Book Logging: Audiobooks
Dec. 22nd, 2019 12:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckThis is the first part of several. I got the authors, A-D, here, but my list runs another eight pages, so I assume there will be at least another three posts for audiobooks.
August, John. Arlo Finch in the Lake of the Moon - Audiobook read by James Patrick Cronin. This is the second book in the series. Some things in this book build on things established in book 1, but the plots in both books stand alone moderately well. The loose story threads left are all distant enough that the endings are satisfying. This volume has the hero and his friends going to camp and having more magical adventures.
Baptiste, Tracey. The Jumbies - Audiobook read by Robin Miles. This was a short book, and I think I followed the plot pretty well, but I had the sense that I was missing a lot of assumed context. This is a kids’ book with fantasy elements in terms of monsters and spirits in the woods and the waters. The reviews say that this is a retelling of a Haitian fairy tale which I expect explains my feeling that I was missing context.
Berry, Julie. The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place - Audiobook read by Jayne Entwhistle. I enjoyed this one enough to pursue it even when I got interrupted in the middle of listening to it via Overdrive. Fortunately, I could get it from the library on CD to finish it without waiting longer for the Overdrive copy to be available. The laptop troubles complicated things, but I came back to it. The idea is that the headmistress of a small, Victorian boarding school and her brother keel over at dinner one night, obviously poisoned. The girls decide to cover up the deaths in order to avoid being sent home and separated from each other. The lies and such pile up, and they all know that they need to figure out who the murderer is.
Bujold, Lois McMaster. The Flowers of Vashnoi - Audiobook read by Grover Gardner. A novella in the Vorkosigan series, focused on Ekaterin. This felt slight. It was still well written and engaging, but there wasn't a lot there to hold onto.
Bujold, Lois McMaster. Penric and the Shaman; Penric's Fox; Penric's Mission; Mira's Last Dance; Prisoner of Limnos - Audiobooks read by Grover Gardner. I enjoyed all of these. Penric and Desdemona are characters I like spending time with, and I've gotten quite comfortable with Grover Gardner's narration. These are also all short enough that, when I get them via Overdrive, I know that I can finish them before the two weeks end.
Chambers, Becky. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet - Audiobook read by Rachel Dulude. I enjoyed the slice of life, character exploration bits of this. The sudden arrival of life or death plot was like falling into a different book entirely. It reminded me a lot of those Mercedes Lackey books that meander through everyday life in Valdemar and then jam a major conflict/plot into the last forty pages in such a way that it's an unwelcome interruption to a book that had been enjoyable.
Chokshi, Roshani. Aru Shah and the End of Time - Audiobook read by Soneela Nankani. Part of the Rick Riordan Presents series. I quite enjoyed this book. It's got enough information on the culture and traditions it's drawing on to be comprehensible by a reader (me) who's got little background knowledge. I liked the two kids (both girls!) and the effort they put into applying things they knew and into figuring out the things they didn't. I don't think there's anything mold breaking here in terms of plot, but there doesn't really need to be. I had fun. I think that the target audience (middle grade readers, probably) will have fun. I'm looking forward to the sequel.
Christie, Agatha. The Last Seance - BBC audioplay adaptation. Half an hour long. I don't think I'd have stuck with this if it had been even a little bit longer as I almost didn't stick with it at this length. This was horror and kind of... I'm not entirely sure what happened in it or what I was supposed to think happened, but I didn't feel like whatever it was actually landed right. Contains a mother talking about witnessing the injury and death of her daughter.
Clare, Gwendolyn. Ink, Iron and Glass; Mist, Metal and Ash - Audiobooks read by Lauren Fortgang. I'm not sure if I missed some offhand world building here or not because the setting is a magical alternate history with a 19th century Europe that looks a lot like ours did. The part I missed was how long the magic has been around; parts of it imply a long history, but the political picture doesn't fit well with that. The magic is in three areas: alchemy, mechanism, and scriptology. Most people who've got the talent only have it in one of the three areas and can't make the other two work for them. Very rare people, known as polymaths, can manage all three. Scriptology involves creating, accessing, and editing universes by writing about them. The main character comes from the only (known) inhabited world created by scriptology. The conflict centers on someone having managed to create a Worldbook for Earth and someone else intending to use it for terrorist purposes.
