WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON (audiobook) by John Green and David Levithan

Audiobook published in 2010 by Listening Library.
Performed by MacLeod Andrews and Nick Podehl.
Duration: 7 hours, 51 minutes.
Unabridged.

Synopsis

Will Grayson, Will Grayson is the story of two Chicago area teens named Will Grayson who attend different schools and do not know one another.

One Will Grayson is determined not to risk hurt romantic feelings by not putting himself out there to make connections and possibly get hurt. Instead, he focuses on knowing all about obscure bands and lives vicariously through his over-the-top best friend, Tiny Cooper. Tiny Cooper is a massive mountain of young man who is also gay and is also the school's most talented athlete. Think of the biggest football lineman you have ever seen, make that lineman great at every sport, able to sing show tunes at the drop of a hat, and the biggest social butterfly in the school.

The other Will Grayson is a closeted gay teen who has found an online boyfriend from Ohio. He muddles through high school life by getting involved in low commitment activities like the math team (he is only on the team to provide the minimum number of bodies required - the math geniuses take care of all of the real work). He has a pushy female frenemy that clearly is interested in him and does not understand why he does not reciprocate. 

One day, the two Will Graysons meet. When their worlds collide, everything changes...

My Review

Tiny Cooper is, without a doubt, one of the best characters I have read in a book this year. He is a walking talking stereotype in many ways - the gay character who loves musical theater, writes his own songs, and falls in love at the drop of a hat. But, he is such a big personality character that he transcends all of those stereotypes.

The story itself pulls the reader in (or in my case, the listener). As a teacher, I found the characters mostly realistic when compared to the students I see and hear in my classroom every day.

But, there were some ridiculous things that were so unrealistic that the teacher in me just couldn't buy it. For example, Tiny Cooper is given student council funds to put on a musical that he has written in the school theater. There is no way that any school would put on this musical. You might be able to put on an overtly gay-themed musical, but not one with so many direct sexual references. They just keep on coming - one after another after another.

I could buy it if they were putting this musical on in a local theater that was not affiliated with the school. I've seen that happen a couple of times in my 35+ year teaching career.

That being said, it is a fun book. An acquaintance told me that this was her all time favorite book. I wouldn't go that far, but I did like it quite a bit. 

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan. 

This book has been included in book ban lists across the country due to its LGBTQ+ themes, sexual references, alcohol, and cursing. Shocker! High school students curse! Orange County in Florida is one of those places (Link to article).

DRAGONS of AUTUMN TWILIGHT (Dragonlance Chronicles #1) (audiobook) by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

Originally published in 1984.
Audiobook published in 2013 by Audible Studios.
Read by Paul Boehmer.
Duration: 20 hours, 0 minutes.
Unabridged.

Way back when, I read every book in this series from cover to cover as quickly as they came out. I did the same with at least two other follow-up series from these authors and, if I remember correctly, I read other books that were connected to this series - but not by the original authors. I proudly had about a dozen related books on my book shelf.

That was 40 years ago. I sold those books along the way and had largely forgotten about them. I was reminded of them and I decided to listen to the audiobook version of the first book just to see if they were as good as I remembered.

Synopsis:

Krynn is a mostly peaceful place years after a calamity caused the people to turn away from the old gods. Cynicism abounds and the people worship new gods that may not after much comfort, but at least they didn't turn away from the people at their time of greatest need.

There are elves, humans, multiple types of dwarves, Kinder (halflings with zero impulse control), and humans of all sorts. Honorable knights still serve, but the people doubt their sincerity. Strange barbarians live out in the wild spaces and magic users can memorize spells to do any number of miraculous and dangerous things. 

A group of brave of explorers can make a small fortune exploring the ruins of the world before the destruction came - if they can fight.

The book starts with just such a group of explorers who are reuniting after splitting up to look into rumors of strange new armies arising, clerics serving gods no one has heard of, and possibly even the return of the ultimate creatures of the legends of the olden days - dragons!

