Samyann's Blog, page 47

Another AMAZON Review of Yesterday – YEAH!

 Loved it! I’m so glad I read this book, November 6, 2014


By
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Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
This review is from: Yesterday: A Novel of Reincarnation (Kindle Edition)
I’m a sucker for reincarnation stories, I’ll admit it. But I am also a believer that you either get a reincarnation story really right, or really wrong. This one gets it right. Both Mark and Amanda had their good points and their flaws, and loved each other anyway. The story of Bonnie and Daniel pulled me in immediately. I was just as enthralled with the flashbacks as I was with the main story. My heart broke for Amanda as she was struck by tragedy over and over again, and I ached for Mark as he fought through her walls despite her every effort to push him away. I hope Samyann writes another book like this, with a different historical reference point and a different pair of star-crossed lovers. She could definitely have a series on her hands, and it would be a great treat for her readers if she decides to go that direction.

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult – Audiobook Review

No spoilers. This is the story of a young girl who, abandoned by her mother ten years ago,  is determined to find out why. Her mother’s career involved the sanctuary and safekeeping of elephants. With the the aid of a has-been detective, a burned out phychic, and her mother’s journals , Jen investigates her past. The crux of the story, in my opinion, is the research and beautiful, and horribly sad, stories of the elephants. The relationships between the animals, their babies, the human who interact with and care for them, is beautifully told. I’m not so sure this part of the story wouldn’t make for good non-fiction. Leaving Time reminds me a good deal of Jane Goodall and her primates, the fictionalized story of Jen only a vehicle to convey the world of elephants.

Leaving Time is just over fifteen hours of listening and read by an ensemble cast, Rebecca Lowman, Abigail Revasch, Kathe Mazur, and Mark Deakins. Individual characters of the story are read by the individual cast members.  This is the first story I’ve listened to, other than old radio programs, that are created in this manner. The process made for a unique listen, smooth transitions. Enjoyed!

American Civil War – Andersonville and Camp Douglas

Andersonville National Historic Site began as a stockade built about 18 months before the end of the U.S. Civil War to hold Union Army prisoners captured by Confederate soldiers. Located deep behind Confederate lines, the 26.5-acre Camp Sumter (named for the south Georgia county it occupied) was designed for a maximum of 10,000 prisoners. At its most crowded, it held more than 32,000 men, many of them wounded and starving, in horrific conditions with rampant disease, contaminated water, and only minimal shelter from the blazing sun and the chilling winter rain. In the prison’s 14 months of existence, some 45,000 Union prisoners arrived here; of those, 12,920 died and were buried in a cemetery created just outside the prison walls.

Camp Douglas was one of the largest Union army prisoner of war camps, to hold Confederate soldiers taken prisoner during the War. Based south of Chicago on the prairie, it was also used as a training and detention camp for Union soldiers. The Union Army first used the camp in 1861 as an organizational and training camp for volunteer regiments. It became a prisoner-of-war camp in early 1862. Later in 1862 the Union Army again used Camp Douglas as a training camp. In the fall of 1862, the Union Army used the facility as a detention camp for paroled Union Army prisoners pending their formal exchange for Confederate prisoners.

Camp Douglas became a permanent prisoner-of-war camp from January 1863 to the end of the war in May 1865. In the summer and fall of 1865, the camp served as a mustering out point for Union Army volunteer regiments. The camp was dismantled and the movable property was sold off late in the year. In the aftermath of the war, Camp Douglas eventually came to be noted for its poor conditions and death rate of between seventeen and twenty-three percent. Some 4,275 Confederate prisoners were known to be reinterred from the camp cemetery to a mass graves in what is known today as Lincoln Park.

Strange Highways by Dean Koontz – Audiobook Review

Read by Jeff Cummings, Strange Highway is just over six hours of listening. Typical of Dean Koontz this story is hide-under-the-covers scary stuff. The plot is intriguing. A guy is stuck in a time warp, initially bouncing back to his youth to right some wrongs. I don’t usually even purchase books less than ten hours in length, and actually purchased Strange Highway simply because it’s a Koontz. Good story.

The reader is a teeny bit intense for my taste, but whatever. It’s an intense, spooky tale … just shorter than I prefer. Enjoy!

Latest Amazon review of Yesterday – Thanks!

 A Good Read!, October 26, 2014
Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
This review is from: Yesterday: A Novel of Reincarnation (Kindle Edition)
I have to say this novel was masterfully written from the beginning it is “I am going to stop right after this chapter,” and three chapters later you are still reading. The characters are spectacular, Amanda and Marks relationship will spellbind you and the when you find out…well I am not going to spoil that for you. But imagine the most intense Déjà vu you have ever experienced and multiply it by ten. If you like love stories you will love this. I am a horror fanatic myself but was intrigued by this story and truly enjoyed it. I am giving this read 4.5 stars, truly enjoyed it.

by J. C. Brennan

The Extraction List and Between the Cracks by Renee N. Meland – eBook Reviews

Know a young adult you’d like to get hooked on reading? Christmas is coming and the first two books of this series are great stocking stuffers!

In the first book, the dystopian world of Riley is presented with an immediate rush of adrenaline filled action. A well intended law, initiated by her mother, has backfired. The Taskforce has shown up on her doorstep, prepared to take Riley into custody for the mandatory Extraction. Your heart will thump within the first scenes as gunfire and blood pepper the pages. From this point forward, the story doesn’t slow down.

