Monday, November 15, 2010

Listen To Me

Since my commute is what seems like a thousand hours long, I thought I'd share what I'm reading/listening to with you. Because I'm a giver.

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I have audiobook ADD.

I have the worst time listening to books. I tend to fade out and start thinking about other things, or even focus on driving, which is so distracting when I'm at a crucial point in the book. Honestly. It's like people are TRYING to be complete assholes about it.

Anyway, I've been listening to a lot of audiobooks, and one of the recent ones that I LOVED was M.C. Beaton's Death of a Gentle Lady.

Isn't it atmospheric?
If you haven't read much of Beaton's books, I suggest you do. She has two series: The Hamish Macbeth and the Agatha Raisin. Both are mystery series, the cozy kind [not overly violent, you know what I mean]. Death of a Gentle Lady is in the Macbeth series.  Hamish Macbeth is a policeman in Scotland and he [duh] solves crimes.  I like the series because it's a nice, easy, relaxing read. 

I am in LOVE with the reader, Graeme Malcolm.
Seriously.  His voice is a dream.
He's Scottish and his voice is amazingly sexy and also a pleasure to listen to.  Because even more than the actual story, even more that the way the words are put together, if the reader is annoying, you want to stab yourself in the ears.

Not this time.

I loved listening to the book, not only because the story was engaging, but because the soft lilt made my drive easier and more pleasurable.

As I said, I tend to fade in and out, and even though there were quite a few characters, I could follow along pretty well.

Hamish becomes engaged to a Russian woman, Ayesha whom he thought was a maid, but turned out to be a prostitute.  The woman she worked for, Mrs. Gentle, winds up dead, and then, so does Ayesha.

Hamish is also plagued by the nefarious machinations of one of his superiors.  

Hamish does his detective work and finds the killer [I won't spoil it - I was surprised] and gives his evil superior the what-for and he lives to take care of his cat and dog in his tiny police station, ready for another story.

I really hope Graeme Malcolm reads that one, too.

4 comments:

  1. I've tried with audio books but I have the same problem you do - I just can't pay attention. Also....one time, I was listening to Stephen King's The Mist (which I had actually read previously) and drove through a "mist incident" in Western Maryland. Found out that about half an hour after I passed through, there was a massive pile up of about 78 vehicles. No exxageration. Too creepy!

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  2. I've never tried audiobooks. I have a hard time believing that I could follow along and stay focused on driving. I have enough problems driving a car without adding an audiobook into the mix. Next time I road trip home, though, I might have to pick one up from the library to give it a try.

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  3. i can't do audiobooks when driving because they tend to lull me to sleep. that's typically problematic when operating a moving vehicle. now that i commute via public transit, though, i might have to give it a shot...

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  4. I've avoided audio books, but may have to look for this reader. Sounds relaxing.

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