I listened to the full cast version on audio, and I could hardly put it down. The characterization was just incredible... and while it bothered me that Ender was 6 when the story began and only 11 when it ended, it didn't bother me as much as it did the first time I read it. He's described as being ...
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I last read this in high school, but then got it as a freebie on Audible. I was at first rather confused, as it seemed like a cautionary fable against socialism, and yet both the good and the bad characters appeared to be socialist. When I read commentary afterwards, this made sense: Orwell ...
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This was a fun audible original! A very short middle-grade read about an 11-year old boy named Jackson who doesn't want to grow up, and who makes a wish (but more importantly he later realizes, whose grandfather makes a wish for him) that he would always stay 11. He gets the wish, but (in "It's a ...
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These are the best fairy tale retellings I think I've ever read. They are not cheesy (it itself a feat!), well written, and are so loosely based on the original tale that I never quite know what's about to happen, even though I do know the story upon which it's based. For "Goldheart," that's ...
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This story had one of the best relationships I've read in a long time! I'm fascinated by the story of Anastasia Romanov, particularly since the musical "Anastasia" is one of my favorites (the music is just. Amazing.) I picked this one up on an Audible daily deal, since it was a retelling of ...
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The whole way through this series this time through, I've been trying to decide which book is my favorite. I think it might have to be this one. Only three of the seven books are overt biblical allegories. The Magician's Nephew is an allegory of the creation story of Genesis, The Lion, The Witch, ...
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I love that I always know what I'm getting with a Rhys Bowen novel. They're character-heavy slow boils, always set in Victorian England. The main character is usually obsessed with some kind of craft (herbs, gardening, cooking), and we're treated to an in-depth description of her occupation, but ...
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This was probably the book I remembered least of the Chronicles of Narnia, but man, every one of these books is just so amazing, for the same three reasons. First, it's not just the creativity, but the whimsy that makes Narnia a world I long to escape into. Second, C.S. Lewis is incredibly astute ...
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Delightful, as all the others are! This one I feel is more a pure adventure story--that is to say, seeking adventure for adventure's sake, rather than for some other purpose. In that sense there isn't so much a plot. King Caspian, whom the Pevensie children met in the book "Prince Caspian," is ...
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I remember that this book was recommended to me many years ago, before I really read much high fantasy. Now that I've been getting more into it, and it was on sale in Audible, I decided to give it another try, particularly when I read the synopsis that a wizard's pride was his downfall. That seemed ...
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