Continuing Thoughts on Audiobooks

Continuing my thoughts on audiobooks from a few days ago, which you can read here if you haven’t already. I mentioned in that post how I love that audiobooks can bring books alive and make them so much more real. A lot of this is credited to the narrator (and I suppose the director) for how well they tell the story itself. Well, a narrator can also kill a book too, which I’ll highlight in a few examples. These are books that aren’t necessarily bad books, but in my opinion the audiobook was not worth listening to.

The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini, read by Gerard Doyle

I will start off by saying Gerard Doyle has narrated A LOT of audiobooks, and there’s been some that I’ve enjoyed a lot more than Eragon et al, so I don’t entirely blame the narrator for this one. Eragon was always a good example of how I often dislike books that have gotten a lot of hype. I had tried to read it several times, but just hadn’t gotten that into it. So I decided to try the audio, since a lot of times that can get me over the hump. The narration ended up making all of the characters seem rather whiny and weak, and although I slogged all the way through the first book, I did not get any farther in the series. And I have to say that Doyle’s voice for the dragon Sapphira was always completely ridiculous to me.

The Looking Glass Wars and Seeing Redd by Frank Beddor, read by Gerard Doyle

Another fail by Gerard Doyle, although I didn’t realize it until I started writing this post. The Looking Glass Wars, a retelling of Alice in Wonderland, was a book that should have been right up my alley. The synopsis made it sound amazing. And yet listening to it wasn’t so amazing. The urgency of the war was just never there for me. But I enjoyed it enough to try the sequel. Again, not wowed, but now I wanted to find out what happened. So when the third book came out, I simply read it rather than listening to it. And suddenly, the world and characters and plot and motivations became so much more real to me. I ate the book up. To this day I’m still not sure if the third book was so much better than the other two, or if it was the lackluster narration of the first two books that made me not like them so much.

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo, read by Graeme Malcolm

I think I may be the only person in the entire world who didn’t love this book. It had all the hallmarks of a story I would have loved: a brave mouse knight, a princess in peril, etc. And yet it was rather forgettable to me. I listened to it several years ago and to this day I can remember that I didn’t like it, but not why I didn’t like it. One of the marks of a good audiobook is that it impresses the story into your mind. It’s something you can remember and reflect on. And this one just didn’t do it for me.

The Dispossessed series by Page Morgan, read by Katharine McEwan

I would be remiss if I only included male narrators in this post, so here’s a female narrator I didn’t care for. Although the narration itself didn’t bug me so much, the accents of the individual characters, especially the French characters, was ridiculous to the point of being distracting. Some narrators are more successful than other at creating distinct voices for each character, and let’s just say these books don’t do male characters well at all.


I could dig up more examples of audiobooks that fell short of my expectations, but if you’ve read the blog awhile, you know I don’t like talking a lot about things I didn’t like. I’d rather spend time on positive opinions. So I think I’ll leave the list off there. Now, by all means, feel free to try these audiobooks for yourself. I think audiobooks can be even more subjective than the books themselves, because the listener usually invests a lot more in the story than a reader would (or at least I do). So perhaps the things that bug me won’t bug you at all. Each book definitely has its own advantages, and each reader to his own of course!

Thoughts on Audiobooks

I’ve been thinking a lot about audiobooks lately. I don’t mention it a lot on the blog, but a lot of my “reading” these days is done via audiobook. I find it’s the perfect way to combine my hobby of reading with another of my hobbies, cross stitch. But that’s a discussion for my other blog.

I love that audiobooks in general have been gaining so much more attention lately, even among teens, which is awesome. Programs like Sync Audiobooks (hosted every summer) and the prevalence of digital audiobooks through sites like audible.com are bringing so much more awareness to readers. Which is awesome, because of course that means more audiobooks are being made every day.

For me, audiobooks are a good way to “read” a book while I’m busy doing something else. They are also lifesavers on long drives and car trips. A lot of what I listen to are books that are new to me. But I also love hearing my favorite books come alive too. Perhaps my love of audiobooks harkens back to when I used to be read to every night before bed by my parents. I love closing my eyes (except when driving on those long car trips of course) and getting lost in the story.

So in case you’ve never tried audiobooks, I thought I’d share a few of my favorites with you.

