Audio Book Reviews

It is wonderful having a story told to you, especially by a gifted reader or storyteller. Below you will find a selection of those books that come to life in audio format, by the gifts of those actor/readers whose talents make our stories real.  Please know that any audio book that has been reviewed here offers an equally satisfying read in print. Keep in mind that if you do not have access to a CD player, audio now includes Playaway format and downloadable audio format.  Ask your librarian about these options at your next visit!

After having read Kate Quinn's most recent book, The Briar Club, several patrons suggested that I go back to her last book, and read The Rose Code.  I was easily able to download this book on Libby, since it is now a few years old.  The Rose Code provides the reader with expanded information about what it was like at Bletchley Park, and sets a tone of intrigue and suspense as we travel between 1940 and post-war 1947.  It was as shocking in its ending as her current book, and continued with a theme of strong, independent, and intelligent women in history.  The book opens with one of our main characters preparing for the royal wedding in the fall of 1947, when a letter arrives in the mail:

  "Osla didn't stop to wonder who'd sent the paper -- the old pathways in her mind fired up without a hitch, the ones that said "Don't ask questions, just get on with it."  She was already running her fingers along the quare of scribbled letters.  

The envelope bore a postmark she didn't recognize.  No signature.  No address.  The letters of the ciper message were so hastily slashed, it could have been anyone's handwriting.  But Osla turned the paper scrap over and saw a letterhead block, as though the page had been torn from an official pad.

CLOCKWELL SANITARIUM"

Our novel will go backwards in time to when Osla and another woman named Mab are selected to go to Bletchley.  They are put up in a boarding house with an insufferable owner who treats her adult daughter Beth like a child.  She enacts some horrific corporal punishment on Beth, until the other women find that Beth has some interesting skills that will bring her to an interview, and subsequent position at Bletchley.  So, our story is essentially about these three women, how their skills vary, how different departments work at the facility, and how important these women are to the war effort.  Of course, there is love and romance and many complications due to the secrecy and importance of their work.  It's a large tome, and there is a lot of important information and many details that occur during the war years to pay attention to.

However, the true stress and anxious tone of the novel is due to the fact that Beth has been held for the last few years, against her will, at an insane asylum.  She spits out her pills daily, but is scheduled for a labotomy withing weeks, and has reached out to her old friends to save her.  But the danger in this situation is that an old Bletchley member, who was a secret agent, is responsible for putting her there.  Who that person is will be a shocking discovery to every reader.  The plot to retrieve Beth is precarious at best.  Kate Quinn is not only a master at surprise endings, but also, very satisfactory ones for the reader.  I highly recommend this book for its gripping story, as well as its historically facinating time period.  And... don't forget to read the author's notes and find out some intereting facts about the characters and time period.  I highly recommend this one. -- Tracy

I had recently heard a booktalker on Instagram mention that this book is exceptional in audio.  I placed my request on Libby and waited patiently for the book to arrive.  One thing the influencer did not mention, is that the reason this book is so good on audio, is that there are many readers!  Most characters have their own narrator, and just a few readers might have two characters who they read.  However, I have never listened to a book where the voices of each person are so distinct and so well acted.  I loved it!

This book is in an interesting format, and is made up of correspondence by Sybil Van Antwerp and many people including friends, authors, customer service people, and her dear family.  Most items are in letters, but there are also emails.  The letters take place from 2012, when Sybil is in her early 70s, and completes in 2022.  Sybil lives a rather solo life since retiring as a law clerk to a well-known judge.  She owns a home in Baltimore, and has two adult children, who live at a distance, as well as a brother who lives in England.  She has been divorced for over 30 years, and we learn that she lost a third child, a son, in a tragic accident when he was a young boy.

I really enjoy Sybil's letters to authors, such as Ann Patchett and Joan Didion, and even Larry McMurtry, but her progression of short notes to her next door neighbor are fun and so enjoyable.  Here is the first one that we read on page 5:

"June 2, 2012

Dear Mr. Lubeck,

Thank you for the exquisite white roses you left on my porch on my birthday, May 29.  Furthermore, I received your voice message this morning.  I was delivered home by taxi last night due to a minor car accident, but everything is being taken care of.

Regards,

Sybil Van Antwerp"

We learn that Sybil has an incurable condition that is causing her to slowly go blind, hence the car accident she has at the beginning of the story.  She keeps her condition mostly secret.  We learn that she was adopted as a child, and that her son has gifted her a DNA test, which leads to several emails with a service representative at the testing company, and an eventual friendship, and an eventual discovery.  Lovely story there.  We discover an estrangement from her daughter and learn the devastating reasons why.  There are some sad stories and some happy ones, and those fabulous letters to authors.  If you've never written to an author, I suggest it.  It is quite a rush to get a response, and to let them know what their work means to you.

I loved watching Sybil work things out with family and friends.  Even though she is a very regimented character, we grow fond of her immediately.  The story of her son's accident is very, very painful.  I'm not sure how she survived that - it is probably because she had other children to care for.  Wonderful things happen to her at the end of the book, because she takes some chances.  You will love it.  But, have a tissue handy, as there are always sad moments, too.  I highly recommend this book, especially on audio. -- Tracy

There is nothing like listening to an audiobook with an accent from another country.  Masterfully read by Stephen Hogan, the reader is caught up in the most entertaining and magical story.  This is one book I would insist is better on audio than in print.  It is filled with emotion and humor and sadness and it is shared with us in such an authentic Irish way.

Before Cyril Avery was born, his mother, Catherine Goggin, was forced out of her small town Irish home by the local priest.  Her pregnancy was starting to show, and it being the 1940s, an unmarried 16 -year-old girl in this state, was not welcomed to stay.  After being humiliated in the church in front of family and friends, Catherine heads home to pack her things.  Cyril, himself, is our narrator, even from the womb:

"She had her savings, of course:  a few pounds she had squirreled away in a sock in her dresser drawer over the last few years.  An elderly aunt, three years dead by the time of my mother's disgrace, had given her the occasional few pennies when she ran errands for her and these had accumulated over time.  And there was still something left over from her Communion money and a little more from her Confirmation.  She'd never been a spender.  There wasn't much that she needed and the things that she might have liked, she didn't know existed in the first place."

When Catherine gets on the bus to Dublin, she sits with a young man named Jack and when they arrive in Dublin, he has already told her she can stay with him and his "friend" Smoot.  Jack and Smoot are actually lovers, and the latter partner is not very happy with the situation.  But, the three work our their arrangement, and Catherine is soon working in the tea room at the parliament building.  She will spend her entire career there, and end up managing the shop, and will happen to run into her own son on several occasions.  They form a unique relationship during these brief and sporadic encounters over their lifetimes, not knowing who the other really is.  

As a newborn, Catherine's son is given up for adoption and becomes a boy named Cyril Avery.  He is adopted into a rather odd family, who insist he is called their adoptive son, and they be called his adoptive mother and father.  His mother, Maeve Avery is one of Ireland's most famous mystery authors and spends most of her time locked in her writing room.  His father Charles is a businessman, who is also a schemer, a tax cheat, and a philanderer.  Maeve will die rather young of cancer, and Charles will wind up in jail, but he will also reconcile with Cyril by the end of our story.  Some of the funniest moments in the book are provided by Charles and his crazy attitudes and behavior.

The main premise of the book is to give us a story of a boy to man  who has always known he was gay, and faces the difficulties and traumas that come along with his sexual orientation.  He has always been in love with his childhood friend Julian, and that will one day come to a climax.  He will marry Julian's sister and leave her the same day, not knowing she is pregnant with his child after their one attempt at love-making.  Cyril will move to Amsterdam and fall in love with his soulmate there.  A former friend will appear as a barkeep there.  Even his birth mother will have a cameo in that part of the story.

Julian and his partner spend time in NYC during the AIDS crisis where his partner Sebastian is a physician, and Cyril is a volunteer on the AIDS unit.  Very sad things happen there, as expected.  Cyril and Sabastian will be attacked one night in a hate crime in Central Park, with devastating consequences.  This event, and his newfound knowledge that he has a son back in Dublin, triggers his move back to his homeland.  And... when he is back in Dublin, he finds work in the library of the parliment building, and of course, runs into his birth mother once again.

This is a very long and rich novel which will take us through Cyril's entire life.  We hope throughout the entire book that he and Catherine will discover their true connection.  There are several tragedies, but a very satisfying ending awaits.  Even though this is quite a dramatic telling, the book is filled with humor and so many fantastic one-liners, I loved experiencing every emotion that the story provided.  I hope you will love it as much as I did. -- Tracy

This is another incredibly rich, sometimes dark, suspensful and endearing book by Chris Whitaker.  Wonderful narration by Ballerini.  Personally, I enjoyed Whitaker's other well-known title, We Begin at the End, which was reviewed on this site on  August 10, 2021, more than this book.  We still have a mystery to solve about who the murderer is, and we are very sympathetic to our young characters who grow older in their continued searching.  However, the storyline in this book is a bit darker than his last novel.  Whitaker always opens with a shocking start.  Page one starts with this:

"From the flat roof of the kitchen Patch looked out through serried pin oaks and white pine to the loom of St. Francois Mountains that pressed the small town of Monta Clare into its shade no matter the season.  At thirteen he believed entirely that there was gold beyond the Ozark Plateau.  That there was a brighter world just waiting for him.

Though later that morning, when he lay dying in the woodland, he'd take that morning still and purse it till the colors ran because he knew it could not have been so beautiful.  That nothing was ever so beautiful in his life."

Later that day, while Patch is wandering along the lakeside, he sees a girl from school being attacked by a man, and he forces him away from the girl.  She survives, but Patch is wounded and found by the bad man, and kept in a completely dark room with a girl named Grace.  She tells him amazing stories, and the two form a unique bond.  Because his best friend Saint presses her local authorities to pursue a search, he is soon rescued from the burning hovel he was held in.  But, there is no sign of the girl who kept him going.

Our story crosses decades with Patch searching for Grace, Patch ending up in jail, Saint becoming a police detective and finding herself in an abusive marriage, Saint searching for answers to other missing girls, and Saint searching for Patch.  Some of this goes on for much too long without any answers.  Until the story blows up.  People we think were bad are good, and people we never suspected are bad, and surprises come to the surface.  This is the brilliance of Whitaker's stories.  You just cannot imagine the endings.  

Patrons have loved this book, and have gone back to read We Begin at the End.  This is a unique storyteller who takes the reader on a wild ride to find the answers.  His endings are surprising and quite satisfactory.  I really loved how this book concluded.  I think you will too.  -- Tracy

This book was published over two years ago, and still has about 200 people waiting on a print copy and over 1000 patrons waiting for the Libby audio version.  It took me a while to be the next in line on Libby, and I did send it back once after hearing about the violence in the book.  However, I must say that for a fictional history of a real New England midwife in 1789, it kept my attention and made me quite emotional at times.  Martha Ballard is living in Hallowell, Maine, and is the local midwife at the time that a man is found frozen in the river.  She is called in to examine his body and to determine a cause of death.  Here is how she describes entering the room at the back of the tavern storeroom where the body has been laid out.

"It isn't just the body that is now revealed, but the entirety of the storeroom as well.  Foodstuffs are stacked against the wall, piled in corners, and strung from the rafers.  The contrast of ham hocks dangling from the ceiling and the body sprawled on the table sends a shiver along my spine.  It is enough to make one of the men behind me gag.  

I ignore the retreating footsteps, the uneasy shuffling, the sudden hush as I step closer to the table.  I ignore everything but the slowing of my pulse and the stilling of my mind -- a learned form of concentration in which I push aside all commotion and fear and chaos.  I take a long breath through my nose, noting scents of lamp oil, onions, and salt -- but no blood, no rot, no vomit -- and set my meddical bag and riding cape on the floor."

