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About Dee

I'm one of those people that no matter how many books I have, I can't turn down a sale or a trip to the bookstore. There are no limits to what I'll read and I hope you enjoy my reviews.

Review: There’s a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble

23 Mar

There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble
There’s a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble by Laurie Notaro
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Review of the Book
I have often seen books by Ms Notaro reviewed both here on GR and on Amazon, as well as in the library, but I had never actually picked one up. But all I can say now is what the heck have I been missing by not reading her. Since this is her first novel and the rest of her writing is non-fiction humor, I don’t know if that will change my perception of the writing, but I hope not. This book focuses on Mae, who moves to a small town following her husband getting a new job and a small college and her search to find new friends. There were definately many laugh out loud moments, but if you don’t have a dirty/ slightly corrupt sense of humor, I don’t know if you will enjoy it as much.

Review of Narration
Not only was this my first book by Notaro, this is the first time i’ve listened to a narration by Susan Denaker, but it def. won’t be the last. She had an ability to accent the funny parts in a way that i’m sure had my co-workers looking at me like I was nuts when I started laughing in my cubical.

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Posted by on March 23, 2012 in Book Review

 

Review: The Blade Itself

20 Mar

The Blade Itself
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Review of the Book
i’ll be the firs to admit that I am not normally a fantasy fan – in fact, I can probably count the number of fantasy books I have read on one hand. So when I picked this book up (on the recommendation of a GR friend), I wasn’t sure what to expect. Listening to the audiobook, that went for a 22 hour period, I was sucked into the story of Jezel, of Logan and their merry cast of characters. While towards the end it had a bit of a Lord of the Rings feel (based on my experience with the movie, not the books), with the forming of a group to solve a mystery, I still enjoying it and I have already bought the second one to listen to in the near future.

Review of the Narration
Steven Pacey is probably one of the best narrators I have come across in the last few years while listening to audiobooks on my commute to work. He was able to convey a wide range of different accents for the various characters and parts of the world where they came from and I had no problem immediately being able to identify who was speaking. My only comment would be that through-out this whole book, there were only 2 females with speaking roles and then they weren’t all that significant, so it was kind of hard to judge how well his female voices are. Overall looking forward to the rest of the books in the series and i’ll be checking out more narrations by him in the future.

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Posted by on March 20, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review: Sizzle and Burn

20 Mar

Sizzle and Burn
Sizzle and Burn by Jayne Ann Krentz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Review of Book
having liked the first book in the Arcane series (Second Sight) and been a bit more ambivalent about the second one (maybe due to the narration). I wasn’t so sure how I would like the 3rd, but I figured I would give it a try. I have to say compared to the second one, I was pleasantly surprised. While the dialogue still had a bit of a cheese factor, it def. wasn’t as bad as the second one. Although, if I had to hear again about Raynne flashing them a “fuck you grin” I might have screamed…anyways, interesting entry for the series and i’m intrigued to see what happens in the next one, which goes back to the historical setting.

Review of the Narration
Looking back on it, I think the second book for me was almost ruined by the narration (at least the female narrator), so this entry was a significant improvement. Narrated by Sandra Burr, I found myself much more involved in the story-telling and wanting to listen to more, whereas with the second one, it was like, oh, ok…time to stop for the day. My only comment would be that this could have done with a male narrator at times – even if it was just limited to the male voices over the phone, there was something a bit disconcerting about how they sounded.

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Posted by on March 20, 2012 in Audiobook Review

 

Review: Wave of Terror

03 Mar

Wave of Terror
Wave of Terror by Theodore Odrach

This was a hard book to rate because it was very well-written and about an interesting topic (the soviet invasion of Belarus in 1940-41). So to just say I liked it, it was very good etc, sounds wrong. In fact, I don’t think I am going to rate it for that very reason.

The book focuses on a headmaster of a school in Belarus which has recently become part of Russia and the politics involved in that – the fact that the kids at the school don’t speak Russian or Belorussian (they speak Ukranian), but teachers are not allowed to teach them in that language. The fear of the people of the NKVD coming to take them away in the Black Crow. What was interesting to me was the fact that this was set during the height of WW2 and yet there are no mention of it during the book, which to me goes to show that just because something is declared to be a world war, it isn’t necessarily.

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Posted by on March 3, 2012 in Around the World in 80 Books

 

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Review: Prey

01 Mar

Prey
Prey by Linda Howard
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book Review
I would probably give this more like 3.5 than 3, but not quite to the level of a 4. I don’t know if i’ve ever read a strict RomSus from Linda Howard, I’d read some of her traditional romances though. I was surprised how much I ended up enjoying this book. I could tell that she had def. done research into the way certain things happened in the book with the bear kill etc, but it wasn’t so much that it over-powered the story/ caused a data-dump for the reader. My one comment would be that Angie kinda prove me nuts with her woe is me, I don’t like sex, its never been good for me, my boobs are too small routine…it was repeated many times through-out the book.

Narration Review
Abby Craden’s narration def. drove me nuts at first, but as the book progressed it got better. Her rendition of female voices was good, but her male ones not so much. I think this is def. a book that would have benefited from 2 narrators, a male and a female. I’m not sure if i’ll seek her out as a narrator in again in the future, it will have to depend on the book.

