[68] Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
Fiction / Coming of Age, recommendation from Val, audiobook

Synopsis: Lara’s three daughters are living with her again because of the pandemic, and as they pick cherries from their Michigan farm and go about their slowed down lives, Lara tells them the story of a famous actor she had a brief relationship with in her youth.

Review: I tend to love Ann Patchett and her slow meandering character driven stories. And that’s what this is – just a slow story about a woman and her youth and her relationships and what her family means to her. Meryl Streep was perfect for narrating this.

Recommend? Yes, if slow meandering character driven stories narrated by amazing actresses are your thing (I wonder how it would be in written form?)

[69] The Honeymoon Crashers by Christina Lauren
Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy, part 1.5 of The Unhoneymooners, audiobook

Synopsis: (warning: spoiler from first book, but not really because it’s a romance) Ami’s twin sister Olive is eloping in Maui, and told their large close family not to come but Ami knows better, and organizes for everyone to fly down and for herself to plan the wedding. Olive and her fiancé Ethan insist that Ethan’s childhood friend Brody help Ami, but she is determined to do it all on her own, until she realizes how fun (and well connected on the island!) Brody is.

Review: This is a novella, and was a very short listen – maybe around 5 hours? So we aren’t getting deep with these characters and I don’t really understand why they fell for each other, other than physical attraction and how fun Brody is. All that being said, I still enjoyed it. It was a fun listen. I was surprised by the narration style – it had a lot of narrators and even had background noise at times (phones ringing, music, the ocean, birds, drinks clinking).

Recommend? Only if you read the first book

[70] Winter Street by Elin Hilderbrand
Fiction Women, was looking for books by Hilderbrand I hadn’t read yet, audiobook

Synopsis: Kelley Quinn just wants a nice Christmas with his family at the bed and breakfast he owns in Nantucket, but on December 23rd he walks in on his wife making out with the man who plays Santa at their annual holiday party. She leaves him (with Santa!) and he immediately reaches out to his ex-wife (a famous news anchor), his oldest son (who is dealing with insider trading issues), his next oldest son (who has a secret of his own), and his daughter (who is NOT happy her boyfriend left for the holiday). Add the stress of his youngest being deployed to Afghanistan and Kelley is losing it.

Review: I really enjoyed this. It was entertaining and short (under 7 hours on the speed I had it on?) and I was pretty into every character’s story (okay, not so much the insider trader bro, wah wah). This is book 1 of 4 and I’m excited to listen to the rest.

Recommend? Yes