So this happened...

Every so often, I get to experience something that reminds me I definitely live in Hawaii.  Sometimes it's a local/cultural thing.  And sometimes it's something like this.

I was running on Saturday on a trail near where I work.  The trail loops around a series of saltwater marsh ponds, and (though sometimes smelly at low tide) makes for a rather calming run, away from roads and still convenient to my daily routines.  Anyhoo, I came around a bend and saw this in the water:

Hadn't seen anything like this before in the ponds, and these bumps were only a few of the ones I saw breaking the surface.  Being a good little Southern girl, my first thought was "Gators?" followed immediately with "But they don't have gators in Hawaii, do they?"  Dismissing it from my mind as mud sticking up at low tide or probably something I didn't want to consider poking out of the water, I kept on my run.  Until I rounded the next bend and saw a face breaking the water.

 

 

These are sea turtles!!  There were a couple dozen of them just hanging out in the ponds!

Needless to say, my run got put on pause!  Sometimes you saw their fins breaking the surface of the water first, often in parallel, like a butterflyer's stroke.  More often you just saw their faces coming up to get some air.  The sound they made as their faces broke the surface sounded like a whale spouting or a diver's noise on surfacing and clearing water from their snorkel - kinda a wet puff-and-splash sort of noise.  The trail is set back from the roads at this point, so there wasn't a lot of background noise, other than birds and bugs.  I hung out for probably a good ten minutes taking pictures and listening to them swim, just me and the turtles.

This particular one was hanging out right underneath a footbridge on the trail, so I was able to get a few good pictures as he floated about.  He was with another one, a little guy, whose shell was only the size of a dinner serving tray maybe?  Much smaller than the other ones I was seeing.  So cute!!

 

Growing up on the East coast, I've seen sea turtles before.  I've seen them both in the wild and in aquaria.  I've never seen this many at once though!  Apparently it's a thing they do from time to time,.  A friend (who's lived here on O'ahu a lot longer than I) said that they are also often seen at a couple other saltwater ponds and estuaries through the islands.  First time for me, though, so extra exciting :)

As I finally broke myself away and got back to my run, I passed two families heading in on the trail.  The parents in each had seen the turtles and were bringing their kids back to see too :)

Vocab lesson:
honu = Hawaiian word for the green sea turtle (don't know if these were greens, as we have a couple species around here, but the greens are the most common)
bale = a group of turtles (yes, same word as hay bale)

I did take a video too.  It's over on Flickr.  You can hear me narrating and trying to not squeal!

Review: Mother Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins

Another funny kids book.  I picked up this one because a third Bruce book is coming out in September (Bruce's Big Move, due out Sept 26, 2017, according to Goodreads) and was being discussed in one of the Upcoming Releases webinars I was listening to.  Almost right after listening to that one, I spotted Mother Bruce on the shelf and had to give it a try. 

 

Mother Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins

 

 

 

My Rating: 5 of 5

 

Plot Summary:

 

Bruce the bear is a grump, through and through.  Doesn't like anything, anyone.  But he does like eggs.  However, when stealing from Mrs. Goose for eggs for his latest recipe, something unexpected happens: the eggs hatch.  Bruce is now parent to four goslings, so what's a bear to do?

 

Thoughts:

 

This one isn't a deep picture book, but I wanted to write it up anyway.  What makes this book great are the illustrations and the sense of humor.  A little silly, a little sarcastic, laugh-out-loud funny for kids and adults.  That balance is always a hard one to achieve, but this one manages beautifully.  While the text is funny (Bruce loves eating gourmet recipes found on Pinterest, for example), it's really the illustrations that steal the show (he goes shopping for his recipes in the forest using a shopping cart).  His attempts to raise the goslings, despite not liking anyone or anything, are priceless (even when they are stubborn teenage geese).  And the goslings always have that spacy look on their face, four little feathered heads concentrating on four different fluffy thoughts.  Made me giggle every time.

 

 

 

For story times and lessons, I've seen online how teachers and librarians have used this book to introduce terms such as hibernation, migration, and imprinting, and to talk about adoption and unusual families.  My story times are usually for the 3-5ish age group (preschoolers and young kindergarteners), and this would be a good story time for my older kids.  The story's probably a bit too involved for little-little guys (our toddler time, or my younger preschoolers), and the idea of dinner hatching might be a little stressing.  My older kids would get a kick out of Bruce though!

As I mentioned, Bruce #3 is coming out in the fall.  For those interested, Bruce #2 (Hotel Bruce) came out last fall (2016). 

