Weekly Photo Challenge-Silence

 

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My contribution for this week’s challenge…

Silence

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Last April we took a hot air balloon ride

over Melbourne.The only downside was the 0330 wake up call

to find out if winds were slight enough

to allow the ride to go ahead.

I have never seen Melbourne streets as silent

as this one was at that hour.

 

 Even though there around twenty passengers,

conversations were conducted in

subdued tones so as not to break the silence

of the early hour.

At lift off, there was only the roar of the gas flame

to break the silence of the crisp April morning.

Even this Qantas 747 could not break the silence…

 as we flew over Melbourne at dawn…

with just the occasional burst of

flaming gas breaking the silence.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Silence

(dailypost.wordpress.com)

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Book Review-Ash-and-Bones

Ash and Bones

by

Mike Thomas

Ash and Bones by Mike Thomas is described as a crime and thriller book.  And to a degree it is.  Before I go any further I must state that this was an audio book, not a read.

I have stated several times that I think a narrator can make or break an audio book.  In Ash and Bones, it was the latter.  I nearly stopped listening to it in the first few chapters as it seemed to be a continual drone with no audible difference between characters. This may have been me not being ready for a new book.  However, I did persevere as nearly three hours in a train gave me plenty of time to concentrate!

Somewhere in the latter third of the book, the narrator says something along the lines of ‘…then McCready said, ‘Has the cat got the biscuits’…..’  That was when I realised I could not hear any difference between the narrator’s voice and McCready’s.  McCready was a lead character, or at least one of them so we heard a lot from him.

Many of the male characters and even female characters also sounded like the narrator.  Also in the latter third an elderly lady was introduced and her voice sounded ‘old’.  From that point I began to notice slight, very slight audible differences, among other characters.

I have seen school teachers reading all characters in their own voice and noticed the glazed look upon the students’ faces.  I strongly believe that each character should be recognisable when the narrator is reading their lines.   Heck, recently I was reading in a Scottish accent…to myself!!

As for the book…it seemed to be a mixture of crime, drugs, murder (I think) and family dramas all rolled into one with no rhyme or reason to any of it.  For example, one chapter ended in London with detectives talking about their case.  The next chapter commenced in Nairobi followed by a jump back to London.  There was no other reference to an African country until near the end.  Similarly, a family drama about two thirds of the way through the book was resolved in the last sentence.

I listen to audio books while driving and so it is impossible to “go back a page…or three” to re-read any tenuous connection there may be between chapters.  It may be a better ‘read’ than the audio version.

I did not like the audio version of Ash and Bones.  I read for enjoyment and the only thing I found enjoyable about Ash and Bones was working out why I found it so boring and lifeless.

Really should have been a one star rating, however, it earned and extra star because I did complete it.

I have rated

Ash and Bones

 

as aread.

Goodreads readers have rated

Ash and Bones

an average of 3.59 stars from 59 ratings and 28 reviews

Ash and Bones

can be purchased on-line at

Fishpond, Booktopia and Amazon