I'm still listening to Penny Vincenzi's Sheer Abandon. The book is pretty chunky--650+ pages translates into 22 parts, and each part is about one hour and fifteen minutes of listening pleasure. While I am still enjoying it, I am also just the tiniest bit fidgety to get to the end of the story and move on to something new. I only listen to audio books or podcasts when I am doing something else--out walking or cooking. If it is a matter of just sitting and listening to a book, I'd rather read, so this book has been a very long one as I am getting it in daily bits and pieces.
I'm listening to section 13 at the moment and wondering just how much more there can be to the story. The woman reading it is quite good, though, which makes it go faster somehow. The cast of characters is fairly large and she differentiates between them very well. I wonder sometimes if I might like a character less or more if I were reading the book rather than listening. The story is about three women who meet while traveling in Thailand. They're just out of school and ready for adventure. One will come back pregnant and give birth in Heathrow airport. Nearly sixteen years later they are all successful women, some in relationships, some not. Of course baby Bianca, the abandoned baby is old enough now to wonder about her birth mother, and a series of events will bring her into the limelight threatening to expose the secret of one of these women. I already know who the woman is and am wondering what disastrous events can occur in the next ten hours or so of the book.
Vincenzi talks a lot about British politics, and if this book is anything to go by, Britain's socialized medicine is faltering. It's interesting getting all the little cultural bits. I do have to say, though, that if Kate (baby Bianca) says "Cool" one more time I might scream, and "for f**ck's sake" seems to be another favored phrase (though uttered by other characters, not young Kate). It's interesting how some things probably pass over me when I'm listening, yet others seem much more memorable for that same reason.
I've got several more books lined up and loaded onto my player ready to go. Although I am somewhat adept at juggling regular books, reading several at once, I can't seem to do that with audio books. The nice thing about free audio books from the library, once they are loaded onto my player, I can keep them as long as I like. I'm not sure what I'll listen to next, but I have lots of interesting titles saved:
Jane Boleyn: The True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford by Julia Fox--I've not yet listened to any NF, and I'm wondering how much I'll retain after just listening. Often I'll reread passages when I'm reading NF, but I won't be able to easily do that in this format.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald--I've read this several times, and I thought it might be enjoyable to listen to it as well.
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer--I read Meyer's first two books. I really enjoyed the first and thought the second was so-so. After hearing mixed reactions about the third I had planned on skipping it and just reading the last one, which is due out in the fall. After I saw the audio book available, I thought I might enjoy listening to it.
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear--I love Maisie Dobbs. I've already read all Maisie's mysteries, but when my library recently got the first two as free audio downloads I thought I might enjoy listening to them rather than reading them again, which I've been wanting to do. I know Dorothy has listened to some of them and enjoyed them. I hope they will eventually get all of them in audio.
Hunting Unicorns by Bella Pollen--It seems someone wrote about this book a while back and I recently spotted it and had to add it to my list. In Booklist I read "this quirky comedy melds romance with a P. G. Wodehouse view of England's upper crust." Sounds like it could be fun.
Goodbye to All That by R.P. Graves--This is the only book so far that I've gotten that is abridged. It is another NF title, and considering the subject matter (autobiographical memoir about life in WWI trenches) perhaps it's best to only get a small taste.
I think these should get me through the summer. I guess I need to spend more time outside walking now (much better than cooking!).