What Are You Listening to Now? Part 8

continued from HERE.

previous post:

Message 227: wisewoman

Finished Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, read by Geoffrey Howard. It was my first Hornblower book and I enjoyed it very much. Now I am listening to Where The Red Fern Grows read by Anthony Heald. I'm not far in but it's pretty good so far.

I am currently re-reading/ listening to the Harry Potter Series I am almost done with Goblet of Fire and then on to The Order of the Phoenix.
These are read by Jim Dale who does a good job except for the fact that noone can be Snape but Alan Rickman!

I'm enjoying E. F. Benson's Queen Lucia read by Nadia May. It's good but I've listened to others in the series read by Prunella Scales, one of my favourite readers, so Nadia May has a lot to live up to!

I loved you're patchwork quilt new game post.

Well, Prunella Scales did play Mapp on TV after all!

I've started The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin - at 15 hours I'm certain I'll being pausing for something else to break it up near the middle.

I'm listening to A Basque History of the World. I love the narrator. I have no way of knowing if his Euskara pronunciations are correct, but they're a delight to listen to.

#3 cdvicarage: if you can manage it, this is the Queen Lucia you want. Geraldine McEwan is ickle Lucia and she does a very fine Georgino. cattivo Georgie, to cause Lucia so vewy much twouble with such diffy piano pieces. and then you do want to find Prunella Scales for Miss Mapp and Mapp and Lucia. not to be missed. :)

Thanks for this, mirrordrum. I have seen the TV series with Geraldine McEwan as Lucia and, although I enjoyed that, I didn't like her reading of the books. Now I'm used to her characterizations I do like Nadia May. I know she does a lot of audio books under other names too so it has opened up more areas of listening for me.

Nadia May also reads under the names Wanda McCaddon and (more often) Donada Peters.

Now listening to Stef Penney's The Tenderness of Wolves. Very atmospheric.

#8 well, I'm delighted that you're happy with the version to which you're listening. i apologize for taking what now sounds like a rather high-handed tone. i didn't mean it to be, it just wrote that way. one shouldn't express one's preferences as verities. i know better. 'scuse it.

admittedly, it always takes me a bit of time to get used to Ms. McEwan's voice and i would be picky about what i'd listen to her read.

so many books I've listened to lately have been narrated by Nadia May in one of her various noms de voix that I've gotten a bit sated, i think.

i'm intrigued that McEwan has turned down both the OBE and DBE. fascinating who does and doesn't. also none of my business.

i remember hearing an interview with Dame Joan Sutherland by a rather silly person who asked her if she were a royalist. Dame Joan said a trifle icily that it would be a bit strange if she weren't, considering that she'd accepted the DBE.

enough with the OT verbal chaff.

"narrated by Nadia May in one of her various noms de voix that I've gotten a bit sated"

See also: Simon Vance (Robert Whitfield, etc.)

Ah Mapp and Lucia/ Scales and McEwan. How I love those ladies. Your posts have sent me off to the library to find the audio books. Thanks!

I'm alternating between Wodehouse: A Life and Miss Buncle Married.

I have been considered getting Miss Buncle's Book at some point.

>15 Seajack: Check that you're happy with the narrator (Patricia Gallimore) first.... she is rather Nadia May-ish :)

I have just finished An Echo in the Bone read by Davina Porter. Davina does a brilliant job with the accents.

Wondering which book to listen to next. A Walk in the Woods, A Thousand Splendid Suns (read the book), or The Traitor's Tale.

I'm listening to The Historian, which should last a while since it clocks in at over 26 hours. It has multiple voices, a good thing, I think, in the this complicated book. So far, so good.

#18, The Historian is the next book for me on my audiobook list after I finish my current one Paul is Undead, which so far is very funny and clever. Yes, The Historian is a loooong one, but I'm eager to get into it!

about to finish fathers and sons. not sure what comes next. i placed a heartbreaking work of staggering genius on hold at the library, so we'll see.

Listening to Blood Trail by C.J. Box, my first Joe Pickett mystery/thriller. It's good, but the reader is just so-so. I don't remember who it is but will edit this when I can go back to the first disk and find out.

I just started listening to The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle about a girl growing up on a horse ranch with a depressed mother, the usual gruff, reticent father, an absent sister and a pile of bills. So far it sounds great. It's read well by Lily Rabe who, I just found on Wikipedia, is the daughter of Jill Claburgh. It also said this:
In June and July 2010 Rabe will play Portia in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice in Central Park in New York City, in the famed Shakespeare in the Park series of productions. She will star opposite Al Pacino as Shylock.

I saw Lily Rabe a couple of years ago in Crimes of the Heart. She played Babe and was absolutely wonderful. She doesn't look anything like her mother but she is every bit as fine an actress.

I just started The Passage by Justin Cronin today. It's VERY good so far. I'm on Chapter 7 and the character development is amazing. I normally only listen to audiobooks when driving, but I've brought this one inside and am listening now. I'm currently listening at 2x speed so it goes quickly, which is a good thing since it's almost 37 hours.

I was listening to Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War but had to stop, I just couldn't deal with the leaches, rotting feet, and other issues.

I had to break up such a long book- Dickens' "Dombey and Son" @ 37 parts - with at least two "intermissions" of lighter fare.

Paul is Undead by Alan Goldsher Loved, loved, loved this audiobook! You have to be into the Fab Four and somewhat of an afficianado (which I am). It was hilarious and clever and Simon Vance did all the Beatles voices and many more - you name it! It was a tour de force! I laughed a lot, a real earful, though if crude language is a turn off, you might not like it - colorful to say the least, but sounds authentic.

I loved the audio of All Over But the Shoutin' and I finally just started the follow-up memoir Ava's Man, about Bragg's maternal grandfather and it is equally as good!

just finished Atonement, which was quite good. a special treat were the chapters on Briony's training as a nurse during WWII. several of Mary Renault's novels draw on her own experiences as a probationer at the Oxford infirmary before the war and then later as a nurse following Dunkirk at one of those temporary Quonset hut places where wounded soldiers were treated.

i was impressed with how closely McEwan's representation of nurses' hospital lives coincided with Renault's. he did his homework!

also finished The Bookwoman's last fling narrated by George Guidall. i liked best the parts about books and Gone, baby, gone by Dennis Lehane, my least favorite Lehane thus far.

i bailed on The naked and the dead. it was too much with an indifferent narrator and the concurrent weightiness of Lehane and McEwan.

now reading Remember me by Trezza Azzopardi on ipod. narrator Corrie James is quite good. I'm enjoying it very much thus far.

i have Stones for Ibarra by Harriet Doerr from NLS on the NLS tape recorder. I'm enjoying the narration b/c, although the narrator doesn't try to 'voice' characters much, he's able to pronounce Spanish words and phrases correctly and fluently and that matters a great deal to me.

it's one of those 'great books you've never heard of' of which i actually had heard but had never read. something i read on LT inspired me to look for it and NLS had it, bless 'em. it's very fine. i get quite swallowed up in it and don't want to leave. great sense of place.

also listening very slowly to How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry by Edward Hirsch. I'm loving it.

i fall asleep to either Renault's the friendly young ladies or Durrell's Justine on the NLS db player as it allows one to set the amount of time for the book to play before turning itself off. it also has a super-fine fwd and back scroll function.

plan to start Maisie Dobbs tomorrow or the next day.

I have three hours left on 9000717::Christianity: The First Three Thousand years. It is very well written and contains an incredible amount of information. I bought a print copy to be able to use as a reference.

I'm listening to Unlikely Angel: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Hostage Hero by Ashley Smith about the Brian Nichols courthouse killings in Atlanta. It is extremely intriguing how she behaved while a hostage. How her attempt at bringing God into her life after being a very bad drug addict helped her.
I had to get past her voice in the beginning but now I can't wait to jump in the car to hear what happens next. I think people who lived through this time in Atlanta would find it especially interesting.

I'm listening to World War Z. It's a campy, funny, clever little dystopian romp. If Camus were as subtle as a nuclear bomb, he'd have written something like this. There are many characters (interviewees) such as Alan Alda. I'm loving it.

Unfortunately...
It is abridged! I'll probably go back and skim the book version.

Currently enjoying Shanghai Girls by Lisa See...my first of her books.

Bettyjo, it's not the best of her books but still very good. For the best you have to read Snowflower and the Secret Fan.

Listening to and loving The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes read by the wonderful Derek Jacobi. I have Shirley by Charlotte Bronte on my ipod and listen when I'm going to sleep at night. Trouble is, I keep on missing chapters because I fall asleep so during the day I have to go back to the last chapter I remember and re-listen. It feels like Shirley is taking a lifetime to finish. I wish my ipod had similiar functions to Mirrordrum's player (message 28).

#34 hey, socialpages, i wish my ipod had similar functions to the NLS db player: large buttons, bookmarks, sleep function, incremental forward and back jumps and the special flash drives hold about 13 books. i'm very grateful.

and whilst i'm here. my NLS tape recorder (different machine) ate two tapes, one of which was Stones for Ibarra, so i'm in limbo in Ibarra waiting for a new tape and a new player.

meanwhile, i've started The moon is down by John Steinbeck from NLS. the first section is a fascinating introduction by Donald V. Coers entitled John Steinbeck Goes to War: The Moon Is Down as Propaganda. you can find it (Coers' piece) on questia.com or in the 1995 penguin edition of the moon is down. if you're interested in Steinbeck, it's a fascinating piece of literary history.

have also plunged into Maisie Dobbs. i love those books.

I finished and loved Ava's Man by Rick Bragg. This is his 2nd memoir and I highly recommend them. They are perfect for audio. I'll be starting The Thirteenth Tale soon.

