• Finding the Grain

  • By: Wynn Malone
  • Narrated by: Amber Benson
  • Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (534 ratings)

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Finding the Grain  By  cover art

Finding the Grain

By: Wynn Malone
Narrated by: Amber Benson
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Publisher's summary

Kentucky was only ever going to be a summer job. Come fall, Blue Riley would be back in North Carolina, in college. But one job led to another, one town led to another, and one woman led to another. Now, after twenty years Blue faces the hardest question of all - is it time to go home?

©2014 Wynn Malone (P)2014 Audible Inc.
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: LGBTQ+

What listeners say about Finding the Grain

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    368
  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
    31
  • 2 Stars
    9
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Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
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  • 1 Stars
    14

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

The Passage of Time feels undefined.

First person narration across years presents a challenge to authors that this one just doesn't quite meet. The book spans more than 25 years in Blue's life, but the writing fails to show the changes in the characters in an authentic way. We are told rather than shown the passage of time. The narrator seems to feel this or adds to the problem. She doesn't mature the voices from 20 to 45+. When Grace reappears, she speaks and sounds as if no time has passed. When it was over, I felt as if Blue had gone on an odyssey of a few years instead of 25.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Too Glum for my fancy

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I really liked the part where she stayed with Mary and Preacher and decided to stop running from her feelings. The least interesting part is Blue's pining for Grace.

Any additional comments?

It's a well written book and I see why it would appeal to a lot of readers but I didn't appreciate it. It's too glum for my fancy.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars
  • DB
  • 04-20-15

Don't know if the grain was ever found -

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Anyone interested in a torturous never-ending story that has all the time in the world to listen to it.

Would you ever listen to anything by Wynn Malone again?

NO, I would not. This was a ridiculous book to listen to about a drifter with no backbone or sense whatsoever.

Would you be willing to try another one of Amber Benson’s performances?

I guess she did the best she could with what she had to read. Good grief.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Not really - the entire book was way too long with a bunch of non-sense people - there were several parts of the book that could be completely wiped out just by using in a sentence
(10 years later). What's bad is I even read the reviews and decided to give this a shot.
My mistake.

Any additional comments?

The characters were too overly DRAMATIC. It really makes you want to yell at the main character to just GROW THE HELL UP. - But no, we are forced to hear about her crap for 13 hours or more. Had she have seen a counselor when she was young - we could have avoided listening to all this dribble.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

This is a SMART book

If you’re looking for the usual love story with a dash of drama and tons of sex, move along. This is a story of a woman’s life of love and pain. A story that is painfully real.
Aside from the narrator randomly dropping accents, it was 5 star all the way.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Depression

If you like that lonely never settled feeling this is for you. 12 hours of sadness and only one hour of sorta happiness. The ending it just well ended.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

why did I wait so long to get this book?

maybe it was the length of the audio book that made me put off listening to it for so long... or maybe I was afraid the southern accents wouldn't sound good to me? I really liked the book a lot! the NARRATION WAS INCREDIBLE! she was so good at so many voices/accents. take time and enjoy this one :)

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

DNF

I tried. I really, really tried. I'm a little over two hours in and I keep looking at how much longer. 12 and half hours more to go and I can't do it. The book is boring to me. I have no idea why Blue puts up with Grace's antics. What is it about her that Blue is drawn to? And I'm guessing that Blue is going to be chasing Grace the entire book or be hung up on Grace the whole book and I can't listen to that for over 14 hours.

As an aside, Wynn Malone's writing skills are good. I don't like this particular story, but I can tell she is a good writer. So, I'm going to search for another book by this author.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved the story

Wonderful story of life and love, beautifully written, very easy to follow. Highly recommend to anyone looking for a beautiful memoir style read.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Ok
  • 07-08-22

Movie

This would make a great movie! Took a bit to settle into the accents, but once that happened it was a wonderful listening experience.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Thank You

I don’t write reviews on these books often, but I felt I had to. When I first started this book I had had it in my library for ages. I initially downloaded it since it was an included title of quite a good length within my genre of choice, but I just ignored it thinking it was probably just one more generic book. When I started it I had just intended to use it to cleanse my palette, got an alert saying it would be removed from the included books in 48 hours and was just like whatever I don’t care probably wouldn’t finish it anyway. A while into it i was enthralled, I had no idea why I just felt compelled to keep listening. I only got two hours sleep before waking up to get ready for work because I had to force myself away from it to get that much. The story was as a void pulling me I cried a lot at some point. I feel privileged to have listened to this book, I really do. I want to thank the Author and Narrator for this experience thank you.

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