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Immortality is a bummer

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 02-09-18

One of my favorite YA trilogies (I won't tell you which) is awesome until the very end when the heroine beats the bad guy by acquiring immortality. While my colleague Katie loved this ending, it always majorly disturbed me, and How to Stop Time is the perfect illustration of why. Immortality is a bummer, guys. Matt Haig's protagonist, Tom, though not technically immortal—just looking forward to a 900+ years—is depressed. Everyone he's ever dared to love is dead, and he can't really settle into a home for more than a decade or so without raising serious—and dangerous—suspicions. In his current identity he's based in London and teaching (of course) history, and this is why, despite Tom's glumness, I just LOVED this book. I may not wish for immortality, but I do wish I could travel back in time. Tom's narration whisks you back to the Tudor period, the Jazz Age, the Gold Rush, and there's something truly remarkable about looking at history from a bird's eye view: Tom has our (and by "our" I mean "we mere humans") number, and we aren't the smartest of beasts. We are quite literally repeating ourselves. And While Tom may be exasperated and even a bit bored by our antics, this is the least boring book I've devoured in quite some time. 

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esto le resultó útil a 82 personas

Another thing of beauty from Rachel Joyce

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 01-11-18

How I love Rachel Joyce. In The Music Shop we meet Frank, an eternal optimist who knows about almost nothing except music, and who believes his vinyl record shop—which is struggling to remain relevant amidst the rise of CDs in 1980's Britain—is his venue by which to help the world. He has the intuitive ability to know what records people need to hear, and has even saved a marriage or two through his almost magical curation skills. Music geeks will eat this up (who doesn't want to hear Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata described as "punk"), but as in all of Joyce's stories, the true elegance comes from her identification of the turning points in a person's life. What are those micro-traumas that set a child on their seemingly accidental path; what was that moment of (in)decision that changed everything? As a parent, Joyce's prescience terrifies me, but I also can't look away. As a bonus track (pun!) Steven Hartley's narration—Google him, you know this guy—is masterful: in turns obsessively enthusiastic and heartbreaking, especially amazing given that it’s his first turn behind the mic.

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esto le resultó útil a 36 personas

A Kids'-Eye View of Fleeing Home

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 08-16-17

This heart-wrencher of a tale chronicles three separate journeys of children experiencing what none should have to: fleeing a home that is no longer safe. We meet Josef, a Jewish boy leaving Germany in 1939 as he boards the ill-fated ocean liner St. Louis; Isabelle, who, along with her family, flees Cuba as a 1994 rafter; and Mahmoud, who departs Aleppo in 2015, bound for (bringing us full circle) Germany. The stories, unfolding in alternating points of view, are benchmarked at the start of each chapter with a subhead: xx days from home, demonstrating that from a kids' vantage point, home - or lack of - is the only landmark that really matters.

The three accounts really took me into the heart of these historical moments in a way that news reports rarely do, each depicting a unique version of desperation, tragedy, and longing. But while I was on the edge-of-my-seat throughout, the ultimate conclusion is one of hope - that the sins of our collective past do in fact have the power to positively impact the choices we make in the future.

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esto le resultó útil a 14 personas

A Treasure

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 07-21-17

Northanger Abbey has always been one of my favorite Austen stories (along with Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and… oh). Anyway—it ranks WAY higher than Mansfield Park, at least. But I’ve always loved that it’s Austen’s most obvious play at satire, demonstrating, perhaps ironically (or maybe, given Austen’s own life, not at all) what kind of trouble a wild imagination can get a young woman into. So it lends itself beautifully to this new high-spirited, and very funny, dramatization. It even seems that Austen has herself been cast as the omniscient and wise narrator (and who else more fully embodies those qualities than the brilliant Emma Thompson?). If you love a good comedy of manners, don’t miss this delightful audio-only treasure.

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esto le resultó útil a 92 personas

#WTFthatending indeed.

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 07-10-17

The publicists for Sarah Pinbourough's breakout novel love to point to a hashtag that arose from early reads of the book, #WTFthatending. It's a great hook: "this book has such a batsh*t insane denouement that people took to twitter to OMG about it!" So of course I was intrigued, but I generally assumed that this was more PR gimmick than anything… But as it turns out, "WTF" is pretty much how I've been feeling since I finished listening last month. In fact I'm only writing this review because I need to bleach my brain and I'm hoping this will be the catharsis I'm looking for.

After the initial five minutes (performed from the vantage point of a never-to-be-heard-from-again narrator) left me appropriately baffled, I was quickly sucked in and found firm footing within the dual-narration of the two main characters and their disparate personalities. We meet Adele, the naïve (but obviously not really), mistreated weakling of a wife, and Louise, the single mom who is both Adele's new insta-BFF and the woman sleeping with Adele's husband. The web of lies among the two, as well as the man in the middle, gets more and more tangled before it unravels, and you are never quite sure who's pulling which strings. Fair warning: there is an element within the premise of the story that you stumble upon about midway through that's admittedly a little farfetched, but by then you're so engrossed that you just go with it. Without revealing too much, I'll just say that as someone who loves a good multicast performance, I was fully aware that there was a fourth narrator in that casting line-up, and I felt - rightfully so it turns out - an immense amount of dread as I waited for them to show up.

