Reading Lately [The Audiobook Edition]

Since I finished The Poppy War, R.F. Kuang, which I mentioned in my last Reading Lately a few weeks ago, it’s been all about the audiobooks. Two of them were amazing – 5 stars all the way – and one was just meh for me.

Recently Finished Reading

Where the Crawdad Sings, Delia Owens is just as good as everyone says it is! The audiobook is narrated by Cassandra Campbell and she manages to share all the emotions of this story of a young girl who’s forced to live and grow up by herself out in the marsh. This is a complex story that takes it’s time – but there is so much to unpack that it never felt slow to me. The “marsh girl” as Kya is called, is treated by the townspeople with everything from revulsion to mean and gently curiosity. Kya grows up but it’s hard, and the author and narrator let us feel just how hard it is for her. Yet there’s kindness there too … and sadness … and love. I fell hard for this book and it’s sure to be on my end of year favorites list.

The Silent Patient, Alex Michaelides, is narrated by Jack Hawkins and Louise Brealey. This is another book that’s not fast paced, and while I ended up liking it, but the characters are so unlikeable that there were many moments I wanted to just quit! But I didn’t and couldn’t … and then that ending! This book won’t be for everyone, and I get it, but it’s worth giving a shot.

Queenie, Candice Carty-Williams. How the heck will any book top this as my favorite read of the year?! I don’t know – but THIS BOOK though! Let me flat out tell you – GET THE AUDIOBOOK! This made my “the audiobook is better than the book” list because of the fantastic narration by Shvorne Marks. She gave this book LIFE! There’s Caribbean and African influences, dialect and just OUR ways of being that you will completely get with the audiobook. Queenie is a hot mess after her breakup, and she goes on quite the bender … and I was glad I was there for every bit of it.

Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London and working at a national newspaper. After a messy break up from her long-term boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth. As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?”- all of the questions today’s woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her.

Current Audiobook

After I finished Queenie, I was in major audiobook hangover mode! I started and stopped 5 books before something finally stuck with me – The Death of Mrs. Westaway, Ruth Ware; Narrated by Imogen Church.

On a day that begins like any other, Hal receives a mysterious letter bequeathing her a substantial inheritance. She realizes very quickly that the letter was sent to the wrong person – but also that the cold-reading skills she’s honed as a tarot card reader might help her claim the money. Soon, Hal finds herself at the funeral of the deceased, where it dawns on her that there is something very, very wrong about this strange situation and the inheritance at the centre of it.

Have your read any of these books? What are you currently reading?