I love the Ask Baba Yaga books. So beautiful and comforting. Even Baba Yaga's hard advice fills me with warmth. It is like listening to my late great aunt who gave deep advice bluntly and brutally, often with dash of humor but never holding punches. I can't tell you how touching I find Taisia Kitaiskaia's Baba Yaga.

The concept of this humorous self help book is genius. The narration was engaging, especially with the changing of voices between participants and of course, as Baba Yaga. I am intrigued by that particular part of lore, so having this particular character (that often gets a bad rep) giving a good mix of blatant, straight forward responses and metaphorical commentary was intriguing. The diverse responses (in both content and tone) was great, especially when Baba Yaga (and by extension the reader) may find a question ridiculous.
Overall, great book and great narration!

The advice of Baba Yaga always hits you in unexpected ways, and the stories in this collection were no different. I enjoyed the collection of stories.

"Ask Baba Yaga" wasn't really my cup of tea. The advice was sometimes a bit silly and the overall audiobook just felt like a bit of a waste of time.

What a hilarious premise, and executed perfectly. The voice actor who read the book was excellent with the Baba Yaga accent.

I loved this audio adaptation! Baba Yaga's first volume of advice was brilliant, earthy and compassionate. We all need someone sometimes to tell us that we're truly part of this world, and we deserve to find happiness and peace,.

In Slavic Folklore Baba Yaga (Баба Яга) is a mythical and magical creature that manifests as an elderly witchy woman who lives deep in the woods. Tales of her span across many countries, all a little different but a few things remain the same. She is the story you tell to your children to spook and scare them to not wander too far into the woods. Rumors are she eats children, but she is not merely the villain. She is both the villain and the protagonist depending on how you approach her. Anything short of respect and reverence you should expect the worst.

Ask Baba Yaga is a unique little book. The author takes on the character of Baba Yaga and provides general advice to those who seek it. It is an interesting perspective, one sometimes positive other times calls you out on your bullshit. I like the little witchy vibes in this one.
I will say, the advice itself is nothing to ride home about. It's very basic and something that your best friend would probably tell you. I found it overall an interesting read, it made me more interested in learning about Baba Yaga more, and reading the actual Folklore she is from but this book overall was lacking for me. It wasn't bad but just wasn't amazing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Audio and Andrews McMeel Publishing for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately not much impressed with this audiobook, it just wasn't my thing. So, I'll start with the
Pros
1. The cover is gorgeous, it was what drew me to request this book
2. The narration is good. I enjoyed the question voice better than Baba's voice, who reminded me a lot of Yoda from Star Wars.
3. Creative and imaginative idea for a book/audiobook in a Q&A format.
4. Listening to the audiobook was easy and entertaining
Cons
1. Silly with terrible advice at times.
2. Pathetic questions for advice from people who sometimes clearly have trouble functioning with the basic of life skills
3. The baba yaga voice reminded me of Yoda and I couldn't get that little green guy out of my head.
4. The political dig was unnecessary.... lost a star for that one, otherwise a 3 star listen
5. Luckily only lost 3 hrs of my time , as I sped this playback speed up to get through it.

I really loved the stories I heard in this audio book! You could feel the character of Baba Yaga seep through the voice of the narrator which made the whole experience really feel like I was talking directly to Baba Yaga and listening to her life's stories and advice. Personally, I have never read or listened to a book featuring Baba Yaga or a spinoff of her character, so listening to this audio book was a new and unique experience for me, which I greatly enjoyed.

The advice was honest and real, and I truly feel that it is good advice to follow, and I'm sure each of the specific recipients of Baba Yaga's advice from the original column took her advice to heart and ran with it,

Baba Yaga's advice is helpful, but real, and she's not afraid to give it to you straight and tell you what you need to hear, no necessarily what you want to hear. Yet, the entire time you feel like you're in the woods in Baba Yaga's home, holding a cup of tea while she speaks to you. It's a magical experience.

The only drawback I have to Ask Baba Yaga is that I am not particularly fond of audio books--I much prefer to read a physical copy than listen to it, and sadly Ask Baba Yaga did not change my opinion on the matter, HOWEVER, I do believe that I would have immensely enjoyed this work if I had read it in a physical copy rather than listened to it.

The Goodreads reviews are very positive and I also enjoyed this book, so I do recommend that you check it out for yourself and see if Baba Yaga's advice works for you. I think you'll enjoy it, and learn something, maybe even about yourself, along the way.

