Assassination Vacation (audio book)
written by Sarah Vowell, and narrated by her, too
2005
somewhere around 5 hours, and it was abridged, unfortunately

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FTC: Purchased through my Audible account, which I have since closed.

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My interest in audiobooks is starting to wane. I used to listen to about one a month, which isn’t much. But compared to 2 years ago when I didn’t listen to them at all, that was a lot. However, I don’t retain crap when I listen. Of course, I’m not much better when it comes to reading the actual book, but at least I have the book nearby to refer back to. With the audio, there is no dog-earing (I know, I know…blasphemy!) and no noting of anything, since the only time I listen to them is in the car.

All this to say I listened to Sarah Vowell read Assassination Vacation earlier this month. It made me laugh. I enjoyed it. Her voice is quirky and takes some getting used to, but after awhile I decided it was perfect for her book. Which had something to do with the presidential assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield and someone else (and for god’s sake I was a history major, I should know this! Oh yes, it was McKinley. Thanks, Google.). Vowell hunts down little known historical places that have some slight connection to either the assassins or the assassinations. Really, it was interesting.

Too bad I can’t remember more.

A Christmas Carol (audio book)
Charles Dickens, narrated by Tim Curry
3 hours, 33 minutes

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For the FTC: I did get this for free. But Audible gave all their members the chance to download it, so don’t go thinking I’m special.

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Publisher’s Summary
A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens’ timeless tale, has never been out of print since its original publication in 1849 and has been adapted for stage, television, film, and opera. It has often been credited with returning the jovial and festive atmosphere to the holiday season in Britain and North America, following a period of sobriety and somberness that emerged during the Industrial Revolution.

The story opens on a bleak and cold Christmas Eve as Ebenezer Scrooge is closing up his office for the day. That evening, he is visited by the ghost of his old business partner, Jacob Marley, who warns of a terrible fate for the miserly Scrooge if he does not change his ways.

As the story progresses and Christmas morning approaches, Scrooge encounters the unforgettable characters that make this story a classic: Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim, and of course the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come.

This audio version is masterfully narrated by Tim Curry.

I’m surprised that they say this has “been credited with returning the jovial and festive atmosphere to the holiday season,” because while the end is festive, the rest can be a little creepy! Especially with Tim Curry as the narrator. He’s perfect for Scrooge, but his women’s voices are a little weird (but still fun!). Regardless, I enjoyed listening to the story, especially as I’ve never read it (I know, it’s practically blasphemy).

From Publishers Weekly:

This compelling and charmingly personal companion to an eight-part television documentary makes for an idiosyncratic rival to PBS’s bestselling blockbuster The Story of English, by Robert McCrum et al. Titling a history of the evolution and expansion of a language an “adventure” presupposes a hero, with such obvious choices as Alfred the Great, for defeating the Danes; Chaucer, for his Canterbury Tales; Shakespeare, for his poetic inventiveness; or Samuel Johnson, for his groundbreaking dictionary. Bragg, a British TV and radio personality and novelist (The Soldier’s Return), gives all their contributions their due, but English itself, with its “deep obstinacy” and “astonishing flexibility,” emerges as his favorite character. Bragg’s enthusiasm for his subject-hero, whether the Old English of Beowulfor the new “Text English” of the Internet, makes up for his shortcomings as a linguist: his sources, unfootnoted, are at times at variance with the OED or Webster’s Third. For instance, Bragg furnishes only one putative origin for the disputed “real McCoy.” Moreover “candy” does not seem to have Anglo-Indian origins (it’s from the Arabic “qandi”), and the first recorded use of “vast” is not from Shakespeare (the OED cites Archbishop Edwin Sandys). Nevertheless, this “biography” succeeds in its broad, sweeping narrative, carrying the reader from the origins of Anglo-Saxon through the Viking and Norman invasions to the consolidation of “British” English and outward to America, Australia, India, the West Indies and beyond. After some 1,500 years, with one billion speakers now worldwide, according to Bragg, the English language has displayed an amazing ability to repair and reinvent itself, as Bragg ably shows.

I always have a hard time writing up my thoughts on audio books, mainly because I forget all the details, and I have no text to look back through.

So pretty much all I have to say is I particularly enjoyed the first half of this audio book, when Bragg focuses on the evolution of the language, from its beginnings and early influences, to its struggle to survive the Viking and Norman invasions. The later part of the book, with its focus on the spread of English to England’s colonies and throughout the world, while still interesting, seemed less focused and more rambling.

I’m actually wishing I had read this one, as there was so much information and interesting little details. I’m having a heck of a time remembering what was discussed.

The Middle Place (audio book)

Kelly Corrigan

narrated by Tavia Gilbert

book published January 2008

7 hours, 32 minutes

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This book is many things.  It’s a love story, it’s the story of Kelly Corrigan’s fight with cancer, it’s the story of her father’s fight with cancer, and it’s the story of being stuck in that place between childhood and true independence from your parents…the middle place.

Kelly’s father, George Corrigan, is by all accounts an incredible man.  Charismatic and jovial, he makes people feel special.  Kelly grew up the apple of her father’s eye.  When Kelly is diagnosed with cancer, she regresses and again craves the attention of her father.  When George is also diagnosed, Kelly is torn between the need to care for herself and her parents…and also, the need to be the cossetted child.

I struggled with this book.  For the first part, I found it to be an homage to the character of George Corrigan.  And I thought Kelly was handling her cancer with strength and a fighting spirit.  Yet, by the end, I found her to be a whiny, needy child.  She was rude and inconsiderate of her mother, she seemed to want without considering the needs of others.  And yes, she was on a regimen of doctors and chemo and radiation and drugs…but so was her father.

I know part of the reason why I struggled with this book was because of my own father.  He died of cancer 14 years ago, at the age of 53.  However, unlike George and Kelly, my father and I did not have a particularly close relationship.  We didn’t have a bad relationship, it’s just that my dad didn’t really inspire warm fuzzies.  More like sarcasm and smart-ass remarks.  And while cancer is never deserved, my dad’s cancer was a result of his over-indulgence in cigarettes and alcohol.  So at times it was hard to listen to stories of a seemingly perfect father.  Also, I’m much closer to my mother, compared to Kelly, who I found to be a total brat when it came to dealing with her mother.  There were times when I wanted to kick her in the ass.

Also, I didn’t find the writing to be be terribly sophisticated or polished.  I think it’s because I listened to the book that I began to tire of Kelly’s “voice.”  And I’m not talking about her real voice, as she wasn’t the narrator, but rather the casual style of the book.

I feel like I’m being overly harsh, but I think that’s because I had heard so many good things about this book that it ended up being a bit of a disappointment.  I do think it took a lot of guts for the author to write so honestly about her relationship with both her mother and her father, as well as her cancer.  I certainly don’t regret reading listening to this one, but I’m also not going to be doing back-flips over it.