Review - The Seventh Raven [AUDIO]

The Seventh Raven
by David Elliott
Date: 2021
Publisher: HarperCollins and Blackstone Publishing
Reading level: YA
Book type: verse novel
Length: 1 hour 47 minutes
Format: audio book [unabridged]
Source: library

Best-selling author David Elliott examines the timeless themes of balance, transformation, and restoration in this evocative tale about a girl who will stop at nothing to reverse a curse that turned her seven brothers into ravens.

And these are the sons
Of good Jack and good Jane
The eldest is Jack
And the next one is Jack
And the third one’s called Jack
And the fourth’s known as Jack
And the fifth says he’s Jack
And they call the sixth Jack
But the seventh’s not Jack
The seventh is Robyn

And this is his story

When Robyn and his brothers are turned into ravens through the work of an unlucky curse, a sister is their only hope to become human again. Though she’s never met her brothers, April will stop at nothing to restore their humanity. But what about Robyn, who always felt a greater affinity to the air than to the earth-bound lives of his family?

David Elliott’s latest novel in verse explores the unintended consequences of our actions, no matter our intentions, and is filled with powerful messages teased from a Grimms’ fairy tale.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

When you want a cool fairy tale retelling and you get a pile of pretentious poetry.

Yeah. It's like that.

I enjoy verse novels, but I did not click with this one. I think part of the problem is that I detested Robyn, the character with whom we're supposed to relate. See, Robyn likes being a raven... but he's such an unempathetic narcissist that, when the point of breaking the curse comes, he can only think of what he is going to lose, not what nine other people are about to get back, or the fact that his sister had to literally mutilate her body to break the curse. So he goes and sulks for the rest of his life and declares he's an angel (I kid you not; we're supposed to like this weirdo?).

There's a note at the end about how different forms of poetry were used for different characters. In another format, I might've found this interesting. But since I listened to the audiobook, I didn't get to see the words on the page, which made it more difficult to differentiate the types of poems. The effect one gets from listening to this book is one of unevenness and excessive repetition.

The misandrist messaging, the unlikable characters, and the repetition all combined to leave a rather sour taste in my mouth. I love verse novels. I love fairy tale retellings. I should have loved this book.

But I didn't.

Plot: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 2/5
Performance: 3/5
Originality: 2/5
Enjoyment: 1/5

Overall: 2 out of 5

Review - I'm Glad My Mom Died [AUDIO]

I'm Glad My Mom Died
by Jennette McCurdy
Date: 2022
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Reading level: A
Book type: memoir
Length: 6 hours 26 minutes
Format: audio book [unabridged]
Source: library

A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child actor—including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother—and how she retook control of her life.

Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction,” eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, “Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?” She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income.

In I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail—just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly, she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi (“Hi Gale!”), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants.

Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I heard a lot about this book last year. With a title like that, how could a reader not be intrigued?

This is a rather harrowing memoir of Hollywood, abuse, illness, family dysfunction, and, yes, love. The provocative title seems to have turned a lot of people off. After listening to this audiobook, though, I can understand why it was chosen. Emotions are complicated. Families are complicated. When there is such emotional chaos in a family, it's understandable that there might be a certain amount of relief when the source of much of that chaos is removed from the picture.

Jennette's mom put her through a lot. The woman was not well, physically or mentally. She was a hoarder. She had extremely narcissistic behaviours. She lived vicariously through her daughter, seeming to see Jennette as little more than an extension of herself. The harrowing depictions of abuse (that Jennette didn't even realize was abuse until years later) are hard to listen to. Coming out with the raw details must have been incredibly difficult, and I applaud Jennette for being courageous enough to do so.

This is an important book, especially for people who may have similar relationships with family members. Ignoring the abuse doesn't help. Keeping secrets doesn't help. All those things serve to do is push the problem further into the future... where it will have to be dealt with at some point, especially if you want to have any semblance of a healthy, normal life.

I just want to add that I'm not the biggest fan of audiobooks in general. But, in this case, I would recommend listening to this book rather than reading it. Jennette does a great job with the narration. Her dry humour comes through when it's appropriate, and yet there are other times when you can hear the genuine heartbreak in her voice. This is her story, after all... and it's wonderful to get to hear her tell it to us.

