Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

I am so amazed by how Sanderson writes these seriously ENORMOUS, huge, doorstop-level epic novels that feel like page-turners. My only problem with how huge these books are is that it's really hard for me to wait to find out what happens as the book goes on, and it takes so long to get on in the books. I've been reading this one for three or four weeks now--it IS 1235 pages, after all. (It should really count for four books instead of just one.) I've been dying to see where it's all going as the book progressed.

This book is the third in the Stormlight Archive, and it's the story of Dalinar and his flashbacks to what he was like as a young warlord. It's a lot darker than the other two books, about Kaladin and Shallan, because the two of them had more bad things happen to them but they overcame them, but it turns out that Dalinar did some pretty terrible things in his past, which he'd forgotten about because he'd gone to the Nightwatcher and had those memories taken away (basically). I hated reading about how harsh and horrible he was at times, but all of that really emphasized how thorough his transformation was into being a good guy, as Dalinar learns at the end as he begins to accept his past and his change.

I love how truly "epic" these books are--so focused on good vs. evil and so filled with overall messages of people choosing the good. The oaths that the Knights Radiant make are inspiring and meaningful and so important to them that they literally change and become different. "Life before death, strength before weakness, journey before destination." If those are true, journey before destination means that you have to take the next step. The next step is always the most important.

As always, Sanderson's world-creating is spot on in this book, along with his characterizations. I just can't get enough of how he gets you to know his characters--not with any boring obvious descriptions, but through their thoughts and conversations. There are so, so many characters in his books, and he gives so many of them the chance to be the narrator, even if just for one chapter. I feel like it is really hard to stay abreast with these books--I always feel like I'm missing something or confused about something (which I probably am), but it doesn't stop me from enjoying hugely whatever I do understand.

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester

I heard about this book from the Modern Mrs. Darcy blog, where she listed some good audiobooks. I was interested in it because I loved getting to know the OED a little bit when I was in college. It's absolutely amazing to see how much goes into every entry about every word. Not just definitions, but actual quotes showing how and when the words were used and when they first entered the language. I was fascinated by it, and I loved the idea of learning about how the book was put together. This book gave a lot of information about that, but it also focused a lot on one of the contributors to the dictionary: William Chester Minor, who was an insane man being held in an asylum in England after he killed a man. I'd say this book was more about him than it was about the dictionary--kind of a biography of Minor with more asides about the dictionary and Murray, who was the "professor" in charge of the dictionary (at least for part of it--it took 70 years to complete so he died before it was finished). And I was kind of disappointed about that--I didn't feel like the story of Minor and Murray was worth spending most of the book on. It would have been great to have it be maybe split halfway between the personal story and more information about the making of the dictionary. I'm sure there was some exciting dramas that must have happened while adding specific words, etc., and that's probably what Minor and Murray would have been more interested in talking about than themselves. But it was still a pretty good audiobook--the narrator's (and author's) voice was so supremely upper-class British that it was perfect for this story about the Oxford English Dictionary.

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl

I set a goal for the year to read one chapter book a month with my boys. That's not super ambitious or anything, but I know that it takes us a while--some days we will read three or four chapters in one sitting, but then we will go a week without reading. After we finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, my boys would not rest without reading the sequel. But whereas Charlie and the Chocolate Factory felt like fun and we all couldn't wait to get to the next chapter (so we read it in less than two weeks), this one felt a lot more like work to me. The boys loved it, but I wasn't as interested. It's a little bit whacky, with the whole Bucket clan going up into space in the great glass elevator and up to the great space hotel, and then venturing into Minusland after Grandma Georgina takes too many age-reducing vitamins from Mr. Wonka. The story did not feel like it went together--it was definitely two totally separate adventures--and it wasn't all that appealing to me. I'm glad to have finished and we are moving on to The BFG next!

