Tag: audiobook

Book Review | Pet Sematary by Stephen King

Posted October 25, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Pet Sematary by Stephen King

The house looked right, felt right, to Dr Louis Creed.

Rambling, old, unsmart and comfortable. A place where the family could settle; the children grow and play and explore. The rolling hills and meadows of Maine seemed a world away from the fume-choked dangers of Chicago.

Only the occasional big truck out on the two-lane highway, grinding up through the gears, hammering down the long gradients, growled out an intrusive note of threat.

But behind the house and away from the road: that was safe. Just a carefully clear path up into the woods where generations of local children have processed with the solemn innocence of the young, taking with them their dear departed pets for burial.

A sad place maybe, but safe. Surely a safe place. Not a place to seep into your dreams, to wake you, sweating with fear and foreboding…

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Audiobook Challenge

The Reason

It’s the BOTM for my in-person bookclub, and a buddy read for my online bookclub. It’s Halloween season, what can I say?

The Quotes

“Sometimes dead is better”

“Cats were the gangsters of the animal world, living outside the law and often dying there. There were a great many of them who never grew old by the fire.”

“He’s my cat! He’s not God’s cat! Let God have his own cat! Let God have all the damn old cats He wants, and kill them all! Church is mine!”

“The barrier was not made to be broken. Remember this: there is more power here than you know. It is old and always restless. Remember.”

The Narrator(s)

Michael C. Hall. I love him!

My Thoughts

My audiobook copy has an author’s note which really enhanced my experience of reading the book. Apparently, a lot of the events in the book were based on real life things that happened for Stephen King and his family. Smucky was his daughter’s cat, was buried in a Pet Sematary, spelt exactly like that, near their house, with the exact epitaph written for Smucky in the book. His daughter also said the exact same words about how God should get his own cat and leave hers alone.

Thankfully, the harrowing, horrifying stuff did not actually happen to the author and his family! King has said that he considers this book the one he finds most scary, and I can imagine why. “Sometimes dead is better.” We should never try to play God, nothing good comes from it, and this book is the absolute embodiment of why that is.

I can’t talk more about the details without spoiling the book, but I do want to talk about the writing. As usual, I love how King tells the story. I love the buildup, the slow escalation, and the thrill the closer we get to the end. His characters are amazing, their relationship dynamics, the ways they interact with each other. There’s always something to be gotten from a King novel.

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?

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Book Review | The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth

Posted October 11, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth

A twisty, compelling novel about one woman’s complicated relationship with her mother-in-law that ends in murder…

From the moment Lucy met her husband’s mother, Diana, she was kept at arm’s length. Diana was exquisitely polite, and properly friendly, but Lucy knew that she was not what Diana envisioned. But who could fault Diana? She was a pillar of the community, an advocate for social justice who helped female refugees assimilate to their new country. Diana was happily married to Tom, and lived in wedded bliss for decades. Lucy wanted so much to please her new mother-in-law.

That was five years ago.

Now, Diana has been found dead, a suicide note near her body. Diana claims that she no longer wanted to live because of a battle with cancer.

But the autopsy finds no cancer.
The autopsy does find traces of poison and suffocation.
Who could possibly want Diana dead?
Why was her will changed at the eleventh hour to disinherit both of her adult children and their spouses?

With Lucy’s secrets getting deeper and her relationship with her mother-in-law growing more complex as the pages turn, this new novel from Sally Hepworth is sure to add to her growing legion of fans.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Audiobook Challenge

The Reason

I was in the mood for a mystery thriller and I’ve previously enjoyed another one of the author’s books.

The Quotes

“I worked hard for everything I ever cared about, & nothing I ever cared about cost a single cent.”

“Some people jumped in and tried to save someone who was in trouble; others did anything they could to save themselves.”

“Why bother having a child, if you’re not going to stick around and enjoy her?”

“Being poor and having to survive without my parents was the single most defining thing I’ve ever done. It showed me what I am capable of. As a mother, I think this is the most important gift you can give to your children. Unlike money, it can’t be taken away or lost.”

The Narrator(s)

Barrie Kreinik. I enjoyed her narration very much, I got very engrossed in the story.