Overall, this is a really strong memoir. I've never seen iCarly, and I didn't even know who Jennette was before this book came on the scene. But I found this to be a fascinating memoir, and I would definitely recommend it to others.

 
Premise: 4/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 4/5
Performance: 4/5
Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall: 4 out of 5

Review - Wings in the Wild [AUDIO]

Wings in the Wild
by Margarita Engle
Date: 2023
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Reading level: YA
Book type: verse novel
Length: 1 hour 46 minutes
Format: audio book [unabridged]
Source: library

This gorgeously romantic contemporary novel-in-verse from award-winning author Margarita Engle tells the “inspiring and hopeful” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) love story of two teens fighting for climate action and human rights.

Winged beings are meant to be free. And so are artists, but the Cuban government has criminalized any art that doesn’t meet their approval. Soleida and her parents protest this injustice with their secret sculpture garden of chained birds. Then a hurricane exposes the illegal art, and her parents are arrested.

Soleida escapes to Central America alone, joining the thousands of Cuban refugees stranded in Costa Rica while seeking asylum elsewhere. There she meets Dariel, a Cuban American boy whose enigmatic music enchants birds and animals—and Soleida.

Together they work to protect the environment and bring attention to the imprisoned artists in Cuba. Soon they discover that love isn’t about falling—it’s about soaring together to new heights. But wings can be fragile, and Soleida and Dariel come from different worlds. They are fighting for a better future—and the chance to be together.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I didn't expect to dislike this one as much as I did. I've read a couple of Margarita Engle's other verse novels, both historical fiction set in Cuba, and really enjoyed them. I was curious to see what a verse novel was like in audiobook format. I can't say that I was impressed. Then again, I don't think I would've liked this book anyway, even if I'd read a copy.

Aside from being very hard to follow (which may simply be one of the limitations of the audio format here), the characters are flat, the story fizzles, and the whole thing gets very, very preachy. Dariel's anger over climate change is to the point of being off-putting, and a few times the narrative devolves into statistics and scolding. I almost wondered if this thing had been ghostwritten by Greta Thunberg.

Yes, deforestation is a problem. Yes, artists being persecuted in Cuba is awful. Yes, being a refugee must suck. Those are the things I really wanted to read about. Instead, we got a weak story with contrived relationship complications, a confusing timeline, anti-adult sentiment, and a little too much preaching about how the world is toast if we don't meet yet another arbitrary target for carbon-emission reductions (which will probably be pushed ahead another few years when we reach 2040 and we're not all dead).

If I read any other books by this author in the future, I'll be sticking to her historical fiction... and staying away from the audiobooks.

Plot: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 2/5
Performance: 3/5
Originality: 3/5
Enjoyment: 1/5

Overall: 2.17 out of 5

Review - Not If I Save You First [AUDIO]

Not If I Save You First
by Ally Carter
Date: 2018
Publisher: Scholastic
Reading level: YA
Book type: prose novel
Length: 6 hours 55 minutes
Format: audio book [unabridged]
Source: library

Bestselling author Ally Carter returns with an exciting stand-alone novel, about a girl stranded in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness with the boy who wronged her . . . as an assassin moves in.

Maddie and Logan were torn apart by a kidnapping attempt when they were young. They were only kids -- Logan's dad was POTUS and Maddie's father was the Secret Service agent meant to guard him. The kidnappers were stopped -- but Maddie was whisked off to Alaska with her father, for safety. Maddie and Logan had been inseparable . . . but then she never heard from him again.

Now it's a few years later. Maddie's a teenager, used to living a solitary life with her father. It's quiet -- until Logan is sent to join them. After all this time without word, Maddie has nothing to say to him -- until their outpost is attacked, and Logan is taken. They won't be out of the woods until they're . . . out of the woods, and Maddie's managed to thwart the foes and reconcile with Logan.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I don't know why I do these things to myself...

