2020 Roundup: Ebooks & Audiobooks
3 Jan 2021 06:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
firecat(Can't remember who I stole the stats format from, sorry.)
2020 Reading/Listening Stats
Books read: 48, of which 4 (8%) were rereads
By gender: 4 (8%) by men, the rest by women and other genders
By race: 2 (4%) by authors of color, the rest by white authors
New books: 4 (8%) published in 2020
New-to-me authors: 9
Did not finish: 1
I usually read more books than this. But I stopped being able to read (anything except fanfic) in April. Since I replaced reading with writing, I'm not feeling bad about it, except that there are series I theoretically want to keep reading that I'm not reading, and the books are piling up.
Audiobooks listened to: 25 (3 were re-reads) (did not count the ones I abandoned)
By gender: 9 (36%) by men, the rest by women and other genders
By race: 3 (12%) by authors of color, the rest by white authors
New books: at least 3 published in 2020
New-to-me authors: 11
Did not finish: 3
I did keep on listening to audiobooks all year. I didn't get through as many as usual because I usually listen while I drive, and I used to drive four to six hours a week, and starting in March I stopped doing that.
Best of 2020
Books:
Gretchen McCulloch, Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language
Liz Williams, Detective Inspector Chen series #1–4
Audiobooks:
J.G. Ballard, High-Rise
Charlaine Harris, An Easy Death (Gunnie Rose #1)
Faith Hunter, Junkyard Cats
Madeline Miller, Circe
Michael E. Wysession / Great Courses, How the Earth Works
Warning: I often make snap judgements about books based on shallow things.
2020 Books
Ilona Andrews, Sweep With Me (Innkeeper Chronicles #5)
Novella-length, set at Dina's inn. Liked a lot.
Cordelia Frances Biddle, Martha Beale Series #1–3
The Conjurer
Deception's Daughter
Without Fear
Historical fiction set in Philadelphia in the early 1840s. I finished it, but it leaned heavily on tropes I don't like, such as "Oh no, our attraction is socially unacceptable!" and "Let's make assumptions about each other without actually talking to each other" and "Let me ignore the person who actually knows what's going on."
Agatha Christie, Nemesis (Miss Marple #12)
Published in 1971 when Christie was around 80. Second-to-last Miss Marple, and the last novel Agatha Christie wrote. (She wrote the final books in the Miss Marple and Poirot series decades earlier, and arranged to have them published posthumously.) I liked this a whole lot, partly because it talks about what being old is like.
Genevieve Cogman, The Invisible Library series #1–6
The Invisible Library
The Masked City
The Burning Page
The Lost Plot
The Mortal Word
The Secret Chapter
I like this multiverse a lot. Libraries! Magic! Fae and dragons! The stories and characters are good but they don't quite live up to the promise of the universe. I kept wanting things to be tidier than they were. But the books are also pretty addictive.
Alexia Gordon, Killing in C Sharp; Fatality in F (Gethsemane Brown #3–4)
Mysteries with a bit of a supernatural element. The author and protagonist are Black. I enjoyed these (each one revolves around something pleasantly nerdy). But they're a little too slight and short, the villains tend to be unadulterated evil, and there's not enough of the supernatural element. (The first book in the series, Murder in G Major, is more satisfying as far as the supernatural element is concerned.)
Kerry Greenwood, Phryne Fisher series
2. Flying Too High (1990)
3. Murder on the Ballarat Train (1991)
4. Death at Victoria Dock (1992)
5. The Green Mill Murder (1993)
6. Blood and Circuses (1994)
7. Ruddy Gore (1995)
8. Urn Burial (1996)
(I read #1 previously.) I liked these a fair bit, although I like the TV series better. I found them fun to read aloud. #7 was racist in ways I found annoying ("ooh, exotic Chinese people"). I loved it when I caught a wink at another mystery writer — Sayers got two winks ("Megatherium crash"), and Agatha Christie got one (a character resembling Miss Marple is named "Mary Mead").
Charles Finch, A Beautiful Blue Death (Charles Lenox #1)
The series (there are at least 12 books so far) is about an aristocratic amateur detective in Victorian London; this one opens in 1865. Lenox's butler is very much like Dorothy Sayers's Bunter. Lenox has a lady friend who isn't a romantic friend (at least not in this one). I like the writing style. Annoying amount of fat hate. I might read more of this series, but I don't seem to be in any hurry to do so.
Karin Fossum, Inspector Sejer series #1–3
Eva's Eye (aka Into the Darkness)
Don't Look Back
He Who Fears the Wolf
Karen Fossum is Norwegian. There are 13 novels in the series so far. These are interesting studies of human nature but they are ugly (the world is full of sad, creepy people) and there's an enormous amount of fat hate, so I decided not to continue the series.