Overall:

 

This is one of those books that kids will like and parents will enjoy reading to them.  I think it'll be a good older kid story time book too.  While the plot isn't deep or complex, it is fun, and the illustrations are just too cute.  And don't we all know someone like Bruce?  I laughed out loud several times while reading this (slightly awkward when reading quietly at one's desk at work) but you just can't help it.  Bruce and his goslings are a hoot!  I'm definitely looking forward to Book 3 coming out in the fall!

Review: Death at Wentwater Court (Daisy Dalrymple 1).

With my long commute to and from work, I've found that I can get in a good 20-30 minutes listening to an audiobook while I'm driving.  Sometimes on the way home, I listen to All Things Considered instead (yes, we have NPR again!!) but if I'm in a good book, then it's definitely the book.  With almost an hour of listening time each day while I'm driving, I'm finding I can get through an average book in a week or two of commuting.  Obviously, I'm expecting it will take a lot longer when I tackle Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall - I think that one's over 20 hours!  This one, though, was a light and fluffy one, a change after the Napoleonic battles of Sharpe and the 95th. 

The first in the Daisy Dalrymple mystery series: Death at Wentwater Court by Carola Dunn

My rating: 3.5 of 5 (closer to Really Liked It, but definitely have a few issues keeping it from 4 solid stars)

Plot Summary (as per Goodreads - yes, it is a bit flowery, as summaries go):

This first installment of a cozy mystery series transports listeners back to the bygone era of 1923 Britain, where unflappable flapper and fledgling journalist Daisy Dalrymple daringly embarks on her first writing assignment—and promptly stumbles across a corpse.

No stranger to sprawling country estates, wealthy Daisy Dalrymple is breaking new ground in having scandalously traded silver spoon for pen and camera to cover a story for Town and Country magazine. But her planned interviews with the inhabitants of Wentwater Court give way to interrogation after suave Lord Stephen Astwick meets a dire fate on the tranquil skating pond. Armed with evidence that his fate was anything but accidental, Daisy joins forces with Scotland Yard to examine an esteemed collection of suspects and to see that the unlikely culprit doesn’t slip through their fingers just as the unfortunate Astwick slipped through the ice.  

Story Comments:

Oh, look.  Lara has found another cozy historical mystery series she likes.  Quelle surprise!  (/dry sarcastic tone).

 

But seriously, though.  I like Golden Age mysteries, I like historical mysteries, I like British mysteries, and I enjoy a good cozy mystery.  While I also enjoy the puzzle presented in grittier "modern" mysteries or in hardboiled detective stories, I enjoy the simplicity and neat ends of a cozy mystery when I'm looking for a bit of escapism.  This definitely falls into that category.  If you like Mrs. Bradley, Lord Peter Wimsey, or especially the Phryne Fisher series, you'll probably enjoy this one too.  The Maisie Dobbs series and Rhys Bowen's Royal Spyness books  are others that I've heard fall into this category, though they are still on my To Read list.

 

Daisy is a pretty likable heroine.  She's clever and sympathetic, the type people naturally confide in, which makes her well positioned to be an amateur detective - people involved in the case just open up to her.  She's not perfect though, as the conclusion to the mystery demonstrates. Her police counterpart is Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher, another very clever and capable character - no bumbling flatfoot here. There is the interesting dynamic of the well-born Honorable Miss Dalrymple and the more "common copper," which we'll probably see more developed in future books - at least, I'm hoping so!  A lot of the other characters were pretty standard types in this sort of story: a villain to be killed off, and enough other characters to create some mystery - characters both likeable enough to support and questionable enough to consider them as suspects in murder.  My favorite side character was Daisy's childhood friend and sometime suitor, Phillip.  As he's constantly described: sweet, but not the sharpest knife in the drawer (or words to that effect).  Hopefully we'll see him pop up again as well.

 

The plot itself is a pretty standard cozy mystery.  Not the actual events, but the whole "if they'd just talk to each other this wouldn't be nearly so big of an issue" type of plot.  There were a few side story arcs which felt almost unnecessary.  For example, the whole jewel robbery storyline felt very underdeveloped somehow.  And as almost required by the cozy mystery genre, there is a romance looking to develop.  Daisy will probably be seeing a good bit more of DCI Fletcher as the series proceeds.  I'm looking forward to that, especially with how the ending took their characters - besides the class differences, will the case's conclusion here prove an obstacle to the budding romance?  I'll just have to keep reading and find out, won't I?  And yes, like many cozy series, this is one which has to be read in order. 

