Sunday Salon: Another audiobook pet peeve

This could be considered a good reading week for me, if you count audiobooks. I made it through three of them at work, and that gave me a chance to discover a new audiobook pet peeve. Up until now, all the audiobooks I've listened to were produced by the same company and they use bed music at the end of each CD to signal that it is almost time to change to the next disc. Remember the book-and-cassette sets we used to get as kids where there was a beep to tell you to turn the page? It's like that. Well, the last audiobook I listened to didn't have that. Each CD ended abruptly. I know that it doesn't take long to figure out that it is time to change the CD, but I would prefer a little cue.

COMPLETED: As I said, I finished three audiobooks this week.

Leave a Candle Burning : This is the last book in Lori Wick's Tucker Mills trilogy and it was read by Barbara Rosenblat, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite readers. All three of the books in this series are deeper than the other Wick romances that I've read. The challenges seem more realistic and Wick tied the three books together more than in her Big Sky Dreams series.

A Lady of High Regard: This is another Christian romance, but not one by Wick this time. It is the first book in the Ladies of Liberty series written by Tracie Peterson. Her book is based in roughly the same time period as Wick's pioneer romances, but it takes place in the high society world of Philadelphia. The setting gives this book a different flavor since there is more to do in a city than eat, go to church, and have babies :-).

The Christian content of this book is different as well. A Wick book reads like a combination novel and devotional with lots of Bible quotes. A Lady of High Regard has characters who are obviously Christians and not afraid to say it, but Peterson doesn't do a lot of preaching. I'm finding that some authors use Christian novels as a vehicle to impart Bible knowledge, while others consider a clean book with a "Thank God" or two in it Christian. I haven't decided if I have a preference of one over the other.

Austenland: This novel by Shannon Hale was fun and one of the few romances where I wasn't 100% sure who the heroine was going to end up with until 3/4 through the book. It is about a woman in her 30s who is obsessed with "Pride and Prejudice" to the point that it is causing difficulty in her relationships. The reader, Katherine Kellgren, totally made this book. She added emphasis to words that went with the tone of the book even when it wasn't spelled out in the text. Her acting skills almost changed this from an audiobook to an audio play.

I also finished reading Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist this week. I was on a long waiting list at the library for this book. I'm not sure that it was worth waiting three months for, but I'm glad that I read it before watching the movie. I think that reading the novel will give more depth to the movie once I watch it.

ABANDONED: I dropped Julie and Julia : 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen after about 80 pages. I want to finish it eventually, but I don't feel the need to put it at the top of my list. The author's attitude toward her job helping 9/11 vicitims' families was off-putting. I don't mind a bit of snarkiness, but the way she talked about her job made me uncomfortable.

CURRENTLY READING: I'm finally reading The Plain Janes. It is a graphic novel from Minx, DC Comics' line aimed at girls. I checked it out for myself, but all of my kids got to it first. If the speed with which I am reading this book is any indication, I should move all the graphic novels on my bedside table to the top of the stack and power right through them. That way I could be finished with a good bit of my stack before my next library trip.

COMING UP NEXT: Who knows? I enjoyed Shannon Hale's Austenland and I have her graphic novel Rapunzel's Revenge in hand, so I may go with it next. However, The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime and The Clothes They Stood Up In are both due back this week so I may try to speed-read those between now and Wednesday.