Checked Out with Green Hills Public Library District

Episode 6 - We Listen and We Don't Judge

• Green Hills Public Library District • Season 1 • Episode 6

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Checked Out’s 6th episode, “We Listen and We Don’t Judge,” is a masterclass in audiobooks! Listen as Tessa and Sara give Klaudia insight on their favorite audiobooks, platforms, and narration styles. Get your headphones on, you won’t want to skip this episode.  

Check out the media we talked about in this episode here: https://ghs.swanlibraries.net/MyAccount/MyList/72597

Interested in hearing your favorite book, topic, or genre discussed? 
Send a recommendation to ghpl@greenhillslibrary.org

SPEAKER_02:

Hi everyone, welcome back to our podcast. This is episode six. I'm Claudia. I'm Sarah.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm Tessa, and this is Checked Out with Green Hills Public Library. This week we are talking about audiobooks. Super pumped and excited to hear your thoughts on your favorite and least favorites. I think before we get in, let's talk about what we just finished reading.

SPEAKER_02:

I can start us off. I know I promised last time that I would read Missborn. However, you can't get mad at me that I didn't finish because I read something else. I read other things. I was kind of on a graphic novel slash comic book kick. So I read Loving Ohio by Matthew Ehrman. It is a comic book about a group of teens who live in a town called Loving in Ohio. And it has themes of like there's a religious cult that has entered their town. And um one of the members of the cult is like a monster who is killing. Oh. Killing all those people who do not believe in the cult and are not a part of the cult. So it's up to the teens to defeat him. I gave it a three. My feelings on it was that I wish it was a long-form story. I don't think it worked as just like a single one-off graphic novel. I think it could have been turned into a series or made into a novel. I thought that the concept was super cool, but the points just didn't hit because of how short it was. I also went to a comic book store and just picked up like two little comics from the same series. Um it's Skybound Presents the afterschool series. Those were really cool. They were fun, um, short little comics. They're kind of like horror comics meant to, I guess, like scare high schoolers, but not really. If any one of you is like a Riverdale fan and you've ever watched the episodes where um it's just about Jughead's comics, that was the vibe that they were giving. They were very Riverdale-y, but they were fun. I enjoyed them. There's only four in the entire series. I kind of wish that there were more. Um, and then I'm also in the middle of reading, I'm almost done with it. Um, it's a nonfiction book. It's called Bright Shining, How Grace Changes Everything by Julia Baird. It's just about grace. I think we could use grace today in today's world, so it's been really interesting to read about the different ways that people have been given grace. So that's what I've been reading. You've been busy. I've been busy.

SPEAKER_01:

I like it. I'm I've also been on like a graphic novel kick, so I'm gonna take some notes and probably talk to you about those that you were reading because you want to get more into it, do it. I did finish reading Peach Pit, which is the 16 short stories about unsavory women. That's like what the tagline is. I enjoyed it, I rated it three stars. There were obviously stories that I enjoyed more than other ones, which happens often with short story collections. I want to shout out one particular author that I really liked, and it's Deisha Filia. She wrote another collection of short stories, and I really enjoyed it. It's called The Secret Lives of Church Ladies. I loved that collection of short stories, so I was super stoked to see that her short story opened up Peach Pit. It was also, again, one of my favorites. And then just jumping off of Claudia graphic novels, I read the saga compendium. Love. Love it. It's the two um like most recent volumes left, and I don't want to read them because I don't want to be completely caught up and like waiting around for the next volume to be out, but I'm gonna get to it. It was so good.

SPEAKER_00:

I promised that I would read Blood on Her Tongue by Joanna Van Veen, and I did, I did read it. It comes out this month in March. It's out March 25th. It's okay. I much preferred her debut, My Darling Dreadful Thing, which I know we've talked about on the podcast before. It was okay. I think that the characters were a little flat. By the time you got to like what the actual situation and explanation for the horror that you get the whole way up, it was a letdown and rushed.

