Category: Reading



The Shelters of Stone (Earth's Children, #5)The Shelters of Stone by Jean M. Auel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Below is a previous and better review than the one my tired mind can express at this time of night. It includes all the praises of the narrator, Sandra Burr, and the author Jean M. Auel. Besides, I really want to get started reading/listening to the sixth and last book of the series. My cousin told me she had reread them recently and that she didn’t like the last book. I’m anxious to be reminded how I felt about it and re-enjoy the book again.

I highly recommend this series if you haven’t read it. And if you have, a re-read is always fun.
~~~

As with the others in this series, I listened to Sandra Burr on the Audible version while reading along on my Kindle. I have really grown in awe of Ms. Burr’s narrative abilities. It is like I see only the characters and landscape in my head rather than thinking it is an actual person reading to me. How she can maintain the voices of each character so seamlessly is baffling! I’d love to see her in her processes, preparing for each part of the story and each person represented. Just amazing!

Ms. Auel’s story is still fresh and keeps me curious as I read. There are parts that are getting a bit overdone, but considering that this book doesn’t involve the travel angst that the previous books had, stay-at-home boredom seems inevitable. Yet it isn’t boring.

The research evidence throughout all these books is overwhelming! Yet, it is presented as part of the story. In this way, Ayla’s story comes to life. You want to believe that this little family did exist.

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The Plains of Passage: Earth's Children, Book 4The Plains of Passage: Earth’s Children, Book 4 by Jean M. Auel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this a few years ago. Below is my last review. I am having a hard time separating the books. I have already started The Shelters of Stone. I love Sandra Burr’s narration, that is until Shelters. Why did she change how Ayla’s accent in Shelters? But aside from that, I enjoyed the Plains and the adventure of hiking the glaciers. Ayla’s growth and the growth of Jondalar as they move between societies and bigotries and Earth’s growing and evolving made a story I don’t want to stop. I know it ends, but I may love it more than I loved the last read.

~~~
June 23, 2016
This was probably my favorite of the series, both for the writing/research and also for the narration of Sandra Burr. I think Ms. Burr finally hit her Cave-womyn height with this one. I more often pulled away from the Kindle version and let Sandra tell me the story. In the Audible version, the characterizations were seamless. When it was a man talking, I pictured the man. I often forgot a woman was narrating. She kept each female voice different and consistent enough that I wouldn’t have needed to look to see who was talking. Amazing!

Another reason I enjoyed the Audible more than the Kindle (written) form because there were so many passages (no pun intended) with descriptions. I’m sure a lot of the research Jean M. Auel did was represented here. But if you follow Discovery or other science channels, you would have covered much of it. Ms. Burr kept those flowing and interesting. And her ability to pull the very essence of a sexual scene without making it raunchy was amazing (and sexy!)

I am writing this after starting the next book. I couldn’t leave Ayla out there in the ether!

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The Mammoth Hunters (Earth's Children, #3)The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I just finished my second reading of this book a couple of days ago. Below is the review from the first time. It is funny that my feelings changed on this book. I still think Valley of the Horses is my favorite so far, where as last time the Mammoth Hunters was my favorite. That proves my theory that where the reader is in their lives affects how the story comes through to them.

One thing coming to mind in this reading is how talented the narrator, Sandra Burr, is. She flawlessly changes voices for any person who speaks in the story. Her males are all different, and her females vary, too. Old people even have different personalities per voice. I’d love to learn to do this kind of narration. Of course, Sandra also has a gem of a series to read. I am equally blown away by the amount of research included or purposely left out just for the story’s sake.

