What Are You Listening to Now? Part 12

Happy New Year, everyone! Let's have another wonderful audiobook year!

mirrordrum, I see in the last thread that you are listening to Anna Massey's reading of Rebecca. That is one of my landmark audiobooks, a simply amazing experience. I loved every minute. This is what audiobooks should be. Enjoy!

Unfortunately my current audiobook is not so great. It's The Iliad, translated by Stephen Mitchell and narrated by Alfred Molina. I haven't even gotten to the poem yet — still working though the introduction, which is fine — but Molina is simply terrible. He is reading like he is so utterly bored by his material... monotone, weak, slow. Ugh! If I didn't receive this from AudioJukebox for a review, I'd probably either drop The Iliad altogether or seek out a different reader. Maybe he will be better once we're out of the scholarly essay and into the actual poem? Maybe?

Things just keep getting better and better, and it's only the 5th day of the year! Two more audiobooks were on the hold shelf waiting for me at the library today: The Dog Who Knew Too Much, a continuation of that wonderful mystery series featuring Chet and Bernie, and Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman! I thought the Catherine bio was a hardback book; I totally forgot I requested it on audio. So happy. I just hope the reader is good. (I know the Chet & Bernie reader is good ~ no, great!) Readers can make or break an audiobook.

I've just begun The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Very strange but in an intriguing way - it certainly is keeping my attention. And finally I've found why everyone is so crazy about Jim Dale's narration.

I just finished Getting Sassy, which I liked enough to look forward to its sequel Getting Lucky.

I'm listening to Lady Anna which was a free download from Librivox. Simon Evers narrates and is doing a wonderful job. Trollope's novels start off slowly and before I know it, I'm hooked.

Okay, I owe Molina an apology. Apparently the guy reading the introduction to The Iliad is the translator, Stephen Mitchell. Thank goodness. I finished the introduction and started the actual poem yesterday, and THERE was that rich deep voice I was expecting! Mitchell should stick to translating. Though even that I'm not sure about; some of it seems terribly colloquial and trite so far. I guess we'll see.

My first new audiobook of the year is Iain Banks's Transition. The story itself has multiple narrators but the reading has all been left in the hands of one man, Peter Kenny, so inevitably I'm finding it a little confusing.

Of all Banks's non-scifi novels, this, with its multiple realities, is the most scifi one I've read, even more so than Walking on Glass.

>4 NarratorLady: I'm listening to The Night Circus, too. I loved Jim Dale in the Harry Potter series, but I'm really struggling with the sing-songy style he's using here. I'm crazy about him--but not in a good way. :)

#9, spounds: I've been wondering about that too but have decided that it must be a choice because of the dreamy, fantastical nature of the The Night Circus. I never heard him read the Harry Potter books since I read them in print.

I'm trying to keep up with the book itself; I have to listen to the beginnings of each chapter carefully to make sure I've got the years straight since they seem to jump around a bit. But I'm still hanging in there!

I wonder if anyone else has finished listening to it and has an opinion?

># 9 & 10- I listened to it and I love Jim Dale but it did get confusing I still gave it 4 stars but I don't think I loved it as much as some and it may be because of the back and forth and maybe it would have been an easier read in print just for the fact that you can page back.

I am now listening to Cold Sassy Tree by, Olive Ann Burns narrated by, Tom Parker .
Loving this one story & narration is great!

Ah, susiesharp, Cold Sassy Tree is in a class of books that, when I hear that someone is reading them for the first time, I'm actually jealous.

Enjoy!

>#13-Thanks! I am loving it!

I started and finished Peril at End House by Agatha Christie yesterday. I had to listen to something light and short after Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August (which was just SO good and well-read that it would blow any other non-fiction out of the water).

Today I started Wild Swans by Jung Chang.

>#12 & #13: Agreed! Cold Sassy Tree was one of the first audiobooks I listened to way, way back in the day. I still remember much of the story 20ish years later because it was so good.

Hi all,

I finished Nice Girls Don't Live Forever and am now listening to The Bride Wore Black Leather.

I've begun The mote in God's eye by Larry Niven. I've still to meet a live alien.

#18--do you meet a lot of dead aliens, then? ;)

#15--i've been trying to decide on a non-fiction book since i bailed on the immortal life of Henrietta Lacks. Guns of august has been on my 'i really want to read that' list for a long time. maybe now's the time. glad you liked it.

i finished Rebecca narrated by the late, great Anna Massey. while i'm not as enthusiastic as everybody else, since i spent a lot of time simply loathing Maxim and wanting to smack him upside the head and never did buy the romance--where did it come from?--i did enjoy it. AM's best narrative bits were Mrs. Danvers and the various men, imo.

i'm finishing up Carpe jugulum and enjoying it immensely. //eta: just finished it. :)

still doing 15 minutes at a time of Paradise lost. more than that completely overwhelms me. the description of the Daughter of Satan left me quite agog. i was describing her and her bowel-eating hellhound offspring to my partner and she said, 'huh! sounds like he didn't think too much of women.' cracked me up.

i'm enjoying Thirteen clues for Miss Marple from NLS. i'm not a great Agatha Christie fan but these short stories are delightful.

oh, i'm also reading Moonlight mile by Dennis Lehane in fits and starts.

#19 - If you have even a passing interest in WWI The Guns of August is the most important, most informative book to read. You get all of the pertinent information of the 15 years or so before 1914 and then that first month of the war really tells you everything you need to know about the commanders and why it turned into a trench war.

I'm onto On Gold Mountain by Lisa See, as the copy of Wild Swans I had turned out to be an unlabeled abridged version and Caesar: Life of a Colossus has a reader that sounded like a high quality computer text-to-speak robot (yuck).

I thought I had everything sorted with my January books but of course it all falls apart!

#20 mabith -- well, i'm fan of Tuchman and my interest in WWI specifically was re-piqued by Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy. it had originally been piqued by something i read aeons ago about the political gambits behind all that horror and how assorted industries had benefited therefrom.

in re: the falling apart of your January books' sortedness, i'm sure Garrison Keillor would be the first to remind you: 'there's always duct tape.'

while waiting for a credit from audible so i can order Guns of august, i've started Ex libris and a rather amusing book A Night of Blacker Darkness: Being the Memoir of Frederick Whithers As Edited by Cecil G. Bagsworth III by Frederick Withers enjoyably narrated by Sean Barrett, an audiofile golden earphones award winner.

Am presently listening to Gabaldon's Dragonfly in Amber, Davina Porter narrator, and just finished listening to Outlander. I've also listened to all the Harry Potter books and love Jim Dale's reading of these books. I also enjoy listening to James Patterson's Alex Cross mysteries and Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp series.

Started and about two discs into The Last Werewolf. Really good so far, and a great reader whose voice is much like I imagine a werewolf's should sound ~ deep & growly and a bit rough around the edges...

ETA ... and with a lovely British accent.

Loved Cold Sassy!Tom Parkers narration really brought this book to life for me!
Now listening to The Language of Flowers by, Vanessa Diffenbaugh narrated by, Tara Sands not sure what I think of it yet.

I also made a list on the new beta test of lists come on over and show your audiobook love!

http://www.librarything.com/list/41/Favorite-Audiobooks-Listened-to-in-2011

I'm a few discs into One and Only: The Untold Story of On The Road by Gerald Nicosia and Anne Marie Santos.

It's read by Vanessa Hart, who does an absolutely fantastic job (especially given that her part is transcribed interview material), and Stephen Bowlby, who does a good job.

Yesterday, I started Elizabeth Bowen's The Death of the Heart - Katherine Kellgren's narration is a tad ... plummy, but I suppose that's the point; makes the story seem a bit more "sinister" to me.

I finished Great Expectations earlier this week and I've moved on to The Old Curiosity Shop also read by Anton Lesser. Having started and enjoyed it I intend to read and listen to plenty of Dickens this year. Unfortunately Anton Lesser does not seem to have recorded the entire set so I shall have to listen to other readers.

I'm with you CDVicarage. When I saw how many Dickens books Lesser recorded, I knew I'd have some Dickens in my future.

Just finished Iron House by John Hart. Now starting Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott.

Finished The Greatest Show on Earth, read in part by St. Dawkins, himself. Excellent.

#28 29. I've been checking out what Dickens' novels Audible has available and I finally decided upon The Old Curiousity Shop mostly because Anton Lesser is the narrator.

At the moment I'm listening to A Bend In the River by VS Naipaul read by Simon Vance and although it took me a few chapters to get into the characters and story, I'm enjoying it very much now.

I just started The Count of Monte Cristo. It is a wonderful novel and the narrator, John Lee, is terrific. The best part is that it is 47 hours long.

33: I listened to that a few months ago. Good stuff!

I'm still working my way through The Iliad. Mitchell's translation is starting to annoy me.

Listening to Catherine the Great by, Robert Massie narrated by, Mark Deakins it is really good it's non-fiction but reads like fiction

I highly recommend David McCullough's The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris about men who traveled to Paris in the 1830s to study medicine, art and just to soak up general knowledge in the old world. McCullough reads the first chapter and while his slightly gravelly voice is very good, Edward Herrmann reads the bulk of the book and does a gorgeous job as usual.

I'm a couple hours into To Hell and Back by Sydney Loch and some others who added to his original book The Straits Impregnable which had initially been called a novel to get it past army censors.

It's read by Shane Nagle, who does an excellent job.

1776 by the author. That wonderfully familiar, ever so slightly gravelly, low voice is fantastic. It sounds like I'm tuned to PBS!

Halfway through Thereby Hangs A Tail, the second in the Chet & Bernie mystery series. Chet makes me smile.

I'm four chapters into The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley, read by Nicola Barber. So far I like it a lot. My only quibble is that it's written in the first person and when the main character is narrating she has an English accent, but when she speaks Barber gives her an American accent. The main character grew up in Britain and has been living in the US as an adult, so I guess it makes sense, but it's a bit jarring. Well read, though!

Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie I really enjoyed it! It was such a DELIGHTFUL book! The detective in it is just a girl and she was so much fun for me because she's exactly the type of character I like to write. I would've had my character solve the mystery the same way. After reading it I felt like I'd been on an actual adventure!

The Time Traveler's Wife I was not interested in the movie but I enjoyed the book a lot!