SPEAKER_01:

So it looks like we got a lot of reading done. I will say I also got a lot of audiobooking done. I don't know about you guys, but I do consider listening to an audiobook reading.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

Great.

SPEAKER_00:

Love that we're all on the same page here. I think the argument that it's not is a silly argument. You're still consuming what the story is, you're consuming how the author wrote it. And I think you also have to take into account that that is the only way that some people can consume books, and that doesn't make them any less of a reader. If I came up to you, Sarah, and I was like, Hey, have you read Witchcraft for Wayward Girls? I would say I definitely read it and I listened to it. Right, like you would be like, Yeah, and we could talk about it. I read that book completely physically. Nothing about our conversation would change. That's my official take.

SPEAKER_02:

I agree. And the thing is too, is that it's not like it's a movie, right? Where things are being taken out or changed. It's the exact it's word for word. It's the exact same thing. You're just consuming it in a different way. And there's nothing wrong with that. You're still getting the same thing out of it. It's the same end result.

SPEAKER_01:

As someone that I would say 25%, maybe even more, of what I read in a year is consumed through audiobooks. Sometimes it's even better. Sometimes I'll pick up an audiobook and I'll pick up a book and I'll be like, hey, the audiobook is actually so great. I love hearing this narrator read this book to me because it makes it so much more interesting and dynamic for me. It becomes a larger experience. Sometimes I have the opposite though, where I will start on audio and then I'll be like, hey, hold on. Not vibing. Maybe the language is a little too floral, maybe it's like a lip thick. I see myself have that a lot where I'll start a lip on audio and then be like, this is not working. I need to actually see the text, and then I'll switch and I'll just do the print rather than the audiobook.

SPEAKER_02:

I personally don't do audiobooks. I have the same issue with podcasts where it just takes a lot of effort for me to pay attention to them. And I just know, like, I've tried audiobooks before, and I will start spacing out or just like not listen to them anymore, and then I'll have to go back because I'll be like, oh my god, what just happened? Where you know, I don't really have that with books, so I personally just can't do audiobooks, but I don't know, maybe I'll try again soon. It's been a while. I think one of the biggest barriers for me too is that most audiobooks are like on Audible, right?

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, we have like an intense collection on Libby. That is true, that is true. Perhaps I could try it on like Libby. Yeah, there's a select few books and authors that make their audiobooks audible exclusive, which I think is sick and twisted. But um, yeah, no, for the most part, like here with your Green Hills card, you're yeah, we have a lot of audiobooks on media on demand through Libby.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, yeah, that's good to know. Honestly, I don't really think about audiobooks in that way. So when you said that, I was like, oh duh.

SPEAKER_01:

Oops, we have it on Libby. Yeah, we have it on Libby, Hoopla, and the list. Yep. And not to become like an ad for them, but you're able to like change the speed on them too. So if you want to read it at regular speed, totally can. But if you're like, hold on, like we can up this a little bit, like I'm being put to sleep by this narrator or by this narrator's cadence, totally up the ante. Put it up at like 200. I mean, put it up at like two times speed, 2.5. If you're feeling extra spicy, three.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh Libby has a very good sliding scale too, like with like very small increments, whereas Audible specifically is only in halves, but literally Libby is like a sliding scale that you can just kind of like move around.

SPEAKER_02:

