The Art Forger

Title: The Art Forger

Author: B. A. Shapiro aka Barbara Shapiro; Read by Xe Sands

Publisher: HighBridge

ISBN: 9781611749274

Length: 8 discs; 10 hours

Obtained: Library copy

Why this book?:

I'd seen it and heard about it for awhile.  But then I saw on someone's blog (for the life of me I can't remember whose) about how great the audio was, and... the time was right.



Comments:

When I first started listening to this I recognized the voice.  I hadn't payed attention to who the narrator was before I started, but I recognized Xe Sands voice immediately from Objects of My Affection by Jill Smolinski.  This meant at first it was difficult for me to separate Claire Roth in this story from Lucy Bloom in Objects of My Affection.  But soon Claire's character came through (helped, no doubt, by Xe Sands wonderful reading), the story went its own unique way, and I was immersed.

The story is told from three alternating points.  I'd be listening to one, hanging on, if you will.  And then the story would change to the next.  And while I found each perspective interesting and wanted it to continue on, I became frustrated with each switch.  The same frustration you might feel when a commercial comes on right at that point of a favorite television show or movie.

Anyway, Claire and her happenings bring about such a conflict.  Morals - for she most certainly is not acting legally.  Plus you just know she's going to be caught.  And yet.  You (or at least I) want things to go well for her.  Surely she's due for something to go right?

Beyond the conflict of Claire's situation (her Faustian bargain as the blurb on the cover says), there is the mystery of just what is going on with the Degas painting.  What did happen all those years ago with Isabelle Gardner?  And I have to say this part I partially guessed.  But still, I had to listen on.

And speaking of mystery.  This apparently is one, even though I wouldn't have classified it as such on my own.  Hmmm.

I would definitely listen to more of Xe Sands - in fact I just did listen to some of her #GoingPublic reading.  And I'm interested in reading some of more by Barbara Shapiro - whose name is naggingly familiar, though I didn't recognize any of her previous works. 

Objects of My Affection

Title: Objects of My Affection

Author: Jill Smolinski; Read by Xe Sands

Publisher: Blackstone Audio

ISBN: 9781455134847

Length: 10 1/2 hours; 9 CDs

Obtained: Library audiobook copy

Comments:

This was recommended by Sheila at Book Journey, particularly as an audiobook.  She said it wasn't too depressing, so I decided to read it.  

For the most part, I liked Lucy.  But there were definitely some head-smacking moments.  And I have been careful about not doing sex scenes in audio (how do you skip over that?) which this came uncomfortably close to at points.

But the story was interesting.  It touched on hoarding (one of those horrifying and fascinating all at the same time subjects... and we've already discussed my own book hoarding on this blog), addiction (a little to close to home with that one.  I have family members with addiction.), and suicide (my father has attempted suicide twice this year and my brother lost a close friend to suicide a few years ago).  In other words, some pretty deep topics were discussed.  Thankfully, Sheila was right and none of them got too depressing.  Probably the most difficult was the addiction and Lucy's denial when it came to addiction's impact on her family.

I did like the organization part.  I've read some books and watched some shows on decluttering and I can always use more tips - even when wrapped up in a fictional story.

Hopefully this has been coherent and not too spoilerish.  Overall, I'm glad I tried it.  I do think the audio aspect added to the story.  Though the quotes at, I presume, the beginning of chapters could be confusing at times when I wasn't seeing the format.