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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
I loved the audio narrator! She really sold Hildy's story. I don't think I would have enjoyed this as much if I had read it. I kept trying to find other household tasks that would require me to keep listening. The ending was a little convoluted, but overall this still deserves four stars.
Had it not been for book club I would have not picked up this book just because of its premise. I don't have any personal experiences with female alcoholics in my family or in my acquaintances. I'm not sure that I would have wanted to read a book about one, or from her point of view. Yet I'm glad that I read this book. It really made me think a lot about people who seem to have it all together but are really falling apart on the inside. Great book.
A very satisfying read with great characters.
My latest audiobook listen had its moments, but I felt it could have been edited down a bit. The ending was a little underwhelming after all of the build up. The peek inside the head of an alcoholic in denial was interesting. The reader was perfect for the part.
I was lucky enough to get an advance reader copy of this book. And then, because I'm a fair kind of guy, I waited until everyone *else* had a copy to read it.
I enjoyed Ann Leary's style, I loved the setting, of course, and it made me slightly homesick, throughout. It's set in a fictional town on the north shore of Massachusetts, God's own country. While she did an excellent job giving an idea of the area and habits of inhabitants of areas like these, at times it felt a little heavy-handed. But perhaps that's me. I know what a regular coffee is at a Dunks. I feel like this should be an ingrained part of every human soul on the planet, something that everyone understands intrinsically. But I could be wrong. She also leans a little hard (or is that 'hahd'?) on the colloquial spellings for the locals, and I suppose it's been a general national trend for the last few years to point out that, hee-eeeey, people from the Northeast and in and around Boston talk differently, sometimes. Hell, my own daughter, born down the road in a non-fictional north shore town, is obsessed with how daddy and his parents say things.
But I got past all that stuff and got sucked into this story of Hildy Good, the witch's descendent with a penchant for reading people and selling houses. And drinking. When I wasn't enjoying the story and getting sucked along like detritus from a 747 that was ripping apart at the seams an inconvenient distance from the ground, I often had thoughts that the Leary household must either be one gigantic alcoholic mess of a party, 24/7, or it must be 100% totally dry. Between "The Good House" and Ann's husband's show Rescue Me, about an alcoholic, recovering alcoholic, no, no, plain alcoholic fireman, I feel as if I could get a contact buzz off the sheer volume of liquor and wine being consumed between the two stories.
And why not? Ann certainly has plenty to celebrate with this pretty well wrought story about a fictional town in the loveliest place on earth.
I enjoyed Ann Leary's style, I loved the setting, of course, and it made me slightly homesick, throughout. It's set in a fictional town on the north shore of Massachusetts, God's own country. While she did an excellent job giving an idea of the area and habits of inhabitants of areas like these, at times it felt a little heavy-handed. But perhaps that's me. I know what a regular coffee is at a Dunks. I feel like this should be an ingrained part of every human soul on the planet, something that everyone understands intrinsically. But I could be wrong. She also leans a little hard (or is that 'hahd'?) on the colloquial spellings for the locals, and I suppose it's been a general national trend for the last few years to point out that, hee-eeeey, people from the Northeast and in and around Boston talk differently, sometimes. Hell, my own daughter, born down the road in a non-fictional north shore town, is obsessed with how daddy and his parents say things.
But I got past all that stuff and got sucked into this story of Hildy Good, the witch's descendent with a penchant for reading people and selling houses. And drinking. When I wasn't enjoying the story and getting sucked along like detritus from a 747 that was ripping apart at the seams an inconvenient distance from the ground, I often had thoughts that the Leary household must either be one gigantic alcoholic mess of a party, 24/7, or it must be 100% totally dry. Between "The Good House" and Ann's husband's show Rescue Me, about an alcoholic, recovering alcoholic, no, no, plain alcoholic fireman, I feel as if I could get a contact buzz off the sheer volume of liquor and wine being consumed between the two stories.
And why not? Ann certainly has plenty to celebrate with this pretty well wrought story about a fictional town in the loveliest place on earth.
I listened to the audiobook and the narrator - Mary Beth Hurt - is just outstanding. I don't know that I'd have rated it a full five stars if I had just read it, as the book covers some pretty cringeworthy moments that simply weren't enjoyable to experience. However, her depiction of the main character is just so delightfully good that it's worth the anxiety that one must bear. Thumbs up.