pack.

I am a shade over an hour-and-a-half into Yes Please by Amy Poehler. I haven't been able to listen in a couple of days because of Windows 10 crash that caused me to have remove all of my apps and programs, reset the laptop to factory defaults and then reinstall Windows from scratch. I spent today finding all of my apps and programs and reinstalling them. I hope to be finished with the book in the next couple of days.

Jeffrey wrote: "I am a shade over an hour-and-a-half into Yes Please by Amy Poehler. I haven't been able to listen in a couple of days because of Windows 10 crash that caused me to..."

My heartfelt condolences for the crash... such things can have the digital equivalence of being hit by a tornado.

Audible says use book math to find next read. Ok. Click. One of first few books was 50 shades of grey. Their math and my math don't add up. They must have learned using common core

Travis of NNY wrote: "Audible says use book math to find next read. Ok. Click. One of first few books was 50 shades of grey. Their math and my math don't add up. They must have learned using common core"

Hahaha! They best not recommend that to me!

Maya's Notebook, both the story and narration, was good but not great. Certainly not up to the same standard as Island Beneath the Sea or Daughter of Fortune.

Next up: I've just started Niccolò Rising.

read niccolo rising in august.

you got to hold on, cos it's part of a saga of 8 volumes, and it's a pretty slow start... but the prose, plot, and character are all exceptional

Simone wrote: "read niccolo rising in august.

you got to hold on, cos it's part of a saga of 8 volumes, and it's a pretty slow start... but the prose, plot, and character are all exceptional"

Thanks Simone. I will try to be patient. Patience is not my strong suit. :)

I finished The Sparrow Sisters: A Novel by Ellen Herrick and while it's a relatively simple and whimsical story, I enjoyed it. It has a bit of magical realism and is mostly just about the one sister and a particular set of events that occur over a few weeks, but it kept me entertained.
If you enjoyed books like The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope or The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender then you'll probably enjoy this too as it has a similar 'feel' to those.

just started A Spool of Blue Thread (library copy) after seeing it pop up several times in my twitter feed in relation to being shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize.

Jeanie wrote: "Jeffrey wrote: "I am a shade over an hour-and-a-half into Yes Please by Amy Poehler. I haven't been able to listen in a couple of days because of Windows 10 crash t..."

Thank you! I hwve almost recovered everything, but there are two or three apps that are evading me!

Travis of NNY wrote: "Audible says use book math to find next read. Ok. Click. One of first few books was 50 shades of grey. Their math and my math don't add up. They must have learned using common core"

This made me laugh! A few days ago there was a report on the local news of a man who made a donation to a local private school and filled out the check using common core math. It was hilarious!

Started Still Missing by Chevy Stevens narrated by, Angela Dawe

Vishakha wrote: "Margaret wrote: "Vishakha, If you liked the Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury see if you can find his Something Wicked This way Comes. Or the more mellow and nostalgic Dandelion Wine. It's been years..."

My personal favorite is Something Wicked This Way Comes, however, you can't go wrong with Ray Bradbury!

Simone wrote: "King is a long standing passion, although after reaching the end of the 1st half of Doctor Sleep, i decided to put him (no, his newest efforts) on hold for a while.

...Night Shift and Skeleton Crew. Every now and then, i pick a story and listen. Vintage Stephen always rocks! "

I just cleaned out one of my bookcases (of tree books) - one shelf was devoted to Stephen King, I collected them years ago. I kept only those that I really loved or that I might like to reread someday. It turned out I gave away most of his newer stuff, but kept the vintage and short story collections.

I listened to The Shining a month ago and I have Dr. Sleep on reserve at the library. I figured if I'm going to give it a go, then it should be relatively soon after The Shining.

In the meantime I'm midway through NOS4A2 by Joe Hill in preparation for Halloween.