Tony Hillerman, Listening Woman (Leaphorn #3)
I first read this series in the early 90s, and it's still a breath of fresh air.
Faith Hunter, Shattered Bonds (Jane Yellowrock #13)
Jane Yellowrock is a vampire hunter and shapeshifter who heads up a team that doubles as a quasi-family. I really like this series. Yellowrock is on a journey of self-discovery and there are lots of sexy and/or monstrous vampires and it's written very well.
Jack London, Sea-Wolf
Started it because I was thinking of writing a Yuletide treat about it. It's beautifully written. The antagonist is described in loving, homoerotic-feeling detail. But I didn't finish, because I wasn't in the mood for the socialist didacticism.
Gretchen McCulloch, Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language
Non-fiction. I haven't finished this, but I got a lot out of the parts I read. I especially liked how she divided up the generations of Internet users.
Seanan McGuire, Magic for Nothing; Tricks for Free (Incryptid #6–7)
I like some of McGuire's series and dislike others. This is one of the ones I like. I keep a running list of all the incryptids.
Jason Overstreet, The Strivers' Row Spy (Renaissance #1)
Historical fiction set in 1919 in Harlem. The author and protagonist are Black. Has Martin Garvey, J Edgar Hoover. I liked it and I learned stuff. Haven't decided whether to read the next one.
Dorothy L. Sayers, Peter Wimsey series
#1 Whose Body?
#2 Clouds of Witness
#3 Unnatural Death
#5 The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
#6 Strong Poison
#7 Five Red Herrings
#8 Have His Carcase
#9 Murder Must Advertise
#10 The Nine Tailors
#11 Gaudy Night
#12 Busman's Honeymoon
#13 Hangman's Holiday — short stories
I like how varied the stories are and how most of them form around some really nerdy thing. Five Red Herrings is set in Scotland and uses real railway timetables; Murder Must Advertise is based in an ad agency and also has a long, delightful description of a cricket match; The Nine Tailors is about an abstruse form of playing church bells; Gaudy Night is about a women's college at Oxford. I like the feminism. I like the development of the relationship between Harriet Vane and Lord Peter. I like how Lord Peter is slightly a Marty Stu. I like how Bunter is utterly a Marty Stu. I like how well Sayers does dialogue.
Rex Stout, Three Doors to Death (Nero Wolfe #16)
Three stories published 1947–49. They don't stand out, but just being able to hang out in this world for a while scratches my itch.
Patricia Wentworth, Grey Mask (Miss Silver #1)
Published 1929. The author is a little older than Agatha Christie. She published 32 Miss Silver books (and as many other books); this is the first one, published in 1929. I like that we know what Miss Silver is knitting each time she’s in her office. I like how this book works like a puzzle where you can put the pieces together in a few different ways to make different pictures.
Liz Williams, Snake Agent; The Demon & the City; Precious Dragon; The Shadow Pavilion (Detective Inspector Chen #1–4)
Urban fantasy with demons and various infernal realms and fun worldbuilding. There's a fifth book, The Iron Khan, which I was unable to get my hands on.
Sarah Zettel, Reclamation
Published 1996, won Locus award for best 1st novel. I don't remember it very well. I seem to recall it was hard to follow, but mostly worth it.
2020 Audiobooks
J.G. Ballard, High-Rise
Published in 1975. Narrated by Tom Hiddleston, who also stars in the movie. His narration is very low-key. This is like a cross between Kafka, Lord of the Flies, and Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. If you'd described me the premise and told me I would get really sucked into this story, I would have tried to have you committed, but I was riveted until the end. I have a huge crush on Hiddleston's voice, but I don't think it was his narration that sucked me in. It's just good.
Laurie J. Cameron / Great Courses, The Power of Self-Compassion
Four-hour Audible Original that teaches a few mindfulness exercises focused mainly on learning compassion for yourself. The exercises are similar to exercises I've seen elsewhere. I feel some crankiness over its being about self-compassion—not that we don't need it, but I find myself thinking "Americans can't do anything without making it all about themselves." Also when I hear about compassion meditation being used in the Army, and in Google to improve productivity, I'm like, "maybe more attention should be paid to compassion for others; if you use mindfulness meditation to make you a more efficient killer or more efficient stealer of people's privacy, that's not a particularly good thing." [/snark]
Karen Charlton, The Sans Pareil Mystery (Detective Lavender #2)
Read by Michael Page, one of my favorite narrators. There are six novels and three shorts in this series so far. I liked this OK, but I had issues with the romance. There's a fair bit of sexism, and pointlessly evil villains (although it's not as bad along those lines as the first one).