My Thoughts

I’ve only read one other book by the author, The Soulmate, but I feel like she’s got an amazing grasp of the dynamics in familial relationships and the potential miscommunications that can arise between family. There’s nothing quite like family drama from having to interact with people who you don’t get along with but can’t avoid because family.

As with The Soulmate, nothing is quite as it seems, and I very much enjoyed the journey towards discovery. I feel that the beauty of this story isn’t in the mystery though, but in the family relationships. I loved reading about Lucy and her mother-in-law, Diana. I loved reading from their different POVs and looking at things from each of their perspectives. I don’t think either of them, or the other characters in the book, are necessarily people I would like, but it was interesting to read about them anyway.

I didn’t like this book as much as The Soulmate for satisfying my mystery craving, but it was still an enjoyable read.

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?

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Book Review | Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

Posted October 11, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

We are coming apart. We’re a rope, breaking, a single strand at a time.

America is a place of chaos, where violence rules and only the rich and powerful are safe. Lauren Olamina, a young woman with the extraordinary power to feel the pain of others as her own, records everything she sees of this broken world in her journal.

Then, one terrible night, everything alters beyond recognition, and Lauren must make her voice heard for the sake of those she loves.

Soon, her vision becomes reality and her dreams of a better way to live gain the power to change humanity forever.

All that you touch,
You Change.
All that you Change,
Changes you.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Audiobook Challenge

The Reason

I’ve been wanting to read Octavia E. Butler and this was a buddy read!

The Quotes

“The world is full of painful stories. Sometimes it seems as though there aren’t any other kind and yet I found myself thinking how beautiful that glint of water was through the trees.”

“That’s all anybody can do right now. Live. Hold out. Survive. I don’t know whether good times are coming back again. But I know that won’t matter if we don’t survive these times.”

“Freedom is dangerous but it’s precious, too. You can’t just throw it away or let it slip away. You can’t sell it for bread and pottage.”

“We’ll have to be very careful how we allow our needs to shape us.”

The Narrator(s)

Lynne Thigpen. No complaints, I enjoyed the narration.

My Thoughts

I am conflicted on what I think about this book. On the one hand, it was a really great story and so well-written. I’m also discovering that I love on-the-road stories. I also love that it was first published in 1993 but set in our current times. It’s so interesting to see what the author thought 2024 would look like, and frankly she wasn’t far off. I loved most of the story, I loved the characters, I love seeing how everyone and everything changed as they went, to the theme of the story. It was brilliant!

On the other hand, it went into preachy territory for me and I don’t like that. To be clear, I have no issues with the beliefs presented in the book, in fact, I agree with a lot of them. I also have no issues with religious and spiritual preaching being a part of the story for the purpose of the story, but I don’t like when it feels like the story was written for the purpose of the preaching, unless the story is upfront about it, that is. As it is, it feels like a bait and switch; promise me a good story but preach me a sermon instead.

As mentioned earlier, it is still a good story and I have to give it props, and to be fair, this book isn’t the worst offender for preachiness – it just barely straddles the line – but that makes me conflicted and I guess I don’t like it enough to overlook the preaching and continue with the next book.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars. It’s a good story and well-written.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Posted October 11, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Follow a motley crew on an exciting journey through space-and one adventurous young explorer who discovers the meaning of family in the far reaches of the universe-in this light-hearted debut space opera from a rising sci-fi star.

Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.

Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Audiobook Challenge

The Reason

I’ve read this book before and loved it. And it’s a buddy read in my online bookclub so I thought it was a great time to reread!

The Quotes

“Acting all sanctimonious while spouting bad info was a terrible way to win a debate, but a great way to piss people off.”

“No good can come from a species at war with itself.”

“That’s such an incredibly organic bias, the idea that your squishy physical existence is some sort of pinnacle that all programs aspire to.”

“Do not judge other species by your own social norms”

The Narrator(s)

Patricia Rodriguez. She was great! I got really immersed in the book.

My Thoughts

I want to share my review from my first read of the book in February 2021:

You know what I love most about this book? The way the people in this world handled race relations. The whole time I was reading this book and watching how the different races interacted with each other, being respectful of their different customs and um…body parts, asking questions when they weren’t sure, educating each other about their respective cultures and beliefs so patiently… I was thinking, this is the way.

