Weekly Geeks 2009-39: I’m Looking For…

…Audio Book Recommendations

I’ve just cancelled my subscription to the Australian equivalent of Netflix and replaced it with an extra Audible book each month (it’s cheaper and I’ll make more use of it). So what better time to jump back into participating in Weekly Geeks and ask you to recommend some audio books for me to download.

Listened to anything lately that has left you breathless? speechless? teary? joyful? bent over with laughter? If so, let me know. Tell me what book you listened to and what you loved about the experience (if you can please tell me the name of the book, author and narrator as there are often different narrators of the same book and I want to share your exact experience if I can).

Regular visitors to this blog will know I read crime fiction almost exclusively these days but I don’t want you to narrow your recommendations. I’m happy to consider all suggestions.

If you’re also looking for some great audio book recommendations, my favourites of the year so far (in no particular order) are

• Reginald Hill’s A Cure for All Diseases (Jonathan Keeble narrator)
• Matt Beynon Rees’ The Saladin Murders (Daniel Philpott narrator)
• Tom Rob Smith’s Child 44 (Steven Pacey narrator)
• Charles Todd Search the Dark (Samuel Gillies narrator)
• Agatha Christie Death on the Nile (David Suchet narrator) (the review is towards the bottom of the post about Agatha Christie and Me)
• Aravind Adiga The White Tiger (Bindya Solanki narrator) (<—- see, not a Crime Fiction book)

 

Weekly Geeks 2009 #11 – Part 1 : Historical Fiction

This week there are four questions all relating to historical fiction. For now I’m choosing to deal with the second question

Do you have a favorite book that really pulled you back in time, or perhaps gave you a special interest in that period? Include a link to a review of it on another book blog if you can find one (doesn’t have to be a Weekly Geek participant). 

but will try to return later in the week to take up the final challenge which is to see what books in the genre other Geek-ers have recommended and choose one to read. 

For now though I’m going to talk about one of my very favourite books: Geraldine Brooks’ Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague. As with all good historical fiction it’s based on fact: a village in rural England in 1666 was struck by plague and the residents cut themselves off from the outside world to prevent further spread of the disease. Brooks has created some memorable, multi-faceted characters to tell the grim but ultimately hope-filled story and her descriptions are so vivid that I was able to picture the isolated, misty, dark village and could feel the emotions the villagers experienced. This book is about people: what they think, what they do, how they react and what they learn. It is a fascinating and believable depiction of what might have been in 1666 in a world that began and ended within a few miles. I have always been morbidly fascinated by the plague and adding this fictional account to the many factual ones I’ve read only enhances my interest in the theme.

The book has been reviewed quite extensively including by

Much loved and missed creator of the Weekly Geeks, Dewey

Rebbecca at The Inside Cover

Lisa at Books on the Brain

 

Weekly Geeks 2009-#10: Worst Movie Adaptations

This week’s Weekly Geeks question is difficult to answer:

The recent release of Watchmen based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore got me thinking about what I thought were the worst movie adaptations of books. What book or books did a director or directors completely ruin in the adaptation(s) that you wish you could “unsee,” and why in your opinion, what made it or them so bad in contrast to the book or books?

It’s difficult because there are so many bad adaptations of great books. I’m not a slave to the faithful recreation of every detail but  I do mind when movie makers seem to miss the point of the book entirely and you wonder if they’ve ever even read the thing. Like Sari I’ve been very disappointed by adaptations of some of my favourite Stephen King novels, especially The Shining because so much of the psychological nuance is left out and all that remains is blood-filled horror which is never what the books are solely about. And 2005’s Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy seemed to ignore entirely the subtle humour of Douglas Adams’ book to the point that I walked out of the screening I was at and only saw it all while held captive on a long flight to Europe.

