Audio Adventures

I recently listened to two familiar stories: Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers, and Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden.

I first read Redeeming Love a year or two ago, and loved it. I enjoy when authors can take a short passage of scripture and weave it into a larger tale. I think it gives us a chance to really dive in and understand the characters, their situations, and their choices. Looking at them sideways as Kate would say. Redeeming Love takes the story of Hosea and sets it in the Old West during the gold rush. Rivers brought the familiar Biblical story to life in a whole new way. The audio book was able to do the same thing: it allowed me to experience this story “new” again. It’s interesting to listen to another person giving a voice to characters. Sometimes the narrator emphasizes a sentence or thought differently than I would have read it…be it by the timing or the emotion they use etc. And that difference helped me to pay attention and enjoy the story anew, for a second time.

I had watched the movie, Memoirs of a Geisha, but had not read the book. But I saw it as an audio book on the library shelf and decided to give it a shot. When I got to the checkout counter, my favorite librarian told me that he loved the book. “It’s so much better than the movie. And the movie was good,” he told me. After that praise, I’m happy to say that I concur. I really enjoyed how the book was recorded. The narrator talks slowly and deliberately, the way you might imagine an older, dignified, oriental woman telling a story. The book is full of similies and flowery descriptions. And since it *is* the book, it’s different than the movie. Parts of the plot are different, some of the characters have different facets, etc. Up until the last few chapters, I didn’t know if I was going to like how it all turned out. Nobu is a much greater part of Sayuri’s life in the book than in the move, and I found myself really liking him. The Chairman in Memoirs of a Geisha is kind of like Arwen in LoTR. They are portrayed a bit differently in the movies because the director wants you to connect more strongly with their characters. But having said all that, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would happily recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the movie.