Best Audiobooks of 2007
February 19, 2008 – 4:20 am
Library Journal published its BEST list on January 15, 2008. Links in blue are to the fiction audiobooks which are in the Spokane Public Library collection. [Next week I’ll publish the non-fiction audiobooks.]
Best Audiobooks of 2007
By Ann Burns — Library Journal, 1/15/2008
Heard any good books lately? Apparently, lots of people are listening. According to a survey conducted by the Audio Publishers Association, annual audiobook sales are now estimated at $923 million. Customers find books at libraries, retail stores, and through downloading, which is becoming the fastest-growing audiobook format. This year’s “best” list includes titles by the late sf author Octavia Butler, best-selling authors Khaled Hosseini and Nora Roberts, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, and Good Morning America coanchor Robin Roberts. We owe a debt of gratitude to our team of reviewers, whose assessments are quoted below, for assisting us in compiling this annual roundup.
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Fiction
Bohjalian, Chris. The Double Bind. Books on Tape. 9 CDs. 11½ hrs. ISBN 978-1-4159-3579-8. $110.
Taking a page from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby, Bohjalian (Midwives, Before You Know Kindness) focuses on a young social worker employed at a homeless shelter and her quest to discover the truth in a dead client’s box of old photos. Susan Denaker reads this compelling mystery, which crosses time and geography with “great sensitivity.” (LJ 9/1/07)
Butler, Octavia E. Fledgling. Sound Library: BBC Audiobooks America. 9 CDs. 12 hrs. ISBN 978-0-7927-4671-3. $94.95.
Narrated well by Tracey Leigh, this final sf novel from Nebula Award winner Butler is about a genetically altered vampire who can tolerate some daylight and transmits longevity to the human whose blood she needs to survive. Set in a remote area north of Seattle, this work is “enticingly revealed.” (LJ 5/1/07)
Hosseini, Khaled. A Thousand Splendid Suns. Recorded Bks. 11 CDs. 12 hrs. ISBN 978-1-4281-4278-7. $123.75; 11 cassettes. ISBN 978-1-4281-4276-3. $113.75.
The second novel by the best-selling author is a poignant tale of rivalry, danger, sacrifice, and love, as two women are brought together in war-torn Afghanistan. Atossa Leoni does a masterly job, transporting the listener into an “unblinking world.” (LJ 11/15/07)Listen! (mp3)
Morgan, Richard K. Thirteen. Tantor Audio. 18 CDs. 23 hrs. ISBN 978-1-4001-0431-4. $59.99.
“Simon Vance’s British accent lends a wearied patina to Carl,” the bounty hunter in Morgan’s novel about genetically engineered Alpha males bred by the military to be “perfect” soldiers. The author’s characters are “archetypes, insightfully constructed and incisively drawn.” (LJ 10/15/07)
Listen! (mp3)
Patterson, James & Michael Ledwidge. The Quickie. Books on Tape. 5 CDs. 6 hrs. ISBN 978-1-4159-4204-8. $60.
A one-night stand leads to a deadly series of cover-ups, lies, and deceptions in Patterson’s latest thriller. Actress Mary Stuart Masterson “skillfully keeps the suspense moving, giving each character a distinct personality and helping listeners overcome the occasional florid prose….” (LJ 10/1/07)
Phillips, Susan Elizabeth. Natural Born Charmer. HarperAudio. 10 CDs. 12 hrs. ISBN 978-0-06-122719-6. $39.95.
“Anna Fields ignites the snappy dialog and animates the quirky characters” in this contemporary romance focusing on football star Dean Robillard and his pursuit of artist Blue Bailey. It’s a book “meant to be heard to appreciate fully both the humor and the redemption.” (LJ 4/15/07) Listen! (m3u)
Pronzini, Bill. Savages. Sound Library: BBC Audiobooks America. 6 CDs. 7 hrs. ISBN 978-0-7927-4857-1. $64.95.
The inimitable Nameless detective is back: this time a former client asks him to investigate the death of her sister, who might have been killed by her husband. Veteran Nameless narrator Nick Sullivan knows Pronzini so well that his reading is “free of artifice and overflows with the author’s nuances and emotions.” (LJ 9/15/07)
Roberts, Nora. High Noon. Brilliance Audio. 14 CDs. 16 hrs. ISBN 978-1-4233-3730-0. $122.25.
Susan Ericksen “wrings tears and laughter and incites anger and fear all with impressive ease” in Roberts’s latest romantic suspense featuring hostage negotiator Phoebe MacNamara and Duncan Swift, whose growing relationship is threatened by a stalker. A blockbuster, amplified by Ericksen’s “spot-on” narration. (LJ 11/1/07)
Listen! (mp3)
Silva, Daniel. The Secret Servant. Brilliance Audio. 11 CDs. 12 hrs. ISBN 978-1-59600-036-0. $107.25; 9 cassettes. ISBN 978-1-59600-033-9. $92.25; 1 MP3-CD. ISBN 978-1-59335-787-0. $39.25.
In this “exceptional” follow-up to The Messenger, Gabriel Allon is back, assigned to review the files of a dead terrorism analyst in Amsterdam. Soon he’s enmeshed in the world of radical Islam, a terrorist attack in London, and the kidnapping of the daughter of the U.S. ambassador to the UK. Phil Gigante’s narration is “superb.” (LJ 11/15/07)
Smith, Alexander McCall. The Careful Use of Compliments. Recorded Bks. 7 CDs. 8 hrs. ISBN 978-1-4281-5530-5. $77.75; 7 cassettes. ISBN 978-1-4281-5528-2. $67.75.
“Davina Porter brings just the right amount of emotional involvement to her narration” of Smith’s fourth Isabel Dalhousie novel, the “best so far.” In this tale with a mystery subplot, Isabel is adjusting to parenthood while struggling with her housekeeper, niece, and those who want to oust her as editor of Review of Applied Ethics. (LJ 12/07)
Listen! (mp3)
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