Tag Archives: audiobook

STAFF PICK: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

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Virginia Woolf has always been a favorite author of mine.  Her flowing prose, her introspection and her stream of consciousness writing style all appeal to me greatly.  My paperback copies of Mrs. Dalloway, The Waves, The Voyage Out and A Room of One’s Own are well worn and full of marginalia and post it notes.

How would my beloved Virginia Woolf’s style translate into audio?  Would I be able to get as much out of the audio version as I would the paperback?

To the Lighthouse audiobook by Virginia Woolf

To the Lighthouse is considered to be the most accomplished novel written by Virginia Woolf.  Yet for some readers, it’s much too dull and slow moving.  I wouldn’t argue that it can be trying at times–because let’s face it, not much actually happens in this one.  The story focuses on a group of family and friends visiting their summer house just before World War I and then jumps to a decade later as some of the group return to the summer house after the war. In both visits, a trip to the lighthouse that sits just offshore is proposed. But what makes this book so wonderful is not what happens (or what doesn’t happen, for that matter).  It’s the way in which Woolf weaves her character’s thoughts together to create a deeply reflective commentary on small conflicts between individuals, large conflicts between societies, memory, perceptions, and time.

Juliet Stevenson does a marvelous job in her narration.  I cannot say enough about her wonderful delivery of a dense book.  I wholeheartedly believe that thanks to Juliet Stevenson’s reading, this book was somewhat easier to follow and enjoy.

So how did I fare trying out To the Lighthouse in audio? Wonderfully. Did I get as much out of Virginia Woolf in audio as I would have in paperback?  Absolutely. A great book is not always a great book in different formats; but, thanks to Juliet Stevenson’s wonderful reading and Virginia Woolf’s lyrical prose, the book was just as thought provoking, entertaining, enlightening as any other that I’ve enjoyed by Woolf. Now I just have to find a place for all of my post-it notes that I wrote while listening!

Let me know what you think!

STAFF PICK: The Gatecrasher by Madeleine Wickham

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When it comes to romance and books that melt my heart, I tend to lead towards the classics: Pride and Prejudice, Romeo and Juliet, Wuthering Heights. This month, I chose to step outside my comfort zone and I chose contemporary chick lit author Madeline Wickham’s book The Gatecrasher. (Okay, I admit it–I picked the book mainly because the author’s name is tied to Pride and Prejudice, my all-time favorite book. I thought it must be a good sign.) And I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the book.

 

The Gatecrasher audiobook by Madeleine WickhamThe Gatecrasher tells the tale of a gold digging woman Fleur, who falls for the man she was set to take advantage of.  Add to the mix a moody teenage daughter, a gay best friend, a mysteriously absent father, gossiping golf club ladies, a defrauding relative and woman on the brink of a nervous breakdown and you’ve got one novel full of intrigue and laughter.  Oh, and did I mention that Fleur met her latest prey at the funeral for his wife?  This book is just full of characters for you to hate, to root for and to plot the way all their dirty little secrets should be exposed publicly.

Thanks to Katherine Kellgren’s excellent narration, the book’s pace draws you in and keeps you listening. She is able to make Fleur seem not so detestable and offer up some of Fleur’s vulnerability through her narration.  And for me, it was the vulnerability of not only Fleur but the majority of the characters that made this story work so well.  Because Madeline Wickham (a.k.a Sophia Kinsella, author of the much-beloved “Shopaholic” series of chick-lit novels) created a story that shows the best and the worst of love and all its trappings in this day and age, I realized that I may be able to explore more of the contemporary romance genre after all.

Let me know your thoughts!

STAFF PICK: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

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This month, I chose to listen to an audiobook that plays on emotions and I was steered towards The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

The Kite Runner audiobook by Khaled Hosseini

The audiobook was a great listen; it was read by the author, which in my opinion is the best way for an audiobook to be narrated. This went a long way for this book in particular because it tells the story of an Afghani boy, Amir, and includes many terms in his native tongue which I would have struggled to read. It also didn’t feel like someone was preaching to me but rather having a conversation with me, describing every nuance with outstanding detail.

What really set this apart from a book is the amount of emotion that you feel as the story progresses. In case you are unfamiliar with the story, this is not a happy story. It feels at times like a Lemony Snickets movie as Amir is definitely a victim of Murphy’s Law, and you suffer with him as he goes through event after painful event.  When Amir feels guilt, you remember the things you are guilty of.  When Amir feels sorrow, the things that sadden you suddenly come to the surface.  You laugh, hate and even love with him as time ticks by in the story.

Overall, The Kite Runner was a very good story and I am glad that I listened to it. The author does such a good job of narrating the book, you almost feel as if you’re looking through his eyes at times.

Let me know what you think!

STAFF PICK: An Astronaut’s Guide to Life On Earth by Chris Hadfield

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An Astronaut's Guide to Life On Earthy audio book by Chris Hadfield

Our Head of Acquisitions told me about An Astronaut’s Guide to Life On Earth when it was first released, and it went immediately onto my “To-Listen” list.

Right? Right. That can almost make me cry.

At times while listening to this book, I realized this was a risky choice: listening to Hadfield’s ridiculously jam-packed list of qualifications, successes, and admirable personality traits could have made me feel like an unremarkable schlub, if only they weren’t read with such humility. Regardless, I absolutely loved An Astronaut’s Guide to Life On Earth. The book is a memoir of the journey he took to go from a nine-year old aspiring astronaut (with an astounding sense of responsibility and discipline, I might add) to a commander of the International Space Station, and offers a lot of insight into space travel, agencies, and the whole space program, with all the right minutiae picked out to let us in on some of the little details, but keep it interesting and novel. There are also plenty of the requisite descriptions of inky black infinity to bring on the epic fuzzy feelings that are really the whole point of reading a book about space travel in the first place.

Chris Hadfield is diligent, competent, smart, humble, and utterly, utterly quotable. *Ahem* “Good leadership means leading the way, not hectoring other people to do things your way.” “Sweat the small stuff. Without letting anyone see you sweat.” “You can’t change the bricks, and together, you still have to build a wall.” I finished the book feeling like I knew a lot more about how to succeed if I ever somehow ended up in space, but also that I knew a lot more about how to succeed in life in general. I also felt like I really wanted to give Hadfield a hug.

As a narrator, Hadfield is wonderful. I’m a firm proponent of authors reading their own work (as long as they have the chops to pull it off) because they know the spirit of it better than anyone else. Generally, Hadfield comes off as a really nice guy, so listening to his narration felt like we were carpooling together and he was telling me stories about space mixed with some fatherly advice about how to achieve my own goals. The one negative thing I have to say is in regards to the audio quality itself: there’s a strange sort of muffled echo that makes it sound like it was recorded in a bathroom. (Initially I thought the weird quality might have been because it was recorded IN SPACE, through the in-helmet microphone or something, which would be totally forgivable and actually kind of awesome. I looked it up; it wasn’t.) That’s unusual coming from top-tier publishers like Random House (Canadian rights) and Hachette (American rights), but it won’t stop you from fully enjoying the audiobook.

If you want to learn more about what it’s like to be in space (and what it takes to get there), pick this up. You will not be disappointed.