Author links:

~ The Rabbit Room: A Visit with Wendell Berry – If you’ve never read Berry’s poetry, fiction, or essays, you need to do it soon – he’s brilliant.

Discussion starters:

~ My Friend Amy: What makes a book YA? and The Value in Rereading

Reviews and blog posts that have me adding to my to-read list:

~ Fall by Colin McAdam, reviewed by Heather at Book Addiction

~ Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder, reviewed by Michelle at GalleySmith

~ The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove by Susan Gregg Gilmore, reviewed by Jenn at Jenn’s Bookshelves

~ The Wild Vine: A Forgotten Grape and the Untold Story of American Wine by Todd Kliman, reviewed by Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness

~ WWW.Wake by Robert J. Sawyer, Nothing But the Truth by Avi, and Trouble by Gary Schmidt, all mentioned at Mental Multivitamin

~ The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths, reviewed by Jenn at Jenn’s Bookshelves

~ Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa, reviewed by Jill at Fizzy Thoughts

Reading challenges:

~ For the second year, Darren at Bart’s Bookshelf is hosting The YA Dystopian Reading Challenge.

~ Stainless Steel Droppings is hosting the RIP V Challenge.

Other bookish links:

~ The Guardian: When book recommendations go wrong

~ The wonderful Beth at Beth Fish Reads has started a new blog called Audiobook Jukebox – a place for those of us who love and review audiobooks to find new audios and link our reviews.

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Post tags: audiobooks, reading, reading challenges, TBR list, wendell berry, YA fiction

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Maggie Cooper is a wife, mother, and psychiatrist, working and raising her children in The Hollows, New York, the town she grew up in. Her husband, Jones, is a detective on the local police force. Their son, Ricky, is 17, rebellious, and dating Charlene, a girl who doesn’t quite fit the picture of the type of girl they would choose for him. When Charlene disappears one night, suspicion initially falls on Rick. As the search for Charlene continues, secrets from a much earlier disappearance in The Hollows start to be revealed, and the truth will shake the Coopers and the entire town.

This is the type of contemporary thriller I really enjoy – authentic characters, good writing, and a slow unraveling of crimes. I also enjoy the use of a current crime/event to bring to light past secrets. Maggie thinks she has a good marriage, thinks she really knows her husband, Jones, but he has been keeping a huge secret from her – one that has had a profound effect on who he became as a man, a husband, and, especially, a father. When their son, Rick, is accused of having something to do with his girlfriend’s disappearance, Jones projects his own shame over his past onto Rick, and assumes the worst, causing problems in his marriage.

Unger is adept at writing characters and weaving their stories together. Often books from multiple points of view can be jarring in the transitions, or else be uneven, with a few characters proving more interesting than the others, but Unger pulls it off. I will definitely be looking for more of her work.

Although I was sent a print copy for this tour, I chose to listen to the audio edition, and it was my companion during Natalie’s latest stay in the hospital. I found myself listening more often than reading a print book, because the storyline had me hooked and I wanted to know how it turned out. The reader did a good job, varying the voices for each character enough that I always knew who was speaking, even during the point of view shifts. This is just the kind of book that lends itself perfectly to the audio format.

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Post tags: audiobooks, contemporary fiction, thrillers

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There are many, many authors who should never read their own audiobooks, and a select few who should. Fortunately, Joshilyn Jackson is in the latter group – her reading was perfect. I loved the ghost story element and the characters were quirky and interesting. The mystery kept me guessing until the end, and yet it was more than just a mystery – it was a terrific family drama that dealt with some heavy issues (incest, poverty) brilliantly. I will definitely be looking for more from this author.

Title: The Help
Author: Kathryn Stockett
Genre: Historical fiction
Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: Jenna Lamia, Bahni Turpin, Octavia Spencer, Cassandra Campbell
First line: Mae Mobley was born on an early Sunday morning in August, 1960.

