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surprise symphony with twists

Revisado: 03-26-24

musical themes, extremely strange story lines, thoughtful, full of wisdom and life musings. This book was like a symphony when compared with the first book in the series.

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Origin story for the villian drained me

Revisado: 09-19-20

This prequel to the Hunger Games is well written. The characters are well developed. The story is exciting. Hunger Game fans will enjoy the origin story of the villain--President Snow, as well as nods to the origin of "The Hanging Tree" song, Snow's penchant for poison, and the story behind Mockingjays. You also see how the traditions around the Hunger Games came to be. There are many other nods for the fans to enjoy.
Snow is ambitious, bright, has some ability for friendship and compassion, but you can see how his choices are dedicated by self-preservation. In a society where you are constantly prey or predator, he is determined to switch his fate from victim to being the one on top (Snow lands on top--the family mantra). There are a few moments where Snow is almost likable--where he might almost be accused of having a good or decent thought, but then he will quickly disappoint you.
While the book itself was well done, I really didn't enjoy it. If you think that the lives of the people in the districts during the Hunger Games series are bleak, then imagine 10x that bleakness for the prequel. It is really depressing. I wouldn't quite describe it as dark, but the whole thing was just very grey for me. And quite frankly with a deeply polarized country already severed by a deadly pandemic, a steep economic downturn, and civil unrest in our major cities, I didn't welcome a fictional book that was even worse than our current society. I felt drained while I was reading it and I was relieved to be finished.
One note about the narrator on this audiobook--Santino Fontana. He does a perfectly fine job on Snow and the male characters, but his female voices are really, really bad. Some of them end up sounding like Tina from Bob's Burgers. And some sound like Johnny Depp from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. AND this narrator doesn't try to sing AT all. This book has a lot of song lyrics in it; some lyrics for familiar songs (Keep on the Sunny Side, the Hanging Tree) and some are new. But his recitation of the lyrics is laughable it is so anti-singing.
There is a bit of something that remains unresolved at the end of this book. I'm fully expecting a sequel to the prequel!

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Trashy-talking, extremely unlikable protagonist

Revisado: 07-08-20

I've been reading a lot of heavy books that have weighed my soul down in relation to the current social/racial movement, so I picked this book as a pick me up, hoping for a quick YA light book. It was anything but light.
Julia, the protagonist and narrator of this book is obnoxious, cruel, judgemental, confrontational, arrogant, selfish, mean, entitled and one of the most foul-mouthed characters I've ever endured. She was unlikeable from beginning to end. I nearly stopped reading this book a dozen times, but wanted to see if there was some redemption for this character I couldn't stand.
This book checks all of the boxes for social causes and stereotypical young adult issues: Immigration, border crossing, rape, depression, suicide, violence, underage drinking, drug use, gay-sex, losing one's virginity, controlling parents, death, mixed-race and class relationships, and sexual assault.
Still astounded it won so many awards, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
I particularly wouldn't recommend it to anyone in middle school and probably not high schoolers either.

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Shame and Fear bad tools for racial equity work

Revisado: 07-08-20

Robin DiAngelo is a white academic who does diversity training workshops for companies.
There are a lot of good books written about racism. This isn't one of them. DiAngelo's approach to her workshops and this book are confrontational. Her approach doesn't invite engagement.
I'd compare DiAngelo's approach to racism to trying to kill a fly with a sledgehammer. I might hit the fly, but I'm going to do a lot of damage to the walls and furniture in the process. Shame is her primary tool. If you don't agree with her approach or her ideas you've proved you're racist. You've also proven that you're a fragile white person. The only path to absolution is through DiAngelo; you must go through her books, her workshops to be absolved of your crimes of racism.
One good thing: I did like the last section where she models and scripts how to apologize correctly when you have said/done something that could come across as racist.
I'm waiting for someone to point out that this white woman is making a lot of money off of Black's oppression. If she walked her talk, her profits should be going towards organizations that improve the lives of Blacks.
I'm sharing a podcast link; the gal interviewed went to a year of mandatory diversity training led by Robin DiAngelo. This girl was a devoted fan of DiAngelo's and was open to trying to rid herself of any racist thoughts. But you'll see in the podcast how twisted and crazy it all became. She said that the only way you could prove you were not a racist was by admitting every racist thing you'd ever done/said. Warning: Language in the podcast. https://barpodcast.fireside.fm/bonus2
I feel like a lot of people are really open right now to having conversations and internal searching about race issues. Unfortunately, DiAngelo will turn many of those willing participants away with her divisive methods.

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esto le resultó útil a 11 personas

A Plum of a Book

Revisado: 05-25-20

Food memoirs are one of my favorite genres of writing. I love food writing. I love memoirs. What could be better than to mix the two? Ruth Reichl is also a favorite author of mine, so bonus.
This memoir is about Ruth's 10-year tenure as the Editor in Chief at Gourmet Magazine. She had never worked at a magazine before and had come from being a food critic at the NYTimes. It's a wonderful Cinderella story about a regular down-to-earth woman who is swept into the glamorous world of Conde' Nast. She is suddenly provided a driver, a clothes budget, and a make-up and hair person.
I loved hearing the stories about innovations that she made to the magazine--moving with the social currents and shocking some of the long time readers. I loved hearing about her rubbing shoulders with so many NYC big-wigs. And yet, none of this seemed to change her fundamentally. She's always been smart, determined, hard-working, and opinionated.
I always look forward to the recipes that pepper the book. I'm making the Jeweled Chocolate Cake this weekend. I just sent my husband on a quarantine search for Scharffen Berger chocolate for the recipe.
I cried during the section on 9/11. It so reminded me of our valiant health-care workers who are on the front lines and how restaurants have been feeding them. This book is also a wonderful history of 10 years of events in NYC.
My only wish is that the audible version would have a PDF of the recipes. That was a miss.
I loved this book and would recommend it to anyone who loves food or NYC or Gourmet magazine.