 

The book is well written, with a good vocabulary and period slang incorporated well (I've read some where the period jargon was used so heavily that conversations were actually hard to understand).  There are some light moments, and a good amount of humor, but there's still a good amount of mystery.   I was actually betting myself on picking out who would be the culprit, and I was wrong, so that means there were enough red herrings to keep me guessing.  That being said, it was still pretty fluffy, not a "heavy" read.  The style of writing is very similar to Golden Age authors; if you like Dorothy L. Sayers or Margery Allingham or Ngaio Marsh, this will be a good one to try.

 

The period feel is emphasized by some details - make-up, fashion, some slang usage, the cars, etc. - and also by current events.  Daisy is a working girl because her brother was killed in the War (as was her fiancé) and her father passed away in the flu epidemic; the result was that a cousin inherited the title her father had held.  That doesn't mean it's a piece of Historical Fiction.  There is a good bit of artistic license in the period details, too, in order to make the story actually work.  Reminds me of Downton Abbey - some period details very accurate, but others are a bit more fast-and-loose in order to make the stories work.  Doesn't mean you enjoy it any less, as long as you take it for what it is.

The biggest downside to me was the ending.  After presenting such a suitable victim with lots of potential motives, the actual solution felt... rushed, I suppose?  Like as if the actual detecting stopped and the solution was just dropped into Daisy's lap.  It felt as if Dunn cut a few corners in both plot and accuracy to finish up the story quickly.  This type of cozy mystery often incorporates a good bit of artistic license, or standard suspension-of-disbelief - think of an average Lord Peter Wimsey story.  How the crime happened was way more important than the actual real-world probability or feasibility of it happening in that particular way.  Even taking that into account, the conclusion still didn't feel real, somehow.  Basically, don't just suspend disbelief - chuck all disbelief out the window when you start getting close to the end and just roll with the events as they're written.  WITHOUT ANY SPOILERS, yes, this was the early 1920s, and some things were done a certain way, and class and wealth still played a very large roll in social dynamics, but the police would still have had some procedures and actual rules to follow.  It felt like Daisy (and Dunn) had just waltzed right over/past them.  One other Goodreads reviewer said that it felt like Dunn had come back to working on the novel after a period of absence, and just wanted to hurry up and finish the book.  That seems a pretty accurate description, actually.  This is the first in the series, so I will cut her a bit of slack for that.  There are at least 20 Daisy Dalrymple books right now, so I'm assuming that Dunn'll grow in confidence in the mystery genre as she works more in it.  A lot of series take a book or two to really get their feet under them, so to speak.  I enjoyed Daisy, Alec, and the other characters and the rest of the story, so my frustrations with the conclusion won't prevent me from picking up the next one in the series.  But, this ending (with my associated frustrations) is what keeps me from giving this one a full 4 stars.

Audiobook Comments:

Bernadette Dunne was the reader for this one, and for the majority of the series, I believe.  This is the first time I've listened to her, and she's not bad, though nothing exceptional.  There wasn't tons of distinction between the voices of the different characters, particularly the women, but I did like her version of Daisy's voice.  I read the reviews on Audible before trying this as an audiobook (a bad narrator can be very off-putting, even for books that you love).  Several people have commented on the quality of Dunne's British accent and pronunciations - some very negatively so!  Being an American myself, it wasn't jarringly bad for me to listen to.  Too many years in Latin classes did tell me that the words "pater" and "mater" were mispronounced, but that was the only one I caught, and it wasn't frequently enough to be either overly irritating or distracting. I'm sure if I was a Brit, I'd probably be more bothered (I know that bad TV/movie Southern accents drive me nuts). 

Overall:

 

I enjoyed it.  Though not entirely satisfied with the ending, I enjoyed it enough that I've got the second in the series ready to read (listen to).  Take it for what it is, though.  It's a fluffy historical cozy mystery series - a "potato chip" read (can't read just one), a palate-cleanser between darker or weightier stories, an enjoyable bit of escapism.  Think Dowton Abbey, remember. Books can be just fun, you know.  Don't read it if you're looking for extensive historical or procedural detail (or accuracy).  And if you're looking for a really hard-core heroine or a very gritty story, this isn't the series for you; try The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or Harry Hole or Wire in the Blood instead.

