Books that Make Great Audio Books

It's no secret that I love to read. My mom loves to read and we used to read together when I was little. But, as I got older I didn't enjoy reading because it forced me to sit still which isn't something I've ever been very good at. However, as time has gone by I've rediscovered my love for reading.

I have a goal of reading 50 books this year (I've already read 28 books toward that goal). This comes from a combination of paperback, Kindle, and audio books. I cannot tell you how many people tell me, "I just can't do audio books!" How sad! You are missing out on so many great books! So, I thought I'd share a few tips regarding what makes a good candidate for an audio book, in my opinion.

• Young Adult Classics: Since I bucked against reading starting around age 8 or so I missed out on so many young adult classics (e.g., The Secret Garden, Heidi, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, etc.). These books are so rich, have great lessons for children and adults alike, and permeate their way into modern-day life and references all the time. Listening to these young adult classics is a great way to read the books. Most of these books are available at the library (both the Dallas and Chicago public libraries have Overdrive which allows you to freely borrow digital books and audio books) which means you can listen at no charge. They are also easy reads with great descriptive passages. I find these books are great candidates for listening because you don't have to catch every word to still know everything going on in the book.

The Puffin Classics collection is gorgeous!

• The first book or two in a series: Recently, I've been making my way through the Anne of Green Gables series. Quick aside, I am so sad that I didn't read these books when I was younger - Anne and I are kindred spirits, as she would say. I listened to two of the eight books in the series and that helped put a voice in my head for each character. As I read the paperback version of the other books (I'm currently on book 5 - Anne's House of Dreams) I find that my inner voice is very similar to the narrator of the books I listened to previously. This may drive some insane but I love have a definitive inner voice by which I read books.

• Lengthy books you may never get to: This is a bit trickier category than the others. There are some books that you want to read (either because they are classics and you feel a sense of duty to read through it at least once or because you truly want to read the book) but due to the length of the book it can feel like a daunting task. I read Anna Karenina on my Kindle and it took me about a year to get through the whole book (I read a lot of other books in the interim). Often, although not always, these authors were paid by the word and their timeless novels have lots of extra details scattered throughout. These can be a good candidate for audio books, as well, since you can typically pick up on what's going on and really track along while not paying deep attention to every word. I say this category is tricky, though, because some books in this category will leave you dazed and confused if you try to listen to them (Vanity Fair left me too confused because I wasn't paying enough attention - I'll need to grab my paperback copy to finish this one). 

• Literary Candy: This is my new name for young adult/teen/chick lit fluff. The stories are great, I can read through a book in a day, no problem. But, there isn't much meat on the bone in this category. I don't expand my vocabulary or challenge my mind to think through new concepts. I simply read and enjoy. Like candy. I love to toss in some literary candy when I'm reading a lot of deep, heavy books. I recently read through a series (yeah, 4 books of candy, oops) to help break up A Midsummer Night's Dream, 11/22/63, and Men and Women in the Church. Deep, long, not quick-read materials. I have zero regrets about cruising through these books!

The Selection series by Kiera Cass is my recent literary candy addiction. I've read the three above, plus the latest book The Heir (I read it the day it was released) and the couple of little novelas that accompany the series. No shame. Think Hunger Games meets The Bachelor with a Prince and Me twist. It's fabulous, really.

• Well Produced Audio Books: Some books are so well produced as an audio book I highly recommend listening to them even if you've already read the book. The Harry Potter series definitely falls into this category. I'm also told that The Help falls into this category but I haven't had a chance to listen to the audio book yet.

How about you? Do you like audio books? What are your favorite types of audio books?

The Day Our New Bed Broke

People told us that moving to Chicago would be difficult, and we knew that it would be; but, we didn't really know how it was going to be difficult. Well there are plenty of little things that have been hard and plenty of things that have been easy. But, we have each other and we are adventuring together and that's important. Plus, my mom let's me call her and cry whenever I need so that helps, too. Thanks, mom!

