A Final "June is Audiobook Month" Giveaway

For me, every month is audiobook month. I so enjoy the experience of having someone read me a story and bring that story to life in my mind's eye. It makes mundane tasks fun, makes working out bearable, it makes drive time seem less wasteful.

As a final celebration of the audiobook this month, I have a grand giveaway, courtesy of Hachette Audio. I have 7 audiobooks to giveaway:

1 unabridged copy of James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge's NOW YOU SEE HER
1 unabridged copy of Kate Atkinson's STARTED EARLY TOOK MY DOG
1 unabridged copy of Pete Hamill's TABLOID CITY
1 unabridged copy of Michael Connelly's THE LINCOLN LAWYER
3 abridged copies of Michael Connelly's THE FIFTH WITNESS

If you're an audiobook enthusiast, hopefully there's something new in this list for you to try out. If you're an audiobook newbie and are ready to give one a try, this is a great opportunity for you.

I will take entries through the holiday weekend and pick winners on July 5th. Contest is open to U.S. and Canadian residents. Simply complete the form below with your contact information and which audiobooks you'd be interested in winning. All contact information is for mailing purposes only and will be destroyed following the contest.

And don't forget that you can still enter to win a copy of Karin Slaughter's FALLEN through July 8th.

If you have any questions, drop me an email. Good luck and happy listening!

Audiobook Narrators

The topic for today is Sound Effects in Audiobooks. I'm kind of indifferent to the sound effects. Rarely, if present, have they ever bothered me, but if they aren't there the audiobook is just as great. On occassion when producers put music at the end of a disc and I'm listening on my iTouch, the music will kick in and I'll wonder where the heck the sound is coming from. But other than that, I really don't take much notice. So, I chose one of the alternate suggestions and I'm going to talk about single narrators vs. multiple narrators.

I'm a great advocate for multiple narrators. I like for one person of each gender to be involved in the production of an audiobook. Very, very rarely can one person do both genders well enough that it isn't painfully noticeable to me. Women doing male characters make me think of a drag queen show, and men narrating female characters sound quite butch - or in their efforts to sound feminine all the females become whiny and driveling.  I grow use to it after a duration, but the best situations are when a man and a woman narrate together, each taking their respective gender roles. An excellent example of this is the audio of  Marcus Sakey's GOOD PEOPLE, narrated by both Joyce Bean and Dan John Miller. How about you? What are your audiobook narrator preferences?

Of course the multiple narrator approach also involves greater expense. That didn't prevent Hachette Audio from recording David Baldacci's THE SIXTH MAN with two narrators, though. And I have 3 abridged copies to give away, courtesy of Hachette. THE SIXTH MAN is narrated by veterans of the crime fiction novel: Ron McLarty and Orlagh Cassidy.

To be entered for a chance to win one of the three copies, simply complete the form below by Saturday, June 11, 2011. US and Canadian mailing addresses only. If you have any questions, drop me an email or share them in the comments section.

Welcome to Audiobook Week

As I've mentioned, June is Audiobook Month. Jen at Devourer of Books is hosting a special week dedicated to audiobooks this week and I'll be participating as much as I can. This will also be the first week of fabulous audiobook giveaways I will be doing. Some very generous folks from Hachette and AudioGo have provided me with great crime fiction audios to give away this month, so make sure you're checking in for those contests!

All right, so Audiobook Week...Jen's first discussion topic for this week is "2010-2011, Your Audiobook Year." And the description for this discussion topic is:


Are you new to audiobooks in the last year? Have you been listening to them forever but discovered something new this year? Favorite titles? New times/places to listen? This is your chance to introduce yourself and your general listening experience. 

I have actually been listening to audiobooks for almost six years now. 2010 was the second year I kept records of my audiobooks. In 2009 I listened to 36 audiobooks, which was 38% of my total reading for that year. In 2010 I listened to 48 audiobooks, which was 48% of my total reading. This year at the almost half-way point, I've listened to 19 audiobooks, which is about 43% of my total reading.

What are the titles that stand out? Well any of the Walt Longmire books. They are all narrated by George Guidall, and he brings the book to life more than my own imagination did. They are simply incredible sound recordings from Recorded Books.

I also adored Steve Hamilton's THE LOCK ARTIST on audiobook. It was narrated by MacLeod Andrews. A great novel coupled with an amazing narration. And that was put out by Brilliance Audio.

ROOM, written by Emma Donoghue, was an audiobook that could have been a disaster, but was beautifully narrated by a team of readers: Michal Friedman, Ellen Archer, Suzanne Toren and Robert Petkoff. Hachette Audio gets the hat tip on creating that audio.

There are many, many wonderful audiobooks out there; the last one I'll mention for today's post is A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS. I listened to this one last year and with THE LOCK ARTIST, they were both my favorite books overall and my favorite audiobooks. A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS is written by R.J. Ellory and narrated by Mark Bramhall. Blackstone Audio put this one out and I challenge anyone to listen to this book and not be affected by it. It's incredible.

Those are some of my regular go-to recommendations right now as far as audiobooks. And for me, I listen to audiobooks pretty much any time I can't be reading a print book. So while I'm working out, I listen to audiobooks, driving in the car, working in the garden, doing housework, crafting, shoveling snow or mowing the lawn. I love to have great narrators reading me great books!

My great audiobook discovery last year, though, was my iTouch. I started listening to audios on the iTouch and for me it's revolutionary. I have an armband for it as well as a docking station with wireless speakers, so I can listen to it anywhere in the house. I have an outlet in my car that allows me to listen to my iTouch through the car speakers, so my iTouch literally goes everywhere with me.

A fun story to share about a learning experience with audiobooks this past year. I use an mp3 to iPod converter for my files. It converts the mp3 files to MPEG-4 audio files which are smaller (I can fit more books on my iTouch) and so incredibly easy to use on the iTouch. Anyway, I was having problems with some audiobooks where they would start out just fine and then all of a sudden I would lose all sound. I could not figure out what the heck was happening. But let me just tell you how frustrating that is. You get caught up in and book and then SILENCE! Well, turned out, I needed to stop making one big MPEG-4 file for the longer audiobooks and break them into 2 or 3 files. I'm not exactly positive why, but it fixed the problem, so I'm a happy audiobook listener now!

So there's my introduction to my listening habits. How about you all? What are the great audios you've discovered in the last year? Where do you listen to your audios?

If you don't listen to audios, I'd like to challenge you to listen to one some time this month. If you'd like to write about your experience, I'll be happy to post it here at the blog! But check out the recommendations from audiobook listeners blogging this month and find something that could be of interest to you and give it an honest try! I was one of those people who use to say, "I can't listen to audios; I'd never be able to pay attention. I have ADD for crying out loud." But, when I had to drive 45 minutes one way to work, I gave audiobooks a try. It was an adjustment, but now I can't imagine my life without them!

So today, I say to you all Happy Listening!!