Published by: Knopf Doubleday

Published on: September 13, 2011

Page Count: 256

Genre: Literary Fiction

My Reading Format: Audiobook sent to me via the Solid Gold Reviewer Program organized by Audiobook Jukebox

Audiobook Published by: Highbridge Audio

Narrator: Anne Flosnik

Audiobook Length: 7 hours 44 minutes

Available Formats: Hardcover, eBook, Audiobook

My Review

Miles Garth, a man brought to a dinner party by an invited guest, gets up from the dinner table and locks himself in an upstairs guest room. Without explanation, he refuses to leave. His only request, as a vegetarian, is for the appropriate food to be supplied to him. This decision seems to defy logic and the home owners research the man in order to contact those who may know him and may, therefore, assist them in getting their home and piece of mind restored. While no one who knows him very well can be located, we do hear from four unrelated people who know bits and pieces about him. It is through their eyes that we learn of Miles’ encampment, bits and pieces of his past, and about the events that follow.

There but for the is not a standard narrative novel. Certainly there is a basic storyline, but the thin thread that draws out the stories of Anna, Mark May, and Brroke could just as easily be an excuse for highlighting the human condition as evidenced in modern day London. How better to understand ourselves than put us in an unusual situation? Some people rally around things that can’t be explained. Some try to make money off of them. Still others, those not yet world weary, go with their curiosity, attempting to understand.

Each of those who tell their story about themselves and, to a lesser degree, about Miles correspond to a word in the title. Anna’s story uses “there.” Mark’s story uses “but.” May’s story uses “for.” Brooke’s story uses “the.” Writing this out it feels odd to me, but in the midst of the novel, it was brilliant. I didn’t catch the connection until Mark’s story. It was at that point that I connected more deeply with the prose. There are sections of the novel where the dialog follows this pattern:

“[dialog],” Character A says.
“[dialog],” Character B says.
“[dialog],” Character A says.
“[dialog],” Character B says.

I began noticing how the rhythm of those sentences all ending in the word says was. Regardless of what the characters were saying, it was like poetry in that it was pleasing to the ears. To me, this was the brilliance of the novel. While the individual stories were interesting (especially May’s and “The cleverest” Brooke) and I wanted to know what was going on with Miles, the beauty of the prose was all that I needed.

There is often concernt that a complex or experimental novel doesn’t translate well into audio. The belief is that you need to closely study what has been written. I don’t doubt that this is true in some cases, but not here. There but for the made a wonderful audiobook. Anne Flosnik, who is fantastic at interpreting what must have been a daunting novel, provided vocal cues that helped me navigate the landscape. I could sit and listen to her read scenes such as the dialog above ad nauseum. Her narration also had me rapt as May and Brooke were speaking.

The premise of the story was what led me to request this audiobook through the Solid Gold Reviewer program, but it was the performance of Anne Flosnik and the prose of Ali Smith that made this audiobook one to treasure. When I listed this book in my top 10 reads of 2011, I mentioned that I was quite certain that I had no idea what this book was about. Writing this review made me realize that regardless of the author’s intent, I know quite well what it was about for me. I hope this novel gets more exposure because this is a book that will impact and affect each reader differently. I highly recommend There but for the. It is the perfect choice for a read that will challenge and delight you.

Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

Published by: Knopf Doubleday

Published in: 1985

Page Count: 208

Genre: Fiction

My Reading Format: Audiobook purchased from Audible.com using a credit

Audiobook Published by: Brilliance Audible Modern Vanguard

Narrator: Christian Rummel

Audiobook Length: 5 hours and 23 minutes

Available Formats: Hardcover, paperback, eBook and Audiobook

Note: This review contains spoilers and emotionally charged commentary.

My Review

Back in December, I had a couple of Audible credits and I was at a loss for how to use them (it felt that way at the time, but I can’t explain how I could ever really felt that way). I decided to explore new-to-me narrators.  I found Christian Rummel. He sounded good, so I explored his catalog. I found Less Than Zero and I thought I found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Bret Easton Ellis is an author I’ve always wanted to read and a book upon which an iconic movie from my teen years was based. Best yet, it was less than 5 and a half hours long. Less Than Zero certainly featured its fair share of pot among other drugs, but that was as close as it got to my expectations.

