Category Archives: Audiobooks

Current Reads

painting by Edward B. Gordon

I always seem to be reading a number of books and audiobooks at the same time. Fifty years ago, I would be bent on finishing one book before starting another, but today, in the age of numerous devices, I have a book that I am listening to on my phone, another book on my Kindle, a real actual book-book from the library/bookstore or off my shelves, and a cookbook on my iPad. It’s a bit on the ridiculous side, really, but that’s my reading life these days.

Audiobook that I’m listening to on my phone: Devil in a Blue Dress, by Walter Mosely, which I’m reading for the RIP-XVI challenge.

My current Kindle book: Bronze and Sunflower, by Cao Wenxuan.

Current actual Book: Summer at Fairacre, by Miss Read.

E-book on my iPad: The Kimchi Cookbook, by Lauryn Chun.

Shall I admit to being a fractured/scattered reader, or should I call myself “well-rounded?”

Listening While Walking

Sick Days

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I’m sick this week and spending a lot of time napping (no energy) and reading when I’m up to it. No fun being sick—I haven’t had a cough and cold for a long time so I’d almost forgotten the misery of it.

So for comfort, I’ve started listening to a sweet book, another by Paul Gallico, called The Silent Miaow: A Manuel for Kittens, Strays, and Homeless Cats. It is doing the job, a comfort read with humor always helps.

73 Hours and 19 Minutes

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My son, who has a long daily commute to work, listens to audiobooks to make the time in the car more interesting, meaningful, bearable. He often chooses his books by the maximum number of hours possible. It’s not unusual for him to tell us that he only has 60 or so more hours on a current audiobook or series.

Well, I decided to follow in his footsteps and just used my last Audible credit for this month to buy the Anne of Green Gables series, books 1-6, which is only 73 hours and 19 minutes long. I don’t have to listen to it all at once, one book right after the other…but it will keep me busy and happy over a long period of time (especially since I have no daily commute at all!)

My son is proud of me!

Sunday Afternoon Listening

Currently Reading: The Eye of the Needle

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Actually, I’m listening to the audiobook version of Ken Follett’s, Eye of the Needle, and I can’t stop listening! I would say that the author was wildly successful with this goal he shared in an interview:

I want to tell a story that makes the reader always want to see what will happen next.

I am reading this book as part of my year-long celebration of turning 70 years old. Ken Follett was born in the same year as me, 1949! Happy Birthday this year, too, Mr. Follett!

A Literary Christmas

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A Literary Christmas is a wonderful anthology by the British Library, full of classic Christmas stories, poems, and selections from various novels. I listened to the audiobook version, read by Juliet Stevenson and Simon Callow, and I absolutely loved it! This is one that can be listened to (or read) every December.

Becoming

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If I could give a six-star rating (based on the Goodreads five-star system), I would give it for this book. Becoming, by Michelle Obama, is beautifully and honestly written, full of wisdom and hope. And listening to her narrate the audiobook version is a delight. It’s the best thing I’ve read in years and years!

RIP XIII: The Keeper of Lost Causes

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I read The Keeper of Lost Causes, by Jussi Adler-Olsen, a few weeks ago and it is one of those books that stays with you long after you finish it. The plot is complex, the characters very interesting, and the suspense keeps you turning pages long into the night.

When the story begins, Carl Mørck, a brilliant detective with an anti-social personality, is just coming back to work from medical leave after recovering from a tragic attack on his investigative team that resulted in the death of one of his partners, a crippling injury to his other partner, and a bullet wound that came very close to killing him. He recovered from the bullet wound, but he has not recovered from the emotional wounds.

Carl lay there a long time, as if he’d fainted, with his head full of desperate thoughts. They took his pulse and then drove off with him and his two partners. Only at the hospital did he open his eyes. They told him that his eyes had a dead look to them. They thought it was the shock, but it was from shame.

His return to the police department was not welcome. He was a difficult leader, a real loner, and nobody wanted to work with him. Fortunately, a new grant had just been given to the Chief to open up a new department that would investigate cold cases. It was to be called “Department Q” and Carl was given that job, with an office in the basement, and a huge backlog of unsolved cases, or “hopeless cases,” as the police chief called them.

