February Audiobooks

I feel like saying "Im back!". The last few months have been a little short of reading but I caught up this month. Having a vacation in the month was quite helpful at giving me extra reading time. My mystery favorite of the month was probably Locked In and my non-fiction favorite was definitely Love and Hate in Jamestown. The Last One At The Wedding is the only book that I really didn't care for....but not enough to not finish it.

What book recommendations do you have this month!

Homing
By Jon Day

TLDR: All about raising racing pigeons plus a lot of reflections on the concept of home.

I picked up this paperback at a thrift store to bring on vacation to read. I don't have any particular interest in pigeons. Truth be told, I find them annoying and nasty in city centers. But I'm always interested in someone else's quirky hobby and that's why I picked it up.

Jon Day grew up around people who raised and raced pigeons but didn't get into it himself until after he married and settled. There are two distinct parts of the book. One is his story of setting up his lofts and acquiring, racing and breeding his pigeons. The other part is various historical reference that are reflections on the concept of home. The narrative moves back and forth between the two. 

I'd say that the book is a gentle read but that, also, it's not going to be all that interesting to other people. After I finished it I offered it to the 3 other people staying with me and all declined.
​

---

Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone
By benjamin Stevenson, Read By Barton Welch

TLDR: A witty mystery with the main character narrating how he's writing the book.

Chris and I listened to this on our drive out West.  Ernest Cunningham is on his way to a ski resort for a family reunion that he doesn't want to attend. The Cunningham family has a sordid past littered with several murders and the killings aren't over. While telling the story Ernest (Ern) is also telling us about the mystery writing process. He even identifies up front which chapters contain murders.

It's full of sarcasm and the story twists all over the place. I did not see the end coming but I did have a little trouble keeping track of all the characters. That could be because I kept getting distracted on the drive. But if you are looking for a really different type of mystery, you might like this one.

---

The Collected Regrets of Clover
By Mikki Brammer, Read By Jennifer Pickens

TLDR: A sweet novel about grieving and regrets.

​Clover lost her parents when she was young and she grew up with her grandfather. After he dies, she becomes a death doula. She had dedicated her life to helping people pass peacefully through their last days. Meanwhile, she has forgotten to tend to her own life. She keeps a journal collection of the regrets of her patients but needs to examine her own regrets.

Eventually she is hired as a doula for a woman who send Clover on a trip to find a lost love. The process, along with the kindling of new friendships, makes her examine her own life.

I listened to this on vacation. A book about death doesn't seem like such a good vacation book but, strangely, it didn't seem like a book about death. I found myself rooting for Clover to break out of her shell and find her own life. 

---

All The Devils Are Here
By Mark Dawson, Read By Simon Vance

TLDR: #4 in Atticus Priest series. Best read in order to get to know the character back stories.

Atticus Priest is hired by an obnoxious client to find dirt on his ex-wife. She goes missing during the investigation. Eventually it's discovered that the missing woman is connected to a reported missing man.

The missing man is part of a group of 5 friends who have a secret that goes back many years. Chris and I listened to it on the way home and it was fast paced and kept us entertained. There was a part that involved a UK version of a SWAT team that was seriously ridiculous, but novels get that liberty. I like this series but, I have to say, that this is my least favorite of the 4 books.

---

The Last One at the Wedding
By Jason Rekulak, Read By John Pirhalla

TLDR: A book full of unlikable characters.

I did not like this book but I did finish it. Frank Szatowski has been estranged from his daughter, Maggie, for 3 years so he's surprised when she calls him to invite him to her wedding. Frank and his sister, Maggie's aunt, are invited to attend her wedding to a very wealthy man at the family "camp" in New Hampshire. Maggie helped raise 

This is the same camp where a local woman disappeared several years earlier and there are many mysterious activities throughout the weekend. The aunt is happy to be oblivious to everything happening around her and happy to ignore some behaviors from Maggie's past. Frank reminds me of the old TV detective Columbo in an annoying way. On the one hand he was trying to rekindle a relationship with his daughter, on the other he was snooping around the camp in place where he shouldn't be. Occasionally he shows some intelligence, like Columbo. 

Maggie is unlikable, her fiance and the family are all unlikable, Frank and his sister are unlikable and the little girl they are fostering isn't really adorable either. The ending was quite unsatisfactory. Many things were left unexplained.

​I don't recommend it.

---

Love and Hate in Jamestown
By David A Price

TLDR: This book is a real gem for American history lovers.

I picked up this book at a thrift store for $2 and it's the best $2 I've spent in a long time. As a Virginian, I was presented with a lot of Virginia history in my school years. Honestly, I don't remember much of it and I certainly don't really remember my lessons on Jamestown. 

This book is a comprehensive and unvarnished story of the founding of Jamestown and establishment of the early Virginia colony. It's an amazing story of survival in the most rugged of times by people wholly unprepared for the challenges. It's not terribly long and very readable for people who aren't obsessive non-fiction readers. I only live about an hour and half from Jamestown and will be making a trip there very soon.

As I was looking back at my reading log, I saw that I read another of Price's books over 10 year ago, The Pixar Touch is about the founding and evolution of the Pixar company and it was very interesting also.

---

Locked In
By Jussi Adler-Olsen, read By Steven Pacey

TLDR: This is #10 in a great detective series set in Denmark.

Carl Morck is the head of Department Q, a special investigative unit focusing on cold cases. A 15 year old case has come back to haunt him and he's been arrested and kept in Vestra prison without bail. He's being framed and soon learns that there's a price on his head.

The Copenhagen Police Department is not helping him, only his loyal co-workers from Department Q believe/know that he's innocent and are trying to help. Even they are being thwarted by the senior management in the police department. Rose, Assad and Gordon ignore orders and dedicate themselves to solving this case. The downside of this one is that it's set during the pandemic and the pandemic elements don't age well. In this book it doesn't take away from the story much, instead it's used as a tool for some of the activities.

I love this whole series. This one is #10 and, based on the ending, I believe it's the last in the series. It was a fitting ending. I absolutely love the characters, especially Rose and Assad. If you decided to give this a try, they really need to be read in order.

---

There Are Rivers In The Sky
By Elif Shafak, Read By Olivia Vinall

TLDR: Part historical fiction about the Epic of Gilgamesh and part an exploration of the theory of water memory.

This book is told through three main characters in different time periods: 1840, 2014 and 2018. The foundation of the story is the ancient city of Nineveh, the library of King Ashurbanipal where the earliest version of the Epic of Gilgamesh was excavated from the ruins. This text has the earliest mention of a great flood. 

In 1840, Arthur is a poor boy with a genius mind. He is able to build a career as a printer and he becomes obsessed with cuneiform tablets at the British Museum. He is able to eventually translate them and some of them contain elements of the Epic. His character seems to be based on a real person at the British Museum.

In 2014, a Yazidi girl named Narin is losing her sight. Her grandmother is determined to take her to be baptized at a sacred Iraqi temple near the Tigris. This is the time of the ISIS uprising and the slaughter of thousands of Yazidi people. 

In 2018, Zaleekah is just separated from her husband and has moved to a houseboat in the Thames. She's a hydrologist in London. She had been orphaned and raised by her very wealthy uncle. One day she happens on a book about her heritage homeland, Nineveh.

Their stories are told interlaced with the movement of a single drop of water. The water memory theory is ridiculous, of course, but it is something that has been studied and it adds a poetic element to the story. It's well written and the characters are richly developed. 

---