There is really nothing I can say about The Help that hasn’t already been said, except maybe this: If you haven’t read it yet, what on earth are you waiting for? And if you do audiobooks, that is definitely the way to go with this one – the readers were amazing. I am thrilled to learn that Octavia Spencer, the actress who read the part of Minnie, is also playing Minnie in the upcoming film version. This book would rate more than five stars if my rating system allowed for it – it’s an example of the best of literature.

Title: Red Hook Road
Author: Ayelet Waldman
Genre: Contemporary fiction, literary fiction
Publisher: Doubleday
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: Kimberly Farr
First line: The flower girl had lost her basket of rose petals and could not bear to have the photograph taken without it.

The plot of this book made me think it would be a difficult book to read: a young couple is killed in a car accident between the church and the reception hall on their wedding day. Sounds depressing, right? The book follows the family members left behind that summer and for the next three summers, and while parts of it were very sad, it is a wonderful read. I love the way Waldman dealt with the Maine mentality – you are either a Mainer, or a from-away – no matter how many summers you’ve spent there or how deep your family roots go into the Maine soil. This is very much a character-driven book, and yet the plot never drags. I will be looking for Waldman’s other books.

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Post tags: amy einhorn books, audiobooks, contemporary fiction, historical fiction, literary fiction, southern fiction

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This one picks up right where The Language of Bees left off. King continues to hit them out of the park, one right after another, with this series! This one deals with political issues in Britain after WW I – the rise of the Labor Party and how it changes the face of intelligence and politics for Mycroft Holmes. It includes some scenes that had me in tears, others that had me holding my breath, and some of the scenes that involved Mary taking care of a small girl had me laughing. This remains my favorite mystery series ever.

Title: Raiders’ Ransom
Author: Emily Diamand
Genre: Middle grade science fiction, futuristic fiction
Publisher: The Chicken House
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: Charlotte Parry, James Clamp
First line: Cat puts up his nose to sniff the breath of wind barely filling the sail, and opens his small pink mouth to speak.

I can’t remember which book blogger recommended this one, but I am grateful. In a future Britain that is mostly flooded, Lilly Melkin is a Fisher. She owns a sea cat, a magical creature which helps her when she’s on her boat. The Fishers live in constant fear of the Raiders, pirates who occasionally raid Fisher villages. Scotland is the only area of Britain that has maintained at least a small amount of technology – most of which was destroyed during the floods, and which the Fishers and Raiders now believe is wicked or demonic. When a Raider ship comes to Lilly’s town and kidnaps the Prime Minister’s daughter, Lilly is determined to get her back and prevent her village from destruction. I loved the premise and the character of Lilly. I do wish the male narrator who read the character of Zeph, son of one of the Raider chiefs, was a little less melodramatic; his performance was a tad over the top. It wasn’t enough to make me stop listening, though, and I am looking forward to Flood and Fire, the sequel, which comes out next month.

Title: The Plague of Doves
Author: Louise Erdrich
Genre: Historical fiction
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: Peter Francis James, Kathleen McInerny
First line: In the year 1896, my great-uncle, one of the first Catholic priests of aboriginal blood, put the call out to his parishioners that they should gather at St. Joseph’s wearing scapulars and holding missals.

The Plague of Doves is more a set of connected stories than a linear novel, and like many story collections, some were definitely stronger than others. The over-arching mystery of a murdered white family and the Native Americans that were unjustly lynched for the crime, as well as the excellent narration, kept me listening to the end. I liked the writing, but there wasn’t anything there that stood out or took this from an okay book to a terrific one. If I had been reading it in print, without the amazing narration, I might not have continued reading it.

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© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2010. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: audiobooks, futuristic fiction, historical fiction, laurie r. king, mary russell, middle grade fiction, mysteries, science fiction, sherlock holmes

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Monty Kips and Howard Belsey are academic enemies – arguing opposing viewpoints on the artist Rembrandt. It’s not just their academic opinions that are different, however. Belsey is a liberal atheist; Kipps is a conservative Christian. Belsey is a white Englishman living in Massachusetts; Kipps is a black Trinidadian living in England.

