Audiobook Awesomeness: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

It feels like an eternity since I last wrote a post about an audiobook doesn’t it? And yet, I have listened to so many things since Ender’s Game. Well at least attempted to listen to anyway. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson was way too long as it took over a month to get only halfway through it (sorry honey it ain’t happenin).  I did listen to Expats by Chris Pavone which was an intriguing spy novel, but not my absolute favorite. Then there was Beauty Queens by Libba Bray which was just so entertaining and Libba Bray even did the narration herself.  At some point I will get around to writing a post about that audiobook, but for now I would like to discuss A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle.

Summary via goodreads. It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger.

"Wild nights are my glory," the unearthly stranger told them. "I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me be on my way. Speaking of way, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract".

Meg's father had been experimenting with this fifth dimension of time travel when he mysteriously disappeared. Now the time has come for Meg, her friend Calvin, and Charles Wallace to rescue him. But can they outwit the forces of evil they will encounter on their  journey through space? 

As I pointed out in my last post, this was my husband’s favorite chapter book as a child. Moreover since listening to Cryptonomicon was a complete failure, I decided that A Wrinkle in Time would be a doable replacement.

This Newberry winner should have been a must–read on my list, but I kept putting it off and I just could not get into the book.  It’s not that I am not into science fiction because I am! I love shows like The X-Files, Fringe, Chuck.  I think my original problem was that this book felt like a children’s book which has lots of whimsy and unimaginative names like Beast, or Mrs. Who, or the Man with Red Eyes.  So as I am reading, I just felt it wasn’t descriptive enough to get into.

Then, I thought, what an opportunity to use an audiobook as a medium for reluctant reading. This was a great idea and now I can proudly say that I enjoyed A Wrinkle in Time.

I liked it as the science is not too heavy-handed nor is it too simple for adults and children alike. The story itself is action-packed, not too whimsical like I originally thought, and has an uplifting ending. Although I felt Meg was a little whiny in some cases, her frustration with the adults in the story is understandable and could even be relatable for some tweens.

I was so surprised that Madeleine L’Engle herself did the narration for the audiobook. I hope more authors do this as I find it interesting to see how they read their own work. It gives the audience, I think, an accurate insight into the author’s vision.

That’s all for now peeps! I am currently working on writing a few posts and reading some more books. Like always, I am backed up.