I cannot believe I forgot to post a review on this, especially now when I'm trying so hard to be more frequent! Prepare for more "I forgot" blog posts as I read quite a bit in 2018 but I only wrote occasionally here. I didn't even post on Goodreads, I just read books and never reviewed or kept track of them. Me! Someone who likes to track everything and loves Bullet Journaling!

That was a side note. Anywho.

Sky in the Deep written by Adrienne Young was a phenomenal story narrated by the incomparable Khristine Hvam. I should have recognized this narrator's voice as I loved her for the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series (I still have book 3 to listen to on Audible - these are the problems of a supposedly voracious book reader. There is just never enough time).

In this Viking tale, Eelyn is a loyal warrior of her clan who rivals with another clan centuries old, but when she sees her brother alive and fighting side-by-side with the rival clan on a battlefield five years after his supposed death, everything she once knew as the truth has been turned upside down.

This is a solid and exciting story of a very strong young lady who has to come to some acceptance that her brother is still alive, and with their rival clan. The betrayal she feels that he was always alive is palpable and heartfelt, and since she has to live with them during an impossibly difficult time to travel back to her own Viking clan, she also has to somehow live side-by-side with her sworn enemies. During this time, she comes to learn even more, and especially from her brother's best friend, Fiske. I was swept up in this story and especially loved how satisfyingly tough Eelyn was, without being overbearing and impossible to believe. Adrienne Young's writing has me looking forward to the companion novel.

And another side note: It's so refreshing to read these young adult stories nowadays with such strong female lead characters, and I know I would have enjoyed this when I was younger, considering I really wanted to be Luke Skywalker. What would the world be like today if stronger female representation was more consistent and natural in books, and other media, thirty years ago? Who knows, right?

About the Author (from her website)

Adrienne Young is the New York Times Bestselling author of Sky in the Deep and the upcoming The Girl the Sea Gave Back. A born and bred Texan turned California girl, she is a foodie with a deep love of history and travel and a shameless addiction to coffee. When she’s not writing, you can find her on her yoga mat, scouring antique fairs for old books, sipping wine over long dinners, or disappearing into her favorite art museums. She lives with her documentary filmmaker husband and their four little wildlings beneath the West Coast sun.

Visit the author:

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The first installment of The Folk of the Air series, The Cruel Prince by Holly Black brings young adult fantasy to a fun and thrilling level at a time when I needed it the most.

When Jude is abducted by her real father in the human world after he murders her human parents, he spirits her and her two sisters away into the High Court of Faerie, Jude spends ten years learning to love this new world and even this father, a man who took away the only parents she ever knew. It is a world filled with magic and courts and secrets and thrilling twists and turns, a world that completely fulfilled my need to escape my reading slump. Not many turn to this category when a reading slump happens, and not many even care one bit about young adult books or fantasy tales when we are in our older years, but I'd like to remind you that most of us love Game of Thrones (actually called A Song of Ice and Fire series) by George R.R. Martin. And when once we were all young, we read Judy Blume, or Go Ask Alice for tough subjects, we read J.K. Rowling, or J.R.R. Tolkien, and we loved books and movies like The Neverending Story, The Princess Bride, or  (What? I never wrote a review of this??) and one of my favorites, Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Back to this one, though (and I hope I've convinced you to give Young Adult fantasy tales a try). Holly Black's writing was exciting, toggling us between the land of faerie and the land of humans, graduating the audience from one level of Jude's plans to another, and I eagerly awaited each shift in scene when Jude's plans for knighthood are thwarted and she instead is thrust into a completely different world of games of politics and strategy. When the cruelest prince of them all, Prince Cardan is in line for the kingdom, surprise and shocking changes ensue when Jude's own father becomes more involved in a scheme unexpected by all.

Holly Black is a fantastic writer and The Cruel Prince makes me pine for the second installment, The Wicked King, which I believe is out now but I have to check my library app. The audiobook was narrated by Caitlin King, and many of you may know her voice as she has a bajillion books she's narrated (click here to see the available titles on Audible.com). The Cruel Prince is 12 hours and 36 minutes, and so many people say to me, "I can't sit that long and listen to a book." Yeah, me neither. I don't know many people who do. So since I do a ton of errands and drive my car and clean the house and do yard work, that's when I listen to audiobooks and podcasts, and my life is more enriched because of it. Check out Holly Black's The Cruel Prince or listen to the audiobook, and have a fantastic time. Can't wait for this to be turned into a mini-series of some sort.

About the Author (from her website)

Holly Black is the author of bestselling contemporary fantasy books for kids and teens. Some of her titles include The Spiderwick Chronicles (with Tony DiTerlizzi), The Modern Faerie Tale series, The Curse Workers series, Doll Bones, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, The Magisterium series (with Cassandra Clare) and The Darkest Part of the Forest. She has been a a finalist for an Eisner Award, and the recipient of the Andre Norton Award, the Mythopoeic Award and a Newbery Honor. She currently lives in New England with her husband and son in a house with a secret door.

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Over the summer, in the chaos and hectic days of moving from Florida to Puerto Rico, I spent four months renting a house in my Dad's neighborhood so my son and I could have family right across the street while my husband located the perfect home for us. During that time, I was remotely helping my in-laws' Boston boating business during the extremely busy summer season, so I decided to enroll my son in a monthly summer camp. Thank God for that summer camp for him, and for me, Audible.com saved my sanity as well during my short breaks throughout the day. This excellent memoir of Cheryl Strayed kicking butt and walking miles after unforgiving miles following some of the most difficult and emotionally tangled and destructive points in her life, were astounding.

