Audiobooks discussion

Having finished The Art Forger yesterday (Xe's narration was a great fit, but have mixed feelings about the story itself), I need to consider a replacement.

I am listening to Karen Savage narrate Persuasion and loving every minute so far! This is a Librivox recording that I had seen recommended in the Librivox thread here, so thanks to whoever made that recommendation :)

John wrote: "Having finished The Art Forger yesterday (Xe's narration was a great fit, but have mixed feelings about the story itself), I need to consider a replacement."

Thanks, John! I'm currently listening to Ripper, and although it's not in any way my usual read/listen, Ballerini's narration is carrying me through. I suspect that once all characters have been introduced and tied together, it will be even more engaging. I think I can give an early recommendation of it.

I had pretty much the same feeling about The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards, Xe. Ballerini carried me through an otherwise uneven work.

A quick listen, Daddy-Long-Legs, narrated by Julie Whelan. The book was sweet and the narration enjoyable. It was my first whispersync deal, the ebook was free on Amazon and the audio was $2.99. I could get used to those kinds of deals!

I'm listening to The Horse Whisperer and Windfall

I'm listening to The King, a book from the Black Dagger Brotherhood released today. After the last one I had thought I might drop the series, but am giving it one last chance. So far, I'm struck again by how cheesey the faux old-world language is that Ward uses for some settings and characters. Maybe it works better on the page, but read out loud it's merely laughable.

listening to The Quiet Gentleman

I have The King in print...I don't know if I could do the audiobooks of it...I laugh at the cheesy language when i'm reading it

I'm about 2/3 of the way through The Winter Sea, and I have to say, it's pretty disappointing. If you like historical romances, you may really like this book. It's just WAY more of a romance than I expected from reading the description on Audible (and much more of a romance than I would read on purpose). Kearsley seems to be in the family of Kate Morton and Diane Setterfield-type authors, both of whom left me underwhelmed. I get the appeal of these books for a lot of readers...they're just not for me. I will say Rosalyn Landor's narration is pretty good.

I'll probably finish this book, but I've already returned its sequel, The Firebird. I'm barely hanging in there with this book; no way do I want to read another one.

Up next, a book I've had on my TBR pile for several years: Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith.

Kristie wrote: "I'm about 2/3 of the way through The Winter Sea, and I have to say, it's pretty disappointing. If you like historical romances, you may really like this book. It's just WAY more of a..."

I felt the same. And HATED Kate Morton's Forgotten Garden.

That's the same Kate Morton book I read, Sandra. Meh. Just not my thing.

Kristie wrote: "I'm about 2/3 of the way through The Winter Sea, and I have to say, it's pretty disappointing. If you like historical romances, you may really like this book. It's just WAY more of a..."

I felt exactly the same about Kearsley's The Rose Garden. I could suspend belief for the time travel element, but the main female character was so weak and pathetic that I struggled to finish the book. That one put off reading any more of hers.

Patricia wrote: "Kristie wrote: "I'm about 2/3 of the way through The Winter Sea, and I have to say, it's pretty disappointing. If you like historical romances, you may really like this book. It's ju..."

Her books get pretty good reviews. To each their own, I guess. I'm hoping to finish the book tomorrow and move. on.

Anyone ever read Infinite Jest? I'm considering buying it for the Audible sale. I have a friend (whose book guidance I trust) who adored this audiobook. I'm only pausing on buying it because of the length and the existence of supplemental material (which she did not use).

This fall I listened to A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments. I just skipped over the literary criticism (NOT an English major), but his other essays were so awesome, especially the one for which the book is titled...just so observant and laugh-out-loud funny.

Thoughts? What would I do without this group? :)

i loved Winter Sea - she reminds me more of Gabaldon than my limited experience with Setterfield though - although not to the same depth - but similar time period, and I like the whole time slip idea - rather than strict time travel

I am listening to Neil read Neverwhere to me. I did not know the story line when I started it, but I was sucked in and carried along right away. I love his voices for the characters. His female voices make me giggle and I had to keep going back to hear what he said. Dark and gross, but funny and interesting. The two bad guys are a crack-up in an icky, little kid kind of way. I am so glad my daughter bought it for us!

I was also disappointed in The Forgotten Garden. I almost quit halfway through and I should have since after that it became rather obvious what would happen. It was probably the quality of the narration that kept me going. I haven't tried any of her other books after that.

I finished Naked in Death yesterday and will call it guilty pleasure. :)

I started The Shadow of the Wind today and I'm really enjoying the story so far. Jonathon Davis is doing a great job of narrating. The music included in the production is a bit over the top.

Janice wrote: "I finished Naked in Death yesterday and will call it guilty pleasure. :)

I started The Shadow of the Wind today and I'm really enjoying the story so far. Jonathon Davis..."

I really enjoyed The Shadow of the Wind when I listened to it recently. The music sounds pretty hilarious at the faster playback speeds. :) I was considering getting The Angel's Game, the next book in the series, for the Audible sale, but I may hold off.