The dead man is Joshua Burgess, a horrible man who has recently been accused of raping the minister's wife.  She was terribly abused and beaten for having welcomed natives back to town.  Burgess's accomplice was the local judge named Joseph North.  Although Mistress Ballard is called into court often as the witness at the births of fatherless children, she is now called in to provide evidence that Burgess was murdered, and to be a witness at the rape trial against North.   You can imagine how the judge treats her.

Complications arise when we learn that on the night of his death, Burgess was making advances on Martha's daughter, and her son Cyrus defended her honor.  Cyrus is accused, but Martha is putting the pieces of the puzzle together.  There are several interesting side characters within our story and we are on the edge of our seats waiting for a conclusion.  There is a violent scene when North attacks Martha.  The rape testimony is vicious and painful to read.  The conclusion is good, there is an interesting surprise of who the real murderer is, and an afterward by the author tells us how much of our story is real -- and it is a great deal of it!  I highly recommend this book if you are not sensitive to, or triggered by sexual abuse and violence.  It was a fascinating story about a New England nurse who lived through difficult times and persevered. -- Tracy

If you were able to read North Woods by Daniel Mason, and liked it, then this book will probably be a winner as well.  With a narration by 5 actors, it is easy to follow the characters, and who is speaking, within the story.  Set in current day Maine, we go back a couple hundred years to learn of the inhabitants of a single Victorian house on the cliffs.  We even go back further to the same spot where events happened before the home was there.  Of course in a house that old, there are ghosts hanging around.  In this story, the current owner, and we readers, are trying to figure out who the ghosts are.

Our novel begins with a teenager named Jane Flanagan being called into the principal's office.  She is notified that she has won a scholarship to a summer program at Bates College.  Somehow she convinces her alcoholic, neglectful mother to let her go.  During this time, she is working on an evening harbor cruise when a passenger notices a lavender house on a cliff.  This changes everything for Jane.  She starts skipping her classes to explore the abandoned house.  What is most creepy about the house is that it appears that the previous owner just up and walked out.  There were dishes in cabinets, food packages ravaged by mice, furniture in place, and a broken upstairs banister, where marbles and glass still remained on the floor.  This is a piece of the puzzle to what happened there in the past.  Here is a description of the town, with a name that sounds like many others in Maine:

"The town name, Awadapquit, meant, "where the beautiful cliffs meet the sea."  The phrase had become a motto.  You saw those words all over -- on the sign welcoming you to town, on every brochure and tourist map.  In addition to the cliffs,  Awadapquit boasted a range of natural wonders.  Woods, river and ocean.  Sand dunes and three flat miles of beach.  Mount Mekwi rising above it all.

When she was young, Jane had never thought of it as special.  But now, having traveled the world, seeing so many places, she realized that the view from the top of the hill was, in fact, extraordinary."

Years later, Jane has become an archival librarian and is married to a man named David, who she adores.  Sadly, recent unacceptable behavior at a work event has suspended her from her job, until the board can meet to decide her future.  She moves back home to prepare and sell her recently deceased mother's home. During the middle of the novel we learn of Jane's alcoholism, as well as her sister's, and the vicious cycle that has permeated her family.  Her marriage in shambles, and her job not secure, she takes on the task of researching the lavendar house for the current owner.  The owner, a woman named Genevieve, is sure the house is haunted, and must know which of the former owners is tormenting her and her family,

The book continues to be emotional and exciting with Jane's experience of having a psychic reading, as well as a later visit to a psychic convention.  The history of the Abenaki natives is explored, as well as their exploitation.  Two sisters who grew up in the Shaker religion have a connection with the home, as well as a sea captain and his family.  There are tragedies and love stories and more than one ghost, and the most exciting part of the novel is when Jane's own family is discovered to have a connection to the house.  Things work out for everyone in the end.  It is a wonderful local story filled with real-life experiences that will move the reader.  I highly recommend this book. -- Tracy

Because I loved Krueger's novel, "This Tender Land," I decided to read "Spirit Crossing."  I did not know that Krueger has been writing this series, the Cork O'Connor series, since 1998.  This is book twenty, and another comes out in 2025.  Patrons have told me to go back to the beginning and learn about the life of Cork O'Connor, but that will probably only happen if I retire in time to read those first nineteen books, which is unlikely.  Librarians don't like to retire.

This is a fascinating murder mystery that begins with a blueberry harvest.  Members of an Ojibwe family including Cork, the grandfather, Stephen the son, Daniel the son-in-law and Waaboo the 7 year-old grandson, are heading to the secret family patch.  We learn immediately that Waaboo sees dead people when he announces to his family that there is a woman who is lost and cannot walk the Path of Souls.  They do find the grave of a native girl who has been murdered, which falls into Cork's jurisdiction as an Indian Detective.  During the investigation, they also find the body of a well-known missing white girl with Waaboo's help.  

The story becomes an intriguing mystery into who the killer is, and as we meet a few bad guys along the way, we have our suspisions.  Waaboo is in danger, as well as his aunt Annie, who has come home to tell her family she has a brain tumor and not long to live.  The women in the family are activists trying to stop a pipe line from being constructed at Spirit Crossing, which is on native land.  There are ties between the corporation's strong men and the murders. There is a lot of tension and danger, but a good outcome at the end.  David Chandler is a great reader and brings us directly into the drama and excitment of the book. -- Tracy

This is quite an exciting book, filled with many different characters, and I could not believe there was only one narrator.  She even did a very good Boston accent for one of our women named Bea, who was in the Women's American League Baseball program.  Our story, starts on page one with this exciting opening:

Thanksgiving 1954

Washington, DC

      "If these walls could talk.  Well, they may not be talking, but they are certainly listening.  And watching.

      Briarwood House is as old as the century.  The house has presided - brick-fronted, four-storied, slightly dilapidated —over the square below for fity-four years.  It's seen three wars, ten presidents, and countless tenants ... But until tonight, never a murder.  Now its walls smell of turkey, pumpkin pie, and blood, and the house is shocked down to its foundations.

      Also, just a little bit thrilled.  This is the most excitement Briarwood House has had in decades.

      Murder.  Murder here in the heart of sleepy white-picket-fence Washington, D.C.! And on Thanksgiving, too.  Not that the house is terribly surprised by that; it's held enough holidays to know that when you throw all that family together and mix with too much rum punch and buried resentment, blood is bound to be shed sometimes.  But the scene that erupted tonight and splashed forth from the threshold to the attic ...

      Goodness, but it's a doozy."

Immediately, our novel jumps back to 1950, the year that Grace March becomes a resident of the Briarwood House.  A women's boarding home, it comes complete with a horrible landlady with strict rules, and terrible mothering skills to her 14 year-old son, and 9 year-old daughter.  But the women of Briarwood will take care and nuture her children.  And... while she is out every Thursday night playing bridge, Grace will invite all the boarders, and the two kids, and a couple of guy friends to a weekly dinner party.  Over the next four years we will learn about each woman, their secrets, their flaws and their desires.  We will also get quite a list of delectible recipes after each event, which adds some lightness to the story.

In the meantime, we don't know who was murdered, and we begin to imagine who might have an enemy or two out in the world.  The climax to our story is brilliant, exciting, scary, and more than satisfying for this reader.   How will the women come together when the truth comes out?  Taking place in Washinton, D.C., the politics of the day is its own character in our story.  Women in the workforce after the war, is another theme within the greater story.  I highly recommend this one. -- Tracy

Along the lines of the humorous rom com novels of Sophie Kinsella, this British novel brings two witty characters together on a long, cold, rainy walk across northern England.  Our narrators do a wonderful job creating these two heartbroken characters.  In order to have a clear picture of their current stubborn and brash behaviors, one must understand their pasts.  Maybe "defeated" is a better word to describe these two fortyish, divorced, grumpy souls.  Before the two decide, surprisingly, to accept their mutual friend's invite on this adventurous hike, with several other acquaintances, we meet our protagonists:

"I, Marnie Walsh, aged thirty-eight, of Herne Hill, London, am lonely.

This was not seclusion or solitude or aloneness, this was the real thing, and the realization came with shame, because if popularity was the reward for being smart, cool, attractive, successful then what did loneliness signify?  She had never been cool, but she wasn't clueless either.  People had told her she was funny, and while she recognised that this could be a trap, she was never intentionally sarcastic or spiteful and far more likely to mock herself than others.  Perhaps that was the problem — her ex-husband had certainly put it high on the list — but she was kind too, thoughtful, always generous withing her means.  She wasn't shy.  If anything she tried too hard, a people-pleaser, though no one ever seemed pleased."

We like Marnie, and are surprised when she finally accepts a friendly invitation, and heads north for a hiking adventure.

Michael enters our story while on a field trip with his middle school students.  He is having a difficult time relaying scientific information regarding the sights they are seeing.  Here he summarizes his experience in society, and that of the kids he is overseeing:

"He was a teacher but not a parent.  They'd tried but there had been complications and obstacles, and he struggled to imagine the circumstances now. 

There was no comparison between the roles and only the most superficial overlap: a parent might teach a child but it's a mistake for a teacher to parent a pupil.  Still, it sometimes seemed as if all the turmoil and angst of adolescence were crammed into the five days of the field trip, not just mischief and squalor but the emotional stuff too.  The popular, self-assured kids could be left to their plots and schemes.  Instead, Mr. Bradshaw chose to focus his attention on the nervy, awkward kids left to dangle from the end of abseil ropes.  Looking at their fizzing, anxious faces it seemed unlikely they were made of stars but, still, he felt a certain professional tenderness."

Michael is coaxed along on the hiking trip with a promise from his friend Cleo, that she will fix him up with her adventurous friend Tessa.  Although he is not really over his marriage to Natasha, who he still loves, he is quite disappointed when Tessa does not show up for the trip.  Michael and Marnie are eventually thrown together, as other people start to drop out of the hike due to cold and rainy weather.  Marnie is determined to keep up with the experienced hiker Michael, and pushes herself to the limit.  The two develop a witty rapport and confide in each other and share a lot of laughs.  But of course, a few wrenches must be thrown into the wheel, and we are not sure if the two will end up together until the very end of the story.  Many funny and awkward moments are relatable, and we truly adore both of these main characters throughout our story. -- Tracy

This is a wonderful historical fiction story based on some real-life women who made a big difference in France during WWI.  The Miss Morgan of our title, is actually the daughter of J.P. Morgan and a philanthropist in want of helping the world during challenging times.  Our narrators take us on two different stories.  One story, of course, is the one of The Great War and re-building the French countryside, and includes our heroine Jessie Carson.  Jessie is a NYPL librarian and goes to France to help with the American Committee for Devastated France.  Workers in this organization are called CARDS.  Our second story takes place in 1987, and is about another woman working at the NYPL, who discovers some history about Jessie and the women of this unit in the library's archives.

Librarian Jessie arrives in France in January of 1918.  Here are her first images:

"The narrow dirt road was pockmarked from shelling... Destruction stretched to the horizon.  There was not a single soul, nor blade of grass, and the countryside blended with the gray clouds to form a colorless, hopeless terrain.  Inhabitants had fled or been taken prisoner.  The German army had obliterated homes and schools, churches and hospitals, libraries and lives.  On farms, they bombed the rows of wheat that stood up to them.  In orchards, they took axes to innocent apple trees.  Branches lay on the ground, their dried-up leaves whispering in the wind."

Upon arriving at CARD headquarters, Jessie is met by Anne Morgan and her partner Anne Murray Dike, as well as several other members including a nurse and a cook and a driver, all who become close friends.  Immediately, the women are sent out on dangerous missions, and Jessie always carries some books with her to share with the survivors of the war.  There are many stories of loss and bravery and ambition rolled into this narrative.  There is always something new to learn about the women's movement during wartime.  

In 1987, Wendy Peterson is working in the archives of the NYPL where she discovers information about the CARDS and the role they played in WWI.  She is especially interested in Jessie Carson and her committment to adding children's libraries to devastated France.  Eventually, Wendy is able to track down one of the the women from our war story who knew Jessie.  A lovely and deserving acknowledgement of the work of these brave women will finish our novel, and Wendy will have all the information she needs to write a book on these remarkable events from across the sea, during a dark and tumultuous time.