Tell Me More by Kelly Corrigan

I read one book by Kelly Corrigan years ago (and I remember absolutely nothing about it, haha), but I kept seeing review about this book and mentions of it as a good audiobook, so I requested the library purchase an e-audiobook copy of it and they actually DID! (Shocker of all shockers--our library NEVER purchases copies of books that I recommend to purchase.) And this was a good audiobook--a thoughtful, honest, vulnerable memoir-ish book made up of twelve essays about important phrases that build connection and love between people. I mostly loved how open and honest Corrigan was in these essays, and how she wrote about the people she loved in such a loving way while looking at her own faults and mistakes. She made herself so relatable, explaining the confusing mistakes she has made as a parent and the oxymoron of loving these people more than anything yet making the worst mistakes ever with them. She wrote so movingly about her father's recent death and the death of one of her closest friends as well. I think my favorite essay was the one at the end titled "This Is It," where she talked about how even with its horrible moments and the dullness and difficulty of parenting sometimes, this is exactly the life that she wanted. I think of that often too--how I'm living my dream life right now, even though it's hard sometimes to see that through the weeds. I also loved her essay "Tell Me More" where she talked about a conversation she had with her daughter where she said that instead of trying to "fix" her problem, mostly because it was a good reminder of how to talk to our kids to build connection with them instead of always trying to be right. This was definitely a worthwhile audiobook and one I'm glad to have listened to.

Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny

I read the last Armand Gamache book over a year ago, and I couldn't wait to listen to this one when I finally, finally came to the top of the library waitlist. (I've been waiting for months!) I am such a huge fan of Gamache, Jean-Guy, Reine-Marie, and all our favorite people from Three Pines. Louise Penny has created this town that seems so real and so cozy, lovable, and believable, and it makes you want to curl up and stay there with the Gamaches. This book began not with a murder, but with Gamache being summoned as a liquidator for a will of someone he'd never met, and Gamache has to go down a trail to find out who this lady was and what the story was of her family. Eventually there is a murder of someone who is involved, and Jean-Guy has to get involved. But there is also another storyline continuing the huge plot of the drug bust from the previous book, and Gamache trying to tie up the loose ends and catch the rest of the drugs that had slipped through the police's fingers when they bust the drug ring in Glass Houses.

All of my favorite elements of a Louise Penny novel were there--plenty of cozy scenes in Three Pines, interesting extra characters, a complicated murder and interesting backstory to the murder involving a centuries-old family will. I kind of figured out who had done it well before the reveal came along though, which hasn't usually happened in her books. I loved how Penny used the idea of Gamache being asked to be the liquidator of a will for a random person he'd never met; that seemed like a perfect way for Penny to introduce new characters for the murder plot in a believable way. I also loved the way Penny wrote about the blizzard--she clearly knows what they feel like very well, and can make you feel like you need to grab a blanket and settle down inside your cozy warm house--and the dramatic scene of the house caving in. She has an amazing talent for imagery and for making you feel like you're a part of something.

I can't wait for the next one. I'm glad Penny hasn't given up on this series yet, because I will continue to read them as long as she produces them.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

I put off reading this book for a long time, although it was on my list of audiobooks our library has and I'd heard several very high reviews of it. But... I guess the cover put me off and it just seemed like something I wouldn't like. I love me some fantasy books but not all of them, and I didn't know about this one. But I was pleasantly surprised and once I listened to just a few minutes of this one, I was hooked. I loved how Taylor introduced the reader to the magic of the story slowly--it starts off seeming like it's the story of a normal teenage girl living in Prague going to her artsy high school, but then she starts being able to wish for things, and then she goes on some errands to collect teeth, and then she goes to this secret magical underground room filled with half-animal, half-human chimera friends, and then an angel comes and tries to kill her. And things just start getting more and more crazy after that. I couldn't tell where the storyline was going for 3/4 of the book, and I really enjoyed that. I felt like the main character of Karou was very relatable, a strong female character without being an angry typical YA heroine, and I loved her chimera friend characters and her human friend Susana. The only part that kind of bugged me was the unexplainable romance where she can't explain it but she's drawn to this person and they both can't stop "drawn" to each other blah blah blah. I am someone who needs much more rational explanation for things than just being obsessed with someone without knowing why, especially when that person is trying to kill you for no reason, and I kind of hate when books get into these stupid romances. Okay, I get that you're both gorgeous, amazing human specimens, so naturally you're both unable to keep your hands away from each other. Whatever. 

However, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book and how much I got into it. I was getting mad by the end because it was clear that all of the things in it were not going to be resolved and I didn't realize this was one of a trilogy. So I guess I have two more audiobooks to listen to now, but that's not a problem. I want to find out what happens next and how Karou manages to find out what happened and save her people.

