I love this series on audio. The readers for the four main characters were perfect. The resolution of this series was a bit ambiguous, but I think I know where the author was going, and I’m choosing to believe in the ending I wanted. And I really enjoyed the way the characters of Cole and Isabel were developed, the way their relationship unfolded. In fact, I’d love to see a spin-off series focusing on the two of them.

Title: Fables Vol. 1: Legends in Exile
Author: Bill Willingham
Genre: Graphic novel
Publisher: DC Comics
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Print copy from my personal library
First line: Once upon a time.

What a fun premise for a series! Fable characters have come to live in the mundane world after their homelands were taken over by a mysterious enemy. In this first volume, Snow White, who runs things, must depend on Bigby Wolf, her chief detective, to solve the murder of her sister, Rose Red. Great art, too, even if the women do embody the comic-book idea of perfection – tiny waists, huge boobs. Definitely not one for the kiddies, but a lot of fun anyway.

Title: Beautiful Chaos
Author: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Genre: YA paranormal fiction
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Source: Print copy from my personal library
First line: I was standing on top of the white water tower, with my back to the sun.

Is it possible to love and hate authors at the same time? Because when I turned the last page on this one, that’s exactly how I felt about Ms. Garcia and Ms. Stohl. They wrote another completely fantastic book – even better than book two! – and then ended with a total cliff-hanger. I mean, jaw-dropping, “No. they. did. not!” type of ending. And I have to wait a year for the next book! Aaaarrrrggggghhhhhh…………

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 18 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: audiobooks, fantasy, graphic novels, paranormal fiction, YA fiction

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After years of playing guitar together, Moz and Zahler have suddenly found themselves part of a band. The keyboardist, Pearl, is a musical genius. The drummer, semi-autistic Alana Ray, plays paint buckets instead of drums and has hallucinations that sometimes foretell the future. And Minerva, the lead singer, is a peep – a parasite positive, aka, a vampire. When the group plays, the ground rumbles – literally. Are they going to provide musical accompaniment to the end of the world – or be the cause of it?

I really enjoyed Westerfeld’s Peeps when I read it earlier this year, and, at the time, I didn’t realize there was a sequel. In fact, that’s one of the reasons I loved it so much – a YA novel that stands by itself! Only, it doesn’t – The Last Days is a loosely-related sequel set in the time shortly after Peeps ends. The main characters are different, though some familiar people make appearances toward the end.

Music is a main character in The Last Days. The story is told in alternating viewpoints by all the members of the band, and so it has a less cohesive feel to it than Peeps, which benefited from a wonderfully witty and sarcastic first-person narrator.

I had a harder time getting sucked into this one, and I think part of the reason is that there isn’t a strong main character. Also, the type of music the band plays is far away from the type I enjoy. I doubt that would be a problem for a reader in the YA age range it is intended for. While I didn’t love this book, I did enjoy reading the “end” of the story that Westefeld began in Peeps. If you enjoyed the first one, you should read this one, too, if only to discover how things turn out.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: paranormal fiction, YA fiction

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This follow-up to Holly’s Inbox (my review) was just as much fun as the original. The book again takes the form of e-mails – with a few text messages thrown in for good measure. The work intrigues and romantic foibles of Holly and her friends make up the subject of their correspondence, and it’s amazing how involved you can become in a story told this way. I hope there will be more installments in this series.

Title: Rot and Ruin
Author: Jonathan Maberry
Genre: Paranormal fiction, YA fiction, zombie fiction
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Print copy from my personal library
First line: Benny Imura couldn’t hold a job, so he took to killing.

Zombies. But not just zombies. Terrific writing, characters worth loving, and moral dilemmas galore. I figured I would like this one – but ended up loving it more than I expected. It is the first in a series, but does NOT end on a huge cliff-hanger, which I really appreciate. I’ve passed my copy on to my dad, and I’m pretty sure he’s going to enjoy it just as much as I did.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: chick lit, contemporary fiction, paranormal fiction, women's fiction, YA fiction, zombie fiction

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While each section of this book has it’s own protagonist, H.G. Wells, the author of The Time Machine, is the thread that wends his way through all three and brings them together.. Set in Victorian London, The Map of Time presents the reader with a cast of characters that include authors Wells, Henry James, and Bram Stoker, Jack the Ripper, and a multitude of fictional characters, mixing them together with entertaining results.

