Audiobooks discussion

A new month already!

I've begun Someone at a Distance, not great audio quality, but I thought this one would be better than starting off the author in print.

For those interested in the classics, this is read by a full cast:
The Oresteian Trilogy by Aeschylus - 4* - My Review

Since 26th September, I'm listening to the new Strike (*waving to Jeanie & Robin).
As always, enjoying every bit and not an hour too long for me!

Specs wrote: "Since 26th September, I'm listening to the new Strike (*waving to Jeanie & Robin).
As always, enjoying every bit and not an hour too long for me!"

Me too, only about 14 chapters in, concerned about the undercover part. These books are darker than I would usually read but they're always interestingly written and I love the characters.

I finished up Killing November - dark academia with teenagers, secret societies. I rarely jump right into a second book (especially when my library doesn't have it), but I had to see what happened so I used an audible credit for the second book and started Hunting November

I'm also still listening to Tom Lake and Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America

Robin P wrote: "Specs wrote: "Since 26th September, I'm listening to the new Strike (*waving to Jeanie & Robin).
As always, enjoying every bit and not an hour too long for me!"

Me too, only about 14 chapters in,..."

*waves back to Specs* Robin, I was also wracked with anxiety over Robin going undercover. I'll just say this much, it never got as bad as I feared, but the anxiety and fear over what might or nearly happened was enough to keep my heart racing... proof that it was very well written!

It is officially spooky season. So this month I plan on reading a lot of scary stories. I'm starting off the month with, The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury. It is a free read on Audible.

Currently reading A Swiftly Tilting Planet and The Guest List, have finish A Wrinkle in Time, Orderud. Avhørene, løgnene, de nye sporene and A Wind in the Door

I'm hoping to finish up Six of Crows today or tomorrow!

This book had a wonderful narrator.

My review of The Museum of Failures by Thrity Umrigar

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Faith wrote: "This book had a wonderful narrator.

My review of The Museum of Failures by Thrity Umrigar

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

i'm actually going to the Museum of Failure this weekend - i'm guessing its not what she talked about however...

From my last September post: "Now I’m on to Boys in the Valley, and it’s interesting so far, but I’m not loving the reader. He makes all the boys sound like Mickey Mouse somehow. 🤨"

Digging the story, but still not digging the reader's voices for the boys. He has such a lovely tone for adults, especially Johnson, and then it's like a cartoonish voice for the kids. Sigh. I've only got 2 hours left of the audio, so I'm hoping to finish tonight.

Starting our book club selection for this month Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen by Sarah Bird narrated by Bahni Turpin

Dee wrote: "Faith wrote: "This book had a wonderful narrator.

My review of The Museum of Failures by Thrity Umrigar

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

i'm actu..."

The museum is mentioned at the beginning. But you are correct, it has nothing to do with the book.

Finished Boys in the Valley and it was OK but the ending was pretty predictable and kind of meh.

Starting Our Share of Night now.

I finished Murder at the Merton Library, latest in the Wrexford and Sloane series by Andrea Penrose. It was a good story but for the first time I found the narration distracting--too ponderous, stilted, or with an odd cadence for all the characters--and sadly highlighted every weakness in the prose. The historical subject of the attempt to develop a steam engine capable of crossing the ocean was an interesting backdrop for the murder investigation.

Haven't posted in a while, so I'm catching up. My reading has been almost entirely through audiobooks during the past few months ...

In August I listed to the last of the Southern Sisters cozy mysteries by Anne George: Murder Boogies with Elvis. This was a great entry in the series and I'm so going to miss the flamboyant larger-than-life Mary Alice and the more proper and sensible Patricia Anne from Birmingham. There won't be any more books as the author has passed away.

It's Not What It Looks Like - A short Audible-only memoir. The author went blind early in life and this was a little of her story. I especially enjoyed and learned a lot from the section on her guide dogs.

Masked Ball at Broxley Manor by Rhys Bowen - This is a short prequel to the Royal Spyness series, one of my favorite cozy mystery series - especially fun in audio.