Review: The League of Unexceptional Children by Gitty Daneshvari

Children's services includes more than just story time and picture books.  I also get to order the middle-grade books!  So my reading list just gets more and more eclectic.  It already included classic and cozy mysteries, urban fantasy, romance, traditional fantasies, the occasional nonfiction, and has now expanded to picture books and elementary school chapter books.  Which is not a problem at all.  Of course there are classic kids books that I still love rereading - Avi, Roald Dahl, M.M. Kaye, Patricia Wrede - but there are a lot of really good authors writing for kids and young adults today.  And really, "it's for my job!"  :)

This week's read: The League of Unexceptional Children by Gitty Daneshvari

 

 

My Rating: 2.5 of 5 (between It's OK and I Liked It)

 

Plot Summary (courtesy of Goodreads):

Are you average? Normal? Forgettable? If so, the League of Unexceptional Children is for you! This first book in a hilarious new adventure series is for anyone who's struggled to be noticed in a sea of above-average overachievers.

What is the League of Unexceptional Children? I'm glad you asked. You didn't ask? Well, you would have eventually and I hate to waste time. The League of Unexceptional Children is a covert network that uses the nation's most average, normal, and utterly unexceptional children as spies. Why the average kids? Why not the brainiacs? Or the beauty queens? Or the jocks? It's simple: People remember them. But not the unexceptionals. They are the forgotten ones. Until now!

Comments:

Well, they do say that spies shouldn't be like James Bond, but blend into the background instead.  Why couldn't average, nondescript children be used the same way?  And with that idea, Jonathan and Shelly find themselves roped into saving the United States when a security breach at the White House ends up compromising all existing agents in the field.  The newest members of the League of Unexceptional Children have to learn the ropes and save the world all at the same time!

Somehow the adventure never really clicked with this premise, though.  It's not that this is a bad one, but it just doesn't come together somehow.  There are some great mysteries and adventure stories for this age group (heck Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys are both in this same section of our library).  So it is possible to have some exciting adventures or suspenseful mysteries and still be suitable for a middle-grade audience.

The characters are kinda weak.  Granted, Shelly and Jonathan are supposed to be nondescript and forgettable, but thankfully, they do grow up a bit with their successful mission.  Shelly got kinda irritating after a while, honestly; she's a chatterbox with no filter on her stray thoughts popping out of her mouth.  Sometimes a bit funny, but sometimes a little tiring.  The adults are more caricatures of old adventure/spy story characters than actual characters - the boss talks like a film noir cop, for example.  The morbid nurse is just a little weird, personally.

The humor worked pretty well, though - best part of the book in my opinion.  While the whole book is a take on society's focus on Exceptionalism, there are parts that are laugh-out-loud funny.  There were just absurd moments, straight up slapstick - the League's messaging system via produce, for example.  My favorite bits were the satirical points about living in Northern Virginia, though.  Having grown up in Virginia myself, with family on the Maryland side of DC and several good friends in suburbs in NoVa, I've visited the DC area enough to be familiar with the suburbs.  And as mentioned, with friends living there, I got some insider commentary on life in Woodbridge or Stafford or some of the other DC suburbs.  The Stepford mentality seems pretty accurate, and made for a very funny (for me) backdrop to the kids' adventures.

As an adult reading this, it was a so-so book, but middle school students who feel that they themselves are pretty unexceptional might enjoy it more than I did.  I know that I don't fall into that particular demographic - no longer a middle-schooler and never having been an Unexceptional (definitely more of a Brain).  But, someone who feels themselves to be very average might enjoy that aspect of the story, giving the book a little bit more of spark than what I felt for it.  I definitely wouldn't discourage anyone from reading it, but it wouldn't be my first recommendation either.

It is the first book in a series (there's one more out now, and another due out in the fall), so here's hoping that the author can find her footing a little more solidly in this world through the subsequent books.  There are well written parts of the story, and some very sly humor, but not quite enough pieces coming together to really click for me.  A shame, when it's such a fun idea.

Overall Thoughts:

This is a cute book with a fun premise, using a network of the average and nondescript children for espionage and adventure.  It was pretty funny, but it missed on the suspense and adventure side of things.  Yes, it's possible to be all of the above - a funny story with adventure and mystery too - but the suspenseful side never really clicked together, and at times it felt more rushed or forced than anything else.  I wanted to like it, I really did, and it's not that it's a bad book, but it's not great either.  It's fun, a quick read, but not really memorable.  In it's own way, unexceptional.

