Annual Audiobook Awards
Audiobooks that stand out are recognized by the Audio Publishers Association (APA) each year in a ceremony known as ‘The Audies’. The Audies is the audiobook equivalent to the Oscars in cinema, and this year it takes place in Los Angeles at the end of May.
The APA recognizes the best audiobooks from more than 30 categories and in 2008 they introduced an additional category, namely The Achievement in Abridgment Award. There is also an Audiobook of the Year award.
Audiobooks selected for nomination will be announced in early February 2008.
A selection of last year’s 2007 Audie award winners is as follows:
Category: Mystery
For excellence in storytelling, directing, engineering, mixing and summarizing, where appropriate, a full or summarized mystery audiobook, usually with a protagonist attempting to solve a crime, usually a murder committed early in the story.
The 2007 winner was Echo Park, Publisher: Hachette Audio, Author: Michael Connelly and Narrator: Len Cariou.
Echo Park Synopsis:
In 1993, Marie Gesto disappeared after leaving a supermarket in Hollywood. LAPD detective Harry Bosch took over the case, but the young woman never showed up, dead or alive, and it was an investigation Bosch couldn’t close. Now Bosch works in the Open-Unresolved Unit, where he still keeps the Gesture file on his desk, when he receives a call from the prosecutor. A man accused of two heinous homicides is willing to confess to several others in a deal to avoid the death penalty. One of them is the murder of Marie Gesto.
Bosch is now tasked with taking the alleged killer’s confession to make sure he doesn’t scam the authorities to avoid a date with death. In doing so, Bosch must get closer to a man he has sought and hated for thirteen years. When Bosch learns that he and his partner missed a lead in 1993 that could have led to Gesto’s killer, and that would have prevented all the murders that followed, his entire being as a cop begins to unravel.
Michael Connelly’s gripping new audiobook novel takes on the detective. People magazine calls “one of the most complex crime fighters out there” against the most brilliant and sadistic killer he has ever faced. And it shows once again that “on hold … Connelly has no superiors” (Washington Post).
Category: Solo Narration – Male
For excellence in the solo reading of an audiobook by a man, of any category.
The 2007 winner was Peter and the Shadow Thieves., Publisher: Brilliance Audio, Authors: Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, and The Storyteller was: Jim Dale.
Peter and the Shadow Thieves Synopsis:
In this fascinating and adventure-filled sequel to the award-winning New York Times bestseller Peter and the Starcatchers, Peter leaves the relative safety of Mollusk Island, along with his trusted companion, Tinker Bell, for the cold, dank and dangerous streets. From london.
On a difficult journey across the sea, he and Tink discover the dark and deadly Lord Ombra, half man and half creature, who is determined to recover lost stellar matter: celestial dust that contains unimaginable powers. In London, Peter tries to track down the indomitable Molly, hoping that together they can fight Ombra’s determined forces. But London is not Mollusk Island; Peter is not the kid he used to be; and Lord Ombra, the Master of Shadows, is unlike anything Peter or the world has ever seen.
Category: Solo Narration – Female
For excellence in the solo reading of an audiobook by a woman, of any category.
The 2007 winner was Telegraph Days, Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio, Author: Larry McMurtry and the
Narrator: Annie Potts.
Telegraph Days Synopsis:
When Nellie Courtright and her brother Jackson are unexpectedly orphaned by their father’s suicide, they head to the nearby town of Rita Blanca. Once there, Jackson manages to land a job as a deputy sheriff, while the ever-resourceful Nellie becomes the town’s telegrapher.
Together, they inadvertently put Rita Blanca on the map when young Jackson manages to take down the six fierce Yazee brothers in a shootout that gives him life-long fame but can never be repeated because his success was pure luck. Nellie nearly conquers the heart of Buffalo Bill, the man she will love the most in her long life, and goes to meet and witness the exploits of Billy the Kid, the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday.
A great and brilliant saga full of life, love, gunfights, true western heroes and villains, Telegraph Days is Larry McMurtry at his epic best.
Category: Narration of the author or authors
For excellence in the reading of an audiobook by the author or authors of that audiobook, any category.
The 2007 winner was The Tortilla Curtain, Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc., Author: TC Boyle and the
Narrator: TC Boyle.
Synopsis of the omelette curtain:
Topanga Canyon is home to two couples on a collision course. Los Angeles liberals Delaney and Kyra Mossbacker lead an orderly sushi and recycling existence in a recently gated hilltop community – he’s a sensitive nature writer, she’s an obsessive realtor. Illegal Mexicans Cándido and America Rincon desperately cling to their vision of the American Dream as they battle hunger in a makeshift camp deep in the ravine.
From the moment a freak accident brings Candido and Delany into intimate contact, these four and their opposing worlds gradually intersect in what becomes a tragicomedy of error and misunderstanding.
We await the announcement of the audiobooks selected for the 2008 Audies Award nominations. They are scheduled to be released on February 4, 2008.