Book Logging: Audiobooks
Dec. 22nd, 2019 01:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rck(2 of 4)
El-Mohtar, Amal and Max Gladstone. This Is How You Lose the Time War - audiobook read by Cynthia Farrell and Emily Woo Zeller. I think that this needed more attention than I had available when I listened to it. I lost track of which narrator was which character and of which threads went with which character. I didn't dislike the book; I just missed a lot of details and didn't have an easy way to go back and check any of them. I'm not sure that it mattered that I couldn't track which faction each character belonged to or which bits of story went with which as those things didn't really matter much in the end. They mattered but not emotionally.
Emrys, Ruthanna. Deep Roots - Audiobook read by Gabra Zackman. This is a sequel to Winter Tide. I liked the reader and appreciated the effort put into keeping non-human names and vocabulary consistent in pronunciation. That's more work than it sounds like. I lost some threads of the story because it took me three checkouts to finish listening to it via Overdrive. It's hard listening to something when I know that none of the outcomes are going to be better than compromises which leave the characters I like lacking things they'd hoped for.
Funaro, Gregory. Watch Hollow - Audiobook read by Reba Buhr. This was a kids' book aimed at creepy with a family relocating for the summer to an isolated and crumbling house because the father gets hired to fix a very large and very odd clock. There are ghosts and magical creatures, and there's a lot of the kids screwing up and making things harder because they don't have the information and/or don't believe the information they have. I mostly finished listening to this because I was feeling stubborn, and I can't actually remember how it resolved because it's been months.
Graff, Lisa. The Great Treehouse War - Audiobook read by Ariana Delawari and others. The main point on which this kids' book hits SF/fantasy is the rather spectacular treehouse that the main character has. It's well enough appointed that she and several friends can hole up in there for a considerable portion of the summer and refuse to come out until their demands are met. It's not easy, and some of the kids want things that there's no way they'll get. The main character, though, is dealing with family problems that really need resolution because her parents are being terrible. I didn't doubt that things would work out for everybody, so I enjoyed the ride.
Greenblatt, Stephen. Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics - Audiobook read by Edoardo Ballerini. I quite frankly remember nothing from this book. I didn't make notes at the time, but I think it was just background noise most of the time because I didn't find the arguments compelling/interesting.
Gutman, Dan. Mission Unstoppable - Audiobook read by Michael Goldstrom. I didn't love the performance; it felt choppy in ways that highlighted the weakness of the prose/characterization. I hadn't had high expectations for a kids' book featuring twins named Coke and Pepsi having road trip and spy shenanigan adventures, though, and I was sick, so I went on anyway. I'm unlikely to read more in the series since the library doesn't have them as audiobooks. They're not worth the effort.
Heyer, Georgette. Venetia - Audiobook read by Phyllida Nash. I’m not entirely enamored of the reader’s voice, but there wasn’t anything about it that actually put me off. It just didn’t add anything for me. Venetia is not a Heyer that I have reread much at all, and it’s been years, at least since Cordelia was born and possibly longer. I enjoyed this as an audiobook, though.
Kingfisher, T. The Twisted Ones - Audiobook read by Hillary Huber. I don’t read much horror, but I like Kingfisher’s work, generally, so I thought I’d try it. There’s a strong thread of exasperated humor running through the narrative that grounds it and also makes it a ‘sucky things suck, but they happen.’ It’s not that the horrors aren’t terrible/scary; it’s that they’re interspersed with very mundane things that don’t vanish. The dog was very much a dog, and he survived.
Korman, Gordon. No More Dead Dogs - Audiobook read by various narrators (alternating points of view). I went away from this for something like a year about three chapters in. I’m not sure that the whole thing would have made more sense without that, but it might have. One of the characters is considered a football star based on a single amazing play the year before. He gets detention for refusing to write a paper praising the English teacher’s favorite book and ends up with an open ended detention working on the school play which is an adaptation of that book. I don’t think there’s a single character I didn’t want to shake for making unsupported assumptions.
L'Engle, Madeleine. A Wrinkle in Time - Audiobook read by the author. Listening to the author reading a book is kind of fascinating because it reveals the parts they think are most important. L'Engle doesn't do a bad job with the reading, but she's clearly not a professional voice actor. Beyond that, A Wrinkle in Time has never been one of my favorite books. I didn't happen upon it at the right time in my life, so I read it first as a book that was vastly important to good friends but not as something that I connected with strongly.
Madden, Thomas. Medieval Mysteries: The History Behind the Myths of the Middle Ages - Lecture series. These lectures discussed different versions of the stories and why they became popular and whose interests each served.
