Chomp by Carl Hiassen

Wahoo has a somewhat nontraditional lifestyle, the fact that he lives in a zoo is a major factor and his father Mickey definitely tips that scales into weird. After his father gets hit on the head by a frozen iguana, it's up to Wahoo and his mother to make ends meet. This desperation leads Wahoo to accept a TV offer for Expedition Survival. They've contacted Wahoo and his father to set up scenes with tame animals in controlled environments, which should be an easy job with a big pay off.

Little does Wahoo know that the production company is going to involve more complications than first thought, mostly because of the star Derek Badger's ridiculous expectations of his own abilities. Added to the company is Tuna, a schoolmate of Wahoo's who has runaway from her abusive father. An abusive father with a gun.

I would first like to say that I listened to this on audiobook, and it's read by James Van Der Beek. That's right Dawson was reading the book, and he did a marvelous job. His portrayal of Derek Badger was fantastic, but he really made Mickey Cray become someone I wanted to get to know. It was crazy good.

I'll be honest and say that I haven't ever read any of Carl Hiaasen's books before this. First impression? He's incredibly funny, with a lovely grasp of the depth of emotions that children can latch on to. I think it's easy to make middle grade books rather shallow in the emotion department, but Hiaasen definitely touches on darker themes that are engaging and thought-provoking. I especially liked his view of Derek Badger and the corporate machine of television. Not to say that this was a complete discourse on the corruptness of media or anything like that, it just made suggestions that added to the depth and tone of the story.

The Sixty Eight Rooms by Marianne Malone

Ruth just wants to have her own space, her own experience that is unique for her. She wants to do something unusual that sets her apart, in other words she wants to be more like her best friend Jack. Jack is quirky and outgoing, his life seems like one adventure after another. Their positions seem to switch when they go to the Thorne Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago, the miniature rooms that have scale items and represent historical rooms, and they find a magical key.

The key draws Ruth and when she touches it she shrinks! All of a sudden Ruth and Jack are exploring the miniature rooms (illegally over the weekend!), making contact with people from different countries and centuries, and trying to discover who has preceded them in the rooms. As they are trying to understand the rules that allow them into the Thorne Rooms, they are also dealing with the real world problems that are popping up: Jack and his mother might have to move and a famous photographer's lost work.

Snooze. The premise is fantastic. Have you seen the Thorne Rooms? They're amazing! Why wouldn't anyone want to explore them? They're beautiful and so realistic. Unfortunately that's all it seems to have going for it. A book cannot float on a great premise and a real setting which is vividly described. And unfortunately that's what it felt like because none of the other elements were strong enough to keep it going.

The Robe of Skulls by Vivian French

The evil enchantress Lady Lamorna doesn't know it yet, but her simple request for a black velvet dress with skulls, poison ivy, and spiders, embroidered on it and red petticoats is going to set into motion a series of events that will bring the unlikeliest of heroes together: a troll whose head tends to come off, two chatty bats, a misfit prince, a True Heart girl named Gracie Gillypot, and Ancient Crones. The question now becomes will their efforts be enough once Lady Lamorna joins forces with the evil were-girl Foyce  in their plan of "Prince, zap, frog"?

When thinking of this book, the phrase "delightful romp" comes to mind. Add to that Renee Raudman's absolutely awesome reading and you have an absolutely compelling audiobook.

I probably would have enjoyed this book just reading it to myself. It has all of the elements that make it fabulous: humor, endearing characters, exciting chases, and absolutely entertaining villains. The plot is slightly predictable, but the dialogue makes up for the slightly formulaic storyline.

There are some references to modern day devices, I think a roller coaster is referenced at one point, but I don't have a complete grasp of what the world is like. so much time is spent with the characters that there isn't a ton of explanation of what the world of the Five Kingdoms is like. Which is kind of okay, you don't really need it. The real draw are the characters. They are so well done, simplistic yet there's just the right amount of depth to them to make them memorable. I especially loved the bat Marlin and Gubble the troll. They were both so delightful! Yes, Gracie Gillypot is a bit of a wet blanket as she's just so perfect and such a True Heart. But who cares? Prince Marcus makes up for her (and he's not even the best character!) and she's not in it too frequently.

