A very exciting new project

Please check out the wonderful site for this new audiobook that will be published in time for Mandela's 91st birthday, featuring amazing performances by an international cast of actors and musicans.

The Alchemist!

So, I think this is the first time I'm writing in about an audiobook not our own, but I finished listening to The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho), and it was an absolutely amazing listen! The kind you miss your subway stop for! Jeremy Irons reads, and his voice is just gorgeous, and the book is inspirational in a lot of ways and plain good storytelling in a lot of other ways. Loved it, and would recommend it for anyone- and I think it's especially a good story for family car rides or for young people, so a great one to pick up for summer listening!

More on Drood...(MILD SPOILERS FOLLOW IN THIS POST)

I have just finished listening to Drood by Dan Simmons. Narrator Simon Prebble has made this a fantastic production. It was so good that I got the book. I am only a chapter in, but I suspect that one might be better off listening to Drood. Although it is abridged, Drood is so dark and disturbing that my nerves were probably better off. If it had been any longer than the 10.5 hours, I might have had to resort to a few glasses of laudanum just like Wilkie Collins. I could go on and on so I’ll just leave you with a few of discussion points:

1.Simon Prebble sounds just like Paddington Bear. I can’t figure out what is more disturbing: Dan’s ability to create such a tortured character as Wilkie, or the thought of Paddington Bear carrying out Wilkie’s malicious deeds?
2.I have had nightmares about the fate of poor-pitiful Agnes. Was anyone disturbed by this as much as me?
3.Charles Dickens is the heart of Drood and after finishing Drood I’m inspired to do some research on his life as well as reread some of his works. Are you?
4.I’m still confused about this Drood. Help Megan!
5.Wilkie is clearly out of his mind. What do you think is wrong with him? Too much time in the opium dens? Schizophrenia? Gout? Obsessive jealousy of his frenemy Charles Dickens? Droooooood?

DROOD

Amber and I both listened to Dan Simmons' DROOD this week. She'll be updating the blog soon with some thoughts on the nightmares it gave her, but I just wanted to check in, too, to praise both the gorgeous (and at times horrific) detail in the language and voyages into undertown that Simmons creates and the absolutely wonderful narration of Simon Prebble, who really made Wilkie Collins come alive for me. At times, they made me dislike poor Wilkie so much that I felt that he really deserved anything that was coming to him (and throughout the story, the listener is really kept guessing at the depths of what that would be)! The locales and characters were such great company that I am sorry to have to move on now that I've reached the final chapter, but I look forward to loading a new book onto my ipod!

A Sad Day at Hachette Audio

Surprise!

So, as it turns out, Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth won our Grammy. Don't get me wrong, I like Al Gore, but he's won enough prizes for that piece of work, and I selfishly would have loved to see the prize go to one of our writers. Our odds seemed pretty good with two out of the five nominees!

Both Sedaris and Colbert had wonderful entries, but I'm thinking now that the humor vote must have been very split, with Steve Martin competing in our category as well. Looking on the bright side, I'm thinking that at least continued publicity for An Inconvenient Truth might help the world, right? Right!

I didn't travel to LA for the Grammys this year, but it hardly mattered as far as keeping up with what was happening there. While in years previous, you might have to wait for a call from LA late at night, or read the results in the paper the next day, this year there was access granted to all, through technology and social media tools. I was on Twitter all afternoon following fellow Hachette Audioers in LA as well as TheGrammys official tweets, and was sad to get the bad news in real time, but really liked the immediacy of knowing what was going on at the award ceremony even though I was out with friends in Brooklyn. The Recording Academy also streamed the non-televised portion of the ceremony, which I'm not sure they've done before. What a wonderful idea! They might even find that certain awards that passed without mention in the media before getting picked up for stories now that there's more universal access.

For those of you who are still sad about our loss, as a consolation prize, here's a link to a segment (presciently) called “Who’s NOT Honoring Me Now” from an episode of last week's The Colbert Report (Grammy nominations featured from 2:34 on). I can't wait to tune in tonight and see if Stephen addresses the victory of his nemesis, GORE!

In happier news, I continue to listen to DROOD and am loving Simon Prebble's voice and accent.


Oh, and I almost forgot! Congratulations to our friends at Simon & Schuster Audio!

I Am America (And So Can You!) the Audiobook Remix!!!

Last night, our good friend Stephen Colbert dedicated a portion of his show to discuss the dangers of copyright infringement and highlight the usefulness of his Grammy-nominated audiobook.

Colbert reminds everyone that he does NOT want his public to remix his audiobook, particularly chapter 7, with jaw-droppin’ beats.

Here’s a link to the Remix segment and his incredible black-lit music video, which must be seen to be believed.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/216595/january-21-2009/stephen-s-remix-challenge


Enjoy!

Testimony

For my very first audiobook review post, I'm going to talk about Testimony by Anita Shreve. More firsts - this is the only Anita Shreve book I've ever read (or listened to) AND it was my first multi-cast performance audiobook.

I don't want to give too much away about the story, with the hope that you'll decide to listen to it to, but it centers around a shocking videotape that's discovered at a prestigious New England Boarding school. It is of a sexual nature and the people in the video are minors. The repercussions surrounding the surfacing of the tape affects the lives of many, not just those directly in the tape. 

Well, from the moment the story began, I was hooked. Since the story is broken down into short sections narrated by 14 different actors (some playing more than one part), it was easy to pay attention to. Having a different voice for every character really created a multi-layered performance that lent itself to elevating the dramatic tension of the story even more - but I never felt like the delivery was overly done. The perfect amount of tension was created. Since there are so many characters to keep track of, what’s great is that there’s a PDF included on CD #8 that contains a detailed character listing. (I never needed it, but it was nice to know it was there if I ever did.)

Of course, I can’t give away the ending, but it definitely did not disappoint. I can’t say from this one book that I’m an Anita Shreve fan, but I’d be willing to give her other books a try since I did enjoy this one so much. Hopefully, you will too!