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The #1 national bestseller for Stephen King’s rabid fans, Cujo “hits the jugular” (The New York Times) with the story of a friendly Saint Bernard that is bitten by a sick bat. Get ready to meet the most hideous menace ever to savage the flesh and devour the mind.
Outside a peaceful town in central Maine, a monster is waiting. Cujo is a two-hundred-pound Saint Bernard, the best friend Brett Camber has ever had. One day, Cujo chases a rabbit into a cave inhabited by sick bats and emerges as something new altogether.
Meanwhile, Vic and Donna Trenton, and their young son Tad, move to Maine. They are seeking peace and quiet, but life in this small town is not what it seems. As Tad tries to fend off the terror that comes to him at night from his bedroom closet, and as Vic and Donna face their own nightmare of a marriage on the rocks, there is no way they can know that a monster, infinitely sinister, waits in the daylight.
What happens to Cujo, how he becomes a horrifying vortex inescapably drawing in all the people around him, makes for one of the most heart-stopping novels Stephen King has ever written. “A genuine page-turner that grabs you and holds you and won’t let go” (Chattanooga Times), Cujo will forever change how you view man’s best friend.
I guess I’m making my way through Stephen King’s catalog faster than usual now that there are buddy reads happening. I love Stephen King and I would read him anyway, but it’s so much more fun when you can discuss the books with other Stephen King fans.
The Quotes
“It would perhaps not be amiss to point out that he had always tried to be a good dog. He had tried to do all the things his MAN and his WOMAN, and most of all his BOY, had asked or expected of him. He would have died for them, if that had been required. He had never wanted to kill anybody. He had been struck by something, possibly destiny, or fate, or only a degenerative nerve disease called rabies. Free will was not a factor.”
“When there was nothing left but survival, when you were right down to the strings and nap and ticking of yourself, you survived or you died and that seemed perfectly all right.”
“The two of them had discovered it was all right to open the closets…as long as you didn’t poke too far back in them. Because things might still be lurking there, ready to bite.”
“A woman doesn’t necessarily mind being looked at. It’s being mentally undressed that makes you nervous.”
The Narrator(s)
Lorna Raver. It was a good listening experience. Lorna Raver did some pretty decent voices and the sound engineering was good too.
My Thoughts
This is a reread and it’s funny because most of what I remembered most about the story was the scary dog, of course, but rereading it now I see that it’s so much more than that.
We get a lot of background story with the characters – there are several notable characters – and we start to care about them very much. They are all flawed in some way; we find out about their marital problems, career problems, car problems, kids problems, life-in-general problems. Even their (very young) kids have problems!
The characters here are so multi-faceted and humanly flawed, and it’s interesting to see how their individual thoughts and behaviors created a butterfly effect that led them down this road to Cujo. It’s an intense read, and so heartwrenching.
I’m also paying more attention now to the crossovers between his books and that enhances the reading experience even more. It’s been a while since I read The Dead Zone, but I remember Frank Dodd and I like how his story was incorporated here. I also just read You Like It Darker earlier this year, and I like that one of the characters here continues his story there in Rattlesnakes.
Also, poor Cujo. He’s the monster portrayed in this book, but he’s not the real monster if you really think about it. This is just an incredible book, so well-written, and I think it’s up there as one of my favorite King books (but there are so many of them!).
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
The memoir of one man’s coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed.
Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.
Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.
I really like Trevor Noah and I’ve heard such great things about this book, especially the audiobook as narrated by him!
The Quotes
“The first thing I learned about having money was that it gives you choices. People don’t want to be rich. They want to be able to choose. The richer you are, the more choices you have. That is the freedom of money.”
“Language, even more than color, defines who you are to people.”
“Being chosen is the greatest gift you can give to another human being.”
“You want to live in a world where someone is good or bad. Where you either hate them or love them. But that’s not how people are.”
The Narrator(s)
Trevor Noah, the author himself. I love listening to him, I wish there was more!
