Carnegie's Maid by Marie Benedict

Carnegie's Maid by Marie Benedict

Read by Alana Kerr Collins

9 hours, 1 minute

Published October 2018 by Source Landmark

Publisher's Summary: 

From the author of The Other Einstein, the mesmerizing tale of what kind of woman could have inspired an American dynasty.

Clara Kelley is not who they think she is. She's not the experienced Irish maid who was hired to work in one of Pittsburgh's grandest households. She's a poor farmer's daughter with nowhere to go and nothing in her pockets. But the other woman with the same name has vanished, and pretending to be her just might get Clara some money to send back home.

If she can keep up the ruse, that is. Serving as a lady's maid in the household of Andrew Carnegie requires skills he doesn't have, answering to an icy mistress who rules her sons and her domain with an iron fist. What Clara does have is a resolve as strong as the steel Pittsburgh is becoming famous for, coupled with an uncanny understanding of business, and Andrew begins to rely on her. But Clara can't let her guard down, not even when Andrew becomes something more than an employer. Revealing her past might ruin her future -- and her family's.

With captivating insight and heart, Carnegie's Maid tells the story of one brilliant woman who may have spurred Andrew Carnegie's transformation from ruthless industrialist into the world's first true philanthropist.

My Thoughts: 

A couple of months ago I was texting with a friend I've known and loved since I was 19 years old. She happened to mention that she was reading the last book by Marie Benedict that her local library had available and that she loved Benedict's books. Two things: 1) after more than 40 years of knowing this woman, I had no idea she was a reader (how in the world has that NEVER come up?!); and 2) if she loves this author so much, I need to read something by her, preferably an audiobook since I was just finishing one up. So I grabbed up this one, eager to find out if I would feel the same way about Benedict and to see what the book could teach me about a man whose generosity funded hundreds of libraries across the country. 

As do most historical fictions books I read, this way had me heading to the internet to find out how much truth there was to this story. In point of fact, not much other than the fact that Andrew Carnegie was, himself, an immigrant that came to this country destitute only to become one of the richest men in the world. He was known to be ruthless in business, but more generous in his personal life; still, historians have long wondered what caused him to become such a philanthropist in later life. Benedict has taken her own family's history as immigrants and woven it into Carnegie's life to try to explain that change. It's an interesting idea. 

There's a lot to be said for the socioeconomic portrait Benedict paints of this time in U.S. history and the life of the poor in Pittsburgh at that time, tying in some Irish history as well and I enjoyed those parts of the book. Overall, though, I felt like Benedict was trying to pull too much into her story and things got a little dramatic at times. The fact that our Clara Kelley needed to have her backstory to give us that history that Benedict wanted to give, but would never have been able to work in the capacity in the Carnegie household that she held had she merely applied for the job made for much more drama. Benedict also pulls in a story about the former slave head cook's missing family is another example of pulling in more drama than was necessary to tell the story. But the drama ended as soon as Clara had to leave the Carnegie household and the ending of the book fell flat for me. 

Would it make my top ten list at the end of the year? No. But it was well read and offered enough to be a solid read. It could make a good book club choice, as well. 

The Art Forger by B. A. Shapiro

 

The Art Forger by B. A Shapiro 

Read by Xe Sands

10 hours

Published October 2012 by Algonquin Books

Publisher's Summary: 

On March 18, 1990, thirteen works of art today worth over $500 million were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. It remains the largest unsolved art heist in history, and Claire Roth, a struggling young artist, is about to discover that there's more to this crime than meets the eye. 

Making a living reproducing famous artworks for a popular online retailer and desperate to improve her situation, Claire is lured into a Faustian bargain with Aiden Markel, a powerful gallery owner. She agrees to forge a painting-a Degas masterpiece stolen from the Gardner Museum-in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. But when that very same long-missing Degas painting is delivered to Claire's studio, she begins to suspect that it may itself be a forgery. 

Her desperate search for the truth leads Claire into a labyrinth of deceit where secrets hidden since the late nineteenth century may be the only evidence that can now save her life.

My Thoughts:

Claire Roth is a woman who feels that she has been done wrong by the art world. She's not wrong, which we'll gradually learn. But she uses this as an excuse for agreeing to forge a copy of one of the pieces of art that was stolen, solely on the basis that the man who hires her insists that he will give the original back to the museum once the copy is sold to a shady character who doesn't deserve to have the original. In exchange for that, Claire will get to have her chance to finally become the artist she might have been if she had not been so blinded by her love of a man many years ago. 

So she agrees and almost immediately falls in love with Aiden. Despite the fact that he's clearly involved with criminals. Despite the fact that his love of the artwork he owns prevents him from being willing to part with any of it, even when he admits to having financial problems. But he's promised her that he's made sure that she can never be implicated, going so far as to say to her that the painting that he's brought her to copy is, in fact, a copy itself, thereby making her simply someone who is copying a copy. That's all she knows about the deal; the rest is secret. But that's since she's keeping a secret of her own that will come into play later. What could possibly go wrong in a relationship built on secrets? 

Here are the things that I had issues with in this book: 

1. Claire being so gullible a second time. 
2. The interspersed chapters that are letters from Isabella Stewart Gardner which never come to light for the characters in the book. They are merely a way to set up a revel late in the book. 
3. Claire volunteers at a youth prison, teaching art. The point of this storyline appears to be to show us that Claire is, deep down, a good person who is terrified of being locked up. It also explains why she becomes convinced that the painting Aiden has brought her is a forger itself. Seemed to me all of this could have been done in a way that didn't introduce yet another storyline into a story that already had enough going on. 

Here are the things that I enjoyed about the book: 

1. Xe Sands reading of the book. 
2. For some reason, the theft of the paintings from the Stewart Gardner museum has always fascinated me, so I enjoyed reading about the museum and the theft. 
3. Learning about the techniques that Claire and other artists use. 
4. I did like all of the twists and turns the book took and the way only Claire could have solved the mystery of where the original work was hidden. 

