2012 Audie Finalists

The Audies are awards given annually for the best audiobooks.  The Audio Publishers Association, a non-profit trade organization, gives these awards and this year's awards will be announced in June.  Awards are given in more than 20 categories.

This year I'm rooting for Chime by Franny Billingsley in the "teens" category, Bossypants by Tina Fey in the "narration by the author" category, and Bruiser by Neal Shusterman in the "multi-voiced performance" category. My reviews of these audiobooks are coming soon.

Evermore by Alyson Noel

Narrated by Katie Schorr.
Audiobook published by Macmillan Audio.
Formats available: print, ebook, MP3 audiobook, CD audiobook.

Story:
Reading:

Here's how forgettable this book is: I was two hours into the audiobook before I remembered that, not only had I bought the book for my library about a year ago, but I had even read it when it first came out.  And though I remembered reading it, vaguely, I honestly could not remember how it ended.  It's just the kind of book that my high school girls love, and I haven't listened to as many audiobooks in this genre as I should, so I persisted.

Stop me if you've heard this before: 
Teen girl loses her family and moves to a new town to live with a relative she knows but has never spent much time with.  She goes to the local high school where she is a loner with few friends.  A new boy shows up at school who's dark, mysterious, and ridiculously good-looking.  He can read minds, moves super-fast, and doesn't eat.  Oh, and by the way, he's immortal and has been around for hundreds of years.  He is immediately smitten with loner girl who feels unworthy of his affection.  She knows he isn't your typical teen but can't quite figure out what's going on...

Have you read this book?  I have, and it was called Twilight.  I enjoyed it-- Twilight, that is.  Now I'm not a snob about Twilight knock-off novels, I've read and enjoyed many of them. So trust me when I say that if that's what you're looking for, you can do better than Evermore.

Katie Schorr has a decent "teen-y" voice and does an adequate job reading the book but doesn't redeem what is, ultimately, a very forgettable novel.  Only recommended to uber-fans of the genre.

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch with Jeffry Zaslow

Narrated by Erik Singer.
Audiobook published by Random House Audio.
Formats available: print, ebook, MP3 audiobook, CD audiobook.

Story:
Reading:

For some reason I feel guilty that this was one of the least enjoyable books I have ever listened to.  I think of this feeling as "women's guilt": something particular to women like me who have been raised to feel shame when we dislike someone or something that society tells us we should like.  Like cats, or newborn babies.  Somehow it feels wrong to dislike the story of a man who is not only dead but highly esteemed by others.

Randy Pausch was, by his own assessment, an incredibly intelligent man.  He was also, by his own assessment, a likeable, funny, generous, and respectable man.  But there in-lies my problem with this book; I've never liked people who are full of themselves.  Many would say, I'm sure, that Randy Pausch had every reason to be full of himself, that he was just as intelligent and funny and generous as he said he was, and I don't doubt they are right.  But his arrogant and cliched writing style rubbed me the wrong way and unfortunately his purported message, that of living your dreams and seizing the day, left me thoroughly uninspired.

Erik Singer does a fine job of narrating the book.