Julia Whelan and Kristin Hannah are a winning combination for me and I was thoroughly captivated by Whelan’s narration of the “The Women”. This powerful and moving book sheds light on the little-known (at least to me) experiences of women who served in the Vietnam War. Like the author, I was in elementary and… Keep Reading
Audiobook Review: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
“𝘖𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳.“ What an emotional journey! I’ve been feeling the urge to read WWII historical fiction to try and understand how ordinary people can become so hateful toward their fellow man. This book bears witness to not only the cruelty of the… Keep Reading
Audiobook Review: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
“She was crying for it all at last–for the pain and loss and fear and anger, for the war and what it had done to her and to all of them, for the knowledge of evil she could never shake, for the horror of where she’d been and what she’d done to survive.” What… Keep Reading
Book Review: The Bird Hotel by Joyce Maynard
“Count the Ways” is one of my favorite books so I had very high hopes going into “The Bird Hotel”. Although the middle part was a bit slow for me, I loved the vivid descriptions of La Llorona, the run-down hotel where the main protagonist Irene travels to try and heal her soul. Though fictional,… Keep Reading
Audiobook Review: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
Loved the audiobook of The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store! I want to compliment the narrator Dominic Hoffman who conquered the dialects of both the African-American characters and the immigrant Jewish characters. The book begins with the discovery of both a skeleton and a mezuzah in a well, and then flashes back to the… Keep Reading
Audiobook Review: Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
I can’t think of an audiobook I’ve enjoyed more than Tom Lake, narrated by the incomparable Meryl Streep. This was also my first book by the brilliant Ann Patchett and it is a quintessentially summer read. I was enraptured by the story of Lara, a small-town New England girl who once had a promising… Keep Reading
Do Tell by Lindsay Lynch
Just finished this absolute gem of a novel, set during Hollywood’s “Golden Age.” The author has done an incredible job researching the way that movies were made in the 1930’s and 1940’s, from the studio system, which all but ensured that actors were almost “owned” by the motion picture studios, to the powerful sway… Keep Reading
HORSE by GERALDINE BROOKS
Simply magnificent! Deftly weaving together several interconnected stories and characters, “Horse” tells the fictionalized story of the real-life thoroughbred Lexington, one of the greatest race horses of all time. As a lifelong rider, I was completely entranced by this story. I was once obsessed with racing, and as a young girl followed the career of… Keep Reading
RULES OF CIVILITY by AMOR TOWLES
What a rich and sparkling view of New York City just before World War II! An absolute joy to listen to. At the heart of this book are Washington’s Rules of Civility (actually created in 1595 but copied by Washington into his notebook), a list of common-sense manners which should be followed today. These rules… Keep Reading
DEMON COPPERHEAD by BARBARA KINGSOLVER
Stunning! Epic! Where do I begin? Well the endnotes provide the framework for this extraordinary novel: Barbara Kingsolver thanks Charles Dickens for creating David Copperfield and writing about the damage poverty had on children at that time. Sadly, those problems are still with us. Our narrator Demon (born Damon) is born into abject poverty and… Keep Reading