Audiobooks discussion

Starting off with:

Vanishing Fleece: Adventures in American Wool, excellent author narration! Available via Audible Plus until 21 October.

A Murder for Miss Hortense, also good narration, challenge to keep track of these Jamaican-British characters, but working out well so far.

I just finished Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting and I'm starting The Women on Platform Two.

Paused reading In the Veins of the Drowning: The Siren Mage, Book 1 to read Good Dirt. Narration by January LaVoy makes this multi-generational fiction's tragic touchpoint (Baz/Old Mo) engrossing, completely enchanted with the past's grip on the FMC.

Kristie, I enjoyed TWOPT by Laura Anthony. Hard to imagine the times women had to endure before their fight.

I just finished listening to The Sweetness of Water. In spite of the current hype I was underwhelmed with this book as a whole. I am posting here, however, to warn audio listeners that a new minor character is introduced about 50-60% through the book and the narrator apparently has no other option but to read him with a voice that sounds like a humorous attempt to imitate John Wayne. It did not fit at all to me and I found it very distracting. Maybe it's just me and no one else will feel this way but you are warned.

i have my normal multiple books in progress...

We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America - I remember hearing about the case of the adoptive parents that drove themselves and 6 kids off cliff in california back in the mid-2010's - this digs into how the kids ended up with them etc - its horrifying...

The Night Villa - not far in but decent thus far

Chimera - finishing up the trilogy - not having another mira grant to roll to next might kill me - lol! she's become one of my binge read authors

I finished Stay with Me and had to suspend my own cultural biases to get through the book. I did love the narration.

Now I'm working my way through China by Edward Rutherfurd. Rutherfurd's books are well researched and I've enjoyed the others. I was wondering where in China's long history this book would start. It starts in the 19th century at the beginning of The Opium War. Interesting.

Reading I See You've Called in Dead, a witty, wry 2025 release, my first from this author ( John Kenney ). I laughed out loud at some of the self-obits in "Bury the Lede" aka chapter 2.

Was curious: my Goodreads Reading Challenge goal for 2025 is 275 books. I'm at 247. Last year's goal was 250, ended up reading 304. With 2 months left in the year, would you keep the goal (to overachieve) or up it to 300+ to align realistic goals? So hard to lowball at start of the year, but we never know what life has in store, right? So, up or stay?

I used to have a goal of 100 books, when I was still working. One year I fell short and felt stressed. So since then I always put a lower goal to start with and keep increasing it. Right now I have 240 of 250 myself and I haven't decided if I'm increasing it and to what.

I will surpass my goal this year, but I plan to leave it the same. My thought is that I'm not trying to guess how many I will end up reading and don't need the stress of trying to attain a new goal at the end of the year. It was a yearly goal and if I reach it early, then so be it. After I reach my goal, it is fun to see how many more I can read and I can adjust next year's goal accordingly.

I'm listening to Space Opera!

You folks have numerical goals? I've never considered that (nor taken "notes" while reading).

I bailed on a paranormal mystery yesterday when the story seemed more a romance than sleuthing: A Whisper and a Curse. For a more modern mystery I'm listening to Ghostwriter (not paranormal despite the title), definitely need to read Slipshod first for context.

John wrote: "You folks have numerical goals? I've never considered that (nor taken "notes" while reading)...."

It's for the Goodreads Reading Challenge. You pick a number of books to read each year. https://www.goodreads.com/readingchal...

Finished up The Tree Collectors: Tales of Arboreal Obsession by Amy Stewart. This is likely better read with print. Too many very short biographies.

Also finished The Pretender by Jo Harkin. I quite enjoyed this book, despite some of the cursing that felt too modern. It's an historical fiction placed in 15th Century England.

Now I'm listening to What We Can Know by Ian McEwan. So far it's not doing much for me.

Starting The Bewitching and Home of the American Circus, books 5 & 6 of the month. I just upped reading challenge goal from 275 to 300.

Really hating THE BEWITCHING. I've restarted it 4 times and each time, my mind just wanders away from the story. 3 timelines, too many wispy, fragile damsels in need of male input. Stopping once again, to get into Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng.

10/9/2025 update: just finished HOTAC and thought it was affirming for women to support one another when those you love fail to.

Pamela wrote: "Finished up The Tree Collectors: Tales of Arboreal Obsession by Amy Stewart. This is likely better read with print. Too many very short biographies.

Also finished The Preten..."</i>

Ooooh, I want to read[book:What We Can Know. Curious about the blah. Slow start?

I'm 6 hours of a 13+ hour debut, One Yellow Eye, a clever take on love, zombies, deadly contagious virus and those who want to weaponize it or cure it.

I've started Too Old for This.

I used to read tons of books, but in recent years, I've found it hard to read any as I'm too busy with my own writing.

Kristie wrote: "I've started Too Old for This."

Ooooh, another book on my TBR! I hope you'll share your thoughts of it afterwards.

I started All the Lonely People in the end of September and finished it the other day. It was a poignant and heartfelt story.

I started and finished Never Far Away yesterday. And will be started (and hopefully finishing) Don't Let the Forest In today.

Audiophile Audrey wrote: "Kristie wrote: "I've started Too Old for This."

Ooooh, another book on my TBR! I hope you'll share your thoughts of it afterwards."

I will! I hope to get through it in a couple of days.

Working on a Victorian-era mystery: The Whitechapel Widow, first in a series. These are a spinoff from the author's Penny Green books, which I haven't read. Are any of you familiar with those stories?

hello everyone, I started the book on the 2nd, and i I just finished it today. The vanishing cherry blossom Bookshop.

We just finished listening to A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck. Good riddance! It was our car book; neither of us liked it, but we kept listening due to inertia, I think. Perhaps it is a book that should be read as the narrator was awful.

