2024 Audiobooks – Page 4 – Rosepoint Publishing

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears #AudiobookReview #ThrowbackThursday

Best Books of the Year 2023

Book Blurb:

The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope.

In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.

Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.

My Review:

I admit to the curiosity as well as the accolades by reviewers that drove me to listen to the audiobook that Britney Spears wrote (with, I assume, help from a ghostwriter). I’ve read memoirs of other famous singers and actors and many were twice as long and certainly exhibited more depth.

I also admit that I’ve not one of her songs in my favorites list and couldn’t name one that made it big. So, yes, I might have gone into this slightly prejudiced, only seeing another young, pretty blonde exploiting her body for a short fall in talent.

Okay, okay! Sorry! Just not my generation but really my question is: Was this book a complete account of the evolution of the singer, her talent growth, the origin of her songs, personal life and creative assistants, or the horrendous chronicle of the family financially spoiled by excess into literally locking her up for thirteen years.

Thirteen years! How does that happen? Yes, I was aware of the news regarding the lawsuit. It’s an indictment of the system, the lack of proper legal representation, and the loss of financial power. But I’m not sure the memoir was meant to be the story of her rise to fame or an exposé of the family’s attempt to keep her under their total physical, financial, and media control.

Britney takes the opportunity to defend a lot of her actions, but it seems like she more than once pushed the envelope when it would have been in her larger interest to back off, particularly when she wanted so desperately to keep her boys. This would also be a condemnation of sexism in the media world (many admittedly of her choice–check the book cover) as well as conservatorships, mental health, exploitation, and (again) the paparazzi.

In the audiobook, she bubbles over with her love for Hesam (Sam) Asghari, but that was strike three as of May 2024 and fourteen months of marriage.

The memoir told a little flatly, there is always more to the story than is revealed.

Michelle Williams narrated and did a great job. I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Three point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Composer & Musician Biographies, Actor & Entertainer Biographies, Biographies of Celebrities & Entertainment Professionals
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
ASIN: B0BRBPSXCW
Listening Length: 5 hrs 31 mins
Narrator: Michelle Williams, Britney Spears – introduction
Publication Date: October 24, 2023
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: The Woman in Me [Amazon-US]
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Multi-platinum, Grammy Award–winning pop icon Britney Spears is one of the most successful and celebrated entertainers in music history, with more than 100 million records sold worldwide. In 2021, she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. Spears’s album Blackout was added to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Library & Archives in 2012. She lives in Los Angeles, California. [Amazon]

Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer, dancer, songwriter, actress and author. She has sold over 83 million records worldwide according to Zomba Label Group. The RIAA ranks her as the eighth best-selling female artist in American music history, having sold 32 million albums in the U.S. Her success as a recording artist has allowed her to work in other media; she has acted in film and television, has written two books, and has been contracted to endorse several products, including her own perfume line.

Spears released her debut album …Baby One More Time in 1999, propelling her to international stardom. It spawned the Billboard topping single “…Baby One More Time”. She released her second studio album Oops!… I Did It Again in 2000 with continued success. A third album Britney was released in 2001, followed by the release of her fourth album In the Zone in 2003. The album’s breakout single “Toxic” won Spears her first Grammy Award. After the release of a remix album/greatest hits collection, she released her fifth album Blackout in 2007.

As a result of her fame, Spears’s personal life has received much media attention. This only escalated after her marriage to Kevin Federline in 2004. She gave birth to her first child, Sean Preston, in 2005 and to her second child, Jayden James, in 2006. The couple’s divorce in November of the same year was highly publicized, followed by an ongoing custody battle over their sons. [Goodreads]

#ThrowbackThursday

The 6:20 Man: A Thriller by David Baldacci – #AudiobookReview – #ThrowbackThursday

#1 Best Seller in Crime Action Fiction

Book Blurb:

A cryptic murder pulls a former soldier turned financial analyst deep into the corruption and menace that prowl beneath the opulent world of finance, in #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci’s new thriller.

Every day without fail, Travis Devine puts on a cheap suit, grabs his faux-leather briefcase, and boards the 6:20 commuter train to Manhattan, where he works as an entry-level analyst at the city’s most prestigious investment firm. In the mornings, he gazes out the train window at the lavish homes of the uberwealthy, dreaming about joining their ranks. In the evenings, he listens to the fiscal news on his phone, already preparing for the next grueling day in the cutthroat realm of finance. Then one morning Devine’s tedious routine is shattered by an anonymous email: She is dead.