There were so many times over the years I had planned to read this. Stumbling across the memorable cover in a bookstore, or kicking myself when the movie came out and I thought to myself, "I have to read this before I watch the movie!" Which then meant I always kept putting it off. And I did miss out. I didn't realize then what I know now, which is that I needed this book. I needed to hear what this woman chose to do after all of the events in her life up to that point. I could have used this memoir to inspire me after my own separation and divorce almost two decades ago. I was so impressed by Strayed's decision to do a thing so wildly different than what the average individual struggling with a sudden and unexpected, devastating loss of a parent, followed by the downward spiral into drug addiction, along with her infidelity to her young husband (who, I felt, she treated fairly and respectfully throughout the memoir, owning her failures and mistreatment to him). I was wrapped up in this woman and her feisty and unsure decision to just walk, with a (to be expected) sometimes naive assumption of hopeful results, an overwhelmingly heavy pack on her back, but with a vigor and a faithfulness in this dream. As I listened to the remarkably narrated audiobook, I thought to myself, "why didn't I do something like this years ago? When my mother passed and my former husband and I had just divorced? Why didn't I do something different, something wild, to follow my instinct and guts, to throw it all out the window and just be?" I regret the years I didn't read this. I am confident this would have propelled me into something different at the time, something new. 

I wept for Strayed when she encountered one obstacle after another as she walked the trail, I cheered her on to continue when she screamed out in disgust or anger or frustration, and I was madly obsessed with her overall willingness to just keep going. Because that's exactly how life is, isn't it? Somehow, we just keep plugging along, one foot in front of the other, trying to make the best out of all of the messes we create. In a vague and long life, we just make it happen, we just do it. In Strayed's time of just over 3 months to walk the Pacific Coast Trail, her life was singularly isolated and compacted into that stretch of trail, and she could view all of the missteps and mistakes, and identify some of the choices she now needed to make.

Books were a necessary weight for her, and I would feel the torture of painfully ripping pages out after she was done with it to make fires and relieve the burden on her back. She could never carry more than what she needed, and this human filled with flaws, regrets and hope, legitimately walked it all. She wasn't one of the many who would frequently stop and spend nights in a hotel. She had nothing except a self-esteem filled with confusion and sadness, and you certainly can't pay for a hotel room with that. So on she walked, 1,100 miles and 94 days, alone, hungry at times, with some pretty bad wicked blisters to contend with. But she never, ever gave up. Not once.

Side note: Following this book, I listened to Bill Bryson's A Walk through the Woods of the Appalachian Trail, and all I could think was, "Cheryl Strayed could beat Bill Bryson any day." Either by walking trails and writing. Sorry, Mr. Bryson, but I'm team Cheryl all the way, forever and ever. She didn't walk during the day and spend nights in hotels. She was an all out bad ass.

(Click here to follow me on Goodreads or click here on Audible.com to listen to a sample.)

Wild on Audible.com:

Wild is a powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an 1100-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe - and built her back up again. At 22, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State - and to do it alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little more than “an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise.” But it was a promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone. Strayed faced down rattlesnakes and black bears, intense heat and record snowfalls, and both the beauty and loneliness of the trail. Told with great suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild vividly captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

Movie thoughts: I watched Reese Witherspoon in Wild, and I think she knocked it out of the park. It was intense, beautiful, heart-wrenching, and filled with guilt so intensely felt that I owned this author's pain, once again. It was a beautiful adaptation. A movie just as good as the book. 

About the Author (from Wikipedia)

Cheryl Strayed is an American memoirist, novelist, essayist and podcast host. The author of four books, her award-winning writing has been published widely in anthologies and major magazines. She's amazing, and her actual bio (click here) is chockfull of all of her incredible nuances, life lessons, and general insights into her incredible personality.

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When once I proudly proclaimed I would never read a self-help or self-awareness book, or any type of non-fiction that would steer me in any one particular direction, I now cannot put them down. I always stayed away from self-help sections in the bookstores, and now, in my early forties after battling breast cancer, with a toddler who runs my day and life chapters changing each minute (most recently for some really amazing opportunities!), I am easily drawn towards any book that will help actualize my fears, anxieties, change behaviors, learn more, deal more, live better and live happier.

It's been an interesting and absolutely challenging four years. I used to blog all the time and had a decent readership. I was excited about the books I would select to read, finish in a week or less, and then spend time putting together quality content for a thorough review. I then had a baby, was diagnosed with breast cancer when he was seven months old, went through a double mastectomy, chemo, and radiation, and two reconstructions, and while I still (obviously) take medicine every day, I'm thankfully rounding the corner to having it further and further away in my rear view mirror. I have grown more in my faith, learned a lot about patience (that's mostly because of hello, a toddler and all...!), and generally just really begun to appreciate life and living. Now. Now when I'm at the age I am now, I finally think I appreciate more things and recognize more than I ever have before on the toxic things I need to let go off, and the positive aspects I need to make more regular actions in my life.

The Power of Habit (listen to an audio sample by clicking here - the narrator was awesome, by the way) was eye-opening. Find the trigger, or the cue that makes you delve into your habit, and change that cue, and then give yourself a reward for that change. Do it, make yourself do it - even if it means tying your running shoes on first thing in the morning when you really don't want to run. Change the cue to change the routine. 