It's been a while since I read a novel, but I didn't really feel like reading a novel, so I thought I'd find an audiobook instead. But... have you seen the length of some of those things? Fourteen hours just seems kind of intimidating. So when I found Not If I Save You First, which clocks in at just under seven hours, I thought I'd found a quick, fun read.

Hah.

I don't know if it was just the narrator or if I would've felt the same way if I'd been reading the print version, but I could not stand Maddie. It's like she was supposed to be a statement against the "not like other girls" trope, but it went so far that the girl was insufferable. When you've just been kidnapped by Russians in the Alaskan wilderness, the last thing you should be thinking about is your hair. And even if the whole carefree valley-girl thing that she lapsed into whenever things got serious was some sort of defence mechanism, it was extremely annoying. I was honestly rooting for her to get pushed off a cliff by the end of the book.

Aside from the far-fetched story, this book has some other problems. In Chapter 14, there's suddenly all this weird, sexist talk that seems to come out of nowhere. It makes the book seem like it was written in the past. And yet, the male MC almost comes across as emasculated thanks to the insistence on Maddie solving all their problems (with a metaphorical flip of the hair and a cheeky, "Whatever!"). This particular book also doesn't lend itself very well to the audiobook format. It was fine when there was just one Russian. He had an accent, so it was easy to tell when he was talking. But then there were suddenly two Russians, and I had to back up a few times to try to figure out who was saying what because there weren't always dialogue tags to indicate it.

One of the biggest annoyances, though, was the author's insistence on continually using the characters' names... even when they were alone in a scene or when Maddie and Logan were by themselves. "She" and "he" would've been more than sufficient and a lot less distracting.

That was part of the problem. This book just didn't hold my interest, and I got distracted a lot. I couldn't tell you some of the finer plot points because I kind of zoned out, and there was even a bit near the end where I forgot where Logan was. By that point, though, I had so little investment in the story that I didn't bother to go back and re-listen. I just wanted to be done.

Plot: 2/5
Characters: 1/5
Pace: 2/5
Performance: 2/5
Originality: 2/5
Enjoyment: 0/5

Overall: 1.5 out of 5

Review - You've Reached Sam [AUDIO]

You've Reached Sam
by Dustin Thao
Date: 2021
Publisher: Macmillan Young Listeners
Reading level: YA
Book type: prose novel
Length: 9 hours 42 minutes
Format: audio book [unabridged]
Source: library

Dustin Thao's You've Reached Sam is a heartfelt audiobook about love and loss and what it means to say goodbye.

How do you move forward when everything you love is on the line?

Seventeen-year-old Julie has her future all planned out—move out of her small town with her boyfriend Sam, attend college in the city, spend a summer in Japan.

But then Sam dies. And everything changes.

Heartbroken, Julie skips his funeral, throws out his things, and tries everything to forget him and the tragic way he died. But a message Sam left behind in her yearbook forces back memories. Desperate to hear his voice one more time, Julie calls Sam’s cellphone just to listen to his voicemail.

And Sam picks up the phone.

In a miraculous turn of events, Julie’s been given a second chance at goodbye. The connection is temporary. But hearing Sam’s voice makes her fall for him all over again, and with each call it becomes harder to let him go. However, keeping her otherworldly calls with Sam a secret isn’t easy, especially when Julie witnesses the suffering Sam’s family is going through. Unable to stand by the sidelines and watch their shared loved ones in pain, Julie is torn between spilling the truth about her calls with Sam and risking their connection and losing him forever.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I thought the premise of this one sounded so cool. A grieving girl who suddenly has the chance to reconnect with her dead boyfriend through a magic cellphone? Sign me up!

I'd read some not-so-stellar reviews of this one, but I thought I'd give it a try, anyway. The library had the audiobook, so I gave it a go.

Big mistake.

It's probably just one of those books that works better in print. Because the timeline skips around a lot, it's kind of hard to follow. I can't see scene breaks when I'm listening, so sometimes I was confused when Julie would suddenly be with Sam again. A lot of the confusion could've been avoided had the author used the past tense for flashbacks. But the majority of the book is written in the present tense, even when Julie is remembering things that happened in the past.

