jenbsbooks's Reviews (2.41k)

I must admit, while I had this book on my list, I wasn't feeling that enticed to read it. It's OLD. Published in 1904! But then again, I adore Anne of Green Gables, written around the same time, and this actually had a similar feel to that in some ways. The sequel, 2nd in the Limberlost series (and more well known) A Girl of the Limberlost was selected for my book club for May ... so I figured I should read this one first. 

I liked it, didn't LOVE it. It doesn't check off a lot of my boxes to get a higher rating. I'll remember it, but likely wouldn't recommend it or care to have a copy to keep. Didn't make a lot of notes. Not feeling the urge to discuss. Cover/Title ... a little blah.

I was able to get the audio from the library (it's on Hoopla). The ebook copy was there, too, but not Kindle. I'm a Kindle gal. I happened to check Amazon and found a copy there free!

20 chapters ... Roman numerals numbering them in the Kindle copy. And each chapter has a full heading, starting with "Wherein" ... which reminds me of the Friends sitcom (the one where ...) and Gary Paulsen had one that did that too (and A Girl of the Limberlost continues the tradition). Many are quite descriptive, and it's rather fun to read over them in the Table of Contents and refresh my memory as to what was in that chapter (Ch2 Wherein Freckles Proves his Mettle and Finds Friends, Ch12 Wherein Black Jack Captures Freckles and the Angel Captures Jack, Ch18 Wherein Freckles Refuses Love Without Knowledge of Honorable Birth, and the Angel Goes in Quest of it). 

All 3rd person/past tense. Mostly from Freckles POV, but it does shift to some other characters as well (Ch9 Wherein the Limberlost Falls Upon Mrs. Duncan and Freckles Comes to the Rescue ... the one chapter from Mrs. Duncan's POV ... we also get the Angel a time or two). 

A while back, I read [book:The Backyard Bird Chronicles|194803881], and all the descriptions of birds and watching them, it just reminded me of that book ... and Freckles wanting books to learn more. His "chickens" and the Bird Woman. 

The whole situation was a little frustrating ... one man alone trying to protect from illegal timbering, not only for the tree but for a bet. His back story and having it uncovered, in the end, so easily. Quite convenient!

Words I note: plethora

Other notes: A statement about "appropriate dress" on a woman making her more beautiful. About "being manly" and saving the girl from herself/her own big heart.  Angel "mixing drinks" (not alcoholic, more a soda fountain/flavors) mentioning "acid" (which I get from chemistry, and the book [book:Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking|30753841] but it still sounded a little off to be "adding acid" and a more modern connotation (acid being "a chemical substance that neutralizes alkalis, dissolves some metals, and turns litmus red; typically, a corrosive or sour-tasting liquid of this kind).

This was a book club pick and it is quite confusing ... a story within a story, with those characters writing a book too. Some commentary letters/feedback on the story with a mirror character in the story.  I had it in both audio and Kindle ... I pushed through the audio, even though I wasn't fully following, then re-read portions which helped to clarify. I was really glad I had the Kindle copy though, as there were discussion questions included, but I appreciated the Q&A with the author even more, as it brought out some interesting things.

It starts out in 1st person/present tense, our author, Winnifred(Freddie) in the library, scoping out some people there for material/characters for her book. She and three others start chatting, when there is a scream ...

Technically, the chapter has concluded, there is a *** and change in font (in print, a pause in audio, I REALLY wished it had been a different voice/narrator, a MALE narrator) and this is Leo, responding to that first chapter. Addressed to Hannah, who is the actual author and what we/the reader just read, is her first chapter (which yes, is about Freddie starting up her book). The letter is written in letter format, 1st person, past tense ... and it was interesting from a book club perspective, as he's giving feedback on that first chapter (perhaps things that might come up in a bookclub discussion). 

The book continues on in this format ... Winnifred's story about writing her story (1st person/present tense) for the start of each chapter, followed by a slight break, and then Leo's letter giving feedback on the chapter we just read.

Leo harps a bit on Australian vs American phrases ... which IS something I would notice! The actual author (Sulari Gentill) is Australian, as is the author Hannah (who we really only see reflected in Leo's letters), as is the author Winnifred (although maybe that wasn't clarified early on, but then is definitely described that way ... after Leo's feedback?) ... Leo is American, and "helping" as the novel (Hannah's and Winnifred's) is based in the U.S. He's doing some research to make it ring true per locations and such. 

