Amatka by Karin Tidbeck

Paperback, 216 pages
Published June 27th 2017 by Vintage (first published January 1st 2012)
Sci.fi
Library

This is one of those can not be explained books. I have read reviews calling it dystopia, but, no, not really. It is a world shaped by things they can not control, it controls them.

I assume people went through a portal, or took a ship to another planet. A planet that is alive somehow. But nothing lives there. The first people established 5 cities and tried to survive. This has turned into a strange "communist" state because that is the only way to survive.

Everything has its name written on it. Because if you loose the name then the chair, house, whatever disappears. It is a world that can not hold on to its things. And because of that the communes rule and dictate what people should do. And everyone have housemates so that no one disappears. Children grow up in "orphanages" so that they can learn the way. 

It is really life and death made into a surreal fallen communist looking world. It is grey, all grey, no color at all.

And it is strangely good, because it is so effed up. I could not put it down.

Vanja, a government worker, leaves her home city of Essre for the austere, wintry colony of Amatka on a research assignment. It takes some adjusting: people act differently in Amatka, and citizens are monitored for signs of subversion.

Intending to stay just a short while, Vanja finds herself falling in love with her housemate, Nina, and decides to stick around. But when she stumbles on evidence of a growing threat to the colony and a cover-up by its administration, she begins an investigation that puts her at tremendous risk.

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

Paperback, 163 pages

Published May 2nd 2019 by Granta Books (first published July 27th 2016)

Translator: Ginny Tapley Takemori 

Fiction

Library

This was short, short is glorious! I finished it in no time at all! Seriously, that is all I want in books these days.

Keiko is considered strange by her family, and she has donned the mask of convenience store woman and takes traits from those who work there. I'd say she ha a diagnosis, maybe Aspergers. She tries to be "normal". But friends think she should get married, others think it is weird that she still works as the store. She should get a real job. While I was all, step back people! She loves her job, and not everyone wants to spend their life with someone else.

The book has no chapters, it is a constant stream.

Some of the words on the cover just makes me go all wtf, critiques calling the book sexy? I mean what? The book is tragic and at the same time, well she loves it so why should the rest care.

A well written book (novella, wohoo). it made me want to read more by this author

Keiko Furukura had always been considered a strange child, and her parents always worried how she would get on in the real world, so when she takes on a job in a convenience store while at university, they are delighted for her. For her part, in the convenience store she finds a predictable world mandated by the store manual, which dictates how the workers should act and what they should say, and she copies her coworkers' style of dress and speech patterns so she can play the part of a normal person. However, eighteen years later, at age 36, she is still in the same job, has never had a boyfriend, and has only few friends. She feels comfortable in her life but is aware that she is not living up to society's expectations and causing her family to worry about her. When a similarly alienated but cynical and bitter young man comes to work in the store, he will upset Keiko's contented stasis—but will it be for the better?

Audio: The Arrival of Someday by Jen Malone

Narrated by: Katherine Littrell
Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 07-23-19
Language: English
Publisher: HarperAudio
YA Fiction
In exchange for an honest review

It made me cry! I did not expect it, but there I was, crying. Sometimes a good cry is good, it has been a while since my last.

Amelia was born with a liver disease, but it has never really affected here. Until her last year of HS when it gets worse. She needs a liver transplant.

I liked Amelia, she tried so hard to go on with her life. To do the things she loves, painting, hanging out with her bestie. Not to be the dying girl since she felt almost like before anyway. She does not want the pitying looks.

Her best friend Syb tries to rally people to sign up for organ donation. She wants to fight!

An old friend shows up and is a light in darkness, sometimes you need that one person that does not talk about it.

No romance. Just a girl trying to come to terms with the fact that she might not get the liver that she needs to live.

And it made me cry! I had to say that again. It felt so real, she was so real, so normal.

A good book, and about a subject that I have not really read about before. And I realised that so many die every day when they do not get the transplants they need, all because people do not sign up to be donors. It does feel like a real waste.

Narration Katherine Littrell

The narration did a great job with Amelia, I really was in her head. Her other voices were great too. She made me feel. 

