April

A must for anyone studying the history of the pagan movement

Revisado: 01-06-22

I’ve struggled to physically read this book for years. Whether it’s because of my own focus or the way the print word lays on the page, Drawing Down the Moon has been a goal to complete for years. Getting the audiobook and using it as a tool to read along with the text was a game changer.

Pam has a direct and soothing voice that reminds me of a good history professor. The text itself covers a myriad of issues within the pagan movement that helps ground anyone unfamiliar with the rise in our foundations. Highly recommend as a must to anyone who is coming into Paganism.

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One of the best in this series

Revisado: 06-24-16

I've heard this book twice and read it three times. I'm in awe of how well the action moves and what depth Marsters brings to Harry Dresden. Hopefully, if you've heard the previous two in this series you'll continue your journey with Harry as read by James.

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Excellent beginning to a fantastic world

Revisado: 10-13-15

If you enjoyed the Codex Alera, this is exactly what you've been looking for. Butcher has built a fantastical world of complex and interesting characters. There is Gwen, the high born spunky social bulldozer, Captain Francis Grimm, the tarnished captain who is more than meets the eye, Bridget the socially-anxious Valkyrie and her cat Rowl, Prince of the Soft Paws, Benedict the warrior born cousin of Gwen, The etherealst Folly, an odd girl capable of a fascinating new branch of magic along with the adversaries who are just as detailed and complex.

The reader is very skilled and the story flew fast. The reader has a good understanding of pacing and suspense. I highly recommend this book to sci-fi and fantasy lovers alike.

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Excellent Book

Revisado: 03-30-13

I think I've listened to this series once a year since it came out. Great characters, great reader, great everything. Highly recommend if you want a medieval procedural mystery.

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A great story with an average reader

Revisado: 10-13-12

I'd gotten Poison Princess in paper right when it first released in early October. The problem with reading a book and then listening to the audio is that you have an idea of how characters are suppose to sound in your head. In my head Jackson's Cajun accent is like butter over the page, melting into my bones with every delivery of backwards subject/verb endings. I knew Evie would have a very reduced southern accent, but I also knew it would be there. After all, you don't grow up in a region without picking up bits and traces of the regional language quirks. Still, I loved the story so much that I wanted to have it in my audible collection too. I craved to hear these characters come to life in audio.

First things first: I really, really, really like Emma Galvin's reading. I heard her in Veronica Roth's amazing apocalyptic YA novel Divergence and the character of Tris was brought to life by Galvin's fantastic rendering of that landscape. However, this is not her book.

Galvin's rendition of Evie strikes me off key because while Evie probably does have a southern accent, her accent would be coastal southern; not Tennessee southern. It's a small complaint in the grand scheme of things, not terrible, not by any means the worst rendition of a southern accent that I'd ever heard, but just not Louisianan Southern. Also, while her french is well pronounced, her Cajun/Bayou accent leaves a bit to be desired. Luckily, Cole wrote Poison Princess with proper dialect in the words so while Galvin never successfully pulls off the Cajun lilt, it's hard to miss the accent's language style in the story.

Story wise, Poison Princess is wonderful. If you enjoy reading about complicated love stories with an apocalyptic setting, you like watching a character go from Frau Shrinking Violet to Frau Badass with a lively cast of characters around them? Then I say go for it. It's quite the departure from Kresley Cole's usual XXX rated stories. Still, you can lower the rating on a book, but you can't take away an author's skill and talent at making believable and sympathetic characters. Give this one a listen.

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Changed Narrator

Revisado: 09-10-12

Alright, so I really, really loved the trilogy that precedes the Tamuli. I got this book knowing that they had changed narrators and figured that I'd still give it a chance. It was so hard to get into this book. It's NOT that the narrator is different, it's that he pronounces everything so differently than his predecessor. The editors for this series should have listened to the first books and made sure the reader kept those pronunciations the same. Technically, Kevin's version isn't 'wrong'. After all, when we read fantasy books, we all pronounce things differently, however when you are creating an audio series there needs to be continuity so that you're not thrown from the story aspect due to a reader changing up key character names.

As stories go, this one is very different from the Elenium. Sparkhawk is older and married with a daughter. His wife has moved from the glass encased maiden to the strong willed monarch that she is. Yet there are still issues afoot in another continent and once again Sparhawk is forced to go save the world. If you want to continue the story past the Elenium, just go get the books. The jarring difference in readers really affects the way the story is heard.

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Everyone is a better parent than you are

Revisado: 02-26-12

Pamela Druckerman lived in France. She saw French parents doing a better job than she was and wrote a book about it.

According to Druckerman, French babies are treated like little adults and that is what makes the French wiser and better parents.

I have no children. I did full time nanny work for about two years and lived with and cared for children, but I feel like it's important to point out that I myself am not a parent.

This is an attractive book because it portrays a sort of secret code to getting your child to sleep through the night, eat their food and not to be hellions to other people.

Yet, really, its the culture and the social programs in place that seem to make the biggest difference. Americans are never going to take up the ideas of French parenting because culturally we are so different. In short? It seems to me like the whole book is a kind of utopian fairytale. Great for France, but not so applicable to America.

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1st in a quartet!

Revisado: 02-26-12

I did not realize that this was the first of four books when I bought it. Other than that jarring realization at the end of the reading, (causing me to scream out loud in frustration when the credits began to roll), it was amazing.

I listened to this book as I was traveling across states to attend and participate in a friend's wedding. I thought that it would be a great little romantic tale that would help keep me in the wedding mood.

While there is romance, that is not the focus of this Cinderella retelling. The main protagonist, Cinder, is one of my favorite fairy-tell characters to come onto the page since Virginia Lewis in The 10th Kingdom. Cinder has all the trappings of the poor, unloved maid about to be rewarded for her goodness with a handsome prince, but then, she takes a big wrench and throws it into the cogs of the fairy tale machine.

Cinder is amazing. She can do science, she can fix things and she kicks the idea that a girl needs to meet some type of weirdo-fashion standard in the face with her cybernetic leg. Her interactions with the Prince are slow and she doesn't fall for him because of his prince-y-ness but because of who he is as a person.

There are three more books in this series and I am going to be counting down to each one. I loved the reader as well. She kept the action going and truly seemed to care about the story she was telling. I hope that more people get this and share it with their friends. It's definitely worth the credit or the cash.

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Dystopian is the new Vampire

Revisado: 02-26-12

After reading the hunger games, I wanted to continue reading some edgier and darker fiction. That was why the initial story of Divergence appealed to me. Like Matched and The Giver, it is based in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic future.

Where this book stands out is the characters. Four and Tris are wonderful characters with complex developments and sincerely good chemistry. The audience is never told how they feel about one another, they are shown through every action, word and choice they make.

The reading is well done, the pacing is wonderful and the ending nearly stopped my heart. It was hard to stop listening to this book at all and I finished it faster than I meant to. I recommend this book to all who enjoy a sci-fi world with a smart and clever main protagonist.

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A wonderful bio of an amazing dancer

Revisado: 02-07-12

Mao's Last Dancer is an audiobook that I've come back to over and over again. Listening to Cunxin's story of hard work and dedication leading to a life of freedom and fame is absorbing and uplifting. This is the tale of a man who has had to overcome many obstacles. He makes me grateful for my life. I'll never look at a yam the same way again.

Anyone who enjoys interesting biographies will enjoy this book. His descriptions help the listener to feel the breaks and pains of learning to dance and the heartbreak he endures brought tears to my eyes. Please, give this one a try for those days when you think your life is too hard.

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