The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

References to this book kept coming up and for the life of me, I couldn't recall a thing about the story.  Mind you, it's been about forty years since I read it during high school.  When I told friends I was going to read it again, several told me not to waste my time or not to bother with such an old book.  It was written in 1925.  I pressed on regardless of their comments.

As I listened to the audio book I started to wonder how this book had such staying power.  The opening chapters were rather boring.  Now whether this was the causal reading by the narrator or it was too long drawn of an intro, I can't say.  Once Daisy was introduced, my interest started to pick up and by the time Jay Gatsby appeared, I was into the tale.

I still won't say it was an amazing book, but I am glad I re-read it.  It is a tale that plays out time and again.  Love is never a straight path and even if you can get what you think you want, it's not always what you need.  An then there are the crazy rich people, who just have no concept of reality.  They live their indolent lives with no notice nor concern for the wreckage they leave behind them.

At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen

Maddie, her husband Ellis and their best friend Hank are the most self indulged and indolent people.  They don't work and live only for the next party or entertainment.  When their poor behaviour at a society event causes embarrassment to Ellis's parents, the two men hatch a plan to flee the country and go in search of the Loch Ness monster.  Ellis's father tried to find the beast years earlier, and instead found scorn.  He thinks if he can find it he will restore his father's good name and be welcomed back home.

As I was listening to this audio book, I was disgusted by the three main characters.  They were not nice people and only sought to indulge them selves.  I had almost decided to give up on the book, though I recalled how much I loved Ms. Gruen's earlier book Water for Elephants, that I had to give it more of a chance.

Fortunately It wasn't long before I started to notice slight changes in Maddie's attitude. She paid more attention to the war raging around them and was concerned about the injured soldiers she was seeing.  It was this change that encouraged me to continue.

Once Maddie started to pay more attention to the real world around her, she began to question her position and her behaviour.  I liked the person she was becoming.  From that point on, I wanted to keep listening every chance I could.  I was cheering her on and wanted her to develop into a considerate and deserving person.

Author Sara Gruen did a great job with these three characters.  First she made me hate them, the really like one and grow to loath the other two even more.  A success when an author can make me feel such a range of emotions just by using words.

#IndigoEmployee

Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman

I loved this book.  It is wonderfully creative.

It's the story of a seemingly absent minded father who steps out of the house for a few minutes to buy milk for his children's breakfast.  His is gone a very long time.  When he returns home with the milk,  the children ask what took so long.  This launches dad into a fantastic tale.  With time travel, dinosaurs and aliens, what child wouldn't be entrance to listen to their father read them such a tale.  Did I mention pirates?

This is a wonderfully told tale that had me hanging on every word.  Oh, please Mr. Gaiman, write more for children.  You definitely have a gift of knowing what they love to hear.

If you are looking for a book for a new or expectant dad, or heck, any dad, Fortunately, the Milk, would be the perfect choice.

I listened to the unabridged audio book as read by Mr. Gaiman.  1 hour. Suitable for young readers.

Be sure to read what Mr. Gaiman has to say about this book.

Cover image courtesy HarperCollins Canada

Arrow: Faery Rebels #3 by R. J. Anderson

Rhosmari is a faery and a pacifist, from the hidden green isles.  She has travelled to the mainland to find the stone of naming and return it to her people.  Dealing with humans and foreign faeries is not as straight forward as she thought it would be.  Along the way she will have to face some of her greatest moral challenges.

I loved this story.  It brought back the wonderful magic and mystery of the faery that I felt was missing in Rebel, the second book of this series.

As the story progresses, the fates of the humans and the faery becomes closely entwined.  The free faeries along with their human friends must finally defeat the Empress or the whole land could fall to her whims.  It is the story of good versus evil and whether  one can stand by and watch evil prevail or put ones self at risk and possibly change the outcome.

The is suitable for middle grade readers and older.

