And they said Detroit would never win a Superbowl

...but this Chrysler commercial sure looks like a win to me!



Pure awesomeness. It's nice to have people love your hometown for a change. Detroiters don't get to feel that too often.

Audiobook Rant

My work commute is very long: 50 minutes each way.  So I have become quite the expert on listening to audiobooks. 

I have come to understand that a narrator can make or break a book.  And there's nothing that breaks a book more than a middle grade novel being told in first person, with a MIDDLE-AGED audiobook narrator.  I mean, this is a total and complete fail on the part of the producers of the audiobook.

I just started listening to Ann M. Martin's A Corner of the Universe which is the story of Hattie Owens' and the summer she turns twelve, when her mentally disabled uncle shows up on their doorstep.  Hattie is the book's first-person narrator and therefore should have a young audiobook narrator, or at the very least an adult with a child-like voice.  Instead, the producers chose Judith Ivey, who not only has a very mature voice, but she sounds like a pack a day smoker.   


Audiobook producers, please, do readers a favor: choose age-appropriate narrators!  If A Corner of the Universe had been a novel told in third-person, then I would have no qualms about choosing Judith Ivey as a narrator. A third-person narrator is not inside the story and therefore does not need to sound like a particular character.  In fact, it's probably better that they don't since a third-person narrator tends to be a neutral voice.  But when you have someone telling a story who is twelve-years-old and the audio narrator sounds fifty, this undermines the authenticity of the story.  Not only that, but it turns your audience off since they ARE twelve-years-old and they want to hear someone who sounds like them if the person telling the story is their age. 

What audiobooks have you listened to where the producers got the narrator completely wrong?

IMM (15)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren

Library Loot: (I've been on a Caldecott streak the past few weeks if you haven't noticed)


A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Phillip C. Stead, illustrated by Erin E. Stead
Hondo & Fabian by Peter McCarty
The Red Book by Barbara Lehman
Zen Shorts by Jon J. Muth

Audibooks downloaded to my iPod:


Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson

What did you get in your mailbox this week?

A Woman's Guide to a Healthy Stomach by Jacqueline Wolf

Why do my jeans fit only in the morning?

Why am I always guzzling Pepto-Bismol before a big meeting?

Could my PMS cramps mean something serious?

Here, finally, are the answers to these questions, and hundreds more, about the nagging stomach problems that plague so many women. In this reassuring guide, Dr. Jacqueline L. Wolf, a leading expert in the field of gastrointestinal health, explains the causes and cures for women's most common digestive ailments (including bloating, constipation, diarrhea, acid reflux, IBS) and more serious, life-altering conditions like Crohn's disease and endometriosis. This candid book deals with sensitive issues in a down-to-earth way and eradicates once and for all the secrecy and shame surrounding these urgent problems. - from Goodreads

 

As someone who suffers from more than one digestive ailment (from which I will spare you the details), I think this book is a must-have for your shelf if you are one such sufferer. The book was divided into logical chapters, and each chapter had subheadings in the form of questions for easy access to the information you need, so you can skip the information that doesn't apply to you.

I highly recommend this book to any woman who suffers from any sort of digestive ailment. It's the perfect go-to reference tool whenever new symptoms pop up (as they tend to do with me) or you're dealing with an ailment for the first time.  Since women deal with digestive issues more than men do, I appreciate the fact that Dr. Wolf catered to the audience who needed it the most. 

A Woman's Guide to a Healthy Stomach: Taking Control of Your Digestive Health by Jacqueline Wolf

Publish Date: February 18, 2011

Pages: 272

Genre: Nonfiction

Audience: Adult women

ARC downloaded through NetGalley

Another Reading Challenge: Non-fiction challenge

I love reading non-fiction.  So I came across the non-fiction challenge from The Broke and the Bookish and decided to give it a try.  I'm going to try for at least 7-9 books, but this might be difficult for me since all of the books have to be from different categories (culture, art, food, travel, history, etc.). I tend to just read food and travel memoirs so I'm really going to have to branch out for this one.  But I am up to the challenge!

It runs from now until December 31st.

Reviewing Books - Updated

As a middle school teacher, my main reading preferences are YA and middle grade lit but I also enjoy adult fiction and nonfiction on occasion, especially if it relates to food or travel. If you are an author, agent, or publisher and would like me to promote a book, please contact me at the email address listed below. I am willing to receive ARCs, do blog tours, or author interviews.

I do not accept self-published titles.

My contact info:
beths0103 AT yahoo DOT com

If I receive a book for review, I will promote the book on my blog, but I will also give my honest opinion based on my genre preferences, my impression of the writing, and/or whether I think it would be a book my students would enjoy reading.

Waiting On Wednesday: Rival by Sara Bennett Wealer

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine to spotlight new and upcoming book releases. 

What if your worst enemy turned out to be the best friend you ever had?

Meet Brooke: Popular, powerful and hating every minute of it, she’s the “It” girl at Douglas High in Lake Champion, Minnesota. Her real ambition? Using her operatic mezzo as a ticket back to NYC, where her family lived before her dad ran off with an up and coming male movie star.

Now meet Kathryn: An overachieving soprano with an underachieving savings account, she’s been a leper ever since Brooke punched her at a party junior year. For Kath, music is the key to a much-needed college scholarship.

The stage is set for a high-stakes duet between the two seniors as they prepare for the prestigious Blackmore competition. Brooke and Kathryn work toward the Blackmore with eyes not just on first prize but on one another, each still stinging from a past that started with friendship and ended in betrayal. With competition day nearing, Brooke dreams of escaping the in-crowd for life as a professional singer, but her scheming BFF Chloe has other plans. And when Kathryn gets an unlikely invitation to Homecoming, she suspects Brooke of trying to sabotage her with one last public humiliation.

As pressures mount, Brooke starts to sense that the person she hates most might just be the best friend she ever had. But Kathryn has a decision to make. Can she forgive? Or are some rivalries for life? - from Goodreads

Rival by Sara Bennett Wealer
Publish Date: February 15, 2011
Pages: 336
Genre: realistic fiction
Audience: YA

I can't WAIT to read this one!  I love books that have musical settings.  From the musical background of Mia and her family in If I Stay, to the prominence music plays in helping Nathaniel Ayers in The Soloist, stories that revolve around music or involve characters that are musically inclined always catch my attention.  Of course, the fact that I played classical piano for thirteen years might have something to do with that.