Euphoria: A Book, and How I Feel About Audiobook Month

Euphoria, by Lily King
(2014, Atlantic Monthly Press / Blackstone Audio)
Format: audio download (read by Simon Vance and Xe Sands)

From Goodreads: "From New England Book Award winner Lily King comes a breathtaking novel about three young anthropologists of the '30s caught in a passionate love triangle that threatens their bonds, their careers, and, ultimately, their lives.

English anthropologist Andrew Bankson has been alone in the field for several years, studying the Kiona river tribe in the Territory of New Guinea. Haunted by the memory of his brothers’ deaths and increasingly frustrated and isolated by his research, Bankson is on the verge of suicide when a chance encounter with colleagues, the controversial Nell Stone and her wry and mercurial Australian husband Fen, pulls him back from the brink. Nell and Fen have just fled the bloodthirsty Mumbanyo and, in spite of Nell’s poor health, are hungry for a new discovery. When Bankson finds them a new tribe nearby, the artistic, female-dominated Tam, he ignites an intellectual and romantic firestorm between the three of them that burns out of anyone’s control."

June is Audiobook Month! Which means, really, that June is yet another chance for me to tell you people that you should listen to audiobooks, because they are The Best. Case in point: Euphoria.

Back in my college days, I studied a bit of anthropology, and learned a bit about Margaret Mead, but nothing in particular about her personal life. King's novel plays closely with that life, but Nell, Fen, and Bankson are wholly independent of their real-life inspirations. Nell is magnetic, both to the men in her life and to the people she works with - and definitely for the reader. Her voice is broken and strong and intriguing and true. And the vision of her we get through Bankson's eyes highlights her fascinating nature.

Oh, to be an anthropologist studying an anthropologist like her!

The narrative team of Vance and Sands is a dream. I may or may not have raved extensively about them both (okay, I have), and to have them together on this project was magic for me. No wonder this book won the Audie for Literary Fiction last month! It's a gorgeous production. I'm so glad it found its way into my ears.

Mel Published Elsewhere, Last Reads Edition

I shared my #LastReads thoughts at Land of Lost Books. Fun! 

(This looks like the pretty version of A Tale of Two Cities I picked up at my in-law's house one long summer, and got sucked into love of the novel.)

Writing the post, of course, made me want to revisit the book. I decided to really confuse everyone by listening to the version read by Simon Prebble instead of the one read by Simon Vance. It's also very good! My husband is amused by my plethora of Simons.

Audiobook Auction Happening Now!

Howdy, readers and listeners,

I'm helping to spread the word about a fundraising auction for ALS, organized by members of the awesome audiobook community. A lovely audiobook producer, Bob Deyan, has ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) and the goal of the auction is to raise research funds.

If you're in the LA area, there's a fabulous 25 hour audiobook read-a-thon in Burbank. And if you're everywhere, you should check out the silent auction - it's not just audiobooks (though you CAN buy me a personalized story reading by Simon Vance, hint hint) but that's a lot of the organizing principal. Know of a kid who likes books? Bid on the full (and incredibly done) set of Harry Potter audiobooks! Or listen to my wise advice about how wonderful it is, and go for the Bloody Jack series! Get your favorite Nerdfighter a bunch of John Green audios! There are really just a ton of great books available, in addition to services, fun treats, etc. Do please check it out, and spread the word about this great cause. Thanks!

Armchair Audies Category Report: Mystery

And my final official Armchair Audies category: Mystery! 

