It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
Recently Finished
I reread Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout before my ebook loan of Olive, Again came in from the library, as I was lucky enough to have my own copy through a gift subscription to Thrift Books a few years ago. Both of them are five-star reads for me on LibraryThing (I don’t spend much time on GoodReads.)
Like the earlier Pulitzer Prize-winning 2008 novel, Olive, Again is a novel made up of linked short stories, or slices of life, from the small Maine town where Olive, now elderly, has lived her whole life. As in the earlier book, the stories — often dark — reflect the sorrow and regrets collected over a long life, but also the moments of pleasure and lightness that also arise.
A retired math teacher, Olive’s prickly personality is an acquired taste for her (now former) students and her fellow townspeople, and her life has not been easy. I heard Olive’s voice in my head a lot while I was reading this book, and still do whenever I am deadheading petunias or someone is a little tone-deaf when it comes to social niceties.
Currently Reading
Read an excerpt from Beach Read by Emily Henry.
Recently Finished
I highly recommend the audiobook edition of Conjure Women by Afia Atakora, read by Adenrele Ojo, but I’m sure the book is equally good in print! I labeled it “magical realism” in my last “It’s Monday” post, but I’ve got to correct myself on that. The efficacy of the curses, potions, and charms wielded by the main character and her healer mother before her, is left ambiguous by the author, although many residents of the community and the surrounding plantations would swear they work.
Find out more and sample Conjure Women by Afia Atakora.
Adenrele Ojo was also the audiobook narrator for Into White, a young-adult book by Randi Pink, which is realistic fantasy about a teenager, unhappy with her life who prays to Jesus to be “anything but black”. Jesus grants her her wish and Toya learns difficult lessons about herself, her loving but imperfect family, and her classmates over the course of a few days as a white exchange student at her high school.
Read more about actor and audiobook narrator Adenrele Ojo.
Listen to an excerpt from Red at the Bone.
I wanted to write a full review of Red at the Bone, narrated by author Jacqueline Woodson and Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Peter Francis James, Shayna Small, and Bahni Turpin. Red at the Bone received many accolades when it came out in 2019, but I’m always behind!
The audiobook edition of Red at the Bone won an AudioFile Best Audiobook of 2019 award, and that is no surprise! Since I’m rushing now to post this “It’s Monday” post before Monday is over, let me link to the AudioFile review for more about this short (4 hours) but extraordinarily powerful, multi-perspective family story.
Currently Listening
Listen to a sample from The Passengers by John Marrs
Please comment to let me know what you’re reading this week. Thank you for visiting!
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (#IMWAYR) is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It’s a place to meet up and share what you have been, are, and about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organize yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment, and er… add to that ever-growing TBR pile! This meme started with J Kaye’s Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at Book Date.