Tag: Audio

I am hoping that you all have experienced this fictional GREATNESS by now so my telling you about it would be a total waste of my time and yours…

but…

in the event that you have just entered to the planet earth after orbiting for the last few years I give you this:

Welcome to the Nation of Panem, the world after the final world war and now what is left is a world broke into twelve districts.  Panem is a hard place to live, food is minimum, and each year a teenage boy and a teenage girl from each district is chosen to enter the Hunger Games… a televised arena (think Super bowl audience) of a fight to the death. Only one may stand as winner of the Hunger Games.

16-year-old Katniss Everdeen is the sole provider for her mother and young sister Primrose.  They live in district 12 and this years Hunger Games are about to be announced.  As district Twelve gathers to hear who will be chosen this year, the girl’s name is announced: “Primrose Everdeen.”  Katniss feels her mind go blank as she watches her little sister, first year to have her name in the Games, and does what she knows she must do…

steps in place of her sister.

I read this book two years ago, even thought the synopsis freaked me out a bit.  Kids fighting to the death?  But the blogs were raving and I went in to the read cautiously… and never looked back. 

Now, this coming March 2012 The Hunger Games will be a movie!  (Insert SSSQQQUUUEEEEEE here 😛 )  and in honor of that, I thought it was time to explore Panem again, but this time around in audio.  narrated by a fantastic Carolyn McCormick, it did not take me long to get back into the rhythm of the Hunger Games.  In fact, while baking most of the afternoon and evening on Tuesday I listened to almost the whole audio in one listen!  (It really was a lot of baking…)

It was nice to revisit this book and if you have not experienced this yet I recommend you take some time before the movie release and do so!  Here is a little movie clip to get you motivated:

I purchased this audio from audible.com

 

 

At age 15, Rob Lowe found himself as one of the first teen idols at a time when actors under the age of 20 were not a big deal.  Young and naive Rob learned the hard way about life as a star and struggled through many movies in his early career days such as starting with a couple after school specials, then onto The Outsiders, Class, ST Elmo’s Fire, Young Blood, Masquerade, About Last Night, Wayne’s World, Tommy Boy, The West Wing, and Brothers and Sisters just to name a few.

Rob’s story is multi layered as he opens up Pandora’s box and shares the excitement of the first big break, to the pain of poor choices, bad publicity, and then finally… finding himself among the wreckage and pulling himself out. 

 

I came into knowing Rob in the mid 80’s.  I would say if you were to ask me what he is known for I would immediately gush out something like “St. Elmo’s Fire!”  (I don’t think I have ever even seen The Outsiders.)  Basically, no, I was not a groupie. 😀

When this book came out I confess mild interest… I had heard through the years of his struggles with alcohol, but nothing that made me run out and grab the book.  Then when I seen the audio was narrated by Rob, I was a little more interested, and finally went ahead and picked it up.

 

Here is what I expected from this audio:

Tales of a child star, movies and tv show connections, crashing and burning at an early age, how he pulled himself together, and a little info about his current life.

 

I did not expect:

Connections to powerful people at a very young age, long before he made a name for himself, painful revelations into his early acting career, behind the scenes play by plays to such movies as The Outsiders where most of Rob’s parts never make it to the screen, a loss of many friends to drugs at a young age, an incredibly life shattering experience and connection tot he events of 9-11, and a couple times where I just openly wept as I listened.

 

Never sounding braggy, or conceited, in a very calm and amazing narration, Rob Lowe shares the stories of his career.  The early days of hanging out with the likes of Shawn and Chris Penn, Charlie Sheen and Emelio Estevez, this was his original brat pack. 

His early childhood was one of hardships, parents were divorced by age 5, and his mom struggled with mental health issues…yet Rob finds himself in amazing situations!   Once while doing a little theater he encounters a heart to heart talk with Liza Minneli and another time has a conversation with Tally Savalis.

While this may all sound like yeah, yeah, yeah…. stuff, when Rob gets into talking about the auditions surrounding the well known movie The Outsiders, you really feel for him.  In great detail you hear about the painstaking readings of any part at random.  How he struggled and eventually succeeded to get the part of Pony Boy, only to be shocked when he is not invited to a big pre screening and again when the movie is finally on the big screen and much of what he has done is cut out.

And Rob talks about death.  It seemed to be all around him even at a young age.  He names friends who overdosed, others – suicide.  As Robb listed name after name I was amazed, and this follows him all the way through his life.  At one point he talks about shooting for the cover of George Magazine, the magazine ran by his friend John Kennedy, after Rob had completed the shoot, John, his wife, and sister-in-law were on their way to connect with Rob when their plane went down… the rest… is history.