I think another thing that has turned me off from audiobooks is that when I have wanted to listen to them, they were always audible exclusives, and I don't want to be paying Amazon for that. Real. So that's my final stance.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm a happy medium between you two, I think. I primarily read physical books, but I do really enjoy an audiobook, but I'm very specific in what does or doesn't work for me on audio. And I feel like we're probably about to dive into that a little bit deeper. Because I know some things don't work for you either, Sarah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I will say that most of the books that I have DNF'd or did not finish, I've started on audio and realized this is not working for me, or I'm not enjoying this, and so I will stop it. Whether that's like I'll stop it and come back to it, or I just realize that this is not the book for me. I find myself doing that more often than not on audio. What speed do you usually listen at? So it varies. I think it depends on how far I am in the book, depends on if the speaker has an accent that I need to get used to. Also depends on the type of book. But my safe zone is 2 to 2.5 speed. I feel like pretty comfortable there. I feel that I'm still able to understand what's going on in the story, get a good grasp of it, and also like take care of other things that I need to do because I usually am playing an audiobook while I'm finishing up something with work or doing something at home.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm generally a two, but if I am like starting to lose interest, like how you said you do, Claudia, and it it also does depend on what the book is and my enjoyment level. That's when I start to tune out, is if I'm like, you know, I don't think that I really truly love this book. That's when I will speed it up to like a 2.5. I will go so far as to a three sometimes, depending on what it is. But yeah, my safe spot's at like a two.

SPEAKER_02:

That's me listening to lectures. Always at two or more. I think what my other issue is that whenever I'm listening to something in my car or like have my headphones on, I will always prefer to listen to music than anything else.

SPEAKER_01:

I will say that that's one space where I actually have a hard time listening to audiobooks is when I'm driving. My car is for my music. Everywhere else is for my audiobook, but in my car, unless I'm very, very into the audiobook that I'm listening to, and I had been listening to it before I enter my car, then I will continue. But if I'm like just hopping in my car, I'll just throw on some music.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I think for me it can be really distracting too if if I'm trying to drive and pay attention to the audiobook.

SPEAKER_00:

I can't stand silence in literally anything I am doing. I have some sort of ambient noise or music or audiobooks. And I personally listen to probably a majority of my audiobooks in my car as a contrarian to you guys. I don't know why it works for me. I feel like that's when I'm intaking and like absorbing the most information from an audiobook is while I'm driving. What genre do you listen to as an audiobook? Okay, this is a complex answer. For the most part, I will listen to horror on audio. I feel like I'm never missing anything in a horror while I'm listening to it. Whereas like with literary fiction, I feel like sometimes I miss out on the language. You're missing out on like the nuance of it. Yeah, I feel like in literary fiction, for me personally, if I'm listening to it, I might miss out on the elegance of the writing in the literary fiction. I might walk away from it and not have appreciated it as much as I would have if I was seeing it on paper. But I feel like I'm never doing that with horror. Like the gore gets me a little bit more. Well, if I'm listening to it than if I'm just reading it on a page. And the plots are usually pretty easy to make my way through if I'm stopping and starting it. I also love a fantasy audiobook, but I'm very, very specific in the way that I consume them. I will start a fantasy, especially like an adult high fantasy. I will start and read the first two to three chapters, depending on length, physically, and then I have to listen to part of it, at least part of it on audio. Because if you read fantasy or you've looked at a fantasy synopsis in your life, how do you say the names? How do you say where we are? Who's to say? But like I can't exist in a world where I haven't heard someone say it and like be able to like get my footing in the worlds. So I'll listen to at least like that introductory world-building part on audiobook, and then I'll usually go back to physical. And then after that, after a first book in a series, I can hop back and forth either way. But I'm very particular on how I begin a fantasy audiobook.

SPEAKER_02:

I guess that makes sense with what you said about horror books like being more scary when it's audiobook. It's a little bit different when you can actually like hear what's going on, or I guess like have someone tell it to you rather than reading it. It's more visceral that way. Especially if you have a good narrator.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. You can tell almost that they are enjoying the story, like their cadence and stuff, like they'll stop sounding so robotic. And like a lot of times in horror, the like inflection in their voice is like carrying how if you were reading it, like the plot and stuff would get quicker as you're reading it.

