Books Read
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Wishful Drinking
Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher Published: 2008 Narrated by: Carrie Fisher Length: 03:08 (163 pages) With the latest Star Wars release a few months back, I went down a black hole of interviews on YouTube and was reminded of how hilarious Carrie Fisher is. I knew she had written an autobiography, so I thought this would be the perfect time to check it out. It turns out she actually has three autobiographies and a number of novels, and after reading this I think I’ll eventually make my way through them all. This first autobiography is based on her one-woman stage show, and it’s basically an overview of why she is…
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Golden Son
Golden Son by Pierce Brown Published: 2015 Series: Red Rising #2 Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds Length: 19:02 (464 pages) Red Rising was one of my favourite books last year. I marked it as my first favourite, but I made the list right after reading it, and I might have still been coming down a bit. Either way, it was a fantastic novel. This is the second of the trilogy, and it easily lived up to the first book. He always thinks because I’m reading, I’m not doing anything. There is no greater plague to an introvert than the extroverted. I had a couple of small problems with the first…
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The Last Colony
The Last Colony by John Scalzi Published: 2007 Series: Old Man’s War #3 Length: 336 pages I’m a big fan of John Scalzi, and the Old Man’s War series are some of his best. This is the third novel, and in this we return to John Perry, the protagonist from the first book, and Jane Sagan. This is a tricky one to summarize without giving away parts of the first book, but in a nutshell, the Colonial Defense Forces have decided to colonize a new planet despite pressure from a coalition of hundreds of races not to do so. John and Jane are chosen to lead the colonization efforts, and…
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Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome Published: 1889 Narrated by: Steven Crossley Series: Three Men Length: 06:44 (184 pages) I can’t remember where I heard about this, I think this time last year it was unknown to me, but I would like to extend an enthusiastic thank you to whoever brought this to my attention. I absolutely loved this novel. This follows three men, and a dog, as they take a two-week holiday to travel down the Thames by boat. This was originally meant to be a serious travel guide, but it quickly become more about the humourous insights that occurred along the way. He tried to…
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Animal Farm
Animal Farm by George Orwell Published: 1945 Length: 112 pages (but read on e-reader) This wasn’t part of my high school curriculum, so I finally decided to give it a try. I knew going in that it’s an allegory of the Russian Revolution, but I think even if you know embarrassingly little of that, like me unfortunately, the message of this and the conclusions drawn would be the same, which I suppose proves how well it was written. This will include spoilers. This is the story of a revolt gone wrong, of a successful revolution that ends with a government more oppressive than the one that was overthrown. This happens…
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You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost)
You’re Never Weird on the Internet by Felicia Day Published: 2015 Narrated by: Felicia Day, Joss Whedon (foreword) Length: 06:17 (260 pages) I first came across Felicia Day in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, which I loved, and I later picked up a copy of The Guild‘s first season on DVD at a signing, which was nearly a decade ago now. Not having seen the show at that point, I accidentally ignored Sandeep Parikh at the singing table. which is a shame because he was probably my favourite of the cast when I finally got around to watching it. We even all took an awkward photo together, which I made slightly…
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Fool’s Assassin
Fool’s Assassin by Robin Hobb Published: 2014 Series: The Fitz and The Fool Trilogy #1 Length: 689 pages Robin Hobb is one of my favourite authors, and it’s a shame it’s been so long since I’ve read one of her novels. I lost the will to go on after finishing the first two books in her Soldier Son trilogy. I still loved her writing in those, but I just really grew to hate the plot. The whole story was ridiculous and painful to get through. After deciding to abandon that series (a decision that took years), I unfortunately stopped reading her completely, despite having the Liveship Traders and Rain Wild…
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Bream Gives Me Hiccups
Bream Gives Me Hiccups by Jesse Eisenberg Published: 2015 Narrated by: Jesse Eisenberg, Hallie Eisenberg, Annapurna Sriram, Erin Darke, Colin Nissan Length: 04:28 (273 pages) I picked this up because I thought it would be a good audiobook to have while in Hawaii. I knew I wasn’t going to get a lot of time to read, so a smaller book of short stories or essays seemed like the perfect choice. Unfortunately I started it on a dog walk a couple of days before leaving and managed to finished it before we even stepped on a plane. I like Jesse Eisenberg in his film roles, and he seems like a funny…
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She
She: A History of Adventure by H. Rider Haggard Published: 1887 Series: She #1 Narrated by: Peter Joyce Length: 12:15 (317 pages) I was under the false impression that this was the second Allan Quatermain novel, but it’s actually an entirely new set of characters. It’s a novel that does scratch that same itch, however, as it’s still a story of the Lost World genre in which a group of Englishmen travel to Africa (this time landing somewhere on the eastern side of the continent) to find a hidden civilization. That is simplifying it a little unfairly, but the two books do have a similar feel. A professor at Cambridge,…
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The Power of Habit
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg Published: 2012 Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain Length: 10:57 (286 pages) I was hesitant to pick this up, as I usually stay away from self-help books unless they really come highly recommended, but I’m glad I did. I bought this right at the beginning of January while going through a minor New Year New Me moment. As it turns out, this isn’t so much a self-help book as it is an exploration into how habits affect our day-to-day lives. It’s actually very reminiscent of a Mary Roach book, particularly in how the case studies…