Acquired Audiobook By: I started to listen to audiobooks in [2016] as a way to offset my readings of print books whilst noting there was a rumour about how audiobooks could help curb chronic migraines as you are switching up how your reading rather than allowing only one format to be your bookish choice. As I found colouring and knitting agreeable companions to listening to audiobooks, I have embarked on a new chapter of my reading life where I spend time outside of print editions of the stories I love reading and exchange them for audio versions. Through hosting for the Audiobookworm I’ve expanded my knowledge of authors who are producing audio versions of their stories whilst finding podcasters who are sharing their bookish lives through pods (ie. AudioShelf and Talking Audiobooks; see my sidebar). Meanwhile, I am also curating my own wanderings in audio via my local library who uses Overdrive for their digital audiobook catalogue whilst making purchase requests for audio CDs. It is a wonderful new journey and one I enjoy sharing – I am hoping to expand the percentage of how many audios I listen to per year starting in 2018.
I received a complimentary audiobook copy of “Surviving Doodahville” via Audiobookworm Promotion who is working with Sara Pascoe on this blog tour in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
What inspired me to listen to this audiobook:
When I first played the samper for this audiobook, it felt like an interesting story to listen too. I am definitely attracted to certain kinds of Contemporary & modern narratives within the scope of Women’s Fiction, sagas, intergenerational and multigenerational explorations of ordinary life – which is the particular niche I felt this title would fall inside as I had originally planned to listen to it and review it during my Saturday’s Are Bookish focus of reviews on Jorie Loves A Story – which specifically hightlight either Romance and/or Women’s Fiction titles.
What I hadn’t foreseen is how my life in July would take me away from listening to this audiobook & how in the end, I wasn’t able to attach myself into the story itself; at least, not at this particular point in time.
Surviving Doodaville
by Ashley Fontainne
Source: Audiobook via Audiobookworm Promotions
“Filled with powerful scenes and great characters! Brings the ’83 Old South to vivid life. One of my all-time favorite reads! Loved it"! (Janelle Taylor, NY Times best-selling author)
The summer of 1983 - the era of big debt, big hair, and big dreams. Seventeen-year-old Kassandra Lawson is excited about starting her senior year of high school. She has a crush on a local hunk, and her best friend, valley girl extraordinaire Liz Hendricks, insists on helping her snag the hot guy - for sure!
July starts out uneventful for Kee and her parents. Her father, Kevin, is a partner at a CPA firm, and her mother, Gail, works as a secretary at the police department. The small family lives an idyllic life in sunny Hacienda Heights, California.
1983 also brings upheaval and strife for the Lawson clan. A death in the family forces Kevin and Gail to make the painful decision to pack up and move to Kevin’s hometown of Daltville, Arkansas.
Each faces daunting challenges adapting to their new life. Gail and Kee aren’t quite sure they can handle the culture shock. They encounter social and racial issues they never faced on the West Coast, strange food, weird dialects, odd customs, and wicked secrets that have the potential to destroy their family.More than just a coming-of-age story, Surviving Doodahville explores family bonds, racial barriers, and just how much a person is willing to sacrifice for others. The tale is full of humor, action and a touch of mystery, making it a fun romp into the past.
Places to find the book:
ASIN: B07S9849JW
Published by RMSW Press
on 24 May, 2019
Format: Audiobook | Digital
Length: 5 hours and 18 minutes (unabridged)
Published by: RMSW Press
Formats Available: Trade Paperback, Audiobook and Ebook
Converse via: #SurvivingDoodaville + #AudioReads, #Audiobook
#WomensFiction and #Contemporary Fiction
on why I am spotlighting surviving doodahville:
I had hoped to make more progress within Surviving Doodahville before my tour stop arrived – except to say, I was deathly ill with severe bouts of nausea the first half of the month and three days before my tour stop, I began a new job which I’m thankfully blessed to be enjoying – however, the timing to listen to this audiobook flew out the perverbial window! I wanted to soak into the story, the ambiance and the quirkiness of how it was written – as those are the small bits of what I had remembered hearing when I first sampled the audiobook prior to becoming a part of the audiobook blog tour.
Whenever I am seeking out an audiobook to listen to – I am look for a few key things and finding stories which not just hold my attention but which are giving a narrator who can give voice to the characters in such a way as pull me into the heart of the narrative itself is what I love most about listening to audiobooks. The added bonus and joy is colouring as I hear the stories as the slight distraction through art pulls me further into the narration, allowing me to focus on the nuances and to ‘hear’ the stories in a fuller scope of enjoyment.
This is why I’ll be re-attempting to listen to Surviving Doodaville – whilst colouring within some of my favourite colouring books and seeing if I can re-align into the story which first caught me ‘at hallo’ for how Rebecca Roberts first pulled my interest by how she was giving voice to the story and allowing me to peer into this world for just a fraction of a moment and hoping I’d find a wicked good read inside it.
I just couldn’t catch a break this July – the only stories I could find held my attention whilst I was ill were light-hearted INSPY reads and even those I had to ‘let go of’ by the middle of the month. My reading life has been a bit on hiatus lately and I regret the stories I haven’t been able to get back inside as a result of illness and life interceding on the hours I wished I could have resided inside the stories themselves. I’m hoping after I get to listen more to Surviving Doodaville I will be able to offer more insight into what my personal takeaways were on behalf of the story and the narrator’s interpretation of the story – for now, kindly know this was one of the latest audiobooks on tour with Audiobookworm Promotions which caught my eye for its originality.
This blog tour is courtesy of Audiobookworm Promotions:
Whilst participating on:
Be sure to follow the blog tour route to see what else awaits you!
{SOURCES: Book Cover for “Suviviving Doodaville”, the biography of co-authors Ashley Fontainne & Lillian Hansen and the narrator, Rebecca Roberts as well as the blog tour banner, the audiobook promo banner and the host badge were provided by Audiobookworm Promotions and are used with permission. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets embedded by codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Audiobook Spotlight banner and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2019.
Leave a Reply