A Mind of Her Own by Paula McLain - This is about Marie Curie - during her time at university and when she met the man who would be become her husband. I read Radiant: The Dancer, The Scientist, and a Friendship Forged in Light last year, which is also about Marie Curie, but picks up a few years after her marriage so this novella was a nice complementary story.

The Homewreckers - As always, an enjoyable women's fiction story from Mary Kay Andrews. As usual, it's set in the Savannah area (Tybee Island). This one had a good mystery mixed in.

I finished Winter of the World, book two of The Century Trilogy by Ken Follett last evening. It was good but not as good as book one for me, having read a lot of historical fiction pertaining to the Second World War I found the details to be not as well fleshed out as some other books I have read, more character centered and less realistic. While book one was about The Great War and centered around the same families, I haven't read a lot of books about World War 1 so it was more interesting. I am taking a break from the trilogy before I go into 36 hours of book three. John Lee does a nice and accurate job of narrating the text which I followed along with as an immersion read on my Fire tablet.

Now I am reading some sci-fi, Machine Learning: New and Collected Stories by Hugh Howey. It contains a story set in the Silo series. I have enjoyed everything I have read by Hugh Howey and expect that this one will not disappoint me either. It is an immersion read on my Fire tablet as well. It is narrated by the author, Gabra Zackman, and Scott Aiello.

Finished up Leigh Howard and the Ghosts of Simmons-Pierce Manor tonight and it was fine. Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. Very middle of the road for me personally but still glad I gave it a listen.

Tomorrow I’m starting up All Systems Red

Kim wrote: "Finished up Leigh Howard and the Ghosts of Simmons-Pierce Manor tonight and it was fine. Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. Very middle of the road for me personally but still glad I ..."

Oh, I just love Murderbot! I even looked into trying the new multi-cast production, but the reviews convinced me not to take the chance.

If you aren't sure about All Systems Red, I recommend you keep going in the series. The books are so short that it took a while for Murderbot to grow on me.

finishedThe Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million

My review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/5879616972

www.goodreads.com/review/show/5447379135

3.5 stars to Six of Crows, and with that cliffhanger I'll end up grabbing the sequel eventually.

I started My Dear Henry: A Jekyll & Hyde Remix yesterday, and I've enjoyed listening to Clifford Samuel's narration, but I found Hyde to be severely mischaracterized today and set it aside.

Picking up The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold this afternoon, narrated by Louise Brealey.

I'm still working on Our Share of Night and I'm starting to get a teensy bit bored with it. It's very dark and brutal at times, but in between those moments, very little actually happens. I'm about 7 hours in to a 27 hour audiobook and I am not sure if I have the patience for another 20 hours unless it picks up REAL fast.

While I'm on the topic of this book though, I have a question about reading habits, because I had a conversation with a coworker the other day about this, and I left that conversation feeling like the way I approach things when I read is weird. Basically, I mentioned that I'm an analyzer, and tend to pick apart details, even if those details aren't specified or included at all by the author.

I tend to get caught up in the science and physics of things, and also the "how this came to be" of things. For example, a scene that will always stick with me is of a person fighting a ghost on top of a speeding car, getting hit, flying off the car, but managing at the last second to grab the tiny crevice between the car's back window and the trunk cover. That's just... not going to happen. I don't mean the fight with the ghost, that's whatever, but the PHYSICS of the fight are impossible, and no alternate reality rules of physics were offered, so I just lost complete interest.

This book (Our Share of Night) has a scene with some torture/sacrificial victims in cages, and the description of one of them completely caught me up in the "how this came to be" and I went down a really unpleasant rabbit-hole thinking about the series of events that would have had to occur in order to lead to this scene, and the type of people capable of it. (I had this same experience with the opening episode of AHS: Coven, and it is why I have been unable to continue that season.)

I did continue on with the book, but I'm really curious... does anyone else get stuck on stuff like this? Or do most people just accept the scene as is and move on without going down the "HOW?" rabbit-hole?