Despite how insane this book made me feel, I still wouldn’t trade in the experience (though I'll let you know how I'm feeling in another month). If you're in the mood for a book that will haunt you this might be a good candidate, just be prepared to need a prompt mental palate cleanser. Can I recommend Her Royal Spyness, perhaps?

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esto le resultó útil a 10 personas

A Brutal and Chilling Surprise

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 05-12-17

I had this one sitting in my app for a while until I picked it up on a whim. Whoa. This book is not meant for stumbling into. Or maybe it is, and that accounts for the addictive freefall feeling it gave me. I was irretrievably sucked in within the first few minutes, when a teenage boy on a bus vanishes, returning three minutes later, dead, with miniature antlers sprouting from the back of his head. You come to learn that while he left the human world only briefly, he actually was hunted for 24 hours by the bloodthirsty and beautiful Sidhe, an ancient race of creatures taking their revenge for being cast out of Ireland millennia ago. Every teenager will at some point be called, and they are all furiously training for a slim chance at survival. The whole premise may seem ludicrous (The Call has been described by critics as The Hunger Games with faeries), but Paedar O'Guilin draws deep on mythology, pulling at the haunting threads of childhood ghost stories. Even if Irish folklore isn't in your personal cultural backlog, O'Guilin, along with the immersive, many-layered, Gaelic voice of narrator Amy Shiels, unearths a primal dread in the listener. For me it led to some sleepless nights but the nightmares were worth it.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Otherworldly Brilliance

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 02-14-17

Lincoln in the Bardo is one of the most extraordinary books I have ever listened to - and make no mistake - this one is meant to be listened to. 166 individual narrators (led by Nick Offerman, David Sedaris, author George Saunders, and the incomparably sweet Kirby Heyborne as Willie) came together to voice this wildly surreal audiobook. And while that might sound like a production stunt, the breadth of voices is necessary to create the immersive cacophony effect (almost a Greek chorus of Americana) - because Saunders' first full-length novel, a hugely ambitious work that delivers a devastatingly accurate portrait of grief, is entirely voiced by ghosts.

The listener finds himself in a Georgetown Cemetary where young Willie Lincoln has just been laid to rest. The Civil War has only just begun, and Willie's grieving father (the president) returns to the graveyard in a state of stumbling and stricken shambles to look at and hold the body of his boy. This unorthodox behavior from a visitor triggers shocked confusion among the self-unaware dead who wonder what it means for their own fates. In rounding out his tale, Saunders depicts the real events of the time (those things happening outside of the graveyard) entirely through historical snippets and citations, and you eventually come to realize that these are also the impressions of the dead. The effect is such that the listener feels like he's spying in on a world completely outside of time, and defined only by the shifting perceptions of ethereal spirits. It's quite literally otherworldly, but the concerns of the voices feel recognizable, real, and at times contemporary, as every stratum of society is represented among the cast. Without a doubt this is one of the strangest books in our store - but please do not be discouraged by its oddity. There's some serious genius here.

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esto le resultó útil a 153 personas

Quiet, lovely, and fiercely intelligent

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 12-03-16

When Anna’s father (a linguistics professor in Krakow) is taken by the Nazis, Anna is left to fend for herself. Forming a sort of partnership with a man who like her also speaks innumerable languages, Anna and "the Swallow Man" take to the woods, trying to stay under the radar while the world self-destructs. Comparisons have naturally been made to The Book Thief, and with Allan Corduner at the narrative helm it hits many of the same notes, but Gavriel Savit’s gorgeous debut is perhaps a more finely formed thing. Unlike Zusak’s Liesel, Anna is on the run. While most young girls are trying to find themselves, Anna has learned from the Swallow Man that "to be found is to be gone forever". While a stunningly profound meditation on language as both identity and disguise during wartime, Anna and the Swallow Man also perfectly captures the simple poignancy of a child’s vantage point. This is one of my favorite books.

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esto le resultó útil a 6 personas

Reminded me of the total joy of childhood secrets

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 06-28-16

I recently watched the film of The Secret Garden with my young daughter, and found myself as completely absorbed by the story as she was. A young orphan shipped off to live in a 100 room castle, surrounded by walled gardens and endless moorland? This is the perfect fertile ground for any adventure. Wanting more I decided to pick up this well-rated book and was drawn in immediately - and though I knew the story already I found it to be remarkably suspenseful. So while my book lover's heart is mildly ashamed that it was the movie that brought me to this one, I'm so glad it did. You don't have to be a child to enjoy this - or a parent for this matter. If you've ever yourself been a child who harbored an all-consuming secret, you will find yourself swept up in this tale. I can't imagine anyone not liking this book!

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esto le resultó útil a 9 personas

The multicast made it for me

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 05-31-16

"Sometimes the perfect multicast can really make a book, as is the case with Neuvel's debut. The voices here forged in me a fierce sense of loyalty for the characters I came to care about, and utter hatred for one that was truly evil (who I don't think I would have hated nearly enough if it was the voice in my own head narrating) - and you will loathe her - she is the absolute worst. The unnamed central narrator evolved from someone who was initially off-putting to someone I was desperate to hear speak; he became a reassuring fatherly presence. Overall, the production quality elevated this one from a simple story (which I really shouldn't call "simple" since Sleeping Giants is a geo-political mystery/thriller epistolary novel with alien technology) to an immersive experience that made it feel, above all else, very personal. I was in the trenches with these guys. I can't wait for the next in the series."

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esto le resultó útil a 21 personas

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