Armchair Audies 2014: Teens

Have I mentioned how much I enjoy YA audiobooks? (That's a rhetorical question. Of course I have.) That's why the Teen category for the Audies is generally full of delights for me. This year was no exception.

The nominees are:

As an Armchair Audies Judge (and total expert, in my own mind) I listened to all of these, and what a pleasure it was. Of course, even without the Audies, I'd have listened to 3 of these - I'm always, always going to listen to Katherine Kellgren's narration of LA Meyers, and given how intensely I loved hearing Code Name Verity, I had no doubts that I'd want to listen to Elizabeth Wein's next in the series, even with different voice talent. And as for Rainbow Rowell's books, well. I've been knows to read first, then listen, and to listen first, then read, but always to devour them in all formats.

So, not surprisingly, given my pre-ordained love of the other authors, the two new-to-me authors had my less-favorite audios in this year's slate. Noah Galvan's reading of Matthew Quick's novel embraces the quirkiness of some of the characters and is sensitive and affecting. W Morgan Sheppard's reading of Tom McNeal's novel showed me his facility with languages and accents and emotional temperature changes. Both were so good in many ways, but they didn't cross the line into exemplary.

Also very very good was Sasha Pick's reading of Elizabeth Wein's novel, fully capturing Rose's bravado and fear and heart, as well as the fragile emotions of her fellow concentration camp internees.

But, come on, it's Katherine Kellgren not only reading LA Meyer, but narrating Jacky's adventures in Spain, with gypsies, with painters, with soldiers. Accents and singing and bull-riding and letters from Jaimy and, honestly, with half a syllable from Kellgren I could tell you whether it's Higgins or Jacky or Goya speaking, which is a remarkable feat - after ten books I feel I know the recurring characters very well, and part of that is due to her portrayal of them.

So that's phenomenal, and y'all should listen to the whole series.

But first, listen to Rebecca Lowman and Sunil Malhotra's reading of Rainbow Rowell's novel, because your heart needs it. Your mind needs it. Your sense of nostalgia, and however much of you is a music lover, and a comics nerd, and a kid who once rode the bus; all of those parts of you need it. Lowman in particular basically mind-melded with the text, making Eleanor's portions of the novel intense and painful and beautiful and real. Malhotra is quite the idealized Park voice - so sweet and always with a smile somewhere, even when he is aching. The whole thing is magic, as is the novel, and my world, knowing this book and this audiobook are around. (I rave. So what? It's my blog and I can rave if I want to.)

So the Audie goes to Eleanor & Park. So should you.

Teen Books That Make Me Cry

(That's not the fairest of titles, given that a million things make me cry. I'm a cry-reader. Emotions! Bring me all the emotions!)

One of the reasons I picked the Teens category for the Armchair Audies project is that I'd already devoured a few of the titles, and looked forward to a chance to revisit them and discuss them here. Plus, I've done it for the past couple of years, and have predicted correctly each time (it's a tiny triumph, but I like it.) So now I'm going to visit a couple of nominees which are parts of series. Both of these books are wonderful and more than deserve their nominations.

First up is LA Meyer's Viva Jacquelina! (Listen & Live Audio, 2012), narrated by Katherine Kellgren. You may recognize her name because I've mentioned her here more often than almost any other narrator (she might actually - gasp! - beat Simon Vance in the I-just-made-this-up Overreader Tag War by the time these Audies are awarded.) She's consistenly had books in the running for Audies Teen category, and has won, and you can listen to any of Meyer's Bloody Jack series to find out why. For the uninitiated, Mary "Jacky" Faber was a London orphan who dressed like a boy to join the navy and escape street gangs, and who subsequently has sailed around the world making a name (or many names, Jaquelina being the latest of them) as sailor, owner of a shipping line, benefactor of an orphanage, spy, temporary buddy of Napoleon, diver for sunken treasure, stage performer, smuggler of slaves to freedom, and always devoted friend to many world-wide. Her heart belongs to Jaimy Fletcher, but Jaimy's in the Navy, and while he and Jacky often end up in hot water, they are rarely in the same waters. (That's the main reason this book made me cry.) There's adventure and treachery and danger and singing and accents and, in this 10th book in the series, freedom fighters and Goya and the Spanish Inquisition. Kellgren narrates the series with exemplary skill - those many award nominations and wins are beyond justified - and as much as I enjoy the character and series, it's one I would chose never to read in print or with another narrator, because she fully inhabits not just the main characters, but all of the other recurring and occasional people in Jacky's world.

