Amy 
Lynnie
fantasy
Funny, we both felt like the only ones who did not like The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin (with a 4.32 average rating on Goodreads!) At least we agree with each other. :) Since this book defies description, here is the first line of the book summary on Goodreads: "THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS. FOR THE LAST TIME."
Amy's Review
I had to battle with this book. It starts off so coldly—with stiff narration about a world that is described as if a screen-writer has written the cinematography plans for the movie’s opening scenes. And then, the author plunges the reader into a language that we can’t yet understand—strange words and unusual names and an unclear situation. (Reading on a Kindle, I didn’t notice until I’d finished the novel that there was a Glossary at the end.) It’s like waking up in a foreign country without having the benefit of reading a travel guide. Then, there are chapters written in second person! I do not recall having read any other novels in second person. It’s a bit discomfiting.
The writing at the beginning was difficult and so much is unknown--names, situations, definitions, etc. It made me feel very out of sorts. I felt like an outsider trying to figure out what was going on during the entire novel. I was lulled into a false sense of temporary understanding in the middle. But the ending blew me out of the story as satisfactorily as the ships were blown out of the sea. And then the novel just ended without any resolution. I almost feel used and abused.
I really don’t know what else to say. This is not the first time that I feel like the only person on the planet who does not fully appreciate the greatness that everyone else sees in a fantasy novel. I assume it won’t be the last. But, this one does not compel me to read either any more novels in this series or more by this author. It’s just not my cup of tea. I like to enjoy the reading experience more than I was able to with this one.
Lynnie's Review
I feel like I'm the only person that didn't like this book, but honestly I didn't. I understood where it was going fairly early on, which might have affected how I reacted to it, but the getting there was so slow that there were several times I almost abandoned this book entirely- the only thing that kept me going, honestly, is that I was waiting for another book from the library so I might as well read this one.
Some of the ideas in this book were interesting, but overall I just wasn't interested.
Lynnie
contemporary fiction
The Children is the story of a blended family, told from the perspective of one of the daughters after her stepfather has died. She and her mother (and sometimes her sister), live in her stepfather's family home, which is owned by his two grown sons. The Goodreads description explains it perfectly, "Ann Leary pulls back
the curtain on one blended family, as they are forced to grapple with
the assets and liabilities – both material and psychological – left
behind by their wonderfully flawed patriarch."
The
first half or so of The Children was interesting, or at least engaging.
I enjoyed learning about this strange, eccentric family & their
even stranger dynamic. Then, about mid-way through I just got bored. One
of the siblings was so one-dimensional and I often wondered why he was included at all. And the story's foil was so
obvious from the beginning that I wasn't even remotely shocked at the
book's "twist."
Sadly, I just never connected with nor cared about any of the characters. This book was a definite miss for me.
Amy 
historical fiction
The title of The Master Butchers Singing Club is extremely misleading. While there are, in fact, two Master Butchers Singing Clubs briefly described and alluded to in this novel, the storyline is definitely not about the singing clubs. This is simply a story of life during and between the two World Wars for a man, a woman, and their families. I’m not sure this novel would have appeared on my radar had it not been for the title. I had hoped to get more about the singing club and expected it to be about the people in the singing club. So, I’m fairly disgruntled.
Louise Erdrich’s writing is quite poetic and intriguing at times. And there are some memorable scenes in this story. The one about the show with the Snake Man and the spiders even had me laughing out loud with pleasure. However, it was mostly slow-moving and not my sort of novel. There were some mild mysteries and some crazy characters. But, otherwise, the story doesn’t really go anywhere. It skips around and the reader never gets the sense that any story is completed. There are no great resolutions or climaxes. Fidelis and Delphine do the best they can with their lives. And that’s the story. I was happy to have a mystery solved in an unexpected way at the very end. And that’s about the most excitement I can muster for this novel.
I listened to the audiobook and it was read by the author. While I usually love listening to authors read their own novels, because I get their intended interpretation of the material, I found Ms. Erdrich’s soft, breathy voice to be a bit sleep-inducing most of the time. Plus, she has the annoying habit of taking breaths mid-sentence. I got used to it but am only giving her a B for the narration due to these issues. My favorite moments were those when she was reading the part of Roy. She was most animated then and did give life to that character.
Amy
historical fiction
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is really a book of short stories. Each story is a snapshot of the life of one of the descendants of one woman from Ghana in Africa. She had given birth to two daughters in the 18th century, each to a different father. The two half-sisters do not know each other and had very different lives. One gets married to a British officer running the slave trade out of the Cape Coast Castle. The other ends up being one of the slaves shipped to America. As you can imagine, the lives of their descendants are very different.
