Most of you know our new Library2Go service makes it easy to
download ebooks but what some might not know is there is also a great selection
of audiobooks available for download too. I will spotlight some of my favorite
audiobooks and narrators.
This book is also available in hardcover at the library
Calling Me Home: A Novel by Julie Kibler Narrated by, Bahni
Turpin & Lorna Raver
Synopsis from Goodreads: Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler is
a soaring debut interweaving the story of a heartbreaking, forbidden love in
1930s Kentucky with an unlikely modern-day friendship
Eighty-nine-year-old Isabelle McAllister has a favor to ask
her hairdresser Dorrie Curtis. It's a big one. Isabelle wants Dorrie, a black
single mom in her thirties, to drop everything to drive her from her home in
Arlington, Texas, to a funeral in Cincinnati. With no clear explanation why.
Tomorrow.
Dorrie, fleeing problems of her own and curious whether she
can unlock the secrets of Isabelle's guarded past, scarcely hesitates before
agreeing, not knowing it will be a journey that changes both their lives.
Over the years, Dorrie and Isabelle have developed more than
just a business relationship. They are friends. But Dorrie, fretting over the
new man in her life and her teenage son’s irresponsible choices, still wonders
why Isabelle chose her.
Isabelle confesses that, as a willful teen in 1930s
Kentucky, she fell deeply in love with Robert Prewitt, a would-be doctor and
the black son of her family's housekeeper—in a town where blacks weren’t
allowed after dark. The tale of their forbidden relationship and its tragic
consequences makes it clear Dorrie and Isabelle are headed for a gathering of
the utmost importance and that the history of Isabelle's first and greatest
love just might help Dorrie find her own way.
My Review:
This is such a great story! But be careful where you read it
and have tissues ready especially towards the end, I happened to be driving at
the end of this one!
I fell in love with both of these characters Miss Isabelle
and Dorrie were true friends even though such different people. Dorrie is an
African American single mother and hairdresser who has been doing 89 year old
Isabelle’s hair for over a year and they have grown close but when Isabelle
asks Dorrie to drive her from Texas to Ohio for a funeral, Dorrie jumps at the
chance to get away from her own troubles for awhile and help the old lady out.
This book is told in alternating chapters by Dorrie and
Isabelle, Dorrie dealing with her own problems at home in the present day and
Isabelle telling the story of her life; that when she was 17 in Kentucky in the
1930’s she fell in love with a black man and the consequences that occurred due
to her actions. Isabelle’s story is so heartbreaking but beautiful and the
friendship that grows between these two women is one of the best friendships
out there. I adored this book and couldn’t put it down I didn’t want to stop
listening I needed to know how the story played out because with each bombshell
Isabella would drop you could see so many ways the story could go and most of
them had very dire consequences.
I received the ebook galley of this book from netgalley then
I heard that it was going to be narrated by, Bahni Turpin & Lorna Raver so
of course I waited for the audiobook and I am so glad I did. These two are
perfect for the characters Bahni as Dorrie and Lorna as Isabelle bring the
emotion of this book bubbling to surface in waves of emotion that will make you
feel everything these characters are going through. Lorna Raver’s telling of
Isabelle’s story is at times pure raw emotion that conveys so beautifully the
heartbreak of her long life and Bahni Turpin’s Dorrie is smart yet has this
soft vulnerable side that Turpin brings to life without flaw.
I highly recommend this book on audio with these two
narrators how can you go wrong! This is one the best books I’ve read this year.
If you like southern fiction and beautiful friendship stories give this book a
try you won’t be disappointed!
5 stars
PS After reading the book the cover will about break your
heart!
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