Faery Rebel Series

1 Knife  (Spell Hunter)
2 Rebel  (Wayfarer)
3 Arrow

#IndigoEmployee

The Accused: Theodore Boone #3 by John Grisham

Theodore Boone is facing his biggest case yet and it's one he can't solve on his own.  In desperation, he turns to the one man he can trust, his Uncle Ike.  Together, they take some pretty big risks to prove the suspect's innocence.

I loved this book.  It is the best of the series so far.  I really can't tell you a thing about the plot as it will give too much away.  This is one book that you just have to jump into and trust that it will capture your imagination and transport you right into this challenging case.

Adult fans of John Grisham will find this a complex legal tale as you'd expect from him, but in a shortened, kid length novel.  I found myself eagerly waiting for the next plot development.

The bond between Theo and his Uncle Ike deepens.  Readers learn a bit more about Ike, but there is still the biggest mystery about him yet to be revealed in future books in this series.  The story continues in The Activist.

Cover image courtesy Penguin Random House Canada.

#IndigoEmployee

The Gathering - Shadow House # 1 by Dan Poblocki

Five young people ages 12-13 are invited/lured to Larkspur under various pretexts.  After they arrive they soon notice that something is amiss, actually a whole bunch of somethings.  Why are there no adults and where are the rest of the students/family/movie crew...

The setting of this book is classic Gothic.  It's set in a massive old house with lots of long dark hallways that seem to change when you aren't looking.  Set back from the main road and hidden behind overgrown trees and shrubbery, passersby are sure to miss the house..   To top that off, the kids cell phones can't get service and they have no other means of summoning help.

I loved this book.  It was creepy enough to keep me on the edge of my seat, but I still wanted more.  Just when I thought I had figured out the mysteries, all of a sudden I was hit broad side and found I knew nothing.  Great way to ensure I stayed on edge. At that point, I actually sat there stunned with the revelations.

This is a good choice for middle school readers who are ready to move beyond the Goosebumps series.

The story continues in You Can't Hide.

I listened to the audio book which was very well done, but since have learned that there is additional materials in the book that really add to the tale. If you are a fan of audio books,  I would suggest that you read the paper copy at least once.

To learn more about the series, visit the website of author Dan Poblocki.

Cover image courtesy Scholastic Canada.

#IndigoEmployee

SYNC AudioBooks for Teens Week 16

Titles available this Week:
Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

SYNC AudioBooks for Teens Week 15

Titles available this week:
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
In My Hands by Irene Gut Opdyke

Rebel by R. J. Anderson

The threat to the oak tree where the faery live continues.  As the queen sickens, her magic fails more each day and the tree itself is failing.  They need help and only other faeries can bring what they need.

Young Linden is the only one suited to such a momentous task, but she will need help  She turns to Timothy, a visitor to the family who own the house and lands where the oak is growing.  At first he is reluctant to help, but the more he learns about the faery and their plight, the more he is willing to help.

While I enjoyed this story, I didn't warm to Timothy.  He was too sullen and not open to the grand adventure he was living.  True to their youth, the two stride out into the world with few resources and plans.  Their friendship has it ups and downs thought they do manage to put aside their differences in order to work together and achieve their goal.

This story has a more gritty feel than Knife, which seemed more enchanted.  Linden doesn't have the leisure to explore the human world, but rather she quickly becomes mired in the nastiness that has almost overwhelmed her own world.  This is a good second book in the series.  It answers some lingering questions, poses more that are yet to be resolved.  The tale continues in book 3, Arrow.   This book was published in the United States under the title Wayfarer.


Faery Rebel Series:

Knife
Rebel
Arrow
 
I listened to the unabridged audio book as read by Saskia Butler.  6 hours 33 minutes.

 Cover image courtesy Oakhill Publishing.

#IndigoEmployee

SYNC AudoBooks for Teens Week 14

Titles available this week:
Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
Shadows on the Moon by Zoe Marriott

Feed by M. T. Anderson

They met during a spring break trip to the moon. It should have been a short romance, but when both of them, along with several friends are infected with a man-made virus, their relationship changes and deepens.

