Readers make the book...

I know I mentioned my new found love of audio-books before, but I wanted to dedicate a little more time on the subject. 

Since switching jobs I now sit at a desk for the majority of my day. And I was getting tired of listening to my choice of music on my iTunes account, not to mention it was starting to get expensive buying new music to ad to my music library. My co-worker mentioned that she does not always listen to music but to audio books, and this got me to smack my forehead and think "Why did I not think of that!" 

So I downloaded the Overdrive media app on my phone that my local library uses to rent out their e-books and I got to "reading". I started with The Help by Kathryn Stockett and I was hooked. I found myself no longer listening to music in my car (thank you bluetooth for automatically hooking up to my radio in my car) I finished that book in about a week and I truly enjoyed listening to it. I moved on from there to a book recommended to me by my dad Lucky You by Carl Hiaasen and that is when I realized that the person reading the book made ALL the difference. With The Help there were 3 different narrators so there were 3 different reader which made the story come alive. With Lucky you there is a few different narrators as well....but only one man reading the story and though he did well for the men voices (most of them) his women sounded like feminine men. Which would be great if that was what they were supposed to be. But they were not so it was a tad difficult to get lost in the words when I as having issues picturing the characters as they were being described.

I am currently finishing up, and I am ashamed to say this out loud....but I am currently finishing up The Book Thief on audio-books right now. And I am in love with the gentleman reading this book to me. He does voices extremely well, and does an amazing German dialect to really add some truth to the story being told. I love it.

One of the reasons I wanted to share this post with you is to also say that I have heard of websites, similar to Netflix, for books. Like a library you pay for basically but they have more of an audio-book selection. Here are some of the sites I have found and ones that have been recommended to me.

http://www.booksfree.com/ 

I do not know if I will join one of these sites just yet. Maybe after I have read all the audio-books that interest me that my library has to offer. But I think it is a great idea and I felt it needed to be shared!! 

Happy Reading (or listening ;)

The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh

Who doesn't enjoy a good mystery? I know I do, especially books that have been compared to the writings of Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl. This book came recommended to me and I felt the need to share it with you. I do believe this will be ordered from the Library as soon as I am finished with the 2 books I have sitting on my nightstand. 

"The Dane family's roots tangle deep in the Ozark Mountain town of Henbane, but that doesn't keep sixteen-year-old Lucy Dane from being treated like an outsider. Folks still whisper about her mother, a bewitching young stranger who inspired local myths when she vanished years ago. When one of Lucy's few friends, slow-minded Cheri, is found murdered, Lucy feels haunted by the two lost girls-the mother she never knew and the friend she couldn't protect. Everything changes when Lucy stumbles across Cheri's necklace in an abandoned trailer and finds herself drawn into a search for answers. What Lucy discovers makes it impossible to ignore the suspicion cast on her own kin. More alarming, she suspects Cheri's death could be linked to her mother's disappearance, and the connection between the two puts Lucy at risk of losing everything. In a place where the bonds of blood weigh heavy, Lucy must decide where her allegiances lie." https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18209468-the-weight-of-blood?ac=1

Thoughts? Will this go on your "to read" pile?

Happy Reading!

The Last Enchantments by Charles Finch

Happy Friday, I apologize for the lack of posts lately. I have been searching for books to share with you and have not found a lot that have jumped out at me. Until this one came across my path and I became intrigued. So as my debut back into the blogging world I decided to share this with you.  

"After graduating from Yale, William Baker, scion of an old line patrician family, goes to work in presidential politics.  But when the campaign into which he's poured his heart ends in disappointment, he decides to leave New York behind, along with the devoted, ambitious, and well-connected woman he’s been in love with for the last four years.

Will expects nothing more than a year off before resuming the comfortable life he's always known, but he's soon caught up in a whirlwind of unexpected friendships and romantic entanglements that threaten his safe plans. As he explores the heady social world of Oxford,  he becomes fast friends with Tom, his snobbish but affable flat mate;  Anil, an Indian economist with a deep love for gangster rap; Anneliese, a German historian obsessed with photography; and Timmo, whose chief ambition is to become a reality television star. What he's least prepared for is Sophie, a witty, beautiful and enigmatic woman who makes him question everything he knows about himself."
Goodreads.com

Think this could be your weekend read? Let me know what you thought of it.

Happy Reading!

In The Woods by Jana French

Okay so I choose this book first because of the cover...and decided to post about it because if its content. It is set in Ireland, and as a person of Irish decent, I have a soft spot for all stories written in that country. But the description of this book made me decide to share it with you!

"As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.
Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox—his partner and closest friend—find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past."

Thoughts? Sound like something that might spice up your reading shelf? Check it out and let me know what you think.

Happy Reading!

Ch-Ch-Changes

So it had been on my mind to set a few changes in motion here on the blog. And after a lot of thought, and talking it out with some of you, I have decided to go forward with the following changes. 

I do not know about you but I am finding it hard to always find the time to read our scheduled book...(still have not finished The Book Thief) So instead of assigning us all books and then talking about them I have decided to open up the discussion page for us all to talk about the books we are currently reading on our own. A way to connect with other readers but also to share different books with one another. 

I will still be sharing books with you and funny quotes 3 times a week as I have been in the past. I enjoy looking up the books and sharing them with you before and after I have read them. I feel like that is my contribution among posting on the discussion page. 

I will be updating the Library section of the page to post the list of books I have written about throughout the week so you have an easy access list to what I have recommended. 

Also coming soon will be a page dedicated to discussions of books vs movies. Always an interesting topic I think, where we can talk about what we liked and disliked about the movie and what was left out, included, or added to the film. 

 I am, as always, encouraging you to write reviews about books you enjoyed. It's always nice for other readers to read someone else's voice besides mine. :) 

What are your thoughts? Excited? Sad? Indifferent? Let me know! I am taking any and all suggestions as well on this subject.  I would love your input so do not hesitate. 

The changes will go into motion this evening so be on the lookout! 

Happy Reading!

(If there are any typos. weird grammer, or misspelled words I apologize as I am posting this on my lunch break on my iPhone so please don't judge me too harshly)