November Audiobooks

Well, this is a first! I only finished 3 books this month. There are 2 main reasons. First, I wasted a week trying to force myself to finish Martyr!  Then I spent a week being a political junkie. I like politics as a spectator sport so I tend to spent a lot of time watching how all sides react after an election and this year provided much entertainment for me. I don't let politics affect me emotionally so I can watch it in the same way I watched the Dallas Giants game Thursday.....except that the game was pretty bad.

Anyway, that's my excuse for only finishing 3 books. But all three books are ones that I'd recommend. I especially enjoyed Hester. 

What good books have you read? I'm expecting December to be a better book month. I'll have a lot of free time for listening as I work on all the projects I want finished by the end of the year.

DNF
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar - I wasn't sure I'd like this but it was on a LOT of recommended reading lists. It was like wandering around with an alcoholic looking for the meaning of life. I couldn't take it.

I Hope You Find Tins Well
By Natalie Sue, Read By Nasim Pedrad

TLDR: Everyone in the office is hiding something.

Jolene is the quiet and antisocial person in the office and she knows that everyone hates her. She can barely get through a day with memories from her past always haunting her. One day IT makes a mistake working on her computer and she now has access to everyone's email boxes and phone logs. She knows that layoffs are coming and she thinks this access may help to save her job.

Overall, it's a good story. It's not as comedic as the publisher's summary proposes but it's a good story to remind you that everyone is carrying around some sort of baggage. I'm glad I've been away from the office environment for a while!

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Next Year in Havana
By Chanel Cleeton, Read By Kyla Garcia and Frankie Maria Corzo

TLDR: Good chick lit with a little Cuba history lesson.
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This is book #1 in the Cuba series. 

Marisol's beloved grandmother has died and her grandmother left instructions for Marisol to take her ashes back to Cuba for burial. Marisol  makes the trip and learns the whole story about her grandmother's family;s escape from Cuba in 1958. 

The story is told between Elisa's story in 1958 and Marisol's story in 2017. Elise's story unfolds as Marisol uncovers her secrets during the 2017 visit. As a chick lit love story it was good enough. It's the rich Cuban history that makes it a very interesting read. 

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Hester
By Laurie Lico Albanese, Read By Saskia Maarleveld

TLDR: Great imagining of the inspiration for The Scarlet Letter

I loved this book! It showed up on several recommended lists and I'm glad I bit on it.
This story imagines the inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Isobel Gambel is a very talented seamstress with a hidden "talent". She has synesthesia, a condition where senses have crossover. Words or sounds might have colors, sounds might be felt or feeling something happening to someone else. Isobel sees color in letters and sounds. She and her new husband leave Scotland for Salem, MA and, during the journey, she learns that her apothecary husband is using a little too much of his own medicine. 

While her husband is out to sea searching out medicines to open his own apothecary shop. While away, she uses her extraordinary needlework skills to try to support herself. Eventually she meets Nathaniel Hawthorne and you can guess what happens next. 

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