The last few chapters unexpectedly went down a different route a bit with extremely detailed examples of social habits and crowd influence, which while I found interesting, didn't relate to what I thought the general idea of the book was intending to focus on, which was how habit can be debilitating or positively life-changing, and how the smallest change in the pattern of your behavior can change any of your habits. It's an excellent overview, a fascinating peek into the whys and hows of what we do and how we do it, and I highly recommend it overall. It certainly changed my perspective on what I want to do with the rest of my life, what I want to instill in my son, and how I want to behave for my own personal growth and health. I want to enjoy this life and not be held back by any old habits that walk me down the path of fear and anxiety. I'm done with that, folks.

FTC Disclosure: I downloaded this audiobook through my membership on Audible.com

About the Author

Charles Duhigg worked at the New York Times, won a Pulitzer Prize, studied at Yale and Harvard, and is the author of a multitude of articles and books, including The Power of Habit and Smart Faster Better.

Visit the author:

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Traveler's Notebook & postal pouch by SojournerUSA, coffee by Starbucks' Breakfast Blend

In trying to make blogging my regular habit again, I took a look at my Audible cloud list, and realized how many books I've listened to over the years that still resonate with me today. To those who are new to audiobooks or feel it's something for people out of touch (hey!), fret not. I also had a hard time adapting and learning how to listen to a book versus reading it. It just wasn't something I was used to and after many failed attempts, it then became an acquired skill. It changed once I found a story I immediately connected with and was read by an engaging narrator. I was then forever hooked to this new way to "read." (Side note: Many years ago, I was at the mind-blowing BEA in New York and attended the APA Audiobook and Author Tea side panel. I choked up, as did many, when an attendee who was blind stood up and said, "thank you for making these audiobooks and doing them so well now. I can finally read again.")

But when should you listen to an audiobook? (Whenever.) Are there specific ways to listen to it?  (No.) What if you're not used to it? (Okay. So what? Try.)

Simply put, all I need is my iPhone and earbuds (iBuds? earphones?) and that's it. I do have an Audible membership, but you can always download books from your local library as well.

When to Listen to an Audiobook

• Errands (grocery store, post office, etc.)
• Long road trips
• Short road trips
• Any time in the car
• Silent moments between partners in the car and you can sneak your headphones in
• Staring placidly out at any body of water, drinking coffee or tea
• Running (this I highly recommend. I found when I listened to music, I used to run at the pace/beat of the song. Thus, if I needed to slow down but was listening to a fast song, I would run faster than I should. Listening to an audiobook helped me control my pace. And trust me, It, by Stephen King and read by actor Steven Weber is entirely MUCH freakier while running at night. Passing sewers is a completely different experience.)
• Cleaning the house
• Then really cleaning the house
• Then using the Flylady, Clutturbug, or Melissa Maker techniques and really CLEANING the house
• Taking a shower (No lie. I will use the Bluetooth connection to a small mobile speaker and listen to the book while I take even a short shower.)
• Gardening
• When Netflix has too many options (or Amazon or Hulu)
• When taking the crazy toddler to the playground
• Journaling and needing background noise
• Playing with art and watercoloring away
• Bible journaling

When Not to Listen to an Audiobook (Say what now? When to NOT listen?)

• I... well, I guess when you're trying to nap
• If something is on fire?
• ...

I've listened to so many audiobooks that my commute anywhere is not right without a story filling my head. Right now, I'm listening to Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen Meany that was part of Ti's Book Chatter readalong and that I optimistically dove into but failed miserably to read while she was hosting it. Then, as my history would predict, once any readalong timeframe concludes, I jump into it only then, and with full enthusiasm.

The main message is this: Try. Just try it out.

Find something that you think you might like and start listening to it while heading on a road trip or doing long errands and just pop it on. Don't get overly ambitious and first try with a thirty-four-hour audiobook; instead, pick something that has rave reviews for both story and performance, fitting in a genre you like, and pick something around eight to ten hours long, maximum. Something that would fit in your "wheelhouse," as we say in the corporate world, when most of us don't know what it means. Try. If you're not connecting to it, move onto something else. But always give it a shot just in case. You might be missing something that you end up truly loving. That was how it was for me. Now, I can't go a single day without at least five or ten minutes with a story. That is one habit I don't quite anticipate ever giving up.

I have been reading. I promise. Mostly non-fiction, self-help (yeah, I know, when did I start doing that?) books.

And audiobooks. Ugh. I was struggling for a while.

Then my brother-in-law recommended this 34 hour audiobook. The last time I listened to a book that long was It, by Stephen King, and I was really walking and running a lot so it was easy to dive into that story and it was AWESOME. But I never feel like I have time now.

Within an hour of listening to this story (or probably less) I realized I absolutely had to make time for this Stoker-award winning story. I'm just going to say it: this easily falls into one of my "favorites" of all time audiobooks, and also books. The story itself would also land in my "Stephen King, sorta like The Stand or Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian epic story/tale" category. Yeah, I liked it that much. In fact, I LOVED it. My brother-in-law and I don't always see eye-to-eye (I'm pretty sure it's because I'm right all the time. Just kidding!), but the one thing we have always had in common is reading, and reading and listening to incredible stories. This was a phenomenal recommendation from him.