Hard-charging and irrepressible 18-year-old Amelia Linehan could see a roller-derby opponent a mile away - and that’s while crouched down, bent over skates, and zooming around a track at the speed of light.

What she couldn’t see coming, however, was the flare-up of the rare liver disorder with which she was born. But now, it’s the only thing she - and everyone around her - can think about.   

With no guarantee of a viable organ transplant, everything Amelia’s been sure of - like college plans or the possibility of one day falling in love - has become a huge question mark, threatening to drag her down into a sea of what-ifs she’s desperate to avoid. 

Then a friend from the past shows up. With Will, it’s easy to forget about what’s lurking between the lightness of their time together. She feels alive when all signs point elsewhere.

But with the odds decidedly not in her favor, Amelia knows this feeling can’t last forever. After all, what can?

Audio: The rest of the story by Sarah Dessen

Narrated by: Rebecca Soler

Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 06-04-19

Language: English

Publisher: HarperAudio

YA fiction

I received this book in exchange for an honest review

Emma is sent to her grandmother for the summer as her dad goes on his honeymoon, and her other grandmother travels. But she has not seen any of her mother's family for 10 years, she can not remember them at all.

I did feel her anger was a bit misplaced at times, as she got to know them she grew to like them, and she was angry at her dad for not taking her there sooner. But the road goes both ways, none of her mum's family came to visit her either. And I do get why her mother never wanted to go there (as the story progresses.)

But this is a story of finding yourself and family. Her mother od, and all Emma remember are the stories she told of the Lake. Her mother was in and out of her life a lot since she was an addict. Now she gets to know more about her mother, and again, I understand her father's reluctance, that place means the place that made Emma's mum an addict. But at the same time it was a wonderful place where they fell in love.

I also felt her dad changed in a strange way at the end, like he also had to learn the lesson of what family means. Maybe I am too old, but I get where he is coming from, Emma might have it in her genes and he feels like the lake brings it forward. It is about summer, drinking and having fun.

Ok, I need to get back to the surface now. I liked Emma, even if I did not get the whole call me Saylor thing.  And how it felt like she wanted to live there forever, she did have other friends and family too.

I liked the lake and it's drama, Lake North and North Lake. Her newfound family, her newfound crush (and I liked that it moved really really slow, like not almost happening at all.)

It was a good book. Real and true.

Narrator

I liked the narrator (even if at times she changed the voices a bit before remembering.) I think this was my first time listening to her, and I would listen to her again.

Emma Saylor doesn’t remember a lot about her mother, who died when Emma was 12. But she does remember the stories her mom told her about the big lake that went on forever, with cold, clear water and mossy trees at the edges. 

Now, it’s just Emma and her dad, and life is good, if a little predictable...until Emma is unexpectedly sent to spend the summer with her mother’s family, whom she hasn’t seen since she was a little girl. 

When Emma arrives at North Lake, she realizes there are actually two very different communities there. Her mother grew up in working-class North Lake, while her dad spent summers in the wealthier Lake North resort. The more time Emma spends there, the more it starts to feel like she is also divided into two people. To her father, she is Emma. But to her new family, she is Saylor, the name her mother always called her.

Then there’s Roo, the boy who was her very best friend when she was little. Roo holds the key to her family’s history, and slowly, he helps her put the pieces together about her past. It’s hard not to get caught up in the magic of North Lake - and Saylor finds herself falling under Roo’s spell as well. 

For Saylor, it’s like a whole new world is opening up to her. But when it’s time to go back home, which side of her - Emma or Saylor - will win out?

The storied life of AJ Fikry - Gabrielle Zevin

Paperback, 243 pages

Published 2015 by Abacus (first published April 4th 2014)

Fiction

Library

This was another one of the the library is closing, let's grab a lot of books, book.

Character driven, nothing major happen, but all way through a really good book. Oh oh, it would make a good movie too!

AJ Fikry is a widower, he owns a bookstore, he drinks too much and he is grumpy. He is a total lit snob too, but, oh I forgive you. Of course if we ever met he would totally have looked down on my taste in books.

