Esme
I wanted to like this, but honestly, I can't. The author didn't care enough to get professionals to help her. And she needed help. She needed a professional cover designer. She needed a professional editor. She needed a professional proofreader. And she needed a professional to layout the ebook. This is so unprofessionally packaged, and I will never respect a book that is so unprofessionally packaged. The author needs to care more about her book than I do.
Having said that, this is a good idea for a book and a not-too-bad first draft. I'd read it again and give it a different review if the author cares enough to do it right and reissue it.
AudiobookThis is one of the most enjoyably creepy books I've listened to this year. I listened to the audiobook narrated by BJ Harrison. His narration enhances the fear factor that Sax Rohmer wrote into this book. It was the first Rohmer book I ever experienced, and I'm definitely looking forward to more!
If you've got a book hangover from reading something intense and you just need something light and fun to help you recover, this is your book. Bertie Wooster's silly notions are beautifully balanced by Jeeves' big brain and common sense. Bertie gets himself into trouble, and Jeeves gets him out. Along the way, you'll laugh and recover from your hangover. Give Jeeves and Wooster a chance. You can thank me later.
This was my favorite read of 2022. It is a gentle, bittersweet read that manages to be sad and inspiring at the same time. I absolutely loved this story as it unfolded and revealed the great love of one man for his friends and one cat for this man.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by George Blagden whose nuanced reading really enhanced the text of the book. I particularly enjoyed the snark he added to the cat's voice. It was perfect. I particularly loved this line from the cat: “Humans who think we don't understand them are the stupid ones.”
This book is the story of a journey, both physical and emotional. It is filled with humor, wonder, and beauty. As the cat says of the journey: “At that moment, we were without doubt the greatest travellers in the world. And I was the world's greatest travelling cat.”
This book is something that you should not miss if you've ever been loved by a cat. Perhaps even if you haven't.
I didn't know quite what to expect when I started this book, but the narrator, Perdita Weeks, drew me into the unfolding story of a nymph who cannot find her place with her divine family. She breaks a rule, and the gods banish her to an island alone. There she must become everything for herself. The story is touching, at times violent, and ultimately heartwarming. Along the way we meet Hermes, Odysseus, Telemachus, and Penelope, as well as others.
Weeks is a masterful narrator, bringing all the vulnerability and power to create complexity and depth in Circe. This is critical as we see the story through Circe's point of view. And what a point of view! She grew up the daughter of Helios, the sun God, whom she reverenced though he barely noticed her. It is only when she is banished that she learns who she is and what she can do. She is amazing, and I am grateful for the richness of Miller's imagination in creating her world for us to enjoy.
Swashbuckling Fantasy: 10 Thrilling Tales of Magical Adventure
This is just first chapters of books. I read the first one. There is no resolution. I guess if you're too lazy to download the samples for each book on your Kindle, this will save you 5 minutes. But just for reading, forget it. These aren't standalone stories, so unless you're planning on buying all the books, it's not worth it.
Rick Wilson wrote this to help the country survive the 2020 election by knowing how to beat Trump. Wilson's book, Everything Trump Touches Dies, was prescient so I was anxious to listen to this. I started it in early 2020, but never finished it due to the pandemic. But now the orange guy is running in 2024, so I got a second chance.
The audiobook is narrated by Wilson himself, and no one else could do it justice. This needed to be done in his voice. I suspect if he was narrating it now, he'd be a bit gentler in tone, but not much.
There are some points in the book that I suspect Wilson has shifted on. For instance, his insistence that young people don't vote was not true in 2020 or 2022. He recently had a Gen X activist on his podcast, and it's clear he's seeing a change here.
But other than minor quibbles as these, this book holds up. It's worth listening to again if you want to be involved in activism around the 2024 election.
I've never loved A Christmas Carol, although I know many people do. It seemed so barren to me. I never cared about Scrooge, and his conversion in the end never mattered to me.
This is the first time I've listened to it as an audiobook, and boy, did that ever change my mind. I absolutely loved the experience of listening to it. The narrator for the version I listened to is Tim Curry, and he brought a lot of emotion into the story. I cannot think of a more perfect narrator for this book, and I'm grateful to have found this version. In his reading, Scrooge is by turns angry, bitter, bored, scared, silly, and joyful. I cried through most of the book as I really began to care about Scrooge and to see some of his foibles in me. Bravo!
A Showdown for the Ages
Maurice LeBlanc was bold enough to write these stories less than 20 years after Conan Doyle first published his Holmes stories and about 25 years before Conan Doyle died. He was required to change the famous detective's name to Herlock Sholmes in the US version and Holmlock Shears in the UK. I guess there was no fan fiction back in the early 1900s. Nevertheless, now that the Holmes stories are in the public domain, everything has been corrected so that we are enjoying Sherlock and Watson.
