What are we listening to? (audiobooks)

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Tarana

That's why while I'm doing errands, I only listen to books I've listened to before (i.e. Dresden Files). Too many short stints. When I drive to my sister's (2.5 hours), I listen to a not-heard-before book. Started The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman this morning. He's not one of my authors, but I'm always willing to give one of his books a chance. I'm about 2 hours in and ENJOYING it, so onward! Excellent narrator.

This was the May selection for the New Leaf Book Club. Feel free to swing by and see what the club thought about it, and by all means, add your own comments. All discussions remain open indefinitely and all are welcome to jump in and revive the discussion.

[CRussel]

I'm currently re-reading the first three books (chronologically) in the Liaden Universe, listening to the narrations by Kevin T. Collins. Finished Crystal Soldier and quite enjoyed it on the re-read. I've started Crystal Dragon, and I'm reminded that I really, really, didn't like the first 5% of the book. But I do remember that once I get past this, I really enjoyed it.

[issybird]

I've just finished listening to Cluny Brown by Margery Sharpe, narrated by Anna Parker-Naples, who now heads my list of "Worst Narrators Ever, Women's Division." There are many narrators I don't like, some fewer I'll never listen to again, mostly for issues such as rampant mispronunciations, odd cadences, or generally exaggerated tones of voice. But I can't think of another female narrator who's done worse voices, inappropriate and inaccurate to the character.

I started this looking for a light listen in the middle of the night; I might have liked it (mildly) if I'd read it. As it was, I tried to recast the narration into a neutral voice in my head to make it bearable and it wasn't worth the effort. I finished it only because it was short, at seven hours.

(If anyone's interested, head of my Men's Division is Joseph Porter, for the same reason - inaccurate and mismatched character voices.)

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by CRussel

I've noticed this too. The sing-song thing, especially, seems to be becoming "normal". Very, very annoying. Ah, for the days of quiet, subtle, but compelling narration from a Donada Peters or Barbara Rosenblatt.

Two of my favorite female narrators. Zara Ramm is another good one.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Two of my favorite female narrators. Zara Ramm is another good one.

Hmmm. Don't think I've read one of her books. I'll have to look and see if any are in my comfort zone. Thanks.

ETA: Ahh, I see. She did the Jodi Taylor books. I quite enjoyed the first one. The second was OK. By the third I was bored beyond belief. No reflection on the narrator, but the books just did not resonate with me, even though they started out promising.

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

I would go with Richardson again as narrator if such a thing existed but it doesn't seem to. So it will be with Cathy Dobson whom I don't think I've listened to before, but I like the sample of her narration too. This may be a first for me as it will be interesting listening to (and comparing and contrasting) two different narrations of the same author back to back.

I can already tell, I prefer Richardson!

[SeaBookGuy]

Decided I wanted to go with something funny, so am a couple of hours into Live a Little by Howard Jacobson, read by Allan Corduner. Never heard of the reader before, but he's great at capturing the humor!

[sun surfer]

I'm now onto The Shining by Stephen King as read by Campbell Scott. I'll be honest- I'm not a big King fan. I've read two books by him, both a long time ago- The Stand and Needful Things. Some parts of The Stand were great but large swaths of it (hundreds of pages) were slogs. Needful Things I did not like at all and is one of my rare 1-star ratings on Goodreads (I only have 14 1-star ratings out of 480). I disliked it so much it put me off reading another King for decades, until now.

Also, it is extremely hard to scare me or creep me out in fiction, especially with supernatural elements, so sans thrills the only thing I could get out of King is a hopefully interesting story. As well, there's been lots of terrible or mediocre King film adaptations that I've seen.

However, I have loved some films based on King writings- Kubrick's The Shining, Stand By Me, the original Carrie, Misery, The Mist film. And someone wants me to go see the Doctor Sleep film with them this month. So I thought, what the heck, let's give a King book another go, especially since I loved the film (though I've heard they're different enough). I'm not expecting to love this but I hope I'll like it okay. I'm not going to read Doctor Sleep unless I just love reading this one; the plan is just to read this and then see that film.

[Tarana]

Just finished "At Knit's End" by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. Only a knitter would understand. Now have started "Unseen Academicals" by Terry Pratchett in my bid to complete Diskworld this year.

