At fourteen years old, Jane Lynch had a dream of becoming an actress. She started sending out letters which, when anyone bothered to reply were kind rejections or advice giving such as, “get some professional training and look us up in five years or so…”
Jane however did not give up and as her book is titles, by a series of Happy Accidents, her dreams eventually did come true. Jane’s story however is not without hardships. Jane suffered from anxiety and a lack of self-worth. She felt unsure of herself and out-of-place in her own skin.
This audio is pretty funny as Jane pushes her book at a book store:
proximity -you do not have to throw people away, you can decide how close you want to keep them. Not everyone has to be a best friend some can be good friends, and some can be acquaintances.
~Jane Lynch
Confession: I have never watched Glee. Ok, I have seen maybe a partial episode, but I have never sat down and watched it. However, I did recognize and know Jane from other roles she had played… little roles that eventually led her to bigger roles. (I am pretty sure she is the nurse in a Gilmore Girls episode but I can not find a you tube slip to back up that statement…) She was for sure on Two and A Half Men, Julie and Julia, 40 Year Old Virgin, Criminal Minds, Boston Legal, Desperate Housewives, Friends, King of Queens, Gilmore Girls (Yes! I knew it!), and many more.
I wanted to listen to her book because 1. she is funny like a cross between Tina Fey and Ellen Degeneres and 2. I really wanted to know more about her story.
I enjoyed Jane’s story very much, it just was not as humorous as I thought it was going to be. While there are many funny moments (I do think I snorted at least once), it’s also a coming of age story, and a hard one at that as she worries about her sexuality, and an early fondness for alcohol.
I enjoyed hearing about Jane’s life and how she came to be casted for Glee, which turned out to be the career move she needed to go mega star. Her story interested me so much that now I think I need to start watching Glee. 😀
When Author Kathleen Grissom and her husband restored a plantation tavern in Virginia. While researching the history behind the area, Kathleen found an old map where a notation had been made on it…
Negro Hill.
When asking around about this, Kathleen found no answers other than that perhaps this marked a place of great tragedy.
What could Negro Hill have been? What had once happened on this very soil? What secrets were left like whispers in the wind that time had absorbed?
This… was the beginning of the idea behind The Kitchen House.
Lavina is seven years old, white, and orphaned when she comes to live on the tobacco plantation owned by Captain Pyke, in Tidewater Virginia. The year is 1791, and Lavina works alongside the African-American servants in the Kitchen House day after day. Belle, who is the illegitimate half white daughter of the captain soon becomes good friends with Lavina.
Lavina becomes close with all the African-American servants who work in the Kitchen House, referring to them as family and never understanding the privileges and status of white people over her friends. Throughout the years of the Kitchen House, Lavina is witness to abuse, rape, racism, and eventually.. murder.
As Lavina grows into a beautiful young woman, she agrees to marry the Captains son Marshall, but Lavina being only 17 when she marries is not yet wise to the ways of power-hungry men and soon discovers that Marshall will stop at nothing of for anyone to get what he wants, destroying lives in his wake…
In the end Lavina needs to figure out how to save the only family she has ever known from impending disaster.
The Kitchen House is a book I have had my eye on for a while now. I liked the look of it, the synopsis, and had heard good reviews, yet I never seemed to pick it up. When I seen it on audible.com for a sale price I could not resist, I moved on it.
The audio is told in alternating voices from the point of view of Lavina, and then Belle. This made for a delectable story as Lavina was a young white girl who did not always see things as they truly were. Belle could give a retelling of what was happening from an African-American slaves perspective. By the book bring told in this way, as readers we are allowed to see things unfold from all angles.
There is a lot of front information before the book really gets moving. In the beginning you are witness to the fondness that not only Lavina has for the people of the kitchen house, but the love they have for her as well. Through Belle’s telling, we see some of the white people for who they truly are, in full color descriptions, where Lavina may see things in more gray shades. As the story gets moving, these shades of gray burst into full color as Lavina grows, marries, and starts to see how things really are.
While I found the first half of this audio interesting, it was not until the second half that the story really takes off and you get a full understanding of all the details laid out in the earlier part of the book. As events began to topple over one another I felt the story click together like a Rubik’s Cube and I loved the way it did!
