en-US Tue, 18 Oct 2016 07:27:28 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 8244656 Discover the bewitching, classic children's novel The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, featuring spellbinding illustrations from Chris Riddell

WINNER of the 2010 CILIP CARNEGIE MEDAL and the 2009 JOHN NEWBERY MEDAL

'Every page is crowded with invention, both funny and scary' PATRICK NESS
'A tale of unforgettable enchantment' NEW YORK TIMES

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a graveyard, raised and educated by ghosts.

There are dangers and adventures for Bod in the graveyard. But it is in the land of the living that the real danger lurks, for it is there that the man Jack lives ��

WINNER OF THE LOCUS YOUNG ADULT AWARD
WINNER OF THE HUGO BEST NOVEL PRIZE
WINNER OF THE BOOKTRUST TEENAGE AWARD]]> 305 Neil Gaiman Jülie ☼♄ �� 0 4.36 2008
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Jülie ☼♄ ��
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/10/18
shelves: to-read, own-kindle-book, young-adult, fantasy, tbr, 2008-release, audio-sync, own-on-audible, whispersync, speculative-fiction, audible
review:

]]> 17614771 They thought they'd be friends forever, until a tragic accident drove them apart. Now, seventeen years later, five friends meet again, and are forced to face up to the secrets of the past

Jen, Andrew, Lilah, Natalie and Dan were inseparable at university, but in the seventeen years since they left they have hardly seen each other. Until Jen invites them all to stay at her house in the French Alps. The house where they once spent a golden summer before tragedy tore them apart.

When a snowstorm descends, they find themselves trapped and forced to confront their unresolved issues, frustrated passions and broken friendships. And as relationships shift and marriages flounder, the truth about what really happened years before is slowly revealed. And Jen realises that perhaps some wounds can never be healed...]]> 432 Amy Silver 1448134374 Jülie ☼♄ �� 4 audio-sync, 2013-release This story reminded me of the movie The Big Chill...which I loved...only I think this is a bit more complex in the relationships and history behind each of its characters.
The theme is very similar, though rather than meeting up for a wake, this story revolves around a group of friends reuniting at an old, previously very loved but now badly neglected country manor in France, where they had all spent a summer together seventeen years previously.
During that summer stay a tragic event befell them and caused them all to drift apart...until now.
They have all been invited back, but what is really the agenda?

There are some surprises and curve balls to keep the reader fascinated in the outcome.
I listened to this copy on audio and enjoyed the narration very much, though concentration is a must because of the complexities of this story.]]> 4.00 2013
author: Amy Silver
name: Jülie ☼♄ ��
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2015/12/30
date added: 2015/12/29
shelves: audio-sync, 2013-release
review:

This story reminded me of the movie The Big Chill...which I loved...only I think this is a bit more complex in the relationships and history behind each of its characters.
The theme is very similar, though rather than meeting up for a wake, this story revolves around a group of friends reuniting at an old, previously very loved but now badly neglected country manor in France, where they had all spent a summer together seventeen years previously.
During that summer stay a tragic event befell them and caused them all to drift apart...until now.
They have all been invited back, but what is really the agenda?

There are some surprises and curve balls to keep the reader fascinated in the outcome.
I listened to this copy on audio and enjoyed the narration very much, though concentration is a must because of the complexities of this story.
]]> 23534857 The Family Law is a linked series of tales from a wonderful Australian talent.]]> Benjamin Law Jülie ☼♄ �� 4 What a crazy funny man, who has had a crazy funny irreverent upbringing! Loads of laugh out loud moments throughout this telling.
This memoir reads...or sounds, as I listened to the audio version...like a very funny comedy..though it does have some very cringe-worthy tales to tell as well. Some real OMG moments!
Even so, you can't fail to hear the admiration and love that Benjamin has for his family, and you can't fail to admire their courage.
This was a great insightful audio experience, and I highly recommend the audio version for what I can only imagine is a richer experience of Benjamin Law's life as told by himself.

It was only during the course of my listening that I discovered the tv series of The Family Law! ]]> 3.57 2010
author: Benjamin Law
name: Jülie ☼♄ ��
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2015/12/28
date added: 2015/12/27
shelves: aussie-author, 2010-release, humour, audio-sync, own-on-audible, audible, comedy, family, memoir
review:

What a crazy funny man, who has had a crazy funny irreverent upbringing! Loads of laugh out loud moments throughout this telling.
This memoir reads...or sounds, as I listened to the audio version...like a very funny comedy..though it does have some very cringe-worthy tales to tell as well. Some real OMG moments!
Even so, you can't fail to hear the admiration and love that Benjamin has for his family, and you can't fail to admire their courage.
This was a great insightful audio experience, and I highly recommend the audio version for what I can only imagine is a richer experience of Benjamin Law's life as told by himself.

