Today we start a new series of recommendations on audiobooks. Each month we'll share with you an audiobook we loved to listen to.
Why? We have a special interest in audiobooks as we believe they represent one of the options to read books sustainably, especially when you download them - an option that represents right now about 21% of all sales (the rest are CDs). Therefore we would like to encourage you to take this option into consideration when you're thinking about your next literary purchase!
Our audiobook for this month is:
Every Last One
Author: Anna Quindlen
ANNA QUINDLEN is the author of several bestselling novels (Rise and Shine, Blessings, Object Lessons, One True Thing, Black and Blue), and nonfiction books (Good Dog. Stay., Being Perfect, Loud & Clear, A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Living Out Loud, Thinking Out Loud, How Reading Changed My Life). She has also written two children's books (The Tree That Came to Stay, Happily Ever After). Her New York Times column "Public and Private" won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. Her column now appears every other week in Newsweek.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published on: April 2010
The latest novel from Pulitzer Prize-winner Anna Quindlen
In this breathtaking and beautiful novel, the #1 New York Times bestselling author Anna Quindlen creates an unforgettable portrait of a mother, a father, a family, and the explosive, violent consequences of what seem like inconsequential actions.
Mary Beth Latham has built her life around her family, around caring for her three teenage children and preserving the rituals of their daily life. When one of her sons becomes depressed, Mary Beth focuses on him, only to be blindsided by a shocking act of violence. What happens afterwards is a testament to the power of a woman's love and determination, and to the invisible lines of hope and healing that connect one human being with another. Ultimately, as rendered in Anna Quindlen's mesmerizing prose, Every Last One is a novel about facing every last one of the things we fear most, about finding ways to navigate a road we never intended to travel, and about living a life we never dreamed we'd have to live, but find ourselves brave enough to try.
What we think about it?
I certainly agree with the description of "Every Last One" as a"breathtaking and beautiful novel". I listened to it while driving and I can tell you this audiobook got me to drive more slowly on my way home just because I couldn't stop listening to it. I hope the other drivers (and my wife) could forgive me..
The story as the description mentions is about facing every last one of the things we fear most, and I know not everyone might not feel comfortable to deal with fears. At least I know I don't. But even so I felt this journey with the Latham family was worthwhile and I was happy I took it.
Bottom Line: Recommended! Don't forget to put some tissue in your glove compartment!
Disclosure: We received a copy of this book from the publisher.
You can listen here to the author, Anna Quindlen, talking about the audiobook:
GIVEAWAY ALERT!!
We're giving away one copy of this audiobook, courtesy of the publisher.
How you can win? Very simple. All you have to do is to retweet this post with the hashtag #everylastone. We will have a raffle on Thursday, July 29, 5:00PM EST between all the readers that retweeted this post. The winner will be announced the following day.Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!
4 comments:
I retweeted @cjm92995
Cassie
cjm92995@yahoo.com
This is going to be a hard book to review. I really don't want to give the story away because it has some shocking parts that really need to be felt. I have enjoyed other Anna Quindlen books- Blessings, One True Thing, and Black and Blue. Anna has a way to take us into situations that can be quite uncomfortable and makes one feel so many different emotions all at once. This book is no different.
This book brought me to tears - which is highly unusual for me. Although not a huge fan of Ms. Quindlan's fictional work in the past (though I love, love, love her non-fiction and am hard-pressed to consider a Newsweek issue complete without her column), I will pay her the ultimate compliment here: This book taught me something about myself. By presenting her characters so clearly, especially Mary Beth Latham (like myself, a mother of three), I was able to confront some truths about humans in general and myself in particular, and perhaps I can grow from those realizations.
This story is an intense and shocking family drama which I enjoyed very much. Anna Quindlen's characters are very detailed and very real and seem quite like people with whom I have interacted in my forty years in the educational field. Having been a middle school vice-principal for fifteen years and dealing with thirteen to fifteen year olds everyday, I felt as if I knew these children and their emotions and problems were very common in that age range as well as with high school students. Anna Quindlen's descriptions of the marital situations of the parents is quite an honest picture of the stress of parenthood of today.
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