The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling, read by Jim Dale

I cannot highly recommend these enough. Besides the fact that the books are awesome all on their own, Jim Dale’s narration does an amazing job of bringing the books to life. He gives each character a distinct voice, which is a nice contrast to his somewhat dry narration style. Some narrators have voices that are very similar to each other, or don’t distinguish very well between sexes, two of my biggest narrator pet peeves. No problems with that here. The really nice thing is that Dale is consistent with each character voice from book to book too, which is amazing considering they were recorded years apart as the individual books were coming out. Fun fact, I don’t think I ever actually have read Goblet of Fire or Half Blood Prince. Both books I finished by listening to them on summer car trips.

The Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer, read by Nathaniel Parker

So I had read the first 2 Artemis Fowl books and enjoyed them, although I wouldn’t say they made it on a favorites list by any means. Then my brother borrowed the audiobook for the 1st book from the library, and it changed everything for me. Nathaniel Parker made Artemis Fowl for me. Something about his narration captured Artemis’ personality so crystal for me, I was able to understand him as a character so much more. Holly also became much more real of a character and friend, and less of an intimidating presence, which was definitely something that had a large influence on the series later on. Needless to say, I’ve listened to all of the books now, and they’re definitely books I fall back into listening to from time to time.

Fairest by Gail Carson Levine, read by Full Cast Audio

In picking my favorite audiobooks, just about everything done by Full Cast Audio would make the full list. Seriously, they are amazing recordings. Rather than being read by a single person, the book is read by, well, a full cast. So a different person for each character. This gives the books another dimension; makes them feel almost like watching a play instead of listening to a single person relate a story. I’ve listened to so many of their recordings now that I frequently recognize actors from one story to another, which gives a whole different dimension to the characters of the stories (as a weird and unintentional side effect). As I said, I love Full Cast Audio’s productions and would recommend many, many of them, but for the sake of keeping this post manageable size, I would choose Fairest as one of my favorite. I loved this book, both because of its standalone qualities and also because it was a prequel of sorts to one of my favorite books of all time, Ella Enchanted. But in addition to the amazing full cast reading, this book has music. Lots of it. Music plays a big part in the story line, and the studio put the author’s songs to actual music, so you get to hear the main character actually sing her parts. The result is nothing short of fantastic. Sadly, I don't think Full Cast is doing much these days, and a lot of their books have been re-recorded by other narrators, but I'd definitely get this version if you can.

Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede, read by Words Take Wing Repertory Company

Okay, this one is a cheat in several ways. If you’ve read my review of this book on the blog here, you’ll know that this is one of my all-time favorite books. So it was probably a no brainer I was going to love it for that reason. Secondly, this was done by the Words Take Wing division of Listening Library, which was the precursor to Full Cast Audio, which we’ve already covered the fact that I adore their productions. This is a great book to read, and also a great one to listen to. There’s something about hearing the story being read that highlights the hilarity of the plot and characters, which is one of the most charming devices Wrede uses in this story.

I could go on a lot more about these and other favorites, but to keep this shorter, I’ll just highlight two more books that I didn’t expect to love at all, but listening to the audiobook completely changed my mind.

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde, read by Elizabeth Jasicki

I had tried several times to pick up Fforde’s Thursday Next series, never with much success. Probably because I kept getting distracted by other books. So when I saw this audiobook at the library, I decided to give it a try, since it was supposed to be his attempt at a “young adult” series. To my surprise, I quite enjoyed the book, and I think it was mostly because the narration made the main character Jennifer Strange so endearing to me. I was completely lost in Jennifer’s world, and I fell in love with many of the characters, causing me to actually shed tears at the end. If I hadn’t picked this up, I certainly wouldn’t have ever picked up the second book in the series, Song of the Quarkbeast, which I loved just as much.

Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos by R. L. LaFevers, read by

This is another book I really task the narration with my falling in love with it. The narrator became Theodosia for me. I could believe that an 11-year-old was telling this story. Although I had seen this book around from time to time, for some reason it hadn’t really appealed to me that much enough for me to actually give it a try. But needing something to keep me entertained on a long commute, I gave the audiobook a listen. And I’m so glad I did. Listening to it definitely opened up the whole world of this story, where the setting of ancient Egyptian curses and prophecies is almost a character of its own. I’ve already done a full review of this book here, so I’ll let you go read that if you want more specifics.

Well, hopefully that’s a few suggestions to get you started if you’ve never been brave enough to try them. I’ve got a few other audiobook discussions I’d like to have rolling around in my head, but I’ll save those for another post.