Sara Ewes, Devine’s coworker and former girlfriend, has been found hanging in a storage room of his office building—presumably a suicide, at least for now—prompting the NYPD to come calling on him. If that wasn’t enough, before the day is out, Devine receives another ominous visit, a confrontation that threatens to dredge up grim secrets from his past in the army unless he participates in a clandestine investigation into his firm. This treacherous role will take him from the impossibly glittering lives he once saw only through a train window, to the darkest corners of the country’s economic halls of power . . . where something rotten lurks. And apart from this high-stakes conspiracy, there’s a killer out there with their own agenda, and Devine is the bull’s-eye.

My Review:

Thoroughly bored and exhausted with his monotonous commute to the entry-level job as a financial analyst in an investment firm, the decorated ex-Army Ranger finds the life difficult after his military career came to an abrupt, somewhat ignominious end.

There is something he routinely checks out, however, the vision of a sweet young thing scantily clad or less lounging or swimming by the pool of an exclusive residential apartment. He’s not the only man on the train who awaits the scene with drooling interest every morning.

Then he is told a former girlfriend was found hanging in his office building and, yes, the authorities come looking for him. In a squeeze play with the feds, he is compelled to investigate her death but as his investigation progresses discovers there are matters that run much deeper than previously thought.

I rather enjoyed Travis Devine; down to earth, smart, and trying to squirm out of the fix he’s in while using those sources he’s cultivated from his past. Another interesting character is a Russian hacker who is Travis’ go-to source for all things black hat as well as one of his housemates.

These action thriller plots are never simple and the more complex, the convoluted—with twists and turns. Once again, we’ll expect to suspend some disbelief, but, hey, the characters are fun even if the storyline tends to meander. Not always fast-paced but entertaining and for the most part engaging, but for me—just a little long in the tooth.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Crime Action Fiction, Action Thriller & Suspense Fiction, Mystery Action & Adventure
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
ASIN: B09VR4LQNY
Listening Length: 11 hrs 48 mins.
Narrators: Zachary Webber, Christine Lakin, Mela Lee
Publication Date: July 12, 2022
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The 6:20 Man [Amazon]

The Author: David Baldacci has been writing since childhood, when his mother gave him a lined notebook in which to write down his stories. (Much later, when David thanked her for being the spark that ignited his writing career, she revealed that she’d given him the notebook to keep him quiet, “because every mom needs a break now and then.”)

David published his first novel, ABSOLUTE POWER, in 1996. The feature film adaptation followed, with Clint Eastwood as its director and star. In total, David has published 48 novels for adults; all have been national and international bestsellers and several have been adapted for film and television. His novels have been translated into over 45 languages and sold in more than 80 countries, with 150 million copies sold worldwide. David has also published seven novels for younger readers.

David is also the cofounder, along with his wife, of the Wish You Well Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting literacy programs across the United States.

#throwbackthursday

If Something Happens to Me: A Novel by Alex Finlay – #AudiobookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Book Blurb:

For the past five years, Ryan Richardson has relived that terrible night. The car door ripping open. The crushing blow to the head. The hands yanking him from the vehicle. His girlfriend Ali’s piercing scream as she is taken.

With no trace of Ali or the car, a cloud of suspicion hangs over Ryan. But with no proof and a good lawyer, he’s never charged, though that doesn’t matter to the podcasters and internet trolls. Now, Ryan has changed his last name, and entered law school. He’s put his past behind him.

Until, on a summer trip abroad to Italy with his law-school classmates, Ryan gets a call from his father: Ali’s car has finally been found, submerged in a lake in his hometown. Inside are two dead men and a cryptic note with five words written on the envelope in Ali’s handwriting: If something happens to me…

Then, halfway around the world, the unthinkable happens: Ryan sees the man who has haunted his dreams since that night.

As Ryan races from the rolling hills of Tuscany, to a rural village in the UK, to the glittering streets of Paris in search of the truth, he has no idea that his salvation may lie with a young sheriff’s deputy in Kansas working her first case, and a mobster in Philadelphia who’s experienced tragedy of his own.

