Audio Book

Audiobook: A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping

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by Sangu Mandanna
Read by Samara MacLaren
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Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs, instances of emotional child abuse, and one fade-to-black sex scene. It’s in the Romance-Fantasy section of the bookstore.

I know: I said a few posts ago that I don’t do romantasy. Let’s put it this way: a slightly magical book set in contemporary times is NOT romantsy, and I think I prefer the latter.

Sera was an up-and-coming, talented witch when she was younger, but when she was 15, her great-aunt, whom she loves and lives with, died. Sera was talented enough to bring her aunt back from the dead, but she lost most of her magic and was exiled from the British Guild of Magic as a result. Now, 15 years later, running an inn full of wayward people (both magical and non-), she finds the resurrection spell, something that will help her get her magic back. It’s a historian, Luke, who happens (sort-of) to be stopping in at the hotel with his younger sister, that puts Sera on the right path, and maybe together they can get her magic back.

This was absolutely delightful, especially on audio. The narrator was perfect (Luke is Scottish, and her accent for him was delightful), and the story just silly enough and charming enough to make me happy. It was exactly what I needed, and I can’t complain.

Audiobook: Discontent

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by Beatriz Serrano, translated by Mara Faye Lethem
Read by Emer Kenny
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Content: There is some swearing, including a few f-bombs, talk of sex, and drug use. It’s in the Adult Fiction section of the bookstore.

On the surface, Marisa appears to have the ideal life: a good home, a good job, and a sexy neighbor to hook up with. But, her job is a soulless one: she’s a middle manager at an ad agency. And, especially in the year after the death of her closest co-worker, Marisa is finding it harder and harder to stomach going to work. Things come to a head at a company-sponsored weekend retreat, where Marisa – as the token office feminist – is asked to give a presentation to the company about “what it means to be creative”, something which she is not sure she is anymore.

I usually try to stay away from books that everyone at work has read, but this one (plot notwithstanding) sounded fascinating. And honestly, it’s a good book. I’ve taken to calling it an anti-capitalist manifesto (and not written by an American!) – it’s a treatise about all the ways in which work, the thing that enables living, is soul-crushing, and how life would be so much better if we chose to work at things that we wanted to do instead of having to work in order to pay for the things we want to do.

It’s the characters that drive the book as well. I loved Marisa, and her snide comments and observations about work life, and her quiet desperation to not have to go shut herself up in an office doing unimportant work for 9 hours a day. I also adored the narrator; Kenny was brilliant at capturing Marisa’s sardonic voice.

And oh, the ending. It’s a riot.

Highly recommended.

Audiobook: Wild for Austen

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by Devoney Looser
Read by Marisa Calin
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Content: It’s a bit scholarly, but for the most part, it’s pretty accessible. It’s in the Literary Reference section of the bookstore.

Looser’s thesis is simple: the wider reading world has spent too long defining Austen as “tame” and “safe”, when – according to Looser- she isn’t. Her books (and her life) are not quiet and demure, and instead should be considered “wild” (subversive, maybe? Especially for the time they were written), and Looser sets out to explain why.

On the one hand, I think Looser’s thesis is a bit unnecessary: who considers Austen to be tame? Those who haven’t read it? Maybe. That said, I was fascinated by the way Looser broke down the books, pointing out the ways in which Austen was subverting, poking fun at, and exposing parts of the society she was writing about. After looking at all of Austen’s books (including Lady Susan and her juvenilia), Looser delves into Austen’s life, and then the way her books have continued to be relevant. I’m not sure how much someone who isn’t really familiar with Austen’s works will like this one, but I found it fascinating.

The narrator was excellent as well; she kept the book from being overly scholarly (not sure how much I’d have liked it if I’d read it), and was engaging to listen to.

Definitely recommended.

