Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Lynnie

nonfiction, philosophy, classics

The last time I read Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations was as part of an assignment in college. I enjoyed it then, and I enjoyed revisiting it now in this more modern translation (by Gregory Hays).

Written as a journal, I often wonder what he would think about people pondering his own self-reflective journey generations later. Mostly, I find myself amazed by how similar his worries and concerns are to those of people today- finding your place in the universe, morals and ethics, understanding the difference between those things that are in your control and those that aren’t, and of course how to understand and accept death.

It’s kind of wonderful to know that regardless of time or place, we all think about the same things. It makes the world feel smaller in some way, to know that all of us continue to search for wisdom. I think the book that I enjoyed the most each time I’ve read Meditations is Book 1, when Marcus Aurelius takes the time to think about the people that are important in his life and recognize the gifts he has received from each of them- that strikes me as a very powerful thought exercise. I wish more of us took the time to do that.

The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia

Amy  

historical fiction, magical realism

Set in a small Mexican village in the early 1900s, the villagers deal with fallout from the Mexican Revolution, the Spanish Flu, and WWI. There are several unique and charming characters around which the story is centered, particularly Simonopio who was abandoned as a baby with a cleft palate and discovered by an old village woman while he was seemingly being protected by a swarm of bees.

Told mostly chronologically, with stops/rewinds/restarts from different points of view, it was well-crafted and beautifully told. Normally, with this many perspective changes, an author would announce the time period and/or the character’s name at the start of each chapter. However, Sofia Segovia did not do this. Thankfully, her excellent writing made things clear pretty quickly.  Interestingly, the story was mostly told in third person by an omniscient narrator. But there were chapters of The Murmur of Bees told in the first person, from a more current time period.  This more recent point of view, looking back on other events in the book, gave a clue about things that were to come for the Morales family.

This novel’s pacing was generally slow but not to the point that I was bored. Segovia masterfully made the characters so loveable that the reader wanted to spend time with them and find out what would happen to them. She communicated the texture of this story so beautifully. Simonopio’s special talents were a wonderful surprise for this lover of magical realism. (Also, I love his name!)

At this time in my life, reading about the political and social disagreements during the Mexican Revolution as well as the traumas of the Spanish Flu made me sad. Americans have learned nothing, it seems, from history. I mean, I already knew this but reading in detail about aspects of life which we are still facing today was depressing. Yet, despite the upsetting reminder of how ugly and ignorant our civilization has become these days, this story wasn’t really about those things. It was about love, family, and survival.

The narrators were Xe Sands and Angelo Di Loreto (he read the first-person chapters). They were great voice actors! But the distraction of the poor audio quality of Sands’ narration pulled me out of the story at times, especially at the beginning before I was able to get used to it. Her voice sounded muffled as if she was too close to the microphone. And she sometimes didn’t pronounce things clearly.  There were times I had to rewind the audiobook to better understand what she had just said. And that was VERY annoying. This happened less as the book went on. But that’s a Big Problem for an audiobook.  Because of this, I cannot give Sands any more than a B- rating despite her effective acting. I give Di Loreto an A-. Sadly, I just read that he died at a young age just over a year ago.

   

Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone (Outlander #9) by Diana Gabaldon

Amy  

historical fiction, fantasy

Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, the ninth novel in the Outlander series, is the novel that never needed to be written. It picks up after the eighth novel left off so I won’t bother with the description—you should only read this novel if you’ve read the others and, if you have, then you know what to expect from this one.

I have to start this review with a disclaimer. As with all except the eighth novel in the series (Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, which was a perfect novel!) I have complaints. It’s not new for me to have issues with Diana Gabaldon’s books. Yet, despite the fact that her novels are not flawless, I still love the people within the pages. Being able to spend more time living in Jamie and Claire’s world thrills me and I will always read anything Gabaldon writes about this cast of characters.

Okay, now for some of my many complaints. This novel spent a LOT of time reminiscing about memorable and significant scenes from the prior novels in the series. In many instances, this was a great thing to refresh the reader’s memory since it’s been 7 years since the prior novel in the series was released. However, there were also many instances where these memories were not necessary to understand the situations in this novel.  As a lover of all things written by Gabaldon about these characters, I enjoyed the opportunity to reminisce. However, in a really long novel, I felt that there were way too many of these. I'm reading a new novel and I want new content! 

Another complaint is that this storyline felt forced at times. As I mentioned earlier, the overall Outlander story arc really ended comfortably with the last novel. I know that Gabaldon's method involves writing lots of shorter stories and then finding ways to weave them all together into a novel. But this method felt so evident in this novel. I could see where she had to kill off a character in order to fit in one of the new stories, for example. I was able to predict a sense of what would happen later based on things happening earlier. I don't recall that feeling in any of her prior novels. Go Tell the Bees did not have a natural flow to it. Rather, it felt very manufactured.

And then she ended the novel with a mild cliffhanger. Firstly, I never like novels that end in cliffhangers because it makes me feel manipulated, as a reader, to be pulled into reading another book. But I was especially disheartened in this case because Gabaldon does not publish a new book every year like most authors who end their novels with cliffhangers. (And I always feel a year is too long a period from which to remember what happened in the prior novel!) I can only hope that the tenth novel will not take another 7 years to be published since it ended this way.

