What are we listening to? (audiobooks)

[CRussel]

One of the great titles of all time, Tom, but NOT a children's book. It's been 50 years since I read it. Might be time for a re-read.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by issybird

I agree with you about this. I thought it was a far better listen than book. But much of the charm of Sherlock Holmes escapes me. It's so preposterous; I find I can't suspend my disbelief to the extent necessary.

Sacrilege! How darn you speak thus of the sacred text!

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by ApK

I just finished the Sherlock Holmes story "The Sign of the Four" (Which I think is the far better title than "The Sign of Four", which my Audible version was published as).
I tend to read Sherlock Holmes for the Sherlockisms, not so much for the actual plot, which I could barely follow and didn't find very interesting.
But this story contains a 7% solution of cocaine, something being 'afoot', something 'elementary', and we first meet Watson's future wife, and we see the root of some of the 'deduction' tricks they adapted for the first episode of the BBC series "Sherlock."
All of which I find fun.
This version was read by Patrick Tull, who did a fine job. Though, I am tempted to listen to another version I have and see if I find the plot any more interesting.

For some reason, I had never thought to check to see if Sherlock Holmes was available on audiobook. Thanks for the pointer.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

For some reason, I had never thought to check to see if Sherlock Holmes was available on audiobook. Thanks for the pointer.

Both Rivals of Sherlock Holmes and American Rivals of Sherlock Holmes are available for free from Librivox if you're interested, but I think you'll pay for any readings of the real McCoy, as last I heard, the Doyle estate still jealously guards the copyright on the Holmes stories.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Both Rivals of Sherlock Holmes and American Rivals of Sherlock Holmes are available for free from Librivox if you're interested, but I think you'll pay for any readings of the real McCoy, as last I heard, the Doyle estate still jealously guards the copyright on the Holmes stories.

No, I picked up a huge number of Sherlock readings on Libribox. (Of course, they may have been pulled since then.) I don't know if it's ALL of them, but it was quite a large collection. The real book titles, mean, not those written by somebody else.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Both Rivals of Sherlock Holmes and American Rivals of Sherlock Holmes are available for free from Librivox if you're interested, but I think you'll pay for any readings of the real McCoy, as last I heard, the Doyle estate still jealously guards the copyright on the Holmes stories.

I was under the impression that all except the last book was in public domain now.

[Catlady]

I listened to Remember Mia, by Alexandra Burt, narrated by Mia Ellis. I had high hopes for this, but it turned out to be a dud all around--the writing was overwrought and repetitive, and the narrator was not good. What can you say when a narrator pronounces landfills as "landfeels" and refills as "refeels," and routinely overemphasizes the s at the end of a plural?

The story here involved the disappearance of a seven-month-old baby from her home and the bizarre behavior of her mother, who was suffering from undiagnosed post-partum psychosis before the disappearance and has amnesia afterward when she's found (with a gunshot wound, in a crashed car in a ravine). This is just the setup--the rest of the book is about her gradually regaining her memory of how she ended up in that ravine. And, oh yeah, what happened to baby Mia, too.

There are several tedious passages where the mom is trying to convince someone of something, repeating the same thing and getting the same response, and repeating it again. And again. And then again. In other equally tedious passages, the author was fond of having a character ask the mom a question, and then laboriously detailing the mom's thoughts before she responds, or having her look around a location and describe it in some detail, or otherwise postponing her answer. Pacing, anyone?

Worst of all was a plot point that was just ridiculous--it turned out that the mom had a lengthy encounter with police in the area where she was found in the ravine, and since once she was found her case was supposed to be all over the Internet and the news, the police should have made the connection--and thereby dissipated some of the mystery--but inexplicably didn't. It just left me shaking my head in annoyance.

I am really glad I didn't pay for this but got it from the library.

