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Mary Helen Stefaniak

Auteur van The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia

7+ Werken 237 Leden 24 Besprekingen

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Bevat de naam: Mary Helen Stefaniak

Fotografie: Photo by Andrew Marinkovich

Werken van Mary Helen Stefaniak

Gerelateerde werken

New Stories from the South 2006: The Year's Best (2000) — Medewerker — 56 exemplaren
New Stories from the South 2000: The Year's Best (2000) — Medewerker — 53 exemplaren

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Algemene kennis

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female

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The delightfully flawed characters in Mary Helen Stefaniak's story will charm you from the beginning. As the pages turn you will realize the video game in The World of Pondside is just a front created by Robert, a brilliant ALS patient who lives in house, The purpose of the game is to do far more than just entertain his housemates. Now he is dead, and solving the mystery of how that happened is just the beginning of the thrills. The game has gone dark, Robert's military buddy everyone thought was dead has showed up, and a lot of patients in the US disenfranchised from the drugs they hope will save them have lost their hero. Does anyone know how to solve the secrets of the game? And, who will negotiate the secret trip to China now that Robert's elderly mother is in the hospital? Much is at stake, and it is all on the shoulders of this unlikely group of hacker-sleuth international spies fighting dementia and/or self-dought to the end. I will admit I had to reread and rethink a few layers of this mystery before I could settle my thoughts about the characters' fates - and that is exactly what made this a mystery unlike any other I had read - and I loved it! Narrated by George Newbern with just the right voice to make this quirky and humorous tale come alive.
Thank you Net galley and Blackstone Publishing Audio books for providing this ARC in exchange for a fair review.
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
WiserWisegirl | 1 andere bespreking | Dec 2, 2022 |
The delightfully flawed characters in Mary Helen Stefaniak's story will charm you from the beginning. As the pages turn you will realize the video game in The World of Pondside is just a front created by Robert, a brilliant ALS patient who lives in house, The purpose of the game is to do far more than just entertain his housemates. Now he is dead, and solving the mystery of how that happened is just the beginning of the thrills. The game has gone dark, Robert's military buddy everyone thought was dead has showed up, and a lot of patients in the US disenfranchised from the drugs they hope will save them have lost their hero. Does anyone know how to solve the secrets of the game? And, who will negotiate the secret trip to China now that Robert's elderly mother is in the hospital? Much is at stake, and it is all on the shoulders of this unlikely group of hacker-sleuth international spies fighting dementia and/or self-dought to the end. I will admit I had to reread and rethink a few layers of this mystery before I could settle my thoughts about the characters' fates - and that is exactly what made this a mystery unlike any other I had read - and I loved it! Narrated by George Newbern with just the right voice to make this quirky and humorous tale come alive.
Thank you Net galley and Blackstone Publishing Audio books for providing this ARC in exchange for a fair review.
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
WiserWisegirl | 1 andere bespreking | Dec 2, 2022 |
Deze bespreking is geschreven voor LibraryThing Vroege Recensenten.
I just could not manage to get myself invested in the characters of this book, nor the events of their lives. Normally someone determined to educate a boy who Jim Crow says is not worth it, and at great risk to herself, would fascinate me. Miss Spivey, though, just annoyed me, particularly with her insistence to Gladys that Forest was truly a prince in disguise. I was annoyed and not compelled to continue reading.
 
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DevourerOfBooks | 17 andere besprekingen | Dec 23, 2012 |
Truth be told, this story reminded me a lot of the infamous "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. The Southern setting, the timeframe, the prejudices seen and the lead character chosen to divulge all the events that transpired. It's a story about prejudice. A story about how everyone has the right to learn no matter their race, age or background. A story about accepting our differences, or heck even celebrating them the best way we know how.

The narrators' voice (Gladys Cailiff) was honest and truthful; its innocence retained both before and after the events played out....it just had a new set of eyes through which to view the world. Miss Spivey was a breath of fresh air to a town that was seriously due for a spring cleaning...whether they knew it or not. She's not perfect and her transgressions end up being her downfall, but she really tries to make a difference and throw a new coat of paint on a tiresome old problem. In short, her character is a firecracker with a lot of heart and had it not been for her impact on Gladys' life, I don't think she would have amounted to half the person she did.

Theo Boykin on the other hand was a character we'd have loved to see go far but was ill fated from the start. He achieves so many things in his youth that one could barely fathom the feats he would have reached given the chance. Then there's those characters you love to hate like Mavis and Mr. Gordan. Sometimes they get what's coming to them, other times not so much but they make the story complete in the end. The extended family, friends and not-so-friendlies all play a roll as this story unfolds, something to keep in mind as they are introduced.

There is one part that started to lose me about 2/3 of the way in. Certain events transpire leading to a rather lengthy story telling from the town's temporarily dubbed Shahrazad (a story teller from their play), where truth and fiction are woven together to create a masterpiece worth turning your attention to. It was done well and anyone that wasn't focused on it rather than the events actually happening in the town just wasn't paying attention...however, for me it got a bit TOO into the historical tale. Admittedly, I'm not a huge historical fiction fan in the true sense of the word so that probably played a part...but had the ending not weaved it way back on course, my "final" opinion on this one might have differed.

In conclusion, I enjoyed the story a great deal and warn you, once you enter the town of Baghdad, Georgia you may not want to leave. Though it's true, you will meet those who will stand against you, if you don't stand for something you'll fall for anything, right? Whole heartedly recommended to older teens (there's one scene not quite proper for younger eyes even if the narrator is a child) through adults the reading world over.
… (meer)
 
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GRgenius | 17 andere besprekingen | Dec 8, 2011 |

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Statistieken

Werken
7
Ook door
2
Leden
237
Populariteit
#95,614
Waardering
½ 3.7
Besprekingen
24
ISBNs
27
Talen
2

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