Book Club for Masochists: a Readers’ Advisory Podcast

In this episode, Non-Fiction Audiobooks! Join us as we discuss the power of narrators, the problems of technology, and what to do while you’re listening to an audiobook. Also: We actually enjoy things!

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jessi

Recommended

• Green River, Running Red by Ann Rule, narrated by Michele Pawk (6 hr edition, which Jessi listened to) or narrated by Barbara Caruso (19 hour edition, if you prefer unabridged)
• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, narrated by Scott Brick
• Information Doesn't Want to Be Free: Laws for the Internet Age by Cory Doctorow, narrated by Wil Wheaton
• Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube: Chasing Fear and Finding Home in the Great White North by Blair Braverman, narrated by the author

Read/Listened

• The Skinny Rules: The Simple, Nonnegotiable Principles for Getting to Thin by Bob Harper and Greg Critser
• The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth about Food and Flavor by Mark Schatzker, narrated by Chris Patton
• Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies: The Straight Scoop on Freemasons, The Illuminati, Skull and Bones, Black Helicopters, The New World Order, and many, many more by Arthur Goldwag, narrated by Fred Sanders
• Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us by Jesse Bering, narrated by the author

Did Not Finish (DNF)

• The Witches: Salem, 1692 by Stacy Schiff, narrated by Eliza Foss (Recommended)
• Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster by T.J. English, narrated by David Colacci (Recommended)
• Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe by Laurence Bergreen, narrated by the author (maybe try the 6 hour abridged version instead of the 15hr unabridged version Matthew tried)

Meghan’s Many DNFs

• Formula 50: A 6-Week Workout and Nutrition Plan That Will Transform Your Life by 50 Cent and Jeff O’Connell, narrated by Cary Hite
• Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown, narrated by Karen White
• Rising Strong by Brené Brown, narrated by the author
• The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal, and the Hunt for America's First Serial Killer by Skip Hollandsworth, narrated by Clint Jordan
• My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor, narrated by the author

Links and Stuff

• Humble Bundle
• LibriVox - free public domain audiobooks read by volunteers
• Audible is one of many sites where you can buy MP3 audiobook downloads
• A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman
• Audie Awards
• Beaver butt (i.e. Castoreum) has been historically used in perfumes and as “natural flavour” in foods
• Stacy Schiff has won a lot of awards (including a Pulitzer for a biography of Vladimir Nabokov's wife, Vera) (Wikipedia)

Questions

• Do you listen to audiobooks?
• How important is the narrator to your enjoyment?
• What do you do while listening to audiobooks?

Check out our Pinterest board and Tumblr posts for all the Non-Fiction Audiobooks people in the club read (or tried to read), follow us on Twitter,  and join our Facebook Group!

Join us again on Tuesday, May 2nd for our semi-regular “things we read that aren’t for the podcast (except now they are)” episode.

Then come back on Tuesday, May 16th, when we will inflict upon you the genre of Westerns!