Published: 2023 Format: Audiobook, read by Elizabeth Wiley Genre: Nonfiction, nature, science, history This book was recommended in last year’s Modern Mrs. Darcy Summer Reading Guide. It combines a lot of things I’m interested in: nature, history, feminism, and science. I also really like journey/adventure nonfiction, like Into the Wild, The Salt Path, Wild and Braving It. I’m a big fan of books about people who push themselves through travel and exploration. And I’m a big fan of books about the many women who have made an impact that has not been recognized. In this book, Sevigny describes ..read more

I’ve read many books by T.C. Boyle, and I always enjoy his pointed humor and his way of delving deep into history and science, while also building very realistic, imperfect characters  In Blue Skies, his latest, he explores the impacts of global warming in Florida and California.  I should say this probably isn’t my favorite Boyle but I did enjoy it.  The main characters are Cat, Cooper, and their mother and father. Cooper is a scientist, and he persuades his parents to prepare for climate change by giving up meat and eating insects instead. His mother gamely teachers herself t ..read more

I’ve listened to some amazing audiobooks this year, and as more people I know are getting into reading audiobooks, I wanted to share some recommendations. I also like to recognize the importance of excellent narration, which I think often goes unacknowledged, beyond a few well known narrators. One good source of audiobook recommendations are the Audie awards. What makes a good audiobook? For me, it’s a narrator who gives me a greater understanding of the story than I might get just from reading it. These are usually more emotional stories. I particularly appreciate listening to stories involvi ..read more

In 2023, one of my reading goals is to go back to reading more books about other countries. I used to be in a book club that focused on international reads but I gave that up. So this year my challenges will focus on reading about other countries. Ideally, the book should be written by an author who lives in that country or whose family is from there, though that’s not always the case. My first read of 2023 is Elif Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees, which is set in Cyprus in the mid-1970s and in the early 2000’s, and then London in the late 2010’s, focusing on the civil war in 19 ..read more

Wishing you all a very happy and safe holiday season! In 2022, at least half of my reading was by audiobook (occasionally I combined audio and print versions).  I generally listen to audiobooks while walking, doing household chores, and driving.  My dad lives an hour’s drive away, which lends itself to a good audiobook, provided it’s not one you need to concentrate on too much.  I continue to be surprised by how much a good audiobook resonates with me. I think a good audiobook can have a lot more emotional impact, but at the same time I definitely find I’m less able to follow a ..read more

Barbara Kingsolver rarely disappoints, but I was nervous about reading this adaptation of David Copperfield, a favorite classic.  Copperfield is considered to be most autobiographical of Dickens’ works, which explains why it feels much more “real” to me. I don’t always love adaptations, because they often hew so closely to names and details that the story feels forced. Happily, Demon Copperfield didn’t disappoint; it ended up being one of my favorite books of the year. Sadly, David Copperfield resonates today for a reason – children continue to be traumatized by poverty, abuse, and ..read more

I picked up this book on the recommendation of Modern Mrs. Darcy, and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s a moving story of a young black nurse in the 1970s, about a real-life class action suit to address the coerced or forced sterilizations of young women of color in hospitals and institutions across the United States. Civil is a young black woman, just out of college with a nursing degree in Montgomery, Alabama in 1973. Her parents are both educated and she’s never experienced the poverty that many black families are living in, until she begins working in a family planning clinic. She’s assigned tw ..read more

I was afraid this book might be a little “sappy” for me. I like emotional reads but rarely read the kind of books described as “heartwarming”, and this book about a friendship between a dying teenager and an elderly woman fit that bill. But it came highly recommended by Modern Mrs. Darcy’s Best Books of Summer 2022, so I put it on my list, and I’m glad I did. It turned out to be a great blend of humor and sentimentality, it’s character driven, and I love a book that covers many years and different places.  I should say first off that I listened to this as an audiobook, and I’m ..read more

Brideshead Revisited was written during World War II by Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh. Brideshead reflects many aspects of his life, from experiences at Oxford, his friendships with the British aristocratic set, and his military service. He published his first novel in 1928 at the age of 25.  Also around that time he was married, then separated, converted to Catholicism, then annulled his first marriage and married again. He worked as journalist in the 1930s and served in the Royal Marines in WWII. After a severe injury, he started writing Brideshead and published it in 1945. The nov ..read more

I loved this novel about a strong, opinionated woman in the early 1960s who is a chemist, a single mother, and the star of a cooking television show. This sort of novel could easily become trite but it never did. Elizabeth Zott has to deal with sexism, harassment, and assault, as she navigates the world of science and television.   This book is generating strong opinions, both positive and negative, on Goodreads. You will either love or hate Elizabeth and her daughter Mad, there isn’t a lot of in-between. Zott has traits that are like those on the spectrum, though nothing ..read more