L. Calder

The plot unfolded very quickly and from then on it raced, somewhat breathlessly, to an ending so unsatisfying, so suddenly out of nowhere, that I actually went back to Audible.com to see if I'd missed the 3rd part. But no, that was it. The characters were so badly drawn, that I really didn't care about anyone in it. The "psychotic" wife who mislead everyone with whom she came in contact had a sad childhood and was abandoned by her father (we're told in a wikipedia-type paragraph or two). But the psycho-analyst husband, who didn't recognize this in his wife, was such a simpering, vapid, not too sharp guy, that I wasn't really keen on his kids (whose names you couldn't keep track of because they actually appeared perhaps a handful of times doing nothing particularly interesting or revealing) going to either of them. They would probably be better off staying with their nannie, the only one with any sense in the book.

Perhaps it's because I just finished In The Woods by Tana French. Elizabeth George, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Jodi Picoult, AS Byatt, Barbara Kingsolver, Alice Hoffman, Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale are a few of the extraordinary women writers I've read/listened to. Unfortunately Elizabeth Benedict, at least in this book, revealed little of their magic.

Heard so many wonderful things about Elinor Lipman but this was a huge disappointment. I'm not even a quarter of the way through but it's a toss up whether I'll continue with it. there's no perceivable plot and little dialogue, just a narrative by a young girl who is mildly amusing, but not very interesting. Her parents are downright boring and the newest character, the ex-wife is just silly. As to the "discovery" of this first marriage of the narrator's dad, well, it's just not interesting. I really don't care about the details. I really regret wasting my money on this one. Dang! Wish I had read the Amazon reviews and not just the Audible reviews, which turned out to be a bit misleading for me.

These books just get better and better. I immediately dug into Black Rose upon the completion of Nora Roberts' 1st in this series, Blue Dahlia. Black Rose focuses on Roz Harper, the matriarch of the Harper extended family and owner/gardener extraordinaire of In The Garden Nursery - a business about which I might have fantasized had I known it might ever exist. A sprawling garden shop, offering all aspects of floral cultivation on the ancestral homestead (besides the huge and elegant home and warm, cozy cottage where her grown son Harper lives).

Didn't really get enough about Roz in the first book, so I was delighted the second locked in on her trials, tribulations and triumphs - A very feisty, generous and caring women with a green thumb that knows no bounds.

A gardener's delight, an inspiration for those who have never gotten dirt under their nails, a lovely glimpse into Southern culture and a gripping mystery, with a surprising amount of humor thrown in.

A very fun romp of a listen indeed.

Never was drawn to Nora Roberts, but Blue Dahlia tugged at my passion for dahlias and not having ever seen a blue one. The extraordinary landscape designs, the luscious nursery set up, the amazing skills of the gardeners were far more erotic than her sex scenes! (which were pretty steamy.) Oh yeah, the plot was great, the characters, spanning 3 generations, are all folks you root for (pun intended) and there's even a very unpredictable ghost in the magnificent southern ancestral home. Though I'd had two other books lined up, when Blue Dahlia was done I immediately got the next in this series, The Black Rose, because, well, there was no choice. Irrevocably hooked was I.

As talented and sweet to the ears is narrator Susie Breck, the characters, especially the men, confused me at the start. Had to re-wind over and over (actually broke down and bought the paperback). So, here's a list of the characters, that I wish I'd had, to make the first scenes more enjoyable, as this is one delicious series of books:
Setting: In The Garden Nursery at Harper House near Memphis, Tennessee
All the women are gorgeous, the men good looking and the children way beyond average.
STELLA (35ish, widow with two young sons from Minnesota - token Yankee)
ROZ Harper (45ish, matriarch of Harper household, owner/head gardener of Nursery, widow having raised three (?) boys)
HAYLEY (25ish, pregnant with no husband and thus banished from her southern home where she was raised by her father. Distant cousin of Roz)
LOGAN (Late 30's? Landscape designer and gardener, long time employee of Roz, grew up in the area)
DAVID (Late 30's, best buddy of Logan and banished from his family cause he's gay. Manages the Harper House and In The Garden Nursery, family gourmet cook and sage adviser to all.
HARPER (guess he's Harper Harper, haha, she doesn't call him by any other name in the novels. late 20's? Son of Roz, grafter/cultivator extraordinaire)

If you get those folks straight, it's all smooth sailing from there. Excellent muli-dimensional plot and terrific bits about cultivation, grafting and garden design. (Course, it doesn't sound like Tennessee has gophers. Lucky them.)

