It Starts with Us (It Ends with Us #2) by Colleen Hoover

Amy  

romance

Lily, a new mom recently divorced from her abusive husband, runs into Atlas, her first love, and they begin to reconnect. However, the ex-husband is still co-parenting with Lily and dislikes Atlas. He’s causing issues with Lily’s ability to move on.

Sadly, after I got 33% into this novel, I realized It Starts With Us is the second in a series. The story of Lily and her ex are, apparently, the first novel. I decided to forge ahead because I was actually enjoying learning about Lily’s past as this novel’s story went on. I hadn’t felt like I was missing a prequel while reading it. The revelations (to me) that were casually dropped along the way just felt like good story-crafting with more information parceled out the more I read. And, honestly, I would probably not have gotten through the first novel if it detailed the abusive relationship between Lily and her ex. This one definitely details some of the abuse that she (and her mother and Atlas) suffered at the hands of their abusers. That was enough.

It was a sweet romance built on a foundation of young love and acceptance and reconnection. It’s also about perseverance and overcoming family trauma. It was a cute story but definitely my least favorite of all the Colleen Hoover novels I’ve read.

There were two narrators. Olivia Song and Colin Donnell.  They were both good voice actors. Sometimes Song’s matter-of-fact delivery felt cold and unemotional, though. Donnell’s acting performance was excellent—I really loved his tone. I’ll give them an A- as a team.

   

Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce

Amy  

historical fiction

Margery Benson has lived a very lonely life. After losing her brothers and father at a young age to tragedy, she was raised in an emotionally barren household and grew to lead an emotionally absent life.  She finally has a mild breakdown and decides to do something completely out of character and embark on an adventure across the world to find the mythical Golden Beetle. She recruits an assistant, Enid, and they’re off!

Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce is a sweet story about the importance of having a dream and having someone with whom you can connect. However, it was slow-paced and lackluster for most of the novel. Margery and Enid are quirky characters who embark on a quirky quest, both under false pretenses, and they manage to bumble their way through an adventure. There is a creepy “bad guy” who doesn’t succeed at being the gripping source of conflict this novel needed. Rather, he’s an annoyance and a sad hanger-on who is in need of help.

I wanted to enjoy it more than I did. But Margery was uncomplicated and humorless. Enid was the bright spot.

Narrator Juliet Stevenson was outstanding as usual. She won my Favorite Audiobook Narration of 2019 for her work on Once Upon a River (by Diane Setterfield). Her vocal repertoire is truly astounding and she’s a terrific voice actor. However, due to her natural low voice, her voice for Enid often sounded like Monty Python’s male actors pretending to be women. Bummer. Because she’s otherwise stellar in this production, I’ll give her an A-.

   

Now is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson

Lynnie

Fiction

I enjoyed every minute of Kevin Wilson's latest book. I've read and enjoyed several other books by Wilson (I read The Family Fang before we started this blog) and have come to look forward to his embrace of the weird and, in that sense, Now is Not the Time to Panic does not disappoint.

In the summer of 1996, Frankie Budge, a bored, lonely, 16-year old self-described weirdo falls into a friendship with Zeke Brown who has come to Coalfield, TN for the summer with his mother because of trouble at home. Aspiring artists, the two create a poster and begin hanging it all over town creating a mystery, eventually a world-wide frenzy, and threatens to tear their friendship apart.

Now is Not the Time to Panic is not a mystery. It's not a thriller, and it's not a love story. I'm not joking when I tell you the book's blurb is a pretty good synopsis of the entire plot. This book is about one summer and how two young people put something out into the world and the world took it as its own before they even had time to consider that it could. Their poster was a viral hit before viral hits had a name and I found it fascinating to see how that affected Frankie, Zeke, and the rest of the town, particularly as Frankie and Zeke maintained their anonymity. What would it mean for them to lose that anonymity after 20 years? Would they even want the world to know they created the poster?

I loved the characters that Wilson created. There was a realism to each of them that made me want to cheer them on and protect them. This isn't a long book, but it's an interesting look at art and youth, and how the decisions we make when we're young can ripple across time to catch us when we don't expect them to. After all, "The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers. We are fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us."

 

 

 

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Amy  

science fiction

Sea of Tranquility is really four stories in one relatively short novel. Each of the four is connected by an unusual event that was witnessed by different people at different points in time. Edwin is an aimless third son of a wealthy British family who travels to western British Columbia, Canada in 1912. Mirella is trying to locate a spurned old friend of hers in 2020 after realizing that her friend may not be guilty of the crime for which she had been originally accused. Olive, a resident of one of the moon colonies in 2203, is touring around Earth on a book tour just as a new pandemic is emerging. Meanwhile, a man named Gaspery has found his way to speak with each of them.

This is one of those novels that gets under your skin to the point that when something a bit difficult to swallow happens about halfway through the book, you feel compelled to accept it and hope that the author doesn’t take the story in a direction which would mess up your enjoyment of the novel. I went with the far-fetched premise in order to enjoy the story. The mechanics were a little tricky but it was a fun ride by Emily St. John Mandel.