Review: Sharpe's Rifles (book)

I blame Mom for this one ending up on my To Read list.  Not that it's a bad thing, but it's definitely her influence that got Richard Sharpe and a historical war/adventure series on my radar - not my typical sort of book.  She was hooked on the BBC series ages ago (by ages, I mean her copies are on VHS), and thereby spread the love into subsequent generations.  Because Crazy is inherited ;)

So, for the first Sharpe I'll be reading: Sharpe's Rifles: The French Invasion of Galicia, January 1809 by Bernard Cornwell

My rating: 4 out of 5

Plot Summary (courtesy of Goodreads):

"Bernard Cornwell's action-packed series that captures the gritty texture of Napoleonic warfare--now beautifully repackaged.  It's 1809, and Napoleon's army is sweeping across Spain. Lieutenant Richard Sharpe is newly in command of the demoralized, distrustful men of the 95th Rifles. He must lead them to safety--and the only way of escape is a treacherous trek through the enemy-infested mountains of Spain."

Story comments:

This is the 6th book in the Sharpe series, if you're going by the internal chronology.  It's the 9th by publication date, and the 1st that was made into a TV episode.  So, take that for reference. 

The Sharpe's series is a really good historical adventure series.  For both the TV show and the books, it's a good one to try if you've enjoyed the Horatio Hornblower stories or the Aubrey and Maturin books (the Master and Commander series).  Or vice versa - try those if you like Sharpe.  Just land adventures as opposed to ones at sea.

Cornwell didn't write the Sharpe series in chronological order.  It's one of those commonly asked questions on book sites like Goodreads - "do I read these in chronological or publication order or does it matter?"  Well, personal preference, I suppose.  I started with Rifles as I like the men in the 95th.  Figured it's as good a place as any.  As mentioned above, this is the 6th chronologically (set in 1809), but 9th by publication.  Looking at Goodreads and Amazon reviews, some people found this a bit frustrating.  It means that continuity can be a little off, that characters might not have quite the same presence or developed personality that they did in a earlier/later book, that things referenced might not make 100% sense, that the writing style might not be quite the same.  That makes sense from a writer's perspective - it's a bit of a challenge to keep things flowing completely smoothly when the "next" adventure was really written 8 or 10 or 12 years after a particular story.  Heck, even some series written chronologically have trouble keeping all the details straight and having the characters develop smoothly.  In the grand scheme of things, though, it's not a big deal most of the time.  At least not to me - though there are series where names are inconsistent between books, major details, that sort of thing; then it does get to me.  For Sharpe, it's not a series that has a tight overarching storyline anyway.  Sharpe and the others get promoted, the war proceeds, and events in previous novels are mentioned, but it's not like you need to read the series in completely chronological order in order to follow along.  Just pay attention to the dates given in the novel and remember, "oh yeah, this is before/after (battle name here)"

Just because there's not tons of overarching storylines, doesn't mean there's not a lot of development within the story too.  The characters certainly grow within the individual stories too.  Sharpe starts the story kinda depressed, actually.  He's a fighting soldier, raised from the ranks to an officer, and has been relegated to quartermaster.  So, going from fighting to paperwork and supplies, with no respect from above or below.  Yeah, he's not a happy guy.  He's kinda an antihero to start, not a dramatic born leader ready to inspire men into battle.  Through circumstances, he's now in charge of the men who don't respect him, who have no reason to follow him, and who are stuck in the mountains in winter with not nearly enough supplies.  And honestly?  As a reader, I'm not even sure I liked him and would have followed him.  He grows in confidence and in his leadership, though, and by the end of the story, they really are Sharpe's Rifles.  No, that's not a spoiler - if he didn't grow into being an officer, the series wouldn't really have anymore to do, would it?  A lot of characters are introduced in this one who I know will appear in other books (I have watched the TV show a number of times, after all).  We'll see how their development goes.  The most noteworthy was Sgt Patrick Harper, who will become Sharpe's best friend and ally.  Here, he leads a mutiny and gets into a knockdown-dragout with Sharpe, before eventually getting promoted and gradually coming to respect his Lieutenant. There's the uneasy truce and trust there, but not the close friendship yet, so we'll see how they come to trust each other more as the stories proceed.

Reading other reviews on Goodreads, even people who like the series have split opinions on individual books.  Some like this one, some aren't as fond.  Like most series, I suppose.  Even if the series overall is a good one, individual books can vary. Not having read any of the others yet, I don't have an opinion one way or another.  I suppose that in later posts, I might have more opinion on which Sharpe book is my favorite, but as it is...

