The Winter People - Jennifer McMahon

I was initially drawn to this audiobook because the turn of the seasons makes me crave mystery and ghost stories. I love listening to audio books, as I work around the kitchen so McMahon's creepy story about wishing a loved one back from the dead seemed a perfect distraction from canning tomatoes and making mincemeat for winter pies.

The story opens with a young couple living at the turn of the century in a small Vermont farming community. It's wintertime and bitterly cold. Food's a bit scarce, the farmhouse is drafty, but Martin, Sara, and their daughter, Gertie are making ends meet. Martin hunts in the woods behind the farmhouse, determined to care for his little family. The growing season is short and the fields are rocky, but martin ekes out a living for them. We read of one fall day when he returns to the house, having found a ruined homestead deep in the woods. He's found a bone ring that he gives to Sara. Her reaction is strong and definite ... get the ring out of the house and go bury it, return it to the earth. But Martin doesn't. He holds onto it ... his first mistake.

The Black Tower - Louis Bayard

I grew up in the extreme northern reaches of New York State. That being said, there was this lovely but decrepit chalet-type home that sat on the outer border of of small town called Fort Covington (near Massena, my hometown) that had the legend of the lost Dauphin attached to it. I was always intrigued by the legend that Louis-Charles, the son of Marie Antoinette and Louis the XVI was somehow spirited away from the Jacobin prison in which he and his sister were held. The story goes that royalists helped him flee prison, cross the Atlantic and settle in anonymity in a rural backwater in order to keep him from forces that would see him dead. I wondered and built fantastic stories in my mind how a prince might be guarded by faithful and monied allies and sent to safety to live out his life away from the horror that he'd surely witnessed during the Reign of Terror.

Finding Louis Bayard's rollicking story about the legend of the lost Dauphin, a rowdy, raucous French detective called Eugene Vidocq that has a penchant for outlandishly accurate disguises, a young doctor who is pioneering the study venereal disease at a time when it was ravaging the French elite, and a young French gardener who is mysteriously innocent for one his age was such a fun experience! This mystery/historical thriller is masterfully written and even more masterfully narrated. It was wonderful!

I'll not spoil the storyline by giving away plot, but just know that there is murder, subterfuge, hidden relics of the Reign of Terror and the following Napoleonic era, royals and gentry who are less than honest about their past, bawdy humor, and wonderful characters that are endearing. Great read, even better listen. Simon Vance is a professional reader for the Royal National Institute for the Blind as well as a radio announcer for the BBC radio ... he does an incredible job developing the character of Vidocq. His command at reading and interpreting the story is just stellar!

Okay .. have I gushed enough ? If you're doing a road trip, working at home at a sit-down project or puttering in the kitchen this would be a worthy audio experience. I'm off to return the 'book' to the library and check out another by Louis Bayard.

A Discovery of Witches/Audio Version - Deborah Harkness

Something light and fluffy. That was what I wished for after the last read, so what better than a romance? That's exactly what one gets when one cracks the pages (or plops the CD into the player) of the first in the Deborah Harkness 'All Souls Trilogy' series. This book spent time on the NYT best seller list when it came out. I'd seen the title on the library shelves, but always shied away. I was thinking that it would probably be taking a page from the 'Twilight' trend of YA chick lit. 

I was right. I listened to this in the kitchen, as I performed the nightly dinner ritual. At times, I laughed at how cliche some of the writing becomes. Matthew Clairmont is always ruggedly handsome, with just the right amount of chest showing, knows everything about wine (woman's fave beverage, right?), has the appropriate arrogant attitude and physical strength to throw his woman over his shoulder when she shows any sign of fainting or fatigue. Oh, by the way. he's a vampire. 

Diana Bishop is a brilliant history scholar who is deep into research on the mysteries of alchemy. Working at Oxford University, the books are flying off the shelves as she prepares for a scholarly conference at which she is supposed to 'present'. Things get muddled when she discovers a long hidden text that has been lost to civilization for ages in the depths of the Bodelian Library. The moment she touches the book strange forces are unleashed within her. Yup, she's a witch who has been in denial of her powers and the book brings on a power surge, so to speak. 

The book escalates from that one incident to unleash a history of vampires, demons, and witches that becomes a name-dropper's paradise. The novel revolves around the steamy relationship that develops between Matthew and Diana and references to actual historical events in history that become linked to the premise that vampires, demons and witches have lived with we, mortals for ages and have been at the center of many of the great advances of civilization. Matthew and Diana become a parallel to Romeo and Juliet, forbidden lovers, a lesson in race relations, so to speak. Vampires and witches don't mix and they will have to fight old taboos to maintain their relationship. Oh, and there's the matter of that book Diana discovered that started the whole mess! It's front and center to the story - a convoluted tale that will take A LOT of telling. Hence, the series. 

