What are we listening to? (audiobooks)

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by 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.

Time to start another long running series, obviously. It's a year before the next Foreigner book, unfortunately.

Does it have to be SF/F? If not, you could try joining us this month in the Mobileread Book Club, and read A Cold Day for Murder, by Dana Stabenow. The first of her excellent Kate Shugak series of mysteries set in Alaska.

[taosaur]

Murder mystery (or any kind of mystery or crime story) tends to bore me silly. I can handle noir detective elements if they're liberally slathered in another genre's gravy (e.g. The Dresden Files). SF/F is pretty much the only genre or commercial fiction that holds my attention, with occasional asides into supernatural horror. On audio it's almost strictly fantasy, with Foreigner an exception of sorts (it reads like fantasy for the most part). I mostly reserve my eyeball reading for hard sci-fi and literary/experimental/absurdist stuff.

I did finish up Convergence and... it was fine. It was more paidhi, and interesting material, but it did not read like the wrap-up of the current arc, but like the start of the next one.

I've moved on to Sanderson's Arcanum Unbounded. The first novella is a re-listen, but I think the rest will be new to me.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by 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.

I tried to listen to audiobooks at work, but I just miss too much.

I've just finished the Arabian Nights: Their best known tales (narated by Johanna Ward). I really liked this narrator! A very cultured English voice, very fitting with the language of the book (which contains a lot of "th"'s!)

[David Munch]

I got 33% through Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, but I think I will give up on it. Not something I usually do, but the mere prospect of 12 hours more of an audiobook which is not catching me at all, is quite depressing.

I will revisit it sometime in the future, and go for some epic fantasy now instead.

[sun surfer]

I've started Big Little Lies by Lianne Moriarty as narrated by Caroline Lee. A bit 'chick-lit'-y for me, but the mystery helps to offset that some and I'm enjoying it so far.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

I tried to listen to audiobooks at work, but I just miss too much.

I've just finished the Arabian Nights: Their best known tales (narated by Johanna Ward). I really liked this narrator! A very cultured English voice, very fitting with the language of the book (which contains a lot of "th"'s!)

I tend to move between audiobooks, podcast, music and nature sounds/white noise, depending on what I'm doing. When I'm doing dull, repetitive tasks, I listen to audiobooks. Podcast are for tasks that require a bit more though, but aren't particularly engaging. Music is for most programming tasks, while nature sound/white noise is from creative tasks.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

I've started Big Little Lies by Lianne Moriarty as narrated by Caroline Lee. A bit 'chick-lit'-y for me, but the mystery helps to offset that some and I'm enjoying it so far.

Please post your thoughts when you're done. I've been wondering about Lianne Moriarty--also because of the chick-lit factor.

[pwalker8]

Just finished up Sword of the South, a very enjoyable listen. To a certain extent, I was a bit worried that David Weber had lost a bit of his edge since the last couple of Safehold books and the last Honor Harrington book were a bit disappointing, not terrible, just not particularly great. But this book was a very worthy addition.

Next comes a series of shorter books. First is book 3 of the Innkeeper's Chronicles by Ilona Andrews., then Into the Storm by Larry Correia.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

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.

Hmmm. Must have been a while since I posted here.

I finished Play with Fire, then read Blood Will Tell, and one of my favourites of the series, Breakup, which, yet again, had me laughing out loud.

Enough Stabenow for the moment, but sticking with the Alaska theme - no reading Coming into the Country, by John McPhee, read by Nelson Runger, who is, frankly, pretty awful. But I've heard such good things about the book that I'm trying to stick with it. I may have to switch to the eBook, though.

[sun surfer]

Very strange- I'm listening to Big Little Lies on Audible, but when I open my Kindle (I have the with-ads kind as the screen saver) to read a separate ebook it gives me, for the first time, an ad for 'Small Great Things'. I hadn't heard of it before but my brows definitely furrowed at the name; apparently they're very different books with very similar titles.

Originally Posted by Catlady

Please post your thoughts when you're done. I've been wondering about Lianne Moriarty--also because of the chick-lit factor.

