What are we listening to? (audiobooks) - Page 152

Catlady · 07-08-2018, 05:03 PM

I listened to The Book of Essie, a debut novel by Megan MacLean Weir. The youngest daughter of a conservative preacher, 17-year-old Essie has grown up on her family's long-running TV reality show, but her pregnancy threatens the family's carefully cultivated wholesome image.

I enjoyed this one a lot. It has three POV narrators--Essie, a reporter who had grown up in a cult, and the boy who agrees to marry Essie, all of whom have their own agendas. The plotting is perhaps a bit obvious and the characterizations a little too neat, but the book held my interest throughout. I will definitely be on the lookout for this author's next book.

issybird · 07-10-2018, 08:17 AM

I'm listening to Wodehouse's Carry on, Jeeves read by Frederick Davidson while I swim. Davidson does a good Wodehouse although I can't help hearing the voices of Fry and Laurie in my head and I prefer them. This is part of my long-term goal to read all of Wodehouse more-or-less in order; this particular title is really a sequence of stand-alone stories and I'd enjoy it more if a few of them hadn't been in an earlier title. It's still Wodehouse, though.

My real problem is that the next two books I have cued up for the pool (a Richard Sharpe book and Robertson Davies) are also read by Freddie Davidson which is less than ideal. He's in my pantheon and all that, but this is absurd; he's definitely in danger of going stale on me. I have to think of something light that I can get DRM-free (i.e., from OverDrive) to break them up. Maybe someday I'll take on the task of freeing up my Audible library, but I'm not there yet.

CRussel · 07-10-2018, 09:06 AM

You do know that Downpour is DRM-Free, right?

Also, I can help with that other problem when you're ready.

Catlady · 07-10-2018, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by issybird

I have to think of something light that I can get DRM-free (i.e., from OverDrive) to break them up. Maybe someday I'll take on the task of freeing up my Audible library, but I'm not there yet.

Our Hearts Were Young and Gay, mentioned upthread, is in Overdrive; the narrator, Celeste Lawson, is excellent.

issybird · 07-10-2018, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CRussel

You do know that Downpour is DRM-Free, right?

Absolutely. That's where I got my Aubrey/Maturins that I listen to (sparingly) while I swim and that someone made me buy.

But nothing in my Downpour library suits (not ready yet for another A/M) and I'm not willing to pay the full credit price for a book. I like Downpour and I like to give them business, but I only shop there at sale prices. I don't pay full credit price at Audible, either.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Catlady

Our Hearts Were Young and Gay, mentioned upthread, is in Overdrive; the narrator, Celeste Lawson, is excellent.

Oh, that's a perfect book for swimming and I haven't read it in years and years. I'll see if any of my libraries has it.

ETA: Bingo! FLP has it. It'll follow Wodehouse, a nice synchronicity of time period. Thanks!

ETA2: I'm not entirely wrongheaded.

CRussel · 07-10-2018, 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by issybird

ETA2: I'm not entirely wrongheaded.

Heck, even I like that book, so maybe I'm not hopelessly wrongheaded either?

Catlady · 07-10-2018, 04:05 PM

Okay, okay--wrongheaded was perhaps a tad strong; maybe misguided is a better word.

issybird · 07-11-2018, 08:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Catlady

Okay, okay--wrongheaded was perhaps a tad strong; maybe misguided is a better word.

I like wrongheaded myself; no point in being mealy-mouthed.

It's the ill Venn diagram where there's no overlap at all!

Catlady · 07-11-2018, 10:25 AM

Mealy-mouthed always makes me think of Scarlett O'Hara describing Melanie.

pwalker8 · 07-20-2018, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Finished up Arrows of the Queen. This is one of my comfort books, i.e. one of those books that I've read a large number of times and that I re-read when I'm in one of those moods. The new narrator did a very good job, definitely recommended.

Next up, Armada by Ernest Cline, narrated by Wil Wheaton. When Armada first came out, it didn't get very good reviews but the first 15 minutes or so has been pretty good. Some of that is Wil Wheaton, one of the better voice actors around. I also suspect that some of that is simply that it's pretty hard to top Ready Player One. We shall see.

Just finished Armada. The good - Cline is an excellent word smith who is easy to read and Wil Wheaton is one of the best readers around. The bad - if Cline wasn't such a good word smith and Wheaton wasn't such a good reader, I wouldn't have lasted an hour into the book.

Cline not only telegraphs the story line and ending, he slaps you in the face with it, like he were hitting you in the face with a dead fish. He also manages to invoke every liberal stereotype out there - from evil conservative military conspiracy to (spoiler alert) Nixon starting a interstellar war for no apparent reason. There are numerous plot holes and continuity errors. All in all, it was a book in sad need of a stern editor telling Cline "you can do better than this". The sad part is that with just a little bit of effort, this could have been a really good book. It just seemed lazy to me. It's too bad, because Cline does have talent. It's hard not to compare Cline's second book with Weir's second book. Artemis was a much, much better story. Not nearly as good as the Martian, of course, but much better than Cline's Armada.

Well, next up is Arrow's Flight, book 2 of Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar series. Then Monster Hunter Memoirs: Saint, John Ringo's third book from Larry Correia's Monster Hunter universe.

Catlady · 07-23-2018, 07:28 PM

Latest books listened to:

Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott, narrated by Chloe Cannon
A winner from a favorite author. Here, two women scientists who were friends/competitors in high school until a secret blew them apart are reunited as competitors in a research lab.

Eagle & Crane by Suzanne Rindell, narrated by Elizabeth Romanski
Wonderful book about a pair of young men--one of them a Japanese American who is later sent to an internment camp--who join a flying circus in the days before World War II. I loved everything about this book.

Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld
A dud. A woman with a boring life gloms onto another who's rich and privileged and pretentious. Why the boring woman wants that phony life is a mystery to me, as all it seems to involve is getting drunk and high and going to decadent parties with silly people.

Bookworm_Girl · 07-23-2018, 08:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Catlady

Latest books listened to:
Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott, narrated by Chloe Cannon
A winner from a favorite author. Here, two women scientists who were friends/competitors in high school until a secret blew them apart are reunited as competitors in a research lab.

I really enjoyed You Will Know Me. I’ll have to give this one a try!

I’m currently listening to The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. It alternates between 1985 Chicago and 2015 Paris. It chronicles the AIDS epidemic from its initial outbreak (and the fear and grief of losing loved ones) to the aftershocks in the present time. Literary fiction about friendship and redemption. I am enjoying it better than her last novel that I listened to which was The Hundred Year House.

issybird · 07-24-2018, 07:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by issybird

I'm listening to Wodehouse's Carry on, Jeeves read by Frederick Davidson while I swim. Davidson does a good Wodehouse although I can't help hearing the voices of Fry and Laurie in my head and I prefer them. This is part of my long-term goal to read all of Wodehouse more-or-less in order; this particular title is really a sequence of stand-alone stories and I'd enjoy it more if a few of them hadn't been in an earlier title. It's still Wodehouse, though.

My real problem is that the next two books I have cued up for the pool (a Richard Sharpe book and Robertson Davies) are also read by Freddie Davidson which is less than ideal. He's in my pantheon and all that, but this is absurd; he's definitely in danger of going stale on me. I have to think of something light that I can get DRM-free (i.e., from OverDrive) to break them up. Maybe someday I'll take on the task of freeing up my Audible library, but I'm not there yet.

So, I finished up Richard Sharpe today and thought I'd take a look at OverDrive and see if there was something to break things up while I swim before I treated myself to another Aubrey/Maturin. I, Claudius? Seems perfect! Haven't read it in decades and I know I loved it. Such fun while swimming. But, wait!

The narrator? Yup, Frederick Davidson.

Clearly, it's hopeless.

CRussel · 07-25-2018, 12:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by issybird

So, I finished up Richard Sharpe today and thought I'd take a look at OverDrive and see if there was something to break things up while I swim before I treated myself to another Aubrey/Maturin. I, Claudius? Seems perfect! Haven't read it in decades and I know I loved it. Such fun while swimming. But, wait!

The narrator? Yup, Frederick Davidson.

Clearly, it's hopeless.

Yup. Hopeless. There are three narrators whose books I keep choosing. The good news is, I love them all. The bad news? I really need a different voice! (But hey -- go with the David Case for your next A/M. That will be a change at least. :P )

badgoodDeb · 07-26-2018, 05:51 PM

I had another cross country driving trip, so I listened to book 3 in David Baldacci's Will Robie series. I had accidentally started the series with book 4 (it was on sale, or some such). So when I finished book 3 and had more driving time left, I re listened to book 4, now that it was in-order. And finished listening while running errands on a day off at the end of the trip.

I enjoy this series! It's intense enough to completely obliterate the time effects of driving 6-7 hour days. I don't start the book until I'm out of the Chicago surround loop -- but on the return trip, I am already "in the driving groove" so I listen straight up to my garage door.