Of course there were also hostile people and races in the story; I’m not so naive and/or ethnocentric as to think that there wouldn’t be those who believe in violence/war as part of their culture, but the point is that there is something important to be learned from this book. In fact, there were so many profound things that could be learned from this book, on so many different levels.

I just finished reading a book where I did not connect to the characters at all, and this book is the total opposite. I loved ALL the characters. The whole crew of the Wayfarer was just… they are now my people. My feather family. And that says a lot (both about this book and the other) because we’re talking about a crew of not just humans, but also three other “alien” races, AND an AI. I loved how different they were, the dynamics between them, how they fought and got on each other’s nerves but also stood by each other and had each other’s backs, because at the end of the day, they were a family. I related to them so much, and I loved them all. I grieved when they grieved, I loved when they loved, and seriously, to have a family like this would be my privilege.

There are other books in the series, and of course I’m going to read them all, but from what I understand, they are standalones in the same universe. That’s fine. I’m looking forward to getting to know more interesting people in this universe. You can never have too much family.

Reading this book a second time. I feel the same way, and even more so. The thing I remembered most about the book was how great it was at portraying interpersonal relationships between people of different cultures, beliefs, and species. And I continue to love it this time around, but I also paid a little more attention to the conflicts that arose because of the differences in opinions, beliefs, and cultures. Not just between the characters on the Wayfarer, but between worlds and species in the galaxy as well. It won’t surprise anyone to know that wars happen when there is an inability to accept each other’s beliefs and cultures or to be respectful towards people who are different from you. And feather family happens when you choose to love and respect each other despite your differences.

I still love this book, more now than ever, and it continues to make an impression on me.

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?

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Book Review | The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

Posted September 27, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 3 Comments

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

A missing God.
A library with the secrets to the universe.
A woman too busy to notice her heart slipping away.

Carolyn’s not so different from the other people around her. She likes guacamole and cigarettes and steak. She knows how to use a phone. Clothes are a bit tricky, but everyone says nice things about her outfit with the Christmas sweater over the gold bicycle shorts. After all, she was a normal American herself once.  

That was a long time ago, of course. Before her parents died. Before she and the others were taken in by the man they called Father. In the years since then, Carolyn hasn’t had a chance to get out much. Instead, she and her adopted siblings have been raised according to Father’s ancient customs. They’ve studied the books in his Library and learned some of the secrets of his power. And sometimes, they’ve wondered if their cruel tutor might secretly be God.  Now, Father is missing—perhaps even dead—and the Library that holds his secrets stands unguarded. And with it, control over all of creation.

As Carolyn gathers the tools she needs for the battle to come, fierce competitors for this prize align against her, all of them with powers that far exceed her own. But Carolyn has accounted for this. And Carolyn has a plan. The only trouble is that in the war to make a new God, she’s forgotten to protect the things that make her human.

Populated by an unforgettable cast of characters and propelled by a plot that will shock you again and again, The Library at Mount Char is at once horrifying and hilarious, mind-blowingly alien and heartbreakingly human, sweepingly visionary and nail-bitingly thrilling—and signals the arrival of a major new voice in fantasy.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Bookish Books Challenge
2024 Audiobook Challenge

The Reason

I’ve heard so much about this book and I’ve been curious. Also, it’s a bookish book and I’m doing a bookish book challenge.

The Quotes

“Peace of mind is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it.”

“The only real escape from hell is to conquer it.”

“It’s the notion that the universe is structured in such a way that no matter how many mysteries you solve, there is always a deeper mystery behind it.”

“She knew every word that had ever been spoken, but she could think of nothing to say that might ease his grief.”

The Narrator(s)

Hillary Huber. She was great for the time that I listened on audio.

My Thoughts

It might not be fair to count this book in my audiobook challenge, to be honest. I only listened about 50% on audio on and off in the beginning, and ended up switching over to the print copy for good towards the end. There was nothing wrong with the narration, but it was because there were some made-up words for a lot of specific concepts in the book, some dialogue in different languages, as well as the purposely confusing plot. They made it difficult to follow on audio, so I switched over to print when it got really exciting.

I’m not sure how I feel about this book. I loved it all the way I was reading it, up until the ending. I loved the pace, the storytelling, the plot, the characters, but I really hate the message and I feel like it might have ruined the whole book for me. I’m quite conflicted. I talk about it in more detail in Notes & Discussion | The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins at the end of the post. If you’ve already read the book, please feel free to head on over to the post and let me know what you think, otherwise, please be warned that it’s a spoiler-filled post!

