Reading is fun!

With the technology explosion, ways for readers to connect and find reading material that they love at a touch of the finger has become easy. This week I am going to share  links to some fun places.

1.  10 social networks for readers
 
This article was written a couple of years ago, so the links to Nook Friends and inReads do not work, but all the rest do. I  had no idea there were so many quality places for readers to gather!

2.  Literature games

Play games based on classic or popular books such as the Harry Potter series, Huckleberry Finn, Wuthering Heights, etc.

3. Reading activities

Lit2Go  posts stories online, has audio versions available and "student activities" which involve quizzes or writing activities based on their posted stories from classical literature.

4.   Discussion - debate forum

Not everyone cares to join a social book network, so forums such as a the one above are a nice choice for those who don't want  tracking cookies clogging up their computer.

5. Quizzes!

This site has quizzes about popular books, authors, a reading personality quiz as well a test to test your reading speed. Surprisingly, in spite of only containing 5 questions, the reading personality quiz pegged me perfectly. Try it yourself and tell me what you think.



 

 

White Week!!

With Halloween just around the corner and the fact that one of my favorite Goodreads groups, All About Books, began a read-along centered around Herman Melville's masterpiece, Moby Dick the weird, eeriness of the famous "white chapter" seemed appropriate for the topic of this week's blog. Check out some of these quotations from the white chapter and tell me if they aren't discussion-worthy in lieu of the approaching holiday. Maybe someone should costume his/herself as Herman Melville!!

Melville finds white to have an elusive quality. After citing connections to white in royal standards, the Romans' white stone representing joy, Native Americans white belt of wampum, the Persians fire worshipers treasuring a great white flame, milk-white steeds, sacrifice of the sacred White Dog, sacred vestures, Christian symbolism of the Great White Throne and the 24 Elders, white as wool; he states, ...yet for all these accumulated associations, with whatever is sweet, and honorable, and sublime, there yet lurks an elusive something in the innermost idea of this hue, which strikes more of panic to the soul than that redness which affrights in blood. Melville then cites the polar bear, white shark as containing That ghastly whiteness it is which imparts such an abhorrent mildness, even more loathsome than terrific, to the dumb gloating of their aspect. So that not the fierce-fanged tiger in his heraldic coat can so stagger courage as the white-shrouded bear or shark. 

Polar bears frightened Melville

Melville proceeds to list the White Squall of the Southern Seas as Nature's crowning attribute of the terrible.

white squall

The White Squall precedes mention of the desperate White Hoods of Ghent murdering their bailiff in the market-place. Read more about this maliciousness here. One has to wonder if these bad boys influenced the choice of white hoods for the revolting Ku Klux Klan!

Whiteness continues to torture Melville as he goes on to say things like:

...from the pallor of the dead, we borrow the expressive hue of the shroud in which we wrap them...to throw the same snowy mantle round our phantoms...

...all ghosts rising in a milk-white fog...

...no man can deny that in its profoundest idealized significance it calls up a peculiar apparition to the soul...

Now Melville begins to analyze. Can we, then, by the citation of some of those instances wherein this thing of whiteness-though for the time either wholly or in great part stripped of all direct associations calculated to impart to it aught fearful, but, nevertheless, is found to exert over us the same sorcery, however modified;-can we thus hope to light upon some chance clue to conduct us to the hidden cause we seek? He offers some imaginative impressions:

White Friar or White Nun

white Tower of London

White Tower of London
White Mountains of New Hampshire ...whence, in particular moods, comes that gigantic ghostliness over the soul at the bare mention of the name...

White Mountains

White Sea  ...exert such a spectralness over the fancy...
"the tall pale man" of the Hartz forests, whose changeless pallor unrustlingly glides through the green of the groves...
Lima is the strangest, saddest city thous can'st see for having taken the white veil; and there is higher horror in this whiteness of her woe. (Here is a laudable explanation.)


Are you shivering yet? Let me interject now, that while it is entertaining to laugh at Melville's depiction of white as being unsettling to him, I have the utmost respect for his ability to write well, to write descriptively. Moby Dick is one of, if not my favorite classic. As was mentioned in the All About Books discussion, I don't know of a book where one can finish it and feel like one has read a non-fiction book, novel and philosophical discussion all in one. It certainly deserves the title of American Masterpiece. That being said, back to the creepy fun...