I normally discuss the narrator near the end of the review. For this audiobook, I will start with Christian Rummel’s performance because it was the one bright spot in the whole experience for me. I thought his style worked very well with the story. Right from the beginning his reading gave the sense of how removed Clay was from his life. At the same time, he gave some life to characters, however superficial they may have been. There were only two times I cracked a smile while reading this book – when MTV and playing videos were mentioned in the same sentence and when Christian Rummel narrated an exchange between Clay and another character smoking pot. He did a wonderful job reading a difficult book. I’ll be keeping my eyes open for future Christian Rummel reads.

Less Than Zero tells the story of Clay, a college freshman returning to Las Angeles from his first semester away in New Hampshire. His parents are separated and no one is especially close. This was well depicted by the scene of Clay, his sisters and his mother heading to meet his father for a Christmas dinner. His sisters ride his case about locking his doors until he says that he locks his bedroom door. In exasperation, he explains it’s because they stole his cocaine the last time he didn’t lock his door. Their mother didn’t say a word.

Up until the last section, this novel followed Clay from one awful party full of equally privileged drugged out teens to another. None of them have anything of substance to talk about and are equally uncaring about anything unless it annoys them. Clay had a sexual relationship with Blair, but then again he has a sexual encounters with Griffin and a couple other young men. As with the casual drug use, there is nothing but casual sex. I got the idea that something mysterious was going on with his long time friend Julian, but it never seemed to go anywhere. Before and after Clay lent him a substantial amount of money couldn’t find him when he needed him.

Leading up until the end, I was glad I didn’t grow up with anything my heart desired by friends and family who cared about me. I was glad I grew up in the Midwest. I was glad I took Nancy Reagan’s advice. With approximately an hour and 15 minutes remaining, I was more than ready for Clay to go back to New Hampshire and put this painful Christmas vacation behind me (Yes, me. I never really thought Clay deserved much better than his life – for heaven’s sake he cared more about a dying coyote than he did a mother stranded along the side of the road with her kids in the middle of the night). Then it got ugly.

As per my tweet to author Kristina Riggle (@krisriggle), I sum up the novel thusly: “privileged collegiates drugging their way through Christmas break, then WTH, then WTF, then OMG this is messed up!” I’ve covered the privileged druggy collegiates on Christmas break. Here we go with the rest (note that emotional cursing as well as mental images you may not want are forthcoming):

What the Hell?

Things that happen at the parties and places Clay hangs out at get increasingly awkward. The novel’s turn for me happens when Clay is at a house watching what may or not be a snuff film. To Clay’s credit, he leaves the room after the raping of a bound young woman and man, but before they were actually murdered. He can’t escape the screams from the film as he does a line of cocaine outside. Afterwards, his friends were enamored by the whole thing: how much it cost and whether it was real. There wasn’t a hint of concern about the people who would have been the victims of the film were it were a snuff  film after all. They were just excited about how gruesome the castration was. His friend Trent, a male model, walked up to him with a hard on and couldn’t figure out why Clay left the movie. Isn’t degradation wonderful?

What the Fuck??

Shortly thereafter, Clay finds Julian, who drags him to yet another house in order to get his money back. Clay there discovers the kind of trouble Julian has gotten himself into. In order to get out from under a huge debt to a drug dealer, Julian turned to Finn. To pay Finn back, he had to become a male prostitute. Clay is uncomfortable, but when Finn “requests” that he follow Julian to his next job because the man likes to have another beautiful young man watch, he goes along fairly readily. There is a part of him that feels somewhat responsible for Julian’s safety (Julian tried to get Finn to let him out of his obligation because he was so unhappy and tired, but Finn just shot him up with heroine instead), but mainly he wants to get his money back and was curious to see just how bad it could get. With friends like Clay… In the end, Clay spends five hours watching a friend he’s known since 5th grade being degraded with not a word or thought as to how he could help Julian escape his personal hell.

Oh, My God!

