What Are You Listening to Now? Part 6

I'm off to the library today to see if there's anything new in audio books. If nothing catches my eye I'll be checking out Librivox's catalogue. My local library only has a very small selection of audio books which is a bit frustrating.

Last night I started John Hodgman's More Information Than You Require. I've already read the book, but the audio version has more stuff: guest spots, music, etc. It's almost like a (very long) radio show or podcast.

I've started The Audacity to Win by David Plouffe, read by Erik Davies - who sounds a lot like the author!
It's early days yet, Obama has just made his formal announcement; but I like it so far, and things can only get more interesting once the race really gets underway.

i got a heap of books from the library t'other day. tried 3 and ditched them all. since i have to listen, and i'm nearly 66, i can't afford to read mere dreck. i do not, by the way, consider anne george's southern sisters mysteries as dreck.

i will be starting her murder on a bad hair day by Anne George very soon as it's now an annual Christmas read.

my definition of dreck is, well, it's quite personal. it has to do with things like high degrees of naughtness, lack of any sense of humor or perspective, too much gratuitous violence with an emphasis on the gratuitous, and generally poor writing.

i did get the eponymous first book in the maisie dobbs series from inter-library loan and was listening to it happ'ly when the cd started skipping around like a frisking colt and that was that. so i reckon i'm going to have to buy it as i was well into it within a few chapters. nerts.

Listening to Emma Smith's memoir, The Great Western Beach, narrated by June Barrie.

the john cheever audio collection. first john cheever book i've listened to. i like his prose but the first three stories are only okay...ish.

I'm listening to The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and I hate the narrator's voice. May have to give up and get the paper book.

I'm listening to Don't Know Much about Mythology. These books can be very dry, "text-booky" and quite dense with facts. But the early chapters on Egyptian, Greek and early Christian religions have been fascinating.

Happy Mithras' Birthday, everyone!

I've just started Amen, Amen, Amen by Abby Sher. Here's the problem: she's 10 years old as the book opens - and her voice sounds it (think comedienne Rita Rudner, though even more so). The book is quite well written, with an amazing level of detail as though she were "The Woman Who Couldn't Forget" (Jill Price's memoir). Perhaps in print this might work as an adult voice reminiscing, but I'm having trouble accepting a kid that age would relate events that way.

Hope that makes sense.

started war and peace a couple of days ago for the holiday break. i'm up to disk number 6 out of 50 something. had to restart a couple of times to get used to the reader and to follow all the characters. so far so good though.

I just finished listening to The Deception of the Emerald Ring by Lauren Willig, a series I'm really enjoying. This is the first audiobook in the series I've listened to. Kate Reading is the narrator. She does a good job, but I much prefer her British historical voice much more than her modern day American accent. A fun listen!

I'm now beginning to listen to The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, narrated by Paul Michael.

Just finished listening to A Christmas Carol - very seasonal!

>12 mejix:
Good luck with your War and Peace campaign! I had little problem with all the characters because I immersed myself in study guides, movies, and listening to the severely abridged BBC version. I read the first 2/3 or so and listened to the last portion on audio.

Oh yeah, I did have a playbill at my side at all times.

I'm listening to Dealing with Dragons, but I don't like this version. There are multiple actors, which in this instance I'm finding distracting, and I don't like the voices they use for their characters.

Sandydog1, thanks!

It does feel like a campaign. I forgot to change the shuffle mode in my player and messed the order of a couple of chapters but I have regrouped and am moving along. I agree, study guides are definitively useful for a book like this. I use the SparkNotes summaries online.

reading Laura Lippmann's another thing to fall. the narrator is Linda Emond. it's okay. the book's kinda funny. good enough to keep on with, anyway.

also reading river of darkness by Rennie Airth narrated by Christopher Kay. it's a tolerably well-written mystery. Airth does well with the procedural parts and should, imo, stick to those. when he wanders off into a romantic interlude, he, the narrator and i all come to grief. actually, after feeling a distinct lapse in the tempo, i was lying there rolling my eyes and wishing he'd just get on with the story.

it's one of those books where the author should, as one of Mary Renault's characters said, indicate the scene with a row of Xs and Os and have done with it.

i enjoy 'period' pieces and this is supposedly set in post-WWI England. unlike Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series, however, there's really not much sense of period at all except for the absence of things like computers and cell phones. not really the kind of positive setting of atmosphere i enjoy. still, i like the lead male character, it's a decent plot and all characters are reasonably well-voiced.

also reading and greatly enjoying a city of bells by Elizabeth Goudge. moibibliomaniac recommended it and i was thankful to find it on NLS. its marvelous. can't think of the narrator but he does a very good job.

i have Terry Pratchett's the fifth elephant narrated by Stephen Briggs on my ipod. wonderful. not among my favorite Pratchetts, but any Pratchett is still Pratchett and thus full of delights.

still dawdling through miss pettigrew lives for a day by Winifred Watson. Frances McDormand is only a so-so narrator and the book is amusing but not overwhelmingly so.

oh, and still chortling through my annual seasonal read, murder on a bad hair day by Anne George. narrator Ruth Ann Phimister is marvelous as both short, petite Patricia Anne and her 6' tall, big, bold and beautiful sister, Mary Alice. both sisters are in their 60's and get into a whole lotta southern trouble. Patricia Ann is the narrator of the stories and calls Mary Alice 'Sister.'

what makes the series special to me is that Anne George's real-life sister died at birth and Ms. George wrote a poem entitled for a sister 13 years younger in the map that lies between us. so for me this series of 7 riotously funny books gives voice and life to 'Sister' whom she lost as well as honoring her cousin who is the real life model for the bravura character of Mary Alice. classy, i say.

*edited for syntax, for sense and to correct assorted errors both in typing and of judgment

I just finished Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith. I loved the early series but I really didn't care for this installment. Lisette Lecat still narrates beautifully, but the story was slow. I also thought that the author was a little too patronizing and the characters portrayed too simply (or simple minded) in this book.

14> I also just finished the Jim Dale version of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and was disappointed. He read it like he did the Harry Potter series and I felt it made the story a little too cartoony for my taste. Of course, think the Stephen Fry version of the Harry Potter books is much better than the Jim Dale version even though I like both.

19> I enjoyed the Miss Pettigrew movie so thought I'd like the book, but I just couldn't get into it. It doesn't seem to have the life and sparkle the movie did.

I'm listening to The Prisoner of Zenda narrated by James Wilby. I love the cut-glass accents from old films and his, for this reading, is wonderful although it's recent, not old. And it's an exciting story even though I know it already - I must have watched the Stewart Grainger/James Mason film a dozen times.

#21 'cut-glass accents.' oh my. :-)

i'll have to look for this one. ah, audible has it.

they also have James Wilby listed as narrator for Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy, which is actually narrated brilliantly by Peter Firth. i'd recommend Regeneration, and indeed the entire trilogy, to anyone who likes fine narration.

it's an exceptional audiobook.

#21 Wouldn't it be wonderful if there were audio books narrated by James Mason/Stewart Grainger around today.

# 20 - Jim Dale vs. Stephen Fry
I thought I was alone in this! So many people have told me I'm crazy for preferring the Fry version. Then they go on to say how rare/impossible it is to find the Fry versions here in the US, so I wonder what they base their judgment on?

I'm listening to I Shudder: And other reactions to life, death, and New Jersey by Paul Rudnick. Not sure exactly what I think of it ...

(Jan 10, 2009)

I finished it recently - a real mixed bag, both in terms of content and print vs. audio recommendation.

I would've loved to have been able to skip his Hollywood name-dropping (indeed, though an awkward maneuver, I did actually FF through much of it), and his reading of autobiographical pieces of his family fell a bit flat, but he becomes more animated with the pieces about others (and Elliot Vyonet's tales).

24> I agree! I have listened to both narrators, Jim Dale and Stephen Fry, do all seven of the Harry Potter books (I am a fan). And I paid a fortune for the Stephen Fry books from amazon.uk, but they are worth it. The Jim Dale is fun, but he doesn't always read it as written. He'll read someone in a chirpy, happy voice and then the text says that the line was said sadly. Stephen Fry does the voices well and I never get those frown lines in my forehead when I listen to his version. It is, hands down, better.