I highly recommend ordering a print copy of the book.  When our story ends, the author includes a great deal of history about this group, along with some fascinating photos.  I knew nothing about Anne Morgan and her mission in France.  It is an exciting story filled with adventure, danger, friendship and strong women.  I highly recommend this one. -- Tracy

A very interesting book by the author of "Bloomsbury Girls," this novel also takes place post WWII, in the 1950s, and brings along one of the main chatacters in this former story.  There are several famous real-life characters who also travel over from Bloomsbury, which makes this book seem like a bit of a sequel, but only about one of the former characters.  Juliet Aubrey does a wonderful job with accents, as our novel takes place in Italy, but also contains English and American characters.  Listening to the story is, at times, confusing because of the number of people we hear, and the story bouncing back to the war.  I feel that it might be helpful to have a print copy of the book on hand.

Our protagonist is a screenwriter named Vivien Lowry, who has come to Rome to help with a script for a movie there.  Unfortunately, the Catholic church is in control of many things at this time, and one is a sensorship of what can be allowed on film.  She is having a tough time convincing the Vatican Cardinal in charge to let her do things her way.  She meets all kinds of people including famous actors you may have heard about.  Sadly, she finds herself in a duped love affair, and there are many plot twists and turns to figure out.  Here is Vivien's first impressions as she steps off the plane in Italy:

"Stepping of the plane at Ciampino Airport, Viven immediately felt overdressed, and not just becuase of the spring-like weather.  Peggy Guggenheim had telephoned from Venice with wardrobe suggestions for the move to Rome, but clothes for Peggy were a form of artistic expression: loud patterns, whimsical jewelry, and a loose, comfortable fit masked by dramatic lines.  Surrounded by men at work, Vivien used form-fitting fashion to convey confidence and feel more in control.  Judging by the crowded airport terminal, self-command was nowhere near as important to the young and fashionable of Italy.  There wer bare shoulders and legs everywhere, and the first thing Vivien vowed to buy in Rome was a snug American-style T-shirt, and a shapely halter dress."

As we jump back to the war, we learn of a young Italian woman who is working as a spy and taking out Nazi Officers.  Her story is compelling and, eventually, horrific.  Some of the characters we meet in current day were tied to this woman.  You can only imagine life in Europe just 10 years after the war.  Everyone had a part, and everyone has their own trauma. More than one character is in search of a lost loved one.  And, even though there are some very sad sub-stories, the novel remains optimistic.

In the end, there are several discoveries, and Vivien goes back to England.  She has a remarkable end to her story.  There is one aspect of her life we wish we get an answer to, but it never comes.  She seems to be fulfilled and beginning a book about the famous woman who foiled the Germans.  Maybe that will be Jenner's next novel.  -- Tracy

Barbara Kingsolver won the Pulitzer Prize in 2023 for this novel which was published the previous year.  It is a contemporary telling of Dicken's classic David Copperfield.  The narration was exceptional.  There is an immediate sympathy for our protagonist named Demon Copperhead, though he was given the name of Damon Fields at birth.  Copperhead was his birth-father's name - a man who died before he was even born, and who, of course, bestowed on him a fire-red head of hair.  Fields was his mother's surname.  His mother, being a drug addict, is not long for this world in the novel, and therefore, her demise will initiate Demon's dour journey.  The book starts with the story of the boy's birth.  A neighbor stops in and finds his mother incapacitated in the bathroom.  She is living in the Appalachian area of Virginia in a trailer park.

"All through the dog-breath air of late summer and fall, cast an eye up the mountain and there she'd be, little bleach-blonde smoking her Pall Malls, hanging on that railing like she's captain of her ship up there and now might be the hour it's going down.  This is an eighteen-year-old girl we're discussing, all on her own and as pregnant as it gets.  The day she failed to show, it fell to Nance Peggot to go bang on the door, barge inside, and find her passed out on the bathroom floor with her junk all over the place and me already coming out.  A slick fish-colored hostage picking up grit from the vinyl tile, worming and shoving around because I'm still inside the sack that babies float in, pre-real-life."

Demon's mother succumbs to her addiction when the boy is about 10 years of age.  His abusive step-father is quickly out of the picture and Demon is sent to his first foster home.  Gratefully, he is there with 3 other boys, but, sadly, they all are only there to provide child labor for a greedy old man.  This is the beginning of Demon's never-ending hunger, and he is hungry for years.  But he escapes some of his tortured existence with his artistic drawings of super heroes, and this talent will be noticed and appreciated by his friends and teachers.  His second foster home is just as bad, if not worse, and he has to find a job, (a disgusting one,) to pay for his own food.  He is certainly a tortured soul.

Eventually, he decides it's time to make his way to Tennessee to find his paternal grandmother.  It's an eventful trip hitchhiking, and having a run-in with the law, but, he makes it to her home, and meets her, and a very special great-uncle Dick, a man severely crippled and in a wheelchair.  Also, a man who turns out to be a brilliant and kind man.  His grandmother is not partial to the male gender, but promises to take the situation on.  Knowing that Demon is a ward of the state of Virginia, she needs to find a place for him back there.  She finds an old acquaintance who happens to be a widowed, football coach, with a teen daughter.  For the first time in his life, he will have food and clothing and shelter in a mansion, and a purpose provided by his ultra-talents for playing the game of football.  Until he blows out his knee, and needs narcotics for the pain.

Well, you can tell where our story is headed from there, more sadness, addiction, hopelessness, and terrible events happening all around him.  But... there are people out there who truly love Demon and are determined to bring him back to life.  The ending of the story is not really an ending, but, hopefully a new beginning.  It is happy.  There are a lot of good people who outdo the bad ones.  His voice and gentle nature are so sympathetic to the reader, that you must trudge on to make sure he is okay in the end.  I think listening to his voice helps the reader to feel great fondness towards him.  The words and language are exceptional, as they always are in Kingsolver's novels.  I highly recommend this book. -- Tracy

Frankie McGrath is a very young woman, when at the age of twenty, decides to join the Army to serve as a nurse in Vietnam.  Her older brother is there, and was celebrated with an enormous party before his departure.  Coming from a family with an actual, physical,  wall of honor for her brother, she is hoping that her service will bring her some acknowledgement from her parents.  Here is the opening of the book, where we are given a perfect picture of where Frankie comes from:

"Coronado Island, California, May 1966"

"The walled and gated McGrath estate was a world unto itself, protected and private.  On this twilit evening, the Tudor-styled home's mullioned windows glowed jewel-like amid the lush, landscaped grounds.  Palm fronds swayed overhead; candles floated on the surface of the pool and golden lanterns hung from the branches of a large California live oak.  Black-clad servers moved among the well-dressed crowd, carrying silver trays full of champagne, while a jazz trio played softly in the corner.

Twenty-year-old Frances Grace McGrath knew what was expected of her tonight.  She was to be the very portrait of a well-bred young lady, smiling and serene; any untoward emotions were to be contained and concealed, borne in silence."

This was the party for her brother Finley, her only sibling, and her best friend.  Shortly after enlisting herself, and to the dismay of her family, they receive two uniformed officers at their home, who inform them that their son has been shot down in his helicopter, and no remains were found.  Now Frankie is heading to war, and her brother will not be there. As most people can imagine, when Frankie arrives in a muddy, smelly and incredible hot war zone, she is in shock, hungry, thirsty and ill.  Thankfully, the other nurses there become her closest friends, though they will leave her one by one to return home.  Frankie will work in the worst of circumstances, being close to battle, seeing the most vile of injuries, having two disappointing romances, and will finally return home to California.

I don't think we can be prepared for how she is treated when she comes home.  Arriving in uniform, she is spit on by a stranger in the street.  She learns quickly that her parents have told everyone that she was studying in Florence, Italy, the entire time.  After miscarrying a baby with her psychiatrist fiance, her mother introduces her to pills to help her sleep, and pills to help her wake up.  Of course, she becomes addicted, leaves the fiance, loses her nursing job, and hits rock bottom.  It is her old nurse friends from the war who help her to come back to life.  Her former fiance helps get her into a rehab program to help her get clean.

I won't say too much about the happy ending, but there is one for Frankie.  I was concerned that things would not turn out well for her, but she fights her addictions and her PTSD and makes a life for herself.  The ending of the book is a poignant moment and a historical one.  If you can get through the gruesomeness of the war, and her treatment afterwards, it is an interesting, educational, and emotional read.  I highly recommend this one. -- Tracy

This is a lovely book narrated by the author, who is able to provide the perfect emotion and detail to understand the importance, as well as the magnificence of his job.  As a young man in his twenties, Patrick is working for The New Yorker when his brother's terminal cancer brings him to make a decision about his life.  The loss of his brother being too great for him to manage his job, he finds himself working as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  He hoped it would be a simple and easy position, and in a way, it was, but as you read the story, you will see how much wisdom is gained and shared as Patrick learns more and more about the great art that he is in charge of protecting and caring for.

Patrick will take us through all the galleries and give descriptions and lessons of the artwork there.  For instance, here is a little lesson on Venice and its most famous painter:

"Venice was an impossible city, a chain of 118 wave-lapped islands that once boasted the brightest, deepest colors in the world.  Ultramarine from Afghanistan, azurite from Egypt, vermilion from Spain... Even the name Venice relates to the Latin venetus meaning sea blue.  The greatest Venetian of the sixteenth century was Tiziano Vecellio, called Titian, and he enveloped his scenes in rose-tinted atmosphere, as though he mixed his pigments in puddle water and red wine. I approach his great Venus and Adonis, so beautiful and silent a poem that I can feel my mood become engulfed by it.  I can't decide which is the more beautiful: Titian's flaxen -haired Venus, desperately clinging to her mortal lover, or his young, brash Adonis, rejecting the goddess's embrace to return to the perilous mortal world.  I have read the same ancient poem that Titian has, and I know what happens in the end.  Adonis dies, Venus is inconsolable, and she transforms his spilled blood into the red flower anemone, whose name means "born of the wind."

Bringley will walk us through many galleries and teach us about the items within them.  We will learn about what kind of people visit the museum, mishaps and thefts included.  Friendships will grow with co-workers and our author will find love for himself, get married and have children.  As someone who was fortunate to work for a brief period of time at the MFA in Boston, I understand the awe of being in a place with such immense beauty day after day.  It was many years ago, but it was certainly a gift to have had that experience.  If you love to listen to books to aid in sleeping, this might be the perfect one for you.  Read by the author, I found it very clear and easy to understand, but also slow and monotone.  It never put me to sleep while driving, but I'm sure if I was secured in a comfy spot, it would not take long to doze off.  Art and museum lovers will appreciate this one. -- Tracy

Firstly, I suggest that if you have not read Nita Prose's first novel, The Maid, which features our main character, Molly Gray, I would do so before starting on The Mystery Guest.  My review of that book is in the Print Section of this website, as it was not available in audio when first published.  Hearing Molly's voice this time around was wonderful.  Lauren Ambrose acts with the precision and factual stance exactly with which our main character is described.  In our first book, Molly is the prime suspect of a murder in the high-end hotel where she is a maid.  At this point in time, Molly has been exonerated for that crime, is now Head Maid, and unfortunately is connected to another murder which happens during an author presentation in the hotel's tea room.

Famous mystery writer, J.D. Grimthorpe has just entered the Tea Room and is about to give his speech.  After adding extra honey to his own teacup, here is what happens next:

"You see," he continued, "I've been keeping a secret, one that will no doubt surprise you."

He stopped abruptly.  He put on long-fingered hand to his collar in a futile attempt to loosen it. "What I'm trying to say is ..." he croaked, but no other words would leave his throat.  His mouth opened and closed, and he suddenly seemed very unsteady, swaying more dramatically from side to side in front of the podium.  All I could think about was a goldfish I'd once seen jump from its bowl and lie gaping and apoplectic on a pet store floor.