Would I read another of Shapiro's work, despite having issues with it? I would - it was a quick read that I found entertaining enough and it looks like I'd get a chance to learn more about the art world if I read more by her. 

 

Faceless Killers (Kurt Wallander Series #1) by Henning Mankell

Faceless Killers (Kurt Wallander Series #1) by Henning Mankell

Read by Dick Hill

8 hours, 59 minutes

Published March 1997 by The New Press

Publisher's Summary: 

It was a senselessly violent crime: on a cold night in a remote Swedish farmhouse an elderly farmer is bludgeoned to death, and his wife is left to die with a noose around her neck. And as if this didn’t present enough problems for the Ystad police Inspector Kurt Wallander, the dying woman’s last word is foreign, leaving the police the one tangible clue they have–and in the process, the match that could inflame Sweden’s already smoldering anti-immigrant sentiments. 

Unlike the situation with his ex-wife, his estranged daughter, or the beautiful but married young prosecuter who has peaked his interest, in this case, Wallander finds a problem he can handle. He quickly becomes obsessed with solving the crime before the already tense situation explodes, but soon comes to realize that it will require all his reserves of energy and dedication to solve.

My Thoughts: I've been hearing about the Kurt Wallander series for years (heck, I've even seen some the  PBS adaptation starring Kenneth Branagh). When I was looking for an audiobook that was available immediately, I wasn't so sure that this was going to work for me, though. I didn't know how graphic it might be, how tense it might make me. Lately I've been drawn more and more to softer fare in books. 

This one surprised me. I didn't find it overly graphic; which isn't to say that there's not some very brutal violence, but Mankell doesn't dwell on it or make it the focus of the book. Instead, Mankell spends a great deal of time focusing on developing his characters and the relationships between them so that while the tension is enough to pull the reader through the book, it is never overwhelming. 

Wallander is a complicated man. His mother died when he was young, his father (an artist who has painted essentially the same painting 7,000 times and makes a living doing that) is beginning to suffer from dementia and never lets Kurt forget how disappointed he is that Kurt chose to become a policeman, his wife has left him, he and his daughter are estranged and Kurt is not entirely sure why, he drinks too much, he eats too much junk food, and he has no moral qualms with having an affair with a married woman. He loves opera, has very few friends, is devoted to solving crimes, and, in this book at least, has a real problem with immigrants (which makes it a timely read but didn't help me to like him). 

Wallander screws up, puts himself in peril repeatedly, and doesn't solve the crime nearly as quickly as they do on television. Months pass between the night of the murder and Wallander and his team solving the case, but I appreciated that things didn't just fall into their laps - it felt much more realistic that way and allowed time to develop the relationships between Wallander and the other characters. 

Will I read more Kurt Wallander? Definitely. Although I wasn't ready to listen to the next book right on the heels of this one, it won't be long because I don't want to lose my familiarity with these characters. 

Good Material by Dolly Alderton

Good Material by Dolly Alderton

Read by Arthur Darvill and Vanessa Kirby

9 hours, 54 minutes

Published January 2024 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary: 

Andy loves Jen. Jen loved Andy. And he can't work out why she stopped.

Now he is. . .

Without a home

Waiting for his stand-up career to take off

Wondering why everyone else around him seems to have grown up while he wasn't looking

Set adrift on the sea of heartbreak, Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of his ruined relationship. Because if he can find the answer to that, then maybe Jen can find her way back to him. But Andy still has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend's side of the story…

In this sharply funny and exquisitely relatable story of romantic disaster and friendship, Dolly Alderton offers up a love story with two endings, demonstrating once again why she is one of the most exciting writers today, and the true voice of a generation.

My Thoughts: 

Recently I've had the television to myself more and I've been searching for rom-coms like the ones they made in the 1990's (think Notting Hill, Two Weeks Notice, 10 Things I Hate About You) to no avail. I'm not necessarily looking for that same kind of story; I'm looking for those stories that truly match up romance with comedy, especially those with snappy dialogue. While a movie adaptation of Good Material won't have that same kind of happy ending, there is plenty of heart and humor here that I think would make a great movie. 

I listened to this one and was very much enjoying Andy's side of the story. Sure he's a grown man that needs to accept the fact that it's time to get a big boy job that he can support himself with, notably because his comedy career is going no where and he's unwilling to make any change to his routine. He's grown comfortable with his life and that's part of the problem. In the aftermath of the breakup, he falls into all of the usual traps. But I couldn't help but like him and root for him to grow up...and get over it, to be honest. 

In the back of my mind, as I listened to Andy's story, I kept wondering when that female narrator was going to come in...and then she did, telling us the story from Jen's point of view. And here's the thing, Jen does still love Andy. But Jen can see that, even if Andy changes, theirs is a relationship that simply won't give either of them what they need in life. 

I feel like I may have liked this book more than a lot of other reviewers, many of whom found that Andy was a flat character. But he was surrounded by characters, in my opinion, that helped flesh out his side of the story and make what had happened between Andy and Jen clearer. One reviewer, who read the book in print, felt the switch to Jen's voice was jarring; but, of course, knowing that there were two narrators, I was expecting it and looking forward to hearing her side of the story. Because there are always two sides to a story. 

Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Read by Edoardo Ballerina

15 hours, 23 minutes

Published July 2024 by Random House Publishing

Publisher's Summary: 

“Were we gangsters? No. But did we know how to start a fire?”

In 1980, a wealthy businessman named Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway, brutalized, and held for ransom. He is returned to his wife and kids less than a week later, only slightly the worse, and the family moves on with their lives, resuming their prized places in the saga of the American dream, comforted in the realization that though their money may have been what endangered them, it is also what assured them their safety.