Amelia is a sales rep that comes to his shop a few times a year. Grumpy weirdo is the thought she leaves with, but she is still a constant in his life.

There is the cop that checks up on him and buys a lot f crime books cos of it. I liked him.

Then his priced possession is stolen!

And then the parcel arrives and his whole life changes, for the better. A grumpy sad man can also change. 

It was a pleasant and lovely read. It was all about these characters. A great random pick! 

We are not quite novels.

We are not quite short stories.

In the end, we are collected works.

A. J. Fikry's life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died; his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history; and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Slowly but surely, he is isolating himself from all the people of Alice Island—from Chief Lambiase, the well-intentioned police officer who's always felt kindly toward him; from Ismay, his sister-in-law, who is hell-bent on saving A.J. from his dreary self; from Amelia, the lovely and idealistic (if eccentric) Knightley Press sales rep who persists in taking the ferry to Alice Island, refusing to be deterred by A.J.'s bad attitude. Even the books in his store have stopped holding pleasure for him. These days, he can only see them as a sign of a world that is changing too rapidly.
And then a mysterious package appears at the bookstore. It's a small package, though large in weight—an unexpected arrival that gives A.J. the opportunity to make his life over, the ability to see everything anew. It doesn't take long for the locals to notice the change overcoming A.J., for the determined sales rep Amelia to see her curmudgeonly client in a new light, for the wisdom of all those books to become again the lifeblood of A.J.'s world. Or for everything to twist again into a version of his life that he didn't see coming.

Audio: Ordinary Girls by Blair Thornburgh

Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie

Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 06-04-19

Language: English

Publisher: HarperAudio

Fiction YA

So nothing really happens, and a lot of fancy words are used, but, it was just so lovely to read a YA book where ok so there was some drama, but it was real drama. It was calm, and then a storm might come, but they weathered it.

Patience, aka Plum and Ginny lives with their mum in a crumbling house. Too big, too old, plumbing that goes out, not enough money to care for it.

Their mum only works part-time at the uni, her paintings does not sell. Money is a problem.

Ginny is a dramaqueen in the old sense, I mean 19th century way. All those Austen and Bronte heroes, or wait, Anne, yes totally Anne. Ginny is really smart, but worries constantly how to get into College, and then pay for it.

Plum is the calm, normal one, she is the narrator as she worries about their home, about her sister who is always in the spotlight, and then she gets a secret of her own. And I liked that, something just for her, all so very calm and by accident.

The prose is very flowery, and yes all those fancy words that P likes to use might not be to everyone's taste. But it works so well

It is very sweet, upbeat, and even when they struggle they push forward, at least Plum does. I enjoyed it.

Narrator

Oh she nailed Ginny when she was despairing at the world at times, so drama. She gave  Plum a great voice too. I liked it and made the story flow.

It was my first time with this narrator and I would listen to her again

For siblings as different as Plum and Ginny, getting on each other’s nerves is par for the course. But when the family’s finances hit a snag, sending chaos through the house in a way only characters from a Jane Austen novel could understand, a distance grows between them like never before.

Plum, a self-described social outcast, finally has something in her life that doesn’t revolve around her dramatic older sister. But what if coming into her own means Plum isn’t there for Ginny when she, struggling with a hard secret of her own, needs her most?

I received this audiobook free of charge in exchange for an honest review

The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir

Hardcover, 319 pages

Published June 12th 2018 by Knopf Publishing Group

Fiction

Library

This was one of those library books I just went around and picked at random since the library was closing for 2 months. I did not know what to expect, and it didn't even say anything on it.

I did not know what to make of Essie. She was pregnant, she seemed to orchestrate to marry a stranger. She was looking for her sister. She really wanted to talk to this journalist. I kept wondering if she had a hidden agenda. And then boom, the truth, and it is shocking.

Roarke is the other POV. The boy that promises to marry Essie. He is very prejudiced at first, all he know of her is that which he has seen on tv. The perfect Hicks family, with their tv preacher dad. I did like Roarke, he was the one I knew where I had.

