Speaking of Audiobooks: March 2010 Releases

Thanks to Iris’ recommendation in the last audio book discussion, I’m now on book 3 of the Sharing Knife series. I love it and Bernadette Dunne does a great job. I used my Audible Credit this month to download The Dead Travel Fast, so that’s next.

katie bug – I second making To Love A Dark Lord an audio release. It was one of the first books I read a few years ago when I discovered historical romance and it’s still one of my favorites.

Thanks for the reply Anne, I will look forward to listening to Sunshine soon. Female narrators that can give a man a voice to lust after are especially amazing. Anna Fields and Natalie Ross can accomplish it. I’ll look forward to Laural Merlington adding to the list!

I’ve been enjoying a favorite re-listen, Dream Man by Linda Howard. Love Dane’s voice! The introduction says “”performed”” by Phil Gigante instead of narrated by. Now that’s the truth, it is definitely a performance, not a narration!

Off to research The Sharing Knife….

I love the audio version of Sunshine, even though it makes Sunshine seem a little yappy, which she is. But man, I lust after Con’s voice, and it’s a woman. For me it’s one of my major comfort listens. I just adore it.

Lea — I was reading the past column about Outlander, and you said in order to get through the torture scenes fast you speed up the voices. Did you know you can also hold down the forward or backward side of the dial on an ipod (3 o’clock and 9 o’clock) and it will jump ahead at 5 or 7 second intervals? It’s how I get to the middle of a chapter or skip through boring stuff that I’ve heard too many times.

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I’m finishing up a J D Robb listening run. I had stalled at Kindred in Death because of the disturbing crime descriptions but I knew I’d enjoy the total overall story. And I did, with a little fast forwarding here and there.

Then I went straight to Missing In Death (loved! short and fun) and then onto Fantasy In Death, which I’m just finishing up. I have LOL plenty in this last one and it has brought tears to my eyes more than once too. Both emotions intensified greatly by Susan Erickson’s fabulous narration.

Lea I agree 100% with your take on Kill and Tell, it was great. I’m looking forward to Strangers in the Night, Laural Merlington is generally a solid narrator.

Years ago I used to be happy just to see any of my favorite books in an audio format but after a few miserable listens I’ve found it’s all about the narrator. Thus, like MarrissaB, much research and effort is now put into “”new to me”” narrators.

Anne, you’ve mentioned Sunshine by Robin McKinley as a favorite in past columns. I was wondering if you had ever listened to the audio version? If so, what did you think of the narrator? I’m going to be reading the book shortly and was wondering on the audio.

The Devil’s Waltz would be my top choice of a Stuart historical done in audio, loved Christian!

I’ve got four different narrators for the four ICE books that are on audio and I like them all. I like the BLACK ICE one the least because of her pauses, but that’s personal. Most people like her just fine.

Judith Ivory has the divine Barbara Rosenblat read two, but other readers do two others, and they’re all good.

Toll-Gate gets more romantic and it’s entirely engaging (just finished it a couple of weeks ago) and last week I finished THE QUITE GENTLEMAN. I can’t believe I didn’t fully appreciate it in written form. It’s now one of my favorites. Which makes me think I should buy the audio forms of other books that I was so-so about. You pick up so much new stuff hearing someone read it, which is one of the joys of listening.

@ Lea. I so agree with you about A Matter of Class. I’m sure I would have enjoyed it more had I read it. Flosnik was annoying. There was some weird breathy thing going on which had me grinding my teeth and when Reggie said “”Anna”” ‘he’ sounded like he was dying!!

I’d love to listen to Private Arrangements and some of the other books mentioned but I’m having trouble finding them. I can’t see them at Books on Board or Audible – for some it’s the geographical restrictions (I’m in Australia) and for others, they just don’t seem to be there.

I’ve picked up It had to be You by SEP and that’s next on my listening list.

I’m listening to The Sharing Knife (vol 1) by Lois Bujold McMaster and I’m loving it! The narrater (Bernadette Dunne) is EXCELLENT. After my experience with A Matter of Class, I am especially grateful!

P.S. Just listened to “”Private Arrangements”” and loved it. Now I’m listening to “”Fancy Pants”” and has there ever been a better team than SEP and Anna Fields?

I just LOVE this column! There are SO many books I’d like to see in audio format. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if some of the older books like “”The Windflower”” “”The Wolf and the Dove”” “”To Have and to Hold”” “”To Love a Dark Lord”” could be made into audio. I could go on and on. I’m sure I’m not the only one who would love to see some their favorites put in audio format.

LinnieGayl – Glad to hear about Betrayal of the Blood Lily. I’ve been wondering about that one. I have only listened to Kate Reading once – Katherine Sutcliffe’s Whitehorse and thought she did a great job. It looks as though she has narrated three of Willig’s books – I assume all from this series? Do you need to read or listen to in order?

Lynn – totally agree about the “”comfort listen”” status of SEP books. They’re such delightful audiobooks and most can take me to another place entirely while listening.

MarissaB – great questions! Can you email me at my Meet Reviewer Lea Hensley page?

I just finished Georgette Heyer’s The Talisman Ring read by Phyllida Nash. Nash, who performs a number of other Heyer books, does another excellent job in this one. Heyer is perfect with her characterizations and plot pacing. This book is farcical, so there were a lot of funny moments along with endearing ones.

I am now listening to another Heyer, The Tollgate, ready by Daniel Hill. So far, there is more mystery than romance, so already I know this will not make my favorites list. Hill does a good job, though.

Just a thought – I’ve now listened to most of Heyer’s romances and all the narrators, of which there are many, are very good to excellent. I am so thankful for that. Are there other authors out there with more than one narrator that are as lucky?

Providing I like the first book, it’s an easy decision for me to pick books by an author who has one main reader, e.g., Outlander books by Diana Gabaldon read by Davina Porter, Queen Betsy books by MaryJanice Davidson ready by Nancy Wu, Sookie books by Charlaine Harris ready by Johanna Parker, etc.. I would have included SEP books read by Anna Fields, but that is changing now that Anna has passed away.

However, if an author has various narrators, I am hesitant about picking up just any of his/ her other books. I read the reviews looking for narrator comments, I search out the narrator’s credentials at audiofile ( http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/gvpages/index.shtml ), I do google searches, etc. It’s a big plus if the narrator is also an actor/actress , stage preferably. I do my best to make an educated guess because I just abhor listening to a bad performance.

So, are there other authors out there, with many narrators, as lucky as Georgette Heyer?

I took advantage of the Audible credits sale and used them to build my Susan Elizabeth Phillips collection. I never thought I’d have audio comfort reads but these really are. I also listened to Fantasy in Death and really enjoyed it. The crime wasn’t as troubling as Kindred in Death and I liked the mystery.

My most recent audio successes — thanks to this column — are books from JD Robb’s In Death series. The narrator does a wonderful job bringing all of the characters to life. This weekend I downloaded Fantasy in Death, which so far, is a big success.

Another relatively recent success was Lauren Willig’s Betrayal of the Blood Lily. This is narrated by Kate Reading, and she does a good job with all of the characters, particularly differentiating between the chick lit and historical portions of the book.