SPEAKER_01:

I think that 90% of the audiobooks that I read are horror or thriller. So I'm in the same kind of boat as you are, Tessa, with that. I don't feel that I'm missing out on anything. The way that I might be missing out, again, with like a litfic that language. I yeah, I don't miss that in a horror book. I do something similar to you when you start a high fantasy book and you start it on audio. I normally will start a lot of things on audio, but I will do companion reading sometimes. So I will start it on audio, and if I feel that I'm missing the text, I will pop my headphones in, open up the book, and I will do both at the same time. And that helps me feel like grounded in it. Like I'm actually sitting there with the literature, but I'm also like not putting so much effort into reading it because I have someone that's reading it to me. So there are times where I'll do that. If I can get a hold of both the book and the audio at the same time and I'm enjoying both, I'll do that or I'll toggle between the two. For example, I did Sally Rooney's Intermezzo strictly on audio, and that's one that I wish that I did in print, but I also would not have minded doing it in print and audio together. So doing that companion read. I think that that's like a really nice way to also get into audiobooks. So, Claudia, if you like want the experience of an audiobook, but also you're like, hey, I miss holding on to a book, or like I need to be grounded, I think that that's a nice way. I try to recommend that to patrons sometimes. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Perhaps I will try that then.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I was gonna bring that up too. I I think what the the general like book internet has started calling that is like an immersive read. I don't do it as much as I think that I would like to.

SPEAKER_01:

It's definitely an interesting experience. It takes some time to get used to, especially if you are primarily doing a physical read, but there's something about just it being read to you, or like for me at least, that I don't have to again think about it so much. That I'm able to just kind of sit there and enjoy what's going on and follow along and really get everything that I can out of the experience. And I like that it's called immersive reading. It truly is an immersive experience.

SPEAKER_02:

It's kind of nice to have the transcript along with you too, because like I don't know about you guys, but I cannot watch a movie without subtitles on. Yeah, oh same. I or like anything, I need the subtitles, so I think that would work for me.

SPEAKER_01:

You should for sure try it. I'll try it. I'll let you guys know what I think. It started a lot for me in in college because we were reading such like dense texts, and I was like, hold on, again, I can't pronounce this character's name or like we're doing a play type of thing. I need something to help me out here. And so it started as that, and then it just kind of became this experience for me where like I get my popcorn and I curl up in my bed with my headphones on and my book, and it's awesome. I love it.

SPEAKER_00:

What I will suggest to you if you're interested in immersive reading, I we can't exist in this world without talking about Brandon Sanderson right now. Um, The Final Empire, Mistborn, whatever we want to call it. All of Brandon Sanderson's books are narrated, like the whole Cosmere, are narrated by the same like gaggle of people. Michael Kramer and Kate Redding. Uh, I think Missborn is just Michael Kramer. I love them. I love their voices, they do a great job. They do a great job with inflection. If someone is like having yelled something, it is at like a louder volume. Oh, good. Kind of a vibe. It's not like fully dramatized. I think it's a good mix.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So if you are interested in that and I know that you want to keep going in Mistborn, yeah, that might be a fun way for you to like ground yourself in it too.

SPEAKER_01:

Ooh, maybe I'll try it with Missborn and see what what I think. You mentioned that those narrators read all books in the series. I love that. Same or with the same authors, that it's this it's the same voice. It just makes everything so much more cohesive and never takes me out of the story, even though we're starting a new book.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Agreed. One genre that I generally do not listen to on audio in order to consume it, and I learned my lesson with it recently is romance. I recently listened to One in Rome by Sarah Adams, and I found myself being harsh. On it than I would have been had I just been physically reading it and like getting through it. Having it like in my ear going, I feel like did take some enjoyment away from it for me.

SPEAKER_01:

There have only been a few times that I have listened to romance on audio, and it is strictly when the book is only available on audio. So two instances that I can recall Allie Hazelwood's Two Can Play and a Christina Lauren sort of sequel to Unhoneymooners that she had going on.

SPEAKER_02:

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it follows the sister of the main character of they were both very good. I enjoyed them, but I will say that romance is not for me on audio. I wish it was. I think that I would consume so much more romance books than I do if I could listen to them, which is crazy because I already consume a lot, but I want to consume more. Um I just can't get into it. I think that it loses me a little bit. It feels a little cringy for me to experience this love through my ear.

