Harry Potter 7 by JK Rowling (Read by Jim Dale) - Hey, this was not bad at all! Which surprises me I guess. I was totally into the HP thing in the beginning. This was not because of characters, or plot, or good writing. It was a great world she created, very charming and funny. Lots of little details that fill out a fictional world and make it both enjoyable and believable. I'm a big advocate of this kind of ground work in a fantasy series, I think it makes or breaks it. This, however, only lasted 3 or 4 books for me. I remember enjoying 4, but I was about done at that point. As the series went on, it became much more about the characters and the drama of the plot, and less about the world. This isn't a fundamental flaw, that has to happen in all series, it's natural. I just don't think she did it very well. In books 5 and 6, I just didn't care about the plot, or the characters. Then, allasudden, I listen to this book and I'm totally into it! And I have to think it has something to do with listening and not reading. The books just aren't written all that great. This isn't a thing I harp too much on, I'm no writer, I'm not even that smart a reader. But clearly the writing did not support my interest in the story, because I was bored, even when big things and deaths happened. Then Jim Dale reads it to me, and it's dramatic and interesting and I was much more into it. I was excited to get to the end, even though I already knew what happened! I should have listened to 5 and 6 too, maybe I would have liked them!
The Essential Kabbalah by Daniel Matt - This wasn't what I was expecting. I've previously read God & The Big Bang by Matt, and wasn't super impressed, but I wanted to learn more about Kabbalah. I thought this would be a discussion of it, helping someone as clueless as me understand. It was, instead, translated excerpts from the Zohar (mostly) organized into subject areas (such as Meditation, the Creation of God, The Ten Sefirots, etc). I'm not in the best position to say if he did a good job, this being my introduction to Kabbalah. But it seemed very nice to me. It's pretty short, I think I'll keep it around to look at again in the future. You could almost use a given passage as a meditation or something, if it spoke to you.
Yakuza Moon by Shoko Tendo - Well, this book isn't so great. I feel bad, she admits in the afterword that she's no writer. But even beyond that it's kind of really simplistic story telling. It's a tragic story, and interesting as those things go. But it's no real insight into yakuza culture, beyond "in what way does THIS brand of people go about fucking their lives up." I wanted it to be good, but it just wasn't great. Also really short, I read 40 pages in one sitting and then the remaining 140 in the next.
Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (Read by William Hope and Laurel Lefkow) - This book is hard to describe! It's really a romance book, but it's also got a kinda scifi-ish element. And it's not super romance like there's sex all the time, though they do throw a "cock" out once in a while which is kinda jarring since its so rare. The basic story is a guy who time travels, randomly, can't control it. The book is the story of how he meets his wife, in many time periods, at different ages. It's kind of confusing at first, but what I like most about this book is how well it is structured. What could be super hard to understand throughout becomes very plain and easy to follow through a really nice progression of their lives. And this is coming from someone who typically thinks time travel is stupid as a rule. There was one part of the book I found very weird, a discussion of innocence that I would like to think was put there to make you feel weird and that the characters are wrong. But I couldn't find any subtleties to prove this. I'm afraid it was just icky. It's fleeting though. I wouldn't say the book is amazing, but it is worth while if you are into this sorta thing.
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