The best thing about The Map of Time is the writing style. Palma has a wry sense of humor, throwing in short asides that aren’t necessary to the plot, but that had me grinning from ear to ear and often chuckling out loud. He does away with any pretension that the author doesn’t exist, and speaks directly to the reader, a convention that can be fun or fail miserably, depending on the skill of the author. Fortunately, Palma is a master. He has captured the Victorian period perfectly and sprinkled it with amusing and sympathetic characters.

This book is a wonderful combination of sci-fi and historical fiction, and will appeal to readers of both genres. I am hoping that this book will met with such success that more of Palma’s work will be translated and available here in the US.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: historical fiction, paranormal fiction

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I’ve read many great reviews of the Valentine series, so Adriana Trigiani had been on my radar for a while when I found Very Valentine on audio via my library’s Overdrive site. What a treat! I loved listening to Cassandra Campbell bring Valentine and her Gram and her crazy, wild Italian family to life. I’m not into fashion – or shoes – so there were a few parts that went a bit over my head, especially the long descriptions of shoes and other fashion items, but that didn’t deter much from my enjoyment of the book. I do love food – and the fact that Valentine dates an Italian chef who cooks wonderful dishes for her added to the experience. It also made me hungry. I’m already listening to Brava, Valentine, book two in the series.

Audio notes: Cassandra Campbell is truly excellent narrating Valentine’s story. She became Valentine for me, and she also voiced the rest of the characters equally well. The Italian phrases and dialogue simply rolled off her tongue – an added bonus.

Title: Red Glove
Author: Holly Black
Genre: YA paranormal fiction
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderberry
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: Jesse Eisenberg
First line: I don’t know whether it’s day or night when the girl gets up to leave.

Red Glove is the second book in Holly Black’s Curse Workers series, and she has managed to craft a story that was just as enjoyable as the first. I love the blending of the paranormal with the world of organized crime, and the series has a feel to it that reminds me of mafia movies like The Godfather. Cassel is a terrific character, caught in the world of the Curse Workers that his family inhabits, trying to stay true to the few scruples he has left. I’m not sure how many installments Black has planned, but if she continues to write stories this engaging, I hope the series goes on for a long time.

Audio notes: I listened to White Cat, the first book in the Curse Workers series on audio, also read by Jesse Eisenberg. While he has a fairly static reading style, he was a perfect choice to tell Cassel’s story, which is told in first person. When given the choice, I chose to continue to listen to the series, rather than read it in print.

Title: Master and Commander
Author: Patrick O’Brian
Genre: Historical fiction
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: Simon Vance
First line: The music-room in the Governor’s House in Port Mahon, a tall, handsome, pillared octagon, was filled with the triumphant first movement of Locatelli’s C major quartet.

I’ve been wanting to read Patrick O’Brian’s maritime series for a while, and when I discovered that Simon Vance narrated the audiobooks, I decided I’d waited long enough. While I wasn’t completely enthralled with the plot, mainly because the author spent a lot of time explaining how things were done on the ship and the various customs and ranks of the British navy (including lots and lots of cannon drills), I did fall in love with the characters. Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are direct opposites – one is brash and physical, one is composed and cerebral – and they make a terrific pair. I will definitely be continuing with the series in order to see how their friendship progresses.

Audio notes: It’s Simon Vance! I’ve always said I could listen to him read the phone book, and in this case, I listened to many scenes full of nautical maneuvers that I didn’t understand and never lost interest.

Title: The Time Traveler’s Wife
Author: Audrey Niffenegger
Genre: Speculative fiction, romance
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: William Hope, Lauren Lefkow
First line: The library is cool and smells like carpet cleaner, although all I can see is marble.