I really want to also talk about Renee Raudman. She was so perfect for this, each voice and accent she did for the individual characters was so spot on. She had an incredible ear for pacing and tone. I think she might have spoiled me for all other audiobook readers. Sublime.

As I did listen to the audiobook, I didn't get to partake in the illustrations within the book. They're done by Ross Collins, and from what I can tell they're excellent. They seem to really encompass the style of the book.

I'm also sharing a video off of Vivian French's website, I think her hairstyle is fabulous.

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins

Eleven year old Gregor is trying to get by one day at a time, ever since his father disappeared two years ago it has fallen on his shoulders to help his mother take care of his two sisters and grandmother. He isn't bitter about the added responsibility, but he does take his job very seriously when looking over two year old sister Boots. This is especially true when he and Boots are pulled through the laundry grate into a mysterious world called the Underland. There are massive bugs, bats, and rats, and a curious population of people that are forced to prepare for war because of Gregor's desire to get home. Now Gregor must deal with keeping his sister safe, getting the two of them home, possibly saving his father, and being the prophesied Overlander that will save Underland from being overtaken by the vicious rats. Just a normal day in the life of an eleven year old, right?

I listened to this one audiobook, it had a rather slow start. I also got extremely annoyed by the reader. He didn't have a strong ability to stick with a voice for a character. They all ended up being either his normal voice or kind of a high pitched misty sort of voice that was supposed to represent bats, cockroaches, and almost all girls. He also didn't have a great sense of timing or inflection. It made it really difficult to get into the book and care for the characters. I even found the two year old to be obnoxious. But I'm assuming that a lot of this is more based off a dislike of the reader's interpretation of the book rather than the book itself. Or at least a majority of it.

Suzanne Collins is also the author of the Hunger Games series, you knew you recognized her name didn't you? You can totally see how this book would eventually lead her to create the world and plot of the young adult series. This is a dark book, it has a lot of serious themes that she deals rather well with given this is a middle-grade book. The action was gritty and violent, just bordering on too much for someone below the age of eleven or twelve. I loved the character of Ripred, so jaded and sarcastic. He was a much needed voice of reason, even when it was overly blunt. I also got rather attached to the cockroaches, even though the visual of six foot long cockroaches made me want to puke in my car. One thing I love about Suzanne Collins is the fact that her imagery is so vivid, you can always picture the setting clearly. At least I can. I'm always transported by her words, even when I'd rather not be like when the group of heroes is located in a nest of spiders. Gross.

Here are the detractors. I got rather annoyed by Gregor's inability to stop and think things through... but let's be honest he's an eleven year old with an abandonment complex and more responsibilities than most adults. The book was intensely slow at the beginning, Lots and lots of exposition that I didn't want at the time, and still think could've been tightened up and made more concise. But again, I have to make the excuse that she is setting up a world for a five book series so lots and lots of details are needed?

I enjoyed this for the most part. I'm hoping to read the next one soon and enjoy it more without the bad reader. We'll see how it goes. What I think is more interesting is the fact that you can see the progression from this middle-grade series to the young adult series and how Suzanne Collins has developed as a writer.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

Calpurnia is a precocious eleven year old on the verge of seeing America come into a new century. As she watches the country grow and develop intellectually, she must try and balance this with the expectation that she will grow up to be a wife and mother. Under the tutelage of her eccentric grandfather, Calpurnia discovers that what she is seeking in life might be beyond what her family and town can give her.

This book was lovely. Sweet, slow, and humorous, each chapter was a rather delightfully packaged little vignette that made you care for the entire family more and more. Each chapter begins with an excerpt from Origin of the Species, and it helps keep the theme of evolution very prevalent throughout the book even when the chapter might not have anything to do with the science experiments that Calpurnia and her Grandaddy perform.

This was a very character driven book, which partially makes it such a wonderful book. There are so few books for this age group that are character drive and well done. Jacqueline Kelly manages to do it though. Calpurnia makes you hope and dream with her, you want her to grow up and be able to do anything that she wants to do, and yet you know there's a good chance that she won't be able to. Jacqueline Kelly does an incredible job of creating a juxtaposition between our expectations as modern readers and the realist of Calpurnia's situation. Though-provoking.