But now, nearly forty years later, it’s clear that perhaps nobody ever got over anything, after all. Carl has spent the ensuing years secretly seeking closure to the matter of his kidnapping, while his wife, Ruth, has spent her potential protecting her husband’s emotional health. Their three grown children aren’t doing much better: Nathan’s chronic fear won’t allow him to advance at his law firm; Beamer, a Hollywood screenwriter, will consume anything—substance, foodstuff, women—in order to numb his own perpetual terror; and Jenny has spent her life so bent on proving that she’s not a product of her family’s pathology that she has come to define it. As they hover at the delicate precipice of a different kind of survival, they learn that the family fortune has dwindled to just about nothing, and they must face desperate questions about how much their wealth has played a part in both their lives’ successes and failures.

Long Island Compromise spans the entirety of one family’s history, winding through decades and generations, all the way to the outrageous present, and confronting the mainstays of American Jewish life: tradition, the pursuit of success, the terror of history, fear of the future, old wives’ tales, evil eyes, ambition, achievement, boredom, dybbuks, inheritance, pyramid schemes, right-wing capitalists, beta-blockers, psychics, and the mostly unspoken love and shared experience that unite a family forever.

My Thoughts: 

I saw this one on numerous best-of-2024 lists (and have heard great things about Brodesser-Akner's Fleishman Is In Trouble) so I requested it from the library. It ended up being a read/listen combination because I struggled with this one and my loan timed out. 

The book opens with the kidnapping and return of Carl Fletcher and the immediate aftermath. It's fast paced and drew me in immediately. And then we moved to sections about each of his children as grown adults. To say they were screwed up is an understatement. Reading Beamer's story was, for me, very uncomfortable and a little disturbing and I almost gave up on the book before I finished reading his part. If something bad could possibly happen, it did; but each of the kids (and their mother and grandmother) brought a lot of it on themselves. I began to feel less and less sorry for these people. I get that their lives had been irrevocably changed with the kidnapping, but I couldn't help but feel that at least one of them might have overcome it all. 

There was a part of me that really hoped that things wouldn't work out for them. That they would all have to learn how to get real jobs and live like normal people. But, of course, rich people hardly ever have the roof fall entirely in on them and this story is no exception. The thing that saved this one for me was that Brodesser-Akner had a couple of surprises up her sleeve that totally took me by surprise and I always do like a book that can surprise me. 

Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey

Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey

11 hours, 34 minutes

Read by Rebecca Lowman

Published February 2025 by Random House Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary: 

Birdie’s keeping it together; of course she is. So she’s a little hungover, sometimes, and she has to bring her daughter, Emaleen, to her job waiting tables at an Alaskan roadside lodge, but she’s getting by as a single mother in a tough town. Still, Birdie can remember happier times from her youth, when she was free in the wilds of nature.

Arthur Neilsen, a soft-spoken and scarred recluse who appears in town only at the change of seasons, brings Emaleen back to safety when she gets lost in the woods. Most people avoid him, but to Birdie, he represents everything she’s ever longed for. She finds herself falling for Arthur and the land he knows so well. 

Against the warnings of those who care about them, Birdie and Emaleen move to his isolated cabin in the mountains, on the far side of the Wolverine River.

It’s just the three of them in the vast black woods, far from roads, telephones, electricity, and outside contact, but Birdie believes she has come prepared. At first, it’s idyllic and she can picture a happily ever after: Together they catch salmon, pick berries, and climb mountains so tall it’s as if they could touch the bright blue sky. But soon Birdie discovers that Arthur is something much more mysterious and dangerous than she could have ever imagined, and that like the Alaska wilderness, a fairy tale can be as dark as it is beautiful.

My Thoughts: 

In 2021, I read Eowyn Ivey's The Snow Child and was enchanted by it. I use the word "enchanted" because the book employed magical realism, something I generally struggle with, but which I loved in that book. Here again, Ivey uses magical realism to tell a story and, once again, I quickly accepted it as a necessity to tell a story that would have been less impactful without it. 

This time, it took a bit more willingness to suspend disbelief and I did have a harder time connecting to Birdie than I did the characters in The Snow Child. Life's been hard for Birdie; her mother walked out on her when she was a child and she's raising a child on her own; but it was hard for me to buy in to the idea that she was a good mother. Taking off to live with a man she hardly knew, in a remote place she had never been to seemed the height of irresponsibility to me even though I knew that she saw it as a fresh start and a chance to show Emaleen the life she had known as a child. 

The thing is, Arthur has a secret and is not at all who Birdie thinks he is. She misses all of the signs and ignores all of the warnings. Even when Birdie and Emaleen are flown to Arthur's cabin by his adopted father and Birdie sees how he lives, no warning bells seem to go off. Even so, for a while after the two arrive, things begin to go better. Arthur clearly cares about both of them and Birdie finds herself in love with him. He tries his hardest to be what they need. But, ultimately, it's not in his nature and Birdie's inability to accept that will cost them all. 

I appreciated this one for having an utterly unique storyline, I did come to care very much about Emaleen...and Arthur, for that matter, and Rebecca Lowman's reading is excellent. So, even though I didn't fall in love with this book, I did enjoy it and it made for a nice break from my more conventional reads. 

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Read by Marin Ireland and Micheal Urie

11 hours 16 minutes

Published May 2022 by HarperCollins

Publisher's Summary: 

After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors—until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late. 

My Thoughts: 

Another in the line of stories featuring older women, this one's been on my TBR since it came out three years ago. I finally got around to requesting it from the library and requested it in print and audio, figuring I'd go with whichever became available first. 

And then Shelby Van Pelt came to town (well, not MY town, but Council Bluffs, which is right across the river) so I bought a copy of the book and had it signed. Three days later, the audiobook became available. I had thought I'd make it a read/listen combination, but I was enjoying the reading so much that I just "read" the whole book that way. You can never go wrong with Marin Ireland and Micheal Urie did a wonderful job. 

If you ever get the chance to hear Shelby Van Pelt speak, I highly recommend it. The story of how she came to be a writer and how she came to write this particular book is so interesting. She is funny, and warm, and signed books and took pictures for easily an hour after she was done with the scheduled speaking. 