I finally finished The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Lengthy, but excellent. Now I've moved on to The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley. I don't like the reader (I find her rather twee), but the previous book in the series was good enough to withstand her, so I think this one will too.

>34 socialpages:: socialpages,

Have you seen the Granada movie /TV productions of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes starring Jeremy Brett? You might enjoy them too.

Finished On the Nature of Things by Lucretius, and Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo. Absolutely enjoyed both of them!

On the Nature of Things (my review here) is an excellent exposition of Epicurean philosophy written in the form of an epic poem. Recommended for its epic scope, clarity of thought, beauty of narrative, richness of humor and compassion.

For Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) I listened to two versions. One narrated by Frederick Davidson (aka David Case) and the other George Guidall. Davidson captures Hugo's lyric style and satire very well, whereas Guidall adds a Gothic dimension to his narrative.

#34 socialpages wrote: "It feels like Shirley is taking a lifetime to finish."

I feel as though I've been listening to The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court forever as well! Not that it's bad, just very ... thorough.

I'm now beginning The Historian and expect to be engrossed with it over the next couple of weeks.

#38 I haven't seen that version of the Sherlock Holmes adventures (the Sherlock Holmes I remember was played by Basil Rathbone). I checked on Internet Movie Database and Jeremy Brett gets great reviews. I will keep my eye out for it on dvd.

I'd like to share one of Sherlock Holmes wonderful deductions that made me laugh. The clue is a man's hat and from its size Holmes infers that the owner must be of superior intelligence: "it is a question of cubic capacity, a man with so large a brain must have something in it." Ridiculous but so typical of Sherlock Holmes.

>42 socialpages:: socialpages,

It was Brett's performance that got me to read all the Sherlock Holmes adventures many years ago. I saw Rathbone only later and he wasn't quite as fascinating.

Here is the "hat scene" from YouTube. The chemistry and humor between Brett and his friend Burke (Watson) really livens up the scene.

42 Socialpages:

Jeremy Brett is terrific as Holmes!

"Look at the band of rrrrribbed silk and the excellent lining." Ah, the enunciation!

Still, much as I loved him as Holmes, he'll always be Freddy Eynsford-Hill from "My Fair Lady" to me. Callow but gorgeous.

I have just finished The Beach House byJane Green. Thought it would be light, summer reading but it had an impressive cast of characters and plot twists. Most enjoyable.
I've gotten started on Edith Wharton's House of Mirth and was really enjoying it but I finally got a notice from the library that a James Patterson thriller I've been waiting for for 6 weeks is available to me for 7 days so I'm off to start Alex Cross's Trial.

Does anybody here know a website where you can download free audiobooks without making a whole account and all?

I loved the audio of Ava's Man by Rick Bragg and now I started something lighter, Carl Hiaasen's latest Star Island. It's been fun!

Not any that I can think of. You can get audiobooks at the library; however.

>45 NarratorLady:: NarratorLady,

How do you rank Brett in Rebecca?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdJiRWvnrtU

>47 31Isabella:: 31Isabella,

You can download free audiobooks from librivox.org. The quality of the recordings may vary though.

I'm an hour (of six) into The Book of Murder by Guillermo Martinez - good translation and narration.

>50 booksontrial: booksontrial: I remember seeing this years ago. I'm afraid he doesn't quite come up to Olivier who is Maxim DeWinter to me. But I do remember also seeing him in a TV version of "Barretts of Wimpole Street" with Jane LaPotaire. I've looked for it on youtube but no luck. His Browning was incredible, bursting with life and energy....you just knew he was going to sweep her away and save her.

thanks citizenjoyce...will listen to it next.

#53 bettyjo, you won't be sorry. It's one of my favorite books.

I finished listening to The God of Animals. It's very harsh, very Shakespearean, reminiscent of A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley.

<42 booksontrial Thanks for the link to utube. I didn't realise that so many Sherlock Holmes snippets were available. Watching the scenes performed does bring the book to life - Brett is very good and so very British. I did love the detail in the reproduction of Holmes' Baker St rooms.

<42 booksontrial Thanks for the link to utube. I didn't realise that so many Sherlock Holmes snippets were available. Watching the scenes performed does bring the book to life - Brett is very good and so very British. I did love the detail in the reproduction of Holmes' Baker St rooms.

a hearbreaking work of staggering genius. my mp3 player has been temperamental recently so i might have to read the print version the days my player doesn't feel like working. we'll see how that goes.

Speaking of things temperamental.... for some reason only half of my posts are appearing. I will try again and see if I have better luck with a short post. Thanks booksontrial for the utube link. Brett is certainly an excellent Holmes, with a very British accent that I love. The production also looked good with plenty of period detail in the furnishing of the room.

Now listening to The Histories by Herodotus, narrated by Charlton Griffin. Great stories about the lives and cultures of the ancient Greeks, Persians and other peoples.

>61 socialpages:: socialpages,

You're welcome. The other good thing about the production is that they're quite loyal to Doyle's original text.

Now listening to Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem. I had worked in NYC for 25 years and am enjoying the references to the town. At the same time I'm occasionally saddened that I didn't see and attend to more of the cultural gifts the city offered, which are described by author.

just about finished w/ a book i hadn't meant to start: Sicken and so die by Simon Brett.

I've thoroughly enjoyed the novel's theatre setting as it takes place during rehearsals for a run of Twelfth Night.

I'm immersed in Song of Solomon. even in 1977, Toni Morrison was frighteningly good. the narration by Lynn Thigpen is exceptional. her death was a shock and a huge loss. i'm grateful for the gifts i still receive from her work.

rec'd a replacement recorder from NLS along with a new tape of Stones for Ibarra so i can continue happ'ly with that and am somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 of the way through.

it's one of those books so compelling, so evocative, so engaging of all my senses, that it puts me in a kind of trance. i find myself listening to certain parts over and over.

Doerr's style reminds me a bit of early Kingsolver, particularly Animal Dreams, which was my first of hers and remains my favorite.

still inching along in How to read a poem: and fall in love with poetry and Steinbeck's The moon is down, thus far my least favorite of his.

i'm also thoroughly enjoying Maisie Dobbs though i've backed off of that a bit so i can finish Song of Solomon, which is a library book, not one of mine.

I am still on my Audio Journey through the World of Harry Potter I am now listening to The Half Blood Prince So one more to go I will have listened to the whole series from beginning to end!

i found the reader for a heartbreaking work of staggering genius to be the most annoying since the one for the world is flat. may be it was because i began reading the print version and then moved to audio, but i just couldn't stand his interpretation of the text.

Finished Christine Falls by Benjamin Black, followed that with We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver, then Where the Red Ferns Grow by Wilson Rawls and am now continuing with book 7 of the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog.

I enjoyed listening to each of these but We Need to Talk About Kevin stands out for me. I'm looking forward to listening to the next Benjamin Black book, The Silver Swan... I like to have a series on the go :)

I'm listening to Middlemarch because it's the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die group's book of the month. The reader, Harriet Walter, annoys me somewhat. She has a slight lisp and doesn't always articulate her consonants clearly. She's acted in a lot of Jane Austen-y things and the tenor of her reading (and the voices) are good, though.

I'm getting my money's worth out of my one credit a month at audible. I just started The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Grover Gardner is the narrator and I think he is excellent. On the fiction side I am finishing Spies of the Balkans by Alan Furst.

#68 interesting comment on Harriet Walter as a reader. i've been a fan since i first saw her as Harriet Vane in the 2nd LPW series w/ Edward Petherbridge as LPW. however, like Dame Maggie, she works with a fairly distinct accent and enunciation.

although i can imagine she might be tiresome, knowing she has a narration of Middlemarch makes me want to listen to it. i tried reading it a couple of times and felt sure it would come to naught. if i can find it on audio, though, i may try it again, visualizing Ms. Walter looking Jane Austen-y as i go along.

can you tell me the publisher? the audible.com version has kate reading.

I've started Zen And Now: On The Trail Of Robert Pirsig And Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance by Mark Richardson - I haven't read Pirsig, nor do I really wish to, so am reading this one for Richardson's own travel narrative, which is working out okay, with a decent narrator.

>71 Seajack:: Seajack,

I haven't read Pirsing either, but am curious why you don't wish to read him but rather someone who followed his trail?

I'm interested in the travel narrative aspect of the later book, not Pirsig's "zen thoughts" particularly.

Now listening to A Piano in the Pyrenees by Tony Hawks, the British comedian, not the skateboarder. It's likeable enough, but hasn't "Englishman in the south of France" been flogged to death as a topic?

AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!

i find Stones from Ibarra, a book that has all the indications of being one of my favorites ever. it's from NLS. i love the narrator. i love the writing. i love the story. a faulty NLS tape deck tore up the first NLS copy. i just rec'd another copy and finally made it to tape 2 (NLS tapes are 4-sided and recorded at slow speed so 1 NLS tape = maybe 8 regular cassette tapes). i move on to tape 2 right in the middle of a wonderful scene. tape 2 doesn't work. no sound, nothing. not even static or garble. zip, zilch, nichts, nada, niente!

and it may be the only other copy in the NLS holdings. pfui!

oh well, I'll start Sisterhood of Spies: The Women of the OSS by Elizabeth Mcintosh in the interim. women being sleuthy. :)

I started Earth Abides a few days ago. Slow going at first, but it has really picked up towards the middle.

I'm listening to Serve It Cold by Ronnie Blackwell on podiobooks.com

#76 fleela, i'll be interested to know what you think of Earth abides. i read it this spring or maybe in the winter.

I've been listening to The Thirteenth Tale and it's been very good!

I'm listening to Little Women when I'm by myself and Rebecca when traveling in the car with my daughter. Both are great (and both are the Recorded Books' recordings)

Mm, Rebecca (read by Anna Massey) is one of my all-time favorite audiobooks!