Sea of Tranquility reminded me of Anthony Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land in the way that it focused on separate stories told from vastly different time periods which were connected by a common thread. What fun! The writing was fabulous, particularly in Edwin’s section at the beginning. I loved the way he was described as being “capable of action but prone to inertia” and his reflection on how “Sometimes you don’t know you’re going to throw a grenade until you’ve already pulled the pin.”  Some characters’ situations were more interesting than others but all of them were unusual and caught my interest. The ending was very satisfying.

There were four narrators: John Lee, Dylan Moore, Arthur Morey, and Kirsten Potter. Lee read Edwin’s section and I had mixed feelings about him. However, one of my main issues turned out to not be his fault.  The author wrote the first three chapters with gaps between paragraphs (or very small groups of paragraphs) and Lee left long pauses in his reading to relate those gaps. It was quite annoying at first. I stuck with it and these gaps were no longer noticeable by the fourth chapter. But I had been so annoyed that I actually went to Amazon where you can “Look Inside” the books in order to verify that these pauses were, indeed, designed by the author. Sigh. My other problem with Lee was that his section was about an 18 year old young man but Lee sounds, very obviously, much older. It was poor casting. But he was a good reader and had a variety of voices and I would’ve liked him more if not for the two annoyances I mentioned. Moore voicing Mirella and Potter as Olive both did nice jobs. Sadly, Morey, as Gaspery, had occasional saliva sounds (dentures?). Aside from Lee, the others had narrow vocal repertoires. I will give this cast a B-. Honestly, I’m not convinced there needed to be four narrators.

   

Amy's Favorite Audiobook Narrations of 2022

In 2022, I listened to 51 of audiobooks. I sometimes get asked when I have time to listen to so many. Most of my audiobook time is during my near-daily walks. I walk about 1000 miles each year.

I’ve already posted my Favorite Books of 2022 which included my FAVORITE AUDIOBOOK NARRATION OF 2022, Julian Elfer’s narration of Ink and Bone (4 stars) by Rachel Caine (young adult/fantasy). Elfer was simply fantastic! He had a large vocal repertoire including multiple accents, stupendous vocal acting, and he made the novel that much more enjoyable from his delivery. He was entertaining and did a fabulous job voicing many different characters.

There were a few other audiobooks which received A+ audiobook ratings from me in 2022. These are novels which weren’t necessarily my favorites but the audiobook narration and production were so great they deserve a mention to applaud the narrators. I’d love to hear more audiobooks from these people!

To get an A+ from me, audiobook narrators have to be excellent voice actors, have a large repertoire of voices, and have no big sound production issues. I’m listing these audiobooks in the order in which I liked the novels. (I’ve included the rating I gave to the novel too.) To read my full review of the books below, click on the book titles.

Evanna Lynch, Heather Long, Kathryn Drysdale, and Luke Thompson narrating The No-Show (4-1/2 stars) by Beth O'Leary (contemporary fiction). There were four narrators, each of whom voiced one of the main characters. Each of the narrators were terrific voice actors and had great vocal repertoires. Each was perfect for their role. I really enjoyed listening to them tell me the story. I also must shout out to the production team on the tinny quality of the voices on the other end of phone calls! Perfect! I don’t believe I’ve ever given an ensemble cast an A+ before. Well done! 

Julia Whelan narrating The Latecomer (4 stars) by Jean Hanff Korelitz (fiction). Whelan is always a superb voice actor. When voicing specific characters she has a huge vocal repertoire, even men’s voices. But due to her snarky-sounding "narrator voice" I usually withhold the “+” from her rating. For this snarky novel, however, A+ is well deserved! She was perfectly cast for this one.

 

Amara Jasper narrating Nettle and Bone (3-1/2 stars) by T. Kingfisher (fantasy/young adult). Jasper was amazing! She has a wide repertoire of voices including male voices and many accents! I was extremely impressed. In fact, I’m quite sure she aided my enjoyment of this novel. 

Julian Elfer in Paper and Fire (3-1/2 stars) by Rachel Caine (young adult/fantasy).  Again, Elfer was entertaining and did a fabulous job in this sequel to Ink and Bone listed above.

 

 

HONORABLE MENTION
(This is where I applaud individual A+ narrators in multi-narrator audiobooks where not all of the narrators earned an A+).

Zachary Webber in November 9 (4-1/2 stars) by Colleen Hoover (romance). Webber is awesome. He is so great at voice acting and was the perfect fit for Ben’s personality.  

Edoardo Ballerini in The Lincoln Highway (4-1/2 stars) by Amor Towles (historical fiction/adventure). Ballerini is always wonderful.  He gave most of the many characters their own voice and did an outstanding job with voice acting as usual. 