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I wanted to love this story

Revisado: 05-06-20

I heard Casey Schwartz being interviewed on Gretchen Rubin's Happier podcast and I was so taken with her and the topic that I immediately purchased her book and started listening.
I was riveted from the first stories of Schwartz being offered Adderall (her love story) and then continuing to abuse it (sometimes taking it 6 or more times a day) to the point that she was having hospital visits and health repercussions. Her stories about coming off Adderall after being on it for 12 years were very powerful. I started recommending it to everyone that had a connection to ADD or ADHD or Adderall. I thought it held so much promise.
But then it really fizzled. The rest of the book, beyond her personal story is a loose set of stories that I struggled to find connections with her original topic. She writes chapter after chapter about "influential thinkers" including William James, Mihaly Csikszentmihaly, David Foster Wallace, Michael Pollock, Simone Wei. She goes to psychedelic conferences and an ayahuasca retreat in South America. For a book "about attention" the book meanders too much. There are too many stories that held only loose connections to attention. Many of the "influential thinkers" she focused on committed suicide. She talks about love as both a distraction from attention and then later as the ultimate "attention". I wish she'd expounded on that a bit more.
She writes with disdain about the evil companies like "Google" that work to win our attention. I'm no more impressed with them as villains than I am with companies whose goal it is to make money. There was some research in the first 3rd about attention, as well as case studies about the efficacy of medications to help with ADD/ ADHD (spoiler alert--the subjects all think that they are much better and clearer, but they cannot perform tasks with more efficiency or speed. Nor do the people around them notice a perceptible difference.)
And lastly, Casey should have gotten a professional narrator. Although her voice has some nice qualities, she takes a downturn at the end of each phrase which felt dragging to me. (less)

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Historical Fiction with a capital F

Revisado: 05-06-20

You're going to come away from this book hating someone. The obvious choice would be Albert Einstein who is portrayed in this historical novel as an abusive, philandering, egotistical, narcissistic, irresponsible, lying, dominating, cheating, stealing man/father/husband. Or at some point in the novel, you could start hating the author for bending the story so fully to make Einstein's first wife Mileva so beyond reproach. It feels irresponsible to create fiction based on a famous real person which so completely maligns them. It's one thing to say that he was horrible to his first wife. But it's completely another to say that SHE came up with the theory of relativity (amongst other famous theories)and that Einstein stole it from her and took credit for it.
Benedict explains at the end of the book that she had to "create" a few details and gives this example: she wrote about one boarding house that Mileva stayed at, rather than the two she actually stayed at. That makes Benedict seem really innocuous in her inventiveness. The author seems to want to create a tale of outrage and feminist injustice and she doesn't care what she has to make up in order to make that statement.
This is historical FICTION with a capital F.
Perhaps Albert Einstein was truly a despicable man. I'm not sure I'm interested enough to read more books about him to find out. I'm sure too that Mileva was an incredible woman both in real life and as portrayed by the book. But mostly I came away from this book feeling like I wouldn't trust this author farther than I could throw her.

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The foul language wrecked this book for me.

Revisado: 10-01-19

This was a short charming quirky YA story about an African American boy from Maine who moves to the south and toys with the space/time continuum. He comes of age, as he does sci-fi stuff. It's doesn't develop as much as I would have liked. Perhaps it was a bit rushed (1 hour 55 minutes), but it was fun.
The narrator is William Jackson Harper (Chidi from The Good Place) and he did a fabulous job.
I would have given this 4 stars EXCEPT for the amount of foul language in this book. This could have been a really great YA book if it wasn't filled with the F word and taking the Lord's name in vain in really vile ways. It was so off-putting. And now I absolutely cannot recommend it to any young adult and definitely NOT middle school readers. I was angry at the author for making Chidi read those words. Carr, you defiled Chidi.
Why Nick Carr, did you feel like you needed to add so much cursing to your sweet story? Why?
The only reason I ranked it at 2 stars was the language. Otherwise, I would have given it 4.
I'm finding that many of these audible originals have offensive language for no discernible reason. So disappointing.

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Ryan's best book yet

Revisado: 09-04-19

Wowie wow wow! This was a GREAT thriller. So many triangles. So many twists and turns. Nearly every chapter ended with a new shocker. I couldn't put it down.
My only question about the feasibility of this novel's premise is: Would a public prosecutor turn private detective on the cases she works on? Would she show up at the crime scene with the police or before the police? Would she write her own search warrants and interview subjects on her own in their homes? I wouldn't have thought so, but this one definitely does.
Best of all, Ryan keeps it all clean. No sex. No bad language. Lots of excitement!
Angela Dawe did a great job with all of the characters, and although the timeline flips around a bit, her narration kept me sharp to the time.

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esto le resultó útil a 9 personas

Home Alone in space

Revisado: 01-05-19

Fun and exciting book for kids. This futuristic story kept my heart pounding. this is more than an audio book. It's a full sound production with sounds effects, music and a whole cast of voice talent.

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