The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh – Audiobook Review

Oct 282011

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, narrated by Tara Sands
Published in audio by Random House Audio, published in print by Ballantine Books

Synopsis:

Abandoned at birth, Victoria Jones has been a ward of the State of California her entire life. She has, of necessity, learned to be hard and guarded, expressing her feelings – typically of hate and misanthropy – through the Victorian language of flowers, taught to her by Elizabeth, the one women who was nearer than anyone else to being her mother. Now that she has aged out of her last group home, Victoria must learn to live life on her own. She finds she can make a living arranging flowers; her bouquets are imbued with meaning as she chooses flowers based on the hopes each customer has for the effect of the arrangement. Just when she thinks she is gaining stability, however, she is forced to both let down her guard, and remember in excruciating detail what went wrong in her life with Elizabeth.

Thoughts on the story:

Vanessa Diffenbaum has created in The Language of Flowers a beautiful and moving story that nearly gave me a heart attack more than once. Victoria is a worrying character, initially, seeming very hard and closed off, but it is not long before the reader is sucked into her life, experiencing her 18 years of pain, and the slim hope that she has for the future. Her growth is really, it happens organically and, although it experiences setbacks, it produces beautiful results. The language of flowers is woven perfectly into the story, enhancing both plot and character development, and giving the book an extra something special to really set it apart.

Thoughts on the audio production:

Narrator Tara Sands was perfect for this part. For one thing, she sounded age appropriate for Victoria, which is always something that worries me in audiobooks with young protagonists. More importantly, however, she was able to capture the contradictions in Victoria’s character, the fragility under her crusty veneer. For more information on the audio, please see my review for Audiofile Magazine.

soundbytes picture Overall:

This was a beautiful book and an lovely audio production. Enjoy it in print or in audio! Highly recommended

Buy this book from:
Powells: Audio/Print*
Indiebound: Audio/Print*

I’m launching a brand-new meme every Friday! I encourage you to review any audiobooks you review on Fridays and include the link here. If you have reviewed an audiobook earlier in the week, please feel free to link that review as well. Thanks to Pam for creating the button.

Source: Audiofile.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline – Audiobook Review

Sep 302011

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, narrated by Wil Wheaton
Published in audio by Random House Audio, published in print by Crown, both imprints of Random House

Synopsis:

In 2044 people are going hungry and electricity is unreliable at best. To serve as a distraction from the constant misery, most people barely even live in the real world any more anyway. Instead, they are plugged almost constantly into the virtual reality called the OASIS. For Wade Watts, the OASIS is basically the only thing he has going. In the real world he is an orphan living with his mildly abusive aunt who steals all his food vouchers. After the death of the OASIS’s creator James Halliday, Wade finally seems a glimpse of hope for his future in the Easter Egg Halliday left for whichever game can solve his puzzles. Somehow, Wade is the first among the millions of Gunters (Egg Hunters) to solve the first riddle and locate the first key, but he can’t rest on his laurels, because the Sixers are right behind him. The Sixers will stop at nothing to find the Egg, and if they do the idyll of the OASIS will be lost forever.

Thoughts on the story:

If you lived through the 80s, were born in the 80s, or have ever watched VH1′s I Love the 80s you are probably going to want to read this book. It is a bit heavy on video games, but the cultural references are accessible to anyone who has ever seen a John Hughes movie, and explained well enough that readers will get the gist of anything they weren’t already aware of, without being annoyed by excessive exposition on things they are well aware of.

Cultural references are all well and good, but what is really important to know about Ready Player One is that it is a really good story. Wade is a wonderful protagonist, extremely kind-hearted, but also flawed and driven. His surrounding cast of characters is diverse and easy to relate to, but epic quest on which they find themselves is the real star of the book. Halliday’s Easter Egg quest is fun, suspenseful, and just complicated enough to really capture the imagination.

Thoughts on the audio production:

Wil Wheaton did a magnificent job narrating Ready Player One. Really just phenomenal. His young American characters didn’t have a huge differentiation in voice, but it was never a problem to tell who was speaking, and he did include accents for some other characters. The best part about Wheaton’s narration was his unending enthusiasm, which made an already fun book an absolutely joy to listen to.

soundbytes picture Overall:

Ready Player One is really great, and I’m sure it would be marvelous in print, but Wil Wheaton’s narration lends it that extra oomph, so get ahold of it in audio if you can!

Buy this book from:
Powells: Audio/Print*
Indiebound: Audio/Print*

Source: Publisher.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

The City & The City by China Mieville – Audiobook Review

Aug 182010

The City & the City by China Mieville, narrated by John Lee
Published in audio by Random House Audio
Published in print by Del Ray, an imprint of Random House

Synopsis:

When a young woman is found murdered in Beszel, a city-state somewhere in Eastern Europe, detective Inspector Tyador Borlu finds himself pulled into a mystery with sticky inter-and trans-national implications, forcing him into the ‘neighboring’ city-state of Ul Qoma, in order to solve the crime before he becomes the next victim.

Thoughts on the story:

I absolutely adore the world that Mieville created in “The City & The City.” An outside observer would say that Ul Qoma and Beszel were one and the same city, but the residents and governments of the two city-states would soundly disagree. Since the two were meant to be different countries, although they were geographically intertwined, residents of one city could not interact with – or even admit to seeing – residents, buildings, vehicles, etc. of the other city without first crossing the border and visiting the other city. This made for a fascinating aspect of the story with all of the un-seeing that everyone was forced to do, and allowed the addition of various radical groups vying either for unification or more complete separation of the two entities. The disparities between the two cities was also very interesting, with Ul Qoma booming and Beszel flailing, but attempting to lure in new investment. It was, of course, the murder investigation that drove the story, but, although it was well done, I just wanted the chance to live in and explore this world.

Thoughts on the audio production:

John Lee has earned himself a place on my ‘narrators to follow’ mental list with his narration of “The City & The City”. As confusing a plot as Mieville put together, the audio could have easily been a disaster, but Lee narrated confidently and clearly, treating the oddities of Beszel and Ul Qoma as common place. Additionally, I am forever indebted to him for an idea how how to pronounce the names of people and places in “The City & The City.” If I had attempted the print version, I think that I would have spent an inordinate amount of time attempting pronunciations in my head.

Overall:

I love, love, loved the story, and loved the audio. Highly recommended.

Buy this book from:
Audible: Audio (download)
Books on Tape: Audio (cds)
Powells: Print*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound: Print*
Amazon: Print*

This review was done with a book borrowed from the library.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.