B. Westman

I am an avid reader, having read hundreds of books in my lifetime. I love the classics, but I found this to be extremely boring, disconnected, and preachy. It seems that Tolstoy used every character's thoughts to portray his own political, religious, and economic views. Over and over and over, I lost track of the plot, wrapped up in some blathering soliloqy. Davina Porter was the one saving feature to this novel. She is one of the absolute best narrators and she did a fabulous job with even this boring dribble. I actually purchased this book simply BECAUSE Davina Porter was the narrator. She didn't let me down, but this book did. I had to push myself to finish it. Boring, boring, boring.

This audio book is absolutely amazing. It is a book about writing a book...so you get two stories for the price of one as the story's main character, a novelist, also tells the story she is writing. What is so incredible is the intertwining of two very different writing styles. There is the style of the author, but within that, the character author has a different style. Ms. Kearsley is quite talented to be able to pull this off. Additionally, the narrator, Ms. Landor, does an fantastic job with the multitude of voices in both story lines. She even uses a different "voice" to read the character's novel. It's difficult to explain, but profoundly well-done. This is definitely one that I think starts with an excellent plot and benefits all the more with an excellent narrator. A must-read.

I grabbed this novel on a whim because it was featured on a banner ad when I came to the Audible site. I am SO glad I did. This story is very well written and the characters are unique and competently developed. The story is interesting and often unpredictable, which makes it enjoyable all the way to the end.

And I have found a new narrator! Up until now, Davina Porter has been my favorite narrator due to her ability to really manipulate voices and bring a variety of characters to lfe with her voice. Therese Plummer is spectacular at this. She really breathes life into this already good novel and give you a cast of characters, each unique in their own voices. This book, unlike most that I've read or listened to, had a complete ending. When the story was over, I was done. I didn't have questions, I didn't wish it would go on...the story was over. And I liked that. It left me free to appreciate it and move on to the next book in my library with a sense of closure.

This one is definitely worth the credit.

The reviews of this book were rather mixed, but I downloaded it anyway, and I am really glad I did. The story is absolutely haunting. I have listened to this story through twice now and I can't stop thinking about it. Room is disturbing in its concept... Imagine living with a small child for 5 years in an 11x11 room. But the telling from Jack's perspective is so different from what an adult would think of the situation and is therefore completely unique. Everyday that I listen to this story, it makes me more aware of the little things I've come to take for granted. Exceptional story, well read and thought provoking.

Oh my... this is one of the absolute BEST audio books I've ever listened to. This one goes in the stack to listen to again. You see, I am FROM mid-1960's Mississippi and this story is so perfect. The use of multiple readers for the different characters was brilliant and each of them did a spectacular job with their part. It was easy to distinquish the characters and before long, you began to feel as though you were sitting in the kitchen with Minny or Aibileen, or watching the Wednesday bridge game at Elizabeth's house.

The underlying morals and racial truths depicted in this book are spot on. So is the fact that much of white Mississippi didn't understand them at the time. Skeeter's mother was so much like my own, that I often sat up straighter just listening to her.

The best part about this book aside from the story itself and the readers, is the fact that although the "truths" were not pretty, the daily lives are told with a large helping of humor. I often laughed out loud and repeated quips and saying from the book.

Overall, this is an excellent book that is just all the better when listened to. Well worth the credit! I'll be watching for more from Katheryn Stockett.

This novel was very difficult to "get into" at first. The stories seem to drift back and forth across a small Maine town, involving either Olive herself, or people who she has touched with her life.

The book itself was, on the whole, quite good and the underlying message was extremely poignant. However, there were two things that kept this from being a 5-star entry:

One was the reader. I have listened to Sandra Burr before and liked her fine, but she should stick to books with either very little dialog, or only one or two main characters. The "hokey" New England accent was horrible and the switch from narration to dialog was never smooth. This made the storylines difficult to follow.

Second was the smattering of local references to Maine. They were disjointed, random, disconnected and misplaced. When a writer makes reference to a real place, it needs to BE a real place in the novel. I live near Cooks Corner. But my Cooks Corner is not the one in the book. Neither is my Moody's. Portland and Bangor are far enough apart that someone won't go from one to the other for a job with out a significant move. Rather than bring Maine to the story, it actaully had the opposite affect. It made the story take place nowhere. And that is sad because New England IS populated with people like Olive and Henry. This could have been so much better.

I love this book. This is my third time through it, once reading and twice listening. Sandra Burr reads a little fast at times and some of the "voices" are not quite right, but this is still a very enjoyable edition of this most wonderful story. Sadly, Audible is missing the MIDDLE book of the five-book series. This one ranks right up there with the Outlander Series for me.