And get this: It's been thirty years since Swan Song was first published, and they are releasing a thirtieth signed limited edition with a gorgeous cover from Subterranean Press this year:

There's not a lot of insight on why the nuclear bombs explode, but it's clear that almost every country decides they have to use theirs to protect themselves, which ultimately results in a nuclear wasteland of our nightmares. Only a few survive. Somehow, a woman who calls herself Sister in New York, a former wrestler in Alabama named Joshua, and a young girl named Swan, have made it through this and their stories begin. Each have a back story where they have suffered deeply, but the goodness within each of them is their foundation to continue living, to thrive and to keep order in chaos.

But something is really different in this nuclear world, something that no one ever had to deal with before. Monsters now exist. Or were they always there and now we can see them? Is it heaven and hell on earth, or did all of those nuclear bombs mutate people and animals into beings beyond imagination? Swan has always had certain abilities, but have they magnified in her now because of the radiation?

This is an incredible story that is told from start to finish without missing a beat, never slowing down, and never skimping, and it's such a good one. I have a portable, water-resistant bluetooth speaker and I would even prop this up in my shower so I could listen to the story unfold. It is that good.

Note: Yes, Robert McCammon may be a horror writer, but I assure you that while there are certain elements that are frightening, this is a book that anyone can read and enjoy. 

Listen to a sample by clicking here.

FTC Disclosure: I downloaded this book through my membership at Audible.com

About the Author

Robert McCammon is the author of over twenty books, and the winner of multiple book awards He is

from Birmingham, Alabama. For a much better overview of this prolific writer, visit him:

• On his website
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As many of you already know, I have been a fan of The X-Files since I was in college twenty-some years ago and I was one of many who excitedly watched when the series first premiered. I was heartbroken when the series concluded, and then ecstatic when the series returned for six episodes earlier this year after almost fifteen years since an original episode was filmed, and eight years since the last film. Suffice it to say that THERE BETTER BE MORE episodes.

I decided to give Gillian Anderson's EarthEnd Saga trilogy a try, especially since her voice is so distinct and frankly, I wanted to extend the series just a little bit more. I was expecting something that was a little X-File-ish, with a brainy twist, and that's exactly what I got. I'm not certain how much of this story is hers, or her co-author, but I'm going with the thought that Anderson had the concept, the idea, and the story is all hers, and Jeff Rovin helped her map it out and clean it up. That works for me.

I won't lie that I was a little surprised that the story was as interesting as it was. When a famous child psychologist is asked to help the young daughter of India's Ambassador to the UN, who begins to start speaking in tongues, I was immediately drawn in. Caitlin O'Hara does everything she can for Maanik, but it soon becomes evident that there is a larger crisis, one that connects people from all around the world in life-threatening situations. Caitlin has to track down the link, leaving her son behind with her father to find out what's happening. Caitlin was a character that I respected and liked, but it was her relationship to her hearing-challenged son that won it over for me. I loved how Anderson voiced Caitlin, and the description of the signing communication between them both was so very sweet and full of heart. There was something special there that extended beyond the actual story.

This was a good story, an adventure with a twisty road full of otherworldly moments and goosebump-inducing scenes. I'm looking forward to the second installment in the saga, and especially the audio version.

To listen to a sample of the audiobook, please click here.

FTC Disclosure: I downloaded this book through my membership at Audible.com 

About the Author and Narrator

Gillian Anderson is an American actress, most notably for her work in The X-Files, Hannibal, The Fall, and one of my favorites, the film adaptation of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth. 

Jeff Rovin is an American magazine editor and freelance writer who has been on the New York Times Bestseller List, and has co-authored and authored more than twenty books.

Nothing says "get swept up in a completely awesome and outrageous (and oftentimes hilarious) sci-fi story" like when you start any Peter Clines' novel, and The Fold is no different. I spent every single second I could listening to this book and within a day and a half over one weekend, I was finished.

Mike is just a regular high school teacher. Please keep it that way. Don't get into his life and rummage around in it and then get him wrapped up in some sort of drama he wants no part of. Just don't. He likes things the way they are, and that's just how it is.

When an old buddy of Mike's pulls him into a DARPA secret time travel government project called The Albuquerque Door whose team insists that it's safe to travel through it, Mike's true and intense intelligence finally comes out, whether he wants it to or not. After all, when you're talking about folding time and space so that you can travel hundreds of feet in an instant, how safe can it really be? With unending energy on each page, The Fold has become one of Peter Clines' best efforts of science fiction, time travel, alternate universes and more. This is an absolute ride of fun, and I have yet to be disappointed by any of his work. Peter Clines, one of my favorite authors, no doubt about it.

And oh by the way, Ray Porter was the narrator. We all know he's awesome because he also narrated 14 (also a Peter Clines' novel), and Haruki Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Click here to listen to a sample from The Fold.

FTC Disclosure: I downloaded this book through my Audible.com membership.

About the Author
Peter Clines is the author of numerous short stories, Ex-Heroes, Ex-Patriots, –14–, The Eerie Adventures of the Lycanthrope Robinson Crusoe. For a more perfect bio to read, click here.

Visit the author:

• On his website
• On his blog
• On Facebook
• On Tumblr

About the Narrator

Ray Porter is an actor and casting director, known for Almost Famous (2000), Argo (2012) and The Runaways (2010).

I downloaded this on a complete whim and I'm so glad I did. I've been Netflix-binging all nine seasons of The X-Files in anticipation of their six-episode return to Fox in January, so sci-fi stories featuring aliens is sort of my thing right now.