SPEAKER_00:

That I think that's what happened to me with when in Rome, because the the male main character of that, there are things that like he would say general like love declaration scenes. Yeah. Hearing a man just say that into my ears, I was like, please stop. Like this hurts my body right now. Question for you guys.

SPEAKER_02:

So when let's say, for example, like when you're listening to that man say his love declaration, was he like acting it up or was it just like monotone?

SPEAKER_00:

I would say that most audiobook narrators in my experience tow that line. More so I feel like they put a little more emotion behind what they're saying, but it's not as though they're acting it. There are dramatized audiobooks.

SPEAKER_02:

Follow-up question then. Do you think it would have been better if it was dramatized?

SPEAKER_01:

No. No. No. I don't want to yuck on someone else's yum. Right. But for me personally, it's not an enjoyable experience. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and we're not saying that what is being said is necessarily cringy. It's just like hearing a stranger in your ears saying those things just doesn't always hit the mark. I can see that for sure. Yeah. I do not enjoy the dramatized versions of audiobooks either. The ones that are like actually like the dramatized versions. Like there's one for Fourth Wing. I don't know who's saying what, when, where, and how. I don't know how you can fully do a dramatized version like that because there is so much like exposition that exists. I just don't like them.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't think I've ever done a dramatized version. Is a dramatized version just dialogue then with like sound effects?

SPEAKER_00:

Or do we get like the You get the exposition with like sound effects and I don't know. There's something about it. I would I would say you should maybe because you've read Fourth Wing, so I feel like you should maybe like listen to the sample of it and see what you think. It doesn't work for me. And not to spoil our hot or not, but because of what we'll talk about in there, I don't think you would like them. Okay, that's fair.

SPEAKER_02:

I'll say that that's really fair. I mean, like, I think another thing that would maybe be difficult for me with audiobooks is like an extra barrier is having that that narrator just like not work for me. Like I remember, I think in our first episode I talked about this, but there were like audio clips going around of Andrew Garfield, I think. And I forget his name, but he was he was an actor, he played Moriarty in Sherlock. It's another Andrew, I think. I think it is another Andrew. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, what is his name? I'll look it up. He's the priest from Fleabag. Yes. Andrew Scott. Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes. Okay. So I think I talked about this in the first episode of the podcast, but a while back there were audio clips going around of Andrew Scott and Andrew Garfield reading 1984. I'm a certified 1984 hater. I did not like that book in high school. It was really engaging. Okay. It was really engaging to hear it and it helped me visualize it in a way that I maybe did not understand before when I was, you know, a teenager. So I feel like that's it can be really helpful, but I feel like that could also just be another barrier if you have like a really terrible actor for or like a terrible narrator for your audiobook.

SPEAKER_00:

I have stopped a fair few audiobooks 20 seconds in, and I'm like, this is not for me. Either the inflection. I don't want to say that I don't like someone's voice, but like I don't like someone's voice to have to listen to it for 12 hours in my ears. Exactly. It can be grating at some point.

SPEAKER_01:

You guys are both very on point with it. Like, Claudia, yeah, a narrator can totally make or break an audiobook experience. And I think that it's not even that like you don't enjoy the narrator's voice as much as it might be. So correct me if I'm wrong. It might be that it's just that's not what you imagine in your head that that character or like the narrator is sounding like.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I don't have very many audiobooks where I'm like, I don't like that because I do stop them so fast before I get anywhere with it to say that I don't like it. Um the Magnolia Parks and Daisy Hates audiobooks are jarringly upsetting to me specifically. I don't know if I would feel different had I listened to it the first time I consumed it. I still think I would not like it. But I know how they sound and exist in my head, and it's definitely not even the way the narrator generally normally speaks. The way that that narrator has Daisy Haites' voice be is like really jarring. It's not how she would sound, and I it was it was crazy. One day I was like, no, I'm gonna listen to it because I wanted to reread them, and I was like, Yeah, I'll just pop it on while I'm like doing small tasks at work, whatever. No, I will not. It was literally one second, and I was like, nope. And then I was like, Sarah, please listen to this.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it was also not working for me either.