The nominees for the Audie award are:

THE NIGHTMARE Lars Kepler Read by Mark Bramhall (Macmillan Audio) Read the review
THE BEAUTIFUL MYSTERYLouise Penny Read by Ralph Cosham (Macmillan Audio) Read the review
AND WHEN SHE WAS GOODLaura Lippman Read by Linda Emond (Harper Audio) Read the review
HUSH MONEYChuck Greaves Read by Dan Butler (AudioGO) Read the review
THE GOOD THIEF'S GUIDE TO VEGASChris Ewan Read by Simon Vance (AudioGO) Read the review

Confession time! (All these detectives around, I'd better confess readily or who knows what will happen to me.) I didn't ever get around to Hush Money. I mean, I listened to the sample, and Butler's voice is fine - a little more nasal than I like, and he hits some notes a bit hard - but the book held no interest at all for me, and it took a long time to arrive from the interlibrary loan, so I just didn't listen.

Still, I listened to - and enjoyed - the rest. And talked about them. (The Beautiful Mystery, The Nightmare, The Good Thief's Guide to Vegas, And When She Was Good.) Overall, it was a strong category and a lot of happy hours of listening for me. I was already a fan of Penny and (to a lesser degree) of Lippman and Ewan, so I knew I'd have a tough time picking between them. 

But pick I did, and Cosham's narration of The Beautiful Mystery was enthralling. I look forward to hearing on Thursday that I am correct! I'm also going to continue listening to as much as these authors publish. (Give or take Greaves.)

Armchair Audies Category Report: Solo Narration - Male

The Audies are this week! You know what that means, dear readers: much Armchair Audies posting about them now, but then I'll shush a bit for a year. (Ha. I will not.)

Here's the slate of nominees for Solo Narration - Male:

BEING THERE Jerzy Kosinski Read by Dustin Hoffman (Audible, Inc.) Read the review
THE ABSOLUTIST John Boyne Read by Michael Maloney (Tantor Media) Read the review
BEAUTIFUL RUINS Jess Walter Read by Edoardo Ballerini (Harper Audio) Read the review
THE END OF THE AFFAIR Graham Greene Read by Colin Firth (Audible, Inc.) Read the review
THE TAO OF POOH Benjamin Hoff Read by Simon Vance (Tantor Media) Read the review

Now, I've already commented on each of these separately (Being There, The Absolutist, Beautiful Ruins, The End of the Affair, The Tao of Pooh), so I won't go too much into it. But I'll say this: we're looking here for "distinction in audiobooks" here. And for me, one of those parameters is, do I think this is more compelling than the text alone would be? Another: does the narrator do so good a job that I start looking for more narration by him (or her, but that's n/a in this category) and pick up audiobooks I wouldn't necessarily have looked at otherwise?

Beautiful Ruins succeeds magnificently on both scores. I actually started this book on paper, and didn't

get very into it before the library due date, so I returned it. But it was part of The Rooster competition, so I went back to it in audio, and oh, baby. It's grand. Ballerini brings such life to Walter's text (which I should have given a fairer chance, as it's quite magnificent and you should read or listen to it if you haven't already.) So Ballerini is my pick for the win, and it will be a very well-deserved one. (It's also up for Audiobook of the Year, and I'm expecting it to take that, too.)

2nd place: Maloney reading The Absolutist. It's a great book, very well read.

Then Firth reading The End of the Affair, then Hoffman reading Being There, and finally - and I know this is a shocking thing, but the book: blah and Piglet: gah - Vance reading The Tao of Pooh.

(Sorry, Simon Vance! You're still my #1 audio crush! Read different things and I'm there.)

Mysterious Series

So a couple of series to talk about now - both of them with books in the running for an Audie award for mysteries (one of my Armchair Audies categories), which is what brought me to them to start with. And they're very different, but both quite worthwhile.

Chris Ewan's Good Thief's Guide series centers on Charlie Howard, an English mystery writer and, oh yes, also a thief. He makes his way from city to city across the globe (Amsterdam, Paris, and Vegas that I've read so far - The Good Thief's Guide to Vegas being the audiobook nominated this year), and manages to find himself deeper and deeper in trouble wherever he goes. With the advice and help of his forbearing agent, Victoria, he eventually extracts himself - but not so cleanly that he can stay in the city he's just visited. So on the road again he goes (at the moment, in my reading of the series, he's on his way to Venice.) Ewan's writing is bright and clean, and Charlie is self-deprecating and not as smooth or adroit as he'd like to be, a great character to hang out with, even though he'll embroil you in all sorts of dangerous nonsense. The mysteries themselves are solid, and I always enjoy Ewan's descriptions of the locals and locales that Charlie encounters. 