This was a reread for me. I loved The Time Traveler’s Wife the first time I read it, and I hoped I would remember enough to listen to the audio without getting confused by the time jumps. Since the author gives the date and also Henry’s and Clare’s ages at the beginning of each section, it was very easy to follow, and I fell in love with their story all over again. I cried through the entire last disc, even though I knew what was coming.

Audio notes: Since this story is told in first person by Henry and Clare, having two narrators was a must. William Hope and Lauren Lefkow were pitch-perfect when it came to becoming the characters. There were some occasional mispronunciations, however, that would pull me out of the story: “tra-PEEZ-oid” instead of “TRA-puh-zoid”; “vi-COE-din” instead of “VIE-coe-din.” I can’t imagine how no one on the production team caught these instances.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: audiobooks, chick lit, contemporary fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, paranormal fiction, simon vance, YA fiction

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This is an excellent collection of speculative short fiction. I believe it is considered YA fiction, but I would say some of the content is on the upper age limit of YA. The first story, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown was my favorite; the last, the title story, my least – but most of them are great. Most of them are also very short, so this is the perfect book for dipping into when you only have a little while to spend reading.

Title: An Irish Country Christmas
Author: Patrick Taylor
Genre: Contemporary fiction, Irish fiction
Publisher: Forge Books
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Print copy from my personal library
First line: Barry Laverty – Doctor Barry Laverty – slammed the door of Brunhilde, his elderly Volkswagen Beetle.

This is another delightful installment in Patrick Taylor’s series about rural doctors Laverty and O’Reilly. All of the things that make the series such fun are there: Kinky, O’Reilly’s fey housekeeper; the eccentric newlyweds, Maggie and Sonny; Arthur, O’Reilly’s dipsomaniac dog; redheaded schemer Donal Donnelly; and unusual – and, often, hysterical – medical cases. This story throws in some medical competition for the doctors, a potential love interest for O’Reilly, and possible trouble for Laverty’s budding romance with Patricia. I’ve enjoyed every hour I’ve spent in Ballybucklebo with the Irish doctors, and hope Taylor writes many more.

Title: Coventry
Author: Helen Humphreys
Genre: Historical fiction
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Print copy I won from Jennifer at Literate Housewife
First line: The swallow arcs and dives above the cathedral.

Excellent short historical fiction surrounding the bombing of Coventry, England, in World War II, resulting in the destruction of Coventry Cathedral. The story follows two very different women, with flashbacks revealing their history, and leads up to the devastating events that bring them together. Highly recommended for fellow lovers of World War II fiction.

Title: The Pilot’s Wife
Author: Anita Shreve
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Print copy from my personal library
First line: She heard a knocking, and then a dog barking.

This is the second book by Shreve that I’ve read, and she has a wonderful way of getting inside the heads of her characters and describing the mental turmoil they undergo in times of stress. The wife of the title loses her pilot husband in a crash, and the book follows the aftermath of the catastrophe, her grief, and the discovery of secrets her husband had kept hidden. It had me turning the pages long after I should have been sleeping.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: contemporary fiction, historical fiction, holly black, irish fiction, paranormal fiction, patrick taylor, short stories, world war ii, YA fiction

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Annah has lived in Dark City since she was a child, learning how to stay away from the plague rats, how to scavenge for food and other items necessary for survival. Up until a few years ago, she wasn’t alone in her meager existence – she had Elias. Then he left to join the Recruiters, promising to come back at the end of his two-year commitment. Only it’s been three years, and she’s running out of any reason to keep on surviving.

While leaving the Dark City, Annah spots a girl her age entering the city – a girl who looks exactly like her, minus her scars. She returns to the city, determined to find her sister, when she runs into Catcher. He’s different than anyone she’s ever met, and Annah starts to care about living again. But the world is still falling apart, the Horde is getting closer, and there seems to be nowhere left that is safe. Is it worth it to start working to survive again?

I loved The Forest of Hands and Teeth, the first book in Carrie Ryan’s zombie series. Book two was pretty good, but didn’t wow me as much, mostly because I thought the main character of Gabry was a bit whiny. The Dark and Hollow Places is my favorite of the series, and a terrific place to end the story – although it would definitely work to have more stories set in the world of the Unconcescrated and the Forest and the Dark City.