SPEAKER_00:

Claudia, this is going to be me and Sarah monologuing to you about what audiobooks you could try.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, I'm ready. Fire away. So I can't believe that I forgot to mention that I love a memoir or autobio on audio because the person that is narrating it is usually the person that wrote it. So a celebrity one, I will eat that up every day. Okay. And one that I think is particularly good is Bretman Rock's You're That Be and Other Lessons about being unapologetically yourself. So if you don't know Bretman Rock, he's an influencer type of makeup artist personality. He's just super eccentric and has such a fun personality. So hearing him read his book was it was great. It's so hilarious, and I 10 out of 10 recommend. It's one of my favorite um memoirs on audio for sure.

SPEAKER_00:

I also really enjoy a memoir on audio when it is the author reading it themselves. I think it takes it to like a different level. I love Brett Minrock, and I honestly didn't even know he had a book. That was my fault. But I will add that to the list. One of the audiobooks that I really want to shout out, and it's what I said I do with fantasy, is exactly what I did with this book, and I think it took it to a whole nother level is The Poppy War by R. F. Quang. I'm gonna say right now, if you cannot handle a gory scene or like genuine like emotional devastation, don't read the poppy war series. Don't do that to yourself. It is amazing, incredible. She did such a good job with it. It like genuinely hurts my like bones to think about, but it's it's really good. It's a really good audiobook. Listening to the audiobook of the Poppy War definitely helped me feel like I was more grounded in the fantasy verbiage that was being used, as well as the fact that it is a historical fantasy based in China, which obviously they're going to be using Chinese terminology, which is not something I'm familiar with reading, speaking, or like hearing frequently. So I think the audiobook was a huge help for me in that.

SPEAKER_01:

Along the same vein, I feel that doing a non-fic kind of gets that as well. Because if you're looking into something in detail that you might not be super familiar with, that's always helpful to like hear it. It also gets me more motivated when I am listening to an audiobook. So, for example, Atomic Habits by James Clear. I audiobooked that and it was great. I was like taking notes and I felt like, whoo, this is gonna be my year. I think I need to reread it so that I could feel that way about this year. It felt like I was getting a motivational speech.

SPEAKER_00:

Another audiobook series that I would like to recommend is Every Heart a Doorway by Sean and Maguire, the Wayward Children series. It's a series of novellas, so they're very quick to get through. They are fantasy, but I would say they're more like magical realism fantasy. I think I've talked about it before. They're like kids that go through doors to the world that they are like quote unquote supposed to be in from our world. They read almost like fairy tale-ish. Um, and the audiobooks are really good and they're really fast to get through. I think they're all about four to five hours.

SPEAKER_01:

Hmm. Not bad. So I did mention that 90% of the audiobooks I read are horror, and I then proceeded to give you two non-horror audiobook recommendations. So I must give you a horror audiobook rec. And I love Grady Hendricks on audio. The one that I would recommend would be How to Sell a Haunted House, just because of the narrator's voices for these characters. It's great. Yeah. There's a little puppet that talks. Oh. And so the voice that the narrator does is so good. It's so, so good. I hear it in my sleep. Yeah, it's really spooky.

SPEAKER_02:

How scary would you say that Grady Hendrix books are? Because I feel like they're silly goofy.

SPEAKER_00:

I would say a lot of it is like camp horror. Yeah. And then he's usually got one or two scenes that are like genuinely pretty scary/slash gory. But like overall, I would say a lot of his horror, it's usually pretty character-driven.

SPEAKER_01:

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00:

And a lot of the stuff he like lulls you into a sense of like false camp. Okay. Like you're like, okay, like this is a campy little time. And then he'll pull out a heinous scene.

SPEAKER_01:

And you're like, whoa. Yeah. Sometimes though, there's like a good buildup to a gory scene. Yeah. Like I can think of scenes in How to Sell a Haunted House that I'm like, we're building up to this scene that is going to be frightening. If you want to like skip those scenes, you can. You wouldn't be missing anything that's integral to the story.

SPEAKER_00:

Ooh, okay. Yeah. I will also give you a horror recommendation because I also did not. Mine would be the Paul Bears Club, except hear me out. I have a caveat. I don't think many people like that book. And I think that they're justified for it. I know you didn't, Sarah. I do want to comment on that though, but go ahead. The way that the Paul Bears Club is written is it is a man writing his autobiography, and there's weird happenings. It's very, very, very character-driven psychological. However, the other main character in this book is actively annotating and reacting to this man's autobiography. And so in the audiobook, the female narrator will like legitimately cut him off as like the narrator is talking and reading like the autobiography. It's also really cool in the physical book because it is with like red handwriting font on like the sides. It's just it's a cool experience. I'm not here to say that I think many people would like the story of it. I think it's a very non- It's slow. It's slow. It's really, really, really slow. Um, and for what some might argue is nothing, I liked it a lot. But the audiobook, just like as an experience, is just a really cool one.

SPEAKER_01:

So that was one that I did audio and was like, I had the physical book too. I started it on audio, awesome. Like the interjections of the female narrator as the male narrator is like again reading his autobiography, amazing. I think that the concept is so sick and well done. I just personally could not get into the story itself. And then I did read the synopsis of it, and I was like, okay, is the payoff of this going to be like worth it for me in the end to continue, or can I just live with the fact that this is a really cool concept and doesn't work for me? Yeah. So I ended up DNFing it. Okay. But it is a sick concept. I like it. I think that's really interesting.

SPEAKER_00:

My last two recommendations are gonna inform our hot or not section of the podcast as we're wrapping up a little bit. Two of my favorite audiobooks, not gonna say they're my favorite books, but like my favorite audiobook experiences, are Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reed and True Crime Story by Joseph Knox. And they are full cast narration audiobooks where each character that is speaking has their own narrator and it switches back and forth. I don't feel like I need to tell anyone what Daisy Jones and the Six is about. If you don't know, it's basically just Fleetwood Mac, but fictionalized, and true crime story is exactly what it sounds like, except I guess it's not really true. The author himself is a character within the story, and it is just a bunch of interviews and almost documentary style of a girl who goes missing, and everyone around her is kind of shady, and you get everyone else's points of view. That one I will say is almost a dramatized version. The way that the narrators speak is very like they they're putting on a performance, but it's really interesting if you like to watch true crime documentaries or listen to like true crime podcasts, and you're looking for something that is I won't say it's necessarily feasible, but that is along those lines in fiction, true crime story. It's a lot of fun to also read physically because it is like mixed media vibes, but the audiobook is really, really good. So, my my take on the full cast audiobook for our hot or not is I think they're hot. I have to disagree.

SPEAKER_01:

I think that they are not just for me and the type of reader that I am, it gets very overwhelming to have a full c a full cast. I can do two and they're switching, you know, POVs, but I think that a full cast again does get overwhelming for me, and then because I read it at a fast speed, all of them just kind of meld together as one. So I'm forgetting who's who. Like I'm not getting that separation between the characters based on their voices, because it's all kind of sounding like Alvin and the chipmunks.

SPEAKER_00:

Can I make a suggestion? Yeah, of course. You might enjoy things like that more if you did like an immersive read.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, that's fair.

SPEAKER_00:

To like get I think you would enjoy getting everyone's different voices if you could also look at it and see who is like talking and stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

I think that that's how I ended up doing Daisy Jones on the six. Like, at least so I started on audio, wasn't feeling it, yeah, got the book, and then I did the audio just so that I can hear who they were. Yeah. And then I was like, okay, I could just read the book now. Okay, yeah. So I could have continued for sure.

