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AudioSynced: Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

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One of my favorite reading genres is southern literature — I can take it in just about any form, as long as it has a healthy dose of the south. I’m amenable to trying different genres with the southern element, including titles like Beautiful Creatures, which I’d otherwise never pick up. When I first read about Saving CeeCee Honeycutt in a trade journal, it sounded like something right up my alley, even though I’m not a huge fan of so-called “domestic fiction” (is that not the most useless term?). The description immediately made me think of Sue Monk Kidd’s Secret Life of Bees, which I read years ago and liked well enough.

I decided to give this one a whirl on audiobook, hoping I’d get some nice southern vocals, and I was not disappointed.

CeeCee Honeycutt hasn’t had an easy childhood: her father is always gone away on business, and she is left at home with her mother in Willoughby, Ohio, who is herself losing her mind. CeeCee’s mother was once a pageant queen in Georgia, and over the course of the beginning of the story, she becomes more stuck in her past to the point she is wearing old prom dresses, garish makeup, and making a show of herself in the small town. On one of her regular trips to the Goodwill cut her mother’s life short, though, when she gets hit by a car, and now CeeCee is left to fend for herself.

Fortunately, an aunt of CeeCee from Savannah, Georgia, offers up her home and her love for young CeeCee. Aunt Tootie takes her in, moving her from Ohio to Savannah, where CeeCee gains not only a home, but a wealth of new motherly figures.

This book doesn’t have a whole lot of action, but it is a sweet story of growing up. I found CeeCee’s discovery of the power of southern women particularly interesting, and I thought that each of the women depicted in this story were well-drawn. Savannah can be tasted in the story. Hoffman’s story delves into many issues facing the south in the late 1960s, as well, including racial tension, politics, and the emerging power and importance of women. None of these topics were included to serve a point but instead, they enhanced the setting and period of the novel. This is a book about growing up and appreciating what’s around you when it’s easy to overlook the everyday. Book clubs will love this title — more on this in a second. This is marketed as an adult novel, but I can see teens enjoying this title as well, particularly those who are into lighter reads, Oprah-esque books, or even the Bronte sisters.

Jenna Lamia gives a wonderful fully-voiced reading of this title. CeeCee is a young main character, not quite in her teen years yet. Lamia is believable and her waivering voice for CeeCee is spot on, with just enough fear and confidence to render her a true-to-live pre-teen. Lamia’s ability to create a fully-voiced audiobook is impressive, given the range of accents and ages she needed to develop. The production quality of this audiobook is top notch, with no sound changes, volume changes, or obvious seams in the editing. This was a smooth listen that forced me to sit in my car once I got past my destination more than one time.

Does this title seem familiar to you? Perhaps it’s because it is very similar to that of the previously mentioned Secret Life of Bees. The books both have the same editor, who started at Penguin with SLoB, left for a year, and then was offered her own imprint by Penguin, Pamela Dorman books. Oh, and it’ll be the first pick of the Sam’s Club book club (perhaps they’re capitalizing off the incredible money-making book club Target has going)? Dorman has an eye for southern fiction, so expect more of this type in her line, which you can read about here.

So, after putting those pieces together, I dove into learning a bit about Jenna Lamia, the book’s reader. Guess what book she also read and won an audie for? If your answer was SLoB, then you’re good. Her repertoire is strong, and I definitely plan on seeking out other books she’s read for, as she was a pleasant companion for the last week.

If you’re looking for a strong audiobook to begin listening to, whether as a new listener or a seasoned one, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt will not disappoint. In fact, it might make you want to learn more about the author, the editor, the reader….which is always a bonus, isn’t it?

AudioSynced: The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner

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Every once in a while, you get lucky and everything — EVERYTHING — about an audiobook works. There’s the perfect narrator, the perfect story, and just the right amount of pacing, musical interlude, length, and breadth to the audio that you wish it could go on forever. The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Place on Earth by Eric Weiner (pronounced “whiner”) was that book for me.

