I’m just continuing my “What I’ve been reading” posts for mostly filler. I have honestly been reading and listening to some good stuff.
My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan
I watched the Netflix movie and was a little underwhelmed. Then I started the audiobook (read brilliantly by Whelan). How could Netflix have changed the plot and characters soooo much? I was not underwhelmed by the book. I loved Ella from Ohio and how she seemed to seamlessly make a community for herself. I found her character juggling her D.C. job for a politician she believed in a lot more palatable than Anna (from the movie) and her just taking a year off before she started working for a hedge fund. I guess seeing the film did help me visualize some of the other characters. Seriously, though, Whelan does an outstanding job doing the voices of her characters and making them come alive in the audio version.
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
This book kept popping up on a lot of my feeds. With a 16 hour road trip ahead of us, I decided to make the executive decision to listen to The Correspondent. It was perfect for the long trip BUT I will say that while I loved the different voice actors reading Sybil’s letters, I think I might have preferred to read the hardcopy of this myself. There were only so many times you could hear her address in Annapolis repeated on most letters and the “re: re: re:” of email replies. I could have easily scanned/skipped these if I had been reading it myself.
I did love Sybil’s spunk and attitude and bravado but I appreciated how her tone and demeanor changed when she was writing her unsent and ever expanding letter to Colt/Gil.
Evans has made me want to embark on reading all the books that are mentioned in her tale. I’ve been trying to find a list online that makes sense.
The Shell Seekers by Rosmand
Again, Kindle kept recommending this book to me and I vaguely remember it as being a best seller (like when I was in high school).
This is a great book but be prepared that it is massive (over 600 pages). I love a good alternating plot and Penelope’s tale is broken up into her life living through WWII and her current life in the 1980s, living out her days in a beautiful cottage with her beloved conservatory.
Penelope is only 64 but her children are worried about her living alone. Two of her children are just selfish cads. Olivia, her middle child, supports her mother’s decisions. Penelope’s father was a fairly successful artist in the first half of the 20th century and as his style comes back into vogue, the value of his works skyrocket. This leads to some issues with the problem children.
(I will say that I was listening to The Correspondent the same time I was reading this book and the plots are a bit similar and I did confuse the offspring sometimes.)
Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
My best friend from college sent me a care package the December after we graduated from college and were out on our own in different parts of the country. It contained a few touristy items from Florida (where she was living) and this book. It was my first introduction to Kingsolver. I loved it and picked up The Bean Trees soon afterwards. I listened to the audiobook and it didn’t take long for me to get involved with Codi’s life and loves and crusades again. This is a tale of coming home, reconciling and coming to terms with who you are and where you came from.
No cookbooks this month. Can you believe it? I’m not doing a lot of driving this month so there won’t be so many audio books in next months run-down.
Happy reading!!!
