Tag Archive: audio-cd-library



The Girl on the TrainThe Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This audiobook (CD) was in the put-away-bag at the library and I couldn’t resist. I knew it was a fairly recent movie so I couldn’t wait to try it out.

Ah, but I wasn’t crazy for it. You would think it would do it for me. I used to take the train to work every day. I know how that imagination can take you places the train doesn’t. In fact, riding the train was how I wrote my first book. So that part of the first character grabbed me. That she had stories in her head about the people she saw in the homes she passed made her an interesting character to me. But somehow I mostly didn’t like her.

It was when the next character voice came in that I perked up my ears. Her voice reminded me of Gilly, Sam’s crush on Game of Thrones. I guess it is just her accent but having that familiar voice had me listening more closely. And I did like this character.

About the time I got into the story my CD player gave up. I ended up using my credit on Audible to get the audio onto my Kindle. That worked out better.

It has been over a week since I finished this book. Lots of life has happened since. So my memories are eroding. Still, I remember how I stayed up until 3 the last part of the book. It was well written and kept me interested.

The narrators: Clare Corbett, Louise Brealey, India Fisher were fantastic and different enough to keep me from getting the characters confused.

As the librarian had warned me, don’t read the last bit at night before sleep it is a thriller and it will keep you awake. Still, it was a good read. I’m glad I read it.

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Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #1)Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Re-reading so I can remember the story and read the rest of the series. Done.

This reading was to make sure I knew where the story was going before I start on book two. I still loved it. Especially with the narration of Khristine Hvam. She reads this flawlessly. I can’t imagine reading this book without her talented voice in the background. I stand by the review I wrote in February 2014:

***
Oh. My. Gosh! I think this is the best book ever! Thank you to all that recommended it so highly. I, too, now sing its praises!

Laini Taylor is the storyteller’s storyteller. Once I started into the world that she created I didn’t want to leave. In fact, though the copies I had of the hardback and the CDs were borrowed from the library, I couldn’t bear to return them had I not gone ahead and bought the Kindle and Audible versions to read again. And while I was at it I picked up the next in the series.

Oh, and I need to sing a few praises to the narrator, Khristine Hvam. I was caught up in the sound of her voice and her ability to wring out every nuance each word and even syllable the book had to offer.

The main character, Karou, is real, palpable. I could see through her eyes, smell what she smelled, anguish in choices to be made or mistakes that resulted. The cast of characters surrounding her were also real. I keep trying to come up with another word, after all this IS fantasy, but that is all I can come up with, real.

Magic is in abundance in the book, whether it is meant to be or not. Yet it is highly believable. And always leads to hope. Hope is the theme, I think. It made me feel it deep inside in places that haven’t felt it for a while. Hope. How many books give you that? That is a priceless commodity.

Please read this book with the audio along side. It immerses you into this world and you will feel hope, too.

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DragonseyeDragonseye by Anne McCaffrey

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Could it be that an unexpected vacation and the possibility of moving in the next few months, flavored this read for me? Or could it be because Dick Hill narrated. I really don’t like his interpretations of these books. Well, whatever it was, I have come away from this book thinking it is probably the worst of all the Pern books. It was quite boring, full of discussions, arguments, whining. Very little flying with dragons or finding new discoveries on this planet.

This book does have a bit of a story in how it came to me. I found the CDs at the library and so I borrowed it with the others I recently read. But I found I didn’t have the hardback at home. I found an inexpensive version on Amazon so picked it up. Ah, but when it came I found it wasn’t any more than a hard backed version of a paperback. So the print was unbearably small. And then as I started to read, I realized that I already had the Audible version and so was able to return the CDs. So mostly I listened to the story as I couldn’t read it very well. It seemed to take forever to get through with it.

As usual, when I have trouble with a book, I like to make sure I don’t flavor anyone else’s experience. Try it. You may very well like it. I hope you do.

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Dragongirl (Pern, #22)Dragongirl by Todd J. McCaffrey

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I wish I could give this book 20 stars! I think it is my favorite Pern novel ever! I must admit that I borrowed the audio CDs from the library to help with the hardback I own to get through it. It is the first I’ve read that doesn’t have Dick Hill’s deep voice but poor acting. Instead, this starred Emily Durante. Okay, I must admit that at first this high voice nearly drove me as crazy as Dick’s deep voice. And I missed his echoing sound for his dragon voices. But I soon got used to Ms. Durante’s energies and voices and added the Audible version to my wishlist for the future. I am thankful the library had the CDs in the meantime.

This book proposed a different way to look at life and love. I see in the reviews that many found this book disgusting. More’s the pity for them. Sorry. If your humans and dragons are dying and you are given a gift of love and it seems others can find that fluidity of love within themselves, there is an answer to procreating in a new way. Old methods of impressing dragons show that the old ways don’t work in the world anymore. Much time travel is needed to help keep the planet alive. All these new methods combine to promote a healthier Pern. Stuck in Earth’s ways with old mores, Pern would have surely ended with this book.

LOVE is the key of this book. Fiona, gold queen-rider and weyrwoman, has more love than anyone can imagine. She gives it freely and does her best to shine her positive light on everyone. But even greater love has Lorana who has given the ultimate sacrifice, her dragon, to Pern. How could others not see the magic and love of these two womyn?

One warning? Have the Kleenex ready near the end.

Okay, to those following my reviews: I know my goal is to mainly read books written by women that contain strong fem leads. This one more than qualifies as Todd McCaffrey merely channeled his mother’s world and populated it with the strongest womyn I have met yet. Thank you, Todd! I can’t wait to read more!