Clements, Andrew. In Harm’s Way - Audiobook read by Keith Nobbs. Part 4 of Keepers of the School. This has some kids trying to save their school from a company that wants to put up an amusement park on the land it occupies. There are 5 books in the series, none of them very long (each audiobook runs about 3 hours). I'm having trouble because the pacing feels off to me and because the POV character does boat races that get as much detail as anything school related. At any rate, I'm withholding judgment until I see how the series ends in the next volume.
Clements, Andrew. We Hold These Truths - Audiobook read by Keith Nobbs. Part 5 of Keepers of the School. This is the end of the story, and it all comes out okay. I’m not sure that the final reveal works, but then I’m also dubious that a building like this school wouldn’t have some sort of protected status that would’ve blocked the plot to begin with.
Clements, Andrew. A Week in the Woods - Audiobook read by Ron Livingston. A boy transfers to a new school in February and has conflicts with some of his teachers. His class goes on a camping trip near the end of the school year, and the difficulties he has with one particular teacher lead to the two of out in the wilderness and relying on each other.
Dare, Tessa. The Governess Game - Audiobook read by Mary Jane Wells. Listening to romance novels is awkward. First, I can't do it while Cordelia's home. Second, I can't skim the sex scenes. I was vastly more interested in the heroine's interactions with the two girls she was teaching than I was in the sex scenes. I liked the hero and heroine, generally, but there was a void where there ought to have been a gazillion walk on characters as part of the backdrop. I'm not asking for biographies for every servant or passerby; I just want to feel like there are other people in the world besides the ones who are immediately plot important. Part of the point of an historical romance is that the story is embedded in a setting with parameters that affect the characters.
Duncan, Mike. The Storm Before the Storm - Audiobook read by the author. This is mostly material covered by the author's podcast, The History of Rome, but the book focuses on a smaller time span than the podcast did. It covers the century or so before Julius Caesar. There're a lot of details of the politics. Almost everyone dies horribly.
August, John. Arlo Finch in the Lake of the Moon - Audiobook read by James Patrick Cronin. This is the second book in the series. Some things in this book build on things established in book 1, but the plots in both books stand alone moderately well. The loose story threads left are all distant enough that the endings are satisfying. This volume has the hero and his friends going to camp and having more magical adventures.
Baptiste, Tracey. The Jumbies - Audiobook read by Robin Miles. This was a short book, and I think I followed the plot pretty well, but I had the sense that I was missing a lot of assumed context. This is a kids’ book with fantasy elements in terms of monsters and spirits in the woods and the waters. The reviews say that this is a retelling of a Haitian fairy tale which I expect explains my feeling that I was missing context.
Berry, Julie. The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place - Audiobook read by Jayne Entwhistle. I enjoyed this one enough to pursue it even when I got interrupted in the middle of listening to it via Overdrive. Fortunately, I could get it from the library on CD to finish it without waiting longer for the Overdrive copy to be available. The laptop troubles complicated things, but I came back to it. The idea is that the headmistress of a small, Victorian boarding school and her brother keel over at dinner one night, obviously poisoned. The girls decide to cover up the deaths in order to avoid being sent home and separated from each other. The lies and such pile up, and they all know that they need to figure out who the murderer is.
Bujold, Lois McMaster. The Flowers of Vashnoi - Audiobook read by Grover Gardner. A novella in the Vorkosigan series, focused on Ekaterin. This felt slight. It was still well written and engaging, but there wasn't a lot there to hold onto.
Bujold, Lois McMaster. Penric and the Shaman; Penric's Fox; Penric's Mission; Mira's Last Dance; Prisoner of Limnos - Audiobooks read by Grover Gardner. I enjoyed all of these. Penric and Desdemona are characters I like spending time with, and I've gotten quite comfortable with Grover Gardner's narration. These are also all short enough that, when I get them via Overdrive, I know that I can finish them before the two weeks end.
