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Review – The Schoolmaster’s Daughter – John Smolens

12 Jun

The Schoolmaster’s Daughter
Author: John Smolens
Narrator: Elisabeth S. Rodgers
Length: 13 hours 5 minutes

Having not grown up in the US, I never really got the opportunity to study the American Revoluation like most high school students. In fact, until I took a class on it in college, I hardly knew anything about it. I mean, I recognized the name Paul Revere, and knew some of the major political players, but that was it. However, when my ship pulled into Boston for the 4th of July a few years ago, I got to do the geeky historical thing and go and see all the key sites of events that occurred during the initial stages of the American Revolution. So knowing all this, when I started The Schoolmaster’s Daughter, I had a good idea of the key events as they occurred.

I felt that the author did a good job of exploring the various dynamics that were occurring during this time period. The families that were split between being Tories and Whig’s (like Abigail/her brothers and her father/mother), the interaction of the British troops with the general population and the overall climate that one would expect in a country soon to be consumed by war. While I didn’t necessarily agree with all of Abigails actions, and felt that she def. had some TSTL moments, as a character she was engaging and I would like to see her maybe show up in another book that takes place after the revolution.

The audiobook version of this was narrated by Elisabeth S. Rodgers. This isn’t the first time that I had listened to something narrated by her and it won’t be the last. She does a great job of being able to provide voices to a wide variety of characters and at no time did I feel like the voices were starting to blend together. At times, I wanted to continue driving just so I could listen to a bit more before I got to work or at home at night.

 
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Posted by on June 12, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review – Agnes Grey – Anne Bronte

25 May

I’ll be the first to admit that I avoided classics like the plague in high school and college.  I just  had no interest in reading them.  Normally opting instead to read a more contemporary romance novel of some shape and size.  It hasn’t been until the last few years that I have actually opted to start reading these classics.  Having previously read/listened to Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (loved it) and Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte (hated it with every fiber of my being), I decided it was time to give Anne Bronte a try.

I had previously listened to Tenant of Wildfell Hall also by her and this time opted to listen to Agnes Grey.  It is written very much like a autobiography of someones life and there is some evidence that suggests that AG is actually the story of Anne’s experiences as a governess.  If that is the case, I have to admit that I pity her for her experiences.  Having previously worked as a nanny, I can say that I would have been driven nuts by some of the antics of her charges, and I likely wouldn’t have been able to deal with them.

I do have to admit that when it comes to these classics, that my mind just does not do well when I try to read them, so I will normally listen to them if at all possible.  When it comes to narrators, if I was picking any other kind of book, Nadia May probably would not have been a choice, because there is just something about her voice that doesn’t fit a contemporary type of story – yet, her voice is perfect for a classic such as Agnes Grey.  I have previously also listened to her narrator several Jane Austen books, as well as Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell.  She has the ability to make me feel like, in this instance, I was in the school-room with Agnes as she was dealing with the spoiled children for whom she was responsible.  I will likely continue to seek her out as a narrator for classics in the future and maybe see how she does on other stuff, but I’m not sure

 
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Posted by on May 25, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review – Breaking the Rules – Suzanne Brockmann

21 May

Most of the time by the time a series book gets to the sixteenth installment it is starting to get a bit weird.  While I was glad that Breaking the Rules didn’t really run into that issue, I am also glad that the author decided to end it on a high note and not let the series go down the drain like other authors seem to have done.

As with all of SB’s previous books in the series, Breaking the Rules uses the multiple story-line approach – specifically, Izzy and Eden’s struggle with the future of their marriage; Dan Gillman (who was a royal ass in previous books) and his woo-ing of Jenny Lyn Lamae (yes, I totally agree with the fact that this would be a great stripper name…) and then the random storyline of Nisha, a girl who is the victim of human trafficking (I have noticed that this seemed to be an common theme over the last few years, and this is the third book I have read in the last three months that used it – the other 2 being Vanish by Tess Gerritsen and The Night Ferry by Michael Robotham).

One of my main complaints about the book and I might have noted this on previous ones, is that they have become much more politically minded, almost to the stage of lecturing on GLBT rights which gets to be a bit tedious.  I can understand where the author is coming from, but at the same time, there is a fine line between presenting a point of view that fits a character, demonizing others who don’t share the same point of view, and lecturing your readership…it might have been more apparent to me in this one because I was listening to the audiobook – but it is something that irked me.