Speaking of those memories, I'm not a fan. They're almost like a fever dream, with one recollection dissolving into the next, and everything seems disjointed. These sections could've really helped flesh out the story, or made me understand the characters a little better. Sadly, much of the book seems like padding, and the various characters are unlikeable, underdeveloped, stereotypical, unpleasant, or just plain inconsistent. I don't even particularly like Sam, especially after he died; all those rules with their connection that are never explained almost seemed like manipulation.

When we find out how Sam died, I thought there would be more to it than that, especially since Julie spends much of the book in a "woe is me, it's all my fault" mode. In fact, a lot of people blame Julie for Sam's death, and the reasons why make absolutely no sense to me. The perpetual blame game comes across more like a plot device than anything else, and I was disappointed that there was no earth-shattering twist that explained what really went on that night and who was really to blame.

I'm not sure if I should even mention this next part, because I'll probably get flack for it, but I feel like it needs to be mentioned. This book is kind of racist. I'm already uncomfortable by the fact that a Vietnamese-American man decided to write the book from the point of view of a Caucasian girl... but not because authors need to stay in their own lanes. What irked me is that this choice seemed to be made as a subtle way to make a statement about race. Julie, a white girl, doesn't really have a cultural background; on the other hand, the book tries to glorify Asian culture (while simultaneously presenting it as a bit of a stereotypical monolith, which was a bit odd). Everything Asian is good (the people are model-beautiful, they bring pretty lunches to school, they're so inclusive they'll let white people into the Asian club, they're so in touch with their heritage, etc.), while a number of the white kids in the book are portrayed as one-dimensional bigots.

Anyway, even without that stuff, I'm not sure if I would feel much more favourably toward this book. It was kind of boring, in the end, and I never got the answers—or the characters—I wanted.

Also, sending flaming lanterns out into the wilderness in a state that regularly has wildfires is extremely irresponsible. And Julie wouldn't be walking under cherry blossoms during her first week of school. I'm surprised an editor didn't have something to say about these things...

Plot: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 2/5
Performance: 3/5
Originality: 3/5
Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall: 2.33 out of 5

Review - Unchosen [AUDIO]

Unchosen
by Katharyn Blair
Date: 2021
Publisher: HarperAudio
Reading level: YA
Book type: prose novel
Length: 10 hours 3 minutes
Format: audio book [unabridged]
Source: library

For Charlotte Holloway, the world ended twice.

The first was when her childhood crush, Dean, fell in love—with her older sister.

The second was when the Crimson, a curse spread through eye contact, turned the majority of humanity into flesh-eating monsters.

Neither end of the world changed Charlotte. She’s still in the shadows of her siblings. Her popular older sister, Harlow, now commands forces of survivors. And her talented younger sister, Vanessa, is the Chosen One—who, legend has it, can end the curse.

When their settlement is raided by those seeking the Chosen One, Charlotte makes a reckless decision to save Vanessa: she takes her place as prisoner.

The word spreads across the seven seas—the Chosen One has been found.

But when Dean’s life is threatened and a resistance looms on the horizon, the lie keeping Charlotte alive begins to unravel. She’ll have to break free, forge new bonds, and choose her own destiny if she has any hope of saving her sisters, her love, and maybe even the world.

Because sometimes the end is just a new beginning.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I was looking through my book blog and realized I hadn't listened to an audiobook in over a decade. What?! Yeah, I know. But, to be fair, audiobooks and I don't always get along. Without visual input of some sort, my mind tends to wander. (Either that, or I fall asleep.) But I've been having trouble lately with starting books and then not finishing them, so I wondered if "reading" an audiobook might work better for me right now.

I haven't tried an audiobook in ages, and I also haven't read a young adult novel in a while. I think I might be getting too old for them. Or maybe I was just too old for this one. When the world has gone to hell and zombies are nipping at your heels, it seems a little ridiculous to start waxing poetic about some guy's shoulders. But... here we are.

I did really like the premise of this one, though. It's basically a post-apocalyptic zombie book, but the zombie thing is really unique. It's based on a curse rather than the usual virus, and it's spread through eye contact. This leads to some interesting work-arounds like the characters having to use mirrors to look at things, lest they get zombified.