It was only during the course of my listening that I discovered the tv series of The Family Law!
]]> 23534685
That is my first recollection of life. I was barely three. I can remember the majestic gum-trees surrounding us, the sun glinting on their straight white trunks, and falling on the gurgling fern-banked stream, which disappeared beneath a steep scrubby hill on our left.

It was an hour past noon on a long clear summer day. We were on a distant part of the run, where my father had come to deposit salt. He had left home early in the dewy morning, carrying me in front of him on a little brown pillow which my mother had made for the purpose. We had put the lumps of rock-salt in the troughs on the other side of the creek. The stringy bark roof of the salt-shed which protected the troughs from rain peeped out picturesquely from the musk and peppercorn shrubs by which it was densely surrounded, and was visible from where we lunched.

The green-hide bags in which the salt had been carried were hanging on the hooks of the pack-saddle which encumbered the bay pack-horse. Father's saddle and the brown pillow were on Dart, the big grey horse on which he generally carried me, and we were on the point of making tracks for home. Miles Franklin began the candid, passionate, and contrary My Brilliant Career when she was only 16, intending for it to be the Australian answer to Jane Eyre. This thinly veiled autobiographical tale of a young girl hungering for life and love in the outback was so beyond its years when first released in 1901 that Franklin insisted it not be published again until 10 years after her death. My Brilliant Career is a coming of age story for all of the ages.]]> 9 Miles Franklin Jülie ☼♄ �� 0 3.31 1901
author: Miles Franklin
name: Jülie ☼♄ ��
average rating: 3.31
book published: 1901
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/12/19
shelves: to-read, aussie-author, historical-fiction, classics, audio-sync, own-on-audible, australian-classics, debut-novel, 2014-release, audible
review:

]]> 17852023 In addition to the P-38, there are four gifts, one for each of my friends. I want to say good-bye to them properly. I want to give them each something to remember me by. To let them know I really cared about them and I'm sorry I couldn't be more than I was--that I couldn't stick around--and that what's going to happen today isn't their fault.
Today is Leonard Peacock's birthday. It is also the day he hides a gun in his backpack. Because today is the day he will kill his former best friend, and then himself, with his grandfather's P-38 pistol.
But first he must say good-bye to the four people who matter most to him: his Humphrey Bogart--obsessed next-door neighbor, Walt; his classmate Baback, a violin virtuoso; Lauren, the Christian homeschooler he has a crush on; and Herr Silverman, who teaches the high school's class on the Holocaust. Speaking to each in turn, Leonard slowly reveals his secrets as the hours tick by and the moment of truth approaches.
In this riveting book, acclaimed author Matthew Quick unflinchingly examines the impossible choices that must be made--and the light in us all that never goes out.]]> Matthew Quick 1478979771 Jülie ☼♄ �� 0 3.94 2013
author: Matthew Quick
name: Jülie ☼♄ ��
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/12/19
shelves: to-read, young-adult, fiction, 2013-release, audio-sync, own-audio-book, overdrive, glbt, abuse
review:

]]> 6643686 9 Corrie ten Boom 159644682X Jülie ☼♄ �� 5 **It should be mentioned that this audio version is a retelling of Corrie Ten Boom's memoir, for a modern day audience.

Fantastic! Inspirational. I listened to this on audio book in one sitting....I was mesmerised, I couldn't tear myself away from it...I didn't want to.
What an amazing story, what amazing courageous women, Corrie Ten Boom shows how faith can carry you through all manner of terrible trials.
Corrie Ten Boom tells her beautiful life story which includes her family giving shelter to Jewish people during the occupation of Holland in WW2. Then, as a consequence after being caught, her time spent in a German concentration camp with her elder sister Betsie, and how, through their undying faith, they coped and survived together until Betsie became ill and Corrie had to cope without her. The two sisters had always been inseparable which made her loss all the more keenly felt.

I highly recommend this book to all readers.
Very well deserved 5*s I will definately be reading more from this inspirational lady.]]> 4.49 1971
author: Corrie ten Boom
name: Jülie ☼♄ ��
average rating: 4.49
book published: 1971
rating: 5
read at: 2014/12/29
date added: 2015/03/08
shelves: own-on-overdrive, audio-sync, bio-memoir, historical, dutch-resistance, ww2, germany, holland, non-fiction, inspirational
review:

**It should be mentioned that this audio version is a retelling of Corrie Ten Boom's memoir, for a modern day audience.

Fantastic! Inspirational. I listened to this on audio book in one sitting....I was mesmerised, I couldn't tear myself away from it...I didn't want to.
What an amazing story, what amazing courageous women, Corrie Ten Boom shows how faith can carry you through all manner of terrible trials.
Corrie Ten Boom tells her beautiful life story which includes her family giving shelter to Jewish people during the occupation of Holland in WW2. Then, as a consequence after being caught, her time spent in a German concentration camp with her elder sister Betsie, and how, through their undying faith, they coped and survived together until Betsie became ill and Corrie had to cope without her. The two sisters had always been inseparable which made her loss all the more keenly felt.