All of these Baldacci books (1-4, plus 5 which I haven't read, plus some other protagonists that I'll read next) were gotten on Audible.

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07-08-2018, 05:03 PM	#2266
Catlady Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,345 Karma: 52398889 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle Fire, Kindle Paperwhite, AGPTek Bluetooth Clip	I listened to The Book of Essie, a debut novel by Megan MacLean Weir. The youngest daughter of a conservative preacher, 17-year-old Essie has grown up on her family's long-running TV reality show, but her pregnancy threatens the family's carefully cultivated wholesome image. I enjoyed this one a lot. It has three POV narrators--Essie, a reporter who had grown up in a cult, and the boy who agrees to marry Essie, all of whom have their own agendas. The plotting is perhaps a bit obvious and the characterizations a little too neat, but the book held my interest throughout. I will definitely be on the lookout for this author's next book.

07-10-2018, 08:17 AM	#2267
issybird o saeclum infacetum Posts: 20,224 Karma: 222235366 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: New England Device: H2O, Aura One, PW5	I'm listening to Wodehouse's Carry on, Jeeves read by Frederick Davidson while I swim. Davidson does a good Wodehouse although I can't help hearing the voices of Fry and Laurie in my head and I prefer them. This is part of my long-term goal to read all of Wodehouse more-or-less in order; this particular title is really a sequence of stand-alone stories and I'd enjoy it more if a few of them hadn't been in an earlier title. It's still Wodehouse, though. My real problem is that the next two books I have cued up for the pool (a Richard Sharpe book and Robertson Davies) are also read by Freddie Davidson which is less than ideal. He's in my pantheon and all that, but this is absurd; he's definitely in danger of going stale on me. I have to think of something light that I can get DRM-free (i.e., from OverDrive) to break them up. Maybe someday I'll take on the task of freeing up my Audible library, but I'm not there yet.

07-10-2018, 09:06 AM	#2268
CRussel (he/him/his) Posts: 12,159 Karma: 79742714 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Sunshine Coast, BC Device: Oasis (Gen3),Paperwhite (Gen10), Voyage, Paperwhite(orig), Fire HD 8	You do know that Downpour is DRM-Free, right? Also, I can help with that other problem when you're ready.

07-10-2018, 04:05 PM	#2272
Catlady Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,345 Karma: 52398889 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle Fire, Kindle Paperwhite, AGPTek Bluetooth Clip	Okay, okay--wrongheaded was perhaps a tad strong; maybe misguided is a better word.

07-11-2018, 10:25 AM	#2274
Catlady Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,345 Karma: 52398889 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle Fire, Kindle Paperwhite, AGPTek Bluetooth Clip	Mealy-mouthed always makes me think of Scarlett O'Hara describing Melanie.

07-23-2018, 07:28 PM	#2276
Catlady Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,345 Karma: 52398889 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle Fire, Kindle Paperwhite, AGPTek Bluetooth Clip	Latest books listened to: Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott, narrated by Chloe Cannon A winner from a favorite author. Here, two women scientists who were friends/competitors in high school until a secret blew them apart are reunited as competitors in a research lab. Eagle & Crane by Suzanne Rindell, narrated by Elizabeth Romanski Wonderful book about a pair of young men--one of them a Japanese American who is later sent to an internment camp--who join a flying circus in the days before World War II. I loved everything about this book. Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld A dud. A woman with a boring life gloms onto another who's rich and privileged and pretentious. Why the boring woman wants that phony life is a mystery to me, as all it seems to involve is getting drunk and high and going to decadent parties with silly people.

07-26-2018, 05:51 PM	#2280
badgoodDeb Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,501 Karma: 64095689 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Harrisburg outskirts Device: Palms, K1-4s, iPads, iPhones, KV, KO1	I had another cross country driving trip, so I listened to book 3 in David Baldacci's Will Robie series. I had accidentally started the series with book 4 (it was on sale, or some such). So when I finished book 3 and had more driving time left, I re listened to book 4, now that it was in-order. And finished listening while running errands on a day off at the end of the trip. I enjoy this series! It's intense enough to completely obliterate the time effects of driving 6-7 hour days. I don't start the book until I'm out of the Chicago surround loop -- but on the return trip, I am already "in the driving groove" so I listen straight up to my garage door. All of these Baldacci books (1-4, plus 5 which I haven't read, plus some other protagonists that I'll read next) were gotten on Audible.