Today’s blog post is a little different from my usual interviews. I’m handing over to fellow Chudleigh Writers Circle member, Celia Moore, who is going to talks about her love of audio books, and her current favourites.
Writing and Reading
Since I published my first novel in 2017, I’ve been striving to improve the way I convey my stories. Reading other authors’ work and analysing their tales is a great way to develop my own skills. Examining how they write and thinking about why I enjoy each book has become an obsession for me.
I am a gardener full time, working for five different customers each week in their beautiful gardens, concentrating my novel writing into January, February and March when there is little to do in gardens.
With gardening, whenever I’m working on my own, I listen to audio books and I reckon creating and maintaining beautiful havens, the appreciation of my work from my lovely customers, and venturing in to all sorts of places in my imagination has to be the best job in the world. Fresh air, physical exercise and an ever exploring mind journeying into the past or future, to other countries or even new realms.
So the best audio books this year? Can I just say, I read anything – I just need a recommendation from someone whose opinion I respect. I don’t want to know what the book is about because I want it to reveal itself as I ‘read on’.
I planned to list my top five, but in the end I couldn’t take away any of these so not in any order, my top six:
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
To be honest, I didn’t expect much when a friend recommended this to me. I’m wary of celebrity authors, thinking their fame is probably the main reason they are published; but I was blown away by this book. I loved the different perspectives and the characters to me were fabulous. Clever writing that created pictures in my mind. Richard made me laugh and cry.
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
Another recommendation from a friend and I loved this book. I’m undecided if Raynor should have narrated the audio book but the story was heart-breaking and heart-warming. I wanted more description of the places but the way Raynor conveyed feelings was brilliant. I was with her every step of the way.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
The descriptions of the place were unbeatable, loved the story and was compelled to keep listening from the first page.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
My book of the year so far because to me it had everything, a gripping story, beautifully written – capturing places, people and the situation they were in from each individual perspective. Clever and thought proving.
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Imaginative and beautifully written. The only thing that spoilt this book for me was the last fifteen minutes when everything was summed up too tightly for my liking.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
I can’t fault this book, such a great story. A variety of cleverly chosen characters. A subject that made me angry but I was happy to experience it in such an original way.
Thank you, Celia, for sharing your list with us. I’ve only read one of these so far, so my To Be Read list just got a little longer!
Readers, Celia’s latest novel, A Hare’s Footprint, is out now and concludes her Fox Halt Farm trilogy. You can find out about her books and her writing on her website.