My 2012 Reading Journal: October 2012

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Audiobook
US author
Originally published 2011
Fertility/Infertility issues, gay marriage
Review: Felt too much like a story designed around the issues in order for the author to educate the reader. Not what I was hoping for.

Audiobook
#3 in Lincoln Rhyme series
Originally published in 2001
US author
Review: Not bad, not bad at all. I do enjoy this series. I liked the setting of this one, in North Carolina.

Audiobook
!st Harry Hole mystery
Originally published in 1997
Norwegian author
Set in Australian, about the death of a Norwegian woman
Review: Very good intro to Detective Harry Hole. Jo Nesbo's prose is crisp and engaging.

Audiobook
Originally published 1873
#3 in Palliser series
English author
Review: Trollope continues, in this third installment of his Palliser series, to poke fun at the aristocracy. It is really more than poking fun, but the writing makes one laugh while also clearly identifying the vanities, hypocrisies, and various other frailties of the
English upper class in the mid 1800s. Lady Eustace, the melodramatic, manipulative, narcissistic widow will stop at nothing to hold onto her beloved diamond necklace, while desperately seeking a new spouse in the poetic incarnation of a corsair. In the course of pursuing her nefarious goals, she lies, cheats, double-crosses, perjures, and uses everyone in her path. I won't tell you what happens to the necklace or her love life, because that would spoil half the fun. I look forward to the next volume and what antics will occur there!

Audiobook
Mystery/Suspense
US author
Originally published 2012
Review: A tense murder mystery which totally engaged me. Did he or didn't he? Even if he didn't, he may be quite demented. Wait a minute.......did the other guy do it? Uh oh........what the heck is going on? Is there a "murder gene"? Hmmmmm...........

Audiobook
Originally published 2010
Autobiographical
US author
Review: I really enjoyed this memoir. Laura Bell is a somewhere between a lost soul and a free spirit when she goes to live in the mountains of Wyoming as a sheep herder. The telling of her life story takes the reader down unexpected, non-traditional paths. The reader is allowed to be witness to the joys and sorrows, loves and losses of this one woman's life. It is an incredible journey with the magnificent backdrop of the Wyoming landscape, rugged and unforgiving....like much of life!

Audiobook
English author
Originally published 2012
Setting: English village and English countryside
Harold finds out an old friend and begins to walk to see her in hospice care, believing in walking there he may save her
Review: What exactly is a pilgrimage? Merriam-Webster says, "a journey, especially a long one, made to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion". Well, in this quiet, lovely tale, Harold Fry inadvertently embarks on one and the reader walks along with him. So begins a journey of the body, of memory, of marriage, of loss, of spirit. The reader accompanies Harold as he journeys many miles and deeply within himself. I suppose it is best to describe this as a coming of age story, although not in the traditional sense of a young person becoming an adult, but in the sense of an adult seeking to accept the next and final stage of his own life. Again, it is a quiet tale. Enjoy the journey!

Audiobook
Debut
US author
Originally published 2012
Review: This is a very nice coming of age tale which tackles themes such as loss, love, sibling relationships, and the early years of public awareness of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Good story.