Almost wordless: I almost got a photo of this Great-crested Flycatcher that I saw on one of my walks when the weather was a lot nicer than it is today. These birds spend their winters in the Yucatan Peninsula and the tropics of South America
——————————–
More Wordless Wednesday. © 2016 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Advertisements appearing on this site are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed or approved by me.
Welcome to Mailbox Monday, created by Marcia of To Be Continued, a place where readers share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.
After several years of being on tour with different blogs as the monthly host, the Mailbox Monday Blog is now the permanent home for the meme.
Arrrrgh … buried in snow this weekend. Just enough to be annoying but not enough to make me stay home and miss a family event and a Christmas party.
A few new books arrived this week. I’m still reading but haven’t had much time to write about them. Perhaps an end of year catch-up post as I’m falling behind in my reviews and a few of those books made my favorites list.
New Arrivals
A Million Little Things by Susan Mallery from Mira.
A twisty tale of family dynamics that explores what can go terribly, hysterically wrong when the line between friendship and family blurs.
The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel from Knopf.
The true story of a man who lived alone in a tent in the Maine woods, never talking to another person and surviving by stealing supplies from nearby cabins for twenty-seven years.
Night of Fire by Colin Thubron from Harper.
A house is burning, threatening the existence of its six tenants—including a failed priest; a naturalist; a neurosurgeon; an invalid dreaming of his anxious boyhood; and their landlord, whose relationship to the tenants is both intimate and shadowy.
——————————–
© 2016 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Advertisements appearing on this site are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed or approved by me.
Almost wordless: They are both females so the eggs won’t hatch.
——————————–
More Wordless Wednesday. © 2016 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Advertisements appearing on this site are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed or approved by me.
All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai
Dutton | February 2017 | Hardcover • Kindle | 384 pages
1st Paragraphs:
It’s hard to know how to start telling this story. But, okay, you know the future that people in the 1950s imagined we’d have? Flying cars, robot maids, food pills, teleportation, jet packs, moving sidewalks, ray guns, hover boards, space acations, and moon bases. All that dazzling, transformative technology our grandparents were certain was right around the corner. The stuff of world’s fairs and pulp science-fiction magazines with titles like Fantastic Future Tales and The Amazing World of Tomorrow. Can you picture it?
Well, it happened.
What do you think? Would you keep reading?
I’ve been in a bit of a reading/blogging slump the past few months, so perhaps choosing something from one of my favorite genres–time travel–would get me out of it.
——————————–
From Goodreads:
All Our Wrong Todays is about the versions of ourselves that we shed and grow into over time. It is a story of friendship and family, of unexpected journeys and alternate paths, and of love in its multitude of forms. Filled with humor and heart, and saturated with insight and intelligence and a mind-bending talent for invention, this novel signals the arrival of a major talent.
First Chapter Tuesday is hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea. Join us by visiting Diane and linking your own First Chapter post or to find out what others plan to read this week.
——————————–
Source: Review copy from the publisher.
© 2016 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Advertisements appearing on this site are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed or approved by me.
Welcome to Mailbox Monday, created by Marcia of To Be Continued, a place where readers share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.
After several years of being on tour with different blogs as the monthly host, the Mailbox Monday Blog is now the permanent home for the meme.
Not a lot of reading time last week, but we did get the garage cleaned out, the garden shed organized, and everything ready for winter. And just in time for a record breaking snow fall yesterday. It’s supposed to warm up tomorrow, and I won’t be sad to see it all melt away!
Nothing in my mailbox last week, but I did receive a new audiobook.
Audio Downloads
The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars by Dava Sobel from Penguin Audio.
The true story of the women working in the Harvard College Observatory from the late 1800s through the mid-1900s and their unexpected and remarkable contributions to astronomy.
——————————–
© 2016 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Advertisements appearing on this site are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed or approved by me.
Almost wordless: I leave the dried purple coneflower standing in my garden during the winter. It provides a little interest in an otherwise barren landscape, plus the seeds are food for the birds.
——————————–
More Wordless Wednesday. © 2016 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Advertisements appearing on this site are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed or approved by me.
A Rapid Review
At Manderley, someone is always watching.
Publisher: Algonquin Books, HighBridge Audio | June 2016
Format: 229 pages | 7 hours | Rating: 4 stars
Audio Listening Level: Intermediate – Difficult
In the tradition of gothic and popular horror, with echoes of The Shining and Psycho, Security redefines fear for a generation that’s seen it all.
What’s it about . . .
Manderley Resort is a luxury hotel designed with the best security that money can buy. The grand opening is in one week, and Tessa, the hotel manager, is hurrying to get everything done in time for the big day. But someone doesn’t want the hotel to open, and Tessa’s employees begin to vanish one by one as a killer stalks the property.
What did I think . . .
The story is told through a unique point of view and in an unusual writing style. It took me a little while to figure out why the scene changes were so choppy, but then I got it — the narration was coming from the POV of different security cameras. It becomes apparent sooner if you are reading than if you are listening. I did both, and when I switched over to print, the formatting was quite unique with a split page as if it were a split screen. It’s quite different, but probably not for everyone.
Security is also not for the faint of heart! There are lots of murders. Some are gory, graphic murders. There is a lot of mystery and suspense, too. We don’t know what is going on most of the time, or even who the narrator is. This is Stephen King type horror. If you like The Shining you’ll be ok with this.
Unfortunately, we never do get all our questions answers, and I never did figure out the motive for such extreme hostility once the killer is revealed, but there was enough of a conclusion to satisfy me. With horror, I enjoy the suspense of what is going to come at you from around the corner or the next opened door… literally!
Audio production . . .
The audio was read by Zach Villa. He used a calm, almost laid-back voice much of the time as the murder and mayhem surrounded the hotel. While his voice was easy to listen to too, and the production itself was fine, this was initially difficult to follow because of all the jumping around between security cameras. I kept listening for a chapter title or some type of indication that the scene was changing, but there were none. I would recommend the audio version mostly to those more familiar with difficult or unusual formats.
Audio Sample:
[Audio Sample on Highbridge Audio site.]
——————————–
Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
© 2016 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Advertisements appearing on this site are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed or approved by me.
Under My Apple Tree 