Tag Archives: jeff woodman

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (unabridged audiobook read by Jeff Woodman; 7.25 hrs on 7 discs): Gen is a thief thrown in jail for stealing the King’s seal – and then bragging about it in a wine shop. His reputation precedes him, and the Magus (the king’s closest advisor) takes him out of prison and on a long journey to find an important relic long thought to be mere legend. Along the way we learn quite a lot about the Greek-like mythology of the land. It was, to be perfectly honest, kind of boring. Gen’s ceaseless complaining got old fast, the myths were okay but not especially interesting, and the journey lasted for most of the book without much actually happening. I was also unimpressed by the Surprise Ending. I understand this book won awards and is the beginning of a trilogy, but this book felt too aimless to inspire me to read more.

Random aside: I totally pictured the Magus as Jafar. I don’t know why.

A note on the audio: Woodman was good. I previously heard him read An Abundance of Katherines, so I tended to think of Gen as younger than he was supposed to be. I’m not entirely clear on how old he was meant to be, but I do know I was caught a little off guard at the mention of marriage.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green (unabridged audiobook read by Jeff Woodman; 7 hours on 6 discs): I came into this expecting to love it, as I have loved every other John Green book I’ve read. And I did, though there were parts that hit uncomfortably close to home. Colin is a prodigy – that is, he learns and retains information extremely well and quickly. He is not necessarily, he maintains, a genius (someone who comes up with truly original ideas). When the 19th Katherine in a row dumps him right after high school graduation, his hilarious friend Hassan takes him on a road trip that ultimately lands them in Gutshot, Tennessee. I picked out the love interest in about three nanoseconds, which was kind of annoying, but the characters themselves were so much fun it didn’t really matter. I fell a little bit in love with Hassan, but that seems par for the course with me and Green’s secondary characters. This book says a lot about self-centeredness and being special, lessons I took a long time to learn. In short, I wish I’d read this, like, fifteen years ago. Too bad Green is almost my same age, and probably hadn’t learned these lessons yet fifteen years ago either. Oh well. I’ll get a TARDIS and remedy this at some point, I’m sure.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

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