Howard lives with his African-American wife, Kiki, and their three children – Jerome, Zora, and Levi – in the university town of Wellington, where Howard teaches art history. His oldest son, Jerome, has recently become a born-again Christian, and goes to work for the summer as an intern with Monty Kipps, to the humiliation and chagrin of his father. While there, Jerome forms an attachment with Professor Kipps’s beautiful daughter, Victoria, an attachment that neither set of parents is in favor of. When Howard brings Jerome home in a sulk, he doesn’t realize that his world is about to be turned upside down by the revelation of a secret he has been keeping – and the Kipps’s family arrival in Wellington, where Monty will give a series of guest lectures.

It is extremely hard to write a plot synopsis for a book like On Beauty. At it’s heart, it is the story of the Belsey family and how they weather a series of family calamities. It is also a beautifully written exploration of the world of academia, and it’s inherent meritocracy and the way educational opportunities can create class divisions, especially in a racially diverse city like Boston. Smith deals with so many cultural issues: race, religion, gender, poverty, infidelity, affirmative action, the importance of education.

Howard Belsey is a white Englishman who has married a black woman from Florida, and would never consider himself bigoted – and yet he has his own areas of prejudice against the uneducated and against the religious. He is unable to accept his son’s new-found faith, and Jerome is diminished in his eyes because of his desire to believe in something greater than himself.

Monty Kipps is an arrogant conservative who believes that every black man and woman should be able to find their own way in the world with out a hand up. His Christian faith is more a matter of appearances than a matter of his character, which is without mercy and full of hypocrisy.

Each of these patriarchs has a strong woman by his side. Kiki Belsey is now one of my favorite female characters – she is a big-hearted and big-bodied black woman, a woman who knows herself and speaks her mind, who loves her family with passion and yet hasn’t lost her individual identity. Carlene Kipps epitomizes the submissive Christian wife, a woman who has allowed her own opinions and needs to be subsumed by the largeness of her husband’s personality and the needs of her family. Her character made me sad – as did the character of Zora Belsey, a young woman who would do well to model herself after her mother, but instead seems determined to make her own mistakes.

On Beauty is a literary novel, one that doesn’t necessarily follow the traditional story arc of most contemporary fiction. Instead of one major crisis and then resolution, there is a series of crises, and not every one of them is resolved. There are many tangents taken along the way to explore the idea of beauty in art, the value of education no matter how it is obtained, and the joys and trials of marriage and parenting. There were many passages I would have jotted down to remember if I had been reading it in print, but I don’t regret listening to it on audio one bit. Peter Francis James has a rich, gorgeous voice, and listening to Monty Kipp’s Trinidadian accent in his musical tones was especially delightful. I will simply have to re-read it in print one day to revisit the brilliance of the writing. Highly recommended.

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© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2010. | Permalink | 23 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: audiobooks, contemporary fiction, literary fiction

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I am committing to the “obsessed” level – to listen to at least 20 audiobooks during 2010.

1. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford – completed 2/7/2010
2. U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton – completed 2/10/2010
3. King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography by Chris Crutcher – completed 2/15/2010
4. Going Bovine by Libba Bray – completed 3/4/2010
5. The Game by Laurie R. King – completed 3/5/2010
6. The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen – completed 3/24/2010
7. Fallen by Lauren Kate – completed 4/3/2010
8. Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos – completed 4/17/2010
9. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher – completed 4/23/2010
10. An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon – completed 4/25/2010
11. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling – completed 4/26/2010
12. Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy – completed 5/12/2010
13. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead – completed 5/15/2010
14. The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan – completed 5/27/2010
15. Brisingr by Christopher Paolini – completed 5/28/2010
16. Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin – completed 6/2/2010
17. Let Me Go by Helga Schneider – completed 6/10/2010
18. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides – completed 6/15/2010
19. White Cat by Holly Black – completed 6/18/2010
20. The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry – completed 6/27/2010

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© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2010. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: audiobooks, reading challenges

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I love to read – and I hate doing mindless chores. Things like folding laundry, cooking dinner, washing dishes, cleaning the bathroom and floors – all of that time to me seems completely wasted. I know there are people out there who find joy in the quotidian tasks of daily life, but I am most definitely not one of them. So, I use all of that time, plus any time when I’m driving alone and any nights when I have insomnia to listen to audiobooks.

