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The very best of her Christma novellas...

Revisado: 12-07-23

Very reflective symbols! Her deeply held views shine here above all her other works. It turned my difficult week around.

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First Book Wobbles

Revisado: 10-15-23

The first episode in a series always has to do a lot of heavy lifting : establish the characters, provide something of a backstory for each, and so one. More often than not the storyline suffers. Which (I hope) is why this story is so predictable. However, I found the main character intriguing and the supporting cast sufficiently pleasant that I'll give the next volume a go. But I will require a noticeably better plot if I'm to continue on.

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Seconds

Revisado: 08-22-19

Let me begin with the obvious. The second of a nything is either better or worse than the first--more often worse. "All Day and All of the Night" merely replicated "You Really Got Me." "Walk on With the Duke" fell short of "The Duke of Earl" and so on. "Let's Twist Again?" Let's not.

It's more of a mixed bag with movies, about 50/50. Superman 2 was far better than the first, but ""Back to the Future" would have done well to time travel over the next installment.

So, what's up with this second book. My first impression was that Ms. O'Malley was afraid to adandon the formula that served her well in the first installment. Girl struggles with accepting her powers, falls in love, enjoys sex, and then adds the terror of being found out by the man she loves to her already large bag of anxieties. Eventually she owns up to her calling as a cunning woman and her lover responds like an ass. Grief and tears follow, but then the man comes to his considerly dull senses. Ditto, ditto.

But there's some subtle story telling going on here, something transcendent beneath the surface that I just didn't feel in her first book. So, in spite of the carbon copy manuscript, I'm hopeful for better I pray that the craft will be presented in a deeper way, that the reader will begin to see the characters mature spiritually, and that the author will find a way to challenge her own notion that the gift is offered only to limited matriarchal bloodlines.

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Insubstantial

Revisado: 04-28-19

Not the world, not at all. But I wish the author had given me more of a physical description of the three women. I has difficulty summing them in my imagination, but the story, brief as it was, was good enough for me to come back to this borderland village.

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A Lovely Treat

Revisado: 01-24-19

The story of the Cottingley faeries all but saved my life once upon a time. I had been out of work for almost nine months and sinking into depression more and more each day. My wife decided I needed to get out of my downward spiral, so she took me to see Fairytale, a film based on the Cottingley story. It was a lovely creation, and a bit of its magic rubbed off on me. I left the theater elated, my spirit had been turned about and was soaring.

This book blends this tale with that of a young woman deciding independence was a better option that the ill-suited marriage she was committed to. She finds herself in a town alongside the Irish sea, having inherited her grandfather's bookstore. How one story travels toward the other and eventually connects the two lives makes a profound read, as the reader too is drawn into these two mythical worlds of the Cottingley faeries seeking to touch each other. It bids the reader to question and develop the mythic elements of his or her biography.

The readers on the audio book are perfectly suited to their material. I'm blessed to have come upon Hazel Gaynor's vision of Cottingley's relevance in a post enchanted world, and I think you may be as well.

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There's a Bit of Poe in Every Raven

Revisado: 04-16-18

Well drafted tale and bloody well written. A raw bleakness that almost seems to ground these islands serves up well in Cleeve's characters. Enjoyed it immensely.

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Hohumbug

Revisado: 12-23-17

I cared about the dog, and the description of Nantucket was not completely without charm.

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Excellence Abridged

Revisado: 10-23-17

I bought this thinking I was getting the whole; I was not. On the other hand, the narration was so good, I had to have the book. Once I has it, I realized how extensive the editing had been. So a big "boo" to Audible for not letting customers know about their arrangement, but a round of applause for Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy for a great book. L.J. Gardner's narration was risky (using a Carolina accent when quoting Graham), but for me it deepened the experience.

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A Simple Reading

Revisado: 10-31-14

What other book might you compare Gospel of Jesus to and why?

Jesus never wrote down his teachings--no that we know of. There's no account of it, if he did. His teachings and the stories told about him, scholars agree, almost certainly had an oral history before being put down in writing. So, it's good to experience vocal Gospels.But what you don't want--at least I don't--is a dramatic reading. When the Gospels are read in a high church (Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox, sometimes Lutheran), readers are instructed to read the simply, plainly. The idea is that you trust the word to do it's work and you don't manifest trust if you are trying to prop up the verses with some sort of performance. There is spiritual wisdom in this instruction. Thankfully, that is just how Garrison Keillor does it.

Have you listened to any of Garrison Keillor’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Mr. Keillor has a beautiful deep voice, a ponderous vibrancy that touches the marrow of those who listen. There's no need for eruption, speed changes, dramatic pauses. He just reads it allows the words, the lines, the teachings and the stories to do their own work.I have more than a few audible Bibles, none of them approach the spirituality I experience in this simple reading.

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Jolly Good Fun

Revisado: 10-31-14

If you could sum up The Wisdom of the Shire in three words, what would they be?

I enjoyed this recording tremendously. Some may think it odd--given an American has written this book--to have Simon Vance record it, but I wish his voice was on everything Hobbit. The author leans a little to Tolkien's left, I think, but so do I so no objections there. The first go-through, this was bathtub listening, but a second excursion had me reading along. I even took the time to make the soup.

What other book might you compare The Wisdom of the Shire to and why?

I'm always searching the Shire Public Library, so who knows? Might be anything.

What does Simon Vance bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

A good hobbit personality

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