McCall Smith, Alexander. The House of Unexpected Sisters - Audiobook read by Lisette Lecat. This is number umpity-ump in a long series and is not the place to start. I'm still enjoying the books, and I like the reader a good bit, but a large part of these books rests on knowing the cast of characters well and being able to pick up on the subtext.
McCall Smith, Alexander. The Colors of All the Cattle - Audiobook read by Lisette Lecat. This is the next in the series after The House of Unexpected Sisters. I wouldn't call this a mystery. I very briefly thought that there might be a shake-up in the status quo of the setting and the characters, but I was wrong.
McManus, Karen M. One of Us Is Lying - Audiobook read by Kim Mai Guest, MacLeod Andrews, Shannon McManus, and Robbie Daymond. The performances here are quite good with each POV distinct. I think I enjoyed this more as an audiobook than I would have in text. This is a YA murder mystery that starts with five kids in detention. One of them dies, clearly murdered, and the other four have to deal with being suspects. I didn't feel like the solution to the mystery was particularly surprising, but it was well constructed, and I liked the characters and how they grew through the story. The set up is very Breakfast Club which may be a deal breaker for some readers.
Milford, Kate. Greenglass House - Audiobook read by Chris Henry Coffey. I lost large chunks of this narrative to wandering attention and think I might have liked it better if I'd followed better. This is a strangers-snowed-in-at-a-remote-location story from the point of view of son of the family that owns the hotel. They weren't expecting guests and suddenly have a full house. I think that part of my problem was that I missed worldbuilding details that might have given me better orientation in terms of what clues were important. I'm kind of vaguely curious about the sequels, but the library doesn't have them as audiobooks, and I definitely don't care enough to try to deal with a physical book or an ebook.
Milne, A.A. The Collected Stories of Winnie-the-Pooh - Full cast audiobook. This wasn't bad, but I kept feeling like it was off because I'm used to the Disney voices. I kind of got used to the voices by the end, but listening never quite got comfortable.
Munroe, Randall. How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real World Problems - Audiobook read by Wil Wheaton. The first few minutes of this didn't work for me because they seemed so mundane. The bizarre and the ridiculous come later on and keep going until the end of the book. I listened to this twice because Scott wanted to hear it, too. I had it through Overdrive, and it's just a bit over six hours long. I think Scott enjoyed it more than I did, but I had to keep suggesting that we listen to more of it because he forgot.
El-Mohtar, Amal and Max Gladstone. This Is How You Lose the Time War - audiobook read by Cynthia Farrell and Emily Woo Zeller. I think that this needed more attention than I had available when I listened to it. I lost track of which narrator was which character and of which threads went with which character. I didn't dislike the book; I just missed a lot of details and didn't have an easy way to go back and check any of them. I'm not sure that it mattered that I couldn't track which faction each character belonged to or which bits of story went with which as those things didn't really matter much in the end. They mattered but not emotionally.
Emrys, Ruthanna. Deep Roots - Audiobook read by Gabra Zackman. This is a sequel to Winter Tide. I liked the reader and appreciated the effort put into keeping non-human names and vocabulary consistent in pronunciation. That's more work than it sounds like. I lost some threads of the story because it took me three checkouts to finish listening to it via Overdrive. It's hard listening to something when I know that none of the outcomes are going to be better than compromises which leave the characters I like lacking things they'd hoped for.
Funaro, Gregory. Watch Hollow - Audiobook read by Reba Buhr. This was a kids' book aimed at creepy with a family relocating for the summer to an isolated and crumbling house because the father gets hired to fix a very large and very odd clock. There are ghosts and magical creatures, and there's a lot of the kids screwing up and making things harder because they don't have the information and/or don't believe the information they have. I mostly finished listening to this because I was feeling stubborn, and I can't actually remember how it resolved because it's been months.
Graff, Lisa. The Great Treehouse War - Audiobook read by Ariana Delawari and others. The main point on which this kids' book hits SF/fantasy is the rather spectacular treehouse that the main character has. It's well enough appointed that she and several friends can hole up in there for a considerable portion of the summer and refuse to come out until their demands are met. It's not easy, and some of the kids want things that there's no way they'll get. The main character, though, is dealing with family problems that really need resolution because her parents are being terrible. I didn't doubt that things would work out for everybody, so I enjoyed the ride.
Greenblatt, Stephen. Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics - Audiobook read by Edoardo Ballerini. I quite frankly remember nothing from this book. I didn't make notes at the time, but I think it was just background noise most of the time because I didn't find the arguments compelling/interesting.