But listening to Jim Dale is comfortable since I heard him first, so I thought I'd enjoy The Christmas Carol by him. I didn't. Like I said earlier, it became too cartoony. The one thing I did notice was how Dicken's writing has withstood the test of time.

I just finished The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson. I really enjoyed this little book. It is a children's book (but I'm a child at heart) and put a tear in my eye at the end. A nice tear, not an unhappy one. And I laughed throughout. Elaine Stritch read it perfectly. The town hooligans decide to join the Christmas pageant because they hear there are free refreshments.

Maybe we need a Christmas/holiday/seasonal book thread...

I've almost finished One Day by David Nicholls, which is unexpectedly brilliant.

I finished listening to The Lost Symbol which was such a let down. The narrator was good, but I couldn't shake memories of those old Taster's Choice commercials of the guy in the cabin with no milk - sounded an awful lot like him!

Now I'm listening to The House at Riverton by Kate Morton aka The Shifting Fog which is the same book, but different title on audio from audible, narrated by Caroline Lee.

I tackled Part 2 of Churchill's History of the English-Speaking Peoples this past week (Audible download) - from Henry VII after Bosworth (1485) to William and Mary's ascension (1688). Christian Rodska is a good reader, but even he couldn't stop my ears glazing over during Churchill's endless details of English Civil War battles. Recommended for (hardcore!) history buffs only.

I would try Part 3, but not soon.

I've been eating through the libraries stock of Ruth Rendell mysteries. Can't get enough of them. I don't care who the readers are, the stories are just addicting.

I also recently finished Pearl Diver by Jeff Talargio. The novel is based on the true history of a Leper Colony (now called Hansen's Disease), in Nagashima, Japan, which didn't officially close until 1996 when the last of the patients died. Read background about Nagashima on the web in order to understand why this story is so compelling.

Listening again to Sir Michael Hordern narrating The Wind in the Willows.
Ratty, Mole, Badger & Toad + ridiculous amounts of tea + wooly blanket = cozy way to spend time indoors away from frigid temps.

I finished listening to Abductedby Brian Pinkerton. It was a wonderful thriller, just full of great suspense and moving passages. This is the story of a marriage destroyed when their two year old is abducted by his nanny. Nothing in the book remains as it first seems. The narration was excellent, except for the male voices which seems to be a big problem for some narrators. All of her men sounded like Alvin and the Chipmunks! I cringed everytime i heard a male voice until I got used to them. Otherwise it was a wonderful read/listen.The most exciting moment of the story is when the mother sites her son, two years after he has been murdered on a school bus. Great fun!

I've just started The Fellowship of the Ring read by Rob Inglis. It's a book I've read on paper many times, and I've seen the film, and listened to the BBC radio dramatisation so I know what to expect by way of plot. I've got the other two volumes as well so I could be listening to this story for quite a while. The reading is very good - Rob Inglis has the hint of a Welsh accent (I think) which seems to give a slightly sing-song effect which I think suits this story very well.

#34 ohhhh, you're in for a treat--at least i hope you find it so. after reading the trilogy many, many times, i was distressed to have to switch to audio. Inglis made me a richer person for his narration. he and a woman--the producer maybe?--wrote the music for many of the songs and he sings them wonderfully. his pronunciation of the Elvish is also spot on. his voicing of the characters was one of many reasons i could never get into the films. also i had a lot of trouble with the casting except for Gandalf, Legolas, Gimli and Aragorn. but that's neither here nor there. oh, i do hope you enjoy it.

#35 Thanks, it's going very well so far. I've changed my mind about the accent it may be Scottish rather than Welsh, but it's something Celtic anyway and suits the story.

finished another thing to fall and river of darkness. another thing was pretty good. river of darkness had its moments but i found the denouement contrived and the narrator has a tendency to over read the material. there were some bits that had me on the edge of my seat and kept me listening. a better visual read than audiobook, i expect.

have started the bell by Iris Murdoch. the narrator is Lisette Lecat for NLS. i love her readings of the #1 ladies Detective Agency series and she is good in this--she's always fine--but her accent keeps plopping me back in Botswana. not her fault. i have her type cast.

Murdoch never fails to fascinate me. i don't find her characters sympathetic, i don't understand them, they always seem way too intellectual and lacking in palpable depth. i never find them truly believable. yet i am drawn into her books in a way that amazes me every time and they seem to fly by.

her writing has none of the qualities that usually entrance me. her writing is highly descriptive but her descriptions aren't evocative--at least for me. evocative writers, for me, are writers like Lawrence Durrell, Patrick O'Brien, Kazuo Ishiguro, Mary Renault, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and John Steinbeck. when i listen to Murdoch, i really don't feel anything. i think a lot and i get drawn in, but it's at best a two-dimensional world of characters who never quite seem to touch each other.

and yet i value her work and am drawn into and enjoy her writing very much.

also started Dennis Lehane's a drink before the war. has a very 50's feel to it, imo. another NLS book and i don't remember who the narrator is. i haven't an opinion yet.

and started today the Eyre affair by Jasper Fforde because i wasn't in the mood for anything else i had going. just dipped a toe, really. decent narrator.

continuing on with a city of bells by Elizabeth Goudge and the book of night women.

have finally decided just to knuckle down and finish book of night women. it's long and i think i'd have given up in despair if the narrator weren't absolutely astounding. her narration elevates and illuminates the book without getting in the way.

without her narration, which brings the characters to life, the brutality of slavery in Jamaica would have been something i'd have put aside. that and a general dislike for the main character. one of the characters, Homer (a woman), is to me the most compelling character in the book. between her character and Robin Miles' virtuoso performance, i'll stay with it.

then too, Marlon James is a fine writer and the material deserves my attention.

*edited for sense and syntax

I'm a couple of hours into Jane Austen's Emma - really tough keep tracking of the characters (on audio)!

CDVicarage, I just finished Rob Inglis' narration of The Lord of the Rings a few months ago and absolutely loved it. I'm glad you are enjoying it too!

Right now I'm nearing the end of To Kill a Mockingbird read by Sissy Spacek. It has been a gripping, heartwrenching, funny, wonderful experience. Spacek is brilliant as Scout.

I just finished listening to The Shifting Fog aka The House at Riverton by Kate Morton. On audio it's the former name, but in the US it's known as the later. Caroline Lee, an Australian actress, did the narration which was perfect, I love her voice and style, she made me love the main character, Grace.

I'm now beginning the 4th in the Pink Carnation series, Seduction of the Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig narrated by Kate Reading.

I finished listening to the Seduction of the Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig, narrated by Kate Reading. Finished it in record time and loved it! I didn't expect to, but it was so much fun to listen to! Now, I'm going for something completely different, A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute, narrated by Robin Bailey. I bought it from Audible, though the sound quality is taking some getting used to, not the greatest, a bit hard to hear.

This is my first post here but will not be my last. I've crossed into audiobook land and I like it there! I started West With the Night by Beryl Markham. It's a memoir, read by Julie Harris. Beautifully told!

Welcome, msf -- that sounds like a great choice! One piece of advice is that books read by the author can be dodgy (though a few are quite good). If you like noir-ish fiction try Haruki Murakami's stuff as read by Rupert Degas - one of the best fits of narrator + material I've run across!

Jane Austen's "Emma" turned out to be a real challenge with all the names! I'm not sure it's really suited for audio in that regard; kinda like being locked in a (baseball) batting cage with the pitching machine jammed on high/fast.

I'm currently listening to an excellent version of Sanctuary. I don't recall the reader, but he is quite dramatic.

I'm about an hour (of 19!) into Africa Trek I by Alexandre and Sonia Poussin - the reader (Victor Bevine) a bit .... earnest for my taste, but the book's okay.

