2013 Audio Book Challenge Finished

2013 Audio Book Challenge hosted by Teresa's Reading Corner.

Welcome to the Original Audio Book Challenge. This challenge is for Audio Book lovers as well as those who are brand new to them.
There are five levels to the challenge

•     Flirting-Listen to 6 Audio Books
•     Going Steady- Listen to 12 Audio Books
•     Lover- Listen to 25 Audio Books
•     Married-Listen to more than 25 Audio Books
•     You Define the Relationship- Create your own challenge (choose your own name and level    starting as low or going as high as you’d like)

This is a fairly laid back challenge and I want it to be as enjoyable as possible. 

•     Audio Books can be any genre
•    You can cross challenges
•     You don’t have to be a blogger to participate. You can tell us about what you are listening to in the comments of the monthly link up.

Official Challenge dates: 1/1/2013-12/31/2013

My goal for this challenge was Flirting-Listen to 6 audio books. At one point I didn't actually think I would make it. I finished my first audio book in June! But I am getting use to it and have also found out how much the narrator means for a successful listening experience.

I reached my goal of 6 books the 14th of November when I finished The Moon Of Gomrath by Alan Garner. Since then I have heard one more and I think I might at least hear one more before the year ends.

This challenge has been very good for me, I will still rather read a book but I now appreciate listening to books when I can't sit still and read.

If this audio challenge returns in 2014 I will take part again and maybe try to aim for the next level.

List of Audio books:

1. The Dead Girls' Dance by Rachel Caine
2. Déjà Dead by Kathy Reichs 
3. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach
4. Dreams Underfoot: The Newford Collection by Charles de Lint
5. Vampires: The Recent Undead by Paula Guran (Editor) 
6. The Moon Of Gomrath by Alan Garner
7. Elidor by Alan Garner 

 THIS is where all the post for this challenge can be found.

Elidor by Alan Garner

Part folklore, part adventure and part fantasy, Alan Garner's Elidor is a modern children's classic. When Roland opens a door in a derelict church, he unleashes the wonders of Elidor and the grave challenges that this troubled world presents. Drawing on Welsh, Irish and English mythology, the book chronicles the trials and hardships of a group of young teenagers as they attempt to fulfill a prophecy from another world, and fight a terrible evil. From Goodreads

This is not as good as Alan Garner's Tales of Alderley series but it is still a good fantasy story and I enjoyed listening to it. And I kind of like the not so usual ending.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Audio Book Challenge
Setting Alphabet Reading Challenge

The Moon Of Gomrath by Alan Garner

Alan Garner's exciting and atmospheric tale of magic and evil which began with "The Weirdstone of Brisingamen" continues with the "Moon of Gomrath".
It is the Eve of Gomrath – the night of the year when the Old Magic is aroused. Had Colin and Susan known this, they would never have lighted a fire on the Beacon, thereby releasing the uncontrollable ferocity of the Wild Hunt. Soon they are inextricably caught up in the struggle between their friend, the Wizard Cadellin, and the evil Morrigan.
The strength of their courage will determine whether or not they survive the awaiting ordeal …  From Goodreads.






This is a worthy sequel to The Weirdstone of Brisingamen though it is not quite as good. As in a lot of fantasy books the evil, that is thought gone, returns. I have the third book ready.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Paranormal Reading Challenge (wizard)
2013 Audio Book Challenge
2013 Sequel Reading Challenge
2013 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge

Vampires: The Recent Undead by Paula Guran (Editor)

The undead are more alive today than ever. Immortal? Indeed! Nothing has sunk its teeth into twenty-first century popular culture as pervasively as the vampire. The fangsters have the freedom to fly across all genres and all mediums - there's even apps for vamps. Whether roaming into romance, haunting horror, sneaking into science fiction, capering into humor, meandering through mystery - no icon is more versatile than the vampire.
Slack your insatiable thirst with the best sanguinary stories of the new millennium: terrifying or tender, deadly or delicious, bad-ass or beneficent, classic or cutting-edge. From Goodreads

It has taken me over a year to listen to this audio book of short stories, I think that says a lot! There are a few good stories but unfortunately most of them just weren't my cup of tea.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Paranormal Reading Challenge (vampires)
2013 Audio Book Challenge

Dreams Underfoot: The Newford Collection by Charles de Lint

Publisher's Summary: Welcome to Newford: to the music clubs, the waterfront, and the alleyways where ancient myths and magic spill into the modern world. Gemmins live in abandoned cars and skells traverse the tunnels below, while mermaids swim in the gray harbor waters and fill the cold night with their song.
Come meet Jilly, painting wonders in the rough city streets; and Geordie, playing fiddle while he dreams of a ghost; and the Angel of Grasso Street gathering the fey and the wild and the poor and the lost. Dreams Underfoot is a must-read book not only for fans of urban fantasy but for all who seek magic in everyday life. From Goodreads.