This is definitely a light and fluffy series - a combination of Outlander meets Harry Potter meets Twilight - a treat for young romance fans ( horny women, is what my husband said, as he passed through the kitchen last week). Harkness builds her story on strong description. She has an obsession with telling her readers the fashion details of both Matthew and Diana, using dialogue over endless cups of tea and glasses of wine as a platform for moving the plot along, and placing the character of Matthew Clairmont at the crucial points in history with very famous historical figures. It gets a bit annoying at times, but I suppose that was half the fun of writing a story such as this! The tales of witches, demons, and vampires are so mythic that they cross over all cultures and civilizations, cutting a  ... well, romantic swath. 

I finished the audio version over the weekend - probably won't continue on with the series until I need another light read. Don't get me wrong here. There IS a place in everyone's reading life for lighter, undemanding reads that are pure escapism. Harkness has cashed in on a profitable niche with her 'All Souls Trilogy'. More power to her!

A Spooky Reading Challenge - R.I.P. IX

Okay, I'm up for this! Fall is here and before you know it Halloween will be knocking on our doors and rattling the window latches. Leave it to Carl to spur me to dig a bit into the murky, muddy, malevolent depths of the genres of fantasy, horror, mystery, Gothic romance, suspense, and real-life non-fiction mayhem. His seasonal literary challenge is called R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril and it runs through September and October. Visit his site called Stainless Steel Droppings  (cursor over blog title = link to site) to read about all the options for participating in this literary blogshare!

I am always impressed by Carl's level of preparation for his literary events. The badges are clever and really beautiful. He is always diligent in catching up with his participants. His themes are always fun and wide open to different readers' interpretations. To boot, he always promotes good dialogue between his various participants.

I'm opting to participate on a few levels. Thus far, I have an audio version of Joe Hill's haunting thriller called Heart-Shaped Box, Dennis Lehane's creepy psychological cop story called Shutter Island, a collection of spooky short stories by Joe Hill called 20th Century Ghosts, and finally a movie edition of Susan Hill's novel called The Woman in Black that stars Daniel Radcliffe. These titles and the movie should give me a few creeps ... I'm also looking for a real-life story that will creep me out. Suggestions anyone? I've already read Helter Skelter, In Cold Blood, and The Devil in the White City ...

So ... that's my scary reading list for the next couple months. What are you planning to check out as Halloween approaches? Check out Carl's blog to see about this neat reading share!

Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand

Since discovering that the secret for audio books and me is to play them in the kitchen while I am cooking or cleaning up, I have constantly had a tape or disc in the kitchen sound system. I have consciously had to stop the 'book de jour' to listen to NPR news, 'Prairie Home Companion' and 'Celtic Sojourn'. Now THAT is saying something when NPR and my fave radio gets pre-empted by an audio book, but I find I love being read to ... a real story, an adventure, or a fantasy!

 My latest adventure is Laura Hillenbrand's account of Louis Zamperini's whirlwind life and his harrowing war experience when he and his crew are lost at sea during WWII's Pacific engagement with the Japanese. Zamperini is a rowdy, smart assed,  young Italian kid from Torrance, California. He leads a rough and tumble life from childhood up through his teen years, a rowdy child who challenges all authority, has light fingers and a daring personality that gets him into all manner of scrapes with his parents, teachers, neighbors, and the law. When it seems that Louis is going to end up in the state juvenile system (or worse!), his older brother takes it upon himself to find a socially acceptable outlet for his younger rogue of a brother. He begins training him on the running track at school. After a few 'false starts', Louis settles in and becomes a track star ( all that running from the law and his parents HAD to come to something!). He progresses through high school track finals and into the college track system in the California state college system. He's fast and strong and because he is such a spirited personality, he gathers a following that supports him and pushes him to greater athletic heights.

Louis ends up qualifying for US Olympic track team and goes to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, placing respectably for a young up-and-coming track athlete. Returning home triumphantly clutching all sort of pilfered souvenirs of the German Reich and Germanic culture, he becomes a source of pride and chagrin for his followers and family. He's a fun and lovable rake with an incredible athletic talent! With aspirations for the 1940 Olympics (in Tokyo), Zamperini continues to train at USC  ... but alas, Tokyo backs out of hosting and Finland signs on ... and then war breaks out in Europe and the Olympics are cancelled.

The American military begins to ramp up and Louis joins up. Here, his life takes a major twist. Louis becomes part of a crew on a fighter plane that is ordered into the air war in the Pacific. His years of resilience and savvy on the streets of Torrance, dodging bullies and cops will look like child's play compared to what he's in for. A plane crash in the middle of the Pacific, a long fight for survival at sea with wounded crew mates, a stint in one of the notoriously harsh prison camps of the Japanese army, and finally rescue brings back a far more mature and heroic man.

Hillenbrand makes Zamperini seem larger than life, but really, the men of that WWII generation were larger than life. Young and full of promise, thrown into the biggest conflagration the world has known, they performed with a sense of adventure, loyalty to each other, honor for home and country, and humor and self-deprecation that took the horrors they saw in stride. It was the only way to go ... and they went there. And back again.

