Celebrating Audiobooks with June is Audiobook Month

Summer is right around the corner, and the book world's unofficial kick-off is here!

It's June is Audiobook Month (#JIAM), so prepare to trade chapters for tracks and let's get listening. Whether it's on a road trip or while you're cleaning house, audiobooks are the perfect way to keep reading even when you aren't in a position to pick up a book.

Audiobook Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Release Date: Jan. 10, 2012
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Age Group: Young Adult
Format: Audiobook
Source: Publisher
Length: 7 hrs, 14 mins
Buy: Amazon /
Barnes & Noble / IndieBound
Description: Goodreads
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning-author John Green’s most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

A beautifully heartbreaking story of living in spite of the sometimes ugly truths of life, The Fault in Our Stars is an emotional reminder that pain and pleasure often walk hand in hand, but that doesn't make living any less worthwhile.

This novel strikes countless chords that will resonate deeply with a wide range of people. It runs the gamut of emotion, veering so hard at times that you will have barely stopped laughing when you find yourself deteriorating into a sobbing heap of a person.

For the record, I should say I am not a crier. An author friend once called me a "soulless harpy" due to my stoicism. But congratulations John Green! You reduced me to a tearful mess while driving the New Jersey Turnpike.

(PSA: The Fault in Our Stars audiobook is a potential hazard
to motorists everywhere. Please use caution when listening.)

As Hazel notes about her favorite novel, "it's not a cancer book because cancer books suck." Not to be obvious, that's also true about The Fault in Our Stars. Illness is a factor, but it's not the focus of Hazel and Gus's story. Their's is a tale of savoring time, moment by moment, because right now may be all anyone has.

Delivery absolutely made this book for me. The insightful intellectual banter and wit along with the

Both Hazel and Gus are realists when it comes to living with cancer, but they cope with their realities by refusing to give cancer a starring role in their lives. For Hazel, it's a darker side of self or a an evolutionary process gone awry, treated without blame. Gus handles it with an almost self-deprecating humor. Isaac is unabashedly direct and darkly comical about his condition.

It's rare that I feel a single narrator does multiple characters justice, but Kate Rudd does an outstanding job. She has a subtle way of lending personality to each character. Thanks to her masterful interpretation of this cast, I will forever hear the words of The Fault in Our Stars in her voice.

Telling you, dear readers, to immediately go devour this moving novel would be unnecessary since I know so many of you have already read it. Though I will urge those who haven't and those of you itching for a reread to plug into the audiobook. Without a doubt, it's one of my favorite listens of all time.

Guest Post: Julie Kagawa on the audiobook experience

Julie Kagawa, New York Times bestselling author of the Iron Fey and Blood of Eden series and all around superstar, is here today to celebrate audiobooks with us. Of course her books are amazing, but the audio is even more engaging. She has had some amazing luck when it comes to narrators! She's here to share her thoughts about the audio versions of her books and express her love for all things audiobook.

Find Julie online... 

Website / Blog

Twitter / Facebook

Check out her audiobooks HERE!

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Things I love about audiobooks:

1. They're great for when I'm too tired to actually pick up a book and read.

2. They're the best thing for long car/plane rides. Five hours on a plane zips right by when you're immersed in an audio book. It can even drown out the screaming infant sitting behind you.

3. If the narrator is James Marsters or Neil Gaiman, you get to listen to their (sexy) voice for the duration of the book.

Lol, okay okay. So this isn't the most logical list ever. Except maybe the screaming infant thing.  Regardless, I love audio books.  Maybe it goes back to my own mom reading me a story when I was a kid. I think that's where my love of reading began. And if the narrator is fabulous--as all of mine were--you get to hear the characters come to life in completely new and awesome ways.

For the audio versions of the Iron Fey and Blood of Eden series, I've had exactly five narrators.  One for Meghan, Puck, Ash, Ethan, and Allie. I've listened to them all, and I honestly can't say which I've enjoyed more. All the narrators were extraordinary and fascinating in their own way.  And for the record, hearing your own book read back to you is an odd experience; it's almost like you're listening to a different story. I must commend all of my narrators for what I know had to be several very emotional scenes. (The last chapter of The Eternity Cure comes to mind, and Therese Plummer nailed it.)     

I guess what I'm trying to say with this post is: if you haven't listened to an audio book yet, definitely try it out. Especially if you're going on a long car or plane trip. It really is a different experience. And grab a book read by Neil Gaiman or James Marsters. You'll thank me later.  ;)

Recorded Books JIAM Celebration and Giveaway

Recorded Books is helping us to celebrate June is Audiobook Month with a giveaway! They're also hosting a couple fun features and activities...