Kathleen wrote: "We just finished listening to A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck. Good riddance! It was our car book; neither of us liked it, but we kept listening d..."

I'm glad my experience with the narrator was better...she co-narrated Nikki May's This Motherless Land. Their work made quite impression in my review from February: "Beautifully told and richly narrated, what a treat to read." But then again, it's comparing like apples to canoes when it comes to fiction to non-fiction, right? Thanks for the warning to stay away from this author!

Kathleen wrote: "We just finished listening to A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck. Good riddance! It was our car book; neither of us liked it, but we kept listening d..."

I shared your feelings about Marriage at Sea but I won't blame it all on the narrator. Very little time was spent on the lost at sea portion of the story, there was heavy emphasis on the marriage which was OK but not really interesting. For a book about people who went out of their way to experience adventure very little of the book was about adventure.

Behind Every Good Man was enjoyable and very well done. Some characters from her earlier book, Don’t Forget to Write, make cameo appearances.

Now listening to Shots on Net and finding it disappointing. I have a weakness for young men in love with each other (Red, White & Royal Blue, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, etc.) So I thought I would like this college story of a jock and a geek. The narration is good, but the characters are not striking me as real people.

I finished Too Old for This yesterday. I thought the book was good, but not quite as good as I was expecting it to be. It felt like it dragged a little bit at times. Maybe my expectations were too high. The audio narration was very good though.

I also listened to What Have You Done? today. I thought this one was good too, but I guessed the killer early on. There were a few very possible suspects.

I am starting Brigands & Breadknives tomorrow. I also plan to finish The Women on Platform Two. I was really enjoying that one and only have about an hour left, but I had to put it aside for a group challenge. I'm going to try to squeeze it in though because it's excellent and I can't wait to finish it.

I finished The ST✡R and the SHAMROCK yesterday. I just love Jean Grainger. She is such a talented writer & everything I've read by her is just so engrossing & the characters so relatable! I do have to say that this book was not my favorite of hers, I much preferred the Robinswood series (https://www.goodreads.com/series/2828...) or the Queenstown series (https://www.goodreads.com/series/3161...) over this one. I don't know, maybe I am just burned out on WWII stories right now. But she did a great job relating how the Kinder Transport program worked and how it affected the people & especially the children involved. The narrator, Siobhan Waring, did an excellent job and I really enjoyed listening to her Irish accent in the telling of this story. This is the 1st book of 4 in a series and I don't think I will follow up with the rest right now. Perhaps I will try them a little later on. 4⭐s.

Next I am trying Where the Rivers Merge: A Novel by Mary Alice Monroe. I finally bit the bullet and signed up for an Audible account. I have been getting all my audiobooks free from Hoopla or Libby up until now, but my Library didn't have that title on either platform and I really wanted to read it! I got 3 months for 99¢/month as part of the Prime Day deals, so I thought that was pretty reasonable! Plus as a Prime member I got 2 credits for this month! 🤗

I listened to the audiobook, which is brilliantly performed by New Zealand actor and comedian Nic Sampson:
The Axeman's Carnival by Catherine Chidgey - 4.5* - My Review

Joy D wrote: "I listened to the audiobook, which is brilliantly performed by New Zealand actor and comedian Nic Sampson:
The Axeman's Carnival by Catherine Chidgey - 4.5* - My Re..."

That looks fascinating, I had never heard of that author but will be checking her out!

Just finished Writing Mr. Wrong for my girly mood and Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng. Wow, talk about not judging a book by its cover! Both exceeded my genre expectations.

Robin P wrote: "That looks fascinating, I had never heard of that author but will be checking her out!..."
She's from New Zealand, so maybe that's why. I am definitely going to be reading more of her work.

Reading Bunny to earn the 'Community Picks' seasonal challenge bookmark and as I muddle through it, I'm also reading the beautiful prose of Maya Angelou in her Letter to My Daughter.

An hour into A Murder for Miss Hortense, I'm not fully engaged, despite excellent narration, feels more like fiction than mystery.

LIke William Shakespeare's sonnets, the earthy love poems of Pablo Neruda is pretty lovely. Reading Love Poems because into every life a bit of sensuous poetry must fall.

I finished a "new-to-me" author Liz Tomforde this afternoon. Mile High was not written as well as I hoped. I did enjoy the see-sawing character narratives, but I was really hoping for a little more hockey action and not male characters who fit into the "romance" mold. I will not be finishing this series.

Brenda wrote: "I finished a "new-to-me" author Liz Tomforde this afternoon. Mile High was not written as well as I hoped. I did enjoy the see-sawing character narratives, but I was really hoping ..."

Sorry you didn't like it. I rated it 4-stars which is more than I thought of Pucking Around, Body Check, or Icebreaker (ugh!). If you haven't read Writing Mr. Wrong by Kelley Armstrong, give it a listen. The MMC is a 36 y/o D so his journey made a lovely juxtapose to the FMC who is at the start of her 2nd career path. Or check out this list: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1... ...

Oh, I might be presuming you like hockey romances. Sorry for the overshare. :D

John wrote: "Working on a Victorian-era mystery: The Whitechapel Widow, first in a series. These are a spinoff from the author's Penny Green books, which I haven't read. Are any of you familiar..."

I've read and/or listened to nine of the Penny Green books, and have enjoyed them. I liked all the characters and the descriptive language. I wanted the romance to progress faster, but that's a tactic many series authors use to keep us coming back!

Just finished The Cemetery of Untold Stories. Interesting title...read it to earn the Fall Challenge "Hispanic Heritage" bookmark [[https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1... ]].

Night Broken Dramatized Adaptation by Patricia Briggs from Graphic Audio Hope we keep getting one of these a month until they are all available then I hope we get the Charles and Anna books!