Audiobook – Page 82 – Carol's Notebook

Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor

April 6, 2018April 13, 2018 by Carol6 Comments

"I don't like time travel and I don't read much science fiction." Apparently I'm a liar. Just One Damned Thing After Another is my third science fiction-ish book of the year and deals pretty much solely with time travel and I though it was a blast. Our historian is Madeleine Maxwell (Max) and I have to say I love her. She's smart and funny in that snarky way and she really does seem to be a bit of a disaster magnet. St Mary's is a "secret" organization that specializes in time travel, going back and observing history - not interfering. They take assignments from a university that they are connected with. There aren't very many historians (time-travelers) in part because they end up getting killed on assignments, so the few that there are get to cover all sort of times, not just those they specialize in. You have to suspend disbelief here and just go along for the fun ride. Yeah, probably sending a non-paleontologist...

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

March 15, 2018March 15, 2018 by Carol9 Comments

The Hound of the Baskervilles was a re-read for me. I've read or listened to most of the Sherlock Holmes stories and novels over the years, but I always enjoy them. Sir Henry Baskerville needs Sherlock's help. He's inherited a house in Dartmoor, at the edge of the moor, in rather unpleasant circumstances. The former landowner, Sir Charles died of a heart attack, apparently while feeling from a giant hellhound, the family's curse. After a brief time in London, Sir Henry heads off to his new estate along with Watson, who has strict instructions to stay with Sir Henry and to especially never let him go out onto the moor alone. Holmes can't go with them because of some reason or other. We meet all the locals, including the servants of the house and the neighbors, a bug collector and his wife. To complicate issues, there's also an escaped convict lose in the area. It's a good solid mystery. Watson is his loyal...

Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith

February 23, 2018February 23, 2018 by Carol17 Comments

There are some classics that I wonder why it has taken me so long to get around to. Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith is one of those. It's a dark, psychological thriller that shows anyone can be capable of murder, given the right, or wrong, circumstances. As the blurb states, Guy Haines and Charles Anthony Bruno meet on a train. Guy tells Bruno the story of his problems with his wife, who he wants to divorce but who is putting up obstacles left and right, even though she's pregnant with another man's child. Bruno, meanwhile, tells Guy about his meany dad and suggests they trade murders. Guy declines, he's basically a good guy after all, but he fails to realize that Bruno is an alcoholic psychopath, who, after killing Guy's wife, expects Guy to follow through with his end of the deal. That's where the bulk of the novel, and tension lies. Bruno is manipulative and black-mailing; Guy never knows...

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

January 31, 2018February 12, 2018 by Carol5 Comments

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea alternates between positively boring and absolutely fascinating. At the story's opening, the seas are (maybe) being terrorized by (maybe) a giant monster. Professor Pierre Aronnax, a French marine biologist and narrator of the story, and his servant Conseil join an expedition leaving from New York to hunt the creature. Also among the crew is a Canadian whaler and master harpoonist, Ned Land. The ship finds the creature after a long search. It attacks, but the creature damages its rudder and our three protagonists are thrown into the water, only to be rescued by the monster, which, as we all know, turns out to be the Nautilus, created and commanded by Captain Nemo. Thus begins their journey of exploration under the seas, during which they travel the titular 20,000 leagues, or over 69,000 miles. First the boring. Aronnax is a biologist and Conseil is gifted at classification and they are both entranced with all the fish and sea creatures...

Christmas Bliss by Mary Kay Andrews

January 9, 2018 by Carol9 Comments

Christmas Bliss was the last of my Christmas reads for the year. I have read two others in the series and really like Weezie and BeBe. This time around, Weezie's getting ready to marry her chef boyfriend, Daniel, but he's off in New York on a temporary gig at a very swanky restaurant. BeBe's pregnant and refuses to marry her live-in boyfriend Harry, but she also might still be married to one of her exes. It's complicated. It's a sweet story. There's not much conflict and the couple of "issues" that crop up are quickly resolved. Weezie and BeBe are great characters, fun, quirky, but I don't know that this would work as well as a stand-alone. It was nice to already know them and appreciate that they were getting their "happily ever afters." I would love to visit Savannah some time, which is Weezie and BeBe's hometown. Books like this just make it seem so charming. Weezie even makes it seem...

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, adapted by R. D. Carstairs

December 8, 2017June 29, 2022 by Carol4 Comments

A Christmas Carol tends to be one of my selections every year, whether it be in print, on audio, or watching a movie adaptation. It's just a good story. Ebenezer starts off as an arrogant, obstinate, miserly man, but by the end, he's generous and warm-hearted, a changed man. I listened to the story this time around on the Audible Channel. Honestly, it took me a little while to get used to the full cast. It's just unusual that a story I listen to has more than one, or at most two, narrators. Once I got into it, though, I enjoyed the format. It was like listening to a play with a narrator taking up the pieces that couldn't be handled well through dialogue. It's a traditional Christmas story and I think this format would make it a nice listen for the whole family....