It’s apparent that a thrilling opening will become a signature of Renee N. Meland, because Between the Cracks and Burning Doors opens with an equally thundering scene. Cain, a character from the first novel, is a child severely abused by his father. In a desperate act, Cain kills his abuser, and almost instantly is thrust into an equally abusive situation. While hiding in an alley, he is witness to the brutal beating of a priest and steps in to the rescue.

Thrilling? You bet! Well worth the investment of time, even for someone uninterested in YA or dystopian literature. But, most importantly, this author has opened the door for many young adult readers. I’ve always thought that if a YA author can get one kid love a book they have given that child the gift of a lifetime. How great is that?

Very much enjoyed these stories, recommended.

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Gray Mountain by John Grisham – Audiobook Review

Catherine Taber does not do male voices. Any attempt is barely discernible and lame, at best. In conversations that include a male voice, it is difficult to decide who-is-talking-to-who, a listener nightmare of re-wind hell. John Grisham has a history of using narrators like Michael Beck or Scott Brick, and others who are stellar at their trade of voice-over or audiobook narration. I frown at my iPhone and wonder why Grisham went with Catherine Taber. Maybe, given that the lead character, the POV, in Gray Mountain is a woman? Although sweet, clear in diction, nice pacing, Catherine Taber’s voice is much more suited to young adult or children’s books. Her voice is child-like, teenaged, valley-girlish. Nothing against her … the reading is okay, but her voice simply doesn’t work for Gray Mountain, at all. Bad choice.

So, to those contemplating the audio version of Gray Matter, do your best to ignore the reader and focus on the story itself.

Samantha, the lead character, is caught in the New York collapse of the financial world of a few years ago. Lay off from her job as a junior associate lawyer is the catalyst to a job at not-for-profit legal aid clinic in the boondocks of coal country. Black lung, crooked strip mining companies, and desperate poor people traverse the pages of a novel that is very typical of John Grisham. All of Grisham’s books involve characters and the locale of the deep south, i.e., A Time to Kill and Sycamore Row and A Painted House, etc. Write what you know is taken seriously with Grisham, as is the New England area with Stephen King.

Grisham has an incredible understanding and knowledge of the legal arena and of the southern psyche. His deep love of the south is very apparent in his words, his insight is a pleasure to read.

Gray Mountain is a David-vs-Goliath story, big coal company skulduggery vs the desperate little guy. The story is a bit longer than necessary, scenes and side-plots having little, if anything, to do with the story arc, but considering the arena of the Grisham books, this one fits in well. If you’re a fan of Grisham, you will enjoy the story.

 

 

The Murder Book by Jonathan Kellerman – Audiobook Review

I’ll start by saying I’m a big fan of the Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis characters, and the narration of John Rubinstein. These stories are always an absorbing, easy listens. The Murder Book is not up to these standards, sadly. There are many side issues, way too many characters to keep track of, many of them irrelevant to the basic plot. The entire story arc is much more complicated than necessary. Although I listened to the entire story, as there are interesting segments, I had a difficult time. Reversed the iPhone Audible player  a number of times to re-listen and finally just kept-on-keeping-on, and tried to stay with the rhythm of the tale.

The narrator, John Rubinstein, does a terrific job with a plethora of voices. If you’ve listened to audiobooks for as long as I have, his voice will be familiar. He’s narrated quite a few for many other authors, and is quite good. He is a good choice by Kellerman for the voice of Alex Delaware.

The story is typical of the Delaware/Sturgis modus operandi. A dead girl. Let’s find out what happened. So the premise is pretty much right for the characters; the author execution, however, is not. Complex, convoluted.

 

A Fine Line by J C Brennan – eBook Review

Clairvoyance, visions, good, evil, love, shape-shifters, death, birth, the carnage of The American Civil War … all this sounds like an incongruous combination, no? Stir it all up, with much, much more, and you’ll have a rich stew that is A Fine Line, by J. C. Brennan. This is a terrific break-out novel, the first in a series. Maybe a bit of a spoiler, but not much: This book ends with ‘to be continued’. You’ll be anxious for the sequel; I am!

A Fine Line begins with the accounting of Caroline’s gifts, her inexplicable ability to get into someone’s head, talk to them … and in the process wins the heart of William T. Healthaway II, the main character. From this point forward, continue to suspend your beliefs and enjoy the world J. C. Brennan has created. It’s a fun ride.

There is only one reason I can’t go 5 stars with this story, and that is punctuation. But … as Steven King has said, “story trumps all”, and in that sense, A Fine Line is a winner. Enjoyed!

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The Reversal by Michael Connelly – Audiobook Review

I’ve been a fan of the Harry Bosch character for many years, since his introduction in The Black Echo in 2008. When Connelly made the decision to create stories around another character, Mickey Haller, I was disappointed. I was so loyal to and a fan of the sad-sack-drinks-too-much-go-to-detective that I rebelled. I wouldn’t listen to anything about this new guy. I then read The Lincoln Lawyer, featuring Mickey. I still preferred Harry, but Haller was okay. In this novel, The Reversal, Harry and Mickey work together to bring down a killer, released on his own recognizance for a re-trial, after spending two decades in jail for the murder of a child. Thus is the crux of The Reversal. There are a few thousand reviews, so I can’t add much, other than to say I enjoyed the listen. It’s police procedural crossed with court room drama crossed with cold-case mystery.

It took me a while to get used to the narration by Peter Giles, although I’ve listened to his readings before. He has a very low, somewhat gravely voice. But, eventually, the cadence went well with the story.

A good listen, recommended.