What are you reading or listening to?

Daily Diary, May 6, 2022, Day 614:

Last week I started listening to Louise Penny’s third book in her Inspector Gamache series, The Cruelest Month, but I stopped after about the second chapter. The problem was that having read the book when it came out, in 2008, I thought that I wouln’t remember the plot. I didn’t, in that I didn’t know who killed the person who died or why, but I did remember that this book had a plot thread that I found heart-breaking. Now, many of Penny’s books have sub-plots about conspiracies, betrayals, and even include deaths of characters I would consider main characters, but I realized that it is one thing to suspect something along those lines is going to happen—and another to know it will. In addition, I realized that if I had been reading the book, I probably would have persisted, because I could skim through sections that I found too difficult. I find I can’t do that when listening to an audiobook.

Anyway, I switched to Killing Orders, the third book in Sara Paretsky’s VI Warshawski series about a Chicago PI. I had recently listened to the first two books, enjoyed them, so this was a good choice. I enjoyed this one even more than the first two as it slowly develops more background on the main character. I had read this book before, but over 30 years ago, so I didn’t remember the plot at all. In addition, her series has a much lighter touch…I wasn’t worried it was going to leave me depressed—which was my fear for the Penny. I did think about the fact that so far most of the Paretsky plots revolve around someone involved in some sort of business fraud. Bankers, insurance companies, stock brokers! I had never really thought about how similar this is to the kind of crimes Annie, my protagonist, has been involved in as her business as financial consultant and auditor takes off. Not really much has changed from the 19th century! I wonder if unconsciously these books I read over 30 years ago have influenced me as a writer all these years later?

Anyway, does explain why I liked the books back then, and still like them. I just finished this book yesterday and today on my walk started Carl Hiassen’s Stormy Weather. I guess you would call them mysteries—but talk about different style from either Penny or Paretsky! Once more, a book I probably read a decade ago, don’t remember the plot, but do remember it is a crazy fun read and I am enjoying listening to it.

So how about you all? What are you reading or listening to right now? And I wondered, do any of you listen to audiobooks, and if so, do you find that your choices of what to listen to differ from what you chose to read?