Until then, happy reading (or listening!)

Review: The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage

The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer by Sydney Padua

Did you know the basis of the first computer program was invented back in 1842? When I think of the beginnings of the computer, the newish scene in Spaceship Earth featuring a lady in 70s go-go boots surrounded by enormous beeping white machines comes to mind. So when I happened upon this book in a library exploration trip I was very intrigued to find out more about the very beginning of the computer, which apparently happened way earlier than I thought it did. The beginnings of the computer involved the collaboration of Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage working on an invention called the Difference Engine. Sadly, Countess Lovelace died young and the Difference Engine was never actually built.

But in the grand way that fiction allows us, this book explores the idea of “what if”. What if Lovelace and Babbage had actually completed the Difference Engine, and then used its marvelous computing abilities to go on strange adventures? This book not only gives an accurate historical biography of Lovelace and Babbage and their collaboration, but also features a section where in an alternate universe the duo complete their engine and use it’s awesome power to have all sorts of adventures and mishaps (mostly mishaps).

Those who are particularly interested in the history behind Ada Lovelace, Charles Babbage, and the Difference Engine will be delighted by the sheer amount of research that must have gone into this book. There are extensive footnotes explaining and expounding on the historical events and people featured, as well as a very large appendix containing a vast amount of primary resources. But it’s not just about the history. The adventurous side of the book is quite fun too, and has a very steampunk-esque feel to it. This is where the author’s characterization of Lovelace and Babbage really has the chance to shine, such as when both receive Queen Victoria for a demonstration of the Difference Engine.

I have to say I quite enjoyed the art style of this one. It has a very whimsical feel to it, especially in the “adventures” section of the book, but it is also right at home in the very historical part one as well. The expressions and emotions I thought were particularly well done. Overall, this is a great recommendation for both the historical and alternate reality sections, which lends itself to the graphic novel format quite well. This one is definitely recommended.

Shady Glade Rating: 4 leaves

Find out more about my ratings here

Available at Amazon.com in Hardcover, Paperback, or Kindle

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Pokemon Indigo League Read Them All Thon

Here's the new challenge I hinted at last week.  I've joined the Pokemon Indigo League Read Them All Thon hosted by Read at Midnight.  The challenge started on August 14th and runs through September 4th, so I'm coming a little late to the party, but better late than never, right?

This challenge is inspired by the recent popularity of a game I'm sure you've heard of called Pokemon Go.  But also, it's inspired by the Indigo League that Ash had to work through in the beginning of the Pokemon cartoon.  Which is what I rushed home to watch after school when I was younger, so it is near and dear to my heart.  :)

For those not familiar with the situation, Ash had to battle 8 different elemental Pokemon gyms, earning a badge from each one, to try and help on his quest to be a Pokemon Master.  So for this challenge instead of battling Pokemon, we'll be reading books.  

Here's what my list looks like so far, with badge descriptions borrowed from the challenge organizer (in italics):

Pewter Gym: The First Book In A Series 

This Rock-type gym is the first gym Ash and the Pokemon player ever encounters. Finish this challenge to win a Boulder Badge. 

I will be reading The Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz, first in the Descendants series.

Cerulean Gym: A Book That Might Make You Cry 

This Water-type gym has a badge that looks like a droplet of your tear, so read a book that will rip your heart out. Finish this challenge to win a Cascade Badge. 

I'll admit, I struggled with this one. Books don't make me cry as much as movies do for some reason (I even cried at the end of Batman V. Superman. I am SUCH a sap!). So I turned to the trusty Goodreads looking for a book that was on my TBR that had notes it made someone cry and ended up with Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Vermillion Gym: A Book With Thunderous Hype 

Vermillion City is the home to Lt. Surge and his many Electric-type Pokemon. For this challenge, read a book that’s been hyped all over bestseller’s list and the internet. Finish this challenge to win a Thunder Badge. 

So I'm ashamed to admit I have not actually read the Percy Jackson books yet. So I figured this was as good a time as any to rectify that. I will be starting with The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (bonus: double qualification of "thunderous"!)

Celadon Gym: A Book That Focuses on Diversity 

Celadon Gym is one of my favourites, because of it’s colourful Grass-type aesthetics. Read a diverse book and you will earn yourself a Rainbow Badge. 

