Audiobooks discussion

Starting off this month with finishing off one I'd set aside: New Grub Street. "Publish or perish" among late Victorian writers. Solid narration, but I'm not identifying with the characters, one of whose shallowness I find particularly off-putting.

Carrying over The Secret Lives of Color, where the author-narration is fine; nor am I missing examples of the colors (shades) themselves. A nonfiction that passes time well, if not outstanding

like how is it nearly March already - it was just 1 January!!!

I finished up The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War today - interesting from the perspective of what they developed - but not a fan of the audio, it had too much extra (background noise/music and they spliced in interviews with real people that I found to be distracting).

I have about 90 minutes left of Last Twilight in Paris

my first official book of March will be Malas

I'm still in the middle of my paperback copy of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store and just today finished Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman...

Not sure what I'm going to listen to next!! I'm going away with my daughter for her bday this weekend, so I probably won't start a new audible til sunday/monday...

Excited to see all your guys' choices and then decide :)

I finished up The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr which I enjoyed more than I expected. I've only read one of her memoirs, thinking about reading another after finishing this book.

Still have two other books going: Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ by Giulia Enders
and
The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? by Jared Diamond.

I'm enjoying switching between different audio books. May keep this up.

I'm starting March with The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane.

I'm also switching between two audiobooks - The Return of the Native which is going slowly and The God of the Woods.

If it wasn't for Alan Rickman's narration of The Return of the Native, then I think reading it would be the better choice. However, I would probably still resort to Cliff Notes for support!!

Just finished listening to Sweet Water by Christina Baker Kline. It was a little slow getting started, but it turned out to be a good story. It was narrated by 2 different women, Amy Rubinate & Suzanne Toren, one for the voice of Cassie and the other for her grandmother, Clyde. That was my only complaint, one of the narrators was difficult to listen to. I sped up the audio a little and that helped, but there was just something about her voice that did not appeal to me. The other narrator was great. CBK is a favorite author of mine, she rarely disappoints!

I finished The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker, but it was a slog for me. The writing itself was lovely, but I didn't like any of the characters and thought the book was about twice as long as it should have been. The audiobook was narrated very well by George Guidall, but I think I've typecast him with other stories so didn't enjoy it as much.

I gave The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart a good chance, but this was a disappointment. Unfinished.

Maybe I'm just having a down week! Back to an easy-to-read fantasy series I like, The Isles of the Cutlass Sea by Torsten Weitze.

I finishhed up Last Twilight in Paris - it was a decent story - narrators were Therese Plummer and Skasia Marrvelaand - who made a decent book pretty enjoyable - pretty standard WW2 story (IMHO)

I started Malas, as well as Seatmate and Podkayne of Mars

Halfway done with A Long Time Gone Ben Packard #3 by Joshua Moehling Narrated by Linda Jones

I started the short Open Throat, narrated by a mountain lion in the Hollywood Hills. His views of humans seem like a cross between Chet the dog and Murderbot. Every day he hears people on the hiking trails talking about their therapists, their boasts, their problems, and their complaints about life in "Ellay". It's both funny and touching.

The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing was a very unique and well worth book to listen to.

I am finishing book 10 of the Special Agent Pendergast series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Fever Dream. This begins the Helen trilogy ARC, and it is pretty good. The writing has improved by this point in the series from the relatively weaker beginning books, they are up from 3 stars to 4, most entertaining. The narrator is the late Rene Auberjonois and no matter how hard I try I still hear Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Doug wrote: "I am finishing book 10 of the Special Agent Pendergast series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Fever Dream. This begins the Helen trilogy ARC, and it is pretty good. The writing..."

this is a series i need to get back to - i enjoyed the first one, while the writing was a bit weak

Glory Be is an amusing mystery set in Louisiana with the excellent Bahni Turpin voicing a variety of characters. The title character is an older woman who doesn't take anything from anybody and always is sure she is right.

i finished up Seatmate - fun meet cute - it was originally done as straight audio and then an ebook was added - i can't imagine reading it because its written for narration (heavy on the dialogue etc). But overall cute romance and glad to finish up the trilogy

still working on Malas as well as Podkayne of Mars

next up is Open Season and The DallerGut Dream Department Store

I found I couldn't stop listening to "The Beach House" by Rachel Hanna.

I finished The God of the Woods. 3.5. It was a bit long with quite a few unlikeable characters.

I finished The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane. I thought it was good, but I don't love See's writing. I feel like she does a great amount of research, which is great, but then she feels the need to include every single thing she learns in the story. It ends up bogging the story down in places and causing issues with the flow and pacing. I enjoy the stories overall and like learning new things, but there are just too many slow spots for my taste.

I am now listening to Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and I'm going to start Once There Were Wolves tomorrow.

