Audiobook Café

One of our Audiobook contributors Sara Hillis joins us for another Audiobook review. James McBride's The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store begins with the unsettling discovery of a skeleton in a well in a small town. This eerie opening to the Chicken Hill area of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, creates a sense of mystery as the narrative then shifts back nearly 50 years to delve into the town, its secrets, an...

One of our avid audiobook readers, Michael Feir, joins us to review “The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece,” written and narrated by Tom Hanks. The book offers a blend of humour, insight, and a deep dive into filmmaking. A perfect summer read for historical and literary fiction lovers! First, Nisreen Abdel-Majid, the producer of AMI Audiobook Review stops by to preview our feature...

The novel Tom Lake by critically acclaimed American author Ann Patchett is a mature and cerebral exploration of parent-children relationships, love and loss And the endless pursuit of happiness, amongst many other heady themes ripe for differing interpretations. No matter how you choose to interpret it, this book will no doubt leave you thinking. Its narration by Emmy award-winning actress Meryl S...

Better reading/audiobook listening comprehension leads to greater enjoyment of books. Do not neglect the quality of book consumption over quantity. These are the messages we want to impart to you in today's episode. Aamer Khan joins Jacob and Ramya to discuss how we can all improve our reading comprehension. The book that sparked today's discussion: How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelli...

This week, Jacob and Ramya each review a book they've been eager to share. Both titles come with enthusiastic and overwhelmingly positive recommendations. One, a contemporary romance and the other, an epic fantasy series. Ramya reviews the incredibly popular Normal People, by Sally Rooney while Jacob raves about The Liveship Traders series, by Robin Hobb. Plus, in the second half, long-time AMI pr...

This week, our co-worker in AMI's Marketing & Communications department, Cassandra Chaddock, schools us on fan-fiction basics. It's a strange world of boundless creativity with nothing holding writers back from creating the stories they and their readers want. Without the constraints of sales, editors and publishers, the fan-fiction community cranks out truly weird, wildly imaginative and often be...

What’s your biggest audiobook pet peeve? That one, seemingly insignificant thing that for whatever reason, drives you crazy. We posed this question to the book club and got *a lot* of answers. From strong beliefs narrators should never do accents to hating misdirection, the book club came through this month. Thank you all for your contributions. If you want to leave us feedback, you can call us at...

With the help of our friends at CELA, Karen McKay and Theresa Power, Ramya and Jacob are reviewing the latest book from best-selling Canadian author, Carley Fortune. This Summer Will Be Different is a contemporary Canadian romance set in Prince Edward Island. With fantastic relationship writing, great prose and tons of delightful Canadiana, this title has charm but does it have substance? Listen t...

Homes: A Refugee Story, by Abu Bakr Al-Rabeeah and Winnie Yeung, was recommended to us by our audiobook curator, Aamer Khan, as part of a previous episode where we discussed books that can make us shed a tear... or three. Ramya and I read it and we've reconvened with Aamer to record a proper in-depth review. It's a great, accessibly written, true story about a tight-knit family as they try to find...

CELA , the Center for Equitable Library Access, is celebrating its 10th anniversary. For over a decade, they’ve been maintaining a massive physical and digital library of books in multiple accessible formats for Canadians with disabilities. We mention them on the show constantly because it’s our primary way of accessing all the audiobooks we discuss on this show. Karen McKay and Theresa Power are...

With over 700 audiobook titles to her credit, Anne Flosnik is a veteran amongst veteran audiobook narrators. When we got the chance to have her on the show, we jumped on the opportunity. In this episode, Anne shares her narration process, advice for aspiring narrators, insights on the industry and unveils many of the unexpected fascinating intricacies of audiobook narration. Visit Anne's website:...

Canadian actress Sarah Desjardins (Yellowjackets, The Night Agent) joins us to talk about her very first work of audiobook narration. She discusses the transition from acting to narrating, the challenges of a first-time narrator and the joys of recording audiobooks. As it so happens, the book she got to narrate is set where she grew up, in Vancouver and Vancouver Island. The Worst of You, by Sarah...

