Part 23 ~ What Are You Listening to Now?

Starting this year's thread.

I've begun 2023 with some excellent reads (listens?):

The Complete Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn, narrated by the engaging Alex Jennings
The Dead by Christian Kracht

Currently reading:
Augustus by John Williams. Robin Field is doing (has done) a bang-up job narrating.

What have you been up to so far this year?

The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters.

I’m listening to Pastoralia by George Saunders which is narrated by thee author. I recommend highly.

Getting close to done with The Sport of Kings: A Novel by C.E. Morgan narrated by one of my favorites, George Newbern.

>4 jldarden:, I think you've got the wrong touchstone there.

The Tale of Genji read by Brian Nishi. It is very, very long. Part I is 35 hours. I feel justified in listening to it at 1.2 speed although some of the Japanese names feel just bizarrely fast at that speed, I can't figure out why. The English words are fine.

>5 vwinsloe: Should be fixed now, thanks

Finished The Sport of Kings; A Novel and am now into Duma Key.

I forgot I borrowed the discs for Thud! till I got a return reminder from the library. Hastily enjoying it today.

Moved off Duma Key and have started The Fellowship of the Ring.

The ring is destroyed and now so is the world in Swan Song

The man with the silver saab in Borrowbox, having just finished The Hallowed Hunt in Libby and the first half of Elizabeth Moon's Sporting Chance in hoopla.

Finished yesterday Italian Shoes by Henning Mankell then started The Long Walk by Richard Bachman (Stephen King).

Now into The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

Having just finished the Graphic Audio Sporting Chance (Part 2 of 2), and Lily and the Octopus ; despite having reborrowed Return to Marshall's Bayou because I don't remember what happened in it, and borrowed for the first time Maui Strong only to find it is 13.5 (and been disappointed because this library doesn't seem to have anything between the 5th and 13.5th of Mahu Investigations I think I will sit for a little with the untitled books.

The Nix by Nathan Hill.

Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon, for the 4th time this week.

Finished The Nix then blew through Boy's Life. Excellent BTW. Now into I Am Pilgrim.

Done with I am Pilgrim and now doing an ear re-read of All the Light We Cannot See ahead of the netflix adaptation.

Finished I am Pilgrim and All the Light We Cannot See. Started today The Motion of Puppets.

Finished a few since my last post; Jesus' son, The Ascendant and it's sequel The King of Fear, A Piece of the World and am currently into The Book Thief.

Finished The Book Thief and then went through One Perfect Lie. Now into The Bomb Maker.

Been through a couple since The Bomb Maker and am now in The Mandibles.

DNF on The Mandibles. Though I like the narrator I just could not get into the story. Now in to Full Wolf Moon.

Now into the Stoneheart Trilogy. Enjoying it!

I just joined this group and hope a little more activity will attract others!

I’m currently listening to Plain Bad Heroines by Emily Danforth, narrated by Xe Sands. I’m enjoying the book but reserving judgment on the narration.

I'm on Don't Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You, a memoir by musician Lucinda Williams, read pretty well by her. With this kind of memoir I think it helps when the author reads it.

Finished Let it Burn and have started A Sudden Light.

Enjoyed A Sudden Light and have started Assymetry.

Didn't care for Asymmetry, am now into Chasing Darkness by Robert Crais.

>32 jldarden: I read Asymmetry as an ebook. It didn’t live up to my expectations.

I ended up not that fond of Plain Bad Heroines. I think Xe Sands was probably a good narrator for it after all, but it was another book that didn’t live up to expectations.

I’m now listening to The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart, read by Emily Woo Zeller. I have issues with most time travel fiction, and this one looks like it won’t be an exception, but I’m trying to reserve judgment.

Chasing Darkness a just OK entry in the Elvis Cole series. Started today with Go Tell the Bees that I am Gone.

Listening to A Study In Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I have enjoyed many of the recent Sherlock tv show versions, so I thought I would give one of the original books a try. Often times the original books I don't relate. However, even though the setting is in the past human nature and logic still take center stage so the principle story elements so far are timeless.

