“The Weird Sisters” and “You Know When the Men Are Gone” Audio Giveaway

Feb 072011

If you read my January wrap-up, you would know that I chose not one, but two books this month as my ‘pick(s) of the month,’ a remarkable thing indeed.

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You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon
The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

Both of these books were published by Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam, one of my very favorite imprints, and they were the sort of book that I need to read again – enough so that I am planning to buy them both in hardcover, as well as listen to them in audio. Actually, I’ve already listened to You Know When the Men Are Gone, and it was fabulous. The narrator, Cassandra Campbell, made everything even more poignant. I haven’t listened to The Weird Sisters yet, but it is going to be one of my next few audiobooks, and the author, Eleanor Brown, had nothing but good things to say about the audio adaptation.

I am happy to announce that, thanks to the generosity of Eleanor Brown (website | facebook | twitter) and Tantor Audio (website | facebook | twitter), I have a copy of each of these books to give away in audio. The copies were provided to me for giveaway, but I will actually be sending them, so let’s go ahead and open this up worldwide!

You can enter for both The Weird Sisters (nine audio cds) and You Know When the Men Are Gone (one mp3 cd), or just one or the other. The same person could conceivably win both, but I will be choosing winners separately. Enter by filling out the Google form below by 11:59 PM Central time on Sunday, February 13th. Winner(s) will be notified by email.

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Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear (audio) – Saturday Story Spotlight

Dec 042010

Welcome to Saturday Story Spotlight, my new feature where I discuss books my husband and I are reading with our son, Daniel. These are books that he, we, or all of us particularly enjoy, since we are definitely reading more than one book a week!

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin Jr., illustrated by Eric Carle, narrated by Gwyneth Paltrow in English and Adriana Sananes in Spanish
Published by Macmillan Young Listeners, an imprint of Macmillan

“Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?” companion or sequel to “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” Like “Brown Bear,” it has predictive text with each animal hearing another, which then hears another. In some ways, I actually prefer this one, because of the rich descriptions of animal noises (the boa constrictor ‘hissing,’ the elephant ‘trumpeting’). Plus, we’re huge Eric Carle fans around here, so anything he has written or illustrated is a big hit.

I will say, that even with my confidence in all things Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle, I was a bit hesitant to try the audio book with Daniel. For one thing, I was totally unsure how Gwyneth Paltrow would do as a narrator. What I didn’t take into account was that she is a mom who clearly has lots of experience reading to her own young children, because she read with spot-on ‘mom reading to toddler’ enthusiasm, fun voices and all. Because of this, Daniel definitely enjoyed the experience of listening to the audiobook while sitting in my lap and having me turn the pages. It isn’t an option I would use frequently at this age, but I can see doing it when I have a sore throat or otherwise don’t feel well.

One nice thing, though, is that there are three different options on the audiobook, depending on what age and level reader you have. The first track is simply the book being read without any interruptions, which works well for reading the book with a parents or potentially for an older child who can read along or determine when to turn the page through animal cues. The second track would be wonderful for an emergent reader or even a pre-reader, as there is a chime to indicate when the page should be turned. I can even see Daniel being able to turn the page at each chime on his own in a few months. The third track is in Spanish for bilingual families, or, I suppose, simply if you wanted to expose your child to another language.

I really appreciate that we can pick up just the book itself, or add the cd if need be. Although I don’t think we need any more audiobooks for Daniel for the stage he is in, I can definitely see him growing into this format on his own as an older toddler or preschooler.

Buy this book from:
Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.*
Amazon.*

Source: Personal copy
* 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.

Kraken by China Mieville – Audiobook Review

Sep 232010

5016532196 b355a55a66 m picture Kraken by China Mieville, narrated by John Lee
Published in audio by Random House Audio
Published in print by Del Ray, and imprint of Random House

Synopsis:

As Billy prepares to take another group on a tour through The Darwin Center, where he is a curator, he expects nothing but an ordinary day at work. Billy’s day is going to be anything but ordinary, however. When his tour reaches the room where the Center keeps its giant squid, the kraken, the beast has mysteriously disappeared from the glass tank in which it is kept. All of this would be odd enough, but the disappearance is being investigated by a special arm of the police, the cult (and, essentially, magic) squad who suspect that the Krakenist religion – The Church of God Kraken – may be behind the whole thing. Before too long, Billy actually finds himself evading the police and working with a renegade member of The Church of God Kraken in a desperate attempt to locate the squid before this left causes the end of the world.

Thoughts on the story:

Just as in “The City & The City,” in “Kraken” Mieville takes me on a journey that I never expected. “Kraken” is a remarkably inventive story. I went into it completely blind, knowing nothing but that I had loved “The City & The City” so I was not expecting the whole religion/cult/apocalypse angle and I absolutely adored it. I did think that the story lost a bit of steam in the middle. It is over 16 hours in audio or 500 pages in print, so perhaps it could have used a slightly stronger editor, someone to keep the plot moving a little more in the middle. Regardless, the entire thing was so novel – even after 10+ hours – that the pacing problems did not particularly bother me.

Thoughts on the audio production:

John Lee is a fantastic narrator and did a great job with this challenging title. You can see my entire review of the audio production at AudioFile Magazine.

Overall
If you are only going to read one Mieville book, I do think I would still recommend “The City & The City” over Kraken, largely because I think it had better pacing, but this is a fabulous story that works will in audio and seems that it would be equally fabulous in print.

Buy this book from:
Audible
Powells: Print*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound: Print*
Amazon: Print*

This review was done with an audiobook received from AudioFile Magazine for review .
* 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.