And story after story is like this.  Through his struggles with addiction and eventually rehab, to scandals that cost him much, Rob is never finger-pointing, never accusatory.  Instead, he is … humble.  He is quick to accept his blame.

At times I laughed,  Rob does a funny impression on Chris Farley (shoot, he does many great voices!) eating pieces of steak with butter on it, and at times I cried, when once again Rob shares the loss of yet another actor.

I can’t tell you how much this audio this moved me.  I had no big crush on Rob as a teenager, if anything… I found him a little too pretty.  I listened to this audio, myself being an outsider, I looked in to a soul that made me look around the room and wonder why I had not gathered friends to listen to this with me.  This is an audio I want to share.  It may very well be the best audio memoir I have listened to this year.

If you were a fan – or not, I HIGHLY recommend you treat yourself to this audio.  Days after finishing it, I am still moved. 

 

I picked this up from audible.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I do not tell lies. Mother used to say that this was because I was a good person. But it is not because I am a good person. It is because I do not tell lies.”

~Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night

When Christopher Boone’s neighbor’s dog is killed with a garden fork, Christopher is falsely accused of the crime.  Christopher is 15 and autistic.  Christopher knows he did not kill the dog and says so as he does not lie.  And he does not joke, because he does not understand them, so he is telling the truth.

Christopher loves Sherlock Holmes and decides he is going to investigate what happened to the dog, just like Sherlock Holmes would do.  Christopher’s investigation leads him to not only find out about the dog but some deep secrets about his own family.

Being autistic makes the investigation all the more difficult as Christopher calms himself by solving math problems in his head, will not eat any food that touches another food or is the colors yellow or brown, and screams if he is touched.

You can listen to a sample of the audio here  *note there is some swearing in this clip*

Many years ago, so many I do not recall the year (at least 5 years ago) but I do recall we were in Grizzley’s restaurant, my book club the Bookies reviewed this book.  At the time, I was baffled by it.  I loved the synopsis, but the book, told from Christopher’s perspective, was difficult to follow and the pages of math problems went right over my head (I have always said I am a word girl, not a number girl).  😛

Yet, many in my book club raved about this read.  One girl in particular had so many great things to say about it, I felt I obviously had missed something and vowed to try it again some day.  Since that time the book has sat, like new, on my book shelf… waiting on me.

Recently, I seen the audio version on audible.com on the sale list.  I have said many times that audio can make the difference in a book that I may find difficult to read, so I thought I would give it this second try.

I am so glad I did!  Christopher came alive  for me through the narration of Jeff Woodman.  Christopher’s character is brilliantly smart and remembers every detail. Suddenly I found myself longing to know more of this autistic boys story and I learned to love his dry humor as he did not get sarcasm and took everything someone said literally.

Author Mark Haddon writes an amazingly deep and loving story for his debut as an author.  This was no easy task to take on and Mark handles the inner workings of Christopher’s autistic mind like a pro.  The characters all felt real, at times painfully so, as you seen close up that we as human beings are flawed in so many ways.

Highly recommended in audio.  Treat yourself to this one!

The 2011 WHERE Are You Reading Map has been updated to include Curious Incident Of The Dog

I purchased this audio from audible.com

At fourteen years old, Jane Lynch had a dream of becoming an actress.  She started sending out letters which, when anyone bothered to reply were kind rejections or advice giving such as, “get some professional training and look us up in five years or so…”

Jane however did not give up and as her book is titles, by a series of Happy Accidents, her dreams eventually did come true.  Jane’s story however is not without hardships. Jane suffered from anxiety and a lack of self-worth.  She felt unsure of herself and out-of-place in her own skin. 

This audio is pretty funny as Jane pushes her book at a book store:

proximity -you do not have to throw people away, you can decide how close you want to keep them.  Not everyone has to be a best friend  some can be good friends, and some can be acquaintances.

~Jane Lynch

Confession:  I have never watched Glee.  Ok, I have seen maybe a partial episode, but I have never sat down and watched it.  However, I did recognize and know Jane from other roles she had played… little roles that eventually led her to bigger roles.  (I am pretty sure she is the nurse in a Gilmore Girls episode but I can not find a you tube slip to back up that statement…)  She was for sure on Two and A Half Men, Julie and Julia, 40 Year Old Virgin, Criminal Minds, Boston Legal, Desperate Housewives, Friends, King of Queens, Gilmore Girls (Yes! I knew it!), and many more.