Audiobook: The Library of Unruly Treasures

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by Jeanne Birdsall
Read by Sorcha Groundsell
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Content: There is talk of neglectful parenting and some mildly harrowing moments. It’s in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

When Gwen MacKinnon is sent to live with her great-Uncle Matthew (whom she has never met) because her mother is off to Costa Rica with her boyfriend and her father got kicked out of the house of his third (soon-to-be-ex) wife, she doesn’t know what to expect. Probably nothing good, since nothing good ever happens. But what she finds when she gets there is a delightful human being in Matthew, a boon companion of a dog named Pumpkin, and the Lahdukan – who are NOT faeries, don’t even think that. The Lahdukan are convinced that Gwen is their new kalba (Matthew’s grown-up daughter Nora is their current one) and that Gwen is destined to help the MacKinnon clan and the Stewart clan (which is helpfully housed in the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum in Boston) join together. Gwen, however, has her doubts: she’s never succeeded at much of anything. How can she succeed at leading not one, but TWO Lahdukan clans?

Oh, this was charming. I probably would have enjoyed it had I read it – I do love Birdsall’s writing (especially the way she writes dogs!) – but I adored it on audio. Groundsell is a delightful narrator, and she captures everything – from charming Uncle Matthew to Gwen’s anxieties, to Julia, the 6-year-old who lives upstairs, to the myriad personalities of the Lahdukan. It was one of those books that made me happy every time I turned it on, and one I didn’t want to stop listening to.

I think, too, that Birdsall did just the right amount of fantasy to make it work. She didn’t create new huge worlds, just added a fantastical element (but they could be real!) to this one. It came across just as charming and just as perfect as the Penderwicks books did. Which means, honestly, I’ll read pretty much anything Birdsall writes.

Highly recommended for kids of all ages (this one would make a great read-aloud!).

Audiobook: Graciela in the Abyss

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by Meg Medina
Read by Elena Rey
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Content: There are some pretty intense and scary moments, as well as emotional abuse by parents. It’s in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

Graciela accidentally died in the sea a long time ago, and woke up to be a ghost. She’s pretty content living her life until a series of things happen: her spirit guide, Amina, gets called to be a part of the ocean’s governing body; a spirit-killing harpoon gets unleashed (by accident) by a boy named Jorge; and then Graciela and Jorge have to destory the harpoon and save the sea.

Kind of. I think? The plot for this one kind of is immaterial – it’s all about Graciela’s growth. She starts the book selfish and annoying, and by the end she’s a decent human being. (At least, by the end I didn’t want to smack her as much.) Jorge was an abused child who just wanted to make things right. It’s a lot for a middle grade book.

And I had to move the narration up to 1.3x becuase it was sooooo slow at a slower speed. Like mind-numbingly slow.

I wish I had better things to say. I respect Medina and I’ve liked her books up to this point, but this one just didn’t do it for me.

Audiobook: Problematic Summer Romance

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by Ali Hazelwood
Read by Elizabeth Lamont & Eric Nolan
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Content: There is a lot of swearing, including multiple f-bombs, as well as some pretty detailed on-page sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Maya’s brother Eli and his fiance Rue are getting married in Italy, and everything about this is perfect. Except that Eli’s best friend, Connor, is going to be there. The Connor that Maya has been in love with for three years, and who Connor has very gently, but very firmly, discouraged. See: Connor is 38, and Maya is 23. Connor can’t get over the age difference, so even though they spent years talking daily, and they’re pretty perfectly matched, he won’t give in. Much to Maya’s dismay. She wants nothing more than to be with Connor, his imperfections and all.

First off: the book is, in fact, problematic. I’ve been thinking about it since I finished, and I’m not sure why I couldn’t get over the age gap. It’s the same as in Emma, why is that 21-to-37 age gap okay (I mean, Mr. Knightly literally saw Emma grow up!) and this one is not okay? I was talking to another friend about it, and she pointed out that if we switched the roles – Maya was older, and Connor was the younger one pining and not letting her “no” be final – then it would be really problematic. I don’t know. It could just be the way Hazelwood wrote Maya and Connor – she’s very flirty and aggressive and he is very reserved and protective. Maybe I’m not comfortable with that? (Which, yes, says more about me than the book. Maybe all of this says more about me than the book.)

That said, I adored the narrators on this one. Lamont was fantastic as Maya/the general narrator and though I don’t usually like a duet narration, I liked the way Nolan did the men. Maybe I’m just a sucker for an Irish brogue. So, even with the whole problematic part of it, I did end up enjoying the book. If only because the narrators were just amazing.

Audiobook: All-Star Superman

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by Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely
Read by a full cast
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Content: There is comic-book violence. It’s in the Graphic Novel section of the bookstore.

