Audiobooks

In the Tall Grass

I was looking for audio books to reserve and noticed Stephen King and his son Joe Hill (who I like better than King) had witten a novella (I’m calling it a novella because it’s short!) and I had not read it. So, I reserved it on audio.

In the Tall Grass is holy hell creepy and just as gruesome as you’d expect from something written by these two. Possibly TOO gruesome, particularly for audio. I cringed my way through it.

Warning: It includes the beating of a pregnant woman, her miscarriage and … more. Gruesome!

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The Signature of All Things

We finished an audio book right before Easter and none from my reserve list were available at the library so I grabbed the first thing that looked somewhat interesting, via my library’s online system and that just happened to be Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Signature of All Things.

Amusing because I’d just sat through the video she made of her house in Jersey, the one that she’s trying to sell, and complained mightily about her and her video. (It made me queasy and she was kind of weird in it, IMO.)

I’ve also never read Eat, Pray, Love… so there you go.

It took forever to listen to this book, even though we made two trips to Wisconsin while listening to it. It took so long, the darn license expired on me and I had to re-check it out. Frustrating but that should tell you that we found it interesting enough to go through the pain of doing that, while sitting in the parking lot of our library (even though by then I had another audio book in the car just waiting for us to listen to it.)

It was interesting. Alma was interesting. (So was her father.) So were all of the characters, really. The sex scenes were… a little strong in places, (moss will forever remind me of binding closets and oral sex… just saying…) – I think particularly so because we were listening to it rather than reading it. You can’t skim really descriptive passages very easily in audio, even if they make you cringe… So. Consider that before you read this book.

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Rose Under Fire

From the Cybils Shortlist and the sequel to Code Name Verity, Rose Under Fire was excellent. Troubling, as books about WW2 often are… seriously, I need a moratorium on concentration camps or something. So sad and horrible and OMG did I mention horrible?

Rose was awesome, I even enjoyed her poetry. And while I might have kind of complained about the Girl Scout camp songs earworm, I enjoyed that, too. Once a Girl Scout, always a Girl Scout and all that.

I even liked the way it ended.

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Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass

I can’t decide whether I’m glad we listened to Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass on audio or not. I LOVED the Spanish in it but my Spanish is bad so I’d have liked to have been able to look some of that stuff up. Not that I didn’t understand the gist of it but still, it would have been more fun to do that (in some ways.)

The book itself, excellent. Very nice change to have great Latina characters. I very much loved that. I really liked Piddy and her mom and Lila. I spent much of today saying “Que lindo!” to myself because Lila said it and it made me laugh (a friend in Panama used to say it a lot) and it was very appropriate at many times today (sarcastically and not sarcastically.)

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Elegy for Eddie

Elegy for Eddie was a TOUGH Maisie Dobbs novel. People can do horrible things for good reasons, or reasons that seem good — duh. Poor Eddie. Poor Jimmy Merton. Poor Billy Beale. Gah. The whole book is full of sad.

And damn James Compton, hmph.

Also, damn Hitler!

(I’m also troubling because we’re coming up on the last back, thus far, in the series. What will we do when there’s not another one to reserve and listen to?!)

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Eleanor & Park

From the Cybils Shortlist, Eleanor & Park… what to say, what to say. I liked it. A lot. I might have even loved it but… I kept wondering if any of my kids would have loved it when they were teens and I don’t think that they would.

There were so many 80s references. SO MANY. Neither of our girls knew what I was talking about when I asked them about a few of them. It’s one thing to have a few 80s references that a kid can figure out in context but so many? I dunno. Seems like something might be lost in translation. TW and I smiled all the way through it though BECAUSE of the 80s references.

I did particularly appreciate that Eleanor wasn’t a hero… there was no attempt to save her siblings. She didn’t even really try. Or even pretend to try. She thought about it but halfheartedly and with the awareness that she just couldn’t, she wasn’t even sure she could save herself.

I also really liked Park’s parents. And Park, sure I liked Part, too. Surprisingly, I liked the ending. I liked the abruptness of it. I like that we don’t see the complete resolution of all of the problems. The postcard ending — pretty much perfect. And, now I want to go immerse myself in 80s movies and TV shows. Sheesh.

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A Lesson In Secrets

We finished listening to Maisie Dobbs: A Lesson In Secrets last night… another excellent book.

I kept wanting to yell LISTEN TO MAISIE because the men are dumb for not worrying about that whole Hitler, Nazi, fascist thing. Gah.

Also, I’m surprised she never figured out where Sandra went… maybe because she didn’t have time to really think about it? It was obvious to me.

I’m anxious to find out what happens next but we’re taking a little Maisie break to listen to a YA novel instead… then we’ll be back to Maisie again. I think.

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The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon

For a minute there, I thought this was the end of the #1 Ladies Detective Agency… but no, it seems like everything’s going to work out ok. Thank goodness Mma Makutse is a modern woman. Sheesh.

I really enjoyed The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon. It was odd though because the two cases didn’t quite end the way the cases normally end. We know what happened but the people involved in the cases… not so much. Interesting. I would have liked to hear how things were resolved with the copy shop chick and with the lawyer/boy/aunt/mother. We usually get at least a small scene with Mma Ramotswe getting things straightened out. Interesting.

The best part… Charlie. Charlie and the baby. Awesome.

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The Mapping of Love and Death

The Mapping of Love and Death was another great Maisie Dobbs book. Sad, so sad. But, interesting to see where Maisie goes now that the world is her oyster, so to speak. I’m not sure how I feel about the whole James Compton thing. It’s probably going to be fine and certainly better than Dr Dean for goodness sakes.

I really enjoyed the whole cartographer/diaries/letters thing. Well done. Very well done.

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