Wowzers!  This was so similar and different to the podcast.  I had head of Night Vale for quite some time and when I saw the book on sale a while ago, I decided I should find out what it was all about.  But it sat on my shelf for and embarrassingly long time.  I finally checked out the podcast this year and was instantly hooked on the world, the craziness of it all and "The Voice of Night Vale" Cecil.  When I decided to finally read this, I thought it would be awesome to listen to tha audio while reading along--cuz Cecil.  I swear I would listen to him read stereo instructions.

Anyway, this was a very indepth story about Diane and her form-shifting son, Josh and the unaging Jackie.  This had all of the weirdness and shenanigans of Night Vale.  Time is a mess and there are multiple Troys spread across mutliple towns bringing the mess of Night Vale to other times and wreaking all kids of havoc.  This is full of adventure and mystery.  It was an excellent read/listen.

Nora has decided she wants to die so she chooses her time but instead of dying she goes to The Midnight Library which is a place between life and death. There are green books on all the shelves as well as the Book of Regrets which is a book of her regrets. Also there is Mrs. Elm, her library teacher from school who turns out to be her guide to the Midnight Library. Nora is given the chance to live other lives which her choices made impossible to live when she was still on earth. She has many choices but which ones will she want to relive? Which ones will she not relive? Are there more lives than we have been told about? Which life does she choose?

This was not what I expected but I enjoyed it throughly. While I liked Nora, she was a bit of a downer at times. As she is living her different lives I felt for her since she was dropped into the lives with no idea where she would end up and she ends up looking crazy each time. I also liked Mrs. Elm. She stayed with Nora at the Midnight Library helping her to choose and guiding her to a life. The secondary characters can be in more than one life but mostly they are in one of her lives and she tries to figure out how they fit in her life

The story is interesting. It relies solely on Nora's choices. She recites philosophers often though the people in her lives have no idea the "real" Nora was into philosophy and it is the "real" Nora we journey with. I liked that we get larger views of her life and mentions of other journeys she has taken without us being aware of those lives. She needs to pick a life or she will be dead.

I wasn't sure which life I wanted her to choose but as Mrs. Elm said "the only way to learn is to live." I was glad to be on the journey with her.

An outstanding story from start to finish.  I listened to the audio and the narrator did an outstanding job, making an already riveting story one that I wanted to just sit and listen to, rather than serving as just a diversion while in traffic.

Virginia Hall, by any standard measure of time, accomplishment, daring, intelligence or bravery, was a heroine.  Her gender makes no difference in this distinction, nor does her disability, but both render her accomplishments during WWII even more astounding.  

Sonia Purnell does an excellent job chronicling the life of Hall, in spite of what she admits upfront was a daunting process of historical research in the face of archive fires, classified intelligence in multiple countries, and Hall's own ingrained reticence to discuss her work or accept accolades for her contributions to ending the war.  Her speculations as to what might have happened during gaps in primary sources seem few, and the writing makes those speculations clear.  She also doesn't just rely solely on chronicling Virginia's life, but covers quite a bit of the story of the French Resistance, especially in Lyon, during the Vichy government, and the Nazi take-over leading up to the invasion of Normandy.

The history is at times romantic in true Bond style, terrifying, and heartbreaking.  The details of Vichy and Nazi interrogating techniques is NOT for the feint of heart, and the post-war years for Virginia were a mixture of recognition of her talents and accomplishments, and a disgusting record of 50's misogyny.  I appreciated that the author made the effort to be accurate, not falling into the easy route of railing against all the discrimination and not giving time to those men in the intelligence and government sectors that stood up and gladly gave her the credit she earned and deserved.  Purnell tries to be balanced, and I think she succeeds brilliantly, pointing out the CIA's mistakes and their own efforts to take responsibility for them.

I'm thankful I found this book, and I'm thankful Purnell wrote it, giving men and women around the world another authentic role model and hero to look to.  I can't help but wonder, though, how Hall herself would view this fine work.  I hope, in spite of her life-long secrecy and desire to remain unknown, she'd appreciate her life's achievements as the valuable legacy they are to future generations.

Beautifully written and a lovely, innovative concept.

A great tale for anyone who loves books, but especially for those who fancy themselves future authors, struggling authors, or really, anyone who'd embrace the title of author in any form.

Myself, I've never found the title of author appealing.  My love of books is strictly that of the receiver of stories, and as such, some of the rhapsodic odes to unwritten stories was lost on me, though I connected with the idea of potentiality.

Regardless, once I got into the story, which admittedly took awhile, I was invested.  I thoroughly appreciated the author's take on Christian theology and judgement, but had a hard time buying into the creative license she took with heaven on several different levels.  There's a serious feminist vibe running throughout the narrative, which is fine, but for the record:  God is no more a 'she' than God is a 'he'; God is Omni; God is all, and while it makes no material difference which gender pronoun one uses, the overt use of "she' has always felt  petty to me. It was a small blip, but whenever it happened it yanked me out of the story, even if just for a second.

The author's grasp of the mythology of the underworld felt less formed, but only if you really stop to consider; the logic of the plotting cracks a bit around the edges if you stop to consider how she's got the bureaucracy of Hell set up.  Don't think about it too much though and it works well enough.

The characters are well written, though Leto's story is obviously the one that is the most fully developed.  This is the character the author thought most deeply about, or had enough life experience that bled through into his creation.  Which is both unfortunate and haunting, though the result is a character the reader can care about and cheer for.  To use Hackworth's logic, Leto is the character most likely to leave his book.

Overall, an engaging story, an adventure.  There's a second book out next month that I'll happily read, and I hope this time around we'll spend more time in the library itself.