I will; it's a long one at 16 hours so it might take awhile. So far, so-so, so we'll see.

[Catlady]

I binge-listened to four historical novels by Jennifer Robson: Somewhere in France, After the War Is Over, Moonlight over Paris, and Goodnight from London. Each had a different narrator; all were competent.

The first three books were set during WWI and its aftermath, in England and France, and featured interconnected characters, though the books could be read as standalones. The fourth book (just published) moved ahead to WWII; a few characters from the earlier books were mentioned in passing.

All the books had interesting female protagonists--an ambulance driver, a nurse, an artist, a reporter. I enjoyed all four stories; I liked the historical details, and I liked that the author mostly resisted purple prose and excess sentimentality. I even liked the romantic elements, though I'm generally not a romance reader, because they didn't overpower the story.

Don't know what I'm in the mood for next ...

[pwalker8]

Just finished up One Fell Swoop, by Ilona Andrews. Book 3 of the InnKeeper Chronicles. This one seemed a lot more Romancy than the last two, especially being read. While listening to it, especially in the last third of the book, I kept thinking "Zee Joan Wilder?" [Romancing the Stone reference for those those too young to have seen the movie.] They are right at my toleration threshold for Romance novels.

Just started Into the Storm, by Larry Corriea (Lots of blood and violence with very little feelings being discussed, got to reinstate my man card, you know ). Only a half hour into it, but I already like the narrator.

[CRussel]

Currently listening to the Tony Britton narration of Whip Hand, the second Sid Halley novel from Dick Francis. This is only available in the UK, not in North America, so I had to do a bit of a quick trip.

The narration on this is excellent, and I'm quite enjoying the book. I had, of course, read this many, many years ago, but have forgotten 95% of it. The one thing I don't like about this (and all Dick Francis books), is that there is always at least one entirely too graphically violent scene. But I just fast forward through it. The rest of the book is quite enjoyable.

[sun surfer]

I just started on The Last Town by Blake Crouch and narrated by Paul Michael Garcia. It's the third and final of the Wayward Pines series. I just listened to the second book, Wayward, over the last week and went straight on to this one. While the first book of the series is more of a complete story in itself, the second basically ends in media res and so the third really feels more like the second half of the second book. The mystery pulled me into this series and while it tends towards the pulpy side, it is just interesting and quirky enough to keep me involved, so now I'll soon find out how it all ends.

Originally Posted by Catlady

Please post your thoughts when you're done. I've been wondering about Lianne Moriarty--also because of the chick-lit factor.

It was very chick-lit-y with Important Themes. The mystery was very slight in my opinion. It concerns a murder at a school trivia night but keeps us guessing the entire book as to who was even murdered, let alone who did the murdering, but that's not really done to make the mystery more intense; instead it's done to let the book wallow in other mom problems for the duration and just keep this slight edge of suspense on the side. It is funny at times but honestly wasn't my cup of tea. But, it's got very high ratings on Goodreads so I guess I'm in the minority there, and I will say the Australian narrator was very, very good- one of the best.

Originally Posted by David Munch

I got 33% through Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, but I think I will give up on it. Not something I usually do, but the mere prospect of 12 hours more of an audiobook which is not catching me at all, is quite depressing.

I hardly ever give up on a book; I'm the type to slog through no matter how much I might hate it. But I have to say, it feels harder with an audiobook. With pages, even if there are hundreds left somehow it feels not all that bad to me really. However with a bad audiobook I know exactly how many hours are left to have to listen to this narration and it just feels more cumbersome thinking about those specific hours ahead. Despite the fact that with pages one has to concentrate almost solely on the book while with audio one can not only do other things while listening but also crank up the speed. Maybe it has to do with the vagueness of the time needed to finish the pages, or maybe that audio can feel more overbearing than pages if it's less than enjoyable.

[taosaur]

I finished up The Eleventh Metal, which was a pretty cool elaboration on Sanderson's Cosmere, focusing on the characters and events of Mistborn. Now I'm listening to the second Bobiverse book, which is great fun so far.