Just when I thought I had discovered the full extend of Clay’s hedonistic self-absorbed world (for the record, I don’t feel that anyone really got much joy out of their hedonism, but who’s to say, right?), it got much, much worse. Rip, Clay’s drug dealer, invites Clay back to his apartment for something especially amazing. What could possibly be so amazing? Well, somehow rip got a 12 year old girl into his apartment, tied her naked to his bed to be used as a sex slave. He kept her drugged, which may have been a small mercy for her, but Clay could see the evidence of how badly she’d been used with his own eyes before Rip invites those there to have their own turn. Despite friends like Trent trying to talk him in to staying, Clay leaves the room. The conversation that followed made me feel like vomiting almost as much as the mental image of what was happening in that room. Rip felt he was entitled to this girl because he should have everything he wants. Clay pointed out that Rip had everything already and questioned him about what more he possibly could want. Rip said he didn’t have anything to lose.

There was a glimmer of hope in my heart that Clay would do the right thing and take action. I begged him to call the police and safe this girl from further abuse. There had to be some redemption to this novel. Instead, he never seemed to give the girl another thought after he left Rip’s place. What was she worth, anyway? At that point, I had to turn the audiobook off to calm down. I couldn’t believe this complete lack of humanity Bret Easton Ellis has created. If I listened further, I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t vomit.

When I got around to finishing the novel, the blame for all the twisted shit that happened was lousy parents. I wanted to throw something. Certainly there were no responsible parents to be found in this fucked up landscape, but I bet there are sociopath’s who would find the people who inhabited Less Than Zero morally bankrupt. I have no idea how this novel would have come across in my teens or 20s, but as an adult mother of two young girls, I was horrified by the ending. Parents can scar a person. I understand that. At some point, every person has to take responsibility for their own soul. That the characters in this book lost theirs isn’t a sin that can completely be laid at the feet of their parents. There was not an ounce of redemption anywhere. Clay’s commentary at the end fell flat. It is cop out, utter bullshit.

Certainly there is something to be said for the reaction it generated within me. Never before have I felt so dirty and ashamed for having born witness to what I have read a book. As if my tweeting  wasn’t enough, I immediately began writing this post the minute I got home. Likewise I had to discuss it with my husband the moment he walked in the door. He told me that his friends were reading this book in college. They didn’t have anything good to say about it. That it was vapid kept him from reading it himself. After he listened to my rage, he said something brilliant. He said, “And Salman Rushdie was the one under a death threat?” Exactly!

I understand that Bret Easton Ellis was making a cultural statement about the Reagan era with Less Than Zero. When you go bold with your delivery, your message may very be obscured. Perhaps once I  have come to grips with the fact that I can never unread this novel I will care enough to give it further thought.  I wouldn’t suggest holding your breath waiting on that anymore than I would suggest you read Less Than Zero.

House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III

Published by: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Published on: February 1999

Page Count: 368

Genre: Literary Fiction

My Reading Format: Audiobook purchased through Audible.com with a credit

Audiobook Published by: Harper Audio

Narrator: Andre Dubus III and Fontaine Dollas Dubus

Audiobook Length: 13 hours 53 minutes

Available Formats: Hardcover, paperback, eBook and audiobook

My Review

Kathy Nicolo, a former drug addict who was recently left by her husband, had been receiving letters from the county requesting back taxes for a home-based business. Kathy never owned a home-based business, so after informing the county in writing, she does not follow up further. She regrets throwing the letters from the county away when she is awoken by local authorities who begin to evict her. She is angry but soon realizes that she has no immediate recourse but to leave and contact a lawyer, something she cannot afford on her own. Meanwhile, Massoud Behrani, a former Iranian military official who exiled to America during the Iranian Revolution, is tired of living two lives. In order to arrange for a good marriage for his oldest daughter, he and his family had to live well above their means. They could afford to do so because they left Iran with a great deal of money, but after so many years, the money is running out and the only jobs he has been able to find in San Francisco are menial. He is forced to change back into respectable clothes at the end of his work day in order to keep up appearances in his apartment complex. Finally, with his daughter on her honeymoon, he feels able to act upon a plan to make a new life for himself, his wife and his son. His plan is to buy property that has been repossessed by the government at auction and sell it for a profit. His first purchase is the home vacated by Kathy Nicolo.

