Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Title: Little House in the Big Woods

Author: Laura Ingalls Wilder

Read by: Cherry Jones with Pa’s Fiddle performed by Paul Woodiel

Publisher: Harper Children’s Audio

Length: Approximately 3 hours and 41 minutes

Source: Kewaunee Public Library

If you are a follower of this blog, you know that I LOVE Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Little House in the Big Woods was one of the choices for the Kewaunee Library family read this summer.  We picked up the audiobook for our trip last weekend to Iowa.  It had been eight years since I read it with my oldest and a couple of years since I read it with my youngest, so it felt like a good time to hear the story again.  For a review of the overall story, please refer to my 2011 review and 2016 review.

The audiobook was wonderful and enjoyable for the entire family.  Just like when he was 4 years old, 12-year-old Kile was most entranced by Pa and his stories.  He in particular hushed us during the chasing of Grandpa by the panther.  The boys feigned indifference to the book, but it was funny to see them engaging in the story as it progressed.  They were more engaged this time around then seven-year-old Penelope, but I believe that is because she had more recently read the story. 

I really enjoyed Cherry Jones as a narrator.  She had a soothing voice and she also provided different voices for the character.  My favorite part of this audiobook though was when Cherry Jones sang the songs and Paul Woodiel played the fiddle music for them.  It was wonderful.

Little House in the Big Woods is a classic and works great as an audiobook to listen to with the family and keep them entertained.  The boys loved Pa’s stories and Penelope loved the story of Laura.

Every Note Played by Lisa Genova

Title: Every Note Played

Author: Lisa Genova

Read by:  Dennis Boutsikaris and Dogmara Dominczk with an afterward read by the author

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Length: Approximately 8 hours and 3 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster.  Thank-you!

I am a fan of Lisa Genova’s works.  She writes intricate tales of people suffering from neurological diseases.  She writes on how they affect the sufferer as well as the family.  After reading and enjoying Still Alice for a spring selection of the Kewaunee Library Book Club, Every Note Played was picked for the August selection of the book club.

Richard Evans is a world class pianist.  What starts out as a tingling in his fingers is soon discovered to be ALS.  As Richard quickly succumbs to ALS and starts to lose his ability to move various parts of his body, he realizes that in becoming a world class pianist, he has also become alone with no one to help him.  His divorce from his Polish pianist wife Karina was acrimonious and his daughter Grace sided with his wife.  Grace doesn’t know the full story of their divorce and Richard doesn’t want to be the one to tell her.  Will Richard be able to come to terms with Karina?

Karina loved Richard and was on the path to be a star in the jazz pianist field until becoming a mother detoured her from this track.  As time passes by and Richard’s star rises and his affairs come to light, Karina finds herself very bitter.  Now that Richard is ill, can Karina forgive him and herself?

I really enjoyed how this audiobook had two different narrators, one for Karina’s voice and one for Richard’s.  The story was told between their alternating viewpoints with it switching each chapter.  They both were superb narrators.

I didn’t know much about ALS before reading this book besides the fact that Lou Gehrig and Stephen Hawking had it.  Every Note Played gave a lot of detail on what exactly having this disease was like from a personal point of view of someone suffering it as well as the caregiver.  It was a learning experience for me, and I’ll admit I had tears in my eyes at the end of the book.  This should be an interesting book to discuss at book club next month!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

I have wanted to read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time since it first came out, but it hasn’t made it to the top of my pile until now with its inclusion on the PBS Great American Read list.  What I found was a book that made me both laugh and cry, one that was touching and unique.  It was quite a book!

Christopher is a fifteen-year-old boy with autism who has decided to write a book.  He knows that people like mysteries, so he frames the story around the murder of his neighbor’s dog, Wellington, and the events that surround it.  Christopher ruminates over the death of his mother two years before and his love of math and science.  He really wants to take the A level math tests and have a career in science.  Will Christopher solve the mystery, and will he be able to navigate the world?

The book became so much more than a mystery as it really went into Christopher’s home life.   It was really sad, but also seemed realistic, to read about the struggles his parents had in raising them.  I was horrified by one part where his Dad grew enraged and got physical with him.  But I really felt for his Dad later in the book.  I liked that the characters were flawed, but realistic. 

Christopher with all his quirks, was a likeable character.  Even though I am not autistic, I could identify with him. I enjoyed his love of math and science, and of animals. He reminded me a lot of Don in The Rosie Project which I read earlier this year.  I really like how Christopher just says whatever is on his mind and is very truthful on his thoughts.  This was a great coming of age story and journey and I loved it.

I also enjoyed the graphics and pictures throughout the book which seemed believable that Christopher would include.  I have heard this has been made into a play and I think it would be a very interesting play to watch.

My favorite quotes:

“I like dogs.  You always know what a dog is thinking.  It has four moods.  Happy, sad, cross and concentrating.  Also, dogs are faithful, and they do not tell lies because they cannot talk.”

“I think people believe in heaven because they don’t like the idea of dying, because they want to carry on living, and they don’t like the idea that other people will move into their house and put their things into the rubbish.”

“But I don’t take any notice because I don’t listen to what other people say and only sticks and stones can break my bones and I have my Swiss Army knife if they hit me and if I kill them it will be self-defense and I won’t go to prison.”

“But sometimes we get sad about things and we don’t like to tell other people that we are sad about them.  We like to keep it a secret.  Or sometimes we are sad, but we don’t really know we are sad.  So, we say we aren’t sad.  But really we are.”

I LOVED the last line of the novel, but it’s a major spoiler so I won’t write it here.

Overall, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is an excellent novel that will make you both laugh and cry as you enjoying Christopher’s coming of age story.

Book Source:  The Kewaunee Public Library