This is the only book in the series that I have listened to in audiobook and I felt that the narrators (Patrick Lawlor and Renee Raudman) did a good job of voicing the wide variety of characters.  However, at times, Patrick would voice a female perspective and Renee a male, so that was a little bit off putting…rather than doing a switching back and forth by part – an actual identification of male/female characters might have worked better I think.

A very good ending to a long-running series (I think I started reading this when I was in college nearly over a decade ago), and I’m glad to see various loose-ends tied up.  I do hope in the future, if she decides to go back and visit SEaL Team Sixteen that we get to see Jay Lopez’s story, because he is really the only other person I would love to see get their HEA.

 
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Posted by on May 21, 2012 in Audiobook Review

 

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Review: Portrait in Death

20 Apr


Portrait in Death

Portrait in Death by J.D. Robb 

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: In Death (Book 16)

Normally by the time a book series reaches number sixteen, you would expect for the plot to start becoming a bit iffy, and mistakes to possibly occur with the characters and their personalities. Yet, with Portrait in Death, none of these things occurred. In fact, looking back, I think that this is potentially my favorite one of the series so far. I was kept guessing until the very end…in fact, I had wondered about who the person was and then discarded them as a probable…i guess I would be an epic fail in Eve’s place 😉

Not only was the crime interesting, a guy that poses his victims in photographs at their death, but all the continued development of the cast of characters. Anyone who has read the previous books has likely come to love the pairing of Eve and Rourke…I mean, hello its Rourke! But the development of Officer Delia Peabody and Ian McNabb; the reoccurring characters of Feeney and Dr Mira; and now Detective Baxter and Officer Truehart (who is growing on me more and more each day). I also can’t help by love Summerset and all the shit that he continually gives Eve. A relationship that is built on snide remarks, with an undertone of respect (in a round about way).

Once again narrated by the brilliant Susan Erickson, who the remarkable ability to not only distinguish each character’s voice, but also maintain those voices through the series of books. Ms Erickson is one narrator I know who is going to give me a guaranteed great performance whenever I pick up a book done by her.

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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review: The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove

14 Apr

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

About the Book
I’ll have to admit that I enjoy Christopher Moore’s writing and ever since listening to Lamb a couple of years ago, I’ve been trying to find another book by him that was as funny. Unfortunately, with the exception of Fluke, none of his others have really lived up to it. Maybe it is the fact that this one and others were earlier in his writing career, I’m not sure. Granted it was funny, but not the laugh out loud kind of funny that I was expecting and I really had no problems putting it down and listening to something else. But it was good for a light read and i have no doubt I’ll continue to listen to his work in the future

About the Narration
This is the first time I’ve run into the name Oliver Wyman as a narrator and while he did a good job, I don’t think he was a stand-out narrator to me. All the voices were done well and I could easily distinguish between them, but I couldn’t get completely involved in the narration, which to me in the sign of someone I want to seek out in the future. While I won’t disregard his narration in the future, should I run into it, I don’t know if I will seek him out.

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Posted by on April 14, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review: Vanish

14 Apr

Vanish
Vanish by Tess Gerritsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Review of the Book
Every once in a while a book comes along that touches on a significant topic and as a reader you are just blown away by not only the events that transpire, but that the fact that events like this happen in world. For me, Vanish, is just one of those books. In the past eight years since I have been in the military, every year I had had to complete a mandatory training called Trafficking in Persons – but like with most of the required trainings, I didn’t really take it seriously, clicked through the slides, in order to get the check in the box for having completed it. Now, looking back on that and after reading Vanish, I’m amazed by my ignorance of such a topic.

The book begins with the line, My name is Mila and this is my story and told in Gerritsen’s normal alternating perspective between Boston Homicide Detective Jane Rizzoli and Medical Examiner Maura Isle, as well as the perspective of Mila. There were times I was on the edge of my seat waiting to hear what happened and I didn’t want to stop listening to the book (unfortunately, since I was doing it on my commute to and from work I had to). The only thing holding me back from giving this a 5-star rating is the fact that I don’t know if I could see myself re-reading it in the future and those are the books I tend to give 5-stars to. Not because it wasn’t well-written, but because it was so disturbing.

Review of the Narration
So far I have listened to four books in this series, and gone through 3 different narrators. In this one, Susan Denaker, took over the reins from Kathe Mazur, who narrated book 4 and did a good job of it. All the voices had good inflection and I think she did a good job with Rizzoli’s Boston Irish accent. I think she did a slightly better job that Mazur with the male voices, and I was able to distinguish each character, but they didn’t quite live up the narration of the first 2 books by Anna Fields. I will however look for more narrations by her in the future.

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Posted by on April 14, 2012 in Book Review

 

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