Audio Dystopia

Until recently, dystopian fiction has never appealed to me, and I think I first decided to give something a try when my cousin told me to read The Hunger Games; she was sure I’d like it. I wasn’t quite so sure, so rather than spend precious reading time on a book I wasn’t sure about, I decided I’d listen to it while doing housework. My cousin was right, I did enjoy the story, and I think I had this astonishing fact in mind when I discovered Oryx and Crake in the Overdrive catalogue of audiobooks.

I had never given the book or the MaddAddam series a chance. To me dystopian fiction seemed full of harsh landscapes, harsh realities, and unrelatable characters. As an escapist reader, I could think of other destinations. I was happily surprised to find that I really did engage with the story, at least enough that I wanted to listen while puttering away at home. At first I needed to know Snowman’s story. Where did Snowman come from, and why that name? There was also something else that kept me listening; something about this ugly world unfolding with each word, and wanting to know who Snowman is mourning, and why he’s so filthy.

By the end of the first book, I needed badly to know what the outcome of this doom might look like, so I immediately downloaded the second book, The Year of the Flood. This story begins in a different time and place with different characters than we met in the first book so my need wasn’t actually satisfied until the final book, MaddAddam. Yet, listen I did. The characters gained vibrancy and personality throughout the books, many becoming quite relatable, and the stories and point of view more humorous.

Enjoying audiobooks as I do, I felt quite excited by having multiple narrators helping to develop the story. Each one was distinct enough that it was easy to tell who was speaking or whose point of view was being represented. Of all the narrators, I only disliked one. In the process of writing up this blog post I realized it happened to (ahem) be Margaret Atwood herself, reading the character of Toby. Interestingly, Toby is one of my favourite characters, but I had a bit of a hard time getting past the tone of her voice reading Toby as though she were uninterested in the world, what was happening, her part in all of it, or life in general; all of which are opposite to my impressions of her character, and reasons why I liked her.

Paying attention to the world around myself, it’s not too far of a stretch to imagine some catastrophe that just may change the shape of my daily life, my priorities, and all the structures I’ve built in life. Deciding to run along with this idea for a while, I next listened to Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven. Read by the prolific Kirsten Potter, the story was at once terrifying and enchanting. Hearing the stories of the characters and how they survived the collapse was nearly inspiring, and the travelling Shakespearean troupe added an endearing familiarity and quaintness.

Both authors set their books, at least in part, in Ontario, my home province, which added to the appeal. All the books include strong characters facing adversity, and the task of carving out an entirely new way of being in the world through the strength of friendship, community and chance.

The Audio Alternative

Unlike many of my colleagues and friends, I am sadly unable to read on the bus. A couple years ago I was faced with a long work commute (1h20 each way!) so I decided it was time to give the library’s audiobook collection a try. To my delight, I discovered a new world of voices which brought the stories to life in a different way from how I would read the story myself, yet unlike television or movies, allowed my imagination to visualize the stories as it would.

One of the first books I listened to was The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan. I had read The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and was discovering him as an author of a wider range of works, not all about food. I admired and was inspired by his writing, and when I discovered that Overdrive had an audio version of another of his works I knew I needed to give it a try. In this book, Pollan uses the example of four familiar domesticated plants, and illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind’s most basic yearnings. And just as we’ve benefited from these plants, the plants have also benefited at least as much from their association with us”. The story is delivered by Scott Brick’s very easy to listen to voice. After a long winter’s work day and the long bus ride home, I may have dozed off a time or two while listening (thank you to the friendly regular bus driver who knew my stop and shouted to wake me!) but only because his voice was soothing and the subject matter almost surprisingly enchanting. I would look inside my mind and see myself in a potato field, or sailing up the Delaware with Johnny Appleseed, noticing the wonder he was describing in poetic detail, then realized I was transported to that place where dreams and imagination intersect.

