Tournament of Books discussion

Under the Udala Trees, by Chinelo Okparanta



About the Book (excerpted from Goodreads)
As Edwidge Danticat has made personal the legacy of Haiti’s political coming of age, Okparanta’s Under the Udala Trees uses one woman’s lifetime to examine the ways in which Nigerians continue to struggle toward selfhood. Even as their nation contends with and recovers from the effects of war and division, Nigerian lives are also wrecked and lost from taboo and prejudice. This story offers a glimmer of hope — a future where a woman might just be able to shape her life around truth and love.


About the Author
Born and raised in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, Chinelo Okparanta received her BS from Pennsylvania State University, her MA from Rutgers University, and her MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. A Colgate University Olive B. O'Connor Fellow in Fiction as well as a recipient of the University of Iowa's Provost's Postgraduate Fellowship in Fiction, Okparanta was one of Granta's six New Voices for 2012. Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, The Kenyon Review, among others. Short-listed for the 2013 Caine Prize in African Writing, she is also a 2014 O. Henry Award winner and a 2014 Lambda Literary Award winner for Lesbian Fiction. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies by Bread Loaf (John Gardner Fellow in Fiction), the Jentel Foundation, the Hermitage Foundation, the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, as well as Hedgebrook

~ Biography from the author's website


Author's Website: http://www.chinelookparanta.com


Review at the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015...

Conversation - Voiceless Women: https://youtu.be/6hcBeWBInQQ (YouTube video)



**********


If you would like to chat about this book, or this author, here's a place to do so!

Happy reading!!

i've started with this book for my alt-TOB reading... just decided to work down the pairings from the top.

I'm going to work down the list, too. My copy of this one is in at the library, but I probably won't get started on it until Dec. 1.

That is a logical idea to work down the list. :)

I have read this book and will post my thoughts shortly.

While I was reading Under the Udala Trees I kept thinking back to my experiences reading An Untamed State and A Little Life. I kept expecting for "Udala Trees" to get just as harrowing; I kept thinking I was going to be shattered and repulsed any time now by an upcoming scene. Instead Okparanta made choices in the story and in the tone that made this novel a far less harrowing reading experience than Untamed State. The protagonist is lucky, sure, but maybe in a way that's more realistic than not, where her life story feels like it falls within the normal range of what a lesbian might experience growing up in Nigeria in this time frame. The story is not an endless litany of all the bad things that could possibly happen to a human being taken to their furthest limit. There are plenty of bad things that happen in the novel, sure, but they stop somewhere this side of where they could have gone for the protagonist.

I think there's a trend in fiction now where to me many novels feel like they're competing with confessional memoir for attention, and where story-telling restraint is getting rarer. This book had restraint in a good way, to me.

poingu wrote: "I think there's a trend in fiction now where to me many novels feel like they're competing with confessional memoir for attention, and where story-telling restraint is getting rarer. This book had restraint in a good way, to me. 1..."

This!! Thanks for making this point, which sums up what has been irking me about some of the new releases over the past few years. I've always felt I like to be challenged in my reading. But I am really irritated when I feel that extreme harrowing experience is relied upon for grabbing attention, versus good storytelling. I am resistant to equating the two, and I know that is more about me than the authors / books but I just can't shake my resistance to 'loving' such books for this reason.

Having said that, both An Untamed State and A Little Life were powerful reads for me. But my struggle with feeling emotionally wrecked by the graphic trauma endured by the characters (and being left wondering if there was more to the stories than that) makes me resistant to 'loving' these books as I might otherwise.

I guess for me the bottom line is I'm struggling to evaluate my feelings for books where this trauma is the central story. Because it's awful. And it overtakes every other aspect of the reading experience and I'm left unsure what to make of it as a whole, in terms of quality. Finding a story extremely painful to read just doesn't seem like enough to go on in evaluating my experience of it, but I don't understand why this is for me.

Aaaand back to this book. I'm saving this for January as I'm planning to do some reading from Africa then. It sounds great and I look forward to it.

After I read the author's short story collection, Happiness, Like Water - I was duly impressed! Short story collections are not my favorite but over the years I have come to appreciate the skill it takes to write compelling short stories and I found myself reading and enjoying all of the stories in the collection.

So naturally I could not wait for the author to release a novel.