Once the group assembles back in their home town the action starts almost immediately and they have to flee into the wilderness. As they work their across Krynn they find out that the rumors are much more than idle stories.

My review:

The original cover that I remember. 
Check out the $2.95 price!

This series reads exactly like a well-run Dungeons and Dragons campaign - because that is what it was designed to be. The creators of D&D released a campaign you could buy to go along with the book (or do something completely different than the characters in the book do.)

Back when I first read the series I was a regular player of D&D and this book felt very comfortable. Experienced D&D players will see the obvious NPC characters and even the little escapes the dungeon master will have built in to make sure the players have a successful campaign. 

The characters are pretty standard fantasy characters - a grumpy old dwarf, haughty elves, a mostly brawn fighter, a mostly brains magic user whose only loyalty is to himself, a paladin with an unbending code of honor, enthusiastic but unskilled newbies, a conflicted leader, and more.

Does it work?

After a slow start, it really does work very well. The first 3 or 4 hours of this 20 hour audiobook were slow, but once it gets going, it's worth it.

The characters make it work, as it is with all good books. In this case, two minor characters make the second half of the series fun and touching: Fizban the befuddled old wizard and Flamestrike, the grieving and senile old dragon. Excellent characters make for memorable scenes. Once I was reminded of Flamestrike, I immediately remembered her touching and dramatic final scene that I read 40 years earlier. 40 years later it was as good as I had remembered. 

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Dragons of Autumn Twilight.

THE ROARING TWENTIES: A HISTORY from BEGINNNG to END (kindle) by Hourly History

Published by Hourly History in 2023.

Hourly History specializes in producing little histories and biographies that can be read in about an hour. 

If you are pretty well-versed in the basics of 1920's America, this short history offers nothing new. If you remember the basics from your U.S. history textbook or if you watched a documentary on the topic, this e-book ill offer nothing new.

The e-book repeats some of its main themes multiple times, sometimes within a few paragraphs of each other. I kept wondering if they were trying to fill space, which seems kind of ridiculous in a book with literal space limits (able to be read in just an hour). It also made me wonder if this book were written by an AI.

As an example of what I was talking about, the e-book mentioned that people grew more accepting of LBTQ+ people in the 1920's. That is undoubtedly true, but it was mentioned so many times that it might persuade some readers that the 1920's were a very accepting time. I think it would be fair to say that the during the 1920's, the needle of the gauge of LGBTQ+ acceptance moved off of "zero", but that's about it. Progress, to be sure, but hardly worth mentioning multiple times. 

The facts presented in the book are all solid, which is why I am giving it 3 stars out of 5, even if it was written in a clunky way.

This e-book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Roaring Twenties: A History from Beginning to End.

WITCHY (graphic novel) by Ariel Slamet Ries

Originally published in 2019.

Witchy started out as a highly acclaimed webcomic that has since been printed as a graphic novel on high quality paper. 

Witchy is set in a world where magic exists and the length on a person's hair determines the power of the magic user. The kingdom of Hyalin uses magic users to enforce its regime. They train young users in an academy with the goal of providing magic users as soldiers in the elite Witch Guard. The Witch Guard fights external enemies and tamps down internal dissent with brutal, often lethal force.

The graphic novel has a lot of positive things:

-The drawings are clean, crisp, and very clear. The art is great.

-The characters all easy to differentiate from one another (sometimes artists makes a lot of characters that look alike).

-There are several great characters, especially the raven familiar.

But, there are negative things as well:

-The ground rules of the universe are not explained well. This graphic novel deserved an written introduction page, much like the famed scrolling text in the Star Wars movies. It would have benefitted from even a few sentences, like the three sentences at the beginning of James Gunn's Superman movie. The back cover of the book provides some necessary information, but not enough.

-Because the ground rules were not explained well, I often was somewhat confused and did not understand the actual stakes involved in some dramatic scenes.