SPEAKER_00:

The narrator for Daisy in that is just like exactly how I would envision like Daisy Jones speaking.

SPEAKER_01:

I also just remember the show, and that's that's who they are. Yeah, I refuse to watch. I didn't watch it, but like it was like the promos for it were so out all the time that like that's just who they are in my head, and that's how they sound for those actors.

SPEAKER_02:

I will personally have to say that I think that a full cast, like a full dramatized cast, especially, is is hot just because one of the things that really bothered me the most when I would try to listen to audiobooks is the same narrator not dramatizing it and then also speaking for other characters, and I'm like, that's not who it is. When I'm reading physical books, I visualize the different characters and kind of like hear the different voices. Um, so I think trying to attempt just one narrator would really take me out of that. I think if I were to try audiobooks, they would have to be dramatized full cast audiobooks.

SPEAKER_01:

Fair.

SPEAKER_02:

Claudia, I do hope that you get some audiobooks and if I do, I'll let you guys know what I think. I I would like to plan on finding like like one that I could really sink my teeth into. I do think you should try the immersive read with Missborn. I think I think I will try that too.

SPEAKER_01:

Alright, let's see what we're gonna read for the next time that we meet. I am planning to read The Right Move by Liz Tomford, which is part of her Windy City series, and they're available on Kindle Unlimited. It follows different athletes from Chicago and their journey to finding love. And I read the first one last year, and it is about a flight attendant that ends up falling in love with one of the hockey players on the imaginary Chicago team. It doesn't use actual Chicago teams. It's not the Black Hawks or the Wolves. No, it's not. She probably can't. I don't yeah, I don't think she can. But the current one that I am reading is following that flight attendant's brother, who is part of the Chicago's Devils team, which is their basketball team. And he ends up having his sister's best friend living with him after she gets badly broken up with, and they end up falling in love. So I will let you all know how that goes.

SPEAKER_02:

Since I'm kind of on my nonfiction kick right now, I think we're gonna continue with that. I will read Mistborn. I will keep trucking along with that, but I did check out a book um by Sahaj Kaur Kholi. Um it's called But what will people say? She is a therapist and also is behind the Instagram page Brown Girl Therapy. Um, she mostly talks about um experiences as first generation citizens or just like children of immigrants. I find myself relating to a lot of her posts, so I'm really interested in what she has to say in her book. So I will keep you guys posted on what I thought about it.

SPEAKER_00:

I am going to be reading the early copy of Gifted and Talented by Olivia Blake. It's her newest release. It is coming out on April 1st. And it is honestly, I don't know much about it because I will just read what she puts out. I do think, other than the Atlas VI, that it is the first new sci-fi fantasy, because she came out with Alone with You in the Ether. But the first new work that she's putting out, because she had two releases that were previously indie that she took to her traditional publisher. But this is something new. Basically, all I know is there are three siblings, rivalries and hidden talents question mark. That's what I had written down. So I don't know, but I'll let you guys know how it goes.

SPEAKER_02:

Alright, guys, before we end this episode, I did want to say that this will be my last episode of the podcast. I am moving on from Green Hills. It's been a fantastic time. I love sharing all my thoughts with you all. And this has been an amazing opportunity. I'm so thankful that we were able to create this podcast. Don't worry, your lovely hosts, Sarah and Tessa, will take good care of you guys in the future.

SPEAKER_01:

Very sad to see Claudia go, but excited for her on this new journey. And I know that she's going to come back and visit us.

SPEAKER_00:

So we'll miss you, Claudia. And maybe one day we'll be able to bring you back in as a guest host. Oh my god, yeah, I'd love to guest host again.

SPEAKER_01:

That concludes this month's episode. If you have any questions or requests, please email us at ghpl at greenhillslibrary.org.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you guys so much for listening. This has been episode six. We listen and we don't judge. I'm Tessa. I'm Sarah.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm Claudia. And for the last time, I'm checked out.