As for the book, it was, for me, one of those "right book, right time" reads. I would have been happy if no one else appeared in the book except Tova and Marcellus (who is such a fun character); but, of course, it would be hard to craft a book entirely around only two characters, especially when one of them can't speak. Tova is lonely, despite having a tight circle of friends, since her husband died. Erik was their only child, and as she gets older, it's becoming more and more apparent to her that there is no one who will care for her when her home gets to be too much for her. But Tova is not as alone as she thinks she is and she'll soon find that there is a lot left for her to look forward to in her life. 

I don't want to give too much away, other than to tell you that there are characters who aren't even mentioned in the summary who come to be very important to Tova. And while the story line is sweet and bittersweet, it's the characters in this one that really make this a book worth reading. 

The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel

The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel

Read by Michael Crouch, Gail Shalan and Helen Lloyd

10 hours, 10 minutes

Published September 2024 by Penguin Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary: 

Alfred Smettle is not your average Hitchcock fan. He is the founder, owner, and manager of The Hitchcock Hotel, a sprawling Victorian house in the White Mountains dedicated to the Master of Suspense. There, Alfred offers his guests round-the-clock film screenings, movie props and memorabilia in every room, plus an aviary with fifty crows.

To celebrate the hotel's first anniversary, he invites his former best friends from his college Film Club for a reunion. He hasn't spoken to any of them in sixteen years, not after what happened.

But who better than them to appreciate Alfred's creation? And to help him finish it.

After all, no Hitchcock set is complete without a body.

My Thoughts: 

I'll be honest - it's been a while since I finished this one and my feelings about it are a little faded so this will be short and bullet points. 

• I loved the use of multiple narrators and all three did an excellent job. 
• I'm a fan of Hitchcock's work so this one was fun with all of the talk about and references to his movies. I had no idea how many movies he'd made. 
• I did struggle trying to figure out why any of the "friends" were friends with Alfred to begin with. He was always creepy. Think Norman Bates creepy. 
• There's a maid named Danny, which took me straight to Rebecca, the movie adaptation of which was directed by Hitchcock. 
• This one was a little slow building up but once it hit its stride, Wrobel had a lot of surprises for me. Maybe they won't come as surprises for you - you know how rarely I figure out who done it. 
• That's right, I said surprises. Who dies is just one of them. What happened to break up the friend group is another. And then there's of course, who done it and why. 
• This was my first book by Wrobel. While it was slow to get going, it was worth it and I'll probably pick up another of her books. 

We Are Never Meeting In Real Life by Samantha Irby

We Are Never Meeting In Real Life by Samantha Kirby

Read by Samantha Irby

9 hours, 17 minutes

Published May 2017 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

 

Publisher's Summary: 

Whether Samantha Irby is talking about how her difficult childhood has led to a problem in making “adult” budgets; explaining why she should be the new Bachelorette (she's "35-ish, but could easily pass for 60-something"); detailing a disastrous pilgrimage-slash-romantic-vacation to Nashville to scatter her estranged father's ashes; sharing awkward sexual encounters; or dispensing advice on how to navigate friendships with former drinking buddies who are now suburban moms (hang in there for the Costco loot!); she's as deft at poking fun at the ghosts of her past self as she is at capturing powerful emotional truths.

My Thoughts: 

We Are Never Meeting In Real Life was one of the New York Times Critics Book of the Year in 2022. As a general rule, that would make a book one that would be easily recommendable. This one? This one is definitely not for everyone and you should know that about it before you pick it up. 

Because you will not want this book playing in the background while you're ordering coffee just as it comes to a part where Irby is talking very graphically about sex. And there's a very good chance that will happen to you even if you only stop for coffee a couple of times while you're listening to this one. If you're someone who's already familiar with Irby, this probably won't come as a surprise; but it did come as a surprise to me. I like to think that I'm not a prude; but sometimes when I'm taken aback by sexual encounters in books, I think I just might be. Those parts made me uncomfortable and made me wonder if I wanted to keep listening to this book. 

But if you can get by that (or if you're then kind of person who this kind of thing doesn't bother at all), there's a lot to like about this one. Irby is funny; self aware and unafraid to make fun of herself; and very open about her difficult life growing up, her abusive father, how very bad she is when it comes to relationships. 

That cat on the cover of the book? Irby got stuck with a kitten who came with a boatload of medical issues and a very bad attitude, who she named "Helen Keller." In Irby's version of the relationship, you would think there wasn't one redeeming thing about Helen and that she lived to make Irby's life miserable. But you would probably also get the impression by the amount of the book that's devoted to Helen, that Irby grew pretty attached to that sickly, cranky girl, especially when you read the piece about Helen's final trip to the vet. As a cat mom (yes, I said "mom"), that part got to me! 

Will I read more of Irby's work? I'm not sure. But if I do, I'll know what I'm likely to encounter and that there will be plenty of humor and emotional openness to offset the tough-for-me stuff. 

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

Read by Clare Corbett, Daphne Kouma, Julia Winwood, Sope Dirisu, Sofia Zervudachi

12 hours, 53 minutes

Published February 2022 by HarperCollins

Publisher's Summary: 

Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother Ben didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up – to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? – he’s not there.

The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother’s situation, and the more questions she has. Ben’s neighbors are an eclectic bunch, and not particularly friendly. Jess may have come to Paris to escape her past, but it’s starting to look like it’s Ben’s future that’s in question.

The socialite – The nice guy – The alcoholic – The girl on the verge – The concierge

Everyone's a neighbor. Everyone's a suspect. And everyone knows something they’re not telling.

My Thoughts: 

Sometimes when I finish an audiobook, I look at what's available from what's on my TBR list. Sometimes I'm just looking for something that will suit the reading mood I'm in. Which is a pretty good way to increase your chances of enjoying a book, especially when you're familiar with the author. I'm certain picking this one because of my reading mood increased my enjoyment of it. Even though I had some issues with it, in the end, it gave me just what I was hoping to get. 

