I'm A Voracious Reader

Monday, May 20, 2024

Daddy-Long-Legs ~ Audiobook

When Jerusha Abbott, an eighteen-year-old girl living in an orphan asylum, was told that a mysterious millionaire had agreed to pay for her education, it was like a dream come true. For the first time in her life, she had someone she could pretend was "family." But everything was not perfect, for he chose to remain anonymous and asked that she only write him concerning her progress in school. Who was this mysterious gentleman and would Jerusha ever meet him?

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

Beowulf ~ Audiobook

In this epic poem, Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of the king of the Danes whose great hall is plagued by the monster Grendel. Beowulf kills Grendel bare-handed and goes on to kill Grendel's mother with a giant’s sword that he recovers from her lair. Later, as king of the Geats, Beowulf confronts a dragon that terrorizes his kingdom. J.R.R. Tolkien said of Beowulf that it is in fact so interesting as poetry, in places poetry so powerful, that this quite overshadows the historical content.

Monday, May 13, 2024

BBNYA2320 Blog Tour ~ 8th Place Finalist ~ The Only Way Out Is Death

Twelve powerful people are kidnapped and imprisoned in an empty hotel.

Each one of them has three choices:

Live out the rest of their days peacefully in the hotel,
Die by suicide so the rest of their companions can go free,
Or murder one of their companions so they alone can go free.

The Only Way Out is Death follows the story of these twelve people from the perspective of a young lawyer, Kiriaki, told as the events unfold. She has to forge messy alliances, navigate complex relationships and feuds, and, above all, try to stay alive. Meanwhile, the mastermind of this death game is lurking just out of view, watching them closely, making sure they are primed for murder.

Will Kiriaki find the mastermind before it's too late for her?
Will she outmaneouvre the cutthroats before they cut her throat?
There are twelve selfish lives in the hotel.
Will it end in twelve selfish deaths?

Thursday, May 9, 2024

Never Closer

On an ordinary day in 2017, Jo receives a phone call about her 18-year-old daughter, Jessie. It is the call that every parent dreads. In 1940, 17-year-old Alice ties on her facemask and enters a laboratory to harvest a potential new miracle drug called penicillin. The lives of these women become entwined when Jo finds Alice’s diary in a vintage handbag. Past and present overlap and merge as life-changing events resonate for them all across the gulf of time.

This is a story about a diary opening a door on the past, chronicling a young woman’s determination to succeed against all odds, while unknowingly inspiring others to step into a better life. Set against the backdrop of the Second World War, the infancy of antibiotics and a modern medical emergency and its consequences, it not only reminds us how fortunate we are to live now, but also serves as a stark warning about the fragility of life and the dangers of complacency.