Listening to a book IS reading! - Some recent favorites.

When I drive, go to the gym, or do work around the apartment, I listen to a book. Only two of those three things is happening consistently now since I am not commuting to work or going to the gym.

I have an ipod to use with the bluetooth in my car and with a small speaker (this is not an affiliate link, Bose has no idea I exist, but I really like the versatility of this speaker and the quality of sound is very nice) at home, and a tiny old ipod for the gym. I will be happy to have these options when I start my serious packing to move at the end of August. 

Most of my audiobooks are non-fiction. Sometimes I buy, but more often check out from the library. I know it is good for my brain to experience books through audio, which is why I choose this as my entertainment for the car and gym instead of music. In the house I split evenly between books and music.

I rarely listen to fiction, with two exceptions. I have listened to the entire Harry Potter series a number of times. I choose one of the books whenever there is a lull in check outs from the library or when I need a comfort listen. I find Jim Dale, who reads the American version of the books, to be a soothing reader. I also choose audio if the book and ebook have a long wait at the library, but the audio is available sooner. This means though that if it is a series, I will want to listen to all the books to be consistent. An example of this is The Diviners series by Libba Bray. I am 4th on the list for the audiobook of the 4th in the series, The King of Crows. 

I started writing this post upon finishing Untamed by Glennon Doyle. Before listening, I knew little about Doyle, but kept seeing other bloggers I follow talking about the book, so I went ahead and checked it out when it was available from the library. Doyle reads the audiobook which is something I value in all audiobooks, but especially in memoirs. I discovered that Doyle first established herself with a Christian parenting blog. This explains why I did not know much about her as I am neither of those things. This book is her 3rd, and it was partly about parenting and faith, but more about love and identity. I think I want to either purchase the book or check it out of the library to take some notes. She had some wise things to say that I would like to revisit. 

Some of the chapters revolve around an answer that Doyle has written to someone who has emailed her for advice. One, featured in the chapter "Islands," was from the mother of a teen who just told her family she is gay. The mother is wondering how to handle her own parents who will be visiting for the holidays and will subject their own granddaughter to intolerance and attempts at "conversion." Doyle's concept of the island says that in a family you build a moat around your island and only put down the drawbridge for those who will be bringing in love; no fear, no judgement allowed. Doyle used her own mother's feelings about her relationship with her wife as a personal connection. 

The chapter was a powerful reminder that those who can't or won't cross the moat with love should be prevented from doing so. This is not the only time in the book that the right decision for Doyle and her family is sometimes the most difficult choice of many options. I found the stories to be realistic and straightforward which I prefer to slogans and cheerleading. 

The book I listened to just before this one was Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, which I bought in book form before deciding to listen to it instead. I am glad I did though because I have also referenced it again after listening and know a few people I will lend it to. Gilbert, who is best known for her memoir Eat, Pray, Love (which I did not like) explores her beliefs about living a creative life. I was drawn to the book because this is something I am working toward for myself. She also reads the audio version.

While I love cozying up with a weighty hardback or a comfortable paperback, I have more time in my day than I can devote to sitting with a book. Instead, I am grateful for audiobooks with which I have had mainly good experiences. Rarely, I run across a reader I cannot listen to for an entire book, so I either decide to check out the book or ebook, or I just skip it. 

I had no idea before making this list how many books I have listened to and enjoyed over the past year and a half:

1. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain - This one gave me insight into the importance of introverts as a balance to the world's extroverts. Made me feel good about my own introvert characteristics. 
2. Kitchen Confidential:Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain - This was one part hilarious, one part informative, and one part sad, knowing the towering Bourdain would die by suicide in 2018. 
3. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb - Gottlieb does not read this one herself, but the reader was engaging and the stories gave me valuable insight into the world of therapy for both those who are and are not therapists.
4. The Lost Family: How DNA Testing Is Upending Who We Are by Libby Copeland - Just before everything shut down in March, I was fortunate to hear Copeland speak about this work at my local bookstore. I was interested  after having read Inheritance by Dani Shapiro last fall. Both books explore the ways that at home DNA tests are changing what people can know about themselves and their families. Shapiro's story is personal while Copeland interviewed individuals and families who had been shaken by surprising test results. 
5. Just Kids and M Train by Patti Smith - These are both poetic memoirs by Smith, exploring her friendship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and her own creative endeavors respectively. Smith did an author talk after the release of Year of the Monkey in September 2019. I am still on the waiting list for the audio version at the library. Patti Smith reading it will be worth the wait.
6. We are Never Meeting in Real Life and Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby  - Both of these are "tears down your face" hilarious books of essays about Irby's life and reflections on the world. They are not for those sensitive to profanity and scatological humor, but what fun! She is also a unmatchable reader of her own work. 
7. The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun, AND Outer Order, Inner Calm: Declutter & Organize to Make More Room for Happiness AND Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon a Project, Read Samuel Johnson, and My Other Experiments in the Practice of Everyday Life AND Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of our Everyday Lives by Gretchen Rubin - It is possible that I really enjoy the work of Gretchen Rubin, who reads all of these. While there is some overlap in the content of these works, I find something new and valuable in each. Rubin has been tweeting through the pandemic and isolation that she is working on a book about the senses. I'll request it at the library as soon as I can. 
8. The Body by Bill Bryson - I have listened to others by him, but none have been better than A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, which is hilarious with interesting detail about the trail. As far as I know, Bryson reads all his own audiobooks.

My current audiobook is: 

Tough Sh-t: Life Advice from a Fat, Lazy Slob Who Did Good by Kevin Smith - I have only listened to the first hour of this so far. It is from 2012 which I did not realize when I borrowed it, but it is so far a fun tour through Smith's early movies, read by him. (Warning: Smith spends a lot of time singing the praises of the Weinstein brothers, including Harvey, who was an important mentor in Smith's movie making, but this was before his criminal behaviors were brought to light in 2017. I do not know if Smith knew of Weinstein's behaviors.)

My next listens:

1. Notes from a Young Black Chef: A Memoir by Kwame Onwuachi - I have watched both seasons of Top Chef on which Onwuachi appeared. And he has been chef at two different DC restaurants Shaw Bijou and Kith and Kin, both of which he has since left.
2. Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?: And Other Questions You Should Have Answers to When You Work in the White House by Alyssa Mastromonaco with Lauren Oyler

If you have never explored audiobooks, but have time to give some a listen, these are some I have enjoyed, but I think few books are published in the mainstream press without an accompanying audiobook. 

What are your favorite audiobooks?