What are we listening to? (audiobooks)

[Catlady]

Just finished a wonderful book: The Chilbury Ladies' Choir, by Jennifer Ryan; multiple narrators. This novel was thoroughly enjoyable, using letters and diary entries to tell the story of women in an English town in the early days of WWII. With the men gone to war, the women left behind find unity and strength in their ladies-only choir as the various members deal with grief, heartache, romance, death.

One interesting thing about the audiobook was the use of an actual choir singing in a few places when the fictional choir was supposed to be performing. This was done in such a way that it enhanced the story for me, and I would have been happy with even more of it.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Let us know what you think of the Night Circus. I've noticed that since Jim Dale reads it, but never pulled the trigger.

Just finished it yesterday (I rushed after discovering in one of the Alexa threads that Amazon is letting Prime and/or Audible members listen to *two freebies in this month of April in preparation of World Book Day).

I thoroughly enjoyed Night Circus. It was imaginative and riveting. I pretty much liked everything about it; the plot, the characters, and the ending. I give it 4½ stars easily.


* The two titles are Anne of Green Gables and The Secret Garden.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Just finished it yesterday (I rushed after discovering in one of the Alexa threads that Amazon is letting Prime and/or Audible members listen to *two freebies in this month of April in preparation of World Book Day).

I thoroughly enjoyed Night Circus. It was imaginative and riveting. I pretty much liked everything about it; the plot, the characters, and the ending. I give it 4½ stars easily.


* The two titles are Anne of Green Gables and The Secret Garden.

Thanks for the recommendation. I went ahead and picked it up. Interestingly, buying the ebook and audiobook in combination was the same price as buying the audiobook by itself.

[ElspethB]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Just finished a wonderful book: The Chilbury Ladies' Choir, by Jennifer Ryan; multiple narrators. This novel was thoroughly enjoyable, using letters and diary entries to tell the story of women in an English town in the early days of WWII. With the men gone to war, the women left behind find unity and strength in their ladies-only choir as the various members deal with grief, heartache, romance, death.

One interesting thing about the audiobook was the use of an actual choir singing in a few places when the fictional choir was supposed to be performing. This was done in such a way that it enhanced the story for me, and I would have been happy with even more of it.

I read the ebook version last month and thoroughly enjoyed it. I imagine having snippets of the choir singing would enhance the listening experience.

[CRussel]

Just abandoned The Light of Day, by Eric Ambler. Read by Frederick Davidson, aka David Case. Nothing wrong with the narration, I just was not enjoying the story. I'm really glad we didn't choose this for the Mobileread Book Club this month (it was runner up.)

On to a known good book - Dana Stabenow's Play with Fire. This is the fifth book in her Kate Shugak series of Alaskan mysteries, and is read by Marguerite Gavin who does a superb job, as always.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by issybird

I'm listening to the first of Trollope's Palliser novels, Can You Forgive Her?, read by the actor Timothy West. West is new to me as a narrator and he's terrific; in a class with Vance, Davidson, and John Lee. I'm sorry to see that he's pretty much done just Trollope, so that will have to hold me.

I loved this. I hated leaving this world, so much so that I had to fight the mild temptation to carry on with the next Palliser novel. But I know from experience that's a mistake, and most especially in this case where I'd be following a 28-hour listen with a 24-hour listen. Series benefit from pacing!

I'm in a slight quandary about my next listen, though; I'm next up for an OverDrive audiobook, so I don't want to be in the middle of something long. (I wish OD would show the date's something's due; I know it could be returned early, but at least I could make an educated guess.)

[issybird]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Just abandoned The Light of Day, by Eric Ambler. Read by Frederick Davidson, aka David Case. Nothing wrong with the narration, I just was not enjoying the story. I'm really glad we didn't choose this for the Mobileread Book Club this month (it was runner up.)

Good to know; I was toying with giving this a try.

On to a known good book - Dana Stabenow's Play with Fire. This is the fifth book in her Kate Shugak series of Alaskan mysteries, and is read by Marguerite Gavin who does a superb job, as always.

She's great, except for one thing. I haven't started the second book yet, but has someone told her how to pronounce "Xenia?" "Ex-eenia" is like nails on a blackboard.

[CRussel]

It must be what Stabenow wants, because it's that way through book 20, at least. Names are tricky, because they often don't get pronounced the way they are spelled.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by issybird

Good to know; I was toying with giving this a try.



She's great, except for one thing. I haven't started the second book yet, but has someone told her how to pronounce "Xenia?" "Ex-eenia" is like nails on a blackboard.

One of my students is named Xenia. I call her the warrior princesses (I teach karate), but I don't think she gets the joke. Ah well.

[sakura-panda]

I finished Assassin's Apprentice about a month ago and have been catching up on podcasts for the last few weeks. I had a one week vacation coming up, where I wouldn't be listening to audiobooks, and I didn't want to interrupt my listening when it was such a short time away.

I enjoyed the book enough that I have purchased the next two in the series and will be starting Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb on my drive home tonight. I also used a coupon to buy the trilogy as an ebook; I'd like to read it again and it takes to long to listen to them.

[CRussel]

I've got the eBook of all three, and have read the first two. Might try an audio book for the third. I take it you liked the narrator.

[sakura-panda]

I'm comfortable with the narrator. I can see where someone could be put off by him, especially early on, but I'm enjoying both the voice and the story.

[WT Sharpe]

On the road today I started listening to Beside Myself by Ann Morgan, an audiobook narrated by Lisa Coleman, but the recording was so muddy that neither my wife nor I could keep up with it. So we switched to Forty Thieves by Thomas Perry (audiobook narrated by Peter Berkrot). It's pretty good, so far.

I'll attempt Beside Myself in the future, but only when I'm home, everything is very quiet, and my hearing aids are on their music setting. That setting is worthless in the car, because it amplifies everything — wind, street noises, car noises, etc.

[pwalker8]

When I'm at work, I have somewhat different requirements for audiobooks. Right now I'm listening to J.M. Robert's a History of Europe weighing in at 38 hours. The narrator has that perfect sardonic European accent that was parodied in Rocky Horror Picture Show. Between this and the Sherlock Holmes collection, I'm pretty much set for tasks that don't require deep concentration.

[taosaur]

I'm listening to the latest Foreigner book, Convergence, and panicking a bit as I've been listening to Foreigner for months on end and feeling like I would never run out. I have no idea what my next listen will be.