A monthly book wrap up is something Anne has started to do so I thought I would follow suit. It seems like a good idea. I tend to consume books faster than I write reviews so why not talk about all the books from each month with a brief review until I can give a detailed one? Sounds good, right?

When things in my life are normal, I tend to read more physical books than I do Kindle books or listen to audio books. But I recently returned to work after almost a year on disability which put a huge damper on my reading schedule. Though I’m happy to be making money again, I miss the hours of reading time. So this first ever reading wrap up will feature more audio books than physical books as my job allows me to have one earbud in, so yay for that at least.

The Land: Predators by Aleron Kong

The Land by Aleron Kong is one of my favorite series of all times. Needless to say, if you have never read (or listened to) any of these books, then don’t start here. Duh. While this is a great series I have to admit that it’s not for everyone. This is a Lit: RPG which means its written out like a role playing game down to the minute details.

I love the series as a whole and Predators is a wonderfully long book (2202 pages or over 48 hours of listening time). I love the story, I love the characters, I get frustrated when them make mistakes, I’m happy when they win. It’s great. I only have two problems and only one is worth talking about. Aleron Kong makes his bad guys real bad so when they die, there’s no question its deserved. But does every bad guy need to be a murdering pedophile rapist? No. No they don’t. So the worst thing about the book is Kong’s tendency to make his villains truly evil and explain what they did. Otherwise, another great book.

The Land: Predators gets an 8 out of 11

Sadie by Courtney Summers

If you’re not familiar with it, Sadie is a story told through two points of view. The first is Sadie, a young woman whose sister was murdered and she sets out to find the killer. Part of the story is told from her point of view. The other part of the story is told through a podcast. The podcast is called The Girls and is about this guy who’s trying to find Sadie and is tracking her down. It’s a very interesting idea and I believe it’s layout lends it to being a good audio book.

If you ever listen to an audio book, this would be a great one. This book has characters you care about and an interesting story that kept me guessing. This book even handled triggering topics like pedophilia and rape well. By that I mean they hinted at these things but never went into any detail. Overall Sadie was a well thought out, well written and (in the audio book) a well preformed story. I recommend this to anyone who would enjoy books like We Were Liars by E Lockhart then you’ll like this.

Sadie by Courtney Summers gets a 7 out of 11

The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish

This part of the blog is going to be a little longer because of all the warnings I need. So let me start by saying that this book isn’t for everyone. It has a lot of negative reviews on Goodreads and while I don’t necessarily disagree with the views of those who hated it, I also think they were people that should never have picked up this book in the first place.

This is Tiffany Haddish’s autobiography that talks about her childhood up until the publication of the book. She had a very hard life and makes jokes about most of it even though she went though a lot of stuff that most of us would never joke about. It would be easy to say that she’s making light of terrible things that happened to her, but she’s a comedian and that’s one of the ways they cope.

Also, in the audio book, she does impressions of people she has met throughout her life. A couple of which are mentally retarded people. Some people took issue with her impression of the mentally challenged. To read this book you have to have thick skin and the ability to either laugh at normally serious topics, or at least the ability to see it from her eyes. That while she may be doing an offensive imitation, she’s not doing with the purpose of being mean.

If you’re easily offended or triggered, you should never ever pick up this book. Walk away. Read something nice and fluffy instead. If you have trouble finding humor in dark situations, walk away and read something else. But if you think you can laugh at what’s usually a taboo topic, then this may be for you. Since I listened to this book as well and found her delivery helped a lot with seeing her side of the jokes.

The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish gets a 7.5 out of 11

The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000 by Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner

I won’t say much about this book because it’s so short I’m going to put it in one of my short book wrap ups and I don’t want to blow my load here. Let’s just say that I found it funny and enjoyable because I remembered the original skit. That’s the only reason you should pick this up.

The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000 by Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner gets a 6 out of 11 (It would have been a 5 put it got 1 point for nostalgia)

The Greatest Love Story Ever Told by Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman

This is another book that’s not for everyone. Nothing against Megam Mullally and Nick Offerman but not everyone is going to want to read a book about a happy couple and their story of how they came to be the people they are. This isn’t a full biography, but it gives you just enough of a back story to be able to understand them as people. This isn’t a laugh out loud funny book. You’d get more laughs if you pick up the audio copy, but it’s still not a comedy. This is a book, humorous at times, about Mullally and Offerman as people, how they met, how th

eir careers have gone, and how they’ve stayed so happy for so long. It’s good and each way you read it has its benefits. If you read it, you get to see pictures they put in the book. If you listen to the book they put in an extra chapter that the readers don’t get. Either way you consume this, it’s a good book that tells an overall nice story. with a touch of humor.

The Greatest Love Story Ever Told by Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman gets an 8 out of 11