Alethea's comments

Alethea's comments from the Audiobooks group.

Note: Alethea is no longer a member of this group.

Kathy, I know what you mean. I knit a sweater to The Art of Racing in the Rain.

My husband came home one day and found me sitting on the coffee table in tears because it was the last disc of The Kite Runner... I was also clutching my purse and two reusable grocery bags because I was supposed to have gone to the market 3 hours before and couldn't bear to stop the cd at any point ;-)

I read Maria V. Snyder's Study series before listening to it on audio. I prefer the audio for Magic Study and Fire Study. I felt that the first one (Poison Study) was not as enjoyable as a first-listen because the reader, Gabra Zackman, has not yet quite figured out who will have what voice in the big cast of characters. She has it down pat by the next two (and even does some excellent horse voices). So I recommend reading book 1 (Poison) and listening to 2 (Magic) and 3 (Fire).

Right now my hubby and I are both *hooked* on Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. The unabridged version is 52 hours long and the reader, Christopher Hurt, is just brilliant.

One of my book groups just read The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry and loved the audiobook version (available as an Audible download). Very funny! Our only negative comments were that the humor is probably best enjoyed either by an adult, a child with a mature sense of humor, and/or experience reading the children's classics which are parodied in the short novel (they include the likes of Anne of Green Gables and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

I also listened to and enjoyed Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, which was a great little story (very different and much more substantial than the movie version). At times I found the reader's voice a bit whiny and later on when Ella has grown up a bit, her voice does not mature much. But I still gave it 5 stars--all in all it was a very satisfying listen.

Anyone else with audiobook kids/YA recommendations? I've heard (ha) that the Bloody Jack series by Louis A. Meyer is a good bunch.

I'm gonna go with The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. It's read by Jonathan Davis and the theme music starts out as a bit annoying (they play it at the start and end of every chapter, it seems) but then different themes emerge and really add to the ambiance. Once late at night I ended up running around the apartment turning on the lights at 2 a.m. because I got really really creeped out while listening. It's not technically Horror, but it was scary.

You can download the theme music on the author's website, http://www.carlosruizzafon (under Descargas)