Tag Archives: audiobook

Vagabond Circus Series Boxed Set

Book Review of Vagabond Circus Boxed Set, by Sarah Noffke

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Sarah Noffke was giving away Audible credits for the Vagabond Circus box set, including Suspended, Paralyzed and Released, and I ended up with one of them.

Description from Goodreads:
When a stranger joins the cast of Vagabond Circus—a circus that is run by Dream Travelers and features real magic—mysterious events start happening. The once orderly grounds of the circus become riddled with hidden threats. And the ringmaster realizes not only are his circus and its magic at risk, but also his very life. 

Vagabond Circus caters to the skeptics. Without skeptics, it would close its doors. This is because Vagabond Circus runs for two reasons and only two reasons: first and foremost to provide the lost and lonely Dream Travelers a place to be illustrious. And secondly, to show the nonbelievers that there’s still magic in the world. If they believe, then they care, and if they care, then they don’t destroy. They stop the small abuse that day-by-day breaks down humanity’s spirit. If Vagabond Circus makes one skeptic believe in magic, then they halt the cycle, just a little bit. They allow a little more love into this world. That’s Dr. Dave Raydon’s mission. And that’s why this ringmaster recruits. That’s why he directs. That’s why he puts on a show that makes people question their beliefs. He wants the world to believe in magic once again. 

Review:
Overall, I enjoyed this series and thought that the narrator, Steve Barnes did a good job on the audio version. I liked some of his voices better than others. I loved Finley’s, for example, but hated Charles’. But it all averaged out. Here are my brief thoughts on the story, written as I completing each book.

Suspended
Pretty good so far, I say ‘so far’ because it’s obviously just part one of the trilogy. It ends on a cliffhanger. But so far I like the plot, the magic system, and the characters. (Though I spent a lot of the book thinking Finley was a total jerk-face.) There is a bit of insta-love, which is annoying. But I kind of see opportunities for it to be explained in the future. We’ll see. I’ll hold of final judgment until I finish the series; all of which I have, since I’m actually listening to the Vagabond Circus Boxed Set.

I do have to admit though that I’ve been really annoyed by the short chapters. Maybe that wouldn’t bother me so much if I wasn’t listening to an audio instead of reading it, but it feels like the narrator is always having to interrupt the story to note, “Chapter 64,” etc.

Paralyzed
Very much a middle book in a trilogy where the books don’t stand alone. But, taking the series as a whole, it’s still fairly enjoyable. The villain has finally been revealed and the primary couple is finally admitting to loving one another.

Released
I generally enjoyed it. I was seriously disappointed that the author seemed to go back on all the diversity she’d included in the series by having the sole queer character (as well as only black main character) die and the only other woman of color that I recall be horrid and also dying. I don’t think you get accolades for including diverse characters (which I was all geared up to give) if you just kill them off.

I also thought that, given that the circus was full of powerful, skilled people, the ending was overly drawn out. But it was still pretty good.

Overall, I enjoyed this series and thought that the narrator (Steve Barnes) did a good job on the audio version. I liked some of his voices better than others. I loved Finley’s but hated Charles’. But it all averaged out. Here are my brief thoughts on completing each book.

 

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened

Book Review of Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir, by Jenny Lawson

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I borrowed the audio version of Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, by Jenny Lawson from the library.

Description from Goodreads:
When Jenny Lawson was little, all she ever wanted was to fit in. That dream was cut short by her fantastically unbalanced father (a professional taxidermist who created dead-animal hand puppets) and a childhood of wearing winter shoes made out of used bread sacks. It did, however, open up an opportunity for Lawson to find the humor in the strange shame spiral that is her life, and we are all the better for it.

Lawson’s long-suffering husband and sweet daughter are the perfect comedic foils to her absurdities, and help her to uncover the surprising discovery that the most terribly human moments-the ones we want to pretend never happened-are the very same moments that make us the people we are today.

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened is a poignantly disturbing, yet darkly hysterical tome for every intellectual misfit who thought they were the only ones to think the things that Lawson dares to say out loud. Like laughing at a funeral, this book is both irreverent and impossible to hold back once you get started.

Review:
I’ve loosely followed Jenny Lawson online for the last couple of years, generally since Beyonce the chicken went viral. So, I knew who she was going in. But honestly I only picked the book up because my book club chose it for the read this month. I opted for the audio version because I didn’t know that I would really feel invested in it otherwise. I don’t know if that would have been true or not, but I’m awful glad I got the audio. I think I got a lot more enjoyment out of hearing her tell her stories than I would have from reading them. Don’t get me wrong, she has a really recognizable voice, even when writing, but I’m glad I made the choice I did. I can always look at the pictures later. Surely someone will bring the actual book to our meeting next month.

I very much like the way Lawson set herself and her husband Viktor up as a double act or, what the Japanese would call Manzai. He’s the straight man, all reasonable and level headed and she’s the silly one, the funny (wo)man. Of course, it’s all from her perspective and a lot of her humor is at the expense of her own mental health, but it is still funny and endearing, as the affection for him (and eventually her daughter) definitely comes across.

In the beginning I was a little put off as the entries felt random. They were funny, but not much more. But eventually Lawson started pulling themes and life advice from the stories, which I thought went a long way toward making it feel less erratic. At times, the humor felt a bit contrived, like someone desperately seeking attention. But overall I enjoyed it.

All in all, good job book club. I wouldn’t have chosen it on my own, but I enjoyed it all the same.

Finders Keepers

Book Review of Finders Keepers, by J. J. DiBenedetto

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J. J. DiBenedetto sent me an audible copy of his novel Finders Keepers.

Description from Goodreads:
It should have been a simple job. All archaeology student Jane Barnaby had to do was pick up a box her professor needed and deliver it to him at his dig site, along with his new car. Yes, his office was in Oxfordshire, and his dig site was in Spain, a trip of 1,400 miles across three countries and two bodies of water. Still, it should have been simple. 

And it was, until Jane discovered she picked up the wrong box by mistake. Not the one with boring pottery samples, but instead the one with priceless ancient Egyptian artifacts. The one that a team of international art thieves is after. 

Now she’s chasing – and being chased by – the thieves. And she’s picked up a pair of passengers who claim they can help her outwit them, get her professor’s pottery back and return the artifacts to their rightful owner. If only she could figure out which one of them is working with the thieves and which one she can trust in this high-stakes game of finders keepers.

Review:
This was utterly ridiculous. I won’t go so far as to call it bad, but it was just completely unfathomable. I found none of Jane’s reactions believable. Further, I didn’t believe international art thieves with a 6 million dollar/pound score would be so easily defeated or so plainly unthreatening. Jane never once seemed to really consider that they might be violent. And they weren’t, which made them mere cartoon characters. While the author explained why Jane took the actions she took, I couldn’t believe for a moment that a woman in her early twenties would do the things she did and have such amazing results.

Further, I was constantly annoyed by the references to Jane’s traitorous body and her willingness to trust a man she knew to be lying to her based on how attractive he was. Again, it was beyond belief. Plus, the love triangle fake-out was just annoying.

And there were just so many small things like this. Like her causing a traffic accident while traveling at high speed. This would have been unfailingly deadly in real life, but the reader is supposed to believe she hasn’t really hurt anyone.

Maybe a younger reader would have enjoyed the book more than I did. The writing is fine, as is the narration (by Cait Frizzell), but I spent a lot of time listening to the story and rolling my eyes, like “yeah right.”