Tag: memes

#TopTenTuesday Favourite Audiobook Narrators

whatcathyreadnext14 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

  • Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want.
  • Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.
  • Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists.
  • Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s topic is Favorite Audiobook Narrators. Although I know many people find audiobooks a great way to consume books, I don’t listen to that many myself. Possibly it’s because I don’t drive or make many long journeys, or that I’ve never mastered the art of listening to a book while doing household tasks. It might be more accurate to say I’ve never mastered the art of doing household tasks! So my list contains pretty much all the audiobooks I’ve listened to in the past few years, with a couple that are old enough to have been originally issued on DVD or – remember this? – audio cassette.  Some may no longer be available with the original narrators.   

Anton Lesser – Paradise Lost by John Milton (Anton was responsible for getting me through this set text for my OU degree)
Sir Michael Hordern – The M. R. James Collection: No. 13 and Other Ghost Stories (Sir Michael starred in ‘Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come To You’, part of the BBC’s annual A Ghost Story for Christmas series)
Martin Jarvis – A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (Others, I know, will shout for Tom Baker)
Theo Solomon & Karise Yansen – This Lovely City by Louise Hare (Ideal narrators for the Jamaican patois… oh, and the audiobook has a bonus final chapter that will get you tapping your feet)
Anna Bentinck – The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Simon Mawer (I’m no expert but Anna’s French accent sounded impeccable to me)
Robert Powell – The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan (Robert Powell starred in the third film adaptation of Buchan’s novel – not quite as good as the first starring Robert Donat but way better than the second starring Kenneth More)
Jessie Buckley – The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (Jessie’s was a much better attempt at pronuncing the Norwegian names than mine)
Sir Derek Jacobi – The Cadfael Chronicles by Ellis Peters (Personally, I could listen to Sir Derek reading a telephone directory. For those old enough to remember, he also starred in the ITV series, Cadfael)
Mark Meadows – The Warlow Experiment by Alix Nathan (My current listen and Mark’s doing a splendid job with both male and female characters)
Ben Miles – The Wolf Hall Trilogy by Hilary Mantel (My next audiobook will be the final book in the trilogy, The Mirror & the Light. It’s 36 hours long)

 

#WWWWednesday – 19th April 2023

whatcathyreadnext1 Comment

WWWWednesdays

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Why not join in too?  Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!

Currently reading

The Warlow ExperimentThe Warlow Experiment by Alix Nathan (Serpent’s Tail)

The year is 1792 and Herbert Powyss is set on making his name as a scientist. He is determined to study the effects of prolonged solitude on another human being, though before now Powyss’s sole subjects have been the plants in his greenhouse. He fills three rooms beneath Moreham House with books, paintings and even a pianoforte, then puts out an advertisement, hoping for a gentleman recluse.

The only man desperate enough to apply is John Warlow, a semi-literate farm labourer who needs to support his wife Hannah and their six children. Cut off from nature and the turning of the seasons, Warlow soon begins losing his grip on sanity. Above ground, Powyss finds yet another distraction from his greenhouse in the form of Hannah, with whom he rapidly becomes obsessed. Does she return his feelings, or is she just afraid of his power over her family’s lives?

Meanwhile, the servants are brewing up a rebellion inspired by recent news from across the Channel. Powyss may have set events in motion, but he is powerless to prevent their explosive and devastating conclusion.

AncestryAncestry : A Novel by Simon Mawer (Little, Brown) Shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2023

The past is another country and we are all its exiles. Banished forever, we look back in fascination and wonder at this mysterious land. Who were the people who populated it?

Almost two hundred years ago, Abraham, an illiterate urchin, scavenges on a Suffolk beach and dreams of running away to sea… Naomi, a seventeen-year-old seamstress, sits primly in a second class carriage on the train from Sussex to London and imagines a new life in the big city… George, a private soldier of the 50th Regiment of Foot, marries his Irish bride, Annie, in the cathedral in Manchester and together they face married life under arms. Now these people exist only in the bare bones of registers and census lists but they were once real enough. They lived, loved, felt joy and fear, and ultimately died. But who were they? And what indissoluble thread binds them together?

Simon Mawer’s compelling and original novel puts flesh on our ancestors’ bones to bring them to life and give them voice. He has created stories that are gripping and heart-breaking, from the squalor and vitality of Dickensian London to the excitement of seafaring in the last days of sail and the horror of the trenches of the Crimea. There is birth and death; there is love, both open and legal but also hidden and illicit. Yet the thread that connects these disparate figures is something that they cannot have known – the unbreakable bond of family.

Bone ChinaBone China by Laura Purcell (Raven Books via NetGalley)

Consumption has ravaged Louise Pinecroft’s family, leaving her and her father alone and heartbroken.

But Dr Pinecroft has plans for a revolutionary experiment: convinced that sea air will prove to be the cure his wife and children needed, he arranges to house a group of prisoners suffering from the same disease in the cliffs beneath his new Cornish home.

Forty years later, Hester Why arrives at Morvoren House to take up a position as nurse to the now partially paralysed and almost entirely mute Miss Pinecroft. Hester has fled to Cornwall to try and escape her past, but she soon discovers that her new home may be just as dangerous as her last…

Recently finished

Rivers of Treason by K. J. Maitland (Headline)

No Place To Hide by J. S. Monroe (Head of Zeus)

What Cathy (will) Read Next

The MonkThe Monk by Tim Sullivan (ARC, Head of Zeus) 

To find a murderer, you need a motive . . .

THE DETECTIVE
DS George Cross has always wondered why his mother left him when he was a child. Now she is back in his life, he suddenly has answers. But this unexpected reunion is not anything he’s used to dealing with. When a disturbing case lands on his desk, he is almost thankful for the return to normality.

THE QUESTION
The body of a monk is found savagely beaten to death in a woodland near Bristol. Nothing is known about Brother Dominic’s past, which makes investigating difficult. How can Cross unpick a crime when they don’t know anything about the victim? And why would someone want to harm a monk?

THE PAST
Discovering who Brother Dominic once was only makes the picture more puzzling. He was a much-loved and respected friend, brother, son – he had no enemies. Or, at least, none that are obvious. But looking into his past reveals that he was a very wealthy man, that he sacrificed it all for his faith. For a man who has nothing, it seems strange that greed could be the motive for his murder. But greed is a sin after all…