Soundbites About Divergent

Title: Divergent
Author: Veronica Roth
Narrators: Emma Galvin
Rating (Story): ★★☆☆☆
Rating (Narration):★★★★★

In the world of Divergent, society is divided into five factions, each of which prize a particular virtue (intelligence, bravery, etc.). At age 16, children must choose which faction to belong to and changing factions means leaving all friends and family behind. Tris’s choice to leave the selfless faction for Dauntless is brutally hard and she has a secret to hide which will make things even harder.

Soundbites About I’ve Got Your Number

Title: I’ve Got Your Number
Author: Sophie Kinsella
Narrators: Jayne Entwistle
Rating (Story): ★★★☆☆
Rating (Narration):★★★★☆

I’ve Got Your Number is light romantic comedy in which Poppy’s loss of her phone leads her to pick one up from a trashcan. Sam Roxton, whose personal assistant owned the phone wants it back but Poppy is desperate to hang on to it because she’s also lost her engagement ring and can only get news about it through the phone. As you can probably guess, the story sometimes surpassed the bounds of believability, but it was a fun adventure throughout. Overall, I thought it was a pretty standard romantic comedy and would make an excellent movie because someone funny is always happening. However… Poppy, while really witty and a ton of fun can also be an interfering, cowardly, stupid woman. There were times I loved her for her good points, but other times I found her so frustrating I almost hoped things didn’t work out! Overall, quite average. I thought the narration was very well done, especially the emotion with with the narrator told the story. Also, bonus points for singing. I did, however, sometimes find the whiny edge to her voice almost as annoying as Poppy.

Soundbites About The Eyre Affair

Title: The Eyre Affair
Author: Jasper Fford
Narrators: Gabrielle Kruger
Rating (Story): ★★★★☆
Rating (Narration):★★★★★

Since I already reviewed the book version of The Eyre Affair, I won’t say too much about the story here. All of the strange things that happen in this book, the things that make it remind me of Douglas Adams, were initially a little harder to follow as an audiobook. That got better as I went, but I still might recommend the written version over the audio. The narrator was very good, however, doing both female and male voices convincingly and with emotion. For that reason, I would certainly recommend re-reading as an audiobook. In fact, I think I enjoyed the story even more than the first time, once I got into it. I wasn’t quite as focused on how novel the world was and was able to enjoy this more as an adventure/mystery. Now I can’t wait to read the rest of the series!

Monday Musings on Bookish Obsessions

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

As book bloggers, we overanalyze a lot of things compared to the non-book-blogger or the non-reader. We think long and hard about what books to read, what books to buy, and how to judge them fairly. We debate about bookmarks vs dog-earing pages and the benefits of the kindle – from on vacation to in a proposed “bookless library”. We discuss prolifically bookish news, from J.K. Rowling’s unexpected new book to the kindle price-setting scandal. Lately, my topic to over-think has been my choice of audiobooks…

Soundbites: Digital Fortress

Title: Digital Fortress
Author: Dan Brown
Narrator: Paul Michael
Rating (Story): ★★☆☆☆
Rating (Narration):★★★★☆

As a fast paced spy thriller that won’t require much thinking, Digital Fortress will feel familiar to any one who has read Dan Brown’s other books.  When I read it several years ago I enjoyed it as a bit of junk food for my brain. However, as an audiobook I found its little foibles far more annoying.

Soundbites: The Cat Who Could Read Backwards

Title: The Cat Who Could Read Backwards
Author: Lilian Jackson Braun
Narrator: George Guidall
Rating (Story): ★★☆☆☆
Rating (Narration):★★★★☆

Although I started listening to the Cat Who series with The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern, The Cat Who Could Read Backwards is actually the first in this series of cozy mysteries. The narration was just as good as in the other book. Sadly, I couldn’t say the same for the story itself.