Then there is Liberty, my least fav POV. She is a journalist who has been in a cult as a kid. She interviews Essie and gets to know her more.

The book is, not slow, just this perfect thoughtful pace and then the actually revelations is not the boom I said. It is just dropped there and simmers.

It was a really good book, and I did like the whole not as seen on tv. Also the end was so hopeful! U loved that. I really loved that

Esther Ann Hicks--Essie--is the youngest child on Six for Hicks, a reality television phenomenon. She's grown up in the spotlight, both idolized and despised for her family's fire-and-brimstone brand of faith. When Essie's mother, Celia, discovers that Essie is pregnant, she arranges an emergency meeting with the show's producers: Do they sneak Essie out of the country for an abortion? Do they pass the child off as Celia's? Or do they try to arrange a marriage--and a ratings-blockbuster wedding? Meanwhile, Essie is quietly pairing herself up with Roarke Richards, a senior at her school with a secret of his own to protect. As the newly formed couple attempt to sell their fabricated love story to the media--through exclusive interviews with an infamously conservative reporter named Liberty Bell--Essie finds she has questions of her own: What was the real reason for her older sister leaving home? Who can she trust with the truth about her family? And how much is she willing to sacrifice to win her own freedom? 

Audio: Like a love story by Abdi Nazemian

Narrated by: Lauren Ambrose, Vikas Adam, Michael Crouch

Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 06-04-19

Language: English

Publisher: HarperAudio

YA Fiction

Maybe emotional YA fiction is the fiction for me. It always have a bigger impact.

This book has 3 narrators and it works so well when they read their chapters. First there is Vikas Adam as Reza, and yes I absolutely love his voice so that was a big yes for me. Reza is the one fighting his feelings for other boys. He grew up in Iran, he was there during the revolution, and now he has a new life in NY. He is the one in the closet, the one afraid that just being gay will give him AIDS. Since no one is explaining things. I liked Reza, it is not always easy to be brave.

Judy wants to be a fashion designer, at school she is known as the girl with the gay bff and well, for being overweight. She was voiced by a good narrator too. She was the one standing in the shadows, wanting to break out. I also liked her parents, sure her mum could say the wrong things, but considering Art's parents, yes, Judy had the best ones. The book is also about her uncle Stephen who is dying from AIDS. And that does brings so much more into the book. Stephen was so wonderful, and seeing him on what must be his last breath was so hard. I know the 80s was bad, but reading about it is always different. Heartbreaking.

But yes, last there is Art, out and proud, and not giving an f who knows. I really do not have anything more to say about Art, other that he did break my heart at the end.

It was a great story, I knew it from the moment it began. It pulled me in at once, the voices was well done and brought the characters to life.

It was heartbreak, love, fake love, love for Madonna, love for life. Love for being alive.

A great listen

Narrators

I already say that I love Vikas Adam, and I do, he has the perfect voice.

It was my first time listening to Lauren Ambrose and  Micheal Crouch, but their voices fit really well with the characters they voiced.

It's 1989 in New York City, and for three teens, the world is changing.

Reza is an Iranian boy who has just moved to the city with his mother to live with his stepfather and stepbrother. He's terrified that someone will guess the truth he can barely acknowledge about himself. Reza knows he's gay, but all he knows of gay life are the media's images of men dying of AIDS.

Judy is an aspiring fashion designer who worships her uncle Stephen, a gay man with AIDS who devotes his time to activism as a member of ACT UP. Judy has never imagined finding romance...until she falls for Reza and they start dating.

Art is Judy's best friend, their school's only out and proud teen. He'll never be who his conservative parents want him to be, so he rebels by documenting the AIDS crisis through his photographs.

As Reza and Art grow closer, Reza struggles to find a way out of his deception that won't break Judy's heart--and destroy the most meaningful friendship he's ever known.

I received this book from Harper Collins in  exchange for an honest review

Audio: The Secret of a heart note - Stacey Lee

Narrated by: Nancy Wu

Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 04-30-19

Language: English

Publisher: Tantor Audio

YA fiction

To review

What can I say, YA fic is just so fun in audio. Light, fun and they tend to be shorter. Perfect.

