Monthly Archives: October 2011

My All Hallows Listen Pick – Coraline

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audio book, downloads, digital download gift subscriptionMy All Hallows Listen Pick – A Review of Coraline

Inspired by Neil Gaiman’s All Hallows Read, I wanted to listen to some spooky audio books during the month of October. I had a quick look on Audiobooks.com and decided to start with Coraline which was written and narrated by Neil Gaiman.

I had already seen the movie so I had a good idea what the story was about. An only child starts exploring the house her family has recently moved to and discovers an alternate world with an Other Mother and Other Father. These other parents are much nicer to and more considerate of Coraline than her real parents. Even though she is enjoying the attention, it doesn’t take long before Coraline starts to feel that something might be wrong. Things just aren’t adding up and Coraline begins to realize that the Other Mother may not be as lovely as she seems.

Even though this was written for a younger audience I still found this audio book to be a great pleasure to listen to. It is short and sweet clocking in just over three and half hours and great to listen to by yourself or with your kids. Neil Gaiman does a wonderful job narrating the audio book and you can hear his enthusiasm for the story. I highly recommend this as an All Hallow Listen pick for young and old!

Have you listened to the audio book or seen the movie? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

All Hallows Listen

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All Hallows Listen!

Halloween normally involves costumes, candy and scary, spooky fun. Author, Neil Gaiman wanted to start a new tradition, he suggested that Halloween is the perfect time to give someone a scary story! If you have a Twitter account you can join in the conversation with the hashtag #allhallowsread. I think this is a great idea to help encourage a love of reading (or listening!) in children and teenagers and a great reminder to adults about the fun they can have getting lost in a story.

I asked our Twitter followers what audio books they think would be great for All Hallows Listen. The most popular audio book was Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard book.

Here are a few  other books that the Audiobooks.com team think are great scary audio books:

What audio book would you give to someone for All Hallows Listen?

Feisty Females – A Review of The Heroine’s Bookshelf

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audio book, downloads, digital download gift subscriptionFeisty Females – A Review of The Heroine’s Bookshelf

Did you grow up loving Elizabeth Bennet’s spirit, Anne Shirley’s optimism, or Scarlett O’Hara’s fight? Then Erin Blakemore’s, The Heroine’s Bookshelf: Life Lessons, from Jane Austen to Laura Ingalls Wilder should be the next audio book that you listen to. Erin Blakemore is a self-proclaimed bookworm and loves a good heroine; many times throughout her life she found comfort in these familiar stories.

This audio book looks at twelve classic heroines and the lives of their legendary authors. This added information about the authors really adds to the stories that we know and love. Being a huge Lucy Maud Montgomery fan I particularly liked that chapter and found it very interesting to see the similarities between her life and the life of Anne. I also grew up with the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and found that to be a very eye opening chapter!

Each chapter also includes a list of “literary sisters” where Blakemore recommends other similar characters and the audio books that you should listen to if you enjoyed that particular heroine or her strength. She also tells you what stories are best suited for the mood you are in.

Tavia Gilbert does a great job narrating and she adds even more passion to this audio book. I really enjoyed listening to it and believe that any fan of strong female characters should pick up this audio book.

Even if you haven’t listened to this audio book yet, who is your favorite literary heroine?

Follow Us on Twitter!

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Follow Us on Twitter

Audiobooks.com has jumped into the world of Twitter. You can find us at @audiobooks_com. We will be answering your questions and chatting about audio books. We’d love to hear what you have to say! Tell us about the audio books you’re listening to, what genres you like and the ones you don’t. We want to hear it all!

Join the conversation today, we’d love to hear from you!

What do you do when your audio book isn’t holding your attention?

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What do you do when your audio book isn’t holding your attention?

Imagine this, you’ve got your comfy place to relax, a nice cup of hot tea (or coffee) and you’re ready to sit down and enjoy your latest audio book. You press play and begin listening, the narrator sounds pretty good, their pace is easy to listen to and follow, but the story fails to have you on the edge of your seat. You figure, oh well, some books are slow starters so you keep sipping your hot drink and listening. A few hours in and you realize, you still aren’t involved in the story. It keeps going, there’s nothing wrong with it, but it just doesn’t have you captivated.

This happened to me recently when I started listening to “A Far Cry from Kensington” by Muriel Spark. The book description seemed great, how could a story described as “hilariously portraying love, fraud, death, evil, and transformation” be boring? I’m not sure why; I just know that this audio book was not my cup of tea.

What do you do when this happens? Do you keep on listening, determined that it will get better? Or do you give up and move on to the next audio book on your “To – Listen” list? And an even better question, how long do you give an audio book before you make that decision? Once I start an audio book I want to continue to the end. I hold out hoping that it gets better. Many times I’m left disappointed, but I’m satisfied at the simple fact that at least now I know.

What do you think? Should you stop listening to an audio book that doesn’t capture your interest in the first 10 or 20 minutes?

Unbearable Lightness – A Review

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Unbearable Lightness – A Review

Have you ever looked in the mirror and not liked what you saw? I think most of us would be lying if we said we loved our reflection 100% of the time. However, most of us have not gone to the extremes that Portia De Rossi put herself through during her struggle with her weight. In her memoir, Unbearable Lightness, Portia recounts her journey from small-time Australian model to Hollywood actress and wife of one of the most popular talk show hosts, Ellen DeGeneres.

I thought this was a really interesting story. There were times where I wanted to reach through my headphones and tell Portia that she’s beautiful and needs to eat something! Hearing her tell the story about only eating 300 calories in a day seemed so crazy to me. I’m sure I eat way more than that for lunch!

Anyone who has struggled to fit in, wrestled with their weight, or has dreamed of being something outside of their average life will enjoy this honest and brave memoir. Plus the added bonus of having Portia narrate the audio book really feels like she is sitting right next to you telling her story.

A small side note for audio book listeners, the Epilogue really is an hour long. Don’t worry when she starts telling it and you look at your screen to see over an hour remaining.