Weekly Round-Up 5/19

Weekly Round-Up is my wrap-up of last week's activities and includes what I'm reading this week, reviews I've posted, books in the mail and anything else of interest plus From the Library, my weekly listing of what I've checked out from the library.

I'm reading The Diamond Thief by Sharon Gosling and All Joy and No Fun by Jennifer Senior. I'm listening to The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen, read by Charlie McWade.

Last week I reviewed Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler and When Did You See Her Last? by Lemony Snicket, read by Liam Aiken.

 This week on SYNC you can download WARP: The Reluctatn Assassin by Eoin Colfer, narrated by Maxwell Caulfield (Listening Library) and The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, narrated by Derek Jacobi (Listening Library). Downloads are free til Wednesday.
Thursday the new downloads are Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge, narrated by Elizabeth Knowelden (Harper Audio) and Oedipus the King by Sophocles, performed by Michael Sheen and a full cast (Naxos AudioBooks).

And today is my birthday! We already celebrated this weekend so I'm not anticipating much today. Just lunch with my co-workers.

When Did You See Her Last? by Lemony Snicket (All the Wrong Questions #2) (audio)

Lemony Snicket and his chaperone are still in Stain'd-by-the-Sea and now they are onto a case of a missing girl who happens to be the daughter of the wealthiest people in town. All of the adults seems to feel that the girl has run away to the circus. But Snicket sees things that the grownups don't notice and it leads me on a strange path to find the missing girl and one step closer to the evil plan of the villain Hangfire.

It's interesting to listen to a Snicket book after reading a Handler book. It shows how versatile a reading he is. Not everyone could do a contemporary YA from a female POV and a gothic childrens from a male POV and do it so well.

This series isn't nearly as depressing as ASoUE, at least so far. There is the barest mention of VFD and Snicket's associates though there is a visit from one at the end. I do like a good mystery series and this one is a mystery per book. There are the craziest characters in a Snicket book and this one is no exception. The adults are all typical adults and don't notice things and take everything at face value but the children are the smart ones who figure things out. I can see shades of what Lemony Snicket will become in the later books but in these at least he is a more optimistic fellow.

 4 hours, 22 minutes.

The narrator is Liam Aiken and I liked him better than I did in the first book. He has the right tone and reading for this kind of book. His voices for the different characters are good.

All The Wrong Questions
#1"Who Could That Be At This Hour?"

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler (audio)

After her breakup with Ed, Min is going through the box of mementos from their short but emotional relationship. There she finds the reasons she loved him but also the reasons they broke up.

I really loved Min. Her voice is exactly right for a high school student though I was less keen on all of her movie references although it shows just which girl she is in high school. If I had to classify Min and her friends, the word "hipster" comes to mind though they don't seem obnoxious about it mostly. She is a smart and sassy girl but doesn't quite know how to handle falling in love so quickly with someone so different from her. As far Ed, I don't know about him. He seems like a typical high school jock, though he does try very hard for her. But, of course, something goes wrong and the reader learns just what as Min revisits the mementos of their relationship and the eventual reason why they broke up.

6 hours, 30 minutes

Khristine Hvam is the narrator and she did a great job of capturing the emotion of the book and the beauty of the written words. I really enjoyed her narration. It was crisp and clear.

Weekly Round-Up 5/12

Weekly Round-Up is my wrap-up of last week's activities and includes what I'm reading this week, reviews I've posted, books in the mail and anything else of interest plus From the Library, my weekly listing of what I've checked out from the library.

I'm reading The Diamond Thief by Sharon Gosling and All Joy and No Fun by Jennifer Senior. I'm listening to When Did You See Her Last? by Lemony Snicket, read by Liam Aiken.

Last week I reviewed Second Star by Alyssa B. Sheinmel and We Were Liars by E. Lockhart.

All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood by Jennifer Senior

Thousands of books have examined the effects of parents on their children. Award-winning journalist Jennifer Senior now asks: what are the effects of children on their parents?