For this one I will be reading Drama by Raina Telgemeier. I've been looking for an excuse to pick up this book for ages.

Fuschia Gym: A Book With A Great Romance 

I’ve always been confused by the fact that a Poison-type gym has a heart-shaped badge. Can someone explain please. Read a book that features romance prominently and earn a Soul Badge. 

I don't normally read a lot of romance, but I've found myself reading more lately. I just borrowed a Kindle book from Lendle that fits this category, so I will be reading Bride of Pretense by Amanda Tru and Cami Wesley

Saffron Gym: A Book With Fantasy/Supenatural Elements 

Saffron City is where all the Psychic-types hang out, so for this challenge, read a bool with fantasy, magical realism, or paranormal elements. Finish this challenge to win a Marsh Badge. 

I've just recently started the Spirit Animals series, so for this one I will do the second book in the series, Hunted by Maggie Stiefvater

Cinnabar Gym: A Book With A Red Cover 

Cinnabar Island is famous for red earth and Fire-type Pokemon. For this challenge, read a book with a red cover. Complete this challenge to win a Volcano Badge. 

This one could have also qualified for the Thunderous Hype challenge, but I just picked up Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier, which features a very red cover.

Viridian Gym: A Book With Post-Apocalyptic Setting 

The final gym is home to a Team Rocket Leader (OK, if it’s been out 10+ years you can’t cry spoilers) and Ground-type Pokemon. For this challenge, read a book featuring a ruined, post-apocalyptic Earth. Finish this to win yourself an Earth Badge. 

I don't read a lot of dystopian, so I struggled with this one. But I think I will be going with Uglies by Scott Westerfeld.


So that's my plan so far. I suppose it's possible this list might change as I go along, but that's my plan so far.  Who knows if I will make it to the end, but I'm going to try!

In addition to earning badges, you have the option of doing the extra fun of evolving a pokemon.  You earn CP points to evolve your pokemon by finishing books.  I'm starting with Eevee, because it's been my favorite Pokemon forever.  So cute!

Not really a smart choice from a point perspective, but I figure my chances of being in the top points wise are pretty limited, so I'm just doing it for fun.

If you'd like to join the challenge yourself, make sure you check out Read At Midnight's post for all the details.  Happy reading!

Summer Book Trek wrap up

Well, this post is overdue since the Summer Book Trek ended on July 31st, but I figured it deserved a bit of a wrap up anyway.  Mostly because I am planning my next reading challenge already.  :)

I did pretty good for the Trek, finishing a total of 10 books.  I also won 3 books.  Yay!  The books I finished were:

Super Daisy! by Jennifer Griffith
The Duke's Undoing by G.G. Vandagriff
Samara: A Kilenya Romance by Andrea Pearson
Midian, A Kilenya Romance by Andrea Pearson
Dmitri: A Kilenya Adventureby Andrea Pearson
Rise of the Wolf by Jennifer A. Nielsen
Spirit Animals : Tales of the Great Beasts by Brandon Mull
Wild Born by Brandon Mull
And Something Blue by Paige Timothy
The Witching Moon by Janelle Daniels

You can see my sign up post to see how this finished list differed here.

Mom did pretty good too, finishing (I think) 3 books, which was good considering she started as late as she did.  Although she didn't end up finishing either of the books she planned on at first.  She also won 2 books!

So now it's onto the next thing.  Look for a post about my new challenge coming up in the next couple days.  And hopefully some reviews too, when I can get a chance to finish writing them!

Summer Book Trek 2016: Mom's list

Well, Mom decided to join me on the Summer Book Trek hosted by New LDS Fiction this month.  It's never too late to join, so if you'd like to join us and win some great prizes (I've already won 2 books!) you can head over to the host site and check out all the rules.

Since July is a little half over, Mom is starting with a small list and will add to it or change it later as the month goes on.

Marie F's list:
The Widowers Wife by Prudence Bice
Meet Your Match by Stephanie Fowers

Summer Book Trek 2016

Well, here I am again after a long break.  My reading has kind of suffered lately, although I have been reading, just not as much as I have in the past.  Mostly this has been because cross stitch has taken over as the preferred hobby in my life (which you can follow my adventures in that field on my other blog if you're interested.)  On top of that, some ongoing health issues and a crazy few months at work and I just lately haven't been reading as much.  Which is something my Goodreads Reading Challenge button delightfully informs me of every time I log in, that I'm 8 books behind schedule so far this year.