The first case Carl chose to look at involved a popular politician who went missing five years earlier. Merete Lynggaard, had disappeared while on a ferry ride with her younger disabled brother. The case had been poorly investigated, no clues were found, the case had been shelved and everyone assumed she had fallen overboard and perished. She had not. She was still very much alive, but being held captive in very cruel conditions by an unknown assailant.

The course of solving this mystery was intricate and fascinating. Carl was given an assistant, Hafez el-Assad, a Syrian immigrant, to help him with the case. The two of them, both brilliant detectives, became quite an effective team. You got to know all the characters well enough to know why they each did what they did in the story. And it was one of those “unputdownable” books that kept you anxious and on alert until the very end.

Somewhere inside of him, where cause and effect were not weighed against each other, and where logic and explanations never challenged consciousness, in that place where thoughts could live freely and be played out against each other—right there in that spot, things fell into place, and he understood how it all fitted together.

This book is the first in a series by this author. I will definitely be reading more of them!

I read this book for the Readers Imbibing Peril XIII challenge.

RIP XIII: The Whispering Statue

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When I was young, I read all the Nancy Drew mysteries (at least the ones that were available at that time)! My brothers and I would go to the library every week and I would come out with a pile of books, mostly Nancy Drew mysteries. They said to me many times, “Rob, you’re in a reading rut!” Yes, that’s what good mysteries do to you, and I still love getting caught in a mystery reading rut!

The Whispering Statue, by Carolyn Keene, is book #14 in the original series. All the Nancy Drew books were actually ghostwritten, and my favorite of the ghostwriters was Mildred A. Wirt Benson. She wrote the first twenty-three books in the series, and those are my favorites.

Another interesting tidbit about the early Nancy Drew books, which were originally published in the 1930s, is that they were rewritten and republished in the 1970s. The copy I read of The Whispering Statue was definitely a rewritten one from the 70s because the plot was significantly different and shorter than the earlier version, AND the word “groovy” was used two or three times in the story. That was a dead giveaway to someone very familiar with the late 60s and early 70s!!

I enjoyed rereading this mystery. It was pleasant to spend an afternoon on the porch with a fun book. My goal is to slowly reread as many of the Nancy Drew books as possible!

Penguin Random House: the publisher’s summary of plot:

Once again, Nancy faces two puzzling mysteries at once! The first concerns a valuable collection of rare books that Mrs. Horace Merriam commissioned anart dealer to sell–has he swindled her instead? The second mystery revolves around the baffling theft of a beautiful marble statue. To solve both mysteries, the famous young detective disguises herself and assumes a false identity. Despite these precautions, danger stalks Nancy’s every move. An attempted kidnapping, a nearly disastrous sailboat collision, and an encounter with a dishonest sculptor are just a few of the exciting challenges that Nancy is faced with as she gathers evidence against a clever ring of art thieves.

I read this book for the RIP XIII challenge, Peril the First.

Ready Player One

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It’s so much fun when a friend recommends a book, and tells you that the audiobook version is just terrific, and you listen to that audiobook, and then you totally agree with her! That’s what just happened to me! Recently, Les (@Coastal Horizons) and Kay (@Kay’s Reading Life) and I visited a wonderful bookstore, Third Street Books, in McMinnville, Oregon. While there, Les mentioned how good the audiobook version was of Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline, narrated by Will Wheaton. So, I downloaded it and thoroughly enjoyed listening to it this month!

I thought this book was wonderfully creative and fun. I kept thinking of my son throughout the story because much of the computer and video game stuff was from his growing up years, but I felt the fun was ageless. It really was a love letter to the 1980s that everyone can enjoy!

From the Publisher’s Summary:

At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, Ready Player One is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut – part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are inspired by Blade Runner, and flying DeLoreans achieve light speed.

I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I’m looking forward to it. My friend, Adam (@Roof Beam Reader), has already warned me that it is quite different from the book, but I will give it a try and see if it is as fun as the book.

Thanks, Les, for your recommendation!