Audiobook Hour: My January 2020 Audible Listens
When Audible sent me an email informing me that I would win a $20 Amazon credit for listening to three books by March, I downloaded my titles faster than you can ‘quick add’ a 12-pack of chocolate chip CLIF bars to cart (don’t judge me, I use credits for boring necessities). While I previously wasn’t huge ‘audiobook person’ as I find sitting still and paying attention while doing nothing with my hands an insurmountable task (see also: why I haven’t seen any relevant movies or TV shows – a 2020 resolution), I’ve since discovered the secret to my interest. The author MUST narrate the book. My first foray into audiobooks since childhood was an attempt to listen to Feel Free by Zadie Smith on Audible last year, and, while the narrator had a lovely voice, I found myself falling asleep every time I turned it on. While I sheepishly marked it as “read” on Goodreads to up my “reading challenge count,” it was definitely a ‘did not finish’ for me. When I turned on Trick Mirror, based on my previous experience listening to a similar audiobook, my expectations were low. I was gripped from the start. Why? Because Jia Tolentino wrote these words herself. She is both passionate about and overly familiar with them. She can deliver her prose in a way that makes it seem as if she is in casual conversation with a friend. The intonations and pauses and cadence were exactly as she intended them when she wrote the words on paper. It was digestible. And, it was with this revelation that an Audible fan was born. Stay tuned for whether I can stick to it once I’ve cashed in on those CLIF bars.
Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion
The Basics: Jia Tolentino is a writer for the New Yorker, who recently wrote this excellent article. Trick Mirror is a series of essays with a wide range of topics: from Jia’s own experience growing up Canadian in Texas as the daughter of Filipino immigrants, appearing on a reality television show, to the issues that all of society is confronted with today; from the collective obsession with weddings to the rise of scamming (my personal favorite essay, featuring Elizabeth Holmes, Billy MacFarland, and Anna Delvey) to simply existing in the age of internet.
Read or Listen? This is a toss-up. The cover is HIGHLY instagrammable (see: essay on the dangers of internet age, see also: self-delusion in the title), but Jia’s voice lends weight to the essays I’m not sure I could’ve gleaned from the page. For someone dipping their toe into the world of audiobooks, I’d say this is a great place to start.
BTW – this got the Obama seal of approval in his ‘favorite books of 2019 list.’
My Friend Anna
The Basics: Rachel Williams was a photo editor for Vanity Fair who fell into the trap of now-infamous 11Howard Hotel scammer “Anna Delvey” (Anna Sorokin). The story starts in Morocco, where Rachel begins to develop an inkling that Anna doesn’t have all of the money she claims to. From there, Williams takes us back to their innocent beginnings, and it becomes clear quite quickly that she’s in too deep to escape unscathed.
Read or Listen? LISTEN! While this is also an excellent cover, the emotion and panic you hear in Rachel’s voice as she narrates make it clear how raw these events are for her. It’s also worth noting that when I first heard about Anna’s scamming and Rachel’s situation I, quite frankly, thought she was a sucker. This story gives important context into the nuances of their friendship and Anna’s psyche that made me develop an immense reserve of sympathy for her. Mark my words, if no one makes this into a film or a tv series, I will freak out.
