Book Review: The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman

The World That We Knew
by Alice Hoffman

Ettie, the daughter of a rabbi who did the forbidden by creating a golem, is one of three protagonists in the most recent of Alice Hoffman’s magical stories. Lea, protected by the golem during 1941 at her mother’s request, is another protagonist needing to escape from Nazi-occupied Paris. Ava, the strong golem created to protect Lea, is the final protagonist. Their stories are braided together and described in the author’s amazing storytelling voice.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer, Akin by Emma Donoghue, or All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.]

[ official The World That We Knew page on the official Alice Hoffman web site ]

Recommended by Jodi R.
Anderson and Bethany Branch Libraries

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Find Her by Lisa Gardner (as downloadable audio)

Find Her
by Lisa Gardner (downloadable audiobook)

This is *technically* a mystery, which I don’t normally like to read. However, I had a “non-reading” friend recommend it to me, as an audiobook, so I felt like I really had to give it a shot. I waited a number of years for its popularity to die down (I’m a slow reader, so I don’t like to read brand-new things, if I can help it, because the pressure to zip through it in three weeks is too great!) and I gave it a shot. Wow! It didn’t read like a typical mystery, in my opinion.

I really loved the way this story went back and forth between Flora (the girl who was kidnapped) and D.D., the detective in charge of looking for her. They’ve got such different personalities, and yet, they’re similar in their tenacity and their hardness.

At one point, like halfway through the book, I thought I had it figured out. I was 100% sure I’d gotten it, and I was a little disappointed that it was going to take the other 1/2 of the book to get to what I already knew. I even made a note in my reading journal about it, which I never do (about that sort of thing). Guess what? I was WAY wrong!!! I was so glad!!! I didn’t want to spoil the book for myself by figuring it out so early. Yay! This book was amazing, and I may even go back and read more by this author. Oh! And I didn’t realize until I came to write this review that it is #8 in a series. I think I had an idea that it was part of a series, but I thought it was the first one. I really felt like it could stand alone. Props to Lisa Gardner!!!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Good Girl by Mary Kubica.] [ official Find Her page on the official Lisa Gardner web site ]

Recommended by Tracy T.
Anderson and Bethany Branch Libraries

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Radio Play Review: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Hexagonal Phase (as Book-on-CD)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: The Hexagonal Phase
adapted from the novel And Another Thing… by Eoin Colfer, based on the original novels by Douglas Adams (Compact Disc Hitchhikers)

I’ve been a fan of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy stories, by the late Douglas Adams, since the early-1980s, when I first saw the television version of HHGG, starring Simon Jones as Arthur Dent, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox, Sandra Dickenson as Trillian, Stephen Moore as Marvin, David Dixon as Ford Prefect and Paul Jones as the Voice of the Book. That TV series had actually followed the production and airing of HHGG as a radio play, with many of the same actors recurring their roles from the radio production in the TV series (a major exception being that voice actor Geoffrey McGivern was replaced by David Dixon as Ford Prefect). And, yes, viewing the TV show did ultimately get me started on reading all the books in the series as well.

Adams passed away in 2001, after having written 5 volumes in the “Hitchhiker’s trilogy”. All five of those were ultimately produced as multi-part radio plays, with the same actors in the key roles throughout all the stories. In 2009, an official authorized new entry in the Hitchhiker’s series was released by author Eoin Colfer — And Another Thing… — Two different radio play versions of this title were produced, one in 2009 and a second in 2018. That second version reunited most of the cast members (Jones, Davey, Dickenson, etc.). This CD set is the commercial release of the 2018 radio play.

When I reviewed the novel for our Staff Recommendations pages in 2009 (see link below), I ended up a little disappointed in it — it didn’t really live up to the quality of the original Douglas Adams stories. But, having sampled this 2018 radio play adaptation, my opinion has improved. As a radio play, with all the familiar voices reviving their comedic roles, this turns out to be a fun, entertaining sci-fi romp. The story itself is a little all-over-the-place, but the character bits are — at times — hilarious, and the sound effects, special effects and music all add to the overall production. This is a fun show to listen to!

[ Wikipedia page for this production web site ]

See Scott C.’s review of And Another Thing… by Eoin Colfer in the November 2009 Staff Recommendations!

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you listened this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!