An artist friend of mine, who listens to audiobooks while she paints, told me about The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. According to the publisher, Brooks tells a tale of the “analysis and conservation of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, which has been rescued […] during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images.” It is a tragically beautiful work made all the better by Edwina Wren, the voice artist who narrated the audio version. With her voice and her talent for accent and inflection, she was able to clearly convey which character she was speaking for, which country the character was visiting, and which era was being represented. I believe I absorbed more value from this story because of the talent of the person who read it to me than I might have reading it myself. Another appeal was the fleshing out of the life of the book itself as told through the tiny bits of evidence collected within its pages which were discovered in the restoration process.

When my circumstances changed and I no longer had such a long commute, I came to realize I was missing the world of audiobooks. I began to download them and listen to them while I was alone in the kitchen cooking or doing dishes, which added a little magic to mundane tasks. I found I would finish the dishes and start looking around for more things to do so I could stay in the kitchen and listen longer … I would clean out the fridge and then wash the floor just so I could listen to my story!

The last book that hooked me was Circling the Sun by Paula McLain, and read by Katharine McEwan. An historical fiction rendition of Beryl Markham’s life, born in England, raised by her father in Kenya, and whose personal story, I learned, intersects with the novel Out of Africa and its characters. We learn of Beryl from her early years learning the ways of the Kipsigi tribe, to becoming the first woman certified to train Derby horses when she was just 18, to becoming a pioneering aviatrix. In addition to the intriguing threads of the narrative itself, I was drawn into the story because I was sure I could feel the African sun radiating from the actress Katharine’s voice, and could almost feel what it might be like to have a lion watching me from a grassy ridge. And my kitchen floor just might be a little shiner as a result!

Listen to Your Stomach -- Downloadable Audiobooks for Food Nerds

Food is big business these days: celebrity chefs, foodie travel, restaurant insider exposés: the media world can't seem to get (and give) enough. From travel TV to the bestseller list, the last number of years of have been the story of food. I have to admit having caught the bug and have found myself digging more and more into books about food. Recently I've noted how much I enjoy listening to a good book about food (or a book about good food) and thought I'd share a few food related titles that are available via the library's download service Overdrive. Many of these are not new, showing that this is trend that's been with us for a while.

(Each of these books is available as a downloadable audiobook, but most are available in other formats as well. The first link is direct to the audio download, the 2nd to the library catalogue where you can view other formats including print, ebook, and in some cases CD).


Ferran: The Inside Story of El Bulli and the Man Who Reinvented Food by Colman Andrews (print edition): A look at the career of the world famous chef who is credited with the rise of "molecular gastronomy".




In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan (other formats). Pollan's website describes him as a writer who focuses on the "places where nature and culture intersect" and he has written extensively on food topics. Here he merges culture and health in a book that is a sort of follow up to his wildly popular The Omnivore's Dilemma. (Of note as well, the audiobook is read by award winning audiobook narrator Scott Brick.)

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain (other formats). Everything you ever wanted to know (and much that you didn't) from behind the scenes at busy restaurant kitchens. Sarcastic, irreverent and endlessly entertaining: it's a great introduction to Bourdain's style and experiences.  If you've already read it, you might want to also check out the follow up Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook. (other formats) Both audiobooks are read by the author.


My Life in France by Julia Child (other formats). Does our current food obsession all come back to Julia Child? Maybe, but certainly our current food obsession has taken many people back to Julia Child. Beginning in the late 1940s, this is the story of how she discovered French culinary traditions and shared these discoveries with North America.


Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss (other formats) Though many of these books appeal to what might be called a foodie sensibility, Moss' book is an exposé of the processed food industry and what this industry is doing to eaters.  Wonder why you can't eat just one potato chip? Moss has an answer to that and much more.


Yes, Chef: A Memoir by Marcus Samuelsson (other formats) From orphan to celebrity chef, Samulsson's memoir takes you from Ethiopia, to Sweden to North America with a fascinating story of culture, cooking and achievement. The audio book is read by the author.

Never used the library's download service? Click here to find out more information.

Staff Picks - Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

I was thinking about this book again this week: thinking of putting it on my to-read-again list for over the summer. It’s a first novel from a couple of years ago that I absolutely loved when I originally read it and I’m dying to see if it holds up on second reading.