At first, Titus takes this in stride, but then it becomes all too real and he pulls back.  Violet wants to have a meaningful relationship in a world where most people are quite shallow and only concerned with their next purchase that will keep them in the current style.

It is sad to think that there are many who see this reality as our best possible future.  An Internet like feed directly into our brains.  Already we are inundated with advertising and the push to consume even more.  Too often we are willing to let others do the critical thinking for us.  Hopefully this book will serve as a wake-up call to it's readers.

I'll admit, I didn't really like this story at the beginning. The language was difficult to understand and most of the characters were two dimensional.  Lingo and jargon are hard to get a grasp of if you aren't a part of it's community.  But then the story changed, the kids got sick and removed from their feeds.  Then I started to see the real people buried beneath the technology.  By the end of the book I was consumed by their stories.

This is a good cautionary tale.  Should appeal to teen and young adults,

I listened to the unabridged audio book as read by David Aaron Baker.  5 hours 5 minutes

Cover image courtesy Candlewick Press.

#IndigoEmployee

Knife by R. J. Anderson

Bryony, aka Knife, is a curious young faery. She yearns for the world outside the oak tree in which all the faeries dwell.  On her first mis-adventure outside, she comes face to face with a boy.

This is the beginning of her fascination with the outside world.  Her quest for knowledge about humans leads her to question life in the tree and what happened to change it so drastically.

I was totally captivated by this story and wonder why I hadn't read it earlier.  It is full of strong female characters that I couldn't help but love.  I particularly like Thorn, the Queen's Hunter, who teaches Bryony how to survive out of doors.

This is a good example of history being written by the victor.  Without being taught faery history, the new generations have forgotten their rich past and are struggling to hold on to a future.

And that human boy Paul, he was also changed by that chance encounter with Bryony.  He is a flawed young man, but a good person which makes him  a wonderful addition to the otherwise female fast.  

This book should have wide appeal to young readers and is suitable for parents and kids to read together. 

I listened to the unabridged audio book as read by Emma parish. 7 hours 16 minutes.  She did a terrific job of voice characterization and showed excitement and enthusiasm as she read.  

This book was published in the United States under the title Spell Hunter.

My daughter Shannon introduced  R. J. Anderson at a book festival several years ago.  She dressed as Thorn, also her favourite character.

Cover image courtesy Oakhill Publishing

#IndigoEmployee

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Nao is at the beginning of her life and she has lost hope, is aimless.  Ruth has passed most of her life and she is adrift.  Both are writers, Nao at her first story and Ruth at possibly her final.

When Ruth first realizes she has found a diary, she is curious about it's writer.  As she continues to read, she gets pulled into the writer, Nao's life.  Soon the time line becomes blurred and Ruth begins doubting herself and her memory.

This is a story full of choices and their consequences.  (ripple effect).  Time is a also a frequent topic for both Nao and Ruth.  The first has chosen to limit her remaining time while the later ponders how much she has remaining.  Nao's great-grandmother has had the most time of them all, 104 years, which she had learned to use to the benefit of mankind.  She was my favourite character in the book . She seemed so wise and knew the best approach to use with Nao.

At various times while I was listening to this audio book, I experienced widely ranging emotions. I felt compassion for Nao and her trials at school.  I was annoyed with Ruth for her dithering over her writing.  Often I was confused, wondering how the author could possibly tie together the two women's very different stories.

This would be a good book club selection as there are a number of areas I am unclear about that could benefit from discussion.

One of the things that intrigues me about this book, is that the author, Ruth Ozeki,  is a character in the story.  That adds more to my pondering of the time and place of this tale.

I listened to the unabridged audio book as read by the author.  She did a wonderful job voicing the characters, particularly old Jiko, the great-grandmother.  Blackstone Audio 14 hours 43 minutes.

The author's end notes in the audio version indicate that the printed version contains additional supplementary materials.