In classic Alex Finlay form, If Something Happens to Me is told by several distinct, compelling characters whose paths intersect, detonating into a story of twist after pulse-pounding twist. The novel cements Finlay as one of the leading thriller writers today.

A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books.

My Review:

It appears there are many more people who enjoyed this one than I did. I listened to the audiobook and will add kudos to the female narrator. But for some reason, I had a problem getting into it and staying with it.

Three POVs, Ryan being the main character, who kicks off the backbone of the storyline by reliving the night he was pulled from his girlfriend’s car and sustained a blow to the head. He can only remember small glitches of that night, but remembers her screams as she is taken. He escapes an arrest for her disappearance, but public opinion as well as his schoolmates tries and convicts him. He changes his name and goes to law school, but it catches up with him in Italy five years later.

We are good so far, huh?

Okay, I’m digging the female deputy. Poppy McGee is earnest, giving it her all. This is it for her as her military experience didn’t go all that well. She is new on the job, suspects she’ll be handing out traffic tickets, when small town law enforcement needs her to follow up on leads for the car pulled out of the local lake with two male bodies inside. It could happen—it’s a small town remember (Leavenworth, KS). Coincidentally, it’s the missing girls’ car.

Okay, so behind the scenes, there is a little mischief going on with the local mob. Now we start getting twists, tropes, and the suspense ramps up. I love how the mob grandpa nurtures his grandson—it’s sweet—never mind what he’s doing with his business—the revenge third of the plot.

Then there’s the cryptic note found in the submerged car and there is much to do regarding decoding what the note says. But, generally, there is a lot going on and the narrative flips between one of the three POVs until there is gradually a connection and an audible, “Ohhh…”.

So, yeah, it is entertaining, engaging in sections while others appeared to lag a bit (for me anyway). Suspend a little disbelief and just go with the flow as the conclusion might just do it for you.

The CE read two of his previous books, What Have We Done in 2022, and enjoyed both.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Psychological Thrillers, Suspense
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
ASIN: B0CKM1LNKW
Listening Length: 7 hrs 16 mins
Narrators: Helen Laser, John Pirhalla, Paul Dateh
Publication Date: May 28, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: If Something Happens to Me [Amazon-US]
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Alex Finlay is the author of the 2021 breakout novel, EVERY LAST FEAR, the 2022’s GoodReads Choice nominee for Best Mystery & Thriller, THE NIGHT SHIFT, and his latest 2023 release, WHAT HAVE WE DONE. His work has been an Indie Next pick, a LibraryReads selection, an Amazon Editor’s Best Thriller, as well as a CNN, Newsweek, E!, BuzzFeed, Business Week, Goodreads, Parade, PopSugar, and Reader’s Digest best or most anticipated thrillers of the year. Alex’s novels have been translated into nineteen languages and are sold around the world. All of his books have been option for film and television, and EVERY LAST FEAR is in development for a series on a major streaming service. Learn more at https://alexfinlaybooks.com/

#TuesdayBookBlog

The Cyanide Canary: A True Story of Injustice by Robert Dugoni and Joseph Hilldorfer #AudiobookReview

Book Blurb:

From Robert Dugoni, the #1 Kindle -bestselling author of MY SISTER’S GRAVE, and Environmental Protection Agency Special Agent Joseph Hilldorfer comes a true story of good and evil, greed and its consequences, and an elusive quest for justice…

Early in the morning on August 27, 1996, twenty year old Scott Dominguez showed up for an ordinary day at the fertilizing plant where he worked. By 11:00am, he was clinging to life, unconscious and suffocating from toxic exposure to cyanide in a tank that was supposed to contain only mud and water.

EPA Special Agent Joseph Hilldorfer was tasked with finding out what really happened on that horrific day in Soda Springs, Idaho, but the answers would not be easily uncovered. For more than four years Hilldorfer, his partner Bob Wojnicz, and a force of top-ranking U.S. attorneys struggled to expose the disturbing truths behind the tragedy, but would their efforts be enough to put the man responsible, Allan Elias, behind bars?

Dugoni, a New York Times bestselling author known for his heart-pounding legal thrillers, and Hilldorfer, the agent who lived and breathed the Dominguez case, pen a compulsively readable work that is every bit as enthralling as fiction, yet is alarmingly true.

