Tag: Audio Review

When you see the differences in one another and learn to embrace them rather than exploit them… you become whole.

Sheila

A cafe in Manhattan.  Bobby, a gay man from Georgia, young and trying to find his way as his family pulls from him.  Amelia, money has never been a problem for her but finds she can not buy her way out of a family secret that has the power to change everything.  Alice, African-American and knows that life can be cruel but finds her way through the day-to-day by looking ahead and using her great gifts in cooking to reach others…

All three have been uprooted from their pasts and they all migrate towards cooking, hungry for companionship, understanding, and acceptance.  As the book starts in 1920’s where slaves are being freed, to the AIDS epidemic of the 80’s, all three know the true meaning of sacrifice in order to find authenticity.

 

Why did I want to read/listen to this book?  The synopsis sounded powerful.  The three protagonists of the book were all so different, I wanted to know what would bring them together.

Even as I write this review I find myself settling into a state of melancholy, and maybe that is not the right word, but I feel a longing for these characters a sense of wanting more yet saddened that as I write this, they are already a part of my past.  Does that make sense?

A Place At The Table was fulfilling, much like the table at which they all sat.  While food fills them, it is the relationships that fill them up and that imagery that Susan Rebecca White paints is one I want to hold on to.  I listened to this book on audio and loved the narration of Robin Miles (she also narrated The Last Original Wife which I LOVED!), George Newbern, and Katherine Powell.  The book flowed smoothly from one scene to the next which I can imagine was no easy task, yet it mixed so well together to create a book I will recommend to others.  This would be a great discussion book for book clubs and  I will be recommending it to my book club for sure!

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Audio

for the opportunity to listen to and review this audio

Why I wanted to listen to this audio:  Heard a little hype about this on Facebook from friends I trust…  thought I would give it a try.  I am always up for a good laugh. 😀

Dad Is Fat is Jim Gaffigan’s hilarious stories on what it is like to be a father of 5 (yes 5!) children.  Jim shares the moments in his and his wife’s life of what it is like to try to maneuver through life in New York with 5 children and no car and taxi’s will not take more than 4 passengers in a vehicle.  An awesome listen or read for any parent who feels they may be outnumbered in their home or even for people like me who have no

It’s hard to write a synopsis for this audio when all I want to do is pull up a chair and start sharing with you the funny moments that had me laughing out loud…

“There is no difference between a four-year old eating a taco and throwing a taco on the floor.”

“We are all a little weird. And we like to think that there is always someone weirder. I mean, I am sure some of you are looking at me and thinking, “Well, at least I am not as weird as you,” and I am thinking, “Well, at least I am not as weird as the people in the loony bin,” and the people in the loony bin are thinking, “Well, at least I am an orange”.”

But don’t take my word for it… here is Jim, live from his audiobook – Dad is Fat:

I thoroughly enjoyed this audio, loved listening to Jim – and highly recommend this one for your next road trip.  This audio is family friendly.

Why did I want to read (listen to) this book?  I have a friend who just recently read it with her book club.  It was her first Dan Brown and when she was done she was thrilled with it.  “A real thinker” she told me.  I downloaded it on audio and as the story pulled me in… I remembered, I really enjoy Dan Browns writing.  How could I have forgotten?”

Sheila

 

Synopsis:  Robert Langdon (our hero of such literacy wonders as The Davinchi Code, Angels and Demons, and The Lost Symbol) finds himself once again pulled into a horrific plan on deceit and “God playing” centered this time around “Dante’s Inferno” .

When he awakens in a hospital bed not knowing where he is or how he got there, the pieces start to fall into place quickly that Robert has stumbled into something big and there are people – powerful people who do not want him anywhere near the plans they are making.  When Robert takes a look out the window of his hospital room and sees an architecture piece that just can not be… he realizes….

“Toto.. we are not in Kansas anymore.”

As the pieces start to fit together Robert Langdon is not sure who he can trust.  What he thinks is true can possibly be just a play on his lack of memory over the past few days, but as Langdon starts to see more clearly the truth is both fascinatingly outrageous as it is frightening.  He has a very short window to move forward on and try to stop a genius of a mad man from altering the worlds population in a effort to save us all….

 

 

 

 

Whoa.  Double whoa.

Within minutes of getting into this audio, I was hooked.  Paul Michael does an incredible job with the narration, but  if you are more of a book person, I think you will be just as quickly hooked.

