Snowmageddon
Ok, so it really didn’t snow that much here. It’s Alabama, what do you want? I didn’t even get to go to work late yesterday. I feel cheated. Also, in pain. I fell down my icy stairs at 7:00 a.m. There’s nothing quite like shattering the early morning calm with lots of cursing and an embarrassing amount of crying. I don’t take being injured very well. It’s one of the reasons I wasn’t very good at rugby. Yes, I played rugby. Yes, I was horrible at it. Sadly, my horrible winter injury isn’t even horrible enough to require bed rest. I went on to work. I just have a big bruise and a ruined pair of boots. So I didn’t get any extra reading out of it. Despite that, I’m doing really well meeting my numbers for this month. If I keep this up I will make it well past my goal, which, to remind you, is 110 new books and 200 total books.
At the moment I’m still working my way through Gini Koch’s Alien series in paper form. Since we last spoke I finished Alien in the Family and Alien Proliferation. 
I’m in the middle of Alien Diplomacy and then I’ve only got one book left. I may cry. The covers continue to be… covers. I think Alien Diplomacy is my least favorite. Kitty looks way too sharp. But it still expresses the general idea of blonde kicking butt so I’ll shut up about it.
Spoiler: Kitty and Jeff have a baby. Weirdly, I’m not done with the series now. Normally, when the heroine becomes a mother at the end of the book I get cranky and bored. It’s not that I’m against motherhood. It’s just not my thing and so I don’t really identify with it as being the exciting conclusion of an action adventure story. However, Gini didn’t let me down. (She retweets me now, so I feel comfortable using her first name.) First of all; Kitty doesn’t have the baby at the end of a book. She has the baby pretty darn close to the beginning. In the middle of crazyness. Because it’s Kitty and that’s just how she rolls. She also doesn’t stop being Kitty once the baby has arrived. She worries that all she’s around for is baby care and supporting Jeff, but I think lots of new parents, especially mothers, feel that way every now and then. But at the heart of it all, she’s still herself. And that’s what I love about her.
I’m also listening to John Scalzi’s Redshirts. It’s pretty hilarious if you’ve ever been a Star Trek fan. Which I was. In the days before I failed at playing rugby I was the Commander of my high school’s Star Trek Club. I had pips. I accidentally demoted myself in college because one of my pips fell of my coat. Wil Wheaton narrates the audiobook and is, once again, awesome. I listened to him read Ready Player One when it came out and was really impressed. I know it’s logical to assume that actors would make good audiobook narrators, but it doesn’t always follow. Some actors arent’ very good at keeping multiple characters going at one time. They tend to focus really hard on the protagonist and then all the side characters sound the same. Also, strangely enough, not all actors are good readers just in general. It always surprises me at script read-throughs when an actor stumbles over their reading. But, if you think about it, they aren’t reading on stage. They’ve memorized all the lines. I happen to act and enjoy reading out loud (I think it’s because I just like talking) so I associate the two more than most people. Wheaton does an excellent job with both of the audiobooks I’ve listened to him read. Here is a list of some of my favorite audiobook narrators:
Wil Wheaton
Bernadette Dunne
Barbara Rosenblat
Mary Robinette Kowal
Kate Reading
David Suchet
Hugh Fraser
Bruce Coville
And I cannot say enough about the awesomeness of Full Cast Audio. They have some really talented people working for them and if I lived in central New York I would be begging them for any kind of job at all. But I don’t live in central New York so I have to content myself with buying as many of their recordings as I can afford. You should do the same if you’re interested in YA books. May I direct you to the Tamora Pierce selections? She’s my favorite. You can find more of her books, some read by Bernadette Dunn on Audible too.
Medusa's Library 
Thanks for the list of narrators – I haven’t heard some of them yet. I’ve had Memoirs of a Geisha with Bernadette Dunne for ages and I should probably listen to it at some point.
Kate Reading is one of my favorites too, and I LOVE Full Cast Audio. Kristin Cashore’s Graceling is a FCA production and I highly recommend it. Oh, and Shannon Hale’s The Goose Girl, too. Both are really fun. I need to read more Tamora Pierce. I’ve read the Alanna books, but nothing else.
The Protector of the Small series and the Provost’s Dogs series are my favorite Tamora Pierce books. Barbara Rosenblat does all the Elizabeth Peters – Amelia Peabody books. Accept no other narrator! She also does the deeply entertaining Donna Andrew’s mysteries. Sadly, there are only three of those on audio, but they’re well worth your time.
I learned the hard way about Amelia Peabody. The online library had it available, so I downloaded it, only to discover that the narrator wasn’t even British! Don’t know when I’ll get around to continuing with the series, but I’ll definitely switch to Barbara Rosenblat. As for Tamora Pierce, what about the Immortals? Publication order of the Tortall Universe is telling me to read Wild Magic next, and I’m super duper OCD about reading things in order.
Do you want to read them in publication order or in order within the universe?
Pub order is:
Alanna
Immortals
Protector of the Small
Trickster
Provost’s Dogs
BUT, chronological order as to story is:
Provost’s Dogs then about 150 years later
Alanna
Immortals
Protector of the Small
Trickster’s Choice/Trickster’s Queen
I recommend starting everything with Alanna though, because there are things in all of them that refer back to stuff you learned in that series. But, Kel and Becca are my favorite characters, which, I think is why I like their series so much. The Provost’s Dogs series is definitely the most adult. The protagonist starts off as a 15 year old and it goes from there.
And Barbara Rosenblat is AMAZING. She also narrates several of the other Elizabeth Peter’s books like the Jacqueline Kirby or the Vickie Bliss series. I don’t think she does any of the books under the Barbara Michaels pen name, but I could be wrong about that.
I’ve read the Alanna series, so I guess I just need to decide whether to read in publication order or chronological order within the universe. I usually go for publication order in this case, so I know I won’t get spoiled accidentally by any references in the books. I put Wild Magic on hold the other night, so I may go ahead and read The Immortals series. I also put Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs (Temperance Brennan #1) on hold, as it’s the first February book of the month NBRC is reading, and I saw that Barbara Rosenblat narrates it!