audiobook Archives - Page 2 of 4 - The Quick and the Read

January Wrap-Up and February TBR

January was both approximately four years long and very busy at work.

Despite the endlessness of the month, I only managed to read 13 books – a totally respectable number, but I wonder what on earth I did with the rest of the eternal days and weeks!

This puts me on 13/120 for my Goodreads Challenge for 2022.

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(Audio)Book Review: ‘The Confession’ by Jessie Burton

I’m really sorry that I let this one sit on my NetGalley shelf for so long! Thanks to NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

The story opens in 1980 with the chance meeting of two women on Hampstead Common. Elise Morceau is young and naive and immedialtely falls under the spell of Constance Holden. Connie is older, already a successful writer and confident in ways Elise isn’t. When Connie’s book gets made into a Hollywood film, Elise accompanies her to Los Angeles and the pair fall into a glamorous party lifestyle.

This 1980s story – essentially of the relationship between the two women – is interspersed with a present day story in which Rose Simmonds is looking for her mother. When she learns that Connie was part of her mother’s life, she decides to ask some difficult questions of the writer – now in her 70s and a recluse…

Book Review: ‘Between the Covers’ by Jilly Cooper

I love Jilly Cooper – her Rutshire Chronicles were pretty much my constant companions throughout my teens and twenties – and was so pleased to be granted access to read this collection of her journalism. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

The book features a selection of Cooper’s journalism covering the period she wrote columns for The Times (roughly from the end of the 1960s to the early 1980s). As expected from Cooper, it features meditations on sex – the raunchy nature of her fiction books is well-known – but also mid-life, family, pets, domesticity, relationships and plenty more. It is also packed with humour – there’s lots of self-deprecation, witty turns of phrase, puns and plenty of Cooper’s ability to see the ridiculous in situations.

Book Review: ‘Dangerous Women’ by Hope Adams

This was a book that I was very excited about in 2021 but that – for reasons too dull to explain – got pushed down my reading pile.

I’m so glad I have remedied this now!

(Audio)Book Review: ‘Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor’ by Andrew Lownie

Wow, was I deluded about the abdication of King Edward VIII! In my mind, it was a wonderfully romantic story about how he sacrificed the monarchy in order to marry his true love, the twice-divorced American, Wallis Simpson.

Yeah, it wasn’t like that at all. I feel so naive!

November 2021 Wrap-Up and December TBR

This has not been a great reading month for me – I was taking part in NetGalley November and had so many plans to zip through lots of lovely ARCs (including some that have been on my shelf for far too long).

The reality was work, work, work with a side order of insomnia! I managed to read 6 books this month, which isn’t many for me at all. Still, I’m on 121/100 on my GoodReads Challenge so this is a blip in an otherwise great year.

(Audio)Book Review: ‘Eligible’ by Curtis Sittenfeld

Modern retelling of ‘Pride and Prejudice’? Written by Curtis Sittenfeld, author of the brilliant ‘Prep’ (amongst many other fab books)? Sign me up!

I was definitely intrigued about this book and it has been vaguely on my radar for a few years (it was published in 2016). When it popped up as an audiobook suggestion on BorrowBox, I thought I needed to give it a try.

How on earth could ‘Pride and Prejudice’, with its Georgian mores and sensibilities, be dragged into modern-day America? I had to find out.

Book Review: ‘Pandora’s Jar’ by Natalie Haynes

I’ve had a life-long fascination with the Greek myths which probably stemmed from the (at the time terrifying) ‘Clash of the Titans’ film that made up a chunk of my 80s childhood – very much like Haynes herself, it turns out!

Nowadays, my job as an English teacher sees me teaching Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘The World’s Wife’ so I’ve become a lot more au fait with the details of the women in the ancient texts – especially Medusa, Penelope and Eurydice – which is what brought me to Haynes’ excellent book.

October 2021 Wrap-Up and November TBR

It’s been a surprisingly busy reading month – helped by school half term holidays and the desire to clear some of my proofs before I embark on NetGalley November (more of that in a bit!)

This month, I’ve read 14 books which puts me on 115/100 on my Goodreads Challenge.

Book Review: ‘Walking the Invisible’ by Michael Stewart

Thanks to HQ Stories for my proof copy of this book – and grovelling apologies for not having reviewed this earlier. As always, opinions are my own regardless of how I acquired the book.

This book was published in June 2021 in hardback – there’s also an (excellent) audiobook version available which I listened to alongside reading.

When I read the blurb for this book, I was instantly intrigued. While I’m no lover of nature and have no desire to wander the Yorkshire moors in all weathers (as this writer has done), I do love literary heritage. So of course I want to know about the buildings and villages and landscapes that inspired the Brontes.