My Review:

My dip into a non-fiction book this year co-authored by Robert Dugoni and Joe Hilldorfer, the latter an EPA special agent in charge of the investigation in Soda Springs, Idaho. Of course, my ears perked up when I started hearing several of these little rural towns, out in the middle of nowhere, small bedroom communities for a major local industry.

Idaho is riddled with heavy mineral and mining sites as well as hot springs and mineral waters, such as this town’s namesake, Soda Springs. The first time we discovered the little town with the soda water, we couldn’t believe it until we tasted it.

The opening of the book reads like a Dugoni suspense thriller with the two young men being told to clean out the sludge in the tank, unaware it contained deadly cyanide gases, sans any protection.

Then the narrative morphs into textbook presentation and switches POV to Hilldorfer. Hilldorfer is still testing the EPA waters with violations of environmental laws lacking the serious level of meted justice it deserves.

The presentation veered into technical terms, detailed presentations, environmental laws, and examples of violations successfully tried with disappointing lightweight sentences.

Lots of characters, of course, contributed to the storyline, often preceded by personal background, education, and experience of the contributions of their successful (or failed) prosecutions and the reasons. The pacing slowed as the years advanced with little advancement and the necessity of returning to the courts yet again.

The case against Allan Elias, the owner responsible for the deadly and willful assignment, proved a slippery slope as his attorneys were perceived to find one loophole after another and Elias a bottomless pit of money to fight all allegations. Meanwhile, the survivor of the cyanide suffered permanent and life-changing losses and was racking up thousands of dollars in medical bills.

An interesting look into the evolving EPA coming into power and the progress made in protecting our environment while acknowledging the extent of work still to be done.

Did they ever send Elias to prison? Did Dominguez survive?

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Biographies of Lawyers & Judges, Lawyer & Judge Biographies, True Crime Biographies
Publisher: Tantor Audio
ASIN: B06XGYM4JG
Listening Length: 12 hrs 48 mins
Narrator: Tom Perkins
Publication Date: March 21, 2017
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Cyanide Canary [Amazon]

The Authors:

Robert Dugoni is the critically acclaimed New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and #1 Amazon bestselling author of the Tracy Crosswhite police series set in Seattle, which has sold more than 10 million books worldwide. He is also the author of The Charles Jenkins espionage series, the David Sloane legal thriller series, the Keera Duggan legal thriller series, and several stand-alone novels including The 7th Canon, Damage Control, the literary novels, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell – Suspense Magazine’s Book of the Year, for which Dugoni’s narration won an AudioFile Earphones Award and the critically acclaimed, The World Played Chess; historical novels based on true events: A Killing on the Hill about Seattle during the great depression and Hold Strong, a WWII novel; as well as the nonfiction exposé The Cyanide Canary, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. Several of his novels have been optioned for movies and television series. Dugoni is the recipient of the Nancy Pearl Award for Fiction and multiple awards for best novel set in the Pacific Northwest. He has also been a finalist for many other awards including the International Thriller Award, the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, the Silver Falchion Award for mystery, and the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award.

Robert Dugoni’s books are sold in more than thirty countries and have been translated into more than thirty languages.

Visit his website at www.robertdugoni.com, and follow him on twitter @robertdugoni and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AuthorRobertDugoni

Joseph Hilldorfer is a Special Agent for the Environmental Protection Agency and a member of the National Counter-Terrorism Evidence Response Team. He has been involved in high-profile environmental investigations in the Pacific Northwest since 1992. Prior to joining EPA, Hilldorfer was a distinguished Special Agent with the FBI in Seattle and New York City, working high-profile cases such as the Green River Killer and going undercover for the Counter-Espionage Squad. With an M.A. in Criminal Justice Administration from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a law degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, he is admitted to the Pennsylvania bar. He lives in Seattle, Washington. [Google]

#ThrowbackThursday

Long Time Gone by Charlie Donlea – #AudiobookReview – #womensleuthmysteries

Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Book Blurb:

In this engrossing, masterfully twisting new thriller from the #1 internationally bestselling author, a forensics trainee learns through a DNA test that she mysteriously disappeared as a baby thirty years ago—and her life is still in danger …

When Dr. Sloan Hastings submits her DNA to an online genealogy site for a research assignment, her goal is to better understand the treasure-trove of genetic information contained on ancestry websites. Brilliant and driven, Sloan is embarking on a fellowship in forensic pathology, training under the renowned Dr. Livia Cutty.