Cornwell definitely does his historical research.  Even though the Historical Note at the end of the book basically said, "this isn't how the events really happened," there's a lot of research that's obvious in the details of the fighting, the uniforms, the weapons, the setting.  It is very easy to picture the scenes, given all the description and Cornwell's eye for detail.  For the actual events... the French occupation of Galicia and the British retreat are pretty accurate; it's just the actual events of the story that Cornwell took liberties with. I suppose if you're wanting complete historical accuracy, that might be disappointing, but certain liberties should be allowed in order to make a good adventure.  It's not like he was using lasers or dragons or even machine guns, right?

At times all the historical detail can get kinda tedious, actually.  Mom calls it techno-babble (she uses that description a lot with Tom Clancy books), and just specifies that in Sharpe's stories, it's Napoleonic techno-babble.  If you don't mind a lot of historic detail in your adventure, then it won't be a deal-breaker.  But if that sort of thing turns you off from a book... well, you've been warned.

Favorite quote?

Harper commenting on Sharpe: "He'll fall in love with anything in a petticoat. I've seen his type before. Got the sense of a half-witted sheep when it comes to women... It's a good job he's got me to look after him now" (p.265).

Your hero, ladies and gentlemen: sense of a half-witted sheep.  Not even a full-witted sheep!  And it's true.  Though there are some recurring female leads, Sharpe really is a Napoleonic James Bond (though less suave - more in the new-girl-every-book sense).

A few points comparing it to the TV series:

• Sharpe has black hair???  No.  He is Sean Bean, end of story.
• I missed Teresa.  When the TV writers were adapting the stories to film, they brought her into this story, instead of introducing her later (she first appears in the novel Sharpe's Gold, 9th in the series chronology).  Louisa Parker wasn't bad as Sharpe's love interest - she did have a bit of spark to her - but she wasn't La Aguja. 
• Besides Theresa's appearance, there are a lot of other differences in the events of the book versus the TV episode - a whole chunk of the main mission in fact.  But, quite honestly, there's only so much marching through frozen wasteland that you can film and keep a story entertaining, and large cavalry charges do take lots of horses, extras, and choreography.  So, for filming purposes, the changes are rather understandable.  The "take-homes" are the same - characters are introduced, the gonfalon is raised at Compostela, Harper and Sharpe fight and then come to terms, and Sharpe grows into his role in command of the 95th.  Everything's now set up to head to Talavera.

Audiobook comments:

The narrator for the Sharpe's series, and thus for this book too, is Frederick Davidson.  He does a lot of classics and a good number of mystery series, as well as the Sharpe's series, so I've definitely encountered his readings before.  Never really had any issues with his voice before, but I honestly wasn't crazy about his reading this time.  He has a very flat sort of delivery, a bit dry and pinched at times, which was fine for a lot of the narrative.  It actually really suits some of the other books I've listened to (I though he was the perfect voice for The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth - very much like the 1960s-70s British newscaster-type voice that appeared in the movie).  It wasn't so much the narrative portions that bothered me here, as much as his accents and the associated voices.  The Spanish voices were very deep and gravelly, and sometimes hard to understand, but it was the Irish voices that bothered me the most.  They all went up in range, getting higher.  Which is fine, I suppose, except I really like the Irish characters (and their actors) in the TV series, and a higher voice just didn't work with what I had in my head, or even in the text.  Sgt Harper is constantly described as such a big man, and he's played by Daragh O'Malley in the show - again, a very big guy (he's 6'4" according to IMDB).  A high voice just doesn't fit with that sort of build.  And then there's Hogan, played by Brian Cox in the series.  And I'll be honest, Brian Cox has one of those voices that I could just sit and listen to him read a phone book (also Patrick Stewart, Benedict Cumberbatch, Morgan Freeman... ).  So that's a hard mental image/expectation to beat, or even live up to. 

At any rate, higher tenors just didn't work for either Hogan or Harper, at least IMHO, and that kinda grated on me a bit.  Otherwise, though, Davidson did a pretty decent job with the story, and his reading won't be a deterrent to listening to the rest of the series.

Overall comments:

The story itself is a 4 of 5.  The audiobook version might get docked a half star or so, mostly because of the voices.  But either way, that still is enough stars that it's worth a try.  If you like historical novels or adventure stories, these are good ones to add to your reading list.  Lots of well described battles, good characters, and certainly an eye for periodic detail.