Caitlin Doughty, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes And Other Lessons From The Crematory
The details of how the death industry works are fascinating, but a lot of other things about the book annoyed the snot out of me. It exudes "middle-class white American values are better than everyone else's values" attitude. The author pays lip service to the way people from other cultures handle death and admits to her cultural ignorance, but she still comes off sounding like they are quaint, offensive, or outré (e.g., the way she describes a Chinese family who all come to the crematory and wail loudly, possibly with the help of professional mourners). She scoffs at people who want embalming. But wait, she also criticizes people who want to have nothing to do with corpses. She is deeply offended that someone would want to arrange a body pick-up and cremation over the Internet. Aaaaaand then there were the frequent mentions of how gross the corpses of fat people are. [/rant]
Elizabeth Edmondson, A Question Of Inheritance (Very English Mysteries #2)
Narrated by Michael Page, whom I will forever associate with The Lies of Locke Lamora. Set in the 1950s. I enjoyed it, but it's just on the edge of "not interesting enough." The author died in the middle of writing the third book in the series, which was finished by her son.
Ian Fleming, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (James Bond #11)
Narrated by David Tennant. Part of a series of Bond audiobooks that are narrated by famous British actors. (Audible link to series) Tennant is a very skillful narrator. He speaks slowly enough that each word gets its own space. When I'm in a cranky mood, I love Fleming's Bond because he is an asshole. He is an asshole in this and I enjoyed this quite a bit.
Emily Foster, The Drowning Eyes
Narrated by Robin Miles. The narrator and protagonist are Black. Fantasy novella, ships & sailing theme. I liked the first 3/4 OK but then I got confused. It's probably my fault for not listening carefully enough.
S. E. Green, Killer Instinct (Killer Instinct #1)
Narrated by Emily Woo Zeller. First in a YA thriller series about a teen girl who has serial killer urges and, like Dexter, wants to use them against serial killers and other evildoers. I love the protagonist's completely no-nonsense attitude toward everything. I really didn't like the ending. But I might read the next one in the series. (There are only two in the series.)
Charlaine Harris, An Easy Death (Gunnie Rose #1)
Charlaine Harris is another author where I like some of her series and not others. This is narrated by Eva Kaminsky. Alternative history fantasy Western set in a version of the early-mid-twentieth century. There's more "plot driven by stupidity" than I'd like, and I wish it were more clear how magic worked, but I really like the character and the narrator. I plan to listen to more of this series.
Faith Hunter, Junkyard Cats
This is an Audible Original, narrated by Khristine Hvam, who did a very good job. It's a new series for Hunter. It is so good. I want a time machine so I can skip forward to when she's written the whole series and read it all right now. It's a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk / nanotech world and it's one of those books where there are a dozen fascinating ideas in every paragraph.
Alexander C Kane, Andrea Vernon And The Corporation For Ultrahuman Protection (Andrea Vernon #1)
9 hr Audible Original, narrated by Bahni Turpin. The narrator and protagonist are women of color. Superhero story. It's crack, but it's quite well done and funny. I don't think I will seek out any more of the series, but I enjoyed it.
Ellen Kushner et al., Tremontaine (season 1)
Serial Box production based on Kushner's Swordspoint universe; Kushner describes the genre as "fantasy of manners". According to Kushner's LJ, this is set 15 years before Swordspoint. Authors: Ellen Kushner, Liz Duffy Adams, Patty Bryant, Joel Derfner, Tessa Gratton, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Malinda Lo, Karen Lord, Racheline Maltese, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Delia Sherman, and Paul Witcover. Narrators: Sarah Mollo-Christensen, Nick Sullivan, and Katherine Kellgren. I found one of the female narrators super-annoying—she used an exaggeratedly mannered voice. Some of the characters are interesting, especially the young neurodiverse person with a talent for numbers, and some are boring. I ended up mostly enjoying it, but I often felt it dragged. I think Serial Box things aren't really for me.
Richard K Morgan, Altered Carbon
Re-listen to the first book in the Takeshi Kovacs series, which I like a lot. Noir/cyberpunk. Narrated by Todd McLaren.
John McWhorter, Talking Back, Talking Black
Four hours, collection of essays on the subject of Black English and how it's a dialect, not a bunch of grammatical errors. I liked it a lot, but I wished for a lot more detail.
Madeline Miller, Circe
Narrated by Perdita Weeks. I liked this better than Song of Achilles, by the same author. The writing is simple and emotionally intense.
Walter Mosley, Little Scarlet (Easy Rawlins #9)
Narrated by Michael Boatman. Historical mystery, set right after the Watts Rebellion, August 1965. This one felt like it hung together better than some of the earlier books in the series.
Ann Rice, Interview With the Vampire; The Vampire Lestat (Vampire Chronicles #1–2)
Both narrated by Simon Vance. I read them before but this is my first listen. I ended up liking Interview. It was over-the-top in a fanficcy sort of way, which was what I was in the mood for. The Vampire Lestat didn't grab me and I didn't finish it.
