Rachel

Took me 6 months to finish

Reviewed: 12-20-19

This just didn’t hold my interest. I abandoned it shortly after getting it and only finished it because I’m trying to finish stuff at the end of the year. I listened to 70% of it at 1.75 or 2 speed. Lol, which made it more tolerable, but not great.

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Disappointed

Reviewed: 11-12-18

I first heard of this book on a list of best Science Fiction by women, so I went looking for it.
And I wanted to love it. I tried. I read other reviews to figure out why I should. But I didn't.

Some of the concept was interesting--the sociological issues of being raised entirely within what is essentially a jail, vs being raised by the ultra wealthy, vs growing up isolated from all human contact on a garbage pile.
But I couldn't get past the SUPER INTENSELY ANNOYING male protagonist (whose name I have now blocked out). This dude was written like the author was a man. You know all that garbage where we have to listen to the male protagonist write about how he should be getting more sex, etc (I'm looking at you Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, East of Eden, and any number of books I've abandoned because I don't enjoy the immature hormonal teenage male perspective).

I did enjoy the different perspectives and the fact that the story moved back and forth and I could appreciate that the male characters annoyingness was balanced by the different annoyingness of the two female characters, but this still wasn't for me.

#Dystopian # UrbanFantasy #Dark #ChildProtagonist #FemaleProtagonists #Tagsgiving #Sweepstakes

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3 people found this helpful

Fun and Short

Reviewed: 11-12-18

I'm not generally a huge fan of short stories because I always feel like I want more.
I am generally a huge fan of Scalzi. The combination was about what I'd expect. They were fun, but not as satisfying as a longer story. However, my daughter listened with me to the one about the cat and robot and she still talks about that one.

#FelinePerspective #Monsters #NearFuture #Tagsgiving #Sweepstakes

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Excellent Version of Emma

Reviewed: 11-12-18

I've been working my way through rereads of Austen and couldn't get myself started with a print copy of Emma, despite a couple of false starts. This version was just excellent. It captured the feel of a romp through this world and I managed not to get too annoyed at the stupid stuff Emma does.
#Witty #Regency #England #Tagsgiving #Sweepstakes

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1 person found this helpful

Scalzi and Wheaton and a great story

Reviewed: 11-12-18

I just love Scalzi narrated by Wil Wheaton. I got the first in this series in print and really enjoyed it, more than average for an author I pretty much always enjoy. I really liked the intersection of fascinating science (the flows), people who won't believe the science, and political intrigue. I can't wait for the next one!

In the meantime I can catch up on the Old Man's War series, but I didn't enjoy the start of that one as much as this series.

#Space #Witty #FirstContact (at least first contact in a long long time) #TimeTravelFuture #Tagsgiving #Sweepstakes

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Fun Mother-daughter listen

Reviewed: 11-12-18

I listened to this with my 10-year old daughter. It was a light-hearted story that was fun to listen to together. It has some clear similarities to Harry Potter, which we liked. They didn't feel like rip offs, just similar subjects: magical kids who didn't know they were magic, magic school, potions class, young relationships, family conflict, hidden identities.

#MagicSystems #Steampunk #Magical #ChildProtagonist #UK #SecretIdentity #Funny #Tagsgiving #Sweepstakes

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Not for me

Reviewed: 09-08-18

I have heard great things about this book, and I gave it a solid chance, but it was 100% not for me.

It was exceedingly depressing. It tells the story of the narrator and her significant other, but the story is just a litany of the ways society fails the couple because of prejudice. I didn't care about the main characters. It sucks that people are unpleasant to them, but I didn't want to read an unremittingly negative litany of all the terrible things society does to them with no way out and no way through. The author's life must just be completely awful with no silver lining and no good experiences ever. I can't even understand why the couple stays together. Nelson in the book felt like the inspiration for Debbie Downer or Eeyore.

The narration emphasized this feeling with a plodding, monotone. I really tried to appreciate the book. I tried listening to it on at least 5 separate occasions, trying out the possibility that I was in the wrong mood or frame of mind. I even increased the narration speed--first to 1.25 and then to 1.5. I thought I could plod through it--it's fairly short.
Nothing helped. I gave it a real chance and I can confidently say that I heartily disliked it.

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9 people found this helpful

Purchased for at least the 4th time

Reviewed: 09-08-18

This is my go-to book for when I'm feeling blue. I was feeling blue and I no longer have a tape player or CD player, so I bought this on audible. Of course the book is great and Jim Dale is perfection and I'm delighted that Audible finally has the series.

Listening to the series, but especially book 3 just calms me when I'm sad or upset. I listen to it in my studio while making sculpture and it helps me work.

I first read the book in 2001, but it was a friend's loaner copy. I bought the tape set in graduate school and might have also bought the CD set--or maybe I just borrowed it from the library. I bought my daughter a copy of the book when she was ready to have me read it to her, and this year we bought the illustrated version. That's how much I love this book.

Jim Dale is absolute perfection (though I've heard such good things about the British narrator I want to buy a copy of that version, too).

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kind of interesting topic, but not engaging book

Reviewed: 09-08-18

The topic sounds interesting and it kind of was, but I had trouble keeping with it. I listened, but my mind would wander or I'd immediately forget what was being discussed. Somehow it wasn't as engaging as I'd hoped for.

The main story throughout the book is a history of the different ways folks thought about and represented the "tree" of live throughout it's history. That's actually just fine, but not really radical. I was hoping for a bit more "action" about how people didn't used to think that we had other forms of life inside our bodies and now we know we do. But besides gut microbes and their ilk, there wasn't much discussion of what that means. There was some discussion of viral DNA in placentas, but it could have been presented in a more engaging way, I felt.

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13 people found this helpful

Eh, it's ok

Reviewed: 09-08-18

I had just read a really great book, Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw, and wanted to spend more time in that universe when this book came up on sale (and I had some money in my Audible account). So I tried it.
I knew this book was way late in a series I hadn't read, but that didn't seem to matter for the listener.
I thought this one looked interesting because of the combination of being a mom and a new vampire, but whatever your imagining is basically what this book is. There wasn't anything particularly surprising or interesting. The world of half-moon hollow sounds interesting, because they have a visible minority of vampires who participate, kind of, in regular daily life, but nothing much happens in this particular book except some sexy times.
Probably if you enjoy the series you'd like this one, IDK.

The narrator was pretty great, though.
#Werewolves #Vampires #AmericanSouth #Tagsgiving #Sweepstakes

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