The mariner, when drawing nigh the coasts of foreign lands, if by night he hear the roar of breakers,

Still giving Melville the willies!

starts to vigilance, and feels just enough of trepidation to sharpen all his faculties; but under precisely similar circumstances, let him be called from his hammock to view his ship sailing through a midnight sea of milky  whiteness-as if from encircling headlands shoals of combed white bears were swimming around him, (Nightmares about polar bears are never far away for Melville, are they?) then he feels a silent, superstitious dread; the shrouded phantom of the whitened waters is horrible to him as a real ghost; in vain the lead assures him he is still off soundings; heart and helm they both go down; he never rests till blue water is under him again. Yet where is the mariner who will tell thee, "Sir, it was not so much the fear of striking hidden rocks, as the fear of that hideous whiteness that so stirred me?"

Thus after much mulling over whiteness, Melville becomes philosophical making statements such as Though in many of its aspects this visible world seems formed in love, the invisible spheres were formed in fright. He goes on to say that the incantation of this whiteness hasn't been solved. He questions whether the essence of whiteness is not so much a color as the visible absence of color, and at the same time the concrete of all colors; is it for these reasons that there is such a dumb blankness, full of meaning, in a wide landscape of snows-a colorless, all-color of atheism from which we shrink?

If it weren't for Melville's penchant to philosophize, with a little effort, he could have given Edgar Allan Poe a run for his money with his eerie descriptiveness.

What's new this year? October edition

The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin

I'm a big fan of the sub-genre that is emerging composed of novels that tell the stories of significant others close to famous people. I haven't read one that I didn't like yet!

Melanie Benjamin

Some of the titles in this grouping are The Paris Wife (Hemingway), Loving Frank (Frank Lloyd Wright) and now The Aviator's Wife that tells Anne Morrow Lindbergh's story.  What makes these kinds of stories such a big deal to me is that it appeals to my thrifty side....its two stories for the price of one. While listening to The Aviator's Wife I learned about Charles Lindbergh's life through the eyes of Anne and I learned about Anne's fascinating life as well. Did you know that Anne served as Charles only co-pilot? He would fly with no one else.

Title:	The Aviator's Wife
Author:	Melanie Benjamin
Pub Date:	January, 2013
Publisher:	Delacourt Press
Pages:	416

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

This book records Anne's growth as a person from timid Anne always rushing to please her husband, taking his verbal abuse and moodiness to the gracious, confident woman who insisted on being buried separate from her husband.

I anxiously anticipated reading this book and it lived up to all my expectations.

************************************************************

The Silver Star by Jeanette Walls

Synopsis: Sisters, Liz and Jean (Bean) Holladay, daughters of actress/musician wannabe, Charlotte Holladay, find themselves fending for themselves while their mom is trying to find herself and her career in another city. When police come sniffing around, suspecting abandonment, the sisters hop on a bus to travel cross country to land at their Uncle's home in Byler, Virginia unannounced.

The story is narrated by the youngest sister nicknamed Bean. It is the story of perseverance, courage by two girls tired of running from problems like their Mother, not wanting to hide like their Uncle, facing the truth of their Mother's instability and mental problems and discovery and acceptance of their own heritage. There are many good themes and scenes, but truthfully there are many holes in the story and a degree of unbelievability.

Title:	The Silver Star
Author:	Jeanette Walls
Pub Date:	June, 2013
Publisher:	Scribner
Pages:	267

Being the Walls fan that I am, I choose to chalk this up to her first attempt at writing fiction after two stellar

Jeanette Walls

memoirs in The Glass Castle and Half-Broke Horses. (I do realize that HBH is labeled fiction but it is essentially her grandmother's memoir and therefore a different experience than plotting and writing an entire fiction story from scratch.) Even so, it was a quick read and entertaining. It was difficult to not like the characters, especially Bean and her spunkiness. My guess is that future novels by Walls will offer more depth of character and have tighter plots. All in all, a good first venture into the field of fiction writing.

******************************************************************

Buddy reads and re-visiting India

 With this week's blog we travel back to colorful India. We resume our discussion on culture and castes. Our first stop brings us to an unnamed large city and rural area inhabited by a Parsi population. This is the focus of A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. While Dina Dala, Om, his uncle, Ishvar, and the student, Maneck, are moving on with their lives, we will proceed to a current buddy read of A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. Our cultural journey continues with a look at an Indian wedding and the accompanying exotic dishes.

