What are we listening to? (audiobooks)

[CRussel]

Other than my swimming book, I only have one going right now, and that's the new Rivers of London/Peter Grant book from Ben Aaronovitch -- False Value. It is, as expected, already grabbing my attention.

[Catlady]

I'm listening to Mary Kubica's latest domestic suspense novel, The Other Mrs., trying to eradicate the bad taste of her previous book, When the Lights Go Out, which was an out-and-out cheat. I'm giving her another chance, because in the past she's delivered reliably.

Before these two I listened to Sarah Pinborough's Dead to Her, which was just okay.

I had six-count-'em-six library holds all come through this morning, which must be some kind of record. Not sure if I'm in the mood for any of them.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by issybird

I’ve also got two going, two 19th-century classics.

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, which I know I’ve read but have no memory of it. Tremendous fun with its combination of sinister melodrama and humor and shifting unreliable narrators. Better than I anticipated, in fact. Read by James Langton who is new to me and very good.

I really like this book and have been thinking of re-reading. There is a 2016 BBC TV series that I would really like to watch.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I just started The Long Flight Home by Alan Hlad. WW2 historical fiction with overlapping story-lines of Ollie in the Royal Air Force and Susan in the National Pigeon Service involved in an espionage mission in German-occupied France. It's got WW2, airplanes and birds. I starting listening just because the plot sounded entertaining and was delighted to find it is narrated by Simon Vance.

I just finished Followers by Megan Angelo. I very much enjoyed this book. It is a dystopian future showing the effects of technology, government control, and social media influence on individual privacy and community sharing.

I also just finished The Tenth Muse by Catherine Chung. It was good, and the mathematical plot woven with fairy tales / myths was unique, but the writing was a little too formulaic.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I really like this book and have been thinking of re-reading. There is a 2016 BBC TV series that I would really like to watch.

In general, the Victorian novels make great listens and I wouldn’t necessarily have expected that. They’ve tuned into my go-tos when I want something engaging yet not overly challenging, i.e., my mind doesn’t tend to wander. The length may be a positive or a negative; they’re good value!

I don’t know why this particular narration ended up in my library, but I assume several of the regulars had a crack at The Moonstone as well. I can imagine Nadia May doing a good job with this; I don’t know if it’s in her audiography.

[Tarana]

Currently listening to Plum Island by Nelson DeMille and narrated by Scott Brick. He's doing a great job. Good story. For those interested, there is a lot of interior dialogue, something some people just hate.

Just finished Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold and narrated by Grover Gardner. He is just so perfect for this series. The book is a series of 3 novellas featuring Miles and all are excellent.

That sale at Audible was great, but I have to stop now. Yesterday a crown and a vet bill and each one was nearly $1000 (both sick kitties are a little better today). Pretty much cuts off all discretionary spending until at least October.

[pwalker8]

Finished The Hammer, Book 2 of The General by Stirling and Drake. It's a good series. I still have the Anvil and The Steel to listen to, but the last isn't out yet. I expect it to come out in a month or two based release rate of the first four books.

I have four books from series that I've been listening to - Heir Of Novron from Michael Sullivan's Ryria series then Hero in the Shadows, White Wolf and The Swords of Night and Day from David Gemmell's Drenai's series. However, the basic tone of those books is like the tone of the General series, so I will likely choose a change of pace book, then move on to Heir of Novron, which is almost 32 hours long. Talk about getting your money's worth!

Right now all my change of pace books are re-listens - Riordan's Percy Jackson series, his Kane Chronicles and John Ringo's Monster Hunter Memoirs, which is him playing in Larry Correia's Monster Hunter universe. I'm kind of in the mood for Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge, so that's likely the direction I'll go in.

[CRussel]

Currently listening to the Daniel Dufris narration of The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett. His narration is excellent, and I expect to finish well before we start discussing this in the New Leaf Book Club starting on the 15th.

[taosaur]

I listened to the whole weird train wreck that was "The Passage" series. Again, mainly of sociological interest and scary for all the wrong reasons in that regard.

Now I'm on to the The Fold by Peter Clines, set in the same universe as 14, which I loved. I've really enjoyed all of Clines' stuff that I've listened to, including the superheroes-and-zombies Ex series, which is better than it has any right to be. He writes unapologetic pulp, and he does it right. So far so good with The Fold, which is pretty straightforward day-after-tomorrow sci-fi so far, but I suspect it's heading well off into left field momentarily.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Currently listening to the Daniel Dufris narration of The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett. His narration is excellent, and I expect to finish well before we start discussing this in the New Leaf Book Club starting on the 15th.

That should be William.

I’m listening to this too and overall, I also think it’s excellent, but the mispronunciations are irritating. Even if Dufris went with the obvious for Spokane, the producer should have corrected it; and Dufris himself should have checked the pronunciation of chypre, since he was obviously unfamiliar with the word. There are others.

[CRussel]

Of course it's William! Mea culpa, Mea maxima culpa!

[Tarana]

Currently listening to The Keeper of Lost Causes (Book 1 of Department Q) by Jussi Addler-Olson and narrated by Erik Davies. Good story so far of a Danish detective. I had a little trouble keeping track of the characters in the beginning so restarted (this is where an ebook helps, but didn't have one). Davies adds regional accents to the characters. Don't know how accurate they are but sounds right.

I have the Maltese Falcon narrated by Eric Meyers. I will make that my next book.

[Catlady]

I listened to two new books: The Holdout by Graham Moore, narrated by Abby Craden, and You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, narrated by Barrie Kreinik and Dylan Moore.

In The Holdout, the protagonist is a woman who became a defense attorney after serving on a jury that, due to her influence (shades of Twelve Angry Men), defied public opinion to find a man not guilty; a TV show reunites the jurors for the case's tenth anniversary, and she's the prime suspect when a fellow juror is murdered.

It held my interest, with two parallel stories of the original case and the juror's murder, but I am not sure exactly what point the author was making about the justice system, and eventually it devolved into a bit too much melodrama.

You Are Not Alone is psychological suspense, featuring a lonely young woman who witnesses a suicide and becomes enmeshed in an odd circle of women the suicide had been part of. She thinks they are her friends, and they think she is connected to the woman who committed suicide.

I enjoyed it for the most part; it was a little difficult to keep track of the secondary female characters and I don't know that the authors played fair with a certain plot twist. (I wish I'd had the text so I could check!)

All the narrators for both books were good; I especially liked Abby Craden.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by issybird

I’m listening to this too and overall, I also think it’s excellent, but the mispronunciations are irritating. Even if Dufris went with the obvious for Spokane, the producer should have corrected it; and Dufris himself should have checked the pronunciation of chypre, since he was obviously unfamiliar with the word. There are others.

I completely agree about how jarring the mispronunciations can be in a book narration. I'm listening to one (Home Run by Nathan Lowell, narrator Emily Woo Zeller) where the narrator said "esso" for 'S-O-S'. I couldn't figure out what it was supposed to be, so had to go dig out the book and check.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by CRussel

I completely agree about how jarring the mispronunciations can be in a book narration. I'm listening to one (Home Run by Nathan Lowell, narrator Emily Woo Zeller) where the narrator said "esso" for 'S-O-S'. I couldn't figure out what it was supposed to be, so had to go dig out the book and check.

Esso would have me think of the old Standard Oil of NJ gas stations, before they became Exxon. That would entirely throw me out of a story.

My own most recent irritant was Derek Perkins mispronouncing St. Augustine in a book about the Cathars. I expected better of him; that category of name strikes me as his stock in trade. Now all his similar pronunciations are dubious.