Chambers, Becky. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet - Audiobook read by Rachel Dulude. I enjoyed the slice of life, character exploration bits of this. The sudden arrival of life or death plot was like falling into a different book entirely. It reminded me a lot of those Mercedes Lackey books that meander through everyday life in Valdemar and then jam a major conflict/plot into the last forty pages in such a way that it's an unwelcome interruption to a book that had been enjoyable.
Chokshi, Roshani. Aru Shah and the End of Time - Audiobook read by Soneela Nankani. Part of the Rick Riordan Presents series. I quite enjoyed this book. It's got enough information on the culture and traditions it's drawing on to be comprehensible by a reader (me) who's got little background knowledge. I liked the two kids (both girls!) and the effort they put into applying things they knew and into figuring out the things they didn't. I don't think there's anything mold breaking here in terms of plot, but there doesn't really need to be. I had fun. I think that the target audience (middle grade readers, probably) will have fun. I'm looking forward to the sequel.
Christie, Agatha. The Last Seance - BBC audioplay adaptation. Half an hour long. I don't think I'd have stuck with this if it had been even a little bit longer as I almost didn't stick with it at this length. This was horror and kind of... I'm not entirely sure what happened in it or what I was supposed to think happened, but I didn't feel like whatever it was actually landed right. Contains a mother talking about witnessing the injury and death of her daughter.
Clare, Gwendolyn. Ink, Iron and Glass; Mist, Metal and Ash - Audiobooks read by Lauren Fortgang. I'm not sure if I missed some offhand world building here or not because the setting is a magical alternate history with a 19th century Europe that looks a lot like ours did. The part I missed was how long the magic has been around; parts of it imply a long history, but the political picture doesn't fit well with that. The magic is in three areas: alchemy, mechanism, and scriptology. Most people who've got the talent only have it in one of the three areas and can't make the other two work for them. Very rare people, known as polymaths, can manage all three. Scriptology involves creating, accessing, and editing universes by writing about them. The main character comes from the only (known) inhabited world created by scriptology. The conflict centers on someone having managed to create a Worldbook for Earth and someone else intending to use it for terrorist purposes.
Clements, Andrew. In Harm’s Way - Audiobook read by Keith Nobbs. Part 4 of Keepers of the School. This has some kids trying to save their school from a company that wants to put up an amusement park on the land it occupies. There are 5 books in the series, none of them very long (each audiobook runs about 3 hours). I'm having trouble because the pacing feels off to me and because the POV character does boat races that get as much detail as anything school related. At any rate, I'm withholding judgment until I see how the series ends in the next volume.
Clements, Andrew. We Hold These Truths - Audiobook read by Keith Nobbs. Part 5 of Keepers of the School. This is the end of the story, and it all comes out okay. I’m not sure that the final reveal works, but then I’m also dubious that a building like this school wouldn’t have some sort of protected status that would’ve blocked the plot to begin with.
Clements, Andrew. A Week in the Woods - Audiobook read by Ron Livingston. A boy transfers to a new school in February and has conflicts with some of his teachers. His class goes on a camping trip near the end of the school year, and the difficulties he has with one particular teacher lead to the two of out in the wilderness and relying on each other.
Dare, Tessa. The Governess Game - Audiobook read by Mary Jane Wells. Listening to romance novels is awkward. First, I can't do it while Cordelia's home. Second, I can't skim the sex scenes. I was vastly more interested in the heroine's interactions with the two girls she was teaching than I was in the sex scenes. I liked the hero and heroine, generally, but there was a void where there ought to have been a gazillion walk on characters as part of the backdrop. I'm not asking for biographies for every servant or passerby; I just want to feel like there are other people in the world besides the ones who are immediately plot important. Part of the point of an historical romance is that the story is embedded in a setting with parameters that affect the characters.
Duncan, Mike. The Storm Before the Storm - Audiobook read by the author. This is mostly material covered by the author's podcast, The History of Rome, but the book focuses on a smaller time span than the podcast did. It covers the century or so before Julius Caesar. There're a lot of details of the politics. Almost everyone dies horribly.
