Audiobooks discussion

Time for the next quarterly thread!

I'm an hour into a new mystery series Murder On The Mind, which I was going to read in print, but decided to spend an Audible credit instead. Glad I did as the narration is quite good.

I am listening to and really enjoying it. I just picked up from the library yesterday (audio) and am excited to start that next.

I'm listening to Skybreaker, which I'm enjoying MUCH more than I thought I would. I LOVE Full Cast Audio!

I started listening to The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin.

Today I'm going to start The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer.

I'm listening to The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan and In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. Both are very, very good so far.

Greetings everyone from the newbie!

Just finished WOW what an amazing audiobook performance!

Currently listening to

Welcome to the forum, Jason!

Thanks John!

Feel free to check out my new blog post: How I Fell In Love With Audiobooks www.braincandybookreviews.com

Great blog - audiobooks were a must for me back when I had a 90 minute commute each way to college (two trains and a bus in NYC).

I've started 3 audio books recently, and all have good narrators: Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley, narrated by Jayne Entwistle; Final Jeoprady by Linda Fairstein, narrated by Barbara Rosenblatt; Death Without Compnay, by Craig Johnson, narrated by George Guidall. I finished The Liar's Club by Mary Karr, and I liked the book, but the narration was mediocre.

I really liked Sweetness, and have the sequel ripped from discs to listen to later this year.

Thanks, John, I have heard from several people who liked this book, I am enjoying it so far.

Barbara Rosenblatt is an excellent narrator - two of her notable reads are "Bridget Jones's Diary" and the Amelia Peabody mystery series.

I just finished The Red Pyramid - it was good! It has two narrators who do a very good job.

I too just finished and loved it. The narration was excellent. Also finished , which I also liked and found very informative despite my assumption that I already knew quite a lot about the topic. I'm about half way through as my commuting book, and have as my at-home book. Both are very interesting and well narrated.

I just finished and did enjoy it. Although I would have to say that I much preferred which I read in book form.
On my morning commute today I just started . So far I am not enjoying the narrator of the first short story. I hope the others are better.

Serena - I read Eating Animals too. Scary stuff!

I'm listening to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John LeCarre. I love his work and have read each of his books several time. This is the first audio version I tried and I'm not sure if I like the narrator. I guess I was hoping to hear Alec Guiness as Smiley or something!!

Linda

I’m currently listening to a children’s book, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, by Jacqueline Kelly. The story is just okay, but the narrator is good (Natalie Ross).

I am listening to two YA books right now and . I just finished another YA book, and throughly enjoyed it.

Whoa... there's an audio of The Year Of Secret Assignments? Hmmm... that would be weird. You'd miss all the fun fonts and cool formatting! But I bet Emily's word mis-usage is pretty hilarious in audio...

PS - I take all that back. I forgot the Australian accents! Who needs fun formatting when there are accents???

Yes Sara the accents are awesome. There are multiple narrators and they are all really good. Loving it so far.

I am currently listening to New York by Edward Rutherfurd. It is a wonderful fictional history of the
city of New York. The novel starts in about 1620 and now I am on the cusp of the American Revolution at about 1770. The novel follows lives of generations of one family over the course of history. I am learning so much about history that I know want to listen to other audio books that deal with historical matters.

I've just finished listening to Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy... I think they're lovely audio books!

I'm now listening to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell - has anyone else listened to this? What did you think?

Jenni I am listening to Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest right now. It's a long one! I am only on disk 4 out of 16, so have a long way to go.

Are you enjoying it? I LOVED the narrator! :)

Jenni wrote: "Are you enjoying it? I LOVED the narrator! :)"

Yes I am. I also really liked the first two on audiobook. I love the narrator and Lisbeth!

I just finished Remarkable Creatures... I really hand it to the narrator for keeping it interesting. I doubt I would have finished it if reading the book.The Forgotten Garden is next on my list.

Jenni wrote: "I've just finished listening to Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy... I think they're lovely audio books!"

I'm excited that you two like them! I have books 2 and 3 on audiobook from the library right now, and I'm really excited to listen! (Now if only I could get my hands on book 1...)

Good luck getting the 1st book! :) Let me know what you think of them!

The person ahead of me checked it out yesterday, so it's due 7/7... So now it's just a waiting game...

Well, at least it's not too long of a wait. :) (It's worth the wait!)

Holy crap! It looks like the person in front of me in line either did NOTHING for the past 16 hours other than listen to audiobooks OR they're a CD ripper like myself! I just checked the library website, and it's on hold for me! WOO!

Sara book 2 will have you on the edge of your seat!