I do have one little criticism. It's not huge, but I found some of the side-stories to detract from the main story-line. For example Calpurnia's eldest brother Harry has a fling with a young woman and I thought it dragged the story down a bit. It adds nicely to the whole well-rounded character and developing relationships between the family, but slowed things down in an already slow book. I get why it's there, I just didn't really want it there.

OK, enough about the book. I want to give a shout out to the reader Natalie Ross. She was BANANAS good. She encapsulated each character perfectly in the voices she gave them. It was incredible. When you listen to a book you want it to be this kind of experience. Awesome.

So go forth. Listen to this book. You'll enjoy it.

Magyk by Angie Sage

The very large Heap family is just about to celebrate the birth of Septimus, the seventh son of a seventh son, when Silas, the patriarch of the Heap family, must go out into to fetch some herbs for his wife Sarah. Little does he know that tonight is the night that everything will change. His old mentor and his queen are murdered and the baby princess goes missing. The kingdom is now under the dominion of the Supreme Custodian who makes life miserable for everyone. As he returns he across a baby girl with bright violet eyes. He rescues the baby only to return home to discover that his son is dead, with quick thinking Silas and Sarah replace their son with the baby girl and name her Jenna. On Jenna's eleventh birthday it is discovered that she is the missing princess, and must be protected from the horrible Supreme Custodian and his horrifically horrible boss DomDaniel. As Jenna runs for her life, and the Heaps go into hiding, they stumble upon more mysteries as the take a lowly army underling under their wing, Boy 412. Of course, nothing is as it seems and they must figure out the secrets of the past in order to save their future.

I got this on audiobook, and I have to admit that I went into this with high hopes. I had heard nothing but positive things about Angie Sage's books and I was really looking forward to the interpretation of the reader Allan Corduner. Perhaps I should not have allowed my hopes to get so high.

My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares

Daniel's soul has been around for a very long time.  And he remembers every life.  In each life, he searches for his one love, Sofia, who, like most people, does not remember her past lives and cannot recognize him.  While Daniel and Sofia are drawn to each other in each life, they have always been painfully separated.  Now Daniel has found her again, and this time he's determined to keep her.

Poor Lucy (that's Sofia in her current life).  Daniel has been screwing up her life from the very beginning when he burned down her house.  If you really think about, he's done nothing but cause her pain every single life, whether he actually finds her or not.  Lucy is doomed to wait around for Daniel, who very rarely gets there, and when he does, he dies.  And then Lucy either feel unsatisfied and doesn't know why for the rest of her life, or wants to die herself because she briefly had what she was waiting for and now it's gone.  Depressing.

The audio was OK.  There were two readers, Lincoln Hoppe and Kathe Mazur.  Mazur's reading was uninspiring and kind of flat (which actually fit the Lucy that I was picturing).  When Lincoln Hoppe started his first section I thought, "Is that Doug Swietec?!"  And it was.  Since I'd just listened to Okay for Now, which I loved and thought Hoppe was an awesome voice for Doug, I had a little trouble excepting him as Daniel, who is a very different character.  Daniel is intense.  Like, super intense, and Hoppe's voice didn't fit that picture well for me.  Still, it wasn't painful to listen to or anything.

I didn't realize when I was listening to this that it was the first book in a trilogy.  Knowing this now, the pacing makes a lot more sense.  The first half of the book was very slow.  We get Daniel's background through all the lives he remembers finding Sofia and what happened.  This is intercut with Daniel in the present day stalking Lucy but not talking to her, and Lucy trying to remember more things and both of them being completely mopey and miserable that they can't be together but convinced the other one doesn't want them anymore.  It dragged.  But now that I know it was all set up for another two books I feel better about it.

Spoilers

Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt

Doug Swieteck (last seen in The Wednesday Wars) and his family have moved to stupid Marysville in upstate New York in the summer or 1968.  Doug struggles to overcome the label of a "thug", with a no-good father and a brother that's getting accused of robberies.  Doug's not like that, but what does it matter if no one gives him a chance?  Luckily, a few people do give him a chance, like Lil Spicer who's in his class at school, and one of the librarians who's teaching Doug to draw. 