Rebecca Roanhorse, Trail of Lightning (Sixth World #1)
Narrated by Tanis Parenteau. Navajo monster fantasy. Hugo nominee. The author, narrator, and protagonist are people of color. It subverted a bunch of tropes in all the right ways. It had a bit of a fanfic feel to it. I wasn't crazy about the narrator, so I'm going to read the rest of the series in ebook format.
Marcus Sakey, Afterlife
Narrated by Finty Williams. Ghost story/horror. I liked the way the ghost world worked. I was annoyed because the writer kept throwing in random short kinky scenes. (My attitude is: Kink is fine, no kink is fine, but don't sprinkle bits of kink into regular fiction.)
Andrzej Sapkowski, Blood Of Elves (Witcher #1)
Narrated by Peter Kenny. I gave up after a while. I couldn't bring myself to care about the characters.
Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, The Healer's War
Narrated by Robin Miles. Published in 1988, won the Nebula. Historical fantasy. Set in Vietnam during the war, told from the point of view of an army nurse at a medical center that treats both US armed services wounded and Vietnamese wounded. The author served in that role for a year. It feels very realistic, and the fantasy part of the book is fairly minor. I listened to this right after finishing A Canticle for Leibowitz, and they went well together.
Lindsay Smith, Max Gladstone, Cassandra Rose Clarke, Ian Tregillis, Michael Swanwick; The Witch Who Came in from the Cold, The Complete Season 1
Produced by Serial Box. Narrated by Christine Lakin & John Glouchevitch. Set in Prague in 1970. I gave up on this. I really like spy novels. I really like magic. So I was excited to find a story that combined them. This story, however, makes them both seem deathly boring.
Bram Stoker, Dracula (2-hr dramatization)
David Suchet plays Dracula and Hiddles plays Johnathan Harker. It was OK, but if you want to slake your Suchet or Hiddles thirst, there are better ways.
Hayley Stone, Make Me No Grave
Narrated by Oliver Wyman, who has a deep, sexy voice. Described as a "weird Western," which made me think it would be kind of silly, but it's not. Some queer representation. Attempts to subvert some tropes and then ends up subverting the subversion. But I still liked it and I plan to read other works by this person.
Jodi Taylor, A Trail Through Time (Chronicle Of St Mary's #4)
Time travel universe. Both humorous and serious. Good romance. I think I'm gonna have to switch to ebook for this series because I'm having trouble keeping track of the characters.
Michael E. Wysession / Great Courses, How the Earth Works
Long set of lectures, mostly geology, volcanoes, plate tectonics, earthquakes. A little weather and astronomy. He's an enthusiastic lecturer. I really liked this. It got me interested in learning stuff again.
2020 Reading/Listening Stats
Books read: 48, of which 4 (8%) were rereads
By gender: 4 (8%) by men, the rest by women and other genders
By race: 2 (4%) by authors of color, the rest by white authors
New books: 4 (8%) published in 2020
New-to-me authors: 9
Did not finish: 1
I usually read more books than this. But I stopped being able to read (anything except fanfic) in April. Since I replaced reading with writing, I'm not feeling bad about it, except that there are series I theoretically want to keep reading that I'm not reading, and the books are piling up.
Audiobooks listened to: 25 (3 were re-reads) (did not count the ones I abandoned)
By gender: 9 (36%) by men, the rest by women and other genders
By race: 3 (12%) by authors of color, the rest by white authors
New books: at least 3 published in 2020
New-to-me authors: 11
Did not finish: 3
I did keep on listening to audiobooks all year. I didn't get through as many as usual because I usually listen while I drive, and I used to drive four to six hours a week, and starting in March I stopped doing that.
Best of 2020
Books:
Gretchen McCulloch, Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language
Liz Williams, Detective Inspector Chen series #1–4
Audiobooks:
J.G. Ballard, High-Rise
Charlaine Harris, An Easy Death (Gunnie Rose #1)
Faith Hunter, Junkyard Cats
Madeline Miller, Circe
Michael E. Wysession / Great Courses, How the Earth Works
Warning: I often make snap judgements about books based on shallow things.
2020 Books
Ilona Andrews, Sweep With Me (Innkeeper Chronicles #5)
Novella-length, set at Dina's inn. Liked a lot.
Cordelia Frances Biddle, Martha Beale Series #1–3
The Conjurer
Deception's Daughter
Without Fear
Historical fiction set in Philadelphia in the early 1840s. I finished it, but it leaned heavily on tropes I don't like, such as "Oh no, our attraction is socially unacceptable!" and "Let's make assumptions about each other without actually talking to each other" and "Let me ignore the person who actually knows what's going on."