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Review: Champion by Marie Lu


ChampionChampion by Marie Lu

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Five stars! And that’s with me starting to read it on book three! I never do that. I like to start at the beginning and read a long series to the end. Starting in the middle or later can be chancy at best. But there was no choice. I saw such high ratings and I think a GoodReads friend recommended it. So I jumped over to Amazon. WAY too expensive for me right now. So I went over to my library website to see if they had it. The had the regular version of book two and this third book. BUT with this large print book I was able to land the audio-CDs. How lucky was that?

Let me take a moment out for a font complaint. Why is it that large print versions don’t give spaces between lines? Even with the larger font I still couldn’t read it straight through. I needed to use my trusty dusty bookmark to keep track, like a first grader! Old eyes, what can I say?

What kept me going, though, was the audio version. The voices of June and Day were read by Mariel Stern and Steven Kaplan respectively. They were wonderful narrators! I must make sure when I finally get this series for myself that I get the Audible Whispersync with the Kindle version.

I must marvel at the writing of Marie Lu. That I can come into the story this late in the game and not feel lost is to her credit. Sure, I felt like I was missing a little background on how it all started and how relationships grew, or didn’t, but I felt I already knew, somehow. There wasn’t a lot of background descriptors dragging the story out, so I assume Ms. Lu snuck it all in there somehow. Magic!

And I am surprised that coming out of the book I have a hunger to read the entire series, real soon! I put all the books on all my wishlists. Just reading a book three should have had me feel I was finished, ya know?

Oh, and if you read this one, have some Kleenex on hand near the end. It’s not horrid, but I haven’t cried like that near the end of a book for a long time. But that shows the amount of truth that this story held for me. No, I am far from being a teen–65, but I could still relate to all that was going on with these characters.

Oh, and this is the first book in a long time that felt that either guys or girls could read it with equal fervor. Each chapter is either June or Day (Daniel) and both are tough but caring human beings.

As I have said before, where were authors like Marie Lu when I was a teen? This book kept my interest from beginning to end. And I think that if you are unlucky enough to not get the first two books you can start here and still have an active adventure!

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Sing You HomeSing You Home by Jodi Picoult

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was special!

I was lucky enough to get both the audio CDs and the large print hardback from the library. I highly recommend reading it like that. As a music major, who thought seriously about moving into music therapy, I found myself relating to the main character, Zoe.

Not only was this well written, there were songs sung in the narration! The narrators’ voices were well done. And the a capella singing voice is angelic!

It was depressing to me to give the book back to the library. I loved it so much I know I will be buying the Kindle/Audible combo to enjoy again in the future.

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Tears of the Giraffe
Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the second book in the series. For my review of the first book go here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/395919607

I didn’t think I would go on and read the next book. But I saw that my library had the Kindle version AND the audio CDs to go along with it. And as luck would have it I was able to check them out at the same time!

I can’t tell you how marvelous it is to listen to the narration of Lisette Lecat and her accent. Yes, I could have read the Kindle version without the text-to-speech and no audio version to help me. After all, I did read three chapters before the CDs showed up for me to check out. But that voice brought a reality to the characters of Botswana’s No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.

What a beautifully told story! It does stray from my goal of reading books written by females with strong female characters. By the way, that goal is swiftly narrowing down to wanting to read mostly OLDER females. I’m tired of Young Adult books. But, though this is written by a male, I find the older female and her co-characters written so well that I dearly love this series.

I hear that it has been made into HBO series. I can understand why. Yet I can’t imagine it is as wonderful as these books. How can visual arts capture inner thoughts? But I will watch them and give them a chance.

Since I can’t afford to buy this series I will have to take it slowly as the library has the copies of Kindle and audio available.

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Daughter of Smoke & Bone
Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh. My. Gosh! I think this is the best book ever! Thank you to all that recommended it so highly. I, too, now sing its praises!

Laini Taylor is the storyteller’s storyteller. Once I started into the world that she created I didn’t want to leave. In fact, though the copies I had of the hardback and the CDs were borrowed from the library, I couldn’t bear to return them had I not gone ahead and bought the Kindle and Audible versions to read again. And while I was at it I picked up the next in the series.

Oh, and I need to sing a few praises to the narrator, Khristine Hvam. I was caught up in the sound of her voice and her ability to wring out every nuance each word and even syllable the book had to offer.

The main character, Karou, is real, palpable. I could see through her eyes, smell what she smelled, anguish in choices to be made or mistakes that resulted. The cast of characters surrounding her were also real. I keep trying to come up with another word, after all this IS fantasy, but that is all I can come up with, real.

Magic is in abundance in the book, whether it is meant to be or not. Yet it is highly believable. And always leads to hope. Hope is the theme, I think. It made me feel it deep inside in places that haven’t felt it for a while. Hope. How many books give you that? That is a priceless commodity.

Please read this book with the audio along side. It immerses you into this world and you will feel hope, too.

View all my reviews

Review: Under the Dome


Under the Dome
Under the Dome by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Being an Under the Dome TV series addict, I knew I had to read the book.

 

 

I have only read one other Stephen King book and that was On Writing, which I loved.

Cover of "On Writing:  A Memoir of the Cr...

Cover of On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

 

 

 

I have avoided SK because I don’t do horror. I get nightmares. But since I loved this so much I may have to read his other, less scary books. I already have The Stand in my personal library, but I would rather have Large Print or Kindle version and the Audible version to help me along.

Cover of "The Stand"

Cover of The Stand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The narrator, Raul Esparza, was amazing! He is the first male narrator that did believable women and children voices without sounding fake in my experience. He had many accents to throw in for good measure. What I felt the most unreal was there were few Maine accents and many southern types. But it didn’t make the story less interesting, it did help keep the population of Chester’s Mill individualized.

A warning, outside of the same main characters and a couple incidences, this book is not like the television series. Still, I can’t wait to see what gets thrown into the mix.

It is nice to know that the man who wrote a book on writing writes a heck of a book!

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