3 Stars. While I did enjoy Ready Player Two, my expectations were so high from Ready Player One that it was almost guaranteed to be a bit of a letdown. I still loved all the ’80s Easter eggs that I identified but this older Wade isn’t quite as engaging. He’s still a major geek but his absolute resistance to listening to others’ […]
2.5 Stars. I’m not really the audience for this book but I wanted a Christmas-y audiobook and it was either this standalone romance or other romances or cozy mysteries that were roughly number 52 in a series. (Yes, that’s an exaggeration but not as much as it should be.) Standalone romance it was, even though I’m not really a […]
Holy cow. I’ve been looking for a book with a great twist for years (since reading Shutter Island back in 2010) and been consistently disappointed. This book didn’t just twist, it corkscrewed! Repeatedly! I literally gasped at the end of each part. I am not a fan of the “Girl” or “Woman” psychological thriller craze. I gave both […]
Any short story collection is going to be a bit uneven but I truly enjoyed the vast majority of these. I would like to read novels based on some of these characters and I will be seeking out longer works by some of these authors. I appreciated that the writers are a culturally-diverse group and their characters reflect that. […]
This book cracked me up! My best description is that it’s a version of Tucker and Dale vs Evil if Tucker was a werewolf and Dale was a vampire. I can’t watch many horror movies but that one made me laugh, just like this book did. Earl and Duke aren’t quite as hapless as Tucker and Dale since they’re very aware of their own […]
Oh my goodness. This scared me to death! I got worried that I was going to have to put it aside. I gladly read most horror but one trope in particular seriously gives me nightmares and this book went there. I soldiered on though and holy cow, what a ride this was! I keep seeing it compared to a horror version of Little House on […]
I liked this well enough. I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the Titanic and the paranormal elements. I was never entirely sure what was going on, although I did have all the pieces pretty early in the story. It is refreshing when I can’t quite put everything together. My biggest quibble is that the story could have been tightened up […]
4.5 Stars. I’ve read mixed reviews of this book but I personally enjoyed the heck out of it. I would catch myself relating the events from each chapter to my husband until I finally decided that he needs to read it for himself and stopped talking. Now I’m bursting at the seams with the need to discuss it with someone! The beginning was not […]
5 Stars. First of all, I loved listening to this audiobook. Each part has a different narrator and they each do a fabulous job. What I really loved were the musical numbers by Corky Siegel. If Mike was playing “America the Beautiful” in the text, a harmonica would play the song softly in the background, for example. That kind of thing is […]
I have listened to all of these books on audio and Katherine Kellgren’s whole-hearted narration has kept me coming back. She threw everything she had into howling at the moon, singing songs, and giving voices to both the innocent and the bad guys. I realized that Katherine had passed away before finishing the series as I added…
Vinnie had a fascinating life. She did actually marry Charles Stratton, “General Tom Thumb,” who toured with P.T. Barnum from the age of 5 until his death. Vinnie started her career with the American Museum but after her marriage, she and Charles toured Europe, the US, and eventually the world. That trip would have been almost […]