Simon Vance reads the Good Thief's Guide series, and obviously I love it. His delivery is smooth and clean and engaging, and he picks up perfectly on the emotional sub-texts as well as the energy of the text. 

Lars Kepler's Jonna Linna series follows Swedish Detective Inspector Linna through some disturbing and dangerous territory in and around Stockholm. If you like complex, psychologically-twisted plots, read Kepler (which I found out is the pen name of a married couple of writers - Alexander and Alexandra Anhdoril - but my husband just acted like I was crazy when I proposed that we write a series together about a female private detective in 1930s Dublin, even though it is obviously a brilliant idea!) In the Audie-nominated The Nightmare, Linna investigates a suicide that wasn't, and an accidental drowning that also wasn't, and his instincts (like all good fictional detectives, his instincts are almost always right, even if there's no evidence to support that) tell him there's a connection. Although Linna's personal/emotional life is the least compelling thing about the series, as a detective he is fun to get to know, and I love the way he interacts with his colleagues. Kepler relies a little heavily on "horrid childhood leaves massive damage leading to creepy criminal adulthood" bad guys, but really commits to them once they're out there. 

The mellifluous Mark Bramhall reads the Jonna Linna series. He is a master of voices and tone, and there's something very fluid about the way he narrates. I'm not sure why I haven't posted about Bramhall before - though largely it's because I encounter him a lot on multi-voiced books - but I'm always happy to see his name on a project, because I can trust him to fully explore the text. This is no exception, and I particularly love when Kepler's characters are joking with each other, because there's an edge of teasing laughter that makes me smile along with Bramhall.

Armchair Audies Category Report: Literary Fiction

Time for me to get all judgemental for the Armchair Audies! Herein is my opinion about the Audies 2013, Literary Fiction category. The nominees are:
(note: if you click the "Read the review" links below, you'll get to a site with a sound sample of the book, too.)

REMEMBER BEN CLAYTON Stephen Harrigan Read by George Guidall (Recorded Books) Read the review
HEFT Liz Moore Read by Kirby Heyborne, Keith Szarabajka(Blackstone Audiobooks) Read the review
BRING UP THE BODIES Hilary Mantel Read by Simon Vance (Macmillan Audio) Read the review
THE REMAINS OF THE DAY Kazuo Ishiguro Read by Simon Prebble (Tantor Media) Read the review
THE END OF THE AFFAIR Graham Greene Read by Colin Firth (Audible, Inc.) Read the review

Last year when I participated in this fun venture for the Teens and Narration by Author categories, I set this as my criteria: The Audies site says only that the awards recognize "distinction in audiobooks and spoken word entertainment," which is a pretty broad basis for judging. Production values, narrative technique, ability to engage the listener, preferably in a way that makes listening to a title even better than reading it would be - it's all part of the package, in my opinion. Balancing that, is just that ephemeral thing: what I like. 

So it's easy for me to say: NOT Remember Ben Clayton. This is the first book in, oh, ages and ages that I haven't finished. I did give it 5 discs (out of 14) before I gave up, so I listened to about as much of Guidall's narration as I did of the shorter books in this category. I can say that I wouldn't have gotten further in the print book - it wasn't the narration that failed. The book is not interesting. It tries, and it fails, to sweep me into a grand historical setting with wars and travel and artists and lonesome cowboys with mysterious kidnapped-by-Comanches pasts. (See, so many elements! And yet they just didn't speak to each other, or to me.) Guidall handled it all just fine, but he never seemed any more enthusiastic about the material than I was, and it was neither distinctive nor entertaining, if I'm using the APA's criteria. 