[CRussel]

Sometimes you just need to abandon the purchase and read something else, Catlady. Not always easy to walk away, but probably best if you can do it. What I did with the 4th and 5th Jodi Taylor books, even though I'd bought Audible versions of them, I just walked away from the series half way through the 4th book.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Sometimes you just need to abandon the purchase and read something else, Catlady. Not always easy to walk away, but probably best if you can do it. What I did with the 4th and 5th Jodi Taylor books, even though I'd bought Audible versions of them, I just walked away from the series half way through the 4th book.

I never abandon books. Especially suspense-type books. I always think optimistically that the author will manage a socko ending that will make me forgive any and all flaws along the way.

In this one, the plot problem with the police wasn't apparent till quite late, and the author didn't address it in an even remotely believable fashion.

I think this was the author's first book, and I would possibly try her next if the setup appealed to me. (But only as a library book.) The narrator is also apparently new-ish; Audible lists her for only one other title. This book would probably have been helped by a better narrator, but the main problem was the writing.

Oh well. On to the next book!

[issybird]

Originally Posted by issybird

I'm currently listening to I Am Legend, the freebie Downpour weekly rental. So not my thing, but it's holding my interest.

Nope, not my thing, but it was short and killed several hours of snow shoveling.

Now I'm listening to Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae, by Steven Pressfield, read by George Guidall. This has a whopping 4.39 stars at Goodreads from over 17,000 ratings, but so far the jury's out for me. It's long, so I hope it picks up.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by issybird

Nope, not my thing, but it was short and killed several hours of snow shoveling.

Now I'm listening to Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae, by Steven Pressfield, read by George Guidall. This has a whopping 4.39 stars at Goodreads from over 17,000 ratings, but so far the jury's out for me. It's long, so I hope it picks up.

I really liked the book Gates of Fire, but I haven't listened to the audiobook yet.

[taosaur]

I tore through the first five books of Temeraire from the library, and have the sixth on hold. They were a bit too compelling for bedtime listening, so I've been short on sleep

Now I'm four chapters into Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher. For better or worse, it's a much more effective soporific. It's front-loaded with massive infodumps regarding the airships, and the characters so far are cardboard cutouts being marched through scenes lifted from a Disney Channel teen adventure. The narrator, Euan Morton, does Butcher's prose no favors, either. He's good at distinguishing character voices, but his overall delivery is rather flat and disinterested.

I've enjoyed pretty much all of Butcher's previous novels (some of the Dresden Files more than others), so I'm hoping things turn around once the exposition thins out.

[ApK]

I'm listening to the first Matt Helm novel, "Death of a Citizen," by Donald Hamilton, read by Stefan Rudnicki.
I had only known of Matt Helm from the Dean Martin movies....wow, if you thought James Bond movies were a departure from the novels, man, this is like an order of magnitude farther apart!
I like the narrator, I'm totally buying him as Matt Helm in the first person, and his perfromance of the other characters is fine. I'm almost at the end, and unless they really mess up the ending for me, I'll probably go right on to the next one.
Found these on Hoopla, through my library, by the way.

ApK

[Conan46]

Listening to The Big Year by Mark Obmascik. Been wanting to read that one for awhile. Enjoying listening to it.

[melmac]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I just finished listening to two other thrillers, both of them quite good: What She Knew, by Gilly Macmillan, and Black-Eyed Susans, by Julia Heaberlin.

What She Knew involves a child abduction and the ensuing investigation, with two first-person narratives--one the mother's, the other the lead detective's. It featured the usual quota of family secrets and red herrings, but the author handled them well.

Black-Eyed Susans focuses on the survivor of a serial killer's attempt who has come to believe that the man about to be executed for the murders is innocent. The chapters alternate from present day (the run-up to the execution) to the past (the crime and the trial). Other than one egregious factual error that took me out of the story (Anastasia was NOT a Disney film!), this was an intriguing book.

Thanks for posting, I just picked up Black Eyed Susans as the audible daily deal($3.95)