Finished with Go Tell the Bees that I am Gone. Really enjoyed visiting these characters again in book form vs the TV series. Now starting The Dry and going through the Aaron Falk Trilogy.

I finished The Paradox Hotel. I didn’t care for the story. The narrator did a great job with the tough-as-nails protagonist, but I couldn’t stand her attempted accent for the drone Ruby.

Finished Force of Nature and started Exiles.

I listened to The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan. It was an engaging mystery, beautifully read by Aoife McMahon. I’ll be reading (or listening to) more by this author.

Just finished listening to A Study In Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle through Spotify. Some of the classic books appears readings they are borrowing from LibroVox. The narrator, David Clarke, I listened to was very good and would listen to another of his narrations. I also was very impressed with the Sherlock story that set up the Sherlock and Dr. Watson characters well and felt like the main elements of the story could still be relevant today.

Finished Exiles and am now into The Starless Sea

Gave up on The Starless Sea. Just could not get into it despite being better than halfway through. Moved on to The Zero by one of my favorite writers, Jess Walter.

>42 jldarden: I think your touchstone might be misleading - did you mean the book on punctuation? If so, does it work ok in audio?

>43 kjuliff: no, these are both fiction.

Finished The Zero and then started Daisy Jones & the Six.

I listened to Girl, 11 by Amy Suiter Clarke, narrated by Andi Arndt. This is a mystery/thriller in which the protagonist is a true-crime podcaster, so it was particularly well-suited as an audiobook. Sadly, I didn’t care much for it at all. The protagonist struck me as smug and self-righteous; I’m not sure how much of that was due to the writing and how much due to the narrator.

I also recently finished Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone, read by Katie Leung, another mystery/thriller that I liked much better. It was very dark, very gothic, and full of twists. It takes place in Scotland, so Katie Leung’s Scottish accent added a lot of atmosphere.

I’ve just started Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders and narrated by a full cast of 166! One of the main narrators is Nick Offerman, who’s always a delight to listen to, but with so many voices and footnotes(!), I’m thinking this is maybe a poor choice for audio. On the other hand, since it’s such a grand production, it could turn out much better than I expect.

Finished with Daisy Jones & the Six, really enjoyed that. Now started Life as We Knew It.

I started The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins today, and I'm loving it so far. It's the one narrated by Peter Jeffrey. I sampled one narrated by James Langton but didn't like his style as much.

I've been listening to No Ordinary Time, an interesting book about the Roosevelts in the White House during WWII.

Life as We Knew It finished. Moved on to Never by Ken Follett.

I finished Lincoln in the Bardo and I’m pleased to report that the audio format really enhanced the novel for me. I think this book would be challenging to read in any format, but audio kept it moving along, and the multitude of readers enhanced the experience of the bardo as well as the numerous contemporaneous historical voices. I think a great deal of effort went into producing the audiobook, and it really paid off.

>51 Charon07: I enjoyed Lincoln in the Bardo on audio as well. Very well done.

I just finished We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, narrated by Toby Jones, who did a valiant job with the opaque and difficult text.

I'm onto The House of Mirth, though I couldn't find any narrator I was super happy with. Went with the old standby, Wanda McCaddon. The accents vary a lot but she's familiar and the non-dialogue is perfectly read.

Finished Never, not impressed. Now into State of Fear by Crichton.

I found State of Fear to be to short for the subject matter it presented. Moved on from that to Travels with Charley narrated by the late, great Ron McLarty.

Really enjoyed Travels with Charley, recommended. There are 2 version apparently, one with McLarty and another narrated by actor Gary Sinese. Went into then The Water Knife and just could not get into that. Set it aside and started The Stranger by Harlen Coben. That's got another of my fav narrators, George Newbern.

Finished The Stranger. Last night started This Storm narrated by Craig Wasson.

Though I like Craig Wasson as a narrator I could not finish This Storm. Moved on to You Like it Darker.

Finished and enjoyed You Like it Darker narrated by Will Patton. Started Interview with the Vampire.

