Book Review:The Cliffs

 

I am generally a fan of J. Courtney Sullivan, but I gave up partway through Friends & Strangers and I may have only made it through this one because it was audio.

I would say it was well-written and held my attention, but the subject matter wasn't that appealing. It's not quite a ghost story, but it does get a little woo-woo. And even as someone who leans left politically, I found it pretty preachy.

The long stretches of historical information were interesting, but it might be more appropriate for parents trying to sneak educational lessons to  younger readers. The characters seemed less like real people and more like vehicles to transmit various bits of nonfiction research the author wanted to pass along.

Book Review: Day

 

Has Michael Cunningham ever written a stinker? I doubt that he would be capable of such a thing. His work reads like poetry: exquisite word choices and vivid descriptions of the environment. This book is lighter on plot than character - which is my preference. We follow a handful of characters, in alternating narrative, as they live through the 2020 pandemic in New York City.

Cunningham's writing is so beautiful and he succeeds in getting the reader to care about the relationships between these imaginary people and the strain            put on them by lockdown and Zoom classes and isolation and fear and loss.

The book is read by Julianne Moore and I can't imagine  anyone doing a better job.

Book Review: Heart the Lover

 

Finally. I really enjoyed this book. I read Lily King’s last book, Writers and Lovers, and I really enjoyed that one too. There were some biographical similarities between the main characters and I really thought it  might be a prequel for about the first half of the book. (It's not.)

Even though it begins with a love triangle as the foundation for he plot, it doesn’t seem to be focused on romance so much as it is on the coming-of-age aspect.

The book jumps ahead several years and I became very invested in whether the characters are able to have a particular conversation. (No spoilers.)

 

King is especially good with dialogue. She manages to do that thing which is very difficult for writers, which is to make dialogue that is both interesting and believable. It is so easy to do one or the other and so hard to do both. She creates characters that are very original and specific and they talk about fascinating things passionately.

 

When I find myself stuck writing-wise, I try to read something good. This is the first book I've read in awhile that makes me want to write. 

Book Review: Some Bright Nowhere

 

Ann Packer's The Children's Crusade was one of my all time favorites so I had high hopes for this one.  Unfortunately, itrwas a disappointment. 

The plot was a long time married couple in the last months of the wife's life. The wife makes an unconventional request and the husband's attempt to honor it leads to a bizarre dynamic between her friends and family fighting over her last days.

Mostly, the story is dull, full of long-winded dialogue and errands that don't go anywhere. 

Also, the narrator is male and his attempt to voice dialogue for a primarily female cast comes off mocking, as if they are drag queens. 

Book Review: Summer Sisters

 

Well, it definitely was the right genre this time. Family tension? Check. Complicated friendship? Check. Romantic element not the focus? Identity? Grief? Check. Check. Check.

My complaint with this one is that there are so many characters that it’s hard to keep track – dozens – and there are multiple actors voicing them, which does not make any sense because it is written in third person. 

 

I found the developing adolescent sexuality issues kind of . . . creepy. The story itself is sprawling. It spans decades and is circuitous. The main character was not compelling enough for me to root for.

Begging for book recommendations

 

No offense to readers/writers of women's fiction with a romance focus, but that's not me and I keep accidentally reading it. The blurb for this sounded right up my alley- an independent heroine revisiting old family drama and figuring out how to create an unconventional path forward. Unfortunately it was more Scooby-Doo mystery peppered with rekindled romance with high school boyfriend.

To be fair, this is a good book for the intended audience. And I really don't mean to insult that audience. I have nothing against a story with a love interest- love is a big part of life- but when it is the main point of the story, I'm bored.

I want stories about family tension, complicated friendships, identity, grief. I love Celeste Ng, Elizabeth Strout, Claire Lombardo. Recommendations welcome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creating an audiobook

 

I do nearly all my "reading" on Audible.com these days, so I'm trying to make my all of my books listenable. For A Long Thaw, I used AI and it turned  out fine, but the experience was nothing like working with a voice artist like I did while creating the audio book for Finding Charlie.

I went back to ACX.com to create the audio book for Blood & Water. The process was similar, but I chose a different payment option and I was able to do a search for narrators based on their payment requirements -some do royalty splits, some have flat hourly rates.

Casey Montgomery was able to voice the five alternating narrators in my book by giving them each a slightly different sound. There's something nearly cinematic in hearing it preformed and I really love the way it turned out.

If you'd like to give it a free listen in exchange for an honest review, please join my review team.