Simone wrote: "i'm kind of a black sheep here. i think useless to listen to contemporary fiction, when the world is full of unexplored classic territory.

furthermore, i pride myself on being a history buff, so n..."
I also like classics and Thomas Hardy is one of my favorites, especially The Mayor of Castorbridge. I've listed to the library (commercial)version which is good but abridged with some of the best writing cut. The Librivox version takes some getting used to but it's faithful to the original written version. Listened to it twice.
Thanks for the mention of From Caesar to Christ - I'll put it on my To Read List.

As far as Isabel Allende goes, I suppose my favorite of hers is Inés of My Soul. I don't remember too much "magical realism" and Blair Brown is a great narrator. I didn't really like the narrator of Island Beneath The Sea.

I finished Immortal in Death this afternoon. Next up is The Rithmatist.

Dave wrote: "As far as Isabel Allende goes, I suppose my favorite of hers is Inés of My Soul. I don't remember too much "magical realism" and Blair Brown is a great narrator. I didn't really like ..."

The only book of hers I have ever listened to was a nonfiction: My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile.

Joan wrote: "Simone wrote: "i'm kind of a black sheep here. i think useless to listen to contemporary fiction, when the world is full of unexplored classic territory.

furthermore, i pride myself on being a his..."

I love classics, too, but they run more along the lines of Austen, Dickens, and Trollope. I read The Mayor of Casterbridge and found it okay, but followed it with Jude the Obscure and have had no desire to read Hardy ever since--I rank it in my top three worst reading experiences ever. It turns out the critics of the day didn't receive it very well either and Hardy vowed never to write another book... and he didn't.

Jeanie wrote: "Joan wrote: "Simone wrote: "i'm kind of a black sheep here. i think useless to listen to contemporary fiction, when the world is full of unexplored classic territory.

furthermore, i pride myself o..."

Yes,those Hardy works are super depressing. Tess of the Durbervilles is also very grim. For some reason I found Jude not as bad as Mayor, maybe because I listened to Mayor of Casterbridge on audio. I think audio grabs my emotions more. It is harder for me to listen to misery and depression than to see it on paper. In a paper book, I can kind of skim over. Same thing with movies - I read Game of Thrones and Girl Who trilogy which have plenty of violence but had enough other redeeming qualities to be worth it . However, that was enough, I didn't want to see that on screen

As an antidote to Hardy, try Cold Comfort Farm, which satirizes the whole genre by having a modern (for the time) young lady shake some common sense into all the doom & gloom. I thought the audio of that was delightful.

Robin wrote: "As an antidote to Hardy, try Cold Comfort Farm, which satirizes the whole genre by having a modern (for the time) young lady shake some common sense into all the doom & gloom. I thought the audio of that was delightful...."
I LOVE Cold Comfort Farm it's one of my favourite books ever, I first read it when I was about 15 and have re-read it and watched the movie several times.
I've looked for it in audio in the past, but I only ever found a "dramatized" version and I don't like that format at all. Is there just a normal audio version somewhere?

Robin wrote: "Jeanie wrote: "Joan wrote: "Simone wrote: "i'm kind of a black sheep here. i think useless to listen to contemporary fiction, when the world is full of unexplored classic territory.

furthermore, i..."

I'll definitely check out Cold Comfort Farm... anything that's an antedote to Hardy is a good thing in my book.

John wrote: "Dave wrote: "As far as Isabel Allende goes, I suppose my favorite of hers is Inés of My Soul. I don't remember too much "magical realism" and Blair Brown is a great narrator. I didn't..."

Maya's Notebook was her first present-day fiction. It just didn't blow me away, and the narration was meh. I gave it 3 stars...I liked it but didn't really like it.

OK, I may have been hallucinating but... has anyone read Mycroft Holmes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? It was on the Audible site a week or two ago but now when I search it isn't there... and who knew a great NBA basketball hero writes historical books and now--maybe--fiction? I found a series on Mycroft by another author and other books by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar but not the two together.

I was considering it as a self-gifted birthday treat--Happy Birthday all you fellow Libra/October babies... John--but I may have to go with something else.