Reviewing My Audible Subscription - Entrepreneur Generations

I'm trying to find ways to save money. Most of the bills I have are non-negotiable; my mortgages, car loan, car insurance, phone, and student loans take up about 85% of my salary. But with those other 15%, there are some things I can do: I already was a cord cutter. I just exchanged my Merritt gym membership for Planet Fitness. I dropped a physical therapy for my back that was helpful, but expensive. I dropped meal preparation services.

About a year ago, I bought an Audible subscription. For $14.95/month, I get to download an audiobook, which often is much more expensive than that price (sometimes in the area of $25).

Reflecting on the year, I knew I had "read" more than I had in a long time, and a big part of that was my Audible subscription. I listen at the gym, while I'm cleaning the house, even on my short commute. But was it worth it? See below. I think it was:

January: Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Loevy. Narrated by Rebecca Lowman. 13 hours and 28 minutes.
For my first attempt at Audible, I chose a true crime story, perhaps because I wanted to duplicate the experience of listening to Serial. This was a strong choice for me, as the audiobook was easy to stop listening to for long stretches of time and then pick back up again. Leovy intersperses the story of a murder of a police detective's son with social commentary and history, and it makes for a compelling listen, and, since I'm a police officer's son and live with a lot of dissonance right now (I'm #BlackLivesMatter and recognize the disparate treatment black men get from police, but also know there's lot of great police out there, including my dad), so this fairly pro-police but also pro-black lives memoir met many of my needs at the time.

February: Wilde Lake by Laura Lippman. Narrated by Kathleen McInerney. 10 hours and 53 minutes.
I found this Lippman novel to follow many of her trademarks: entertaining, funny, suspenseful, and thoughtful. Her exploration of the origins of Columbia, MD, made me learn some things about the area, but I was most in love with all of the To Kill a Mockingbird Easter Eggs she sprinkles throughout the book, which mixed together with mentions of Baltimore landmarks to make a supremely enjoyable experience for me. (Full review here)

March: The Cook Up: A Crack Rock Memoir by D. Watkins. Narrated by the author. 5 hours and 54 minutes.
I have seen D. Watkins speak and he's a charismatic and compelling voice, but I have some mixed feelings about the memoir, partially because I hoped it would be possible to use with students, but the vivid descriptions of being high and of producing crack unfortunately make that impossible. I wish the transition and ending were elaborated more; I wanted to hear more about how he became a writer, about what happened with his girlfriend. I learned a lot from reading the book, though, and there are vivid, heart-wrenching sequences, such as the opening description of his older brother's murder. My full review here.

April: Before the Fall by Noah Hawley, narrated by Robert Petcoff. 12 hours and 59 minutes.
This plane crash mystery-thriller was compelling and compulsively listenable. Full review here.

May: Delicious Foods by James Hannaham, read by the author. 11 hours and 6 minutes.
This audiobook was tremendous. Not only was the book a masterpiece, but Hannaham's elocution of the different narrators was brilliant. This is one of the best novels of the 21st century. Full review here.

June: The Fireman by Joe Hill, read by Kate Mulgrew. 22 hours and 20 minutes.
Stephen King's son has written a novel that stands among the best of his father's, and Kate Mulgrew's performance as the narrator is remarkable. My friend Paula Gallagher, the book reviewer from Roughly Speaking podcast, recommended this both on the podcast and personally to me, and she is right: this apocalyptic audiobook is a masterpiece. My full review here.

July: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. Narrated by Bahni Turpin. 10 hours and 50 minutes.
Colson Whitehead's novel deservedly won the National Book Award, and Turpin's narration brings protagonist Cora to life. Heartbreaking and thought-provoking, the novel is another one I'd put on my list of best novels of the 21st century. Full review here.

August: Underground Airlines by Ben Winters, narrated by William DeMeritt. 9 hours and 28 minutes.
This one was recommended both by the aforementioned Paula Gallagher, but the audiobook in particular was recommended in the "What's making us happy" segment on the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast that I've fallen in love with this past year. This piece of alternative fiction imagines an America in which Abraham Lincoln was assassinated before he became President and the Civil War has never occurred; 4 states remain slave states, but many other things about the nation are the same (smart phones, happy meals, etc.) The result is compelling, made even more so by DeMeritt's hard-boiled narration, which emphasizes the loner detective element of the novel. My full review here.

September: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, read by the author. 11 hours and 4 minutes.
Several of my then-new seniors described this book in their reading biographies, to the point where I felt remiss because I hadn't read it. It's a memoir of a civil rights lawyer who works primarily on death row cases, and it's powerful. I definitely recommend it, although listening to it on Audible without knowing anything else about the book led to some interesting experiences: I didn't realize the author was black until a couple of hours of listening, and thought at first that he was another white liberal helping black folks accused of crimes they didn't commit, another Atticus Finch. It's interesting, because one of the main cases takes place in Harper Lee's hometown, a point of irony in the memoir. Anyhow, I do recommend the book; my full review here.

November: Monterey Bay by Lindsay Hatton, narrated by Rebecca Lowman. 8 hours and 19 minutes.
For the first hour or two, I was really intrigued by this one, but eventually Lowman's narration really wore on me. Hatton has a natural lyricism to her writing, but Lowman sounded like she was at a spoken word poetry reading. I wasn't held by the story after initially being hooked by the Doc and Steinbeck stuff. I'll pick up the real thing again sometime in the future, but only lasted halfway through.

December: Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, narrated by Lisette Lecat. 10 hours and 52 minutes.
Adichie is one of my favorite writers, and this book had its moments, but it's somewhat slow -- and not helped by Lecat's slow narration. I finished it, but it convinced me that this book would be a slog for 9th graders. Full Review here.

December bonus: Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, read by the author
Funny and wise, should be a great teach in the future. Full review here.

Also tried (left over from previous year): The Wangs vs. the World by Jade Chang, read by Nancy Wu
I was excited about this one for the first couple of hours, but eventually sort of lost track of the characters. I didn't think the narration did a good enough job of differentiating voices for a wide cast. I'll try it again in print someday, or maybe again in Audible.

Also tried (left over from previous year): Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, read by Wil Wheaton
This one was highly recommended on Facebook, but I could only get a couple of hours in. Too much of the plot centers are video games, which don't interest me at all, and it got a bit too technical for me. Even Wheaton, of whom I'm a fan, couldn't save it.

from Epiphany in Baltimore http://ift.tt/2i8Xzcm Reviewing My Audible Subscription - Entrepreneur Generations

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