I listened to Zura Johnson narrated this book as I reread my copy of Ask Baba Yaga. here's my review of the book itself: Yes, baba Yaga's spelling and grammar leave something to be desired, but it was purposefully done to achieve a rustic, folktale-y vibe. I for one, enjoyed her nature-centric advice.

This was amazing! I have heard many different versions of Baba Yaga, this is one of the best. Truly.

Zura Johnson did such a fantastic job voicing the readers writing in for advice from Baba Yaga, as well as the old, raspy voice of Baba Yaga herself. The everyday questions coming in from readers and the wise, poetic, down-to-earth, and no-nonsense advice from Baba, was breathtaking to listen to. It certainly reminded me of my own Oma and her witty, but wise, ways.

The second part, was quite sorrowful as it tackled many things from our world today. But, Baba Yaga still gave her one-of-a-kind advice like any other day of the week. Which, when you think about it, is needed. Even when it's wrapped up in a bit of Slavic folklore.

Thank you to Andrews McMeels Publishing, Taisia Kitaiskaia, and Netgalley for giving me this opportunity to read and review, Ask Bab Yaga: The Audiobook Collection.

In Slavic folklore Baba Yaga is a ghost that looks like a crumpled up old woman. Growing up my siblings and I always chided one another about going into the basement where we surmised Baba Yaga was living! So this book drew me in from my first look at the title. It's a quirky book about a grumpy old lady that imparts advise on others through and advice column. Like a mystical Ask Ann Landers of sorts, Baba uses a sly approach to answering people's questions about their problems. Never straight forward, the Baba doesn't seem to want to make things too easy for the person she's advising. I must admit that I liked the idea of it more than the reading of it. It's a funky sort of self-help book in a way that I think is meant to be a delightful departure from your typical read. Sadly, for me it fell short of that.

Humorous but predictable. It's advice from your Russian witch grandmother. I was have always been fascinated with the myth.

This one was not my cup of tea...but some may really like it. At times it was witty and at other times...not...

**Received from NetGalley audio**

Just Weird

Audiobook Review:
From the brief description at the book review site where I chose this book, I was expecting something different... and better. I had never heard of this column before, but I had heard of the legend of Baba Yaga. This is essentially an advice column with often strange questions from readers and even odder answers from Baba Yaga. Sometimes, the author contradicted herself with many of these similarly themed questions; the book felt repetitious as well. This might be better in book form where you can stop and start when it gets to be a little too much; for me, at least, I prefer to listen to an audiobook for hours at a time when I have mundane tasks to do or long drives. While some advice seemed like common sense dressed up in semi-mystical, country wise-woman language, other advice was either hard to parse because of the flowery prose or counterintuitive, seeming not quite right to me. I wasn't wild about the narrator, either. In particular, I did not like Baba Yaga's “Tales from the Crypt” voicing. Some voices of the question askers were just odd in my ear as well. Especially for a book that is supposed to be humorous, I found this book to be an utter disappointment.

This title was provided for me via Netgalley and the publisher. I'm woefully behind posting reviews because unfortunately my Nook broke! So here's to playing catch-up:

Ask Baba Yaga is a great concept book. I'd previously read it in stores before and greatly enjoy listening to the question and answer format of possibly the best ever advice columnist, Baba Yaga. Probably few people I'd trust more to have insight on life than a slavic crone bog-witch, honestly. ;) It's not really a book of solid practical advice, but more like a genre-humor fantasy advice book, that borrows poetic turns of phrase and fairy tale charm.

IGuilty pleasure.
Non-fiction audiobooks are my favorites. This particularly made me forget my own problems and just listen to others' problems while Baba Yaga gave them humorous or sensible advice.

PS.
Baba Yaga's voice was so relaxing.

I loved the narrator's different voices for the different people in this audiobook! Some of the advice made me cackle, while other responses felt incredibly comforting. I enjoyed the author's use of language to provide a mythical aspect to the listening experience. The metaphors were sometimes gruesome and often quite beautiful, but always vivid. Although none of the advice was particularly memorable, I did indeed relish the hours I spent with Baba Yaga!

From the online advice column, real questions and advice, but done by embodying the Slavic witch Baba Yaga. The book is set up in the question answer format.

The author grew up with stories about Baba Yaga and channels her to give advice. I highly recommend buying the audiobook for its experience. The narrator switches into a Baba Yaga voice to answer the questions and that alone is worth checking out. I love it so much!

The advice is very cryptic, exactly what you would expect from a fairy tale wise woman. The advice is also super insightful.

I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook, especially because the narrator was brilliant!
All the questions and answers were relatable to the core. Totally recommend it!