Author Kathleen Grissom offers up a recipe for a Molasses Cake that Belle makes frequently in the book. While I have not made this myself, I believe I will soon as even mentioning it here is bring up scents of mouth-watering molasses baking in the kitchen… (Offered up for Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads)
Simple Molasses Cake
½ cup butter 1/3 cup packed brown sugar 1 egg ½ cup milk 1 cup molasses 2 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon ground ginger 1 teaspoon cinnamon 2 dashes ground cloves ¼ teaspoon salt
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg. In a separate bowl, combine the milk and the molasses. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Add each of these alternately to the butter mixture, beating well between additions. Spoon batter into the prepared pan. Bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Dynah Carey had her whole life ahead of her. She grew up in a Christian home and was engaged to a wonderful Christian man. It looked as though everything was going to be perfect for Dynah’s future.
Then one day while walking back to her college dorm room, she is ambushed by a stranger and raped. Soon after she discovers she is pregnant. Her fiance (it really bothers me that I have spent the last five minutes trying to find his name on-line, but maybe that’s because it’s not important…) struggled with the rape as Dynah was no longer the “pure” girl he had wanted… but the pregnancy took him over the edge and he quickly backs away.
Dynah is left dealing with the Bible school she attends and their rules of how she must go forward as well as needing to tell her parents what has happened. Everyone has advice of what she should do, but Dynah has her own struggles going on as she questions why a God she loves and has served all her life would allow something like this to happen.
Francine Rivers is a long time Christian Fiction hero of mine. I have always struggled with the “all too perfect” Christian fiction reads with the all to perfect characters and (even more annoying) the all too perfect ending. Francine Rivers is not one of these authors.
This book has been on my radar (and my book shelf) for years. I have read most of what Rivers has written but for some reason never got around to this one. Finally, looking for a smaller read – I reached for this and once again, Rivers made me proud.
The topic, a rape… in a Christian environment… is a difficult one. Our protagonist is given much advice from those who are Christians, mostly… they think she should abort the baby and go on with her life. After all, Dynah has a bright future ahead of her and she has done nothing wrong…
What Dynah decides is what makes this book a wonderful read. I enjoyed the internal battles going on within the pages and I rooted for Dynah to stay strong.
Many people have told me that The ATonement Child is their absolute favorite of Francine Rivers. While I found it to be good, I still have to say that Redeeming Love (read pre-blogging) is my all time favorite of hers. Both I would recommend.
The Atonement Child was released in 1997. After finishing it I felt it was left open enough to have a second book… I would be interested in the rest of this story. Francine? Care to bring back Dynah?
I listened to Atonement Child on audio from audible.com
It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.
One family to a home is unheard of. In fact, even homes are rare as most people have apartments. Most people live in vertical trailer parks or “Stacks”, where old trailer homes have been stacked on top of one another. Wade Watts lives with his aunt who does not want him there and lets him know it every chance she gets. Like most of humanity, Wade escapes into a virtual world called the Oasis every chance he gets. In this sprawling 10 world utopia Wade can be his avatar Parzival, with other virtual friends where you can live and play and even… fall in love.
The oasis was created by James Halliday, a big time gamer and lover of all things 80’s. Halliday made billions creating the Oasis and having never married or had children – he left his billions and full control of the Oasis to one lucky person… the one who could crack the clues he left in his will and within the worlds of the Oasis find Hallidays last gift to the world… his hidden “Easter Egg”.
Halliday admits himself that he may have made the clues a little too hard, but from his death-bed, it’s a little late to make changes now. And it is true, that in this starving world with millions of people looking for Hallidays treasure… five years go by and no one has cracked the first clue.
All of Hallidays riddles are hidden within the pop culture he loved – 80’s movies such as War Games, Ferris Buelers Day Off, Monty Python, Better Off Dead, Indiana Jones, Star Wars… and thats just the movies, lets not forget the games such as Joust, Miss Pac Man, Burger Time…
And when you are a kid who finds the real world almost unbearable… you sink all your time into the Oasis… rewatching the 80’s movies until you can recite them almost by heart, playing the video games to the point you know them inside and out including manufacturer dates, glitches int he games, recalls and more… you become almost one with the Oasis… racking up points…. practicing battles….
And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.
Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.
A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Ready Player One?
First of all to those of you said I must must MUST (little Max Headroom there…) listen to this one audio. I thank you, this was the best audio I have listened to this year.
For those of you who read me often, you may be aware that I usually am listening to three audio at one time (one in my bedroom for when I get ready in the mornings, one in the kitchen for cooking and cleaning time, and one in my car for every time I am on the go). RARELY will an audio engross me to the point that it earns the sole right to follow me from bedroom, to kitchen, to car…
however…Ready Player One did.
Where to begin?