I'm on disc seven of nine of Georgette Heyer's Simon the Coldheart and am enjoying it quite a bit. After that I'll listen to Major Pettigrew's Last Stand.

Around the World in Eighty Days. This novel was made for cartoons. The dialogue ought to be coming out in text balloons. "If it can be done it ought to be done first by an Englishman!" Fun summer read.

Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann

A shepherd is murdered; his flock play sleuth!

I just finished Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years all 47 hours worth. I thought it was excellent. There was so much material I listened to some sections twice.

>85 wildbill:: wildbill,

Enjoyed reading your review. It seems you have a "literary style of writing" too. Does the author attempt to give an explanation why Christianity grew as it did?

Finished Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, wonderfully narrated by Richard Thomas.

Imagine my surprise when, at the end, a voice thanked me for reading "this abridged recording"! Aaaargh!!! It seems that the unabridged version is 32 CDs long as compared to my 8 CDs. It felt complete to me but apparently I have lots more to learn.

Maybe next year. Loved it very much but can't face the assassination again any time soon.

>87 NarratorLady:: NarratorLady,

LOL, I would be upset too. This book is on my To Read list, and you reminded me to look up the audiobook, but I couldn't find any unabridged version at audible.com or OverDrive.

47 hours? i'm hugely impressed, wildbill.

i finished The moon is down last week and just completed Travels with my aunt by Graham Greene, both from NLS.

i liked 'travels' but did find it difficult to keep some of the characters sorted out. i think it would be a better visual than audio read unless the narrator's very good.

am about half way through Song of Solomon and reading it slowly and with attention.

almost finished with Walter Mosley's A red death. Michael Boatman is wonderful as Easy. well, he's wonderful as all the characters.

i'm starting Ross Thomas' The fools in town are on our side, an NLS recording with a tolerable narrator--tolerable because it's the only audio version available. :) it's my wish to be able to read everything Thomas wrote. i see signs that his work may once again be attracting the attention it deserves.

if you've never read anything by Ross Thomas, he's worth checking out. the first book of his i read was Out on the rim from Recorded Books with an excellent narrator. his books are in (of?) the spy/mystery genre with good plots, dialogue, and well-developed and memorable characters.

i also started, and am enjoying, Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear, but probably won't read much more of that until i finish Song of Solomon.

>88 booksontrial: Try the public library. I got the unabridged version in two volumes from the L.A. Public Library. At first I was daunted ~ 32 CDs! ~ but after awhile I was so enthralled that I didn't want it to end and, even though I knew how it would end, I started crying long before the assassination and could scarcely finish for the sobs. Amazing book and reader.

My public library catalog says it's 36 CD's (42 hours) -- the thought of all that ripping is giving me a headache! I'm not interested in reading the book myself, but Suzanne Toren is a great narrator.

>90 Storeetllr:: Storeetllr,

Many CDs in our public library have been scratched or damaged. A couple of damaged CDs in a large set would ruin the whole listening experience, so I've given up on them.

Oops, I meant 36. And you're right, Toren was brilliant!

>86 booksontrial: Thanks for the compliment. I do not recall the author saying much about why Christianity grew. I think perhaps he thought that would distract from an objective presentation. Any analysis of why people were attracted to Christianity would involve some discussion of the merits of the religion.

> 89 My absolute longest was the three volume Shelby Foote series on the Civil War. It was a total of about 135 hours.

One thing I like about long books is that I can listen to them several times and learn something every time.

Team of Rivals I am always very careful not to listen to abridged books. I hate to have someone else decide for me what is important in a book. It is a excellent story. Lincoln had one year of education and he intellectually dominated a group of men with college degrees.

>94 wildbill::I guess I stopped checking whether a book was abridged or not a while ago. I had naively thought they didn't abridge them anymore since the reading public demanded the entire work. Won't make that mistake again!

If anyone else has read anything abridged lately, please let me know.

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to this group and so glad to see it's here. I'm listening to unabridged JAWS right now...very different from the movie. I'm on the last track of the last disc right now. Exciting!!

#95 i just rec'd an expensive copy of Harriet Walter's Other people's shoes: Thoughts on acting and was agggggghhast to find only 2 tapes in the box. i felt sure amzon hadn't mentioned that it was abridged. i still think it didn't but worldcat.org shows an abridged version as the only extant audio version, so i guess that's better than nothing. tarsome! frown

i went back to amazon to look and, as i thought, i'd bought the only copy.

//396 welcome wordmaven :)

>95 NarratorLady:

I requested an audio of Three Men in a Boat from the library recently - it was suppose to be a 6 CD unabridged audio with Ian Carmichael reading; what I received was a 2 CD abridged version with Hugh Laurie reading. ARRGGH!

Do you mean you requested it via Inter-Library Loan? If so, you must specify "this edition ONLY"! I believe the one I listened to was read by David Case (Frederick Davidson), though Ian Carmichael would be terrific also.

I listened to the full version of Three Men in a Boat read by Martin Jarvis and it was wonderful. Hugh Laurie has also narrated it but I don't know if it's unabridged or not. It's not a very long book so it's surprising someone would even bother to abridge it!

Re Team of Rivals: I had a look at the packaging and the publisher didn't exactly trumpet the fact that it was an abridged version. Nothing on the front cover and only on the back, in small print at the bottom, did I find the dreaded "abridged by...."

>100 Seajack:

No, it was in the consortium catalogue (not an ILL), and there was only one item listed under that catalogue entry.

I started Major Pettigrew's Last Stand last night and somehow it just wasn't the thing. The narrator was good and the prose sound, but somehow I couldn't settle into it. I popped in Mark Frost's The Second Objective and am enjoying it more. It's a change of pace, a war story set during WW2. Germany is training an elite battalion of soldiers it hopes to pass off as Americans. Interesting enough so far.

//103 wisewoman, i had a similar experience w/ The Archivist, a book i really wanted to like. i did enjoy the first part about archiving but as soon as it wandered off books and on to relationships, i found it decidedly meh. life's too short. i ditched it. i've not looked back. ;)

"I started Major Pettigrew's Last Stand last night and somehow it just wasn't the thing. The narrator was good and the prose sound, but somehow I couldn't settle into it."

I gave up on it after an hour or so myself.

Really? That's interesting. I wonder what it was that just wasn't working for us. I did like the narrator's voice, all deep and furry and refined.

I disliked the Major himself - I didn't care if he changes later, I didn't want to listen to more of his insufferably stiff persona.

I came here from the older threads on the same topic... I was curious to see if anyone had mentioned Josephine Bailey in an audio thread, as I'm listening to The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray, the third book in her trilogy.

In the past, I had to be dragged kicking and screaming to audio books. But one day I got it in my head that I wanted to listen to The Secret Garden so I could really hear what the Yorkshire accent was supposed to sound like. I was so impressed by Josephine Bailey's reading that I sought out more books that she'd narrated. The first Libba Bray book, A Great and Terrible Beauty, really impressed me because there are four main young girl characters, and I could always tell which was speaking even when it wasn't specified. She distinguishes all the main and supporting characters beautifully!

I've since bought some audio books that Ms. Bailey has narrated from ebay, with little regard to the actual content! ;-) I'll be trying some of those next. One is part of the Royal Diaries series -- a diary "by" a young Cleopatra!

I wanted to bump up Three Bags Full, now that I'm nearly done. It's one that definitely works better on audio than it would've in print; narrator is a perfect match for the story!

finished A red death by Walter Mosley.

up next, Walk two moons, a YA book by Sharon Creech. i just like the title. :)

I'm listening to Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas.

Well, I've stopped listening to The Second Objective. Two duds in a row! The writing was getting choppy and I didn't care for the constant profanity.

So I stopped at the library and picked up Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep. Does anyone know if it's good?

#112 i liked it, wisewoman. nice period feel, spare writing and appropriate grittiness. movie's good too. :)

#17 I really enjoyed A Thousand Splendid Suns

Notes from Underground. I was a little hesitant about listening to this in audio because I loved the book back in college but George Guidall is absolutely brilliant reading this. Its funnier than I remember but I do like his interpretation very much.

finished Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison and brought stunningly to life by Lynn Thigpen.

i had interrupted Maisie Dobbs, which i own, to finish this so i can get it back to the library.

to switch from the one back to the other feels a bit jarring but i probably will anyway.

>115 mejix:: mejix,

Notes from the Underground is another one on my To Read list, but I couldn't find the one narrated by Guidall. He does a great job with Notre-Dame de Paris, capturing Hugo's humor nicely. One of the hilarious moments in that book is when a deaf judge interrogates a deaf man.

I sprung for an Audible credit (@ 46 hours, not a bad price) and have begun listening to Christianity: the first three thousand years. Not bad, although the narrator speaks a bit fast.

>117 booksontrial:

Thanks for the tip. Oddly enough I was looking for Les Miserables a couple of weeks ago. Wonder if my library has The Hunchback.

Sorry if this is off-subject, but I am so frustrated and hope someone here can offer some suggestions ~ or at least a soothing word.

I went on Audible last night to redeem my August credit (with The Passage by Justin Cronin) and had a terrible time on the site. First I couldn't get in using my password, so I changed it. Couldn't get in with the changed password either, so I changed it again and finally was able to access My Account ~ which said I didn't have any credits and, in fact, wasn't even on a program (notwithstanding the fact I'm paying a monthly fee AND have an email from Audible saying I have a credit for August AND that I've gotten two audiobooks from them since joining in June)! Wasted an hour futzing around, then send an email to customer service. Am now waiting for a response. Anyone else have problems with their website, or was I just being extra lucky?

hmmmm, storeetllr. have you angered the deities lately? sounds as though the 'kindly,' or if you prefer, 'gracious ones' may be dogging your steps. i've had no trouble but shall, however, keep fingers crossed and be propitiatory. perhaps you should make a few burnt offerings. ;)

l regret and empathize with your distress. i wish you well.

