Audiosynced: March Edition

March 1, 2013 |

Welcome to another edition of Audiosynced, co-hosted by STACKED and Abby over at Abby the Librarian. This is a monthly round-up of audiobook news, reviews, and interesting posts throughout the blogosphere and more. If you’ve written anything about audiobooks in the (short) month of November and we left you out of the roundup, leave a link in the comments. If you didn’t get to write anything in February but plan to in March, the round-up will be hosted by Abby next month, so send her your goods to be included!

Reviews

Lee over at Reading with my ears offers reviews of Cornelia Funke’s Ghost Knight, Jacqueline Woodson’s Beneath a Meth Moon and M. T. Anderson’s Feed (which is one of my all-time favorite audiobooks).

Beth over at A Foodie Bibliophile in Wanderlust has a review of Walter Dean Myers’s Riot.

Audiobook enthusiasts: you are reading The Gilded Earlobe, right? This is a fantastic audiobook blog, which includes not just reviews, but other audiobook-related posts, including interviews with narrators and more.

Catie reviews Flannery O’Connor’s classic A Good Man is Hard to Find.

News & Features

Sarah Thompson has a great post asking how people listen to audiobooks. Where do you find the time to sneak in audiobooks? Read her post and the comments. Great suggestions for those trying to find the time and place to dive in.

Janis Ian wins this year’s Best Spoken Word Grammy.

Speaking of “best ofs,” have you checked out the Amazing Audiobooks list for 2013 from YALSA? If you’re looking for a great listen, you can’t do better than trying one of these.

Don’t forget about RUSA’s Listen Lists, either. Not only do you get to know about the “best of” titles from the last year, but the read alikes here are excellent. Talk about a great reader’s advisory tool!

Here’s another audiobook blog for you to know, and I discovered it through a post I’m kind of in love with: 8 audiobook narrators you’d slap your friend for not knowing.

Janssen talks about her love affair with audiobooks.

Pinterest

Back when Abby and I started writing Audiosynced posts, we included round-ups of interesting blogs and Twitter accounts for audiobook enthusiasts. We’ve talked about updating some of these lists since we’ve been doing this series for a long time now, and since this last month was light on content throughout the blogosphere, I thought I’d get us started with some interesting Pinterest accounts worth checking out. If you know of other worthwhile Pinterest boards or accounts related to audiobooks, including your own, lay ’em on us! This is only a small sample of what’s probably out there.

Remedia Publications offers up links relating to audiobooks and the classroom.

Merrick Library gives suggests through Pinterest for audiobooks that won’t put listeners to sleep.

Andye the Reading Teen has a host of excellent teen audiobooks.

Solon Library shares where listeners can locate audiobooks.

The Manhattan Public Library (Kansas) showcases awesome audiobooks.

Silk Sound Books has a ton of suggestions for what to do while listening to audiobooks.

Audiosynced: January 2013 Edition

January 1, 2013 |

Welcome to another edition of AudioSynced, co-hosted by myself and Abby (the Librarian). Each month we offer up links to reviews, news, and other interesting audiobook tidbits from around the web. You’re welcome to contribute anything you’ve written about audiobooks in the month of December by dropping a link in the comments. If you missed out last month, AudioSynced will be hosted over at Abby’s blog in February, so send her your goods.

A couple of thoughts before the round up: would people be interested in an updated list of Twitter accounts or strong audiobook reviewing blogs? It’s probably been almost two years since we did that, and we could put something together again. If so, what are some of your favorite — strongest, most interesting, most helpful — blogs and Twitter accounts for audiobook information or reviews? Or if you know other great resources, including Pinterest boards (I’ve included one below) or Facebook pages, those would be worth knowing about, too.

Second, I haven’t reviewed an audiobook in a long time, but I did get the chance to listen to one last month, and it’s made me eager to try bringing that back into my life and routine. If anyone has good tips or suggestions for doing that, I’d love to hear. I commute to work — about 20 minutes each way — which is one way to sneak it in, but I’d love to hear your tips and tricks, too.

Don’t be shy. AudioSynced is meant for you to promote what you’ve written, so share away in the comments.

Audiobook Reviews

Melissa over at Book Nut has a review of Erik Larson’s In the Garden of the Beasts. She says, “This book was fascinating. It did spawn a lot of thought and discussion: about the nature of evil, about relationships, about what could have been done, about politics.”

Lee at Reading with my Ears offers up a ton of really smart and thoughtful reviews this month (as always!), including Rebecca Stead’s Liar & Spy, Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Mary Roach’s Packing for Mars, Holly Black’s Black Heart, Deborah Hopkinson’s Titanic, Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, and Maggie Steifvater’s The Raven Boys.

Sarah at the YA Love Blog reviews Courtney Summers’s Some Girls Are and says, “Katie Schorr is a good choice for Regina … I think hearing it, as opposed to seeing it, took away from the effect the clipped, sparse lines were supposed to have.” Sarah also has a review of David Levithan’s Every Day.

