Summer Audio Book

Sometimes I find that when I listen to a book I tend to phase out or go through tollbooths and miss something vital.  However, I’ve always been fond of rereading books, and will often listen to books I’ve enjoyed reading.  I recently picked up an audio copy of my favorite summer book, Beauty Queens.  The author, Libba Bray, narrates the audio and does an incredible job at differentiating dialogue with accents, tone, and pitch. 

Beauty Queens begins with the Miss Team Dream pageant, a beauty competition run by the Corporation.   The breaking news: A plane full of Teen Dream contestants crash-lands on a deserted island.  Gowns, make-up, and bodies litter the ground.  The surviving contestants may be beautiful and talented, but can their collective abilities help them to survive? 

From frank discussions of racism to the issues faced by a transsexual candidate, from girls who want to bring down the competition from the inside to ones suffering under pressures from parents and repressed feelings of sexuality, Beauty Queens covers quite the spectrum of topics facing teens today. But what really sets Beauty Queens apart from any other book trying to explore these issues is the humor and social critique Libba expertly employs. Any mention of the Corporation is hysterical, yet also terrifyingly realistic.  Exploring social, economic, cultural, and political issues with humor, Libba creates a book that transcends its targeted teen audience.  Teens and adults, women and men, will find a variety of discussion topics in the social satire and blunt look at stereotypes, making Beauty Queens a strong choice for book clubs.  Issues, tempered by humor, combine with action-paced sequences and a dollop of all varieties of romance to create a summer blockbuster of a book. 

During the summer, I often put off things like cleaning the house in favor of reading.  But the truly great thing about audio books?  Multi-tasking.  This is an audio book that will have me finding more things to clean as an excuse to continue listening. 

What audio books have you sitting in the driveway or refusing to remove your headphones?  

-Marika