Here is my review on Under the Udala Trees

Poignant and emotionally rich this story captured my attention and heart in many unexpected ways. The author’s storytelling abilities are showcased as she seamlessly weaves together the coming-of-age stories of Nigeria and the main character, Ijeoma. This technique effectively put me into a specific time and place and yet is universally appealing. Ijeoma’s young world is shattered as the civil war kills her father, and her mother sends her away to a safer place. In this new place Ijeoma, an Igbo and Amina, a Hausa, find comfort in their loving each other until caught and Ijeoma is reunited with her mother. Veiled bible lessons become the root of discomfort and confusion as Ijeoma tries to understand her cultural and societal expectations. When meeting Amina again in school their attraction solidifies until Amina marries. As Ijeoma meets another woman, Ndidi she learns the horrific consequences of same-sex relationships and eventually gives in to societal (and her mother’s) pressure marrying a loving understanding man. Ijeoma struggles from the beginning to present the facade of being a wife and to find some degree of happiness and satisfaction until she reaches a point where this is no longer an option to her. The beautiful honest language handles the sensitive subjects with grace, bringing the inner thoughts of the characters to light in a manner that will make readers ache in their struggles.
I had read Okparanta’s short story collection, Happiness, Like Water, I was impressed with the fluidity of her writing and the how profound the stories were and knew that I would enjoy her future work. Tragic, moving, and definitely unforgettable, this is a novel to savor as it will linger in your thoughts after you turn the last page.

Additional comments:
I really liked the intimate feel of this story as it relates to Ijeoma. Several times when reading I had to remind myself that this was fiction not a memoir/autobiography.
I like how the politics and history of the times played in the background yet was at the forefront of how the everyday people needed to make the decisions about their lives.

Interesting comments regarding comparing Under the Udala Trees to An Untamed State and A Little Life and how each approaches a harrowing experience and our reaction to them.

I am trying to figure out how I feel about that.
For me it often comes down to an author's writing style and what appeals to me.

And then there is the publishing industry whose job is to make money and often they are going to follow the type of books that sell the most.

Some people like a more "straight-forward" story than a more "restrained" story.

Gay is a much more blunt in your face writer/blogger and I think that is reflected in An Untamed State.

I too prefer the more restrained state that is more often seen in "literary fiction".

One author that I like that I feel also writes about harrowing experiences in a more restrained way is Chris Abani. His poetic language often takes some of the raw edges off of an unpleasant situation but you as the reader still understand the extent of the event.

Beverly wrote: "One author that I like that I feel also writes about harrowing experiences in a more restrained way is Chris Abani."

Thanks for mentioning Chris Abani, Beverly. I've had GraceLand on my shelf since it was published and haven't read it yet. I'm really grateful for my chance here not only to read these books together but also to read them with a group that has already read so widely.

I'm thinking of this choice in the storytelling--whether to reveal horrors in gritty detail, or to tell them more simply and move on--not just in terms of authorial choice, but also in terms of how the choice defines a given character, in particular in stories told in first person.

In one case you have a character who is freely telling an extreme story to an unknown reader, almost as if daring that reader to stop reading if they can't take it. The reader might even feel a moral obligation to continue as this character bears witness, especially when it's known that the author suffered a similar experience. Both An Untamed State and The Lovely Bones have these resonances where an understanding of how the author's lived experience informed the novels was important to many readers.

In the other kind of story, you have a character who chooses to be circumspect with the reader about traumatic events, and to not dwell on, lets say, how her father's brains were splattered all over the room after he shot himself in the head. "He killed himself, let's move on," was my feeling from Okparanta's protagonist. It made her a different kind of person than someone who would speak of her father's suicide, of her mother and her needing to deal with the body, clean up the mess, etc., in detail.

A character who shares every traumatic event in detail is different from a character who holds back. It changes the story quite a bit for me.

I almost think these approaches might reflect the cultural norms of the author's environment vs. conscious choices on the part of the author. Roxanne Gay couldn't have published her book in the 1940's, not just because of laws like what kept Joyce out of print but also because people were all about restraint and about moving on and looking to the future in those times. Men coming home from the Bataan death march never talked about it. Japan picked itself up and moved on from massive firebombing and two nuclear attacks. Holocaust survivors didn't on the whole want to talk about what happened until somewhere around the mid-seventies, after the cultural value of bearing witness overtook the cultural value of being stoic and getting on with life.

poingu wrote: "Beverly wrote: "One author that I like that I feel also writes about harrowing experiences in a more restrained way is Chris Abani."

Thanks for mentioning Chris Abani, Beverly. I've had [book:Grac..."

First thanks to Poingu for inviting me to this group. I am having a great time here.

And so many thanks to the organizers/moderators and participants in this group. I am learning so much and appreciate reading everyone's comments.

And yes, I too am adding more books to my very long tbr list.

I agree our current times seems to relish the gritty details of harrowing and just about any situation.
I am not a tv watcher but when I do channel surf I am surprised at the level of violence/mature situations that are on TV even at times when young kids would be watching.

And since I was born in the late 40s I understand about not talking about the atrocities that happened in WWII/Korean War. But in some ways I also attribute that to wanting to move on/not wanting to relive the pain until later in life and we as children often did not press for the details. All we heard was the rah rah stuff. But then also need to remember that ex-slaves did not talk much about slavery after the Civil War.

But we need also to remember that with us now being more global and technology having eyes everywhere it is hard to hide/deny events. So it is hard to have "gatekeepers" which control the information that gets disseminated.