The character of Annah is the reason this book stands out more for me – I loved her. She is damaged and dark and strong and fierce and loyal, and as I listened to the audio, I wanted her to find happiness so badly. Of the three heroines in the series, she is definitely the one who most resonated with me emotionally. Her relationships with her sister, Elias, and Catcher are complicated, and exactly what you would expect in the world they live in and with the things they have seen and experienced.

Very slight spoiler alert.

While the story of Annah, Gabry, Elias, and Catcher came to a satisfying end, Ryan also stays true to the devastating world she has created. If you’re expecting everything to be all happiness and light, don’t – this is still a world inhabited by the walking dead, seeking to devour anyone left alive.

End of very slight spoiler alert.

Audio notes: Allyson Ryan did a fine job of reading, but it wasn’t the type of narration that leaves a lasting impression. There were a few places, especially in the action scenes, when her reading didn’t sound natural, where it sounded like she was acting, trying to be dramatic, and this is something that bugs me in an audiobook.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: audiobooks, dystopian fiction, paranormal fiction, zombie fiction

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Frank Wildermuth was the town catch in his day – all the girls wanted to be his choice. He chose Clara Murphy – and spent his life wishing he had chosen her sister, Gert. Now that he’s dead, he is determined not to leave his home, Evenfall, until he makes Gert understand that. His neice, Andie Murphy has come to Evenfall, the place she spent her childhood summers, to help her aunt Gert clear out the home. It’s a huge change from living in Italy with her boyfriend, Neal, but the timing is perfect, as Neal and Andie have split and she needs to figure out the next step. She isn’t sure she’s prepared for that next step to include Cort, though, who she remembers babysitting, and who is now disturbingly grown-up.

I thoroughly enjoyed Evenfall. The idea of returning to a younger, happier time is such an appealing one, and the house at Evenfall is just the kind of place you would want to return to. The house and surrounding land is as much a character as Frank, Andie, and Gert are – and it’s pull on Andie is strong. Michalski has done a wonderful job of writing an entertaining love-story-slash-ghost-story, while dealing with the deeper issues of family, forgiveness, and regret. I look forward to seeing what she comes up with next.

I would love to share my copy of Evenfall with one of my readers.

~ One entry per person, please – US and Canadian readers only.

~ To enter, please leave a comment – and just to make it fun, tell me about a memorable house you’ve read about recently.

~ All entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. PST, Friday, May 6, 2011. On Saturday, May 7th, I will use Random.org to draw a winner.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: contemporary fiction, paranormal fiction

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This was my first experience with Kinsella’s work, and I enjoyed it very much. Equal parts hysterical chick lit and ghost story a la Topper, this story has two fantastic female characters: Lara, a single woman struggling to deal with a recent break-up and her new business as corporate headhunter; and Lara’s great-aunt, Sadie, who just happens to be dead. She is determined to find her necklace, and resorts to haunting Lara, the only person who can see her, to achieve her goal. This book made me smile many times, and laugh out loud more than a few.

Audio notes: Rosalyn Landor did a terrific job of telling the story, and was able to voice both the frazzled Lara and the irrepressible Sadie with equal verve.

Title: The Piano Teacher
Author: Janice Y.K. Lee
Genre: Historical fiction
Publisher: Penguin
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: Orlagh Cassidy
First line: It started as an accident.

The thing I enjoyed most about listening to The Piano Teacher is learning about the experience of the Chinese and Europeans living in Hong Kong during World War II. The author did a fantastic job of creating a mood and vividly describing the strange class culture that existed in British-run Hong Kong at this time. Unfortunately, I could not relate to the main character at all. I found her unlikable, distant, and cold, which made it difficult to get drawn into her story.

Audio notes: Orlagh Cassidy has a beautiful voice and did a good job of voicing the various characters, but she reads very, very, very slowly. I almost gave up on the audio production because of this – the pauses after sentences and during dialogue were unbearably long.