Beth over at A Foodie Bibliophile in Wanderlust reviews Ree Drummond’s The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Tractor Wheels. She admires Drummond’s own narration of the story.

Trish at Hey Lady, Whatcha Readin’? shares a review of Neil Gaiman’s Stardust and says, “Gaiman does an amazing job, making me eat my opinion about authors reading their own books.”

Jen at A Book and a Latte has a review of Michelle Gagnon’s Don’t Turn Around, noting she felt indifferent about the narrator.

April at Good Books and Good Wine reviews Vicky Alvear Shecter’s book Cleopatra’s Moon, noting that, “At first I was not entirely won over or in love with the audiobook version.” She’s also got a review up of Mistletoe & Margaritas by Shannon Stacey and Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror.

Cassie at Galavanting Girl Books has a review of Mary Pearson’s The Adoration of Jenna Fox, and she says Jenna Lamia is the perfect narrator for the story. She’s also got a review of Meg Howrey’s The Crane’s Dance, noting that the narrator captured the main character’s persona well.

Audiobook News & Features

I’m not committing to any reading challenges this year, but if you are, Jen over at A Book and a Latte is running a YA Audiobook Challenge for 2013. If that’s your thing, it’s easy to sign up and participate.

Check out this year’s audiobook Grammy Nominees.

What were the best audiobooks last year, according to Booklist? The top spot went to a YA book that also saw top billing on many other “best of” lists in 2012. Want more “best of” audiobook posts? Large Hearted Boy has you covered in his list of best of lists. Just search for audio or audiobooks.

Don’t miss Audible’s 2012 best audiobooks, either.

An interesting piece out of New Hampshire Public Radio — in this interview with AudioFile founder and editor Robin Whitten, she talks about the best audiobooks read by celebrities. You can even listen to some clips to see what makes the production worthwhile.

In other interesting news, Brilliance Audio is going to get into the print and ebook business, in addition to their audiobooks.

Park Ridge Public Library has a great Pinterest board of outstanding audiobook narrations. If you’re looking for a place to start or new ideas, here’s a bunch.

Have something interesting from December you want us to know about? Leave a link. Or if you want to share anything interesting from elsewhere on the web, you know what to do. And no worries — if you didn’t review anything this month but want to participate, Abby will be hosting AudioSynced next month.

AudioSynced: October Edition

October 31, 2012 |

First, check out our new look! After using the old image for more than a year with incorrect blog addresses, we thought it about time to update that. To make sure we were completely updated, we swapped out our ear bud image for the big headphones because, well, it looked neat.

AudioSynced is hosted by yours truly and Abby, and we swap each month who hosts the roundup of all things audiobook in the blogging and book world (best as we can, anyway!). This month, I’m covering the audiobook reviews and news posted in October, and Abby will take the charge next month. If you posted something and want it included, drop a link to your post in the comments. Missed out this month? Abby will host next month, so send her your goods.

Apologies for a relatively thin edition of AudioSynced. It seems like a lot of the usual audio reviewers are taking a listening hiatus this month. So if I missed something or you want to add to it, don’t be shy!

Reviews

Heidi over at Bunbury in the Stacks has a couple of reviews, including Kendare Blake’s Anna Dressed in Blood and Mary Roach’s Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers.

Lisa at Shelf Employed reviews an early chapter book, Nancy Krulick’s What’s Black and White and Stinks All Over, which is the fourth book in the George Brown, Class Clown series.

Beth of A Foodie Bibliophile in Wanderlust reviews Gabrielle Zevin’s Because it is My Blood, Yes Chef by Marcus Samuelsson, and Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson.

Lee at Reading With My Ears lends her thoughts on Maryrose Wood’s The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Hidden Gallery, Mark Haddon’s The Red House, Christian Burch’s The Manny Files, Ian Rankin’s The Falls, and Georgette Heyer’s The Convenient Marriage. She also snuck in a review of Joseph Delaney’s The Last Apprentice: Rage of the Fallen.

Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead is this month’s audiobook contribution from Sarah at YA Librarian Tales.

Over at Good Books and Good Wine, Allison takes a stab at reviewing an audiobook. Her choice? Amanda Quick’s Seduction. April offers up an audiobook reviews of Bram Stoker’s classic Dracula and Walter Dean Myers’s Sunrise Over Fallujah.

Flannery at The Readventurer reviews David Levithan’s recently released Every Day.

News & Other Audio Bits

Janssen has a thought-provoking question: do you reread audiobooks? Would you? She enjoyed her audiobook “reread” experience quite a bit.

Sharon Grover and Liz Hannegan talk about how educators can use audiobooks to meet STEM initiatives, including common core standards.

