My latest audiobook is Look Again, by Lisa Scottoline. Scottoline is an author that has been on my radar for a while now, what I’ve seen from her is a lot like a female (early) James Patterson: interesting plots, believable characters, and a good mix of thriller and novel. So far I have read or listened to three of her books, and Look Again has by far been my favorite.
Look Again, similar to The Face on the Milk Carton, but from the mother’s point of view, begins with Ellen Gleeson, single mother of an adopted son, Will, seeing an image identical to Will on a “Have You Seen This Child” card. She is understandably disconcerted by this, and the book follows her investigation of the missing child and anguish over whether or not Will is hers.
In my opinion, you can tell you’re enjoying a book by one of two things happening: 1) you catch yourself thinking about the characters or events of the book when you’re not reading about it, or 2) you get increasingly invested in the story, fired up with unpleasant or frustrating events, excited or gleeful with good ones, essentially feeling as if you are living through the events of the book with the characters. A notable example of this happening to me is during the events of the fifth Harry Potter book with Professor Umbrage. It happened again in this one. Near the end I was so invested in Ellen and Will’s plight that I was actively angry, stressed, and delighted listening to the book.
This was a good one. I’m officially intrigued by Lisa Scottoline and will definitely be reading more of her books. Undeniable 4.
What can I say about The Accidental Billionaires that hasn’t already been said about the movie made based off of it, The Social Network? I decided to check out this book in audiobook form, mostly BECAUSE I liked The Social Network so much, so let’s be honest, there was really no way I wasn’t going to like this one.
In case you haven’t heard all of the buzz in the past year or two, this (and the movie) is the story of the creation of Facebook. Everyone involved in the tech world would probably recognize the name of Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, but this book tells the stories of Eduardo Saverin, his friend and partner at the beginning, and the Winklevoss twins, who claim he stole the idea from them.
I’m not sure how much of this book is true, but I have to admit that it was a captivating story. This is another non-fiction book written very well, and something outside of my usual reading (and listening) material.
I have to admit that I liked the movie more though. Eduardo was a significantly more sympathetic main character, possibly even a protagonist, in the movie, and in the book he came off as sort of a tool. This is ironic, because the way it sounds, I think he was more involved in the writing of the book.
Regardless, this is an entertaining read/listen. Another good 3.
As previously mentioned, Unbroken is an audiobook that I would consider out of the ordinary from ones I normally listen to. Smart, interesting, and unbelievably inspiring, Unbroken is the true story of the life of Louie Zamperini: Olympian, World War II airman, and POW. I had been on the hold list at the library waiting for Unbroken for months when I noticed it available to download from the library site I use for my audiobooks. Naturally, I checked it out as fast as I could.
I’m not sure how much of this book I should summarize, it seems like me going in with middle of the road expectations worked out well. All I knew going in was that it was a biography about a World War II veteran. In general I usually read fiction, and don’t stray away from that very often, only making exceptions for books getting a ton of buzz (like this one), or funny memoirs. I am so happy that this book got the attention that it got so I could break my string of crappy fiction, even if it was in audio book form.
I honestly can’t believe that all the events of this book happened to one man. It is truly astounding. Hearing about the things that Louie has done (and survived) was so intense and moving that I think the best thing to do to review it is simply to tell you that you HAVE to read this.
Long story short, I am so impressed with this biography that I am considering buying it in order to actually sit down and read, not just listen to. This was one of the few audiobooks that I was genuinely hooked on, listening to while I cooked, cleaned, even while I was just hanging around. In addition, I want to read more of the author’s work, which was so captivating that I forgot how boring I usually find nonfiction. I am really awed by both Louie’s life and the way it is conveyed.
5- you have to read this one. Have to.
In an effort to create more blog posts since apparently I read more slowly than I thought when I go through a string of books I consider only ok (which has happened lately), I decided that from now on I’m going to include shorter posts about audiobooks that I’ve listened to as well. My selections of audio books aren’t going to be anything unbelievably high caliber. Don't judge. In fact, off the top of my head, I can only think of one (Unbroken, which will get a longer post devoted to it soon!) that could be considered as such. Essentially when I get a hold of an audio book, I want to stay entertained, but not think a whole lot. Also, I tend to want to save books that I REALLY want to read for actual reading, not distracted listening while driving or whenever.
Which is how I ended up listening to Sh*t my Dad Says... Laugh away. It was a cute little book though, a bunch of anecdotes about the author’s dad, entwined into a book of short stories, and interspersed with lines from the titular Twitter Feed. It’s certainly not going to win any Pulitzer Prizes, but I enjoyed it. I even laughed a few times. Granted, I don’t follow the Twitter account, so I don’t know how much overlap there might be, but the lines quoted in the book were funny enough for me to want to look into it.
If you’re looking for mindless entertainment, this is it. It’s short, sweet, and funny enough.
3- I think a lot of audiobooks will end up with this designation. Anything less and I won’t finish it, anything more and I would say there’s a decent possibility I’ll give up the audio part and get a hold of the actual book!
**Note: I went to the twitter page, to find an example of what you might find in reading this book, and my favorite current tweet is the following:
"WENT through an awkward phase? What phase you think you're in now? Ever seen yourself walk up stairs? It's like a T-rex that shit himself."
It’s pretty funny, right? That’s basically what you’re going to end up with.