Dan Brown does not mess around with a long drawn out intro to Inferno.  Instead, it opens with a rush of energy and we as readers/listeners are instantly engaged in the “What happened?  Who…. wait….” and all in a good heart pumping way. 

There is something fascinating about the under belly of the earth and those who dwell there.  I have always enjoyed how Dan Brown can take an existing piece or art or history and wrap a story around it so engaging you start to believe that this was always part of the history of the piece and it would be easy to associate one with the other from this day forward.  Remember readers – while Dan Brown writes with a fascinating pen… he is writing fiction…. great fiction.  But fiction all the same.

Inferno moves with a rapid pulse and I found it so engaging and so interesting.  I have heard of Dante’s Inferno, but knew little about it. 

 

From Wikepedia:

Inferno (Italian for “Hell”) is the first part of Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. It is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine circles of suffering located within the Earth. Allegorically, the Divine Comedy represents the journey of the soul towards God, with the Inferno describing the recognition and rejection of sin.

I thoroughly enjoyed Inferno.  Never predictable when I did find out what was going on and how it took my breath away.  There are pieces of Inferno that make you think “what if”.  There is so much more I would like to share about Inferno, but it is a pleasure to read or listen to it fresh with no pre-thoughts so I am going to leave it at this. Do you need to have read the other Langdon books to understand this one?  Nope.  All of the books mentioned above are incredible stand alones.

 

 

If you would like to dig deeper into this one, I am rolling out the Spoiler Button which when pressed, will take you to a new page for those of us who have read Inferno and want to talk about it more.

Why did I want to read (listen) to this book?  Is this tomorrow sounded like a great “what happened?” style read when three close childhood friends one day come home not knowing what happened to the third…  Police are involved and people are suspiciously but nothing comes of the disappearance.  But the question is – did Lewis and Rose possibly know what did happen to Jimmy?  And if so – why have they waited so long to tell?

 

Synopsis:  It’s 1956 and Ava Lark is both beautiful and single.  She rents a home for herself and her twelve-year-old son Lewis in the Boston area.  Lewis finds friends within the neighborhood brother and sister Jimmy and Rose and the three become inseparable.

When one day Jimmy goes missing the neighborhood falls apart.  Ava is watched with suspicion as she had a boyfriend Jake at the time who had a record, unknown to Ava…. and Lewis and Rise go their separate ways as they grow older and find it hard to be around one another without Jimmy, but both still carrying the broken pieces of the unknown. 

When years later Rose and Lewis find their way to each other again a decision much be made to tell the truth or to leave well enough alone knowing enough hearts have been broken over this whole ordeal.

 

 

The story line behind what makes Is This Tomorrow is captivating.  Of course, I as the reader want to know what happened to this young boy who disappears without a trace.  As the story opens and the setting is put into place you can get the vibe of the book – an almost Jodi Piccoult feel as is unrolls page after page. 

While the story played out and I enjoyed it I never had a strong feel for any of the characters – they all felt a bit vague to me… not three-dimensional.  Due to that lack of feeling for the characters it affected my over all feel of the story.  Basically while I felt bad about Jimmy’s disappearance, I was not emotionally charged by this event.  I hung in there as I really did want to know what happened to Jimmy.

I listened to Is This Tomorrow on audio as Xe Sands is the narrator and that is almost always a win.  Almost always.  One thing that I picked up on was the tone of voice that was given to each of the characters… Ava always sounded weary.  I thought about that a lot during the listening of this book.  It bothered me that she never sounded strong or confident, or even happy… weary was actually a word I thought about while listening to the audio which in hind sight, probably took away from some of my enjoyment of the book.  Lewis as well always sounded weary… and the boyfriend…..  while weary is a perfectly acceptable emotion for the book – I had trouble getting beyond the weary of the entire book…

in the end – when all was said and I done… I too felt weary.

 

Note – that I am in the minority on this one.  I looked at Amazon and there are gushing reviews.  This may be one that came across better in book format than audio but certainly please check out other opinions on this one.

Leslie Carter and her husband Wesley have enjoyed many years of the upper class Atlanta society. But times are changing when two of Wesley’s long time buddies trade in the mothers of their children for younger models.  Leslie, in her later 50’s finds she can not relate to these young women with their modern taste in clothing, music, and childish (in her opinion) ways.  When Wesley seems to be more engaged in golfing and his buddies, Leslie takes a good long look at her life and realizes that Wes has always put his own needs and wants above hers.  As she tally’s up the sacrifices she has made through the years she comes to realize she has given up way too much of herself.

