Booklist Online: Book Reviews from the American Library Association

Just in case you missed my mention on Twitter: Scott Brick, award-winning audiobook reader & producer, has teamed up with the Audio Publishers Association to create Share the Experience, a virtual American Idol for aspiring audiobook narrators. Here’s the scoop from Brick’s awesome blog:
To celebrate my tenth anniversary as an audiobook narrator, I’ve enlisted the [...]

This terrific look inside Full Cast Audio’s production of Eyes like Stars by Lisa Mantchev includes comments from actors, Full Cast founder Bruce Coville, artistic director Daniel Bostick, and more. I love seeing how the cast rehearses, how the script pages are marked, and to see & hear readers morph from actor to character. Lots [...]

Audiobook narrator extraordinaire, recognised as the gold standard, gracious grand dame of voice actors – the accolades could go on and on. Barbara Rosenblat is this year’s Voice of Choice, Booklist Magazine’s recognition of lasting impact in the world of audiobook narration. Read Joyce Sarick’s reflections on  Rosenblat’s artistry to learn more about this master [...]

Listen here to wonderful comments from Kathie Lee Gifford, author and narrator of Just When I Thought I’d Dropped My Last Egg; Lisa Scottoline, author of Look Again; and Katherine Kellgren, Audies award-winning narrator of Curse of the Blue Tattoo, a 2008 Odyssey Honor-winner. Great reflections on audiobooks, the value of the spoken word and [...]

Take time to read The Booklist Interview: Lisette Lecat by Allison Block. Ms. Lecat is the marvelous narrator of Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency novels, including Tea Time for the Traditionally Built. I love to find out about how master narrators first started in audiobooks – in Ms. Lecat’s instance, by recording [...]

I had the great good fortune to speak as an audiobook evangelist at the Massachusetts Library Association conference, along with audiobook narrator extraordinaire Johnny Heller. Heller is the recipient of accolades galore, including titles on YALSA & ALSC’s suggested audiobook lists, Audies nominations & award, PW’s Listen Up award, and AudioFile’s Best Voice of 2008. [...]

Nice article by Elizabeth Bluemie in PW’s Shelftalker: Let’s Hear It for the (British) Boys: Male Audiobook Narrators and the Bookseller Who Loves Them. I completely agree with her choices – check out the roster and the comments for terrific suggestions. Those smooth British accents guarantee the “Mr. Yumm” effect!

Evaluating audiobooks? Be sure to check out part one for pronunciation guides as well!
Here are some great resources if you want to check the authenticity of an accent or dialect. The phenomenal Speech Accent Archive from George Mason University’s Program in Linguistics is the first stop to tune your ear to the cadence of speech [...]

I’ll be posting evaluation tips for over the next few days for those of you who are listening to audiobooks with a critical ear. One challenge for both listeners and narrators is determining correct pronunciation of words. On my old Audiobooker blog, I had a request for resources to check the pronunciation of names, with [...]

I was thrilled to see Ellen Myrick’s interview with audiobook narrator Katherine Kellgren in the April 1st Booklist and on Booklist Online. Katy holds the enviable record of being the first narrator to appear on multiple Odyssey titles -  she reads two Odyssey Award Honor titles: 2008’s Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures [...]