Irene

The time period (1348), the group of characters, and the situations they encountered as they journeyed through plague-ridden England were quite interesting and I enjoyed these aspects of the story. The narrator was excellent. However, it turns out that after many hours of listening, the end, which I expect was meant to be mysterious and thought-provoking, was simply unexceptional, leaving many questions unanswered, and providing minimal resolution - quite disappointing. Ultimately, the entire story was a long journey that lead nowhere.

Snow Child is a charming fairy tale (or is it?). Set in Alaska in the early 1900s, the story is full of details about homesteading and farming in that vast, cold wilderness and the affects of this life choice on the people living there. The characters are all well developed and truly nice and kind people. Not a bad guy in the bunch. This is not my typical reading choice. I like stories that are a little more dramatic: serial killers, court room dramas, vampires, crazy people. The story is well-written, interesting and enjoyable and probably deserving of a five-star rating, if you enjoy simple stories like this one. I'm certainly not sorry I listened to it, but I wouldn't recommend to my friends with reading tastes similar to mine.

The Night Circus is beautifully and elegantly written and the concept is intriguing. The narration is very good. The mystery and beauty of the setting is captured perfectly. So, there was much to love - I wanted to love it - I thought I'd love it. But I just didn't. While the surroundings of the circus were very interesting, there was not a single character to love or to hate. The conflicts, so central to the book's meaning, were flat. The characters were one dimensional. Ultimately, like unwrapping a beautifully wrapped package to find it filled with Brussels sprouts instead of yummy Belgium chocolates.

Gargoyle is the love story of a man (whose name we never learn), terribly disfigured in an auto accident and resultant fire, and the woman, Maryanne, who befriends him and who may (or may not) be schizophrenic. Maryanne believes they were lovers in a long-ago past life and possibly throughout the ages until the present. The very best parts of the story concerned their long history together. She believes they are simply continuing where they left off, and you, like me, may end up believing that, too. I'm not at all attracted to the typical romance novel where boy meets girl, romance sizzles, they fight, solve mysteries, bite people's necks, (whatever) but finally live happily ever-after. Gargoyle was nothing like this. It was very well-written and read, intense, thought-provoking, funny at times, sad at times. I loved it!

I loved this book! This is the story of three-generations of strong women overcoming mistakes and tragedies to move forward with their lives. Well-developed characters worth caring about, plenty of surprises, some mystery, plenty to laugh about and a some to cry about. Joshilyn Jackson's narration is superb and exactly right for this story, which is not always the case when the author narrates. Very satisfying.

There are many Orson Scott Card books that I really love, but not so much this one. The writing is excellent, of course, the characters were well-developed, and the plot was interesting. The time-travel aspect of the story was a key element, which was explained in some detail . . . over and over again. Much of the book was devoted to the characters discussing and thinking about how and why their particular time-travel events came to be, and how each character's particular "powers" were related to all the powers of all the other characters. I think OSC had a very good idea of how his theories were applied, but it was simply muddled for me. I would have enjoyed the book more if it had been much shorter and simply assumed that in this universe, time-travel happened, here's how, and the result. I did listen to all of the book and may even read the sequel (ending left open for that), since I did enjoy the performance and liked the characters and now want to know what becomes of them. Hopefully, all the set-up has been done in book 1 and the story will move along at a faster pace.

Love these pretty simple stories told from Chet's (the dog's) point of view. Light reading, a little angst, happy ending . . . all's well with the world - more or less.

Tedious novel. Miserable people moving from one miserable situation to another. The narration was wonderful, though.