I'm listening to The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud and enjoying it very much. I can't remember who the reader is, but he is really good. The footnotes just flow into the story and, if I hadn't seen the print book, wouldn't have known there were footnotes.

edit: The reader is Simon Jones and the trilogy is The Bartimaeus Trilogy. The Amulet is book one.

finally finished Marlon James' the book of night women tonight. i'm glad i stuck with it, especially given the nightmare in Haiti and the long history of misery in the Caribbean. i will be looking for other books narrated by Robin Miles and recommend her very, very highly. she does a number of narrations for Griot, i believe.

that leaves me free to start the 6th target by James Patterson and Maxine Pietro narrated by Carolyn McCormick.

i'm nearing the end of Iris Murdoch's the bell and Elizabeth Goudge's a city of bells.

still reading a drink before the war by Dennis Lehane, the Eyre affair by Jasper Fforde and the fifth elephant by Terry Pratchett. oh, and only 2 tapes left in Barchester towers by Anthony Trollope.

i think that's it. mostly, i'm glad to be through with night women, a very, very hard book and one i'm very glad i've read.

I just recently got some audiobooks, and I'm listening to Lord of the Rings with my kids, and they're loving it. I just have to help them to understand a bit.

I just finished A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute read by Robin Bailey, absolutely fantastic from Audible, he was simply perfect and the story was first rate, I loved it!

I'm now beginning Guilty Pleasures, Anita Blake Vampire Hunter by Laurell K. Hamilton read by Kimberly Alexis.

I finished the audiobook of West With the Night! It's a memoir and it was excellent! Highly recommended! In a completely different direction, I started the a.b. of The Good Rat by Jimmy Breslin. It has mob guys, informers and very dirty cops. Fun stuff! Back to memoirs, I have to plug an a.b. I listened to a few weeks ago and that was All Over But the Shoutin'. Easily one of the best memoirs I've ever read or heard. The narrator was fantastic!

just finished war and peace.

exhausted. relieved.

Just starting Visions in Death. Glad to see there will be a new Shane Scully novel out soon!

I'm listening to Wild Sorrow by Sandi Ault. I really like the Native American traditions and beliefs in the book. I only wish the narrator knew how to properly pronounce Spanish words.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley - pretty well hooked after the first hour (of 10); Jayne Entwhistle's narration is terrific!

I finished listening to Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton and I must admit, I thought it was ridiculous, not my type of book. I couldn't wait to finish it. I give myself credit for listening to the whole thing without tossing it! Luckily it was short. Now I'm beginning The Greatest Knight by Elizabeth Chadwick, something a little less paranormal.

I finished The Cherry Orchard.

I'm now listening to Metamorphoses. Weird stuff.

I'll be starting The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde tonight on my way home from work, having finished The Phantom of the Opera (which I did not really like). Any opinions on The Eyre Affair?

I read The Eyre Affair, but listened to the next one, Lost in a Good Book and loved it on audio! It was so much better on audio, and I plan on listening to the rest of the series on audio now. I believe it might be the same narrator for the The Eyre Affair but not sure.

Cool, thanks ktleyed! I'm looking forward to it :)

>58 ktleyed:
I should see if my library has it on audio next time I'm there. The humor in the Thursday Next books strikes me as the sort of literary humor that is better on the page.

> ktleyed- This sounds like a very good idea! I really enjoyed The Eyre Affair and also have the 2nd book in my tbr. If I do audio, I would get to it much sooner!
I was able to download both Spooner by Pete Dexter and Sleepless by my guy, Charlie Huston. Both look very promising!
Next up: Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. I have this on a Playaway device. Anyone try this device yet, how about the book?

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by, Alan Bradley read by Jane Entwistle who does a really great job!

I've got about an hour more of "Pie" to go - I confess the father's narrative at the middle about the stamps dragged a bit for me, though it was crucial to the plot; perhaps that section would have worked better for print readers? Still, I understand the sequel is due out in a month or so, and it'll be a real challenge to pace myself to read it later in the year. Although Flavia is, indeed, uber-precocious, the narrator succeeds in making her humor (sarcasm) genuinely funny, not forced.

I am enjoying it alot I am glad I got it on audio because I thought it was a southern mystery I have no clue where I got that idea but am having fun listening to Flavia I will definetly be getting the next book in this series but may wait till the audio goes on sale.

I finished The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud and really enjoyed it. I thought the narrator was perfect. He gave Bartimaeous just right sound. The footnotes are read as little asides to the listener, enhancing the story. I've checked out the next in the trilogy.

But I have Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson on loan from friend and so I started it. So far (less than on disk in) I am impressed. The writing has some poetry (edit: poetry as in lovely descriptive writing) in it and the story is gripping. I will comment more when I finish.

I'm well into The Eyre Affair and am enjoying it very much, but I have a few qualms. First, I don't care for needless profanity in books, but in audiobooks it's ten times worse because someone is actually audibly saying the word. I could do without a character in this story having a swear word as his last name. It's probably spelt differently in print, but the sound is the same. I don't mean to be prudish, but I just don't enjoy obscenities.

Also, it turns out that this audiobook is "slightly abridged." What?? Abridged?? Who defines "slightly"? :( I admit to a moment of puristy panic before I swallowed it down and decided to give it a go anyways. It was the "slightly" that saved the day.

Also, the library copy I have is terribly scratched and keeps skipping, which is hugely annoying. But on the plus side, the narrator is wonderful (I need to look up her name), the story is quite fun so far, and the prose is smooth. I will probably move right to the next books in the series in print, only because I'm enjoying this so much I don't like to turn it off when I pull into my driveway at night! Reading the series in print will mean I can down them that much faster.

I finished The Greatest Knight by Elizabeth Chadwick which was pretty good, narrated by Christopher Scott who did a great job at all the various voices and had that regal English accent necessary for the various Kings and princes and knights in both England and France.

I'm now beginning The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde, book 3 in the Thursday Next series, narrated by Elizabeth Sastre. I'm looking forward to it for I loved the last one, Lost in a Good Book narrated by the same.

finished a city of bells, the eyre affair and the fifth elephant in the last two days and am looking around a bit bewildered.

started Rex Stout's trio for blunt instruments from NLS narrated by Alan Hewitt. i'd read somewhere that he was one of the great NLS readers and decided to reread this NW/AG book. it's one of Stout's later books and Hewitt's Nero Wolfe is excellent though i'm not crazy about his Archie Goodwin.

tried invisible monsters by Chuck Palahniuk and wasn't up to it. tried a snowball in hell by Christopher Brookmyre and didn't like that either. i tried Simon Green's something from the nightside and decided if i were going to struggle through that i might as well read a really good horror writer and get some H. P. Lovecraft. too much repetition of things that were supposed to scare me but roused neither a frisson nor my interest. i'll pass until i'm desperate.

soooo i started snow country by Yasunari Kawabata, which i find difficult to listen to but am determined to finish because it's Great Literature. ;)

also started the girls of slender means by Muriel Spark narrated by Nadia May, whom i've listened to for years on books on tape and NLS recordings. she's quite good.

i've decided to try the curious incident of the dog in the night-time, which is downloading as i type.

and i'll mess about until i find something else that fits well with these. i need something American that's well narrated. i don't see why the British have so many of the best narrators. tiresome.

what i *really* want is a Ross Thomas book and they just haven't figured out that all his books are worth recording unabridged. i will not listen to an abridged recording, most especially not a Ross Thomas. it's not like he throws in a lot of extra words. harrumph!

*edited to try to get a touchstone to work.

**ETA the bit about Ross Thomas

I started listening to the audio of Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. I heard him on the Bill Moyer's program, a couple weeks ago, promoting his latest book and he sounded like an interesting man. I'm not really crazy about the narrator but it's a compelling story.

Am listening to Zorro by Isabel Allende and, tho the beginning was a little meh, now that I'm in the middle of it, I'm finding it hard to stop listening to it.

Coming late to the Thursday Next discussion, but I've listened to the first three and can't imagine reading them. I love the narrator (Sastre, as ktleyed noted). So, the next two (First Among Sequels and Something Rotten) are waiting at the library for me to pick them up and download to my iPod. I'm so excited!