Weiner is a correspondent for NPR, and he is the reader on the audio. It’s what you would expect — the intonation is even, the emphasis on certain words and phrases are spot on, and the pacing is even and intentional. There are a lot of people who don’t like when authors read their own works, but in this particular title, I don’t think it could have been done better by another reader.

The premise of this is quite simple: Weiner wanted to go in search of the happiest places in the world and figure out what makes these places so happy. He begins his journey in Holland, and he goes from there onward to Bhutan, then on to Qatar. Within each of these countries, he interviews locals by drawing upon his journalism experience, and with incredible wit and utter respect for the people and customs, he shares what he learns. In addition to sharing the insights into happiness, he offers bits of wisdom from philosophers historical and contemporary.

But this isn’t just a book about happiness. Weiner goes to unhappy places too, including Moldova (the unhappiest place in the world) and India. His insights are at times laugh-out-loud funny, precisely because he is spot on in his observation and utter love for people. Weiner devotes time on this adventure, too, to Iceland, to Thailand, and to Great Britain.

I found it quite interesting that the bulk of his travel was in southeast Asia, particularly given a comment he makes near the end of the book about people in Latin America consistently ranking high on the happiness scale. I wish we could have gotten his take on a Central or South American country, too.

Lest you think Weiner is just interested in telling us about how other places are better than America, the last chapter of his book, along with the epilogue, bring us back to America. What he does in the end of the book is perfect: he brings together all the bits of wisdom collected from both the happy and unhappy corners of the world, and he offers those nuggets. He makes no judgement about who is living better or why they’re living better. Instead, the central premise boils down to the fact that happiness comes down to love and relationships. This point is so cleverly woven into the whole of the story with his own humorous vignettes.

This is a heartwarming but funny, insightful, adventure-filled, and straight up fun read. I love travel narratives like this — almost in the style of Bill Bryson — and listening to it was the ideal way to go. If you like reading about adventures, the notion of happiness, travel, other cultures, or even a book that’s just “different,” this is a winner. If you haven’t tried an audiobook yet, this would be a great place to start. There are no quality issues and no editing issues, and the sound is smooth and crisp through all 11 discs. Weiner maintains a steady narrative, and he speaks clearly, thanks in part to his career with NPR.

The Geography of Bliss would be a perfect go-to for those looking for something after finishing The Happiness Project. Reading them simultaneously was a great experience for me, as I didn’t find myself tired of the topic, but instead, I felt Weiner’s book really informed my reading of Rubin’s personal story.

AudioSynched: I’d Tell You I Love You, But…I’d Be Lying

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After a pair of good audiobooks, I listened to one this past week that left me questioning every car ride whether I really wanted to continue listening to it or just give up.

I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter is a wildly popular first title in “The Gallagher Girls” series that tween and teen girls (and their adult parents!) are in love with. The series follows Cammie Morgan, who is a student at the all-girls Gallagher Academy — a super secret spy school in Virginia — as she effortlessly converses in many foreign languages and has mastered the classroom aspects of spying and espionage. But Cammie is hopeless when it comes to boys and when it comes to putting her spy training into real action.

When Cammie meets Josh in this book, she goes from star student to near failing after trying to see him and keep her lies straight about who she is. You see, no one but the students and staff know what the Gallagher Academy is, and Josh believes it’s just a private school for rich snooty students. When Cammie introduces herself to Josh, she doesn’t want to be seen as one of those girls and instead, she weaves an intricate web of lies about who she is and what she does all day. Of course the results are disastrous.

This is a very clean story, with a fast-paced story line and intriguing characters. I thought all of the spy elements were fun, and I thought that Cammie was a true-to-age character. With the audiobook rendition, I found the semi-voiced style effective, especially with the British accents throughout. I thought that the implementation of the foreign languages was also well done and added to the overall atmosphere of the spy/private school story. Although I’m not clamoring for the next titles in the series, I see why they are so appealing.