"All Joy and No Fun is an indispensable map for a journey that most of us take without one. Brilliant, funny, and brimming with insight, this is an important book that every parent should read, and then read again. Jennifer Senior is surely one of the best writers on the planet."-Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness

In All Joy and No Fun, award-winning journalist Jennifer Senior isolates and analyzes the many ways in which children reshape their parents' lives, whether it's their marriages, their jobs, their habits, their hobbies, their friendships, or their internal senses of self. She argues that changes in the last half century have radically altered the roles of today's mothers and fathers, making their mandates at once more complex and far less clear. Recruiting from a wide variety of sources-in history, sociology, economics, psychology, philosophy, and anthropology-she dissects both the timeless strains of parenting and the ones that are brand new, and then brings her research to life in the homes of ordinary parents around the country. The result is an unforgettable series of family portraits, starting with parents of young children and progressing to parents of teens. Through lively and accessible storytelling, Senior follows these mothers and fathers as they wrestle with some of parenthood's deepest vexations-and luxuriate in some of its finest rewards.

Meticulously researched yet imbued with emotional intelligence, All Joy and No Fun makes us reconsider some of our culture's most basic beliefs about parenthood, all while illuminating the profound ways children deepen and add purpose to our lives. By focusing on parenthood, rather than parenting, the book is original and essential reading for mothers and fathers of today-and tomorrow.

When Did You See Her Last? (audio) by Lemony Snicket, read by Liam Aiken. 4 hours, 22 minutes.

I should have asked the question "How could someone who was missing be in two places at once?" Instead, I asked the wrong question -- four wrong questions, more or less. This is the account of the second.

In the fading town of Stain'd-by-the-Sea, young apprentice Lemony Snicket has a new case to solve when he and his chaperone are hired to find a missing girl. Is the girl a runaway? Or was she kidnapped? Was she seen last at the grocery store? Or could she have stopped at the diner? Is it really any of your business? These are All The Wrong Questions.

Second Star by Alyssa B. Sheinmel

Wendy is determined to find her younger brothers, John and Michael, twins who are presumed dead when their surfboards wash up after a giant wave they tried to surf. But Wendy refuses to believe they are dead and her search brings to a private beach called Kensington and a group of surfers lead by the charismatic Pete. Here is where Wendy thinks she will find her brothers' trail but here is where she falls into between a rivalry between Pete and the fairy dust drug dealer Jas.

It might sound strange given that I requested to read this but I wasn't sure I was going to like it. Surfing is not a sport I've ever been interested in but I liked the idea of a retold Peter Pan with Wendy as the focus.  It turns out there's not a lot of that here. Yes, the names are the same and the locations have familiar names as well  but this story is not one that needed to be tied down to the Peter Pan legacy. It was good all on its own. It turns out that I did like it and a lot. Wendy is a confused and sad girl looking for her brothers and she doesn't know what to make of Pete and Jas and all the lost surfer kids who live with them. It was interesting to see the dynamic shift of Peter and Hook to Pete and Jas, two guys who use to be friends before a falling out and Wendy caught  between them. Yes, there's a love triangle but only sort of. Everything is only sort of in this book and it's the nature of the telling, the dream-like quality of Wendy's time on Kensington, that does it. I'm probably only 98% sold on the ending but only because I like a concrete ending. Still it was appropriate.


from NetGalley 
Publish date: May 13, 2014
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Cadence comes from a rich family who summer on their own island. She and her cousins and a friend are basically the same age and they always have the time of their lives. But something happens summer fifteen and Cadence is left with a faulty memory and severe migraines. So on her return trip to the island summer seventeen she is determined to find out what happen.

It's hard to say just how brilliant this book is. So amazing. I kind of guessed the ending, not to be smug or anything, it just reminded me of another book I love.*  But even though I did, it was still so good and so effecting. It's hard to even review without giving away too much. But as Cadence digs into the events of summer fifteen more and more of the makeup and attitude of her family becomes apparent. It is a very layered book and reminds me of when you are old enough to really understand your parents and aunts and uncles and their relationships with each other and to your grandparents. No relationship is without its complexities and We Were Liars explores that through Cadence and her memory loss and her relationship with her cousins and friend, collectively called the Liars. Their relationship is everything especially on their magical summers on her family's island. And then an accident happens and Cadence can't remember. It's through the remembering that she finally finds the truth and also understands more of her family. It's hard to say more because I wouldn't want to spoil anyone. Just read it. You won't regret it.




*The Basic Eight.

Weekly Round-Up 5/5

Weekly Round-Up is my wrap-up of last week's activities and includes what I'm reading this week, reviews I've posted, books in the mail and anything else of interest plus From the Library, my weekly listing of what I've checked out from the library.

I'm reading The Diamond Thief by Sharon Gosling. I'm listening to Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler, read by Khristine Hvam.

Last week I reviewed Dorthy Must Die by Danielle Paige.