Jess has had a tough life. As a young girl, she found her addict mother dead. Her half-brother Ben, the only person she has ever really been attached to, is taken into a well-to-do family and lives a life that has no room for Jess. Still, Ben is the person she turns to when she's done something really stupid and needs to leave England and when she calls him as she arrives in Paris, he agrees to let her stay with him for a while. Yet when she arrives at the apartment building, Ben isn't answering his phone and isn't in the apartment she can't believe he can possibly afford. 

There are only a few apartments in the building and Jess soon gets to know all of the residents, including the caretaker, and all of the nooks and crannies of the building, including a hidden stairwell. Only Nick, who was Ben's friend, feels like someone Jess can trust and she needs an ally. But as we bounce back and forth between narrators, we soon learn that Jess doesn't know the first thing about any of the people who live in that building and finding Ben is going to be dangerous. 

I'm glad I listened to this one; the multiple readers really worked well. I did wonder, at times, if Jess wasn't a little too quick to trust, for a girl who had grown up on the rougher side of life. But I really like the "locked-room" feel of this one and was completely taken by surprise by the two big twists toward the end of the book. My biggest issue with the book was the "tying up the knots" ending - it felt a little too easy for me. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this one a lot. 

How To Walk Away by Katherine Center

How To Walk Away by Katherine Center

Read by Therese Plummer

11 hours, 28 minutes

Published May 2018 by St. Martin's Press

Publisher's Summary: 

Margaret Jacobsen is just about to step into the bright future she's worked for so hard and so long: a new dream job, a fiancé she adores, and the promise of a picture-perfect life just around the corner. Then, suddenly, on what should have been one of the happiest days of her life, everything she worked for is taken away in a brief, tumultuous moment. 

In the hospital and forced to face the possibility that nothing will ever be the same again, Maggie must confront the unthinkable. First there is her fiancé, Chip, who wallows in self-pity while simultaneously expecting to be forgiven. Then, there's her sister Kit, who shows up after pulling a three-year vanishing act. Finally, there's Ian, her physical therapist, the one the nurses said was too tough for her. Ian, who won't let her give in to her pity, and who sees her like no one has seen her before. Sometimes the last thing you want is the one thing you need. Sometimes we all need someone to catch us when we fall. And sometimes love can find us in the least likely place we would ever expect.

My Thoughts: 

Margaret has always been afraid to fly, terrified, in fact. Her boyfriend, Chip, is a pilot-in-training, who convinces her, despite every fiber in her being screaming out against it, to go on a flight with him. Midflight he proposes and Margaret feels like her entire life is falling into place - she's about to start the perfect job, Chip is about ready to start a great job, and they're about to be married. But Chip is not skilled enough to deal with the winds that confront them as they try to land and the plane is sent cartwheeling down the runway. Chip walks away unscathed. Margaret is not so lucky. She will spend weeks in the hospital after skin grafts for burns and trying to regain the use of her legs. 

This is one of those books that is both predictable and unexpected. I knew that any relationship that good, any future that bright, was going to implode. Just as I knew that a relationship will develop between Margaret and Ian and that Margaret and Kit will mend their broken relationship. Readers will want those things to happen; we want Chip (and his not very nice mother) to fade out, we want Margaret to fall in love with someone who deserves her, and we want she and Kit to become close allies. 

But this isn't just a book filled with the lightness of a heroine finding love, with some humor thrown in. There is plenty of heaviness here as well. From the plane crash and  Margaret's burns and paralysis, to the reason that Kit left home and didn't make contact again for three years, Center gives readers some depth. And while there is a predictable happy ending (I'm not spoiling it - you know it's going to happen), there is an expected piece of the ending that made it all seem more believable. 

Was Chip (and Ian's boss, for that matter) a bit too much of a caricature? Yes. Did Ian and Margaret's relationship seem to develop pretty rapidly, considering how much she disliked him at first? Also, yes. Did Margaret seem to mentally heal faster than I would expect it to happen in real life? Yes, again. But all of those things seemed perfectly acceptable to me since I was all about Margaret healing and finding happiness. This is the fifth book by Center that I've read, and I've enjoyed all of them - she's become a go-to author when I'm looking for just a certain kind of book, particularly a book that will end on a high note, something I really need these days. 

Did You Ever Have A Family by Bill Clegg

Did You Ever Have A Family by Bill Clegg

Read by Bill Clegg

6 hours, 54 minutes

Published September 2015 by Gallery/Scout Press

Publisher's Summary: 

On the eve of her daughter's wedding, June Reid's life is upended when a shocking disaster takes the lives of her daughter, her daughter's fiancé, her ex-husband, and her boyfriend, Luke-her entire family, all gone in a moment. June is the only survivor.

Alone and directionless, June drives across the country, away from her small Connecticut town. In her wake, a community emerges, weaving a beautiful and surprising web of connections through shared heartbreak.

From the couple running a motel on the Pacific Ocean where June eventually settles into a quiet half-life, to the wedding's caterer whose bill has been forgotten, to Luke's mother, the shattered outcast of the town-everyone touched by the tragedy is changed as truths about their near and far histories finally come to light.

My Thoughts: 

Well, first off I need to admit that I thought that Bill Clegg was Bill Bryson. I mean, I didn't think they were the same person; apparently I thought that there was only one author with the first name of "Bill" and I thought he was the guy who wrote At Home: A Short History of Private Life. Which I'm only admitting to so that you can understand that I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into with this one. Even after I read the first paragraph of the publisher's summary. Which accounts for, to some extent, why it took me so long to get into this book, to be able to follow along. 

In the early morning hours of the day of June's daughter's wedding, while June is out of her house, there is an explosion and fire at the house, killing everyone in it - June's daughter, Lolly; Lolly's fiancé, William; June's ex-husband, Adam; and June's boyfriend, Luke. Almost immediately, I was convinced I was listening to a mystery, because it wasn't clear to me why June wasn't in the house, why she was fleeing. It wasn't until a couple of hours of listening that it was truly clear to me that June had fled to try to flee her grief, to make some sense out of the senseless, as she travels across the country, using Lolly's journal's as a guide. 

