Audiobooks and Sewing

While I'm doing some of the things I HAVE to do but don't really LIKE to do (like making and attaching a sleeve to my quilts, squaring up my quilts, and facing my quilts), I listen to audiobooks and podcasts. I have been using my local library apps (Libby and RBDigital) to listen to a book while I work on my fiber art (and while I do some of my chores around the house). I have some wireless AirPods, so I'm not tethered to my phone or iPad while I listen. Today, I want to tell you about three books I REALLY enjoyed. I know I'm always looking for good books to read; I hope you are too.

The last three good books I listened to were Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain, and Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger. I absolutely LOVED these books. I listened to them nonstop until I finished them--the equivalent to "I couldn't put the book down." If you get a chance to read (or listen to) any of these books, do it. Let me know what you think.

Below, I've included a description of each book as written by GoodReads. (I was going to write my own version, but GoodReads just said it SO much better.)

Where the Crawdads Sing--"For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.

    Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Karen Russell, Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps." 

Big Lies in a Small Town--"North Carolina, 2018: Morgan Christopher's life has been derailed. Taking the fall for a crime she did not commit, she finds herself serving a three-year stint in the North Carolina Women's Correctional Center. Her dream of a career in art is put on hold—until a mysterious visitor makes her an offer that will see her released immediately. Her assignment: restore an old post office mural in a sleepy southern town. Morgan knows nothing about art restoration, but desperate to leave prison, she accepts. What she finds under the layers of grime is a painting that tells the story of madness, violence, and a conspiracy of small town secrets.

    North Carolina, 1940: Anna Dale, an artist from New Jersey, wins a national contest to paint a mural for the post office in Edenton, North Carolina. Alone in the world and desperate for work, she accepts. But what she doesn't expect is to find herself immersed in a town where prejudices run deep, where people are hiding secrets behind closed doors, and where the price of being different might just end in murder. 

    What happened to Anna Dale? Are the clues hidden in the decrepit mural? Can Morgan overcome her own demons to discover what exists beneath the layers of lies?"

Ordinary Grace" is a brilliantly moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him. It is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God."