House of Sand and Fog is populated with flawed characters. Although Kathy Nicolo and Massoud Behrani come from such different worlds, they share a few things in common. They both have no locally whom they can rely on for help. Kathy has put her family in Boston threw so much, she can’t bare to let them find out that her marriage failed, let alone that she allowed the home left to her and her brother by their father to be repossessed because she ignored communication from the government. She has no choice but to fight to get her house back alone. Behrani is also a man alone. He has his wife and children, but their success and safety are his alone. He loved his life back in Tehran, but because of his military involvement, they cannot return. Most of all, both characters are stubborn in their sense of entitlement. Kathy realizes that her inaction cost her the house, but she refuses to take responsibility for the county’s error. When the county can’t make right their error, she continues to refuse to work through the legal process, going straight to Behrani herself. She even gets her new boyfriend involved. For his part, Behrani holds tight to the letter of the law refusing to work with the county or with Kathy. He almost gets off on shouldering the complete burden for his family on his own. Kathy’s ease with which she plays the victim and Behrani’s out right refusal to be victimized leads all involved straight to hell.

I have wanted to read this novel for at least 10 years. Andre Dubus III has long had this aura surrounding him that both excited and intimidated me in equal parts. It wasn’t until I read this memoir, Townie, that I decided now is the time. Dubus again narrates along with his wife, Fontaine Dollas Dubus, who reads the sections written from Karen’s point of view. For someone who loves what a talented professional audiobook narrator brings to an audiobook, I might not have given this novel a chance in audio had it not been for my previous experience with Townie. Dubus has a quality to his reading that simply works well with the material he writes. Fontaine Dollas Dubus worked equally well as the voice of Kathy Nicolo. Kathy is not a polished person and her personal unabashed reading made her come alive for me.

House of Sand and Fog was well worth the wait, although I never should have waited so long. Dubus is a wonderful author. His work is dark and brooding, certainly not something to pick up when feeling lonely or on a rainy day. Dubus is unafraid to lay bare all there is to see about his subjects. His characters aren’t written to be loved or even liked. They are written to be real. Prepare to be both moved and prodded in those tender places you would rather forget existed. The journey is well worth it.

The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

Published by: Bantam

Published on: March 2011

Page Count: 288

Genre: Women’s Fiction

My Reading Format: Audiobook rented from my local library

Audiobook Published by: Random House Audio

Narrator: Karen White

Audiobook Length: 7 hours 43 minutes

Available Formats: Hardcover, eBook, Audiobook

My Review

There are times in my life when a good, whimsical book fits perfectly. This was true of The Peach Keeper. I picked it up at the local library on a whim. I didn’t feel up to starting anything heavy at the time because I was preparing to go on vacation. The cover was beautiful and it practically screamed, “This is the book you’re looking for, Jennifer!” Seeing it on the shelf was like a stroke of luck. I got about half way into the novel before I left. I had read just enough to miss the characters and wonder about them from time to time while I was away. When I got in my car to drive home from the airport, I was more than ready to continue. The storyline wasn’t complicated enough for me to have lost my place nor was it simplistic enough to have lost my interest. I loved the touch of the supernatural that swept through from the beginning with the envelopes through to the end with the bell.

I did have one issue with a story line. I won’t go into detail here as it would be a spoiler, but this particular twist didn’t work for me at all. The outcome was obvious and therefore the tension surrounding it was superfluous. While it didn’t prevent me from enjoying the story for what it was, the ending wasn’t as celebratory for me as it would  otherwise might have been.

This was my first Karen White listen. I found her voice and her reading style to be perfect for The Peach Keeper. She made it that much easier to walk into that small North Carolina town and feel at home. Even in the midst of their struggles, her narration made apparent the hope that was ever present within Paxton, Willa, Colin and Sebastian.

The Peach Keeper was a nice, easy going story with just a touch of whimsy to make it special. When I next need a comfort read, I wouldn’t hesitate to select another book from Sarah Addison Allen. Since Karen White narrated The Sugar Queen as well, it will be very easy to decide which novels to pick up next.

To be honest, I never would have thought of a phone interview until June is Audiobook Month when I read Natalie’s post about her phone interview with Scott Brick. It was a pure fangirl moment for Natalie as well as for those of us who lived the experience vicariously through her. It was that interview and the Team Brick vs. Team Vance thing that made this interview possible. I’m nothing if I’m not up to a challenge. Team Brick fired the first shot, but I wasn’t about to let it go unanswered just because I was nervous. I am a Dale Carnegie graduate after all!

In the end, there was nothing to be nervous about at all. We discussed the experience of transitioning between diverse books for both narrators and readers, the history of Simon’s home studio, his thoughts on immediate audience feedback while recording, and James Bond. Simon Vance is as charming as he is talented. I even think I did a decent job remaining calm. Don’t be fooled, though. I was fully aware that I was living an audiobook lover’s dream.

