Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteredge ranks among my top ten audiobook experiences. I liked the slim but powerful My Name is Lucy Barton (which I read in print) and am looking forward to its companion, Anything Is Possible. On a whim, I recently pressed play on Strout's The Burgess Boys. The reviews on it were just so-so and while it's not an uplifting book (at all), I enjoy hearing the Maine accent in narration and like getting a sense of Maine, a place with which I have no familiarity (with the exceptions of my son's Acadia National Park project, L.L. Bean, and the fact that Nancy Atwell--a writing guru for middle school teachers--and one of my brother's college basketball teammates are both from Boothbay Harbor, Maine).
Fredrik Backman's Beartown. Quick Backman recap: Adored A Man Called Ove. Not super into My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry. Really liked Britt-Marie Was Here. Very, very excited to listen to Beartown. I love community stories, underdog stories, and, most of the time, sports stories. Plus, it's about a hockey team. We live in a hockey crazy town, and for years my attitude was, "Good for you, not for us." Then, my son begged and begged, and we let him play hockey. And then the next year his big brother wanted to play too. They just play for teams at our local YMCA (which has a super cool, old school outdoor rink) so it's not too time-consuming or crazy intense, but it is SO FUN to watch them and I'm so glad they're experiencing the camaraderie and challenge of hockey.
There have been quite a few tempting Deals of the Day on Audible of late as well so I am sitting pretty with listening fodder. I started listening with my ipod set at 2x about six months ago, and the increased speed has allowed me to listen to even more audiobooks!