Mr. Grimthorpe clutched his teacup once again and sipped.  Then before anyone could prevent it, he suddenly toppled over, plummeting off the stage and into the crowd, where he fell directly on top of Lily, my most unlucky Maid-in-Training.  Together they landed with a dramatic crash on the floor as the porcelain teacup broke into innumerable razor-edged shards and the spoon on the saucer clattered flatly against the herringbone-patterned floor."

And so our story begins.  Detective Stark, who has never been able to understand Molly's uniqueness, returns to investigate.  Everyone is a suspect, but in the words of Lily, "the maid is always the suspect."  Molly and Lily have to prove their innocence.  Before Molly is able to put all the pieces together, she goes back to her childhood in alternating chapters, where she assists her grandmother who happens to be the maid at the Grimthorpe mansion.  She will be able to find some clues in moments she remembers from this time as a young girl.

Mr. Grimthorpe was a despicable man, and we learn there are several people who may have wanted him dead.  I think our author does a great job of creating a surprise ending, while making Molly the star with her detailed manner of deciphering who the real killer is.  Often funny and sweet, and just sometimes serious, the story is a pleasure to read.   Molly is as likable a charcter as any who has ever been conjured up in a fiction story.  I'm looking forward to Nita Prose continuing The Maid Mysteries!  I think you will be satisfied with this sequel.  -- Tracy

It is almost embarassing as a librarian to confess that I have not read James McBride's other famous novels, Deacon King Kong, God Lord Bird, and many others.  Several are multiple award winners, and Good Lord Bird won The National Book Award in 2013.  I will tell you that this book was a great place to start my venture into McBride's mastery of language and characters.  Our narrator is exceptional with his many voices and accents, and I was pulled into the story immediately.  

Miss Chona and her husband Moshe Ludlow live on Chicken Hill, which is part of Pottstown, Pennsylvania,  side by side with the Black community in 1936.  The majority of our story will be about that community, during that time, but our novel begins with this:

"There was an old Jew who lived at the site of the old synagogue up on Chicken Hill in the town of Pottstown, PA., and when Pennsylvania State Troopers found the skeleton at the bottom of an old well off Hayes Street, the old Jew's house was the first place they went to.  This was in June 1972, the day after a developer tore up the Hayes Street lot to make way for a new townhouse development."

...

"They milled around for a while longer and eventually left, promising to return after they pulled the skeleton out of the well and studied the potential murder scene some more.  They never did, though, because the next day God wrapped His hands around Chicken Hill and wrung His last bit of justice out of the wretched place.  Hurricane Agnes came along and knocked the power out of four counties.  The nearby Schuylkill River rose to a height of seven feet.

...

"As for old Malachi, the cops never did find him.  They come back for him after the hurricane business died away, but he was long gone.  Left a sunflower or two in the yard and that's it.  Old Mr. Malachi got off clean.  He was the last of 'em.  The last of the Jews round here.  That fella was a wizard.  He was something.  He could dance, too...Lord...That man was magic.  Mazel tov, honey."

I'll be honest.  I forgot about the dead body in the well until I reached the very end of the story and found out who it was.  Most of our story takes place in 1936.  Our novel is an intense and emotional one about the Black and Jewish communities and how they mostly worked together and alongside each other.  Also, at times of distress or urgency, they cared for each other.  Miss Chona and Moshe Ludlow were very close with a black couple named Nate and Addie Timblin.  Nate helped out at Moshe's nightclub, and Addie was always caring for Miss Chona, when she fell ill. Miss Chona managed The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store which was on the first level where they lived.  She was a very kind and welcoming woman, friend to all, and especially to the neighboring children who were always in need of a bite to eat. 

Our story takes a frightening turn, when a boy named Dodo, who is twelve years old, loses his mother in a stove explosion, and he also loses his hearing.  There are some evil white men in our story, and they are determined to lock him up in a horrible State facility that they try to call a school for special children.  It is a house of only nightmares and dread.  It is difficult to read about this place.  However, there is a cast of characters that is quite full of many remarkable people.  There are a lot of helpers in this book.  The ending of the story makes it worth some of the emotional suffering that takes place in the middle.  It is a hopeful and happy resolution to a dark and disturbing situation.  We will find out who was in the well, and see a few of the evil people get their just due. Remarkable writing by this award-winning author makes this a big recommendation from me. -- Tracy

Wonderfully read by Bessie Carter, this newest Kinsella novel does not disappoint in its mega "British Contemporary Romance" joyfulness and humor.  Or should I spell it humour?  I am a big fan of taking a break from reading serious literary novels or non-fiction tomes once in a while, and squeezing in one of these brilliant, light-hearted, "will they or won't they" stories from across the pond.  Here we go with another one.  

Sasha Worth is more than burned out at her job.  Desperately trying to get caught up on her mountains of emails, she is interupted by a superior:

  "Sasha!" I'm so preoccupied that when a familiar strident voice breaks into my thoughts, I jump right off my office chair.  "Got a sec?"

My whole body stiffens.  A sec?  A sec?  No. I do not have a sec.  I'm sweating through my shirt.  My fingers are on fire.  I have a million other urgent emails after this one, I need to get on, I do not have a sec...

But Joanne, our empowerment and well-being officer, is heading toward me.  Joanne is in her forties, maybe ten years older than me, although she often says, "Women of our age" in meetings, with a glance at me.  She's dressed in her usual athleisure trousers and expensive, understated T-shirt and has a disapproving look in her eyes that I recognize all too well.  I've messed up, but how?  Hastily, I grope in my mind for crimes I might have committed, but I can't think of any.  With a sigh, I stop typing and turn my chair toward her a smidge.  Just enough to be polite.

"Sasha," she says briskly, flicking back her straightened hair.  "I'm a little disappointed with your level of engagement in our employee-joyfulness program."

And that is the straw that breaks the camel's back and sends Sasha fleeing the office and running towards a convent in hopes that they will accept her into their fold.  Eventually, her mother will be called in to rescue her after she runs into a brick wall.  Her mother's great idea for Sasha during her leave from work is to send her back to her childhood vacation spot of Rilston Bay.  The seashore will mend everything.  As well, a healthy diet of Kale smoothies ordered by her mother, posing as her P.A., keeps the trip interesting.  Sneaking in some real food in this small community is harder than one might think, and Sasha is plagued by hunger pains and a growling stomach from day one.

The rom com portion of our novel begins when a handsome gentleman named Finn arrives at the hotel and starts interfering with Sasha's private time on the beach.  Of course the two will have tremendous animosity towards one another at first, but that can't last.  Similar work meltdowns bond the two as well as memories of their childhoods surfing in Rilston Bay and will bring them closer.  Of course, misunderstandings ensue.  But will the two make up and live happily ever after?  Just like a Jane Austen novel, the endings for Kinsella are usually happy ones.  I recommend any Sophie Kinsella novel for a giggle and some romantic joy.  This one did not disappoint. -- Tracy

This is a lovely book, even if it bestows a sad ending.  It is the story of a young Harvard student who would one day be  President, and a young aristocrat named Alice Lee, who would become his first wife.  Their fortunate meeting via her cousin Richard Saltonstall, a friend of Theodore and also a student at Harvard, will set the fate that will forever change the direction of their lives. For good or bad, it is a beautiful love story laced with letters between the two, and an exploration of their intellects and desires for achievement.

Our book begins with Theo doing some breathing exercises, in his own attempt to combat his debilitating asthma, which he had suffered with since early childhood.   It is October 18, 1878.  Studying biology, the 19 year-old student has several animals in his boarding room and a live tortoise which has escaped and infuriated his housekeeper.  She insists it be gone, immediately. (It won't be gone.)  He is rushing in preparation to meet Alice for the first time.  After being picked up by his friend Richard, they make their way on a two hour buggy ride from Cambridge to Chestnut Hill!  But it was certainly worth the ride.  Here is Theo's response upon meeting Alice:

"Intrigued, Theodore gazed at beauty from a distance.  She looked fair as a maiden stepping from the pages of literature.  All four seasons collided within this lady of singular loveliness whose sway shifted gingerly like a falling leaf in autumn, whose gown shone brightly like shimmering flakes of winter snow, whose gait traveled lightly like the morning spring air, and whose aura glowed radiantly as summer rays of still waters.  Watching grace from afar and thinking it wonderous, Theodore's heart tipped a beat faster."

Their relationship will bud and bloom quickly.  We will learn that Alice has bouts of illness that will cause severe pain, and include weeks in bed recovering.  She will yearn to attend college, which will be dampened by her mother's interference, and her own eventual choice to marry.  Theodore is an ambitious young man who has purchased ranches in the west and after graduating from Harvard will enter Columbia Law School, only to leave this endeavor to enter politics. He is an early progressive politician and will be the youngest person elected to the New York Assembly.

An incredible turn of events will change Theodore's life in 1883. He will suffer two losses in one night.  It is a deeply sad story, but one which will lead the reader to do some research regarding the future of Theodore's life.  If you find yourself similarly interested in knowing more about this fascinating past President, here is a timeline of his life, with just a few of his many accomplishments:  https://www.nps.gov/thro/learn/historyculture/theodore-roosevelt-timeline.htm  I highly recommend this sweet and rather interesting historical romance about Teddy and Alice. -- Tracy

This WWII historical fiction novel is written and narrated by the actress Millie Bobby Brown of Enola Holmes fame.  And if you have not watched the Enola Holmes series, I highly recommend it.  It has some great female sleuthing taking place in 19th century England.  The main character, of course, is Sherlock Holmes much younger sister.  But, back to our book.

This novel takes place during the middle and ending years of the war in London.  A young woman named Nellie is working as the mayor's assistant, and is exceptional at her job.  At home is her mother Em, father Charles, and younger siblings George and Flo.  At the beginning of our story there are nightly bombings, and the closest shelter for the family is a subway location that has not yet been opened for train use.  The family finds themselves there with the entire neighborhood quite frequently.

At this time during the war, London is also evacuating young children to countryside homes and even to foreign countries.  Nellie's parents agree that very young Flo should be sent away to the country.  Nellie and her mother are forced to drop her off at the bus area, where children are boarding and leaving the city.  But, once Flo is on the moving bus, her mother starts crying and yelling at Nellie to stop the bus and get her back.  When Nellie is nearly killed by an oncoming truck, a handsome American soldier saves her life, helps her get Flo back, and of course the two fall in love instantly. Ray Fleming will be the best of beaus, and beloved by the entire family.

In the meantime, back at the mayor's office, there has been an investigation into the safety of the subway bomb shelter where Nellie's family goes.  A private investigator determined that there were several major safety issues involved with the location.  After the mayor submits the findings to the appropriate government board, she receives a rejection for funds to fix the issues.  We can all imagine what will happen next.  There are some very difficult moments in the book, with the loss of many people in a terrible accident, as well as characters we know and care about.

By the time the war has ended, Nellie has been notified that Ray is lost in action.  By this point, they had become engaged.  Her childhood best friend Billy is her new boyfriend, and they are planning their own wedding.  She understands that she will never have a love like Ray, but that Billy will be true to her until the end.  And you can make your own predictions from there about surprises that ensue.  It was a very sweet love story, but the accident that takes place in the middle of the story is quite brutal and horrific.  It was difficult to read.  The happy ending made it worth it. -- Tracy

This is certainly one of those books that is so much more enjoyable in audio, versus print.  I know this, because some patrons are finding the print version to be dry and a bit boring.  However, with Meryl Streep as the narrator, it is very much like experiencing Streep's talent on screen.  She truly brings the character of Lara (f.k.a. Laura) Kenison to life. 

Our story begins most likely around 1980, when teenaged Laura confesses to not being an actress or a "drama" person, and is assigned the job of handing out registration forms for her town's auditions for the play "Our Town."  However, after watching so many disastrous attempts at the part of Emily, she decides to fill out a form and audition herself.  At this very moment, while filling out the form, she changes her first name to Lara. In her own words, she tells us, "I believed this new spelling to be Russian and worldly."  And it will be no surprise that she has an exceptional reading, and gets the part.