Fear the Sky was awesome. Just AWESOME.

Earth is a prized commodity to the universe. It is one that in a very short period of time, millions of members of another race, an alien race, will come to take Earth from humans and use it for what they want. Without even wanting to take the opportunity to generate dialogue with humans, the plan is to come, take and destroy.

Before this happens, alien reconnaissance is planned. With agents disguised as human, who supersede all human intelligence and technology, they infiltrate and learn and report back on potential challenges and plan the eventual destruction of all humans.

When one man identifies an anomaly on a visual report of space, the partnership developed within a small but high-level group of people within the United States covering all areas from the military to the government begins, one that must be kept secret even from the President. After all, who would really believe that aliens were going to come to earth, or even that some were already here?

As this small team of devoted and dedicated patriots to the human race begin to investigate, plan, and ultimately defend, Fear the Sky becomes a powerhouse of a sci-fi story that I could not stop listening to. I wanted more - I wanted all of the trilogy released at once.

It is a story a little heavier on the science and technical side than I'm used to, but it was a phenomenal story that I need more of. My only wish was that the word "ignominious" was used less. That's it.

The reader was R.C. Bray, and we all know and love his work anyway. The link to the sample audio is here.

FTC Disclosure: I downloaded this from Audible.com via my monthly membership fee.

About the Author (from Goodreads)

Stephen Moss was born in England, but spent time as a child in wildly diverse places, including several years in Brazil, Belgium, and Malaysia.

He eventually settled in New York, but still travels avidly, something he uses as inspiration and input to his writing. Stephen is a fan of Hard SF by masters such as Iain M. Banks, Peter F. Hamilton and Orson Scott Card and the many fantastic writers creating masterpieces every year. 

His first series, The Fear Saga, combines his passion for Hard Science Fiction with his passion for travel. The three-part series takes place across the globe, from London to Brussels, Africa to Antarctica, the Hindu Kush mountains to the back streets of Tel Aviv. The few places in the books which Stephen hasn't been to in person he researches avidly, wanting to put his characters into the reality of their surroundings, and knowing that the settings for a story are as important as the individuals you then paint into them.

Visit the author:

• On Facebook
• On Goodreads
• On Amazon

About the Narrator

R.C. Bray is awesome and has narrated several books, but my favorite will always be The Martian.

Visit the narrator:

• On his website
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• On Twitter
• On YouTube
• On SoundCloud

UPDATE [01/15/16]: An earlier version of this review incorrectly identified a different narrator for the work. This has been corrected - and my apologies for the error!

I was completely surprised by this thoughtful and unique post-apocalyptic tale of young teenagers in the world since a massive explosion happened, an explosion so impacting and devastating that the world and people living in it would forever be changed. The new normal has become one in which bodies fused to metal or wood, or even other people or animals, has now been born.

In the nine years since the Detonations, Pressia and her grandfather struggle to live and make a life. One of Pressia's hands fused with the doll she was holding when the blasts occurred and now the doll's head has become one with her fist. Her grandfather fused with a metal fan which is now in his throat. In this new world they live in, everyone around them has had their bodies blended to something, or has been left with scars incredibly severe. No one is without blemish, unless you live in the Dome.

The Dome is hidden, filled with those who were unscathed and untouched by the blasts, protected on the very day the Detonations happened. They are known almost as a myth of an all-knowing entity, overseeing those who live outside the Dome, and who one day will come back and help those who were hurt. One day this will happen, but it's unknown when. For these nine years, the inhabitants of the Dome, also known as the Pures, have never ventured outside, and those who are fused or scarred beyond recognition, don't know the Dome's location.

Partridge is considered one of the Pures, a body perfectly clean and free of scars and marks, or fusions to objects. He is surrounded by people like him, and he does not know what awaits him outside of the Dome, but he is prepared to search for his mother. His decision to leave the Dome is unheard of and when he escapes and enters into a world where his pure and untouched face and body are so easily noticed, Pressia is the one who helps him. Along with Bradwell (fused to a bird) and El Capitan (fused with his brother), the journey begins. With unsettling and startling characters who at first might be unexpected, their disfigurements became a part of the landscape of this new world, "normalizing" it and making it unique and part of each character's personality. What a beautiful array of characters with so many incredible characteristic advantages and contributions to the adventure, and this story will stay with me for a while. I'm excited that this is a trilogy, so I'll be downloading the second installment soon.

The narrators were phenomenal. I should have realized this was going to be a homerun audiobook when I saw the list: Khristine Hvam, Joshua Swanson, Kevin T. Collins, and Casey Holloway. Khristine Hvam is the narrator for Daughter of Smoke and Bone and Days of Blood and Starlight, and she was awesome, so Pure is in extremely good company with this team. Click here to listen to an audio sample.

FTC Disclosure: I downloaded this book through my Audible.com membership.

About the Author (from her website)

Ah, there's a lot going on with this author! Such cool stuff. For her complete bio, visit her at the following sites:

• On her website
• On Facebook
• On Twitter

My  Instagram post about The Martian audiobook is:

If you listened to The Martian by Andy Weir, narrated by R.C. Bray and you didn't like it, WE CAN NO LONGER BE FRIENDS.

 I really should just leave it at that.

