Some habits might be good to recover, post vaccine – walking a few more blocks to hear the end of a story or driving another mile to hear the next chapter on audio. This year’s list of audiobook winners from the Audio Publishers Association has a few I may listen to, but also gave me some ideas for books I may order online to read.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke won Audiobook of the Year. When I asked my local librarian about it, she said she “liked it but it is different.” Piranesi is a fantasy novel by English author Susanna Clarke, her second novel and her first since her debut Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, published sixteen years earlier. It’s about wizardry and magic, and Ron Charles for the Washington Post says “Susanna Clarke’s infinitely clever ‘Piranesi’ is enough to make you appreciate life in quarantine – about a man trapped forever indoors…” Sounds deliciously weird, and I plan to try reading it.
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo, narrated by Elizabeth Acevedo and Melania-Luisa Marte, won both the 2021 Young Adult Audie Award and the Multi-Voiced Performance Award. The title is intriguing and this novel, in verse, about two sisters losing their father, their hero, and finding each other along the way, caught my interest. Acevedo is a National Poetry Slam champion, and she won a National Book Award for her first book, The Poet X.
A Very Punchable Face by Colin Yost of SNL fame won the Humor award.
The full list is here – Audio Book Winners 2021
And a few more stories not on the winner’s list:
- The Push by Ashley Audrain – nothing like listening to a psychological thriller. This one follows a new mom, Blythe Connor, whose concerns about her children are repeatedly dismissed—until a devastating incident sends the entire family reeling.
- Infinite Country by Patricia Engel – five members of a family that left their roots in Colombia for a better life in the U.S., only to be met with an entire new set of challenges with being undocumented in this country. Written by Patricia Engel, a daughter of Colombian immigrants.
- The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner – with a trio of narrators, flipping back and forth between the 18th century, when a London apothecary sold poison to women solely to be used on men, to the present, as a young historian finds herself tracking down a series of clues to solve the infamous centuries-old “apothecary murders.”
- Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid – author of Daisy Jones and the Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. This story follows follows four famous siblings over the span of one all-night, ultimately disastrous party.
Reading is not the same. When I can muster the motivation to open a book, it’s more likely a sequel to the Bridgerton saga or the wonderful fable by Jane Smiley – Perestroika in Paris – recommended by my good friend. And I read much more slowly, but perhaps the story of the horse, the dog, the raven, the rat, and a couple of ducks in Paris – and the map inside the cover – was one I was reluctant to see end. How else could I vicariously be in Paris, and will I ever be there in person again?
The story is simple: Dad goes out to get some milk for his kids, taking a long time, but eventually returning with a carton. When asked why he took so long, he tells them a fantastical tale involving a spaceship of green globby aliens. But it was the first paragraph that grabbed me – possibly because buying cartons of milk has become the bane of my existence these days when I fully expect to meet virus laden aliens in the grocery store. It could be my story.
I’ve been recording book reviews for the Hawaii Library for the Blind and Print Disabled during this pandemic, converting my audio into MP3 files for patrons. I’ve thought about starting a podcast as a supplement to my reviews on this blog, but thought I’d try by sharing some my recordings here first.
It started with Sue Miller’s Monogamy. With that title, I expected a love story but Miller delivered something else. With infidelity and death mixed into romantic interludes, the story left me feeling sour.
I am reading an old Penelope Lively book – How It All Began – a comforting light read as I try to avoid the news and politics. Charlotte, an older woman, falls after she is mugged and breaks her hip. This one action triggers a series of events affecting her family and strangers she has never met, seven overall – the butterfly effect rippling through lives. Lively reminds the reader how little control we have over everything.
Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths
The Key by Patricia Wentworth
The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith
Why Don’t You Write My Eulogy Now So I Can Correct It? – A Mother’s Suggestions by Patricia Marx and Roz Chast
I am listening to a scary story on Audible – Lisa Gardner’s When You See Me. Scary stories tend to keep my attention when listening, and this one started with a Mexican woman and her daughter in dire straits (before American Dirt was published).
The No Charge Book Bunch 