We jump ahead to Lara as a grown woman, and mother of 3 daughters, also adults, while they inquire about her former life.  The girls are home for the summer, helping in the cherry orchards to harvest the fruit from the family's farm, when they decide that this is the perfect time to hear about their mother's affair with Peter Duke .  "Duke," as we learn he  has been called by friends and peers, became a famous film star, and the sisters are still in disbelief that he was once their mother's boyfriend.  I think from the moment they find out her real name was Laura, they know they are in store for many surprises.

"You had a 'u' in your name?" Emily looks at me skeptically.

 "For sixteen years"  

"Did you know she had a 'u?' she asks her sisters, and they shake their heads, mystified by what I have withheld from them.  

"There's a lot you don't know," I say.

Hazel the dog looks at me.

"I didn't know it was going to be funny," Maisie says.

"No idea," Nell says.

"It isn't funny," I tell them.  "You know that.  It isn't a funny story except for the parts that are."

"Life," Nell says, dropping her head against my shoulder in a way that touches me." 

So, without saying too much, Lara goes off to UNH, where the drama department happens to be looking for someone to play the role of Emily in Our Town.  So, here she goes again, for round number 2.  She is then discovered and asked to go to a summer stock location at Tom Lake, to play Emily, again, and here she meets the dashing Duke.  We will learn of their love story, his wonderful brother Sebastian, an important character who is the summer stock director, and all the details that led Lara to her present life as a wife, mother, and cherry farmer. Was she a brilliant actress, or just a brilliant 'Emily.'  Was Duke her true love?  Were her daughters satisfied with their mother's account?  I felt this story was quite realistic and although it had some sad events, it was mostly the story of a loving family.  Meryl is brilliant.  I highly recommend this one! -- Tracy

In 1900, a young woman who has learned how to sew and embroider from her grandmother, starts her own journey as a seamstress in Sardinia, Italy.  Beautifully read by Carlotta Brentan, it is lovely to hear authentic Italian words and names expressed perfectly by the narrator.  The life of women has always been hard, but learning of the different characters in our story, and our main protagonist, we see several women fight for independence and freedom to express themselves.  Our book starts at the beginning:

"I was seven years old when Nonna began entrusting me with putting the finishing touches on the garments she sewed a home for her clients, during those periods when she had no jobs that sent her to work in other people's homes.  She and I were the only members of the family left alive after the cholera epidemic that had taken from us, indiscriminately, my parents, my brothers and sisters, and all my grandmother's other children and grandchildren -  my aunts, uncles, and cousins.  How the two of us managed to survice, I've never known."

Told in the first person, we never learn the name of our seamstress.  Her first mistress was a woman named Signorina Ester who was marrying a Marquis and needed a trousseau completed before her wedding.  Our seamstress works day and night to complete the items, and when the married woman becomes pregnant, our protagonist is hired to make all the items needed for the new baby.  Sadly, the Marguis is a terrible man and is overheard telling the doctor to save the life of the baby over the mother.  When Ester hears this, she locks him out of her rooms and moves back with her loving father, bringing her daughter Enrica with her.

She is called next to help Signora Teresa Provera make some gowns for her two daughters.  Much to her amazement, when she arrives at the home, she must sign a document stating she will never reveal anything she learns about the family while working in the house.  Well, what a story it would be to reveal the secrets from this family.  Let's just say that the man of the house is a Scrooge, and the mother and housekeeper must come up with very creative ways to keep the daughters clothed in the finest dresses.  It is a story which shows how women have used their own creativity and intelligence throughout the years to survive.

A third character in our story is an American journalist who we believe to be completely independent.  Her name is Miss Lily Rose.  However, she is tied to a violent man and plans her escape with the help of the sartina, who makes a corset with pockets to hide the woman's money upon her escape.  Will tragedy befall her before she gets her chance to make it home to America?

There is so much more in this little book.  Tragic love stories and not so tragic ones come at the end.  Our seamstress inherits a little girl from her neighbor who dies and at first that is a very troubled relationship.  But things have a way of working themselves out, eventually.  This novel is one about women trying to make their own ways, without any attachment to men, and some do that quite well.  Others are victims of their circumstances.  I found this novel to be unique as an historical fiction book about Italian women at the turn of the last century.  I highly recommend it. -- Tracy

Sarah Ferguson's second novel  recounts the story of Lady Mary Montagu Douglas Scott, who is the youngest child of the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch.  She is a precocious 21 year-old who is fond of adventures and mysteries.  This fun and escapist novel does a wonderful job of placing us in Victorian times, with all its rules and regulations and appropriate and inappropriate behaviors.  Our novel opens at Drumlanrig Castle, Scottish Borders, Saturday, 24 August 1872.  A distinguished colonel is a guest at a shooting party there, and is suffering a terrible headache and sickness and finds himself in need of escaping to the outdoors.  Here is what happens next:

"With a weary sigh, he hauled himself back to his feet.  He couldn't stay out here any longer; it was time to get back to the fray before his absence was noted and questions were asked, his history recalled, the opportunity withdrawn.  He was holding his hand out in front of him, noting with relief that there was barely a tremor, when out of the corner of his eye, he saw something moving on the narrow stone parapet which ran above the roof between the two towers of the south frontage.  Astounded, he watched as the figure unfurled to its full height and took a tentative step forward.  The castle was four stories high.  A fall would almost certainly result in death."

Well, of course, the figure turns out to be Lady Mary out exploring and having an adventure.  Both characters make it back before dinner, and you can imagine the looks Mary receives from the Colonel throughout dinner.  When she discovers that the gentleman knows her secret, she begs him to keep it, so that her parents do not become alarmed at her behavior.  Of course, he agrees.  And before you know it, a guest is claiming a theft of an expensive heirloom broach, and the two go to work trying to solve the mystery.  

Three years later the couple have an unexpected meeting at another estate.  This time, the crime that occurs is much more serious, and the Colonel (Trefusis) is forced to reveal his secret government job, and the two, once again, work to foil the success of the know criminals, who are none other than a band of women who have resorted to crime in order to survice the hardships of the lower classes.  

At this point, the two are quite enamored with each other.  Our gentleman's  quite modern and outgoing aunt befriends Lady Mary, and works her wiles to bring the two together.  Fun, fun, fun is how I describe this book.  Adventure, intrigue, mysteries and love all rolled into an historical fiction story that is based on some real figures from the British aristocracy.  Make sure you read the author's notes about who were real people, and other facts and fictions relating to the story.  I loved it so much that I am looking forward to reading The Duchess of York's first novel about Lady Margaret!  -- Tracy

This magical story, as we would assume by the title, is told in a lovely British accent by Cynthia Erivo.  As well, her Amercian accents are well done for our secondary characters who happen to live in New England.  I was transported immediately to 1939 England, where parents were forced to decide whether to send their children off to the countryside, or in some instances to foreign countries, to be in safer places.  In this case, single mother Camellia finds it to be her only choice, and sends her 14 year-old Hazel, and 5 year-old Flora Lea off to Oxforshire and a town named Binsey. By a twist of fate, or good luck, a teenaged boy named Harry convinces his mother to take the two sisters into her care.

Bridie is a loving and caring woman who treats the girls as if they were her own.  But sometimes Flora gets afraid, so Hazel has created a wonderful fairytale about a land called Whisperwood, that always helps Flora to feel at ease during these fearful moments.  One fateful day in 1940, Hazel leave Flora sleeping on a blanket by the river and runs off to see the boy she loves, Harry, and upon returning to the river's edge moments later, Flora has disappeared.  After an extensive search, she is never found, and assumed to have drowned in the river.  Hazel and Harry will never forgive themselves and vow to stay apart in reparations for their misdeed.

Our book alternates between wartime, and Hazel's current life in 1960.  As a worker at a rare book store in London, Hazel is shocked one day when she opens a package containing a book titled, "Whisperwood and the River of Stars" by a woman named Peggy Andrews who is an American author.  And this discovery will set our story into motion, with Hazel searching to find if her sister could still be alive.  She never told anyone else this fairytale, so she is certain that Flora must have shared it with someone, for it to still exist.

There is no predicting where this story will go and all the discoveries that will be made as Hazel sets out in search of the truth.  Peggy Andrews will come to America, and her mother will tell us how she first heard of Whisperwood.  This will lead us to a country town in England, and an unexpected evil-doer, and many hopeful moments, as well.  Hazel has forgiven Harry and Bridie and includes them on her quest.  It is an exciting and surprising ending.  And, of course, a very satisfying one.  I think this book will be the next favorite among many library patrons.  I will certainly be spreading the word! -- Tracy

At the beginning of this story, our tragedy unfolds regarding the immense and fast-burning fire which historically took place in 1811, at the Richmond Theater in Viginia.  The narrators truly brought us back to this horrible time where masters and slaves were both in attendance, and both seemed to make it out of the theater.  Unfortunately, mostly women were the casualties.  You will find out why this occured as the story moves ahead.  The urgency and chaos was so well described, that I almost stopped listeneing to the book.  But, I truly felt it was important for me to understand more about not only how and why this fire happened, but how life was in the deep south during this period.  It is often a dark picture, but it was an educational and moving experience.

There are four main characters in our story.  Sally Henry Campbell is recently widowed and attending with her brother-in-law and his wife Margaret.  Cecily Patterson is a slave who is attending with her mistress, but is made to watch in a different part of the theater.  Jack Gibson is a young man working as a stagehand with dreams of becoming an actor, and nearby is Gilbert Hunt who works as a blacksmith.

What happens over the course of the evening is that a chandelier holding lit candles gets stuck on a pully and sets the stage curtains on fire.  Jack tries very hard to tell the stage manager not to yank at the cord, but he does not listen.  As the wealthier women in the third floor balcony try to escape, they are trampeled by the men, often their husbands, who make it out.  In the meantime, the women are forced to jump out second and third story windows.  When Gilbert hears a ruckus, he runs to the theater and starts catching women jumping from the second story windows, and he saves many.  Cecily, being on the first floor of the theater is able to easily get out of the building.

What pursues is that the theater company and stage crew try to blame a slave revolt for the fire.  But Jack is not happy about telling a lie.  Sally survives her jump without much injury, but Margaret breaks her leg terribly and things get very complicated when her surviving husband, a trampler who survived, has to approve an amputation to save her life and he won't do it.  Gilbert is proclaimed a hero, but he has his own problems because Cecily is his niece and is in hiding, hoping to escape to the north.  Will she make it out of the city when her owner has posted her image all over the place and is in search of her?

The book is very exciting and has a hopeful ending.  What I found most interesting, however, is the Author's Note describing which characters were based on actual people, and what parts of the story were essentially true.  The horrors of slavery are depicted in some detail, and are very disconcerting, but it is the history we all should know! I learned a lot, and found the book to be entertaining, as well. -- Tracy

At first, I found that our narrator read this book very slowly, and I was concerned that I might lose patience with her.  But, the story is so lovely, and important, that it was a pleasure to listen to Ell Potter bring us into the life of Beatrix, an eleven year-old girl from England, being sent to America by her parents during the war.  She arrives in Boston in 1941, and meets the Gregory family at the dock.  First, son William, who is 13, and son Gerald, who is 9.  Then she will meet Nancy and Ethan, who will be her parents for the next 4 years.  In our prologue, Beatrix remembers the boat ride from the their island home in Maine, where she would spend those fateful summers:

"Back then, Beatrix liked to sit next to Mr. G when he rowed them all to the mainland.  She would watch the town come into focus, the buildings growing larger, the white steeple in relief against the bluest sky.  This was in Maine, where the family went each summer, and it was during the war, although that was hard to remember when they were there.  Mrs. G often wore a pink or yellow sundress, her pearls tight round her neck, and she squawked about getting wet as William and Gerald splashed each other with water.  Mr. G would roll his eyes and half-heartedly tell the boys to stop, his glasses spotted with sea salt, his tanned arms moving the oars forward and back in a smooth rhythm.  When they got close, he would hand Beatrix an oar, and they would row, together, to shore."

