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The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Below is a previous review of Kate Mascarenhas’s The Psychology of Time Travel. It was with Kindle text-to-speech. I have to admit that this Audible version rates the same. Ellie Heydon (Narrator) doesn’t vary her voice enough to help the listener tell the differences between characters, places, emotions, or times. One difference was one character sounded like they had a cold, but other than that, it was all the same, and I couldn’t figure out why the nasal voice belonged to who it belonged to.
Even so, it was a fun read with time travel rules bent a little differently than other books of this nature. I think it is worth the read, and maybe, in this case, just a paper or visual read.
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A friend recommended this to me. She knew I loved reading about the concept of time travel. And she was not wrong. This was very interesting and even brought up ideas I hadn’t considered before. A lot of time travel science is included in the book, but I loved the story. I loved reading about all the different women who invented the time machines.
I borrowed this Kindle edition from the library. And for a lot of books, the text-to-speech works quite well. But for this book, it made it more challenging. All the voices are the same one, no matter the time or area the person was from; it was the same voice with no emotion. So I got pretty mixed up with who was who. So I have ordered the Audible version to try again later. I am concerned as there are so many characters I may have to take notes to keep it all straight.
Still, even as it was, I found it engaging every single night. I never wanted to quit reading, even when confused.
Worst Case Scenario by T.J. Newman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
T.J. Newman wrote a fantastic disaster movie, I mean a disaster book. Joe Morton (Narrator) brought the writing to life. Joe was able to make each character show up. I never felt like he was being demeaning to women or children, as many male narrators seem to do.
The title says it all. And you know, going in, it is going to get rough and may not get better. Don’t make this your gentle-yourself-to-sleep read. Take it from me: it won’t work. But every waking hour I could, I had the audiobook reading to me.
Here’s the blurb from GoodReads:
When a pilot suffers a heart attack at 35,000 feet, a commercial airliner filled with passengers crashes into a nuclear power plant in the small town of Waketa, Minnesota, which becomes ground zero for a catastrophic national crisis with global implications.
The International Nuclear Event Scale tracks nuclear disasters. It has seven levels. Level 7 is a Major Accident, with only two on record: Fukushima and Chernobyl. There has never been a Level 8. Until now.
In this heart-stopping thriller, ordinary people—power plant employees, firefighters, teachers, families, neighbors, and friends— are thrust into an extraordinary situation as they face the ultimate test of their lives. It will take the combined courage, ingenuity, and determination of a brave few to save not only their community and loved ones, but the fate of humanity at large.
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If you’re looking for a fast scary ride, read this one.
I love school. It was my escape, it was where I learned new things. Especially when I taught.
Blah! Boring! I had a whole thing planned but by the time I sat down to write this my energy, and muses had left the building! I do intend to write more on this some time. And it’ll all be based on those first sentences.
In the music realm, my violin is moving SO SLOW! I figured out I was over resining the bow. This is where a live teacher would have helped a lot. Getting my lessons via YouTube can be risky. But I can now squeakily play Twinkle, Twinkle (ABCD…), and Mary Had A Little Lamb, and started Jingle Bells. Nothing sounds like music. The positioning of violin and bow are still awkward. The instrument seems to hold tuning well, now that I’ve figured it out.
Ah, but, wrap me in plastic and kill me Dexter! This theme song that I picked up from MusicNotes has been tough!!! It looks easy. But not for me. I don’t usually have to listen to the song to get it. Thank goodness MusicNotes has a track to listen to. Even so, I couldn’t get the way it was written. I have finally memorized the beginning.
But midway, there is another section that sends me to a ‘nice cup of tea.’ Okay, let me explain. No. I can’t. Here:
Again. Short spurts. Still very slow. AND I do ‘air playing’ nearly 24/7 I find myself working on it in my sleep.
Thankfully, Succession Theme is recognizable. It’s fun to play the whole piano! Lots of ledger lines or octave lines to reach out for.
Speaking of
Piano time!
The Bookstore Sisters by Alice Hoffman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was cute. I’m not much of a short story fan, but this fits the moment. I needed something to read after the last book left me an hour from sleep time. It is fun to finish a book in an hour or so.
I had this one tucked away in my Audible library. Jennifer Jill Araya, the narrator, was able to keep the characters fresh and sincere.
There are a couple more novellas following this one. I plan to get them and finish the story.
Sadly, we didn’t get a new dog. (Details below.)
I had this page set up last night with two choices one if we got a dog and one if we didn’t. My hopes were high but the majority were too large for us. Adorable, yes, and I wanted them all! But realistically we need something smaller. The two smaller ones were already taken. The one I had hoped to get the day before, Birdie was taken yesterday. She was an adorable chihuahua mix. Oh, well. At least we’ve offically started the search.
Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution by Neil deGrasse Tyson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Yawn! I was looking forward to our personal astrophysicist narrating his own book. But alas, they found the most boring narrator, JD Jackson. I could still hear Neil deGrasse Tyson’s sense of wonder and humor coming through, but if they were hoping to rev up some interest in science, this audiobook falls with my 8 AM monotone chemistry teacher from high school. I have always loved science. When the bus got us kids to school early, I’d run to the library and find Popular Science magazine. And despite Mr. ‘Chem teacher,’ I stayed true to my actual waking hours interests. And this book will not dull my science passion.
That said, I have to admit to being lost a lot. I let the narrator drone on and often found something interesting every now and then. Mr. Tyson, please read to us with your science enthusiasm shining through!
Still, maybe it is due to reading at bedtime? Maybe others will love this audiobook. In this case, I suggest a paper book or Kindle.
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I am quite the Kristin Hannah fan now. After The Women, I had to read this when it appeared as a suggestion on Libby. Knowing Julia Whelan, the narrator, sealed the deal. She is the most excellent reader. She seems to intuitively read Ms. Hannah’s characters, making the whole story alive and relevant.
Hannah can write historical fiction so that the facts, ‘names and dates’ type of history get lost in following love and family.
After following the book to the conclusion, I was happy to find a bit of discussion about the writing procedure and even Ms. Whelan’s way of narrating. I am still quite interested in that process.
We Baby Boomers can remember hearing about the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression from our grandparents and parents. Even though I was forced to read Grapes of Wrath (ugh!) and remember dusty pictures in the history textbooks, this made the historical events real.
I highly recommend this audiobook!
Darswords 
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