In this one we meet Mimosa, an aromateur. She spends her days mixing "potions, and taking care of flowers. And now she is even in High School.

Brief sidetrack. How on earth do they stay a float if they do not charge people?

And then her mum leaves on an assignment, and Mimosa makes a mistake fixing two people up. And meets Court, and falls in love.

But love witches can't fall in love, if will destroy their nose, and without a nose you can not work.

Also, no wonder there are not that many around, I am sure the stake took a lot.

I enjoyed it. Mimosa was nice, there was romance, drama, but all in good amounts.

Narration

The narration was well done and I easily fell into this world. She made me scent the flowers. She did well with different voices and made the story come alive

Sometimes love is right under your nose. As one of only two aromateurs left on the planet, 16-year-old Mimosa knows what her future holds: a lifetime of weeding, mixing love elixirs, and matchmaking - all while remaining incurably alone. For Mim, the rules are clear: falling in love would render her nose useless, taking away her one great talent. Still, Mimosa doesn't want to spend her life elbow-deep in soil and begonias. She dreams of a normal high school experience with friends, sports practices, debate club, and even a boyfriend. But when she accidentally gives an elixir to the wrong woman and has to rely on the lovesick woman's son, the school soccer star, to help fix the situation, Mim quickly begins to realize that falling in love isn't always a choice you can make.  

Audio: The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal

Narrated by: Soneela Nankani, Deepti Gupta

Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 04-30-19

Language: English

Publisher: HarperAudio

Fiction

To review

My Thoughts

Always when I read something about travel in India it is always so exotic, filled with foods and no dangers at all. But this other shows the side that I always read about in the news. The latest story I read about this child was so horrifying that I wanted to cry.

The sisters are told to dress modestly, not to walk alone and still they all fear at times. Men in groups, leering, brushing up against them. It is that dark side of India, and they do come across a women's movement too. They try to fight back, even if the odds are against them. And it is certainly a story that needs to be told too.

But let us start at the beginning. With 3 sisters, Raj, Jez and Shirnia whose mother pass away and before that she tells them to go on a pilgrimage. To visit holy sites and to get to know each other again.

Raj the oldest is 43 and her son has found a girlfriend only a few years younger than Raj. She is the mother hen who is strict

Jez is a struggling actress with a scandal brewing. She is the wild one

Shirnia, the one who went into an arranged marriage and moved across the world. She is the diplomat.

I liked these sisters. They certainly had their issues, they did not really want to be here, but they come together in the end and become stronger than ever before.

This book touch on another subject too.  And you know what...I am going to put it in a spoiler because you might ut two and two together. Daughters. And I learned something new, I mean I knew that abortions are high and who wants a girl. But that even rich people do it was horrifying, I just wanted to scream why? Why are girls so bad? It really made me sad.

It is a road trip. It is family drama. And it was a really good story to listen to. I enjoyed it a lot. I should check out that previous book by her too.

Narrator

I really liked her voice and her different voices for the sisters. You could always hear who was who with everyone who showed up. She was perfect.

Ha, I did not realise that the mum was a different narrator. I just thought this one did an amazing job, but yes the mother has another narrator who did a good job too

Blurb

The British-born Punjabi Shergill sisters Rajni, Jezmeen, and Shirnia were never close and barely got along growing up and now have grown even further apart as adults. Rajni, a school principal, is a stickler for order. Jezmeen, a 30-year-old struggling actress, fears her big break may never come. Shirina, the peacemaking "good" sister, married into wealth and enjoys a picture-perfect life.

On her deathbed, their mother voices one last wish: that her daughters will make a pilgrimage together to the Golden Temple in Amritsar to carry out her final rites. After a trip to India with her mother long ago, Rajni vowed never to return. But she’s always been a dutiful daughter and cannot, even now, refuse her mother’s request. Jezmeen has just been publicly fired from her television job, so the trip to India is a welcome break to help her pick up the pieces of her broken career. Shirina’s in-laws are pushing her to make a pivotal decision about her married life; time away will help her decide whether to meekly obey or to bravely stand up for herself for the first time.

