nomadreader

narrated by Tavia Gilbert The backstory: Girl Through Glass  is on the 2016 First Novel Prize longlist. The basics: Told in alternating chapters, Girl Through Glass  is the story of a young girl's coming of age at the highest levels of New York City ballet in the late 1970's, and where she is now, a dance history professor somewhere in Ohio. While it appears to be a simple narrative at first, it soon becomes clear there are many mysteries between the 1970's and today for the reader to discover. My thoughts: Over the years I find myself less drawn to traditional coming of age stories, so I was excited to see this one offered two timelines, a narrative technique I enjoy. As is often the case with such a structure, I find myself trying to fit the pieces together as I read. The biggest challenge of dual narratives are what to revela when, and while I took issue with a few of Wilson's choices as I read, I admit I can't come up with a better way to tell this st...

narrated by Tavia Gilbert The backstory: After loving Jami Attenberg's last novel, The Middlesteins , I was excited to read her new one. The basics: Set in Jazz Age New York City's Bowery neighborhood and based upon a real person, Saint Mazie  is the story of Mazie Phillips, a young woman who loves to party. When the Depression hits, Mazie can't help but help. My thoughts: The premise of this novel checks so many of my boxes, yet as I listened, Mazie never quite came alive for me. I think it's a combination of Attenberg's structure and Gilbert's narration style. The novel is structured as a documentary film, so there are numerous excerpts from Mazie's diaries, as well as interviews with descendants of those she knew. Perhaps especially on audio, this structure made the narrative feel fractured. I really wanted to love this book, but over all, I feel mostly 'meh' about it. It's such a great concept, and Attenberg is a great writer. This bo...

narrated by Tavia Gilbert The basics: Told in a non-chronological narrative, How to Start a Fire  is the story of friendship of Kate, Anna, and Georgiana. It stretches from their college days at UC-Santa Cruz in the early 1990's to 2015. My thoughts: At first I feared a non-chronological (and largely non-linear) narrative would be a challenge to listen to on audio. A quick glance at the table of contents gave me pause, but I'm so glad I opted for this one on audio. Tavia Gilbert gave each character a distinctive voice. At times I forgot there was only one narrator, as she excelled at this cast of voices. As I often listen to audios in short spurts while driving, I didn't always remember exactly what year and city I left off, but I was able to immediately get back into the story. The longer I listened, the more I learned about the timelines and geographies of the three friends, and I was able to fix the larger stories of their life quite well. How to Start a Fire  ex...

Dreaming in Chinese by Deborah Fallows, narrated by Catherine Byers Fallows, a linguist, begins learning Chinese in preparation for moving to China with her husband. Dreaming in Chinese  is part travel memoir and part lingual study of the language. If you already know a lot (or perhaps even a little) about the language, this book may not have even travel to keep your interest. If, however, you know little about the Chinese language, this book is fascinating. I now better understand how and why Chinese native speakers speak English. And it reaffirmed my belief that I do not have the patience or fortitude to actually learn Chinese myself. If you opt to read this one, don't listen. The narration is pretty awful: Byers is an over-anunciator, which works well in some parts, as this is a book about the nuance of language, but it's distracting at others time. Byers doesn't bring any warmth to the travel parts, nor does she bring any nuance to the epiphanies, in language and cult...