Category: audiobooks

What I’ve Been Listening to…

~ Wendy-Marie ~ Leave a comment

I might not have the coolest job in the world. Some days I might collect paper cuts like Pokemon. But I can listen to my iPod all day long. And when I’m not listening to podcasts or trying not to sing along with Duran Duran, David Bowie or Skinny Puppy, I listen to audiobooks. Lovely, glorious audiobooks. Well, not every audiobook is for me (see the blog post about my issue with some audiobook narrators) but I’m willing to give most audiobooks a try to help whittle away the work day.

Something went very right in Library Land this past week because I received e-mails audiobooks I put on hold via OverDrive Media were finally mine. Well, mine for seven days. And lunge for my iPod and download away I went.

Now this might seem logical to the average person but unless you of very stern stuff it’s not the best idea to start listening to Max Brooks’ World War Z on your way to work around 5 am. Especially when you’re driving down lonely back country roads and you’re the only person on the road. You will freak the flip out when a cat slinks across the road. But once you’ve gotten safely to work, put the electric kettle on for your first cups of tea and it’s just you and a security guard down the hall? World War Z is amazing. I hadn’t been at work more than twenty minutes when I went online, found the cast list, printed it out and stuck it next to my monitor as I tackled Work Drawer Everest. I have never done that with an audiobook before. Looked up a narrator? Yes  I’ve done that before. I like knowing what other books a reader has done if I recognize their voice.

But World War Z? Oh my great Tulu the talent! I might have swooned (okay I did) when Jürgen Prochnow started his chapter. (Blacklight: “That’s it! You’re banned from watching Dune ever again!” Me: <ignores Blacklight as she creeps over to the DVD cupboard to find In the Mouth of Madness>). Sadly I didn’t realize until too late I was listening to the abridged audiobook of World War Z. I loathe abridged audiobooks something awful. But worry not! I am so getting the 10 disc unabridged version from the library this weekend if the snow ever freaking stops. Stupid New England winter weather…

Still rather bummed I didn’t get to listen to some of my favorite World War Z stories (if you can listen to feral child Sharon’s story and not cry? You are a monster! Or my brother Andy…), I moped around on Mr Couch once I got home. Then I checked my email. What did I find? Besides Groupon offering deals on wine and vineyard tours. Groupon…I don’t drink!!!!!! I had 48 hours to snap up the second hold I had placed weeks ago. If there is a land speed record for Overdrive Media sign in and downloads on an iPod? I might have set a new record.  The next morning when I logged into my computer at Company X, I had my ear-buds jammed in and was listening to The Astronaut Wives Club. Now Blacklight, who is a NASA nerd and thinks he knows everything about astronauts and outer space claims the best book about space is Mike Mullane’s Riding Rockets. He’s so wrong. Because Riding Rockets needs to stand in line behind Mary Roach’s Packing for Mars. And both those books need to bow down before Lily Koppel’s The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story because without the support and superhuman efforts of their wives, those space cowboys would haven’t been able to set off a toy rocket let alone go into space. <cue Blacklight looking at me in sheer horror because I have just said the most horrid thing ever.>

Look I’m not a total savage. I’ve read books about space and astronauts. I had Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin reserved and read before Blacklight even knew the book existed. But for my money, The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story is the book I want to have in my permanent audiobook collection. Yes, I giggled when Orlagh Cassidy did her best JFK voice (it sounded more Foghorn Leghorn than JFK to me) but damn if I didn’t tear up when Apollo 1 burned up and when poor Joan Aldrin should have just run like hell from her marriage (Blacklight: <coffee cup frozen on the way to his mouth> “Buzz Aldrin is a god! How dare you!”). You know a book is amazing when you go from wondering if the office will close early because of the snow to losing yourself completely in the stories of the ladies who did everything to get their men into space.

Now to figure out what to listen to at work tomorrow. Will this be the time I finally get more than two chapters into Queen Lucia without giving up? Do I re-listen to something from the permanent audiobook collection? Maybe Sybil Exposed? Or do I grab my iPod and see what treasures are available from OverDrive Media?

Buy All The Books!

~ Wendy-Marie ~ Leave a comment

I could be trolling the Lands’ End website, looking for the perfect grey, pink and green cardigans to add to the rainbow of Lands’ End fine gauge classic cardigans in my closet. Or I could be ordering a tiny bottle of Demeter’s Paperback because few things are sexier than smelling like books. Instead I’m on a mad hunt to replace wonderful, charming, enchanting and most delightful cozy reads that are disappearing from the local libraries. And the saddest thing? I know I’m not the only person reading these vanishing books because half the time I’m waiting for the books to be returned by another patron before I can get my little undead raccoon hands on them!

Perhaps I should have know something was up when I was in Canton and decided to check out Jacqueline Susann’s very first book Every Night, Josephine! Sometimes you just need to read about a glamorous poodle girl and her equally funny and glamorous owner (who was a few years away from Valley of the Dolls mega literary stardom). But when I went to the dog section, no Every Night, Josephine! for me. I shrugged my shoulders (it’s a small library and I can’t imagine Every Night, Josephine! was a huge checkout hit) and got a collection of James Herriot stories instead.