The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell

This book is exactly what it says it is--it's Shaun Bythell's daily diary of what happened each day in his bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland. He writes about buying books from people, going through people's book collections, crazy customers coming into his shop, the struggle of dealing with online book sales through Amazon, and more. He is very dry and sarcastic in a lot of his descriptions of people, and caustic in his discussions of Amazon, Kindles, and e-books and their effects on the book industry (especially the secondhand book industry). He even took a Kindle out and shot it and hung it up in his bookshop.

This made me want to work in his shop. Or at least to go peruse the shelves and look through all the sections and see all the books he has there. I really think I need to be a librarian or work in a bookstore someday. But I don't know that I'll want to own my own bookstore--Bythell makes it very clear that it is hard work and stressful and not very fun in a lot of ways. But he also makes it clear that he loves the independence and prefers it to having to work for someone else. There's a bookstore near him called The Open Book that is open for people to try running it for a week to see how they like being a bookstore owner. I love that idea... maybe someday.

I was surprised by how engrossing this book was, considering how quotidian it was. There wasn't a huge overarching story or anything, but it was funny and real.

Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

This was basically Wonder for dyslexia. I read it for book club, but I don't know that it was worth my time... luckily, it only took me about two hours to get through it. It might be a cute read for a sixth-grader, and it probably would help kids who have dyslexia feel better about themselves. But it didn't really resonate with me. There are a good many middle-grade novels that I've loved, but this wasn't necessarily one of them.

One of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus

I don't remember how I heard about this, but I had it on my list of audiobooks to listen to for the last six months. I even had it checked out a few times but never got around to it. And I finally started it yesterday and blasted through it in less than 36 hours. I couldn't stop listening! I kept finding things to do where I could listen at the same time. It's basically the Breakfast Club turned murder mystery--five kids (the same five types of kids that are in the Breakfast Club) go into detention, but one of them ends up dying. The other four become murder suspects because it turns out the kid who died was about to post each of their worst secrets online to the world. The four suspects begin to work together to solve the crime and to find out who really did it, and all sorts of revelations come to light about each of them, showing they're not all just what their stereotypes show them to be.

I obviously really enjoyed listening to this (obviously) and got very sucked into the story. I felt like some of the story was a little annoying--like the end seemed a little too perfectly happy ending for me, and it seems unlikely that the police would have been so misled by random anonymous Internet sources (at least I hope so)--but otherwise it was really good. I felt like I got to know all of the characters and was invested in each of them and their transformations over the book.

Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney

I read this when I was a kid and loved it. The main pleasure that I got out of reading this this time was nostalgic. I think this is one that I would love to read with the boys, because it's so sweet and good-example-y that I think you can't go wrong with it. Now as an adult and a parent, I'm a little skeptical of the perfectly angelic wonderful little Peppers, who think of nothing but helping Mother and trying to be good. BUT as a kid, I didn't see any of that but loved it, and it can only be a good thing for kids to read things with good values, right?

Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson

I bought the third Stormlight Archive for myself for my birthday a few months ago, but it has been sitting on my bedside stand since then because of all the other books I have been working through. I finally picked it up a few days ago only to remember that he had written a novella to go in between the second and third books. Luckily the library had a copy of the novella as an audiobook, so I was able to listen to it this week and really got into it. It is the story of Lift, a street urchin who you read about in one chapter of the second book, and her story is expanded in this novella, where we find out more about her and what she can do. She is on her way to becoming an Edgedancer, one of the Knights Radiant, and you learn a little more about some of small side stories from the books. Mainly, it just got me excited about reading the 1200-page monster that's Oathbringer, which is my next big read. It might take me a month to get through it, however.

The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman

I read this one because it was another Newbery winner, and I was sure I'd read it before. For some reason I kind of thought this book was Catherine, Called Birdy, which I am so familiar with and which I'm pretty sure I read and liked at some point. (They're by the same author and have similar looking covers, so that's why.) But I didn't really love this book. I liked the setting in medieval times, and the subject matter of the midwife helping babies be born, but I didn't feel like I really connected with any of the characters or cared about them. That's probably realistic, because Alyce was a silent, lonely, neglected medieval orphan who naturally wasn't going to be the most outgoing of people. But I was just grateful this book was so short. Maybe I would have liked it if I'd read it when I was a kid, but I felt very ambivalent about it now.