Hannah's (and thus Sulari's) novel has the usual "murder mystery" trope of "suspect everyone" and laying out red herrings to lay out those suspicions. I feel like most mysteries, this one included, are pretty convoluted ... just REALLY? Could that/would that, really happen? 

If I'd picked this up on my own ... I think it possibly would have been a DNF? The layers just made it hard to follow. Technically, you COULD skip the LeoLetters; while his suggestions do create some changes/clarifications in the novel, he's kind of his own storyline, quite separate. 

Per Leo - the extra/Q&A gave some insight into a Leo-like inspiration (NOT so crazy!) and how author's need to consider including Covid or not (or just basing all stories in 2019 before it happened). At this point, some years after, I think we're back to "normal" enough. I'm not sure when Ms. Gentill was writing this, but Hannah was writing in early 2020, but I'm not sure if her novel (Winnifred's story) was necessarily set in that same time frame. 

... I tend to take more notes in "book club" books, to have possible topics for discussion. Here ...

*Leo's letters ... reminded me a little of A Woman of Independent Means (I need to re-read) which was ONLY outgoing letters. So a bit of the "in your last letter you wrote that ..." to recap correspondence. 

*Some interesting "book/writing" references ... a bricklayer without drawings, a bus - where people/characters hop on and off, and the author doesn't really know the destination. Tattoos ... like a walking book. 

*Leo's "Australian" catches (we Americans don't say "sleeping rough" or "jumpers") ... True. No mention of alternate spellings though (ie centre, yoghurt, chequerboard) which seems like he would have (some come from Freddie, who is actually established as Australian, but other US characters say some of the other words). 

*A couple political "digs" ... "alien invasion…and not the kind with which our President seems preoccupied!" and “Donald’s there too, above my hip.” “God, I hope you mean the duck,”

*Answering the phone and video call without checking caller ID? Do people do that?

*Peanut Butter and Cheese????

*Australian chocolate


ProFanity x 15 

This was almost a DNF for me ... and probably should have been. Very difficult to follow, very explicit. I think I heard about this one in one of my FB groups ... someone recommended it, but it was not for me. 

3rd person/past tense - quite a few characters, and the scene/pov would shift. In print, there would be a little space and symbol to indicate the break and change. In audio ... it just seemed to go from one breath to the next and I'd be so confused as to who "he" or "she" was as the character POV shifted, waiting for a name to be said so I could figure it out. Probably easier in text to follow. 

Very explicit; sex and violence and gore.  ProFanity x 35. 

Do cats not like vampires? I haven't seen that implication before.

I'm not sure if it was the translation ... but a word I tend to notice is the past tense of sneak. Do author's use sneaked or snuck? They are both acceptable, but people tend to use one or the other. This had both, several times. 

I finished ... why did I? The basic premise was interesting, but not worth dealing with all the explicit descriptions and the confusion with all the changing characters. 

Well ... I  got almost halfway through this book (not exactly sure what chapter, because there weren't numerical chapters, just alternating POVs) and ... I really couldn't say what it was about. At all. Not sure if the timing just wasn't right or what, but I'm going to call it. DNF. 

Honestly, I hadn't heard about this anywhere, but a copy appeared in my Little Free Library. I then noticed my mother had read something recently by this author. It is short, and as I like to switch up my audio (from female to male narrator, genres, etc) this seemed to fit the bill. Alas ...

There was some proFanity (7 total, but 5 in one chapter, it grated). I also noted the words bespoke and arcane. 

There is a possibility I give this another try sometime in the future ... I'd just start over, as stated above, I had NO idea what was going on!

I have not followed any vlogs (too busy listening to audiobooks!), and even living in Utah, I wasn't that aware of this family. I'd seen this book come out and get some buzz, but it wasn't until my sister brought it up that I put it on my TBR. She said there was a couple featured in the book (the Haymonds) that I knew from my college years. 

I do feel a little odd giving a rating to memoirs ... but I also feel unfinished if I don't rate things. The rating is on the writing/organization/my boxes to check, not on the life. I felt like this was well written. Standard 1st person/past tense as memoirs tend to be. I liked that the chapters had headers, some dated (as needed). While labeled "Introduction" it used the common ploy of dropping us/the reader, right into a crucial/exciting moment that happens later in the book. The hook. Then it goes back in time and builds to that moment. 