I wanted to listen to her book because 1. she is funny like a cross between Tina Fey and Ellen Degeneres and 2.  I really wanted to know more about her story.

I enjoyed Jane’s story very much, it just was not as humorous as I thought it was going to be.  While there are many funny moments (I do think I snorted at least once), it’s also a coming of age story, and a hard one at that as she worries about her sexuality, and an early fondness for alcohol. 

I enjoyed hearing about Jane’s life and how she came to be casted for Glee, which turned out to be the career move she needed to go mega star.  Her story interested me so much that now I think I need to start watching Glee.  😀

Amazon Rating

Goodreads Review

The 2011 WHERE Are you reading map has been updated to include Happy Accidents

I purchased this from audible.com ♥

When Author Kathleen Grissom and her husband restored a plantation tavern in Virginia.  While researching the history behind the area, Kathleen found an old map where a notation had been made on it…

Negro Hill.

When asking around about this, Kathleen found no answers other than that perhaps this marked a place of great tragedy. 

What could Negro Hill have been?  What had once happened on this very soil?  What secrets were left like whispers in the wind that time had absorbed?

This… was the beginning of the idea behind The Kitchen House.

Lavina is seven years old, white, and orphaned when she comes to live on the tobacco plantation owned by Captain Pyke, in Tidewater Virginia.  The year is 1791, and Lavina works alongside the African-American servants in the Kitchen House day after day.  Belle, who is the illegitimate half white daughter of the captain soon becomes good friends with Lavina. 

Lavina becomes close with all the African-American servants who work in the Kitchen House, referring to them as family and never understanding the privileges and status of white people over her friends. Throughout the years of the Kitchen House, Lavina is witness to abuse, rape, racism, and eventually.. murder.

As Lavina grows into a beautiful young woman, she agrees to marry the Captains son Marshall, but Lavina being only 17 when she marries is not yet wise to the ways of power-hungry men and soon discovers that Marshall will stop at nothing of for anyone to get what he wants, destroying lives in his wake…

In the end Lavina needs to figure out how to save the only family she has ever known from impending disaster. 

The Kitchen House is a book I have had my eye on for a while now.  I liked the look of it, the synopsis, and had heard good reviews, yet I never seemed to pick it up.  When I seen it on audible.com for a sale price I could not resist, I moved on it. 

The audio is told in alternating voices from the point of view of Lavina, and then Belle.  This made for a delectable story as Lavina was a young white girl who did not always see things as they truly were.  Belle could give a retelling of what was happening from an African-American slaves perspective.  By the book bring told in this way, as readers we are allowed to see things unfold from all angles. 

There is a lot of front information before the book really gets moving.  In the beginning you are witness to the fondness that not only Lavina has for the people of the kitchen house, but the love they have for her as well.  Through Belle’s telling, we see some of the white people for who they truly are, in full color descriptions, where Lavina may see things in more gray shades.  As the story gets moving, these shades of gray burst into full color as Lavina grows, marries, and starts to see how things really are.

While I found the first half of this audio interesting, it was not until the second half that the story really takes off and you get a full understanding of all the details laid out in the earlier part of the book.  As events began to topple over one another I felt the story click together like a Rubik’s Cube and I loved the way it did! 

Author Kathleen Grissom offers up a recipe for a Molasses Cake that Belle makes frequently in the book.  While I have not made this myself, I believe I will soon as even mentioning it here is bring up scents of mouth-watering molasses baking in the kitchen…  (Offered up for Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads)

Simple Molasses Cake

½ cup butter
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
½ cup milk
1 cup molasses
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 dashes ground cloves
¼ teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg. In a separate bowl, combine the milk and the molasses. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Add each of these alternately to the butter mixture, beating well between additions. Spoon batter into the prepared pan. Bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Amazon Rating

Good Reads Review

The 2011 WHERE Are You Reading map has been updated to include The Kitchen House

I purchased this from audible.com

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

One family to a home is unheard of.  In fact, even homes are rare as most people have apartments.  Most people live in vertical trailer parks or “Stacks”, where old trailer homes have been stacked on top of one another.  Wade Watts lives with his aunt who does not want him there and lets him know it every chance she gets.  Like most of humanity, Wade escapes into a virtual world called the Oasis every chance he gets.  In this sprawling 10 world utopia Wade can be his avatar Parzival, with other virtual friends where you can live and play and even… fall in love.

The oasis was created by James Halliday, a big time gamer and lover of all things 80’s.  Halliday made billions creating the Oasis and having never married or had children – he left his billions and full control of the Oasis to one lucky person… the one who could crack the clues he left in his will and within the worlds of the Oasis find Hallidays last gift to the world… his hidden “Easter Egg”.