Review: Narcos

Zach and I have been incredibly pleased with the Netflix original programming, and have become outright hooked on several of the titles.  With him being gone for so long last year, I was (incredibly!!) patient and waited for him to get back before catching up on OITNB, Narcos, Longmire, Marco Polo... Like I said, we've been pleased with their original programs :)

 

Which means, now that he's back in the states, that we are catching up.  I know Narcos season 3 is already due out sometime this fall, but here you go: my thoughts on the show thus far.

 

 

 

Plot:  The series so far has followed the rise (and eventual downfall) of cocaine king Pablo Escobar and his cartel, and the efforts of the Colombian police and US DEA agents assigned to bring him down.

 

This has been a very well-done series. 

 

The acting was solid.  No big names, though a few familiar faces, and they all did a good job bringing the characters to the screen.  The standout definitely was Wagner Moura as Escobar.  Unfortunately, he won't be back next season, at least in anything other than a flashback (season 2 ending with Escobar's death, and all), but he was definitely worth watching.  And a bit of trivia?  Moura is Brazilian, so his native language is Portuguese, not Spanish.  He actually learned Spanish for this role!

The story is very well paced.  The plot is really what pulls you in, more than particular characters, and the writers paced things very well to keep the action and the tension going pretty consistently.  Definitely got us hooked.  If you're expecting a generic crime drama, prepare to be pleasantly surprised.

 

Historical accuracy?  Well, as the disclaimer at the start of each episode says, some events, characters, etc. have been dramatized for the purposes of television (or whatever the actual legal wording says).  Obviously, some things have to have been based on imagination, because these are conversations where all participants have since died - Escobar talking to his sicarios, for example.  Some minor characters were based on real people, who may or may not have experienced the same fate as their fictional versions.  And some things were streamlined time-wise to fit the pacing of the show, or were sensationalized a bit for TV - all those little changes to turn Real Life into a Show, you know?  I read an article interviewing the two agents featured in the show, and what they thought about the accuracy.  Pena laughed that his love life wasn't nearly as exciting as it was in the series.  That sort of thing - dramatization.

Part of the dramatization, too, is the good-guy-bad-guy dynamic.  Escobar was a truly violent drug czar, but at the same time, was beloved by a lot of people and considered a Robin Hood-type, supporting communities that the government was practically ignoring at the time.  And let's face it, the US was not squeaky-clean, white-horse, white-hat in their actions, either.  In order to bring down the Medellin cartel, drug enforcement agencies were willing to tread in some rather murky waters.  Though it does get more into the grittiness of reality in the second season, the show did, in some ways, have to simplify these issues.  Part of it was the need to water it down for TV audiences, and part is probably just the challenge of trying to capture how complicated reality actually was.

 

And yet, there are a lot of things that they tried to get right.  The make-up and costuming staff did a great job getting many of the actors to look very much like their real-life counterparts.  There are even articles you can find online comparing pictures of the actors and real photos of their characters.  And the two DEA agents, Murphy and Pena, acted as consultants for the series, so there's input from people who were actually there which (for better or worse) does make a difference. 

 

One of the (very) effective techniques they used to emphasize the realism of the series was including real photos and footage from the time.  There were times where it was almost seamless, the blending of old footage and show footage.  They were getting very good at this through the second half of Season 2, as the drug wars were heating up.  Using news coverage of the bombings and murders really drove home the images.  Very well done.

 

Aside from accuracy, the mark of a good historical piece (to me, at least) is that it makes me want to read more about the real events.  Same way that a good movie from a book should make me want to read the book.  And I've definitely been reading on Escobar as we've been watching this - just like I've been reading on Marco Polo and Ghengis Khan, and on Thomas Cromwell (Wolf Hall).  Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, but just doesn't film as well, you know?  There are some incredible stories out there, and as I'm a curious little mind and into everything, I like when a series does a good job of planting the seeds.

 

Biggest complaint so far?  The sound.  There was something up with the sound of the second season, where the Spanish dialogue seemed much softer than the English.  Don't know if it was something in the show itself, or in the Netflix streaming, or in our devices, but it was a little frustrating.  A shame too.  Even though we don't speak Spanish, it's still fulfilling to hear the dialogue, the sounds and tones and inflections of it.  The acting is well done, and it's a waste to not be able to hear it.  Hearing the emotion, even if we can't understand the words, is part of the experience, after all.