This is a rematch of the world-famous detective and the world-famous thief. Since it's written by the creator of the latter, you can guess who will win. But that doesn't decrease the enjoyment of these two stories. Holmes is his usual smug, confident self, even to the point of egregious behavior towards Watson, who does not fare well in these stories. Lupin is also his usual smug, confident self. By the end of the stories, they appear to have developed a mutual respect.
Harrison's narration makes these stories come alive. For the first time, we experience the nerves beneath Holmes affectation of self-confidence. (We've known that all along through his need to keep Watson around to validate his superiority.) At no point in the stories was I sure how Lupin would best Holmes, and the ending was made more enjoyable by the narration by Harrison. He has a knack of knowing when to lean into the text and when to allow it to speak for itself.
If you enjoy Holmes, Lupin, or just a good mystery, I highly recommend Arsene Lupin vs. Sherlock Holmes.
Lisa Unger is a NYT best selling author, and indeed this is a well-written story. Unfortunately, the narration by Amy Landon is so bad that I nearly stopped listening just a few minutes into the story. I'm glad I didn't. The story carried the day. But I won't buy another book narrated by Landon. Her voice is robotic with no warmth.
So back to the story. A young woman, fleeing from an abusive boyfriend, pulls into an out-of-the way motel. The owner is very attentive to her needs, and she wants to like him. But she's got to get back on the road. Unfortunately, her car won't start and she is stuck. This is really where the story begins to unfold. To go any further would be to introduce spoilers. You'll have to read it for yourself. I do recommend reading it rather than listening to the audiobook. I think the experience will be much better.
Hungarian “Western”
This charmingly dark tale takes place in the Hungarian plains and involves a tragic love triangle between two cowboys - a cow herd and a horse wrangler. There is a lot to enjoy about this translated story. The setting is unique and nothing like what I expected Hungary to be like. I went to Wikipedia and learned a great deal about a part of the world I'll never visit. The love triangle is intriguing and mysterious. It portrays the Hungarian cowboy as intensely emotional yet restrained in verbal expression of those feelings. The ending of the story, although never in doubt, is still jarring.
The audiobook is narrated by BJ Harrison who has visited the Hungarian plain. He brings it alive as a character and its emotions overlie the entire narrative. His voicing of the cowboys and their songs is masterful. We understand the emotions of the cowboys through his narration rather than the actual words they speak.
I highly recommend this book.
I am reviewing the audiobook version.
This 1-hour short listen is just mildly creepy
The narrator, Kimberly Wood, doesn't seem to try to overcome the weak writing of the two protagonists. The character voices are largely the same. Only at the end of the story, when the male protagonist starts talking a more stereotyped Black male lingo, can you tell the difference between the two characters.
The story itself is OK, but nothing special. The twist at the end is not a twist at all. You could see it coming a mile away. The book was just an hour long, but I would have rather listened to something else.
It's possible that I might have enjoyed the story more in a written format where I could have allowed my imagination to give the characters more depth.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by BJ Harrison and this review pertains to that version.
The narration is masterful, as I have come to expect from Harrison. This was a challenging story to narrate as there is a huge cast of characters to differentiate, but Harrison is up to the challenge. I can honestly say that I would never have finished this book in a written form, but the audio kept me riveted. I listened well past midnight and into the wee hours on a work night because once Rebecca was on trial, I couldn't stop until I was done.
The anti-semitism is offputting at first, but then it becomes the heart of the story as we see the evolution of several characters as they interact with Rebecca. She is the most fully developed character in the piece, and her integrity, faith, and gentle spirit inspired me as it did those characters who allowed themselves to know her. As this happened, my initial horror at the anti-semitism was transformed into hope that good people even in our day can overcome entrenched bigotry. I am glad I continued listening despite my initial reaction.
I am reviewing the Audible version of this book.
I really enjoyed this story, especially the character of Patricia. I found her character arc fascinating. I also enjoy a story where I can see some of the ending coming, but then, in a twist, it doesn't work out exactly as I thought it would.
Alyssa Bresnahan is the perfect narrator for this book, particularly for voicing Patricia, with all her neuroticism, and the birds, with all their singlemindedness. Patricia and the birds are, to me, the core of this book.
The story is a quirky coming of age story that continues on into the struggles of young adulthood. Our misfit protagonists in junior high manage to end up where they wanted to be, and, in many ways, they are still misfits trying to forgive themselves and, in the process, finally reconcile with who they really are. Although Patricia and Laurence are the protagonists, I feel that Patricia is written more fully than Laurence. This may be because the author is female and just couldn't fully inhabit the thoughts and motivations of a male character as well as she could a female.
I received this book in the dead tree format as a birthday gift, but I already had bought the audiobook. I am glad that I listened to the audiobook version first. I think I'll regift the other.