At first, shy and nervous, Beatrix struggles with her new surroundings.  But before long, Ethan has taught her to swim, and she is now a sister within the Gregory family.  Nancy loves her like the daughter she always wished for.  Young Gerald has an incredible crush on her.  William is always antagonizing her.  And, Ethan quietly loves her and cares for her in his own way.  But, before long, two of them are teenagers, and have become very close, and the war ends.  Bea's return to England will be life-changing for all of them.

Over the next twenty years we will follow the lives of Bea and her mother in London.  Bea's father died of a heart attack during the war, and her mother has married and divorced a few men in the meantime, trying to fill that void.  Bea will struggle to find a partner in life, but will succeed as a headmistress of a school.  Correspondence will continue with the Gregory family, until tragedy will strike them, and pave the way for Bea's return to Boston.  At this point, Nancy has been forced to sell the Maine island home, after Ethan's death several years earlier.  

Bea's visit will change the lives of everyone in our story.  Will Bea find her happiness and stay in New England?  Will the Gregory family learn to move on with all the changes and sad events that have happened to them?  I think everyone will be more than happy with the ending of the story.  The Boston suburban and Maine vacation settings will be familar and comforting to those of us who live here.  This was an interesting WWII novel about what happened to children who left their families during the war, and how the consequences could be life-altering.  I recommend this one.  Please note that the print version has a very small font and is difficult to read even with glasses. -- Tracy

A rather fun novel from JoJo Moyes, this one takes place in London, where Nisha Cantor has just finished her workout and realized that someone has taken her bag.  While she is left with another black bag filled with less than fancy clothes, and a worn pair of pumps, somewhere out in the big city, Sam is on the way to some important sales calls and realizes that she has someone else's bag.  And the bag that Sam has includes some very fancy designer clothes and a pair of red alligator Louboutin high heels.  Being ½ size too small, she is forced to wear the red shoes instead of her flip flops to her appointments.  What is amazing, is that all her clients cannot take their eyes of the shoes, and she lands several big accounts all during this afternoon.

In the meantime, Nisha heads to the penthouse of The Bentley Hotel, where she is staying with her millionaire husband.  Forced to leave the gym in a bathrobe,  she is stopped in the elevator doorway, as her husband's bodyguards do not allow her into their suite.  This is the day Peter has decided to leave her, and to lock her out, give her clothes to his mistress, and leave her with no passport, no money, no anything.

Our story builds from there with Nisha finding a place to stay, some work as a housekeeper at the hotel, and a new friendship with the head maid named Jasmine.  At first, her elitist behavior does nothing to create any sympathy from the reader.  But, as the story goes on, we learn about Nisha's (or Anita's, as her name was before she escaped her previous existence,) becomes a more well-liked and rooted for character.  Her motis operandi is to find the woman who took her bag, and we go on quite the adventure to find Sam and the bag and the red shoes.

In the meantime, Sam is dealing with a husband who is suffering from severe depression and has quit his job and cannot seem to leave the couch during the day.  Her teenage daughter is a peripheral figure.  In addition to being the sole bread winner, Sam has a terrible boss who makes her life miserable and torments her every day.  She has the weight of the world on her shoulders.  She has worn the fancy red shoes on more than one occasion after finding out that the gym has been closed, leaving her unable to return the bag.

The last third of the book gets quite exciting as Nisha finally tracks down Sam, and their two friends Jasmine and Andrea join in the scheme to take down the evil Peter Cantor.  Peter is insisting on the return of the red shoes before he will sign settlement papers.  I had my suspicions about why he wanted those shoes, and... I was right! It is an exciting game plan to stop that man in his tracks.  Several sweet surprises await the final chapters in the book, and my overall review is that this was pure entertainment.  Our narrator does a great job with the American accents of Nisha and her son, and also varies her British accents depending on the characters' descriptions.  I would recommend this book because it is a bit crazy, exciting, endearing with the women's friendships, and the payback piece at the end of the story is most redeeming. -- Tracy

Featured as a Today Show pick by Jenna Bush, I was intrigued by the description of this book.  A young British Ghanaian woman in her mid-twenties has found herself as sole caretaker for her father who is struggling with end-stage Parkinson's Disease.  Her mother lives mostly in Ghana, taking care of the family hostel, and her brother, also raised in London, is off doing his own thing.  Upon hearing that her mother will be coming back to England to help with her father, Madeleine decides to take an apartment with three other women.  Our narrator does a wonderful job of portaying our British and Ghanain characters in a clear and authentic way.

The story is quite interesting in its examples of Ghanaian culture and expectations, and also in its exploration of a young woman's struggle with career and dating and forging friendships.  She is new at all of these things, and life is full of teachable moments for her.  Sharing her life situation and her feelings is not something she is comfortable with, and Madeleine explains this to us in the first paragraph in Chapter One:

"In African culture -- Wait, no, I don't want to be presumtuous or in any way nationalistic enough to assume certain Ghanaian customes run true in other African countries.  I might in fact just be speaking of what passes as practice in my family, but regardless of who the mores belong to, I was raised to keep family matters private.  So if my dad has his own bedroom or my mom goes abroad for inexplicable lengths of time, it's common knowledge wihin our household that we keep that business, and all matters like it, to ourselves.  "They just won't understand, you know?  We're Ghanaian, so we do things differently."

Madeleine  loses her job as a personal assistant to a theater executive early in the book.  Her boss, suffering from anxiety and depression, blames her for a calendar mix-up, that she, herself, was responsible for.  Fortunately, she finds work in her dream field of editing for a well-known publisher, and is well-liked and appreciated for her dedication and attention to detail.  Having not dated since a boy in high school, Madeleine finds herself in back-to-back uncomfortable relationships.  Her struggles are ones that most women can relate to from that time in their twenties.  When her father dies suddenly, and she is not there, Madeleine suffers an onset of depression, and is faced with examining her familial relationships.  One is with her mother, and we learn more about why she has always called her Maame.  Her mother is someone who the reader may struggle to find sympathetic.  I'm not sure I ever came to like her very much.

By the end of our story, Madeleine is healing and moving on from the bad boyfriends.  She is taking charge of her career and moving in with one of her best friends.  Things are looking up for our likeable young woman.  I felt it was a learning experience about another culture, and a bit of a look back to those years of becoming an adult, looking for love, being ambitious at work, and trying to make family life work.  The story was well crafted and had a positive vibe and outlook at the end.  I'm a sucker for a happy ending. -- Tracy

One of the most beautiful books that I have ever listened to, I could not wait each day to drive to and from work to experience more joy and pleasure from this story.  Our narrator is brilliant at performing people of all ages and genders in this novel that spans the entire life of a boy and girl who meet at the ages of ten and nine, in a perfume shop in Lahore, India.  They are attracted and connected to each other instantly.  The boy, gifted with the ability to decipher scents, is an apprentice in his uncle's shop.  On page one, we read about the special gifts bestowed upon those hoping to become masters in this field:

"His nose woke up first.

It shook Samir from his slumber, and he sat upright in bed, sniffing out the storm before it began.  Sliding out from underneath the mosquito net covering his four-poster bed, he walked up to his window and opened its shutters.  Ominous clouds had begun collecting, the moon camouflaged.  Staring up at the firmament, he cupped his chin with both hands, resting his elbows upon the windowsill.  It would arrive shortly, he coud smell it; it would materialize out of nowhere with a crack of bright light and thunder.  So he waited, for it was impossible to sleep through an imminent storm."

The girl who enters the store with her father is Firdaus, the 9 year old daughter and apprentice to her father, a well-known calligrapher.  They are there to find, or to have created, a special perfume to adorn the pages of an important manuscript that the father is commisioned to write.  While her father is conversing with the uncle, Firdaus wanders to the back room and discovers Samir, making potions.  He smells her incredible scent at first, and then he sees her pistachio-colored eyes peering through the shelves.  

Eventually, Samir will become very close to Firdaus's father, and spend a few days a week learning calligraphy.  Of course, the two young people will grow into teenagers, fall in love, and dream of their future together.  But the darkness is coming, and in 1947, Partition will separate the Muslim Firdaus from the Hindu Samir, and their lives will change forever.

The rest of the book is the story of their lives - their entire lives.  Samir will get on a boat and make his way to France.  He will become a perfumer there, marry a French woman, have a daughter, and eventually grandchildren.  As a young adult, his granddaughter will come to live with him, in hopes of learning perfumery herself.  Back in Lahore, Firdaus has had an arranged marriage to her cousin, who thankfully is a kind and understanding man.  She also has a daughter, and eventually her young grandson will come to live with her, after she becomes widowed.

The novel is read with the constant desire that these two lovers will find their way back to each other.  Late in our book, there is a shocking revelation about Firdaus, that I never saw coming.  Looking back over the print version, I now see hints of it early on.  There are many hold-your-breath moments, and hopeful moments, and truly a beautiful and unexpected ending.  There are some parts of this novel that one may find dry or difficult.  Samir finds his uncle's journal from WWI and reads the entire thing.  A sad and frustrating story.  Also, there is a lot of perfume talk, which I found fascinating, but some might find boring.  I do recommend having a print copy to go along with your audio, as the spelling of names and some Indian words are hard to understand.  I found this novel to be beautiful, perhaps even flowery, but I thought of perfumes I had loved in the past, and the remarkable life-long love story filled me with joy.  I hope you feel the same way -- Tracy

This book is wonderfully read by Michael Crouch, who is not only able to voice our young male protagonist, but does an exceptional job with the crumudgeonly neighbor Chester, and several of the female characters who make appearances throughout the story.  Our book begins with Lewis Madigan, a 24 year-old software developer and gay man, getting his pink slip and returning home to find his boyfriend packing up his car and moving to California.  Both events coming as a surprise, Lewis almost cannot believe his misfortune.  And then he finds out that the boyfriend has drained their joint savings account, and that he is now broke, as well as unemployed and brokenhearted.

Could matters get any worse?  Oh sure, they certainly can, and will.  Out on the front porch of the house next door is Chester Wheeler.  A grumpy old man and blatant homophobic, he starts to yell at Lewis asking him where his pansy friends are.   Lewis tries very hard to control himself around Chester, but it is more than a challenge.  And, when Lewis sees his umpteeth careworker walk out on him, he is not surprised.  He has no idea what this will mean for his future.

The next person to show up next door is Chester's daughter Ellie.  When she sees Lewis hanging around, she strikes up a converation and winds up begging him to be Chester's caretaker until she can find someone else.  It's a firm no, at first, until Lewis realizes that he can't pay the rent, so he makes an agreement with Ellie to do a trial run, spending days at Chester's house and nights at his own.  But then, Chester drops his dying wish on Lewis.  (Yes, Chester does not have much time left, and is very ill with cancer.) He wants to go see his ex-wife in Arizona, and take his RV which has been stored away at his friend's garage for years.  Lewis is a kind-hearted man, and actually agrees to taking the long trip from Buffalo to Arizona.

As you can imagine, things go from bad to worse and Lewis almost turns around, several times.  But, as any reader can imagine, the two will have many hours for conversation and mainly for Chester to expose his true self.  His ex-wife Sue is more than accomodating and kind to Lewis, and to hearing out Chester about his final questions for her. It's complicated and sad, but I believe the former married couple works out their feelings in the end.  The trip actually becomes a little longer, but I will keep those reasons a surprise to the reader.  When the adventure is over, Lewis has a breakthrough about a new career, and he might even have a blind date that will have an optimistic outcome.  Although a bit predictable, it is a lovely story about life and caring for each other. -- Tracy

A very enjoyable book especially for tennis fans, and especially for those of you who watched tennis back in the 1980s and 1990s, as I did.  The title character, Carrie Soto, is coached by her Argentinian father and makes a fast and furious rise to the top in the 1980s, only to be sidelined for several years by a knee injury.  The voices of Carrie and her father are convincing, but the true joy comes from famous sportscasters such as Mary Carillo and Patrick MacEnroe playing fictional ones in our story.  Musical introductions let the reader know we are beginning a sports highlight program and are always a great experience just before a match.