 

SPOILER (though not really, if you know anything about the history told here, or can look up Escobar in Google):
Escobar does die at the end of S2.  This was an incredible episode, very effective - a good emotional gut-wrench.  The inter-splicing of actual news footage and photos was very well done.  Zach and I both had just a stunned moment as the episode ended, one of those "wow" type feelings.  Like I said, very, very well done.

And the questions circulating now, looking at different websites, are where will they take us for S3 and 4 (both of which have been signed for on Netflix)?  The way things look, the Cali cartel will be the next focus, but we shall see in the fall what else they bring to the table!

 

Overall:  4.5 of 5.  Not a warm and fuzzy show (drug wars, after all), but good cast, well written, and well produced.  The story drives it more than anything else, but you still enjoy watching the characters and their interactions.  A few things that could be improved, but still definitely worth watching.  Consider it another win for Netflix original programming.

 

And because I like character-based poster series, here you go :)

 

        

 

Season 1 (above) had pictures of everyone with cocaine and powder sprays/splashes (is it a splash, if it's powder?).  Season 2 (below) had pictures with bullets.  Pretty appropriate really - Season 1 was the building of the Medellin empire, and Season 2 was the war that resulted.

 

       

Review: Telephone by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jen Corace

As you know, dear reader, I finished my library science degree last year, and am now working in a real-life library.  What you might not know yet is that I handle children's programming there.  I've been tracking the books I read as part of several reading challenges, but I'm also keeping notes (via GoodReads) of books that I'll use for story time, STEM programs, my next book order, etc.  An unexpected side effect of that, is that my Total Books Read list for this year is already over 100!!   I've already had to update my expected/goal number twice, and I'm still ahead of schedule!  Looks like I'll be upping it again soon - gotta keep the motivation up after all ;)

 

No, not all of them are picture books! I've always got a book on my Kindle App for on the go, and an audiobook going in the car, plus several others at any given point in time, so a lot of what I've read so far this year would be considered "my" books as well.  But, there are a lot of picture books for story time in my list, I will admit.  And some of them are really clever and deserved to be chattered about just as much as my thoughts on my latest mystery.  So expect to start seeing a smattering of picture books and mid-grade reads appearing here too. 

 

First up:  Telephone by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jen Corace.
 

Plot: A fun illustrated version of the game Telephone, the message transmitted courtesy of an eclectic collection of birds on a phone line.  Will the message get to Peter Pigeon in time to make it home for dinner?  And will he even understand it when it reaches him?

 

I enjoyed the different birds, and how their hobbies obviously affected what they were hearing.  In a larger sense, it's the idea that what we are personally interested in will color how we see (or hear) the world - one of those Big Picture Ideas snuck into kids' picture books :)  I also enjoyed the connections between certain birds and their activities - the cardinal with a baseball bat, for example (any St Louis fans out there?).  My favorite birds were the (spherical) turkey and the owl.  The facial expressions were great!  The owl just looks so deadpan, listening to the Crazy that has reached him on the line.  And I also liked the two little penguins up on the wire with Peter at the end.  Just like the turkey - what are they doing on that phone line?

Extra Bonus?  Chronicle Books has a wallpaper with the owl on it for free on their blog!

 

 

 

Personally, I enjoy Mac Barnett's works quite a bit.  He was a presenter at the Texas Book Festival a few years ago when I was able to attend, and just cracked me up (he was presenting with Jon Scieszka, another favorite, so definitely enjoyed myself).  I've found that his books have a quirky, rather absurd sense of humor, and this one's no exception. 

 

Jen Corace's illustrations are wonderful.  They aren't Heavy Artistic pictures, or overly detailed, but they carry a lot of the story themselves - the ostrich with the feather duster?  The worry on the turkey's face?  Her illustrations add that depth to the simple story.  The simplicity of the illustrations make it a good choice for a story time too.  Books that have incredibly detailed illustrations are wonderful in their own way, but they can be a little too much for 20 4-year-olds at a time.  Barnett himself summed it up well: "Her birds are so bold and bright and charismatic, and can command the attention of a rowdy mob of kindergarteners, but there’s plenty of clever and delicate details you can study with a quiet kid in your lap."

 

As an adult reading the picture book, it's silly fun, but a little simple for me, missing that bit of oomph that would really make it a classic.  However, this is a good story time book, one that will tie in nicely with activities with the kids.  I'd have preferred a little more similarity between the garbled statements as they passed between birds, especially as I'll be reading it aloud at story time, but you could still see how one statement warped into the next. 

 

My rating: 3.5 of 5 (somewhere between Liked and Really Liked)