Here’s the story (from a review I wrote back shortly after I read it):

“It’s senior year and Blue Van Meer - bookish, witty and self-aware - finds herself settling into a single school to finish off her high school career. Having spent a rootless youth devoid of friendships (thanks to her father’s string of visiting professorships at colleges across America), Blue is surprised to find herself quickly adopted into an elite social circle of intellectuals and uber-cool misfits at the prestigious St. Gallway School. Led by Hannah Schneider, the sort of charismatic and unconventional teacher who is a student’s dream and a parent’s nightmare, Special Topics in Calamity Physics starts as a darkly humourous coming of age story, but as the plot shifts after two mysterious deaths, becomes much more. Part who-dunnit, part teen drama, part tour through the literary cannon, this first novel is smart, sardonic and suspenseful. The high school drama is spot on, the mystery and characters are compelling. It’s well worth checking out - maybe even twice.”

The library has copies of Special Topics in Calamity Physics in both print and audio format.

It was reported last year that Pessl is now working on a second novel, tentatively titled Night Film and to be published by Random House (but not until 2010). I for one will be keeping my eyes peeled.

In the meantime, if you find that Special Topics In Calamity Physics interests you, you may also want to check out The Secret History by Donna Tartt which has similar threads in terms of the academic elements, the mystery and the plot device of the teacher/student relationship (although without the dark-humour) or Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld which hits the right tone for a comparison; also featuring a young, intelligent female main who is enrolled at an exclusive school and makes shrewd commentaries on the social structure around her (although without a mystery).

vintage post 4/20/09

Audiobooks for road trips

For many summer equals road trip season and finding that perfect audiobook to please all your traveling companions can be a challenge. Personally, although I love an audiobooks, it is not my preferred format for mysteries as my mind wanders a bit while I'm listening and I miss important details. I prefer short stories or, even better, radio programs like Stuart McLean's The Vinyl Cafe. At least once a year I need to listen to Sam the Athlete on An Important Message from the Vinyl Cafe.

Another choice might be Wayne and Shuster: the radio years: the best of the best which includes the memorable Rinse the Blood of My Toga featuring that famous line, "I told him Julie, don't go" or the full cast productions of Agatha Christie mysteries.

A road trip with children might be a great time to enjoy together some children's books like Holes by Louis Sachar, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle or the Harry Potter books, or maybe a good time to introduce them to some classics like P.G. Wodehouse or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

Perhaps you have some favourite audiobook choices you would add to this list:


Life With Pi by Yann Martel

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

Minding Frankie by Maeve Binchy

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Listen Up! The Audie Winners for 2014

Looking for an audiobook for your summer road trip? Billy Crystal has won the Audie Award - Best Audiobook of the Year - For Still Foolin' 'Em. (downloadable)

The Audies recognize great audio books and spoken word entertainment. Crystal's book also was the winner in the Humor and in Narration by Author categories.




"Billy Crystal is 65, and he's not happy about it. With his trademark wit and heart, he outlines the absurdities and challenges that come with growing old, from insomnia to memory loss to leaving dinners with half your meal on your shirt.  Crystal's reflections are an unforgettable look at an extraordinary life well lived. Still Foolin' 'Em includes a portion recorded in front of a live studio audience." publisher

Still Foolin' 'Em was also nominated this year for a Grammy Award.

Other winners this year include:

Fiction

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

Literary fiction
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (downloadable)


Nonfiction
David and Goliath: underdogs, misfits and the art of battling giants by Malcolm Gladwell (downloadable)


Romance
The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks (downloadable)


Science Fiction
Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold

Thriller

The Hit by David Baldacci (downloadable)

Calling All Readers - Readers in Residence on CKDU radio

PSRS Presents: Readers in Residence.

I recently became aware of this neat reading initiative hosted on CKDU, the campus radio station at Dalhousie University (88.1 on your FM dial and online).

Readers in Residence is a PSRS Presents: project airing on CKDU each Monday at 2:30 pm. It is an audience generated radio program that anyone can be a part of.

Want to be a Reader in Residence?