For more discussion on the book – with SPOILERS – check out Notes & Discussion | The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins. This post has SPOILERS and assumes you have already finished the book. It is password-protected to prevent accidental spoiling. Password is “SPOILME0004”. Proceed at your own risk.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars. Giving credit where credit is due, it’s a really well-written book!

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle

Posted September 27, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Book Review | Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle

Being single is like playing the lottery. There’s always the chance that with one piece of paper you could win it all.

From the New York Times bestselling author of In Five Years and One Italian Summer comes the romance that will define a generation.

Daphne Bell believes the universe has a plan for her. Every time she meets a new man, she receives a slip of paper with his name and a number on it—the exact amount of time they will be together. The papers told her she’d spend three days with Martin in Paris; five weeks with Noah in San Francisco; and three months with Hugo, her ex-boyfriend turned best friend. Daphne has been receiving the numbered papers for over twenty years, always wondering when there might be one without an expiration. Finally, the night of a blind date at her favorite Los Angeles restaurant, there’s only a name: Jake.

But as Jake and Daphne’s story unfolds, Daphne finds herself doubting the paper’s prediction, and wrestling with what it means to be both committed and truthful. Because Daphne knows things Jake doesn’t, information that—if he found out—would break his heart.

Told with her signature warmth and insight into matters of the heart, Rebecca Serle has finally set her sights on romantic love. The result is a gripping, emotional, passionate, and (yes) heartbreaking novel about what it means to be single, what it means to find love, and ultimately how we define each of them for ourselves. Expiration Dates is the one fans have been waiting for.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Audiobook Challenge
2024 Library Love Challenge

The Reason

I found the premise interesting. Plus, Julia Whelan narrates the audiobook!

The Quotes

“It’s hard to hold on to people the older we get. Life looks different for everyone, and you have to keep choosing one another. You have to make a conscious effort to say, over and over again, “You.” Not everyone makes that choice. Not everyone can.”

“But being surprised by life isn’t losing, it’s living. It’s messy and uncomfortable and complicated and beautiful. It’s life, all of it. The only way to get it wrong is to refuse to play.”

“My life has been filled with magical moments, I was just so busy waiting I didn’t see them when they were here.”

“If you never stop long enough to sink into something, then it can’t destroy you. It’s easier to climb out of a pool than a well, is the thing.”

The Narrator(s)

Julia Whelan. The Awesomest!

My Thoughts

I’ve read one other book by the author before and if there’s one thing I can say, it’s that she does have very interesting ideas for her stories. This one is mostly fun and light-hearted but there are some difficult topics covered as well. We don’t go very deep with them though.

There’s also a lot of cheesiness here and some things that don’t completely make sense, but that’s okay, it’s magical realism and we’re just going to enjoy the story for what it is. I enjoyed the story itself and I needed the light-heartedness. Bonus is that Julia Whelan reads it and of course, I always enjoy her narration.

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?

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Book Review | Perfume by Patrick Süskind

Posted September 27, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Perfume by Patrick Süskind

An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind’s classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man’s indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of smell—leads to murder.

In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift—an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille’s genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and fresh-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the “ultimate perfume”—the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brilliance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Audiobook Challenge
The Classics Club

The Reason

It was my in-person bookclub’s September BOTM. This is a reread for me and I remember enjoying it very much the first time too.

The Quotes

“Odors have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions, or will. The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues us totally. There is no remedy for it.”

“He who ruled scent ruled the hearts of men.”

“He had preserved the best part of her and made it his own: the principle of her scent.”

“And because people are stupid and use their noses only for blowing, but believe absolutely anything they see with their eyes, they will say it is because this is a girl with beauty and grace and charm.”

The Narrator(s)

Nigel Patterson. No complaints! I enjoyed listening to the narration.

My Thoughts

I remember the first time I read this book; I was in my “scentology” phase and I was fascinated with the sense of smell. I’d been reading a few other books on smell as well, one I remember is The Scent of Desire by Rachel Herz. Obviously unlike The Scent of Desire, this book is fiction, but they were both very interesting.