The stories alternate from the first sister’s child in Africa, to the second sister’s child in America, and then the first’s grandchild, and then the second’s grandchild, and so on. It goes all the way through the generations to the early 21st century. Most of the stories are tragic. Sometimes the children do not know their parents. Sometimes they must struggle to survive. They are unfairly treated. The slaves in America have extremely difficult lives, as expected. However, the descendants of the British officer do not fare much better in Africa. Modern times bring progress and improved civil rights so that the last generation’s life is much easier than their ancestors’. But, until the recent times, there is great sadness, struggle, and pain. It’s hard to read sometimes. The writing and the storytelling is beautifully done. Since the stories are connected by very thin threads and the stories each stand alone, this was an easy book to set aside between short stories when there were other books I wanted/needed to read. That is why it took so long for me to finish this one.
The narrator of the audiobook, Dominic Hoffman, was outstanding. His accents, swapping between African and American, were wonderful. His voice acting was entirely perfect. I really fell in love with his deep tones and his ability to bring the characters to life. The added benefit of hearing the story is that I know how the African words are pronounced. (However, I wouldn’t be able to spell them!) I give Mr. Hoffman an A+!
Lynnie
contemporary fiction
It's been a long time since I've read a book by John Grisham. The Confession is a
fascinating story about race, injustice, the death penalty and its
implications. Obviously, Grisham had an agenda in this story (as he
often does), but it doesn't make the story any less interesting as it
plays out. The first half of the book was very engaging as the race is
on to free an innocent man from death row. The second half of the story
is dealing with the ramifications of whether or not they were successful
and the lack of urgency certainly slows the pace of the book.
We
listened to most of this book on a roadtrip (thank goodness for audiobooks!) and the narrator does a great job of
keeping the pace of the story and differentiating the characters from
one another.
Overall it's exactly what I expected from a John Grisham book.
Amy 
Lynnie
fantasy, young adult
The title, Strange the Dreamer, refers to Lazlo Strange, who is a dreamer. He is a war orphan who dreams of learning the secrets of the "unseen city" and ends up getting that opportunity.
Amy's Review
Initially, I was disappointed that this world has similar creatures to Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone world. And the beginning was fairly simple—almost geared for middle-schoolers in its repetition and simplicity. I was nervous that this novel would not be up to par. Alas, my worries were unfounded. I loved this novel! And, as with her prior novels, it defies explanation—it would sound crazy to give someone a summary of this book because it would sound so far-fetched as to be ridiculous. Yet, with Laini Taylor’s world-building, it seems naturally plausible! Her imagination is simply at another level. She’s beyond creative and lovely and whimsical—she’s ingenious. I wish I was as talented with adjectives as she is because I fail to capture a worthy description of her talent. The story was magically crafted and kept me entirely engaged. Each new chapter seemingly introduced some new discovery or enchantment or dread. UGH—the dread in this novel borders on too much. And the ultimate “bad guy” (of the several from which to choose) is horrid—clueless, misguided, naïve, and hate-bound. I can’t stand this person! And so, I was very sorry to see the novel end when it did and how it did. Of course, I cannot wait for the sequel (as was the author’s intention) given the way things stand for the characters. And, as my regular review readers know, I am not a fan of the year-long wait between sequels in a series. At least there was a little closure in the forms of mystery solutions and relationship building so I can’t say that it was not a good place to end the novel, knowing there is a sequel. But STILL. UGH!!!!
The characters were wonderful! I especially loved that the protagonist is a librarian! I loved that the author has such a love for books that she described something as sweet and special as a first kiss like this:
“…a first kiss, especially—is the moment before your lips touch, and before your eyes close, when you’re filled with the sight of each other, and with the compulsion, the pull, and it’s like… it’s like… finding a book inside another book. A small treasure of a book hidden inside a big common one—like… spells printed on dragonfly wings, discovered tucked inside a cookery book, right between the recipes for cabbages and corn. That’s what a kiss is like, he thought, no matter how brief: It’s a tiny, magical story, and a miraculous interruption of the mundane.”
And this passage, as well as every other word in this novel, was made more luscious by my favorite narrator, Steve West. He has the dreamiest voice—in tone and accent—and spectacularly perfect voice acting. I hate it when a book he narrates ends and I’m deprived of the sound of him in my ear. (This is the third book of his to which I’ve listened.) I hope he gets to narrate more books soon. I might even be persuaded to listen to a novel that would not otherwise interest me if he’s reading it. Seriously. Do yourself a favor and listen to this man. He gets an A+ on my narrator scale, of course. And, in the case of this book, I also will miss spending time with the characters until the next sequel is released in some frustratingly non-specific date in 2018.
Lynnie's Review
This is another great tale from Laini Taylor. I loved her Daughter of Smoke & Bone series and I suspect I'll feel the same about this series as well. The world that Taylor creates is so vivid that even though there's nothing realistic about it, it feels like it could exist. I loved the main characters and really enjoyed watching their stories unfold, but I also really enjoyed the secondary characters who were given just as much time as was needed.
Basically, I loved everything about this book until its stupid cliffhanger ending, which I knew was coming but found, none-the-less, annoying. If you enjoyed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Taylor's newest series will not disappoint you. Now to wait another year for the second book to arrive...
Amy 