Well… I think I will start with Narrator Will Wheaton. How do you know that name? Will starred in the 80’s film Stand By Me, on Star Trek he was the Romulan voice. And even more fun, Will is actually mentioned within this book/audio. Will… has the perfect voice for the audio and I knew within the first minute I was in for something special. Will even does Max Headroom’s voice (as seen above) and that is no easy feat! (Believe, me I tried to do the Max Headroom voice here at home… lets just say it wasn’t pretty).
Of course, while a great narrator on audio is important… it does not make the book complete if the book is not also amazing. No worries… I am sure you can already tell by this early gushing that it is…. FANTASTIC.
Being a die-hard 80’s chick I absolutely adored the constant 80’s references to great movies
80's move: War Games
such as Back To The Future, War Games, Real Genius, Better Off Dead, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Monty Python… and that’s not even mentioning the great arcade references: Miss Pacman, Joust, Burger Time…
and the beauty of the combination in the Oasis was the mixture of the two… you could watch the 80’s movies and play the games in the Oasis. In fact as our protagonist says, many of the movies he has watched hundreds of times. (And you will learn – thank goodness for that!)
I think what really sucked me into this read *80’s flashbacks aside) is that the story is good…. real good… It also is a little scary as I thought about Social media today and how fast it has grown in my lifetime, and found Ernest Cline’s stony not unbelievable. I can imagine a time when the world may be such a mess that people would rather stick themselves into an alternate reality (shoot it’s already happening!) then deal with the emotional drain of reality.
Dont worry – the story never bogs down with doomsday like themes. In fact I am quite sure two things will happen here: 1. I will at some point listen to this audio again and 2. I will own the book to add to my favorites collection.
I also never found being inside the game world boring… instead, I was fascinated… it was as real feeling to me as my own life. I also enjoyed being reminded of movies I once loved and insight to games I had once played (like a glitch in Miss Pacman arcade where you can hide for up to 15 minutes without being attacked)
Treat yourself with this one soon… you will not be sorry. While I have heard the book is just as incredible, I am going to recommend if you listen to audio – this is the way to go.
Warner Brothers bought the rights to the movie almost a year before this book was released to the public.
In the spring of 1865, after a long day of meetings, Abraham Lincoln alongside his wife Mary, took to the theater. While Lincoln knew that he had a lot of enemies and had even thought there was a good chance he would be assassinated, he had no idea that his life was about to end.
John Wilkes Booth was an anchor and charismatic ladies man as well as an impenitent racist. His hatred for Lincoln burned so strong it was obsession. He stressed over the details for months… working out accomplices in the mission. It started as a kidnapping plan… and lead to a much deadlier conclusion.
The theater box where Lincoln was shot
Ok… here’s my thing about Lincoln. He is my all time favorite president. And here was my uneducated reasons why:
1. freeing of the slaves
2. He was the 16th president and 16 in my favorite number
3. He was honest
After listening to this audio I realize – I did not know him at all. He was only 56 when he died. More surprisingly to me… Booth was 26.
I did not know about all the background of Booth and the Lincoln conspiracy. Out of their three sons, I had not realized that 3 had died by the age of 18. And while I suspected the toll this took on Mary (Todd) Lincoln I did not to the point that after her third child’s death their remaining son put her in a home.
What I am saying here is I found this audio to be very informative and interesting. I learned much about Lincoln’s life, General Grant, and John Wilkes Booth.
I leave this audio feeling like I now know more about the president I adored from afar.
Somewhere in Britain, a man known only as “Jack” kills an unsuspecting family…
all but one of the family dies. The youngest, a toddler, slips away into the night and into a nearby graveyard where he is adopted by the ghostly inhabitants. The toddler is named Nobody Owens, raised up by Mr. and Mrs. Owens, and a mentor named Silas.
As the weeks turn to years, Nobody, “Bod”, learns the way of the graveyard. By visiting the local inhabitants, he learns to make himself fade, how to call ghouls, and even meets a real live girl! But as Bod gets older, he longs for the chance to be among the living – to experience school, and friendships. What Bod doesn’t understand is that the graveyard is where he is safe. Reluctantly, Silas helps Bod made his dreams come true, all the while knowing that “Jack” is still out there…
looking for the boy that crawled away….
all those years ago.
I started listening to this audio while in a van in La Esperanza, Honduras. When I put my ear buds in and the start-up music (above) began…. I swear my whole body tingled! The music is entitled Danse Macabre and this music actually inspires a chapter in the book where the characters both living and dead dance the Macabre. This was my first experience with Neil Gaiman and it was going to be on audio… read by none other than… Neil Gaiman.
Danse Macabre:
According to legend, “Death” appears at midnight every year on Halloween. Death calls forth the dead from their graves to dance their dance of death for him while he plays his fiddle (here represented by a solo violin). His skeletons dance for him until the rooster crows at dawn, when they must return to their graves until the next year.