Holmes on the Range, World's Greatest Sleuth, etc. these books are soooo good. They're cowboys who want to be like Sherlock Holmes. Which is just as great as it sounds! Very funny. The writing is fantastic (very colorful) and the voice acting is perfect for the characters. This is one of my favorite series now! I read the whole series backwards too because I didn't bother to figure out the order. xD So I know that they stand alone well.

Embarking on another travelogue for the car following Colin Thubron's To a Mountain in Tibet a couple of months back. I've just started Paul Theroux's Ghost Train to the Eastern Star. I read his The Great Railway Bazaar a couple of years ago and am interested to see how things have changed on his route in the intervening 30+ years. This is a whopping 20 discs.

I finished The Scarlet Lion by Elizabeth Chadwick, narrated by Christopher Scott. Now I'm on to something lighter, A Promise in a Kiss by Stephanie Laurens, narrated by Simon Prebble.

>41 riddleraven: riddleraven, My husband and I enjoyed the Holmes on the Range book that we listened to (it wasn't the first one - I guess we'll do it out of order, too) but we haven't had time to listen to any of the others, even though we've bo't at least one. Glad to know the whole series is good, even if it's a very long time before we get to the rest of it. As for Time Traveler's Wife, I loved it when I was listening to it, but started picking it apart as soon as I was done. So I don't know how to rate a book like that . . .

With the kids, I am listening to Finally by Wendy Mass and really enjoying it. This poor 12 year old girl has the most mishaps. In real life, Mom-me would be all concerned. Fortunately, Mom-me is not in the car as we drive around town and I have laughed in a LOT of places. And the boys are enjoying it, too. (Off-topic, have there been any actual studies about boys not reading books with girls as main characters? My boys don't seem to care, but they're not teens yet. Some of their favorite books have girls as the main characters. That said, the girls are strong and spunky and adventurous. Dare I say that it's the well-written characters and action the boys go for and they don't care if it's a girl or not?)

And for me by myself, I just finished Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder. (It's one of Harlequin's books, but I have to buy my books from audible, so please don't mark this as promo.) I enjoyed it very much. Read by Gabra Zackmann, who's one of my favorite readers.

Will start the next-to-last Sookie Stackie/Southern Vampire Mystery by Charlaine Harris next. I've really enjoyed these books in audio. I tend to stay away from long series but I'm not sorry that I've given this one my time.

Penn

Just started The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. I'm only 45 minutes into it, but I already like it.

I gave up on A Promise in a Kiss and am now beginning The Last Camel Died at Noon by Elizabeth Peters, narrated by the superb Barbara Rosenblat.

I'm listening to Against Medical Advice by James Patterson and Hal Friedman. This is a very interesting true story about Tourette's Syndrome told from the patient's point of view by his father collaborating with James Patterson. If you are in the medical field ,like I am ,you will like the accurate discussions of all the medications he tries etc.

Well, I've finished Bowen's The Death of the Heart, and while I found some of the characters grating (shall we say), Katherine Kellgren did a terrific job of giving voice to them - definitely recommended.

I thought I'd seen it recommended here, but it hasn't been mentioned in the current thread. I'm listening to The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman, read by Anton Lesser. Good characters, nice urgent suspense.

//48 i really must at least attempt Bowen's book. i've been contemplating it for over 50 years and never got round to it.

i'm in a fairly grim reading spell.

presently slogging my way, not without interest but with terrible confusion, through Guns of August by Tuchman. i'd love to have seen her library, notes and ultimately, the galleys. amazing research that woman did. it's hard going, but i'm afraid to stop for fear i'll abandon it.

i've got several from NLS going on my NLS db player: Say you're one of them, short stories and a novelette by Uwem Akpan. oh lord! Lisette Lecat does her usual splendid job but i can only manage a bit at a time. children living with their family in a tarp in Nairobi huffing glue given them by their mother to stave off the pain of near-starvation in An X-mas feast makes me want to bash my head on a wall.

from the horrible to the frivolous, i continue with Thirteen clues for Miss Marple. because i love the NLS narrator for Paradise Lost and he does all their Sherlock Holmes books, i'm also mousing along through The hound of the Baskervilles.

also on the recorder, and also being consumed piecemeal is Moonlight mile by Dennis Lehane.

one of these days, i'll actually finish something. :)

2wonderY: Glad your enjoying the great combination of Pullman and Lesser. The Ruby in the Smoke is the first of three Sally Lockhart novels, all narrated by Lesser. It's a wonderful trilogy.

(Once Upon a Time in the North and Tiger in the Well are the other two.)

I am listening to The Scorpio Races by, Maggie Stiefvater narrated by, Steve West & Fiona Hardingham
I can't say I am loving the book but I can say I am absolutely in love with these two narrators it looks like this is Fiona's first book I can't find any others on audible and I found some from Steve that I will definitely be listening to more by him his voice is a little like a cross between Neil Gaiman & Tim Curry!

I'm juggling two audiobooks at present:

My Life on a Plate - featuring Clara Hutt, a sort of married Bridget Jones figure. Inadvertently, I listened to the sequel to this one (Comfort and Joy) first, not realizing there had been an earlier Clara book. Not sure if that may have worked out better? Jill Tanner reads this one well (Anne Flosnick too a bit of getting used to for the sequel). Clara's sense of humor is the hook, less so the plot.

High Season - Provincetown detective on the trail of the murderer of a visiting, rabidly homophobic televangelist ... who happens to be a cross-dresser. Good times!

I'm having a wonderful time listening to The Sisters Brothers, read by John Pruden. Great story and great narrator.

My only complaint has nothing to do with the book. There's only one track on each CD (two on the second one for some reason) so if I miss anything and want to go back, it's a hassle.

#49 I listened to this series over the last year and loved it. Anton Lesser is my favourite reader (I'm listening to his Dickens readings at the moment) and the books were good, too.

//53 seajack, maybe i'll pick up High season after i finish Guns of August. i think i'll be ready for some nonsense.

I finished the Raffles, The Amateur Cracksman by E.W. Hornung book a few days back, which was lots of fun.

Now I've started The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer.

Just finished The Cypress House by Michael Koryta. Still figuring out how to rate it. I found it very absorbing at the beginning, but the story took a less appealing turn (for me) later.

I'm listening to two audiobooks at the moment, very different from each other! Jane Austen's Mansfield Park read by Juliet Stevenson which is absoloutely wonderful. I love Juliet reading anything though. And the other is Lauren Beukes Zoo City read by Justine Eyre. Eyre is a good reader but she struggles at times with the wide range of accents and makes it a little bit hard at times to be sure who is speaking. Other than that I am really enjoying it. I had never read/listened to anything by Bukes before but I saw she won the Arthur C. Clarke award for science fiction writing so I thought I'd give it a go.

Stevenson is a wonderful narrator. I listened to her reading of Persuasion last year and absolutely loved it.

I finally finished The Iliad. The poem itself is great, but avoid Stephen Mitchell's translation.

Next I will be starting The Yellow Claw by Sax Rohmer. I've never heard of him, but apparently he wrote well-received mysteries during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. So we'll see.

I have a set of the Juliet Stevenson readings of Jane Austen but she doesn't seem to have done Pride and Prejudice. I have that read by Emelia Fox and it's not as good.

Seize the Day. I've been meaning to read Bellow for the longest time. So far so good.

//#60 what is it about Mitchell that you didn't like, wisewoman? i didn't know he'd translated the Iliad. he certainly ranges far and wide in his translations, doesn't he?

i've read Lattimore's and i have Robert Fagles', but not yet in audio. audible.com has Fagles' translation narrated by Ian McKellan but i like Charlton Griffin's reading better, which surprises me. sounds like Fagles' translation. i'm a fan of Sir Ian but know him mostly through Shakespeare: Macbeth, with Judi Dench, which is awe-inspiring and Richard III with a turn by Maggie Smith, also very fine. she's very scary. but i digress. to bed. i must to bed!

Felt in the need for some comfort reading, so am relistening to Neil Gaiman performing his Neverwhere.

Now listening to Killer Weekend by Ridley Pearson. I'm finding that I don't listen as well to this kind of genre thriller. I think I need richer language, deeper characterizations, etc to keep my attention from wandering. I think I'd like this better in print. (Interesting that friends of mine have the opposite leaning... their minds wander when listening to something with not enough action.)

The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England was SO good and extremely well-read.

Now I've started Kushiel's Justice as a sort of break book before starting something I'm into more. My dad really likes this series but for me it's always just okay. Not great, not bad.

mirrordrum, I didn't like Mitchell for two reasons — one of which is, I admit, rather shallow! First off, he reads his own introduction to this work and his voice is just... awful. Nasally, weak, and monotone, he reads soooo slowly and sounds half asleep. And the observations he makes in that introduction are so obvious. Yes, the scene between Achilles and Priam is touching and emotional. Yes, Helen is a lonely woman. Yes, the reason the Trojans don't give Helen up is so that there would be a story. Yes, the poem shows the glory of war as well as its horrors. I think most people who would be interested in reading The Iliad would be able to pick up on these things themselves...

Second (and more substantially), I didn't like his translation. He takes this huge heroic epic of a poem and renders it in modern slang and clichés. The original poetry peeks through occasionally, but for the most part there is a stiffness that comes from forcing heroic sentiments into modern terms. In places it's almost comical, the disconnect between the content and the language. I wish I had experienced the poem through some other translation, especially since it was my first exposure to the work. But ah well.

My review of The Iliad is here if you'd like my further thoughts. Thanks for asking :)

I was going to start Sax Rohmer's The Yellow Claw next, but there's a loud hissing fuzz on the audio track that was so distracting and annoying that I switched to plan B, Louis L'Amour's Ride the River. And I'm really enjoying it! I feel like it's been awhile since I wanted to continue with my audiobook when my commute is over.

The kids and I just finished Into the Land of the Unicorns by Bruce Coville and have started The Kite Rider by Geraldine McCaughrean.

For myself, I listened to Dead in the Family and Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris.

Have just started Edge of Survival by Toni Anderson.

Penn

Just finished David McCullough's The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, narrated by Edward Herrmann. Wow! Here are biographies of some great, some almost forgotten Americans who took advantage of the superior knowledge and art of Paris in the 19th century. He tells their stories in the context of the city's history, its changes, regimes, and uprisings. I was completely captivated and rushing to read more about Samuel Morse, John Singer Sargent, Augustus St. Gaudens, et al.

That's the problem with good historical non-fiction: it leaves you hungry for more.