This was great.  Super great.  I totally loved it.  And I totally loved the audio version I listened to.  It was read by Lincoln Hoppe and he was excellent.  He didn't actually sound like a 13 year-old, obviously, but his tone and style of speech was just perfect.  I could picture Doug so well when I heard Lincoln Hoppe's voice.  There were lots of parts were I was grinning like an idiot by myself in the car, and there were times when I had to sit in my car to hear just a little bit more to make sure everything was going to OK.

If you're familiar with The Wednesday Wars, you'll remember Doug as being the class bully and often being pretty mean to Holling Hoodhood.  It was great to get to see what Doug was really about.  It's totally different then you'd think from what we learn from Holling.

Okay for Now is an episodic story, kind of like The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate.  The story starts during the summer of 1968 and it goes through that whole school year and in to the summer of 1969.  We get vignettes of things that happen in Doug's life.  There are several main storylines running through the whole book the most important being Doug discovering he's a talented artist.  He finds John James Audubon's Birds of America at the public library, and one of the librarians begins teaching him to draw.  Doug learns that pages of the book are sold when the town needs money, and he becomes determined to find all the missing pages and return them to the library. 

Spoilers

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

Rose Edelstein develops the ability to taste the emotion in food on the eve of her ninth birthday.  The first thing she realizes is that her mother is incredibly sad and empty.

I strongly disliked this.  If I hadn't been listening to it on audio, I wouldn't have finished it.  The audio itself I wasn't that great.  It was read by Aimee Bender herself, and she had a very flat and uninspiring reading voice.  Rather like the book itself, which I'm sure was intentional.

I do not like books that aren't about anything.  Or rather, are about "life."  I just don't care.  I don't want to read about someone's day-to-day life, for the same reason I rarely use my Twitter account and hardly ever update my Facebook status.  I want to read a story with a point and a plot.  I don't want to read someone's kind of pointless inner musings.  I know some people like books like that a lot.  I know books like that are often highly praised and thought of as "literary."  To that I say "whatever."  You can keep your literary.  It doesn't change that fact your book wasn't about anything.


Spoilers

The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex

Gratuity "Tip" Tucci is writing a five-paged paper on the true meaning of Smekday, the day the aliens invaded Earth.  Tip has an interesting perspective, although no one else knows it.  With her cat named Pig, Tip begins her journey to find her mother who was taken by the aliens and winds up teaming up with a rogue Boov named J.Lo.  When Earth is reconquered by another alien race, the Gorg, who are much bigger and scarier than the Boov, Tip is determined to not only find her mother but get all these aliens off her planet for good.

I listened to this on audio book, which I'm not going to recommend.  The audio book itself wasn't bad, although the voice that was being done for the aliens got kind of annoying after a while.  When you listen to it, you miss out on visual elements.  Tip has an old Polaroid camera she's taking pictures with through their travels, and J.Lo draws comics to explain things about his background and the Gorg.  When I figured out I was missing something, I went and found the book and looked at all the pictures.  You do really miss out if you don't have that piece.

N.E.R.D.S.: National Espionage and Rescue Defense Society by Michael Buckley

Jackson is on his way to being the most popular boy at Nathan Hale Elementary. Charming, athletic, and good looking, Jackson Jones has it made. So what if he likes to pick on the weirdos and nerds that don't fit in? Jackson is doing the world a service by keeping them in their place. That is until he discovers that he must get the motherload of braces. In a flash he is at the bottom of the barrel and he must find new pursuits, like observing (otherwise known as spying) his ex-friends, teachers, and peers and discovering all their secrets.  The only ones that seem to elude him are five losers that are always getting out of class. By pure chance Jackson hides in a locker that he sees them sneak into and finds himself in a secret lair. After finding himself and his braces upgraded he discovers that these five geeks routinely save the world and have spectacular nano-technology abilities to help them:

Mathilda Choi's asthma inhalers give her the abilities to fly and throw fire. She has exceptional fighting abilities and can use anything as a weapon. Heathcliff Hodges has huge buckteeth and can hypnotize anyone with them. Duncan Dewey loves to eat glue and can secrete a sticky substance from his pores allowing him to climb the walls and stick to anything. Julio Escala is ADD and harnesses his hyperactivity for super strength and speed. Ruby Peet is the team leader and is allergic to everything, including negative emotions and lying. They are not only united in saving the earth, nerdiness, and special abilities, but also their hatred of Jackson Jones. As everything seems to falling apart for the N.E.R.D.S. - with a new administrator and a douche bag new agent - they are put onto a new important case saving scientists and keeping Dr. Jigsaw from rearranging the continents. Will the agents be able to pull together and reevaluate their perspectives of each other and how they work to save the world? I listened to this in my car going to to and from work.