What this audiobook didn’t do, was deliver with a believable narrator. Renee Raudman was the reader, but she never once sounded like a high school sophomore to me, nor did she deliver a true voice for Cammie, a Virginian. More irritating that that, though, was the echo-chamber effect this book had. When I began listening, I thought that Cammie was sharing her story in secret, where the echo effect would have been spot-on and added a lot to the book. However, I came to realize that the entire story was being told with this effect, and I was very turned off as a listener. It was tough enough buying the character’s voice, but having it with the echo was even more difficult.

Throughout the audiobook, there were very noticeable production issues. I found that the editing was not seamless, and the sound volumes shifted frequently, leaving me as a reader constantly changing the volume of the audio in my car. Perhaps had the echo effect been removed, the sound could have been better controlled and stabilized.

The use of music and sound the indicate the end of disc was spot on. I thought those were all well-done and added another element to the story. The editing on disc changes was well-timed, leaving enough of a cliffhanger for the listener to want to pop in the next disc (despite the issues mentioned above). I found the pace of the audio was good, too. I had enough room to space out mentally and could still come back to the story without issue.

Unfortunately, there were too many times I wanted to just give it up, but because this one came recommended me to over and over at work from patrons, I gave it a listen. This is a great choice for families listening to a story together. The length is just right at 6 discs (in the Brilliance Audio production) and the tracks move quickly.

I’d love to hear this one redone, perhaps with a different reader. This is not a knock against Raudman, who herself was a fantastic reader, never once giving us any vocal issues with her voice, her sound, breaths, wet/dry mouth sounds, but she wasn’t the right reader for this title. It happens in the same way that our favorite books-turned-movies are often cast with actors/actresses who just don’t fit the book or our image of the book.

AudioSynced: A Tale of Two Audio books

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In trying to catch up on many wonderful books I haven’t had time to read yet, I’ve been listening to audiobooks more frequently — although I’m not new to them, I’ve been making an effort to really listen to them in order to better hone my sense of what makes an audiobook great and what, well, doesn’t. As you may recall, I’ve covered the basics of audiobooks.

Last week, I finished two very different audiobooks, and they were certainly a study in contrasts. Sarah Dessen’s Along for the Ride was named an Amazing Audiobook for Teens this year from the American Library Association, and it was an enjoyable, though lengthy, audio to sink into for a while. Rachel Botchan narrates the entire book, but she does shift her voice for a few of the main characters — a semi-voiced performance. As the ALA committee mentions, the entire book feels like Auden, the main character, is sitting you down in a coffee shop and sharing with you the details of the summer before she went to college. It is very easy to sit back and listen, and since it’s a classic Dessen-esque book, there’s not too much that happens that requires paying too much attention to details, as they are easily drawn, developed, and enveloping. I found myself drifting into and out of paying attention to the story, but I had no problems falling back into the narrative. Botchan is very even in her performance, and I didn’t have any issues with her narration changing, her tone shifting, nor did I find myself hearing any vocal slips (breathing, swallowing, or other unfortunate sounds).

Unfortunately for this audio, I was quite disappointed in the editing. Many times throughout the story, I found it quite obvious where recording sessions were cut, spliced together, or otherwise pieced together to develop a cohesive audiobook. Although I’m not very seasoned in editing techniques, for me it was obvious when sound qualities would change, moving from an even sound to suddenly becoming quieter or louder. I felt the production could have been strengthened a bit, especially with such a good narrator and compelling story.

My other qualm with the audio of this title was that I never quite felt Botchan’s voice really matched Auden. Botchan sounded older and wiser than Auden, and while Auden always acted and felt older than 17, if the story were meant to sound like a reflection of a summer, given the growth and changes Auden has over that summer, I wouldn’t have wanted such a wise, intellectual, and almost snooty voice for the narration. I wish she could have sounded a bit younger or a bit less bookish — perhaps a bit more like Esther did (where Botchan did a fantastic job with a very memorable voice and character). On the plus side, her depiction of a Carolina accent was spot on without being over done or under done; rather, it was recognizable enough to better set the scene.

Contrasting Along for the Ride with the second title I listened to this week, and it’s clear that audiobooks really fall on a spectrum of listening experiences. My coworker suggested I listen to Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie. She hadn’t listened to it, but read it, so she couldn’t speak to the quality of listening to it, but with a strong story line, I felt this would be a good bet.