I think we get stuck on things we have some knowledge of. For instance a lawyer will hate that an attorney or judge does something that would never be allowed, or a trial goes off the rails some crazy way, etc. Athletes probably find things wrong with sports stories and doctors with medical thrillers. The astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson said that a wind storm isn't possible on Mars (opening scene of The Martian) but he forgave it because the rest of the science was so good.

As a language teacher, I get annoyed when someone seems to learn a new language quickly and fluently, enough to solve a mystery in a foreign country, for instance. I also get stuck when a British character uses an Americanism, like "elevator" instead of "lift" and the other way around. Sometimes these are subtle. I am listening to The Running Grave and keep being struck by people saying, "the man was called X" or "he talked to a family called Y". In the US, that sounds suspicious, like that wasn't their real name. But it seems that is the normal British way to say "the man was named X". So that's fine, but if a British author wrote an American character saying that, it would be weird.

I probably wouldn't notice the speeding car scene because my eyes glaze over in movies and books at car chases and fights. I know they are supposed to be the exciting part but they are so predictable and just don't interest me. And I have very little knowlege of physics. I am more likely to get hung up on psychological issues. Like I absolutely cannot accept books like Gone Girl and The Silent Patient. I definitely agree that there are people who are delusional/devious but not that someone like that could be totally devious in a consistent way over years and years.

I think that's true to a degree, though I don't really think of myself as all that knowledgeable on these things. I don't mean I'm fact checking things that are wrong and calling that out (though when I AM knowledgeable about something, I can and do)...

It's just more like whatever the thing is sticks out like a sore thumb to me and my brain needs to examine it.

With this Our Share of Night scene... I think I got more hung up on the casual cruelty of it, and it hit me like a brick. The description of the torture (which was honestly just a line or two, tops, but quite graphic) just stopped me in my tracks and made me really SIT with the implications of it. What would have been done, who it was done to, who could be the type of person to do that, why they did it... etc. Then that leads into thinking about what the author has given us about the person who did it, and whether it matches up or not with my perception of them and their deeds, etc.

I just wonder if other people think about the implications of things like this, or just accept what's on the page and move on?

Jeanie wrote: "Kim wrote: "Finished up Leigh Howard and the Ghosts of Simmons-Pierce Manor tonight and it was fine. Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. Very middle of the road for me personally but s..."

I just finished it. It was such an enjoyable listen. I’d like to get the book sometime to and read it again.

Kim wrote: "Jeanie wrote: "Kim wrote: "Finished up Leigh Howard and the Ghosts of Simmons-Pierce Manor tonight and it was fine. Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. Very middle of the road for me p..."

All of the books in the series are great, imo, but it's essential to read the first four as they form their own arc and complete at least the first part of Murderbot's story. There are more and I can't wait for the new one in November!

The Running Grave is so engrossing - I found myself dreaming about it. And when I went to cook dinner, I took out a package of noodles, and thought, "Do I even want this?" (noodles come up a lot in the story). Galbraith/Rowling is such a good storyteller and the narration is excellent (except for the weird pronunciation of I Ching at the beginning of every chapter). I'd like to know if anyone can recommend other authors that are as good. The only one I can think of is Louise Penny and I've finished all her books.

Becky wrote: "I think that's true to a degree, though I don't really think of myself as all that knowledgeable on these things. I don't mean I'm fact checking things that are wrong and calling that out (though w..."

For me it depends on either how engaged I am or how much I am willing to suspend disbelief. Things like the fight where a character saves himself in an improbable way will stop me cold if it's standard fiction but result only in a shrug when it's paranormal (although I do notice).

Lots of different things can and do pull me out of the story--historical inaccuracies or anachronisms, language usage that is improper or like Robin's cross-cultural examples, psychological improbabilities, some scientific impossibilities (I don't know enough to catch them all), and even chronological inconsistences within a story. My mind gets caught on these and I have to pause or go back to catch the part I missed while stuck on those things.