And next is Elizabeth Wein's Rose Under Fire (Bolinda Publishing, 2013), narrated by Sasha Pick. You won't have heard her name from me, because it was new to me, but Elizabeth Wein's certainly wasn't. I still cry (me and the crying) when I just think about Code Name Verity, as you would, too, if you'd read it. (You've read it, right? Because if not you are a foolish human and need to correct that immediately.) (If you have: "Kiss me, Hardy!" There, now you're crying, too.) Verity's Maddie appears in Rose's book (I cried), but mostly this is Rose's story. She's an American pilot working with the British Air Transport Auxiliary. She's flying over France when she's captured and sent to Ravensbrück and has to cope with a world unlike anything she'd ever imagined. Rose is a poet, and so young - she graduated high school early so she could join the war effort - and nights in the concentration camp are nothing like her childhood days in rural Pennsylvania. Friendships in the camp are fraught with treachery and loss and devastation, but are also Rose's salvation. (I cried.) Pick's narration is a little dreamy and very measured and she deals nicely with the multinational accents of Rose's friends. 

War is Hell on My Reading Equilibrium

A couple of beautiful, trying novels that stuck to my gut, with war at their centers.

This is a book I am in love with. A desert island kind of book. Ignore the 'teen' categorization - don't discount it for any of the reasons that you might sometimes discount a book - and sink into Elizabeth Wein's Code Name Verity. At its center is the friendship between Verity and Maddie, young women assisting the British war effort in October, 1943, when Maddie's plane is shot down over France and Verity is captured by the Gestapo. Verity's astounding character emerges as she writes a closely-monitored confession that is mostly a paean to Maddie and the story of their unlikely but deep and everlasting friendship. When the story switches to Maddie's POV, the true depth of Verity's intelligence and devotion both to her friend and to Britain is revealed. I listened to the audio of this, and can't stress enough how gorgeously Morven Christie (as Verity) and Lucy Gaskell (as Maddie) narrated. They're both actresses, mostly doing British TV, but I hope they've been bitten by the narration bug after this project, because both were a real pleasure to hear. Christie in particular was a phenom with a wide range of accents and emotions, and Gaskell had me in tears more than once with just her tone as she approached a section of text that would have had had me in tears, regardless. Preemptive tears - one of the special benefits of a well-narrated audiobook. At any rate, text, narration, semaphore, whatever your format - this is a so so worth it book. Enjoy (for the portrait of an extraordinary friendship, not so much for the tears, and how much war destroys beauty, etc.)

Also emerging from WWII, Mark Helprin's In Sunlight and In Shadow is set primarily in New York City in 1947. Harry Copeland was a pathfinder in the war - he and his team of paratroopers were charged with ranging ahead to bring the troops safely to their next engagement. Post-war, he returns to an expected life running the family business, until he runs across heiress and singer Catherine Thomas Hale, which changes everything for them. Their instant connection causes them both to adjust their course, forcing them to seek the most essential parts of themselves in order to be together. The city of New York is as much a character as Henry or Catherine, and Helprin transmits it with such evocative lyricism that I actually had wistful thoughts about moving there. (I... am not a New York life kind of gal.) There's a great deal of fun language to surf in this novel, which is a good thing since it's 700+ pages (30 hours on audio.) Narrator Sean Runnette seemed to be as much a fan of the language and the pacing and movement as I was, though I wish he'd differentiated the character voices a good bit more. I didn't think, starting a 30 hour book, that I'd be impatient for it to continue as I approached the end, but this is a world I didn't want to leave. Helprin had that effect on me with Freddy and Fredericka, the only other of his I've read, and I clearly ought to put him on my ever-expanding list of 'novelists to seek out.' This one is very different, but Harry's pathfinding in a post-war America will stick with me for ages to come.