Anyway, that brings me to the reason for this post, the Summer Book Trek.  I found this on a Facebook page I follow that features new releases by LDS authors (writers who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).  Being LDS myself, I love me some LDS writers, and I thought what better way to jump start my reading than with a challenge?  It runs the whole month of July and you earn points for reading and reviewing books written by LDS writers.

The idea is to start by setting up a goal of what books you'll read throughout the challenge.  I'm really horrible at lists like that, because I almost always end up changing them later.  But, I do know there are a few books that I definitely will be getting to in this challenge.

First of, I know I will be reading Across the Ages by RaShelle Workman, The Duke's Undoing by GG Vandagriff, and Super Daisy by Jennifer Griffith.  Why do I know I'll get to those three specifically?  Well, they're all Kindle loans I accepted this week knowing this challenge was coming up, so I have a limited amount of time to read them before they are returned to the owner.

Beyond that, I would like to get to a few books I've had on my to read list for awhile that are by some of my favorite LDS authors.  And since Middle Grade and YA books are kind of my thing, there's a lot of those on the possibility list.  Right now I'm considering the two Spirit Animals books by Brandon Mull, the new Princess in Black books by Shannon Hale, Wings by Aprilynne Pike, Paranormalcy by Kiersten White, Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George, Rise of the Wolf by Jennifer Neilson, or The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry.

Of course, I also like sweet clean romances, which fit this challenge to a T, and I have tons of them I've bought for free or close to free for my Kindle that qualify for this challenge.  So I may eventually mix it up a bit.  But right now, I'm excited to get started and see how far I can get!

You can check out my Goodreads shelf I created for this challenge to see what all my options are.  And yeah, there's no way I'm going to read every one of these during July.  There's over 100 options after all.  Guess I'll have plenty of backups for the challenge next year!

If you'd like to join up for yourself, check out the Summer Book Trek page at this link: http://bit.ly/1GZuwPE

Top Ten Tuesday: Winners I Haven't Read

Being the second day in the month, that means it's time for another question from Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by the Broke and the Bookish.

Today's question is: Top Ten Books I Can't Believe I Haven't/Want To Read From X Genre

Well, seeing as my "to be read" pile is thousands of books long, and I will probably never ever finish them all before I die, I wasn't sure how I wanted to spin this one at first.  But then I remembered the ALA awards for children's an YA lit came out this week (the Printz, Morris, Newbery, Caldecott, etc.).  So in honor of that, I decided to look up past winners/honorable mentions from the past few years and list the top ten books I can't believe I haven't read yet from those awards.  These are books that I have intended to read before knowing they won awards, not because they were winners. 

So here they are in no particular order:

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale (Newbery Honor, 2006) - With as much as I absolutely love Shannon Hale, I have no idea why I haven't picked this one up yet.  I know pretty much I would love it, and I even own Book 2 as well, but I have never read either of them yet.

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly (Printz Honor, 2004) - I've read one other book by Jennifer Donnelly and didn't really like it at all, which is why it's slightly surprising that the premise of this one has always appealed to me so much.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (Morris Finalist, 2010) - Lots of hype about these books.  Still have never picked them up, even though they do sound interesting to me.

A Curse Dark As Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Morris Winner, 2009) - This one is a fairy tale retelling I've had on my to-read list for ages.  I blame my ever expanding bookshelves for hiding it away from me in the back as the reason I've never read it.

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson (Morris Finalist, 2012) - This book interested me from the very moment that I heard about it.  I think I haven't picked it up yet because I haven't gotten my hands on the third one yet, and I have this weird thing about not starting a series until I have several of the books in case there are cliffhangers.

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson (Newbery Honor, 2007) - I've gone back and forth on this book for many years now.  I keep checking it out from the library and never actually getting around to reading it before I have to return it.

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman (Morris Winner, 2013) - Another book I've wanted to read since before it came out and I read what it was about.  Usually the books I like never get shortlisted for awards, so I was surprised that it won both this and the Cybils award in 2013 for its category. 

Belle Epoque by Elizabeth Ross (Morris Finalist, 2014) - One of the only books from this year's awards that I feel a need to read right away. 