Just started To Fetch A Thief, the third book in the Chet & Bernie series. Love it.

oh, oh, oh! I have The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris right on my TBR pile (three shelf bookcase, actually). I so want to read that soon! I am glad to read you enjoyed it, and I know what you are saying about leaving you wanting for more good history.

I'm listening to Three Men in a Boat by Jerome k. Jerome while on the elliptical trainer. Very funny. I'm enjoying it immensely.

Ooh, NarratorLady and Canadian_Down_Under, you've both reminded me of books I've been meaning to read. After falling for the BBC Two series Three Men in a Boat I keep meaning to read the book that inspired it (and I usually love anything of that period).

Started Death in the City of Light by David King. Not thrilled with the reader, but I am interested enough to continue. I'll probably get used to the reader before too long.

I started Pictures of You and I'm finding it very engaging so far.

My favorite reading of The Iliad is by Stanley Lombardo. He is the translator and the reader and is an excellent narrator. His translation uses a lot of contemporary language and Susan Sarandon reads the introductions to each chapter of the book. He also has some interesting primitive music throughout the book.

Just started My Lady Ludlow by Elizabeth Gaskell. It's read by Susannah York, who seems perfect for the book.

Listened to one disk of Orlando and it sounded interesting but not what I want to listen right now. Moving on to What Is the What.

Finally started The Count of Monte Cristo yesterday. Good, long read ahead, I hope.

//67 thanks for your comments on and review of The Iliad, wisewoman. i think i'll go with Fagles if i listen again.

//78 mejix--what is the what has been on my wish list for a long time. audible has it and the narrator sounds very good. i hope you'll let us know what you think of it.

last night i finished Moonlight mile by Dennis Lehane from NLS. the narrator, David Hartley-Margolin, was perfect. such a treat. Lehane is one of my favorite authors in the (of the?) mystery genre and i enjoyed this one as much as i always do Lehane. however, it's my first 3.5 star rating of a Lehane book b/c i couldn't buy one of the characters and i found the denouement contrived. satisfactory in some ways but contrived.

still gnawing on the fag end of Guns of August where the Germans are dithering around Compiegne and taking a bead on Paris. still spending time with a number of others mentioned somewhere above and getting ready to start Furst's The Polish Officer, another NLS offering. may the goddess of audiobooks bless the NLS narrators, one and all.

Just started Ten Days in a Mad-house by Nellie Bly. The reader, Laural Merlington, really isn't good (awkward pacing, random overly theatrical narration, HORRIBLE accents, but mostly very mechanical sounding), but it's a short book so I'm going to try to stick with it.

Just starting Seizing the Enigma by David Kahn.

finished The guns of August at last. became quite riveted, and a trifle less lost, during the last 4 hours. i just kept thinking 'and they haven't even gotten to Ypres and Flanders, let alone the trenches and the gas, the endless mud and the barbed wire.'

Thank heavens I'm getting audio books from the library because I've just had to jettison two of them for depressing content. Both were fiction YA books, one about the Dutch Resistance during World War II and the other about sinister goings-on in a boy's school. Just not in the mood.

But I did pick up The Finkler Question which so far has my interest and the narrator is very interesting to listen to. Stephen Crossly I think his name is and he has me chortling as I drive home from work .... after narrating a book about the Polish Resistance during World War II.

Hmm... think that has anything to do with jettisoning the other two?

if it's Steven Crossley, he's excellent and you can absolutely hear the smile in his voice, when appropriate. i just got his narration of Dissolution: A Novel of Tudor England Introducing Matthew Shardlake from audible.com during their $4.95 for the beginning title in a series sale. $5 for a $32 book ain't bad and it sounds most interesting. i got it because of him. :)

he also reads Tana French's In the woods, which i liked and iirc, you didn't (is that one you narrated for NLS?), and Willis's The Bishop's bird stump, which i liked a lot.

i like books about the Resistance, have since i was a kid, but i'd think two in a row, especially after narrating one, would be a bit of a turn off not to mention adding a darksome YA book. be interested to see your reaction to Finkler question given the LT reviews.

Ellie, you got me excited that I missed a Willis book but I think you mean To Say Nothing of the Dog; or, How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last which I read in print and loved. He would have been fun to listen to. I'll certainly be on the lookout for Mr. Crossley in future.

Nope, haven't narrated any Tana French books yet. (Loads of Louise Penney though.) I too like books about WWII and the Resistance but I think I'm more a fan of non-fiction when it comes to that subject.

i did, i did mean to say the dog thing. i'm dumber than a post today. it's cold for here (25 degrees, wc 13 degrees) and that makes me dumber than usual.

i like both fiction and non-fiction Resistance. i have Nancy Wake on my iPod but not ready for that. she just died, you know. i so couldn't have been a resistance fighter. way, way, way too cowardly.

have just started High season. not sure what i think yet. seems a bit goofy and not crazy about the narrator but it makes a break from goofy generals and their warrior ways!

Elliott Gould reads Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep, and I mean "reads", not quite monotonous, but close at times. Had I known, I would've read the print version.

Mirrordrum: High Season is good for $4.95, but the story has some flaws that would be spoilers if I brought them up now. I've never been to P-Town (nor Fire Island for that matter), but the setting details were so good that I really felt I was right there. I found Lola to be a very well-presented lesbian character.

Seizing the Enigma was really good, but for some reason the author decided chronological order was for wimps.

Just getting started on Northanger Abbey. So far I like it a lot more than anything else I've read by Austen (I am a sad disappointment to my Austen-loving father, though perhaps I was just more distracted when I was reading her previously).

88: I rather liked Gould's reading of The Big Sleep. It was flattish because the character is, I thought.

I started Agatha Christie's Murder Is Easy, read by Hugh Fraser. Good staple Christie so far.

I'm about halfway through Darkly Dreaming Dexter. Yay for Audible's 4.95 "First Book in Popular Series" sale!

Took a break from Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman and started listening to Allende's Island Beneath the Sea which is, as I almost always find with Allende, perfection.

After two long Dickens novels in a row - Great Expectations and The Old Curiosity Shop - I moved on to Georgette Heyer, The Foundling.

93: Lucky! I wish my library had more Heyer audiobooks (or that the statewide ILL system would be a little more trusting!). Cotillion was my first real exposure to Heyer, wonderfully narrated by Phyllida Nash. Love it! Who reads The Foundling?

94: Also read by Phyllida Nash. I think she's my favourite. I recently read Cotillion and The Talisman Ring read by her. After this one I shall have to try a different reader.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, read by Nick Podehl. My whole family has been listening to it, and we're all in different spots, so I've had a slightly disjointed experience with it, but I'm enjoying it.

90: I'm a bit more used to Gould, and would listen to Farewell, My Lovely, but I'd still grade the narration as "fair" - it's not the book, IMHO.

The kids and I finished The Kite Rider and have just started Jip His Story by Katherine Paterson.

For myself, I'm still on The Ditchdigger's Daughters and really enjoying it.
Penn

Just started on Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie. I was trying to read a heavy non-fiction while listening to a semi-technical non-fiction book, but it was not working out so I switched to Poirot.

I finished The Last Camel Died at Noon by Elizabeth Peters, narrated by the incomparable Barbara Rosenblat. Now I am beginning Doc by Mary Doria Russell, narrated by Mark Bramhall.

Oooh, let me know how you like Doc on audio. I read it in print and loved it, but I bet it's even better on audio. Depending on the reader, of course!

#101 - the reviews for him on Audible are stellar!

I've finished the first 1/3 of The Warmth of Other Suns, terrificly read by Robin Miles -- at 22 hours total, not sure how soon I'll be taking a break for something else.

//103 Robin Miles is exceptional. i first heard her read The book of night women by Marlon James. i cannot possibly recommend the audiobook highly enough. Miles does people of all ages, men, women, British and Scottish slave-owners and, mostly powerfully, the voices of the Jamaican slaves. the book is rightly called a tour de force and Miles' narration matches and enriches it.

i'm girding my emotional loins to begin listening to her narrations of Edwige Danticat's books.

Halfway through Still Alice by Lisa Genova. It's not read particularly well and the writing isn't great. If I didn't have memory issues springing from a disease I probably wouldn't bother finishing it (also the last two audio books I tried to start had readers I just could NOT stand, so I've continued with Still Alice since the reader isn't super painful).

I listened to Simon Vance reading Charles Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop which was wonderful and have just finished listening to Bereft by Chris Wolmsley. It was narrated by Dan Whylie, who has an unusual breathy voice. It took me a while to get used to but once the story got going I was hooked.

I was SO annoyed with Still Alice that I had to review it.

Now I'm re-listening to Saturnalia by Lindsey Davis to cleanse my annoyance.

Finished What is the What. Amazing story.

Didn't particularly like the reader. Kinda made the main character a caricature. I thought the reading of Zeitoun was less obtrusive.

In any case, loooooved the book. Very, very moving.

//107 i wondered how that would go, Meredith. sorry it didn't work. in the first place, authors should almost never be allowed to read their own books. the only two exceptions i can think of are Neil Gaiman who did a superb job with The Graveyard Book and Toni Morrison whose narration of Beloved was excellent.

in the second place, uh, well, i realize there isn't really a second place. frown

i'm fortunate that nobody i'm close to has Alzheimer's. however, two people i admire greatly have been diagnosed with early onset dementia, Alzheimer's type: University of Tennessee Women's Hoops Head Coach, the iconic Pat Head Summitt at 59 and author Terry Pratchett, also 59 when diagnosed, iirc. reading his comments as he's dealt with this has been illuminating and painful.

i have trouble with memory, too, secondary to medical issues but i'm also 68 so, ya know, it's probably more tolerable although goodness knows it's frustrating, embarrassing and scary as hell. Alzheimer's i can't even imagine!

you've piqued my interest about the book so i'm downloading NLS's recording after reading the other reviews, including those of caregivers and one person who suffers from Alzheimer's. i'm curious to see how my reaction compares with yours.

in other news, finished Dissolution and ended up disliking it. Stephen Crossley didn't work for me this time but that may be because i found the book increasingly irritating as i went along. quit with about 20 minutes left and have no idea why i hung in there that long. maybe a better book if read visually.

i'm completely absorbed by Night Soldiers and am poking about to see what i'll read along with it. possibly the face of a stranger by Anne Perry partly because i dote on Davina Porter. we'll see how it goes.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed Stephen Crossley's narration, he couldn't take me to the end of The Finkler Question. It was a curious experience: the writing was very good, the narration excellent but there didn't seem to be a real story. Just endless musings by three old friends about being or not being Jewish. The lead character was the drippiest of the three and I actually skipped ahead a couple of discs and found more and more of the same! It won the Booker but that's not always a recommendation, is it?