This is obviously a fantastic place to start with Nora Roberts. Humorous, inspiring female characters, educational with an intriguing mystery—how pleasantly surprised I am to find how well Roberts crafts a story AND sows a seed!

Me Before You is an utterly indescribable book. The publisher's description put me off for quite a long time. But, all the glowing Audible reviews persuaded me to take an aural gander. OMG! Poignant, funny, captivating. Jojo Moyes is a writer to follow. She tackled a subject about which no one really wants to read, and made it an infinitely empathetic, oh so English, witty, inspiring tale of courage, reminding us of the amazing, magical gift another bestows on us when they truly listen and make an effort to understand—really grasp—who we are at our very core.

The narraters were very good, especially Susan Lyons who does the main character. You will finish it, and sigh, and want so much to recommend it to others, but alas, Me Before You totally defies portrayal. All you'll be able to say is, "It's remarkable."

The breakfasts in this book were so savory! Made buttermilk pancakes for the first time in ages!

Elin Hilderbrand's Barefoot: A Novel is the tale of three women, two incidental husbands of opposite character and a young guy's Summer of 42 experience, but this time on Nantucket. It sounds like a formula, but Hilderbrand flushes out the women so well you can forgive her that.

The young dude is Josh, an aspiring writer who grew up on Nantucket but is now on summer break from college. Like the Tarot card The Fool, Josh is instrumental is each woman's quest to survive a sudden upheaval in each of their lives, (that makes your problems seem like mole hills. Though moles have driven me to distraction at times.)

Barefoot in the sand is indeed a cliché but it's spot on for how calming it truly can be. This is how Hilderbrand writes, gently pushing along a plot of oh so human foibles and life's really bad breaks by leaning on friends and family and being there for each other, even if it's awkwardly done. Whether it's grappling with a cheating husband, tossed from one's prestigious academic career because of a sex scandal or enduring the horrifics one must endure with a diagnosis of lung cancer, walking around with sand in one's shoes and pancakes for breakfast do help, although of course it's the people around, and you yourself who have to do most of the heavy lifting. Hilderbrand deftly reminds us why we soldier on, even if the odds suck.

In writing this review I realize I really have no idea why I got so immersed in this story. Perhaps, it was how much all the characters screwed up, but seem to still emerge in one piece, with the strength and wisdom to ignore the ignorant opinions of others. I've always loved listening to other's life tales, and these were exceptionally juicy and ingeniously worked out.

Another reviewer had a hard time with Rachael Warren's narration. But I found her voice very appropriate for the often sharp tongues of the women in the novel and very easy on the ears.

Barefoot is a light read, but a sweet one. I's always a pleasure when everything basically works out. Good grief, life is tough enough; this book provided a lovely reprieve.

In all honesty I expected very little from Silver Girl. A co-worker had been hounding me to read Elin Hilderbrand (her fictional background being Nantucket and me from Connecticut - now in California for the last 3 decades). Reluctant I was, because I rarely like any of the movies or books this co-worker recommends, and that's awkward, eh? So, I caved on this one, and was so pleasantly surprised.

Yes, it made me homesick for the beach house I loved as a kid, but also the characters very much drew me in. They all started out as the vapid, cliché rich—self observed and useful to no one—but remarkably and believably, they all slowly become self aware and have their eyes open to those around them as well.

The novel's take off on the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme, was very thought provoking, with Hilderbrand exposing the kind of character capable of cavalierly ruining so many around him. The author also put her spin on that which has perplexed and puzzled me: how a partner could be so oblivious to the sadistic actions of their spouse.

The women were very well drawn - becoming more complex and sympathetic as the plot evolved. The men, well frankly they were a bit like furniture. But that's fine; women rarely write men well, nor do men create much more than Barbie dolls or Raggedy Ann. So why not just focus on the gender you pen best?

Also explored is what happens when your spouse of many years dies. The suffering was very real. And even if the convenient (always handsome and sensitive) boyfriend appeared right at her door, the fantasy was as fun and entertaining as a book can offer.

It's a very good listen that kept me out in the garden after dark and made me actually look forward to my work commute!