4th place in this category, but leaps and bounds and tall buildings and maybe a couple of complete cityscapes above the Harrigan is Heft. I definitely enjoyed Moore's tale which gradually - delightfully gradually - pulls together two unlikely recluses. Kel and Arthur are both intriguing characters, and Heyborne and Szarabajka (in particular) bring a lot of life to them. There's something, though, and I'm annoyed with my inability to articulate it, that was just enough 'off' for me about the book that I opted against writing about it at the time I read it. And for months afterwards - even though it was highlighted in my spreadsheet as one that I intended to review. I think it's the fact that I heard so much buzz about Moore's novel, lots of positive noise, so I was expecting to be wowed. I wasn't wowed. I LIKE it. I'd encourage you to pick it up - I know Arthur will stick with you and alter your brainwaves a little - but I wasn't wowed. So as distinctive as Szarabajka was, and as proficient as Heyborne was, they didn't elevate the book beyond the text. I could read this in print and not always have their voices in my head, which I just can't do with the top 3 in this category.

Since I can't decide, and it's my blog and I'll do what I want, I'm declaring a 2nd place tie between The End of the Affair and The Remains of the Day. I reviewed both of these here in March, so I won't rehash too much, but I'll tell you this: YUM! Both of these older books are so well-written, and you should all read them right now. Or better yet, listen to them, because Firth and Prebble both bring such life to their narrations. Distinctive? Check! (I definitely can't read either of these without hearing the narrators' voices in my head.) Entertaining? Double check! (Firth is sneakily calm about the emotions in Greene's novel, and Prebble just revels in the reserve and fish-out-of-waterness of Ishiguro's butler.) These are both real treats to listen to, and I wouldn't have without the Armchair Audies project, so I'm very glad to be able to tell you how great they are.

And that means the winner, by another little hop over a skyscraper, is Bring Up the Bodies. (And I do NOT know what is wrong with me, not to have blathered on and on about Mantel's novels here. I blather on about them elsewhere - both of her Cromwell novels won the Booker, and I was very into them for the past couple Tournament of Books. Somehow I never mentioned them here. So, first of all, such gorgeous language, such complex but fascinating characters with tricks and twists and an amazing grasp of Cromwell's times. Mantel writes the HELL out of her subject, and I will devour the third as eagerly as I did the first two, I'm sure. And as long as Vance is the narrator, I'll devour it via audio, too. He is a magician with this material - and no, I'm not just saying that because of my long-standing devotion to the guy's voice! This narration just proves how right I am to follow Vance from genre to genre - he has that quality that makes the listener eager to hear what else he's done. The voice differentiations here were particularly well-done, each person not only distinct, but perfectly suited to the character. I was distinctively entertained, and 24 hours of listening flew by. This is the clear winner, and I do hope that the APA agrees come awards night.

Just Being Pooh is Grand

The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
(1982) (This version, Tantor Media, 2012)
Format: Audible download (read by Simon Vance)

From Goodreads: "Winnie-the-Pooh has a certain Way about him, a way of doing things that has made him the world's most beloved bear. In The Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Hoff shows that Pooh's Way is amazingly consistent with the principles of living envisioned by the Chinese founders of Taoism. The author's explanation of Taoism through Pooh, and Pooh through Taoism, shows that this is not simply an ancient and remote philosophy but something you can use, here and now. And what is Taoism? It's really very simple. It calls for living without preconceived ideas about how life should be lived-but it's not a preconception of how life-it's.... Well, you'd do better to listen to this book, and listen to Pooh, if you really want to find out."

You guys! I found something Vance did that I don't love! Not the book, I'm fine with the book, but something about his narration. 