Arriving in India, these sisters will make unexpected discoveries about themselves, their mother, and their lives - and learn the real story behind the trip Rajni took with their mother long ago - a momentous journey that resulted in Mum never being able to return to India again.

The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters is a female take on the Indian travel narrative. "I was curious about how different the trip would be if it were undertaken by women, who are vulnerable to different dangers in a male-dominated society," Balli Kaur Jaswal writes. "I also wanted to explore the tensions between tradition and modernity in immigrant communities, and particularly how those tensions play out among women like these sisters, who are the first generation to be raised outside of India."

Carole's Sunday. The Time Collector

Author:  Gwendolyn Womack  

Title: The Time Collector

Genre: Fantasy, Mystery, Fiction, and Romance

Pages: 352

Published: April 16th 2019

Where I Got It: My shelf (Given to me by the author/publisher for my honest and unbiased opinion)

Roan West was born with an extraordinary gift: he can perceive the past of any object he touches. A highly skilled pyschometrist, he uses his talents to find and sell valuable antiques, but his quiet life in New Orleans is about to change. Stuart, a fellow pyschometrist and Roan’s close friend, has used his own abilities to unearth several out-of-place-artifacts or “ooparts”—like a ring that once belonged to the seventeenth-century mathematician and philosopher René Descartes, but was found buried in prehistoric bedrock.

The relics challenge recorded history, but soon after the discovery, Stuart disappears, making him one of several psychometrists who have recently died or vanished without a trace. When Roan comes across a viral video of a young woman who has discovered a priceless pocket watch just by “sensing” it, he knows he has to warn her—but will Melicent Tilpin listen? And can Roan find Stuart before it’s too late?

I was drawn in right away! The summary, the cover, and just the general idea of it. I was for sure a moth to the flame. 

The story follows Roan and Melicent. They were both born with amazing gifts. They both can perceive the past of any object they touch. Melicent's powers are not as good yet, but Roan is pretty good at it. Stuart, Roan's pal, has used his own powers to unearth several out-of-place-artifacts. There is a connection between all of them but what? When Stuart goes missing along with a few others with similar gifts, Roan is forced to figure out what is going on and warn the young Melicent. 

I have always wanted this power or something similar. I love history and antiques. Can you imagine?? That would be amazing. Like all powers, there are cons to having them. 

The whole ooparts is amazing to me and I loved the author's blend of this real-life oddity to the story! 

Roan was fun. I liked him. 

Same with Melicent. I liked her from the beginning. Her little brother was a snotball. Yes, I get the WHYS, but still. I wanted to kick him and shake some sense into him! Sun was awesome and so strong. I wish we had more Sun!

The author was amazing. I was hooked from page one and I didn't want to put it down. The mystery was intriguing and I had my theories but I was wrong. Kuddos to the big twist! It all made sense though. HOW DID I NOT SEE IT? Maybe it was because I really didn't want to? IDK, but I was surprised. Ooooo that baddie. 

The romance aspect seemed a touch forced and I didn't really see the chemistry there, but the romance isn't the main aspect so it wasn't a huge issue.

Overall, I really liked this book. It was super good. The romance aspect was my only little hiccup. Everything else was awesome. The characters, the story, the mystery, the jumps to the past, and the twist at the end. I'll give this a 4! 

Book 11 of 16/25

Audio: If you're out there - Katy Loutzenhiser

Narrated by: Kate Rudd

Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 03-05-19

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

YA fiction

Thank you harper for this review copy!

My Thoughts

Ehm, didn't I start this one yesterday!? Ha, I sure listened fast! I really got into it and wanted to know wtf was wrong with Priya.

Zan had the best BFF. And then she got ghosted. All while Priya shows sunny pics on instagram and talks to everyone else.

So I had a hundred ideas. Priya was a bitch. Priya and Zan had a lover's quarrel. Priya was taken? This one was the darkest. I needed to know. And no one believed Zan, they just said that besties grow apart.

