nomadreader

Often I find myself listening to audiobooks that fit together, either by narrator, genre, theme or setting. As I find myself staring at a long list of them to review, I decided to start writing Litsy-length reviews and grouping them together in a new recurring series I'll call Audio Interludes. Today's installment features a trio of contemporary novels narrated in British and Irish accents. When All Is Said  by Anne Griffin narrated by Niall Buggy If an old maudlin Irishman narrator is your thing: do I have a book for you! Maurice Hannigan, over the course of one night, orders five different drinks a hotel bar and toasts each one to a different person who impacted his life. Through these five (very long) toasts that are more like stories, we learn about his life in interesting, and non-linear ways. For a debut novel, this book is bravely told, but for such an emotional book, it also felt like it was trying to be a little too clever. Is a lovely goal, but it didn't fu...

Dear Ruth Emmie Lang, I'm sorry it took me so long to read Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance, but I'm so glad I finally did so I can tell the world how much I loved it. I've had it on my shelf since October 2017, when Steph Opitz picked it for Book of the Month . It wasn't a book I would picked without Steph's recommendation. It didn't sound like something I would like. I don't usually like magical realism. I don't really animals or nature very much (I know, I know.) But Steph introduced me to Taylor Jenkins Reid with The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo , so I vowed to always choose her picks when she was a Book of the Month judge. But on my shelf it sat, unread. Then I signed up for the sixth  Litsy Markup Postal Book Club , and I thought, why not use one of the (many) Book of the Month books sitting on my shelf unread? So I picked six and had my group pick, and they all picked Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance . The choice was made for me: I ...

Well, July is done. At the beginning of the month, I told you about my mind and body challenge . August is a new month, so I'll focus on the positives and where I want to go from here. Exercise:  In July, I did 44 miles on the elliptical. That's more than any month except January, when I managed 53. Seven and a half months into my fitness journey, and that's something worth celebrating. It's also worth noting the pitiful 2 miles I put in during the entire month of June  helped kick start the fitness part of this challenge. Every day I worked out, I did 3 (or more) miles. I'm proud of that. Here's what I'm not proud of: I haven't been to the gym since July 16th.  Reading:  I have my reading mojo back. I read fourteen (!) books . And I have less than an hour left in my audiobook, so if we didn't have houseguests, I would have finished fifteen books. Did I read for an hour each day without looking at my phone? Not after the first week. It turns out ...