Storeetllr, sometimes modern life is just out to get us. I hope you get the problem resolved.

Regarding Les Miserables, since reading it I've come to believe it is one of the books that would be much better abridged. How many boring pages are there of "rue de blah blah is now rue de blah blah, but once it was rue de blah something else but over a period of years it was changed to be rue de pull my hair out" Unless you're drawing an historical map, I don't really think you need to know that much detail. If the abridgement would remove only such references, it would be well worth it.

oh lord, CJ, i just about fell out of my chair! :D

>119 mejix:: mejix,

If you haven't listened to Les Miserables yet, I'd highly recommend the UNABRIDGED edition narrated by Frederick Davidson (audible link here). It's simply superb, as the rating also shows.

>122 Citizenjoyce:: Citizenjoyce,

Your comment reminded me of a scene from the movie "Amadeus".

EMPEROR: Your work is ingenious. It's quality work. And there are simply too many notes, that's all. Cut a few and it will be perfect.

MOZART: I don't understand. There are just as many notes, Majesty, as are required. Neither more nor less.

wildbill put it nicely in Msg.94: "I hate to have someone else decide for me what is important in a book."

Thanks, all. I got it straightened out. Apparently, now that Audible.com has merged with Amazon.com (!), the log on process is a bit difficult to navigate, and I let it drive me up the wall.

Perhaps I need to read Don't Sweat the Small Stuff or something.

I listened to The Bride by Julie Garwood in entirety today and loved it. It's already one of my favorite romances, but this was the first time I'd listened to the unabridged audio, narrated by Rosalyn Landor who did an excellent job. Highly recommend it for medieval romance lovers, full of humor with a great hero and heroine, one of her best!

>124 booksontrial: thanks for the tip

I'm about to start A Short History of Myth by Karen Armstrong, read by Sandra Burr.

I'm listening to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo read by, Simon Vance.
I am now a Simon Vance convert I see why everyone loves his narration, sometimes you almost think there is a woman narrating the womens voices. He is amazing.
That being said I am at the halfway point and hope this book picks up soon, so far not seeing all the hype.

edt:Grr Touchstones

>122 Citizenjoyce: i can relate to that feeling. must've been fun to write but it gets boring for the reader.

>130 mejix::

It's a mild case of incompatibility.

I finished Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas and it was a nice light read. I'll be starting Homer and Langley by E.L. Doctorow.

I'm just over 1/10th of the way through World Without End, unabridged. Ken Follett is one of my favorite authors so I'm really enjoying it so far. But, at around 50 hours of audio, who knows when I'll get through it!

Now on disc 3 of The Shadow of the Wind.

After 17 years with my current employer, I finish work on September 16th to go back to college. One of the few downsides of my decision is that my main opportunity in life to listen to audiobooks will disappear so this might be the last one for some time :-(.

oh my goodness, grammath. what an adventure. certainly wish you well. :)

I'm finally done listening to The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, narrated by Paul Michael and Justine Eyre. I could barely stand it, and felt like giving up on it many times. Far too wordy, filled with needless and superflous detail. I'm all for historical fiction, but I feel in the case with this story, the detail simply ruined what could have been a good suspenseful tale. Now I'm beginning The Curse of the Pharoahs by Elizabeth Peters narrated by Barbara Rosenblatt.

#135

Thanks, mirrordrum.

Just finished The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by, Stieg Larsson the best part of the book was Simon Vance's narration!

Now listening to Freedom by, Jonathan Franzen lets see if this one lives up to the hype.
TGWTDT didn't!

EDT: to try for touchstones

>>136 ktleyed: - Barbara Rosenblat narrated the very first audiobook I ever listened to: Hippopotamus Pool from that same series. Our daughter is named Amelia and our dog is named Peabody in large part due to that series. I've been addicted to audiobooks ever since.

If you ever see the commercial for Calphalon cookware where an overacted "French" chef inspects the cookware of a male trainee, the French chef is Barbara Rosenblat:)

pbadeer - so far I'm loving it! I read Crocodile on the Sandbank, but have the next few in the series on audio. The writing and humor is so well done, I'm just laughing to myself while on the ellliptical at the gym at Amelia's asides and point of view at everything - she's always right and I love the way Rosenblatt does Ramses cute little voice and lisp - so endearing!

Anyone else think Emerson sounds A LOT like King Friday XIII from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood?

>136 ktleyed: ktleyed: I agree about The Historian. I read somewhere that the author spent 10 years researching the book and it felt like she was determined to get all that research in, often interrupting the plot to do so. It made the book unnecessarily cumbersome. A good editor with a sharp red pencil could have made it a better book.

just finished Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech, which was narrated to perfection by Hope Davis who also knocked Divisadero out of the park. i had thought that was probably a one-off since i don't see her name all that often but it was not! she's exceptionally versatile and really goes WOW in my ears.

i recommend Walk Two Moons in audio without reservation and Hope Davis as a narrator as well.

I'm finding that Sandra Barr reads the very adult A Short History of Myth as if she's explaining things to 1st graders. She sounds pleasant enough but not for this book.

Thanks, Mirrordrum.

I finished off JAWS and now I'm listening to an abridged version of THE IDIOT. Micheal Sheen is an excellent reader as well as actor.

I just finished and loved A Short History of Myth by Karen Armstrong. Now I'll start Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, right off I don't know who reads it.

I finished Homer and Langley by E. L. Doctorow. I thought it was very good. Next up is 1776, narrated by the author, David McCullough. He has a wonderful voice.

In the middle of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and can see what all the excitement is about!

Recently finished and LOVED Innocent by Scott Turow and Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving. I'm now well into House Rules by Jodi Picoult.

I'm listening to The Ruby in the Smoke read by Anton Lesser. He is a fabulous reader. I've heard him before - reading A Christmas Carol - but this is even better. It's a creepy, possibly scary, story and his voice is 'cold' and slightly threatening in the narrative parts; his accents - 'cockney sparrow' and well-educated victorian - are perfect and his women's voices are so good that sometimes I forget it's a man reading. I think he'll go on my list of Readers-to-look-for.

I'm thinking of getting The Passage (unabridged) by Justin Cronin on audio and was wondering if anyone has listened to it yet and, if so, if it's worth using 2 points to get it from Audible.com. Or if it's better in print. Thanks!

Currently enjoying The Red Queen by Phillipa Gregory

Reading the Three Pines mysteries by Louise Penny, read by Ralph Cosham. Wonderful.

>24 awriterspen: awriterspen ~ Just wondering how you are getting on with The Passage, if you've finished and if it continued being really good.

I'm about 10 hours into "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. I read it years ago and it sounds brand new to my ears as read by Scott Brick. Loving it. Keeps my mind occupied while canning tomatoes, tomatoes & tomatoes.......It should last through the applesauce and the corn because it's 62:56:22 long.

>154 Storeetllr:, I loved the beginning of The Passage so I thought this was going to be THE BOOK of the summer, but the middle 2/3 of the book is not very good. The story moved slowly and the characters were difficult to relate to or care about.

I would give the beginning of the book 5 stars, the middle 2 stars, and the end 3.5 stars. This is not a book I'll be recommending to anyone. It really felt like two different authors wrote this book.

Have finished Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich (less manic than "Fifteen") and am working on Pegasus in Space by Anne McCaffrey, an old favorite.

Just finished Jamaica Inn by, Daphne Du Maurier it was wonderful but does it show that I'm a big Harry Potter fan when I thought that some of the characters sound like Hagrid?

Now listening to Linger by, Maggie Stiefvater.

#157- Heyjude- Lorelei King also does the narration for the Mercy Thompson series I just discovered that today amd I see you have them in your library.

>156 awriterspen: Thanks, awriterspen ~ Maybe I'll just borrow it from the library and save my credits for something else. Like The Help, which I heard was awesome on audio.

I'm currently listening to Neil Gaiman read his Fragile Things and enjoying it very much.

#160: Storeetllr- The Help is a fantastic ausiobook!You'll love it!

I'm almost done with The Big Sleep and will be starting a massive listen next with Brandon Sanderson's 36-CD The Way of Kings. I sure hope it's good!

I finished The Curse of the Pharoahs loved it Barbara Roseblat was fantastic as Amelia and now I'm reading Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin narrated by Rosalyn Landor. So far so good, but a little more gruesome than I anticipated.

GRRR ipod with Linger on it froze up have to wait till it dies to reboot it .
But just recieved an ER audio of A Secret Kept by, Tatiana de Rosay from Macmillan Audio so think I'll give that one a listen had to give up on Freedom:A Novel which I also won from Macmillan, I'll go back to it but so far its just not very exciting!

>143 mirrordrum:: mirrordrum's rave for Walk Two Moons narrated by Hope Davis inspired me. Since I've already read that book I chose another read by Davis: Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff. It's a wonderful story about a young girl enmeshed in the foster system who seems to find a family but then something goes wrong.

Hope Davis is one of my favorite actresses with a charming tremulous quality to her voice. I had no idea she narrated books, so thanks Ellie for the heads up! She does a wonderful job with this touching book.

I started Pride and Prejudice, narrated by Emilia Fox, who is doing a wonderful job! I'm sure I've seen her name mentioned here before!

The Arabian Nights, Their Best-Known Tales, again.

