The Wylder Skye

Interesting Conversations

Revisado: 10-21-20

My husband and I both listened to this one. He thought he was getting an erotica story and go so much more, actually liking the story. It spawned a lot of conversations. We pretty much had a conversation about this book each night, over the week we both listened to it.

Not spoilers but a tad bit of information that may well need to come up as the story enfolds:

I wish that the author would have put some of the blame back on Jake. He is the one who encouraged Jessica to go out alone and be with Andrew. He should have shouldered some of that blame. Instead he got a kitchen pass. It just didn't ring true for her to not once mention it was HIS idea and he is ever bit as culpable as she is. We felt he was a bit of an ass for not doing so and needed to man up to his own participation in this. His holier than thou attitude really made us not like him at all.

Jessica did a great job of holding her head up and continuing on with life after being shamed. We could all take a lesson there. I loved that her boss, Nancy, was understanding. And loved that Nancy told her she was extremely grateful the internet was not around during her first divorce as she sure wouldn't want what she did out for public consumption. Amen sister to that! Those of us in our 50s got that privilege to make our mistakes in somewhat relative anonymity. You poor young woman who have to deal with online crap of social media nowadays!

I loved how Jessica was able to look past Tiffany's outer armor, so to speak, and continue to encourage her and be kind. It would have been so easy for the author to take the route that just about any chick lit takes in so far as the seemingly 'perfect' woman is torn down when she has her own struggles in life and laid low with some sort of self righteous indignation of her female peers. How refreshing for women to shore each other up instead of tearing them down. (Tip for the younger women, become the goddess you are and do not tear down other women. We are all in this together and the nastiness that is rampant in our society needs to STOP! I for one am sick to death of it and really loved Jessica for what she did for Tiffany and Lizzie.)

Andrew should have been held accountable for what he did but I got it totally when Jessica chose to not pursue any sort of retribution. Having gone through a particularly nasty sexual harassment situation last year with my personal trainer, of which I could have made a huge stink over, in therapy, with both my husband therapist, it came down to my mental well being and was there any fruit on that tree? Was it worth the pain? It was not. I moved on and gained new skills for boundaries. And became a whole lot more open and understanding for other women in my situation and totally understood the whole #metoo movement.

We discussed how hard it had to be for Jessica and Jake to talk to their children. In her ex-husband's home. In the end, Jessica, in spite of their lifestyle choice, handled this situation with about as much grace as a woman can. And that should be appreciated by us all. I mean, there for the grace of god...... my husband being my dom, and us in a BDSM structured relationship for many of the 37 years together, the things we do in private is not something I would want broadcast to the neighborhood.

The author could have really mucked this story up with cliches and worse, but I think she did a great job. It was well worth the listen if for no other reason than my husband and I had some great conversations. I have never heard of her before and will explore her other books.

My only nitpick here is the narrator. She did a pretty good job but for the love, I wish narrators would stop the lower, softer voice for the main characters in audio books and it is not just her, it seems rampant now for narrators. Not all of us have that great of hearing. It is annoying to turn up the volume to hear the main character and all of a sudden get a shrill sharp loud voice of another character, such as Tiffany.

I am glad we listened to this. My husband has tasked me to find another book somewhat like this and that may well be hard to do. A very unique read.

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Well worth it!

Revisado: 06-18-20

I won't give anything away here but I will say this is, hands down, one of the BEST Audible books I have ever listened to and we have nearly 500 Audible books in our collection. The narration was superb (it's Tavia Gilbert, so how can it not be?) The story will make you tear up, hold your breath, and give you chills. I almost did not want it to end and the ending was not what I saw coming but was very satisfying. You cannot go wrong with this one if you like historical novels. I loved the back and forth from the past and the present day with Lorraine.

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Spineless

Revisado: 04-03-20

Why on earth did this author write such a spineless character as Mattie? I kept listening out of desperation of lack of cell service to get another book, that Mattie would get some sort of fire under her and do what ANY OTHER woman would have done in this situation and that is to give both Wes and Nat the middle finger. Having trained, ridden, endurance raced, and rodeoed in my life, I have never, and I mean never run across any horsewoman worth her salt that was such a doormat and spineless.

The characters had zero depth what so ever. All the male characters could have been replaced by a neanderthal who would have had more depth and conversational skills in them. And who on earth lets their husband walk away, take everything they have and not once at least give him a good raking over the coals.

The narration sounds almost computer generated. Monotone, no real inflection. All I can think of is the narrator was as bored as I was.

There were distracting moments when in the middle of an (what should be) emotional situation Mattie looks at the puppy and thinks, 'gosh that puppy is cute'.

The ending. OMG! Really? After I slogged through this, only because I was in an area for four days, yes gathering cattle in the Rockies, and I had ZERO cell service, this was what I was relegated to. So slog on I did. It got kinda funny. Like watching the old emotionless Batman and Robin cartoons. Listen like you are watching old bad westerns or Mystery Science 2000.

I hate giving a bad review. Truly I do. But the absolute unreal quality and doormat nature of Mattie brought it out of me.

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Perfect Length

Revisado: 12-12-19

I loved this story. It was concise and got right to the point. I won't put anything in here that might be a spoiler but suffice it to say, if you love twists, mysteries, relationships amongst friends and spouses, then this is well worth the time.

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Pathetic characters

Revisado: 11-20-19

How on earth did a book with such a weak pathetic, belittling, emasculating heroine and a holier than though ex-convict get five stars is beyond me? At least it is Audible Escape and didn’t cost me anything .

XE Sands is fair narrator who has zero clue on how to read anyone over 45 and not make them sound like they are 100 years old. Hang with this 54 year old with a smoking hot 58 year old husband for awhile, especially on an ultra marathon race or watch my hunky man rock climb and I guarantee she would never make our age group sound debilitated and lame.

