The Dry and Force of Nature (Aaron Falk #1 and #2) by Jane Harper

mystery

The Dry (Aaron Falk #1)

Amy  

Aaron Falk, a federal agent, travels to his small home town in an arid region of Australia to attend his former best friend, Luke’s, funeral.  But, because of Falk’s past troubles and because of unusual circumstances surrounding Luke’s death, Falk ends up staying in town to assist the local police chief with his investigation.

The Dry by Jane Harper grabbed me from the start and never let go.  Falk’s back story and current-day investigation discoveries were equally interesting.  I wanted to know what happened in both the past mysterious death and the current one.  Jane Harper did a nice job of creating an interesting cast of characters and placing just the right amount of doubt or uncertainty about each of them to keep the reader guessing.  Of course, since it’s a mystery, I can’t say much without giving something away.  I won’t say that I was surprised at the resolutions but I wasn’t completely sure until the end. And I liked the way the storylines wrapped up. There is a sequel which also stars Aaron Falk so I’ve added it to my To Read list!

Steve Shanahan was the narrator of the audiobook and I loved his voice.  He’s Australian which made him an excellent choice for reading this story. He was a great voice actor! My main complaint was that he does not have a large repertoire of different voices. But I enjoyed the timbre of his voice and the quality of his story-telling so much so I’ll give him an A.  I will, however, complain about the production of this recording.  I don’t know if it was Shanahan himself or the director, but there were multiple silent breaks in the narration at odd, random moments which were not in the written novel. (I looked at the pages you can read for free on Amazon to verify that the audio breaks did not correspond to real chapter or section breaks.)  It often happened right in the middle of a dialogue or active sequence and was distracting.  I’m usually complaining that narrators do not take breaks when they should but this is the first time I’m complaining that too many were taken.

Force of Nature (Aaron Falk #2)

Amy   

A group of coworkers goes on a team-building camping weekend.  Ten people go into the woods, only nine come out. What happened to the missing woman?

After enjoying The Dry, I wanted to give Jane Harper’s sequel, Force of Nature, a read.  Sadly, I had issues with a major plot point.  The women’s group, made up of three company leaders and two low-level employees, set off together. Even though this group included two women who each spent a year of intensive outdoor survival training as students, they had assigned the job of navigating the remote forests’ map to a novice. Plus, when that woman had obviously not even taken a good look at the map before they were on-site and setting off with backpacks, and never outwardly seemed confident in her directions, they still didn’t have any problem following her lead until they were lost.  DUH!  The two women with outdoor knowledge were company leaders and I just couldn’t buy that at all.  They would have stepped in much earlier to take a look at the map if the navigator seemed ill-prepared and uncertain. I know I would have!  So, the fact that they were lost is what caused all the trouble for the group. Therefore, this flawed manipulation by the author annoyed me early and ruined my enjoyment of the rest of it, honestly.

If I look past that clumsy device, the rest of it was enjoyable. I definitely wanted to know what happened to the missing woman and the pacing of the story kept me interested the entire time.  As with The Dry, I was kept guessing until the end.  The characters were fun to get to know.  I enjoyed it. 

As with The Dry, Stephen Shanahan was the narrator of the audiobook.  He’s a great voice actor. My complaint in this novel was that it involved a lot of characters and I wished he’d slowed down a little bit at the beginning to let me remember which character he was referring to every time he said someone’s name.  I found myself having to backtrack multiple times, indexing the character in my head and then going back to hear what that character said or did.  This is likely my own memory issue and not Shanahan’s reading. So, it’s not necessarily his fault I had trouble but more the nature of listening to an audiobook with this many characters introduced at once.  So, I’ll give him an A.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Amy  

fantasy

Agnieszka is selected by “the Dragon” (he’s not a real dragon, it’s just a nickname), out of all the young women in the village, to come live in his castle.  He is a wizard and he protects the village from The Wood.  But no one knows what happens to the women who are taken every ten years while they are in his custody.  As readers, we find out. 

I was strongly encouraged by a few people to read Uprooted after loving Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver. (I should also note that I had read His Majesty’s Dragon several years ago and thought it was good but not compelling enough to read more of the series.)  Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy Uprooted nearly as much as I’d hoped.  There were so many long slogs about Agnieska’s lengthy travels and way too many battle scenes for my taste. And then, just when I thought the ending might make up for the long, boring sections through which I’d suffered, it became completely bizarre.  And I don’t mean good bizarre but “WTF is happening?” bizarre.  I believe this story suffered most because, instead of being character-based like Spinning Silver, it’s more about the slow-paced journey.