You can either read the rest of this review to discover why I didn't like this or you can stop here with the knowledge that I didn't like this. It doesn't really deserve a longer review, but I will go into detail because as a Wandering Librarian that's what I do.

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Enrenreich

Journalist Barbara Ehrenreich spends several months working at minimum wage jobs in several different locations around the country.  Her goal is to see if it's really possible to live on a minimum wage salary.

The first job Ehrenreich works is as a waitress in her own home of Key West, Florida.  She quickly finds that in order to afford housing, she needs to pick up a second job, and the only reason she could afford a down payment on an apartment is that she allowed herself some start-off money.  Working two jobs exhausts her, and she moves into a mobile home and drops the lower paying waitressing job.

Next she works as a maid in Maine.  Ehrenreich finds working as a maid makes her invisible, more than any of the other jobs she has.  Again, one job isn't enough, so she begins working at a nursing home on weekends.

The last job Ehrenreich takes is retail.  She works at a Wal-Mart in Minnesota.  In Minnesota, Ehrenreich lives in motels, as affordable housing isn't available.  She ultimately has to leave because she isn't able to find a second job in time, and can't afford anything on the $7 she makes at Wal-Mart.

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson returns to the United States after living for England for 20 years.  He decides it would be an excellent idea to hike the entire Appalachian Trail (about 2,181 miles) despite the fact he knows nothing about hiking.  Then he will write a book about it.  So off he goes on his quest.  Of course, things do not go as planned.

I've never read anything by Bill Bryson before.  I'd heard that his books are really funny.  Perhaps others are, but I didn't really find this humorous at all.  In fact, if it wasn't on our student's summer reading list, I probably would have given up.  I listened to this on audio, and the audio was fine.  The reader was clear, and actually the voice worked very well with the holier-than-thou picture I was forming of Bryson.

Right at the very beginning, I was just struck by what an idiot Bryson was. He has no experience with this kind of hiking, and he was planning on hiking the AT, the whole thing, alone.  What?  What kind of fool does that?  Please don't try this at home, kids.  Seriously, he's lucky he didn't die.  Do not screw around with this sort of thing.  You don't just waltz out your door and embark on a hardcore hike when you have no idea what you're doing.  Bryson was able to recruit a friend to go with him, Katz, but amazingly Katz knew even less and was less prepared to do the AT than Bryson was.  So they made quite a pair.

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

Kimberly Chang and her mother have immigrated to New York from Hong Kong.  They expect America to be magical, but instead end up living in an unheated apartment and working in a sweatshop.  Kimberly speaks little English, and her mother speaks no English at all.  Kimberly knows that if she and her mother are ever going to have a better life, it's going to be up to her to make it.  Kimberly is determined to excel at school and one day bring her mother and herself out of poverty.

Because the radio and I have been in a fight lately (as in, I'm sick of everything on the radio) I've been listening to a lot of audio books lately.  I enjoyed this one very much.  I found myself sitting in the car for several minutes after I'd arrived where ever I was going because I wanted to hear just a little bit more.  It was read by Grayce Wey, and she was very good.  She captured Kimberly's voice well, and while she didn't do dramatically different voices for other characters, it was always clear who was speaking.

The story itself was excellent.  When I think of sweatshop life, I think New York in the early 1900s.  I don't connect it with modern day sweatshops.  When Kimberly and her mother arrive in New York, they think Kimberly's Aunt Paula, her mother's sister, is going to help them.  And she does, in a way.  Aunt Paula did help them get to America, but she also puts them to work at her clothing factory and sets them up in a horrifying apartment.  Roaches everywhere, no glass in the windows, and no heat.  No heat at all.  New York in the winter is awfully cold.  At the sweatshop, everyone is paid by the piece, so after Kimberly gets out of school, she goes to the factory to help her mother so they can get the shipments out in time.  Kimberly and her mother have to pay Aunt Paula back for the money it took to bring them to America, and she charges them interests.  They have very little money to spare, and no hopes of moving to a new apartment.  They're trapped.