We gradually get the full story of the people involved and what actually happened through a variety of points of view: Lydia Morey, Luke's mother; Dale, William's father; the couple who run the motel June eventually ends up at; the maid at that hotel; and Silas, a young man who worked for Luke. Each of them has their own story to tell, their own sadness and grief to process. So many books that bounce from point of view to point of view leave me confused or wishing to get back to one or another of the characters - I never felt this way about this book, becoming completely absorbed in each storyline. Readers come to know and care about each of characters and I loved how everything came together, very unexpectedly for me, in the end. 

Did You Every Have A Family made the longest for the National Book Award in 2015. I can understand why. Kirkus Reviews says this book is: "An attempt to map how the unbearable is borne, elegantly written and bravely imagined." It truly is an utterly unique way of exploring grief and the consolation we find in the smallest of things. 

The Hunter by Tana French

The Hunter by Tana French

Read by Roger Clark

16 hours, 24 minutes

Published March 2024 by Penguin Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary: 

It's a blazing summer when two men arrive in a small village in the West of Ireland. One of them is coming home. Both of them are coming to get rich. One of them is coming to die.

Cal Hooper took early retirement from Chicago PD and moved to rural Ireland looking for peace. He's found it, more or less: he's built a relationship with a local woman, Lena, and he's gradually turning Trey Reddy from a half-feral teenager into a good kid going good places. But then Trey's long-absent father reappears, bringing along an English millionaire and a scheme to find gold in the townland, and suddenly everything the three of them have been building is under threat. Cal and Lena are both ready to do whatever it takes to protect Trey, but Trey doesn't want protecting. What she wants is revenge.

My Thoughts: 

Tana French is one of the author's whose books I will pick up without having the slightest idea what they are about. I read all six of the books in her Dublin Murder Squad series and there wasn't a weak link in the bunch. Five years ago she introduced us to Cal Hooper in The Searcher; I was so excited to find that she was writing a second book about Cal and couldn't wait to get my hands on this one. And now I'm crossing my fingers that this is not just a two book series. I'm looking this series as much as I did the Dublin Murder Squad series; possibly even more. 

I was recently trying to describe this book to someone, to put it into a neat genre. But it's not a book that easily falls into any one genre. Yes, there is a murder...eventually. It's a bit of a Western (and it is set in western Ireland)...there's even a bit of a gold rush.  I suppose it could be characterized as a crime novel, there's plenty of crime to be had in it. But it's far more about its characters and their relationships and an exploration of the grey areas between good and bad. 

It's a slow build of a book, but I was perfectly fine with that as we are reintroduced to the inhabitants of Ardnakelty, with all of their eccentricities, humor and long history. Relationships deepen and change. Hidden agendas are uncovered, motives revealed. Ardnakelty is much like a family - they can tease and hold grudges amongst themselves, but outsiders beware. More than two years after he's arrived, Cal is still something of an outsider, which is fine with him. As a former police officer, he struggles with the law of the land he now calls home. But in protecting Trey, and the others in the community he has grown fond of, he has to learn that sometimes things aren't just black and white. 

This one will still be on my best-of list at the end of the year, both as a novel and as a audiobook. Roger Clark does an incredible job. Clark is an Irish-American actor who easily handles the different accents and the storytelling. 

The Age of Desire by Jennie Fields

The Age of Desire by Jennie Fields

Read by Meredith Mitchell

14 hrs, 2 mins.

Published January 2012 by Pamela Dorman Bks

Publisher's Summary:

They say that behind every great man is a woman. Behind Edith Wharton, there was Anna Bahlmann-her governess turned literary secretary, and her mothering, nuturing friend. When at the age of forty-five Edith falls passionately in love with a dashing, younger journalist, Morton Fullerton, and is at last opened to the world of the sensual, it threatens everything certain in her life-but especially her abiding friendship with Anna. As Edith's marriage crumbles, the women must face the fragility at the heart of all friendships. 

The Age of Desire takes us on a vivid journey through Wharton's early Gilded Age world: Paris with its glamorous literary salons and dark secret cafes, the Wharton's elegant house in Lenox, Massachusetts, and Henry James' manse in Rye, England. Edith's real letters and intimate diary entries are woven throughout the book. The Age of Desire brings to life one of literatures most beloved writers, whose own story was as complex and nuanced as that of any of the heroines she created.

My Thoughts: 

This one has been on my TBR list for at least a decade. I'm not sure that I ever got any further than the name Edith Wharton in the publisher's summary before I added this one to the list. As a huge fan of Wharton, I felt certain I'd enjoy anything that taught me more about the woman behind the books I loved, even if it was fiction. 

I feel that listening to this one might have really had a negative impact on my impression of the book. Mitchell does a perfectly acceptable job of reading all of the book except in her voicing of Morton Fullerton; Fullerton was, we learn early on, originally from Boston and Mitchell struggles trying to voice not just a man but a man from Boston. Every time his character "spoke" I was so focused on the reading that it overtook the actually words he was saying. 

But that wasn't my only issue with this book. Was it a book about Wharton's affair with Fullerton and the end of her marriage? Was it a book about the relationship between Wharton and Bahlmann? Of course the answer to both of those is "yes." For me, though, I would have preferred a book that chose one over main story line over the other. In the end, Anna is with Edith from the beginning of the book to the end. So it's their story. But a great deal of the book focuses on the interactions between Wharton and Fullerton, and a fair amount of the time is spent working up to them consummating their relationship and then their various times together. Kirkus Reviews calls those passages "excellent erotic writing." I must admit to having sped up the book to get through those parts of the book; they felt a bit out of place to me. But I imagine that Fields felt like she needed to include them to make readers understand why Wharton was so enthralled by a man who most people warned her away from, a man who frequently ghosted her, a man who was clearly not as attached to Edith as she was to him, a man who obviously scams people. 