Agatha Christie, Nemesis (Miss Marple #12)
Published in 1971 when Christie was around 80. Second-to-last Miss Marple, and the last novel Agatha Christie wrote. (She wrote the final books in the Miss Marple and Poirot series decades earlier, and arranged to have them published posthumously.) I liked this a whole lot, partly because it talks about what being old is like.
Genevieve Cogman, The Invisible Library series #1–6
The Invisible Library
The Masked City
The Burning Page
The Lost Plot
The Mortal Word
The Secret Chapter
I like this multiverse a lot. Libraries! Magic! Fae and dragons! The stories and characters are good but they don't quite live up to the promise of the universe. I kept wanting things to be tidier than they were. But the books are also pretty addictive.
Alexia Gordon, Killing in C Sharp; Fatality in F (Gethsemane Brown #3–4)
Mysteries with a bit of a supernatural element. The author and protagonist are Black. I enjoyed these (each one revolves around something pleasantly nerdy). But they're a little too slight and short, the villains tend to be unadulterated evil, and there's not enough of the supernatural element. (The first book in the series, Murder in G Major, is more satisfying as far as the supernatural element is concerned.)
Kerry Greenwood, Phryne Fisher series
2. Flying Too High (1990)
3. Murder on the Ballarat Train (1991)
4. Death at Victoria Dock (1992)
5. The Green Mill Murder (1993)
6. Blood and Circuses (1994)
7. Ruddy Gore (1995)
8. Urn Burial (1996)
(I read #1 previously.) I liked these a fair bit, although I like the TV series better. I found them fun to read aloud. #7 was racist in ways I found annoying ("ooh, exotic Chinese people"). I loved it when I caught a wink at another mystery writer — Sayers got two winks ("Megatherium crash"), and Agatha Christie got one (a character resembling Miss Marple is named "Mary Mead").
Charles Finch, A Beautiful Blue Death (Charles Lenox #1)
The series (there are at least 12 books so far) is about an aristocratic amateur detective in Victorian London; this one opens in 1865. Lenox's butler is very much like Dorothy Sayers's Bunter. Lenox has a lady friend who isn't a romantic friend (at least not in this one). I like the writing style. Annoying amount of fat hate. I might read more of this series, but I don't seem to be in any hurry to do so.
Karin Fossum, Inspector Sejer series #1–3
Eva's Eye (aka Into the Darkness)
Don't Look Back
He Who Fears the Wolf
Karen Fossum is Norwegian. There are 13 novels in the series so far. These are interesting studies of human nature but they are ugly (the world is full of sad, creepy people) and there's an enormous amount of fat hate, so I decided not to continue the series.
Tony Hillerman, Listening Woman (Leaphorn #3)
I first read this series in the early 90s, and it's still a breath of fresh air.
Faith Hunter, Shattered Bonds (Jane Yellowrock #13)
Jane Yellowrock is a vampire hunter and shapeshifter who heads up a team that doubles as a quasi-family. I really like this series. Yellowrock is on a journey of self-discovery and there are lots of sexy and/or monstrous vampires and it's written very well.
Started it because I was thinking of writing a Yuletide treat about it. It's beautifully written. The antagonist is described in loving, homoerotic-feeling detail. But I didn't finish, because I wasn't in the mood for the socialist didacticism.
Gretchen McCulloch, Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language
Non-fiction. I haven't finished this, but I got a lot out of the parts I read. I especially liked how she divided up the generations of Internet users.
Seanan McGuire, Magic for Nothing; Tricks for Free (Incryptid #6–7)
I like some of McGuire's series and dislike others. This is one of the ones I like. I keep a running list of all the incryptids.
Jason Overstreet, The Strivers' Row Spy (Renaissance #1)
Historical fiction set in 1919 in Harlem. The author and protagonist are Black. Has Martin Garvey, J Edgar Hoover. I liked it and I learned stuff. Haven't decided whether to read the next one.
Dorothy L. Sayers, Peter Wimsey series
#1 Whose Body?
#2 Clouds of Witness
#3 Unnatural Death
#5 The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
#6 Strong Poison
#7 Five Red Herrings
#8 Have His Carcase
#9 Murder Must Advertise
#10 The Nine Tailors
#11 Gaudy Night
#12 Busman's Honeymoon
#13 Hangman's Holiday — short stories
I like how varied the stories are and how most of them form around some really nerdy thing. Five Red Herrings is set in Scotland and uses real railway timetables; Murder Must Advertise is based in an ad agency and also has a long, delightful description of a cricket match; The Nine Tailors is about an abstruse form of playing church bells; Gaudy Night is about a women's college at Oxford. I like the feminism. I like the development of the relationship between Harriet Vane and Lord Peter. I like how Lord Peter is slightly a Marty Stu. I like how Bunter is utterly a Marty Stu. I like how well Sayers does dialogue.