Halliday admits himself that he may have made the clues a little too hard, but from his death-bed, it’s a little late to make changes now.  And it is true, that in this starving world with millions of people looking for Hallidays treasure… five years go by and no one has cracked the first clue.

All of Hallidays riddles are hidden within the pop culture he loved – 80’s movies such as War Games, Ferris Buelers Day Off, Monty Python, Better Off Dead, Indiana Jones, Star Wars… and thats just the movies, lets not forget the games such as Joust, Miss Pac Man, Burger Time…

And when you are a kid who finds the real world almost unbearable… you sink all your time into the Oasis… rewatching the 80’s movies until you can recite them almost by heart, playing the video games to the point you know them inside and out including manufacturer dates, glitches int he games, recalls and more… you become almost one with the Oasis… racking up points…. practicing battles….

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit  murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape. 

A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Ready Player One?

First of all to those of you said I must must MUST (little Max Headroom there…) listen to this one audio.  I thank you, this was the best audio I have listened to this year.

For those of you who read me often, you may be aware that I usually am listening to three audio at one time (one in my bedroom for when I get ready in the mornings, one in the kitchen for cooking and cleaning time, and one in my car for every time I am on the go).  RARELY will an audio engross me to the point that it earns the sole right to follow me from bedroom, to kitchen, to car…

however…Ready Player One did.

Where to begin?

Well… I think I will start with Narrator Will Wheaton.  How do you know that name?  Will starred in the 80’s film Stand By Me,  on Star Trek he was the Romulan voice.  And even more fun, Will is actually mentioned within this book/audio.  Will… has the perfect voice for the audio and I knew within the first minute I was in for something special.  Will even does Max Headroom’s voice (as seen above) and that is no easy feat!  (Believe, me I tried to do the Max Headroom voice here at home… lets just say it wasn’t pretty).

Of course, while a great narrator on audio is important… it does not make the book complete if the book is not also amazing.  No worries… I am sure you can already tell by this early gushing that it is…. FANTASTIC.

Being a die-hard 80’s chick I absolutely adored the constant 80’s references to great movies

such as Back To The Future, War Games, Real Genius, Better Off Dead, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Monty Python… and that’s not even mentioning the great arcade references:  Miss Pacman, Joust, Burger Time…

and the beauty of the combination in the Oasis was the mixture of the two… you could watch the 80’s movies and play the games in the Oasis.  In fact as our protagonist says, many of the movies he has watched hundreds of times.  (And you will learn – thank goodness for that!)

I think what really sucked me into this read *80’s flashbacks aside) is that the story is good…. real good… It also is a little scary as I thought about Social media today and how fast it has grown in my lifetime, and found Ernest Cline’s stony not unbelievable.  I can imagine a time when the world may be such a mess that people would rather stick themselves into an alternate reality (shoot it’s already happening!) then deal with the emotional drain of reality. 

Dont worry – the story never bogs down with doomsday like themes.   In fact I am quite sure two things will happen here:  1.  I will at some point listen to this audio again and 2.  I will own the book to add to my favorites collection.

I also never found being inside the game world boring… instead, I was fascinated… it was as real feeling to me as my own life.  I also enjoyed being reminded of movies I once loved and insight to games I had once played (like a glitch in Miss Pacman arcade where you can hide for up to 15 minutes without being attacked)

Treat yourself with this one soon… you will not be sorry.  While I have heard the book is just as incredible, I am going to recommend if you listen to audio – this is the way to go. 

Warner Brothers bought the rights to the movie almost a year before this book was released to the public.

Amazon Rating

Goodreads Review

I purchased this on audio from audible.com

In the spring of 1865, after a long day of meetings, Abraham Lincoln alongside his wife Mary, took to the theater.  While Lincoln knew that he had a lot of enemies and had even thought there was a good chance he would be assassinated, he had no idea that his life was about to end.

John Wilkes Booth was an anchor and charismatic ladies man as well as an impenitent racist.  His hatred for Lincoln burned so strong it was obsession.  He stressed over the details for months… working out accomplices in the mission.  It started as a kidnapping plan… and lead to a much deadlier conclusion.

Ok… here’s my thing about Lincoln.  He is my all time favorite president.  And here was my uneducated reasons why:

1.  freeing of the slaves

2.  He was the 16th president and 16 in my favorite number

3.  He was honest

After listening to this audio I realize – I did not know him at all.  He was only 56 when he died.  More surprisingly to me… Booth was 26. 

