katiedermody's reviews
1931 reviews

My first reread for the month! I read this book the summer after graduating with my English degree. I had just studied The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and my prof had mentioned this one. I couldn't recall who was responsible and I enjoyed listening to the other last month, so I borrowed this one from the library. To my delight, Matthew from Downton Abbey was the narrator! It was entertaining and I was surprised by the ending after all, even having read it only 3 years ago. I haven't read much of Christie's work but these two have been very enjoyable.

I am usually not very interested in a lot of true crime stories and don't often follow high profile criminal cases. However, when Amanda Knox, 19 year old American student, was accused of killing her British roommate in Italy I remember paying attention. She was only two years older than me and the media said a lot of crazy things about the case and Knox herself. I have been fascinated by the case ever since, watched the tv movie and Netflix documentary, and now listened to Knox's memoir. I think the reason I am so interested is that even after she was convicted, imprisoned for four years in Italy, and then acquitted, I still can't decide if I think she did it or not. Her story has emphasized the ridiculousness that the media and the Italian court put her through, which I was already somewhat aware of, but there are still some things she says that don't add up to me and I have a hard time believing she was as naive as she portrays. But, it is not up to me to decide her fate and it was still very interesting to listen to her version of things.

I bought this book while I was in PEI, after seeing some of the places and artifacts that inspired some of the stories in it. I didn't even read the back at the time-- I bought it, packed it up, brought it back to SK, and placed it on my shelf until I had time to read it. When I finally picked it up and read the first page, I quickly discovered that the characters in this book loosely inspired the Road to Avonlea tv show! I had always assumed (incorrectly, I now realize) that the Sullivans had just created the tv characters based on the Green Gables stories. It was fun to read about characters I grew up watching and loving (or hating, depending on the person), and trying to find as many differences as I could based solely on my memory of something I haven't seen in years. I loved this book. I mean, I always enjoy reading Montgomery's writing--it instantly brings me a joy that I actually experienced and understood even more while in PEI. At the very least, this sweet book acted as a lovely reprieve from the more sorrowful books I'd experienced this month and gave my aching heart a break.

This was yet another book full of hard topics but the right amount of mystery to keep me captivated. I love when books start with a big event without revealing everything about it and then backtrack to explain the story and unravel the mystery. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng did that, and so does this book. This is the story of a family who moves into a London neighborhood where all the apartments and houses open up into a gated communal park. Here, the mother and daughters discover that the seemingly safe place is actually full of secrets and danger. I enjoyed the story but the ending frustrated me even though it was probably true to life more than I'd like to think. I usually like stories with ambiguous endings and don't wrap up neatly; however, this story reveals everything but doesn't wrap up neatly because of the characters. Not sure that makes sense, but I don't want to give it away.

And now, a lesson on doing your research, by Katie.

Scene 1: Scene opens on a woman, late twenties, choosing a new audio book and stumbling (figuratively) across Girl on a Train. "I never saw the movie but I heard the book is better, so maybe I'll listen to this," she thought to herself, knowing she was very late to the party since the hype around this story had long died down and she still knew next to nothing about it.

Scene 2: Scene opens on same woman, halfway into the 9 hour long audio book finally clueing into the fact that this is NOT the book she thought it was, but an entirely different novel by a different author, simply baring a similar title.

FIVE HOURS, people... it took me almost five hours to realize it wasn't the book the Emily Blunt movie was based on.... and it only happened because I thought "I feel like this isn't going into anything I remember from the movie trailer... maybe I'll google the differences between the book and the movie" and discovered that the main character had a totally different name!

Aside from this book not being the one I anticipated, it was actually quite good and still filled with mystery and intrigue. This one is about a woman on a train who finds out the girl who had been sitting next to her later threw herself in front of said train but had put her locket in the first woman's bag to draw her into the situation and solve the conundrum. Sorry that is convoluted and yet vague... the story reveals key points in its own way so I don't want to ruin anything. I will say that part 2 has a different narrator from parts 1&3, which I loved, the audio book has an excellent narrator. Also, OH MY WORD I did not see the ending coming!!

I started listening to this audio book back in June. I've read and loved the book before and am looking forward to my trip to the island in September, so I decided to listen to it instead of re-reading. However, I didn't love the narrator so I kept listening to small chunks and then committing to a different audio book. Finally, this month, with the trip getting closer, I got excited to finish listening to it! Same old Anne with an E! I still love the story, I just found the narrator's performance of Anne particularly a bit spacey and child like. I'm just so partial to Megan Follow's performance in the tv movies--her Anne was still overcome by imagination but also came across independent and strong.

I studied this book and wrote the final Capstone paper for my English degree about the inclusion of the character Benji, using a disability theory lens. I hadn't read it again since then (over two years ago) and was wanting to, but I found the audiobook through my library and decided to listen instead. The story was as I remembered it, but listening was actually a lot harder than reading it. Here's what I mean by more difficult: the book itself is challenging to read and comprehend due to its multiple narrators expressed in Modernist style; however, the audiobook was easier to follow but emotionally and morally draining. Certain characters of this book, set in the deep American south in 1928 are of their time in their opinions on black people, and one of the main characters is extremely racist and sexist. The frequent use of the n-word and other derogatory terms was something I must have been able to slip past and not absorb while reading the physical copy... I knew it was there, but having to listen to it was a whole other ball game. It physically hurt at times having to listen to the third section of the book narrated by Jason Compson, who is incredibly racist and sexist. Besides this aspect, the story was as I remember it and it made me want to re-read my 35(ish) page paper in which I asserted that Benji Compson was not empty-headed, but was actually very intuitive and essential to the telling of the story. If you want to know more about that, let me know.

This was great! Again, a tad unusual because one doesn't generally read a cookbook. However, as this was interjected with quotes from the books and insights from the author, who is the granddaughter of L.M. Montgomery, I actually flipped through every single page and read every recipe. I am hoping to get a copy of my own and try some of the recipes soon! This was published five years before I was born and I didn't know it existed until earlier this month. This version is apparently a newer, reformatted version and reviews say this one is much nicer because it actually says which recipes are from which books and it includes some of Lucy Maud's personal recipes. I haven't seen the original version, but I definitely appreciated those features. 

This is the first book I have wished I'd read instead of listened to. Because I listened to it at night and narrator Juliet Stevenson's voice is so lovely and lilty, my mind drifted and then I drifted off to sleep. I missed a lot of it and don't really feel like I got the whole story. This book is hard to read and understand. The first time I read it I still wasn't sure I knew what had happened. This is my third time experiencing it and I think, for me, because of its Modernist stream of consciousness style, it is better read than heard. It requires full brain engagement and focus, and I just don't do that while listening. It's still one of my favorite books so it wasn't a waste of time, I am just disappointed I didn't fully experience the story. However, I will say that when the book is read aloud the narrator puts her own punctuation and pauses where they don't exist in the book, which does make it easier to follow right from the get go. So, if this book has seemed intimidating in the past, you could try listening to it. Plus, the narrator is the mom who works in the bra shop in Bend it Like Beckham and, though she is hilarious and overdramatic in that, her voice is perfect for proper British narration!

I read this book for the first time two summers ago but had been a fan of Middle Earth stories since a kid whether in movie or book form. This time, I decided to listen to the audio book before bed. I really enjoyed Rob Inglis's narration and found his voice very interesting yet soothing to listen to. Sometimes too soothing though--I often set a 15 minute sleep timer and would miss things because he lulled me to sleep! I was okay with that though and only went back a few times to see what I'd missed since I'd read it before. Still a great book that I will likely re-read again at some point, but was glad to experience it in a different way.