As it’s Christmas time, it just wouldn’t be right to keep this experience to myself. Click on the link below to find out what made Simon a winner, which book holds the distinction of being the only one he’s recorded out of order, and what word I practiced saying over and over again so that I would say it the proper British way.

Shaken, Not Stirred Jump Start Pack

I’m hosting the Shaken, Not Stirred challenge featuring the Ian Fleming novels narrated by Simon.  Blackstone Audio is an outstanding sponsor of this challenge and they are offering a giveaway in conjunction with this interview!

It began in July, but if you would like to join the Shaken, Not Stirred challenge, it’s definitely not too late! Sign up and join us for our January listen and you will be in the running for a six audiobook Bond Jump Start Pack from Blackstone Audio including Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, Moonraker, Diamonds Are Forever, From Russia With Love and Dr. No. Then simply listen to Goldfinger and join us for the Twitter party on Saturday, January 20th at 9:30pm EST. I will announce the winner during the party.

For those of you who have participated all along, you have not been forgotten. I have two copies of My Word is My Bond, a memoir by Roger Moore to give away to you.

I hope you enjoyed this interview as much as I did. Thanks, Simon! Life is good.

Published by: Soho Press

Published on: November 8, 2011

Page Count: 176

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

My Reading Format: MP3 download provided by AudioGo for participating in the tour

Audiobook Published by: AudioGo

Narrator: Katherine Kellgren

Audiobook Length: 8 hours 41 minutes

Available Formats: Hardcover, Audiobook, eBook

Audio Samples and Giveaway: Be sure to check out the end of my review for samples of this audiobook as well as for a chance to win a copy for yourself courtesy of AudioGo!

My Review

Nina Borg, a Danish wife and mother of two children, is a nurse who dedicates herself to helping the less fortunate, especially illegal immigrants in Denmark. While helping others is a wonderful calling in life, Nina takes this to the extreme, often leaving her family in order to give in to one altruistic compunction or another. This has left a rift in her marriage that she is trying to repair when she receives a frantic call from a close friend from nursing school. She desperately needs  Nina’s help and begs her to pick up a suitcase in a Copenhagen train station, she doesn’t fully realize what she’s gotten herself into. In fact, it’s not until she sees a hulking Eastern European man kick in the locker after she’d taken out the suitcase and found a naked, drugged 3 year old boy that Nina knows that she’s in grave danger. Still, she can’t trust the boy’s safety and salvation to anyone else but herself. Meanwhile, Sigita, Mikas’ mother, is in Lithuania fighting the legal system to get the help she needs to find her beloved son.

The Boy in the Suitcase is a fast paced thriller that keeps the reader interested and invested from the moment Nina discovers the life stolen away inside that suitcase. Just as with preparing to begin a game of chess, it did take some time to set up the primary characters and their relative positions at the beginning of the book. Once that was finished, there was little time to think. Just as Nina and Sigita, the need to know the details of the boy’s  kidnapping was ever present. There was no rest until the end.

Although I see both Nina and Sigita as the main characters and defenders of Mikas, Nina is the character I focused in on the most. She is a prime example how everything – even defending the defenseless – is good in moderation. She is responsible for her husband and children, but she gets obsessed with the injustice suffered by a person or group of people and simply cannot keep any perspective. She must help the stranger. She is so full of anxiety that she can’t help but give in to the compulsion to save this woman, that child or that group of people. It’s interesting that this impulse began shortly after her first child was born. She reached a point when taking care of her infant daughter broke her and she solved the problem by taking on the welfare of a group of strangers. Her escape from the realities of family life was to take on her share of this world’s injustice. Fighting the good fight for strangers didn’t cost her as much as loving her family.

Katherine Kellgren served as narrator for this novel and she is outstanding. This was my first opportunity to listen to her work and I was beyond pleased. Her accents gave the right amount of authenticity to the characters. It really was a delight to experience this book through her narration. Her enthusiasm for the project shone through. Not that the story needed it, but it would be impossible not to get swept up with her.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Boy in the Suitcase. Don’t let the Stieg Larsson comparisons turn you off or set your expectations. A flawed female main character and a Scandinavian setting are the only relevent similarities. Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis have written a story about motherhood, immigration, crime and punishment and redemption that needs no comparison. There were some less than subtle clues provided along the way, but novel moved quickly and worked well. With that and Katherine Kellgren, you simply can’t go wrong.