Sloan has one reservation about involving herself in the experiment: she’s adopted. Grateful for a loving home, she’s never considered tracking down her biological parents. The results of her search are shocking. Sloan’s DNA profile suggests her true identity is that of Charlotte Margolis, aka “Baby Charlotte,” who captured the nation’s attention when she mysteriously disappeared, along with her parents, in July 1995. Despite an exhaustive search, the family was never seen again, and no suspects were named in the case.

Sloan’s discovery leads her to the small town of Cedar Creek, Nevada, the site of her disappearance. It also leads her to Sheriff Eric Stamos. The Margolis family’s influence and power permeate every corner of Harrison County, and Eric is convinced that in learning the truth about her past, Sloan can also help discover what happened to Eric’s father, who died under suspicious circumstances soon after he started investigating her disappearance.

Slowly, over the course of a stifling summer, Sloan begins getting to know her relatives. Though initially welcoming, the Margolis family is also mysterious and tight-lipped. Not everyone seems happy about Sloan’s return, or the questions she’s asking. And the more she and Eric learn, the more apparent it becomes that the answers they both seek are buried in a graveyard of Margolis family secrets that some will do anything to keep hidden—no matter who else has to die …

My Review:

Don’t you just love it when the blurb saves you the time of reading the book? I listened to it anyway and for the most part found it very engaging.

It’s fun when a big topic of interest is used to create a unique book plot and the author takes this one and really runs with it. At the beginning, I found Sloan Hastings to be intelligent, independent, a pathologist who secured a fellowship under a forensic pathologist, an avenue Sloan was keen to explore. Her assignment is a DNA study and she is required to submit her own to create her dissertation.

Oops! She’s always known she was adopted, but isn’t sure how her adoptive parents will receive that news. But no prob. They’re cool with it.

There is a shocker, of course. She is “Baby Charlotte” (Margolis) who disappeared with her birth parents almost thirty years ago. Now for the fun part.

The Margolis family are very well to do and pretty much have the little town of Cedar Creek, Nevada wrapped up. They appear to receive her with open arms, thrilled at the discovery she is not only alive but back to discover her birth family. It’s her chance to dig into the mystery of her birth parents and get some history.

And here’s where it changes for me from her being a brilliant pathologist to a naïve, under-educated woman who requires detailed explanations that had me rolling my eyes and slapping my forehead.

Can she learn what happened to her parents and discover secrets buried for thirty years? The switch in timeline provides insight into Sloan’s birth parents, but you’ll have to start swallowing some disbelief. Twisty plot, interesting and engaging characters, and fast pace keep you flipping pages (sometimes looking for credulity). And I must admit, though I had my suspicions (eeny, meany), I picked the wrong one.

It’s entertaining. I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Three point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Women Sleuth Mysteries, Psychological Thrillers, Women Sleuths
Publisher: Recorded Books
ASIN: B0CQZ3GZ48
Listening Length: 9 hrs 19 mins
Narrator: Vivienne Leheny
Publication Date: May 21, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Long Time Gone [Amazon]
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Charlie Donlea is the USA Today and #1 International bestselling author of propulsive, female-driven thrillers including The Girl Who Was Taken, Don’t Believe It, Twenty Years Later, and Those Empty Eyes. His eighth thriller, LONG TIME GONE, explores the science of forensic genealogy.

A late bloomer, he was twenty years old when he read his first novel–THE FIRM by John Grisham–and knew he would someday write thrillers. Published in forty countries and translated into nearly twenty languages, his books have sold more than 1.5 million copies in the U.S. alone and have been optioned for film and television.

Praised for his “soaring pace, teasing plot twists” (BookPage) and talent for writing an ending that “makes your jaw drop” (The New York Times Book Review), Donlea has been called a “bold new writer…on his way to becoming a major figure in the world of suspense” (Publishers Weekly).

He was born and raised in Chicago, where he continues to live with his wife and two children. Learn more at his interactive website at CharlieDonlea dot com.

happy thursday!

