AudioSynced, July Edition

Welcome to another edition of AudioSynced, the monthly roundup of audiobook news and reviews from around the blogosphere hosted by Abby (the) Librarian and us here at STACKED. Apologies for the slight delay in this month's edition, but it's been busy! June is Audiobook Month, and there have been a ton of wonderful submissions of reviews, posts, and more all about audiobooks.

If you've posted an audiobook review or otherwise blogged about audiobooks in June, leave a comment in the links and we'll add your link to the post.

Audiobook News & Fun

• Here's a quick overview from Beyond Her Book (A Publisher's Weekly blog) about June is Audiobook Month, how it started, and why it matters.
  

• For the second year in a row, Sync, the Young Adult Audiobook Community, is offering up free downloadable audiobooks of a current popular YA title and a classic title. Each week, they share a new title, through August 17. This week, they're offering Cory Doctorow's Little Brother and Franz Kafka's The Trial. The schedule of downloads is available here, and you can get the books by clicking here.

• YALSA's The Hub blog gives a rundown of the Odyssey Awards dinner at the annual American Library Association conference. Abby also gives her quick reactions over on the ALSC blog.

• The Audio Publishers Association posted their 2011 Audie Award Winners. You can even listen to clips of the winning titles.
  

• Booklist named their Voice of Choice this year, and it's Katherine Kellgren. Check out the links about her career and why she's such an in demand audio narrator.
  

• This is probably one of the most fun things I've seen in a while! Becky at RA for All and the earlier-linked Beyond Her Book blog both shared a link from acclaimed audiobook narrator Scott Brick, who has been tweeting how audiobooks are created. And they filmed the tweets. Check it all out. Talk about an inside look at audioobook creation.

• I admit to not blinking an eye about the drama surrounding the children's book meant for adults Go the Bleep to Sleep, but when I heard it was being narrated by Samuel L Jackson? Yep, I downloaded it. It's available for free download, if you're as curious as I was.
  

• Nicole at Linus's Blanket shared her rules for audiobook listening, following audiobook week. Helpful hints and ideas for both the new listeners and seasoned listeners. I don't know about you, but I love reading about people's reading/listening experiences.
  

Celebrating Audiobook Week

Tons of bloggers took advantage of the week of June 11-18 to celebrate Audiobook week, and it's worth your time to check out these links!

• Lee at Reading with my Ears shared some of her favorite audiobook resources. She talks about how she chooses what to listen to and how non-listeners can dive into the world of audiobooks.

• Jen, host of Audiobook Week at Devourer of Books, shared an interview with Susan, audiobook guru and co-founder of Audiobook Jukebox. This is a fantastic audiobook resource!

• Check out the midweek meme to see what bloggers are enjoying in their audiobook listening.

• What are your thoughts on sound effects in audiobooks? Jen, along with over 35 other bloggers, weigh in on the topic.

• Over 45 bloggers talked about their year in audiobook listening.

• Of course, I'd suggest looking through the entirety of Audiobook Week posts at Jen's site, as she links up tons of reviews (hers and others). What a ton of work to put something like this together!
  

• I'm a little ashamed how little I've listened to, but with no more commute in my life, it's been hard to fit it in. Perhaps I should revisit some of the Audiobook Week posts from last year and try some of those techniques.
  

Audiobook Reviews

Since so many reviewers shared their links during Audiobook week, it's likely I'll miss a link or two. I'm trying to spice this up with new names, too, so if you're a new audiobook reviewer, don't be shy! Just drop a line in the comments and I'll add it to the list.

• "I still learned a massive amount and it was thoroughly enjoyable," says Carin in her review of David McCullough's John Adams.

• "I absolutely love when the narrator did his voice. Such a loud, hilarious man and almost always in the liquor," says Kristen in her review of L. A. Meyers's Mississippi Jack.

• "I also really appreciated that the book was tailored to the listener, not the reader. By this I mean that whenever the text read "If you're reading this," it was changed to "If you're listening to this." It's a nice touch that iced the experience for me," says Kim in her review of Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything.

• "Narrator Stephen Briggs, who has also narrated a number of Terry Pratchett's other books, was an ideal choice for this production. His deep commanding voice perfectly agreed with the heavy themes of faith, gods, and survival that Nation covers, and, in fact, it often seemed like he was issuing an edict from on high," says Jen in her review of Terry Pratchett's Nation.
  

• A short review by The Brain Lair on Tina Fey's Bossypants, "It was a hoot since it's read by Fey herself."

• "I appreciated Cristin Milioti's somewhat husky voice that's different from the typical teen girl voice that a lot of narrators use in YA audiobooks. She does a nice job of keeping characters separate, although she does make some odd choices as far as accents," says Abby in her review of Kathy Reichs's Virals.

• Abby also shared a review of Walter Dean Myers's Lockdown, which she says, "Walter Dean Myers does a nice job of presenting details of prison life that realistically show what it's like. I enjoyed the audiorecording as well."

• Sarah, in her review of Clare Vanderpool's Moon Over Manifest says that, "I loved that the audiobook featured different narrators for different aspects of the book. This added to the richness of the story and made the whole book really come alive."

• This is a new blog to me, and there are a ton of wonderful audiobook resources linked on the right side (add them to your reader!). But, The Guided Earlobe says of Buried Secrets by Joseph Finder that, "Holter Graham has a great voice for narration and he uses it well here. Graham captures the character of Nick Heller perfectly, giving him a bit of snark when needed, as well as allowing us to hear the pressures of the case piling on his shoulders."

• This month, Lee offers up reviews of Attica Lock's Black Water Rising, Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall, Walter Dean Myers' Here in Harlem, Lewis Carroll's classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and more!

• Melissa offers a review of one of my favorite books, Kirby Larson's Hattie Big Sky, saying that, "I was a big fan of the narrator in this audiobook (listened on the drive to Arizona while I was moving). She really captured the character and spunk of Hattie.