And because this question asks specifically about film adaptation I won’t rant about what the BBC did to one of my favourite book series when it created the Inspector Lynley Mysteries based, loosely, on Elizabeth George’s series of novels. Instead I’ll talk about The Name of the Rose. The book was written by Umberto Eco in his native Italian in 1980 and translated into English in 1983 and it guides the reader on a journey through some of the most significant events in medieval times using the solving of a whodunit as the major plot device. It tells a fantastic story and is full of rich, historical detail.  The film adaptation, released in 1986 starring Sean Connery and F Murray Abraham, may be a good movie (Connery won a British Academy of Film Award for his role) but it is a lousy adaptation of a book, seeming to go out of its way to depict the places and characters in a way that contradicted Eco’s creation. It doesn’t just gloss over key details it ignores them all together which changes the story completely and the characters are all extreme versions of the originals with none of the subtlety that made the book so interesting and thought provoking. The book uses the murder mystery as a device to enable the reader to ponder a broad range of theological and social issues but the film concentrates only on the mystery and doesn’t even to that very well because many of the motivations and reasons for events and actions are not included so the resolution seems quite inexplicable. In short it’s a film I wish had never been made.

 

Weekly Geeks 2009-05: Cover Story

This week’s Weekly Geeks task is a fun one

Pick a book–any book, really–and search out multiple book cover images for that book. They could span a decade or two (or more)…Or they could span several countries. Which cover is your favorite? Which one is your least favorite? Which one best ’captures’ what the book is about?

One of my favourite books of all time is Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I read it first as a teenager with this cover which is the original 1979 English/UK cover. Because I still have this copy of the book (although it’s falling apart due to over use) I will always associate this book with this cover, regardless of what other covers exist. The book is about a book that has those words printed on the cover in a pleasing way so I think it captures what the book is about too.  But I might be a teensy bit biased.

There are 102 editions of this book  listed at Good Reads (not counting occasions where it’s been included in anthologies with the four other books in the trilogy). While probably not the definitive list it offered a selection of covers, some of which appear below.

This German edition is typical of European editions which highlight darker elements of the story

 

There aren't many editions with the famous Don't Panic on the cover

 

 

I like this French cover although it emphasizes the sci-fi elements a bit more than is necessary

This is a mid 90's American edition and, although pretty, I've no idea what it is trying to represent

 

 

Release of a movie in 2005 was cause for a new eidtion with a vague tie-in to the film

Lots of editions use the thumb front and cetnre

 

 

 

This Italian edition does pick up on a story element but the placement of the title spoils the cover art IMHO

 

Adams originally wrote the story as a radio drama for the BBC so there are lots of audio versions, this one picks up on several story elements

 

Weekly Geeks 2009 #3: The Classics Part 1

This week’s Weekly Geeks assignment has four parts, only one of which I can tackle straight away.

1) How do you feel about classic literature? Are you intimidated by it? Love it? Not sure because you never actually tried it? Don’t get why anyone reads anything else? Which classics, if any, have you truly loved? Which would you recommend for someone who has very little experience reading older books? Go all out, sell us on it! 

I don’t have a huge list of classics on my desert island books list (the books I’d want with me if stranded). In fact there are none although Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice would just about make the grade. And, being a fan of the mystery genre, I do have a well-read copy of Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe. However, I have a bit of an ‘issue’ with the classics.

I went through high school and university in Australia in the 80’s when studying English meant systematically dissecting classic literature. Perhaps I had a succession of bad teachers and lecturers but every book I read during that time brings back bad memories of having the soul sucked out of everything we studied. I had always read voraciously but pulling apart a book to discern the symbolism of every phrase and analyse the minutiae of the characters’ actions and motivations bored me senseless and took the joy out of my favourite pass-time. In fact I dropped English as part of my degree because I just couldn’t stand the thought of having yet another book to hate. As virtually all the books that I studied were classics I’ve tended to stay away from them en masse for my leisure reading ever since.