Have moved on to Anton Lesser's reading of The Old Curiosity Shop to celebrate Dickens' birthday. Fabulous so far. Just realized that Masterpiece Theater is re-showing this beginning next week so I'll tape it and watch after I finish the book.

//109, The author's reading certainly wasn't great, but it was more the terrible writing that got me. I rarely leave reviews but with something like that, which is getting SO much positive attention solely because she gets the emotions of the situations right, then I feel I have to act.

Genova would have been much better off teaming up with a dedicated fiction author or writing a straight non-fiction book using loads of interviews with AD patients. Then we could have had a book that really stood the test of the time and became a classic.

Though it's convinced me I could totally have a bestseller if I could avoid feeling guilty over putting an inferior product on the market. :)

I have just finished listening to Lauren Beukes's Zoo City read by Justine Eyre and I would not recommend it to anyone. I would have struggled to get to the end if I hadn't been listening to it at the gym (with no real alternative on my I-pod to change to). Firstly I didn't rate the narration, Eyre is not very good at accents. She is speaking with a South African accent most of the time, as this is the main character's accent and that seems OK to me (not that I am an expert of African accents of course) but all the other accents she tries to do (French, Australian etc.) just sound South African and it is very confusing.

I could have dealt with this but I'm afraid I found the book a big dissapointment too. I loved the premise but the plot was really dull and predictable, I felt no connection with any of the characters really and stopped caring what happened to them early on. A great sci-fi concept, but not a great book in my opinion. I am surprised this won the Arthur C. Clarke award.

I am about 3 hours into The Tiger's Wife by, Tea Obreht narrated by, Susan Duerdan & Robin Sachs I am enjoying the narration very much but still not sure what I think of the book itself.

Trying to decide between Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee or The American Civil War: A Military History. Heard the first disk of each today.

started The face of a stranger by Anne Perry and am enjoying it a lot. Davina Porter's delightful as usual. it's not a great book but it's well-written and well-narrated. sort of a Maisie Dobbs book but set just after the Crimean War rather than after WWI. i'm enjoying just bobbing along on the current and not being very critical.

I have just finished Of Mice and Men and it was a terrific combination of a great story and excellent narration. Only 3 hrs. long...it is a nice way to spend an afternoon.

Finished The Tiger's Wife by,Téa Obreht narrated by, Susan Duerdan and Robin Sachs the book was just ok for me I think it tried a bit too hard but the narration was very well done!

Now listening to The Winter Palace by, Eva Stachniak narrated by, Beata Pozniak

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is very moving but it is also hard to follow on audio. There are so many names and events, you really have to concentrate. It is so sad though. So sad.

I've started Ghost Hero by S. J. Rozan, featuring NYC detective Lydia Chin. The narrator does a great job in terms of delivery, but her voice sounds a good 10 - 15 too young.

>117 susiesharp: - I felt the same way about The Tiger's Wife. I read Train to Trieste around the same time and enjoyed it more. They're very different books, but both begin in similar parts of the world. Train to Trieste just feels more like a real, whole book.

Just started The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo. As usual it takes me a little while to adjust to the British accent but sounds interesting so far.

I've got Little Dorrit, read by the wonderful Anton Lesser, lined up as my next Dickens but I'm just listening to The Thirty-Nine Steps first. It's only 4 hours long and it's one of my favourite ripping yarns.

I have given up on the audio version of The Winter Palace by, Eva Stachniak narrated by, Beata Pozniak this was so slow moving that I looked in the paperbook to see how far into the book I was and after 2 hours of listening I was on page 47..I didn't like this narrator at all the cadence of her voice and slow narration was really annoying so will read this book in print.

So am now listening to Haunted Ground by, Erin Hart narrated by, Jennifer McMahon I am an hour in and enjoying it very much really good story and narration so far!

Listening to Hounded by Kevin Hearne because my teenage son says I MUST read it. Pretty good urban fantasy with a lot of humor and not a lot of sex (for a change.) I'm enjoying it so far.

whew! two stinkers in a row. just finished Face of a stranger by Anne Perry and only stuck with it to the end because of Davina Porter. i'm baffled by the good reviews it receives and, although i don't consider myself competent to write reviews, may try a brief one in this case. people give this book 4 and 5 stars, Atlanta Constitution liked it, Kirkus liked it, Mystery Guild liked it. it gave me a pain in the back of my lap, as Rex Stout's Archie Goodwin would say. started out well enough but went rapidly downhill.

i think i may reread John Green's An abundance of Katherines. this is a YA book that absolutely delighted me the first time i read it and i'm feeling the desire to be absolutely delighted again and it would make a nice break from Say you're one of them and Night soldiers. both are fine books but not exactly upbeat!

Ellie, I've never heard the expression "it gave me a pain in the back of my lap" before, but you can bet I'll use it now!

And why now write reviews? You should!!! Come on!!!

This is my first post in this group. I had to find somewhere to complain about the audiobook I just started to listen to: John Bolen's reading of The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas. Bolen is an American but tries to affect a British accent for the narration and is unable to maintain it consistently. He also tends to place an undue stress on the last syllable in a word and the last word in a sentence. Throw in some over-the-top French and Dutch accents and you've got a real headache on your hands.

I think I will return this to the library and pick up something else instead. Has anyone heard Donna Tartt doing True Grit?

I've only been listening to audiobooks for a couple of years, but here are some of my favorites:

The Crystal Cave read by Stephen Thorne
To Kill a Mockingbird read by Sissy Spacek
Great Expectations read by Michael Page
Jane Eyre read by Susan Ericksen

welcome, nc. there are some good narrators out there. you can hear a snippet of Donna Tartt's narration of True Grit at audible.com (the US site). to my ear, the accent is sort of generic Texas/Oklahoma/Arkansas/west Tennessee/ so it works alright.

i was going to listen to An abundance of Katherines again but it didn't work. soooo, i went to O'Connor's Everything that rises must converge on audible. really excellent.

i've never liked short stories except for those by Saki and O. Henry. yet here i am, wandering through 4 short story collections at once. good gravy!

i long to finish at least one so i can start on something extended. well, other than Night soldiers.

#128 Flannery O'Connor's stories are a treat.

I'm not having such a great start to my March listening. I was looking forward to listening to Simon Vance read Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time but after 6 hours I'm totally bored and wondering if I should bother to listen to the last 12 hours of the book. It's not Vance's fault, as usual his narration is perfection. The books feels like a poor man's version of Brideshead Revisited.

Tried listening to Garth Nix's Sabriel read by Tim Curry and didn't like it much. The voice he uses for Sabriel makes her sound like a grouchy old man, plus there's something about the pacing that bores me. So now I'm listening to Tripwire by Lee Child. Unfortunately, some of the CDs I got from the library were defective, so I'm going to have to switch to print form for the second half. Not a huge problem, but I enjoy the Reacher novels on audiobook.

Just started Timeless by, Gail Carriger narrated by, the wonderful Emily Gray I just love her narration of this series!

I enjoyed it very much too, Susie!

I'm well into The Emerald Atlas and finding it entertaining, both for the reader, Jim Dale and because the author, John Stephens doesn't engage in filler material.

I'm really looking forward to starting Operation Mincemeat, about the allied inteligence work leading up to the invasion of Sicily. But I'm wondering whether I should read The Man Who Never Was before I read the non-fiction account. Any opinions out there?

I'm a bit into Outwitting History by Aaron Lansky, which is wonderful. The reader is George Guidall and he's stupendous. I know I've listened to him before, but I can't figure out which books (since mostly he seems to read books in genres I don't ever touch).

2wonderY: Operation Mincemeat is a fabulous page turner, it just blew me away. The author, Ben MacIntyre, got most of his source material from the son of Ewen Montagu, the "hero" of Mincemeat" and the author of The Man Who Never Was.

Apparently, in writing his book back in the 1950s, Montagu was not allowed to publish things that MI5 still considered top secret. Montagu's son was apparently delighted that MacIntyre was going to write the whole story since his dad had left his papers with him in the hope that someone would one day come along to do just that.

mabith: I think you'll find that George Guidall has narrated in every genre. One week I listened to him read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair and the next he was bringing me to tears with Beverly Cleary's children's story Strider. Science fiction, non-fiction, biography, he does it all beautifully.

You ought to put that in a quick review, Nathan.

I'm still listening to Pride and Prejudice. After that I'm going to listen to Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet.

oh frabjous day! a page-turner in one of my favorite genres. Operation Mincemeat sounds perfect! Anne, did you know, forgive me if i've said it before, George was an NLS reader back in the day?

here's a nice page on GG with a little YouTube snippet of an interview with the man himself.

from a link on the above-referenced YouTube page, i found an inside the studio piece with Johanna Parker, narrator of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, Let the great world spin and other books. in this vid she's doing a bit from the latter.

i loved watching the process and struggled with her over the last 2 lines of this excerpt: 'there are rocks deep enough in the earth that no matter what the rupture, they will never see the surface. there is, i think, a fear of love. there is a fear of love.' dang! i've been waffling on this book and now i'm sunk. must read it.

but first, finished Everything that rises must converge last night. nearly went and bought more O'Connor as i'll now be listening to everything i can find. all the narrators were superb. the stories keep spinning in my head, defying me to grasp them.

decided i wanted something long and different so have started 11-22-63. took about 15 minutes to get me hooked. hope the hook lasts. :)

Ellie, the hook will last. Prepare for a wild ride!

I tried to read Let the Great World Spin and it was so many books ago I can't remember why I put it aside. Looking forward to what you think of it on audio as it gets wonderful reviews.

I did know GG was an NLS narrator once upon a time. The total number of books must be in the thousands by now. You just need to listen to one to know why.

NarratorLady: Yeah, I know he's done a lot, it's just the first four pages of his books on Audible were all things I don't go near and it bugs the crap out of me to not be able to remember something like that.

Ah mabith, I've got a few years on you. Not remembering stuff is so normal that I feel like throwing a party when I DO remember stuff!

