Mini Reviews: Summer Audiobooks

So, yes, my life has been chaotic and busy, mostly due to all of the teaching and grading I’ve done this summer. Oh, and the moving. So add it all together, and that left me with precious little time to read and even less time to actually update. So! Mini reviews! I’ll start with audiobooks, then do fiction, non-fiction, picture books, and BSC graphic novels.

Trust needs time to heal, but forgiveness is a decision.

Let It Go: Forgive So You Can Be Forgiven by T.D. Jakes (read by the author): In this book, Jakes offers information about why forgiveness is necessary. He also gives information about how to forgive. My favorite part of the book is that he spends a lot of time focusing on forgiving oneself, something that I think often goes overlooked when talking about forgiveness. The book has a Biblical bent–Jakes references Bible verses throughout–but gets more explicitly Christian as the book goes on.

I listened to this book while packing, and it was engaging enough, except sometimes I found myself tuning out. That may have had more to do with Jakes’s narration than the content, honestly. I was expecting to hear Jakes, the exuberant and exciting preacher, not Jakes, the subdued book reader. So, yes, I was looking for more of a performance with the narration and got a bedtime reading voice. I never quite got over that.

That said, I probably would have enjoyed it more if I read it on the page because I would have heard Jakes’s voice the way I wanted to in my head. Good content, though. And I loved the woman who introduced the chapters.

Audiobook Challenge: 3/12; POC Challenge: 4/25

Source: Audiobook Jukebox Solid Gold Reviewer Program

Invisible by Pete Hautman (read by Norm Lee): This one was actually a reread for me, but it was new for my daughter. (We listened to it together in the car.) Brief synopsis: Dougie has been labeled troubled by his family and schoolmates, but he doesn’t think he is, nor does his best friend Andy. This book chronicles Dougie’s relationship with Andy and his obsession with a classmate, and some of the decisions he makes in between.

The book was really captivating. As a reader/listener we could tell something was off with Dougie, but it was hard to tell until his interactions with other people. My daughter thought that was really well done, and the characterization was good. She liked it a lot more than I did since I just found it okay. To the book’s credit, we did need to know what was going to happen and finished it pretty quickly, so that’s a plus.

Audiobook Challenge: 2/12

Source: Library

Seriously…I’m Kidding by Ellen Degeneres (read by the author): Guys, I love Ellen Degeneres. I just do. She’s so great. She’s fun and funny, and her audiobook was fun and funny, too. My favorite bits were (a) when she talked about being a Cover Girl and how that doesn’t make her just another gorgeous blond and (b) when she meditated. The meditating bit was great because it’s exactly how my mind works when I attempt quiet meditation, which is to say it goes all over the place.

Anyway, I am 100% sure that this book is more fun as an audiobook because Ellen is kind of ridiculous and her delivery is fantastic. Some bits are just her reading funny words or making weird noises. Oh, and I loved the way she introduces each chapter. She gets more and more enthusiastic about them as the book goes on.

My daughter listened to this one with me as well, and we had a lot of fun. In fact, she would turn to me at various times in the car and say, “Ellen is so silly!”

Relatedly, I know Ellen is happy that Finding Nemo is getting a sequel. The fact that it didn’t have one is a sticking point in the book.

Audiobook Challenge: 1/12

Source: Library