Back in 2020, I said this: Obviously, I read a lot, all the time; I just gave up writing book reviews. But Marg from my book club suggested we tell others what we have been reading, and I also was asked to write online reviews for authors I know. So, I will try to catch up on some of my most recent discoveries.
Expect to see reviews soon of The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (Audible), Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese (Audible), Driftwood by Tony Head (ebook), various books by Julia Huni (science fiction cozy mysteries and adventures, ebooks). A giant volume of Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea books, more mysteries, including Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series.
So here we are in a new year and I have read all those books (or listened to them).
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood was the first audiobook I have really enjoyed listening to. That's probably because real actors were used, along with narration by Tantoo Cardinal!. Some were actors from the TV series of The Handmaid's Tale. And of course the tale was well told and well-paced. There was a mystery for the reader to uncover, and lots of social commentary along the way.
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese was another very well-done audiobook. It was bleak in parts, but also poetic, and sometimes funny. The narrator was excellent and the images conjured up by the author were vivid, not only places and weather, but the times and the characters involved. A Native boy named Saul Indian Horse goes through residential school but is chosen to play hockey on an outside team. There are trials and triumphs all the way. Driftwood by Tony Head takes us back to the early days of the tourist boom in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. That's a place I've been a few times, but I never did get to the Luna Blue hotel that Tony ran there. This is a fictionalized version of his life as an expat there, but it is based on his observations of the many characters who hung out there.
Julia Huni is my new favourite author. I'm a beta reader for her, so I get the books before publication. Yay! I have been through her Space Janitor series, including the prequels and the short stories, and this is the (probably) first ex-space janitor novel,
The Rings of Grissom. The characters are becoming more real with every book, and there is a lot of adventure, romance, science, and all that good stuff. It seems that Triana and Ty will be together for a long time, investigating plots and seeing the sights of the universe.
