The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young - heard on Libby app - 12 hours

 I don't recall who recommended this book to me, but I had to wait months for it on Libby. At first it was intriguing, but I got tired of the constant hysterical stress that this woman was under. Practically the whole story is stress-ridden and frantic. The characters are interesting, but rather mysterious. I was hoping for a mystery, which it is, but it was a weird, thriller kind of mystery that had so many time travel complications that I couldn't really follow it that well. Still, I persevered, because the descriptions of the land and the flowers were beautiful, and I kept hoping it would all make sense. It kind of came together, but it was not particularly satisfying...

Still, it gave me an interesting diversion as I walked the miles around our neighborhood this beautiful fall. Once I'm into a story, it's hard for me to stop. I know I dislike sci-fi, and this is similar. I should have known better and given up sooner. Oh well...the reader had a lovely southern accent...

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

 Leonard and I had just returned to Florida after our second Flower Power cruise and were facing two long flights home. I browsed the bookstore at the Fort Lauderdale airport, thinking that a new good book would help me enjoy the flights. Ann had recommended this one quite awhile ago, and I have been waiting to buy it second-hand at a cheaper price. But there were never any cheap ones online, so I hadn't bought it yet. As I contemplated the hours on the plane, I decided it would be worth the full price to be well-entertained! I was not disappointed; it definitely delivered on the good story, good character, good writing metrics. 

Kya, the main character, lives alone in a shack in a marsh after her family deserts her, one by one. By the time she is ten, she is living on her own. The story of how she survives is fascinating, and the description of her surroundings is almost lyrical. It was intriguing and fairly realistic most of the time... A couple of times I got irritated by the leaps of faith required to believe what was going on, but mostly it was pretty believable. I like a good mystery, and this one had some intriguing twists and turns. I liked how the story went back and forth between different points of time in the past. The characters were interesting and consistent. It was interesting to watch Kya deepen her isolation and eventually come out of it... I also liked the descriptions of her marshy environment. 

What Ann really liked was the audio version and how beautifully the story was told with local accents. One connection I liked was that the author earned her doctorate in animal behavior at UC Davis. As Kya learned from the natural world and applied it to human behavior, it gave a lot of unexpected conclusions about both.