This is a great read, fast-paced, full of pluck and humor. The audio version is read by Edward Herrmann, a pretty well-known stage and television actor. His voice is perfect - resonant and expressive and his pacing is excellent also. It often feels like I am listening to a reminiscence around the kitchen table. I expect to look up and see a group of old geezers yakking up their times 'back in the day' - geezers now, young bucks then in their prime and willing to take on the world. I plan to share this book with my Dad. He might just like this easy listen. At 90, he was in that generation of soldiers, trained for the Naval Air Corps and knows those big old planes. I'm betting he will enjoy this story of one smart ass guy who made it through the hardest of times and came back to tell the tale.

The Lost City of Z - David Grann

This book was a stretch for me, as it covered multiple ventures into Amazonia by the British surveyor, cartographer, explorer, and legendary adventurer Lt. Colonel Percy H. Fawcett, in search of a lost center of ancient civilization. The book jumps back and forth between modern explorations of the Amazon River and some of it tributaries, the history of the Spanish explorers of the 1500's and their high jinks in the conquer and massacre of the native populations of Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil, the more modern rape of the rainforests by the rubber barons, and finally the various political endeavors to become familiar with and tame the indigenous peoples of subtropical Brazil. All these interesting back stories serve to make a tapestry on which the various explorations of Fawcett and his multiple teams of adventurers traipse. Their time of exploration ranged from 1907 until 1925. Since then, they have piqued the interest of numerous other adventurers who have followed them and either become sick and disappointed or have met the same fate as the Fawcett expedition - 'disappeared'.

Who can resist a story of adventure, exciting tanglings with snakes and insects, extreme climate challenges, hostile and mysterious natives, infighting and suspicion between different explorers, and the mystery of uncharted regions deep in the jungles of Amazonia ? I couldn't, but the book was too detailed for me. After reading five or six chapters, I started to bog down, so I got the unabridged audio version of the book at the local library. That was a much better experience.  Listening to the narrator reading quickly and with great expression helped me stay interested in the story of Fawcett's obsessive search for a mysterious lost civilization in the center of the South American jungle and a modern day reporter's research into his mysterious disappearance.

David Grann became involved with the story when he was investigating an Arthur Conan Doyle novel called 'The Lost World'. He came across the name of Percy Harrison Fawcett and became intrigued by this man, considered the last of the great territorial cartographers and explorers and Doyle's inspiration for his novel.   In his investigation of the Royal Geographic Society and Fawcett's biography, he became even more intrigued with Fawcett's drive to become the man to conquer the South American jungle and the unknown depths of the Amazon River. It's an amazing story and a continuing mystery ... is there a Lost City of Z ? Grann's investigation became somewhat of an obsession as he researched Fawcett's private papers, records of the exploration voyages into South America, and made his own Amazon exploration of Fawcett's last expedition - the one on which he was lost with his son and another family friend.

This is an intriguing story that heralds back to Conrad's novel The Heart of Darkness . Stranger than fiction, though, it's a true story of the British will to expand the empire and map the world and a man that tested his physical and psychological limits as he searched one of the last great uncharted frontiers of the world. Amazing stuff ...

The Bartimaeus Trilogy - Jonathan Stroud

Audio books have been one of the greatest additions to classroom and public library stacks - in the years that I spent in the classroom, more than a few audio books were instrumental in lighting a reading fire under some of the most reluctant readers (nine times out of ten, young boys) that came my way. Consequently, I have a soft spot in my heart for any audio book that holds my attention, has a fast plot, an excellent narrator/reader, and is unabridged.

This series, that I stumbled upon in our little public library, caught my attention from the first words uttered by Simon Jones. Mr. Jones is an established Broadway actor with the deepest and most sonorous voice - his verbal abilities and vocal characterizations of the numerous characters in Jonathan Stroud's trilogy make for a wild romp for any young adult reader/listener who has a hankering for a good fantasy tale.

The trilogy centers on the relationship struck up by a young magician-in-training named Nathaniel. Nathaniel summons a jinni named Bartimaeus early on in Book 1 of the series and their love/hate relationship forms the basis for an involved tale of political intrigue within the British government, strained relations and rebellion between the common people and the magician hierarchy that rules the United Kingdom, and the mystery of the void in which jinni, imps, fairies, monsters, and demons reside in the ether of the universe. It's a fantastic and fun story that is full of magic, wild escapes, and mad adventures.

Suitable for kids eight and above, there is the occasional 'naughty' word - nothing horrific, but vernacular, just the same, a touch of innocent romance, the usual rough 'potty' humor that tickles the pre-pubescent, and a lot of sarcasm and wit. Some parents may think it coarse, but I say it's an innocent and fun crowd-pleaser.

Mr. Stroud writes like a screenplay writer in that his scenes are short vignettes that are descriptive and easily envisioned - an important skill when writing for young readers. His command of dialogue is good, although I think reading the dialogue for a struggling reader would be too much, as some of the wit and sarcasm might be lost on one working to carry the thread of the sentence structure and length of dialogue passages. He has been clever in structuring the series around three characters, a young girl named Kitty, one of the common folk who is in rebellion against the magician leadership, as well as Nathaniel and Bartimaeus. Girls as well as boys will enjoy the series and have a character to identify with. Mr. Stroud also does a good job of developing his characters over the course of the series ... one is not disappointed with the way things end, although it may not be to the liking of all readers.

A worthy audio book series ... enough said!