CategoryAudiobook Reviews

The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson

In 1995 Bill Bryson wrote Notes from a Small Island about his wander through the UK. I believe I read it, though I don’t remember it. This was written 20 years later, describing visits throughout the island with a big dollop of grumpiness on display. The word “stupid” makes too many appearances in this text. My favorite book of his, In a Sunburned Country, is quite funny, and is...

The Beet Queen by Louise Erdrich

This is my fourth Louise Erdrich book. Her first book was written in 1982; this one in 1986. The action occurs mostly in a small town in North Dakota beginning in 1932 where Mary, an eleven-year-old child, is deposited from the box car she and her fourteen-year-old brother were riding after their mother abandoned them. Karl jumped back in the boxcar after leaving Mary there. Their Aunt Fritzie...

Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson

This is the fourth in the Jackson Brodie series by the British author Kate Atkinson that I have read, along with some of her other books. In writing about her first book centering the private detective Jackson Brodie, I wrote, “Along with the idiosyncratic characters are the truly evil ones and enough unpleasantness to make me uneasy. I considered just skipping to the end, but the plot was...

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

On Abby’s suggestion, I have now listened to The Mill on the Floss, a 527-page book written in 1860 by the author of Middlemarch. It is a nice long walk through the lives of a brother and sister set in the Midlands of England in the 1820s or 1830s. The mill on the river Floss is owned and run by the father of the siblings who is such a hothead that he loses the mill and all the household...

Absolution by Alice McDermott

In July I read two books by Alice McDermott and now with this audiobook perhaps this little Alice McDermott festival will end for a time. After all, this is the sixth of her books I’ve read. I think this is my favorite, though I sure did love Someone. I knew I needed to read this one after learning that three people I know had read it. This story comes in the form of letters, the main one...

Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson

What a pleasure was this 25-hour audiobook about Franklin. Recently when I  watched a series with Michael Douglas playing Franklin about his time in Paris, I realized how little I knew about Franklin.  And while I hope I will not be quizzed on facts about Franklin’s life, I have loved being impressed with the accomplishments of that amazing man. For example, though higher education was not...

Storylines by Carrie Cox

I came across this Australian book on Reading Matters, one of my favorite sources for Australian literature. The author lives in Western Australia, in Perth, and is a journalist who has written two non-fiction books, as well as two novels. Nessa tells us her story:  she spends lots of time and money covering the scars on her face each morning but we don’t learn what happened until well into...

Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade by Janet Skeslien Charles

Thanks to a recommendation by Laura, I listened to this audiobook and learned about work done by American women to help the French in a rural area in the north of France as World War I was coming to an end. Anne Tracy Morgan, daughter of J.P., funded the work to provide basic needs to the populace around Blérancourt, which is not far from the border with Belgium. The novel comes in two stories...

The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum by Margalit Fox

Fredericka Mandelbaum arrived in the US in 1850 from Germany. She and her husband had been peddlers there and continued that work in New York. She became a fence and before long was very successful, ultimately becoming a true organized crime boss. Millions of dollars in jewels, gold, cash, and silk material passed through her shop. Her success came from her meticulous work in choosing and...

Charming Billy by Alice McDermott

As I was reading a book by Alice McDermott about writing fiction, it occurred to me that it was time for me to read her book that won the National Book Award. And how glad I am that I did. There is nothing like that feeling of falling into a masterpiece of writing from the first moment. SPOILER ALERT! I cannot write about this book without giving a revelatory summary first. In my defense when you...

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