One last quibble - in my opinion, the book would have benefited from culling 50 or so pages. Some "scenes" could have been omitted entirely without losing the point of the book. I understand that Fields drew heavily from Wharton's diaries and letters and it may be that she wanted to hew to those documents as she made her way through the story she wanted to tell. Perhaps less of the back and forth between Edith and Morton; perhaps less detail about Teddy's manic or depressive episodes. 

All of that and I still believe that had I read this book in print, I would have enjoyed it more. I certainly learned more about Wharton's character - some that made me feel for her and some things that made me think that she was frequently a person that she might have skewered in one of her books. 

Erasure by Percival Everett

Erasure by Percival Everett

Read by Sean Crisden

8 hours, 16 minutes

Published January 2001 by University Press

Publisher's Summary:

Thelonious "Monk" Ellison's writing career has bottomed out: his latest manuscript has been rejected by seventeen publishers, which stings all the more because his previous novels have been "critically acclaimed." He seethes on the sidelines of the literary establishment as he watches the meteoric success of We's Lives in Da Ghetto, a first novel by a woman who once visited "some relatives in Harlem for a couple of days." Meanwhile, Monk struggles with real family tragedies-his aged mother is fast succumbing to Alzheimer's, and he still grapples with the reverberations of his father's suicide seven years before.

In his rage and despair, Monk dashes off a novel meant to be an indictment of Juanita Mae Jenkins's bestseller. He doesn't intend for My Pafology to be published, let alone taken seriously, but it is-under the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh-and soon it becomes the Next Big Thing. How Monk deals with the personal and professional fallout galvanizes this audacious, hysterical, and quietly devastating novel.

My Thoughts: 

In December 2023, almost a year before I became aware of Percival Everett, this book was made into the film American History, starring Jeffrey Wright. It's one of those movies that I had every intention of watching (and still do), but had no idea until I began looking for more books by Everett (after loving his James last year) that Everett was the author behind that movie. Movie I want to see? Author I'm newly admiring? Heck, yes. 

This was a rare experience for me. While I thought Crisden did a terrific job reading the book, I also felt like I would have enjoyed this one had I picked up a physical copy of the book. I think. Because there is a part of this book where we read the book that Monk ends up writing and it's probably much better experienced by listening to it. Still, I think I would have paid better attention, felt more attached to the characters. And as much as Monk annoyed me, with his snobbish attitudes about literature, I did want to care about him. 

Despite his literary skill, it's not been a lucrative career; and with two siblings, a father, and a grandfather who are/were doctors, he's something of the black sheep of the family. Sister Lisa is a doctor at an abortion center and takes care of their aging mother until tragedy strikes. Monk's brother is an addict with a failing marriage (and an awakening to the fact that he's gay) and a busy career so he can't be counted on. Clearly Monk has to step up. 

Fortunately, that book he didn't mean to write has actually given him the fiscal comfort to be able to do that. The problem is that Monk hates the book, doesn't want to have anything more to do with it. But the public is eating it up and the critics love it. Stagg R. Leigh is in big demand and Monk has to decide how whether or not it's time to fess up and risk losing continuing income from the book, or to take on Leigh's persona and dig in. 

It's an excellent satire that I imagine has an even bigger impact on those who live that life, who understands the line that Monk is walking as he writes about something he actually knows nothing about. Is Monk empathetic to the plight of his characters or has he written an exploitative work? This one certainly gave me a lot to think about. I just wish I had read it, rather than listening to it. I think. 

Cozy Minimalist Home: More Style, Less Stuff by Myquillen Smith

Cozy Minimalist Home: More Style, Less Stuff

By Myquillen Smith

Read by Lisa Wright

3 hours, 50 minutes

Published October 2018 by Zondervan

Publisher's Summary: 

Writing for the hands-on woman who'd rather move her own furniture than hire a designer, Myquillyn Smith—author of the The Nesting Place—helps you think through every room in your house, one purposeful design decision at a time. With people, priorities, and purpose in mind, you can create a warm, inviting, and timeless home that transcends the latest trends and centers around your personal style.

You'll have the tools to create a home you're proud of in a way that honors your unique priorities, budget, and taste. And best of all, you can completely transform your home starting with furniture and décor that you already have!

In Cozy Minimalist Home, Smith helps you:

• Recognize your role as the curator of your home who makes smart, style-impacting design choices
• Know what to focus on and what not to worry about
• Discover the real secret to finding your unique style
• Find a sofa you won't hate tomorrow
• Deconstruct each room and re-create it step by step
• Create a pretty home with more style and less stuff
• Make your home look the way you've always hoped so you can use it the way you've always dreamed 
• Fall in love with the space you've created

Discover how creating a cozy minimalist home goes beyond pretty and sets the stage for the true connection, relationship, and rest that you deserve.

My Thoughts: 

Confession: I actually own this book in print (and, in my defense, I have actually read it), but I choose to listen to it to complement the work I've been doing around the house with the Cozy Minimalist community this year. I could have pulled it off of the shelf; but, at the time, I felt more confident that I'd get through it this way. Lesson I learned: a lot of what Smith has to say comes across just fine in an audiobook, but I missed the visual part of a book like this. 

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure that I am a cozy minimalist. I love the homes that have layers and layers of things that tell a story, where you can really learn who someone is by the things they choose to display in their homes. My heart is drawn to that. But my brain knows two things about me that stop my heart from having it's way: 1) I know I'm not going to dust all of that stuff regularly and I HATE knowing my house is dusty; and 2) my mood is much better if my brain is not overwhelmed by stuff. Maybe that makes me a super cozy minimalist? Someone who needs more cozy than the regular cozy minimalist, but who also doesn't want to have as much stuff as she does now? 

So I'm refreshing myself with the idea of cozy minimalism - having just the right amount of "stuff" to make your home work for you, feel comfortable, and look lovely; but doing it in a way that's very intentional so that everything works together. Smith is very adamant that when you're working on redecorating a room, you do it in the right order and make very deliberate choices. About room arrangement. About the size of rugs and decorative pieces. And about NOT choosing a paint color until AFTER you've decided on your big pieces of furniture and rugs. Why? Because there are thousands of paint colors to choose from and it's going to be easier to match your paint to the other things you've chosen, rather than trying to find a rug to match the color you've painted on the walls.  