A few years ago my father gave me a set of leather bound classics that belonged to his mother. There are 20 small novels in fantastic condition and the collection includes Dickens, two Bronte sisters, Victor Hugo and others. About a third of the books are ones I studied during school or Uni so I stored the books away for a long time. But, as they’re the only thing I have from my dad’s side of the family, I recently unpacked them and put them on my bookshelves. It seemed churlish to keep them locked away. One day soon I plan to start reading them. Not studying them, just reading them.

I shall tackle the last question of this week’s challenge, about finding inspiration for classic reading from other Geeks, later on this week when there are more posts up.

 

Weekly Geeks 2009 #1 – Blogs I Follow

Thanks to Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise I discovered that Weekly Geeks is up and running again after its creator Dewey passed away in October. A bunch of book bloggers have pulled together to keep Dewey’s various endeavours, including Weekly Geeks, going. And people say the internet is destroying society…what tosh. You can read more about Dewey here where you’ll see a short history of her life in the blogosphere as well as a swag of links to posts in memory of her and her tireless and creative efforts to bring book bloggers together.

However, to the task at hand. The first new Weekly Geeks challenge is, fittingly: 

In the spirit of the amazing community building that Dewey was so good at, tell us about your favorite blogs, the ones you have bookmarked or subscribe to in your Google Reader, that you visit on a regular basis. Tell us what it is about these blogs that you love, that inspire or educate you or make you laugh. Be sure to link to them so we can find them too.

I am currently subscribed to about a hundred blogs but the majority are not book related (I do have other interests you know). So, below are the book blogs I’m currently subscribed to in the order they appear on the book blog tab in my internet browser which is how I choose to keep track of the book blogs I am subscribed to (and yes I know I should put all of these in my Links tab).

Aust Crime Fiction is an amazing website, database and blog that opened my eyes to a swag of new Australian authors and is responsible for at least three quarters of my rather alarming book-related expenditure last year.

Mysteries in Paradise belongs to the aforementioned Kerrie who is a fellow Adelaidian and the only book blogger I have met in the flesh. She partly inspired me to start this blog

Crime Scraps reviews crime fiction set outside the US (mostly) and is the product of the inimitable Uriah whose sense of humour appeals to me

At the Villa Rose provides longer, more thoughtful posts mostly relating to older mysteries.

Lou’s pages is the blog of a Danish student who is bilingual (I’m so jealous). She reads all sorts of books including some mysteries and we share an interest in Scandinavian crime fiction. 

Beth Fish Reads is the blog of a voracious reader with a daunting enthusiasm for reading challenges. I am always curious to see how she’s progressing in her various challenges (and secretly wonder if she’s mastered the art of human cloning just to keep track of them all). Beth is also a wonderful blog commentor and has inspired me to be more diligent in my own commenting.

Euro Crime is the blog that annoys me the most because it’s always full of news about wonderful BBC shows that will be on air here in Australia in about 5 years…but I torture myself by reading it all anyway. She also has lots of information about audio books which I like to listen to as well so her reviews of those help me manage my audible wishlist. 

Kittling: Books is the blog of yet another person who seems to inhale books at the speed of light. I’ve given up tyring to keep pace with Cathy but I do enjoy her reviews, polls and the general book-loving tone of her blog

Scandinavian Crime Fiction is about exactly what you might think from the title and provides early reviews of books that are going to be released here in many months time which gives me time to save up. Ahhh who am I kidding I go straight from there to bookdepository!

Sunnie’s Book Blog is another Aussie book blog which I follow because she might kill me if I don’t (you have to click the link to see what I mean…she’s posted her prison intake passport photo right there)

 

Weekly Geeks #26 – What do we have in common?