The narrator of the audiobook, Julia Emelin, did not help.  She read slowly and paused to break just about every 3 seconds, instead of pausing at conversational breaks and commas.  She broke up the sentences… too frequently and non-sensically… which slowed down… the already slow pace… even more.  She is Russian so, perhaps, she was speaking slowly so that the English-speaking listener could understand better? Perhaps she added so many breaks because of cultural differences or her lack of understanding American speech patterns?  Whatever the case, she was more annoying than enjoyable. She also did not do much in the way of acting and sounded like she was reading a book. I give her a C-.

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

Amy  

fiction

More than the Dutch House, this novel is about a family who lived in the Dutch House for about 15 years. The Dutch House was definitely the setting of Maeve’s and Danny’s childhood and a kind of framework of their lives. Because of this house, their mother left, their father married Andrea, and Maeve and Danny were forced to leave the house and fend for themselves. Also, because of the house, their lives were changed again when Maeve and Danny were in their 40s.

The concept for this story was very interesting and creative to me. It was a family drama. I was pleased that Ann Patchett chose to make Maeve and Danny generally happy people instead of bitter and hostile.  They were, of course, entitled to be bitter and hostile but it made for a more enjoyable narrative for them to accept their cruel circumstances with grace and cunning. I loved their relationship but realized that it was a bit unrealistic that Maeve was able to be everything Danny needed.  Danny himself was a bit unrealistic in that he seemed so content to just exist and to do what he was told to do.  He had the gift of acceptance—of people, of scenarios, of his own circumstances—without much questioning or rebellion.  He just moved through life like a leaf floating along water for the most part.  Of course, he did make a few key decisions for himself but not really until he had graduated from college.  But, I enjoyed their story very much and looked forward to hearing more of it every chance I got.

The audiobook was read by Tom Hanks! I hadn’t paid attention to the identity of the narrator before starting it and was so excited when he was introduced as the narrator.  While I adore Tom Hanks, and he did a fine job as narrator, he’s definitely not an amazing narrator.   One quirky thing he did was to introduce each chapter in a grand, overdone way—Chapter TWO!  It made me laugh and had a lot of pizzazz but it really took me out of the story every time.  I’d be reminded that Tom Hanks was the narrator and that this was indeed a novel but I prefer to be submerged in a story. Hanks did not have a repertoire of different voices and only softened his voice slightly when voicing female characters. Thankfully, there were not a lot of different characters in the novel, the writing was very clear, and his reading pace was slow enough that I was always able to figure out who was “speaking”. But, (and this is a point I’ve made before) great actors do not necessarily make great voice actors.  But, Hanks did better than many so I’m still gonna give him an A- because he infused the characters with a lot of heart.  I may have even liked them better because of his narration. I’m not sure.

From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Loss, Food and Finding Home in the Sicilian Countryside by Tembi Locke

Amy  

memoir

From Scratch was a touching memoir in which Tembi Locke focused on the loss of her husband, Saro, to cancer.  But, it wasn’t all just about her loss. She described her own family and past, her experience of studying abroad in Italy where she met Saro, their courtship and marriage, the adoption of their daughter, Saro’s family and home country of Sicily, Saro’s illness and death, and her life since.  However, her story was not told sequentially.  In fact, I thought the book did an effective job giving the full picture even though it was out of order.  It was more interesting that way and allowed for the sad parts to be woven between the happier parts. Tembi only briefly touched on her own acting career which was also a wise choice.  I was impressed with her writing! I did like her references to movies, TV shows, and actors which, also, were appropriate.

While I found it unusual that such a young woman would write a memoir, I do feel that she had things to say and that much of what she said will resonate with others—particularly those who have hurdles with their family’s acceptance of their choices, for those who give up a child for adoption and those who adopt, and, of course, those who grieving the loss of a loved one.

Tembi narrated her own memoir and did a terrific job.  She was always engaging and it felt right to hear her speak her own truths. I’m sure it was even more difficult for her to read the sad parts out loud than to write them. I enjoyed hearing her speak Italian too. I give her an A+.

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

Amy   

fiction

Roy, Celestial, and their mutual friend, Andre, take turns telling the tale of their relationship, marriage, and Roy’s incarceration on rape charges.  Roy was innocent but the system failed. An American Marriage shows how this injustice affected so many lives beyond Roy’s.

