Tag Archive: text-to-speech



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.

View all my reviews


Private Equity: A MemoirPrivate Equity: A Memoir by Carrie Sun
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I picked this Kindle version ARC up on NetGalley. Thank you.

When I was sent the book, I must have known it was an autobiography. But it was a while before I started the read. I couldn’t believe the amount of financial information that showed up around 10% of the book. Remember, by now, I was thinking it was fiction. I couldn’t imagine why a person would include all that information that seemed to go on and on. I almost gave up on it. The story was triggering because of my time working in a corporation. Even the friendliest becomes a monster, a vampire to its employees. So again, I nearly gave up.

But about halfway through, I was hooked. I wanted to know what Carrie would do to find her own life again.

The ending was wonderful. Let me just say she does finally find a way.

Now I want a more positive life written so I can enjoy her new life!

Thank you for letting me read this book!

View all my reviews


Becoming Crone (The Crone Wars #1)Becoming Crone by Lydia M. Hawke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a fun book that, at last, didn’t have to do with someone under 60. It only took a couple of nights to get through. I do wish it were in Audible, but text-to-speech was still doable.

A mature woman whose marriage is over and the offspring has a child of his own finally finds her power, and boy, it’s a lot!

And her caretaker is a gargoyle. Her name is Kevin!

Hopefully, those weren’t spoilers.

It was such an entertaining book; I now have the second book lined up.

View all my reviews


Cidney Swanson has me under her spell. I love all her books. I feel so fortunate to be able to be an early reader for her. I am especially giddy when she writes about Mars. This latest series is called Shadow of Mars. This was book three. This one is so new it isn’t even listed on Amazon or GoodReads yet. When it is, I will copy from here the parts about her book and paste them there. Usually, it is the other way around. I write the review on GoodReads, then copy to Amazon, and then here on WordPress.

I want to put the picture up here, too. But I don’t know if that is even okay yet. So I’ll do the best I can with my words.

Just a quick blurb, since there isn’t one to grab out there, I’ll see if I can give you a bit of what has happened and what this book is about. Book one was So Dark the Sky, in which our main character Penny Wanjiru, a school teacher, finally gets the chance to go to Mars. But leaving her elderly grandmother makes the decision difficult. Book two was So Bright the Stars, in which Penny is on her way to Mars. This third book is So Still the Dawn, in which Penny is on Mars and wondering if she is going to get to stay.

Anyone who knows me well knows how much I love and have loved science fiction, especially space travel. Cidney writes to my inner kid to teen. Especially in her Saving Mars series. But this series is aimed toward adults. Even though I would have read it as a youngster. I read too many of men getting to go to space. They were kids. They were adults. I wish there had been women in space novels who weren’t eye candy. Ms. Swanson makes you feel more that the adult in the book isn’t so much a wimpy woman crying for romance but an adult who happens to be a woman who is brilliant in her own way.

Another wonderful thing Cidney does in her books is dive deep into the character’s psychology. All those creeping thoughts we record early in life that make us feel unworthy or wrong for what good could happen. Cidney brings that forward and helps us to grow with the character. Go Cidney!

Okay, I don’t want to spell it out for you or give you spoilers. As soon as the book goes ‘live’, I will make sure you can go get it. I highly recommend it!


Per Linda:

Here are the JusJoJan Rules:

1. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list), counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!

2. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). The prompt will be the word in quotation marks in the title of my 2am post. You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules.

3. Please ping back or link to the daily prompt. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: A) The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section. B) Ping backs only work if you’re blogging on WordPress. Everyone else must paste a link manually.

4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.

5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!

6. If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.

7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.

8. Have fun!


Bermuda Triangle
Bermuda Triangle by Susan Cartwright
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My author friend, Susan Cartwright gave this story to me a while back to see what I thought. For some odd reason I didn’t do a review. Maybe there wasn’t a place here on GoodReads at the time? I don’t know. I just saw it listed on my Shelfari. Yeah, I keep forgetting that site is there. So I thought I would try to make sure this review happened.

Okay, the writing was great. The overall story was interesting. My own biases get invovled here. I found it too man-heavy. I am not into military life and jargon, though the author did a wonderful job in her research. This is where my navy husband was able to verify that research.