The kids and I also like to listen to audiobooks when we’re running errands or going on long drives. When they were a lot younger, we started with the Hank the Cowdog series, written and read by John Erickson. They are hysterically funny and the kids adored them. We are currently making our way through the Harry Potter series, and the kids are finding out why I keep saying the books are so much better than the movies.

So, when do you listen to audiobooks?

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Post tags: audiobook week, audiobooks

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Title: Middlesex
Author: Jeffrey Eugenides
Genre: Historical fiction
Publisher: Picador
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: Kristoffer Tabori
First line: I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974.

Emotions, in my experience, aren’t covered by single words. I don’t believe in “sadness,” “joy,” or “regret.” Maybe the best proof that the language is patriarchal is that it oversimplifies feeling. I’d like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic train-car constructions like, say, “the happiness that attends disaster.” Or: “the disappointment of sleeping with one’s fantasy.” I’d like to show how “intimations of mortality brought on by aging family members” connects with “the hatred of mirrors that begins in middle age.” I’d like to have a word for “the sadness inspired by failing restaurants” as well as for “the excitement of getting a room with a minibar.” I’ve never had the right words to describe my life, and now that I’ve entered my story, I need them more than ever.”

Although the story of Middlesex starts in the Greco-Turkish city of Smyrna, it fits the definition of the Great American Novel. Hands-down, the strength of this book is the narrator Cal Stephanides, born Calliope, an intersexed person born with a genetic deficiency that causes him to appear female until puberty hits and none of the normal female changes appear.

Cal starts the story with the origin of the gene that is handed down through his grandparents, and the way the stars aligned to bring about his conception. This book is simply historical fiction at its absolute finest. I loved this tale from beginning to end – from the story of Lefty and Desdemona in Smyrna and how the Turkish invasion of the city allowed them to hide their forbidden romance; to the courtship of Cal’s parents Tessie and Milt, their romance evolving from foreplay by clarinet. Eugenides has created a fully-fleshed cast of characters and told their story in true family saga style.

Cal himself is our narrator, and it is poignant to hear him tell of his initial fears that something was wrong with Callie, the young girl he believed himself to be, from the attraction he felt for his female friends and his lack of breast development and menstruation and his failed attempts at romance with boys. As a grown man, Cal’s unique make-up hinders his attempts at romance and relationships, and the working out of his relationship with Julie Kikuchi as an adult is beautiful.

The audiobook is narrated by Kristoffer Tabori, and I can’t imagine another voice that could perfectly capture Cal and Callie, Desdemona and Lefty, Chapter Eleven and Milt and Tessie. This is, hands down, one of the best audiobooks I have ever had the pleasure of listening to.

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© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2010. | Permalink | 27 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: audiobooks, historical fiction

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Audiobook are you currently reading/you read most recently: I’m currently listening to two audiobooks, trading off after each disc: On Beauty by Zadie Smith, and The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry.

Impressions?: I am really enjoying both of them – excellent readers, intriguing characters, beautiful writing.

How long you’ve been listening to audiobooks: I used to listen to them on my way home on vacations from college about 18 years ago, but then rediscovered them a few years ago.

First audiobook you ever listened to: I don’t remember the very first ever, but the first one I listened to when I started listening again was At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon.

Favorite audiobook title: I don’t know that I can pick just one! My most recent favorite is Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides.

Favorite narrator: John McDonough, who reads the Mitford series; Lorelei King, who reads the Stephanie Plum series – and many, many others!

How do you choose what to listen to versus read? Just depends on what the library has in audio.

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© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2010. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: audiobook week, audiobooks

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I have been an audiobook lover for a long time, but it’s only been the past six months that I’ve discovered one of the best things about listening to books: it makes time spent at the gym almost bearable. Not just any audiobook, though. I need to listen to something that will keep me lifting those weights and pedaling that bicycle – it can’t be a book with a lot of long, lyrical passages of description. It has to move quickly – and humor is a great bonus. Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum titles are the perfect audiobook companions to working out.

