Us

Us by David Nichols
(Harper / HarperAudio, 2014)
Format: audio via library (narrated by David Haig)

From Goodreads:"Douglas Petersen understands his wife's need to 'rediscover herself' now that their son is leaving home.

He just thought they'd be doing their rediscovering together.

So when Connie announces that she will be leaving, too, he resolves to make their last family holiday into the trip of a lifetime: one that will draw the three of them closer, and win the respect of his son. One that will make Connie fall in love with him all over again.

The hotels are booked, the tickets bought, the itinerary planned and printed.

What could possibly go wrong?"

This is my second Nichols - like 'everyone' I read One Day back in the day. I wasn't sure for the first third or so why I especially cared about Douglas and Connie and their bratty son and their failing marriage. Sure, Douglas was a little, um, dull, but even his selfish family ought to have been able to tell that he cared, even while he was being wrong-footed about showing it. 

But the drag of the introductory period finally let up and Douglas's voice began to shine through. He's  a little hopeless and a lot likable and his journey across Europe with his family isn't a thing like the one he meticulously planned, but it's the one he needs, nevertheless.

David Haig is a new-to-me narrator, and he was good at inhabiting Douglas's sometimes fretful but always measured voice. I don't think he could have done a thing more to make this a higher-rated listen for me, given the fine but not overwhelmingly compelling source material. 

I don't mind having listened, but in a category as strong as this year's contenders for the Fiction Audies, this one is easy to put at the bottom of the pile. 

Armchair Audies Time!

As in the past couple of years, I am participating this spring in the Armchair Audies project. (The first 7 words in that sentence link to the 7 categories I judged for 2014 & 2013. Have I mentioned I love audiobooks?)

What's the Armchair Audies? It's a delightful gig where a group of bloggers pick categories from the year's Audies nominees and listen to each title in their category, review it, and pick who they think should win.

I am listening to the 2015 Fiction nominees, and having a blast. Although I'll be going a tad far out of my comfort zone when I get to the Stephen King title - I am not much for horror! But every other title has had rewards either large or small, so I'll be taking a deep breath and plunging in.

Meanwhile, look for some reviews of great titles from me, because this is a fine crop of audio nominees. Happy listening!

London Calling!

First up, my review of The London Train by Tessa Hadley, which has just appeared in the Star Tribune. That's #1 in my "I'm about to go to London, plus, every book I read is set there" list. (And no, I'm not just reading the Frommer's Guide.)

Best for revving me up about tourism while simultaneously making me a bit sheepish about being a tourist is Julia Stuart's The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise. This is set almost entirely in the Tower of London, with delightful excursions to Westminster Abbey and the Lost Property Office of the London Underground. Many of the characters are Beefeaters, though now I know to call them Yeoman Warders instead, and to do my best to find the restrooms without asking them for directions. The unique and, in Stuart's hands, delightfully quirky yet humane world of the residents of the Tower is an excellent backdrop to Yeoman Warder Jones' personal and professional struggles. All of this, plus fun facts about cross-dressing as an escape method - you really can't go wrong.

For light but engrossing summer reading fun, One Day by David Nicholls is both funny and moving, and an unexpectedly complex examination of a friendship over time. We visit Em and Dex every July 15 from the day after their university graduation in the 80s through twenty years of travels and relationships and varying levels of dependence on each other. (Also, they spend a lot of time in London, separately and together, so it fits my apparent-fixation.) The conceit could be a bit precious, but Nicholls does a solid job of making one day a year momentous and telling, without resorting to credulity-stretching coincidences or the characters' imbuing that date with undue significance. 

It's very neatly done, and their friendship is rightfully abiding.

Other than these, I've been reading a lot of the Desperate Dutchess and similar titles by Eloisa James, because London is also about ballrooms and aristocracy and riding through the park and bodices and scandal and the need for a beautiful and spirited woman to overcome obstacles so that she can find completion with a handsome yet secretly wounded man who never knew he needed her in his life. I'm not, however, planning on boring my sons with all that as I drag them from cathedral to museum to Shakespeare play. Some tourism should take place only in my mind.