Although the characters inhabiting these books belong to different rungs of Indian society, there is a connecting thread, both are buddy reads. I finished A Fine Balance earlier this year, reading it with my friend Mary from Goodreads. Mary added a whole another dimension to my interpretation and understanding of the book. My reading experience was greatly enhanced for reading this with her.

I'm currently reading A Suitable Boy as part of a buddy read that I am leading with the Goodreads group, You'll Love this One. For those of you who know me well, you know that I am a huge fan of buddy reads. I don't recall every being part of a buddy read that didn't enhance my enjoyment/knowledge of the book at least a little and usually a lot. If you haven't ever taken part in a buddy read, its worth trying at least once!



A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

 "You see you cannot draw lines and compartments, and refuse to budge beyond them. Sometimes you have to use your failures as stepping-stones to success. You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair." (The proofreader) paused, considering what he had just said, "Yes," he repeated. "In the end, it's all a question of balance."

This paragraph encapsulates what A Fine Balance is about. Society attempts to put each character in their

Rohinton Mistry

own compartment. For the orphaned Dina Dalal, its her brother, Nusswan, trying to shove her into a "good marriage" or keeping her hidden away in his house, a virtual maid to his wife and family, if she chooses not to marry. As her life of bucking the culturally accepted roles unfurls, Dina faces more and more attempts to compartment-alize her life. She faces her prejudices, distrust of others and need to rely on others. It is much easier to follow society's rules and expectations, but Dina puts her energy into bucking them.

Maneck is a student who comes to board with Dina when campus life becomes unbearable for him. He finds himself face-to-face with the need to act when challenged with the neediness of the tailors, Dina and others. Maneck's compartment centers around the desire of his aging parents to see him through trade school as a backup occupation to running their small family-owned store and cola-bottling business in the mountains. Maneck feels trapped by his parents' expectations.

Parsi gathering

Om and Ishvar, uncle and orphaned nephew, inhabit an entirely different sphere in society. They come from a small village of refuse-gathering outcasts. When Ishvar's parents place him with a Muslim tailor in another town, they bust out of the compartment they were placed in. Much grief follows, but Ishvar and his brother, Om's father, persevere and eventually win over their village. When tragedy strikes, Ishvar takes Om to the big city, residence of Dina Dalal, and offers her his tailoring skills.

Om finds himself squeezed by the rules of tradition in regards to marriage, his desire to be like Maneck, carefree and playful, but required to sew in order to survive. He rebels against his lot in life and inability to ascend to a higher level of independence.

Although sad things happen in this novel, there is much to be learned about India's history, Parsi culture, the castes and the futility of the Indian government of that time. The book offers the reader to glimpse Indian society through several sets of eyes inhabiting different backgrounds and positions in it. I highly recommend this book to around-the-world readers and anyone interested in reading about India.


A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

Since I am only 300+ pages into this 1500-page volume, my focus will be on a wedding that is depicted in the opening chapters. I found the symbolism and food captivating! The following descriptions of the festivities inspired me to dream a little about what it must have been like leading to a search for pictures to bring more perspective.

Vikram Seth

...It was a little untraditional, Lata couldn't help thinking, that Pran hadn't ridden up to the gate on a white horse with a little nephew sitting in front of him and with the groom's party in tow to claim his bride....He was now placing a garland of dark red, heavily fragrant roses around her sister Savita's neck - and Savita was doing the same to him. She looked lovely in her red-and-gold wedding sari....

The welcoming ceremony completed, bride and groom moved together to the middle of the garden, where a small platform, decorated with more white flowers and open to the auspicious stars, had been erected. Here the priests, one from each family, and Mrs. Rupa Mehra and the parents of the groom sat around the small fire that would be the witness of their vows...

Exchange of garlands

Now that the exchange of garlands was over, the crowd paid no great attention to the actual wedding rites. These would go on for the better part of an hour while the guests milled and chattered round the lawns...they exchanged births and deaths and politics and scandal under the brightly-coloured cloth canopy at the back of the garden beneath which long tables of food had been laid out...

Servants, some in white livery, some in khaki, brought around fruit juice and tea and coffee and snacks to those who were standing in the garden: samosas,

samosas

kachauris, laddus, gulabjamuns, barfis and gajak and ice-cream were consumed and replenished along with puris and six kinds of vegetables...

kachauris

....Friends who had not met each other for months fell upon each other with loud cries, relatives who met only at weddings and funerals embraced tearfully and exchanged the latest news of third cousins thrice removed...