I also really enjoyed the movie based on this book even if I don’t remember much of it anymore. I might watch it again soon! Our BOTM theme for September is Banned Books, and I have a feeling that the movie version I watched might have been edited as well, especially since I watched it in the cinema when I was living in Malaysia.

Rereading it this time, once again I loved how beautiful the writing is. I love how immersed in smells we get. The description of the scents, all the different ways to evoke them in our imagination; the book was written so well! Even though we were reading about a really creepy murderer, it was still so fascinating to see his journey from his birth, his perfumery apprenticeship, his obsession with possessing scents and using them in very interesting ways, until the very end. Some parts of the story seem a little bit fantastical but they are still very entertaining to read about, and at the end of the day, I just love how smell-y the book is! So worth reading!

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?

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Book Review | Cujo by Stephen King

Posted September 21, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Cujo by Stephen King

Set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine

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.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Audiobook Challenge

The Reason

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?

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Book Review | Born A Crime by Trevor Noah

Posted September 13, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 6 Comments

Born A Crime by Trevor Noah

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.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge
2024 Diversity Reading Challenge
2024 Audiobook Challenge

The Reason

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?

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Book Review | The Girl From Rawblood by Catriona Ward

Posted September 13, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

The Girl From Rawblood by Catriona Ward

In 1910, eleven year old Iris Villarca lives with her father at Rawblood, a lonely house on Dartmoor. Iris and her father are the last of their name. The Villarcas always die young, bloodily. Iris knows it’s because of a congenital disease which means she must be strictly isolated. Papa told her so. Forbidden to speak to other children or the servants, denied her one friend, Iris grows up in solitude. But she reads books. And one sunlit autumn day, beside her mother’s grave, she forces the truth from her father. The disease is biologically impossible. A lie, to cover a darker secret.

The Villarcas are haunted, through the generations, by her. She is white, skeletal, covered with scars. Her origins are a mystery but her purpose is clear. When a Villarca marries, when they love, when they have a child – she comes and death follows.

Iris makes her father a promise: to remain alone all her life. But when she’s fifteen, she breaks it. The consequences of her choice are immediate and horrific.

Iris’s story is interwoven with the past, the voices of the dead – Villarcas, taken by her. Iris’s grandmother sets sail from Dover to Italy with a hired companion, to spend her final years in the sun before consumption takes her. Instead she meets betrayal, and a fate worse than death. Iris’s father, his medical career in ruins, conducts unconscionable experiments, to discover how she travels in the Villarca blood. Iris’s mother, pregnant, walks the halls of Rawblood whispering to her, coaxing her to come. As the narratives converge, Iris seeks her out in a confrontation which shatters her past and her reality, revealing the chasm in Iris’s own, fractured identity. Who is she? What does she desire? The answer is more terrible and stranger than Iris could have imagined.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Audiobook Challenge

The Reason

I’ve heard good things about Catriona Ward but have never read her books. This was a buddy read so I thought it might be a good opportunity to try one.

The Narrator(s)

Liz Pearce, Steven Crossley, John Keating, Elizabeth Sastre, Jenny Sterlin. This was painful to listen to on audio. The narrators were fine, but the sound engineering was so bad and it really detracted from my listening experience. The volumes between chapters were inconsistent, and there was one chapter where the volume varied so much I had to keep turning it higher and lower as I was listening to it! The soft parts were so difficult to hear and the loud parts were sudden and hurt my ears. I didn’t enjoy listening to this on audiobook at all!

My Thoughts

I feel like I missed a lot of details and the nuances of the story because of the audiobook production, and it made me doubt my listening comprehension of the book. This book is told in multiple POVs, across multiple timelines, and it jumps about a bit. There were many times when the story jumps to something that wasn’t mentioned in previous chapters and I had to wonder if I missed something or if it was a stylistic choice. I enjoy time jumps and missing pieces of the puzzle as stylistic choices, but I couldn’t be sure that was what was happening here while listening to it. I had to repeat entire chapters of the book because I was so confused.

Having said that, I love the vibes of the book and the writing style. It feels very gothic and is reminiscent of Frankenstein, which is one of my favorite books. The vibes and writing style is enough to make me want more, but I think next time I’ll try a print version of Catriona Ward’s 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?

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