I just finished School for Scumbags by Danny King. It's a W.F. Howes/Recorded Books Clipper recording and the narrator (Dave John) did a fantastic job with all of the different London and regional accents. Some of them were so convincing ("wha" for what pops up a lot) I wondered what the original print text showed. Highly recommended

Just starting Ape House by Sara Gruen. I didn't like the narrator at first, but the story is quickly capturing my attention.

i don't know what i was working on when last i visited but in the last week or so have completed several books. um, lessee, completed The fools in town are on our side. as an audio read with the NLS narrator, i gave it a 3.5. the intertwined story lines were difficult for me to keep sorted. i should think it would be a 4 or 4.5 if one could read it visually.

finished Song of Solomon. i wish i'd read this before reading Beloved. Morrison's work has matured tremendously since Song was written and it was a bit of a step backward, though beautifully done. Lynn Thigpen was, as always, a superb narrator.

i just finished Sisterhood of spies: Women of the OSS day before yesterday. i got it from NLS and it was tolerably well narrated by Gabriella Cavallero.

yesterday i reluctantly finished Maisie Dobbs. narrator Rita Barrington is a real treat. not only does she narrate well but at appropriate moments bursts into song in a nice stage soprano. so i got to hear her sing Long way to
Tipperary and There's a rose that grows in no man's land in character. perfect.

today i finished Muriel Spark's short, tormented, mind-warping The driver's seat narrated to perfection, of course, by Dame Judi. she's the perfect narrator for the book, able to draw the listener expertly into madness without ever losing touch, even in the moment of penultimate horror, with Spark's ineluctable wit. she never loses her audience, her timing or her footing. genius!

all the while i have been dabbling, trying to find what i want to listen to next. listening to snippets from Katherine Mansfield's Bliss and other stories, The African-American Audio Experience and Kurt Vonnegut's A man without a country. i've been trying to force myself to get past Flannery O'Connor's persistent use of the word nigger, the only obscenity, or at least epithet, i simply can't tolerate. Marlon James' blog piece on O'Connor has helped some but i still balk. i only want to read two of her pieces: A good man is hard to find and Everything that rises must converge. i have both on an NLS recording of her complete works. i just have to a) find them and 2) suck it up and listen to them.

however, in the interim, i made the delightful mistake of listening to about 2 minutes of The flight of the maidens by Jane Gardam on audible.com. was so delighted that, despite being out of credits, i threw caution to the winds and bought it on the spot. it's my next ipod read. :D

i also have the Quiet American going on the NLS tape recorder and then all those bits and bob on my NLS db recorder. i'm busy!

jeez. this is wordy! well, on the upside, you can just skip right over the whole thing. :)

Just started Pope Joan by Donna Cross - Barbara Rosenblat's narration is wonderful as usual.

I borrowed only the first part of Outlander from the library, and look forward to getting the second part. It's a surprisingly entertaining romance, though it's hard for me to get beyond the cherry and apricot harvesting in the spring, just before the cherry trees blossom.
I'm marking time with Ethan of Athos. I love Bujold, but Grover Gardner has an irritating whiny voice. I've never come across him before, and perhaps I'm over-judging him? He's won multiple awards for his narrations.

>160 Storeetllr: Thanks, Susiesharp: I will look into them. I have heard King do other Evanovich books and it is sometimes disconcerting to hear - or almost hear - a character from the Plum books in something else.

I finished Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin and really loved it. Rosalyn Landor narrated - great job as usual, I'll definitely listen to the rest of the series as well. Now I tackling Into the Wilderness which has been on my TBR lists for years! I hope I like it, but I'm worried I'll be let down, but we shall see!

pbadeer, I'll be reading Pope Joan sometime this month. Now I wish I were listening to it. I hope it's as good as my sister says.

>173 heyjude:-heyjude - I know what you mean I've listened to all the Goldie Bear series by, Diane Mott Davidson on audio narrated by Barbara Rosenblatt and sometimes I have a hard time with other's read by her.
But Lorelei's accents are really different for the Mercy Thompson series you can listen to a clip on audible

I am about half way through The Third Reich at War. This is the third volume in a series that covers the Nazi era from 1920 to 1945. The author is very thorough and the subject matter becomes very grim at times.

i'm only about 1/5th of the way through Jane Gardam's the flight of the maidens and i had to stop and come here to rave about the narrator, June Barrie!

oh, she's marvelous. one of her characters sounds very latter-day Maggie Smith--that sort of voice--but she can also do young women. what a find she is.

here's the page with the audio snippet that, within about 10 seconds, caused me to buy the book.

out of all whooping, she is!

She does sound like Maggie Smith, thanks for the snippet.

I'm listening to Escape by Carol Jessop. Very interesting so far.

This is a wonderful book whether you read it or listen to it. My girls and I have read all her books and listen to at least two.

I just finished The Age of Innocence read by Brenda Dane on Librivox. org. It was wonderful. I love her voice. I am now listening to The House of Mirth and have several others from Librivox on my iPod. I just received When Madeline was Young and I am waiting for The Thirteenth Tale to arrived. I read the book but I thought it would be wonderful to listen to such and engrossing story.

The narrators for The Thirteenth Tale are just divine. Especially the one who does Margaret.

I'm a Jane Gardam fan, and it seems "Flight of the Maidens" is her only work on audio.

The Maisie Dobbs series went through three (!) narrators in the first four books, until settling on one for the rest of the series (Orlagh Cassidy I think).

//184 seajack (love that handle) i've discovered that 4 of Gardam's books are available from NLS so i'm hopeful that i'll find at least 1 narrator i like there.

Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series has had multiple readers as well. the very nerve! ;)

i don't know that i've ever listened to Orlagh Cassidy. great name, though.

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

My 1st post - just finished THE MONSTER IN THE BOX, by Ruth Rendell. Loved it. Before that it was SPIES OF THE BALKANS by Alan Furst. Enjoyed it and look forward to others by him.

I've started Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger, narrated by Simon Vance. Off to rather a slow start, but I'm not sure whether it's the book, or that he's "understating" his tone?

edited next day to add: I've given up on it.

#187 welcome, jourdeprintemps :)

i'm now off to a good start (4 hrs in) with the french lieutenant's woman from NLS. having watched the movie umpteen times, i'm greatly enjoying comparing the two.

i've had a wonderful time googling Lyme and looking at the fossils, the Cobb and the steps. i'd no idea those are The Very Steps that wossname falls down in Persuasion until i read it in the TFLW. i got quite excited about that. i'm so easy.

i confess the book has made me more critical of Streep's portrayal of Sarah in some respects. will have to watch again and see if it's the directing or the acting. SURELY not the acting. ;)

still happily with the flight of the maidens and, what with TFLW being so long and needing concentration, have narrowed my reading list to those two. odd to be reading only 2 books.

oh, well, i am pottering around in LOTR and looking at maps online.

I'm still working on World Without End and my husband just got Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter in the mail today. It will be his first audiobook ever. I hope he enjoys it.

I've just finished The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey and narrated by the sublime Derek Jacobi (though it took me a little bit of time to get used to Jacobi's portrayal of an american character). Finally got to the end of Henning Mankell's The Firewall. It took me a while because I kept on falling asleep and forgetting where I was up to (this is no reflection on the book).

Currently listening to The Neighbor by, Lisa Gardner

I'm listening to Rebecca read by Anna Massey. It's wonderful. I know the book well having read it in print many times and I've seen various film and TV adaptations but it's definitely worth having the audio version.

oh goodness, cdvic, i've got Rebecca downloaded from NLS narrated by Barbara Caruso. i like Caruso but i went and listened to Anna Massey on audible and she's astounding. guess i'll see if i can get it from the library. thanks to you and others who've enthused over her narration.

193: That is one of my all-time favorite audiobooks. Massey is brilliant. I'm glad you're enjoying it!

library has 2 other versions but after listening to Massey, I've decided to use a credit to get it from audible. thanks, everybody. i love a great narrator. well, don't we all. :)

I have settled in nicely to The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith. I think that this is the 11th in his No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series but it really doesn't matter. I listen for Lisette Lecat who brings Mma Ramotswe and the others to impeccable life. She is a master of the art and if I thought that osmosis could make me a better narrator, I would just go back to book one and listen to them all again. And again.

I finally finished Frankenstein by reading it instead of listening to the audiobook which was taking forever. Now I'm on to The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

I finished Little Bee. I liked the reader but not the book. I started Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This is my first audio, for the series and Jim Dale is terrific!

Audible has recently released Freedom From Fear: The American people in Depression and War, 1929-1945. It is a volume in the Oxford History of the United States. I am waiting for next month's credit to get the book and am looking forward to it. I have three other volumes in the series on audio.

I'm now listening to the Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and just finished the Thread that Hangs the Hangman's something-or-other. I love the reader and the character Flavia De Luc. I can see her in my mind based on the wonderful portrayal of the reader.

i just finished Jane Gardam's The flight of the maidens and promptly started it over. June Barrie is now my favorite female narrator, though on the basis of just the one book.

i tell you, she's amazing. the book is one of the few i've ever listened to that's absolutely fully voiced. i was gobsmacked when, after one of the older female characters suffers a stroke that affects one side of her body, Ms. Barrie's voicing of her was done, yes indeed, as though she had had a stroke. i guess she held one side of her mouth closed or stiff and injected weakness via a slight vocal quaver and modulation upwards in register. and this in the midst of a conversation between the woman with the stroke and an 18-year-old! she does it with faultless character switching. i have had an epiphany and am in a state nigh unto worship.

i'm not sure the novel itself was quite a 4 but i was so transported by Barrie that i gave it 4 stars.

i am sufficiently smitten with Gardam that, when i couldn't find anything else of hers in audio except on NLS, all with terribly American narrators who won't do, i tried joining audible.com UK. they have FIVE of her books and they won't let me in, blast 'em.

ah well. i'm lucky to have the one and maybe they'll come round.

i'm also about half way through The french lieutenant's woman. long damn book!

have decided to start Julian Fellowes' Past imperfect despite its length and mixed reviews. i would not have recognized narrator Richard Morant's voice. i'm assuming it's the same Richard Morant who played Bunter to Edward Petherbridge's Wimsey in the 2nd LPW series. he's quite good so far. pleasant voice if nothing else.