Okay, fine, that's not the sweetest way to begin this post, but as my regular readers know, I am devoted to Simon Vance's work as an audiobook narrator. Until yesterday, I would have said he could do no wrong, no matter how hard he tried. And this title was nominated in the Solo Narration - Male PLUS the Personal Development PLUS the Inspirational/Faith-Based Fiction categories for an Audie Award. I took it for granted that I'd be as impressed as always by Vance's narration. And for 98% of this book, I was. His pacing - his comic and tension timing - is notably brilliant. It's practically impossible not to listen to him tell you a tale, because he spins it out in such a way that you're hanging on all the words, no matter what those words are. Naval battles in Napoleonic times, the adventures of 007, Cromwellian intrigues, and the intersection of Chinese philosophy and stuffed bears - all are gripping. 

So what's the problem? What could possibly disconcert me? Well, you'll laugh at me, but it bothered me each and every time it was used. It was his Piglet voice. 

Pooh was slow and thoughtful and very-little-brained. Eeyore was gloomy. Rabbit was bossy and manic. Roo was enthusiastically adorable. But Piglet - sigh. Piglet was irritating. He was inconsistent - sometimes too close to the Pooh voice, sometimes chirpier, but not the squeaky, breathy voice Vance hit on once in a rare while for Piglet that worked best. Granted, if I didn't rely on his ability to suit voices to characters so consistently, this wouldn't have been so jarring, but I do, so it was. And I wasn't looking for Disney-informed versions of the 100 Acre Woods crew - Vance didn't go there for the others, and that was just fine with me. The whole book is under 3 hours, and while Piglet is in every chapter (probably), he doesn't speak up all that much. I wish that when he did, I'd been able to enjoy him.

Okay, that mountain of a molehill aside, this was a good production. There were a couple of moments between sections that I would have liked a half-second's pause, just to differentiate, but otherwise it was easy to follow and fun to hear.

Hoff's book has been out for 20 years, and I remember flipping through it once in a while, but I'd never gone front to back with it before. It's interesting, and cleverly assembled to make points about Taoism using the familiar tales of beloved Pooh Bear. Rescuing Roo from the river, finding the "North Pole," hunting heffalumps, and just being with Piglet and Christopher Robin all serve to illustrate the benefits of not over-thinking life, taking it as it comes, and trusting that solutions to problems will surface when needed. It was fun to imagine what Hoff would make of our digital age, given his screeds against mechanization and hyper-busyness in 1982, and interesting to look for ways to apply Taoism to my life. Of course, as with all things that tout the virtues of the simple innocents of the world (and we listened to Being There immediately after this just to reinforce this point), I am left wondering why proponents of these philosophies can't give me illustrations of people who are consciously choosing Taoism instead of embodying it by default. We all rightfully love Winnie-the-Pooh, and admire his ways of love and happiness, but get Rabbit to learn some Taoism. When I see him adopt it, I'll be more apt to see how to apply it to my own life.

Houses: Not so Safe on the Isle of Man, Apparently

Safe House by Chris Ewan
(Minotaur Books, 2012)
Format: Audio download via Audiobook Jukebox (narrated by Simon Vance for AudioGO)

From Goodreads: "When Rob Hale wakes up in hospital after a motorcycle crash he is told that Lena, the woman he claims was travelling with him, doesn't exist. The woman he describes bears a striking resemblance to his recently deceased sister, Laura, but has he really only imagined her? Rob sets out to find the answers to who Lena is and where she has gone. He is aided by Rebecca Lewis, a London-based PI, who has come to the Isle of Man at the behest of his parents to investigate his sister's suicide. But who is Rebecca really and how did she know his sister? Together Rob and Rebecca follow the clues to discover who took Lena. In doing so they discover that even on an island where most people know each other, everyone hides a secret, and that sometimes your best option isn't to hide but to stay and fight."

