Recent reading

[luzula]

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (2021)
This is a hard SF novel which is the most page-turney book I've read in ages, in the sense of OMG-what-will-happen-next. I saw someone being annoyed by the amnesia in the beginning, but I thought it was fun to watch him figure things out, and actually it turns out the amnesia is plot-relevant. I won't say any more about the plot--I think this book is best read unspoiled. But if you enjoyed The Martian, you're going to enjoy this.

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot (1972, audiobook)
Several people on my reading list have been talking about this, and my mom is watching the TV series, so I checked it out. And it turned out to be the perfect audiobook for me: I've been having some problems focusing on audiobooks, so I can't listen to anything which has a complicated plot or where it's important not to miss any details. But this is episodic and rambly and engaging and I like the audiobook reader, and overall it has been extremely soothing to listen to a story about a vet sticking his hand up a cow's bum or arguing with a cranky farmer when one is stressed out over work and doing the dishes.

Comments

[ysilme]

All Creatures Great and Small is indeed a fun and relaxing reading! I came across the books in my childhood and loved them as much as the TV series back then.
Thank you for the other rec; this might be something for Siljan to check out.

[luzula]

It seems like everybody knew about All Creatures Great and Small except for me! Well, it's a nice thing to discover in adulthood too.

[sanguinity]

We were reading aloud James Herriot's Dog Stories (the dog anecdotes from a bunch of books collected into one volume) at bedtime for a while, but I had to pre-read all the stories because while MOST of the stories are soothing and charming, every so often there's horrific trauma and/or the dog dies, which is not great "last thing you think about before sleep" reading.

We've watched quite a bit of the original TV series from the 70s and like it quite well, but have not checked out the new one yet.

[luzula]

Oh, I can imagine these short anecdotes make for good bedtime reading (minus the dog death, of course)! And good for reading aloud in general, they've got such a nice rambly narrative voice.

[isis]

Hmm, I DNFed The Martian...probably that one is not for me, then!

[luzula]

Probably not? The difference is that The Martian is near-future technology, this one is far more speculative and has higher stakes in that the whole of humanity is at risk and not just one guy.

[regshoe]

Aww, I can imagine that All Creatures Great and Small would make a good audiobook! I'm glad you're enjoying it :D

[luzula]

Yes! Very soothing, and I'm glad to see there are sequels, too.

[chestnut_pod]

I loved the James Herriot books so much as a child! I read all five? six? of them repeatedly.

Does the audiobook narrator do all the wonderful accents?

[luzula]

It seems like everybody knew about All Creatures Great and Small except for me! Well, it's a nice thing to discover in adulthood too.

The narrator does Yorkshire accents for the farmers, and a Scottish accent for a minor character, but strangely not a Scottish accent for the main character, which would have been nice. Oh well. I like his reading otherwise.

[garonne]

Oh, I love All Creatures Great and Small and it's also one of my regular Yuletide fandoms.

And now that I think about it, it would make an excellent audiobook. (I regularly have the problem of falling asleep while listening to audiobooks and missing part of the plot.) Are you listening to the one read by Christopher Timothy?

[luzula]

It's a Yuletide fandom? It never occurred to me that there could be fic for this. Any particular recs?

Yes, that's the one. Weirdly, he does a Scottish accent for a minor character but not for the main character? Which would have been nice. But I like it otherwise!

[killclaudio]

All Creatures Great and Small is such a great book! I always found James Herriot's way of narrating very soothing, I bet it sounds great as an audiobook. I can highly recommend Cat Stories, which I re-read until my copy fell apart.

[luzula]

It seems like everybody knew about All Creatures Great and Small except for me! But it's a nice thing to discover in adulthood too. And yes, very soothing.

[riverlight]

Oh, good, I have been meaning to pick up the Weir! Glad it was engaging. I'll definitely add it to my library queue!

[luzula]

Engaging enough to stay up past my bedtime finishing it! Which I regretted the next day, but oh well...

[bluedreaming]

One of my parents read all the James Herriot books to my siblings and I when we were kids; they are such good read-alouds! (There was a particularly funny moment one time where parent couldn’t make it past a sentence for several minutes because of laughing too hard.) I haven’t listened to the audiobooks, but said parent has and really enjoyed them. I should try them out.

[luzula]

Aww, it seems a lot of people have childhood memories of these! But it's good to discover them as an adult too.

[mific]

Ooh, the Herriot audiobook sounds just my thing. And I loved Project Hail Mary.

[luzula]

I hope you enjoy it! And I think you might be the one I got the rec for Project Hail Mary from, so thank you. : )

[baronjanus]

I love Herriot so much. I read the books (translated) as a child a thousand times, I didn't know the TV show and only ran into the audio very recently - a couple of weeks ago, in fact, which got me re-reading in English and being reminded of the pleasantness of it. Weird thing, I was listening to the audio on youtube and halfway through the book youtube appears to have removed it? Video no longer found.

You know when you're a kid and something that's very present in your life, you assume it's universal? I grew up and realised Herriot very much isn't, in many places, and it's always fun to see people discovering him.

[luzula]

It does sound like a lovely thing to grow up with! I see that they are translated into Swedish as well, but I just never came across them as a kid. Well, I'm happy to discover him now, anyway.

[scribe]

Oooh, All Creatures Great and Small! I read it once as a kid, but the audiobook sounds great! I've been looking for good audiobooks to fall asleep to (I use LOTR a lot, but I can't always get them from the library) and that sounds perfect.

[luzula]

It is an excellent audiobook, and would probably be great for that purpose! Hope you enjoy it. : )