One last comment in response to mirrordrum's remark: "i need something American that's well narrated. i don't see why the British have so many of the best narrators. tiresome." I love the Amelia Peabody mysteries on audio read with smashing British accents by Barbara Rosenblat (sp?) and was shocked ~ shocked I tell you! ~ when I started listening to an audiobook set in the U.S. (some romance, I think, but can't recall the name) and discovered that the reader, whose American accent was as flat as any I've ever heard, was none other than BARBARA ROSENBLAT! What a talent! And who knows whether she's an American or a Brit? Hmm, that makes me curious. I'm going to see if I can find out.

Edited to make a little more sense.

ETA: That was easy. Here's what it says about Barbara on her website http://www.barbararosenblat.com/about.html:

Barbara Rosenblat is a New York actress/singer with numerous performance credits both here and in the U.K

im about to finish on oryx and crake by margaret atwood. i wasn't very impressed with the beginning but things have been coming together. really interesting now.

>70 Storeetllr:, Storeet, the local library had Barbara Rosenblat as a guest speaker. It was really interesting. At the Q&A someone mentioned Simon Prebble and she said she was the one who got him started reading audiobooks. Interesting person. Thanks for the link.

Barbara Rosenblatt is terrific, especially her reading of the Amelia Peabody mystery series (Emerson sounds like King Friday XIII - LOL!), and Bridget Jones's Diary.

I listened to The Girls of Slender Means myself recently, which was okay, but tough to follow on audio with all the names thrown at you. Nadia May also records under the names Wanda McCaddon and Donada Peters, FYI.

Posted this on the Mystery, Thriller group but thought it might be of interest to some of us audiobook afficianados:

Was just looking at the Amazon.com page for Lord of the Silent and guess what! A new Amelia Peabody is due out on April 6! I know a lot of people are tired of the series ~ with the new novel (titled A River in the Sky) it will total 19 mysteries ~ but I still enjoy them even though they are relatively predictable. Maybe because of that. Anyway, here's the link if you want to check it out: http://tr.im/NdR4.

I hope it comes out soon on audio & that Barbara R. is the reader ~ somehow I prefer them as audiobooks.

#70 storeetllr

yeah, Rosenblat can do anything, the disgusting creature! i did pretty much what you did. i first listened to her do a smashing job on the shell seekers, the only Rosamund Pilcher i've liked and then turned around and found her narrating in a New Yawk accent and was agog.

sadly, i have never been able to get involved in the Amelia Peabody mysteries. i think i may be the only mystery reader who doesn't like those.

#73 seajack i first knew Nadia May as Donada Peters when trying to find recordings of Martha Grimes' mysteries which are rare as hens' teeth. books-on-tape has some of the later ones and for the others, i've had to turn to NLS.

Peter's voice is so distinctive that it didn't take me long to recognize her as Nadia May. i know she has several recording names but have never heard her as McCaddon that i know of.

there's a good article on McCaddon (her real name) on audiofile.com.

audible.com's been having a nice $5 sale on first-in-a-series books this week and i think i've picked up my next US no-brainer: Craig Johnson's The Cold Dish.

i like George Guidall very much as the narrator for Tony Hillerman's books and his style sounds as though it will work nicely on Johnson's books as well.

*edited to correct silly errors
*ETA HTML link to article

Just about finished Pompeii by Robert Harris read by Alex Jennings and I have enjoyed it. Best thing is that it's only 5 cds. Some of the longer audio books are a bit daunting. I have Steppen Wolf by Herman Hesse read by Peter Weller ready to go. I tried and failed a few years ago to read Steppen Wolf so I'm going to give the audio version a try.

I'm curious, how long do you listen to an audio book before deciding to abandon it?

Just about finished Pompeii by Robert Harris read by Alex Jennings and I have enjoyed it. Best thing is that it's only 5 cds. Some of the longer audio books are a bit daunting. I have Steppen Wolf by Herman Hesse read by Peter Weller ready to go. I tried and failed a few years ago to read Steppen Wolf so I'm going to give the audio version a try.

I'm curious, how long do you listen to an audio book before deciding to abandon it?

I've just finished The Two Towers and I won't get The Return of the King for another 10 days. It's a good thing I know the story...

I'm listening to The Secret Garden while I wait. It's very well read, although the Yorkshire accent wavers a bit sometimes, but it's badly edited - the next chapter announcement has started almost before the last word of the previous chapter is finished. I like a little gap so I can decide whether to stop or not. Still the book was a bargain - only £2.95 for about 8 hours 30 mins.

I just finished The Hunger Games and liked it now listening to Still Alice really different books but I like to mix it up!

78: CDV, I've had the same issue with the last track fading out while the beginning of the next track started playing. It makes you lose the last couple words of each chapter — annoying.

I was planning on starting Flesh and Fire that I need to review for SFSite.com, but for some reason the discs wouldn't play in my car. They aren't MP3 discs, they're regular audio, and when I checked them on my computer last night they seemed fine. Does anyone have any idea why a brand-new audio CD wouldn't play in my car's CD player? Is there a way around this?

I know it isn't the CD player because after I couldn't get Flesh and Fire to play, I put in the second Amelia Peabody mystery from the library, The Curse of the Pharaohs, and it played just fine. The Curse of the Pharaohs is going to be great fun on audio, I can tell already!

Oh, and I am also (still) listening to The Accidental Sorcerer by K. E. Mills. It's good, but unfortunately on MP3 CDs so I can only listen to it at home on the computer. No, I have no iPod; yes, I am way out of the loop :)

I started U is for Undertow yesterday and it's off to a good start. But I also have An Echo in the Bone from the library and I have to give that priority. Decisions, decisions!

I recently finished The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde, narrated by Elizabeth Sarstre who is very good and does a great endearing voice for Thursday. It was a lot of fun, but not as good as the previous Thursday Next, this one Thursday's biding her time in the Well, but as usual, it was very funny, particularly the anger management session for the characters in Wuthering Heights! Hilarious!

I'm now listening to Temptation of the Night Jasmine by Lauren Willig which isn't grabbing me as much as her previous Pink Carnation books, I'm not as into the hero/heroine who are all new to me, and the sideplot of the madness of King George is very depressing and takes away from the hero and heroine's story quite a bit. But, I am plugging along.

Social 76/77 ...

Earlier today, I gave up on The Guinea Pig Diaries by A. J. Jacobs - I knew by the end of the first hour (of six) that things weren't going to get any better.

still reading the cold dish by Craig Johnson and have found two new characters with whom to be in love: Walt Longmire and Henry Standing Bear. actually, i like all the characterizations tremendously and George Guidall aces the lot. he's even better on this one than the Tony Hillerman series, if that's possible.

have started the curious incident of the dog in the night-time and am enjoying it tremendously. good narration, IMO, though i can't tell you who's doing it.

am halfway through the Maltese falcon. it's my first Dash Hammett and it's irking me beyond reason. the women are all spineless simps who constantly gaze up at Spade with pleading, fearful, deceitful, or occasionally angry eyes while he raises his lip over a canine tooth. i kid you not.

i swear if he mentions Spade's yellow-grey eyes once more, i'll. . .well, i'll keep reading but i may utter a pleading profanity through trembling lips while my cheek twitches with suppressed anger. gawd! am i missing something here? i know it's "period" but the descriptions are most peculiar.

moving slowly along with tale of two cities from NLS. can't think of the narrator and too tired to go look but he's very good.

started girls of slender means by Muriel Spark and then got sidetracked by Walt and Ben.

for my "i can't really concentrate on anything new right now" reading i'm revisiting the nine tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers impeccably narrated by Ian Carmichael. i've probably read this 10 or 15 times, first in print and now audio.

also doing my yearly visit to Middle Earth with Fellowship of the Ring with Rob Inglis' fine narration.

old friends like Sayers and Tolkien are comforting in these difficult times.

abandoned snow country by Yasunari Kawabata despite my very best intentions. the narrator has one voice and one voice only and i never knew who was talking. i'm too old and there are too many books for me to be stubborn.

well that's enough nonsense for now.

*edited for sense

>mirrordrum- I just landed a copy of The Cold Dish recently, after hearing such good things. Looking forward to reading it. Actually I started a crime novel, set in Wyoming, called Open Season by C.J. Box. It's excellent!