Audiosynced: August Edition

September 4, 2012 |

Welcome to the monthly round up of all things audiobook. Audiosynced is hosted by STACKED and Abby (the) Librarian. If you reviewed or blogged about audiobooks in some capacity during the month of August and you don’t see a link to your post, share it in the comments! Next month, Abby will host the round up at her blog.

Audiobook News & Features

Over at School Library Journal, Sharon Grover and Lizette Hannegan write about how audiobooks develop core critical reading skills.

Audible offers up their 25 essential teen audiobooks, complete with samples. Of course, a number of these aren’t even teen books, but you know.

Remember the Olympics happened last month? Did you catch the commercial about athletes who use audiobooks to get their reading in while working out? Here’s a nice blog post about it, with the commercial.

Audiobook Reviews

Lee over at Reading with My Ears reviews Miles, the Autobiography, Sara Zarr’s How to Save a Life, Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery and Other Stories, Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad, and Jill Paton Walsh’s The Attenbury Emeralds.

Heidi at Bunbury in the Stacks offers up a bunch of mini audioreviews, including Craig Ferguson’s American on Purpose, Paolo Bacigalupi’s Ship Breaker, and Red Glove and Black Heart by Holly Black. She’s also got a review of Jeff Hirsch’s Eleventh Plague and Laurie Halse Anderson’s Fever 1793.

Melissa at One Librarian’s Book Reviews also has a pile of mini-reviews, including Gabrielle Zevin’s All These Things I’ve Done, Frank Herbert’s Dune, Angie Sage’s Magyk, and L.A. Meyer’s In the Belly of the Bloodhound.

Liz reviews Gary Schmidt’s Okay for Now.

Nicole at Linus’s Blanket reviews Hilary Mantel’s Bringing Up the Bodies.

Flannery over at The Readventurer reviews Tina Fey’s Bossypants.

Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness reviews Jenny Lawson’s Let’s Pretend This Never Happened.

Have a link? Drop it in the comments!

Audiosynced: June edition

July 15, 2012 |

Apologies for being late to rounding up June’s audiobook links. But better late than never! June is designated audiobook month, so there is a lot to enjoy in this month’s collection of links and news.

News & Features

Jen at Devourer of Books hosted Audiobook Week, with daily topics for bloggers to write on and link up. I started pulling them all out individually, but why reinvent the wheel? Go check out discussions of where readers learn about their audiobooks, what makes for a good audiobook narrator, the essentials of reviewing audiobooks, and how this year has sounded in listening (including reader favorites). Jen and others shared a ton of audiobook reviews over the course of the week, so I highly encourage you to check out all of the posts during that week. Good stuff!

Emily at Emily’s Reading Room hosted a number of excellent features in June focused on audiobooks, including “Narration Creation,” which interviewed multiple audiobook readers on the different facets of preparing to record, getting into character and more. She also teamed up with a number of other bloggers to feature numerous reviews and interviews, so check out her post with the links to other participants to read their contributions.

The annual Odyssey Awards presentation the American Library Association convention in Anaheim got some nice blog coverage, too, including this piece on The Hub by Gretchen Kolderup and this one at Liz Burns’s blog.

Over at Booklist’s Audiobooker blog, you can check out the winners of this year’s Audie awards.

NPR has a piece on audiobooks for family road trips. Then make sure you check out the SLJ post about more family-friendly audiobooks.

Reviews

Our friend Lee at Reading with my Ears reviewed Zombies vs. Unicorns, Little Women, Rabbit Run, One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street, Nightwoods, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, and Dissolution.

Over at The Readventurer, check out reviews for Steve Martin’s Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life and MT Anderson’s Feed.

April at Good Books & Good Wine has a review of Barry Lyga’s I Hunt Killers, Jenny Lawson’s Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, and a review of Ally Carter’s Uncommon Criminals.

Sarah at YA Love Blog reviews Catherine Gilbert Murdoch’s The Dairy Queen and Bill Konigsberg’s Out of the Pocket.

Beth at A Foodie Bibliophile reviews Jennifer Holm’s Turtle in Paradise and Blood, Bones, and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton (this review is amazing).

Sarah at YA Librarian Tales reviews The Cheshire Cheese Cat by Carmen Agra Deedy and Randall Wright.

Beth Fish Reads has reviews up of Mark Kurlansky’s Birdseye, as well as six mini reviews.

Melanie from Melanie’s Musings has two reviews this month: Amy Kathleen Ryan’s Glow and Georgette Heyer’s Venitia.

Megan at Devour Books has four reviews this month to share, including The Selection, Unwind, Cinder, and Dreamland.

Carin from Caroline Bookbinder has a review of David von Drehle’s Triangle: The Fire That Changed America.

Mindi has a review of Meg Cabot’s Pants on Fire up at KidLitGeek.

I know I’ve missed stuff this month, so please drop any reviews, news, or interesting stories about audiobooks you might have in the comments. And don’t forget — next month Audiosynced will be over at Abby (the) Librarian.