Gutman, Dan. Mission Unstoppable - Audiobook read by Michael Goldstrom. I didn't love the performance; it felt choppy in ways that highlighted the weakness of the prose/characterization. I hadn't had high expectations for a kids' book featuring twins named Coke and Pepsi having road trip and spy shenanigan adventures, though, and I was sick, so I went on anyway. I'm unlikely to read more in the series since the library doesn't have them as audiobooks. They're not worth the effort.
Heyer, Georgette. Venetia - Audiobook read by Phyllida Nash. I’m not entirely enamored of the reader’s voice, but there wasn’t anything about it that actually put me off. It just didn’t add anything for me. Venetia is not a Heyer that I have reread much at all, and it’s been years, at least since Cordelia was born and possibly longer. I enjoyed this as an audiobook, though.
Kingfisher, T. The Twisted Ones - Audiobook read by Hillary Huber. I don’t read much horror, but I like Kingfisher’s work, generally, so I thought I’d try it. There’s a strong thread of exasperated humor running through the narrative that grounds it and also makes it a ‘sucky things suck, but they happen.’ It’s not that the horrors aren’t terrible/scary; it’s that they’re interspersed with very mundane things that don’t vanish. The dog was very much a dog, and he survived.
Korman, Gordon. No More Dead Dogs - Audiobook read by various narrators (alternating points of view). I went away from this for something like a year about three chapters in. I’m not sure that the whole thing would have made more sense without that, but it might have. One of the characters is considered a football star based on a single amazing play the year before. He gets detention for refusing to write a paper praising the English teacher’s favorite book and ends up with an open ended detention working on the school play which is an adaptation of that book. I don’t think there’s a single character I didn’t want to shake for making unsupported assumptions.
L'Engle, Madeleine. A Wrinkle in Time - Audiobook read by the author. Listening to the author reading a book is kind of fascinating because it reveals the parts they think are most important. L'Engle doesn't do a bad job with the reading, but she's clearly not a professional voice actor. Beyond that, A Wrinkle in Time has never been one of my favorite books. I didn't happen upon it at the right time in my life, so I read it first as a book that was vastly important to good friends but not as something that I connected with strongly.
Madden, Thomas. Medieval Mysteries: The History Behind the Myths of the Middle Ages - Lecture series. These lectures discussed different versions of the stories and why they became popular and whose interests each served.
McCall Smith, Alexander. The House of Unexpected Sisters - Audiobook read by Lisette Lecat. This is number umpity-ump in a long series and is not the place to start. I'm still enjoying the books, and I like the reader a good bit, but a large part of these books rests on knowing the cast of characters well and being able to pick up on the subtext.
McCall Smith, Alexander. The Colors of All the Cattle - Audiobook read by Lisette Lecat. This is the next in the series after The House of Unexpected Sisters. I wouldn't call this a mystery. I very briefly thought that there might be a shake-up in the status quo of the setting and the characters, but I was wrong.
McManus, Karen M. One of Us Is Lying - Audiobook read by Kim Mai Guest, MacLeod Andrews, Shannon McManus, and Robbie Daymond. The performances here are quite good with each POV distinct. I think I enjoyed this more as an audiobook than I would have in text. This is a YA murder mystery that starts with five kids in detention. One of them dies, clearly murdered, and the other four have to deal with being suspects. I didn't feel like the solution to the mystery was particularly surprising, but it was well constructed, and I liked the characters and how they grew through the story. The set up is very Breakfast Club which may be a deal breaker for some readers.
Milford, Kate. Greenglass House - Audiobook read by Chris Henry Coffey. I lost large chunks of this narrative to wandering attention and think I might have liked it better if I'd followed better. This is a strangers-snowed-in-at-a-remote-location story from the point of view of son of the family that owns the hotel. They weren't expecting guests and suddenly have a full house. I think that part of my problem was that I missed worldbuilding details that might have given me better orientation in terms of what clues were important. I'm kind of vaguely curious about the sequels, but the library doesn't have them as audiobooks, and I definitely don't care enough to try to deal with a physical book or an ebook.
Milne, A.A. The Collected Stories of Winnie-the-Pooh - Full cast audiobook. This wasn't bad, but I kept feeling like it was off because I'm used to the Disney voices. I kind of got used to the voices by the end, but listening never quite got comfortable.
Munroe, Randall. How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real World Problems - Audiobook read by Wil Wheaton. The first few minutes of this didn't work for me because they seemed so mundane. The bizarre and the ridiculous come later on and keep going until the end of the book. I listened to this twice because Scott wanted to hear it, too. I had it through Overdrive, and it's just a bit over six hours long. I think Scott enjoyed it more than I did, but I had to keep suggesting that we listen to more of it because he forgot.
