My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher, David Tennant (Narrator)

 As with other audiobooks I have posted about I will talk here about the content and the narrator. 

I found this book because of a 2-for-1 sale on Audible. I had a credit expiring and there was this deal so I browsed and saw DAVID TENNANT!! It honestly didn't matter what the story was going to be about, it was DAVID TENNANT so I was in...And then I read the synopsis and it sounded like something I would enjoy. 

Then I started listening.

David's voice is, as I am sure you know, amazing. And his talent for making you see and feel what he is saying is perfection. There isn't anything else really to say...I mean come on now, it's DAVID TENNANT!!

The story was, unlike the family it is about, brilliant. 

The story is told through the eyes of 10 year old Jamie. He has moved to a cottage with his father and his sister Jas. There used to be another sister, Rose, Jas' twin, but she was killed in a terrorist attack on Sept. 9 5 years prior to the start of our meeting Jamie, and lives now in an Urn on the mantelpiece. And their lives or stalled lives revolve around her. 

Their mom has left them for a man she met in her support group. Their dad drinks way to much, its really pretty bad. And so 10 year old Jamie and 15 year old Jas are left with just each other to get through and Jas becomes more than she should have to and cares for Jamie. And she has mostly stopped eating. 

Jamie is honest and open in a way only a young person can be, one who doesn't have the same memories as those around him and has his very own way of looking at the world. While his dad gives in to hate and ugliness in his pain, he blames all Muslims for the killing of his daughter, Jamie meets and becomes close with Sunya, when he starts his new school. She is Muslim and Jamie learns his dad is so wrong about all the things he has said. But at the same time, I mean he is only 10, he wants to be a good boy and not go against his dad. But Sunya is so amazing, and so is her mom. And Jamie learns that grownups don't know everything or sometimes anything. We watch Jamie feel out life and learn and grow even with all the challenges. 

It is really a beautiful story that at times breaks your heart while at others it makes you laugh, sometimes at the same time, but in the end is about love and hope. 

And ok, it is pretty fun hearing DAVID TENNANT say dick head. 

Anyway, this was an incredible find that I am so very glad I stumbled across. 

(Finished February 23, 2021)

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

 TW: suicide is a very large part of this story

I grabbed this book so many people came into work asking for it and then I started to see buzz about it in the B&N bookseller group I am in. I went into it not really knowing what it was about, only that people were loving it. I have never read anything by Matt Haig before but I will be seek out more now. 

Nora is very unhappy. Her life feels like it is more than she can stand. She is tired. She is sad. She is just ready to stop. And so she decides to. But between life and death she finds the miracle of living and what that really means. She learns, as we learn along with her, that our choices are infinite but we are still us, and each choice we make or don't make sends ripples into the universe. Is the grass always greener? Is being rich or having it all really all it is cracked up to be? What does it mean to dream? And most importantly what does it mean to live....

I was moved and didn't think a book that starts with dying would end up being about life...all of it, easy and not so much, messy and imperfect maybe, but beautiful....

"We don't have to do everything in order to be everything because we are already infinite. While we are sliced we always contain a future of multifarious possibility." "...the same messy life seems full of hope. Potential. The impossible, I suppose, happens via living."

(Finished February 18, 2021)

Lore by Alexandra Bracken

 I am not new to Alexandra's writing having previously read the first three books in The Darkest Minds Series (The Darkest Minds, Never FadeNever Fade, In the Afterlight) as well as the Young Reader book The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding. So I was pretty sure that I would like Lore when it arrived as my OwlCrate book. As someone isn't overly familiar with Greek Mythology (I never even read Percy Jackson) I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to follow the story or wouldn't like it. But since I had it, I love retellings, it was the YA bookclub pick at work (B&N), and it takes place in my hometown and favorite city in the world, NYC I began reading. 

And what I didn't expect was that I would love it!!! I didn't feel lost though I am guessing someone with a more complete knowledge of Greek Mythology may have got more from the story. The characters are so well done and gripping. Lore is complicated and has a dark secret filled with guilt she carries. And that is the spark that sets this story in motion. Her secret slowly unravels as every so often there are chapters that take place 7 years earlier than the current time of the story. 

The story here that is that every 7 years the Gods & Goddesses, old and reborn, who had fallen out with Zeus, and the families of their bloodlines, have a hunt, called the Agon. There are mortal hunters and the gods and goddesses. If a mortal deals a god/goddess a killing blow they get the powers and become a reborn version of that god/goddess. The hunters are trying to catch  the gods/goddesses and kill each other. Each family has a leader who would like to be the one to deal the killing blow and bring glory to their bloodline. 

Lore is the last of hers and she just wants to be free. Her best friend is Miles, a mortal who doesn't know about this part of Lore's life and past until it shows up bleeding on their doorstep. He is a darling, brave, queer, smart, wonderful character and my only complaint is that we don't get enough of him. Rounding out the main human cast is Van who spent some time in childhood with Lore and the person they both adore, Cas, who is somehow a god now but can't remember how it happened. 

The action is well done, the story is filled with love and pain and is just a really well done tale. I want to say more but there are some great twists and threads it is better to let you discover. So read this book, you won't be sorry. 

***I put this on my Goodreads LGBTQ list because there are two characters closely tied to the main character who are Gay young men and it is treated beautifully. It isn't a Queer story but has positive depictions of queer characters***

(Finished February 11, 2021) 

Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral by Kris Radish

 I have to be honest, I only read this because my manager at the Barnes and Noble where I work kept talking about it and getting customers excited about it. So I have in to my curiosity and got a copy to read to get me over the book-hangover I knew was going to be the case after I finished The Mask Falling. I figured this would help me get ready for my next fantasy read or non-fiction...what ever I choose next...

Well this turned out to be so much more than I could have hoped for. This was an incredible read. It was heartbreaking and heart healing...It was a celebration of love and women and friendship and the building of family by love and not blood...It was a not like anything I have ever read or thought I would love, but it also reminded me a little of the YaYa Sisterhood. 

Annie Freeman died. And she left behind some extraordinary women who she loved and who loved her so very much. To help them with the loss she knew they would feel as they tried to mourn and move on with living she planned a traveling funeral and sent them on the adventure of their lives, the adventure of her death, as a way to connect them with each other and themselves. She had one last thing she needed them to know and this was how she was going to teach it to them...

And so they go. And what happens is sad, and lovely, funny, and devastating, miraculous and ordinary...it was a matter of life and death...And it was INCREDIBLE. 

Katherine, Jill, Laura, Rebecca, and Marie are forever bound to each other through their love of Annie and her love of them but beside that connection they don't all really know each other. They go to places Annie had some sort of life event that she wanted to know and along they way they find the friend they lost and they find each other and learn to love and heal and let go and hold on...

The snarky, almost irreverent writing style was amazing and everything I wanted but didn't know I wanted and it was everything I needed and didn't know I needed...I am going to take a lesson from this book and write a note in it and send it on to someone, an important woman in my life, and ask them to keep it going...

Thank you Carol Jean for pushing this title...and thank you Kris Radish for writing it. 

(Finished February 2, 2021)