My Thoughts
I watched some of Trevor Noah’s clips on the Daily Show and his comedy shows and I really enjoy them! He comes across as really self-aware and a great person overall, but I don’t know very much about him. There’ve been so much praise about this book, and I’ve been so curious about him and the book, but I held off reading for a while because I wanted to listen to him narrate it on audiobook, and it was so worth the wait.
I love the way he tells his stories, the different languages that he incorporates into the story, his expressive style, his amazing sense of humor, and the way he handles sensitive topics. He talks about difficult things; his own life growing up poor, in an apartheid regime, with an abusive stepfather, but he still manages to retain his humor and gratitude. I love the way he adores his mother, and the way he appreciates his relationship with his biological father. It’s such a privilege getting this glimpse into his life.
I was already a fan, but I think I’m a bigger fan now after reading his book!
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
Anne’s own true love, Gilbert Blythe, is finally a doctor, and in the sunshine of the old orchard, among their dearest friends, they are about to speak their vows. Soon the happy couple will be bound for a new life together and their own dream house, on the misty purple shores of Four Winds Harbor.
A new life means fresh problems to solve, fresh surprises. Anne and Gilbert will make new friends and meet their neighbors: Captain Jim, the lighthouse attendant, with his sad stories of the sea; Miss Cornelia Bryant, the lady who speaks from the heart—and speaks her mind; and the tragically beautiful Leslie Moore, into whose dark life Anne shines a brilliant light.
I started Anne of Green Gables and loved it and just had to continue with the series!
The Quotes
“The woods call to us with a hundred voices, but the sea has one only — a mighty voice that drowns our souls in its majestic music. The woods are human, but the sea is of the company of the archangels.”
“Even when I’m alone I have real good company — dreams and imaginations and pretendings. I like to be alone now and then, just to think over things and taste them. But I love friendships — and nice, jolly little times with people.”
“But pearls are for tears, the old legend says,” Gilbert had objected. “I’m not afraid of that. And tears can be happy as well as sad. My very happiest moments have been when I had tears in my eyes—when Marilla told me I might stay at Green Gables—when Matthew gave me the first pretty dress I ever had—when I heard that you were going to recover from the fever. So give me pearls for our troth ring, Gilbert, and I’ll willingly accept the sorrow of life with its joy.”
“Thank goodness, we can choose our friends. We have to take our relatives as they are, and be thankful…”
The Narrator(s)
Beth Kesler. Loving the narration!
My Thoughts
For some reason, the Anne of Green Gables audio collection I bought skips the fourth book right to the fifth. That’s okay though, it doesn’t look like we miss much in terms of Anne and Gilbert’s life together. We see Anne’s House of Dreams here, and we meet Leslie Moore and Captain Jim. I love both these characters so much!
I love seeing Anne and Gilbert making a life together, but I also got so invested in Leslie’s story. I think even with how light and whimsical all the Anne of Green Gables books are, there’s always some important life lesson to be learned. And at the end of the day, life is meant to be lived with joy and happiness. I just saw that the last time I read these books was almost a decade ago! That’s way too long. I need constant reminders of Anne and her joy!
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
New adventures lie ahead as Anne Shirley packs her bags, waves good-bye to childhood, and heads for Redmond College. With her old friend Prissy Grant waiting in the bustling city of Kingsport and her frivolous new friend Philippa Gordon at her side, Anne tucks her memories of rural Avonlea away and discovers life on her own terms, filled with surprises . . . including a marriage proposal from the worst fellow imaginable, the sale of her very first story, and a tragedy that teaches her a painful lesson. But tears turn to laughter when Anne and her friends move into an old cottage and an ornery black cat steals her heart. Little does Anne know that handsome Gilbert Blythe wants to win her heart, too. Suddenly Anne must decide whether she’s ready for love.
I started Anne of Green Gables and loved it and just had to continue with the series!
The Quotes
“All life lessons are not learned at college,’ she thought. ‘Life teaches them everywhere.”
“I’ve loved you ever since that day you broke your slate over my head in school.”
“I do know my own mind,’ protested Anne. ‘The trouble is, my mind changes and then I have to get acquainted with it all over again.”
