August Audiobooks

Another month of books is "in the books" so to speak. All in all this was a pretty good month! I really enjoyed the Jane Harper books and have another on my library wish list. I also enjoyed Westering Women and If You Want to Make God Laugh. Those are my favorite fiction books. I also really enjoyed both of the non-fiction books this month.

What have you been reading? I get some great recommendations from you. In fact, Westering Women was one of them.

The Dry
By Jane Harper, Read By Steve Shanahan

Sometimes when I finish a book and don't have anything ready from the library I'll go through Libby and look through what's available. I have to scroll through a lot of James Patterson, Lee Child and David Baldacci but eventually I find something new. That's how I found this book and the next one. I didn't realize until I started listening to the next book that I had picked 2 books from the same author! Good thing I liked both of them.

The Dry is the 1st book in a series based on federal agent Aaron Falk. I didn't even know that it was a series until I started writing this review and downloaded the image from Audible.

Twenty years ago Falk was accused of murder and his friend, Luke, provided the alibi. Now Luke is dead and Falk is summoned to return home. Falk reluctantly agrees to help investigate what happened to Luke but while here's there the old murder suspicions surface.

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The Lost Man
By Jane Harper, Read By Steve Shanahan

This one is not part of the Aaron Falk series. It's a stand-alone novel.

Two brothers are on family land standing over the body of their dead brother, Cam, the middle child. Cam has been in charge of the homestead since their father's death. Cam knows how to be prepared for the hot and dry climate of the Australian outback. How could he have gotten here without supplies?

This isn't so much of a mystery as a book about the complexities of family relationships, especially when abuse is involved. I wouldn't say that it ended as a happy book but the characters got some resolution and growth so I'd say that it ended on a hopeful note. 

​Loved the Aussie narrator for both books!

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A Long Petal of the Sea
By Isabel Allende, Read by Eduardo Ballerini

In the late 1930's General Franco overthrew the Spanish government and brought in his Fascist regime. Many people were forced to flee. This is the fictional story of Roser and Victor who first fled to France and then on to Chili. The book tells the stories of their lives until their deaths many decades later.

I should have loved this book. It's historical fiction and the story of a long life among many generations. But in the end, I just didn't. I finished it but only because I forced myself to. I just could not connect with these characters. They were like cardboard characters moving through a diorama.

The book has rave reviews on Audible so it's really possible that I don't know what I'm talking about and you might love it.

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Light It Up
By Nick Petrie, Read By Stephen Mendel

This is the 3rd book in the Peter Ash series that I started last month. My library seems to have them available quickly and I think it's because once people start listening they can't stop.

Peter Ash is a good guy who is badly damaged from his experiences in Iraq. As this book opens he is rebuilding hiking trails on Oregon when he friend as him to help with a job for his daughter. The daughter runs a security firm that supports the marijuana business. He asks Peter to help on a cash run when they are ambushed and his friend ends up dead.

​Another good one!

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Tidelands
By Philippa Gregory, Read By Louise Brealey

This is the first in The Fairmile series and is set in the mid-1600's during England's Civil War. It's not a war story, it's more of a family saga story centering around Alinor  and her two children. She's been abandoned by her husband and lives a day-to-day existence selling herbs, oils and as a midwife. One day meets James, a young man sneaking into the area . She helps him and things change drastically for her family.

​I've not read one of Philippa Gregory's novels before. It reminded me a lot of John Jakes novels. It was a little dark and sad at times but I couldn't put it down so it must have been good! 

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Being Mortal
By Atul Gawande, Read By Robert Petkoff

Atul Gawande is a physician and through this book he explores the ways that medicine, families and individuals handle end of life choices. One of the examples that he uses in the book is his own father's illness and end of life choices.

It is not a depressing book but it is an important book. We spend a lot of time thinking about what we are going to wear every day but we spend very little time thinking about how we want to die. It's guaranteed that we are going to die and this book is a guide to help understand options and to give people the confidence to make their own decisions. 

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The Last Widow
By Karin Slaughter, Read By Kathleen Earley

This is #9 in the Will Trent series and if I had taken 1 minute to check my book review spreadsheet I would have avoided this hackneyed storyline.

Will and Sara are still in some sort of weird relationship state more typical of teenagers, Will's boss still treats him more like a mother than a boss and Will is still emotionally damaged but somehow the three of them are able to solve a major crime.

The plot is trite and tired. Inspired by the Charlottesville riots, the story features a white supremacist sect determined to "fix" America. We've done enough Timothy McVey-inspired fiction. It's time to do something a tad bit more creative. 

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Westering Women
By Sandra Dallas, read By Angela Dawe

Well, if you need a book to make you grateful that you life in modern times, this is it! Ste in 1952 44 women set off on the Overland Trail with the promise of finding husbands in Goosetown, CA. The book is about the harrowing journey, the friendships and the secrets that are uncovered on the journey. 
​Another blogger recommended this book and I'm glad I gave it a try. 

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The First Conspiracy
By Brad Meltzer, Read By Scott Brick

I haven't read a Brad Meltzer book in about 10 years but this one popped up in the library and seemed interesting. I'm glad I found it!

It's all about a treasonous plot to kill George Washington during the Revolutionary War. It's got everything that a good spy novel would have except that it's not a novel.

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People of the Book
by Geraldine Brooks, Read By Edwina Wren

This is the second book that I've read from Geraldine Brooks. The main character is Hannah Heath, an Australian rare books expert. The Australian part is important because the narrator works very hard to get the Australian (and all other accents) almost to the point of distraction. I've never listened to a book where I felt the narrator worked sooooooo hard!

Anyway, Hannah is asked to conserve the Sarajevo Haggadah which was recently rescued from the Bosnian War (1996). Hannah discovers little fragments of things in the book (insect wing, salt, stains, hair) and that is the basis for telling the history of the book. There's lots of back and forth in time and LOTS of characters. 

I think, all in all, it's a good story but it was a lot of work to keep up and Hannah and her mother have a ton of baggage that I'm not sure was necessary.

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The White Queen
By Philippa Gregory, Read By Susan Lyons

This is the first in the Plantagenet and Tudor series and tells the story of Elizabeth Woodville, Queen to King Edward IV. The time period is during the War of the Roses.

Gregory's work is extremely well researched and she's clear in the interview at the end where she took literary license. She ahd lots of opportunity because the life of Elizabeth isn't well documents and there's no information in what happened to their two sons (heirs to the throne). It was a fun read although at the end Elizabeth's laments got a little tedious. But I felt that the ending was certainly plausible and it sets up well for The White Princess. #5 in the series. Books 2, 3 and 4 are about her mother and other contemporaries. Book 5 is about her daughter.

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If You Want To make God Laugh
By Bianca Marais, Read By Bianca Amato, Bhani Turpin and Katherine McEwan

17 year old Zodwa live in poverty on South Africa.She is raped and becomes pregnant.
Across town, two sisters, Ruth and Delilah,  are reunited at the homestead after years of being estranged. Zodwa's grandmother used to work for Ruth and Delilah's parents. 

After the baby is born, Zodwa's grandmother steals the baby and drops it at the home of Ruth and Delilah thinking that the baby will have a better chance at life. Two days later the grandmother is dead and Zodwa thinks she will never see her baby again.

First, there is nothing in the book to make God laugh so I have no idea where the title came from. But it's a good story about life's decisions, circumstances and consequences. All of the characters deal with conflict, despair, forgiveness and hope.

​It was a good book to end the month on.

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