The piece opens with a harp playing a single note, D, twelve times (the twelve strokes of midnight) which is accompanied by soft chords from the string section. The solo violin enters playing the tritone (or “Devil’s chord”) consisting of an A and an E-flat—in an example of scordatura tuning, the violinist’s E string has actually been tuned down to an E-flat to make this chord more biting. The main theme is heard on a solo flute, followed by a descending scale on the solo violin which is accompanied by soft chords from the string section, particularly the lower instruments of the string section, followed by the full orchestra who then joins in on the descending scale. The main theme and the scale is then heard throughout the various sections of the orchestra until it breaks to the solo violin and the harp playing the scale. The piece becomes more energetic and climaxes with the full orchestra playing very strong dynamics. Towards the end of the piece, there is another violin solo, now in modulation, which is then joined by the rest of the orchestra. The final section represents the dawn breaking (a cockerel’s crow, represented by the oboe) and the skeletons returning to their graves.
The Graveyard book is one of mystery and fantasy, dreams, and nightmares. Neil reads it in a fantastic tone that fits everything I just said in the previous sentence. Listening to this book was like living it. While it is a story about a murder, and then subsequently, a graveyard… it is a middle grade book. While that may surprise (or concern) you… don’t let it. The book is never graphic or gory… handled well as just an old-fashioned spooky story with a great paranormal twist.
My thoughts in the end… it was actually a fun experience. I will definitely look for more from Neil Gaiman.
Have you met Frank Abagnale…. err…. Frank Williams, Robert Conrad, Frank Adams, or Robert Mojo? They are all the same man. AND not a fictional man either… but a con man of epic intelligence and a “no fear” attitude that brought him far.
During Franks great conning years he sweet talked his way into a pilots uniform and co piloted a Pan Am jet… this “Pan Am” masquerade brought him money, fame, and women from all over the world. Frank also practiced law without a license and forged over $2.5 million dollars in checks – all before he was 21.
Abagnale lived a life of luxury and fantasy until the law caught up with him. Now recognized as the nations leading authority on foul-play, Abagnale shares his incredible, occasionally hilarious true story of being a man with a mission.
Truth really is stranger than fiction.
I seen the movie Catch Me If You Can many years ago, starring Tom Hanks and Leonardo DeCaprio (as Frank Abagnale). I really enjoyed the movie and knew it was based on a true story and that was that.
Then last month, Audible.com had one of their fabulous audio book sales I chose this one for $4.95. Turns out, that was a great $5 buy! As soon as I started listening, I knew I was in for a treat. Narrator Barrett Whitener tells it like it is and I was quick to realize that this audio was going to be better, MUCH better, than the movie.
Told in great detail, Catch Me If You Can is Frank’s true retelling of his start during his teenage years as he had bigger dreams and wants than he had money. His swindling career started with his own father (which he regrets to this day), and went as big as posing as a Pan Am Pilot and receiving all the perks that go with it.
When you listen to how Frank makes things happen for himself you will be astounded how simply he gets away with things. A few phone calls posing as reporters, students, and trainees, gets Frank the information he needs, a few questions to the right people finds him being fit for uniforms, receiving the tools to make forged licenses, and at one time – even flying on a fake passport.
Franks story is one that is both frightening (at how simple his forgeries are!) and astoundingly laughable (Franks escape off a plane through the toilet is certainly one I will not soon forget!).
If you are looking for an interesting and well narrated audio, look no further than Catch Me If You Can. I find myself still talking to friends about this one!
In nineteenth century China, 7-year-old Lily lives among such traditions as foot binding, and match makers, where daughters are meant to be matched to men of power, as a daughter… is a lowly thing, where sons are raved on and honored and live in their birth homes forever.
Girls, such as Lily were paired with laotongs, “old sames” friendships that were meant to last a lifetime and Lily is paired with Snow Flower who is believed to come from a higher social standard which will be good for Lily’s eventual husband matching.
The girls quickly become the closest of friends, sharing messages of hopes and dreams sent to one another on handkerchiefs and within the folds of a fan.
As the years pass and the girls grow to young women their times together change from girlish whispers and giggles to talks of their arranged marriages, loneliness, and motherhood. As time passes, things change and Lily and Snow flower are torn apart.
Now, Lily, years later, as Snow Flower lays close to death – Lily recaps what happened, and how she can possibly ask for forgiveness from the one person who was always by her side.