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Another McDougall great

Revisado: 11-05-19

I am doing something I have never done before, and that is review a book before I am finished with it. This book is that good. It is also a case where the author is ever bit as good a narrator as writer. You hear the emotion and love in the narration. My husband is hard of hearing and some narrators are difficult for him to understand; he only gets part of the story. Christopher speaks clearly and enunciates; which means Wolf can actually hear the entire story and not just pieces of it.

Yesterday I opened my new edition of Runner's World to read an article about running with a donkey. Enthralled I texted my husband, we need to get a donkey, great running partners. (There has been a running joke with us for over 15 years about getting a donkey). As I am reading this story a little light goes on, this has to be Christopher McDougall. Checked the byline, yep, it is our guy! I HAD to immediately get the audio book.

I am a lifelong horse and dog owner. (No horses now but three dogs). And we are as vegan as we can be, in that we try but don't always get it right. At first, when Christopher got veered towards telling about the history of man and animals, I was a little like, 'this is not the story line'. Yet the deeper he went, the more I got from it, and it shored up our resolve to be better vegans. NOTE: as far as I can tell, this book is NOT about being vegan. Not a word about that. For us, it just told us what we already knew, animals are way more clever than given credit for. Goats. Donkeys. Dogs.

There is the aspect that the McDougall's were willing to take on a very sick, very depressed little donkey that by all accounts was not even going to survive the first week let alone the first night. The support from his Amish neighbors is heartwarming. It really puts this group of people in a much more human light. Having read about an Amish serial killer and a woman leaving the Amish, those biographies do NOT put this group in a positive light. The give and take, the helping your neighbor, the amazing Tanya and Scott. It all gives me hope that there is still a place in this very fractured country we are living in that harkens back to what I remember growing up in cotton farming/cattle ranching country 15 miles from the nearest town of 400 people. We all helped each other. Black, white, republican, democrat, straight, gay, Catholic, or Baptist, and even Hindu in our little isolated world. This book just has that feel to it. All for one and one for all. Live and let live. Help your neighbor and be kind. Take care of your piece of the world. No judgements.

As an endurance runner this book has a special appeal to me. Training to run ultra marathons with the dream of running the Leadville 100 and Hardrock 100 in my very close neighboring state of Colorado. (New Mexico girl here). I loved reading the magazine article about the women Amish runners. I can't wait to get to that part in the book. I told my husband that it goes to show that the desire to run, (and I have run since I was a tiny child) is there, no matter what social or economic group you are from. No matter what you look like or wear. If you have that desire, you will willingly run in a long black dress, cap, and apron, and still kick ass! Those women are my kindred spirits. Try NOT letting a runner run. We will go crazy.

I never listen to audio books when I run. Never. I tend to listen to a special Spotify soundtrack I have created that keeps my pace going. I went for a short run yesterday, and ended up looping around longer for 10.5 miles as I was enjoying the story so much. That alone is a huge testament to the power of this delightful book. If I can listen and still run and still keep a good pace, then it is golden.

Sherman, Sherman, Sherman! I can't get enough of this this little spirit. There is a good chance I will eventually run across Christopher at one of these ultra events in the Rockies. And learning more about the burro races and thinking I don't actually have to own a donkey to run it, will I? Not sure. At 110 pounds it would not be a great idea for little, scrawny me. But we are planning on going to watch the races this summer and hopefully volunteer. I am already planning on a high altitude training session up there this summer. Might as well work it around the burro races in Leadville.

Christopher, thank you for this very wonderful, very heartwarming book and sharing so much more about your family! See ya on the trails!

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A Champion for Us

Revisado: 11-04-19

An FBI agent could not have done any better than he did on ferreting out the truth. Ronan is very much old school trying to present a fair, balanced, and truthful report; refusing to be swayed by pressure and harassment. Sadly, as is well documented in this book, it is a rare talent in journalism today, where ratings and appeasing the Inflamed Armpit, Weistein, and other wealthy men, has become de rigeur in the entertainment business.

Justice will be if the Inflamed Armpit gets life in prison. And why is Openheimer and Lack STILL employed by NBC? Not an NBC fan and will never watch anything they ever produce again. Kinda think I am one of hundreds if not thousands that will boycott such a sick, twisted company.

Ronan's Pulitzer was well deserved. THANK YOU RONAN from every woman who has suffered sexual harassment AND assault and watched our accusers walk away scott free. #metoo

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Mind Numbing

Revisado: 10-30-19

I tried really hard to get into this book but could make about two hours. It is mind numbingly boring. It might be of use to listen to if you can't fall asleep at night.

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One long meme

Revisado: 10-21-19

It struck me as I slogged through this audio book that what I was listening to was one long reading of Facebook feel good memes. It is as if the author compiled all the love, romance, and touchy feely mantras, affirmations, and sappiness, tossed them in the air and created loose dialog around how they fell.

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You can't make this stuff up!

Revisado: 10-16-19

Not since Alexandra Fuller have I read such a riveting read. I don't want to put it down and I do not want the book to end. When I first read the review on Wild Game, prior to it's release on Audible, I have had this on pre-order. I was not disappointed.

Fans of Fuller's 'Don't Lets Go To The Dogs Tonight' and 'Cocktail Hour Under The Tree of Forgiveness' will love this memoir. Brodeur's book is ever bit as riveting. As I listen all I can think of, and I am not a movie goer, being an avid reader 'listener' is that this book has GOT to be made into a movie.

Although I have nearly 400 titles in my Audible library, I think this is the first Julia Whelan narrated book I have listened to. I think I have found a new favorite narrator. There is never any confusion about which character is speaking. Julia makes them all come alive. I particularly loved how she portrayed Malabar.

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