I've wrapped up a few good ones lately:

The Paradise Problem was a cute contemporary romance. Pretty obvious where it would go but the two main characters were interesting and I found myself really enjoying their banter and developing relationship

Long Shadows - the 7th (and last - but I hope not) in the Memory Man series by David Baldacci. Love the main character and his unusual memory that helps him solve crimes. A no-fail series for me - I've liked them all.

Up next is The Seventh Veil of Salome

Enjoyed A Long Time Gone by Joshua Moehling Narrated by Linda Jones

Now starting The Sirens by Emilia Hart
Narrated by Barrie Kreinik Pub Date Apr 01 2025

I finished up a couple very informative reads: Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ by Giulia Enders which was written in a somewhat entertaining writing style, which helped understand the material. Actually starts with the mouth, so more encompassing than I expected.

Then The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? by Jared Diamond. Which looked at several areas of life, such as: raising children, dealing with old people, diet, war, etc. He explains how things are in traditional societies and compares to modern, mainly western society.

Then started up Octavia E. Butler: H is for Horse by Chi-ming Yang. This is a biography, mostly of her writing, but of herself as well. It has been describing the content of her early writing as she grew up and into a published author. It's a short book and I'm already 40% through.

The Diamond book was one of the first audio books I purchased, so it felt good to get it done. The same day I bought a bunch, one of those audible sales...and have only one more left from that group. In any case, felt good to get one of the oldest audios finally off the TBR/L.

⭐⭐⭐.8 for #11 in the Irish Village Mystery series - Murder in an Irish Garden by Carlene O'Connor https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

I finished up Malas last night - i think it was recommended by someone in this group - ended up enjoying it although the beginning was a bit slow. I loved the early 1990's setting (esp the references to Selena)

I also finished up Podkayne of Mars on my commute into the office this morning.

next up is continuing Open Season; as well as DallerGut Dream Department Store

This was a delightful, entertaining read: Is She Really Going Out with Him?

I'm listening to the latest Star Wars: The High Republic Audiodrama, Tempest Breaker! Full cast and great SFX as we always get from these.

I read the Amazon Originals series "The Far Reaches" which was comprised of six novellas which should have been combined into an omnibus. It was sci-fi, the novellas were not related but stand alone in the theme of space. As with compilations, some were good and some weren't as good. The authors included were James S.A. Corey, Veronica Roth, Rebecca Roanhorse, Ann Leckie, Nnedi Okorafor, and John Scalzi. Overall it was enjoyable, and it was included with Kindle Unlimited with audiobook companions.

I'm now reading a real compilation of short stories edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois called Warriors, the stories are not in a single genre but across genres with a theme of warriors of course. Some are fantasy, some mystery, historical fiction, sci-fi, etc. This one is over 700 pages in print, 31 audio hours, so it contains stories by many authors that are longer than the previous ones I read.

I finished Once There Were Wolves and started A Piece of the World.

Brenda wrote: "This was a delightful, entertaining read: Is She Really Going Out with Him?"

Ha! Now I have the sound loop in my head!! Love Joe Jackson, but I was finally sound loop free for a couple of days.

We’ve been listening to the Bernard Ollivier trilogy on his attempt to walk the Silk Road. It starts with Out of Istanbul: A Journey of Discovery along the Silk Road, continues with Walking to Samarkand: The Great Silk Road from Persia to Central Asia and finishes with Winds of the Steppe: Walking the Great Silk Road from Central Asia to China, All three are enjoyable narratives of a foreigner attempting to find the appropriate road and caravanceries and enjoying local hospitality over and over as he walks through deserts and over high mountains in countries that we rarely think about.

I’m a bit unhappy with the narrator of the third book, which they probably found by going out on the street and dragging in the first person they saw. Still, it is a very interesting and informative series. Fortunately, we picked them up with Audible’s great sale after Black Friday.

Fran wrote: "Brenda wrote: "This was a delightful, entertaining read: Is She Really Going Out with Him?"

Ha! Now I have the sound loop in my head!! Love Joe Jackson, but I was finally sound lo..."

I had the same reaction Fran! :)

Finished all the books I had going at the same time, then started and quickly finished The King's Messenger by Susanna Kearsley. It was somewhat predictable, but I enjoyed the adventure.

Now listening to a new audio release of The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. There are multiple narrators woven in, so each character has their own voice.

Also listening to There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak. Just one narrator here. I started it in print but realized I can get the audio, so switched over.

I'm partway through a nonfiction The Secret Lives of Color, read by the author. Don't mind looking up unfamiliar shades, though the tiny chapters go by fast enough that I really need to pay attention.

Pamela wrote: "Fran wrote: "Brenda wrote: "This was a delightful, entertaining read: Is She Really Going Out with Him?"