It is not often I will say this, but if you have not read or listened to this book – I want you to drop everything and run to your local book store, or your favorite online ordering spot and secure a copy for yourself. Trust me, you will be glad you did.This is one of the best books I have listened to this year.
This was not the type of story that takes a while to get into… no, from the very beginning I entered nineteenth century ChinaI was taken in by the sites, and by the traditions as Snow Flower and The Secret Fan is filled with tradition… painful images of foot binding, match makers, and most importantly… the laotong (a friendship that I will go into more when I post the movie review tomorrow.)
And really… that is what Snow Flower And The Secret Fan is about is friendship… a friendship that is more powerful than all the other relationships in Lily’s life…. and that… makes for an amazing story.
Normally when I am done listening to an audio it goes on my giveaway shelf as I know I will not listen to it again. This time, I will be hanging on to this audio book as I know I will listen to it again someday and remember Lily and Snow Flower.
Three brothers, the unnamed 7-year-old narrator, Joel, and Manny (both slightly older) .. the three sons to a white mom and a Puerto Rican father who can barely take care of themselves, let alone three sons. As the boys watched their parents through love and war,
Lacking basic care such as food and shelter…. the brothers go about their days wearing hand me down clothes tied with cords, entertaining themselves through make-believe war games, exploring their environment, and trying to understand this thing called life.
As the story continues and the boys grow the narrator finds he is drifting from them and the “we”, becomes “they” and eventually…
“I”.
Author Justin Torres
Rough. Raw. We The Animals has left me in a bit of awe…. its hard to describe and as I try to write a synopsis of the book – I know I am not doing it justice. On audio, as I experienced it, it is a jumble of life stories from the one sons perspective. Each chapter tells a story… piecing together a life story.
The boys mimic what they see… they use the language of anger their parents use towards each other and the words of forgiveness they also have witnessed. They mimic, and they share, and they learn…
At first the audio feels chaotic, story to story…. rushing to and from one thing to the next. I find myself piecing it together… it felt crashing and rolling….
and then it changes, a change I did not see coming and as I listen to it on the audio I pull in my breath tensing against what I believe is being told… what I know… is being told.
Is it a love story? Yes
Is it a story of adolescence? Yes
And it’s also about family, about poverty, about hardships, and family, and strength, and about growing into who you are… no matter what that may mean.
Overall… I am surprised I was unaware of what this book was coming too, but in a way – I am also impressed with the author’s choice to take an already good book… to another level. I am sitting here after the audio has ended… processing what I had not seen…
After Airline Pilot Chip Linton’s emergency landing in Lake Champlain resulted in the death of most of his passengers on his small plane, Chip moved his wife Emily and their ten-year old twin daughters to a remote Victorian home in Northern New Hampshire.
The plan was for Chip and his family to start fresh after the accident, but Chip is haunted by the memories of the crash, as well as it seems he is haunted by passengers that died on that fateful flight. While Chip is battling the inner demons of the 39 lost people on his flight, a long ago sealed door is found in the basement of their home with 39 six-inch long carriage bolts.
39…
While Chip makes a frightening discovery behind the bolted door… his wife Emily finds herself drawn to a group of herbalists in the area who seem to have taken an obsessive interest in her twin daughters. Torn between the strange behavior her husband is now producing as he spends more and more time in the basement, and the odd women herbalists giving her children new names… Emily is left struggling to maintain her family when all she really wants to do is pack up and get far away from this strange place.
I am kind of digging this cover...
It’s hard to believe now that in my early 20’s horror/thrillers were my favorite genre. Then, I read everything that Stephen King and Dean Koontz put out there. As years went on, I went away from King, still enjoy a good Koontz, but have really moved on to a tamer, Harlan Coben for my fix. However, occasionally I have a craving (much like I do for 80’s music), where I want to dab a bit into the spooky genre, hoping to bring back the old thrills I used to get reading them.
This fact, along with my desire to read something by Chris Bohjalian, brought me to Night Strangers. For this time of year, if just felt like it could be spooky good.
So… is it?
Well no doubt about it that Night Strangers will make you hear every bump in the night. Putting anything in the basement is pretty spooky for me and that is barely touching the hair-raising happenings of Chris Bohjalian’s tale of the paranormal.
I definitely got what I was craving and then some… I tend to lean more towards the good old spooky ghost stories than the modern paranormal horror so at times there was a bit of “WHOA!” For the most part… I would call this book a ghost story with a triple energy drink kick. After all what s not to love about a book where not all your characters are living? 😯
If you are looking for a little spooky in your pre-Halloween week, look no further for great writing that will definitely make the hair on your neck tingle and have you checking the basement door.
Book Journey 