Gnondpom

Fantastic book to listen to in short spurts

Revisado: 08-08-18

After listening to Every Day is a Holiday, I wanted to find out more about the other half of George Mahood's year. How he celebrated every day's holiday, but also how the move to Devon would turn out for him and his family.

I wasn't disappointed. George Manhood is very skilled at taking the most insignificant event and turning it into a hilarious anecdote. And with the move to Devon, there's more of an overall arc to the book than in Every Day is a Holiday, which made it feel less scattered (which was my only complaint about the first book, especially at its beginning).

At the same time, just like the first one, it is still a great read if you're listening to audiobooks in short spurts like I do, while doing some housework task (which makes them so much more enjoyable!). It's easier to follow than a novel where you have to remember all the characters and plot from one day to the other, you can stop listening pretty much anywhere when you're done with the task at hand, and you still want to know what will happen next.

Another feel-good listen, with the rare quality of being suitable for listening over several weeks or even months.

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A feel-good listen

Revisado: 01-11-18

After having had a huge lot of fun listening to Free Country, I was glad to find a new audiobook by George Mahood.

Although I must say that the premise of the book wasn't as exciting as Free Country, it was still an interesting idea. And knowing the author's sense of humour I figured that it would be a fun listen. I'm glad I tried: it was quite an unexpected ride, where each day could be fairly different from the one before. I grew very attached to his tone, with its naiveness and honesty, and wanted to hear more about George and his family's life.

The fact that the story is cut in days is both an advantage and a disadvantage: on the one hand it is not as exciting to follow the whole story as with a novel. But on the other hand its structure in small chunks is great for times when you don't have the time to listen to something longer. And there is some overall arc, even though it it not very obvious, especially at the beginning.

I enjoyed the narration as well, James Elliott making a very believable George Mahood.

On the whole, an nice, humorous read, that helped me feel good after each listen (and since I listened to it in many small chunks, that was a lot of feel good for one single audiobook!).

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Nice humourous insight into the life of a doctor

Revisado: 07-29-16

This audiobook is constructed as a collection of anecdotes and thoughts of the author, Melissa Yuan-Innes, who is both a doctor (working in the ER) and a writer.

Unlike the title, it is very quickly obvious that she does care about her patients and tries to do her best whatever the circumstances. Her sense of humour allows her to transform even bad moments into funny stories, and I've laughed out loud several time while listening to it.

But it does not stop at funny anecdotes, she also tells us more about the life of a doctor, as well as life in general. I liked her positive philosophy, which can be quite inspirational for other working women, especially if they combine working with motherhood.

In my opinion, the main negative point was that this audiobook is fairly short – I would have loved for it to go on and on. And don't expect a story arc, it is a collection of anecdotes which are all distinct from each other. The order of these anecdotes has been well thought out, but it is still not just one big story – not that it was a problem for me but at least you know what to expect.

The performance was very good but I can't help finding it a bit weird when an autobiographical piece is read by someone else than the author. The "I" just does not sound quite right when the voice isn't the one of the author. Hence the 4-stars, but by no fault of Louise Sproule.

On the whole, I would strongly suggest picking this audiobook if you enjoy funny tales of the ER, real-life anecdotes with a nice sense of humour... or if you want to discover the secret to doing it all (the author being a doctor, a writer and a mom)!

And if you're unsure, just try the free sample, you'll quickly know whether you like her sense of humour and want to hear more.

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Great novel, even if you're not into YA

Revisado: 05-05-15

I'm usually not a big fan of YA, nor of post-apocalyptic novel. So I would definitely not have picked this book up if it had not been written by an author I've come to love (it was the 4th book by Richard Levesque that I read).

And I'm really glad that I listened to it! Even though it is YA it is still very interesting for an adult. The teenage girl was very mature (maybe even sometimes slightly too much so, with the overthinking of some of her actions - it makes sense in the context that she's trying to not make any mistake, but still, she's just 15, I wouldn't have expected that much maturity and detachment in her reasoning).

I found the beginning a bit slow (but maybe it is just me not liking the description of how the fungus spread and killed almost everyone), but then I was really fascinated by how she managed to survive, how she anticipated what she would need, learned new skills to be ready for almost anything.

I loved the fact that she's a very strong female character. She did not wait for anyone to help her out, did not wait for a 'knight in a shiny armour' to save her, like some female characters in many books do, she just took her destiny into her own hands, and one step at a time did everything she needed in order to survive. She did not lose any time to feel sorry for herself, apart of course some nostalgia of the time before the plague.

And you can tell that the author spent time researching how to survive in a hostile environment, the facts seem to make sense, I did not have any eye-rolling moment when I would find the explanations just silly.


As for the narrator, I found her narration very good, easy to follow, with enough acting and changing her voice for each characters to make the story even more interesting, but without it being in the way of the story. I just had some troubles understanding the people in haz-mat suits, but that's just a very minor point.

In short, I would definitely recommend that book, especially if you like strong-willed female characters, and want to know how she managed to survive without depending on somebody else.

Disclosure: I received this audiobook as a giveaway by the author (no strings attached, not even the promise of a review).

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