I've just started Dorothy Parker by Marion Meade - narrator Grace Conlin does a good job so far, but haven't gotten far enough into the book to comment on the content.

Gave up on Steppenwolf though I thought the narrator did a good job, just didn't grab me and I found my thoughts were wandering and I didn't remember anything I had listened to in the last ten minutes.

I needed something lighter so I moved on to I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith and narrated by the wonderful Jenny Agutter. It's quirky and fun. Perfect for the car.

#87 I capture the castle was the first book I 'read' on audio without having read it in print first. I'd wondered if I would be able to grasp all the detail without seeing it as well as hearing but it was great. I enjoyed the book and Jenny Agutter is a wonderful reader. And I didn't find myself thinking about The Railway children at all!

#88 For me it wasn't so much The Railway Children but Logan's Run, a favourite sci-fi movie of mine.

Did I mention that I'm listening to Zorro by Isabel Allende? It started out kinda slow, and I wasn't paying attention, so the other night I started again and now am hanging on every word. Allende's writing, read aloud, is mesmerizing.

I finished The Temptation of the Night Jasmine which wasn't bad, but not my favorite in the Pink Carnation series. This was narrated by Justine Eyre. Now I'm beginning Mary Queen of Scotland by Margaret George, a very long audiobook, but it makes the time fly while driving back home to NJ from FL, I've been on vacation and these audiobooks have been great to listen to!

I finished The Temptation of the Night Jasmine which wasn't bad, but not my favorite in the Pink Carnation series. This was narrated by Justine Eyre. Now I'm beginning Mary Queen of Scotland by Margaret George, a very long audiobook, but it makes the time fly while driving back home to NJ from FL, I've been on vacation and these audiobooks have been great to listen to!

well, i had a fit and fell into it. i can't, or won't, get over the habit i had when i read visually of grazing amongst a stack of books like a deer in a vegetable garden.

so, with an audio plate already full, i started the thirteenth tale by Dianne Setterfield.

i blame my fall largely on the first of the two narrators who was unfamiliar to me. i just sampled the least little bit of the beginning and i couldn't stop.

Bianca Amato's slightly husky voice makes sensual and seductive the antique bookseller's shop in which we meet the story's narrator, Margeret Lea. Amato's narrative voice combined with the author's skill is evocative and captivating. and she's talking about BOOKS. such joy.

Jill Tanner's voice i already know and like and she does a fine job as Vida Winter, flexible, complex and nuanced.

if Setterfield can maintain the magic of the beginning through the story's middle and end, it will be an amazing feat. if not, the beginning chapters alone will have made this book worthwhile.

I loved The Thirteenth Tale. It was my pick of all the audio books I listened to that year (2008? I think). My last year's pick was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, also more than one reader. Both are my highly recommends!

I just finished Three Cups of Tea and was so impressed with Greg Mortenson and friends. It was a loan from a friend who also has the sequel, now on loan to me. But first, I have Fired Up by Jayne Ann Krentz from the library to listen to.

Just finished My Antonia I downloaded it from books should be free its a Librivox recording so it was different people reading it which was a little off putting but I really enjoyed the story.
I am now listening to Catching Fire so I have this one done when the 3rd book comes out.

Finally finished Metamorphoses. It was comprised of dozens of rape stories, and the only prevention mechanism was to be morphed into a laurel tree, cow, toaster oven, you name it. And sometimes even that didn't stop these twisted deities. There were many other snippets of the well known stories of Perseus, Theseus, Icarus, Jason, etc., as well as some "new" takes on Aeneas and Ulysses. I was intrigued by the brief comments about natural history (ie, spontaneous generation).

The stories and characters are many; it can get confusing. Also, I don't think I caught much of Ovid's humor. I listened to the Blackstone Recording and Mr. Kraft is an excellent, dramatic reader. Sometimes however he did sound like the possessed Rick Moranes character in the first Ghostbusters movie.

Overall, it was a very fanciful and worthwhile experience.

I'm currently listening to a Teaching Company lecture series on Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age.

Living Oprah by Robyn Okrant -- a year of living by the advice given on the show, but more a memoir (autobio) of the author to me.

Hi, I'm new to this group but not to LT or audiobooks. I've been collecting/trading audiobooks for almost ten years now. I'm currently listening to Say It With Poison by Ann Granger.

Welcome to the forum - I started with audiobooks back in the day when CD's were on the distant horizon. Now I've got three mp3 players with books on them!

I just finished another round of Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, so I'll probably go through The Diamond Age yet again.

I started listening to The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and it's been very good so far. The narrator is perfect!

The sequel The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag is due out soon!

I started Eric Sevareid's quaint teenage adventure, Canoeing with the Cree.

I'm listening to Ivanhoe courtesy of Librivox but as I like to listen in bed at night I keep falling asleep and I'm sure I miss some important parts of the plot. So I have to relisten to some chapters and it feels like Ivanhoe will never end. It's read by different readers and while I hate to criticise volunteers, this book is not one of the better reads on offer from Librivox.

i'm about a third of the way into the blind assassin by margaret atwood. the novel seems to be going in many directions at the same time. very rich though, very expansive. let see if it can pull it all together.

I'm listening to The dancing Floor by, Barbara Michaels
But my problem is its read by Barbara Rosenblat who I like as a reader but I've listened to her read all the Diane Mott Davidson books which are a light cozy mystery but this book is supposed to be more dark and gothic and I'm not getting that feel from her voice.

Hey, you guys probably don't know me, letalone my name. I don't have any friends on this sight at all because all of my friends have a myspace, facebook, Utube acount and all of those other things. Nowone ever discusses things on here with me because everyone else are friends and they don't take newbees in like me who are new to the whole LibraryThing. I'm just looking for friends and somebody to talk to about books. I have the most books read in my grade, 6th. For more information about me and some of my all time favorite books, you can go to my site at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/morganwest
morganwest:)

Wow!

I just finsihed Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles by Margaret George which took a long time to finish, I think it was well over 30 hours. It was good, but I'm a bit fed up with Mary now. The narration was excellent though, by Donada Peters. Now I'm beginning to listen to The Help by Kathryn Stockett with several different readers, so far it's great!

I'm listening to Mistress of Mellyn by, Victoria Holt liking it so far.

I am a Teaching Company junkie and am enjoying Alexander the Great and the Helenistic Age right now.

I have been listening to one of my favorite crime writers, Charlie Huston. It's his latest called Sleepless and it has been terrific!

I'm listening to An Echo in the Bone, also read by Donada Peters. She does a great job. This morning I finished U is for Undertow. I don't know offhand who reads this series, but for me she is the voice if Kinsey Millhone

the reader of Echo is Davina Porter and she is fabulous! She really made that whole series come to life for me!

#120 She works under both names.

I didn't realize that, I've only seen her as Davina Porter.She is one of my favorites.

Yeah, she's a good one.

I'm reading Return of the King read by Rob Inglis. I had to wait to get this after finishing The Two Towers and then once I'd got it I knew I wouldn't be able to listen in big enough chunks - it's not a book for dipping into, I think - so I put it off for another week but I'm now enjoying it. I love the way Rob Inglis says all the names of places and characters. When I've read the print version I just mentally gloss over the names because I didn't always know the correct pronunciation. The films helped a bit but I'm loving hearing someone who (presumably) knows how to say the words.

Donada Peters has also recorded under the names Wanda McCaddon and Nadia May.
Davina Porter is a completely different person!

Judy Kaye has been reading the Kinsey Milhone series for a while now; Mary Peiffer (sp?) read the early ones.

I downloaded two Tuesday Next novels last night: Something Rotten and First Among Sequels and am looking forward to some great listening. Also downloaded Deal Breaker by Harlan Coben, in case I need a break between the hilarity that is Tuesday Next.

Current listen is John O'Farrell's An Utterly Impartial History of Britain read by the author.