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (Newbery Winner, 2009) - This is the one book I'm a bit torn about on this list, because I have actually read a bit of it for when I was on the Fantasy/Sc-Fi committee for the Cybils in 2009.  I actually didn't like it that much, but it's gotten so much hype I figured maybe I need to give it a second chance.

Graceling by Kristin Cashore (Morris Finalist, 2009) - This one I'm not entirely sure if it belongs on this list either.  Mostly because I have read about 1/3 of it right before Christmas, and I LOVED it, I just haven't had the time to finish it yet (and I have temporarily lost my copy...).  But since I haven't read it in its entirety yet, I figured it deserved a place on the list. 


With the list being done, I think there is one interesting trend that popped up while I was going through these books.  I really haven't read most of the winners, and I'm not planning on reading a lot of them.  That's because I find that most of the time the bestseller, popular, and "literary" books that win awards don't really appeal to me.  Some exceptions come to mind (I found Harry Potter worth the hype, for instance) but these are the titles that really stood out to me because I was interested in many of these books before knowing they were on the lists. 

Waiting on Wednesday: Beastkeeper

So in my renewed determination to keep up with my blogging, I am back today with a Waiting on Wednesday post.  Yay!

Beastkeeper by Cat Hellisen

About the Book (copy from Goodreads.com): "Sarah has always been on the move. Her mother hates the cold, so every few months her parents pack their bags and drag her off after the sun. She’s grown up lonely and longing for magic. She doesn’t know that it’s magic her parents are running from.

When Sarah's mother walks out on their family, all the strange old magic they have tried to hide from comes rising into their mundane world. Her father begins to change into something wild and beastly, but before his transformation is complete, he takes Sarah to her grandparents—people she has never met, didn’t even know were still alive.

Deep in the forest, in a crumbling ruin of a castle, Sarah begins to untangle the layers of curses affecting her family bloodlines, until she discovers that the curse has carried over to her, too. The day she falls in love for the first time, Sarah will transform into a beast...unless she can figure out a way to break the curse forever."

So unless you couldn't tell from the description, I'm pretty sure this is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast.  And you know I love fairy tale retellings.  But I like the way this one has scrambled it around a bit with the girl turning into the beast.  Sounds like it will be good.  :)

You don't have to wait too long to read Beastkeeper, since it will be released on February 3, 2015.

Currently available for pre-order at Amazon.com in Hardcover and Kindle
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Top Ten Tuesday: Book Clubs

Hello blog readers!

I know I’ve been a bit absent lately. Still struggling to find internet access. But my goal is to work myself towards more active participation over here. Thanks to all of you who’ve stuck through these ups and downs with me over the last few months. And welcome to any new readers too. :)

Anyway, moving on to today’s post. In addition to getting back to regular posts, I just discovered this way cool weekly event called Top Ten Tuesdays hosted over at The Broke and Bookish. They post a book related question each Tuesday, and participants have the chance to come up with a list of 10 books that answer that question.

Sounds like fun. So although I don’t know how often I’ll participate, I thought it would be fun to do so today anyway. Today’s question is: Ten Books I'd Love to Read With My Book Club/If I Had A Book Club.

Interesting question for me, since for the first time ever in my life, I actually am a member of a book club. I found out in November that a group of ladies from my church do participate in a monthly book club and they invited me to join. Of course, that being said, most of the books we’ve read so far totally aren’t my thing. But since we take turns choosing books, this is actually something that I’ve thought about (for when my turn comes around).

When choosing a book for book club, I think it’s better to choose something that you’ve already read, since that way there’s no surprises content-wise that you can’t warn people about before they start the book. As a result, I’ve approached this question narrowing it down to books I’ve already read.

So here’s 10 books I’d like to read with my book club (in no particular order):

Austenland: A Novel by Shannon Hale - Normally I don’t like adult contemporary romance, but I picked this one up because it’s Shannon Hale and Jane Austen mixed together, what could go wrong? And I loved it. This is a book that everyone who I’ve ever passed it onto has liked. And the movie isn’t bad either, even though it doesn’t follow the book exactly.

The Host by Stephenie Meyer - Okay, I know full well I’m going to catch flack for this one because Stephenie Meyer has kind of become a cliché name due to the Twilight books. And yes, I enjoyed the Twilight books. Never a big fan of them, but they were fun to read the one time. However, I really liked her book The Host (her adult book) a lot more. But most of the people I talk to won’t give it a try because of how they feel about Twilight etc. So I wish more people would try this one so I could discuss it with them.