And then the E.M. Delafield Virago Classics disappeared from the stacks. And yesterday, well the Deaccession Squad, they got Faith Addis and Wendy Holden…

A little back story. On my commute to Company X, I listen to audiobooks and podcasts when I’m not listening to NPR. Which is fine and dandy except my dear Mr Honda doesn’t have a CD player or fancy USB port like my brother’s Honda. Mr Honda has a cassette player. And yes, technology and library resources have changed and everyone, I mean everyone has CD players and cassette audiobooks take up so much space and who checks out cassette books anymore  and all those wonderful cassette audiobooks are gone.

But the library in the same town as Company X, a picture perfect Connecticut town you fully expect to see Lorelai Gilmore pop out of a shop clutching a to-go cup of coffee the size of the Titanic as she chats a mile a minute, this town, heck let’s call it Stars Hollow, had tons of space and money and cassette audiobooks. And not just any cassette audiobooks but Clipper Audio cassette audiobooks. I had never heard of Faith Addis until I stumbled across Year of the Cornflake, Green Behind the Ears and Down to Earth. Sure I had read and loved Wendy Holden’s Gossip Hound (I love me some Wendy Holden!) but I had no idea how many of Belinda Black’s adventures had been removed from the US release until I  found the Fame Fatale (UK title of Gossip Hound) cassette audiobook and laughed myself silly on my commute for a most glorious week.

But the Deaccession Squads are busy at work combing the stacks. If I had any idea that some of my favorite books/cassette audiobooks had been on the chopping block I would have been first in line at the library book sales to snap them up. Any wonder I’m on Mr Couch, tracking my Awesome Book UK order for E.M. Delafield Provincial Lady omnibus and searching for Faith Addis? Who will be next? Monica Dickens? Miss Read? Winifred Watson? Joyce Dennys? D.E. Stevenson? Helene Hanff? Barbara Pym? Elizabeth von Armin? Maybe I should just book a ticket to the UK and raid the used bookshops…

Audiobooks: That Voice…

~ Wendy-Marie ~ Leave a comment

Over the last few months I’ve been tearing through audiobooks like a mad thing. On the way to work. Making my work drawer tremble in fear as I lay waste to it’s contents. Washing the dishes. Cleaning. Cooking. It seems like suddenly my local library is bursting with amazing things to listen to versus the usual bestsellers. Did they get a grant? Did the audiobook fairy visit? Who knows? What I do know is I’m counting on my fingers trying to remember if I’m at my checkout limit of 5 audiobooks when I’m staring at the shelves.

So no surprise I’m writing about audiobooks right? Maybe it’s me but some of these treasures? End up right back in the library book bag before I can even finish the first disc. And it’s not the fault of the story. Many times the book is something I’ve read and loved but the audiobook version? Can’t get it out of the house so enough. Other times? The audiobook gets listened to so many times I can almost recite along. Why? It’s the narrator.

Confession time. This is most likely a huge and horrible thing given how large he looms in the audiobook world and you can certain tell me what a total idiot I am who doesn’t deserve to listen to audiobooks in the comments but <very small voice> I don’t like audiobooks narrated by George Guidall. I’ve watched interviews with the man and he seems like a lovely person. But when he puts on headphones and starts to narrate? THAT. VOICE. <shudders> I can’t quite describe why it annoys so very much. It just does and distracts me from the story at hand. Pity, since I do like to listen to classics and Recorded Books has some awfully good ones. If I pick up a Recorded Books offering and see George Guidall is the reader? Back on the shelf with you Mr Audiobook!

Then there are narrators who were so perfectly cast in one book that hearing them read another is a jarring experience. When I stumbled across the Recorded Books version of 84, Charing Cross Road read by Barbara Rosenblat? Perfection. The sassy Helene Hanff I imagined writing these zippy little letters was captured perfectly. Barbara Rosenblat reading If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits? Sure why not? Erma Bombeck always struck me as a very sassy lady and Barbara Rosenblat? Does sassy so well. Barbara Rosenblat reading a Diane Mott Davidson culinary mystery? <backs away> Nope. No thanks…

If you’re thinking “hey Gwen, maybe Diane Mott Davidson isn’t as good as Helene Hanff?” Yeah, that’s for sure.  While trying to get ready for the perfect storm of Coworker 123 retiring and an upcoming vacation I snapped up the unabridged audiobooks for Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House. Both are fine Shirley Jackson novels that aren’t on my favorites list but I have friends who adore them. Popped in The Haunting of Hill House. Started listening. Hey, “Toby” from The Year of the Flood (aka Bernadette Dunne) is the reader. Elinor grates. I would like to smack Elinor really hard. Realize I would rather be listening to The Year of the Flood. Next day. Pop in We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Same darn thing.

Bernadette Dunne does such an amazing job bringing Toby in The Year of the Flood to life that no matter what I listen to that she narrates? Bernadette is always going to be Toby to me. It’s like watching a Harrison Ford movie, any Harrison Ford movie and only seeing him as Han Solo or Indiana Jones.

But even with narrators I can’t stand (sorry Mr Guidall), I’ll be in the audiobook section of my local library, picking up an audiobook, flipping it over and then sometimes popping it into my bag. Because, my commute isn’t going to get any shorter and there’s eight glorious hours at Company X to fill my ears with all the books.