Finished Interview with the Vampire, not as good as I recalled. Started Familiaris by David Wroblewski, a sort of prequel to The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, both narrated by Richard Poe.

I finished The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. Such an excellent book! It was read by George Guidall, Barbara Caruso, Julia Gibson, and Andy Paris, and oh my goodness, what a fantastic job George Guidall did on the parts from the POV of Leo Gursky!

I’ve started Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore as a sort of palate cleanser after the intense books I’ve been reading and listening to lately.

I finished Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore. Narrator Oliver Wyman did a fine job, but the book wasn’t the greatest Moore I’ve read.

I’m now listening to August Kitko and the Mechas from Space by Alex White, read by Hayden Bishop.

Finished Familiaris. Currently reading a dead tree.

Started The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

Finished The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and after reading Familiaris it's safe to say the author doesn't do happy endings. From there I started Fool Me Once.

Finished Fool Me Once (barely) and started Savages but gave up on it fairly quicky as the narrator's style did not at all fit the material.
May break from audio for another dead tree for now.

Having a listen to Bellman and Black.

Finished Bellman & Black. Started The Wolf in Winter today.

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. I found the movie on TV this morning and now watching it.

Finished The Wolf in Winter and also A Song of Shadows. Started today A Time of Torment, all in the Charlie Parker series by John Connolly.

Made it through A Game of Ghosts and started The Woman in the Woods.

I'm about a third of the way through one of Dominic Sandbrook's very long 20th century history tomes, Who Dares Wins: Britain, 1979-1982.

Onto the next Charlie Parker mystery, A Book of Bones.

I finished August Kitko and the Mechas from Space by Alex White. The narrator, Hayden Bishop, did a great job, but considering how important music is to the plot, it’s a shame the producers didn’t take advantage of that by incorporating music. The book itself was a so-so space opera, though I adored the character Ardent Violet.

I’ve now started The Sentence by Louise Erdrich, read by the author.

Finished That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea by Marc Randolph and narrated by the author.

Began listening to Race of Scorpions by Dorothy Dunnett narrated by Christopher Kay. It's more than 28 hours, so I'll be listening for a while.

I finished The Sentence by Louise Erdrich, and it was a terrific book. Erdrich did a great job reading.

I’ve started The Book of Love by Kelly Link, read by January LaVoy.

Finished A Book of Bones then went through The Dirty South. Took a break from the series to listen to Bucky F***ing Dent by David Duchovny. He also narrated the book and did an adequate job though not much differentation of character voice and went a little fast through some of it. I enjoyed it though.

Almost finished with The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. I listen in the car and only go somewhere about once a week so taking time.

Into The Nameless Ones, next in the Charlie Parker series.

Finished The Nameless Ones and started If It Bleeds by Stephen King since one of the stories, The Life of Chuck, movie adaptation is out.

I should finish House of Mirth tomorrow as I have to go somewhere.

>82 mnleona: I’d be interested to hear how your experience of watching the movie compared to listening to the book.

>83 Charon07: The movie was on TV and I watched and also downloaded so I know the ending. It is a hard read/watch but all in all a good read. It is my first read by Edith Wharton. I usually like to read a book first.

>83 Charon07: I finally finished the audio book.
I think I liked the ending in the book better.

>85 mnleona: I usually like to read the book first, too, but I sometimes think that the movie then rarely compares with the book, so maybe I should watch the movie first, because I don’t think the movie would ruin the book for me the way the book ruins the movie. I think your experience backs this up!

I’ve finally finished The Book of Love by Kelly Link. That sucker is long, 23 1/2 hours! (I tried listening at a faster speed, which I’ve never done before, but I didn’t like how it messed up the rhythm and pacing.) January LaVoy read and did a good job voicing the various characters. I didn’t like this as much as I hoped, but it was still a good read.

I’m now listening to A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet.

Almost finished with the final book (so far) in A Song of Ice and Fire

Doing a re-read of Don Delillo's Underworld on audio.

Finished that, then went through Under the Dome and now into The Dog Stars.