Niiiice Sara! Heidi is soooo right! Book three is also quite good! :)

No doubt... I just read the back covers... (Had to add my versions to goodreads!) They sound REALLY exciting!

Jenni, I listened to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell a year or two ago and loved it! Got the book for my husband and he loved it as much as I did. It's on my current "Desert Island" list. However, I should say that both my husband I found it slow to get into and then absolutely compelling thereafter. I think it's well worth the effort and time it takes to finish listening, and the characters are as vivid to me now as they were when I first listened to it.

Thanks Christine! I'll agree with you so far - the first cd was a bit slow, but not bad. I've just started the third cd, and it's picking up. I also think that part of the problem I had was just coming off of six to eight weeks worth of the Millennium series... what a difference! :)

Serial posting to say that I finished the third book in the Millennium series last week and loved it. I think the second book was the best of the three, but the third was totally enjoyable too. I'm sad the author has died, because I'd love to read much more of his work.

Since then, I've finished listening to a couple of good "beach books": Trial by Fury which is the 3rd book in J.A. Jance's J.P. Beaumont series, and a spicy romance called What I Did for Love. Right now, when I'm alone in my car or listening on my iPod, I switch back and forth between Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs and A Mortal Bane by Roberta Gellis, depending on my mood.

I've also been listening to a reimagining of the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairytale called Wildwood Dancing that I save for when my 8-year-old is in the car. It's set in Romania (Transylvania, to be specific) and I'm finding it so interesting that even though I find the narrator's voice mildly annoying, I have a hard time waiting until my daughter is around to listen to more of the story.

Christine E. wrote: "Serial posting to say that I finished the third book in the Millennium series last week and loved it. I think the second book was the best of the three, but the third was totally enjoyable too. I'm..."

I just finished the third book in the Millennium series also and thought it was good end to a good series. The plot gets really complicated at time and I have to go back some and pay attention. I liked character of Lisbeth so much; goth girl in Sweden with a troubled past but a survivor. I'm trying to pin down why I like the author--his writing just seems intelligent; respectful of the reader's ability to grasp his concepts.

Black Hills is amazing and definitely better as audio than text because of the native language throughout the story. You can link to the book if you'd like to read the summary.

I used the "Look Inside" feature at Amazon to see how these Native American words are written out in the hopes of reproducing them here. After seeing them however, I can see I don't have the ability to type them in with the character accents and symbols required.

If I had read this as a physical book, I doubt I would have made it through because the frustration at not being able to read the widely used native language would have been too off-putting. That would have been an injustice to the book and a shame on me because this is a great story with fantastic narration.

I just finished listening to Inside Job, which is a 2-hour novella. It's by Connie Willis. If you think new-age woo-woo is funny, she does a good job skewering it.

Grumpus wrote: "Black Hills is amazing and definitely better as audio than text because of the native language throughout the story."

I felt the same way about Cloud Atlas; one of my favorite books of all time, but I don't think I could have made it through the print version because of the different dialects in some of the stories.

Just finished The Razor's Edge, which cost me an Audible credit because I couldn't find it through my library, but was well worth it. The narration was excellent, and the story was entertaining and kept me engaged throughout.

Also finished

Making the Rounds with Oscar: A Doctor, His Patients, and a Very Special Cat. It was alright; had some really worthwhile bits in it, but also dragged a bit at times. My teenager was listening with me in the car, and because we are horrible horrible people, we made up bits about how the cat was actually killing the patients instead of just being there to comfort them in the end. That helped in the slower parts.

Serena_v wrote: I felt the same way about Cloud Atlas"

Thanks for making me aware of this one. It looks right up my alley. I've added it to my wish list at Audible as it also has two of my favorite narrators, Scott Brick and Cassandra Campbell.

Just started and . Really liked my recent audio books Carrie Diaries, Year of Secret Assignments, and Bloody Jack.

Well it's official - I am now an audiobook addict.

So far I've listened to the following:








Next up:

I feel really bad. I tried, but I just did not like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. All of the financial information at the beginning fried my brain. I don't want to work that hard.I did listen to Saving CeeCee Honeycutt. It was great, although I cried a lot. I'm not sure if it was because the book was sad or it just reminded me of my mother's death. It was okay since I listen a lot when I'm walking and it has been HOT here. The sweat and the tears just mingled and I'm sure no one could tell the difference.

I intended to start Just As I Am by Billy Graham today, but my i-Pod was being difficult. I moved onto Sh*t my Dad Says by Justin Halpern. And yes, I know what diametrically opposed opposites those seem to be. Sh*t my Dad Says has been very funny at times, but don't listen if swear words bother you.