Carrie's father Javier came to the United States at the age of 27, having been a relatively good player in Argentina, and made his way coaching tennis after moving to Los Angeles.  There he met his wife Alicia, who was a ballroom dancer and teacher at the same country club.  Soon after, they wed, and when Carrie was born she was immediately brought to the courts to watch her father:

"When I was a baby, my father would bring a high chair to the courts so I could watch him play.  He says I would dart my head back and forth, tracking the ball.  According to him, my mother would sometimes come and try to take me out of the high chair to sit in the shade or have a snack, but I'd cry until she brought me back to the court.

My father loved to tell the story of the time when I was just barely a toddler and he first put a racket in my hand.  He softly tossed the ball to me, and he swears that on that fateful day, I swung and made contact.

He ran back to the house, carrying me on his shoulders, to tell my mother.  She smiled at him and continued making dinner."

Sadly, Carrie's mother dies soon afterwards in an accident, and the young child and her father are left to move on without mother and wife.  As Carrie grows into a young woman, and a professional tennis player, she develops a reputation of being abrupt and having a "say it like it is" attitude.  She is not well-liked by her peers, but succeeds regardless.  Could the loss of her mother be the reason she protects herself, and guards her emotions so closely?  Unfortunately, with 20 grand slam titles under her belt, her knee finally gives out, and she ends her career in 1989.

We actually begin our story 6 years later in 1996, while she and her father are at the U.S.Open watching the final of the two best players in the world.  And this becomes the turning point for Carrie - motivating her to make a comeback.  The story is filled with humor and even a little romance as Carrie's practice partner, also making a comeback, is a former fling of hers.  Her father continues to provide wisdom on the game of tennis, as well as regarding the game of life. A surprising and satisfying ending is in store for the reader.  This book was pure entertainment for me - an avid tennis fan, (but a terrible player,) since the 70s, when my own father introduced me to Wimbledon from the comfort of his reclyner in the breezeway of my childhood home. -- Tracy

I must mention immediately how brilliantly read this book is by narrator Jason Culp.  Clear and precise in emotion and delivery, the dialogue of our founding fathers is bold and loud and brings us right back to the Revolutionary period in America.  Mostly taking place in our local area of Boston and neighboring cities, we can imagine the fervor and intensity of this moment in history.  We see the houses of our ancestors from this time period every day on the streets of our hometowns, and imagine what life was like inside, and what conversations were had.  It's an exciting adventure for the reader to be brought back, and placed among the events of this time.  

The best way to set us up for the story is by hearing the very first paragraph of the very first chapter.  Here we go:

"Samuel Adams delivered what may count as the most remarkable second act in American life.  It was all the more confounding after the first: he was a perfect failure until middle age.  He found his footing at forty-one, when, over a dozen years, he proceeded to answer to Thomas Jefferson's description of him as "truly the man of the Revolution."  With singular lucidity Adams plucked ideas from the air and pinned them to the page, layering in the moral dimensions, whipping up emotions, seizing and shaping the popular imagination."

What surprised me the most about the story, was not only the primary role that Adams played in pressing his point for independence over and over and over again, but learning about all the characters who came between him and his goal.  His adversaries were always beating him down, especially trying to take away his farm, due to his inability to secure his finances.  His time in government is crucial.  His partnerships with John Hancock and his cousin John were integral to promoting the cause.  The division of Americans regarding which side they were on, seems to be a fixture that is glued down and securely stuck in every century our country has edured so far.  It reads like a novel, because it is the exciting stuff that our independence is made of!

Many of Adams' contemporaries, and even his son, will die before he does at the ripe old age of 81 on October 2, 1803.  He would not be recognized for his contributions to our country for nearly 100 years, at the centenial of The Stamp Act.  However, at his death, many had resounding praise. I almost couldn't believe my ears when I heard my hometown mentioned at the very end of the book.  A statement made at the time of his death:

"As a Danvers minuteman put it, channeling Adams -- "We always had been free, and we meant to be free always."  For American history buffs, especially those who enjoy learning about the founding of our country, this book will teach so much about so many people you may have never heard of, and it will detail events and moments that are truly dangerous and exciting and memorable.  I highly recommend this biography, brilliantly done by Stacy Schiff. -- Tracy

Being a librarian has many advanages, as one can imagine.  I get to see many books hot off the presses.  I am able to recommend favorite titles to patrons.  And... in this case, a patron who was checking out several audiobooks, suggested this title to me.  She said it was a very relaxing book that she truly enjoyed.  Intrigued by the title, I ordered the audio, and was quite pleased with this unusual Japanese story.  The narrator does a wonderful job as the main character who is a teenaged boy.  However, he also presents his female friend, and the cat with a British accent, remarkably well.  The voice might be relaxing, but the adventure and danger will not produce a restful state.  This story has a little bit of everything.

The first page of the novel sets us up for an unusual story, and we meet our protagonist:

"First things first, Grandpa's gone.

The tale that follows is pretty outrageous, but he knows that one fact is absolutely real.

It's as real as the sun rising in the morning, and his stomach rumbling with hunger at lunchtime.  He's tried closing his eyes, blocking his ears, pretending he doesn't know anything, but his grandfather isn't coming back.

Rintaro Natsuki stands there silent and still in the face of this harsh reality.  On the outside, Rintaro seems like a calm, collected young man.  But some of the people at the funeral find him eerie.  He seems too composed for a high school student who has suddenly lost his closest family member.  Sticking to the corner of the funeral parlor, Rintaro's eyes stay locked on the portrait of his grandpa."

Rintaro spends his days working in his grandfather's book store, as he waits for his aunt to retrieve him for a move away to her home.  He is quiet and sad and has not gone back to school since the funeral.  One day, an orange cat appears in the store.  He introduces himself as Tiger the tabby and announces to Rintaro that they must leave immediatly to save the books.  The boy thinks he is tired, and rubs his eyes, but the cat is still there.  When he is led to the back of the store, the stacks go on and on and on.  They keep walking until they end up in another place.  This is called the First Labyrinth.  It is a place that needs Rintaro's help to save the books.  It is challenging and dangerous, but somehow the two complete their task and make it out and back to the book store.

The next time the cat appears, Rintaro's classmate Sayo is visiting and asking him if he is coming back to school.  She will be caught up in the next adventure, which is more perilous and dangerous and will keep us fearful until the last second.  But not to worry, they make it back to the bookstore, and to a third labyrinth.  But, a fourth, more dangerous situation happens when Sayo is taken hostage in a strange and frightening place.  Will Rintaro and the cat be able to use their intellects and cunning to survive this final challenge and save their friend?  

This is certainly a fantasy/adventure story.  However, it is also a sweet coming-of-age story about a teenage boy, a girl he admires, an unusual tabby cat, a grandfather he misses, and an understanding and compassionate aunt.  It is hard to believe, but it the end, we are all so satisfied with the results, that we will go along with the story.  It brought Rintaro and his life to us for a brief time, and it was sweet and a little scary, all at the same time. And... they saved books!  -- Tracy

The main character of our story is a woman named Isobel Gamble, who has immigrated from Scotland to Salem, Massachusetts in the early 1800s.  She is a woman with special talents and abilities to see colors in letters and surrounding people.  She has always been told to keep this a secret.  Her apothecary husband Edward has taken too many of his own potions, and is now an opium addict.  After arriving he immediately takes off on another ship to act as a medical aid to the crew.  Before long, Isobel receives word that he got off the ship on an island and didn't return.  Needing to make money to survive, she takes a job as a seamstress and emroiderer for a terrible shop woman who does not pay her the value of her work.  The opening of our novel gives us a hint about where our story will take us:

"Salem was meant to be a new beginning, a place where the sharp scent of cinnamon and tea perfumed the air with hope; a place where the colors could be safe and alive in me. I was nineteen years old and Nathaniel Hathorne was twenty-four when we met on those brick streets.  His fingers were ink-stained; he was shy but handsome.  The year was 1829, and we were each in our own way struggling to be free -- he with his notebooks, I with my needle.

Some people will tell you that Nat spent the better part of a decade after Bowdoin College alone in his room learning how to write.  But that is a fabrication meant for the ages.

The true story of how he found his scarlet letter -- and then made it larger than life -- begins when I was a child in Scotland and he was a fatherless boy writing poetry that yearned and mourned."

On the day she arrives, she sees a man in a long coat on the dock who intrigues her.  This man keeps turning up and is no other than Nathanial Hawthorne.  The two become very good friends and eventually lovers, with the expected result.  Isobel is apparently naive to think Nathaniel will stay by her side.  Being from a well-known family, he cannot stay with her and he will eventually marry another woman and form a life with her.  Nathanial is a very moody man and is tormented by his family's past connection with the Salem Witch Trials.  At the time that Isobel is suffering with a hidden pregnancy and lonliness and troubles with making money, she does not know what a blessing it is that she does not end up with Hawthorne.

Isobel is very close friends with the captain of the ship which brought her from France.  When he was violently ill on board, she and her husband saved his life.  Captain William Darling will help her make her own living and will remain her closest ally.  In a moment of darkness and fear, her husband Edward will reappear and nearly kill her and capture friends.  It is a dire moment in the story.  But all ends well, and when Hawthorne's famous Scarlet Letter is published, Isobel will always know that she was the muse for his famous Hester Prine.  Combined with historical moments of the Salem Witch Trials and some history on the European witch hysteria, it was a very informative and entertaining story.  It comes highly recommended. -- Tracy

 Nineteen year-old Zoey has moved to Mallow Island, just off the coast of Charleston, where she will start college in the fall.  She is moving into her mother's former apartment at The Delawisp - a small apartment building named for the unusual turquoise birds with orange beaks who live in a tree in the courtyard, and are known for being a nuisance.  Traveling with her is her pet pigeon, named Pigeon, who comes and goes in a birdcage, but once set free has a habit of knocking things over and wreaking havoc.  Upon arrival, here is how she finds her mother's old apartment:

"Giddy with the possibility of all she might discover, Zoey started going through the drawers and cabinets. But they were all empty.  The closet, too, was bare save for a set of pink sheets and bath towels.

Panic setting in, she took a second turn around the room to make sure, but there was absolutely nothing personal here of her mother's.  Nothing.  Not even under the mattress or between the couch cushions.  There were no photos, no books with dog-eared pages, no half-written letters, no old address books, no clothes left in the closet.  There was only this dust-covered furniture, new and impersonal, as if her mother had had the place redecorated just before she'd died twelve years ago."

Not long after she has arrived, she meets a neighbor named Charlotte, who is a henna tattoo artist and is recently unemployed.  The two strike up a friendship, along with a young chef named Mac who lives in the building - one who secretly has a crush on Charlotte and cannot be anything but awkward and clumsy around her. The building manager is a man named Frasier, who not only has the ability to see the many ghosts who hang around the building, but he also has an important secret about his past.  After a resident dies, named Lizbeth, her ghost starts hanging around Frasier's office, as well.  There is some drama and darkness, as well as romance, and a crazy pigeon, all which keep the reader wanting to see what happens next.