Logan was the best! Everyone should have a Logan, someone who just believe you, no questions asked!. And yes of course I hoped this budding friendship would turn into more too.

Final thoughts

A fast read that has you clamoring for more. What is up with Priya is the thought on every page and I rushed to the end to find out more.

Narrator

Kate Rudd had a nice range of voices and everyone was distinct. She kept the doubt and suspense coming. It flowed well.

'Blurb

Part whip-smart suspense tale, part touching story of friendship, this is an extraordinary debut about a determined teen trying to solve a mystery no one else believes in.

After Zan's best friend moves to California, she is baffled and crushed when Priya suddenly ghosts. Worse, Priya's social media has turned into a stream of ungrammatical posts chronicling a sunny, vapid new life that doesn't sound like her at all.

Everyone tells Zan not to be an idiot: Let Priya do her reinvention thing and move on. But until Zan hears Priya say it, she won't be able to admit that their friendship is finished.

It's only when she meets Logan, the compelling new guy in Spanish class, that Zan begins to open up about her sadness, her insecurity, her sense of total betrayal. And he's just as willing as she is to throw himself into the investigation when everyone else thinks her suspicions are crazy.

Then a clue hidden in Priya's latest selfie introduces a new, deeply disturbing possibility:

Maybe Priya isn't just not answering Zan's emails.

Maybe she can't.

Audio: When you read this - Mary Adkins

Narrated by: Sarah Naughton

Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 02-05-19

Language: English

Publisher: HarperAudio

My Thoughts

This was different. I have read books like this but I have never done it in audio. At first I was not sure, but it did work really well and you felt really close to everyone.

The book takes place after Iris' death. Her boss Simon is struggling with losing her. Her sister is struggling with loosing her. He wants to publish her blog (as was her wish), and her sister does not like it.

So what do we get? We get emails and text messages between these too as they get to know each other better. We get emails from his intern Carl, who is so so annoying, but whom you still have to like. And everything else in a modern world. Online therapy, spam, you name it. And it does work.

I'd say the only thing I did not get a sense of was how everyone looked. I really could not picture them at all when it was in this way.

Also, yes we do get Iris too, but only though her blog posts, which I guess does not make this as sad as it could have been. which is a good thing.

As it was now. I enjoyed it. It was sure a different way to listen to audio.

Narrator

I liked her, and omg her Carl voice was exactly him! She brought order to this book as it was done in this format.

Carole's Sunday Review: Mrs. Rossi's Dream

Author: Khanh Ha 

Title: Mrs. Rossi's Dream

Genre: Fiction

Pages: ebook

Published:  March 1st 2019

Where I Got It: My shelf (Given to me by the author/publisher for my honest and unbiased opinion)

Thus begins the harrowing yet poignant story of a North Vietnamese communist defector who spends ten years in a far-flung reform prison after the war, and now, in 1987, a free man again, finds work as caretaker at a roadside inn in the U Minh region. One day new guests arrive at the inn: an elderly American woman and her daughter, an eighteen-year-old Vietnamese girl adopted at the age of five from an orphanage in the Mekong Delta before the war ended. Catherine Rossi has come to this region to find the remains of her son, a lieutenant who went missing-in-action during the war. 

Mrs. Rossi's Dream tells the stories of two men in time parallel: Giang, the thirty-nine-year-old war veteran; Nicola Rossi, a deceased lieutenant in the United States Army, the voice of a spirit. From the haunting ugliness of the Vietnam War, the stories of these two men shout, cry, and whisper to us the voices of love and loneliness, barbarity and longing, lived and felt by a multitude of people from all walks of life: the tender adolescent vulnerability of a girl toward a man who, as a drifter and a war-hardened man, draws beautifully in his spare time; the test of love and faith endured by a mother whose dogged patience even baffles the local hired hand who thinks the poor old lady must have gone out of her mind, and whose determination drives her into the spooky forest, rain or shine, until one day she claims she has sensed an otherworldly presence in there with her. In the end she wishes to see, just once, a river the local Vietnamese call "The River of White Water Lilies," the very river her son saw, now that all her hopes to find his remains die out. 

