My Favorite Audiobook Narrators
and marking a year since leaving Instagram
Happy Saturday, my friends! I’m popping in today with a reflection on leaving Instagram, sharing an amazing new release I just listened to this week, and highlighting some of my favorite audiobook narrators. Thank you so much for sharing a little bit of your weekend with me!
Big news over here! The oldest is HOME again for a bit! I’m over the moon to have her here, for however long it may be. Her decision to do a trailwork stint with the Maine Conservation Corps was an AMAZING one, and our whole family benefited from that choice. We all got to be with her there for a bit, and so did my mother-in-law and my mom and stepdad ~ we all love having people to visit in fun places ☺ We’re still waiting to find out what her next adventure will be, and I’m trying my very best to let her figure it out on her own schedule. For now, though, we get to all be in the same house again for the first time since June 5, and I’m going to soak up all the whole-family time I can get.
I also just attended an open house at our local technical college, ordered graduation gear, and submitted senior photos for the middle kid, so I am feeling very much like I did last October when the oldest and I were touring SAIC! Having babies 15 months apart means not only a very intense baby and toddler stage, but also a very intense “launching into adulthood” stage 1 ~ both with that weird situation of feeling like I should be an expert since I *just* did this, but also every kid is so different, so it’s a whole new experience this time around. And by the time the youngest graduates in 2030, I’ll have completely forgotten everything I learned ~ HA!
And for everyone who read my Tuesday newsletter, I’m happy to report that the new shoes with their magic “cranky feet” soles are a WIN!
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A Year Since Quitting Instagram
I have been reflecting lately about my brief but intense time2 having a public Instagram account3 (#bookstagram, if you will) and how since officially abandoning my account a year ago ………. I don’t miss it at all. I’m sure that’s a lot because I have this space as my creative and bookish outlet, but also because despite my audience there being my initial audience here, I have managed to grow here at a pace I’m so proud of with NO external social media.
The below graph is my subscriber growth since starting this newsletter in January 2023, with that sharp increase in the middle being when I posted the above to my Instagram account and many of my followers there subscribed here. All growth since then has been organic via Substack, referrals, etc.
What does this mean? Well, nothing really, except that life has been better without having a public Instagram account (or any other public social media), and that I don’t need it to be successful here!4
I am so proud of what I have built on Substack, and am so grateful to all of you for being a part of this endeavor. ♡
My Favorite Audiobook Narrators
I had Louise Erdrich’s newest book, The Mighty Red, on my radar for months and months, and even started reading it in print prior to the release date. However, when I was perusing audiobooks on Libro.fm last week and saw one of my ALL-TIME favorite narrator’s name on The Mighty Red, I instantly used a credit and started listening immediately. My daughter just finished the print version of the book and loved it, but I have sworn up and down to her that I love it EVEN MORE because of the audio narration by Marin Ireland. I’m not going to do a long write-up about this story because this book is EVERYWHERE, and I know that you can all find summaries. However, I will say that The Mighty Red is brilliant and human and so damn compelling and Ireland truly brought it to life.5
If you haven’t grown attached to any specific narrators, I highly recommend looking at some of your favorite audiobooks and looking up other works by the narrator(s) ~ I have found so many amazing books this way! When I’m stuck looking for my next listen, I’ll pull up the narrator’s page on Libro.fm and shop simply based on their voice!
Here are some of my favorite narrators ~ please do check out their work!
Do you have a favorite narrator I need to know about? Please do share!
You may also enjoy ……….
That’s all for this week ~ thanks for reading!
I love to hear from readers, so please do reach out to me with questions or feedback at mindfullibrarian@substack.com . You can always just reply to this email if you are reading in your inbox, or hit the comment button if reading on the web or the app! If we aren’t already connected on Goodreads, I would love to see you there as well.
Also a very intense learning to drive stage that I’m still recovering from and THANK GODDESS I still have a few years before the youngest is ready for that.
approximately late 2016-2023 with a few breaks and several iterations of how I utilized the space. I haven’t deactivated the account yet because I haven’t managed to get logged back into it and don’t want to take the time. Maybe I’ll tackle that this winter! Before leaving I heavily weeded the content, making the account a skeleton of what it used to be.
I do have a private Instagram account with an eclectic mix of extended family members, close friends from decades ago and some random acquaintances ~ I download the app when I want to post family pics, and then delete it again the next day. I also have a private Facebook account that I post absolutely nothing to, and don’t want to have, but it’s the only place my youngest’s drama and sports teams communicate (via private groups). Sigh. I haven’t been on X for over a decade and have never had a TikTok account.
That has been an argument that I have seen from many other creators, and while I have no opinions on anything anyone else does in this regard, I have proof that leaving the platform didn’t hurt me here at all.
If you have read this book and loved the setting as much as I did, you must also read Marcie R. Rendon’s Cash Blackbear series!
Congratulations on the return of the oldest, Katy! That must be lovely.
Juliet Stevenson is an incredible narrator – I'm thinking of Learwife by J R Thorp or the The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín. And Ben Miles is just magnificent reading Hilary Mantel's Cromwell books. Simon Vance is also top rate.
Grover Gardner