I did like the ending, it felt rather like Twilight Zone or X-Files. You do not guess how it will end.

Oh, my other bias is short stories. I am not only a novel reader, I prefer LONG series. I love getting to know the characters in depth and learning about their worlds. So, unfortunately, this made me uncomfortable in telling my friend how I felt. Still, after all this time I remember the story, so I am going to raise my rate from three stars to four. 🙂

View all my reviews

Review: Of the Lilin


Of the Lilin Of the Lilin by Paulette Hampton My rating: 3 of 5 stars This was my bedtime book for a while. It was rather boring. But during that boring time it was educational and relatable for me. Having been diagnosed with clinical depression in 2002, I could relate to Sage, the main character’s, problems. I learned of other ways to look at things I went through. I learned questions I hadn’t thought to ask my doctors. All through Sage’s experiences. Meanwhile, during the day I was reading scarier books that I knew I didn’t dare read at bedtime. This arrangement worked out nicely. Until at about 20% into Of the Lilian, that is. Without giving a spoiler, I found that this book had to replace the daytime read, which fortunately I had finished by this point. From that 20% mark the book became quite exciting. It became the thriller/mystery it was promoted as. It kept me quite anxious, worried for Sage and her family. I couldn’t decide which I liked better the slower beginning or the angsty rest. Though I don’t mind the writer’s style, and love her ideas in this book, I found the jerking between viewpoints confusing and annoying. I had to go back and reread things to know whose eyes I was looking through. This made it a very tough read. Even still, don’t let my opinion stop you from trying the book out. You might find some gems just for you in the story. By the way, this book was a read/review freebie. Thank you! View all my reviews

Dar49 Daily


 

Dar49 Daily. Is out. Yeah, I know, FINALLY!!! Well, there were so many ‘shiny chickens’ (distractions to ADD/ADHD) running about I couldn’t remember what I was actually supposed to be doing with my Paper.li. Editing. In other words deleting stories that have been repeated in the last couple of days. I wish Paper.li would let me then jump in and put in something new, but that’s not the way it works. My husband doesn’t bother with editing, he just send out the papers as they come to him. I have a feeling that Scriptorium does the same as I often see repeated stories in that paper. If you see a repeat in mine it is either connected with a review or same story different source. At least, that is how I think I am doing it. I am still in the learning curve. But now I am actually thinking about paying for this service.

 

Did you know you can have a Paper.li of your own? I am finding it a lot of fun so I thought I would share the process. When you go to my paper look at the top. You can join simply with your twitter account if you like. Then they walk you through it. Click around and chose your sources. You can choose what they choose for you or put an interest in the search bar to bring up others. I chose: Fibromyagia, Game of Thrones, Science, Writing, Grammar. You may have other interests, say sports of knitting, who knows. You will only be able to have 25 sources. But as you can see with the three papers I have shared here that is quite enough. And when you are tired of the source you can replace it with other new interests. If any of you do set up a paper of your own, let me know. Send an Url. Do you have the ‘Press This’ button on your browser? I have one on Chrome and that is how I share a lot of articles I find interesting with you all. That is how I share my Paper.li with you. too.

 

 

 

Oh the ‘shiny chickens’ of the day? DNews. Click on them and watch Discovery News on YouTube or from the URL on the paper. I found myself transfixed with all the sciencey goodness.

 

 

Do you have trouble viewing websites? I do. I have trouble reading sites with small print on white background. While I am on the topic of addons to Chrome, Evernote has my newest favorite. Sorry if this sounds like a commercial, but I like to share when I find things that help me. ‘Clearly’ is an offshoot of Evernote. It not only can resize the font, it can change the background to gray or black. And if you pay for Evernote you can have text to speech from any webpage. That, for me, is worth it. I can read so many more websites now. Oh, and the voice on ‘Clearly’ is nearly human in its sound. There is emotion when it reads, say, “Wow!”, or “That’s sad.”

 

Okay, done with commercials. If you have any questions about anything I’ve mentioned here, send a comment here or on my Paper.li–Dar49 Daily. I’d like to see what you think.

 

EkAuratU

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