Books Read
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In the Ravine and Other Short Stories
In the Ravine and Other Short Stories by Anton Chekhov Published: 1983 – 1900 (In the Ravine was 1900) Translated by: Constance Garnett (from Russian) Narrated by: Kenneth Branagh Length: 3:35 This is a collection of Chekhov’s short stories, spanning from 1983 with The Trousseau to 1900 with the title story, In the Ravine. I hadn’t read anything by Chekhov before, and I’m usually not a huge short story fan, but a small collection narrated by Kenneth Branagh seemed like a great place to start. This collected the following stories: Oh! The Public The Chorus Girl The Trousseau A Story Without a Title Children Misery Fat and Thin The Beggar…
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Lolita
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov Published: 1955 Narrated by: Jeremy Irons Length: 11:32 (336 pages) This is regularly touted as one of the most beautifully written books of the 20th century, so it’s always been on my to-read list, but it wasn’t until recently that I actually read the synopsis and knew what I was getting myself into. The novel follows a literature professor in his late 30’s, Humbert Humbert (an alias), as he becomes obsessed with, and pursues, 12-year-old Lolita. Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap,…
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A Hat Full of Sky (Discworld, #32)
A Hat Full of Sky (Discworld, #32) by Terry Pratchett Published: 2004 Series: Discworld #32 Length: 352 pages When Terry Pratchett passed away, I dropped what I was reading and picked up one of his novels. I still have a lot to get through, but the last I read was The Wee Free Men, so I decided to carry on with the Tiffany Aching books. In this second novel, Tiffany leaves her hometown for the first time to apprentice under a woman named Miss Level, a witch that has two bodies that share one mind. Her apprenticeship isn’t what she imagined, however, as it seems to mainly entail taking care…
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Published: 1884 Narrated by: Elijah Wood Series: Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn #2 Length: 10:12 I read the The Adventures of Tom Sawyer two years ago and really enjoyed it. I listened to it on audiobook and loved the narrator’s accents, so I thought I’d carry on with the audio route for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This is one of those cases where I feel like audio really shines. This is another book of boyhood fantasies. Huckleberry Finn can’t stand life now that he isn’t poor, after acquiring some cash with Tom Sawyer at the end of the last book. Having…
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A Brief History of the Celts
A Brief History of the Celts by Peter Berresford Ellis Published: 2013 Length: 255 pages I started reading this months ago and it just dragged on and on. I was close to abandoning it quite a few times, but I’d always encounter something interesting just before dropping it. That’s the problem. The book is full of interesting events and facts, but it doesn’t go into enough detail and is just so dry. I thought, as a Brief History, this would essentially be a high level overview of the timeline of the Celts with a few key periods looked at in-depth, but instead it felt like a full history of the…
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The Captain and the Enemy
The Captain and the Enemy by Graham Greene Published: 1988 Length: 224 pages This is the last novel Graham Greene wrote before his death in 1991. I’ve only read one of his others before, the audiobook of The End of the Affair narrated by Colin Firth, which was fantastic, and this is an incredibly different book. The End of the Affair felt real. Flawed characters, and a plot that’s surprising but, on reflection, makes sense. This novel was absurd in comparison, and I spent the first half in a state of confusion. The novel opens with a young boy, Victor, at school being picked up by a man he’s never…
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The Ghost Brigades
The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi Published: 2006 Series: Old Man’s War #2 Length: 347 pages I loved Old Man’s War, and for some reason I waited a year and a half to read the sequel, which I actually loved even more. In a way it was good to wait. The main character and cast are largely ignored in this next book, and it’s even written in a different narrative perspective, third person rather than first person. That would have made for a jarring transition if I had read them back to back, I think. The first book starts with John Perry leaving earth as a seventy-five-year-old man and joining…
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Legion: Skin Deep
Legion: Skin Deep by Brandon Sanderson Published: 2014 Narrated by: Oliver Wyman Length: 04:23 This is the second novella in Sanderson’s Legion series. I managed to grab both as they were temporarily available as free downloads through Audible when first released, but they’re worth spending a credit or two on as well, if you’re fine with the short length. He has a third planned, but no release date announced yet. I love the premise of these stories. Stephen Leeds is a problem solver for hire. If you have a problem, he has the knowledge and the skills needed for a solution, as long as you’re fine with him conversing with…
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A Confederacy of Dunces
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole Published: 1980 (written in 1963) Narrated by: Barrett Whitener Length: 13:32 The backstory of this novel is actually quite tragic. It’s explained in the introduction by Walker Percy, who was the man instrumental in getting this published. The novel was written in 1963, after Toole’s other novel The Neon Bible, and both failed to get picked up by publishers. This drove him deeper into his existing depression, which eventually lead to his suicide in 1969. His mother later found the carbon copy of the manuscript in his house and brought it to Walker Percy after also failing to catch the interest of…
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Eugene Onegin
Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin Published: 1825–1832 (serialized), 1833 (single volume) Translated by: James E. Falen (from Russian, 1990) Narrated by: Stephen Fry Length: 04:21 I can’t remember where I found the link, but I came across Fry Reads Onegin a while back and knew I had to download it. Stephen Fry narrates the 1990 translation of Eugene Onegin, and it’s available to download for free. I didn’t know anything about the poem, but I will listen to anything narrated by Fry, so I decided to give it a try. I read after listening to this that it’s the origin of the Onegin stanza (aBaBccDDeFFeGG), which did jostle some distant…