This week’s Weekly Geeks challenge is to snoop around the blogs of five other Weekly Geek-ers that I don’t know and find something in common with them. I chose 5 blogs at random and found the following:

1. On At Home Wtih Books I discovered that the blog’s host Alyce isn’t normally a mystery novel reader so I thought we might not have a lot in common because that is my favourite genre. However Alyce is a fan of Alexander McCall Smith, an author I discovered to my delight only this year. In her 22 November post Alyce highlights his new online novel Corduroy Mansionswhich I have been listening to via podcast since chapter one.
2. I wouldn’t have predicted that I’d have a lot in common with a 20-year old student from Belgium but at at Pink Blue Whale I discovered that Skodder and I both started our blogs this year and both enjoy the humour and wit of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey.
3. At Worducopia it only took me a nanosecond or two to discover that I share a love of the movie Monty Python’s Life of Brian with Ali. It’s one of my top ten favourite movies of all time and my friends are sick of me saying “He’s not the Messaiah – he’s just a very naughty boy” at odd moments.
4. In an October post at She Reads Books I discovered that Christine is a fellow BookMooch fan. She also offers a dozen other ways to rid yourself of books you no longer need.
5. At A Striped Armchair I found we’d both reviewed A God’s Spy by Juan Gomez-Jurado. It was the only shared review I discovered during this challenge but, given I’ve only reviewed 7 books, it’s amazing I found any at all. Her thoughts about the book are here while mine are here and it seems we both found it entertaining.

This was a fun challenge for me but it made me hope no one comes to my blog looking for things in common. As I’ve been book blogging for less than a month there’s not much source material to snoop around in.

 

Weekly Geeks #24 – fun facts about an author

I’m tackling this Weekly Geeks task below

1. Choose a writer you like.

2. Using resources such as Wikipedia, the author’s website, whatever you can find, make a list of interesting facts about the author.

3. Post your fun facts list in your blog, maybe with a photo of the writer, a collage of his or her books, whatever you want.

4. Come sign the Mr Linky below with the url to your fun facts post.

5. As you run into (or deliberately seek out) other Weekly Geeks’ lists, add links to your post for authors you like or authors you think your readers are interested in.

I’ve chosen Dick Francis because his was the first mystery written for adults that I read so it’s partially his fault I spend my leisure time reading crime fiction rather than doing the housework.

• He is 88 years old and still publishing books
• He flew a spitfire during World War II
• He has published an autobiography, 41 novels, a volume of short stories and a non-fiction book
• All of the books have something to do with horses
• You can send an e-card with a dick francis theme
• No movies have been made of any of his novels (a TV mini-series was made in the early 70’s but it wasn’t based on one specific book)
• You can take a trivia quiz about dick francis at goodreads (for the record I scored 6/7)
• In 1957 Francis fell from his horse in a race and was advised he could not continue his career as a jockey so he became the racing correspondent for the Sunday Express (a London newspaper).

And he has bought this book blogger many hours of enjoyment.

 

Weekly Geeks #23 – Favourite reading spots

Being new to blogging about books I thought I’d try out a few posting challenges. I’ve been using Weekly Geeks for a while to find new book blogs for my own interest so it seems like a good place to start. The fact that this week’s challenge is a pretty easy one doesn’t hurt.

This week’s challenge is to look through previous Weekly Geeks themes and repeat one. Strictly speaking I’m not eligible (as I’m not repeating anything) but I did like the idea of showing off my favourite reading spots as per Weekly Geeks #14.

I can (and do) read almost anywhere but at home I have two favourite spots: one indoors and one outdoors. The thing that both have in common is a chair that moves (one rocks, one swings).

To the left is my indoor spot. The chair is very comfy, the blanket folded up on one arm is for warmth during winter and the bookshelf holds my TBR selection. The baskets that you can see on the very left of the picture hold my supplies for posting books to my bookmooch friends (more about bookmooch another day). This is the very book-centric spot of my house.

To the right is my favourite outdoor spot. We’re blessed with a pretty good climate here in Adelaide, Australia so I can use this most of the year. At the moment we’re in daylight savings time which means I can often fit an hour or so of outdoor reading on my swing after work of an evening. That’s living.