What are we listening to? (audiobooks)

[Stephen_Melling]

Listening to Twilight Eyes by Dean Koontz.

[taosaur]

I still have 30 mins or so to go on The Wind Up Bird Chronicle, but rather than finish it or start a new audiobook, I've been listening to my current epub, A Deepness in the Sky, with the TTS program Balabolka loaded with the en-US.ZiraPro voice for Microsoft Speech Platform. It's far from perfect, but it's less objectionable than some narrators I've heard.

ETA: I'll usually switch from reading on my tablet to TTS on my PC when I'm ready for bed.

[astrangerhere]

I'm listening to the complete Sherlock Holmes canon. I've read it tons of times, and its nice background music. Its like a crackling fire for my brain to relax to.

[taosaur]

I started Brandon Sanderson's Warbreaker, but I was really still in the mood for sci-fi, not fantasy, and found it tedious. I dropped it for now and started in on the audiobook of Larry Niven's 2nd Ringworld book, The Ringworld Engineers, which has middling narration at best but is a great ride.

[Synamon]

I know I'm off topic, but if any of you audiobook listeners like classics, there is a deal being offered via Audible for 5 classics at $0.99 each which tubemonkey posted in the Deals forum. Here's a link to that thread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=175758

I'm currently listening to Watchers by Dean Koontz. I like the dog, the people are not as interesting. The wussy almost-nun female character in particular is off-putting.

Before that I listened to The Drunkard's Walk by Leonard Miodinow. Well done non-fiction about how we fail at accounting for chance and randomness in our daily lives.

[dreams]

I just finished The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde performed by James Marsters, Charles Busch, Emily Bergl, Neil Dickson, Jill Gascoine, Christopher Neame, Matthew Wolf. I saw the thread by melmac in our Deals forum for the free Audible download. I think it is still offered for free.

I thought this was a hilarious farce on Victorian England and even more fun to listen to as it was a live performance from L. A. Theatre Works. I had a few funny looks as I couldn't catch myself from giggling or laughing out loud at a few parts. I'm sure a few people wondered why I had a big smile.

I think I am going to listen to this again before I move on to something else.

[Rtturvwsxmavpduc]

Audie judging concluded for another year so we jumped back in with some lighter fare.
First we finished The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith; narrated by Lisette Lecat and now back to the USA for A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole; narrated by Barrett Whitener.

[orlok]

I'm listening to The Five by Robert McCammon. A bit slow to get going, but has just taken off. Narration is good, though I could probably manage without his attempts at singing the song lyrics that appear in the text.

[taosaur]

I finished Ringworld 2 and went back to Warbreaker, and I'm finding it more palatable. The narrator, James Yaegashi, is pretty bad IMO. His character voices are bad caricature with the same inflection on all dialogue regardless of context, and his voicing of Lightsong is just plain annoying (granted, the character is deliberately annoying much of the time). Looking up his name, I just discovered there's a Graphic Audio version. If it stands up to their version of Elantris, it's probably much better.

[SeaBookGuy]

I'm about halfway through Very Bad Men by Harry Dolan, his second mystery featuring David Loogan, set in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Stands alone well enough, but I'd still recommend reading Bad Things Happen first.

[dreams]

I'm listening to Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen. A fun British mystery I picked up for free in our Deals forum in January. The narrator, Katherine Kellgren, uses different voices to make the story more enjoyable and easy to follow the conversations.

Spoiler:

From Publishers Weekly

Set in London in 1930, this merry first in a new cozy series from Agatha-winner Bowen introduces a delightful heroine—Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie. Thirty-fourth in line for the English throne, Georgie has been educated to curtsey, host lavish fetes and marry well. When her brother cuts off her pitiful allowance, Georgie leaves the family home in Scotland for London, determined to become a liberated woman. Lasting only a few hours as a saleswoman in Harrods, Georgie starts a maid service, but she turns detective after finding a drowned man in her bathtub. When her brother is accused of the murder, she must try to clear him and the family name. Quirky characters like her lovable grandfather; her estranged, oft-wed mother; and an incorrigible, sexy Irishman add to the fun. Georgie's madcap antics are certain to leave the reader eager for the next installment. Bowen is also the author of the Molly Murphy (In Dublin's Fair City, etc.) and the Constable Evans (Evanly Bodies, etc.) series. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Bowen, the Agatha winner responsible for the popular Molly Murphy series, has come up with another winner in her new heroine, Lady Georgina, the least important member of the royal family. Thirty-fourth in the line of succession, Georgie may have the title but none of the money. What's a girl to do? Well, in Georgie's case, she tries opening her own domestic agency, with herself as the only domestic. Even her brother, Binky, the duke, is barely holding on to the family castle in Scotland, and that hold becomes tenuous when a French rogue claims to have proof that Binky and Georgie's father gambled the homestead away before his suicide. So, when the Frenchie winds up drowned in the bathroom of Binky's Belgrave house, there's reason to worry. After Binky's arrest, Georgie feels it's up to her to find the real murderer, but soon she finds her own life threatened, repeatedly. The mystery jigs and jags, but the best part here is Bowen's evocation of 1930s England. Drawing on Georgie's diary entries, she vividly portrays what daily life between the wars was like for a modern young woman bumping up against tradition. Populated with lots of neatly delineated characters, including Mrs. Simpson and a sexy Irish lord attempting to help Georgie lose her burdensome virginity, this is a smashing romp. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

[pwalker8]

Just finishing up A Wise Man's Fears by Patrick Rothfuss narrated by Nick Poudel (sp?) A great book and a great value (around 45 hours total)

[ElsieC]

Originally Posted by dreams

I'm listening to Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen. A fun British mystery I picked up for free in our Deals forum in January. The narrator, Katherine Kellgren, uses different voices to make the story more enjoyable and easy to follow the conversations.

Thank you for this recommendation, it sounds like something I would like. I now have it on hold at my library.

I am finishing up Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich (not a Stephanie Plum novel but does feature the "Between the Numbers" character Diesel). It is an enjoyable read but I definitely don't like it as much as the Stephanie Plum novels. I'm not sure why, but I've never found Evanovich's other books to be as enjoyable as the One For The Money, etc. series.

[dreams]

You're welcome. My library doesn't have any audio books by Rhys Bowan and I was really wanting to continue the series.

I have the Stephanie Plum series in hardback, although I haven't picked up the last few. I may try listening to these. I, also, didn't like her other books as well as I like her Stephanie Plum books.

Right now, I am listening to the currently free tantor audiobook, What Would Macgyver Do?: True Stories of Improvised Genius in Everyday Life by Brendan Vaughanposted, that is in the Deals forum. It's many short stories about real people being creative to solve real-life situations. The beginning is a little slow, as it tells the background as to how the book came about and what was involved to put it together. (It also explains who Macgyver is for those people that don't know.) It was interesting, but I wanted to hear the stories. Once the stories started, they were interesting little bits about real people and what some people are capable of achieving when there is a real need. This was another one that was fun to listen to as I cleaned house.

Spoiler:

Synopsis

For anyone who's ever wished they could channel the 1980s action-adventure icon comes this clever collection of forty-five true stories, commemorating the use of improvised genius to solve everyday problems. Inspired by television's Angus MacGyver (played by Richard Dean Anderson), a secret agent who relied on his brains and scientific prowness-not to mention duct tape and a Swiss Army knife-to save the day, the "MacGyverisms" recounted range from the concrete (using Chex Mix to provide taction in an icy parking lot) to the intangible (saving a relationship with the perfect turn of phrase). Edgy, entertaining, and smirk-to-yourself funny, these masterfully told stories reveal that, with a little luck and a lot of ingenuity, you can "MacGyver" yourself out of virtually any predicament. .

[taosaur]

I finished up Warbreaker, and it wasn't as much of a slog once things got going, though cludgy dialogue and big infodumps were still an issue. Overall it was interesting, but ranks last among Sanderson's novels for me (haven't read Stormlight and probably won't read his WoT books).

Now I'm over halfway through Ready Player One. It also suffers from infodumps, but Will Wheaton reads them as though they were the most compelling thing imaginable, and a lot of the little details of the world are indeed interesting. Seeing the near future through the eyes of what amounts to an '80s obsessed nerd cult is lots of fun, and the setting is rife with social criticism (this book could easily be a prequel to Wall-E).