Just finished Does My head Look Big In This by, Randa Abdel-Fattah
Now starting The Looking Glass Wars by, Frank Beddor

Mirrordrum 202:

Be patient - I think we'll get those other Gardams at Audible (US) in the near-ish future. I've read The Queen of the Tambourine and loved it. I've been holding off on Old Filth and The Man in the Wooden Hat for audio versions. My library has The Flight of the Maidens on cassettes, which I should try one of these days; I'm kind of wondering how it stacks up against Muriel Spark's The Girls of Slender Means, which seems similar.

As for my own listening ... well ... I just finished part four (of six!) of Christianity: the first three thousand years by Diarmaid MacCullough -- high time for a nice hiatus, which I'm going fill with P. D. James' latest Adam Dalgleish mystery: "Private Patient" read by Rosalyn Landor. Two credits at Amazon, but was available from Overdrive -- woo hoo!

seajack 204 (i like that way of directing the reader to the correct post)

you encourage me. i'm frenzied. i get that way on occasion about inaccessible books. da Buddha was right. attachment is the very devil! well, he didn't say 'devil.' i use the word euphemistically.

in re: Gardam vs. Spark, they're apples and oranges to me. not the same flavour, savor or texture. i find Gardam's wit pleasantly sharp but not Spark-caustic, not biting, nor mean as in A far cry from Kensington, which i loved.

Spark's the better writer, Gardam's the more comfortable, which is neither good nor bad. i probably wouldn't listen to both authors at the same time and i would pick a book by one or the other depending on mood or desire for a particular literary taste, tone or savor.

if i could read them visually, it might be different though both authors do lend themselves beautifully to narration.

//eta oh do try flight of the maidens. i'd be interested in your reaction to both the book and to Barrie.

204: How are you liking Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years? I'm trying to figure out if that would be better in book form or audio form.

205 mirrordrum;

I'm going insane myself over Ruth Dudley Edwards books featuring Ida "Jack" Troutbeck - Audible (both UK and US) seems to have all but the one in the series I really want! It was recorded in 1998 on cassette, so I'm thinking of trying to get the tapes via I. L. L.

206: awriterspen

The Christianity book is VERY ... thorough. As happens sometimes, on the one hand I'm tempted to emphasize that the print version allows for skimming; however, the narrator does a good job dealing with such a wonky subject. If absolutely pushed, I'd say the audio is a better choice, with several "hiatuses" definitely necessary between the parts!

I finished and loved The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie in honor of banned books week and now will start another book for the same challenge Marked by P. C. and Kristin Cast.

How funny, I was going to mention how much I loved the narrator of Part Time Indian and find it was the author himself. He does a good job playing himself.

When I listened to Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years I ended up buying a print copy to keep up with all of the details. I even went to the Wikipedia on occasion. This is such an excellent book and a good reference for many topics I felt it was worthwhile having a print copy. I agree that the narrator is very good and the book is excellent in audio.

I've started The Private Patient by P. D. James, latest in the Adam Dalgleish series, read by Rosalyn Landor. Rather a coup actually: it's 2 credits at Audible, but available via Overdrive!

I finished The Canon and am now onto Field Notes from a Catastrophe.

finally finished NLS' recording of Fowles' the French lieutenant's woman narrated quite well by Stephen Crossly (Crossley?).

this book was recommended to me 40 years ago by a woman whom i greatly esteemed. i should've read it then, i suppose. i enjoyed parts of the book very much and some of the characters, notably Mary, Sam, Mrs. Trantor and Mrs. Poulteney

try as i might, however, i could never get myself to believe in the relationship between Sarah and Charles and Sarah was inscrutable to me.

none of it worked for me and i didn't really like either character because i never felt connected to either except for brief moments. both seemed artificial, as did their relationship. admittedly, Fowles' continual insertion of himself as sometimes creator and sometimes pawn of his characters could account for that.

i had the same problem in the film. i enjoyed the film, but never really felt any chemistry, nor could i understand the attraction, between the two protagonists.

started NLS' Hard Rain
by Janwillem van de Wetering. just what i was looking for. laugh out loud funny and marvelous characters.

i've only read one other van de Wetering some years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. this one's even better, if memory serves.

and it's an old NLS recording from the time George Guidall was recording for NLS as George Guidall-Shapiro.

I just started THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE by David Wroblewski. Am enjoying it very much so far. (dogs can think!)

Previously I was trying to listen to THE RULE OF FOUR by Ian Caldwell. I just couldn't get into it. I think the author was trying to copy The Da Vinci Code. I tried to like it, but it was boring!

>213 JourDePrintemps:
Agreed, about The Rule of Four. (It was boring in print, too.)

egad! partner returned, having kindly swept by library on her way home from work, with Major Pettigrew's last stand, which hath holds, Sherman Alexie's Absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian and June Barrie reading Miss Read's Storm in the Village and The Fairacre Festival. sigh

then last night, ignorant of all these forthcoming blessings, i read 5 or 6 chapters of Small gods by Terry Pratchett on my ipod and i'm blessed if i'll stop now.

so here i am, up to my clavicles yet again with auditory wonders. think i'll start w/ Maj. Pettigrew. lovely.

Can I third 213 and 214? I tried it too and stopped listening out of utter boredom!

I gave up on Major Pettigrew as he was just too brittle a character for my taste (to those who say I didn't give him a full chance: nolo contendere).

As for Fairacre, I listened to the series a few years back, some of which were narrated by actress Sian Phillips (Empress Livia from "I, Claudius") - Mrs Pringle, the school cleaner, was a hoot!

Just loved Major Pettigrew as did both my girls when I lent it to them this summer. Even the one who never reads anything I suggest. But then we are a bunch of Anglophiles.

Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, unabridged on LibriVox, the volunteer audiobook site (www.librivox.com). It has an amusingly varied set of readers, some of whom are skilled and aware how to pronounce Classical names while others don't have a clue. The Euphrates is pronounced /'yu.fraits/ rather than /yu.'frai.tiz/ by half the readers (I can't find the funniest examples). But still I'm very grateful to have the thing to listen too (it's about 100 hours in toto).

Beautifully read, by contrast, is the wonderfully dramatized (but faithful and unabridged) version of Plato's Symposium on the Naxos label (http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=na238312). It's converted quite a few acquaintances from being anti-Plato to regarding him (rightly) as an astonishing writer. Strongly recommended.

I'm listening to John Bedford Lloyd read True Compass and am really enjoying it.

I am deeply entrenched into Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This is my first audio of the series and Jim Dale does an amazing job. How does he keep track of all these voices? It's mind-boggling!

Joanne- I think I'll add True Compass to my audio list!

I'm so excited! I'm listening to Fall of Giants, Ken Follett's new novel. It was just released yesterday. Finally, I am going to read something BEFORE everyone else!

I finished listening to Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati which wasn't bad, but not as great as I'd heard about. Narrated by Kate Reading, who I like a lot and am familiar with her from the Pink Carnation books. I just wasn't swept away by it as I was with Outlander. It didn't have the same kind of depth and richness in the characterizations or plotline. I'm afraid I've been spoiled by Diana Gabaldon! Now I'm beginning on audio The Mummy's Case by Elizabeth Peters, I can't resist another Amelia Peabody mystery - I love them, narrated by Barbara Rosenblat.

I finished Marked by P.C. and Kristin Cast for banned books week. It's about a "vampire finishing school". The challenges to it have ostensibly been for it's sexuality, which is minimal and very girl supportive, but there's a fair amount of anti-christianity, pro-feminine centered religion. I think that's the real reason. I gave it only 3 1/2 stars but liked it enough that now I'm starting on the sequel Betrayed. Maybe one reason I liked it less than I could was the narrator Edwina Wren. The book emphasizes the power of the voice yet the more powerful the woman or goddess in the story the more whispery she was read. Very annoying.

Last night I finished P. D. James' The Private Patient, likely the end of her Dalgleish series. I found it chock full of un-necessary detail; if it came abridged I could recommend that version, but not this one. Rosalyn Landor is a fine narrator, but this book is for hardcore Dalgleish fans (looking for closure) only.

Message 225: Seajack, What kind of unnecessary detail? Silly street names like Victor Hugo which drove me nuts, or medical details, which I would find interesting?

I am listening to Soulless by, Gail Carriger

I plan on reading Soulless later this month. Let us know what you think.

Joyce 226:

Combination of foodie details (I like those myself, but at times she goes into it as though this book were an excuse to do so), as well as extensive background info on (minor) characters. The medical details on the two murders aren't ultimately that important, so there isn't much of that. Basically, it reads like a novel about the private lives of Dalgleish's police team, and those of the story-specific characters, with homicides grafted in to satisfy the genre requirement. If there were to be an abridged version, the trick would be deciding what to keep IN, not what to take OUT!

Off the top of my head here's a (badly recalled/paraphrased example):

"Mrs. So-and-So (B & B landlady where Dalgleish's team stays) made plump sausages, beans and toast for her guests that night. It wasn't what she normally would have served, but she felt they needed something substantial to deal with the day's traumatic events. They were grateful for her understanding, and found that they were, indeed, quite hungry ...."

Who publishes the Anna Massey Rebecca? Is it abridged or unabridged?

Finished up Pegasus in Space last week and started Moon Called by Patricia Briggs.

Susiesharp: Thanks for suggesting the Briggs' books in audio. I had read the books several years ago and have discovered I had forgotten much.. Still not sure King's voice is right for some of the characters but enjoying it nonetheless. :-)

Message 230: shikari

if you're in the US, here's the amazon.com info on various formats of and sources for the recording or check your local library. if you're not in the US, you could presumably follow a similar route for UK, Au or wherever. :)

#230 I got mine from Audible and it's unabridged.