If you are anything like me, looking at these pictures and reading the description of this wedding makes
you wish you were there! Doesn't the

laddus

food look delicious? Here are some

more pictures for your virtual culinary journey.

galub jamun

One has to wonder how many days it took the servants to prepare these foods. Most don't look like they would be something that could be prepared too quickly especially for a host of guests.

More wedding visuals....The barbaric children from rustic Rudhia ran around yelling as if they were playing pitthu on the farm. And though the plaintive, festive music of the shehnai had now ceased, a happy babble of convivial voices rose to the skies and quite drowned out the irrelevant chant of the ceremonies...

gajak

I hoped you enjoyed this culinary and cultural tour to an Hindu wedding as depicted by A Suitable Boy. Consider yourself cordially invited to join in our buddy read discussion of this book!

HAPPY READING...

"N" and what's new? September Edition

Hubby just came into the living room where I am sitting on the couch with my laptop writing this blog and asked me if I was going to start my blog similar to how Barbara Stanwyck did in the old film, Christmas in Connecticut, began her column with a cozy description of domestic life. He suggested something like this...Here I sit in my pajamas on the couch with cats on my lap happily typing away to the tune of a rainy drizzle while my husband is in the kitchen making plump, golden pancakes. I kinda like it, thanks Hubby, especially since it leads to a nice transition where I can introduce the two books I will write about today, Nothing to Do but Stay by Carrie Young and Neal Thompson's A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert "Believe it or not" Ripley At first thought, I didn't know how I could tie all this together, but it actually is quite easy. Carrie Young's memoir includes wonderful scenes of domestic life heavily involving cooking (ie...pancakes) and A Curious Man does not. Okay, so that was lame, but seriously there is a nice strong thread of realizing your dreams in all of this. Young's mother and Ripley were both people who envisioned a better life and stuck with it until they accomplished it. Both were ambitious, hardworking and pioneers. You ask what my connection is to all this? It's simple, I'm envisioning delicious, warm gluten-free pancakes and I'm not going anywhere until I get them!

 "N" = Nothing to Do but Stay by Carrie Young

Carrie Young opens her book with these lines, My pioneering mother was wild for education. She fervently believed that young people given enough schooling and using the brains they were born with could rise above themselves as far as they wanted to go, the sky the limit. She, herself, with no formal education of any kind, had managed to lead a remarkable life characterized from end to end with vision and courage. Young proceeds to chronicle how her mother lived her life with courage and vision.

In spite of her peers' philosophy that high school "spoiled" their offspring and that they were better off learning to work hard and run their farms, Carrie's mother arranged for her 2 oldest daughters to attend the only accredited high school in the area even though it was 30 miles away. Even though she had no fear of  bucking the traditional lifestyle of the Norwegian community, her mother garnered the community's respect. Her hard work, spotless housekeeping and delicious cooking earned her a place in everyone's heart. This was no delicate flower of a lady! Unmarried until the spinster-ish age of 34, she feared she would not be able to produce children. She birthed six. Not only did she marry and have children, but she flaunted convention by convincing her husband to abandon his land claim upon marriage and live on her land claim that she had proven which boasted better soil. Needless to say, reading about this spunky, pioneering lady proved to be entertaining.

My only regret lay in the fact that the title hints at a story or hardship and perseverance to conquer the North Dakota prairie, while  this memoir centers much more around personalities, food and culture - all things I love, but alas, I was primed for a tale of roughing it on the untamed prairie, costing the book one star.

I heartily recommend this to readers who devour books about strong women, the Western frontier, history buffs and memoir readers in general.

4 stars



New! A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert "Believe it or not" Ripley by Neal Thompson

The life of Robert Ripley gives credence to the maxim that anyone can attain whatever they want with hard work. Although, not a handsome man, Ripley knew how to hold an audience's attention. His determination to break into the newspaper market began at a young age. When the local paper wouldn't hire him, he went to the big city where after much difficulty he landed a job.

From that point, Ripley weathered ups and downs, at times losing almost everything he had gained. Although I never found myself enamored with the man himself or his interests, I thought the story of his life inspirational, well-written and worth reading. The narration of the audiobook I listened to passed muster.

I recommend this book to non-fiction readers in need of an entertaining excursion from more serious reading.

4 stars



Ripley's Beilieve it or not Museum - Times Square

Ripley World

Book Gluttony!!