I didn’t cry at the parting of the couple from their new friends this time. I was so busy doing my diamond painting that I wasn’t as emotionally involved at that stage. I also didn’t let a beat go by without loading up the next book.

~~~

How can one read with tears racing down one’s face? Good thing I had Audible’s version with Sandra Burr’s narration to keep the story moving. And it was moving!

I think I liked this one the best so far. I wanted to thump Jondalar more often than not. Communicate, was the word I shouted to the book, communicate! But then, I guess that would have left a very short book.

I have already ordered the Audible version of the next book and downloaded the Kindle version. I have no idea why I had never read all these before. Jean M. Auel is quite the storyteller! Oh, yeah, the books are all so heavy that my hands would have ached trying to read them.

Sandra Burr’s narration was more flawless than in the previous books.

Well, I can hardly wait to get started on the next one.

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Sorry you’ve had to see these so often. It’s hard to photograph my recordering or uking it up.

Finishing bigger turtle’s top fin. If you click on the picture you can see tomorrow’s fun.
I seem to get hyper focused on these, too. I’m on #24 of 43. The thing about crossword puzzles is how you have to mind-read.
Starting the heels tomorrow. Trying for size 7.

I’ve been trying to rebinge The Walking Dead. I’m finally on season 11 on Netflix. This Sunday we’ll see the what happened to Rick and Michonne.

It has a lot of dark scenes. I don’t like how they show dark as I can’t see anything. I guess people who have better televisions can see but between our TV and my eyes, I tend to concentrate on my knitting rather than strain my eyes.

I’m enjoying a second read of the Clan of the Cave Bears. I love listening to this second book, Valley of Horses while Diamond Painting. It helps me sit there longer. I think this is my favorite of the series. Does anyone know if they ever did a TV series? No, there’s no way it could be as good as the books, but still it could be good.

My constant Flounder not just in February is with time to sleep. Especially if it’s a good book! Bedtime doesn’t even have diamond painting for a side distraction.


The Blue Zones Secrets for Living Longer (Blue Zones, The)The Blue Zones Secrets for Living Longer by Dan Buettner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was quite interesting. I was lucky to get the Kindle from Libby. Now, I want to get the paper version to catch the pictures, recipes, and ideas to read more slowly and start bringing more of these ideas into my life. What I’d really like to do is travel to these countries myself. I look forward to watching this on Netflix.

I used to live near the Seventh Day Adventist communities, the one in Loma Linda and the one in La Sierra, California. My friends attended that church, so I had an early intro to the vegetarian diet. That fit quite well for me as I never liked meat. I got to have special dinners with those friends and was amazed at the variety and full flavor of everything offered. The only thing I would object to is the smog. It was very thick in those areas. I would bet that these people would live even longer elsewhere.

This wasn’t a long or engaging read. I used Text-to-Speech and was through it in a couple of nights. Like I said, I look forward to having the book.

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And the flounder is how to not hyperfocus on diamond painting and reading. I find there’s so much to do and read and so little time. I need at least 48 hours for my day!


Piglet: The Unexpected Story of a Deaf, Blind, Pink Puppy and His FamilyPiglet: The Unexpected Story of a Deaf, Blind, Pink Puppy and His Family by Melissa Shapiro
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh, my goodness! This book was fun from the very beginning. My eyes have difficulties tracking to read; even since cataract surgery fixed a lot of my issues, tracking remains nearly impossible. I have been an avid reader since I was little. Reading was slow going, but I got through the ten books allotted by the library every three weeks. The heft of the books was unwieldy, but I didn’t ask for help.

So, I began reading this book on my old phone using the Kindle app. It took me quite a while to get through even half the book. Finally, I caught up with the Libby audiobooks I had checked out, and Piglet became my bedtime book. Now, I could use text-to-speech and speed up the reading quite a bit. And give my eyes a rest.

Another reason I got into this book is my own dog, Kali, passed last spring after being nearly blind and having doggy dementia and bad hearing. It was so hard at the end of her life, but we had such a hard time from the beginning trying to learn from each other that the bond for her was strong in the end. I miss her so much and feel the need to help another dog as soon as I can. Meanwhile, Piglet helped me. Now I feel even stronger about getting another dog. I know there is one out there that needs me as much as I need him or her.

I think this book has a couple of other inspirational stories within. Melissa Shapiro is a veterinarian who tells her story of how she and her husband got together. Then, she shares her children’s aspirations with music. She tells of their college experiences.

By the way, one of her daughters and her husband have honest and raving reviews on the Piglet GoodReads page. I was delighted to read these as I felt I knew them from the book.

This book is full of the good feels a person needs these days. I look forward to looking all over the internet to find videos and follow the dogs, Melissa, and her family, and all the good they are doing for disabled people and animals.

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When I feel I am floundering, I need to remember the floundering Ms. Shapiro and her husband went through with that one-pound blind, deaf puppy screaming his needs to them. Floundering is how one finds one’s balance. That is what February gives me. Meanwhile, today my turtles got a little more colorful.


Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened AmericaMedgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America by Joy-Ann Reid
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This has to win the Black History Month finest read. Joy-Ann Reid has written and narrated one of the best books I have read in a long time. Especially since I don’t much like nonfiction, there was history and personal story involved. I cared from the beginning for all the characters involved. And Ms. Reid became one of them as she was a personal witness by getting to know Myrlie Evers personally. So, her research was not only factual but personal. That is a true history book!

It wasn’t just a bunch of facts and men, as most history books seem to be. Nor was it only fighting and war and the heroes. However, that was included as only a part of history.

I could not stop listening/reading, so I went over my 3 AM sleep time as I didn’t want to stop listening. Joy-Ann is fun to listen to, and I always feel the wiser when I heed her voice.

I highly recommend this book. I was lucky to find it on Libby as an audiobook.

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The Grift: The Downward Spiral of Black Republicans from the Party of Lincoln to the Cult of TrumpThe Grift: The Downward Spiral of Black Republicans from the Party of Lincoln to the Cult of Trump by Clay Cane
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Since this is Black History Month, I decided if the Libby app could get this book to me, I would read it. Well, listen to it. They had the audiobook. Clay Cane did his narration.

As important as the information in this book is, I found it like any history book. It was all facts, names, and dates. I felt it could use more story and more emotion for the reader to relate to. The author/narrator was hyped and sounded like an evangelistic preacher. So before long, it was just noise.

Maybe it would be better to read the paper copy or the Kindle version. I felt I needed charts and timelines, and I needed to take notes. That’s hard to do at 2 in the morning when I am trying to go to sleep. I may have to read this again with the summaries I see on Mr. Cane’s Amazon and Goodreads pages. All that I have said about it was my own reaction to how it went into my brain so late at night. I think others who hold onto facts better than I do will love this and find new insights into our system of government.

So don’t take my word for it. Try it. You might like it and learn something you didn’t know before.

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The Floundering part of this review is knowing it is a good and important book. But my lack of sleep or ability to concentrate ruined the book for me. And the entire day following. I got nothing done but weird naps and 40 minutes at the diamond painting only amounted to:

Just the little green drills got done in the 40 minutes before my body decided it was enough.
While chatting yesterday, I got ‘kitted up’.

I need to sleep tonight!


The Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth's Children, #1)The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the review I wrote for the Kindle version of this book. Since I listened to this one while reading from the Kindle version, I feel this should get a review as well.

***

I had this book, the hardback copy, for a long time. I had heard it was a good read, but the book was so heavy I never picked it up to read. I sold my copy. Downloaded as a Kindle copy, and it became a simple read. I, also. Downloaded the Audible version to listen to as I read. The voice of Sandra Burr was melodic and kept my interest, even when my eyes got tired.

This is deep enough that I must continue into the next book: The Valley of the Horses. I already downloaded it so that my memory of the end of the last book will fade. I will not say more than that for fear of committing a spoiler.

Glad I will now own this so I can go back and re-read it sometime.
~~~
February 6, 2024
I just finished re-listening/reading this first book. I have to admit it was as good as the first time I was immersed in the story. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. If you have read it, it is worth the reread!

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Nobody floundered as much as the first humans. Can you imagine all the things they had to learn? We stand on their shoulders.


Thicker than Water: A MemoirThicker than Water: A Memoir by Kerry Washington
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I don’t normally like to rate memoirs. It seems unfair as it is the story of that person’s life. But in this case, I truly enjoyed Kerry Washington’s reading and her story.

As much as I would love that rating to go to her life experience, it is more how I felt as she read about her love of swimming. I related to that love so much. Even her words and voice portrayed that great love and how, in the end, that helped her and her family find their way. I don’t want to give anything away. Hopefully, that much isn’t a spoiler.

Her voice is strong and full of life as she tells her story. I felt so much like I was having a cup of coffee or sitting in the spa after a good batch of laps.

Libby is one of the greatest inventions ever! It is through them that I can read so many books. Yes, there is still the due date to make you read faster, but it is still a way to read a lot when you haven’t a lot of money to buy each and every book you want to read. That was how I read this book. It is worth buying if only for the poetry Kerry gives to living. And swimming.

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When you flounder in life, it is nice to find others to see how they handle their floundering. In Ms. Washington’s book, you see a lot of floundering as she learns about her life.

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