#124 CDVic

Inglis' pronunciations are correct insofar as i've been able to tell and i did do some research--not extensive, just a bit online.

also worthy of note: Inglis and the producer wrote the music to the songs he sings. i'm particularly fond of the music to 'A Elbereth Gilthoniel.' the music in the recorded version is much better than that in the movie, imo.

Injury Time by Beryl Bainbridge, read (quite well!) by Timothy West, husband of actress Prunella Scales.

Edited to add: quite a good book - if you're fond of Muriel Spark's stories, this one is similar.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte which at this point, about halfway through, I'm dissappointed in the story - the narrator is fantastic. I loved Jayne Eyre by Charlotte Bronte but this isn't nearly as good.

It's going to be tough to finish it, if I haven't already, after I download Harlan Coben's new one, Caught next week.

I just finished the 78-minute lecture In a Nutshell: The Renaissance.

I'm now onto Canoeing with the Cree.

I started Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd, read by John Lee for Tantor Media. So far it's very good. Authors just don't take the time for character description like they used to.

Listening to Lisa Tucker's Cure for a Modern Life and laughing out loud. I believe the reader also read Everything Changes by Jonathan Tropper which is one of my favorite audio books.

I'm listening to Evan Blessed and I'm still not sure if I like the reader John Lee or not.

Wisewoman- I just saw your book has the same reader as mine,I'm not sure I'm liking him.What do you think?

I'm trying to listen to Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon Book One: Mistress of Magic. I don't know if it's because there are so many characters or if the character names all sound alike, but I'm having a hard time sticking to it. This is my favorite kind of audiobook, Fantasy-ish, British narrator, nice long story...I'm just not sure I can do it.

#136 i had the same problem with the audiobook. i used to be a great fan of Bradley's but this one defeated me.

I'm currently a bit overwhelmed with audio books but can't stop any of them.

I'm halfway through the thirteenth tale by Diane Setterfield. fascinating but a bit difficult to follow in audio format. i get lost amongst the characters, although it helps to have two excellent narrators in Ruthie Henshall and Lynn Redgrave. it's a fascinating book.

having fun with good omens by Pratchett and Gaiman narrated by Martin Jarvis, who's exceptional. it's a marvelous read. wish i could find a large print copy to help out in places.

just started Faye Kellerman's the ritual bath, the first in the Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus series. I've listened to so little of it that i really have no opinion as yet except that a knowledge of Yiddish would certainly help. it's narrated by Mitchell Greenberg.

also reading a YA book entitled the homecoming by Cynthia Voigt that's quite good. it's narrated by Barbara Caruso whose voice i find soothing.

and when I'm brain dead and want to listen to something I've actually read (visually), I'm listening to Rex Stout's Some buried Caesar, one of my favorites and i have no idea how many times I've read and listened to it since the 1950's. it's narrated by Michael Pritchard who, after many a year, has finally become Wolfe's voice for me and I'm indebted to him.

I finished The Help this morning and simply loved it. It was narrated by 4 different narrators who were all sensational and brought the book to life. Great book, great story!

I'm now beginning The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton, narrated by Caroline Lee who also narrated her other book, the House at Riverton, I've been looking forward to Ms. Lee's excellent narration again!

#138 - thank you for what you had to say about The Help - I've been thinking I should read that since everyone else is, but when to find the time and fit it in with all the others on the TBR shelf. I hadn't considered audio for this book and now I will definltely look into it. Thanks you!

I second the recommendation for The Help on audio it was great!!

Thanks!

i'm halfway through the quiet american by graham greene. i wanted something short and i have never read anything by greene. the book is interesting but the reader is just awful. i know this is a difficult character to interpret but the reader makes the american character sound like cleveland formerly from "family guy".

Downloaded Harlan Coben's new one, Caught - can't wait to start listening!

finished the ritual bath, which was so-so although the narrator was alright and the homecoming, which was exceptional. i was so taken with the characters and so inspired by the story that i hated to see it end. and Voigt didn't mess up the ending. i didn't know there's a series and am ecstatic to learn that the story goes on. . . to a Caldecott, no less!

am about 1-1/2 hours from the end of the thirteenth tale. what a book. superb narration. absolutely superb.

have started Dennis Lehane's darkness, take my hand and it's difficult to tear myself away. the narrator is Gregory Gorton and he does the best job of voicing women I've heard. he has a nice baritone voice that easily becomes a convincing, nuanced falsetto. i recommend him highly. this recording is by NLS but surely Gorton does other work as well.

i'm about halfway through devil in a blue dress by Walter Mosley. this is a book that was written to be narrated.

the narrator is Michael Boatman, who played one of my favorite characters in the TV series China Beach. he does an excellent job. i highly recommend the book and am hoping that other books in the Easy Rawlins series are also available in audio and that if they are, Boatman narrates them. he is Ease as far as I'm concerned.

#138 & 140 - I've gotten The Help from Audible.com. I'll be listening to it soon. Thanks!

The Thirteenth Tale is one of my all time favorites!

I'm listening to the Bartimaeous trilogy. I'm in the middle of book 2, The Golem's Eye. I don't remember the reader's name but he is really great. I think he is making the book more enjoyable than the print version would have been.

I'm listening to Shoot the Moon by, Billie Letts my only problem is this is southern fiction set in Oklahoma and narrated by Lou Diamond Phillips who is not southern and noone sounds like they are from OK.

I liked Billie Letts' Made in the U.S.A., narrated by Cassandra Morris.

>142 mejix:,

We must have the same edition of The Quiet American! I just finished that remarkable, brilliant book. The reader did have a heckuva time with an American accent!

I'm currently listening to some ancient history, the updated version of The World is Flat.

>149 Sandydog1:
it was more the interpretation of the character. plus the reader has this cadence in reading that is really annoying. the book is interesting though. i think i must've got the idea to read it after browsing one of the threads here.

I am listening to The Help and I can barely tear myself away! Thank you for the recommendation!! However, one little tip I just learned last night: Don't try and open a bottle of wine while wearing an Ipod lest the cord get caught in the cogs of the bottle opener . . . I wish I were making this stuff up.

I'm about an hour or so into Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick -- stories of six recent escapees (based upon extensive author interviews) give a horrifying idea of that police state. Very good narration makes the book absorbing.

I finished The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton, just okay, not as good as her first, but I love Caroline Lee who does the narration. Now I'm beginning to listen to The Betrayal of the Blood Lily by Lauren Willig, narrated by Kate Reading.

finished the thirteenth tale, darkness, take my hand and devil in a blue dress. all good reads with good narrators. i really like Dennis Lehane who wrote darkness take my hand.

have started Ellis Peters' a morbid taste for bones and am sticking with it because i adore the narrator, Patrick Tull who does all of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels to perfection.

a little over halfway through murder in Montparnasse by Kerry Greenwood narrated by Stephanie Daniel who's new to me. i thought it was going to be too much fluff and then Phryne Fisher, the heroine, starts talking about Paris during and after WWI and encounters with Natalie Barney, Renee Vivien, Gertrude Stein, Picasso and other notables and presto change-o, I'm hooked. it is fluffy but it's fun.

after a wait of 6 months in the library cue, i also started the girl with the dragon tattoo. Salander is a marvelous character. Simon Vance does a fine job narrating.

have also just dipped into Sean B. Carroll's endless forms most beautiful, which promises to be captivating and will probably take me quite a long time to absorb properly. one of those books one wishes one could read in print.

had to return good omens to the library so didn't finish it. pooh!

*eta touchstone

I just finished listening to Cure for a Modern Life and the reader Scott Brick is so good and a really funny reader. I have started Nick Hornby, A Long Way Down because Brick is one of the readers...and so far is is very entertaining.

I just finished Say Goodbye by, Lisa Gardner it was read by Ann Marie Lee & Lincoln Hoppe and they were both good.
Now listening to Murder on the Orient Express by, Agatha Christie its the BBC multi-cast version so of course its wonderful!

finished the quiet american by graham green. not even the reader could spoil this novel. very strong ending.

i think i am going to listen to nostromo by conrad next. just to keep the political-intrigue-in-an-exotic-setting motif going.

>151 she_climber:: she_climber- I also started the audio of The Help and it's been very good! I love all the different readers for the central characters!