Book Gluttony!!

You know, I thought I had come up with an original description of book-love with "book gluttony", but when I googled it, guess what? not only did someone else think of it first, there's actually a website called Book Glutton as well as an interesting article about book gluttony. Shucky darns, I guess I'll have to keep thinking if I want to coin an unique phrase!

However, the lack of my own term for my insatiable devouring of books doesn't keep me from passing on my recipe for finding cheap books. So here goes. I hope this information will whet your appetite for good book deals.



I. Free books....really!

(a) A great way to meet other book lovers, share books and spread book love is through sites like BookCrossing. I was introduced to this site by a Goodreads friend. Whether there is a cost depends on the person who is offering the book, but most folks will send your desired book for the cost of shipping while others (like my friend) will send a book free to anyone in the U.S. Of course, if you are obtaining books from BookCrossing its only fair to have a few of your own available for others.

(b) Another truly free way to download books is by joining NetGalley. If you blog, are a librarian, bookseller, are a member of the media, are a journalist or are an educator, you can join Net Galley for free. For the price of a review, you can request a free download. So far, I haven't been turned down yet. However, I do know that some of the larger publishers such as Penguin are very selective.

(c) Goodreads groups such as Making Connections link authors (mostly new ones) with readers who will read their book(s) and post reviews on Goodreads and their blogs.  I found an incredible array of books, genres available. The moderators do a nice job of organizing the books by genre so that selection is easy for the reader.

 II. Penny Books

I recently got an Amazon gift certificate for my birthday. Without hesitation, I headed to the book section to look for "penny books". Over the years , it has surprised me how many books on my wishlist only cost a penny (plus shipping) at Amazon! Okay, yes, the shipping is $3.99, but still, how many places can you find a coveted book for only $4.00? The only place I know that I can get a book cheaper is my local used bookstore, but I rarely can find more than one or two books on my wishlist there. So, penny books at Amazon becomes my venue of choice. So, you are probably thinking what condition are these books in? Good question. The answer is that surprisingly, I can find most offered in "Very Good" or "Like New" condition.  There was only one time I received a book in a condition that I considered less than what was promised. Most books that I have received have hardly a crease (if any) on their spines!
(Note: I wanted to add a link to Amazon's penny books but wasn't able to. However, you can search "books under $1 and get a listing.)

III. My Local Used Bookstore

What's more fun than browsing through the local used bookstore? Granted, I usually can't find books that are on my wishlist, but I often find books that I don't own by favorite authors. Being the memoir junkie that I am, I frequently add new adventure or pioneer memoirs to my collection. Its also a great place to go when nothing on my shelves is grabbing my interest. My local store offers a trade-in incentive. I get one dollar deducted from each book I purchase with a trade-in. Needless to say, this is a big draw for me, because I can take home a paperback for only $1.50 and hardcover books for only $2.50!! The hardcover section also offers buy 2, get one free. Can't beat that.

Since I love to browse used bookstores in little towns that we visit, I know my store offers better deals than most. Here in Michigan, the average price for a used book falls in the vicinity of $6.00 more often than not. However, most stores have sections of bargain books that often contain jewels. Even so, $6.00 isn't a bad price to advance one's book-gluttonous ways!

Now, I want to know how you feed your book gluttony....do you know where there are treasure troves of reasonably priced books? Any favorite hangouts? Let me and my blog readers in on the secret!

The latest alphabet reading and a newly published book that I enjoyed.

Audiobooks! Love 'em or leave 'em alone?

People often ask me how I read so many books during the course of a year. My secret is that I listen to about 30% of them. Listening can be a tricky thing and I've learned it isn't for everyone. There are so many factors that go into determining what makes a good audiobook listening experience and what doesn't.  What follows is what I have learned about listening to audiobooks and a list of some of my favorites.

1. Listening to audiobooks while undertaking a large project or undertaking a boring task is a great way to stay motivated until the task is finished.

I don't tackle mounds of ironing, cleaning cupboards or the refrigerator without an audiobook handy. The crazy thing is that I find myself almost looking forward to these tasks if I know I have some good listening ahead of me. Laughing while Bill Bryson reads In a Sunburned Country while cleaning the refrigerator sure beats stewing about why no one else cleans up their slops while trying to figure out how old that bottle of hot sauce is.
The same goes for quilting. I love piecing, but dislike the actual hand quilting and sewing borders on my quilts. (I'm in the process of learning the quilt-as-you-go and it may alleviate the hand quilting blahs.) Long audiobooks such as How Green Was My Valley or Karl Marlantes' Matterhorn offer a little reward to this tedious job. The funny thing is that now I can look at quilts and remember what I was listening to while I quilted sections of them.

