Book #30:
Exit Strategy by Martha Wells (Length: 163 pages). Yep, more Murderbot Diaries for this reader. Still on audiobook, I’m LOVING this journey with our favorite Murderbot. Book 4 is my favorite of what I’ve read to far. In this book, Murderbot is trying to deliver evidence of GrayCorp’s evil machinations back to Dr. Mensah, the only human he truly respects. She also happens to be the first human who’s seen past his sec unity exterior into the humanity buried deep inside. I adore this series if that’s not obvious already, but here are some of my favorite quotes from Murderbot: “Who knew being a heartless killing machine would present so many moral dilemmas. (Yes, that was sarcasm.)” and “They were all annoying and deeply inadequate humans, but I didn’t want to kill them. Okay, maybe a little.” I mean, come on . . . how can you not enjoy this robot series?
Book #31:
We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry (Length: 386 pages). I ADORED this book and this reading experience! Set in 1989 in Danvers, Massachusetts near Salem and home to its own witch trials, this delightful and WITTY novel focuses on a girl’s (with one boy) high school field hockey season. Seeking to break its previous losing streak, a teammate co-opts an Emilio Estevez notebook to write some spells and their luck starts to change. This isn’t too angsty (a flaw of some YA novels in my opinion) but is full of 1980s pop culture references and has some seriously laugh-out-loud funny lines and scenes. This is very well-written, memorable and just plain FUN. I will say that each chapter is focused on a particular game and player and could be confusing on audio, so print may be the way to go with this one. This will be on my top 10 of this year for sure.
Book #32:
Network Effect by Martha Wells (Length: 348 pages). This is book 5 of the series and is full-length. This has won some awards and I can see why because it’s excellent! Murder Bots 2 and 3 join the fun and the adventures here are more fleshed-out, obviously. The audio is still perfection and yet still easy to follow. There is LOTS of action, a big rescue scene and the same funny dialogue, both interior and spoken out loud. I’m getting sad that there are only 2 more in the series. I’m rarely a series completist (save Louise Penny and Nancy Drew) but this one I absolutely will see to its finish. I hope some of you are joining me on this fun ride!
Book #33:
Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan (Length: 423 pages). This romance novel is written by one of the most popular audiobook narrators there is, so I was excited to finally read it. This is excellent! While it was a bit slow to start for me (it picks up around the 20% mark on the Kindle), I enjoyed the central premise here. Swanee is a popular audiobook narrator who meets a mystery man in Las Vegas after an audiobook convention. She also has a fun texting relationship with a male audiobook narrator, a counterpart who is just as popular as she is. There is some travel here, great side characters (especially Swanee’s famous actress BFF and Swanee’s grandmother Blah). I enjoyed the inside look at how audiobooks are made and the work that goes into the various voices and characters. I’d give this 4.5 stars, high praise for a romance novel!
Lora Terrill 