This is my first Chris Ewan. Won't be my last. I've seen his titles often, since I'm such a Simon Vance fan, and Vance narrates Ewan's Good Thief's Guide series. Safe House is Ewan's first stand-alone mystery, and it's a compelling, transporting tale. As a matter of fact, when I shot my husband a sardonic look for interrupting me in the last 1/4 of this book, and he accused me of being "in a trance with Simon Vance," I would have taken the time to explain that it was the plot that was distracting me from getting stuff done, not the narrator. Except that would have taken time away from the book.

I immediately liked the main character, Rob, who is a solid, trustworthy, everyday kind of guy. A plumber, a motorbike racer, just another resident of the Isle of Man. one whose sister has recently committed suicide, and whose memory may or may not be screwed up after he crashes his bike either with or without a mysteriously missing stranger named Lena. He doesn't see the tangled webs woven by - well, by someone. He can see a couple of strands, enough to make it easy to discount "it's just a result of head injury" as an explanation, and enough to make him suspicious of people he's known for a while, and some newcomers as well. Gradually he decides to just about trust Rebecca, whose story seems almost plausible, if he can accept some strange things about his sister. And Rebecca stands by him, believing in Lena's disappearance, which earns her plenty of points. I wasn't very engaged by Rebecca as a character - she seemed to be a compilation of necessary parts: spy craft, investigative skills, insider knowledge. But not a lot of personal chemistry, which made her hard for me to care about or believe that Rob cared much about. But they team up, and together, they start to trace those tangled webs, which Ewan has laid out in a cunning pattern. There's a good amount of tension in this book, as well as some humor, some not-too-over-the-top complexity, cringe-inducing violence, engaging descriptive passages, and, to make it complete, a good dog.

Vance's narration - what can I say beyond what I always say? His deftness with accents has a real chance to shine here, between the Manx, the Londoners, and the Dutch. This is a slow-paced thriller - or a violence-laden mystery? - either way, Vance's pacing suits it quite nicely, and his calm but determined voice for Rob really carries just the right weight for the character.  

The Dead Shall Not Rest

The Dead Shall Not Rest by Tessa Harris
(Kensington, 2012)
Format: audiobook download via Audiobook Jukebox (narrated by Simon Vance for Blackstone Audio)

From Goodreads: "In the bestselling tradition of Caleb Carr's 'The Alienist,' Dr. Thomas Silkstone returns in this stunning mystery that combines the intrigue of 'CSI' with a fascinating 18th-century historical setting."

I was excited for this one. I enjoyed the first of the Thomas Silkstone mysteries (The Anatomist's Apprentice) and I may or may not have mentioned my partiality for Vance's narrations. And I did like it, definitely. But not unreservedly. The narration, sure, that was great. As engaging as possible, ideal inflection and pacing, the delightful warm tone. And Harris's main character, Dr. Thomas Silkstone, is terrific. His forays into the developing science of forensic anthropology are fascinating, and the recurring characters surrounding him are solid. My issue with this book was that the mystery itself wasn't particularly gripping. There were several interesting layers, with eunuchs and dwarfs and giants and evil barbers swirling through them, but not a lot holding them together. I lost interest too early in who-done-it, which isn't really ideal in a mystery. Silkstone's personal issues and Vance's narration kept me going. I want to see more from this series, but hopefully with a stronger internal structure.

I'm a Little In Love with Sherlock

When I was in 7^th grade, my history teacher loaned me her copy of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Because I am who I am, it was no surprise to anyone to see thirteen-year-old bespectacled me hauling this 1000+ page tome around, working my way through it as I sat in class or walked to and from school or stood in the lunch line. (Every day I bought a PBJ. Every day. Except when they only had grape jelly left, then I had nachos. Health!)

So it is no surprise to me that Holmes and Watson are so hot in current story-telling outlets. (I mean hot as in a big commodity. But: see image snagged from Lyndsay Faye’s tumblr.)

Naturally, I’m fully on board with all of these screen versions of Holmes. Classic? Sure! Modern? Why not! Set him in Ancient Babylon, for all I care, but bring on the Holmes.