This is the best audible I have heard to date, Kate Reading did a good job. I have read Charles de Lint before and really like his urban fantasy. The magic is right here with us if we would just see it.
I enjoyed the different stories and the way they were part of one story. We meet people in one story and learn more about them in another. I am looking forward to read / listen to more books from Newford.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
2013 Audio Book Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge
2013 Paranormal Reading Challenge (various)

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach

 
When Ravi Kapoor, an over-worked London doctor, is driven beyond endurance by his obnoxious father-in-law, he asks his wife: 'Can't we just send him away somewhere? Somewhere far, far away.' His prayer seems to have been answered when his entrepreneurial cousin, Sonny, sets up a retirement home, recreating a lost corner of England in a converted guesthouse in Bangalore. Travel and set-up are inexpensive, staff willing and plentiful - and the British pensioners can enjoy the hot weather and take mango juice with their gin.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a brilliant comedy of manners, mixing acute observation with a deeper message about how different cultures cope in the modern world. From Goodreads.




I saw this film just over a year ago and thought I would read (listen to) the book. As with a lot of other books that have been turned into film, this book was nothing like the film.
The film is about a small group of elderly people coming to the Marigold Hotel for their retirement. In the book the hotel is full and it is just as much about their families and what brings them out to India. I enjoyed both the book and the film.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
NBRC Stuck in a Rut
Beat the Heat Readathon 2013
2013 Audio Book Challenge

Déjà Dead by Kathy Reichs

It's June in Montreal, and Dr. Temperance Brennan, who has left a shaky marriage back home in North Carolina to take on the challenging assignment of Director of Forensic Anthropology for the province of Quebec, looks forward to a relaxing weekend in beautiful Quebec City. First, though, she must stop at a newly uncovered burial site in the heart of the city. The remains are probably old and only of archeological interest, but Tempe must make sure they're not a case for the police.
One look at the decomposed and decapitated corpse, stored neatly in plastic bags, tells her she'll spend the weekend in the crime lab. Something about the crime scene is familiar to Tempe: the stashing of the body parts; the meticulous dismemberment. As a pattern continues to emerge, Tempe calls upon all her forensic skills, including bone, tooth/dental, and bitemark analysis and x-ray microflourescence to convince the police that the cases are related and to try to stop the killer before he strikes again.
Told with lacerating authenticity and passion, Déjà Dead is both poignant and terrifying as it hurtles toward its breathtaking conclusion and instantly catapults Kathy Reich into the top ranks of crime authors. From Goodreads.

This is the book on which the TV-series "Bones" has been based. Very loosely based. As far as I can see it is only the name and the profession of Temperance Brennan that has been used, the characters are extremely different.
I really like Bones and it took me some time to get use to this completely other character. It was a good crime book though and I will most likely pick up the next book in the series. I think one of my problems with this book was that I was listening to it on audible and I am not used to that.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
NBRC Stuck in a Rut
Beat the Heat Readathon 2013
2013 Audio Book Challenge

The Dead Girls' Dance by Rachel Caine

Claire has her share of challenges. Like being a genius in a school that favours beauty over brains; homicidal girls in her dorm, and finding out that her college town is overrun with the living dead.
On the up side, she has a new boyfriend with a vampire-hunting dad. But when a local fraternity throws the Dead Girls' Dance, hell is really going to break loose. From Goodreads.

I liked it but it was still just average. There are questions I would like the answers to but I am not going to hurry out and get the next many books in this series just for that.
This is the first time I have finished an audiobook. I don't think I will ever love audiobooks but listening to them is a good way to "read" when I don't have time to sit down.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Audio Book Challenge
2013 Paranormal Reading Challenge (Vampire)
2013 Sequel Reading Challenge

2013 Audio Book Challenge Sign up

2013 Audio Book Challenge hosted by Teresa's Reading Corner.

Welcome to the Original Audio Book Challenge. This challenge is for Audio Book lovers as well as those who are brand new to them.

There are five levels to the challenge

•     Flirting-Listen to 6 Audio Books
•     Going Steady- Listen to 12 Audio Books
•     Lover- Listen to 25 Audio Books
•     Married-Listen to more than 25 Audio Books
•     You Define the Relationship- Create your own challenge (choose your own name and level    starting as low or going as high as you’d like)

This is a fairly laid back challenge and I want it to be as enjoyable as possible.

•     Audio Books can be any genre
•     You can cross challenges
•     You don’t have to be a blogger to participate. You can tell us about what you are listening to in the comments of the monthly link up.

Official Challenge dates: 1/1/2013-12/31/2013

I tried this year to listen to a book and failed, it was just too boring. But I would like to try again so to encourage myself I have joined this challenge and hope for the best.

My goal for this challenge is Flirting - Listen to 6 Audio Books. 

All my Posts are HERE.

1. The Dead Girls' Dance by Rachel Caine
2. Déjà Dead by Kathy Reichs 
3. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach
4. Dreams Underfoot: The Newford Collection by Charles de Lint
5. Vampires: The Recent Undead by Paula Guran (Editor) 
6. The Moon Of Gomrath by Alan Garner
7. Elidor by Alan Garner