Cover image courtesy Penguin Random House Canada

#IndigoEmployee

SYNC AudioBooks for Teens Week 13

Titles available this week:
Gone by Michael Grant
The One Safe Place by Tania Unsworth

SYNC AudioBooks for Teens Week 12

Titles available this week:
The Dorito Effect by Mark Schatzker
Sugar by Deirdre Riordan Hall

The Chilbury Ladies Choir by Jennifer Ryan

World War II has reached England and the small town of Chilbury on it's east coast hasn't escaped it's ravages.  Most of the able bodied men have enlisted, leaving the women to fill their traditional roles.  It comes as a shock to some of the women in Chilbury when the vicar announces that due to the lack of men, the esteemed village choir will close.

Primrose Trent, the new music tutor, soon after re-opens the choir to the mixed reactions of the women.  Some of them can't imagine a choir without male voices and other realize that they can't stop living just because the men have left to defend their freedoms and very lives.

I enjoyed the interplay of the characters, particularly how being a small town and in an extra-ordinary  situation helped batter down the barrier of the social classes.  I could easily imagine stuffy Mrs. B. looking down her nose at Prim and predicting doom for the new choir.  As much as there were many characters to love, there were also those that you loved to hate, mainly Edwina Paltry, the mid-wife, and the nasty Brigadier Winthrop (why wasn't he doing anything constructive for the war).  Many of the other women I would have been most at home with for an afternoon of tea and conversation. 

The mixing of fact and fiction makes for an easy to learn some British war history.  An all women's choir was a new thing and the women involved gained strength from participating.  After lives spent being in the shadows of the men, women were finally given the opportunity to show that they were capable of a great many tasks previously thought above them. 

At first, I tried listening to the audio book and found I didn't like it at all. Even though there were different voice actors, all the characters sounded the same.  I thought they were all 40 years old, and they all seemed to be putting on these pretentious, snotty upper class accents.  The effect of the letters and diary entries was totally lost by not seeing them in writing.   I was going to give up the book entirely when I spoke with a co-worker who read the paper version and loved it.  She encouraged me to give it another try.   I'm glad she did, the paper version was wonderful.  I was better able to enjoy the format of the correspondence and get a true image of the characters particularly fourteen year old Kitty and ten year old Czech evacuee Silvie, both of whom I had thought were middle age ladies on the audio.

This is a well told story that had me cheering for the successes of the women and mourning with them at their losses. This is a wonderful debut novel by author Jennifer Ryan.  I look forward to her future works.

Cover image courtesy Penguin Random House Canada

#IndigoEmployee

Theodore Boone: The Abduction by John Grisham

Theodore Boone plans to be a lawyer when he grows up.  Though he is still in middle school, he is already studying the ins and outs of the legal system and helping his classmates with their troubles.

April, one of his close friends, has been abducted , and Theo is pulling in favours and working his connections to find her before it's too late.

I loved this story.  It was fast paced and full of the type of action that middle graders can relate to.  I particularly enjoyed how Theo smartly used the internet to help carry out his investigation.  Theo has a methodical approach that works well for him.  

This is a great book for kids who like to solve mysteries or perhaps who plan to become lawyers themselves.

I listened to the audio book as read by Richard Thomas.  4 hours unabridged.  Mr. Thomas is an excellent choice for reader.  His calm, level voice lends an air of realism to this legal story and reflects Theo's desire to become a respected, unflappable lawyer.

Theodore Boone Series:

Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer
Theodore Boone: The Abduction
Theodore Boone: The Accused
Theodore Boone: The Activist
Theodore Boone: The Fugitive
Theodore Boone: The Scandal

Cover image courtesy Penguin Random House Canada.

#IndigoEmployee

SYNC AudioBooks for Teens Week 11

Titles available this Week:
Rebuttal by Jyotsna Hariharan
Remember to Forget by Ashley Rayer

SYNC AudioBooks for Teens Week 10

Titles available this week:
American Night: The Ballad of Juan Jose by Richard Montoya
My Name is not Easy by Debby Dahl Edwardson

SYNC AudioBooks for Teens Week 9

Titles available this week:
The Witch's Vacuum Cleaner and other Stories by Terry Pratchett
The Witches: Salem, 1692 by Stacy Schiff