Euphoria in Pick-a-Shelf

Sep 30, 2014 Dee rated it liked it

Audiobook Provided for Review by Publisher

I had heard this book raved about in several audiobook groups I am part of, so when I was offered the opportunity to review it through audiobook jukebox, I jumped on it (mostly because the copy at my library had 60+ people on the wait list..). Plus the narrators (Simon Vance and Xe Sands) are two of my favorites. There was something about the description that caught my attention – i haven’t read a lot about cultural anthropology but it is an area that in Audiobook Provided for Review by Publisher

I had heard this book raved about in several audiobook groups I am part of, so when I was offered the opportunity to review it through audiobook jukebox, I jumped on it (mostly because the copy at my library had 60+ people on the wait list..). Plus the narrators (Simon Vance and Xe Sands) are two of my favorites. There was something about the description that caught my attention – i haven’t read a lot about cultural anthropology but it is an area that interests me, the idea of living intimately with a group of people for a period of time, learning about their way of life.

However, I don’t think that I could truly appreciate the beauty of the language and writing style because I made the dumb mistake of listening to the audiobook while on a road trip. And I know now that I really shouldn’t have been listening at 11pm at night – it wasn’t fair to the author or the book. That being said, I did like what I remember listening to. The language was lyrical and the story moved at a nice pace. I felt like the author did a good job of managing the tension in the relationships between the three main characters.

I think my one disappointment with the story was that I expected a bit more about the tribe of people they lived with – at times, it felt like the lives of Nell, Fen and Andrew drown out the premise of living with the natives in New Guinea. It also felt like the ending was a bit rushed to me – I was left (even if it was 3am) feeling like something was missing. I guess because I am ultimately a romantic at heart and the ending didn’t quite feel complete to me.

While I had some issues with parts of the storyline, I had no issues with the narrators. Simon Vance has been a favorite of mine since I listened to him do the Steig Larsson books and Xe Sands is one of my favorite romance narrators. I do wish that there had been more Xe – the majority of the book was narrated by Simon Vance – not that I don’t like him (in fact, I totally fangirl gush over his narration at times), I just wanted more Xe. I’ll say that while she warned me prior to listening that I may need to turn up the volume for her parts because they were quieter, I didn’t have that issue – I didn’t have to adjust the volume on my car audio at all while listening.

Overall, I gave both the book and the narration 3.5 stars but am intrigued to see how that would be adjusted should I re-listen to it later on. ...more

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Nov 19, 2014 Suzanne rated it really liked it

Shelves: romance, adventure, 1930s, audible

4.5 stars!

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Aug 10, 2014 Nicole rated it it was ok

Shelves: advance-reader-copy, 2014

Elle Magazine gave me a copy of this week as it's up for one of their top books of the year, but unfotunately reading this book was not a euphoric experience for me. At best I could give it moderately interesting. This book had a SLOW and somewhat confused start and had I not been reading it for a review I very likely would have put it down.

King found her rhythm about 50 pages in with an exploration of not only remote tribes but the anthropologists attempting to unveil them. While King sprinkle ...more

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Jun 04, 2015 Roseann rated it liked it

This was a book that was recommended through a web video.

Not exactly what I would look for, the novel tells the tale of a love triangle involving anthropologists in New Guinea circa the 1930s.

The major problem I had with the story was that the novelist placed herself as one of the males and I just did not feel the 'maleness' in her writing.

I found the information about the region and its people very interesting, but thought the romance portion was lacking. As this novel was apparently inspire ...more

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May 26, 2022 Eden rated it liked it

I am conflicted about this book. I really enjoyed the conversation among the characters of the book and the exploration of what it means to be human. However, I found this book to be a bit of a challenge in figuring out which perspective was being currently represented in each chapter. The audiobook was helpful, but more helpful would be chapter headings with each name displayed.

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Aug 26, 2014 Marie (UK) rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2015-reading-challenge

inspired by real events this book is described as the tale of a love triangle between 3 ethnographers in remote areas of New guinea. It is much more than that it is raw with emotion and danger both for the "researchers" and the natives. ...more

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