Fine, so here's more. Mark Watney is the only member of a crew who survived a devastating dust storm on Mars after being the first man to walk on the red planet. His commander and the rest of the crew "confirmed" he had died and without risking more lives to secure his body and bring him back, they make the heart-wrenching decision to leave him. The only problem is that Watney did survive, and somehow he's got to figure out how to stay alive until rescue comes. And in the meantime, he should probably figure out how to communicate with them also so that they know he actually did make it through the dust storm. When I write "meantime," I should clarify that I'm speaking in days.... as in hundreds of days. Somehow, in those hundreds of days, Mark Watney has to keep his air supply going, feed himself, keep his electronics up to par, maintain his humor, and generally just NOT DIE.

Through intelligence, training, dedication, and absolute extreme humor, Mark Watney is one of the most engaging characters to get to know. With his journal and video logs, combined with life on earth responses and characters who ranged from the tight-assed (but completely understandable) PR specialist and the brilliant but relaxed research scientists, the audiobook version was a winner in every way. While there were more than enough moments that had me cracking up, the successful balance of scenes that made me hold my breath wondering if Watney would make it out of this one continued and I refused every excuse to take a break from listening. I'm sure this has been written already somewhere by someone much smarter than me, but this was Apollo 13 on Mars, and DAMN IT WAS AWESOME.

It's going to be a movie and Matt Damon will play Mark Watney. I think he's a PERFECT choice, along with the rest of the cast. I just hope and pray they stay true to the book's humor and sincerity.

The story is fantastic, R.C. Bray as the audiobook narrator is incredible, and the author rocked it. Matt Damon, there's a lot riding on your shoulders, my man. I'm pulling for you.

As I mentioned earlier, if you read The Martian or listened to the audiobook, and didn't like it, we really, really have to reconsider our friendship. #truthhurts

FTC Disclosure: I downloaded this audiobook via my Audible.com membership.

About the Author (from his website)

ANDY WEIR was first hired as a programmer for a national laboratory at age fifteen and has been working as a software engineer ever since. He is also a lifelong space nerd and a devoted hobbyist of subjects like relativistic physics, orbital mechanics, and the history of manned spaceflight. The Martian is his first novel.

"Because survival is insufficient."

So proclaims the tattoo on Kirsten Raymonde's arm, as she works with The Traveling Symphony, more than ten years after almost 99% of the world succumbed to a deady flu outbreak. Traveling with her fellow actors and musicians to ensure that the arts never die, Kirsten becomes one of the key figures to the description of life after.

Kirsten Raymonde once performed on stage with a famous actor from Hollywood, Arthur Leander, when she was a child. Her most vivid memory of life before is the night he died onstage of a massive heart attack. Jeevan, once a member of the paparazzi and now an EMT, rushes onstage to try to bring Arthur back to life, and Clark, an old friend of Arthur's, is the one who calls Miranda to tell her the news. Miranda, a high-powered executive in the shipping world and one of Arthur's ex-wives, is on the other side of the world, successful in both her career and in her ongoing hobby of drawing and writing her graphic novel Doctor Eleven, full of imagination and adventure in an otherworld known as the "Undersea." That very same night, a deadly flu outbreak quickly tore through civilization, frightening viewers watching the news and eventually killing nearly everyone on earth.Within a few weeks, the once beautiful life of civilization and law and order was over. 

Alternating between the years after devastation and the years before, Emily St. John Mandel's delicately detailed design of life is incredibly vivid. Focused on a few key characters, the descriptions of the flu, the desolation following it, and how survivors crafted solutions to maintain life is brilliant. And my favorite character, Miranda, and her ongoing project of Doctor Eleven, was fantastic. I am thrilled to hear that the author is working on bringing Doctor Eleven truly into the graphic novel arena. I'll certainly be first in line to check that out.

Post-apocalyptic fiction for die-hard fans can be very specific, and for me, Station Eleven was divinely sad, thoughtful, and has easily secured its place on my own personal "Best Books Read in 2015."

Kirsten Potter, the narrator, fit perfectly. Her voice smoothly fit into each of the characters well and I enjoyed listening to her tell me the story. I don't believe I've listened to her before. That can always be a little scary, trusting a voice you've never listened to before tell you a story, but Potter was exceptional. I'll look for more from her again.

We are all connected, whether by a tiny thread or stronger, but somehow, the link is undeniable. And in Station Eleven, the characters are tied together so delicately that it is incredible how Emily St. John Mandel has delightfully woven them through into an incredible adventure of lives lived after everything we've ever always trusted and believed would never change has now broken down.

FTC Disclosure: I downloaded this audiobook through my membership from Audible.com

About the Author (from her website)

Emily St. John Mandel is the author of four novels, most recently Station Eleven, which was a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, and won the 2015 Arthur C. Clarke Award. A previous novel, The Singer's Gun, was the 2014 winner of the Prix Mystere de la Critique in France. Her short fiction and essays have been anthologized in numerous collections, including Best American Mystery Stories 2013. She is a staff writer for The Millions. She lives in New York City with her husband. 

Visit the author:

• On her website
• On Twitter
• On Tumblr

About the Narrator

Kirsten Potter rocked this audio. Here is a complete list of everything on Audible.com that she has performed. I'm sure that you won't be disappointed. Click here to listen to a sample from Audible.com

Cockadoodie, dirty bird!