-Interesting story lines are developed and then dropped in an effort to move the story along. In particular, I am thinking about the characters in the school and how they relate to the main character, Nyneve. It didn't help to move the story along when this reader was still trying to understand the basic rules of this world. Remaining in the school longer would have allowed more character development and let the reader learn more of the ground rules.

I rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5. Not bad, but it seems like it was a missed opportunity to be so much more.

This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: Witchy by Ariel Slamet Ries.

LINCOLN'S GENERALS (Gettysburg Civil War Institute Collection) edited by Gabor S. Boritt

Published by Oxford University Press in 1995.

Lincoln's Generals is a collection of 5 essays written by scholars of various aspects of the Civil War. In this case, they focused on how Lincoln worked with his various generals, mostly the generals of the Army of the Potomac. They are organized in roughly chronological order.

The first essay was very well-written. It was by Stephen W. Sears and concerned Lincoln and McClellan. The weakest, for me, was the second essay, ostensibly about General Hooker. It's focus was really the macho culture of the time that required men to prove themselves manly by exposing themselves to fire. It wasn't a bad essay, but it really was not about the relationship between Lincoln and Hooker.

The other three essays were about Meade, Sherman, and Grant. 

I got an appreciation for the difficulties of Lincoln's political position, especially as the election of 1864 approached. Viewing things from 161 years later, it seems like it was all pre-ordained. The reminder that it was a close thing was welcome.

I rate this collection 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Lincoln's Generals (Gettysburg Civil War Institute Collection) edited by Gabor S. Boritt.

KING RICHARD I: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY of AMERICA'S GREATEST AUTO RACER by Richard Petty with William Neely

Originally published in 1986.

Richard Petty is NASCAR's winningest driver, with 200 wins. He raced from 1958-1992. He won seven championships, he won the Daytona 500 7 times and is one of the few drivers to win at every track he competed on during the course of his career. In 1967 he won 10 races in a row (!) on his way to winning 27 races for the season. 

He also won the very first NASCAR big time car race I ever saw at Michigan in 1981. 

I was already a fan - and I was sure that he would win every race I attended from the point forward (he didn't).

The Petty family raced in stock car races back when they really were stock cars - you could buy replacement parts at local dealers or in junkyards. They raced when you could drive the car to the track - but that was a bad idea if you were caught up in an accident and couldn't drive it back home.

They got in on the ground floor of NASCAR, with Richard Petty's dad winning 3 of the early championships and Richard, his brother, and his cousin serving as his underaged pit crew and car builders.

Petty's story is interesting enough, but because his story coincides with so much of the early history of NASCAR, it also tells their history as well - especially from the beginning to the mid-1970s. One could easily say that Richard Petty and NASCAR grew up together.

I found this to be an enjoyable well-told autobiography/history. Very well told. The cover quotes Playboy magazine as saying that King Richard I was "The best sports book of the year." They may have been right - it is very good.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: King Richard I: The Autobiography of America's Greatest Auto Racer.

2 B R 0 2 B (audiobook) by Kurt Vonnegut

Originally published in 1962 in the magazine If: Worlds of Science Fiction.

Published in 2017 by Author's Republic.

Read by Phil Chenevert

Duration: 19 minutes.

Unabridged.

2 B R 0 2 B is set in a future world where the population is kept at a strict limit so that the living can live in a clean and safe environment. When a new person is born into the world, someone must volunteer to leave because aging has pretty much been cured. The Federal Bureau of Termination keeps track of all of the births and deaths to be sure that the math works out. The phone number for the Federal Bureau of Termination is 2 B R 0 2 B - pronounced "two be or naught to be."

The story is about a father whose wife is about to give birth to triplets. One of the grandparents of the triplets has agreed to die. Unless something changes, the future parents will have to pick out two babies to kill...

This is an intentionally provocative short story that had a quick and brutal ending that surprised me. 

I rate this short story 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: 2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut.