audiobooks – Page 3 – Rosepoint Publishing

The Midwife of Hope River by Patricia Harman #AudiobookReview #ThrowbackThursday

A Novel of an American Midwife

Book Blurb:

Midwife Patience Murphy has a gift: a talent for escorting mothers through the challenges of bringing children into the world. Working in the hardscrabble conditions of Appalachia during the Depression, Patience takes the jobs that no one else wants, helping those most in need – and least likely to pay. She knows a successful midwifery practice must be built on a foundation of openness and trust – but the secrets Patience is keeping are far too intimate and fragile for her to ever let anyone in.

Honest, moving, and beautifully detailed, Patricia Harman’s The Midwife of Hope River rings with authenticity as Patience faces nearly insurmountable difficulties. From the dangerous mines of West Virginia to the terrifying attentions of the Ku Klux Klan, Patience must strive to bring new light and life into an otherwise hard world.

My Review:

Stories set in the early thirties are usually full of grit, hardship, and economic misery. Using the Depression as an atmospheric cloak, this novel explores women and their families’ struggle with the impending birth of a baby.

Patience Murphy may be fairly new to the world of midwifery, but she doesn’t lack compassion nor steadfast courage. Particularly in the south and the conditions of the Appalachian residents during that dark time, it’s a practice that brings both joy and distress, adding yet another burden to an already over-burdened home.

And many of the conditions are desperate, from starvation to the inability to confront catastrophic winters.

I appreciated the hardening of Patience as she tests her skills throughout the storyline, sometimes partnering with the local veterinarian in the care of animals whose owners cannot pay for services except perhaps for the offer of a live chicken in exchange.

Patience is in a community in which she’s virtually a stranger, having fled her previous home under suspicious circumstances. The time is rife with discrimination, raw relations, and the struggle against those who would take the worst job away from your own opportunity for employment.

I enjoyed the many births, the unique circumstances, and the backgrounds of the varied women, and also appreciated the inner knowledge Bitsy could convey. I tired, however, of some soap box discussions, perhaps an attempt to juxtapose that time with the same one we are currently experiencing. Also, I found her background pushing disbelief and thought it was not the first time I felt a separation from the main character.

The book is well paced and kept my attention, but I felt there were a few incongruous issues. 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: Medical Fiction, Family Life Fiction
Publisher: HarperAudio
ASIN: B01GIAIPNE
Listening Length: 12 hrs 4 mins
Narrator: Anne Wittman
Publication Date: June 3, 2016
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)

Title Links: Amazon-US – Amazon-UK

The Author: Patricia Harman has spent over thirty years caring for women as a midwife, first as a lay-midwife, delivering babies in cabins and on communal farms in West Virginia, and later as a nurse-midwife in teaching hospitals and in a community hospital birthing center.

She spent over a decade in the sixties and seventies in her wild youth living in rural communes in Washington (Tolstoy Farm), Connecticut (The Committee for Non-Violent Action) and Minnesota (Free Folk). During the Vietnam years, she and her husband, Tom Harman, traveled the country, often hitch-hiking, as they looked for a place to settle. In 1974 they purchased a farm with a group of like-minded friends on top of a ridge in Roane County, West Virginia. Here on the commune, they built log houses, dug a pond, grew and preserved their own food and started the Growing Tree Natural Foods Cooperative.

It was during this time that Patsy attended her first home birth, more or less by accident. “Some people are destined,” she has written. “I was staying at a woman friend’s commune when she went into labor and I ended up delivering my first baby.” Soon after, Harman traveled to Austin, Texas to train with a collective of home-birth midwives. When she returned, she became one of the founding members of The West Virginia Cooperative of Midwives. Her passion for caring for women and babies led her to become an RN as the first step in getting licensed as certified nurse midwife. In 1985, with her children, a yowling cat and her husband she traveled north, pulling a broken down trailer to begin her training at the University of Minnesota where she received her MSN in Nurse-Midwifery.

Patricia Harman still lives and works with her husband, Ob/Gyn Thomas Harman, in West Virginia.. Though she no longer attends births, she provides care for women in early pregnancy and through-out the life span. She brings to this work the same dedication and compassion she brought to obstetrics.

#ThrowbackThursday

The One-In-A-Million Boy by Monica Wood #AudiobookReview #bookclubs #TBT

Editors’ pick Best Literature and Fiction Books

I was thrilled to find an active, dynamic book club at our local Y and attended for their June selection: One-In-A-Million Boy by Monica Wood. The book club meets once a month and is very popular. They have a curated list of books and the members have already chosen one for each month of 2025. Each have available a “Book Club to Go” kit. The book selection next month is Beartown by Fredrik Backman, and of course, I’m familiar with Backman.

Book Blurb (audiobook):

For years, guitarist Quinn Porter has been on the road, chasing gig after gig, largely absent to his twice-ex-wife Belle and their odd, Guinness records-obsessed son. When the boy dies suddenly, Quinn seeks forgiveness for his paternal shortcomings by completing the requirements for one of his son’s unfinished Boy Scout badges. For seven Saturdays Quinn does yardwork for Ona Vitkus, the spry 104-year-old Lithuanian immigrant the boy had visited weekly. Quinn soon discovers that the boy had talked Ona into gunning for the world record for oldest licensed driver. Despite himself, Quinn picks up where the boy left off, forging a friendship with Ona that allows him to know the son he never understood.

Warning: Spoilers ahead

My Thoughts

There are many reasons I read, few of them would to become depressed. On reflection, yes, it’s a good book, heavy on relationships, memory, love, loss, and hardship. The storyline is unique, rift with emotion.

But Lordy, is it a downer!

The Boy is an atypical youngster, unusual, quirky, and autistic. He’s also smaller than his peers and smart as a whip. He’s sweet. The kind of little boy you just want to hug. But sadly, much of the book is a deep dive into 104-year-old Ona Vitkus’ life and that of the boy’s father, Quinn, trying to complete his son’s Boy Scout badge work.

The Boy discovers Ona’s amazing history and becomes determined to get her into the Guinness Book of World Records. Unfortunately, he doesn’t live to see through the process.

I never warmed to Quinn, but did get an occasional chuckle from Ona’s character. Sharp as a tack, she has memories sufficient to cross your eyes. But then, many of those are of hardship and loss.

When the end arrives, it’s quiet, low-key, and almost slips by (in my case) the listener. Is it a satisfying ending? You’ll need to read the book and then you tell me. I felt relieved the experience was over but also with just a blush of satisfaction at the wrap-up and epilogue.

Book Club Thoughts

When I mentioned that I thought the book could be depressing, there were a number of agreeable head nods and quiet affirmations. As always, there were a number of varying take-aways, each finding a different point to the story.

While there was a division of opinion on the major characters, the fact that “the boy” is never named became quite the point for extended discussion, including research into why the boy was not named. And, yes, I was caught off guard as well at the end of the book, realizing that the main character did not have a name. (Many of the members thought the author’s explanation was a rather weak one.)

One hang up occurred when the question of Friendship vs Family ties came up as we delved deeply into the character of the father, Quinn, and that of Ona, who, at 104 had outlived all her friends and only had a son still living whom she did not know. So it was that we could understand, perhaps, the deeply personal and loving relationship that this special boy and a centenarian could develop.

Once again, it was fun to hear all the different opinions the same novel could develop and open my eyes to the prose, purpose, and meaning that I might not have digested. The voting was lively but on the whole—they liked it!

Many thanks to my local library for providing me with a copy of the audiobook and the opportunity to read and review this book. The thoughts expressed here are my own.

Book Club rating

Book Blurb (print):

Winner of the Nautilus Award and the New England Society Book Award, Monica Wood’s The One-in-a-Million Boy is the incandescent story of a 104-year-old woman and the sweet, strange young boy assigned to help her around the house—a friendship that touches each member of the boy’s unmoored family.

“The story of your life never starts at the beginning. Don’t they teach you anything at school?”

So says 104-year-old Ona to the 11-year-old boy who’s been sent to help her out every Saturday morning. As he refills the bird feeders and tidies the garden shed, Ona tells him about her long life, from first love to second chances. Soon she’s confessing secrets she has kept hidden for decades.

One Saturday, the boy doesn’t show up. Ona starts to think he’s not so special after all, but then his father arrives on her doorstep, determined to finish his son’s good deed. The boy’s mother is not so far behind. Ona is set to discover that the world can surprise us at any age, and that sometimes sharing a loss is the only way to find ourselves again.

Book Details:

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Contemporary Literature & Fiction, Family Life Fiction
Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC
Narrator: Chris Ciulla
ASIN: B01E5126WY
Listening Length: 10 hrs 27 mins
Publication Date: April 18, 2016
Source: Audiobooks – Local Library

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK

Monica Wood - author — Monica Wood author photo courtesy Goodreads

The Author: Monica Wood is the author of four works of fiction, most recently The One-in-a-Million-Boy, which won a 2017 Nautilus Award (Gold) and the 2017 fiction prize from the New England Society in the City of New York. She also is the author of Any Bitter Thing which spent 21 weeks on the American Booksellers Association extended bestseller list and was named a Book Sense Top Ten pick. Her other fiction includes Ernie’s Ark and My Only Story, a finalist for the Kate Chopin Award.

Monica is also the author of When We Were the Kennedys, a memoir of her growing up in Mexico, Maine. The book won the Maine Literary Award for Memoir in 2013, and the Sarton Women’s Literary Awards for Memoir in 2012.

Monica Wood website

Book Club — AI generated graphic courtesy Gemini 2.5 Flash

Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave: A Novel by Elle Cosimano #AudiobookReview #TuesdayBookBlog

Best Books of the Year So Far 2025

Book Blurb:

Finlay Donovan and her nanny/partner-in-crime, Vero, have not always gotten along with Finlay’s elderly neighbor, Mrs. Haggerty, the community busybody and president of the neighborhood watch. But when a dead body is discovered in her backyard, Mrs. Haggerty needs their help. At first a suspect, Mrs. Haggerty is cleared by the police, but her house remains an active crime scene. She has nowhere to go . . . except Finlay’s house, right across the street.

Finlay and Vero have no interest in getting involved in another murder case—or sacrificing either of their bedrooms. After all, they’ve dealt with enough murders over the last four months to last a lifetime and they both would much rather share their beds with someone else.

When the focus of the investigation widens to include Finlay’s ex-husband, Steven, though, Finlay and Vero are left with little choice but to get closer to Mrs. Haggerty and uncover her secrets . . . before the police start digging up theirs. But who will solve the mystery first?

A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books.

My Review:

It’s been a year since I read Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice and now here we are with Book 5 of the quirky, irreverent series featuring a writer (Finlay) who’s hit the wall and is usually frantically trying to stall her New Jersey(?) editor while she comes up with something. Her best friend, Vero, has a dubious background and often times comes up with slightly illegal solutions to Finlay’s current problems.

And Finlay seems to have them. Usually of her own making.

She has two little ones and miraculously manages all the mischief-making without involving the young and innocent.

Finlay and Vero (who was originally supposed to help her manage the babies, the house, and be a quasi-assistant), are of similar age and persuasion. They are young, smart, and independent. Their dialogue is fast, snarky, and very contemporary.

I was hooked by the first installment and read each one since. I found a few over the top for me but came back for more anyway. This one includes an old lady (good old Mrs. Haggerty—the neighbor—save me from the narrator’s switch in voice—so annoying).

The plot, however, is clever, twisty, and humorous and I found it fast and fun. Just the right amount of romance (Finlay has a hot cop boyfriend and Vero also a new love interest), sexual innuendo, and trash talk. For the most part, the narrator does a credible job with the switch in voices and situation. Gotta run to keep up!

Enjoy something modern, engaging, and entertaining? If you haven’t already, might try this one.

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: Humorous Fiction & Satire, Women Sleuth Mysteries, Humorous Fiction
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
ASIN: B0D3622PF1
Listening Length: 9 hrs 11 mins
Narrator: Angela Dawe
Publication Date: March 4, 2025
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Elle Cosimano is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, an International Thriller Award winner, and an Edgar® Award nominee. Her acclaimed young adult novels include Nearly Gone, Holding Smoke, The Suffering Tree, and Seasons of the Storm. Elle’s debut novel for adults, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It, kicked off a witty, fast-paced contemporary mystery series, which was a PEOPLE Magazine Pick and one of New York Public Library’s Best Books of 2021. In addition to writing novels for teens and adults, her essays have appeared in The Huffington Post and Time. Elle lives with her husband and two sons in Virginia. You can learn more about her at her website: http://www.ElleCosimano.com.

Photo courtesy of Holly Virginia Photography

Happy Listening!

Silent Creed and Reckless Creed by Alex Kava #AudiobookReviews #ActionThriller #TBT

Books 2 and 3 Ryder Creed

Audiobook Reviews - Ryder Creed Books 2 and 3

Remember back in April when I posted a review for Breaking Creed, Book 1 of the Ryder Creed series? Yes, I got hooked and vowed to listen to all eight in the series. Unfortunately, my library had only these three in audiobook format. I’d read the others if I weren’t quite so stacked up on ebooks in the TBR just waiting for attention. Needless to say, I greatly enjoyed Ryder Creed and the saga of his dog rescue, the great support characters, and the stories incorporating rescues turned service animals. Hey—it could happen and I imagined it so through these entertaining books.

I snapped up Books 2 and 3 and hardly turned off the earbuds except to charge them.

Ryder Creed – An ex-military Afghanistan veteran. He has teamed with Hannah. They rescue and train dogs from their compound in Florida. All breeds, all sizes, different jobs. A few dogs, for instance, Grace, a little Jack Russell Terrier, are multi-service and their expertise is in increasing demand.

Maggie O’Dell, a character from which this series is apparently a spin-off, is a FBI profiler. She’s smart, experienced, and wields her authority with impunity.

Silent Creed Book 2

This time Creed and his dog Bolo have been called to North Carolina to the scene of a horrific mudslide that took out a covert lab and personnel.

Maggie O’Dell continues to play a part. I appreciate that we don’t have an underlying romance thing going on here, although it’s lightly suggested (maybe it was in Book 1), that they might have a brief history. (Now they have a good reciprocal working relationship.)

This novel introduces a new veteran, Jason Seaver, dealing heavily with PTSD as well as a missing arm who settles into the rescue compound ably handled by Hannah, also an appealing and engaging character.

There is intrigue, twists, and a fast pace to the book. The conclusion ends rather abruptly—was that a cliff-hanger? Or no…not sure. 4 stars

Reckless Creed Book 3

Things turn slightly more complex when there are multiple, seemingly unrelated events that culminate in the death, explanatory or not, of several individuals. Each have their own POV ramping up engagement, emotions, and connection and then gradually—with each other.

The plot, though the book was published in 2016, is certainly topical and garners attention immediately. The suspense is palpable, the fear real. The storyline builds tension throughout. Is it terrorism?

There is always some explanation into a dog’s psyche. In this installment, info of disease transmittable from animal to human, some woven in so you don’t realize the information being digested.

Once again, the storyline culminates rather quickly, although this episode does knit in a few loose threads from Book 2, while leaving a couple new threads to chew on for Book 4. 5 stars

I do greatly enjoy the series but perhaps it is not one that you might want to jump into the middle rather than at the beginning with Book 1. I love the obvious affection that Ryder has for his dogs, each handled with respect for their individual abilities. The dogs are well developed and lovable characters. I’d prefer continuing with audiobooks, but it appears my library only has a few more of the series but in digital format.

This series began in 2014 and ended in 2023 with Ryder Creed #8. I’ll be looking for more. Each of the audiobooks was about 7+ hours published by Recorded Books and was narrated by Graham Winton who did a credible job.

If you like suspenseful doggy stories and action thrillers, you may very well appreciate these fun and entertaining books. I downloaded a copy of these audiobooks from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

The Author: ALEX KAVA is a New York Times, USA Today and Amazon bestselling author of twenty novels including the award-winning FBI Profiler Maggie O’Dell series and the critically acclaimed and now award-winning Ryder Creed K-9 Mystery series. Recently LOST CREED won the 2019 Nebraska Book Award. Her novel Stranded was awarded both a Florida Book Award and the Nebraska Book Award. One False Move was chosen for the 2006 One Book One Nebraska and her political thriller, Whitewash, was one of January Magazine’s best thrillers of the year. Published in over thirty-four countries, Kava’s novels have made the bestseller lists in the UK, Australia, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Poland.

“A TRAILBLAZER IN THE K-9 FICTION GENRE, Kava creates a “dynamic between Ryder and his canines that reveals a world rarely shared in fiction and perhaps nowhere presented more effectively than in this series.” —Phil Jason, Florida Weekly

“It’s impossible not to care about and root for the human and canine heroes in Kava’s series.” —Tracie Holtcher, The Radio Pet Lady Network ™

She is a member of the Nebraska Writers Guild and is a founding member of International Thriller Writers. Kava divides her time between Omaha, Nebraska and Pensacola, Florida with her pack of of westies.

Happy Listening!

Breaking Creed by Alex Kava #AudiobookReview #ActionThriller

Book 1 of 8 Ryder Creed

Book Blurb:

Ryder Creed and his dogs have been making national headlines. They’ve intercepted several major drug stashes being smuggled through Atlanta’s airport. But their newfound celebrity has also garnered some unwanted attention. When Creed and one of his dogs are called in to search a commercial fishing vessel, they discover a secret compartment. But the Colombian cartel’s latest shipment isn’t drugs. This time, its cargo is human. To make matters worse, Creed helps one of the cartel’s drug mules escape – a 14-year-old girl who reminds him of his younger sister who disappeared 15 years ago. Meanwhile, FBI agent Maggie O’Dell is investigating a series of murders – the victims tortured, killed, and dumped in the Potomac River. She suspects it’s the work of a cunning and brutal assassin, but her politically motivated boss has been putting up roadblocks. By the time she uncovers a hit list with Creed’s name on it, it might be too late. The cartel has already sent someone to destroy Creed and everyone close to him. But Creed and his dogs have a few surprises in store on their compound in Florida. Will it be enough to stop a ruthless cartel determined to remove the thorn in its side once and for all?

My Review:

OMG, another dog series I’m just discovering and why hasn’t someone told me about this one?

The main character is a damaged Afghanistan ex-military person. In this case, Ryder Creed. He has teamed with Hannah and together they rescue and train dogs for all the different jobs that humans have discovered they can excel at. Many of the dogs are multi-service and their service is in demand.

Grace is a little Jack Russell Terrier and my favorite. JRs are a feisty, smart breed. She is one of the multi-service dogs, keenly aware of all the nuances of her handler, intelligent, and with a nose that knows. As Ryder says, “Grace is never wrong.”

In fact, there are several engaging characters, including Maggie O’Dell, who is apparently a character from another series by the author. An obvious romance link, though neither acknowledges the tension—fine by me—I’m not here for the romance.

Maggie is an FBI profiler but tends to play fast and loose in her position. She’s experienced and has enough history behind her to project authority.

Breaking Creed by Alex Kava — Audiobook cover – UK

There is a sub-level plot with lots of things going on, a mystery, well-developed and engaging characters, and a plot that is steeped in action if not description and explanation of the training and psyche of canines.

There is an escalation of body count which involves drug cartels and nasty people. The connection with Ryder and his dogs though is primo in this narrative and anyone who loves or is fascinated by their abilities will enjoy. It is also, however, a credible thriller with some human characters that this reader loved as well. The narrator did a fine job with the Southern accents and kept the pressure on.

I appreciated the ease into Book 1 of a new series which appears to be a spin off of a previously well received series and enjoyed it enough to go looking for Book 2. Look for Silent Creed soon.

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

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Action Thriller & Suspense Fiction, Crime Thrillers, Mystery Action & Adventure
Publisher: Recorded Books
ASIN: B00RN8QS4O
Listening Length: 7 hrs 6 mins
Narrator: Graham Winton
Publication Date: January 27, 2015
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)

Title Links:

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK

“It’s impossible not to care about and root for the human and canine heroes in Kava’s series.” —Tracie Holtcher, The Radio Pet Lady Network ™

The Paris Express: A Novel by Emma Donoghue #AudiobookReview #WorldLiterature

Book Blurb:

Based on an 1895 disaster that went down in history when it was captured in a series of surreal, extraordinary photographs, The Paris Express is a propulsive novel set on a train packed with a fascinating cast of characters who hail from as close as Brittany and as far as Russia, Ireland, Algeria, Pennsylvania, and Cambodia. Members of parliament hurry back to Paris to vote; a medical student suspects a girl may be dying; a secretary tries to convince her boss of the potential of moving pictures; two of the train’s crew build a life away from their wives; a young anarchist makes a terrifying plan, and much more.

From an author whose “writing is superb alchemy” (Audrey Niffenegger, New York Times bestselling author), The Paris Express is an evocative masterpiece that effortlessly captures the politics, glamour, chaos, and speed that marked the end of the 19th century.

My Review:

Oh, mercy, I’m so not a fan of slow burn starts, and this one is a bit angonizing—at least for me.

I usually enjoy historical fiction and have read and reviewed a couple books recently on disasters (both manmade and natural) in the US. Thinking this would read roughly the same, managed this audiobook from my local library.

This novel recounts the disastrous train crash packed with people riding the rails into Paris back in 1895. There are characters I specifically enjoyed, including two of the train crew, but as the storyline progressed and the addition of more characters jammed the train, their voices created a cacophony that was a bit difficult to separate.

The characters are persons from countries as far away as the US and Russia and those innocent to the sinister, one of whom has hatched a deadly plan and is simply waiting for the most appropriate time to implement it.

The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue — The Paris Express – UK Kindle cover

Because of the divergence in persons (including historical figures), their backgrounds are examined along with their purposes for traveling to Paris. As the train hurtles toward a shocking but not unexpected end, the pace speeds up as well, and the explanation of the mechanics of the old train, obviously well researched and quite spellbinding, provides a heart-pounding account of the speed, power, and limitations of the locomotive.

The characters drive the dialogue from the political to economics and the reader is offered a peek into some long and plot grinding discussions. There is tension building in those discussions, although for some of the lesser interesting easy to read-skip over. The thoughts of the anarchist who is now seeing individuals, rather than a faceless body of persons, revealed just the tiniest stumble of well laid plans.

In the end, I found it a bit anti-climactic and rather abrupt and was caught off guard even as I was speeding along with it to the station at Montparnasse knowing the outcome. Not a wholly satisfying denouement. But then, again, it is an historical event. How else?

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: World Literature, Historical Fiction, Genre Fiction
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
ASIN: B0D67V6PQL
Listening Length: 7 hrs 15 mins
Narrator: Justin Avoth
Publication Date: March 18, 2025
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)

Title Links:

Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Born in Dublin in 1969, Emma Donoghue is a writer of contemporary and historical fiction whose novels include the international bestseller “Room” (her screen adaptation was nominated for four Oscars), “Frog Music”, “Slammerkin,” “The Sealed Letter,” “Landing,” “Life Mask,” “Hood,” and “Stirfry.” Her story collections are “Astray”, “The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits,” “Kissing the Witch,” and “Touchy Subjects.” She also writes literary history, and plays for stage and radio. She lives in London, Ontario, with her partner and their two children.

Audiobooks

Cher: Part One: The Memoir by Cher #AudiobookReview #BiographiesofWomen

Amazon Charts #19 this week

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

Cher: The Memoir, Part One promises to be an engaging and exciting audiobook experience, befitting this incredible book. Read in part by Cher herself, the book is introduced, and each chapter launched, by the author. Rounding out each chapter as she continues the narrative is celebrated stage actor Stephanie J. Block. Stephanie starred on Broadway in The Cher Show for which she won a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award. Together, Cher and Stephanie share the storytelling duties, alternating within the chapters to create a unique audiobook treatment that will bring listeners fully into this period of Cher’s life—from her earliest childhood memories, to her meeting Sonny and their ascent into superstardom, her painful divorce from Bono, her relationship with Gregg Allman and her reach for independence. It is a story of creativity, individuality, motherhood, love, and loss, as only Cher could recount.

“Lending my voice to help deliver Cher’s memoir has been an honor and a thrill. Her life is fascinating, glamorous, surprising, exciting… and at times, completely heartbreaking. Her story is a beautiful balance of ULTIMATE stardom and accessibility. She is CHER for a reason and this book helps the reader get behind ‘the reason,’” says Block.

“When it came to completing the audiobook, I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it all myself due to my dyslexia. But then I thought of Stephanie, who won the Tony for playing me on Broadway in The Cher Show. I knew she would be the perfect choice to get across to the reader the essence of me. I called her and within hours she re-arranged her schedule to start the recording. I felt so safe having her help share my story, and she did a beautiful job,” says Cher.

My Review:

Ooh, I do love memoirs, especially of those I’ve grown up/old with. And, Cher? Yes, one of a kind—didn’t need a first and last name.

Yes, of course, I got the audiobook, although not narrated wholly by Cher, you can hear that unique voice at the beginning of the chapters. I hadn’t known about the part that Stephanie J Block played on Broadway giving her a Tony Award (among others). She does sound like her and there were a few times when I realized I was no longer listening to Cher, but Stephanie.

Still, it was Cher’s “voice,” the telling of her childhood, meeting Sonny, the babies, the split, and still was only the first part of the memoir? I guess the second part is due out late this year.

Always a fan, I’ve been both appalled and amazed at the trails she was blazing, a contrast in naiveté and ballsiness when she needed it. The sixteen-year-old found a steadfast lover, father figure, friend, and (at times) questionable agent in Sonny.

Crazy childhood, she frankly relates the years with the different “dads,” the birth of “G,” and her mother. It was wild and later free of her mother, but then Sonny, eleven years older, took over. He was a hustler, a player, always trying one thing or another and wasn’t long before he noticed something very unique and special about Cher.

No, Cher didn’t just happen. They tried out a couple different names prior to the transition into Cher. But they “clicked” and had fun for years. I loved the Sonny and Cher Show and it’s gratifying now to know that what we were seeing, on the show, was real.

Their split was tough. Like losing Desi and Lucy (George Burns and Gracie Allen before that). Fans are often left lamenting the end of musical groups—it’s a divorce from their public as much as each other. Too bad, as it was so special.

Thoroughly entertaining, nostalgic, and probably most of everything you ever wanted to know. She doesn’t pull punches. Amazing stories about so many big names. She was there. A memoir I’d recommend, fan or not, and better than a National Inquirer.

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

Book Details:

Genre: Actor & Entertainer Biographies, Biographies of Women, Biographies of Celebrities & Entertainment Professionals
Publisher: HarperAudio
ASIN: B0D5J76G3H
Listening Length: 15 hrs 47 mins
Narrators: Cher, Stephanie J. Block
Publication Date: November 19, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)

Title Links:

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

Cher - photo courtesy Goodreads bio — Photo courtesy Goodreads bio

The Author: Cher (born Cherilyn Sarkisian, (1946) later adopted by Gilbert LaPierre) is an American pop singer, actress, songwriter, film director, record producer and author. Among her many career accomplishments in music, television and film, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award and three Golden Globe Awards among others.

Cher first rose to prominence in 1965 as one half of the pop/rock duo Sonny & Cher. She also established herself as a solo recording artist, releasing 25 albums, contributing to numerous compilations, and tallying 34 Billboard Top 40 entries in the U.S. over her career, both solo and with Sonny. These include eighteen Top 10 singles and five number one singles. Cher has had 16 Top 10 hits in the UK Singles Chart between 1965 and 2003, four of which reached number one.

She became a television star in the 1970s and a film actress in the 1980s. In 1987, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the romantic comedy Moonstruck.

With a career surpassing 40 years, Cher is an enduring pop icon and one of the most popular female artists in music history. Since her debut in 1964, Cher has sold over 200 million records worldwide as a solo artist[3] and 75 million more as half of the duo Sonny and Cher.
http://www.cher.com/

#AudiobookReview

Brooklyn: A Novel by Colm Toibin #AudiobookReview #TuesdayBookBlog

Editors’ pick Best Literature & Fiction

Book 1 of 2: Eilis Lacey

Book Blurb:

A NEW PRODUCTION NARRATED BY SAOIRSE RONAN, ACADEMY AWARD–NOMINATED STAR OF THE 2015 FILM ADAPTATION!

Colm Tóibín’s New York Times bestselling novel—also an acclaimed film starring Saoirse Ronan and Jim Broadbent nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture—is “a moving, deeply satisfying read” (Entertainment Weekly) about a young Irish immigrant in Brooklyn in the early 1950s.

“One of the most unforgettable characters in contemporary literature” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), Eilis Lacey has come of age in small-town Ireland in the hard years following World War Two. When an Irish priest from Brooklyn offers to sponsor Eilis in America, she decides she must go, leaving her fragile mother and her charismatic sister behind.

Eilis finds work in a department store on Fulton Street, and when she least expects it, finds love. Tony, who loves the Dodgers and his big Italian family, slowly wins her over with patient charm. But just as Eilis begins to fall in love, devastating news from Ireland threatens the promise of her future.

My Review:

Unhappily, our Netflix doesn’t present the movie version of Brooklyn, and it sounds like the plot might have gotten ground a bit, skipping over the mundane. I might have preferred the movie.

I did, however, listen to the audiobook, and sorry (once again) of my inability to make those notes along the way on an audiobook. It does present a slow start, introducing Eilis Lacey and her life in small town fifties Ireland and that of her large Catholic family, an older sister and three brothers, the latter of whom all split for England and greater opportunity.

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin - UK cover — Brooklyn – UK cover

Eilis is facing that age when her reality is marriage and kids and longing for something more is asking the old familiar, “Is that all there is?”

No, not for her, as the family priest and her older working sister have arranged her sponsorship to Brooklyn, along with a room in a boarding house and a job in a department store. Her sister will take care of their mother, so off she goes.

The transition is not just from a small town to metropolis, Ireland to America, family to boarding house with a variety of cliquey boarders, singlehood to introduction to men. There is the shock of relocation, the homesickness, and the previous lack of adult decision making for herself.

The storyline is not new. We’ve been through this plot before but what sets it apart, of course, is the author’s prose, writing style, description of the era, and transition of old morals to modern. Yes, coming of age, right between the eyes.

As the narrative progresses, there are decisions to be made, back bone to be adjusted, and actions taken that with either choice will forever alter the life she had planned or expected.

Decisions, decisions…

The Italian American with the family making firm plans on advancement, all appearances looking upwardly mobile and a man who obviously adores her. Does she adore him back?

No.

Does she even love him? Did she get swept into another of those life-altering decisions without proper consideration? Yup.

Now, Ireland. She’s been called back. Her sister passed unexpectedly leaving no one to care for her mother. But…blue skies! There is the Irish man who adored her from afar—still available and now transformed with testosterone.

I thought it was no contest and I’m not a fan of the non-ending. So it was a romance. And conflict; eenie, meenie, miney, mo…

This one seemed to have the spectrum of reviews. Did you read it? How did you feel about it?

Best of all might be that it was on my list of Irish authors for this year’s Reading Ireland Month, the #Begorrathon, hosted by Cathy at 746 Books.

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: Movie, TV & Video Game Tie-in Fiction, Coming of Age Fiction
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
ASIN: B0DGMPHMBF
Listening Length: 9 hrs 50 mins
Narrator: Saoirse Ronan
Publication Date: October 22, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Colm Tóibín is the author of ten novels, including The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; The Testament of Mary, and Nora Webster, as well as two story collections and several books of criticism. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and has been named as the laureate for Irish fiction for 2022-2025 by the Arts Council of Ireland. Three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Toibin lives in Dublin and New York.

March is #ReadingIrelandMonth