Books Read
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Norse Mythology
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman Published: 2018 Narrated by: Neil Gaiman Length: 06:29 (304 pages) I’ve never really gotten into any mythology. I’ve enjoyed some of the stories in the past, but the names and details just never seemed to stick. Most of what I knew of the Norse myths going into this sadly came from Marvel movies. This is the first time I’ve read an actual retelling, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. A few months ago, I started to play the new God of War game. The story in the previous iterations of the game dealt with figures from Greek mythology, but this one makes the switch over to…
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Only Human
Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel Published: 2018 Narrated by: Full Cast Series: Themis Files #3 Length: 08:43 (336 pages) This is the final novel in the Themis Files trilogy, and I’m really happy with the way Sylvain Neuvel wrapped things up. I was curious about where the series would go after the cliffhanger in the second book, but he handled that perfectly. In this series, a group of scientists find pieces of a giant robot buried underground throughout the world and try to reassemble them, and doing so has consequences they could have never imagined. The story is full of surprises and major events, you really aren’t sure how things…
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The Sense of an Ending
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes Published: 2011 Length: 150 pages This is my first Julian Barnes novel, and I really enjoyed it. Beautifully written with an interesting plot, one that manages to turn the story on its head at the end without it feeling at all gimmicky or contrived. If you’ll excuse a brief history lesson: most people didn’t experience ‘the Sixties’ until the Seventies. Which meant, logically, that most people in the Sixties were still experiencing the Fifties – or, in my case, bits of both decades side by side. Which made things rather confusing. The first part of this follows a boy, Tony Webster, and…
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The Diary of a Bookseller
The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell My rating: 5 of 5 stars Published: 2017 Narrated by: Robin Laing Length: 09:41 (310 pages) I’m sure nearly every bookish person has daydreamed of owning a bookshop at one time or another, and this is a very funny and cynical account of that process. Shaun Bythell owns The Bookshop, Scotland’s largest second-hand bookshop, located in the south-western town of Wigtown. This is a journal he kept throughout 2014, and it details the day-to-day interactions and struggles that come up in the store. Shaun Bythell is hilarious. He mentions he’s been compared to Bernard Black from Black Books, and you can really…
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The Princess Diarist
The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher Published: 2016 Narrated by: Carrie Fisher Length: 05:10 (257 pages) I was sad to finish this one, knowing this will be the last of Carrie Fisher’s memoirs. I would have kept reading these memoirs for as long as she published them. She was just hilarious, and that really comes out in her writing. This focuses on her Star Wars career and the events surrounding it, something she usually skirted around in her other memoirs. The more you read of Carrie Fisher, the more you understand that Star Wars was one of the least interesting things about her, but it’s still fun to hear some…
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Stir
Stir: My Broken Brain and the Meals That Brought Me Home by Jessica Fechtor Published: 2015 Length: 271 pages Jessica Fechtor suffered a brain aneurysm while running on a treadmill one day and nearly died. At 28, she was in good health, as fit as she’d ever been, and ramping up to finish her schooling. This memoir begins with that day, and we follow along through her rough recovery. There are multiple surgeries involved, unfortunate side-effects, but she was at least lucky enough to have quite a strong support group backing her during this time. We learn more about her life through flashbacks, and those memories are always tied, in…
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Murder on the Orient Express
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie Published: 1926 Narrated by: Kenneth Branagh Series: Hercule Poirot #10 Length: 06:12 (274 pages) I’ve been meaning to read this for ages now. When the latest film adaptation came out, I didn’t want to ruin the book by watching that first, so I figured now was the time, even if all I’ve heard about the adaptation are complaints about Kenneth Branagh’s moustache (which I find whimsical). There’s a new Audible edition that is narrated by Branagh, so that seemed like the perfect place to start. I’ve listened to a couple of his narrations in the past, The Magician’s Nephew and Heart of…
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Assassin’s Fate
Assassin’s Fate by Robin Hobb Published: 2017 Series: The Fitz and The Fool Trilogy #3 Length: 847 pages This is the last in The Fitz and The Fool Trilogy, and from what I’ve heard, the last book to feature these two characters. It really felt like the end of an era reading this. I started the first book over fifteen years ago and have just loved this world and these characters ever since. I started reading these before I was researching every miniscule decision I make online, and as a result, I accidentally skipped the Liveship Traders Trilogy. I just didn’t know it was in the same universe at the…
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My Life with Bob
My Life with Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues by Pamela Paul Published: 2017 Narrated by: Eileen Stevens, Pamela Paul Length: 06:55 (242 pages) I’m a huge fan of books about books. I think anyone who spends time reading book blogs will probably also love the genre. I’m not entirely sure what draws me to these, especially since many don’t really dig deeply into the contents of the books, but I think I just enjoy reading about how books are important to people. Pamela Paul is the editor of The New York Times Book Review and has been keeping a list of each book she’s read since…
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Brother
Brother by David Chariandy Published: 2017 Narrated by: Joseph Pierre Length: 04:08 (192 pages) This was on the longlist for Canada Reads 2018. The only other contender that I got around to reading was American War, which I thought was very good and which nearly won the competition, but I connected with Brother quite a bit more. I picked this up as part of my effort to inject a little more Canadian fiction into my reading, and I’m glad I did. It’s from my country but is still a world away from my experience growing up here. This takes place in Scarborough, a neighbourhood in Toronto, in the early 90s…