Ha, well, I have a weird nerve disease that kills the memory as a fun side effect, so it's definitely a familiar sensation. I'm just usually better when it comes to books. :)

Amy, I'll consider it! And I've been meaning to listen to some Shakespeare on audiobook, but have never gotten around to it.

I am listening to Seventh Heaven by Alice Hoffman, this is one that I have missed, I am expecting some of her usual magic to come into it.

I have ordered on audio The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt, this for my husband, as I have read the novel, however I will enjoy listening in again.

Just starting Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen.

I've found one more Georgette Heyer read by Phyllida Nash - A Civil Contract. I had a good long listen last night as I was feeling under the weather and went early to bed, and I'm about half way through.

How I have a question for anyone who uses audible.com. Is it worth it? It sure seems expensive to me. I try to keep my book costs as low as possible, because of the volume of the books I read.
I was looking for The Winter of Our Discontent and they wanted 27 bucks for it. Come on.

147: Audible.com is worth it for me. I pay $14.95 for one credit per month. Most books cost one credit, so it's 14.95 for one book per month. Then they have frequent sales, with certain titles as low as 4.95. The sale titles are usually fairly popular ones, so I often find something tempting in the sales.

But most of my audiobooks come from my library's online lending program. Free is a very good price.

It's $22/month for two credits, although my library has most of the books I want.

My local library outside of Atlanta has less users of audios. Hard to believe with travel times. I often log on to the public library site and reserve new incoming audios that will be arriving. I'm spoiled too, as I often read the book & do the audio. One favorite book, The Book Thief I would have never gotten into if it weren't for the library audio to help me at the start.

I'm currently listening to One Good Turn narrated by Steven Crossley.

I've yet to download a book to my phone or Ipod for walking but I might try that soon.

Just today started The Once and Future King by T.H. White.

147: I've had an Audible account for quite awhile. I've bought the Gold membership the past few years. That give me 12 credits for $150, so $12.50/book. As mentioned earlier they also have $4.95 sales and 3 books for 2 credits sales. Plus the last couple of years they have given a free book--Confederacy of Dunces one year, A Christmas Carol another. There are also free short stories available every now and then.

Has anyone been successful loading the Audible app onto a Kobo Vox?

Now that I've finished Ghost Hero, which seemed like it'd never end though only nine hours total, I've moved on to Man Seeks God (My Flirtations with the Divine) by Eric Weiner. I'm a fan of his self-deprecating humor that comes out better via audio (he reads his own stuff), though others might find his nebbishy ways a bit much.

#151 jldarden - The Once and Future King is one of the titles in Audible's $4.95 sale that tempts me. Can you recommend it? I tried to read the book once but couldn't seem to get into it.

I'm still struggling with A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell but the end is in sight.

ooooh, Jennifer, thanks for the info. i beetled off immediately to order The Once and Future King. i read it twice when i was a young person and loved it. i decided it was worth 5 bucks to see if i might still love it. good narrator. the first book, iirc, has got some very funny bits in it.

i'm not quite 1/3 of the way through 11-22-63. it's not a book i'd recommend in audio as it's the kind of thing i'd prefer to speed read so i could skip a lot of the parts that strike me as filler. i was 19 when JFK was shot, though, so it's interesting though i question some of the slang. for example, i'm fairly confident we didn't say 'man up' in 1961.

i can, however, remember the taste of 50s root beer and root beer floats. when they started putting soda in cans, i stopped drinking it. pah!

still plugging on with other books i seem to have been reading at since slightly after the dawn of time.

>Ellie, there's a nice little movement among brew pubs where they're making small batches of root beer as well. I still regret that my sister moved away from my favorite root beer place.

I finished Lies My Teacher Told Me, which really deserved a better reader. The reader they had wasn't horrible, but it just could have been better. I want Martin Sheen to read it in his best President Bartlet voice!

Now I'm listening to Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

#155 I recently listened to The Once and Future King and loved it. The reader, Neville Jason, is very good and so is the story. It starts off apparently quite light in tone and very funny but gets more serious as it goes on.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts on Audible. I'm still on the fence. I guess it all comes down to money and how much I can spend.
I finished the excellent audio On Writing, read by the Horror Master himself. Getting ready to listen to The orphan Master's son. I'm pumped about this one.

Oh, so glad you liked On Writing. I thought it was excellent too, and hearing it read by King was a bonus.

>155 socialpages:; Yes, I am quite enjoying The Once and Future King. The narrator does a fine job.

Started listening to The Romanov Bride today. It has two narrators which I really like. I find multiple narrotors really make the stories more interesting to listen to.

//157 Meredith, if i ever drink root beer again, i'll seek your advice. :)

//161 Jody, i'm glad i bought it even if i don't read it in its entirety. i loved the part about the knight who was after the questing beast. screamingly funny to me as a young woman. now, of course, can't remember much now except laughing but that's a pretty good thing as far as i'm concerned. :)

My house is listening to Doc by Mary Doria Russell, I read the novel a few months ago and organised it on audio for my husband, we are both enjoying it.

I'm a few hours into Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran. As far as relatively fluffy historical fiction goes, she's my favorite author (though I'd much rather she stayed in Egypt, in part because there are fewer facts to violate). Plus her readers are always good.

I just finished Doc by Mary Doria Russell and really loved it. The reader was great and I just loved his soft southern Georgian accent for Doc. Now I'm beginning The Garden Intrigue by Lauren Willig, narrated by Kate Reading.

Loved reading the book in print and am definitely going to have to listen to Doc one of these days soon!

>157 mabith: mabith,
Is there anything inappropriate for an 11 y.o. in Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!? Our 11 y.o. loves audiobooks and math (and science). He likes listening to books like Death by Black Hole and Particle Physics: A Brief Introduction. Nothing like having your 10 y.o. try to explain the theory of relativity to you - and then learning that he had it right (even though I never did "get" it, which frustrated him no end LOL).

>166 ktleyed: ktleyed,
I'm assuming that since you're on the 9th book in the Willig series that you'd recommend it? I enjoyed the first one (in audio) but never made time for the rest . . .

Thanks,

Penn

#168-Oh yes, I've enjoyed the series. I read the first two but listened to just about all the rest, with the exception of The Orchid Affair which I won in a contest in print. Willig has a good sense of humor and takes her research seriously. I also like the combination of the contemporary story and the historical.

I'm a bit into Lunatics by Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel. It's read by the authors and I think they're doing a great job so far (I'm about 40 minutes in).

Generally I dislike multiple readers, but it's probably necessary for this book and works well.

Just finished Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by, Jamie Ford narrated by, Feodor Chin reall y enjoyed it and thought the narration was well done.

Now starting Secondhand Spirits by, Juliet Blackwell narrated by, Xe Sands a cozy with some magical realism!

Just started listening to Taken by Robert Crais for a roadtrip I'm starting today. Already exciting enough that I think it will easily keep me awake during the 6-hour drive from L.A. to Phoenix. That and the very strong latte I'm going to be bringing along.

#167..Storeetllr ..I also loved reading Doc, I have also been listening to snippets of Doc, the reader is wonderful, nearing the end now and I have had some goosebumps that I am sure I did not have in the reading version!!

Next up for my husband is The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, this is another that I have read and have obtained from Vision Australia for him, I just hope that the reader is good, I have warned him that the first part is a litte strange, after that it is just sooo good.

Hello everyone....imagine my delight when I went to the library and found the audiobook of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I have seen the trailer for the movie which makes it look like a real tearjerker but interesting nonetheless. I confess I am finding the audiobook a real struggle. I still haven't seen the movie but I'm guessing the child character might have something like Aspergers.... maybe it's easier to read than to listen to...shall I persist?? Has anyone else listened to the audiobook? I'm up to disc 5 and I've got 7 more to go I think and I feel like I'm climbing Everest...

Lunatics by Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel ended up being great!

Now I'm a disc into Chocolate Wars by Deborah Cadbury. It's read by Finty Williams, who is doing a good job so far.

Finished Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. It was a weird experience. It was hard to follow in audio because there were so many names and events. I got sick halfway through and had to interrupt the book for a couple of weeks.

The story itself is very moving. It is clearly one sided but that is the whole point of the book. Some moments made me skeptical but I haven't seen any challenge to the scholarship. It has so much resonance. I would love to revisit this book at some point.

Chocolate Wars was SO good! I can't recommend it highly enough. It was interesting, well-written, and moved swiftly. The reader was great all the way through.

Now I'm re-listening to Ode to a Banker by Lindsey Davis.

Listening to two read by Katherine Kellgren: Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen and The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place by Maryrose Wood (with my kids.) Both are good, but the character voices in the second are especially fine, and the book is a hoot, especially if you ever read orphan stories, school stories or pony stories as a child.

listening to Case histories by Kate Atkinson. narrator is Susan Jameson who's quite good and every once in a while sounds wonderfully like Hyacinth Bucket Bouquet (Patricia Routledge).

Just finished Secondhand Spirits by, Juliet Blackwell narrated by, Xe Sands .I highly recommend this magical cozy mystery! I so wish the rest were available on audio hope they record them soon!

Now starting Death of a Gossip by, M.C. Beaton narrated by Davina Porter.

I promised myself I would read a Dickens novel in honor of the 200th anniversary of his birth so I picked up The Old Curiosity Shop, a very dense book. It filled my two requirements: I hadn't read it before and it was read by Anton Lesser. It's a very dense book (18 discs) with tons of characters and several plots but every time Lesser voiced the story's arch villain, the diabolical dwarf Daniel Quilp, I cackled with joy.

Dickens, of course, painted pictures when describing his characters and Lesser fills them in to perfection. Quilp is overflowing with evil rage - to hear this voice is to get the whole characterization. When he's having conversations with his meek wife, you would swear there were two actors; but no, he's a jaunty Dick Swiveller, a plucky Kit Nubbles, an oily Samuel Brass and his overbearing sister Sally, and he's little Nell too. An outstanding performance by a master narrator.

Aviddiva178: I listened to Kellgren recently for the first time, reading Elizabeth Bowen's The Death of the Heart.

Mirrordrum 179: Thanks for the mention of Case Histories - added myself to the hold queue on the audio. What did you think of High Season?

#181 - I totally agree with your assessment of The Old Curiosity Shop - Anton Lesser was marvellous voicing all the different characters. I especially loved/hated Quilp.

I am still on a Dickens theme at the moment and am listening to Sketches by Boz . I downloaded it from Librivox, it has numerous narrators - some better than others.