Meet Lorelei King. While it is Janet Evanovich’s mind that has created the characters I have come to know and love, it is Lorelei’s voice which brings them to life. Because of her incredible talent for reading aloud, I can not only hear Stephanie, Joe, Ranger, Grandma Mazur, Lula, Connie, and a whole slew of other characters – I can see them in my mind’s eye.

Lorelei is an accomplished actress with many screen, television, and radio credits, as well as the multitudes of audiobooks she has narrated. She reads the UK version of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone series – I wish those versions were available here in the US!

A couple of weeks ago, I tweeted about listening to a Stephanie Plum book, and began a Twitter conversation with Ms. King, which resulted in her graciously agreeing to be interviewed via e-mail for the delight of my blog readers, many of whom I know love the Plum audiobooks as much as I do.

Can you please tell us a little bit about the preparation you go through before reading an audiobook?

Lorelei: I normally just read the book through once, making a ‘character list’ as I go. I jot down any clues that the author might give about the character’s accent and personality. This helps me make a decision about the voice. Of course, the great thing about narrating a series like Janet Evanovich’s ‘Stephanie Plum’ stories is that you get to know the core characters very, very well! On the other side of my character list, I write down any words – place names and so on – that I might need to check for pronunciation.

How do you keep all the characters’ voices straight?

Lorelei: Characters tend to take on a life of their own, so it’s actually not that hard! I love getting a conversation going with loads of different characters – a dinnertime scene at Stephanie’s parents’ house is a perfect example! If I ever get stuck, I just refer to my character list.

Do you have a favorite of the Stephanie Plum books?

Lorelei: Simply because it was the first one I recorded, I have a real soft spot for Four to Score (although I have since gone on to record 1, 2 and 3). I had no idea what to expect when I started to prep it – it was so funny and fresh and original. Then my next favorite is always the last one I recorded – in this case, Finger Lickin’ 15!

Which characters are your favorites to play?

Lorelei: Oh, sooooo many! Janet is brilliant at characterization, so it’s hard to choose…. but Lula and Grandma Mazur have a special place in my heart. And Albert Kloughn, who I based on Henny Youngman. I miss Albert!

My post on Ranger vs. Joe Morelli is one of the most popular posts on my blog, so I have to ask: are you Team Morelli or Team Ranger?

Lorelei: I like them both and am firmly in the BabeCake camp! (So I’m greedy – sue me!)

Tell us about some of the other audiobooks you have read. Any favorites?

Lorelei: I recently recorded Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood, which I adored. An imaginative, near-future vision and glorious writing… I also record the Sue Grafton alphabet series here in the UK, which I love – she’s kind of like Stephanie Plum’s serious, more sensible sister!

I just added the film version of The House of Mirth to my Netflix queue after finishing the book, and noticed that your web site lists that as one of your film credits. Which character did you play?

Lorelei: That film – directed by the amazing Terence Davies – is wonderful! We filmed it in Glasgow. I played Mrs. Hatch, a rather odious social climber. Loved working in a corset!

Do you continue to do film and television work, as well as audiobooks? Which do you prefer?

Lorelei: I love all media – and continue to work in as many as I can! I really like television (it moves more quickly than film – and I have a short attention span!), but of course an actor in visual media is very limited by physical type – whereas in audiobooks, I can play anything from a 5 year old child to an 80 year old man… any age, race, nationality, or gender. Heaven!

But there’s not that much time for ‘straight’ acting recently, as I’ve started an audio digital download publishing company, Creative Content Ltd., with my friend and colleague Ali Muirden (formerly of Macmillan Publishing). We publish specially-commissioned non-fiction titles in the areas of business, speech and self-improvement – and we’re about to launch into ebooks as well. It’s been fantastically challenging.

Thank you so much, Lorelei, for taking time to answer my questions! I am heading to the gym this afternoon, and Plum Spooky is going along for the ride.

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© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2010. | Permalink | 19 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: audiobooks, janet evanovich, lorelei king, stephanie plum

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