As per usual, my dirty bird self is so bad at challenges over the past couple of years, so while this readalong was for June only, I finished Stephen King's Misery almost two weeks later. But, no matter, I had a blast listening to Lindsay Crouse rock Paul Sheldon's voice, but most especially, Annie's smooth, yet gruff voice. Crouse's narration was *breath* SO VIVID *breath* 

Paul Sheldon, famous novelist of the Misery Chastain historical romance series is on his way to deliver his final novel in the series to his publisher. With his only copy by his side, he gets into a car accident on the snow-covered roads of Colorado, and wakes up to a brute of a woman who seems to be taking care of him, but he can't quite understand why he's not in a hospital. From there, it is a psychotic display of Annie's roller-coaster of emotions and goals, and Paul is the object of her madness. Whether she has filled him with drugs, or forced him to drink dirty water, the most important objective she has is to make sure he rewrites that Misery Chastain novel - and torture is a method she most certainly will employ to protect her favorite character.

Stephen King at one of his finest and best. No doubt about it. Annie Wilkes is truly disturbed and twisted, and as Paul Sheldon's number one fan, she is devoted beyond measure, but not without conditions to suit her. And while Paul may have his own writing demons to contend with, nothing can equal the wrath of Annie when she's angry, and it is frightening. More frightening than the opening pages of The Stand at times, and more horrifying and gore-filled than scenes from Pet Sematary, Stephen King delivers once again. In every sense of the word it is scarier than anything else he's ever written because this story doesn't deal with ghosts or the dead coming back to life - this is scarier because it's one person, a real person, gone completely mad.

One of my favorite Stephen King stories by far. And the narrator? Perfection. She made this story come to life. *breath* SO VIVID *breath*

FTC Disclosure: I purchased this audiobook through my Audible.com membership. Click here to listen to the sample.

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Release Date: 01/29/09

Audio Time: 12 hours, 11 minutes

Narrator: Lindsay Crouse

And thanks to Care's Online Book Club for hosting! Click here to see the review roundup from other participants! 

Stephen King is the author of more than fifty novels, including The Stand, The Dark Tower, It, The Shining, oh...what more can be written that one doesn't already know? So here you go, click here to visit this cool author's official website. Crouse

I usually don't like listening to an author narrate their own work. In my opinion, they are too close to it and someone else is better able to bring the story to life in a way that the author never could. Or, sometimes authors don't have the right voice for audio, and the story ends up being something I just don't like listening to. Even if the reviews of a Stephen King-narrated book are over the moon about it, I still pick something else; I'll be honest that I was never fair about this assumption.

But recently I listened to On Writing and Stephen King surprised me with how honest his voice was, carrying his work to my ears in a way I wasn't expecting. It held my attention and I enjoyed the time I spent listening. So when I realized I downloaded Bag of Bones, I wasn't as apprehensive as I thought I would be.

This story seemed so close and personal (it's also mentioned frequently in On Writing, mostly because it was written/published at the same time). This is a true ghost story from Stephen King and there are elements that will linger with you and just might make you look a few times over your shoulder late at night. Writer Mike Noonan loses his wife suddenly and in his resulting sense of loss, he uncovers she was working on something much more mysterious than his best-selling novels. When he dives into her unfinished investigation, Mike is drawn into something quite unforgivable and disturbing, and, as only good husband-wife teams go, he has to finish what she started. A generational secret is exposed in a quiet town through a web of characters that are never boring and the life of a child is at stake. Readers sometimes complain with some of Stephen King's longer novels that, "it really could have been shorter," or, "too much!" But with this one, it met the mark on every level for me and wasn't too long, too short, or too wordy. It was a story that needed to be told, something that would be worth your time. Typical King has you walking through a story that is full of characters with essential and wild back stories that are all connected, and Bag of Bones is no different. It's a wild ride of creepiness, villains of the most disturbing kind, racism, music, and the noble urge to do something incredibly right after such a tragic wrong. This is good stuff. Stephen King knocks it out of the park and I will never worry about grabbing an author-narrated book again if it's him.

Did you know Pierce Brosnan starred in a two part mini-series? It's on Netflix. I'll have to watch that soon.

FTC Disclosure: I purchased this audiobook through my Audible.com membership. Click here to listen to the sample.

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Release Date: 05/23/00

Audio Time: 21 hours, 21 minutes

Narrator: Stephen King

About the Author

Stephen King is the author of more than fifty novels, including The Stand, The Dark Tower, It, The Shining, oh...what more can be written that one doesn't already know? So here you go, click here to visit this cool author's official website.

Clearly this is a Stephen King month of books for me. With Mr. Mercedes a couple of weeks ago, On Writing now, and Bag of Bones queued up on my iPhone for my daily drive to the Mayo Clinic to receive radiation targeted at that son-of-a-bitch breast cancer's random floating cell, I'm assured that the reading slump I experienced a while ago is barely visible in the rearview mirror.

On Writing makes me nervous to write this review, though. It also makes me want to go back through anything I've ever put together and EDIT. I've learned a lot listening to King narrate his book, and the most important thing is to not write a lot of crap. Meaning, don't say in ten words what you can say in half of that. Cut it down. (Fans of The Stand or It might raise an eyebrow on that, but you can't tell me that those bajillion pages aren't filled with the greatest characters and story ever and that each word is worth it.) The fluffy extras on a first draft more than likely just amount to a lot of nonsense. Write the story and stick with the first word that comes to mind, don't run to the thesaurus to find a "smarter" word. And for the love of God, stay away from the adverbs! (She cried mightily. Just kidding.)