#181,183 I listened to The Old Curiosity Shop earlier this year and loved the reading more than the book. I've now moved on to Little Dorrit also read by Anton Lesser. Unfortunately after this I have only A Tale of Two Cities left. All my other Dickens books are read by other readers. I expect some to be good - Martin Jarvis, Alex Jennings - but I'd rather listen to Anton.

For all you Dickens fans, we are having a Group Read of David Copperfield, through the month of April, over on the 75 Challenge. Come join us:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/134518

I plan on listening/reading it, due to it's massive size.

Speaking of massive, I'm currently listening to the Wise Man's Fear. I also wanted to mention that I recently finished the Orphan Master's Son. It was excellent and one of the TOP audios I've heard.

I'm toying with the idea of tackling The Pickwick Papers. I know that Lesser recorded it but unfortunately my library network doesn't have it. They do have a recording - 24 discs!- read by Simon Prebble. I've heard of him but have never listened to anything he's narrated. Anyone have an opinion?

Just starting Children of Gebelawi by Naguib Mahfouz. The reader isn't amazingly stupendous, but isn't bad. I don't mind the American reader for this as much as I did for the Cairo Trilogy.

Finished Death of a Gossip by, M.C. Beaton narrated by,Davina Porter and have to say this was the first time I was ever disappointed in Davina I don't know if this is an older audio before she had perfected her Scottish accent or if it was the fact that the main character of this book is a man so I do not understand the reasoning of hiring a woman to narrate and I see that later on in the series it was switched to a male narrator. This is also the first in a series that I have heard good things about so will probably read more to see if they get better.

Now listening to Blackbird Fly by,Lise McClendon narrated by, Denice Stradling and I am enjoying both story and narration.

Began Wallace Stegner's The Spectator Bird. After my disappointment with Angle of Repose last year I was a little reluctant but so far, so good. Edward Herrmann's narration is, as usual, excellent.

I really liked The Spectator Bird quite a lot! Immediately afterwards, I sprung for an Audible credit of Hermann's reading of All the Little Live Things, same protagonists but takes place, I believe, before that one.

Thanks! I'd never heard of that one!

Crossing to safety, Stegner's last novel, i believe, was excellent. i liked it so much i bought it in large print so i could revisit bits of it.

i listened to the NLS recording and it was excellent. i listened to a sample with audible.com's narrator, Richard Poe, iirc, but didn't like his work as well as NLS's Fred Major so went with that one.

finished Kate Atkinson's Case Histories this afternoon and promptly went back to the beginning and started all over. i knew i'd missed things because of hearing it in audio and wanted to listen again with foreknowledge.

it's a good book full of unexpected twists in both characters and events. works well in audio format and narrator Susan Jameson is excellent.

I'm laughing along with Nadia May as she narrates Muriel Spark's Memento Mori.

Just starting The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty by Caroline Alexander. Sorry, Clark Gable, but now I need the truth.

The Bounty was good, and really interesting, but also quite long and a bit tedious at times (I think that was more due to my mood though).

Now I'm listening to The Secret River by Kate Grenville and really enjoying it.

Just finished Blackbird Fly by, Lise mcClendon narrated by, Denise Stradling really good book about family secrets both author and narrator are new to me and would try both again!

I needed a Katherine Kellgren fix so am finally listening to Mark of the Golden Dragon by, L.A. Meyer

Listening to I Can See You. Addictive mystery/crime novel

>196 susiesharp: Thanks for the heads-up on another installment of the Bloody Jack adventures.

Just finished up The Once and Future King and plan to start Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann, a mystery where sheep are the detectives searching for the killer of their shepherd.

Three Bags Full was ... like ... MEGA-AWESOME as an audiobook! I know folks who really loved the print version, but the narration made the story for me.

I've started on England's Mistress by Kate Williams. I don't particularly like the reader, but she's not really horrible either (except when she's reading excerpts from letters written by Emma Hamilton, but that's just a sentence or two at a time at sparse intervals so far).

Just started Black Swan Green by David Mitchell. It took me a while to get used to the British teenage slang of the 80's. Now I'm really into it. It's very well read too.

Somehow my loaned copy of England's Mistress was one that I could barely find reference too anywhere online, so I'm assuming the two readers available on Audible are much better. It was a good book, and I do recommend it, so don't be put off by the reader issue.

I'm a few chapters into Beer is Proof God Loves Us by Charles W. Bamforth. It's not really the book I'd hoped though, focusing quite a lot of business practices and technology. The author also seems a bit confused on why people disparage companies like Budweiser - he keeps saying how they make a much more consistent product that most breweries. Given that it's the taste that people dislike, being consistent or using quality ingredients to get that taste doesn't really matter!

It's a really short book though, so I'm pushing forward. I'm sure there will be some things that interest me along the way.

I am listening to Bill Bryson narrate his own book, "At Home: A Short History of Private Life; he's not the best reader, but I am enjoying the origin of the common words we use around the home.

I finished Hamlet — it was great! I'm now listening to Stephen Thorne narrate Tess of the D'Urbervilles.

Just started The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman. I always love her books and her readers.

I've started The Secret Scripture, which is quite interesting, though Wanda McCaddon's (a/k/a Nadia May) Irish accent is so thick here I need to pay close attention.

Listening to Doc by Mary Doria Russell. It's a good book and an excellent narration.

I finished The Garden Intrigue narrated by Kate Reading and am now beginning Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King, part of his Dark Tower series, narrated by George Guidall.

I'm still ploughing through Dining with Al-Qaeda. The narrator isn't exceptional, but the book is downright panoramic.

Have just started The Once and Future King by T H White and enjoying it. It's quite a lengthy undertaking (26 discs) but the narrator is good and the story fun. At the moment Wart is a captive of an evil witch planning to have him for dinner, will Merlin get there in time to save Wart and Sir Kay? Can't wait to find out.

Sped through a Poirot today (Dumb Witness) and I'm now starting My Lobotomy by Howard Dully. I'm iffy on the reader, but I've literally just started it.

>#212- My Lobotomy is fascinating I read it in print a few years ago.

I just finished A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty written & narrated by, Joshilyn Jackson I loved this book and the narration was very well done!

I am now listening to The Weird Sisters by, Eleanor Brown narrated by Kristen Potter I have already read this but we are reading it for bookclub and wanted to refresh my memory because the author is joining us on Skype for our meeting.

#211 I love that book, who is the narrator? I might just have to audible it :)

#214 My copy (from Audible) was read by Neville Jason. If you have a subscription be sure to get the omnibus - I wasted a credit by buying The sword in the stone first and then getting The Once and Future King.

I'm enjoying The Pleasures of the Garden, an anthology of extracts from classic sources. Getting past the voices, the pieces are sometimes dang wonderful. It starts with an ancient Chinese poem, travels through the greek classics and trips lightly on to the Enlightenment and finds lots of material in the recent centuries. Highlights are diary entries of Thomas Jefferson and Elizabeth Arnim, comic pieces by Rudyard Kipling and William Morris, and a lovely ode to old tools by Gertrude Jekyll.
It's seasonally appropriate for me, as I look forward to my gardens.

#215 Thanks I will go and look that up.

I really enjoyed My Lobotomy despite the fact that the reader's rhythm was really odd. I got the feeling he was trying to mimic the author's speaking voice.

Now I've started The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy.

I'm listening to The Five People You Meet in Heaven upon the recommendation of a coworker.

I'm listening to Excellent Women by Barbara Pym and while I can see its appeal for many I would have stopped reading if it weren't for the excellent narration by Jonathan Keeble. Though the characters are well developed there is just not enough plot for my taste.

I'm listening to The Hunger Games. I hope to complete it by next weekend, so that I'll have read the book before taking my daughter to the movie. (She read it ages ago, of course) I'm not thrilled with the narration, but the story has drawn me in.

The Crossing was super amazing, and now I'm just starting A Commonwealth of Thieves: The Improbable Birth of Australia as a follow-up to The Secret River which I read at the end of March.

I'm listening to Hitch 22, read by Hitch himself. Rambling but exceptional.

This evening I started listening to the second in the Lewis trilogy by Peter May, "The Lewis Man"; another crime novel set on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.

I'm just starting The Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia by Esther Hautzig.

I am listening to The Silence of Trees by, Valya Dudycz Lupescu narrated by, Xe Sands it is very mesmerizing so far!

Oh Wow! I am just starting The Silence of Trees by Valya Dudycz Lupescu today, too. It's for a read-a-long, but I've yet to find the site where it's being discussed.

>#227- here is the Listen-a-long site http://literatehousewife.com/2012/04/the-silence-of-trees-listen-a-long/

if there is another read long let me know!

I love love love the Harry Potter audio books. I would almost rather listen to them than read them!!

I have just barely started The Scorpio Races, and I am enthralled!

After giving up on The Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler - character-driven as is her style, but I wasn't getting into the characters much at all - I started Hit by a Farm, Minnesota lesbians take up animal husbandry. Not sure whether author narration is a plus, a minus, or neither yet.

Just starting All Creatures Great and Small. It's a good recording, and I do love the Yorkshire accents.

Finally finished Excellent Women and have started listening to Heft which I'm loving so far! All my audiobooks these days are from audible.com.

I'm listening to The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. This BTC edition has multiple readers which I like but all the sound effects like the fire engines etc kind of scare me a little while I'm driving and listening to it in the car. They are very realistic.

This afternoon I started listening to my first Jo Nesbø book, Headhunters, and I already dislike the main character, Roger Brown, immensely but the story has me intrigued.

I'm listening to The Adventure of English by Melvyn Bragg. It's read well, though I wish the reader could have used his own Lancashire accent instead of BBC English, especially since he's from around the same area as the author.

#236
If you like Melvyn Bragg, I am sure that you would enjoy Soldiers Return, I am not sure if it is available on audio, it is a wonderful story.

Today started 1984 narrated by Frank Muller. Really enjoying it so far!

When youngest and I are alone, we're listening to All Creatures Great and Small and loving it. When oldest and I are alone together, we're listening to Silver on the Tree. When we're all three together we're listening to The Legend of the Guardians. Enjoying all of them, although Silver on the Tree hasn't aged well. I loved it when I read it in the '70s but I'm wishing now that the one girl was a little different.

By myself, I'm catching up on podcasts and so not listening to a book. My most recent listen was Nightshade by Michelle Rowen and I really did not like the reader - Cynthia Holloway. I saw at audible that a lot of people feel the same as I do, but surpringly to me a lot of people like her.