“When you’ve learned to laugh at the things that should be laughed at, and not to laugh at those that shouldn’t, you’ve got wisdom and understanding.”
The Narrator(s)
Beth Kesler. Loving the narration!
My Thoughts
I’m still loving the series! We meet Phil in this book, and Patty’s Place, and Gog and Magog! I love them all! Somehow Anne living her everyday life is just so much fun to read about. The people she meets, the things she does, all the joy she takes in the world. She’s starting to grow up, but she’s still as dreamy and whimsical as ever, and I love that!
We see a lot more of Anne and Gilbert’s romance here, which I am so here for! The journey can be heartbreaking at times, but as long as we get our Happy Ever After, I can weather the storms with a brave face. There are some other sad parts as well, but I think that’s part of the beauty of these books; we grow up with Anne, and we come across difficult things in life as we grow. That doesn’t mean we give into sadness, but only that we continue to find joy despite the sad things. Onwards to the next books!
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. Unless…
In 2011, Jake Epping, an English teacher from Lisbon Falls, Maine, sets out on an insane — and insanely possible — mission to prevent the Kennedy assassination.
Leaving behind a world of computers and mobile phones, he goes back to a time of big American cars and diners, of Lindy Hopping, the sound of Elvis, and the taste of root beer.
In this haunting world, Jake falls in love with Sadie, a beautiful high school librarian. And, as the ominous date of 11/22/63 approaches, he encounters a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald…
This book is a reread. I read it a while ago and remember loving it but not much else. I watched the film adaptation a couple of years ago and wanted to reread then but didn’t, and then I found it as a buddy read recently, so I thought why not.
The Quotes
“When all else fails, give up and go to the library.”
“I’m one of those people who doesn’t really know what he thinks until he writes it down.”
“If you’ve ever been homesick, or felt exiled from all the things and people that once defined you, you’ll know how important welcoming words and friendly smiles can be.”
“We never know which lives we influence, or when, or why.”
The Narrator(s)
Craig Wasson. Okay, I don’t know if it’s a narrator issue or a sound engineer issue, but the volume inconsistencies were painful, literally, to my ears. The narration and the different character voices were great, in themselves, but there were parts where the characters shouted, or spoke harshly, and they were loud and painful! If I turned down the volume, I couldn’t hear the quiet parts well. If I turned up the volume, I had to brace for pain. It was not fun.
My Thoughts
The audiobook wasn’t fun because of the volume issues, but the story itself was amazing, and I think I love it more the second time around! Partly because it was a buddy read; reading with others and having discussions about the book help me notice details I otherwise wouldn’t have noticed, and make me think about things more.
Also, funny enough, while I’m still unhappy about the volume issues with the audiobook, I feel like listening to it this time around actually helped me notice some things I didn’t before, especially with some of the theme and repetitions in the story. It’s interesting because I usually notice things more on print and miss a lot of details when I’m listening to a book, but I think when things get repeated so many times, and if the narrator emphasizes those parts, I definitely take notice.
This audiobook was a 30-hour chonker but it was such an incredible journey. I got so much more out of it this time, and I’m definitely thinking of rereading it again eventually because I believe there’s still more to get out of it!
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
When twelve-year-old Anne Shirley came to Avonlea, she quickly won everyone’s heart. Now, she’s five years older, almost a woman, and about to embark on a new adventure: becoming the teacher in her old Avonlea school. It’s an exciting year as Anne struggles to win over all her students, welcomes two new members to her family, and feels the first stirrings of love.
I started Anne of Green Gables and loved it and just had to continue with the series!
The Quotes
“Well, we all make mistakes, dear, so just put it behind you. We should regret our mistakes and learn from them, but never carry them forward into the future with us.”
“One can’t get over the habit of being a little girl all at once.”
“The future is yet an untrodden path full of wonderful possibilities.”
“Of course, I knew there are no fairies; but that needn’t prevent my thinking there is.”
The Narrator(s)
Beth Kesler. It was a bit of an adjustment coming from Rachel McAdams in the first book to a different narrator, but I ended up really loving Beth Kesler’s voices for the characters and the narration.