Smith (or Nester, as she's known to those who follow her teachings) uses her own homes to teach her community these lessons. It's a style that's all her own, and it wouldn't be for me. But I recognize that by using her techniques, she's made a room that is lovely, cozy, and works for her family. And I'm confident that those same techniques will work for any of us. 

Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

Read by Andy Arndt

8 hours, 56 minutes

Published January 2024 by Farrar, Straus, Giroux

Publisher's Summary: 

At the moment when Voyager 1 is launched into space carrying its famous golden record, a baby of unusual perception is born to a single mother in Philadelphia. Adina Giorno is tiny and jaundiced, but she reaches for warmth and light. As a child, she recognizes that she is different: She possesses knowledge of a faraway planet. The arrival of a fax machine enables her to contact her extraterrestrial relatives, beings who have sent her to report on the oddities of Earthlings. 

For years, as she moves through the world and makes a life for herself among humans, she dispatches transmissions on the terrors and surprising joys of their existence. Then, at a precarious moment, a beloved friend urges Adina to share her messages with the world. Is there a chance she is not alone?

Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a novel of startling originality about the fragility and resilience of life on our Earth and in our universe. It is a remarkable evocation of the feeling of being in exile at home, and it introduces a gentle, unforgettable alien for our times.

My Thoughts: 

One of the best parts of being part of a family of readers is that they make another great source of book recommendations. In this case, Beautyland was recommended to me by Mini-me. As much as I like to think of myself as reading somewhat diversely, Mini-me puts me to shame. They read everything manga, sci-fi, fantasy, nonfiction, literary fiction. Beautyland is billed as science fiction, what with Adina being an alien communicating with her home planet. But this book can't be so narrowly defined; it reads much more like literary fiction to me. 

Adina "activates" when she is four-years-old, at the moment her head hits the concrete after she is pushed by the father she won't see again until she is an adult. That night she "wakes up" in a classroom with otherworldly teachers who tell her that her mission is to find out if Earth is a planet where others from her planet can survive when their dying planet is no longer viable. When her mother brings home a fax machine from a neighbor's trash and puts it in Adina's room, Adina discovers that if she sends a fax, she will get a reply she believes is coming from her handlers. She begins regularly sending them her impressions of our planet, the humans who inhabit it, and her own life. 

"I require speech lessons and corrective lenses and most likely teeth braces. I am an expensive extra­terrestrial."

‘‘The ego of the human male is by far the most dangerous aspect of human society.’’ 

 ‘‘Death’s biggest surprise is that it does not end the conversation.’’ 

Her observations are often spot on, often touching, and frequently amusing. Often equally amusing are the responses she receives.  

Adina is young, but wise enough never to mention the nightly lessons she will have in the coming years or that fact that she is from another planet that can't be seen. Still others can plainly see that Adina is unusual. It's that very fact that makes her a character that will stay with me for a very long time. While almost all reviewers refer to this as a work of science-fiction, I'm still unsure. Was Adina an alien being or a woman whose brain was rewired by trauma that left her with a unique life experience and take on the world around her? Beautyland works either way, and maybe the fact that I was left wondering made it all that much more impressive. 

Hidden Valley Ranch: Inside the Mind of An American Family by Robert Kolker

Hidden Valley Ranch: Inside the Mind of An American Family by Robert Kolker

Read by Sean Pratt

13 hours, 8 minutes

Published April 2020 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

 

Publisher's Summary: 

Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins--aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony--and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family?

What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institute of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy, and the schizophrenogenic mother to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amid profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. And unbeknownst to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment, prediction, and even eradication of the disease for future generations.

My Thoughts: 

In the early 1990's, the University of Nebraska football team had a player whose mental health ended his playing career and eventually ended up with him being shot and paralyzed by police. At the time, the word was that he had schizophrenia (that is not the diagnosis they later gave him). By that time, I had two small boys and I spent some portion of their late teens and early twenties worrying about schizophrenia because of what I'd learned all of those years earlier, terrified that one of them might begin exhibiting signs in his early twenties. Fortunately, neither did. 

Don and Mimi Galvin were not so fortunate. Because of mental illness, one of their sons killed himself and then his girlfriend, one of them sexually assaulted their two daughters, two of them died after decades of taking medication. 

When their eldest, Don Jr., the golden child began exhibiting troubling signs of mental illness in the 1960's, the Galvins worked hard to hide his illness from the outside world. Mimi, in particular, worked hard to get him the help he needed. But help was hard to find then, as it continued to be as one and then another of the boys' mental health declined, to find the help they needed. There was very little knowledge of schizophrenia - no known cause (nature vs. nurture being an ongoing battle amongst those who did research the illness) and no effective medical treatments that didn't leave the patient a shadow of themselves. As that young football player had done, the Galvin boys repeatedly stopped taking the medication, convinced that it was not helping or that its help came at too high a cost. Through it all, Mimi continued to fight for her sick boys, at the expense of her healthy children.

Alongside the story of the Galvins, Kolker also gives readers some background on the history of schizophrenia research and treatment, introducing readers to scientists and doctors who, in an effort to prove the biological and genealogical cause of the disease, worked tirelessly to find answers. '

Eventually the two paths crossed. Because of the high incidence of the disease in the Galvin family (as well as hundreds of other families who also had high percentages of family members with the disease), the researchers were able to reach a great number of conclusions as to the biological cause of the disease and to work toward finding a medical treatment. Here's where our medical system has failed all of those who came after the Galvins - there is not a lot of money to be made in developing and marketing medications to treat schizophrenics and so pharmaceutical companies don't. 

As I read, this book reminded me very much of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, although the Galvins were not unwilling participants. And unlike that book, this one doesn't end with an "at least groundbreaking research resulted and so many lives have been saved." Kolker ends with us understanding that, despite everything that researchers have learned, there's still a long way to go in finding out how to treat patients with schizophrenia.