Our main character is Charlotte, who's the inconsequential middle sister of three. Her older sister is some badass warrior, and her younger sister is literally the Chosen One who's supposed to save them all. On top of that, Charlotte is in love with her older sister's boyfriend, so things aren't running too smoothly in the family unit.

Once the story started to pick up a bit, and some villains were thrown into the mix, I found myself getting a little lost. Maybe it was because of the audio format, or maybe the book was actually just confusing. The pacing seemed uneven in spots, especially toward the end (which was a little lacklustre after all that buildup). I wasn't that impressed with the villains, either; they were your standard moustache-twirlers who enjoyed being evil just for the sake of it.

This probably wasn't the best book to ease me back into the world of audio. There was an awful lot of repetition, which was painfully obvious in audio format. (What I mean is that certain words and phrases were repeated way too close together, and characters' names were used too often when "he" or "she" would've sufficed.) I also wasn't a fan of this particular narrator, who would lower her voice for the male characters (which sounded silly) and harshen her voice for some of the female characters (making the villains, especially, sound more vapid than menacing). I do realize there's not much a single narrator can do with a book to differentiate the characters other than try to put on different voices. Still, I felt like the somewhat weird character voices were distracting and drew me out of the story at times.

Overall, I give the premise top marks for originality. The execution is a little lacking, though. Still, it will probably appeal to young adult readers who are looking for an interesting post-apocalyptic romp with a touch of romance.

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 4/5
Performance: 4/5
Originality: 4/5
Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall: 3.33 out of 5

Review - Gossamer [AUDIO]

Gossamer
by Lois Lowry
Date: 2006
Publisher: Listening Library
Reading level: MG
Book type: prose novel
Length: 2 hours 43 minutes
Format: audio book [unabridged]
Source: library

Littlest One is a tiny creature slowly learning her job of giving dreams to humans. Each night she and her teacher, Thin Elderly, visit an old woman’s home where she softly touches beloved objects, gathering happy memories, and drops of old scents and sounds. Littlest One pieces these bits together and presents them to her sleeping human in the form of pleasant dreams. But the dreaded Sinisteeds, dark fearsome creatures that plague their victims with nightmares, are always at work against the dreamgivers. When the old woman takes in John, an angry foster child with a troubled past, the Sinisteeds go after him with their horrifying nightmares. Can Littlest One, and her touch light as gossamer, protect John’s heart and soul from the nightmare of his dark past?

(synopsis from Goodreads)

When I first started listening to this one, I thought it might end up being a good story.  Boy, was I ever wrong!  I couldn't wait for this one to be over; the only reason I even bothered to finish it was because it was relatively short (for an audio book).

The plot was pretty weak.  So there are these little creatures who come at night, gather nice memories from your belongings, and then turn them into dreams which they then bestow upon you.  That's fine.  But that's about all there was to the whole story!  Everything was oversimplified and (I thought) a bit condescending.  The villains weren't seen much, and they weren't that scary.  A horse-like creature (a Sinisteed) breathes its way through your walls (I'm not joking) and gives you a nightmare.  Okay... but why did the other dreamgivers act like this was a matter of life and death?  They couldn't always prevent the nightmares, and even then, nobody died.  So what was the big deal?

The characters were so boring.  I couldn't relate to any of them.  Littlest One was naive and annoying; her mentor, Thin Elderly, had about as much personality as a piece of drywall; the old woman was clueless and one-dimensional; John was a lost cause and downright scary (when a foster kid keeps talking about getting a gun and shooting you -- and your dog -- you should probably be a little bit worried); John's mother was almost an afterthought, and probably shouldn't even have made an appearance if she was going to be so underutilized; and Toby, the dog, was just a boring dog character (and dogs should never be boring).  The only character I was interested in was one of the dreamgivers who'd turned into a Sinisteed.  That was interesting... but that story angle wasn't given much attention.