PAL reading services is a non-profit, registered charity service that will record a human narration of any text you submit, no questions asked, at no charge. Perfect for all those titles that don't make it into CELA's library and for all of those hyper-technical science and engineering textbooks that you want but never get made into accessible formats. Long time PAL readers Danielle McLaughlin and...

Last week we reviewed Audible’s awesome audio adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984. If you haven’t heard our review, the short version is that we loved it for its great performances, tight writing, original music and outstanding production value. This week, we’re lucky enough to have the writer of this project with us.  Joe White is an award-winning writer of screen, stage and audio. He’s the writer...

Audible recently released their full-cast, radio-play adaptation of George Orwell’s classic 1984. Featuring a cast full of recognizable names, original music and incredible production value, it’s safe to say this is a unique project we were excited to get our hands on. Today, we’re finally sharing our review with you. The cast includes Andrew Garfield as Winston, Cynthia Erivo as Julia, Andrew Sco...

Karen McKay and Theresa Power of CELA help us better understand the place literary awards hold within the publishing industry, and how they affect everything from sales to author’s careers and even consumer reading habits. And, Sara Hillis recommends the suspenseful pregnancy horror novel "Beware the Woman" by Meagan Abbot. Audiobook Café is broadcast on AMI-audio in Canada and publishes two new p...

On today's episode: One of the beautiful things about audiobooks is the flexibility they give us. If you’re reading a print book, you just sit there and look down at your book. With an audiobook, on the other hand, you have both your hands available and you’re free to walk around and do whatever you want while you listen. We want to discuss how we use that extra flexibility.   Plus, Aamer Kahn, ou...

On today's episode: How much do we really know about the people who've shifted and coloured our histories? We review The Autobiography of Malcolm X, written by American Minister Malcolm X in collaboration with American journalist Alex Haley, narrated by the incredibly performative Laurence Fishburne. Plus, stepping up to the plate for this week's Rapid Fire Review is community member and friend Ka...

On today's episode: Archer’s Voice by Mia Sheridan is a  New York Times best-selling romance novel about the healing and transformative power of love. Seeing as romance is not one of Ramya and I’s typical go-to genres, this ended up being a very different listening experience for us.   Alia Abdel-Majid, who initially brought our attention to this one, is with us today for an honest, in-depth revie...

On today's episode: Dissecting book sales trends doesn’t just concern the capitalists. It’s also relevant to those of us who love to inspect the deeper implications. Sometimes there’s a direct correlation between the newest sales trends and notable societal changes but often, it leaves us scratching our heads. Karen McKay and Theresa Power from CELA are here to help us analyze the sales data from...

On today's episode: Listening to an audiobook, as opposed to reading it in print, is a different experience. Not better or worse, just different. But how exactly does it differ? And how does that change the way we appreciate the story? Yes, we’re not done talking about this. Plus, later, Ted Cooper is here for Rapid-Fire review.   Audiobook Café is broadcast on AMI-audio in Canada and publishes tw...

On today's episode: Did you read a book if you listened to the audiobook version? If you research this question online, you’ll find all sorts of opinion pieces, message boards, and social media posts that make it clear that people have strong feelings on both sides. Why is this such a contentious issue? Why is this seemingly innocuous question always striking such a nerve? There’s a lot at play he...

On today's episode: First impressions matter, and the title of an audiobook is more than likely going to be the first thing you’ll react to when coming across a potential next read. Sometimes that title is intriguing. Sometimes it’s confusing. Sometimes it sounds dumb as hell. The point is, that titles matter, and we’re prepared to break it down for you. We also have a list of silly, ridiculous, a...

On today's episode: The Romantasy genre has blown up in the past few years and Booktok is responsible. What is it about this genre that’s made it so irresistible to its ravenous fanbase? What’s the appeal? Why is it blowing up now? And how does Booktok wield so much influence? Karen McKay and Theresa Power of CELA are here to help us answer these questions. Plus, in the second half of the show, Sa...

On today's episode: We’ve spoken in the past about the huge role audiobook producers have over the final product of a project. So many small decisions on their part come together to shape what we end up spending hours eagerly consuming. Our guest this week, Caleb Stoll, is the technical director of the audiobook program at Penguin Random House Canada. He’s involved in many of the stages of product...