I’ve already gone on (and on?) about Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell series - as you are all devoted readers and followers of mine, I’m sure you’re at least as far into the series as I am, right? (I finished the madcap, delightful Pirate King and have only one published volume left. This makes me sad.) Have I mentioned the use of language in these books? Mary Russell’s voice is so strong and perfect and everything a smart British-American-Jewish scholar of religion in the 1920s should be, but more so. The word choice could not be more ideal. So, in the series, Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes are married. And although it’s understated and cerebral, as great loves go, it is indeed a great love. There’s just something vital there between them.

Next: I mentioned Lyndsay Faye’s novel Gods of Gotham and how I was totally brought round to absorption in her world. Her debut, Dust and Shadow, is Dr. Watson’s narration of Holmes’s involvement in the case of Jack the Ripper. Again, the language was superb. The pacing and Faye’s grasp of the characters shone throughout, and I raced through it, while not wanting it to end. Enhancing the narrative was the audio production - Dust and Shadow was read by my big audio-crush Simon Vance. (My husband assures me that his diphthongs are not the sum of the man, and that I need to stop getting carried away by them. And that’s well and good, but in this book, at one point, Holmes takes on a Welsh accent to mask his identity. Vance as Holmes as Welsh! Come ON!) 

So there it all is. The timeline of my romance. From adolescent impressed by the Great Detective’s skills to sympathetic reader of Holmes’s wife’s tales to absorbed listener of Vance-as-Holmes tackling one of the most known true-crime serial murder cases in history. Throw in a little Miller / Downey Jr. / Cumberbatch action (or a LOT…) and is it any wonder that I am more than a little in love with Sherlock Holmes?

Armchair Audies: Katherine Kellgren Narrates L.A. Meyer's Lorelei Lee

And the Armchair Audies listens march on into April.... I've added another completed title to my spreadsheet from the "Teens" nominees, and it's not just that the last thing is the best thing - this was a truly excellent choice. This is a seriously well developed group of nominees.

Granted, The Wake of the Lorelei Lee: Being an Account of the Adventures of Jacky Faber, on Her Way to Botany Bay is an excessively long title, even by L.A. Meyer's standards. I'll just call it Lorelei Lee for short, and be glad to have listened to it. As I mentioned last summer, I am excessively fond of Jacky Faber, who by the age of sixteen has impersonated a ship's boy in His Majesty's Navy, refined her Cockney roots at a Boston boarding school, became a privateer accused of piracy, been captured by slavers, piloted a ship down the Mississippi, spied for England in Napoleon's army, and dived for sunken Spanish treasure. Now she has been accused by nemeses Bliffil and Flashby of stealing some of the Spanish gold, and, as the title suggests, sentenced to transportation to Botany Bay. Although the transportation sentence was fairly foregone, the imprisonment and trial kept me on the edge of my seat (well, when I was sitting while I listened - I quickly became too impatient to parcel this story out during my commute, and carried it with me throughout my days as well.)

Being Jacky, imprisonment on a transport ship is hardly enough to squelch her spirit, or stop her from getting into further scrapes. Friends and foes both old and new abound in this story, and Meyer as usual keeps the story rolling along through yet another evocatively-conveyed slice of time and place. Lorelei Lee definitely ranks as one of my favorite of the Jacky Faber tales, and although it is the 8th and therefore represents an investment to readers, I do recommend the entire series, in order. (Blue Tattoo is my least favorite, but it establishes an important part of Jacky's world. I just like it best when she's on the water.) While I'm at it, I'll also recommend Naomi Novik's Temeraire series (more Napoleonic-era British Naval globe-trotting, but with dragons) and Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series (again with His Majesty's Royal Navy criss-crossing the globe in the early 1800s.) Audios for both of those series are read by the incomparable Simon Vance.