These characters interested me from the very beginning. By the time I was 2/3 of the way through the novel, I couldn’t put it down because I had to know how things would turn out. The novel was not told in strictly chronological order and I enjoyed the way Tayari Jones crafted the story. The characters were complex. The relationship between Roy and Celestial always seemed to have pitfalls despite their obvious mutual attraction.  The concepts of honesty and loyalty came into question throughout the telling.  Family history, upbringing, and choices also were assessed. 

I enjoyed that all characters were both good and bad.  I didn’t like any of them better or worse than the others—I simply saw them all as flawed and, sometimes, misguided. All were hopeful.  The novel highlighted the injustices of the court system and the prison system, particularly for African Americans.  But, mostly it’s a story about how people handle situations beyond their control when all their plans are thrown out the window. It felt real and genuine. It was eye-opening and also made me think. I also loved all of the Atlanta references.

There were two narrators in the audiobook—one male (Sean Crisden) and one female (Eisa Davis).  Most of the novel was read by Sean and he was spectacular.  He has a huge repertoire of voices and is a wonderful voice actor. I give him an A+.  Eisa did a fine job but Sean had the meatier parts of the story, from a narration perspective, and outshined her.  Due to the comparison, I’ll give her an A- when I might have otherwise given her an A.  I do have one complaint about the production. For some reason, Sean read all of the letters when it would have made SO much more sense for Eisa to read Celestial’s letters. Not sure why they did it that way but it could have been done better.

The Wives by Tarryn Fisher

Amy  

mystery

Thursday, (it’s her name!) is one of Seth’s three wives. Her “normal” (?) life is disrupted when she finally attempts to learn about the other two wives.

The description of this (thankfully short) novel by Tarryn Fisher turned me off and I only read it because it’s a book club book. Otherwise, I’d never have cracked it open. So, right off the bat, I disliked the main character because she’s willing to share her husband. Her character proceeds to finally realize why she’s an idiot and I’m supposed to feel sorry for her? She wants to male bash when she is the one who knowingly went into a relationship where her husband has multiple wives and her life with him is relegated to two days a week?  Really? She is ludicrous, has no self-esteem, and is her own worst enemy.  She’s sad in her desperation to keep a connection with one individual despite what’s best for her. She put herself into this pathetic situation willingly. I had no sympathy for Thursday and didn’t like anything about her.

Then, in the second half, The Wives finally gets interesting when we discover she might not be the most reliable narrator and it feels like it might actually become the psychological thriller it claims to be.  But THEN,……. I can’t even describe why I dislike this novel so much because I don’t know how to do it without giving away the real point of this novel.  I didn’t like the premise and I didn’t like the author’s manipulations.  Topics are raised which deserve discussion but I can’t state them in a spoiler-free review.  Just believe me when I say that while there was an interesting segment of this novel, the story was infuriating overall.  Not boring—I just don’t appreciate being played. I usually love being surprised and for stories to take unexpected turns. But, this one was too mechanized and pointless since it doesn’t even address the underlying issues raised.  The beginning is sad and the ending is sadder. Nobody wins.  People suck--there’s your moral to the story.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Lynnie

fantasy, young adult 

Darrow is a Red, the lowest caste in society, working alongside his family for the betterment of society and the future promise for his ancestors.  When he learns that society has already reached their goals and he, along with the other reds, are merely uninformed slaves to a self-indulgent society, he transforms himself in order to become what he hates most.

I refrained from reading Pierce Brown's Red Rising for quite a long time because the book description sounded too much like Victoria Aveyard's Red Queen novels and I thought, "well I've read that story haven't I?" To be fair there are some similarities, main characters named Barrow vs Darrow, a class/caste system where Reds are the lowest and Golds (Red Rising) or Silvers (Red Queen) are the top tier and, of course, a Red masquerading in order to fit into the Gold or Silver society and take them down.

And yet, the stories are fundamentally and significantly different; those similarities are really just superficial. Red Queen is more focused on relationships while Red Rising is all about the battle. Watching Darrow's transformation from Red Helldiver to elite Gold student is fascinating, and often heartbreaking. His journey through The Institute was brutal and full of non-stop action. Even when I could predict what would happen, I still wanted to read it.

That said, I just realized there are five books in this series and I do not love that news. I'm not ready to jump into the next book and wade through the strategy, backstabbing, and machinations of the Golds as we learn more about them, but perhaps I'll get there soon.