Message 229: Seajack, so don't listen while hungry, huh? Or maybe it would be a good accompaniment to cooking dinner.

Message 231: heyjude- Glad to hear it Jude!
How was Pegasus in Space ?

i just finished Major Pettigrew's last stand and am probably the only person in the world who gave it 3-1/2 rather than 4 or more stars.

at 3 this morning, i tried to write a review, something i almost never attempt. i read it with something akin to horror just now and have removed it from here to see if i can rewrite it. if so, i'll put a link up today--or whenever i can.

Just finished Arabian Nights:Their Best Known Tales. Now I have waiting: Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, The Things They Carried and Tropic of Cancer. All short, luckily.

Now listening to The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. October is the perfect time for spooky!

I finished The Mummy Case another hilarious Amelia Peabody mystery narrated by Barbara Rosenblat, and now I'm listening to First Among Sequels, the last of the Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde narrated by Emily Grey.

I"ve been listening to This Time Together the memoirs of Carol Burnett. It's ok,not very deep, little sections on various aspects of her career. She's a good narrator for her own life story and she does some funny loud segments such as her Tarzan call. It can throw you off if you're not prepared to hear it.

Message 240: alans

LOL! i don't think i'll listen. i can't afford to be thrown off of things. i could end up falling down and hitting my head on something hard. or rolling under the divan. well, if i had a divan.

The reader of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass has a stuffy nose. It is kind of annoying. Hope he gets better on Disk 2.

Just started Freedom From Fear; The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945. This is a volume from the Oxford History of the United States. I have read several other volumes in the series and they were all very good, and all very long.

Paul Hecht's narration of Time and Again by Jack Finney is wonderful. I don't think I've listened to anything else by him.

just finished Terry Pratchett's wonderful Small gods.

am now reading Hard Rain by Janwillem Van De Wetering, Outwitting the Gestapo by Lucie Aubrac, Their eyes were watching god by Zora Neale Hurston and considering starting Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.

that may prove to be too many in which case Fingersmith will be delayed.

//eta tried for the 4th time to read Stone angel by Carol O'conner and simply can't get past the prologue. oh well. too many other books i really want to listen to.

>245 mirrordrum: mirrordrum ~ I used to adore Van De Wetering and his quirky detectives and probably read most if not all of his mysteries back in the 80s, though I don't recall Hard Rain. I'll have to look for his stuff on CD and give a listen sometime. (Coincidentally, I just read a novel titled Hard Rain by Barry Eisler which was also a pretty good mystery but very different and set on the other side of the world.)

On Stone Angel, did you read the earlier mysteries in the series? If not, you may want to start with the first, Mallory's Oracle. Either way, it's hard with an audiobook, but maybe you could just skip the prologue? I only make that suggestion because I loved that series and thought the last (Find Me) was one of the best mystery novels I've ever read.

Message 246: Storeetllr

hard rain is the 11th in the series, iirc, so that may be why you missed it. unfortunately, i don't think any of van de Wetering's books are in commercial audio format, at least in the US. i'm blessed to be able to get them through NLS and i have a stack of them but i'm not reading them in order. i love Grijpstra and de Gier. their colloquies are superb.

in re: stone angel, it was the prologue i enjoyed and the story just sort of dropped like a rock. and no, i've not read any others in the series. i do believe that O'Conner is an author whose work is best read and not heard. it happens.

thanks for the thoughts. :)

I finished Betrayed by P. C. and Kristen Cast. It started out slowly but came up with an interesting unexpected twist. Now I'm on to the third in the House of Night series, Chosen. Sill not liking the narrator, but I do like the stories.

had to drop Outwitting the Gestapo as the 2nd tape had one of those multiple echo things going. not much of a loss, really.

started Flannery O'Conner's Wise blood on a whim since it's short and was right here on my ipod.

I finished THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE. Very sad. Made me cry hysterically in the car (as I was listening to to it). It's a very good story. The author describes the characters extremely well. But if you love animals, and/or get sad easily, maybe you should read the book, as opposed to an audio book. I arrived at work one day with no make up and red swollen eyes.

#225 - Seajack - I felt the same about THE PRIVATE PATIENT. I usually love PD JAMES but that one was a disappointment.

Finished Soulless by, Gail Carriger read by,Emily Gray It was great I really liked it narration was well done too!I would recommend it if you like steampunk/victorian fantasy.

I also finished Forest of Hands and Teeth by, Carrie Ryan read by, Vane Millon which I didn't like I'm still not sure why but this one just didn't do it for me.

I am about half way through with Stormwarden by, Janny Wurts Read by, David Thorpe and I am loving everything about this one!
Love the story and the narration is fabulous!

I'm listening to The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin, narrated by Kate Reading. I finished First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde which was just okay, weakest of the Thursday Next series, in my opinion, though the narration by Emily Gray was fine.

>235 susiesharp: I have been a long-time fan of the "Talents" and "Tower" books, have all in hard copy. Since I consider them old friends, I was very happy with the audio version. But these were originally done by Brilliance Audio and they are usually pretty good (I even have the old cassette version that you flip from speaker to speaker). I would not have been so happy if they had been abridged.

It took awhile to get used to King's voice in Moon Called - but I decided on my way home from Albany today that I will probably try the second in the series as well. :-)

I've recently finished The Planets and a Recorded Books Library Edition of The Pleasure of Finding Things Out.

I also just enjoyed Everyman, Roth's melancholy tale of a New Jersy Ad-man.

Almost finished with Proven Guilty, which took me awhile to get into due to the almost monotone delivery of the reader (don't recall who but will find out if anyone's interested). Then it started to seem as if I'd read it before, which confused me because I'm reading them in order. About halfway through, I realized I hadn't read it before (must have been all the Bam! Pow! Wham! "FUEGO!" and Harry getting beat up like in all his novels), it started to get really good with the plot like an out-of-control locomotive speeding downhill with me clinging to it. Well, more or less.

Next up is either Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Catching Fire, The Lace Reader, or Rebel Angels. Not sure. Any ideas as to which it should be?

ETA "up" as in "beat up."

I absolutely loved The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on audio. I read The Lace Reader in print, so I can't comment on the narration, but between those two I would recommend The Girl.

>Mary- I love your dilemma! Go with either Dragon Tattoo or Catching Fire. I still have The Lace Reader sitting on a shelf.

I'll be starting the audio of American Gods today!

Hah! Two votes for Dragon Tattoo, so I guess I'll go with that for my next audiobook. Thanks! (I love having others make decisions for me. So freeing, in a kind of odd way. lol)

I listened to all the girl books on audio - Simon Vance was perfect! I loved the books!

I'm most of the way through Half Empty by David Rakoff - a collection of essays, in which he occasionally strays over-the-top, but usually makes his point effectively. This one needs his inflection for the audio as I fear the print book might fall flat.

i made the mistake of going to the library when a ride presented itself. no matter how many books are in my queue, i can't leave a library without snatching something i hadn't intended to get.

this time, my eye fell on the razor's edge and i thought i'd just listen to a bit of it--half a cassette or so. never read any Maugham and thought i ought to try.

so now i'm reading Razor's Edge and Hard Rain, which i really love, and Flannery O'Connor's Wise blood.

i'm not sure i'd be reading the latter if it weren't for the narrator, actor Bronson Pinchot. his Tennessee accents are a bit off but he does such a fine dramatic reading that it doesn't really matter.

I set different audio books in each rooms (bedroom, kitchen, den, car etc).
Right now I am listening to the following: The Secret Life of Bees, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Year of Magical Thinking.
I am thinking adding The Joy Luck Club for a finishing touch, but well, I don't know... It will take me forever to finish all.

The Things They Carried. Halfway through. Loving it. Kind of sorry its so short.

Just finished Stormwarden by, Janny Wurts Read by, David Thorpe Great Story Great narration!

Now listening to The Invisible Man by, HG Wells narrated by,James Adams

Starting The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan. It's a decent series, but it's not the best. Still, it's great for relaxing my brain (I'm a grad student and just need to listen to "normal" stuff every now and then...)

Just bought The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson today so I'll probably start that after I've finished with Riordan.

#265 I just finished The Way of Kings! I almost stopped after the first fifth of the book thinking I'd wasted a credit, but I'm so glad I didn't. It takes Sanderson a long time to arrange the setting, but after that I found it mesmerizing and can't wait for the sequel.

Last Call; the Rise and Fall of Prohibition by Daniel Okrent

Just finished The Things They Carried. Excellent book, excellent narrator.

Finished up Moon Called and started Web of the Witch World by Andre Norton. An old favorite and, so far, not too badly read.

Now listening to Careless in Red by, Elizabeth George

>269 heyjude: heyjude ~ I used to devour the Witch World novels by Andre Norton! Lord, it's been 25 years or more since I read them. I wonder if they'd hold up if I read them again today.

>271 Storeetllr: Storeetllr: I became hooked on Norton when in sixth grade and still have my collection (99% complete) of all she had ever done. Surprisingly, a lot still holds up, at least in audio and if you still like fantasy, although I find the language a little - stilted? Archaic? But some of that could be the reader (Nick Podehl).

I'm currently listening to Naked Lunch. Nasty. I can't imagine reading this vs. listening.

Listening to Founding fish and Midnights Children The former is slooooow going for me, the latter is much more rapid. Perhaps because I haven't listened to fiction for a while and its a nice change of pace.

I finished The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin and really liked it, this time read by Kate Reading. Now, I'm listening to Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning. I've read all of her Fever sereis, but thought I'd listen to all the books now, in anticipation of the release of Shadowfever in December.

I finished #3 of the House of Night series, Chosen, now I've started on #4, Untamed.