Overall, the thing that really made me dislike this audio book was the narrator.  In fact, I've made a note of her name so I never have to endure that sort of torture again.  At times, all the characters sounded the same, which was confusing; at other times, she tried to differentiate the voices, only to become even more annoying.  Her attempt at a tiny creature (Littlest One) sounded forced in its attempt to be childlike, and yet near the end of the book her regular narration voice lapsed into this irritating tone.  All the old characters (Thin Elderly, Most Ancient, the old woman) spoke the same way, with a creaky voice that had this weird downward inflection at the end of each phrase.

I have to admit, in the spirit of full disclosure, that I fell asleep numerous times while listening, so I may have missed a second or two here and there.  But, if anything, that only further proves that this story is too boring to be tolerated.

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 1/5
Pace: 2/5
Performance: 1/5
Originality: 3/5
Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall: 2 out of 5

Review - Because of Winn-Dixie [AUDIO]

Because of Winn-Dixie
by Kate DiCamillo
Date: 2000
Publisher: Listening Library
Reading level: MG
Book type: prose novel
Length: 2 hours 28 minutes
Format: audio book [unabridged]
Source: library

When 10-year-old India Opal Buloni moves to Naomi, Florida, with her father, she doesn't know what to expect -- least of all, that she'll adopt Winn-Dixie, a dog she names after the supermarket where they met.

Right away, Opal knows she can tell Winn-Dixie anything -- like the fact that lately she's been thinking a lot about her mother, who left when Opal was three. And that her father, the preacher, won't talk about her mother at all. And that she's lonely. But with such an unusually friendly dog at her side, Opal soon finds herself making more than a few unusual friends. And ultimately, Opal and the preacher realize -- with a little help from Winn-Dixie, of course -- that while they've both tasted a bit of melancholy in their lives, they still have a whole lot to be thankful for.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I really haven't had much experience with audio books.  For some reason, I'd viewed them sort of as cheating... like if I didn't actually read a book myself, then it didn't count.  Which is kind of silly, actually.  The last audio book I listened to was an abridged version of Karen Cushman's Catherine, Called Birdy way back in the 1990s (on cassette tape -- my age is showing).  I really enjoyed it, so I don't know why I was so hesitant to try audio books again.

Because of Winn-Dixie is a cute story about a girl and her dog.  It's one of those books that evokes the atmosphere of small-town America in a way that seems so real that it can create a sense of nostalgia (even for those who've never been to small-town America).  The cast of characters was colourful and entertaining, and everybody had their own story.  Winn-Dixie was a fun animal character, too, with his unusual but friendly manner of greeting people and his neurosis about thunderstorms.

There's really not much I have to say against the book, though I wasn't crazy about the choice of narrator for the audio book.  Opal was supposed to be a 10-year-old girl, so listening to what sounded like a 40-year-old smoker kind of threw me.  Other than that, the performance itself was good, with lovely inflection and different voices for the various characters.

Plot: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Pace: 4/5
Performance: 4/5
Originality: 4/5
Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall: 4 out of 5

Musing Mondays (4)

Musing Mondays is hosted by Rebecca at Just One More Page...

What is your preferred method of listening to audio books? Where and when do you listen to them?

I haven't listened to many audio books, to be honest. In fact, I can only think of a few.

The very first was as a toddler. I had The Tale of Peter Rabbit on a record. As a result, I had the whole text memorized at around the age of two.

The next one I can remember was a cassette recording of Catherine, Called Birdy, narrated by Kate Maberly. I absolutely loved it. I actually listened to the audio book before I read the printed version. Miss Maberly's voice and accent really brought the character to life. To this day, I can still remember Birdy's amusing references to Shaggy Beard and her frequent exclamations of "God's thumbs!"

The most recent audio book I've listened to was a CD version of Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth. It was recommended to me long before Oprah's endorsement made it hugely popular. I got about halfway through and found it pretty interesting, although Tolle's voice bothered me at times. And then my CD player balked at one of the discs... so I never finished.

My mind tends to wander when I try to listen to books rather than read them. I guess it's a matter of listening being more passive than actually having to hold the book and turn the pages. So I'm not a huge fan... especially since so many audio books tend to be abridged (and what's the point if you're not going to get the complete story?).