In this series of collected comics, Superman deals with the madness on the backwards Bizarro planet. There is a bottled city that proves you can never go home again. A living sun hell-bent on destroying humanity. A world without the Man of Steel. Twelve impossible labors and mere moments to save the Earth. (Yes, I copied the back copy, because honestly, I’m not sure what really happened.)

I’m going to get this out of the way first: graphic novels/comics really are a visual medium, and don’t work in audio. That said, it’s kind of a fascinating experience. The narrators not only read the dialogue, they describe what is going on in the picture. It makes me wonder if they’re reading the script the writers write before the artists take it on? Or if they wrote a whole new script for the audiobook? I don’t know. It was hard for me to imagine scenes (my brain doesn’t really work that way – when I think of the word apple, I don’t see a picture of an apple in my head), which is why I don’t think the audiobook worked for me.

That said, I liked the stories. I’m glad we listened to this before going to see the movie, because there were parallels from this collection and what James Gunn did. And I can see the value of having audio versions of graphic novels, even if they are not for me.

Audiobook: System Collapse

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by Martha Wells
Read by Kevin R. Free
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Others in the series: All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy, Network Effect
Content: Like all Murderbot books, there is a lot of violence and swearing (Wells is a master of the artfully placed f-bomb). It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

I don’t have much to say about this that I didn’t already say two years ago. I finally convinced my husband to read this series (thanks to the TV show on Apple+) and this was the last one he had to read, so we listened to it on audio on a recent long drive. I didn’t mind revisiting Murderbot and its world, and I had heard that the audio was really good.

The audio is really good. Free does a fantastic job with the narration, with capturing Murderbot’s personality, with the book in general. He kept my interest, and it’s one of those books you don’t want to turn off and get out of the car.

And an additional bonus: K, who was in the car with us, ended up listening as well, and she’s plowed through half of the series since we got back.

I call that a win.

Audiobook: America’s Best Idea

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The Separation of Church and State
by Randall Balmer
Read by the author
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Content: It’s a bit wonky at times. It will be in the History section of the bookstore.

This is a short, impassioned history and defense of the First Amendment’s freedom of religion. The idea of not having a state religion, as Balmer asserts, has led to the freedom to have a plethora of religions, a freedom from state-mandated religious requirements, and a true freedom to worship how citizens would like. It’s that, which led to the separation of church and state, that has, in many ways shaped America.

And Balmer passionately asserts that the shift to Christian nationalism, the laws imposing religion on society, are not only unconstitutional, they are anti-American.

While Balmer isn’t a great narrator – his pace was uneven, and it was just odd at times – the subject matter was interesting enough, and it was short enough that it really didn’t matter too much. It’s an important little book, a reminder to those who would say that America is a Christian nation first, that it’s the separation of government and religion that our country was founded upon, and has allowed for so many religions to thrive. And it needs to stay that way.

Audiobook: Lady’s Knight

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by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Read by Helen Keeley & Barbara Rosenblat
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Content: There is some violence – jousting and dragon-killing and the like; and two f-bombs. It’s in the YA Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Gwen has dreams. She is the blacksmith’s daughter, and is running the forge herself pretty much these days, but she has designed her own armor, and wants to try her hand at jousting. And one day, she earns enough money and enters the qualifying rounds of the tournament… and wins. She thinks it’s a one-off, but then Lady Isobelle finds her and convinces her to continue. It seems that Lady Isobelle is the prize for winning the tournament, and she doesn’t really want to marry any of the other knights. She convinces Gwen to be her champion in the tournament.

Gwen reluctantly agrees, follows Isobelle to the castle, where she pretends to be “Sir Gawain’s” sister, and… well, falls in love with Isobelle. There’s more to the plot – including terribly chauvinistic knights and a lady’s maid who might be an assassin – but that’s the basic premise.

Oh, this one was a delight. The back blurb (do audiobooks have a back blurb?) mentioned The Knight’s Tale as a comp, and I think that’s spot on. It’s Knight’s Tale but with lesbian girls, and I couldn’t have enjoyed myself more. It’s laugh-aloud funny at parts (LOVE the narrator who breaks the fourth wall), and yet had me ugly crying and the show of unity among women at the end. It’s fierce, it’s sweet, it’s a joy to read (and to listen to!). I can’t recommend this silly, sweet, fun book enough.