Finally finished New Yorkby Edward Rutherford. This took me a long time to finish as it was 36 hours. I'm not sorry I listened to it although I did find the book to be too long and slightly repetive (sp?).

I also finished listening to Talking about Detective Fiction by PD James.Listening to this is akin to listening to a college lecture, this is a very thorough study of the history of detective fiction, with a concentration on the British school of writing. Jameshas a lot of very intelligent things to say and you really get a grasp of a lot of writers I had never heard of before, particularly in the "Golden Age" of crime writing, but I found the narrator,Diane Bishop very hard to take in the beginning. She has this clipped BBC accent where she annunciates every word and it sort of drove me crazy.

I was pleasantly surprised by 'Private' from James Patterson and Maxine Paetro. It is narrated by Peter Hermann, who gave a good performance, really accentuating some of the dread, angst, suspense, and ultimate relief of the story.

I enjoyed the idea of 'Private', a high end private detective agency. Ihave listened to a few of Patterson's books in the past, but gave up on Alex Cross time ago. I wouldn't mind listening to more about Jack Morgan and his crew of investigators.

I finished the audio of American Gods and it was a lot of fun. I love Gaiman's imagination. I just started the audio of The Man Who Loved Books Too Much and this looks to be a tailor-made LT book.

Speaking of tailor-made LT books, I just finished Lynn Redgrave's outstanding reading of Inkheart. What an excellent book! It's certainly written primarily for older children and young adults, but I can't imagine thata book lover of any age would be disappointed. Like many great children's books, it has quite a few elements (especially wry comments about book love and book collecting) that seem to be intended for adults to appreciate.

I've started on the sequel, Inkspell, which is read by Brendan Fraser. Many people were disappointed in his reading after falling in love with Lynn Redgrave's (and it was very special). I'm surprisingly pleased with his reading, with the exception of a few bizarre character accents. The story is just as excellent as the first book and I'm looking forward to finishing the trilogy.

SpoonFed: I adored Lynn Redgrave's reading of Inkheart and have listened to several of her other books just for the pleasure of hearing her voice. Since she hadn't read the sequel and since Brendan Fraser was in the disappointing movie, I didn't want to read the sequel. But maybe I should rethink that.

I wasn't expecting to like it at all - I didn't enjoy the movie much and I thought Brendan Fraser was horribly miscast as Mortimer. I also usually prefer British to American readers (not always, but often).

I've managed to listen to quite a bit more of it today, and am now a bit less enthusiastic. I still enjoy it and I'll finish it and pick up Inkdeath, also read by him, to finish off the trilogy - but the weird accents are really starting to grate. Farid sounds like a Russian spy, Dustfinger sounds like Mike Myers, and it's all a bit annoying. When he's just reading passages, I'm generally pretty impressed, but once he starts doing voices things go downhill. I think the story is so good that he can get away with a less than perfect reading, but it is disheartening after the excellence of Inkheart.

I finished Darkfever which I've read but this was my first time on audio. I liked it but wasn't crazy about the way the narrator made Barrons sound. Takes some getting used to. Now I'm going onto the next in the series Bloodfever.

SpoonFed: Just your mentioning the character Dustfinger....and I can hear Redgrave's rendition of him. She actually made him sound like he had dust in his throat! Oh, how I miss her.

Spoonfed: That sounds like my experience with The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy the first one is by Stephen Fry who is wonderful then the rest are by Martin Freeman who played Arthur Dent in the movie he was ok but Stephen was much better.
I also seem to like British readers better than American too I don't know why.

Oh, I didn't know Stephen Fry had read Hitchhikers Guide - I'll have to look out for that one. I love his Harry Potter readings and still sometimes listen to them when I'm feeling a bit blue or can't get to sleep. I imagine he reads everything excellently!

Put aside Web of the Witch World temporarily to do the latest Jack Reacher book, Worth Dying For (Lee Child). Am now looking for excuses to drive places....

I'm listening to Murder in a Cathedral by Ruth Dudley Edwards -- Audible has the entire series available except this one - the one I wanted! So ... I was reduced to getting the cassettes(!) via ILL and hauling out the old Walkman!

Spoonfed: I listened to Harry Potter all the way through this summer unfortunately I live in the US so had to listen to them narrated by Jim Dale he does a good job but would Love to listen to the Stephen Fry version!

I'm actually reading Last Call... in book form. Fascinating but way too much information go do on audio. Cant say enough good things about this book. Every night dinner conversation with hubby becomes animated with things I've learned and our discussions about how prohabition came about and impacted the nation.

If you like espionage, and I usually don't, start listening to the Daniel Silva books. They probably should be read in order, but I've managed to work through many without having done that. John Lee reads several of the books; his characterizations are replete with accents, and drama. Highly recommended addictive listening.

I'm listening to The Lace Reader and enjoying it so far.

I completely bypassed all my audiobook listening plans and, immediately after finishing Proven Guilty, dove right into White Night which is, about halfway through, wonderful! I am loving the "new" Harry Dresden even more than the "old" one.

i've been in one of those irksome phases where nothing held my interest. seems to have happened to others here as well.

jogged myself out of it by starting bloodsucking fiends by Christopher Moore. the narrator is Susan Bennett who is impeccable when she's doing a slightly nasal valley girl vampire and amusing doing everything else.

i'd started you suck: a love story by Moore on the strength of Bennett's narration and then discovered it wasn't the first in the trilogy so ditched it and got 'fiends.'

the only vampire novel I'd ever read, or ever intended to read, was Dracula, which i read several times. Moore's crackpot humor has hooked me, though. i imagine i'll be reading his books alternating with Terry Pratchett's.

as a counter to Moore's craziness, i'm still reading the razor's edge. it doesn't go wow! in my ears but it keeps drawing me back and i'm enjoying the pace.

somehow got into The hunger games and read it very fast. i stretched a point giving it a 3-star rating. had some real problems with it but will probably read the series for some strange reason. it's brainless, if not bloodless, trash fiction, imo, but it's something to listen to when i can't sleep and also can't really attend to anything else.

i'm almost through with Janwillem van de Wetering's Hard Rain. i love his characters and their dialogues. he has a marvelous sense of humor.

i've started Anne of Green Gables thanks to whomever first mentioned it either here or on NarratorLady's thread. it's a book to wrap oneself up in. how have i missed this up till now? blessings on those who enthused about it.

it has a fine narrator from NLS. something about it reminds me of the good feeling i got from City of Bells by Elizabeth Goudge. I'm savouring it.

although it's OT for this list, i'd like to mention Harriet Doerr. i'm reading a large print copy of Consider this, Señora a few paragraphs a day as i couldn't find an audio version. i cannot recommend her highly enough. i listened to the audio version of Stones for Ibarra from NLS and determined to read everything of hers i can find in an accessible format. what a remarkable talent.

I probably wasn't one to praise the Anne of Green Gables audiobook as I have not heard it myself, but I absolutely love the book and series, and I'm glad you're enjoying it too, mirrordrum! :)

I'm listening to A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett, read by Stephen Briggs. It's wonderful.

I just finished Careless in Red by, Elizabeth George it was ok just entirely too many irrelevent characters.
I'm either going to start A Wrinkle in Time by,Madeline L'Engle or One crazy Summer by, Rita Williams-Garcia

EDT:Why are touchstones being wonky again??

If you listen to A Wrinkle In Time read by the author, plan on having to cringe through her "nails on the blackboard" voice for the whole book. I have to say, I was not fond of the book, but it's 100% better if you read it yourself.

Oh yikes I don't want that is there another version?

I don't know. That's the one I got stuck with.

Yep I looked and that is the one I downloaded from the library and I looked on audible and that must be the only one and the whole series is narrated by her.I'll give it a try after I finish One Crazy Summer if I don't like it i'll just have to read them.

#297: I believe that Barbara Caruso also recorded A Wrinkle in Time. IMHO she is one of the best.

Thanks Narrator Lady when I searched for cd's instead of the downoads I was able to find that one!..I just wish when you get audio through overdrive from the library that when your done you could check them back in but you have to wait till your check out time is up to get more.

I'm listening to a Harlan Coben - one of his Mylon Bolitar ones. I think I'm on the last one narrated by Marosz, so don't know what I'll do about listening to the rest of the series. Probably won't - will probably read it with my eyes.

I listened to Anne of Green Gables and enjoyed re-visiting a favorite. I have also listened to A Wrinkle in Time but not the one narrated by the author. After Wrinkle, I couldn't find the others in the series narrated by anyone except the author, and I refuse to put up with her voice. It grates on me from the get-go. I wonder if her estate would let someone else narrate it?

Penn

Billy Budd by Melville. The prose is convoluted. The reader is in a rush. He tries to do the longer sentences in one breath. Not sure I want to do Moby Dick in audiobook. I find this book interesting though. Its a good thing it is only three disks.

I'm listening to The Wordy Shipmates read by the author Sarah Vowell in her funny little voice and several other normal sounding actors. It's a real treat.

I'm currently enjoying David McCullough's 1776 read by the author. I remember being disappointed that he didn't narrate his biography of John Adams, so this is a real treat.

I finished Day After Night by Anita Diamant read very well by Dagmara Dominczyk. Her Polish? accent added a touch of realism to the voices of the women refugees from Nazism.

Now I've started Remarkable Creatures read by Charlotte Parry and Susan Lyons who reflect well the voices of 19th century British fossil hunters.

Just finished Wolf Hall by, Hilary Mantel narrated by, Simon Slater he was excellent and his mastery of the different voices helped me keep all the characters straight.

Now listening to Keeper of the Keys by, Janny Wurts narrated by the wonderful David Thorpe.

Just a friendly reminder that we started the next thread (#9) a while ago

Here's the portal to #9 Thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/101620