Like Vance, Katherine Kellgren has a voice I could (oh, and do!) listen to for hours. She so thoroughly inhabits Jacky, who is a girl of many, many moods. Many. And throughout the series, Kellgren gives not only Jacky but her beloved Jaimie, her devoted Higgins, and a panoply of tertiary characters deeply developed and individual voices. Go ahead, test me. Play two or three random words of Kellgren's dialogue of Jacky, Jaimie, Higgins, or Amy. I can tell you not only who it is, but what mood they're in. (Sure, most of the time the mood is "outraged or frustrated by the latest thing Jacky has gotten herself into," but that's hardly the point.)

Particularly admirable in this novel, Kellgren has to do a lot of singing. And not just in Jacky's voice - a whole host of characters from a whole range of accents and timbres in a variety of styles all lift their voices in song during Lorelei Lee, and Kellgren nails them all. I have a tin ear myself, so to me this is a mind-boggling accomplishment. And it's all great fun to hear, to boot - one of the things I can point to when people wonder what makes listening to some books preferable to reading them.

Two Successes, a Failure, and a Treat

A few books of note from this month.

I finally got to finish Patrick Ness's Chaos Walking trilogy, with the audioproducton of Monsters of Men. It is probably not a good thing to be driving down the freeway yelling, "Fucking bastard!" at the CD player, but that is what Ness, via the conniving Mayor Prentiss, forced me to do. I mean, I'm a fairly tolerant person, and not quick to take offense, in real life or by fictional characters. But Prentiss is just so evil and controlling, and I've been attached to Todd from page one of book one of the trilogy, so seeing him caught in the Mayor's web and in the middle of  the Mayor's war was excruciating. It's a good thing I was listening to this instead of reading it to my son, as I did with the first two books, because I would have had trouble controlling my reactions, and let's face it, probably I shouldn't use that kind of language around him. Listening was also great because I so enjoyed the narrators, Nick Podehl, Angela Dawe, and MacLeod Andrews. Frankly, though, I'm going to have trouble with the next book I hear narrated by Dawe, because so much of her own natural voice informed the voice she used for Mistress Coyle, and I was cringing at her treatment of Viola and the people she led almost as much as Prentiss's treatment of Todd.

Another highlight of the month for me was Farthing by Jo Walton. This is not as dystopian as Ness's world (where things were so messed up on Earth that a faction left the planet to settle on New World, which is where all the problems between the Prentiss and Coyle and all them began.) Walton's 1950s Britain is just like our 1950s Britain, except that the British negotiated a truce with Hitler in 1941 that ceded pretty much the rest of Europe to him while they retained self-rule and everyone just put on blinders about the genocide and work camps. Walton stages a murder in the middle of a political house party, brings in an intellectual Scotland Yard detective along with the plodding local police, shines the suspect spotlight on the Jewish husband of the rebellious politico's daughter, and throws in some adultery and communists and train schedules to give it all direction and misdirection. I was so happy to discover this book, and so absorbed in the plot and characters and style. It's book as sustenance, and I am replete.

Contrast that to A Feast for Crows by George RR Martin. In short (as nothing else about it is), I gave up about half-way through and went to the web to find out how it would end. I think three and a half of the Fire and Ice books is a pretty good showing, don't you? (I also used that wiki to find out what happens in the fifth book.)

Now, for those of you who either already love audio or are skeptical about my love of audio, go here. Be sure you have your tissues handy. The narrator Xe Sands started a project to publish short readings of public domain texts, which you can find about with the #goingpublic hashtag if you're on Twitter. (Follow me! I'm dakiMel.) The link above is for Margery Williams's The Velveteen Rabbit, which Sands imbues with such feeling and love that I defy you to read the text yourself without being (positively) informed by her narration. Also at Going Public is my audiocrush Simon Vance, so you can hear why I love him and then believe me and go listen to the dozens of hours of Aubrey-Maturin stories or wherever else you care to find him.