Louise Brealey in The Maidens (3 stars) by Alex Michaelides (mystery). Brealey did a great job with several different voices and accents and super voice acting. 

 

 

 

Georgia: A Novel of Georgia O'Keeffe by Dawn Tripp

Amy  

historical fiction

Georgia: A Novel of Georgia O’Keeffe is a fictionalized version of artist Georgia O’Keeffe’s life focusing mainly on her years with Alfred Stieglitz, her most prolific period.

I read this novel because I love O’Keeffe’s art but really had not taken the time to learn a lot about her. And I had never heard much about her relationship with the famous photographer other than knowing they were married yet I'd never seen a photo of them together. I thought I’d be able to learn more about both of them through this novel. However, I had to wonder why a fictional version of her life was necessary.  I mean, I hadn’t looked into it, but there must've been biographies based on facts, right? This take on O’Keeffe’s life focused on her personal moments in such a way that it felt like it must be mostly fiction. And, if that was the case, I kept questioning why I wanted to continue. It was written in the first person point of view with O’Keeffe narrating her own story.

Honestly, there were times when I thought I’d stop listening to the audiobook.  I finished it but never felt that I could trust much of the information within. It felt like it was written as a soap opera which lowered my trust in the information within. I feel I do have much more knowledge about O’Keeffe (and Stieglitz) after reading it but wonder about the accuracy of those impressions.

The audiobook narrator, Ann Marie Lee, spoke way too slowly and I had to speed up the audiobook for it to maintain my attention. She also spoke robotically, making O’Keeffe seem cold and unemotional most of the time. I suspect this contributed a bit to my dissatisfaction. Her attempt at a British accent for a character wasn’t great. I’ll give her a C+.

  

   

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Amy  
Lynnie 

science fiction

Imagine that you wake up from a haze, you have no idea who or where you are, you are hooked up to tubes, you can’t speak clearly, and you can’t move. It is from this point that our protagonist begins to figure out who and where he is.

Amy's Review

The beginning of Project Hail Mary is just about as gripping as you can get. You are immediately on guard and HAVE to keep reading to find out what is going on. It only gets better when you realize that the main character, whose thoughts you are reading, is as confused as you are and he has a sense of humor!

I hesitated to read this one because, while I liked Andy Weir’s The Martian, I was really turned off by the overabundance of mathematical and scientific computations. The movie was actually better than the book (!) because it didn’t include all that needless detail. I was concerned that reading this novel would be a similar annoying experience. It was. But it was also a terrific story of a “sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission” (quoted from the book’s summary on Goodreads).

In spite of the sections of scientific mega-detail in which I totally zoned out, I was hooked and so impressed with Weir’s creativity with the storyline. If it weren’t for the excruciating detail, I would’ve rated this novel higher. It will be much tougher to make a movie of this one than The Martian but I hear that there is a movie in the works. I can’t say too much more about the story without giving things away. I liked it!

The narrator, Ray Porter, was amazing!  His acting was superior, relaying a range of emotions. His vocal repertoire was terrific—and there were a ton of accents he voiced with ease!  A+! I also must say that I really enjoyed the audio treat of sound engineering that was done (and about which I can say nothing without ruining some surprises for the reader).  I imagine this was an aspect where the audiobook was better than the book!

Lynnie's Review

Happy New Year! What an excellent way to begin a year of reading. Or to end a year of reading- your choice. Either way, I enjoyed Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary immensely. I believe that Weir is my favorite "stranded-astronaut-with-a-wonderful-sense-of-humor-and-need-to-save-himself" genre writer. It's hard not to compare Ryland Grace to The Martian's Mark Watney- as others have noted, they are sort of the same person (similar sense of humor, excellent inner monologue, similar enough circumstances), but that doesn't mean Project Hail Mary isn't wonderful from beginning to end- it absolutely is. Frankly, Weir could write a series of "snarky stranded astronaut" novels and I would read every one if they were as clever and entertaining as these two novels. (As I side note, I also read his novel Artemis and while I loved the storyline I hated the main character- make of that what you will.)

 

Anyway, Project Hail Mary grabs you from the moment you begin to read- a main character who has no idea who he is, where his is, or what is happening to him and why- and then continues to ratchet up the suspense as the stakes of the situation reveal themselves to him both as his memory returns and through flashbacks. It's hard to say too much without revealing major plot points, but this book was a RIDE and there was never a time when I didn't enjoy what happened next. 

 

Were things far-fetched and ridiculous? Often! But I loved every minute of it because I adore Weir's imagination and creativity and the fascinating characters he creates.There is also a hilarious shout out to the original Colossal Cave Adventure that had me chucking for a solid day after I read it. Mostly I laughed about how much it must have made Weir laugh to write it and how many people read it without blinking an eye. Nerd humor!

 

All that to say, if you enjoy sci-fi, or loved The Martian, you are very likely to enjoy Weir's latest adventure through space. I'm already looking forward to the next one, wherever it leads.