For fans of the 8Passengers show, this really doesn't get into that in depth. Nor anyone really interested in learning about the abuse that ultimately lead to the arrests. This is Shari's story. At one point she says "It's not a story to be picked apart and analyzed" and there she's referring to the latter ... I do wonder how much that might apply to this book as well (most memoirs). 

The first couple chapters focus on younger Ruby, events before Shari was born. Just from a factual stand-point, and from reading other non-fiction books where sources and quotes are documented, I wondered what these chapters were based on. It sounded like she and her mother were never super close, were they close enough that this is what Ruby had told her? A grandmother's perspective? In interviews after the events happened? When something is non-fiction, and it's portions that aren't that individual's actual memories, I just wonder about the source. Even the "memories" from early childhood (5 years) ... how many of those are actual memories?  

There is a lot of dialog in the book ... which I guess is a grace given to memoirs that doesn't extend to regular non-fiction (where authors generally distinguish if something is in quotes, then it is word for word, taken from an interview or recording or journal, etc). It does make a story more readable. I realize there IS a lot of actual footage, and that Shari kept journals, but there isn't any distinction of what is taken directly from documentation, and what is being written from memory.

I borrowed this book from the library in both audio and Kindle format. I went primarily with the audio, narrated by the author, and I thought she did a good job.  Five "parts" with continuous numbered chapters (49 of them). Intro/Epilogue too. The parts and chapters had headers, which weren't included in the Table of Contents on the audio (I like to see the headers there). Looking back over the headers (in the Kindle TOC) they weren't ones that automatically brought back a memory of what was in each section. Some yes, but many were fairly generic. In the text (not TOC) the words in the headers were NOT capitalized ... and I wondered if there was a reason behind this. I'd just read the middle-grade series "The One and Only Ivan" and those chapter headers were all lower-case too, and there I felt like it was perhaps a visualization that the text was "written by the animals" who weren't super educated - that would not be the purpose here. Just a style choice?

After I finished the audiobook, I looked over it again in Kindle, re-reading portions, making some notes. I tend to make more highlights and notes when reading myself (it's just hard to do when listening). 

I noted (about the Haymonds taking one class from Jodi) ... "this fleeting exposure proved invaluable, giving them just enough insight to understand the world I was trapped in, without being pulled into its orbit." and thought that was a good/interesting point. Reference. 

The break-through from the counselor ... responses: flight, fight, freeze ... and fawn. I have a background in psychology and can't remember if I'd heard that last one, and feel like it hit a little close to home. The statement "seeing the pattern means you can break it" (Hubs and I have been watching "Shrinking" right now too). 

Ruby's Journal ... interesting that Shari did NOT want to read it, as compared to so much of the world who I'm sure would love to be able to get their hands on it (I didn't Google or anything to see if that was public anywhere). 

This was based in Utah, and the LDS church was a foundation, both for Ruby, and for Shari. For someone not in the church, this might come off as a little ... churchy ;) And while the church doesn't come off badly overall, there are definitely some questions raised. 

I have not seen the 20/20 episode mentioned, nor the recent Hulu documentary ... but this book has piqued my interest some, while also making me feel a little guilty for being part of the public and the "consumption of other's pain and suffering" ...

I think this might be MY favorite of the series ... perhaps because the characters have grown on me in time, but maybe, more likely because this book while still "middle grade" is skewed more toward the older audience? After all, here, Ivan becomes a DAD.  I felt like there were a few more heavy, note-worthy things here. With parenting, with dealing with the safe in captivity vs freedom in the wild thoughts.  That it's not a parent's most important job to protect their young from the world, but to prepare them for it. The author's note came out a little more forcefully on a few topics too. 

There were a few times when I really didn't know what was going to happen. While I didn't cry, I got a little more emotionally involved in this one. 

While Bob and Ruby make appearances, this one is Ivan's story again.

At times I'm not sure if it's fair for an "old lady" to review a middle-grade book ... but I have absolutely loved some middle-grade and YA books.  I think I would have liked this more in my younger years. 