Can’t We Be Friends by Eliza Knight – Denny S Bryce #AudiobookReview #BiographicalFiction

A Novel of Ella Fitgerald and Marilyn Monroe

Book Blurb:

Award-winning author Denny S. Bryce and USA Today bestselling author Eliza Knight collaborate on a brilliant novel that uncovers the boundary-breaking, genuine friendship between Ella Fitzgerald, the Queen of Jazz, and iconic movie star Marilyn Monroe.

One woman was recognized as the premiere singer of her era with perfect pitch and tireless ambition.

One woman was the most glamorous star in Hollywood, a sex symbol who took the world by storm.

And their friendship was fast and firm…

1952: Ella Fitzgerald is a renowned jazz singer whose only roadblock to longevity is society’s attitude toward women and race. Marilyn Monroe’s star is rising despite ongoing battles with movie studio bigwigs and boyfriends. When she needs help with her singing, she wants only the best—and the best is the brilliant Ella Fitzgerald. But Ella isn’t a singing teacher and declines—then the two women meet, and to everyone’s surprise but their own, they become fast friends.

On the surface, what could they have in common? Yet each was underestimated by the men in their lives—husbands, managers, hangers-on. And both were determined to gain. Each fought for professional independence and personal agency in a time when women were expected to surrender control to those same men.

This novel reveals and celebrates their surprising bond over a decade and serves as a poignant reminder of how true friendship can cross differences to bolster and sustain us through haunting heartbreak and wild success.

My Review:

Marilyn died in 1962, the year we were married. Many historical events happened the same year and I must confess many of them were lost in my own life concerns at the time. Born in 1926, Marilyn was thirty-six. Born in 1917, Ella passed in 1996 at 79 years. Both achieved legendary status, and while it is true that they did form a friendship, this is a fiction accounting of that friendship.

At times, the palaver got so thick, I completely discounted the incident. Indeed, it’s explained at the end of the book that (remember) it is a work of fiction.

What isn’t fiction is that given the time in the civil rights movement, Monroe’s support of Ella could have hurt her career which was already flourishing. It was because Marilyn was up for a pic in which she was to sing that she began hounding Ella to coach her as Ella was admittedly one of her singing idols.

Ella was well-known and successful but struggled for the level of acceptance and the better gigs as that of Lena Horne, Dinah Washington, and Nina Simone. And Ella was a big woman. The Mocambo wanted small and pretty; Marilyn helped her get into the Mocambo.

While I was fully engaged in the voice of Ella in the audiobook, I found the voice of Marilyn annoying at times, cloying, sure she did not use her public persona voice during all the private conversations.

An audiobook, I hoped for a tidbit of one of Ella’s songs. And then there was the iconic Happy Birthday song to President Kennedy by Marilyn—that breathy, sexy song so familiar to generations of fans.

The book jumps between reflections of Ella and Marilyn, sometimes creating a disjointed narrative, Ella coming over as most authentic. I enjoyed the different stories of both ladies and their families, including the account of Ella’s Aunt Virginia! Marilyn’s story inevitably covered failed marriages, including the extremely physically abusive Joe DiMaggio marriage, although Arthur Miller—while not physically abusive—swung just as hard to the mental side of abusive and was just as damaging.

“There is something in the bond of an honest friendship between women that a lover can never breach and that fake friends will never understand.”

To her credit, Ella didn’t drink, smoke, or do drugs and that became a heavy wedge between their friendship. While Ella decried Marilyn’s increasing dependency on drugs and booze, she couldn’t be a part of it.

Lots of literary license here, still there are tidbits to be gleaned between dramatic recreations or fictionalized accounts of what may have or could have happened. The authors spent untold hours in research. Perhaps the most telling is the insight given in the epilogue.

If you enjoy biographical accounts, historical accounts of some of our famous personalities, you might very well enjoy this collaboration. I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Biographical Fiction, Friendship Fiction, Biographical Historical Fiction
Publisher: HarperAudio
ASIN: B0C7DXY8TW
Listening Length: 11 hrs 15 mins
Narrators: Karen Chilton, Caroline Hewitt
Publication Date: March 5, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: Can’t We Be Friends [Amazon-US]
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Authors:

Eliza Knight is an award winning, USA Today and international bestselling author. Her love of history began as a young girl when she traipsed the halls of Versailles and ran through the fields in Southern France. She can still remember standing before the great golden palace, and imagining what life must have been like. Growing up in the Washington, D.C. area, her weekends were filled with visits to museums, and historical reenactments. Escape into history for courageous heroines, irresistible heroes and daring escapades. Join Eliza (sometimes as E.) on riveting historical journeys that cross landscapes around the world. She is a member of the Historical Novel Society and Novelists, Inc., the creator of the popular historical blog, History Undressed, a co-host on the History, Books and Wine podcast and a co-host for the true crime podcast, Crime Feast.

