Tuesday, October 30, 2012

"Sing You Home" by Jodi Picoult - **

  • 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.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

"The Empty Chair" by Jeffrey Deaver ***

  • 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.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

"The Bat" by Jo Nesbo ***

  • 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.

Monday, October 22, 2012

"The Eustace Diamonds" by Anthony Trollope *****

  • 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!

Saturday, October 13, 2012

"Defending Jacob" by William Landay ****

  • 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...........

Friday, October 12, 2012

"Claiming Ground" by Laura Bell ****

  • 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!

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

"The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" by Rachel Joyce ****

  • 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!

Thursday, October 4, 2012

"Tell The Wolves I'm Home" by Carol Rifka Brunt ***

  • 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.