I highly recommend this book to all readers.
Very well deserved 5*s I will definately be reading more from this inspirational lady.
]]> 9836235
In The Shawl, a woman named Rosa Lublin watches a concentration camp guard murder her daughter. And there is a shawl–a shawl that can sustain a starving child or inadvertently destroy her, or even magically conjure her back to life.]]> Cynthia Ozick 1598877127 Jülie ☼♄ �� 5 Thanks to SYNC Audio for this free download copy.

A very poignant account of Rosa Lublin's life as she recalls it; From her time in a German concentration camp and all the pain she absorbed from her incarceration there, to her life many years on, where she is ever unable to conform to a life of freedom.
Despite the pleas from her Niece and others to move on and make a new life and friends, Rosa cannot find it within herself to believe that any "good" prevails in her world and refuses to forget, or to trust anyone or anything, anymore.

Wonderfully crafted and read by Cynthia Ozick, this is a beautiful almost poetic rendition of this tragic short story.

5*s]]> 3.58 1989
author: Cynthia Ozick
name: Jülie ☼♄ ��
average rating: 3.58
book published: 1989
rating: 5
read at: 2014/12/27
date added: 2014/12/27
shelves: own-book, audio-sync, tbr, holocaust, short-story
review:

Thanks to SYNC Audio for this free download copy.

A very poignant account of Rosa Lublin's life as she recalls it; From her time in a German concentration camp and all the pain she absorbed from her incarceration there, to her life many years on, where she is ever unable to conform to a life of freedom.
Despite the pleas from her Niece and others to move on and make a new life and friends, Rosa cannot find it within herself to believe that any "good" prevails in her world and refuses to forget, or to trust anyone or anything, anymore.

Wonderfully crafted and read by Cynthia Ozick, this is a beautiful almost poetic rendition of this tragic short story.

5*s
]]> 14424730


Gay Awareness Week was beginning at the University of Wyoming, and the keynote speaker was Lesléa Newman, discussing her book Heather Has Two Mommies. Shaken, the author addressed the large audience that gathered, but she remained haunted by Matthew’s murder.



October Mourning, a novel in verse, is her deeply felt response to the events of that tragic day. Using her poetic imagination, the author creates fictitious monologues from various points of view, including the fence Matthew was tied to, the stars that watched over him, the deer that kept him company, and Matthew himself.



More than a decade later, this stunning cycle of sixty-eight poems serves as an illumination for readers too young to remember, and as a powerful, enduring tribute to Matthew Shepard’s life.]]> 2 Lesléa Newman 1469206218 Jülie ☼♄ �� 5
WoW!!

This is the true story of Matthew Shepard, a gay twenty one year old college student who, on the night of October 6th 1998 whilst visiting a bar in Wyoming, was conned into going with two other young men. They drove him to a remote place, tied him to a fence then beat him senseless....then left him to die.

Profound, extremely poignant and very, very moving... This is an important piece of writing, the message of which should be heard by all at least once.
This is a true story narrated through poetry.
I listened to the audio version and at first was not at all comfortable with its delivery, however once I got used to it I was totally riveted and was compelled to listen to it straight through.
It is not very long and can easily be listened to or read in an hour or two...with pauses.

Because of its emotional subject matter, this is is not an easy book to listen to, but it is an important one.
I would highly recommend this book for all, I know I will definitely read it again.

5�ȴ
]]> 4.46 2012
author: Lesléa Newman
name: Jülie ☼♄ ��
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2014/08/04
date added: 2014/08/09
shelves: poetry, gay-non-fiction, young-adult, own-book, 2012-release, audio-sync, 2014-winter-reading-challenge
review:


WoW!!

This is the true story of Matthew Shepard, a gay twenty one year old college student who, on the night of October 6th 1998 whilst visiting a bar in Wyoming, was conned into going with two other young men. They drove him to a remote place, tied him to a fence then beat him senseless....then left him to die.

Profound, extremely poignant and very, very moving... This is an important piece of writing, the message of which should be heard by all at least once.
This is a true story narrated through poetry.
I listened to the audio version and at first was not at all comfortable with its delivery, however once I got used to it I was totally riveted and was compelled to listen to it straight through.
It is not very long and can easily be listened to or read in an hour or two...with pauses.

Because of its emotional subject matter, this is is not an easy book to listen to, but it is an important one.
I would highly recommend this book for all, I know I will definitely read it again.

5�ȴ

]]> 13569235 Valya Dudycz Lupescu 1927472032 Jülie ☼♄ �� 0 3.75 2010
author: Valya Dudycz Lupescu
name: Jülie ☼♄ ��
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/06/06
shelves: to-read, historical-fiction, ukrainian, audio-sync
review:

]]>