This was a cute story, an addition to the series with a focus on Ruby. We learn more about both her present life, and her past. While Ivan and Bob make appearances, this is Ruby's book. 

Told in the same format ... no numbered chapters, but a header (word or phrase) and then anything from a couple sentences to a couple paragraphs relating to that header, moving the story forward. 

I borrowed both the audio and the Kindle copy from the library. There are cute illustrations, in the book and at the start, showing elephant body language, and the "glossary" of terms like in the other books. The narration was good.

Middle-Grade May!

Middle Grade May ... I did a re-read of The One and Only Ivan (a listen really, went with the audiobook) and figured I'd finish the series this time, as I had picked up a couple of the books (this one and The One and Only Family) in physical format for my Little Free Library (#182597). While I know it's not necessary to read books before putting them in, I like to have that personal connection if possible.

I liked this - a solid 3* ... In addition to the physical copy, I borrowed the audio and Kindle copy from the library. I went with audio (more ear time than eye time). Danny DeVito narrates this, as the voice of Bob, the Dog (as he voiced him in the movie adaptation of the first book). I actually didn't love the narration. It was slow, I had to speed it up quite a bit. 

Following the same format as the first book, a word/phrase as a header for the "chapter" although these are so short, they can't really be called chapters. It feels a little more like the books that are poetry (like Jason Reynolds books Long Way down, or The Crossover ... or the book Inside Out and Back Again) ... except these are poetry, just simple sentences that do move the story along, but SO much white space when viewed on the page. I think that is actually preferrable though, the visual of that breaks up the sections more than how it comes across in audio. Audio ends up feeling just a tad clunky and repetitive. 

The story here was fine ... the other characters playing large parts still, it's not just Bob's story. SPOILER

quite a bit of action with a big storm that pretty much destroys the zoo, animals hurt and escaped, and a nearby animal shelter flooding too. A little over the top convenient with Bob just happening upon his long lost sister, and then Ivan and Ruby getting out of the zoo to come and save them.

  It was sweet though. Like the first book, it had a "glossary" of dog terms at the start. 

Again - in audio, the author's note read by a different male narrator ... why not the author? Is she that afraid of public speaking? It's just SO impersonal, it actually negates any positives from the author's note. I guess I would have done better to have just read it, she does include a handwritten signature in the text editions (kindle and physical books).  They also have cute illustrations. 

Super short book, and I didn't get far ... but it wasn't clicking for me.  3rd person, shifting between a few POVs (Damon, Lauren, Sean ... according to the blurb, the MC is Taylor & Quinn, I guess I just read the prologue and that was enough to turn me off?)

Maybe I'll come back to it later, try again?

This was a "Reader's Choice" book at my county library. I don't know exactly what that means, except that they generally have a lot of copies. I snagged one at a book sale, and then had no trouble getting the audio (the library had 40 copies!) and Kindle. 

This was super silly and over the top. Not even "suspension of disbelief" could make this anything other than a parody/farce. But enjoyable and easy.   I got a little confused at the time jumps ... the "present" for the most part, but some flashbacks ... "eight weeks earlier" and other earlier times. I wish these headers were included on the Table of Contents, I might have quickly skimmed some of the "past" chapters again, but alas, not if I had to flip through all the pages to find where they were. 

We/the reader were never really told WHAT the telemarketing job was that our MC/Vanessa did. Was it sales, customer service? What was the product? We hear a whole lot about the company, coworkers and activities, but not the product (or did I miss it?) Some of the company activities (the olympics) made me picture The Office (and made me wonder if any of the employees/characters there actually hated it). 

But ... SPOILERS ...

really, admitting that you are firing someone for their "face"? And that every employee would sign paperwork for 3DAYS of pay? That workers could so easily bug the boss's office? That the receiver would get stuck ON out of reach? All the other tricks (foot rash, glitter, etc), that the boss would happen to call the new employer right as she's about to be offered a  job? The whole fraud set-up? Seriously ... I never understood exactly how the company fired people and then collected their paychecks? That it seemed like none of the fired people found new jobs (which might set off alarms with tax withholding and such??) The mom and her friends ...

Hard to give it a high rating, it didn't check off many boxes on my list. BUT while silly, it was entertaining and made me smile. 

ProFanity x2 ... no sex.  Other words I note - snuck.