nomadreader

Dear Mia Barron, I just finished listening to you read Good Riddance , the latest novel from Elinor Lipman. I remember reading and enjoying some of her novels in the 1990's and early 2000's, but I haven't read one in years. The premise of this one (a yearbook thrown away, a nosy neighbor, a documentary film!) sounded so fun, and its length (8 hours 7 minutes) is my audiobook sweet spot. Immediately after I started listening, your voice sounded so familiar. I searched Audible to see if you'd narrated another audiobook I listened to. Nope. I read your IMDB page , and the most likely reason your voice felt so familiar is one episode of Grey's Anatomy  in season six . Or maybe your voice is one of those that feels familiar for no reasons. Either way, I kept finding excuses to listen and finished in a week. Then, about half-way through, after what passes for a twist in this book, I realized (can I be honest?) I didn't really like this book very much, but I wanted...

The backstory: Gilead  won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005, the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2004, and was longlisted for the Orange Prize in 2006. The basics: As Rev. Ames nears the end of his life in the 1950's, he begins a letter to his young son because Ames realizes his son is too young to really know him. Gilead  is that letter. My thoughts: Gilead  is a novel I'm been meaning to read for years. It's a character-driven, Midwestern narrative by one of our best contemporary writers. It should be a novel I love, yet I struggled to finish it and admit I was wowed by neither the story nor the writing. Gilead  seemed almost stream-of-consciousness at first. I appreciated that Robinson jumped right in: this novel is a letter from father to son; the reader's ignorance of these two characters is not the focus. As the novel progressed, more details began to be filled in, and the reader begins to understand the characters, setting and purpose. I enjoyed the ...

The basics: When the speed of the Earth's rotation slows, life changes for Julia, an eleven-year old living in Southern California. My thoughts: I found the premise of this novel fascinating: what happens to our world when something so simple we rarely think about, the Earth's rotation, begins to change? It's a future I had not contemplated. As Thompson Walker writes in the novel's early pages: "There was no footage to show on television, no burning buildings or broken bridges, no twisted metal or scorched earth, no houses sliding off slabs. No one was wounded. No one was dead. It was, at the beginning, a quite invisible catastrophe." The change seems so minor: each day there is more daylight, followed by more nighttime. One of the initial casualties is time: do we stay on the same 24 hour clock when the middle of the night may come in the afternoon or stay on the clock of the sun? These issues were fascinating to me, and the very real-ness of the situati...

The backstory: When I interviewed Amy for Book Blogger Appreciation Week this year, I let her pick one book for me to read before the end of 2011. She chose You Are My Only  by Beth Kephart, which thrilled me because I knew both she and Wendy from Caribou's Mom adored it . The other Beth Kephart title I've read, The Heart Is Not a Size , I really enjoyed. The basics: You Are My Only  is the story of Emmy and Sophie. Emmy married young and had a baby young. One day, Emmy's baby goes missing, leaving only a yellow sock. Sophie, a teenage girl who is homeschooled and forced to be reclusive, has spent her life moving around from what her mother eerily calls the "No Good." Once Sophie discovers a cute neighbor, Joey, she begins to question her mother. My thoughts:  The narrative alternates between Emmy and Sophie. It's clear from the beginning that Sophie is Emmy's daughter, yet this connection lacked intrigue. I know I mostly read adult fiction and read ...

The backstory: I've only read one Paulo Coelho novel ( Eleven Mintues), but I enjoyed it, and I was eager to read the much-talked about Alchemist  in its new graphic novel form. The basics: "Andalusian shepherd boy Santiago travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the direction of his quest. No one knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles along the way. But what starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treasure found within." (Publisher's description) My thoughts: I was somewhat familiar with the plot of The Alchemist  even though I haven't read the book, and I think the prior knowledge was helpful. The story flowed quickly, but I really had an aversion to the artwork; it didn't suit the story. The art...

The backstory: I am not a reader who eagerly awaits the latest Jodi Picoult book. In my pre-blogging days, I read and loved Keeping Faith . Last year, I read My Sister's Keeper  and liked it . Then I read Handle With Care  and didn't much care it . Still, I appreciate her advocacy for literacy and women authors. When I heard her latest book ( coming out in March 2011 ) tackled issues of gay rights and infertility, I was doubly intrigued. The basics: Sing You Home  is the story of Zoe Baxter, a music therapist who has struggled to get pregnant for years; her husband Max, a recovered alcoholic who owns a lawncare business; Max's brother and sister-in-law, devout Christians who have also struggled with fertility issues; and Vanessa, a high school guidance counselor. My thoughts: In typical Picoult style, this story is told from multiple points of view. It was a diversion for her, however, as most of the action lies with Vanessa, Zoe and Max. For me, the story wasn't ...