Book Briefs: Voices From the Pandemic and Five Tuesdays in Winter

Hello, 2022! We are lingering in holiday mode with one NYC daughter and her boyfriend still with us. They are working remotely for another week and plan to fly back next weekend. We've had a wonderful couple of weeks... so many happy memories! 

I plan to compile my year-end stats and favorites list later in the week. For now, I'll tell you about the last two books I read in December.

Voices from the Pandemic: Americans Tell Their Stories of Crisis, Courage and Resilience 

by Eli Saslow, full cast narration 

When Catherine reviewed this book last fall, I added it to my reading list right away. Last month it appeared on Susie's list of 2021 audio favorites... I knew I had to listen.

Saslow,  a Pulitzer prize winning journalist, spent 2020 interviewing a broad spectrum of Americans about their COVID experience. The result is a brutally honest, well-balanced oral history of pandemic experience. As we all know far too well, public health issues presented by the virus have become politicized. Saslow offers no commentary, but presents a balanced selection of accounts from Americans with a wide range of perspectives. 

It's all here... A nurse-turned-patient at a hospital in upstate NY, an overwhelmed coroner in Louisiana who knows dozens of victims personally, a sixty-something retail clerk in NC expected to enforce the mask mandate, a young physician whose primary role is intubating COVID patients, a grocer who extends credit to his neighbors/customers as they lose their jobs, an Arizona man who organizes groups to enter stores and harass shoppers wearing masks, the man who has lost his family restaurant because of the shutdown...

This was a fascinating, often intense reading/listening experience. I ended up borrowing a print copy from the library just to see the photo at the beginning of each account, but the multi-narrator audio production is not to be missed!

Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King

narrated by: Bronson Pinchot, Mark Bramhall, Stacey Glemboski, Cassandra Campbell, Christa Lewis

Writers & Lovers  was a 5-star read/listen for me earlier this year and I was eagerly anticipating King's new short story collection, published in November 2021.  Much to my surprise, Five Tuesdays in Winter    was included in the Audible Plus catalog and available for free download.  I also borrowed a print copy from the library.

A short story collection made for perfect reading during the holiday week. I listened on my walks and sometimes read a story in the evening. As always, King's writing and characters shine. My favorites included Creature, Five Tuesdays in Winter, and When in the Dordogne.