Kimberly figures out much earlier than her mother does that Aunt Paula isn't really trying to help them.  Because Aunt Paula helped bring them to America, Kimberly's mother feels they owe her an unpayable debt, and therefore should not complain, no matter what the conditions are.  As Kimberly learns more about how things work in America, she realizes that it isn't right.  Kimberly is determined to use her "talent for school" to get them out of their terrible apartment and give them a better life, but it's a long time in coming.

Spoilers ahead.

For the Win by Cory Doctorow

It's not just an online game.  Complex economical systems have been created in the gaming world, and people don't just play for fun.  Some people work.  The gold farmers gather virtual gold and jewelry and other valuable items and then sell them.  In the real world, the gold farmers work in sweatshop like conditions.  In China, Matthew has defied his boss.  In India, Mala leads an army of gold farmers.  In America, Leonard and stays up for hours playing with friends from Asia.  All across the world, virtual workers are joining together under Big Sister Nor to challenge the sweatshop owners and unionize.

So I'm not a gamer.  Never have been.  I found early on I just didn't have the patience for that kind of thing.  This was not the book for me.  If I had been reading it instead of listening to it on audio I don't think I would have finished it.  I think this might just be how I feel about Cory Doctorow books.  I like Cory Doctorow.  I respect him very much.  I like how he makes all his books available online.  But I felt the same way when I read Little Brother, only more so this time.

Election by Tom Perrotta

A brief review of Election.

Tracy Flick was running unopposed in her high school's election until Mr. McAllister put Paul Warren, a popular football player, up for running. Then Paul's sister, Tammy, decides to run too. A simple high school election shows us the backstabbing, betrayal and smear campaigning we see so often in politics.

I had seen the movie Election, which I enjoyed, but I had never read the book. After hearing Tom Perrotta speak at the Boston Book Festival, I wanted to read all his books because he is fabulous. So I took a small break from reading my ARCs to read Election, which came out in 1993 and makes many a reference to the elections that were happening at that time.

It was good. It was funny in a horrible way. It was, really, depressing. No one is this books is actually happy. Tracy had an affair with her English teacher and is friendless and alone. As is Tammy. Friendless and alone that is. She's in love with her best friend who's left her for her brother. Paul is popular but isn't really satisfied either. All their parents are divorced because of affairs. Mr. M, the supposedly inspiring teacher, interferes in the election result and has an affair of his own with his wife's best friend, which all stems from his own unhappiness and dissatisfaction with his life. Affairs and politics. Well, I guess that's quite realistic.

I flew through this. It was so awful and funny and true. You're good, Tom Perrotta. I'm looking forward to reading your other work as well.

Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

I have been listening to Prep on audio book for a few weeks now, I had gotten it when I had to drive down to a family reunion, but the round trip wasn't long enough to finish it (it was an almost 18 hour recording) so it took me a while to get through it. I had some very strong reactions to it, but first, the summary.

Lee Fiora leaves her small town in Indiana for boarding school in New England at the prestigious Ault School. The book follows all four years of Lee's time at Ault, her struggles to feel a part of the school, attempts to be one of them, the conflicts with her family. It's a little hard to summarize, actually, as there wasn't one main plot. It was just her four years at the school and the things that happened to her.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett on audio book

It's the early 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi. Aibileen is a black maid working for a white women raising her children. Minny is a black maid who is having difficulty finding a job despite being the best cook around since she has a habit of telling people what she thinks. Skeeter is a 23 year-old white women who has just finished college and is finding she isn't fitting in so well in Jackson. These three women come together on a project that is putting them all in danger.

Audio books can be tricky. A bad audio book can totally ruin the story. Last summer, I attempted to listen to Ender's Game on audio book. It was awful. I didn't make it through it, and thought that Ender's Game wasn't good, and not only not good, but boring. Luckily, everyone I mentioned this to said, "What? Are you crazy? Ender's Game is awesome." So I finally read it myself. And it turns out that Ender's Game is, in fact, awesome. It was just that terrible audio book.