Current listen is Naomi Alderman's Disobedience, read by Eve Karpf.

finished Murder in Montparnasse by Kerry Greenwood. getting ready to start Earth Abides: The 60th Anniversary Edition by George R. Stewart narrated by Jonathan Davis.

I am listening to Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah. The reader is Susan Ericksen. I really like her voice.

Oh, I loved that audio book!

I'm listening to A Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray. The reader is excellent, but I have no idea off hand who it is.

#163 the narrator is Josephine Bailey, whom i don't believe I've ever listened to. she's narrating a book called days of grace by Catherine Hall, not yet released, that's on my amazon.com wish list when it comes out in audio.

#164 This is the first time I'ver heard her, and I am impressed. There's quite a range of characters and accents in A Sweet Far Thing and she does a great job.

i'm on the second disk for nostromo. so far it is great but this might not be the best novel for audiobook. the style is too dense. i keep having to go back. it is very demanding. the novel itself is brilliant though.

I'm listening to Josephine a Life of the Empress by, Carolly Erickson read by my favorite Davoina Porter

I finished listening to The Betrayal of the Blood Lily by Lauren Willig, not bad, better than it's predecessor in the series, but doesn't live up to the first book, IMHO. Still, I was glad to hear Kate Reading's voice again, glad they went back to her. I'm now beginning to listen to Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde - eager to get back into the Thursday Next series.

Recently finished The Lord of the Rings - all three parts. It was wonderful but quite an effort. When I read the print copy (which I have done often) I tend to skim over bits - the songs, the long descriptions etc - but on audio you have to listen to every word so I did discover new aspects. I might watch the films now.

On audio I'm now relaxing with The Wind in the Willows - it starts at just the right time of the year. I'm in the UK and spring warmth and sunshine has just arrived.

#170 CDVicarage I've never listened to Lord of the Rings but must have read the trilogy at least a dozen times over the years. When the films came out, I went to see them at the theater tho I hated the whole concept of them being made into film, knowing the way great parts and characters are always hacked out and other characters put in or made to act in ways that are different from the book. Also I just couldn't see Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn ~ hated it in fact. And after each of the three parts I came out of the theater unhappy with the way the film version messed up the story.

Then a girlfriend gave me the extended versions of the film on DVD for Christmas three years in a row. Wow! What a difference. So much better than the theater versions. Longer, of course, thus allowing the stories to hold together so much better. Great parts (or at least parts that I love) were still not there (i.e., Tom Bombadil), but I understand time constraints. I mean, if the novel had been filmed in its entirety, it would probably have taken 10 films of 3 hour lengths to get it all in.

So, all of the above is just a prelude to my suggesting that, when you do see the films, you make sure they are the extended versions. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

#171 Yes, I agree with you about the extended versions being better - I have seen the films before. When I saw the cinema versions everything seemed to be happening at a hectic pace, which, from a film point of view is probably a good thing for an exciting evening. But knowing what was missing made me feel as though the film was 'jumping'. If you can remember vinyl you'll know what I mean!

French Revolutions by Tim Moore - can't say as I'm too thrilled with Andrew Wincott's narration though.

Listening to Three Weeks to Say Goodbyeby CJ Box. It's ok so far, not a great thriller but I'm hoping it will pick up. It's my first audio listen in a long time. The narrator is mediocre. I don't really care for the way he does the female's voice.

#174 - let me know how it goes. I often think I should do another CJ Box novel.

157, 166,

In spite of worst-American-accent-ever, The Quiet American is now one of my top 10 of all time. Again, I never confirmed but I MUST have just read the same audio version.

Keep at Nostromo, mejix. As I recall, after about the first third of the novel, an adventure plot actually breaks out.

If interested in a colonial trifecta, you should go after Burmese Days next.

As for me, my eyes are glazing over with listening to A Brief History of Time. I guess if Conrad wrote physics, this is what it would sound like!

Just finished Tim Moore's French Revolutions - his humor-travel (sub-genre) of cycling the Tour de France route (before the actual event, with cheating). Wasn't as funny as his other books, owing partly to the narrator.

About to start After Dark by Haruki Murakami for a change of pace.

#157 is the narrator Joseph Porter? i just put a hold on Quiet American at the library and he's the narrator. my other option is Graeme (sic) Malcolm's recording for NLS. he's also British w/ a slightly less nasal twang. *shrug* i dunno. i guess i can try both. :)

Sandy, Mirrordrum

i believe the reader was joseph porter. i did enjoy it though. i was very moved by the ending. surprised myself actually.

nostromo has been harder but i find it very rewarding. i'm on the 5th disk out of 14. the plot seems about to move finally. or is it...?

Just started Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna narrated by the author. It's excellent so far - richly descriptive. And I just love her voice, it feels like immersing yourself in a warm bath.

#180 I'll be interested to see what you think, callen. I'd been on the list for that one but when it finally arrived, i was so overloaded i had to return it. :(

I'm currently in the middle of a number of books. a repeat read is master and commander by Patrick O'Brian, a book i return to periodically when i don't want to have to attend because I've read it so often.

just started shroud for a nightingale by P. D. James. i was feeling P D Jamesian. i think i read it about 20 years ago but don't remember a bit of it. excellent narrator. can't think of her name and not familiar with the voice. too tired, or lazy, to go look.

about half way through Earth Abides by George R. Stewart. got the 60th anniversary edition on sale for $5 via audible.com. intro by Connie Willis. it's long and a bit tedious as Stewart, like Willis, spends a lot of time on detail. i periodically toy with giving up as I've still got 6 hours to go but I'm determined to see how he resolves humankind's post-apocalyptic dilemmas.

I'm 2/3 of the way through The girls of slender means by Muriel Spark narrated very well by Donada Peters, who's in very good form on this one.

reading slowly endless forms most beautiful: the new science of evo devo by Sean B. Carroll. it's very dense and i need to listen to small bits and then mull over what I've heard. marvelous.

about 2/3 of the way through The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Simon Vance does a fine job of narrating. i could do without some of the graphic details of the crimes but at least Larsson doesn't linger lovingly on those bits. great characters and, as I've gotten on into it, an increasingly gripping plot. i plan to complete the trilogy.

*edited to try to jump start touchstone--it didn't work.

#181 The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is up next for me after my current Something Rotten, glad to hear you are enjoying it! I love Simon Vance's narration in other books I've heard, so now I'm really looking forward to it. I've heard so much about this series, can't wait to dig into it!

#181 - had to laugh with regard to what you said about Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: I was find with the details of the crimes, but the details regarding the world of Swedish finance was what I could have done without - seemed neverending to me.

#183 chuckle yes, well, the world of finance part was tedious and in point of fact, i was so uninterested in it that I'd quite forgotten it was so dreary--and confusing to this bear of negligible brain.

i think it speaks rather well to the gripping nature of the rest of the book that the boring part quite faded from my memory. or maybe it only says something about my memory. ;)

i think i can say without it being a spoiler that the little snippets about Salander kept luring me on, interwoven as they were.

also, it occurs to me that the style of the book, not sure style is the word, but the way the story develops has the same effect on me as reader as it does on the relevant characters. i got slowly drawn in and now am quite as fascinated, and committed to the unraveling of the mystery, as they are.

I've just finished The Rottweiler by Ruth Rendell and brilliantly read by Nigel Anthony. It's an oldie but a goodie and not too taxing on my poor old brain.

I finished Flesh And Fire read by Anne Flosnik and reviewed it here. I didn't care much for her voice and interpretation, but apparently she is a fairly popular narrator and has even won some awards.

And I've started The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie, read by Stephanie Cole. Cole is having a lot of fun with the different voices and she has a deep, dry, pleasant voice. I'm liking it so far.

The Black Tower by Louis Bayard.
I'm liking the story and the character Vidocq (sp) is very interesting.