Rex Stout, Three Doors to Death (Nero Wolfe #16)
Three stories published 1947–49. They don't stand out, but just being able to hang out in this world for a while scratches my itch.
Patricia Wentworth, Grey Mask (Miss Silver #1)
Published 1929. The author is a little older than Agatha Christie. She published 32 Miss Silver books (and as many other books); this is the first one, published in 1929. I like that we know what Miss Silver is knitting each time she’s in her office. I like how this book works like a puzzle where you can put the pieces together in a few different ways to make different pictures.
Liz Williams, Snake Agent; The Demon & the City; Precious Dragon; The Shadow Pavilion (Detective Inspector Chen #1–4)
Urban fantasy with demons and various infernal realms and fun worldbuilding. There's a fifth book, The Iron Khan, which I was unable to get my hands on.
Sarah Zettel, Reclamation
Published 1996, won Locus award for best 1st novel. I don't remember it very well. I seem to recall it was hard to follow, but mostly worth it.
2020 Audiobooks
J.G. Ballard, High-Rise
Published in 1975. Narrated by Tom Hiddleston, who also stars in the movie. His narration is very low-key. This is like a cross between Kafka, Lord of the Flies, and Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. If you'd described me the premise and told me I would get really sucked into this story, I would have tried to have you committed, but I was riveted until the end. I have a huge crush on Hiddleston's voice, but I don't think it was his narration that sucked me in. It's just good.
Laurie J. Cameron / Great Courses, The Power of Self-Compassion
Four-hour Audible Original that teaches a few mindfulness exercises focused mainly on learning compassion for yourself. The exercises are similar to exercises I've seen elsewhere. I feel some crankiness over its being about self-compassion—not that we don't need it, but I find myself thinking "Americans can't do anything without making it all about themselves." Also when I hear about compassion meditation being used in the Army, and in Google to improve productivity, I'm like, "maybe more attention should be paid to compassion for others; if you use mindfulness meditation to make you a more efficient killer or more efficient stealer of people's privacy, that's not a particularly good thing." [/snark]
Karen Charlton, The Sans Pareil Mystery (Detective Lavender #2)
Read by Michael Page, one of my favorite narrators. There are six novels and three shorts in this series so far. I liked this OK, but I had issues with the romance. There's a fair bit of sexism, and pointlessly evil villains (although it's not as bad along those lines as the first one).
Caitlin Doughty, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes And Other Lessons From The Crematory
The details of how the death industry works are fascinating, but a lot of other things about the book annoyed the snot out of me. It exudes "middle-class white American values are better than everyone else's values" attitude. The author pays lip service to the way people from other cultures handle death and admits to her cultural ignorance, but she still comes off sounding like they are quaint, offensive, or outré (e.g., the way she describes a Chinese family who all come to the crematory and wail loudly, possibly with the help of professional mourners). She scoffs at people who want embalming. But wait, she also criticizes people who want to have nothing to do with corpses. She is deeply offended that someone would want to arrange a body pick-up and cremation over the Internet. Aaaaaand then there were the frequent mentions of how gross the corpses of fat people are. [/rant]
Elizabeth Edmondson, A Question Of Inheritance (Very English Mysteries #2)
Narrated by Michael Page, whom I will forever associate with The Lies of Locke Lamora. Set in the 1950s. I enjoyed it, but it's just on the edge of "not interesting enough." The author died in the middle of writing the third book in the series, which was finished by her son.
Ian Fleming, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (James Bond #11)
Narrated by David Tennant. Part of a series of Bond audiobooks that are narrated by famous British actors. (Audible link to series) Tennant is a very skillful narrator. He speaks slowly enough that each word gets its own space. When I'm in a cranky mood, I love Fleming's Bond because he is an asshole. He is an asshole in this and I enjoyed this quite a bit.
Emily Foster, The Drowning Eyes
Narrated by Robin Miles. The narrator and protagonist are Black. Fantasy novella, ships & sailing theme. I liked the first 3/4 OK but then I got confused. It's probably my fault for not listening carefully enough.
S. E. Green, Killer Instinct (Killer Instinct #1)
Narrated by Emily Woo Zeller. First in a YA thriller series about a teen girl who has serial killer urges and, like Dexter, wants to use them against serial killers and other evildoers. I love the protagonist's completely no-nonsense attitude toward everything. I really didn't like the ending. But I might read the next one in the series. (There are only two in the series.)
Charlaine Harris, An Easy Death (Gunnie Rose #1)
Charlaine Harris is another author where I like some of her series and not others. This is narrated by Eva Kaminsky. Alternative history fantasy Western set in a version of the early-mid-twentieth century. There's more "plot driven by stupidity" than I'd like, and I wish it were more clear how magic worked, but I really like the character and the narrator. I plan to listen to more of this series.