While not reading, writing or researching for her latest book, she tries to keep up with her three not-so-little children. In her spare time (if there is such a thing…) she likes daydreaming, wine-tasting, traveling, hiking, staring at the stars, watching movies, shopping and visiting with family and friends. She lives atop a small mountain with her own knight in shining armor, three princesses, two very naughty Newfies, and a turtle named Fish.

Look for STARRING ADELE ASTAIRE a story full of glitz and glam, delving into the life of Adele Astaire, a spirited and talented woman who served up smiles and love both on and off the stage—with and without her also famous brother Fred Astaire— along with a determined young dancer with rags-to-riches dreams. Coming in June 2024, THE QUEEN’S FAITHFUL COMPANION.

For more information about book club visits, downloadable reader guides, upcoming author events, book news, newsletter and more, visit her website: http://www.elizaknight.com

If you love history and want to dive in for some fun, visit Eliza’s popular, award-winning blog:

http://historyundressed.com or her history podcast: https://historybooksandwinepodcast.buzzsprout.com

To connect on social media, visit/follow Eliza at the following:

Twitter: @elizaknight

Denny S. Bryce is a best-selling, award-winning author of historical fiction. A former dancer and public relations professional, Denny is an adjunct professor in the MFA program at Drexel University, a book critic for NPR, and a freelance writer whose work has appeared in USA Today and Harper’s Bazaar. She is also a member of the Historical Novel Society, Women’s Fiction Writers Association, and Tall Poppy Writers. Originally from Ohio, she likes to call Chicago her hometown but currently resides in Savannah, Georgia. You can find her online at DennySBryce.com.

Nalini Akolekar, Spencerhill Associates, represents her.

#TuesdayBookBlog

Gone to Dust by Matt Goldman – #AudiobookReview – #TBT

Book Blurb:

Set in Minnesota, Gone to Dust is the debut private-eye murder mystery from Emmy Award-winning Seinfeld writer Matt Goldman.

A brutal crime. The ultimate cover-up. How do you solve a murder with no useable evidence?

Private detective Nils Shapiro is focused on forgetting his ex-wife and keeping warm during another Minneapolis winter when a former colleague, neighboring Edina Police Detective Anders Ellegaard, calls with the impossible.

Suburban divorcée Maggie Somerville was found murdered in her bedroom, her body covered with the dust from hundreds of emptied vacuum cleaner bags, all potential DNA evidence obscured by the calculating killer.

Digging into Maggie’s cell-phone records, Nils finds that the most frequently called number belongs to a mysterious young woman whose true identity could shatter the Somerville family – but could she be guilty of murder?

After the FBI demands that Nils drop the case, Nils and Ellegaard are forced to take their investigation underground, where the case grows as murky as the contents of the vacuum cleaner bags. Is this a strange case of domestic violence or something with far-reaching, sinister implications?

My Review:

Okay, yes. I was looking for an audiobook, a nice mystery, and the blurb sounded interesting. And of course, dropping the Emmy Award-winning Seinfeld writer’s name helped. (As it happens, however, that show was not one I watched.)

The setting is Minnesota in the winter and I was reading it in the upper Midwest before we slowly ground into spring, so thought I might identify. Only so far though. Minnesota is a whole nother winter.

I’m not sure what it was. Yes, you have to say covering a body in vacuum cleaner dust patiently gathered from hundreds of vacuum cleaner bags is unusual. Even Nils Shapiro, the “Scandinavian Jew” might have been considered an unusual character, certainly considering he still pined after his ex. (I often wondered why then she is an “ex.”)

Just not one that really grabbed me. Nils is a contradiction alright. He was trying for the police department when there was a change in the budget, so he managed to create a private detective agency. I guess he found a modicum of success as he is called by a police detective buddy to help him with his vacuum dust case.