The one thing that will stop me cold is harm to children. I read one Chronicles of St. Mary's about the Trojan War that included one or two sentences about how they treated babies and my mind just froze on those conjured images and couldn't move on. I've never wished for brain shampoo so desperately than over the images of those babies. I still have two Chronicles of St. Mary's books in my Library and I have such an aversion to them that I can't bring myself to begin them... even though I've been told they don't include harm to children. It still takes a lot of work not to allow those images to resurface in my thoughts at the very mention of the author or series name... I wish there had been a trigger warning... a very strong one!

I can't read about torture myself, or unsee/unhear it. At least in a physical book, I can skip ahead, it's harder on audio. And I can NOT read any more books about Nazis. Of course, it's important to know the depths of cruelty but I feel I've seen enough. I had to stop reading both The Winds of War and Gone to Soldiers, which were otherwise very good books with large casts and a lot of subject matter, when Nazis started mistreating people.

Many people were bothered by the Trojan War seen in Chronicles of St. Mary's. I also found it horrible, but I was even more bothered by the arc of the character Matthew, who was a specific child we got introduced to.

I know there are many people who can't stand to read about mistreatment of animals or even natural death of a beloved pet, so there are websites that will tell you if a dog dies.

Robin P wrote: "I think we get stuck on things we have some knowledge of. ..."

Yes! This throws me out of the story and flings down rabbit hole from which I may or may not emerge to finish the book.

Mysteries with cats, often with paranormal abilities - yes. Devour them regularly.
Mysteries with cats, ordinary non-magical, non-shapeshifting cats who are nocturnal, meet up at night, yowl, not fight or mate, oh, and let's not forget, eat chocolate. Yeah, nope. Not comin' outta that rabbit hole, no way, no how, nope!

Jeanie wrote: "The one thing that will stop me cold is harm to children. I read one Chronicles of St. Mary's about the Trojan War that included one or two sentences about how they treated babies and my mind just froze on those conjured images and couldn't move on. I've never wished for brain shampoo so desperately than over the images of those babies. I still have two Chronicles of St. Mary's books in my Library and I have such an aversion to them that I can't bring myself to begin them... even though I've been told they don't include harm to children. It still takes a lot of work not to allow those images to resurface in my thoughts at the very mention of the author or series name... I wish there had been a trigger warning... a very strong one!"

Jeanie, yes! That’s exactly what I mean. It’s like it stops me short and I get it stuck in my brain and then my brain goes into a cycle of thinking about it and all of the implications along with it. This scene did involve a child and the description just felt so casual, and the characters in the scene basically acted as though it was normal, routine, something they’ve been desensitized to.

Now that scene and all of the accompanying context my brain so HELPFULLY added are burned into it and I’m not happy about it. >_<

L J - I feel your pain on the cat front! I have a whole shelf dedicated to bad animal portrayals in books. Two of my most ranty reviews are basically much much longer versions of: CATS DON’T ACT LIKE THAT! GAH!

And I got stuck on a cat mystery where the cat understands human behavior and language, even how to pick up a phone (the old landline kind) and speaks idiomatic American English. Besides the physiological impossibility (cat's mouth, etc.), how would it know all these expressions? Again, the language thing for me. I didn't mind the humanlike thinking of dogs in Lessons in Chemistry and The Art of Racing in the Rain because they didn't talk. And I adore Chet from the Spencer Quinn series.

I have had cats all my life and they definitely take on some human traits (my eldest girl backtalks like you wouldn’t believe when I scold her for getting into things she knows she shouldn’t!), and we anthropomorphize them for sure… but some things I’ve seen cats do in books are just silly, and make me fairly certain that the writer has never met one. LOL

I usually have little or no problem with magical or supernatural cats but I especially enjoy it when it falls within normal range of cat behavior.

I enjoy the cats in the Magical Cat Mystery series by Sofie Kelly. Librarian Kathleen Paulson has two wonderful cats, one can turn invisible and the other can walk through closed doors. They're delightful cats and very much cats. Who among us with cats has not had the experience of searching for a cat only to find it curled up asleep in a place where it obviously has been for hours even though we checked there three times while searching and never saw it or found cat in room where door hasn't been opened since cat was elsewhere.
Newest book in series narrated by Cassandra Campbell

Paws to Remember

Robin P wrote: "I also get stuck when a British character uses an Americanism, like "elevator" instead of "lift" and the other way around."