My Thoughts
What I love about this book is the children; Paul, Davy, and Dora are all wonderful to read about, and I love witnessing Anne’s interactions with them. I think the best thing about having children in your life is that they help you see the world with childlike wonder, and that’s the best thing about this book too. I also really love Miss Lavender because even though she was an older woman, she was still so childlike and sweet.
Now that I’m older, I feel like there’s no reason to stop being childish and carefree just because you’re all grown up. I know there are people who disagree, but I’ve been serious and somber as an adult, and I’ve been childish and playful as an adult, and I can tell you I’m much happier when I can be childish and playful. Mind you, when I say childish and playful, I don’t mean immature and irresponsible. People need to know the difference!
I also love that Gilbert and Anne are friends in this book, although we don’t see as much of Gilbert as I want. But there’s still the next book to look forward to!
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
As soon as Anne Shirley arrives at the snug white farmhouse called Green Gables, she is sure she wants to stay forever . . . but will the Cuthberts send her back to the orphanage? Anne knows she’s not what they expected—a skinny girl with fiery red hair and a temper to match. If only she can convince them to let her stay, she’ll try very hard not to keep rushing headlong into scrapes and blurting out the first thing that comes to her mind. Anne is not like anyone else, the Cuthberts agree; she is special—a girl with an enormous imagination. This orphan girl dreams of the day when she can call herself Anne of Green Gables.
I was just casually browsing the Audible Plus catalog and came across this book, narrated by Rachel McAdams. I love this book and I love Rachel McAdams and I was just curious, so I listened to a sample. And just kept going!
The Quotes
“It’s been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.”
“Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It’s splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.”
“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
“The world calls them its singers and poets and artists and storytellers; but they are just people who have never forgotten the way to fairyland.”
The Narrator(s)
Rachel McAdams. I love listening to her voice, it’s so distinctive! And so expressive too! I thought she was such a wonderful voice for Anne.
My Thoughts
This was one of my favorite childhood books, but I honestly thought I had read it enough for now and wasn’t planning to come back to it for a while. I sampled the audiobook just to see how Rachel McAdams sounds as Anne, and ended up getting sucked back into the wonderful nostalgia of childhood.
I love this world with Anne; looking through her eyes, falling in love with Green Gables and with the Cuthberts, being so happy about simple things, always looking out for kindred spirits, letting the imagination run wild and free. Oh! It makes me want to live there permanently! And it makes me wonder why I don’t.
Why can’t we keep falling in love with our homes and the people around us every day? Why can’t we be happy about the simple things? Why can’t we keep ourselves open to kindred spirits? Why can’t we let our imagination run wild and free once in a while? I used to do it all the time, but I have forgotten to hold on to the magic the longer I’m an adult. Anne keeps my inner child alive and reminds me that even though I’m older now, there can still be magic in this world. I want to bring that magic back.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
When Jerusha Abbott, an eighteen-year-old girl living in an orphan asylum, was told that a mysterious millionaire had agreed to pay for her education, it was like a dream come true. For the first time in her life, she had someone she could pretend was “family.” But everything was not perfect, for he chose to remain anonymous and asked that she only write him concerning her progress in school. Who was this mysterious gentleman and would Jerusha ever meet him?
This is one of my favorite childhood books but I have never listened to it on audio. And then I find out that Julia Whelan narrates it! Of course I had to listen!
The Quotes
“I think that the most necessary quality for any person to have is imagination. It makes people able to put themselves in other people’s places. It makes them kind and sympathetic and understanding.”
“I believe absolutely in my own free will and my own power to accomplish – and that is the belief that moves mountains. ”
“It’s much more entertaining to live books than to write them.”
“It isn’t the big troubles in life that require character. Anybody can rise to a crisis and face a crushing tragedy with courage, but to meet the petty hazards of the day with a laugh—I really think that requires spirit!”
The Narrator(s)
Julia Whelan. The GOAT.