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Posted by on March 1, 2012 in Audiobook Review

 

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Review: Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

29 Feb

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book Review
I joking remarked that the sub-title for this book should be everything you ever wanted to know about peeing, pooping, puking and screwing in space, but were afraid to ask. But in all seriousness, there is at least one chapter if not more devoted to those major bodily functions, intertwined with the history of the space program, not only in the US, but also Russia and also a little bit about Japan. It also looks at what the future of the program might be, but since NASA has had huge budget cuts in the last few years, who rightly knows.

Audiobook Narration
Sandra Burr provided a lite, easy narration style that went well with how the book was written. I don’t know if I would have been able to keep a straight face during the reading aloud of this, but overall a really good job.

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Posted by on February 29, 2012 in Audiobook Review

 

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Review: A Little Night Magic

24 Feb

A Little Night Magic
A Little Night Magic by Lucy March
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book Review
If I hadn’t seen this book advertised on audible when I was scrolling through new releases, I would have probably never heard of it, or picked it up, which would have been unfortunately. Lucy March managed to create a contemporary paranormal romance, without using the whole “mated theme” that seems to show up in the vast majority of PNR’s nowadays (not that I don’t like that theme, it just gets a bit old at times). Anyways, the story is about Olivia, a waitress at CCB’s a diner in New York State and follows her adventures as she discovers that she is a “magical.” Without giving any more details away, I have to say that the evil individual is the book was probably one of the most compelling i’ve read about in a while. If you are a fan of Molly Harper, I would recommend you check out Lucy March, I know I will be in the future. I would give this a 4/5 for the story

Narration Review
When looking at narrators of audiobooks, there are certain people I look for. One of them is Amanda Ronconi. I originally came across her when I listed to Molly Harper’s Naked Werewolf series and enjoyed her narration, so when I saw that she was narrating this new book I was willing to give it a try and she didn’t disappoint. All the various characters were so clearly narrated with different voices that I thought I was listening to at least 2 different people. She even has the ability to do decent male voices, which isn’t always easy (and conversely, the same can be said about men doing female voices…). On a scale of 1-5, I would give the narration a solid 4 – which overall gives the book a 4/5 and i’ll def. be both reading more by Lucy March and listening to more narrations by Ronconi in the future.

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Posted by on February 24, 2012 in Audiobook Review

 

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Review: White Lies

19 Feb

White Lies
White Lies by Jayne Ann Krentz
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Review of the Book – the book was ok, it was nothing to write home about. A typical contemporary with an uber ALPHA male, aka, a Hunter…and the wronged woman…ugh…I kinda figured out about half-way through who the bad guy/girl was. I’m def. going to say that i’m more a fan of JAK’s historicals under the Amanda Quick name and not so much her contemporaries. That being said, I did like the first book in the series, and with this being the second, i’m going to give the third a chance (also under her JAK name) before deciding if i’ll continue the series or not.

Review of the Narration – on a cheese factor scale of 1-10 with 10 being the cheesiest, this was easily an 8 or a 9. The dialogue was omg…and the narration didn’t help much. David Colacci was ok and I could at least distinguish his various characters – Kathy Garver not so much…at one stage, 3 women were in the same scene and I had no idea who was talking because they all sounded alike…so it made for an interesting listening experience. I can’t say that I will be rushing out to listen to either of their narrators again in the future.

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Posted by on February 19, 2012 in Audiobook Review

 

Review: The Future of Us

31 Jan


The Future of Us by Jay Asher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is one of those books that I really wanted to love. The concept behind it – over 5 years or so before facebook was launched (FWIW, I vaguely remember having an account in college, when it was just students and only a limited number of colleges) – what if you could have access to your facebook account and see your future? That is what happens to Emma and Josh when she gets a free copy of AOL online (wow, those were the days) to install on her computer. Intriguing right?

Unfortunately, Emma has to be one of the shallowest characters I have read about in a while. It was like she had no concept that her actions could seriously screw stuff up down the road. However, I did like Josh – he provided a needed sensible balance to Emma’s idiocy. The supporting cast of their high school friends, crushes and family members provided an interesting mix and perspectives.

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Posted by on January 31, 2012 in Audiobook Review

 

Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

21 Jan

Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Admittedly, we are only 20 days into the new year (wow, 20 days already…), but this is likely going to rank up there as being one of the best books of the year. I have to say that it pretty much surpassed anything that I read in 2011. The world that Ms Taylor created was beautiful and descriptive, it made me want to go and visit Prague (which was already on my list of places to see before I die). I loved how she managed to tie in the cultural life of Prague, while integrating the fantasy world of Brimstorm, Isa and everyone else.

The narrator of the audiobook, Kristina Hvam, suited the book to a tee. I could close my eyes (not that I did that while driving!!) and see each of the characters in my head, from Karu to Akiva, Brimstone and Zuzanna. Unfortunately, now I have to wait for book two to come out (fingers crossed on it being sometime in September…I don’t know if i’ll have the patience to last much longer than that)

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Posted by on January 21, 2012 in Audiobook Review

 

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