With two adult children that can not seem to get it together, and Wes acting as though Leslie is lucky to have him, Les decides enough is enough.  When a discovery is made that Wes has been keeping something very big a secret, it is the final straw.  Les packs her bags and returns to her home town of Sullivan Island in Charleston where she stays with her brother, Harlan (who Wes couldn’t stand because as he put it “Harlan was a little pink”).

When Les finds a connection with Johnathan a long ago boyfriend, Les rekindles the friendship between them and finds that life did not have to be as hard as she had made it to be and decisions on how to move forward from here were now what needed to be thought through. There are obligations to her husband of many years and to her children – but exactly what those obligations are clearly needed to be changed.

 

 

 

Oh how can I even describe how much I enjoyed this book?  Told in alternating chapters between Leslie and Wesley (yes the matchy matchy names bothered me at first) you as the reader get a first hand look at what is happening through each of their eyes and opinions.  It was actually enjoyable to go from reading Leslie;s matter of fact smooth dialogue to Wesley’s more demanding, almost pout like tone of what he felt should be the ideal wifely duties and what he felt was due him. 

Definitely a hard to put down read that I enjoyed very much.  I liked that it had a different twist to it than other “returning home” reads.  And let me say – Harlan, who in my mind felt like Rupert Everett (George in My Best Friends Wedding).

Gush worthy!

Additional format note:  Due to time restraints I read part of this book and then downloaded the audio book and listened to it -which is a rave!  Fantastic narration – I loved the voices of the smooth southern flow talk of Leslie and then the harsher whiny tone of Wesley – definitely a treat for the ears!

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for letting me try Dorothy Bentown Franks books

and making me a HUGE FAN as a result! 

Successful real estate agent Hildy Good (age 60+) has lived in the Boston area for well, all her life.  She considers herself not only a wonderful agent, but also a good friend, mother, grandmother, and confidant.  Why if Hildy were to tell you, she would say that she is the center pulse to the town and all things start and stop with her.

Of course, the occasional drink is a must in order to celebrate, social occasions, or wind down, or help her sleep, or calm her nerves, or just to take the edge off… or….

after having gone to treatment thanks to her families prodding and an intervention, “meddling” would be Hildy’s words…

 

“if they invite you over for dinner, and it’s not a major holiday, run for your life” ~ Hildy

 

…she no longer drinks, going late to party invites just in time to grab a bite of food make small talk and leave as dessert is served.  Yes, Hildy no longer drinks.

 

Or… more accurately, Hildy no longer drinks in public. 

There is still her hidden wine stash in the cellar at home and who is she really hurting by having a glass or two in the privacy of her own home, or finishing off a bottle because it just doesn’t make sense to re-cork it when there is only a partial glass left, or a glass and a half…

and really, so what if she occasionally passes out in her living room in a chair, or has no recollection of the previous nights events, or phone calls her friends “claim” she made, or the occasional drive in her car that she can not remember where she went or what she did…

no, really – if people would all just mind their own business. Really mind their own business, because as Hildy knows all to well, there’s a lot of things going on in this little town of hers… things that people would not be too keen to have spread around…

 

 

 

 

The Good House was a book I listened to on audio and right from the start of Mary Beth Hurt’s narration I knew I was in for a treat.  I absolutely loves the voice of Hildy, she was matter of fact, a story-teller, an observing person, and 100% in denial.  Her story is engaging as she observes those in her town as they move in and out of the houses she sells (or hopes to!)  Seeing the world from the eyes of a realtor was a treat – from the inside (“the holes in the walls and the stains in the carpet… it would be a miracle if she would ever be able to sell it!”) to the outside people coming in (“since they moved into town they were by far the richest family in the area – at least as far as money goes…”)

I laughed along with Hildy’s antics and excuses of why she just needed that one drink – just a sip and how irritating it was when people arrived who just by being there delayed her chance to relax with just one glass of wine… just one…

My only tiny thought that does not fall in the “love it!” category is that at some points it seemed to go on and on in a side direction that seemed overly unnecessary. 

While the Good House is full of funny moments, it is also surrounding a serious subject and after a while I no longer found Hildy funny, but a little pathetic – however that is not a negative.  I think as the reader (listener) we should come to that conclusion that Hildy’s excuses for drinking are tiresome and wearing… and in that case, the author hit this subject dead on. 

I would recommend The Good House, I had recollections of Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove series, but with a harder edge to it.