2. A bonus: When an author reads his or her own book you know the pronunciations and emphasis are correct.

Most of the time I love it when an author reads their own book. I forgive a lot in style, oration and voice quality in some cases, but look at it as a great gain in regards to the book being read with the correct emphasis being put on certain words, topics, etc. I often wonder while I listen to a book read by professional narrators if they have studied the correct pronunciation, are they missing the intended humor or if they know what the author intended emphasis to be put on. The author reading his/her own book solves these problems. Of course, some authors really don't have voices that are easy to listen to or read in such a way that it is distracting. One of my favorite authors to pick on in this regard is Barbara Kingsolver. She reads in an I'm-reading-this-book-to-you sort of way, rather than relaxing and putting herself in to the story. That's my take anyway... One of my favorite author/narrators is Bill Bryson. His humor, awe of nature and sarcasm (at times) come through clearly. I also enjoyed Edwidge Danticat's narration in her Brother, I'm Dying. I loved knowing that all the pronunciations of Caribbean towns, words, etc. were correct as well as the portrayal of emotions experienced by family members as they immigrated to New York City.
Another favorite was Neil Gaiman reading his children's short stories, especially his inclusion of his daughter's voice and comments into his explanation of why he wrote the stories. These I found to be exceptional. Note: this is not to say I only listen to books read by authors. I have many favorite non-author narrators.

3. Audiobooks are a great way to experience books/genres you wouldn't normally read.

Okay, you are probably asking why anyone would read a book if they didn't really want to, so let me explain. These are books that you as a reader have some interest in, but keep putting aside because there is something more intriguing you want to read first. I'm talking books like certain classics, for me it was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Watership Down, Dandelion Wine, A Room with a View and Roots. They all turned out to be books I was glad I finally read with Watership Down and Dandelion Wine even becoming  favorites. Other books in this category for me are historical books, biographies and even some of my beloved memoirs.

4. Audiobooks are a great way to unwind.

In the course of my listening, there are times that I just want to unwind with something light. When this happens, its not uncommon for me to start and stop several books a short ways in because they just aren't hitting the spot, so to speak. However, I have stumbled across a few new favorites this way. In fact, this is how I got acquainted with Melanie Benjamin, one of my new favorite authors for historical fiction. It began by listening to her popular Autobiography of Tom Thumb. This led to my listening to her Alice I Have Been  and her most recent,  The Aviator's Wife. Now I belong to the group of fans restlessly waiting for her to publish a new book! A couple of other books that I have stumbled across and enjoyed are Major Pettigrew's Last Stand and the very short,  The Mark of Zorro.

5. Audiobooks are often free!

Most of the audiobooks I listen to can be downloaded for free from my public library. My library also has a room with audiobooks in different formats; cd, mp3, etc. If classics aren't available, they can often be found in the public domain, download-able at no charge at sites such as Librivox or several other similar sites. I have listened to the v-e-r-y long War and Peace this way, as well as the brief Short Stories by Scott Fitzgerald.

Here are some of my other favorite audiobooks:

Audiobook title	Author last name	Author first name	Comment
Mr. Fox	Oyeyemi	Helen	Can be confusing at times, but the narration is exceptional.
Sailing Alone Around the World	Slocumb	Joshua	Free on Librivox
Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Society	Shaffer	Mary Ann	Best narration. Period.
Mistress of the Art of Death series	Franklin	Ariana	A fun listen with British narration
Book of Night Women	James	Marlon	Authentic Caribbean-sounding narration
The Dinner	Koch	Herman	Hard to stop listening to.
Lost in Shangri-la	Zuckoff	Mitchell	Captivating.
Their Eyes were Watching God	Hurston	Zora Neale	Southern-style seems authentic
Benediction	Haruf	Kent	Laid back style of narration fits.
The Historian	Kostova	Elizabeth	I don't like vampires, but I liked this book.

There is much more that could be said about audiobooks, but it will have to be on another post. Besides, I would love to know what you think about audiobooks.  Do you like audiobooks? Do they work for you? Why or why not?

!Surpise!