07-31-2021, 12:06 AM | #3196 |
(he/him/his)
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A long commute in the 80's and 90's was what first got me listening to Books on Tape. Which morphed into Audible when BOT got bought out.
Currently doing a binge re-read/re-listen to the Foreigner series by CJ Cherryh, read by Daniel Thomas May. |
07-31-2021, 07:27 AM | #3197 |
o saeclum infacetum
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I became a commuting audio convert in 2014. I listened to NPR during my commute, but noted that it left me jangled by the time I got to work as the news was generally upsetting. But it was StoryCorps that pushed me over the edge; I found it increasingly fatuous and after one Friday morning assault on my intellect I was done. I decided it was time to try audiobooks.
I couldn’t have been luckier than in my first choice, Patrick O’Brian’s Post Captain read by Simon Vance, who remains my favorite narrator of all. And bringing this around to topic, I’m currently listening to #19 in the series, The Hundred Days. My rule for the series was summer only, in order to stretch them out - and I gave them a miss altogether during the Covid summer of last year. I’ll be grieved to be done (probably next summer). I’m not listening to nearly as many audiobooks as I used to. No commute and overall changes in how I spend my days making them less audio-friendly. But I still listen to them in bed. |
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07-31-2021, 11:47 AM | #3198 |
Grand Sorcerer
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Seems like it might be interesting to start a new thread about what got us into audiobooks.
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08-09-2021, 09:20 AM | #3199 |
Can one read too much?
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Deleted by author
Last edited by SeaBookGuy; 08-10-2021 at 09:05 AM. Reason: DNF'ed book |
08-15-2021, 07:06 AM | #3200 |
The Continental
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Finished Raymond Chandler's "The Big Sleep" and am halfway through his second Marlowe novel "Farewell, My Lovely." Both are narrated by the fantastic Ray Porter. They are both fast listen/reads, the stories move along and the characters are colorful. But it is Chandler's descriptions and similes that really make it pop. Plus Ray Porter is my favorite narrator/performer and it really isn't close.
If you are interested to read/listen to where all modern detective's/p.i.'s evolved from, "clichés", "tropes" and all, this is where to start. Hard-boiled and two-fisted. |
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08-16-2021, 05:11 PM | #3201 |
Grand Sorcerer
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I listened to two books by AJ Pearce, narrated by Anna Popplewell: Dear Mrs. Bird and its sequel, Yours Cheerfully.
Set on the British homefront during WWII, these were absolutely delightful, gently humorous novels about a young woman working for a struggling women's magazine. I enjoyed everything about these two books and hope there will be more. |
08-16-2021, 09:09 PM | #3202 |
Bah, humbug!
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Having a lot of fun listening to Razor Girl by Carl Hiaasen (audiobook read by John Rubinstein). Early in the book, con artist Merry Mansfield earns the title of "Razor Girl" when the car she's driving strikes another vehicle as she was shaving. But I can't tell you where.
Oh, heck. I will anyway. Spoiler:
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08-22-2021, 11:15 AM | #3203 |
Can one read too much?
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Finishing up Mortmain Hall by Martin Edwards, sequel to his Gallows Court. Very different feel, including a switch from female to male narrator.
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08-22-2021, 02:23 PM | #3204 |
Grand Sorcerer
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I finished listening to Sisters in Arms by Kaia Alderson, narrated by Shayna Small--historical fiction about the first black WAC unit in WWII. I love fiction about women involved in the war effort in WWII, so I'd been looking forward to this book and I really wanted to love it. I didn't.
I'm not sure exactly what was wrong with it--why it seemed so boring and pedestrian when it should have been fascinating and powerful. The main characters are supposed to be two strong women but both were generally insipid and prone to fainting in the arms of a man (at least twice apiece), which I found particularly annoying. Some people just seem to disappear from the story--the men accompanying some of the WACs when an accident occurred, the father of one of the protagonists. Poof! Instances of prejudice, which were many, somehow lacked emotional power, more melodrama than drama. After getting through the book, I had hoped for an author's note on what was historically accurate and what was invention, or perhaps a mention of sources on which the story was based, but there's nothing. Major disappointment. |
08-23-2021, 05:10 PM | #3205 |
Bah, humbug!
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I'm listening to a book about trees and certain people within their social circles. The Overstory by Richard Powers is a remarkable and epic work. You've got to love a book with lines like, "[Y]ou're a sack of rotting meat wrapped around a little sewage tube that's going to give out in—what? Another few thousand sunrises?"
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08-23-2021, 07:38 PM | #3206 |
Wizard
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Currently listening to Spellbound by Larry Correia, book 2 of 3 in the Grimnoir Chronicles series. Getting very frustrated with my Echo which kept stopping. I have since unplugged and replugged it in and it seems to be working better. I am enjoying this book a bit better than book 1 - plot is smoother. Bronson Pinchot is great as narrator. Very distinctive voices for each character.
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08-28-2021, 02:53 PM | #3207 |
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After the disappointing Sisters in Arms, I followed up with a far superior historical novel about women in wartime: Lauren Willig's Band of Sisters, narrated by Julia Whelan.
Willig's novel is based on a Smith College relief unit that helped civilians in France during WWI, detailing their struggles against bureaucracy and one another, their missteps and successes, and the dangers they faced near enemy lines. Excellent book. |
08-28-2021, 08:18 PM | #3208 |
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Today I started, and am abandoning, "Louisiana Longshot
A Miss Fortune Mystery, Book 1" by Jana DeLeon. While I generally prefer my crime and thriller books to be well researched and realistic, I am happy to suspend disbelief for a good story, and I do enjoy a good cozy. But this book is the reason why we have sexist and chauvinistic preconceptions about chick lit. The main character isn't just unrealistic and unbelievable, she is a caricature of unrealistic and unbelievable, like what a naive child might fantasize such a character was like. |
08-28-2021, 10:09 PM | #3209 | ||
Grand Sorcerer
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Quote:
Quote:
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08-29-2021, 12:04 AM | #3210 |
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I was expecting something less cringe-worthy.
I've consumed lots of stuff with similarly outlandish situations that were far better. ("The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax" and TV's "Northern Exposure" come immediately to mind.) I'm sure this book ended up in my Audible library because it was a freebie I found here on the forum. If you happen to have access to it, give the first half hour or so a try and let me know what you think. Last edited by ApK; 08-29-2021 at 09:07 AM. |
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audible, audiobooks, recommendations |
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