Part memoir, part writing guide, On Writing is a concise overview of all the things that make Stephen King tick when it comes to the craft and the success that the rest of us drool over. With over four decades of brilliant character creations, (Back story, dammit! Give it back story!) memorable tales, and a legacy that will never die, Uncle Stevie doesn't let us down yet again on what many might think could have been the driest topic he could have written about. But whether it's how he started out in the trade, his ongoing love affair with his wife of forty-some years, advice on an agent, or the accident that came close to ending his career and his life, King keeps the reader/listener thoroughly engaged and many times completely fascinated. And the one fact that cements King's place in the history books? He's not a horror writer at all, he's just a writer, and a damn good one at that.

This is one of *the* books to keep on a writer's shelf; I'll at least keep it on mine. Regular referencing and notations will likely be the thing to do if you have this. And the one piece of advice that sticks with me? Don't let others read your work as you're writing it. It makes no sense to let them see those five pages you think are world-altering. What if they don't like it? Holy hell. Whether or not they praise or criticize, it's really never healthy for others to take a peek. That slight derailment could mess you up. Close the door. Let your words come. No distractions.

Don't despair when you learn King is the narrator, as so many other authors may have been unsuccessful with voicing their own stories. I've always shied away from author-narrated audiobooks, too, but of course it makes sense that King would do it here. And he does a phenomenal job voicing his own work. He was at the right tempo and tone, and I found it thoroughly agreeable. (Because of this, I was convinced that Bag of Bones would not be ruined by an author's voice; so far, so good, too.)

And the absolute most important thing other than to read a lot? WRITE. Write a hell of a lot and always with that damn door closed.

FTC Disclosure: I purchased this through my Audible.com membership. Click here to listen to an audio sample.

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Release Date: 10/4/00

Audio Time: 8 hours, 5 minutes

Narrator: Stephen King

About the Author

Stephen King is the author of more than fifty novels, including The Stand, The Dark Tower, It, The Shining, oh...what more can be written that one doesn't already know? So here you go, click here to visit this cool author's official website.

I am tying a string around my finger to remind myself that whenever I have a reading slump, I should pick up anything by Uncle Stevie. Whether in audio or print, I've never been let down (well, maybe a wee bit with The Tommyknockers).

But, ahhh, Mr. Mercedes. For the entire month of January, I have a boring commute from home to the Mayo Clinic in the early morning hours so I can receive radiation, and I knew I just couldn't waste that valuable time with any old audio that might make me keep saying to myself, "I'll give it another thirty minutes." I've had to do that so much recently, and it's been trying my patience. Start, stop, download new audio. This seemed to be my recent formula, but Mr. Mercedes certainly was a treat.

Retired detective Bill Hodges has a few cases that he can't quite seem to forget, and one of them is an unsolved spree-kill involving a Mercedes and a group of unemployed candidates waiting in line for the start of a promising job fair. The guy was never caught. But in Bill's retirement, as he sits studying his gun and watching empty reality shows, he just might get the chance to resurrect his love of life because Brady Hartsfield, the killer on that fateful morning, has reached out to Bill and wants to play again. And this time, he might want to go bigger.

It's sort of weird to write that I had a lot of fun listening to this book, particularly when there is a crazed murderer who likes to terrorize people and drive them to the edge. But, I think that's just the way it is with King's works, and either you love this maniacally twisted scenario of alternating viewpoints between nice guy Bill and sinister, aloof Brady, or you find it scary and don't want to continue. I tend to find King's works brilliant because of his uncanny ability to write a character so intensely and with such back story, that you truly feel each moment of their pain and their reactions are understandable. You get to know these messed up and sad folks, and I mean really, really, get to know them. And if you're not willing to dip your toe into the pool of Stephen King's works, then rest assured: Only one scene freaked me out; for the most part, Mr. Mercedes resides more in the 11/22/63 category of non-horror.

Each back story for the primary and secondary characters are thorough and sometimes tough to read/hear, but in this tale, someone must have told Mr. King to lighten up on all the detail and minutiae you would normally find in his books (I happen to like what some people might call the "tedious" details King typically adds to his books to make them so lengthy). Mr. Mercedes, however, is a tightly told story, with strong characters and intense action.

As with most of his books, it ended leaving me absolutely thrilled I had read another of his works, and also wanting more from the other characters. I desperately hope a short story will pop up from Jerome or Holly's perspective one day, the two supporting cast helping Det. Ret. Bill Hodges catch a killer.

Audio Notes: This was my first time listening to Will Patton and he was INCREDIBLE. I'm in love with his voice, a gravelly, gritty, and experienced deep voice that was perfect for a retired police detective, but he also perfectly captures the rest of the cast, everyone from a young seventeen-year-old Jerome to a mid-twenties cold and nonchalant killer, Brady. My personal favorite was Holly, a forty-five-year-old woman with self-described "issues" who still lives with her mother. Will Patton. My new favorite voice.

FTC Disclosure: I purchased this through my Audible.com membership.

About the Author

Stephen King is the author of more than fifty novels, including The Stand, The Dark Tower, It, The Shining, oh...what more can be written that one doesn't already know? So here you go, click here to visit this cool author's official website.

About the Narrator (from Audible.com)

Will Patton has recorded over forty-five audio books, including twenty titles by James Lee Burke, the 50th anniversary release of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, Al Gore's The Assault on Reason. He is a recipient of the Best Male Narrator Audie Award. Click here for his Audible.com page and to see all of the books he's narrated, and click here for the audio sample of Mr. Mercedes.