PS - The narrators were very good. Lovely voices, both.

Jodi Picoult IS indeed THE Storyteller of our time. All her books grab you at the start, envelope you in intriguing plots and then trash the rest of your life until the inevitable ending, which you put off by reading the last chapter, very, very slowly.

Being a lapsed Jew myself, who has assiduously avoided all things Holocaust (as my Sunday and Hebrew schools filled me to a lifetime capacity of the atrocities,) I've got to admit, Picoult, skillfully brought that dark period of time to life in a way I'd never read before. Admittedly interminable at times, her tale flew by due to the empathy she illicits by drawing such complex, fallible, intelligent characters. The examination of forgiveness was quite fascinating as well. Her dialogue just gets better and better with each novel. Not sure how she manages to elicit a chuckle in the same paragraph that grips your gut.

Since Picoult is such a studious researcher, with each book I learn so much and am of course amply entertained by her excellent dose of low self-esteem female, estranged to men, finding love with the policeman, detective, lawyer or loner. Love the way she weaves in a well crafted mystery, amidst the squabbling siblings and small town eccentrics.

It's interesting to me that another favorite author, Alice Hoffman, also just re-examined the Jewish culture she shed in her youth in a very fine, albeit somber re-telling of the Masada massacre in 70 CE. (hmm…. in The Storyteller the main character, Sage, finds on the bedstead in the apartment of the ex-Nazi "an Alice Hoffman novel.")

Why, in reexamining ones religious roots, would one goes to horrendous genocides instead of looking at the religion itself? Remember, I'm a Jew as well, but still don't see the point of going over and over how we over-came being victims in the past. Where are the novels examining what the Israeli Jews are doing to the Palestinians, and why?

OK, done being a kvetch. Do read The Story Teller because it is indeed an excellent listen and damn fine historical novel as well. (And then answer my question, please?)

Jennifer Lawrence's extraordinary performance saved the movie of this book, but the Matthew Quick's novel filled in the myriad of strange gaps that either the editors or screen writer left me and my companion as we left the theater a bit bewildered. Ray Porter's narration coupled with Quick's excellent dialogue made this incredibly well done story swim by. The way Quick ever so slowly brought us to the understanding of Pat's and Tiffany's traumas was brilliant. The characters in the book are so more complex and compelling than their counterparts in the movie, where they almost became caricatures. Feel like the movie was a trailer to one remarkable book, which I've urged all my friends who saw the movie to read.

Am a fervent Kate Morton fan. Loved The Forgotten Garden, was entranced with The House at Riverton (aka Shifting Fog) and the Distant Hours, but the Secret Keeper has become my favorite. The narration by Caroline Lee was as cozy and comfortable as ever. Her voice bringing the various eras to life in vivid color, at times black and white. She would be a charm reading anyone to a calm and peaceful sleep. But during the day, when I listened, she kept me totally enthralled with the myriad of twists and turns of the story.

Morton's ability to draw the listener reader to empathy, even affection for all her characters flawed, all so human, and to disgust with her duplicitous cads, is amazing. Know this is weird, but narrator Caroline Lee did yelling and whispers really well. Been listening to books since the 80's and that's surprisingly important! Look forward to Kate Morton's next novel.

As a nerd this was a very fun read, as there are few books I've read that deal with tech issues and have decent plots. Unfortunately the characters were consistent with my two decades long experience of being the only girl in the place. The male characters were varied, eccentric, complex and evolved as the novel unfolded. The three or four females tossed in were two dimensional male figments of imagination. The two young ones were gorgeous, brilliant with no discernible character. The older female, who made a few brief appearances, was the skinny, frail squirrelly old bitty you see in children's books. Sorry for the sexist rant. Thought Robin was female when I purchased this book and had to transition into male think a chapter in.

That aside, the plot was contemporary and ingenious. Enjoyed the peek into Google employment (as I've always wanted a field trip through the place) and the amazing inventions and contrivances created to solve the mysteries. Truly entertaining right to the end. The last philosophical reflection I thought very apt at how our society has to find that delicate balance between high tech and the native artisan. Do we really want Google to replace our brain? As one who has had a passion for computers most of her life and is a Montessori teacher I struggle with that balance every day. Sloan's conclusions were very insightful. The narration by Ari Fliakos was marvelous. He could read me to sleep any night of the week.