Just then something happens. She finds out where he has lain buried for twenty years and how he was killed.

This book immediately drew me in with the cover and title. The summary really did me in. I had to give this a read. 

The story all revolves around the Vietnam War and some of the characters who's lives where impacted by this bloody war. Mrs Rossi lost her son and is trying to find closure years after the war is ended who is traveling to Vietnam with her adopted daughter. At the same time we get to see Giang who is a veteran and Nicola Rossi during the time of the war. 

It took me a while to really get into the story. I was enjoying it, but I was not sure what was really going on or what the author was trying to do. After a few pages the light-switch in my head clicked and then I got it. I was hooked and finished the book in a couple of sittings. 

So beautiful and so tragic and so sad. 

This book really captured the true darkness of the war and the aftermath. So many lives were destroyed. Those who lived may have survived but to face so many nightmares. War is hell indeed. I felt so bad for Giang and for Mrs. Rossi. I wanted a miracle to happen, but life doesn't always give miracles. 

The jumping between timelines and POVs was a little confusing at first, but I got used to it. 

I really liked Ian and his story made me sad! Sure he was just a side characters but I had hope and I adored him. 

This was beautifully written and it was a good read. I did get a little tear near the end there! That last scene made my heart hurt! Oooo! 

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was a little rough at the beginning until I got into the flow of things and understood what was going on. The writing was beautifully done and this book does make you think and feel. My poor heart at the end there! I do recommend this if you're looking for a good people story that shows the impact of a terrible war. I'll stamp this with 4 stars. 

Audio: Backlash - Sarah Darer Littman

Narrated by: Lauren Ezzo, Ramon De Ocampo

Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 02-19-19

Publisher: Tantor Audio

YA Fiction

Thank you Tantor for this copy!

My Thoughts
I have listened a lot of emotional YA books since I started listening to audio, and this one deals with cyber bullying and suicide.

People are awful. Anyone who thinks that we ever will live in a nice world is sadly delusional. Ugh people! I understood one of them because people are idiots, but then this other bully, wtf is wrong with you! But then people are evil.

The books starts with Sydney finding her sister Lara in the bathroom. Lara who used to be overweight and has struggled with depression. And who was on her way to getting better. Poor Lara. Poor Sydney too, she is left behind at times when it was all Lara Lara. They both matter.

Then the book jumps back 2 months and we get to see how Lara meets the cutest boy online and starts to fall for him, until he posts on FB how she should just kill herself...

In that 2 month back we also get the POV of her evil ex bestie Bree, grrr, Bree! No, I could not feel sorry for you.

And Liam, Bree's brother. Him I could feel sorry for.

These 4 POVS deal with the aftermath. It makes me angry, it makes me sad. I will not mention the person I was maddest at, but it was so low, so low.

The end
A good book about cyber bullying and the ramifications it can have.

Narrators
It had two. Liam got his own narrator, which worked well. There were 3 girl POVs anyway that had their own narrator.
I did like both, they did well with female and male voices. Young and old.

Blurb

He says: You're an awful person.

He says: What makes you think I would ever ask you out?

He says: The world would be a better place without you in it.

Lara just got told off on Facebook.

She thought that Christian liked her, that he was finally going to ask her to his school's homecoming dance. They've been talking online for weeks, so what's with the sudden change? And where does he get off saying horrible things on her wall? Even worse - are they true?

It's been a long time since Lara's felt this bad, this depressed, this ugly. She's worked really hard to become pretty and happy - and make new friends after what happened in middle school.

Bree used to be best friends with overweight, depressed Lara, but constantly listening to Lara's issues got to be too much. Secretly, Bree's glad Christian called Lara out. Lara's not nearly as amazing as people think. But no one realized just how far Christian's harsh comments would push Lara. Not even Bree.

As online life collides with real life, things spiral out of control, and not just for Lara. Because when the truth starts to come together, the backlash is even more devastating than anyone could have ever imagined