summercomfort (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
summercomfort) wrote2008-07-15 12:25 am
summercomfort) wrote2008-07-15 12:25 am
Audio Books from the trip
Blood of Flowers : coming-of-age tale about Iranian village girl moving to the city, making rugs, mistakes, and a niche for herself. Pacing was slow in parts, the off-shoot stories were cute, the main character not very likeable, and the narrator had a very bland voice. A lot of "girl power in face of societal oppression" type thing. Grade: B-
The Thirteenth Tale: a story about twins, family loss, storytelling, and literature (of the Jane Eyre variety), with a subtle mystery thrown in. Something that I wanted to read again after I finished, just to enjoy the nuances and catch the ah-hahs. The two main characters are: Margaret, the bookish biographer, and Vida Winter, a sharp woman, a novelist telling her final story--hers. Or is it? One of those good books that is good but not in-your-face about it. The narrators did awesome voices. A little too much twin-angst on Margaret's part. Grade: A
The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-time: Props to showing autistic teenagers as complex, intelligent people. I liked the relatively consistent narrative voice. I guess the characters that interact with the main character are about as well developed as you can with such a limited first person...? I really wish I could have known more about the dad, but I guess that omission is what it takes to keep the power of the first person. The narrator also managed an awesome British-Indian accent. Grade: A
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: The characters of Savannah as well as Savannah itself are well-portrayed. Felt like the book should be called "Collection of stories on the people of Savannah", as there was little plot or anything else connecting the disparate characters. If I weren't listening to it, I would have skipped around in the book to read all about The Lady Chablis. And then repeat for Jim Williams. Narrator had awesome voice for Jim Williams, Chablis, and the voodoo lady. Grade: B
The Book of Salt: A promising first 3 chapters on the political history of salt in China, Egypt and the ancient Celts quickly devolve into a recipe book for salted things in Europe. Okay, it's not that bad, but its Euro-centrism was frustrating when it hit the "let's explain the importance of salt in EVERY SINGLE EUROPEAN COUNTRY." Granted, we stopped after "Chapter 9 - Poland", or whatever it was called. And the Rome chapter and the Italy City-States chapters were kinda interesting. But I want more about the Middle East! Africa! Americas! Long recipes cannot be skipped in audiobook. Grade: B-
The Dante Club: Mystery set in 1860s England where the murdered subjects died in full Inferno glory, and a literary club consisting of Longfellow, Holmes, Lowell, etc, try to solve the murder. There's also Harvard politics and nice little details about Boston in that time period. The deaths are full of Dante-an gruesomeness, but some of the author-wibbling can get quite tiring. We got to SF before we finished, but I read the spoilers on wikipedia and it sounds pretty decent. Pacing and scene jumps can be.... odd. Narrator is decent. Grade: B+
Hey! 6 books, 7 cities, 8 national parks, and 19 states! That's not half bad for 4 weeks.
The Thirteenth Tale: a story about twins, family loss, storytelling, and literature (of the Jane Eyre variety), with a subtle mystery thrown in. Something that I wanted to read again after I finished, just to enjoy the nuances and catch the ah-hahs. The two main characters are: Margaret, the bookish biographer, and Vida Winter, a sharp woman, a novelist telling her final story--hers. Or is it? One of those good books that is good but not in-your-face about it. The narrators did awesome voices. A little too much twin-angst on Margaret's part. Grade: A
The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-time: Props to showing autistic teenagers as complex, intelligent people. I liked the relatively consistent narrative voice. I guess the characters that interact with the main character are about as well developed as you can with such a limited first person...? I really wish I could have known more about the dad, but I guess that omission is what it takes to keep the power of the first person. The narrator also managed an awesome British-Indian accent. Grade: A
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: The characters of Savannah as well as Savannah itself are well-portrayed. Felt like the book should be called "Collection of stories on the people of Savannah", as there was little plot or anything else connecting the disparate characters. If I weren't listening to it, I would have skipped around in the book to read all about The Lady Chablis. And then repeat for Jim Williams. Narrator had awesome voice for Jim Williams, Chablis, and the voodoo lady. Grade: B
The Book of Salt: A promising first 3 chapters on the political history of salt in China, Egypt and the ancient Celts quickly devolve into a recipe book for salted things in Europe. Okay, it's not that bad, but its Euro-centrism was frustrating when it hit the "let's explain the importance of salt in EVERY SINGLE EUROPEAN COUNTRY." Granted, we stopped after "Chapter 9 - Poland", or whatever it was called. And the Rome chapter and the Italy City-States chapters were kinda interesting. But I want more about the Middle East! Africa! Americas! Long recipes cannot be skipped in audiobook. Grade: B-
The Dante Club: Mystery set in 1860s England where the murdered subjects died in full Inferno glory, and a literary club consisting of Longfellow, Holmes, Lowell, etc, try to solve the murder. There's also Harvard politics and nice little details about Boston in that time period. The deaths are full of Dante-an gruesomeness, but some of the author-wibbling can get quite tiring. We got to SF before we finished, but I read the spoilers on wikipedia and it sounds pretty decent. Pacing and scene jumps can be.... odd. Narrator is decent. Grade: B+
Hey! 6 books, 7 cities, 8 national parks, and 19 states! That's not half bad for 4 weeks.