Faith Hunter, Junkyard Cats
This is an Audible Original, narrated by Khristine Hvam, who did a very good job. It's a new series for Hunter. It is so good. I want a time machine so I can skip forward to when she's written the whole series and read it all right now. It's a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk / nanotech world and it's one of those books where there are a dozen fascinating ideas in every paragraph.
Alexander C Kane, Andrea Vernon And The Corporation For Ultrahuman Protection (Andrea Vernon #1)
9 hr Audible Original, narrated by Bahni Turpin. The narrator and protagonist are women of color. Superhero story. It's crack, but it's quite well done and funny. I don't think I will seek out any more of the series, but I enjoyed it.
Ellen Kushner et al., Tremontaine (season 1)
Serial Box production based on Kushner's Swordspoint universe; Kushner describes the genre as "fantasy of manners". According to Kushner's LJ, this is set 15 years before Swordspoint. Authors: Ellen Kushner, Liz Duffy Adams, Patty Bryant, Joel Derfner, Tessa Gratton, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Malinda Lo, Karen Lord, Racheline Maltese, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Delia Sherman, and Paul Witcover. Narrators: Sarah Mollo-Christensen, Nick Sullivan, and Katherine Kellgren. I found one of the female narrators super-annoying—she used an exaggeratedly mannered voice. Some of the characters are interesting, especially the young neurodiverse person with a talent for numbers, and some are boring. I ended up mostly enjoying it, but I often felt it dragged. I think Serial Box things aren't really for me.
Richard K Morgan, Altered Carbon
Re-listen to the first book in the Takeshi Kovacs series, which I like a lot. Noir/cyberpunk. Narrated by Todd McLaren.
John McWhorter, Talking Back, Talking Black
Four hours, collection of essays on the subject of Black English and how it's a dialect, not a bunch of grammatical errors. I liked it a lot, but I wished for a lot more detail.
Madeline Miller, Circe
Narrated by Perdita Weeks. I liked this better than Song of Achilles, by the same author. The writing is simple and emotionally intense.
Walter Mosley, Little Scarlet (Easy Rawlins #9)
Narrated by Michael Boatman. Historical mystery, set right after the Watts Rebellion, August 1965. This one felt like it hung together better than some of the earlier books in the series.
Ann Rice, Interview With the Vampire; The Vampire Lestat (Vampire Chronicles #1–2)
Both narrated by Simon Vance. I read them before but this is my first listen. I ended up liking Interview. It was over-the-top in a fanficcy sort of way, which was what I was in the mood for. The Vampire Lestat didn't grab me and I didn't finish it.
Rebecca Roanhorse, Trail of Lightning (Sixth World #1)
Narrated by Tanis Parenteau. Navajo monster fantasy. Hugo nominee. The author, narrator, and protagonist are people of color. It subverted a bunch of tropes in all the right ways. It had a bit of a fanfic feel to it. I wasn't crazy about the narrator, so I'm going to read the rest of the series in ebook format.
Marcus Sakey, Afterlife
Narrated by Finty Williams. Ghost story/horror. I liked the way the ghost world worked. I was annoyed because the writer kept throwing in random short kinky scenes. (My attitude is: Kink is fine, no kink is fine, but don't sprinkle bits of kink into regular fiction.)
Narrated by Peter Kenny. I gave up after a while. I couldn't bring myself to care about the characters.
Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, The Healer's War
Narrated by Robin Miles. Published in 1988, won the Nebula. Historical fantasy. Set in Vietnam during the war, told from the point of view of an army nurse at a medical center that treats both US armed services wounded and Vietnamese wounded. The author served in that role for a year. It feels very realistic, and the fantasy part of the book is fairly minor. I listened to this right after finishing A Canticle for Leibowitz, and they went well together.
Produced by Serial Box. Narrated by Christine Lakin & John Glouchevitch. Set in Prague in 1970. I gave up on this. I really like spy novels. I really like magic. So I was excited to find a story that combined them. This story, however, makes them both seem deathly boring.
Bram Stoker, Dracula (2-hr dramatization)
David Suchet plays Dracula and Hiddles plays Johnathan Harker. It was OK, but if you want to slake your Suchet or Hiddles thirst, there are better ways.
Hayley Stone, Make Me No Grave
Narrated by Oliver Wyman, who has a deep, sexy voice. Described as a "weird Western," which made me think it would be kind of silly, but it's not. Some queer representation. Attempts to subvert some tropes and then ends up subverting the subversion. But I still liked it and I plan to read other works by this person.
Jodi Taylor, A Trail Through Time (Chronicle Of St Mary's #4)
Time travel universe. Both humorous and serious. Good romance. I think I'm gonna have to switch to ebook for this series because I'm having trouble keeping track of the characters.