AudioGo provided me with some goodies to go along with my review of The Boy in the Suitcase. Don’t you just love goodies? I know I do, especially around the holidays. As part of this tour, I have two audio clips. I am really excited to share these! You get a good taste of Kellgren’s narration and how well it works with this novel.

The Boy in the Suitcase_009 and The Boy in the Suitcase_010

If you’d like to listen to the entire first chapter, be sure to visit all of the tour stops on this AudioGo tour:

12/12/11 – Reflections of a Book Addict http://lifeand100books.com/

12/13/11 – The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia http://hauntedorchid.blogspot.com/

12/14/11 – Teresa’s Reading Corner http://teresasreadingcorner.com

12/16/11 – Jen’s Book Thoughts http://www.jensbookthoughts.com/

Wouldn’t you like to listen to the entire audiobook? Of course you would! The second goody from AudioGo is this: I can give away two copies of The Boy in the Suitcase to readers with US mailing addresses. If you’d like a chance to win one of those copies, be sure to leave a comment to this post. It’s as simple as that. I’ll draw two winners at random on Monday, December 19. Good luck!

The Good Thief’s Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan

Published by: Minotaur Books

Published on: September 2009

Page Count: 280

Genre: Mystery/Crime Fiction

My Reading Format: Audiobook provided to me by the publisher for consideration

Audiobook Published by: AudioGo

Narrator: Simon Vance

Audiobook Length: 8 hours 20 minutes

Available Formats: Hardcover, paperback, eBook and audiobook

My Review

After publishing his memoir, we find Charlie Howard in Paris, teaching a Frenchman named Bruno how to break in to his own apartment. Charlie meets Bruno at an after-party following an impromptu book signing at a local Paris bookstore. Charlie would have rather been cozying up with Paige, a young American woman who set up the signing, but she is occupied with other males at the bar. Knowing it was a mistake to take 500 euros to teach this man the tricks of his trade, he accepts the job anyway. A mistake it was, and from there Charlie is soon on the run from the French police, the chief subject in a murder investigation. Charlie has more to worry about than just the police. Victoria, his long time agent and confidante, is determined to meet him in person. Charlie is going to have one come to Jesus moment after another if he doesn’t do some artfully dodging.

This second novel in the Good Thief’s Guide series gets off to a fun start with Charlie and Bruno breaking into the apartment, but overall, Charlie seems rather sad as Paris begins. He can’t seem to get any traction on his current novel and his arthritic fingers could very soon get in the way of his thieving livelihood. His humor has a morose edge and his relationship with Vic, a part of his life that keeps him centered, is strained. Simply because he doesn’t have the time to dwell on it, Charlie seems to perk up when his freedom is on the line. The adrenaline rush he gets from the chase and dangerous heists pushes him out of his fog. This gave a good deal of insight into his character.

While Charlie may have begun the novel more somber, The Good Thief’s Guide to Paris has many hilarious moments. The scene when Charlie and Vic come face to face was well worth the wait. The two clicked just as well in the same city as they did over the phone in The Good Thief’s Guide to Amsterdam. There is also one scene in particular that brought tears to my eyes I was laughing so hard. When Charlie is in a real pickle, he describes it like no one else.

As befitting Charlie’s mood, Simon Vance’s narration is not as light-hearted as it was in the first book. You could hear the strain in Vic’s voice while she spoke on the phone with Charlie. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to me any longer, but I was impressed with how well his narration picked up on and expressed the tone of the writing.

Listening to The Good Thief’s Guide to Paris made me glad that I started this series. Like the Maisie Dobbs and series, I find that I enjoy coming to a book already invested in the characters. This novel fleshed both Charlie and Vic out, giving them and their relationship more depth. While I love Charlie’s antics, I appreciate very much that he’s more than a good thief who makes some less than stellar decisions that lead him into peril. I look forward to further adventures in Las Vegas, Venice and beyond.

I’m posting this review today to participate in Jen at Devourer of Books‘ weekly Sound Bytes meme. If you have an audiobook review to post, why not participate with us?