I'm listening to it at 1.25. I'm hoping that I can ignore the music as I keep listening.

I've been working my way through LOTR for several weeks. Yesterday I finished The Fellowship of the Ring; and today I started The Two Towers. This is such a good book, and Rob Ingles (sp?) does a wonderful job, with the narration, the quiet songs, and all.

Highly recommended.

I just finished and really enjoyed Craig Johnson's The Dark Horse. It's the 5th in the Walt Longmire series and so far I liked it the best of the 5 I've read.

Now I've started Steve Berry, The Columbus Affair.

Also working on a non-fiction: Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think

Kristie, sorry, I haven't read nor listened to Infinite Jest, although it's somewhere on my TBR list. It's length also scares me, and I've heard it's digressive to the point of near stream of consciousness at times. Not sure if I could tolerate much of that.

Janice, I'm going to have to add shadow of the wind to my 2014 TBR list. I've been hearing too many good reviews of it. Please let us know what you think when you're done.

Hmm. This post seems less than useful. Does adding the fact that I'm reading Magic Terror by Peter Straub help?

It appears not.

HBJ

I'm about 2/3 of the way through The Fiery Cross and am really struggling. I think I skipped a whole CD and can't even tell?!?!? Boy it is dragging and just very not interesting. I will stick it out because I love the series and the narration but am really disappointed in this one...

TFC is much more a mundane day in the life type book, but its important to the development of the rest of the story

John wrote: "I had pretty much the same feeling about The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards, Xe. Ballerini carried me through an otherwise uneven work."

Ripper is wonderfully written...but I find that I am impatient with all the side connections and characters and when we do return to what I assume is the main plot, it comes as a surprise and seems completely disconnected from what came before it. I also assume that it will all start to draw together more and more tightly (like knitting a hat!) eventually, but I am impatient...

Ballerini's accent work and characterizations keep me listening, though.

I'm listening to A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens on Audible. The narrator is Martin Jarvis. It's really good!

Nancy wrote: "I'm about 2/3 of the way through The Fiery Cross and am really struggling. I think I skipped a whole CD and can't even tell?!?!? Boy it is dragging and just very not interesting. I ..."

Thanks for the comments. I've been thinking about getting this, and maybe will re-think now that I've read your post.

I'm listening to The Good German read by Michael Kramer.

I'm listening to The Dog Stars by Peter Heller.

Michelle wrote: "I'm listening to The Dog Stars by Peter Heller."

I read that and loved it. Am curious how the narration is.

I loved reading the Dog Stars in hard copy. I am also curious how it works in audio.

I am listening to Torch, read by the author Cheryl Strayed. It's very immediate and full of beautifully worded descriptions. I am enjoying it immensely despite it being the story of a mother who has cancer.

I just finished listening to The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. The story is not very exciting, but the narration by Michael Fenton-Stevens helps to make it a fun listen. Here is my review.

Finished Demon from the Dark yesterday. Love the story! The H & h have become one of my favorite of Cole's couples. It sets up the plot for several story lines/books in the series, which I'm 4 books behind current. Narration by Robert Petkoff is always superb. He's in my top 5 favorite narrators.

Currently listening to Hearts of Chaos. I've read the other books in the series and while I loved them, this one is one I'm having to force myself to listen to. The plot seems to be very slow in places & in others I end up rewinding to check if I've missed something somewhere it goes so fast. Narration is spot on by Xe Sands. She performed the previous 2 novels and is one of the reasons why I picked this one and am sticking to it.

Sandra wrote: "Michelle wrote: "I'm listening to The Dog Stars by Peter Heller."

I read that and loved it. Am curious how the narration is."


I like the narrator. Sometimes his emphasis on words within the context of the sentence is unusual and I think 'I wouldn't read it like that.' But the effect it produces is more like poetry at times than prose. After listening for a while I have decided that that may have been the author's true intent. That is what I love about audiobooks when you get something out of it that you would have missed by reading.

I'm starting The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon. It's the latest (#14) in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, but the first one I've ever read. (It's the only one my library has available for audio download.)

Michelle wrote: "Sandra wrote: "Michelle wrote: "I'm listening to The Dog Stars by Peter Heller."

I read that and loved it. Am curious how the narration is."


I like the narrator..."

Interesting. I thought it read a lot like poetry.

Finished He's Gone by Deb Caletti narrated by, Cassandra Campbell, This is a quiet, slow moving mystery (I kept waiting for a Gone Girl Twist that never happened)I felt like more of a deconstruction of a marriage than a mystery. But as always Cassandra's narration was great.

Now starting Wake written and narrated by Anna Hope and an interesting tidbit the author is perhaps best known for her Doctor Who role of Novice Hame.

I posted last night but it evidently got lost while the site was under maintenance *sighs*
Last night I finished The King by J. R. Ward and it was the best for many many books in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. A number of chapters were plain laugh-out-loud funny and others caused misty-eyed moments--the good kind. It had too many stories going at once--five stories were featured--and the audio made one subplot difficult because both men were named Wrath but were father and son and separated by about 300 years.