We Bought a Zoo - Also a cute movie. Although the movie is pretty much nothing like the book. The actual book is a non-fiction memoir about the opening of Dartmouth Zoological Park in England. It’s a little slow to start because there is a lot of background information to slog through before you get to the specific anecdotes about owning/refurbishing a zoo, which is why those I’ve shared it with have had a hard time with it in the past. But I love re-reading this one, because the stories are quite funny if you can get through the background information, and it’s wonderful to think that they all actually happened to someone somewhere. Definitely an escape book for me.

Agatha H. and the Airship City by Phil Foglio and Kaja Foglio - This one is a little weird, because I actually read the graphic novel version of it first. But knowing it might be hard to entice people to read graphic novels if they’re not used to it, there’s also a book version which pretty much follows the comic word for word. If you like steampunk, this is a great series for you. And a good introduction to the idea of steampunk if you’re not familiar with it already. I love the characters and the mystery of the whole plot of this series.

So here’s where I get into trouble. My book club is made up of adults, and although we have read one YA book since I’ve joined (Graceling by Kristin Cashore, which was excellent, by the way, and I don’t know why it took me so long to read it) but most of the books I read are YA ones. So the above four are my “adult” choices. But if I could, I would share these YA/Kid titles with my book club too.

Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede - This one lands firmly in the “kid” category, but it has been one of my favorite books since childhood. Who wouldn’t want to share one of their favorites with others? No brainier for this list.

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde - Fforde normal writes adult novels, so although this book is marketed as YA (probably because the main character is 16) I think it’s very translatable to adult readers. I love the inventiveness of the world created in this one, as well as the spunky main character, and I enjoyed the sequel a lot too. Hopefully I will be able to get my hands on the third one soon.

A World Without Heroes (Beyonders) by Brandon Mull - I love pretty much everything Brandon Mull does, but I think the Beyonders series grapples with more larger and complex issues than his Candy Shop War and Fablehaven series do. I’ve always been disappointed that this one is billed as middle grade level, as I really think it would appeal more to YA readers because of its complexity, and I think most teens won’t give it a chance because it’s usually shelved in the kids section. I think this one could spark lots of great discussion with a book club.

Heist Society by Ally Carter - Again, I love pretty much everything Ally Carter does, but Heist Society has a special place in my heart among her books. I don’t know why this particular one resonated with me so much, but it is another one of those books that everyone I recommend it to loves. I even got my brother to read it (and its two sequels) and he doesn’t read “girl books”. So that’s a success story right there.

A Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck - I think this one is considered a “modern children’s classic”. I picked it up because it was required reading for my YA lit class in college. Even though it’s a relatively short children’s book, the merit of this one is definitely high. It’s a great collection of connected short stories about growing up during the years of the Great Depression. Seriously, if you haven’t read this one yet, you should.

Holes by Louis Sachar - If you haven’t read Holes yet, you need to. End of story. Yes, it’s a kid’s book, but it’s great anyway. Like Harry Potter. I’m serious, go read if you haven’t. Now.

Happy 2015

Hello everyone!  Hope you had a great Christmas, New Year, and you're getting back into the swing of things. 

I got a cold for Christmas (yay) so I've been trying to get over that, which has slowed me down a bit.  Add in the complete lack of internet access at our new house out at the farm, and I am behind in blogging a bit.  But hopefully things will settle down with me by the end of the month. 

In the meantime, I am totally late in announcing it, but if you haven't already, check out the Cybils finalists for 2014.  I'm always relieved when Cybils Round 1 is over, since now it's the judges problem to hash out which of the awesome books gets the ultimate spot.  I don't want that kind of power.  :)

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of those who celebrate.  I've been super busy leading up to the holidays, but now that Cybils season is over, things should be quieting down soon.  Look for new reviews to come soon!

Reverting back to Blogger Profile

Just wanted to give any readers who are following me using Google+ a heads up, that I'm reverting back to my old Blogger profile.  This is mainly because I don't have many followers on Google+ and my stats seemed to have dropped significantly since enabling it this summer.  Also, it bugs me that I cannot receive replies to my comments with the Google+ platform. 

Perhaps some day in the future I will enable it again, but for now, it's gone.  You can still +1 my pages/posts using the buttons at the bottom of each post if you would like to share my posts that way. 

Thanks for the continued support everyone!