I just ran into this in My Dear Henry: A Jekyll & Hyde Remix yesterday - "pants" was used when it should've been "trousers", bc English setting and American writer. Whoops! "Pants" definitely doesn't mean the same thing in both countries lol

Ashley Marie wrote: "Robin P wrote: "I also get stuck when a British character uses an Americanism, like "elevator" instead of "lift" and the other way around."

I just ran into this in [book:My Dear Henry: A Jekyll & ..."

Yes, I noticed that in a Regency or Victorian romance written by an American not long ago. Editors should catch these simple things if authors don't know any better.

Is it a US edition? Maybe they "Americanized" it because they think that us Yanks don't understand what trousers are?

Becky wrote: "Is it a US edition? Maybe they "Americanized" it because they think that us Yanks don't understand what trousers are?"

I mean, she's an American author so... yes and yes? Lol

Just finished a 17 hour book Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen so needed a couple short books to get me through today so I just finished What Do We Know About the Winchester House? it was a good Who was book.

Now reading She Persisted: Deb Haaland by, Laurel Goodluck & Chelsea Clinton narrated by, Isabella Lablanc I've already learned things about Deb I didn't know before.

Finished above book it was only 42 minutes it was really good!

Now starting The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity by Nicholas Day narrated by Carlotta Day..this is a middle grade book about the theft of the Mona Lisa.

I started up Strange Weather in Tokyo for a buddy read. I’m about 30 minutes in now and love the narration.

Kim wrote: "I started up Strange Weather in Tokyo for a buddy read. I’m about 30 minutes in now and love the narration."

I bought that in the last sale and am looking forward to listening to it!

I finished Beachwood Harbor Magical Mysteries Boxed Set by Danielle Garrett and narrated by Amanda Ronconi. I had already read the first book in this series and was on the fence about continuing. These first three books are now available through Audible Plus so I added it to my Library. I would continue the series if they added the next boxed set to Audible Plus; otherwise I'm still on the fence. Another first book in a spinoff series is on Audible Plus--Once Upon a Hallow's Eve--and I'm trying that now... seems appropriate for October. ;)

I ended up losing interest in Our Share of Night, and started Lovecraft Country instead. Lots of similarities between them, but I’m enjoying the latter so much more. OSON was just so boring for large chunks of time in between sporadic scenes of depravity and cruelty.

Went on a road trip with my husband and in my endeavor to get him to enjoy audiobooks we did some listening on the road. He started listening to podcasts so I figured the audible originals that I have in my library may be to his liking. We listened to Hi Bob! by Bob Newhart.

It's a mix from interviews he did with other comics such as: Will Ferrell, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow, Conan O'Brien, Sarah Silverman, and others. (Can't seem to find the title in goodreads.) I got the title back in 2018 when they were offering free monthly audible originals. This was very similar to a podcast. He liked it more than I did.

After that we started up another audible original The Space Race. We both have enjoyed this so far, we got to about 40% the way through. It is definitely a production, not like a typical book. Lots of sound effects, interviews and the part I don't like is the imagined future. That part is not long but doesn't fit well with all the history.

Now we need another road trip to finish that book up, that may be a while. I need to start an audio for myself, not sure just what yet. I still have many of those free audible originals unlistened, but I need a real book next.

4 stars to The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper, an excellent piece even if it is largely conjecture. Rubenhold pieces together highly plausible Victorian working-class lives for these women, and the fiery conclusion was worth all of it.

Pamela wrote: "I still have many of those free audible originals unlistened...."

Me too, and it sort of bothers me because I like to finish things. I dislike seeing the high number of audio books Audible says I own that I have not listened to yet.

Audible's present "reward" plan of Plus books is much better. I've listened to many of them while ignoring the free Audible originals I have from them.