Penn

I'm listening to Decline and Fall, having a break from Little Dorrit. I read Decline and Fall many years ago (about 35 years) and I remember finding it amusing however I'm a bit shocked this time by the character of Chokey. Well, not by him but by the other characters' reaction to him. I know (at least, I think) Waugh is satirising them and their attitudes but to hear the N-word spoken casually aloud probably has more force now than when it was written.

I'm starting the 5th Brother Cadfael book - The Leper of St. Giles by Ellis Peters. I do like Steven Thorne as a reader, but the first Cadfael I listened to was read by Patrick Tull, who was a better fit, I think.

Listening to Full Dark, No Stars and not enjoying the reader at all. I'm going to give it another disc and maybe switch to print.

I'm just starting An Utterly Impartial History of Britain: Or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge by John O'Farrell.

Edit: The author reads this and tends to go too quickly, randomly mumbles, and whispers (apparently no one taught him to stage whisper). I'd like to see them re-do this audiobook with David Mitchell (the British comedian, not the author) as the reader.

Have started and am thoroughly enjoying John Ajvide Lindqvist's Harbor - it's also being well narrated. Don't know why I can't get the correct touchstone here for it though.

>244 Sile: sile--sometimes if you enter it a second time it will work. sometimes not. ;)

i'm reading Thirty-three teeth by Colin Cotterill, the second in the marvelous Dr. Siri Paibon mystery series set in Laos in the 70s. also reading Crombie's Dreaming of the bones from NLS, The Help from audible.com and Sisters of Sinai: how two lady adventurers found the hidden gospels also from NLS. a great bunch of books!

//eta i just had to reenter sisters of sinai to get the ts to work

Trying to finish Black Swan Green. Not sure where David Mitchell lost me but the novel has been uninteresting for at least a disk and a half.

Just started Still Alice and am enjoying it so far.

I wanted to like The White Woman on the Green Bicycle, but alas, a couple of hours into it I cannot, in spite of the good narration.

//248 seajack, i went to take a listen to white woman/green bicycle at audible.com and while there, followed a book trail to Sebastian Barry's The Secret Scripture. it looked interesting so i listened to the sample narrated by Wanda McCaddon (aka Donada Peters and Nadia May). wow, is she versatile. has gone on my wish list. white woman/green bicycle, nahsomuch.

Nadia/Wanda/Donada's Irish accent was challenging at first, once I got used it the book sailed along. I was surprised how much I got into it, even contemplating trying the "sequel" (or related book anyway).

I tried to start Explorers of the Nile, but couldn't stomach the reader, Clive Chafer. *Really* disappointed about that, as it will be a while before I'll have time to read it in print.

So instead I'm just beginning Destiny of the Republic, about Pres. Garfield's assassination and subsequent insane medical care.

Finished today with 1984 and started Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie narrated by the great Jim Dale.

Listening to Come Home by, Lisa Scottoline narrated by, Maggi-Meg Reed

I am currently listening to The Accident. I've listened to some amazing audio productions lately and this is not one of them. Not that it is poorly done...just not up to the standards of some of the other excellent performances I've heard lately. The story itself is simply okay as well. Overall, a very lukewarm experience.

Blackout by Connie Willis, narrated by Katherine Kellgren. It's fantastic so far.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I read half the book but thought she was trying too hard to create an adult version of Harry Potter or the Hunger Games with her efforts at magical ideas un fortunately not dazzling. I put the book down as a sorry effort.

However, I recently picked up the audio version read by Jim Dale. All I can say is wow! The story still leaves me cold, but his reading and his ability to create characters, voices, dialects, accents, each as distinct as a fresh sunrise, could probably make reading the calendar exciting.

To my mind, after more than a decade of listening to audios, readers are more important to the listening experience than ever the material.

Thank you Jim Dale!

I am listening to Arto Paasilinna's The Year of the Hare about a journalist who disembarks from his life and with a hare he rescues, travels through Finland having interesting encounters.

I'm listening to two: Full Dark No Stars in the car, and enjoying it much more now that I'm into the second story which is being read by Jessica Hecht; and Packing for Mars on the iPod, which I am loving. Hard to imagine that reading about the space program could be so fun, but that Mary Roach could find something humorous to write about a phone book.

I think you're right, VivienBrenda. The reader can make (or break) a book. I've got The Night Circus on audio ordered from the library and am glad to know at least the reader is good.

Since this is a season I'm in the car for very long sessions, I try to make sure I'm over-stocked on Audio books, in case of emergency (damaged disc, rotten choice, etc.)

I finished The Boy In the Suitcase. I was not impressed. The mystery was flimsy, and I couldn't be coaxed into caring for any of the characters.

Horton Halfpott rates much much higher. Tom Angleberger has just a few titles, and he writes for the middle school audience, but he is entertaining for anyone. The narrator is a key element to the telling of this story, and Ron Keith nails it. (Hmm, he needs his own page.) Highly recommended.

Depending on the moment, I'm listening among three titles, at present -

Alan Alda's Never Have Your Dog Stuffed is slightly disappointing. I would much rather have had Mr. Alda read his own memoirs. His voice is so distinctive, and he would have been better able to do the material justice. I get the feeling that Marc Cushman doesn't quite pull it off.

I've just started Wildwood, and it has a good solid start. The protagonist reacts in some interesting quirky ways. But the reader, Amanda Plummer, has almost a baby voice. I may switch to paper, as she seems to get subtle meaning and inflections wrong.

I'm savoring Under the Tuscan Sun. Frances Mayes has moments of brilliant phrasing. And I love hearing about Italy and it's special qualities of light.

I was SO SO excited that Kevin Hearne's fourth installment of the Iron Druid Chronicles, Tricked, was released last week. I was chagrined that his new publisher has decided not to issue CDs, offering the audio only as a download. DRAT!!! Forced to move into the next format! I'm saving it for the weekend drive. Luke Daniels adds so much to my enjoyment of an excellent fun series.

Just finished Come Home by, Lisa Scottoline narrated by,Maggi-Meg Reed the audio production I was impressed with Maggi-Meg Reed’s of the young girl with braces because I knew she had braces before the book mentioned it. However there was a lot of crying and wailing going on and that got annoying so that part of it I had wished I’d read instead of having to hear it. The narration was a bit over the top and I am not totally convinced I wouldn’t have liked this book more if the characters hadn’t all sounded so whiny. This one was just a 3 star read better than ok but not great.

Now starting a re-read of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by, Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows narrated by, Paul Boehmer, Susan Duerden, Rosalyn Landor, John Lee, Juliet Mills for bookclub and how can I go wrong with the audio with this list of narrators!?!

I loved the audio of The Guernsey Literary...! I rarely like multiple narrators, even when they're all good, but it really worked with that one.

I just finished Zorba The Greek, read by George Guidall and am now starting the very short Europe Under the Old Regime.

I'm a couple of hours into The House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen, not sure about the narration, but the book's proving tough to put down with all its Gothic suspense angles.

I have been enjoying the adventures of Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren. Yes, it's a children's book, but I could not remember reading it as a child, so I'm learning about Pippi now.

I'm just starting The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

>263 Sile: - It's always worth reading the really good children's books, no matter how old we are! You don't need a nostalgic connection to enjoy the well-written ones.

Finished The Once and Future King by T H White narrated by Neville Jason who did a great job. I enjoyed this long and rambling discourse about King Arthur, Merlin, Lancelot, Guinevere and the Knights of the Round Table, however, it was a bit uneven with lengthy digressions that did not propel the story forward. I believe it is really 5 novels so perhaps that explains the disjointed feeling. My knowledge of the Arthurian legend comes from movies so it was nice to get a different perspective on the characters especially Lancelot.

I am now listening to Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West. Sorry I've forgotten the narrator. It's not really my cup of tea but fortunately it's short - only 2 hours compared with about 30 hours for The Once and Future King.

Yesterday started Caravan to Vacares by Alistair MacLean.

Finished The Neighbor by Lisa Gardner today and started Kill Shot by Vince Flynn this afternoon.

Just starting The Virgin in the Ice by Ellis Peters.

I finished Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willis. Good story, and I really liked Katherine Kellgren's narration. Her characters are so distinct. Now I'm listening to The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer, read by Daniel Philpott.

#268 - That is one of my favorite Cadfael stories, who is the narrator?

Kay, Steven Thorne reads it. He's read most of them, I believe, and seems a good fit.

about half done with Insurgent by, Veronica Roth narrated by, Emma Galvin really good so far!

Finished Caravan to Vacares and started The Collectors by David Baldacci.

Just starting The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.

I finished The Wolves of the Calla and am now beginning The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley narrated by Nicola Barber.

Oh, I liked The Rose Garden.

I'm listening to The No Asshole Rule by Robert Sutton. It is great, has me laughing all the way to and from work.

I'm nearly finished with The House in Paris ... and what a chore it's been!

I am one disc into The Heretic's Daughter.

I'm almost done with Beast by Donna Jo Napoli. Decent material and narration, although neither are great. Robert Ramirez started out reading very stiltedly, with a lot of awkward pauses, but he seems to be gaining confidence as he goes along.

Finished Insurgent by, Veronica Roth narrated by Emma Galvin really liked this one but one heck of a cliffhanger!

Now listening to A Place of Secrets by Rachel Hore narrated by, Jilly Bond.

I've started Exorcising Hitler: The Occupation and Denazification of Germany by Fred Taylor. It's very good so far, and read well.

I'm listening to The Deeds of the Disturber by Elizabeth Peters, read by the incomparable Barbara Rosenblat. I wish I had been able to find the series in order from the library, because they keep referring back to the last installment and it sounds highly entertaining. Not that this one isn't!

Wow, it's been awhile since I've been at LT.

Kids and I are still listening to Legend of the Guardians by Kathryn Lasky. They got side-tracked re-listening to the 4th Harry Potter (Jim Dale version as we're in the States). It's good but not holding my attention as well as other children's books do. I love the books that engage me as much as they engage my kids.

I just started Timeless by Gail Carriger. I've really loved this series.

And seeing what some of you are reading - some are in my pile to be read. I have a lot of good books just waiting for the right time or the right mood.

