Best audiobooks

Originally published in the Ketchikan Daily News, March 2016; written by Tammy Dinsmore

I have a bit of a commute to and from work, and so decided that audiobooks would be a good way to use that time to my advantage. I have listened to some great stories over the past couple of months.

The first one is called “The Secret Chord” written by Geraldine Brooks and read by Paul Boehmer. This book is a fictional account of the life of King David told from the perspective of the Prophet, Nathan. The story goes back and forth in time but ultimately relates the story of how David came to power and how he kept that power. There are so many violent acts in this story that it was hard to listen to at times, but I realize it was the times they lived in. Murder, betrayal, and sexual violence, it’s all there, but so too is the love of and fierce loyalty to David by the many who knew and served him. After witnessing the murder of his family, Nathan tells of how he first came to know David, and how he came to be King David’s prophet and stayed by David’s side through the rest of his life.

“The Martian” by Andy Weir and read by R.C. Bray was an exciting and fun “read”. I found myself, before and after work, sitting in the car for several minutes listening to what happened next.

After landing on Mars, the crew of the Ares 3 is just settling in to their routines when a bad storm hits. They need to leave Mars before their mission is due to end and are heading back to their ship to leave when Astronaut Mark Watney is struck by a piece of debris. Thinking their crewmate dead, they leave him behind. But he isn’t dead and now Watney needs to figure out how to stay alive until the next mission is due to arrive on Mars--in four years! Also on his mind is how to get a message back to Earth. Meanwhile, back at NASA, Mindy Park is in Satellite Control and is looking at pictures of Mars when she notices something peculiar. She notices things that shouldn’t be where they are and then realizes that Watney is alive. Watney is the botanist for the mission and he is also a mechanical engineer so it was really fun to listen to all of the scientific solutions to the many problems he was faced with, and how he began communicating with NASA. I thought this was a great science fiction and adventure story. And now I’m eager to see what the movie is like!

The most recent book I listened to was “Brooklyn” by Colm Tóibín, read by Kirsen Potter. Eilis Lacey is living with her mother and her sister, Rose in Southeastern Ireland in the town of Enniscorthy. It is just a few years after World War II and she is having trouble finding work. One day Rose brings home a guest—a priest who has come home from Brooklyn, New York to visit his family. Rose is a golfer and met Father Flood on the golf course and after telling Father Flood about Eilis’ problems in finding work, they hatch a plan to have Eilis move to Brooklyn. Father Flood will help find Eilis a job and a place to live. Eilis agrees and gets on a ship bound for America. She’s not crazy about her job and the boarding house she lives in, but is trying to settle in. She decides to start taking bookkeeping classes at night to keep her busy and to keep from getting homesick. At an Irish dance, she meets Tony, a handsome Italian man. They start dating and things start getting serious. Then Eilis gets word from home that there has been a family emergency. After finishing her classes she decides to go home for a month. She starts seeing her old friends and a new friend and the month comes and goes. The decision of whether to stay in Ireland or go back to Brooklyn to her job and to Tony gets harder and harder as time passes.

These are just three out of many options for audiobooks here at the library or online. We have books of all genres on CD, Playaway, and downloadable ones from the Alaska Digital Library accessed from our website www.ketchikanpubliclibrary.org.