For one, there are too many degrees of coincidence. Small town—okay—I get it. Everybody knows everybody or is a relative. There are red herrings, twists, and the plot involves Nils the man as much as the case. It isn’t too hard to figure out the perp. An easy read (or listen) and entertaining but it just didn’t have the tension sufficient for me to get excited.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Three point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Jewish Literature, Private Investigator Mysteries
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
ASIN: B074G4TM97
Listening Length: 7 hrs 24 mins
Narrator: MacLeod Andrews
Publication Date: August 15, 2017
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Gone to Dust [Amazon]

The Author: Matt Goldman is New York Times Best Selling author and Emmy Award-winning TV writer. He has been nominated for a Shamus Award and is a Nero Award Finalist. His TV credits include Seinfeld, Ellen, and The New Adventures of Old Christine.

#ThrowbackThursday

Small Mercies: A Novel by Dennis Lehane #AudiobookReview #historicalthrillers

Rosepoint Rating: Five Stars

Best Books of the Year 2023

Book Blurb:

Instant New York Times Bestseller

“Small Mercies is thought provoking, engaging, enraging, and can’t-put-it-down entertainment.”—Stephen King

The acclaimed New York Times bestselling writer returns with a masterpiece to rival Mystic River—an all-consuming tale of revenge, family love, festering hate, and insidious power, set against one of the most tumultuous episodes in Boston’s history.

In the summer of 1974 a heatwave blankets Boston and Mary Pat Fennessy is trying to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors. Mary Pat has lived her entire life in the housing projects of “Southie,” the Irish American enclave that stubbornly adheres to old tradition and stands proudly apart.

One night Mary Pat’s teenage daughter Jules stays out late and doesn’t come home. That same evening, a young Black man is found dead, struck by a subway train under mysterious circumstances.

The two events seem unconnected. But Mary Pat, propelled by a desperate search for her missing daughter, begins turning over stones best left untouched—asking questions that bother Marty Butler, chieftain of the Irish mob, and the men who work for him, men who don’t take kindly to any threat to their business.

Set against the hot, tumultuous months when the city’s desegregation of its public schools exploded in violence, Small Mercies is a superb thriller, a brutal depiction of criminality and power, and an unflinching portrait of the dark heart of American racism. It is a mesmerizing and wrenching work that only Dennis Lehane could write.

My Review:

The air in Southy (deeply Irish South Boston) is crackling both from the summer temps and also from the recent mandate to bus students from mostly white South Boston High to mostly Black Roxbury and vice versa. It’s 1974 and there is a sharp divide in integration from both sides. Violence is teetering on the slightest provocation and it won’t take much to light that match.

Mary Pat Fennessy is struggling like the rest in the projects; not enough money for anything, a teenage daughter pushing boundaries, and now missing. Mary Pat is not a woman who will go quietly in the night. She’s been a scrapper all her life, there is little that scares her and she was taught never to run from trouble. She starts a search for her daughter that disturbs the neighborhood Irish mob boss.

The story hooks immediately, such a dark period, rampant racism backdropped against a widow who has already lost an only son. She confronts with disbelief what she discovers about her daughter and that may be the last straw.

The well-plotted novel is dark, extremely atmospheric of the brutality of the time and locality, the gangs. The frustration weighs heavily, pain and grief in attendance, Mary Pat is an exceptionally well-drawn main character. The narrator nails the heavy resignation.

Yes, triggers of racism, language, sexual abuse, drugs. Hard to read or listen to this one and no way not to.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Book Details:

Genre: Historical Thrillers, Amateur Sleuth Mysteries
Publisher: HarperAudio
ASIN: B0B8PHDJLD
Listening Length: 10 hrs 23 mins
Narrator: Robin Miles
Publication Date: April 25, 2023
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Small Mercies [Amazon]
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Dennis Lehane (born Aug 4th, 1966) is an American author. He has written several novels, including the New York Times bestseller Mystic River, which was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also called Mystic River, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, and Kevin Bacon (Lehane can be briefly seen waving from a car in the parade scene at the end of the film). The novel was a finalist for the PEN/Winship Award and won the Anthony Award and the Barry Award for Best Novel, the Massachusetts Book Award in Fiction, and France’s Prix Mystere de la Critique.