Wakela Runen's World

The Body's Keepers by Paul L. Kimmel, M.D. narrated by Lane Hakel From a medical standpoint, this book is quite interesting.  Does it give you information on how to help yourself if you have kidney issues?  No, it does not.  However, it does a great job of detailing the function of the kidneys, the past and current available treatments, as well as the ramifications of a capitalistic medical machine has on the treatment of patients. Dr. Kimmel uses medical cases and personal accounts to help you understand the ramifications of kidney disease on your health and finances.  Living with kidney disease is not an easy undertaking.  I am currently at stage 3a of chronic kidney disease.  This means that my kidneys are not functioning to the capacity that they are supposed to be.  This book helped open my eyes to what it truly means to have CKD and its effects on my body.  You don't really realize how much is affected by your kidneys not functioning at a normal level.   I was able to lea

Dead Things Are Closer Than They Appear by Robin Wasley narrated by Eunice Wong Can I start by saying "WOW"?  The audiobook is a little over 12 hours long, but I finished it in one day.  I did not want to stop listening at all.  Robin Wasley sped out of the gate with her first book, a great combo fantasy/horror book.   First up, the narration.  Eunice Wong was incredible.  Her voicing of the story kept me on the edge of my seat.  There was depth to her characters as well as range in her intonation of the actual story.  When characters were whispering, she did too.  If the characters were anxious, you could feel it in her voice.  I will definitely be looking for more books narrated by Eunice! The story starts off describing the sleepy little town where tourists visit to see where the magic used to happen.  However, the fault lines were sealed off ages ago and the magic is no longer accessible.  There is one caveat to that though.  There are guardians who hold keys to unlock th

The Marie Laveau Voodoo Grimoire by Denise Alvarado narrated by Adenrele Ojo Being a pagan, I have always been interested in the magickal workings of people around the world.  And the Louisiana Voodoo community has really had me intrigued.  There are too many times in the media, that you see Voodoo and other magickal practices being demonized.  I was ecstatic to see find this book that allowed me to take a look at the life of Marie Laveau and learn about her practices. Adenrele Ojo did a superb job at the narration.  There were a few times though that were a little tedious to get through though.  I think that was mainly due to it being a list of herbs and their magickal properties.  So, it was read more like a bulleted type of list.  But I really can't see any way around that scenario happening.   There was so much to unpack in this book.  The was a lot of great research done on Marie Laveau.  This was done through Marie's diaries, newspaper articles and even interviews with so

Remedial Magic by Melissa Marr narrated by Jeremy Carlisle Parker & Max Meyers There are 2 narrators for this audiobook.  Jeremy Carlisle Parker is a woman who is a trained opera singer.  I have heard and enjoyed her narration before in The Witches of Thistle Grove series by Lana Harper.  Max Meyers who has acted in Off-Broadway productions.  I have not listened to any of their previous work.  I think that both narrators did the best job that they could in order to portray so many different POVs in one audiobook.  However, this book would have benefited better from a much larger cast of narrators in order to help differentiate.  Anyone who has read my previous reviews will know that I rarely DNF a book.  Even if there are points about the book that I don't like, I will generally try to stay until the end in order to give the author a chance of redemption.  However, I just could not continue listening to this book.  I really did try, but I couldn't. Now the blurb that I read

The Wonderful World of Amigurumi by Khuc Cay This book has got to have some of the cutest creations that I have ever seen.  Each one is so darling and special in its own way.  Thankfully, Khuc Cay has provided great instructions that make it easy to create these special animals.   She starts with basic instructions on how to crochet and even embroidery work.  Of course, she provides a list of which types of supplies you will need to finish these projects, as well as which brands of yarns that she likes to work with.  There are also great tips such as putting blush on the cheeks of your creations to increase their cuteness factor.  She also gives tips on how to make them bigger if you would like.   Before the instructions for each amigurumi, she tells you a little bit about its personality.  For instance, the picture on the cover of the book is of Onni the Platypus and he likes to hang out near the water eating ice cream.   The instructions include information on who it is rated for (be

Once Upon a Murder by Samantha Larsen narrated by Marni Penning This may be the 2nd book in the Lady Librarian book series, but it is the first one that I have read.  Not knowing what occurred in the 1st book did not hamper my enjoyment of this book.  It would have been nice to know more about some of the situations that were referenced though.  I do plan on going back to read the 1st book since I want to know what happened in it. Take a step back to 1784 and ride along as Tiffany attempts to clear both her and Samir's name of murder.  It seems in the prior book; Tiffany had dressed up as her brother and started working for the Duchess of Beaufort as the librarian.  In this book, she is now known as herself and is working as the librarian and also as nanny for the young Duke.  There are some really cute parts with Tiffany and the young pirate interacting.   This book had way too many juxtapositions of contradicting ideas.  Some of them actually concerned me and took me out of the t