What do audiobooks mean to people? Recorded Books wants to know! They are inviting audiobook lovers, librarians, and educators to record a short video (one-minute max) to share their favorite audiobook moment or talk about what audiobooks mean to them. Videos can be submitted to Recorded Books at facebook.com/recordedbooks, twitter.com/recordedbooks, or email (kjennah[plus]JIAM[at]recordedbooks[dot]com). At the end of the month, two winners will get a personalized voicemail message for their library read by AudioFile Golden Voices George Guidall or Barbara Rosenblat.

Favorite moments. The Recorded Books Blog will be featuring favorite moments in audio from narrators including Simon Vance, Robin Miles, Barbara Rosenblat, Christina Moore, Jenny Sterlin, Andrew Garman, Robert Ian Mackenzie, George Guidall, Carol Monda, Johnny Heller, Mark Turetsky, and many more.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Summer Listening Winner

Tina B. 

Congratulations! I'll pass your information along to the publisher, and they'll get these audiobooks out to you ASAP. Thanks to everyone who entered and to Simon & Schuster for offering up this awesome prize pack. 

Bruiser by Neal Shusterman

Release Date: May 3, 2011
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Age Group: Young Adult
Format: Audio
Source: Publisher
Buy: Amazon
Description: Goodreads
Tennyson:
Don't get me started on the Bruiser. He was voted "Most Likely to Get the Death Penalty" by the entire school. He's the kid no one knows, no one talks to, and everyone hears disturbing rumors about. So why is my sister, Brontë, dating him? One of these days she's going to take in the wrong stray dog, and it's not going to end well.


Brontë:
My brother has no right to talk about Brewster that way—no right to threaten him. There's a reason why Brewster can't have friends—why he can't care about too many people. Because when he cares about you, things start to happen. Impossible things that can't be explained. I know, because they're happening to me.

Award-winning author Neal Shusterman has crafted a chilling and unforgettable novel about the power of unconditional friendship, the complex gear workings of a family, and the sacrifices we endure for the people we love.

Bruiser completely blindsided me. I hadn't even seen a copy on the shelf when an author recommended it mere days before Brilliance Audio offered to send it to me. It was a more intense and emotional book than I ever expected, not only because of the emotions the characters experience but the ones they don't.

What if you didn't have to feel the bad in life? And if you didn't would you ever want it back? Is a carefree existence all it's cracked up to be?

Brewster Rawlins, known to most as "Bruiser", has a reputation. People spread rumors but he's given a wide berth a school, so when Brontë starting dating him her twin brother Tennyson, who's kind of the macho jock, flips his wig. No one, including Tennyson, knows anything about Brewster or his life, but they assume and freely. Tennyson is convinced he's dangerous and determined to drive him away from Brontë.

He sets out to investigate Brew in hopes of digging up the real dirt. Instead, he learns that Brew has taken more pain in his life than he's inflicted and doesn't get close to people because of it. For Brew, caring has consequences, and being alone is safer than letting someone get too close.

It isn't until Brew lets Brontë and Tennyson into his heart that they learn exactly how dangerous it is for him to have friends. At first Brew's secret seems like a gift, but Tennyson and Brontë will have to face their own lives and take back everything that was taken from them if they want to save Brew. Even if it hurts.

Narration by Nick Poedehl (of Will Grayson, Will Grayson), Kate Rudd ( of Tithe), Luke Daniels (of This Dark Endeavor), and Laura Hamilton is superb. The four-part narration makes this story of sacrificing yourself for the ones you love feel incredibly three-dimensional.

I have to admit that four points of view was a little hard to keep up with at first even though the characters announce themselves at the beginning of each chapter. Sometimes there was no telling who was coming next and there were a lot of observations, opinions, and  periphery relationships to keep up with, but after the second or third rotation I had adjusted.

Though I love all of the four, I think Tennyson was my favorite character with a POV. However, Brew's were the most interesting because they are lyrical and had the most depth of emotion. In the hardcover, his chapters are all written a bit like poetry with stanzas and very specific formatting. They feel so immensely personal that at times they feel like diary entries.

As a predominantly paranormal reader, the thing that surprises me most about Bruiser is the it is very nearly genreless. It's not literary per say but it has contemporary setting with aspects of magical realism or the paranormal. All of it works well together and no one thing holds so much of the focus that it takes away from the story.