I loved Overreader‘s description of the Armchair Audies so much that I’m stealing it. Here ya go:
It’s Armchair Audies time! What’s that? Never heard of them? Well, they’re new. The Audies are annual “awards recognizing distinction in audiobooks and spoken word entertainment” and are awarded in June. There are 29 categories and 5 contenders in each category, so that’s a lot of audiobooks. Rather more than even an audiobook maniac like myself can handle, so to get a handle on them all, blogger Literate Housewife spearheaded the Armchair Audies. Interested bloggers will listen to everything from one (or more) categories and give their opinions.
This year, for the inaugural event, I’ve been reading(/listening to) books from three Audies categories: Humour, Narration by the Author or Authors, and Audiobook of the Year.
And now … it’s time for me to start making my predictions!
Audiobook of the Year
The nominations in this category are:
- American Gods: The Tenth Anniversary Edition by Neil Gaiman
- Bossypants by Tina Fey
- Go the F–k to Sleep by Adam Mansbach
- Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
My pick: American Gods. Not only is the story amazing, but the ensemble cast of narrators is absolutely fantastic.
Humour
The nominations in this category are:
- Shatner Rules: Your Guide to Understanding the Shatnerverse, and the World At Large by William Shatner
- In Fifty Years We’ll All Be Chicks: And Other Complaints from an Angry Middle-Aged White Guy by Adam Carolla
- Go the F–k to Sleep by Adam Mansbach
- This Is An Audiobook by Demetri Martin
- Bossypants by Tina Fey
My pick: Shatner Rules, with Bossypants a fairly close second place. Shatner pulls ahead in terms of audio production, in particular due to the format and the sound effects, but also just in the way that he adapted the text to the audiobook format.
Narration by the Author or Authors
The nominations in this category are:
- Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography by Rob Lowe
- Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
- Drama: An Actor’s Education by John Lithgow
- Seriously…I’m Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres
- Bossypants by Tina Fey
My pick: Beauty Queens. This was probably the hardest category for me to choose. While I enjoyed all of the offerings, Bray stood out with her multiple characters and accents, as well as with the way she played the book “straight” even when it was at its most satirical.
Tags: armchair audies, audiobooks
[...] to participate again this year. I’ve even read a few of the nominees already! Last year, I read and predicted the Humor, Narration by the Author/Authors, and Audiobook of the Year categories. This year, [...]