Your funny for the day...

I'm busy sorting through Cybils books this week (and getting ready to move, again, although only across town this time) so I haven't had time to finish up the multiple reviews I've started lately, but I did come across this and it made me smile, so I had to share.

Cybils 2014 Nominations Open

Yesterday was October 1st, which for me means the beginning of another long Cybils season (not that I'm complaining :)  The Cybils are one of my favorite things to participate in each year, and I always love serving on the judging panel. 

However, we need your help in the meantime.  Now is the time to go and nominate all those wonderful kids and YA books you read this past year so that we can know the best of the best books to evaluate. 

All the details are over at the Cybils site.  Nominate away!  Nominations last until October 15th. 

Time for Cybils 2014

Well, I've known about this for about a week now, but since it's been officially announced, I'm happy to share that I've once again been chosen to participate in the Cybils Awards.

If you're new to the blog, then you may have never heard of the Cybils before.  It's the Children's and Young Adult Literary Blogger Awards.  It's a grassroots award that started back in 2006, in an attempt to balance book awards for kids and teens book between the literary merit of the Newberry and Printz awards to a popularity contest award.  Thus, this is the first award that considers winners based on both literary accomplishment and "kid appeal".

I'll be back to joining the graphic novel committee this year, and I'm glad to see some new and familiar faces.  I wasn't sure I would be able to participate this year due to an anticipated fuzzy schedule around the holidays this year, but I'm glad that things have settled down enough that I can participate.

The fun for the Cybils starts October 1st, and you can find out more about them by visiting their website.

Never Forget

Introducing a New Rating System

In light of my 8th anniversary earlier this week, I've decided to implement a new feature I've been kicking around for awhile: a new rating system.

At the time I set up my blog, my out of 10 rating system was one that made the most sense to me, since I really don't like giving half stars on the 5 star scale that is common on Amazon and Goodreads reviews.  I was mostly trying to give an objective view of the book's merit overall, not necessarily how I felt about it.

Now I find my perspective about how I focus on the books I read is changing, and I really look first at how much I enjoyed the book, and then on how much merit it has.

Therefore, I am introducing a new system to how I rate reviews: the Leaf System.  Details about the ratings will be shown below and added to the About Ratings page of the blog.  Reviews completed before this date will still be show in the old style, so I don't expect to convert old reviews to the new system.

So here's the details on the new system.  Books will be given a rating from 1 to 5 leaves:

5 leaves: I Really Enjoyed It

These books are books that I would easily recommend to others and/or think about often.

4 leaves: I Liked It

These are books that are good, recommended, and worth reading, but have something missing that make them not worthy of 5 leaves.  These books are good, but probably not re-reads.

3 leaves: It Was Okay

These are books that are just okay, and have both good and bad qualities to them.  I don't regret reading these books, but am not necessarily excited about them.

2 leaves: I Didn't Like It, But You Might

These are books that that I did not enjoy, but you as a reader might like them more than I did.  This is the rating that I reserve for books where I can see the merit of a book, and how it might be enjoyable to a certain type of reader, but it just wasn't my thing.

1 leaf: Not Recommended

I expect these reviews will not show up here very often, just because if I didn't enjoy the book that much, I usually won't take the time to write a review for it.  But in the case that I do write a review for these books, that's what the 1 leaf rating is reserved for.  These are books that I do not recommend in any way.


In addition to a leaf rating, there are 3 additional "awards" a book can earn based on the following criteria:

The Gold Leaf Award

These are books that are rated 5 leaves and have something else about them that just makes them super spectacular, the best of the best.  A gold leaf award is similar to the old 10/10 rating.  These are books that probably will end up being on my Favorites list for awhile to come.

The Sprinkle Award

Sprinkles remind me of cupcakes, and like many cupcakes, these books are all sugar and fluff.  Not much substance there, but it was fun to consume it anyway.  The sprinkle award is granted to books that are not necessarily literary substantial or great, but more for pure entertainment purposes.

The Up All Night Award

This award is given to books that are what I like to call "compulsively readable"; those books you tear through, edge-of-your-seat suspense, can't put down, etc.  In the end, books with this award may only get a 3 leaf rating, but they definitely kept me going all night while I was in the middle of them.  

So there you have it, a (hopefully) simplified version of the rating system.  Or it seems simplified to me at least, so that's why I'm going to try it out for awhile.