Today, from 9am until noon, AudioGo is offering a free MP3 download of the title Carmilla: A Vampyre Tale by J. Sheridan le Fanu. This audiobook is narrated by Megan Follows, who stars in the movie adaptations of the Anne of Green Gables series. The audio was named a winner of the PW Listen Up Award.

If you are an audiophile (if not, you should be), visit the AudioGo website, add the audiobook to your basket, enter the code TREAT11 and download your free copy.

It’s easy peasy! I’ve got mine. Go get yours!

Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear

Published by: Penguin

Published on: August 2005

Page Count: 336

Genre: Mystery

My Reading Format: Audiobook purchased using Audible credits.

Audiobook Published by: AudioGo

Narrator: Kim Hicks

Audiobook Length: 10 hours 18 minutes

Available Formats: Paperback, eBook, audiobook

My Review

In this second Maisie Dobbs novel, Maisie is working on the case of a missing heiress. Her father, a controlling man who built his grocery business from the ground up, wants his adult daughter to return to his home. As Maisie, along with her aide, Billie Beal, piece together the clues surrounding the Charlotte’s disappearance, they make connections to recent murders. They need to find Charlotte not just because of her father’s request, but, they believe, to keep her alive.

Although I enjoyed the mystery, what I love the most was the story lines behind the lives our detectives. Maisie has been mourning Simon for a long time now. Is work satisfying enough to fill her life? There is also an added complexity to her relationship with her father, who is aging. Billie’s leg has been bothering him more and more and it’s affecting his home and work life. There were scenes in this book I could have wept for Billie. He is a character that continues to stay close to my heart.

As I posted earlier, I needed a little time to lapse between books due to the change in narrator. Aft that time passed, I grew to enjoy Kim Hicks’ narration. I thought she voiced characters surrounding the mystery’s conclusion especially well. There is yet another narrator change between Birds of a Feather and the next book in the series, Pardonable Lies. As much as I’m dying to find out what happens with Maisie next, I’m going to wait until the Christmas break or early next year to give it a listen.

If you haven’t picked up the Maisie Dobbs series, I strongly suggest that you do. I know a lot of people love her and there are good reasons why. I’ll be sure to follow the series as it grows. Luckily it appears that Orlagh Cassidy, the third narrator in the series, will be the narrator through the rest of the currently published novels.

Sometime within the last year, it seemed that everyone began talking about Maisie Dobbs, a private investigator created by Jacqueline Winspear. There are many books and series that have a great deal of hype swirling around, but when some of my favorite book bloggers and publicists joined the fray, I couldn’t stay away, especially when I found out about the audiobooks.

There is an issue with books in a series that is peculiar to audiobooks: changing narrators. There is no guarantee that the narrator you begin a series with will continue on throughout. Although I knew that the series had several narrators going in, this was something I didn’t think would have much of an impact on my reading. I’ve discovered that I should never underestimate the power of change.

The first in the series, Maisie Dobbs, was narrated by Rita Barrington. I fell in love with her work immediately. In addition to the time and place, both Maisie and Billie Beal came to life through her skilled performance. I immediately downloaded the second novel in the series, Birds of a Feather. It is narrated by Kim Hicks. I started the book within a short period of time after Maisie Dobbs and I found that Kim Hicks just wasn’t Rita Barrington. Ms. Hicks’ Maisie and Billie felt off kilter to me and I sadly set it aside.

Months later, after finding myself in between audiobooks with my next listen at home, I picked it back up. I wasn’t expecting much, but I didn’t like the idea of losing all of that reading time. Much to my joy, my Maisie Dobbs ear memory had faded. Kim Hicks was no longer “not Rita Barrington.” I was able to enjoy the listen on its own merits. True, the story picked up shortly after I started listening again, but I was no longer focused on what had changed. I couldn’t recall what that was any longer, so I was free to focus on the story. Don’t you love that feeling?

As with the first novel, I ended Birds of a Feather enchanted by Maisie Dobbs and her world. Kim Hicks is an excellent narrator. My experiences with her and Rita Barrington have taught me a valuable audiobook geek lesson. This time, no matter how curious I am to see what happens next for Maisie, I’m going to give it some time before I pick up Pardonable Lies. I want to fully enjoy Maisie and the latest narrator, Orlagh Cassidy. Patience is a virtue, after all.

Maybe I should pick up an audiobook about developing patience while I wait…