#187 vfoote I read it awhile back and enjoyed it, but I bet Black Tower is especially wonderful on audio.

finished earth abides by George R. Stewart and the girl with the dragon tattoo. enjoyed both though earth abides had a tendency to drag.

reading a variety, as usual. still working on endless forms most beautiful, the girls of slender means and shroud for a nightingale.

have resumed a morbid taste for bones by Ellis Peters, which i suspended in order to get through the girl with the dragon tattoo so i could get it back to the library.

have added Barbara Pym's An Academic Question read very well by Angela Pleasence. also Margaret Atwood's the blind assassin, which is beautifully read by Margot Dionne.

I'm listening to In the Bleak Midwinter, the first in a new-to-me mystery series. The reader is ok and the story is good. I'll certainly continue the series.

#190 thanks for the info, jennie. have ordered from library. :)

Let me know how you like it, mirrordrum.

Listening to First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde.

I finished Something Rotten, but didn't find it as good as the previous books in the series. I found it a bit hard to follow at times and was totally disappointed the narrator was not Elizabeth Sastre!!! Instead it was Emily Gray, who wasn't bad, but I'd gotten so used to Sastre as Next it was a bit of a come down for me, she lacked that certain something that made Thursday sound so matter of fact amidst all the lunacy around her.

Now I'm beginning The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, narrated by Simon Vance (who I love!)

#194 aaargh! i'm going to have to switch from Susan Duerdan to Emily Gray. each is good but in just one novel, Duerdan became TN for me. i hate when they switch like that. lord i am spoiled.

finished two books today: Shroud for a Nightingale by P. D. James, which i could have sworn i'd read before but didn't remember a bit of, and The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark.

it was fun reading 'shroud' to see just how far James has come since then and also to find a device, i guess it's called a device, in this one that is repeated in The Murder Room.

i think i'm going to start The Good Soldiers and maybe Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. not sure about the second as it may be too much in tone like The Blind Assassin, which is incroyable. we shall see what mood strikes.

194 ktleyed: Glad to hear you like Simon Vance as a reader. I picked up the unabridged Great Expectations from the library this week and he's the reader. I'm hoping I'll like him, as we will be spending about 18 hours together over the next few weeks :)

I'm almost done with The Body in the Library. Stephanie Cole is a great narrator!

Just finished Caught by Harlan Coben - excellent!!

#196 Simon Vance is a great favorite of mine. i just finished his reading of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and enjoyed his work thoroughly.

a nice piece on him can be found in audiofile.

*eta: be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom of the article for links to pieces on other readers. it's who's who for audiophiles. :)

Listening to Innocent Traitor by, Alison Weir its read by various readers including Davina Porter.Liking it so far!

#198 Nice! Thanks for th link to the narrator readers.

I'm in the midst of Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann - Dennis Boutsikaris' narration is terrific, and even though I'm a political junkie I've learned some new stuff.

finished nostromo last night. probably the book where i had to re-listen the tracks most often, because of the writing style but also because it was interesting and didn't want to miss anything. the ending left me scratching my head. good read though.

Had not been listening for a long time due to no device but am back on track again. Vacation was Trickster's Choice (Tamora Pierce followed by the sequel (Trickster's Queen). Then Andre Norton's Witch World (I didn't even know this series was finally being done!). Am now mid-way through Frederica by Georgette Heyer.

I just finished a terrible Debbie Macomber, The Man You'll Marry. The reader was okay but the book(s) were irritating. This is the stuff that gives romance a bad name.

I finished the sequel to Three Cups of Tea. I think it is Stones into Schools. I was really glad I listened to both, but the reader for the second book was not my favorite.

I am just about to start Ptolemy's Gate, the last book in the Bartimaeus trilogy. I've enjoyed the first two books and I think the reader is great.

Okay, no laughing but I've been listening to Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. It's actually not to bad, at least the author did some research.

I've been listening to The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold. I must say the reader, Marguerite Gavin, is the worst I've encountered in a long time. She reads the entire thing in a tone of breathless anticipation and has an annoying tendency to emphasize the wrong word in any given sentence.

Finished Innocent Traitor it was good
Now listening to Belle Weather read by the author Celia Rivenbark it is laugh out loud funny southern fiction!

#206 roflmao!

We aim to please, mirrordrum.

#206 jen ~ The same thing happened with the reader of Cemetery Dance by Preston and Child. The reader used the same breathless anticipatory voice for a scene where someone goes in a chinese takeout (and nothing happens except he picks up his food) and a dark and stormy night just as the voodoo killer is getting ready to plunge the knife in. (Examples not necessarily exactly correct as I read it awhile ago and don't remember it well except how much I hated the reader.)

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and sometimes walking down a passage is just walking down a passage. I'll probably finish The Hallowed Hunt but I'll watch out for this reader in the future.

Edited to improve shaky spelling.

#211 who is this breathless narrator? inquiring minds want, nay, need to know.

I just started A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare CD: 1599. Interesting, so far.

#211 & 212- I too am curious is it the same person who narrated Lethally Blond by Kate White read by,Renee Raudman and was very UNimpressed her men all sounded like Marilyn Monroe with a cold?
She was very breathy too and would steer clear of her.

#212 & 214 Our Narrator is Marguerite Gavin. This is my first and last encounter with her.

Thanks I will put her on my do not listen to pile LOL

#215 et al

listened to a few samples on audible. she does have an, er, interesting style, e.g. "her long, dark hAAAAAir" and "rough hole in the FLOOOoor."

also odd pauses, a fair number in these brief samples, and, as you say, a lot of loaded breathing. fortunately for me, she narrates the kinds of books i don't read. ;)

*edited to make it more sensal

My reader was René Auberjonois, a fairly well known actor whose work on TV I've enjoyed, but as a reader, at least of Cemetery Dance? No. No, no no.

I thought Renee Raudman did an okay job reading Homer's Odyssey by Gwen Cooper (story of a blind cat, not the Classic saga).

I just started Hunchback of Norte Dame and I don't know if it's the story or the narrator, David Case, but an hour in and I already what to stick sharp objects in my ears.

#217 - LOL edited to make more sensual?? Interesting :)

I think David Case is great for Trollope, Dickens, Waugh, etc. -- satirical stuff; however, I'm not sure I could see him reading "Hunchback"?

David Case's reading of Dorothy Sayers' Whose Body? is absolutely brilliant and I enjoyed every second of it. For a male actor, he does the most convincing female voices I've yet heard.

I'm really enjoying Great Expectations read by Simon Vance. I could listen to Dickens' prose all day... and oh, his characters. Wow.

#220 chuckle nope, not a typo. it's a word from Shirley Jackson's Life Among the Savages wherein one of her daughters--Sally, i think, not Jannie--says something isn't "sensal or reasonal." only SJ can pull it off.

the book makes me laugh so hard i literally fall off of furniture. i used to take it along to the beach and read bits of it aloud to friends and we'd all laugh till we fell down. i don't know of a piece of writing I'd recommend more highly for generating riotous laughter and clouds of endorphins.

i revisited it in audio format but it was through NLS. i don't believe you can hear it any other way but it's well worth reading if you like to laugh out loud. repeatedly. uproariously.

I'm sitting here laughing merely thinking about some of the things Jackson comes up with.

oh, as for reading. um, still early days with The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. I'm only just starting the 4th or 5th tape.

got caught up in The Good Soldiers by David Finkel narrated painfully well by Mark Boyett. it's quite overwhelming, really, and i've taken a break, something the soldiers never get to do.

also had to pause Never Let Me Go as i was getting it confused with Blind Assassin.

started Black As He's Painted by Ngaio Marsh and am especially enamored of the cat bits. Dame Ngaio wrote great cats. it's another of Wanda McCaddon's triumphs wearing her Nadia May persona. she labours a bit with the Ng'ombwanan accent but otherwise it's very fine.

also tinkering with Linda Barnes' A Trouble of Fools, which i may or may not finish as i realize I've read it before and i have a Dennis Lehane waiting in the wings.

tried reading The Quiet American by Graham Greene. it's a Blackstone Audio and they're usually excellent but the narrator, Joseph Porter, affects me like a dentist's drill so I'm going to try the NLS version.

oh, btw, I'm thinking of starting a new thread. this is getting quite long. would there be any objections?

Sounds good to me, mirrordrum!

a fresh new game can be found here.