Title: Heart and Soul
Author: Maeve Binchy
Genre: Contemporary fiction, Irish fiction
Publisher: Anchor
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: Sile Bermingham
First line: Some projects take forever to get off the ground.

While I simply liked Whitethorn Woods, I enjoyed Heart and Soul much more, and it involved some of the same characters. It seemed to have a better pace and I loved the way all of the storylines revolved around the heart clinic in Dublin. I haven’t read Quentins yet, but the restaurant also appears a few times – and I have a feeling that other characters also appeared in previous works by Binchy. I am waiting on the audiobook version of her latest, Minding Frankie, which I understand also includes some of these characters I enjoyed so much.

Audio notes: Sile Bermingham is one of my favorite readers of Irish fiction. (She also read Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd, which is brilliant.) She not only gave life to all of the Irish characters, but she just as believably voiced Polish and Greek characters as well.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: audiobooks, chick lit, contemporary fiction, historical fiction, paranormal fiction

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After Bryan at Unfinished Person said that Unbroken would be one of his top reads of the year – even though it was only February – I knew I had to read it. Then it showed up on my library’s list of new audiobooks, and so it jumped right to the top of my list. This is truly an amazing story that vividly demonstrates how much the human spirit can endure. Louie Zamperini went from Olympic athlete to World War II bombardier to POW in Japan, never losing his amazing strength of spirit. His story is heartbreaking, inspiring, and ultimately, redemptive. I can’t recommend this one highly enough.

Audio notes: Edward Hermann does a fantastic job of telling Zamperini’s story. He has the type of voice you would associate with a news broadcaster, and yet he brought just the right amount of emotion and warmth to the narration.

Title: The Supernaturalist
Author: Eoin Colfer
Genre: YA science fiction
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: Chiwetel Ejiofor
First line: Satellite City: The City of the Future, proclaimed the billboards.

The Supernaturalist is my second experience with Eion Colfer’s work, and it is completely different than Artemis Fowl, though just as enjoyable. This book is definitely darker but still has elements of humor that keep it from being too heavy. This is a cross between a dystopia and fantasy, with a fantastic group of characters. The protagonist, Cosmo Hill, on the run from the Clarissa Frayne Institute for the Parentally Challenged, gets rescued by a group called the Supernaturalists. Cosmo possesses an ability that helps him fit in perfectly with the group – the ability to see the Parasites, which feed off the energy of dying humans – and joins them in their war to stop the creatures. The premise is unique, the plot has just enough twists to keep things interesting, and the characters are memorable.

Audio notes: Chiwetel Ejiofor, whose name I have absolutely no idea how to pronounce, does a wonderful job of embodying the young Cosmo Hill, as well as voicing a range of other characters of various ethnicities.

Title: Sarah’s Key
Author: Tatiana de Rosnay
Genre: Historical fiction
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: Polly Stone
First line: The girl was the first to hear the loud pounding on the door.

I enjoy historical fiction that follows dual storylines: a modern plot line in which someone researches or discovers a part of history, and the historical story itself. It isn’t always done well, but when it is, it makes for a great read, and Sarah’s Key is a great read – or, rather, a great listen. Expatriate Julia Jarmond lives in Paris with her husband, Bertrand, and 11-year-old daughter, Zoe. She writes for a Paris magazine, and when her editor asks her to write an article for the 60th commemoration of the Vel d’Hiv Roundup, she discovers that her husband’s family has a connection to one of the victims of the Vel d’Hiv, a fact that has been kept secret from even her husband. The story alternates between Julia’s story in 2002, and the story of Sarah Starzynski, a young girl who was rounded up by the Paris police on July 16, 1942. I had never heard of the Vel d’Hiv Roundup before and found the history heart-breaking and fascinating. While the modern storyline, told in first person by Julia, occasionally involved too much navel-gazing for my taste, I mostly enjoyed her story as well.

Audio notes: Polly Stone is an amazing reader, and I’m sure she was hired in part for her flawless French. I loved listening to all the French phrases and place names and she varied her voice just enough between Julia’s story and Sarah’s story.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 20 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: audiobooks, historical fiction, history, non-fiction, science fiction, YA fiction

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