As most of you know, Mike and I found out that the cost of shipping our furniture to Chicago was too high so we sold everything and showed up with our mattress, our clothes, and our kitchen items. That means we've spent hours upon hours surfing every furniture website out there looking for the right pieces to furnish our new apartment. We know that this is an apartment and someday we will own a home again so we want to find middle-of-the-road furniture. We chose two rooms to make nicer and spend a bit more on (the master and the living room) and two rooms where we are going to save a little bit (the dining room and the guest room/den) but in both categories we are still looking for pretty middle-of-the-road furniture. It's been tough not having much furniture, it means that it hinders the unpacking process (I can't unpack clothes when I don't have a dresser here to unpack into) and my husband does not like clutter or messes. 

One of the very first items we purchased was a new bed. We knew we were keeping our mattress and that having a comfortable, settled place to sleep would do wonders so we searched high and low for a bed that we both loved. We settled on the Mod Upholstered Bed from West Elm - the price point is pretty middle of the road and we liked the style, it fit the overall feel we were going for. We had seen the bed in the store, Mike liked it, and while my tastes are always more girly I thought this was a nice option.

I'll save you all of the details but it's been a bit of a nightmare since then. We scheduled delivery for the afternoon of 4/30, the day we moved into our apartment. I asked for an afternoon delivery window since we were moving in that day. We received a call the afternoon before delivery to let us know our delivery time window was 10:30-12:30...not exactly afternoon. We left early from Springfield to get into town in time to meet the delivery man. We asked for a 30 minute call ahead to make sure we were already in town. At 10:10 on 4/30 I received a call that the delivery man was already at our front door. We begged him to stay 20-30 minutes which is when we would arrive at the apartment. This started the chaos of being overly stressed and frustrated, desperately trying to drive the final miles as quickly as possible. When we arrived we were told the delivery guy had left at least 20 minutes earlier. We were upset and frustrated but West Elm forces you to use a delivery service so we blamed the delivery company way more than West Elm at that point. West Elm was kind and offered us a $100 gift card to make up for the confusion. Delivery was rescheduled for 9:30-11:30 on Saturday. The guys showed up at 8:15 AM and assembled the bed. They were okay, not great. They finished up and we were happy to have that saga over. Or so we thought.

We enjoyed sleeping in our new bed and were happy with how the room was coming together. We decided to paint the wall behind the bed because I'm crazy and my husband is the sweetest ever. We pulled the bed out a few inches so he could get behind the bed to paint the wall. Woohoo! I loved the color (no give aways - pictures coming after the room in finished) and we were ready to pull the bed the few inches back into place so we could hop into bed for the night. As we started moving the bed we heard a crack and the bed went down. Yep, one of the legs broke off of the frame. We wanted to cry. I eventually did cry (a long, hard cry with my mom...thanks mom). West Elm offered us a full refund of every last penny spent on the bed or a replacement bed. There was no way we wanted a replacement if a leg could break off that easily so we've opted for the full refund. I'm thankful for that. 

We are sorely suffering from decision fatigue (try picking out a new bed, sheets, duvet, night stand, dining table, dining chairs, bar cart, couch, chair, coffee table, end table, china hutch, and dresser then let me know how your decision making abilities are doing...pile of mush will be the answer). So, I chose one store that I know has good quality furniture and great styles (Room & Board), we went there, found a new bed, and bought it. It will be here on Thursday (hurray!)...but, West Elm's delivery service won't be here to get the broken bed before then. So, we took apart the bed.

We were amazed at the shotty quality of the bed. The slats were "screwed in" but the screws they used weren't long enough and a majority of the slats were either already detached from the frame or pulled up with extreme ease. It's been a beast to take apart but my husband is amazing and figured it out. At least we can sleep on our mattress (on the floor) tonight as opposed to the air mattress we had to sleep on last night. Our new bed will be here in two days and then hopefully most of this will be behind us. I can assure you that we will not be buying any more furniture from West Elm. West Elm has great design aesthetic but they really lack in the quality of the product. We will gladly pay a bit more to have a piece that we can confidently lay down on. Neither of us is even close to 200 lbs. so one would think a bed would last a long time. Oh well.

We're still here and we still love each other. Some day we will look back and laugh but for now we are just glad that there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel. It's a perfect story to represent how the things that we thought would be easy can end up being very difficult. But, the good news is that the reverse can hold true, too - things we expected to be difficult can sometimes turn out to be a cake walk. We appreciate your prayers and all the texts that we've received. Keep them coming, they help remind us that while we may be alone in the city we have friends and community who are cheering us on, even if it's from afar.