For a short novel, we will learn a lot about each of our character's childhoods, most of them dramatically sad, and we will learn about why the ghosts have been hanging on so fervently to these people.  Lizbeth's son, with his own complicated story, will move back to South Carolina from California, and will become very close with Zoey.  This group of characters will form their own special family unit and will come to support and love each other.  In the end, I would say that there are many resolutions, and we feel that our friends are all going to be okay.  Even the ghosts all learn to let go and move on.  This is an interesting contemporary novel that takes place in an unusual southern location.  The supernatural aspects are unique and make our novel interesting and a little creepy.  This is a quick and fun read for a weekend in. -- Tracy

Beautifully read and acted by Cassandra Campbell, the best way to begin this review is with the opening words of our protagonist, Agnes Lee.  An eighty year old writer of children's stories about a girl named Nan, and also a writer of famous adult novels under a pseudonym, Agnes is struggling to complete her final novel.  She laments:

Chapter 1  -- Agnes, Philadelphia, March 2000

"Such a perfect day for writing, gray and quiet.  But nothing came to her. Not a sentence, not a phrase, not a word worth keeping.  Her wastebasket was full.  Her pile of index cards was robust.  Graph paper covered with diagrams was neatly pinned to a sheet of felt on the wall.  But the spot where her stack of usable pages usually accumulated was an empty nest.

This had never happened to her before.  Agnes Lee had written six novels and dozens of books for children without hesitation, composing and rewriting and tossing, fearlessly killing her darlings, trusting many more would come along -- not to mention volumes of journals and logs secreted in a captain's trunk in an attic room at the cottage, and lots of articles and essays under various witty pseudonyms. She might rewrite an entire manuscript, but she'd never before been at a loss at this juncture, after her research had produced new material and the time had come to sit down and draft the book.  The words had always arrived.  Her writing was on tap.  All she had to do was pull down on the handle and out it flowed.  That fact was at the center of her self-conception.  She wrote.  If she couldn't, if the tap was dry, then what?"

Our novel is the story of two best friend named Agnes and Polly, who share a lifetime of stories, and also a cherished plot of land in Maine called  "The Sanc," which is actually a sanctuary for wildlife  of all kinds.  Polly is dealing with an insecure and annoying husband, who does succumb to a post-stroke decline, and three adult sons who want her to sign over her land in Maine, sell her house, and move her into a home for old people.  But, Polly is still vital and perfectly able to function on her own.

Agnes is recovering from breast cancer surgery, and is now being stalked by a book editor named Maud Silver, who is determined to get a true biogography out of her, including the details of how the Nan books came about.  When Maud comes to Maine to coerse Agnes, a bond is formed.  And when Maud brings along her own young daughter, a miraculous discovery is made between her and the real life child named Nan, who was a beloved member of the Maine women's past.  It is a lovely full-circle moment and filled with joy.

We meet many characters throughout the book, and also go back in time to both Agnes's and Polly's young lives.  Agnes had kept a journal for years in which she wrote letters to her long deceased sister.   In these many notebooks, we see all of her innermost feelings relating to the many experiences of her life.  When she hands over these diaries to Maud, the reader comes along on this journey of discovery.  We learn about the essence of Agnes, as well as the many struggles and achievements which built the strong woman we have come to know.

By the end of the book, the best friends come together with a great idea for keeping the sancuary land preserved.  It is a most satisfying story about the bonds between friends and family.  It is about the people we love throughout our lives.  The local setting of Maine is near and dear to many of us, and we easily understand the connection our characters have to the beautiful New England landscape and the wildlife that lives there.  I loved everything in this book - an entire lifetime of memories and events relating to two very sympathetic women.  This one comes highly recommended! -- Tracy

Beautifully and clearly read by Olivia Dowd, this novel is a joy to listen to.  Our main character named Rose Hamilton has a lovely British accent, and our many other characters are Australian, and there is even an American bloke who comes along.  I always knew who was talking and never had any difficulty understanding the language and accents.

Our story begins with Rose Hamilton, frustrated that her fiance has not shown up to her birthday party, especially after they have recently lost a child together, and she is still healing from the trauma.  The year is 1941, and she is safe at the moment from any dangers of the war.  However, she is not happy, and when she sees and ad in a newspaper for a companion to take a young orphan boy to his family in Australia, she is intrigued.  After she meets the boy and his wealthy great aunt who is dying of cancer, she moves into the mansion to get to know him and to prepare for their long journey.  She notices right away that four year-old Walter is a boy of color and learns that his father was Aborigine. Right away she sees how he is treated poorly by other mothers and caretakers when she takes him to the park or out of the home.  She takes on the role as his protector from then on.

Eventually, Rose and Walter set sail on a terrible, rusty old ship, and spend months at sea trying to get to Brisbane.  When they finally arrive, and are driven out to the countryside to Walter's family's ranch, no one lets them in the home.  Here is Rose's impression of that moment:

"Emitting a ragged sigh, she turned, staring out through the water gushing from the edge of the veranda's roof, into the unknown blackness beyond.  More lightning flashed, illuminating the vast swaths of rolling land surrounding them -- the fields and distant cottages, scattered clumps of trees -- and her mind worked, trying to devise what to do next.  She couldn't let Walter know they were being kept locked out of the house, on that she was settled.  It would devastate him.  No matter what happened, she wouldn't allow him so much as a sniff of suspicion that he was anything other than welcome in his new home.  Besides, he might yet be welcome.  This really might all be some awful misunderstanding." 

Waking up the next day from having slept in the barn, Rose meets her first family member Max.  We learn about the complicated life of the little boy's mother Mabel, and what happened to Max in the war,  why his sister Esme is in limbo and the boy's grandmother Lauren is distant.  It is a complicated, yet sweet story and Walter seems to be always taken care of.  In the end, the book is a love story, and not just a romantic one.  It was a very enjoyable book with a happy ending. -- Tracy

Our novel begins with a letter from a man named Leo who is living in Boston, and is writing to an Australian author named Hannah Tigone.  Leo is a fan of the well-known murder mystery writer, and offers her any help as a sounding board with her next novel.  Chapter One begins with a woman who is trying to write her novel in the Boston Public Library.  Her name is Winifred Kincaid, but she announces herself to a few other people studying together at a nearby table as "Freddie."  She begins to have a conversation with the three people as a loud scream echoes through the room.  Thus begins the murder mystery that Hannah is actually writing from Australia.

It is confusing at first to understand that the chapters we are hearing are the beginning, middle, and end of an actual novel that is being written.  For some reason, which is never explained, the fan named Leo is getting advanced copies of the chapters and writing to Hannah about his opinions and suggestions relating to Boston language and locale.  At first, this is very interesting, as we locals understand completely the terms and places Leo is referring to.  But...over time, it gets a little creepy.

The friends who Freddie has met within the novel, within a novel, are a southern man named Cain McLeod, a very tattooed and modern woman named Marigold Anastas, and another man named Whit Metters.  The four new friends will decide to try to solve this murder together, but is the murderer among them?  Leo the reviewer seems to know early on that it is Cain who is the murderer.  He begins to have very strong opinions about where the story should go, and is certainly not happy when Freddie begins to like Cain as more than a friend.  Hannah adds a character to her book who lives in her Boston apartment building who is also named Leo.  He might get a little creepy too.

We learn early on that the victim is a woman named Caroline Palfry.  It is determined that Whit knew her as they both worked on a local tabloid called The Rag.  The four BPL friends get closer to each other, and keep looking for clues.  As the novel comes to a close, in a moment of terror and life-threatening events, we will learn who the killer is, and how and why Caroline died.  In "real life," Leo the reviewer gets more and more angry with Hannah over her literary decisions.  In the end, both the murder mystery and the real life story about Hannah and Leo come to surprising conclusions. The last page is brilliant.  This is a fun and different kind of murder mystery.  I think most readers will be entertained and surprised. -- Tracy

An ensemble cast of characters, wonderfully voiced by Juliet Stevenson, bring this feminist, post-WWII novel to life.  Taking place in a four-story bookstore in London, our three main female characters will make you proud that such strong women came before us.  We meet all three early on in our story.  One has been the first woman to graduate from Cambridge, another has worked her way up as the Head of Fiction, and our third is the secretary to the store manager

Evelyn Stone is our youngest character, straight out of Cambridge, and has just lost a job at a University to a fellow male student, who was certainly not as qualified as she.  Digging through business cards she has kept for a situation like this, Evie finds the name of the man who is the manager of rare books at Bloomsbury.  She shows up one day to meet with Mr. Dutton, the store manager for an interview, and essentially takes charge when he becomes ill.  She is hired to catalog the rare books collection, but beneath the proper, academic facade, Evie Stone is actully in search of a very rare book that she knows is housed somewhere in the building.

Vivian Lowry is a professional woman who knows her authors and her collection very well.  When Mr. Dutton goes on  medical leave, Vivian is given the job of Head of Fiction.  She immediately changes the displays to famous women authors and invites Daphne du Maurier to give an author talk at the store.  The previous head of the fiction section is now acting manager of the store, and the relationship between these two characters is fun to observe.  Why does she always proclaim her dislike for this man?  Well, one night when Evie stays late to search for the famous book, she will follow some noises she hears, and will make a shocking discovery.

Grace Perkins keeps the store running smoothly as the secretary to the manager. She and Vivian have become very close friends and commiserate about how the men tend to have all the status and power in the store.  Grace's husband came back from the war a change man, and a rather abusive one.  Sadly, Grace feels forced to stay in her marriage because of her two sons and her lack of means to support them.  She will become very close with Lord Baskin who is the owner of the store.  Let'sjust say that we like Lord Baskin and hope things work out in the end.  

Several exciting characters will enter our story including famous writers and publishers and even the wife of George Orwell.  We start to see the women join forces and begin to make plans for their future.  This is a fun book where the women take charge and show off their smarts and ingenuity.  Somehow, that mystery book that Evie is searching for will change the course of all their lives.  The romantic interests of all three brings some levity and fun to the story.  Some deeper issues that are brought up that exceplify the prejudices of the times are homosexual relationships, inter-racial relationships, racism, workplace romance, domestic abuse, and misogynistic employer practices, to name a few.  It was a very interesting book about post-war life in London, and hopefully a good demonstration of how women worked extremely hard to become equals in the workplace.  I highly recommend this one. -- Tracy

It is always remarkable to listen to an autobiography read to  you by the subject themselves.  Who else can express the exact emotions of thier memories?  If you have followed Molly Shannon's career from Saturday Night Live, to feature film actress, you may be as shocked and amazed as I was to learn of her childhood.  In addition to a fatal accident which took her mother, sister and cousin when Molly was four, you will be surprised by how she grows up with a very unorthodox father.  Through all her trauma, she remains confident and passionate about her talent as a performer.  Her drive is amazing.  Perhaps this is because of her mother's words that she remembers as a very young child:

"When I was four, I looked out the window of m family's two-story house in Cleveland, Ohio, and saw a little girl on a tricycle.  I was in the downstairs den, and the feeling was very peaceful.  My mother was folding clothes.

I remember looking at the girl and thinking, I really want to  become friends with her.

So I asked my mom, "How do you do that? How can I go up to her?"

She said, "All you have to do is go up and say, "I'm Molly,' and introduce yourself.  I think you're going to have a  lot of firends, because you seem like the type of person who could do that."

After reading this book, it seems to me that Molly must have had this discussion in her head her entire life, and perhaps, it is what gave her the confidence to meet people and be tenatious and even assertive at times, to accomplish her goals.  First, she must survive her childhood with a grieving father who allows Molly and her older sister way too many freedoms to go on adventures and to do whatever they want.  Our story will certainly explore the father/daughter realtionship that at times seems negligent.  Fortunately, after Molly is an adult and can understand her father's many secrets and fears, she will come to a better understanding of him.

The most enjoyable part of the book is simply listening to Molly tell us about her adult life, first at NYU where she will study with other now famous performers.  When she moves to L.A., she has some wonderful friends who help her get jobs here and there.  But, the big break for her is when she gets chosen as a cast member on Saturday Night Live.  Her brilliance shines there and opens the door for her future career in acting.  It is also wonderful to see her fall in love and have a family of her own.  She is so appreciative of motherhood, as one could only imagine.  I loved listening to this story.  Sad at first, it turns into quite an adventure, and a truly inspiring story of perseverence and grit.  Lots of laughs here. -- Tracy