I didn’t check the reader prior to popping in the first disc, but when I heard a very familiar voice, I was suddenly VERY excited to listen. Joel Johnston is the reader on Sonnenblick’s well-known middle grade novel; if the name’s not familiar to you immediately, he is also the reader on Gary Schmidt’s The Wednesday Wars and Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why. His voice is the quintessential young teen boy — perfectly wavering on the border of childhood and full-blown adolescence, with just enough innocence and experience to be utterly believable and charming.

Like Along for the Ride, Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie is semi-voiced, so just a few of the main characters have distinct voices throughout. Fortunately, this title features relatively few characters, and instead, the focus is on Steven and Jeffrey, a pair of brothers who will be experiencing a very challenging disease – one on the experiencing as victim side and one on the experiencing as brother side. It is a short audiobook at four discs at about an hour each, but the span of the story fits perfectly within those four hours.

With any book on audio, something that is essential is pacing. As I mentioned before, Botchan is very even in her performance of Dessen’s title, and it works there. Johnstone, however, has a way of pacing in his audio titles that allows him silent space. At critical moments, and even at moments where it is clear that a character would be pausing or thinking or needing a little breathing space, Johnstone gives those silences in his performance. In doing so, I never once felt myself drift away from the story; instead, he builds in space for the listener to step back for a moment or two and, well, “space out.”

Likewise, there are absolutely no quality or production issues in this book. If you’re a little unsure about these issues in audiobooks, think about it this way: if it feels like the reader never once stepped away from recording, then it was well produced. If during listening it becomes clear it was recorded over more than one session, then the editing could have been tightened. In Sonnenblick’s title, I felt like Johnstone was so in love with the story he was sharing that he never once stepped away.

One pet peeve of both of these titles is something that I have not experienced once during my current listening of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline: CD breaks. In both Dessen’s title and Sonnenblick’s title, there is never an indication when the disc ends; instead, the reader must pay close enough attention to know they’re listening to the same material again or have a good disc player that tells them their track has gone back to the start. Because I only listen to audiobooks in the car, this is frustrating, as then I am often not prepared with the next disc immediately. Productions like Coraline, on the other hand, incorporate music at the beginning and termination of a disc, making is very easy to know when it’s time to switch.

Next week, I plan on venturing into the world of non-fiction on audio. I haven’t tried that land yet, and I suspect that the narrator is going to be the absolute key on making the book work on audio. There are some fictional titles that have really terrible readers (I’m looking at Susan Beth Pfeffer’s The Dead and the Gone, where the narrator is way too old and way too flat voiced and emotionless) but the story is compelling enough to make you keep listening.

Have you listened to any of these titles? Any thoughts?
Have you listened to any others on audio that you either absolutely loved or hated? I’m building a nice sized “to listen” list, so I’d love your suggestions.

What I’m Reading, Twitter Style.

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I’ve been busy – between moving and reading for Cybils, my personal reading has been a little everywhere (and a little spare). But here’s what I’m reading or have recently read, Twitter-style!


Wish / Alexandra Bullen: Disappointing fairy tale w/ predictable plot, uninteresting characters, & off-putting writing style. Cannot believe there’s a sequel coming.

Leaving Gee’s Bend / Irene Latham: Historical fiction set during 1930s w/o being about the Depression. Engaging & one that will be considered a “best” in 2010. Low teen appeal.

The Happiness Project / Gretchen Ruben: Eager for perspective on happiness. Think this year-in-my-life may be valuable guide, rich w/insight w/o preachiness. Husband loved it.

Along for the Ride / Sarah Dessen: Audio book has some voice & volume inconsistencies, but the story is engaging enough, though predictable & same as rest of Dessen’s oeuvre.

Searching for Whitopia / Rich Benjamin: Unscientific but interesting non-fiction about what quality makes a community feel “safe” and “special.” Black author on whiteness = unique.

Travels with Charley / John Steinbeck: Professing the love of one’s country w/ trip through it. Highly entertaining, beautiful descriptions. I underlined many passages for memory.