Michael E. Wysession / Great Courses, How the Earth Works
Long set of lectures, mostly geology, volcanoes, plate tectonics, earthquakes. A little weather and astronomy. He's an enthusiastic lecturer. I really liked this. It got me interested in learning stuff again.
no subject
Date: 4 Jan 2021 08:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 4 Jan 2021 11:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 4 Jan 2021 03:58 pm (UTC)I loved Because Internet!.
And Circe, though a few scenes were kind of a squicky listen.
no subject
Date: 4 Jan 2021 11:20 pm (UTC)Yeah, there are some uncomfortable bits in Circe.
no subject
Date: 4 Jan 2021 04:20 pm (UTC)And you can't go wrong with Simon Vance. He and Simon Prebblie (the Two Simons in my head) are the Gold Standard of invisible narrators (when you want the book read and not Performed). Simon Vance can say the word 'pussy' and not make me think of pussy while David Case can say the word 'folio' and make the think of cock. They're both brilliant (in their own ways).
I don't like David Suchet as a narrator. I think all his female voices sound like variations on Lady Bracknell.
I would love to hear Tennet read Fleming. Does he pull out the Scottish burr? I've never seen Doctor Who but Crowley is one of my favorite characters of all time and I liked him in Broadchurch, too.
I'm not a Hiddleston fan but I bet he does a good job. I'm a Cumberbitch [which I suppose is like preferring Jamison to Bushmill's or something] and he does a good job. Dan Steves does, too.
no subject
Date: 4 Jan 2021 11:52 pm (UTC)I've been keeping a list of liked and disliked narrators for decades, although it's a little out of date. There's something about Simon Vance that annoys me (so he's not an invisible narrator for me), but not enough to make me avoid him. I like Simon Prebble.
Simon Vance can say the word 'pussy' and not make me think of pussy while David Case can say the word 'folio' and make the think of cock.
OK that gave me a good long laugh, which I needed.
Yes, Tennant's Scottish burr is in evidence in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.. I've only seen him in Doctor Who and Jessica Jones. I'm looking forward to watching Good Omens one of these days.
Funny you should mention Jamison and Bushmill's in that analogy because I'm sitting here looking at a bottle of Bushmill's that I keep by my desk. I think Cumberbatch is a very good actor and I like his voice, but he doesn't turn my crank the way Hiddles does.
Audible tells me Cumberbatch narrates some Ngaio Marsh stories. Do you like her?
no subject
Date: 5 Jan 2021 01:09 am (UTC)Ah, don't get me started on Artist in Crime by Ngaio Marsh narrated by Cumberbatch. First of all, a warning, it's an abridged book, which I normally don't listen to, but it's one of my favorite recordings. It's available on Youtube if you want to preview it or not spend money. But I love the beginning when it's just letters back and forth. He really has a talent for reading letters. I don't understand it but I really love it. I mean, he sounds like he actually likes his mother (which is rare in fiction) and I love the meet-cute scene between the detective and his future wife on the ship. The best part, however, is at the 1:52 on this recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o36Fd7i_j54&t=6830s when he reads a letter from a girl named Bobbie O'Dawne. It's like an instant serotonin boost for me. I just think it's hilarious no matter how many times I've listened to it. I've read a lot of Ngaio Marsh's books (maybe most of them? maybe half? She wrote a lot). I like them. There are other narrators who do unabridged versions and they're fine. I haven't come across any BAD narrator of her works. Cumberbatch also did the one that comes after Artists in Crime, Death in a White Tie and that's good, too (but also abridged).
no subject
Date: 5 Jan 2021 04:41 am (UTC)I would have to listen with the ebook in front of me to get all of it. He reads some of that bit very fast and I have some difficulty with accents I'm less familiar with.
I'd be happy to send you the David Tennant narration of On Her Majesty's Secret Service. I have more Audible credits than I know what to do with right now, and they've changed the rules so they expire faster.
no subject
Date: 5 Jan 2021 05:01 am (UTC)Oh, I don't have an audible account, unfortunately. I use two different public library systems (Libby and Hoopla). If I ever get one, I'll let you know.
no subject
Date: 5 Jan 2021 01:28 am (UTC)Some other overlap with my reading, but no spoons/brain power right now.
no subject
Date: 5 Jan 2021 04:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 5 Jan 2021 04:16 am (UTC)I've read several of the Phryne Fisher, but didn't catch the Megatherium and Mary Mead references! Hee hee.
I liked Zettel's Reclamation enough to keep it, but haven't re-read it.
I skipped a lot of the first third of Circe (first love angst), but the rest of it was pretty interesting.
Oh, *The Healer's War* was so good! and SO different from the YA/coming of age fantasy of hers I'd read before (both in my late teens?), kind of a shock.