[pwalker8]

I'm still chugging away on the Clockwork Boys, another hour and a half to go. This seems to be one of those books where I liked it as an ebook, but the audiobook has me ready for it to end already. The narration is fine, so I'm not sure why I'm reacting to it that way. I'm trying to decide between Gemmel's Winter Warriors or Midnight Riot next. It will likely be Midnight Riot since I'm really ready for a change of pace.

This has been a somewhat odd audiobook year for me. Usually, there are three or four new books by favored authors that jump to the front of the list for me when they come out, but really there has only been one book like that this year. There are 3 or 4 other new books that are in the to be read list, but all my other purchases this year have been more backlist books or audiobooks that I bought in conjunction with the ebook because it was cheap.

Some of that is several favored authors finished up series last year, so they are taking time off before starting the next project. Others are situations where authors are starting to lose a bit of their earlier magic. Most authors go through that phase where they have been doing it for a decade or so and now need something to rejuvenate them a bit.

[CRussel]

Currently listening to two books -- A Suitable Vengeance, by Elizabeth George, narrated by Donada Peters and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Bronte, narrated by Frederick Davidson and Donada Peters. Two excellent books, narrated by two of my absolute favourite, 5 star narrators.

Vengeance is a prequel to the Inspector Lynley series, and I'm quite enjoying it. For some reason, I find I far prefer to listen to books by Ms. George than to read them.

Wildfell Hall is the New Leaf Book Club selection for this month, and while I'm very much enjoying the narrated version, I think I'm going to need to switch to reading it if I'm going to get finished by the time we start the discussion.

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Wildfell Hall is the New Leaf Book Club selection for this month, and while I'm very much enjoying the narrated version, I think I'm going to need to switch to reading it if I'm going to get finished by the time we start the discussion.

Heh, I'm pretty much the opposite- I'd probably listen faster than read.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I am listening to The Dutch House by Ann Patchett. I have been a fan of hers since the MobileRead Literary Book Club read Bel Canto. I didn't realize it was narrated by Tom Hanks until after I started listening to it.

https://www.bookbub.com/blog/tom-han...patchett-novel

Narrating this heartbreaking and compelling story is not the first connection between Patchett and Hanks. Patchett, the New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth and State of Wonder, told the Associated Press that she and Hanks have become friends in recent years. Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, have spent time with Patchett at Parnassus Books, the renowned bookstore she owns in Nashville, Tennessee. And in 2017, Patchett joined Hanks at a sold-out event sponsored by the Washington, D.C., bookstore Politics and Prose to interview him in conjunction with his promotion of Uncommon Type, his own collection of short stories.

[pwalker8]

Finished up the Clockwork Boys. It wasn't terrible, but then again, I got tired of it about 3/4 of the way through. I thought the narrator was actually pretty decent. I really can't put my finger on what the issue was. It could have simply been my mood.

Started up Midnight Riot, first of Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series. I discovered this series this past summer and blasted through the ebooks pretty quickly. I didn't really think of the audiobooks until someone mentioned them in one of the audiobooks threads this past week.

As I have mentioned before, my normal modus operandi is to move back and forth between different types of audiobooks to avoid getting burned out on any particular type. Usually, I will alternate between YA books and non YA, dark and humorous. This has been an unusual year in that most of my go to YA authors didn't put out any books this year, Tamora Pierce had one, but that was about it. Of course, there are a lot of YA books out there, it's just not many authors seem to be able to write YA books that also appear to adults.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Currently listening to two books -- A Suitable Vengeance, by Elizabeth George, narrated by Donada Peters and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Bronte, narrated by Frederick Davidson and Donada Peters. Two excellent books, narrated by two of my absolute favourite, 5 star narrators.

<SNIP>

Wildfell Hall is the New Leaf Book Club selection for this month, and while I'm very much enjoying the narrated version, I think I'm going to need to switch to reading it if I'm going to get finished by the time we start the discussion.

I finished this a couple of days ago; I think Davidson and May made a compelling listen for the novel, more entertaining than reading it.

I'm currently listening to Culture in Nazi Germany by Michael H. Kater, narrated by David de Vries, and I'm finding it rather a slog. While I've been reading a lot about Nazi Germany this year, this is a combination of over my head and beyond my interest level. For all that, I don't mind listening to it, but my retention level is pretty low.

On the lighter side, I'm listening to The Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart of the phrase, "had I but known." The narrator, Rebecca Burns, is on the flat side, but that's far better than over-emoted or exaggerated. The book, a turn of the last century mystery, is a lot of fun. The days when being out without a hat was the next thing to nudity!