Esme
I am a big fan of the Arsene Lupin stories. I listened to this as an audiobook narrated by BJ Harrison. This book is a collection of stories which introduce the intrepid burglar. There is a lot of exposition in these stories as the characters are being introduced. Some of this is handled well by the author, but some of it is awkward. The narrator does his best to ease you through the awkward moments. In fact, I believe this narrator elevates the story and improves it immensely from what you might perceive if you were reading a printed version. The pacing of the narration is excellent and each character speaks in a distinctive voice that brings them alive.
The first four stories could actually stand together as a novella, and they are worth the price of the entire book. We meet Lupin without knowing who he is, then he is arrested, imprisoned, and escapes. We meet his nemesis, Detective Ganimard, who will play a bigger role in future stories.
In the final story, Lupin meets Sherlock Holmes, setting up the conflict which will occur in the next book in the series.
I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys classic detective stories in the vein of Sherlock Holmes.
This review is for the audiobook version.
Author Edward A. Joseph selected 50 articles out of a collection of his columns for newspapers and edited them into a touching and insightful book. These are short, positive slice-of-life essays that will make you smile and perhaps think about your life in a new way.
The audiobook is narrated by Robin McAlpine. Although she has a lovely, warm delivery that flows well, she would not have been my choice to read essays written by a man. To hear phrases such as “the other men” come out of her mouth was distracting to me. I believe, however, I would enjoy her narration on another book where the gender difference between author and narrator doesn't matter.
The pacing was a bit too fast for me. I normally listen at 1.2 speed without noticing a difference. For this audiobook, I had to turn it down to 1.0 in order to fully enjoy the book. These essays are meant to be savored, and I wanted more opportunity to do that. I also would have appreciated a longer break or some other distinction between essays. Even at 1.0, this was too quick and didn't give me as much time as I wanted to change gears going into the next essay.
Despite my quibbles about the narration, this audiobook is enjoyable, thought-provoking, informative, and inspiring. I especially enjoyed the essays that featured interactions between the author and his daughter or his wife. My favorite section was the travel section near the end. I am inspired to try the authors method of traveling. I highly recommend this book.
This is a review of the audiobook version.
As the survivor of marriage to a person with a diagnosed narcissistic personality disorder, I was interested in this book. It helped me understand the distinction between NPD and sociopathy as well as helping me understand more about what happened to me. I particularly enjoyed the 13 Red Flags to watch out for. I appreciated that the author is careful to emphasize that anyone can fall under the influence of a sociopath, even a trained clinician!
The narrator, Shelly Frasier is perfect for this kind of non-fiction. She comes across as knowledgeable without being clinical or cold. The stories are narrated in a way that entertain and educate. She has taken some difficult material and made it accessible and easy to listen to. I listen at 1.2 speed, and the pacing was perfect.
I am glad I got this in the audio format. I think I had an easier time listening to it than I would have had reading it. I do wish a PDF of the 13 Red Flags was included with the audiobook.
I have read The Woman in White once, listened to it read on the Phoebe Reads a Mystery podcast, and now I've listened to the audiobook version. I can say that this audiobook is my favorite experience of this book, largely due to the narrator, Ian Holm.
The story is set in 1850 in England. An heiress, who is orphaned and dependent on a self-absorbed uncle who just wants her to go away. Her half-sister is the other resident of the house, into which comes an art teacher. The art teacher and the heiress fall in love, and so of course he must leave because she is betrothed to a baronet. He seems quite attentive an kind at first. All is not what it seems, however. She receives a mysterious letter warning her about her fiancé, but she is too honorable to back out of the arrangement. What happens next is a suspenseful story of 2 women trying to save themselves in a time and place where they have no agency.
Ian Holm is a delightful narrator for this story. In particular, his portrayal of the awful uncle is genius. The book is long (670+ pages; audio 24+ hours), but worth the time if you enjoy period suspense.
Listened to this on the Phoebe Reads a Mystery podcast. I enjoyed her reading of it and the story itself.. I suspected who did it early on, but was misdirected effectively. It came as a surprise when all was revealed. This was an enjoyable read, and it's said that this author was influential in Agatha Christie's development as a mystery writer.
Loved the stories, but hated the narrator. Eric Brooks seems like an old-fashioned stage actor who feels like the louder he declaims, the better he acts. Well, no. Not in audiobook format. I'm sad that they could not find a better narrator for this material, because there is nuance in this adventurous romance. But not in this audiobook.
Moojie Littleman was abandoned on the church steps as a baby. He grew up with bad legs and a claw hand. His adoptive mother saw his inner beauty, but she died young. His adoptive father couldn't see past his inability to speak clearly and to do “guy” things. He abandoned Moojie to the cranky care of his grandfather, a hillbilly who ran a dairy farm. Moojie grew up angry and his longing for a real family became more crippling than his physical handicaps.
Pappy got Moojie exercising and then saddled him with chores and work around the farm to do. Slowly Moojie learned to speak, walk with braces, and use his hand for the chores. His chores gave him the opportunity to explore the hills around the farm, and there he met The Lighteaters. This clan of loveable misfits are the sworn enemies of his Pappy and the townfolk who call them The Hostiles.
Moojie longed to become part of the Lighteater clan, but they wouldn't accept him until he learned to live by The Code. Through his improbable adventures, Moojie learned the power of mercy, charity, forgiveness, and love.
This is a quirky, funny, and touching story that will surprise and delight you. I highly recommend it!
Stopped reading this book because it seems like a second draft. There are punctuation errors throughout, words are misused, and the author has trouble with homonyms. Example, in describing a drunk, she mentions his “read nose.” This author needs an editor and proofreader in the worst way. It may or may not be a good story, but I couldn't keep reading past the errors.
Anna's Book by Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine is not your typical mystery. For the longest time, it seems to be the story of a family told through the eyes of a woman who has discovered her grandmother's diary.
Anna, the grandmother, is a Norwegian woman stranded in London in the early 1900s with a husband that is never around, even for the birth of his children. She writes her feelings in her journals, but to her children, she is strict and unfeeling.
When Anna dies, her favorite daughter, Swanny, finds and publishes one of the journals. It becomes popular, and Swanny is in demand as a speaker. There are secrets within the journals, however, but Swanny is only interested in one. Anna had intimated to Swanny that she was adopted, but no matter how she begged, Anna went to her grave with the secret intact. Swanny searches the journals to no avail. They seem to say that Anna is her birth mother, but then why would Anna have told her such a hurtful thing?
When Swanny dies, her niece Ann, picks up the journals and find yet another mystery. Was it murder? And what about the young girl that went missing – could it be Swanny? Ann won't stop researching until she has the answer.
This book jumps from Anna's point of view to Ann's and back again, which is challenging at the beginning, but becomes interesting as the book goes on. The story unfolds deliciously slowly, teasing and seducing the reader into reading more.
This is not a book that fans of faster paced mysteries will enjoy, but if you like British mysteries I suggest Anna's Book by Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine.
