Audio Books - Reviews, Suggestions

Choosing your next audio book might be just as daunting a task as choosing your next favorite book...or author, or musical artist, or knitting project.  The choices, obviously, are seemingly never ending.

I came across Audiobook Jukebox recently.  This site is a compilation of  people who give concise reviews of what they have recently heard.  The list of reviewers is extensive (take a look over at the main page under the "reviewer sites" gadget on the right hand side) where the beginning page snip begins with numbers and the letter "A":

You can imagine how extensive is the number of reviewers just from the above snippet of sites.

On Ravelry, several forums have quick recommendations about favored audio books.  Go here or here to see what the knitters of the world are putting in their ears.  It's fun to learn what others are enjoying on audio.

Once you have determined the new book you want to hear, several sites are available for downloading that book, or poem, or short story.  There is your local library, of course,  which should have the OverDrive media console where you can download your mp3 books.  You first need to download the interface between your library and your computer, but then you are good to go.  Although recently  I have had a problem with a very long download time required to put all the sections of the audio not only into my library, and then also transferring them to the iPod. This is a new problem that I hope the innertubes...err..internet gurus, get rectified soon. ( I got so frustrated last week trying to get The Paris Wife (Paula McClain) into my media files that I finally gave up after numerous attempts over four days.)

But I digress.  Back to obtaining your audio books. Not only will your local library have a wealth of titles, but also LibriVox is a tremendous site for free downloads.  LibriVox provides books from the public domain, and are generally read by volunteers, not professional voices.  LibriVox also has a podcast you can access from here.

From "free" to "for-purchase":  Amazon has just a few, comparatively speaking, of mp3 audio book downloads.  iTunes has a more comprehensive listing.  But Audible is the real winner for absolute quantity and quality of available audio books.  Downside: you might get your first book free, but you will need to sign up for continuing books available monthly for a fee you might not want to commit to.

And what I recently purchased but have not yet listened to is through a recommendation from the moderator of this forum, who recommended Dorothy L. Sayers as an author.  The book is The Unpleasantness at the Belonna Club.  Email me if you want a quick review of this book (nmccarroll at Q dot com).

Thanksgiving Day

From the 1800's, depicting Thanksgiving in Colonial Times:

Thanksgiving 1915 A Colonial Revival Painting of The First Thanksgiving by Jean Louis Gerome Ferris (American painter, 1863-1930).

Our rural ancestors, with little blest,

Patient of labour when the end was rest,

Indulged the day that housed their annual grain,

With feasts, and off'rings, and a thankful strain.

~Alexander Pope

Norman Rockwell, 1942, published in The Saturday Evening Post

Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence. ~Erma Bombeck

Pillow Cases (the tube method)

My SIL gave me the idea of making pillowcases for charity.  This thought then led me to the idea of sewing a few extra for Christmas gifts as well. They will make especially unique gifts for my five CASA (court appointed special advocate) kids.  Each child has something special about them that I can find a fabric theme to match with their pursuits (music, sports, tv characters, etc.).  There are many great fabrics geared to kids.  Here is something I found with the Dr. Seuss theme from Etsy:

If you give it some thought, there will be many people that will come to mind who might appreciate something made by you especially for them.  And who can't use a new pillowcase, especially if it makes them smile?

A very easy tutorial on sewing three color coordinating fabric cases can be found here on YouTube, sponsored by Missouri Quilt Company.  I watched the video several times, took notes, and started thinking about fabric choices that were on hand.  A quick trip to the fabric store, and I came up with more coordinating fabrics.

Then the fabric pieces above were cut.  But wait!  There was more fabric on hand that needed coordinating fabric edges.   And I needed some Mickey Mouse fabric, too, for a special little boy going through some hard times.

Another trip to Hobby Lobby, and behold!  Twelve pillowcases were on the way to being sewn.

YouTube and Missouri Quilt explains it all, and it is not difficult if you have average sewing skills.  Here are several pillowcase ready to be seamed that are on my machine shelf this morning, ready for finishing.

And here are a few already finished:

Thanks, Charlotte, for this neat gift idea.