I did not know about all the background of Booth and the Lincoln conspiracy.  Out of their three sons, I had not realized that 3 had died by the age of 18.  And while I suspected the toll this took on Mary (Todd) Lincoln I did not to the point that after her third child’s death their remaining son put her in a home. 

What I am saying here is I found this audio to be very informative and interesting.  I learned much about Lincoln’s life, General Grant, and John Wilkes Booth.

I leave this audio feeling like I now know more about the president I adored from afar. 

Amazon Rating

Goodreads Review

The 2011 WHERE Are You Reading map has been updated to include Killing Lincoln

I purchased this audio from Amazon

Somewhere in Britain, a man known only as “Jack” kills an unsuspecting family…

all but one of the family dies.  The youngest, a toddler, slips away into the night and into a nearby graveyard where he is adopted by the ghostly inhabitants.  The toddler is named Nobody Owens, raised up by Mr. and Mrs. Owens, and a mentor named Silas. 

As the weeks turn to years, Nobody, “Bod”, learns the way of the graveyard.  By visiting the local inhabitants, he learns to make himself fade, how to call ghouls, and even meets a real live girl!  But as Bod gets older, he longs for the chance to be among the living – to experience school, and friendships. What Bod doesn’t understand is that the graveyard is where he is safe.  Reluctantly, Silas helps Bod made his dreams come true, all the while knowing that “Jack” is still out there…

looking for the boy that crawled away….

all those years ago.

I started listening to this audio while in a van in La Esperanza, Honduras.  When I put my ear buds in and the start-up music (above) began…. I swear my whole body tingled!  The music is entitled Danse Macabre and this music actually inspires a chapter in the book where the characters both living and dead dance the Macabre.  This was my first experience with Neil Gaiman and it was going to be on audio… read by none other than… Neil Gaiman.

 

Danse Macabre:

According to legend, “Death” appears at midnight every year on Halloween. Death calls forth the dead from their graves to dance their dance of death for him while he plays his fiddle (here represented by a solo violin). His skeletons dance for him until the rooster crows at dawn, when they must return to their graves until the next year.

The piece opens with a harp playing a single note, D, twelve times (the twelve strokes of midnight) which is accompanied by soft chords from the string section. The solo violin enters playing the tritone (or “Devil’s chord”) consisting of an A and an E-flat—in an example of scordatura tuning, the violinist’s E string has actually been tuned down to an E-flat to make this chord more biting. The main theme is heard on a solo flute, followed by a descending scale on the solo violin which is accompanied by soft chords from the string section, particularly the lower instruments of the string section, followed by the full orchestra who then joins in on the descending scale. The main theme and the scale is then heard throughout the various sections of the orchestra until it breaks to the solo violin and the harp playing the scale. The piece becomes more energetic and climaxes with the full orchestra playing very strong dynamics. Towards the end of the piece, there is another violin solo, now in modulation, which is then joined by the rest of the orchestra. The final section represents the dawn breaking (a cockerel’s crow, represented by the oboe) and the skeletons returning to their graves.

Thank you Wikipedia!

 

The Graveyard book is one of mystery and fantasy, dreams, and nightmares.  Neil reads it in a fantastic tone that fits everything I just said in the previous sentence.  Listening to this book was like living it.  While it is a story about a murder, and then subsequently, a graveyard… it is a middle grade book.  While that may surprise (or concern) you… don’t let it.  The book is never graphic or gory… handled well as just an old-fashioned spooky story with a great paranormal twist.

My thoughts in the end…  it was actually a fun experience.  I will definitely look for more from Neil Gaiman.

Amazon Rating

Goodreads Review

The 2011 WHERE Are You Reading Map has been updated to include The Graveyard Book

I purchased this audio from audible.com

Have you met Frank Abagnale…. err…. Frank Williams, Robert Conrad, Frank Adams, or Robert Mojo?  They are all the same man.  AND not a fictional man either… but a con man of epic intelligence and a “no fear” attitude that brought him far.

During Franks great conning years he sweet talked his way into a pilots uniform and co piloted a Pan Am jet… this “Pan Am” masquerade brought him money, fame, and women from all over the world.  Frank also practiced law without a license and forged over $2.5 million dollars in checks – all before he was 21.

Abagnale lived a life of luxury and fantasy until the law caught up with him.  Now recognized as the nations leading authority on foul-play, Abagnale shares his incredible, occasionally hilarious true story of being a man with a mission. 

Truth really is stranger than fiction.

Goodreads Review

Audible review