My Thoughts
As I was reading, I’m aware of how times have changed and how Daddy-Long-Legs would probably not be a wholesome story for modern times. However, I love this book too much to get too woke about it, and I think sometimes we have to take into account that stories that come from a different time than ours will play into thinking that is different from ours and it’s necessary to not erase them.
Having said that, I just really love this book for so many reasons; I love that it’s so funny, I love that Judy Abbott has such a wonderful sense of humor, I love that she’s honest about herself and her flaws, I love that she discovers herself and stays true to herself, I love that she makes friends and learn new things. I love so many things about it. I love that it’s epistolary; it really ignited my love of writing letters and journals, and it also helped me to develop a irreverent voice for my own journal-writing because of how irreverent Judy is.
I should also mention that another one of the things I love about it is the cute illustrations, but since I’m listening on audio this time around, they don’t come into play. But also, since I’m listening on audio and Julia Whelan narrates it, what I lose out in illustrations, I gain in Julia Whelan’s narration. So it’s win-win either way!
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
A race for survival among the stars… Humanity’s last survivors escaped earth’s ruins to find a new home. But when they find it, can their desperation overcome its dangers?
WHO WILL INHERIT THIS NEW EARTH?
The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age—a world terraformed and prepared for human life.
But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind’s worst nightmare.
Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?
I have heard so much praise for Adrian Tchaikovsky but I haven’t read any of his books. People say this is a good one to start with, so I started with this.
The Quotes
“That is the problem with ignorance. You can never truly know the extent of what you are ignorant about.”
“A life lived entirely at the whim of another is no life at all.”
“This will be the first of a thousand worlds that we will give life to. For we are gods, and we are lonely, so we shall create.”
“Sometimes all it takes, to crack a problem, is a new perspective.”
“The elegant and sophisticated way of life that the spiders have built for themselves has always been strung over a great abyss of barbarism, cannibalism and a return to primitive, savage values. After all, they are predators at heart.”
The Narrator(s)
Mel Hudson. No complaints, she was great!
My Thoughts
I went in not knowing what to expect. The book description doesn’t really give away any specific details so it was mostly just an abstract idea for me going in. I ended up really loving it! I love that it features spiders as an evolutionary species, and that they are a matriarchal society. It was so interesting seeing the way their culture and beliefs evolve, it was so interesting to see them evolve into sentient beings!
To be clear, a whole lot of nothing happens until the end, but the during all the “nothing” that happens, we see a lot of subtle learning, growth, evolution, change. It’s so fascinating! I am very curious about the next books and where the story will go from here.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
Oryx and Crake is at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the future. Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved. In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey–with the help of the green-eyed Children of Crake–through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride. Margaret Atwood projects us into a near future that is both all too familiar and beyond our imagining.
A book buddy of mine has been singing the praises of this book and its series. I was going to read it eventually but I moved it up the timeline because of her. And also because it fit a prompt for a book challenge!
The Quotes
“After everything that’s happened, how can the world still be so beautiful? Because it is.”
“They spent the first three years of school getting you to pretend stuff and then the rest of it marking you down if you did the same thing.”
“All it takes,” said Crake, “is the elimination of one generation. One generation of anything. Beetles, trees, microbes, scientists, speakers of French, whatever. Break the link in time between one generation and the next, and it’s game over forever.”
The Narrator(s)
Campbell Scott. He did a great job, but I think it was just hard to understand on audio because of the story itself.
My Thoughts
I think in general scifi and fantasy on audio can be hard to follow especially if they have a lot of made-up names and terms. I was confused for a long time in the beginning and it took me a while to even realize Jimmy/Snowman was talking about Oryx and Crake even though those names are on the title. I thought he was talking about a friend named Craig and a girl named Aurix (some variation of Aura/Aurora?). Still, it was pretty engrossing and I wanted to know more.
One of the things that stood out most to me was Oryx’s backstory because child trafficking happens a lot in the world where I grew up, and it was interesting to see her POV about her childhood. There’s a lot to think about with this book, for a lot of reasons, and I think that’s the genius of the author. Atwood is so good at writing dystopian worlds and getting us to think about all the what-ifs. I am excited to read the next books in the series and find out more about this world.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