Ha! Now I have the sound loop in my head!! Love Joe Jackson, but I was fin..."

A sound loop or an earworm, I don't know what you call it but I finally was song free in my heard after a Peter, Paul and Mary 50 year tribute. Leaving on a Jet Plane! Now Joe Jackson. I buried myself in a book this afternoon.

Just finished The House by the Sea . I liked this book, with the exception of the "ghost" parts . . . Not that it was scary or anything like that, I just didn't get much from that part of the story. I did like the little bit of a "mystery" that was included and I wish the author would have focused more on that aspect of the story line. The narrator, Emma Powell was very good, even though she had an accent, she was still very understandable and easy to listen to. But I guess you could say this story had a little something for everyone: Mystery, Romance, exotic locales, and a few ghosts as well. I give it 3½ stars!

Donna wrote: "...But I guess you could say this story had a little something for everyone: Mystery, Romance, exotic locales, and a few ghosts as well..."

Gee, what more could we ask for? (Wink) I immediately went to check this one out!

I have been listening to a long series of epic sword and sorcery fantasies called The 13th Paladin (first book is Ahren) by Torsten Weitze. I'm now on the 7th book and there are at least 13 of them. Gildart Jackson does a terrific audio narration of this series, and Tim Casey translated them from German. Unique and likable characters and easy to follow.

I am also listening to Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ by Giulia Enders, but it's kind of all over the place and I'm losing interest.

I finished A Piece of the World and have started Summer Romance. I think this will be a really quick read.

Just started The Outer Banks House: A Novel by Diann Ducharme. I got through about 10% of the book (30 minutes) and just wasn't feeling it. Had to mark it as DNF. I have way too many books on my TBR list to continue with one that's not cutting it! Moving on to the next one, I am giving The Dressmaker's Dowry a try. One of the narrators, Cassandra Campbell, is a favorite of mine, so I am hopeful that this one will be better! 🤞🏻

I finally finished The Return of the Native narrated by Alan Rickman. Once I got through the first two chapters all was good. It's not the best Thomas Hardy novel I've read. It fulfills a personal challenge to listen or read some classics throughout the year.

Now I've started Nero: Nero Trilogy, Book 1. It has excellent reviews and so far I'm very engaged.

Normally I really enjoy Marie Lu, but Skyhunter did not move smoothly for me.

Started Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (a Hunger Games novel) today that I got from the public library.

I mention the public library because I support those and have written to my Congressmen before in support of library funding, and again now as the Institute of Museum and Library Services was disbanded by the Administration. I oppose that.

I got the email today from Houston that Out of State library memberships will no longer be renewed, joining the list of libraries that will be cutting services due to the gutting of federal funding. Not to be overtly political here, but I oppose this elimination of federal funding for services that the middle and lower economic classes use with every bit of my being.

"Greetings HPL Cardholder,

We are writing to inform you that, as of April 7, 2025, we will no longer be able to renew your out-of-state resident library card. This decision was made after careful consideration of changes in library funding and operational needs."

Doug wrote: "Started Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (a Hunger Games novel) today that I got from the public library.

I mention the public library because I support those and have w..."

Thanks for posting this. It's a service that will probably not be mentioned in any national coverage.

I listened to the latest Wrexford and Sloane, Murder at King’s Crossing. I have always liked the series, but it is getting repetitive. Even the characters are remarking on how they end up connected to so many murders! And there is always an element of science/technology where there is some big secret. However, I was intrigued that there were at least 2 threads that weren't wrapped in this book. The narration is always good.

I've just started an early audio copy of Nobody’s Fool. This is my first read by Harlan Coben.

Also listening to Sunrise on the Reaping, also signed out from a public library though in my case in Canada.

Support your public libraries, folks, and the politicians who fund them.

So far I've read:
The Heaven & Earth Grocery StoreThe Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White MotherBrooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman
Tuck Everlasting

Currently reading:
Moon Palace
On Beauty

Robert wrote: "Also listening to Sunrise on the Reaping, also signed out from a public library though in my case in Canada.

Support your public libraries, folks, and the politicians who fund them."

US libraries today are reaching out to advise members of threats to federal funding which could affect services like Libby or hours, staffing, etc. They encouraged us to contact our representatives.

I finished Bear this evening. It was an emotional read for me.

I really very much enjoyed Ken Follett's The Armor of Light, even though it was read by John Lee. He isn't my least favorite narrator but not in my top ten either.

Now back to Murderbot with Network Effect by Martha Wells. These novellas and one novel are making a lot more sense read in order without the gaps between publishing dates which caused me to forget most of the previous plotline in between books. I love Murderbot!

Currently listening to STAR WARS: The Mask of Fear, it's a great lead in to the return of the Andor TV series.