Ward appears to be dialing back on one aspect of her newer stories--men who aren't merely "bad boys" but are truly bad men. I mean, since when are a pimp/drug dealer, a cocaine-using murdering drug lord, and a violently murderous traitor the objects of romance? Still, she left it a little ambiguous as to whether they are reforming or even reformable.

Anyway, this one was worth the 22 hours and made the time listening to it seem to fly by.

Well the bride and I are still visiting Hilde at The Good House. Very enjoyable company. We are really warming to Frankie Getchell. The narrator voice couldn't be better. I have heard a voice so similar to this on a Television show and I am racking my brain to remember what show it was.

I finished "The Life of Pi". Two stars from me. I founds parts of it very saccharin, parts somewhat gross, and mostly very slow. I didn't really care that the protagonist was a Hindu, Muslim, Catholic and that he juggled the deities around as the situation suited him. And I guess the narration just got tiresome. I thought the ending saved it a bit but it was a long time getting there.



So on to a non fiction - "The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope". As the title suggest, this book focuses on FDRs first 100 days. Just starting it; looks promising.

Susanne wrote: "I'm starting The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon. It's the latest (#14) in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, but the first one I've ever read. (It's the only one my library ha..."
I just started it too, trust me you will want to go back and read them all. Just love the narrator and the characters :)

I know there were a lot of us who were fans of Stories I Only Tell My Friends. I just noticed that on 4/8 Rob Lowe is releasing a 2nd book, Love Life. Sorry if this is old news to everyone but me.

I don't normally buy books that are this short, and I almost never buy a new release, but this one has me tempted.

I just finished Three Junes, by Julia Glass, which greatly disappointed me. You can read my full review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

In short, I always felt like there was a wonderful book there somewhere, I could just never get hold of it. Part of the problem was the narrator, John Keating. I found his Scottish accent offputting. Also, he made all the gay men the protagonist interacted with very bitchy. It seemed like at least one of them was supposed to be nice - and that made me doubt the coloration of the other two.

Some people whose taste I greatly respect just loved this book and I can (sort of) understand why. I think it's quite possible that reading the book on the page may make a big difference. I do not, however, understand why it won the National Book Award.

Next up: Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann. So far, so good, at about an hour and a half in.

Tonight I finished Mark Twain’s Helpful Hints for Good Living: A Handbook for the Damned Human race narrated by Grover Gardner--a perfect fit.

It struck me as I listened that unbeknownst to me my nephew has turned out to be a Twain character... Tom Sawyer.
I have spent the last four days "helping" him do the research for his Junior research paper--it's on O. Henry. "Zia, could you just make the notes on this literary criticism?" "Oh Zia, I appreciate you so much... could you just do the notes on this other little 1500 word article?" "Zia, you're the greatest. If you could just do this other article..." "Thank you so much, you're the best." "Zia, can you help me with the outline? What would you suggest for I.? And II.? and III.?" "If you can just do those other three articles I'll have all my research done... you're the best!" I'm "helping" him write the paper this weekend...
BTW, my sister teaches English and has her PhD while I have a graduate degree in psychology. Yep, I have a Masters in psychology but my nephew has mastered psychology. *SIGH*
And if I never hear one more word about "The Gift of the Magi" it will be too soon!

I'm about 2/3 of the way through Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. Wow. Just...wow. I'll refrain from spewing a bunch of judgement. I will just say that the term "whack job" has crossed my mind several times while listening. I also liked Into the Wild, but this book is more intriguing to me. I may have to check out Krakauer's other books.

I'm fine with Scott Brick's narration. It may be his narration of fiction that incites so much polarized reaction.

I started Illusion from the Chronicles of Nick series by Sherrilyn Kenyon. I'm 2 hours in and find myself telling the author to just get on with it! This is a sure sign I'm tiring of the series, but there are only two books to go and I think it impacts another Kenyon series. Actually, the story isn't bad, just overwritten so far.

I'm listening to Panthers Play for Keeps: A Pru Marlowe Pet Mystery, where Tavia Gilbert does an outstanding job with all of the animal voices Pru hears. However, I really miss the nasty parrot from the previous book.

I had started Wake yesterday but then last night I watched the Veronica Mars Movie and decided to start the new book The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line by, Rob Thomas (creator of the tv show & movie) narrated by by Veronica Mars herself Kristen Bell

Janice, I groaned a lot at the music in Shadow of the Wind. Then, I found out that it was written by the author. I still don't know why it was played in some places, but I think it was the author's intention.

Jeanie wrote: "Tonight I finished Mark Twain’s Helpful Hints for Good Living: A Handbook for the Damned Human race narrated by Grover Gardner--a perfect fit.

It struck me as I listened that unbeknownst to me my ..."

That is a funny, funny story, and you've told it well. Thanks for the grins.

ETA: And, maybe try Joy's approach? Just say "No."