Penn

I've finally finished Little Dorrit. It was 35 hours long (or as itunes puts it 1.4 days, which sounds even longer) and there were bits that dragged, even in Anton Lesser's wonderful reading, but it was worth the effort. However it's time for some light relief so I'm moving on to Friday's Child by Georgette Heyer - not read by my preferred Heyer reader, Phyllida Nash, but by Eve Matheson.

I thought I might try Bleak House or David Copperfield for my next Dickens but they are as long or longer than Little Dorrit. Dickens doesn't really do short books, does he?

I finished Beast and moved to The Night Circus. I could listen to Jim Dale read for hours on end.

>277 rxtheresa:

I just read his sequel, Good Boss, Bad Boss! Also good.

I'm currently listening to The Tin Drum, and listening...and listening...

Exorcising Hitler was really a great book: unbiased, well-written, and VERY well-read.

Now I'm having a nice fun listen with a Poirot book - Appointment with Death.

I just finished A Place of Secrets by, Rachel Hore narrated by, Jilly Bond both author and narrator were new to me and will be seeking out more from both of them. If you are a fan of Kate Morton or Susanna Kearsley I think you will like this one!

Now starting The Lost Years by, Mary Higgins Clark narrated by, Jan Maxwell who I recently found out went to the same high school as I did

I'm just beginning Peony by Pearl S. Buck. I loved The Good Earth when I read it years back, so decided I really must read more Buck!

On disc 2 of The Long Fall by Walter Mosley. Wasn't thrilled at first, but it's growing on me. I kept listening because I like the voice of the reader.

Wake by Robert J. Sawyer.

Am listening to The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs. It is very interesting and enjoyable, one of those I can't wait to get back in the car to continue listening.

Nearly finished with Maphead by Ken Jennings, which I liked more than I expected, in spite of the narrator's mangling a few place names (hint: the Imperial Capital of Vietnam is "Hway" NOT "Hugh").

Just starting Forged: Writing in the Name of God by Bart Ehrman. It's not read well, but the reader is tolerable enough that I think I can put up with him for nine hours.

Asimov - Pebble in the sky...it was good to read and is good to listen to

Hoping to finish The Long Fall tonight so I can move on to the fourth Dr. Siri mystery, The Merry Misogynist. Am SO looking forward to it!

For the Author Theme Reads group, I have been listening to 2 books by the Japanese author, Shusako Endo: The Samurai and Deep River. Both are read by David Holt who does an excellent job. Highly recommended listens.

I'm a few discs into Black Swan Green by David Mitchell.

I finished The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley and am now beginning The Snake, the Crocodile & the Dog by Elizabeth Peters, narrated by the incomparable Barbara Rosenblat.

I've just finished listening to Heavenly Date by Alexander McCall Smith. This was a bit of a weird one I have to say. There were 6 CDs in all with various narrators - some of whom had rather too plummy accents for me to bear. The stories are described as "hilarious" on the back cover. Hmmm......I don't think I really laughed out loud at any. Some were in fact very sad/disturbing. And the last story was...well...quite bizarre. Has anyone else heard them?

ooh, reading a bunch. 5 from NLS: 1) Agatha Raisin and the quiche of death by M. C. Beaton. highly enjoyable fluff and a great narrator. i mean, the Cotswolds. good grief, talk about cozy. 2)Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Found the Hidden Gospels. very interesting and i'm not at all a religious person. 3) still trying to finish Say you're one of them. so much child abuse, it's very hard. i have about an hour to go and it gives me nightmares. literally. 4) rereading Renault's Fire from heaven when i don't feel like any of the others and 5) reading about 15 minutes a week of Paradise Lost. i find it pretty overwhelming and really, really weird that anyone would find this vision of religion even remotely comforting. God is so petty!

from audible.com, i just finished The help which i thoroughly disliked, finding it condescending and full of problems. i reviewed it here. scroll to #46. also just finished The secret scripture narrated by Wanda McCaddon. Quite good.

have now embarked on State of wonder by Ann Patchett narrated by the incomparable Hope Davis. i've been kind of saving it up for some reason and decided now's the time. finally, i'm tackling The Swerve: How the World Became Modern as my audible non-fic read. about half way through and still not sure what i think.

that's it, that's all, that's enough!

>Ellia, I'll be interested to hear what you decide on The Swerve, as it sounds right up my alley and I'm listening to loads of non-fiction this year.

I was unsure about the reader on Black Swan Green at first, but in the end I think it was a good choice (and a very good book!). I've just started Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff.

Has anybody ever listened to Walden? There are 3 different versions on CD and I'm not sure which to choose. The Mel Foster reading got some bad reviews on Amazon, but the readings by Robin Field and Morgan Adams are not reviewed -- the CD versions are mixed up with book reviews (as so often happens).

If you search on Audible.com you can listen to samples of each reader (and there are even more versions). I thought either Rupert Degas or Alec Sand sounded best (Foster is awful, Adams doesn't seem to fit, and Field is a much slower reader, but the best of the three you mentioned).

I am finally almost done with The Jungle by, Upton Sinclair narrated by, Paul Boehmer his narration has kept me going I think I would have given up on it if I had read it in paper book. It's not so much that I don't lke this book, it's just the people in it never get a break it's just hardship after hardship but it's just I like it but I don't..this is going to be a hard one to review.

I do know that after this one I am going to have to listen to something fun and happy!

I had loads of fun listening to the children's book The Death-defying Pepper Roux, the story of a boy who is told by his aunt from birth that he is fated to die on his 14th birthday. Auntie got her information straight from a saint in a dream and Pepper runs away on his birthday to avoid the saints and angels who he believes are stalking him to carry out their promise.

Honest and brave, Pepper meets adventure at every turn, taking on various guises and occupations and meeting enough odd characters to populated a Dickens novel. Narrated deliciously by Anton Lesser (my favorite narrator) it's a wild and joyous ride. Highly recommended.

I'm a few hours into Soulless by Gail Carriger. It's a silly, fun, almost-parody and I'm really enjoying it. It's read by Emily Gray, who reads the Thursday Next books, and she always does a good job.

Popping in to highly recommend Stewart O'Nan's novella (three hours long) Last Night at the Lobster. Solid writing enhanced by terrific narration.

#307 I considered this just because of the narrator, so if the story is good too I think I'd better put it on my wishlist!

Finally(!) finished The Count of Monte Cristo narrated by John Lee. At 47 hours and the rate I listen, it took me over 3 months to finish, but I never got tired of it. Great story and great narrator!

I think I'm headed for State of Wonder by Anne Patchett next.

My fun and happy book decision was The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by, Christopher Healy narrated by, Bronson Pinchot I don't know if I'll be able to do this book justice in a review I just want to gush. It is hilarious and the narration is so perfect!

I've just started The Wolf: How One German Raider Terrorized the Allies in the Most Epic Voyage of WWI. It's read by Michael Page, who I really like.

I've just finished listening to The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress by Beryl Bainbridge - she was working on it at her death, so it's technically unfinished, though in a sense works out well enough without more info.
Plot-in-a-nutshell: British woman visits USA in search of a mysterious guru-like figure, traveling with an older American man who's also a "disciple" of a sort; title refers to a woman described by witnesses as shouting "We shot him!" at the scene immediately after Robert Kennedy's assassination.
Timothy West did his usual outstanding job with narrating this rather ... odd novella. I'd recommend listening to him read Bainbridge's more approachable Injury Time first though.

>307 NarratorLady: NarratorLady and 312 susiesharp,

Thanks for mentioning those. Both in print are requested from our library (just in time for school to get out), but I'm thinking, susiesharp, that The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom might be best listened to? Looking at the reviews here made me think that to get the best effects of the humor it would be better in audio. Do you have thoughts on that?

>308 mabith: mabith,

I listened to that whole series and really enjoyed it. It's one (like many) that I think I would not have enjoyed nearly as much reading with my eyes. I think Emily Grey really pulls the humor out for me to listen to - I'm always afraid with series like Parasol Protectorate that I would make them more serious and not the fun that they are (the Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampire Mysteries are another example of books I think I wouldn't have enjoyed with my eyes).

The kids and I are STILL listening to The Legend of the Guardians and I, quite frankly, am ready to be done with it and move on. We can start the last of the Kane Chronicles or even something else recommended here.

By myself I'm between books. Listened to Deadlocked and Timeless last week or the week before (I lose track). I need to pick up something fun and light as the house is a mess and that's my preferred audiobook mood when I'm cleaning.

Penn

>315 HarlequinBooks:-HarlequinBooks I highly recommend that audio I think the kids as well as you will enjoy it very much!

I'm re-listening to Georgette Heyer's Cotillion, read by Phyllida Nash. It's the one that converted me to Heyer fandom!

I have just started The Bee-Loud Glade by, Steve Himmer narrated by, Mark F. Smith interesting so far!

Maybe Elliott Gould thought it was an instruction instead of a title. Thumbs down on movie actors, Thumbs up on radio actors (or stage).

>>315 HarlequinBooks:---HarlequinBooks--I also highly recommend The True Meaning of Smekday by, Adam Rex narrated by, Bahni Turpin I think you and your kids would love it!

I'm listening to Georgette Heyer, too -- The Quiet Gentleman, narrated by Cornelius Garrett. I never think of Heyer in a male voice when I read, but this works for me, perhaps because we spend much more time with the hero than the heroine.

FYI Audible UK has Wolf Hall on special offer for members. I'm preparing to lurk along with the tutored thread starting June 1st and, although I already have a print edition, I thought this would be useful.

I like Cornelius Garrett for Heyer too. I listened to his read of Heyer's Royal Escape and enjoyed it.

susiesharp,

Thank you for the recommendations. I've requested The True Meaning of Smekday in both audio and print from our library and I've bo't The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom from audible (our library doesn't have the audio - yet!).

Good listening for our 3 days in the car (round-trip) during our vaccy this summer. DH always says he doesn't want to do audiobooks on our trips and then he enjoys himself despite his best efforts to be grumpy about it. It helps that we choose good books that are well-narrated.

Penn

I'm listening to Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love by Larry Levin.

I've just started Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper. It's read by Peter Ganim, who isn't my favorite, and but isn't awful.

I'm thoroughly enjoying Agatha Christie's The Man in the Brown Suit which I seemed to have overlooked. I thought I'd read them all.
Emilia Fox's plummy accent suits the story.

>#324--HarlequinBooks-- Hope you enjoy both of those as much as I did!

I'm a little ways into Bad Science by Ben Goldacre.