It's simple - Pick something to read (your favorite book, a recipe, your own writings, articles from the internet, literally anything)

Call 902-494-8041.

Read your piece. (try to keep each reading to about 5 minutes, if you want to do a large work, just split it up over a few recordings) If you need more time just call back and we will splice the recording together.

Leave your name. Make sure you mention that you are reading for the Readers in Residence program. Avoid swearing. Please use a landline or failing that, try to be in an area of good cell reception.

Stay in touch with the Facebook page for updates and to interact with other readers! This is open to anyone who wants to be part of it.

The phone line you are calling is a virtual line so it will never ring anywhere or bother anyone. Call anytime of day, any day of the week.

Call 902-494-8041. You can also email your submission.

follow on twitter @readersnres
email - readersnresidence@gmail.com

A Whale of a Listen - The Moby Dick Big Read

I have tried twice in the past to read Moby Dick.  Each time I have failed to get much past a hundred pages. But I do want to check this classic off my list.  Maybe I should try an audiobook version?

I guess this is the idea behind the Moby Dick Big Read project, which is providing free audiobook access to the acclaimed novel by Herman Melville. They are releasing a chapter per day. I am a little late telling you about this, as they are already on chapter 52.

"Moby-Dick is the great American novel. But it is also the great unread American novel. Sprawling, magnificent, deliriously digressive, it stands over and above all other works of fiction, since it is barely a work of fiction itself. Rather, it is an explosive exposition of one man’s investigation into the world of the whale, and the way humans have related to it. Yet it is so much more than that. It is a representation of evil incarnate in an animal – and the utter perfidy of that notion. Of a nature transgressed and transgressive – and of one man’s demonic pursuit, a metaphorical crusade that even now is a shorthand for overweening ambition and delusion." Moby Dick Big Read

Also checkout the MDBR project on their Facebook page

Listen Up! I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe

I Am Charlotte Simmons (M) by Tom Wolfe is set in what seems to me to be an absolutely terrifying American college. Dupont College has a long history of educating the connected and the well-to-do, ensuring a high-paid future in investment banking or politics. Dupont also educates a group of elite athletes, the basketball players being at the top of the bunch. Next in the social strata are the frat boys and sorority girls who are entitled, well-heeled and view college years as a extended opportunity to drink and to hook-up. Next we meet the uber-intellectuals, who both scorn and fear the athletes and frat-boys, and who compensate with their own exclusive conclaves and moral judgements. Finally, we have Charlotte Simmons.

Charlotte Simmons is an anomaly who fits in nowhere. She is a brilliant sheltered girl who enters Dupont on an academic scholarship fully anticipating her college years to be focused on learning and scholarship. She quickly finds that she is isolated and lonely. What she doesn't anticipate is the effect she will have on so many lives.

Whether it's frat boy Hoyt who blackmails his way to success and callously robs her of her innocence; or Adam, the intellectual, who is her friend when she is in desperate need and is spurned by her when the tables are turned; or star athlete JoJo Johanssen, who is inspired by Charlotte to achieve academic success. Perhaps the greatest change comes from within Charlotte herself. Charlotte learns that she is not a special as she once believed. She finds she has the same ambition and desire to belong as the rest of her classmates.
I Am Charlotte Simmons is a scathing satirical look at a group of young people coming of age on a privileged college campus in a rather disturbing take on the generation of elite students poised to assume key positions in society. I found the story a bit uneven. The story seemed to focus initially on race relations amongst athletes on campus, but this thread seemed to get lost. The Hoyt blackmail story was at first very important but quickly disappeared only to be picked up much later in this very long book. Still, Wolfe has created a large cast of engaging and memorable characters. Memorable, but not very nice. In this unabridged audio version the reader Dylan Baker gives a spirited performance switching seamlessly amongst a large cast of characters in this largely dialogue-driven book. The language is very strong both in its description of sex scenes and rap lyrics. You'll want headphones for this one!

Other stories of college life include The Art of Fielding (M) by Chad Harbach, My Latest Grievance (M) by Elinor Lipman and I'll Take You There (M) by Joyce Carol Oates.