Even with those criticisms, I still cherished the additional time I got to spend with these characters. I adore them so. And I also have to say that I love the gift that Brianna brought Jamie from the future! Although, I wish Gabaldon had written more about his reaction to it. I also loved the Sachem as a new character. He brought something interesting to the story.

I listened to the audiobook until the library audiobook loan time ran out (and I finished reading on Kindle). It was narrated, as are all the other Outlander novels, by Davina Porter. I thought this was the best narration I’ve heard from her. She really owns these characters now. She has a great voice repertoire and accents, did a great job with the voice acting, and seems to have gotten rid of her past saliva problem! I give her an A.

   

Amy's Favorite Audiobook Narrations of 2021

2021 was a fabulous year for audiobook quality. I've been "grading" narrators for a few years now and naming my favorite narration of the year in my annual Favorite Books post. Prompted by my favorite narration choice for 2021, one of my friends recently listened to The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates narrated by Joe Morton. She wrote me a thank you note and said it was her "favorite narration ever". That prompted me to give her a list of all narrators who achieved my A+ rating in 2021. After all, it had been really difficult for me to choose my favorite this year because there had been so many of them! So I'm going to share the list with all of you.

To get an A+ from me, narrators have to be excellent voice actors, have a large repertoire of voices, and have no big sound production issues. I praised these features in all of the original reviews about these narrations. Below, I've only included any extra comments outside of those types of recognitions. I've also linked my full reviews to the titles below.

Here are my Favorite 2021 Audiobook Narrations listed in the order in which I liked the novels:

Marin Ireland in Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

Her delivery of the humor was spot on. 

Brittany Pressley in Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

She did a marvelous job acting all the different people, different accents, and different Oonas.

Gabra Zackman in This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel 

She has a massive voice repertoire--male, female, young, old, and accented. She was even able to present different children's voices! Amazing!

Rob Shapiro in The Second Blind Son by Amy Harmon 

He imbued so much personality into the characters and so much compassion into their situations, he made the novel even better than I could have read it to myself!

Steven Crossley in A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab 

I thought he was perfect for this novel.

Daniel Henning in The House in the Cerulean Sea by
T. J. Klune

What a treasure trove of different voices!

Tom Parker in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

He was very entertaining.

Natalie Naudus in Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard

She has many different accents up her sleeve and can also do male-sounding voices. I was extremely impressed.

Joe Morton in The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

He actually SINGS when there are song lyrics, unlike most narrators, and he has a lovely voice!

Saskia Maarleveld in The Huntress by Kate Quinn 

She always does a terrific job narrating and this novel was no exception. Her range of accents is fantastic.

Natalie Naudus in One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston 

Excellent narration! (Yes, this is her second appearance on this list!)

Kathleen Gati in The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden 

She was so incredible that I was willing to keep listening to the story and not abandon it entirely.

Bahni Turpin in The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix 

I would have rated this novel lower except for her terrific job on the audiobook.

 

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

Amy  

young adult

Camino lives in the Dominican Republic and looks forward to the summers when her father comes home from the United States to stay for a while. But, tragically, her father’s flight crashes. In New York, Yahaira finds out that her father was in a plane crash. They are each grieving from their losses when they find out that their father had a second family—each other’s family.

Aside from the fact that Clap When You Land is a compelling story, it is written in verse. Yes, the entire novel is written in verse like a humongous poem! I thought it was beautifully done. Camino and Yahaira both lead interesting lives. Neither of their lives has been easy but they’ve managed as best they could. Now, with the traumatic experience of losing their beloved father, they are each reeling. But finding out that they share their father’s blood, and are both grieving, is a relief—they each still have a part of him in each other. It’s a touching story.

The audiobook was narrated by two people—one was the author herself, Elizabeth Acevedo, as Yahaira and the other was Melania Luisa Marte. They did a great job.  Neither required a large voice repertoire but they were both good actors. I give them an A-.

   

Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney

Amy  

thriller

Amelia and Adam are on a weekend retreat to try to salvage their marriage. Yet, from the beginning, the reader is made aware that Amelia is holding some secrets and Adam has his own plans. Told from both points of view, Rock Paper Scissors looks back over their ten years of marriage and also describes their current experiences during their getaway. Something is up, but what is it?

This novel did not immediately pull me in. The characters were not likable and there didn’t seem to be any big question or mystery other than what these characters might have up their sleeves in their separate efforts to sabotage the marriage reconciliation. Adam suffers from face blindness—unable to recognize people’s facial characteristics—and this fact felt like a contrived story device rather than a natural character trait. It forecasted the likelihood that the story would hinge on a situation where he would be unable to correctly identify someone. So, the most propelling aspect of the story for me during the first half was to see whether or not I was right about this plot point.

But the story did eventually grab my interest. I became more curious, in a car-accident sort of way, about what these two were planning to do to each other and what they had already done to each other. It turned out to be a “they deserve each other” sort of story and it wasn’t bad. I thought the ghost story aspects of it were fun. Alice Feeney succeeded in telling a creepy tale. I'm not sure I'd call it a thriller or a mystery but it is a mysterious drama.

I had heard these same two audiobook narrators, Richard Armitage and Stephanie Racine, in the other Alice Feeney novel I listened to. They did a nice job. Again, neither one was required to exhibit a very large voice repertoire but their voice acting was good—especially Racine’s. I’ll give them an A- as an ensemble.