One of the reasons my tbr list is so long is I love reading debut books and finding new authors to follow along with already existing favorites.

I am looking forward to reading future works by Chinelo Okparanta.

After enjoying both her short story collection and novel she is now on my preferred author list (usually meaning want to read their books as soon as it is released).

Beverly wrote: "One of the reasons my tbr list is so long is I love reading debut books and finding new authors to follow along with already existing favorites..."

i am the same way, beverly!! i love learning about new authors and their debut books.

i've jumped over the earlier comments for now because i am only about ⅓ of the way into this novel; so i shall return to read your thoughts after i have finished the book.

okay -- i finished reading Under the Udala Trees last night, so just went through and read the comments that have already been shared. i am still processing my own feelings on the book and will now contemplate them in relation to some of the comments made here. (though i have not read An Untamed State or A Little Life, though some other novels came to mind, like Daughters Who Walk This Path)

but... i really wasn't that taken with under the udala trees, and was never very emotionally engaged with the story or characters. i sometimes feel like i am 'broken' as a reader. heh. when this feeling comes up, it is always because my own feelings veer from the consensus -- in skimming through GR ratings and reviews, there is some strong love for the novel. i definitely don't feel that. i do feel a huge appreciation for okparanta, and for her getting this book into the world. and i do have tremendous human rights worries for the LGBT community in nigeria being persecuted - and fairly recent legislation which serves to continue to marginalize and violently punish, imprison, or kill, people in same sex relationships.

anyway... i appreciate that this threads here, and i am keen to read people's thoughts as they have a chance to get to this one in their own reading.

Jennifer wrote: "okay -- i finished reading Under the Udala Trees last night, so just went through and read the comments that have already been shared. i am still processing my own feelings on the b..."

Jennifer, I wonder if you're reacting to the same things I reacted to first with this novel and that you just fell on the other side in how they affected you as a reader.

First is the restraint I've mentioned, and how it surprised me. I'm recalling the scene where dead bodies are piled up, and suddenly a child everyone assumed was one of the corpses stands up from among the dead and runs off, none the worse for wear. This scene could have been utterly bleak and full of stench and despair in every word choice, but what I felt instead was a sense of playfulness. My past reading had me expecting the child would get shot in the back any second, but no, off he scampers.

Then too the narrative voice is very simple and in character and this is a choice that may be distancing to a reader. I had that question in my head when the narrator says things like "I could hear a pin drop"--what someone would say, but too cliche to be "good writing". I get the picture of a woman who is strong and who is an optimist but is speaking within the realistic constraints of a person who had a very spotty education and much hardship, in spite of being in a position of privilege economically compared with those who were dying of starvation.

The narrator doesn't have the gorgeous first person narrative flourishes at all like those of some of my favorite authors' first person storytellers--for instance Eugene Henderson in Henderson the Rain King or Billy Bathgate in Billy Bathgate. It's like she's sitting across her kitchen table from me and I've come to document her life for the book I'm writing and she has agreed to tell her story, but she isn't trying to impress me with her hardships.

Another aspect that I wondered about after I read the novel, and decided to accept and enjoy rather than not (although it could have gone the other way for me as a reader) was the novel's happy ending. There are TWO somewhat unrealistically happy endings in the 16 books we're reading together, actually. How a reader relates to whether those endings are earned or not might easily affect how they rate each of these novels.

i don't mind restraint at all in fiction. and i don't mind a simpler telling either. distance is definitely something i experienced while reading UtUT. as a reader, sometimes this works fine for me and at other times it doesn't. the ending was a bit... off for me. while i appreciated ijeoma's mother's response, i would have liked a bit more. the contrast between her earlier efforts to 'fix' ijeoma felt inconsistent with the 'well, whatever. come on in.' reception at the end. was it personal growth/acceptance, or resignation? did the fact ijeoma had been married and had a daughter offer a layer of protection from suspicion or harm somehow over being a single, childless woman? but my feelings about the book were established long before the ending arrived.

As it has been mentioned several times on these threads before - the "fun" part is the different pov on the books and sharing them. For several years I have read/discussed literary fiction with a small group of reader friends where we bonded together from other groups because of our similar book tastes - so while we disagree at times it is usually in smaller degrees on a particular book. With that said being in this group where the opinions on a particular book may differ from mine is both enlightening and inspiring.

While the ending to UtUT may seen to be a little convenient and happy, I actually so it a little differently. I thought the ending was also about hope and especially since the author is "young" I thought it was appropriate. If the author was older I would not expect such a hopeful/happy ending. I do not think she "sugar-coated" that there is still much that needed to be done to have more humane laws/attitudes but the characters tried to find some peace for themselves. Even with this type of ending I did not walk away that the characters lives were all a bed of roses.

Also maybe I was okay with the ending because I have seen changes where parents had a change a heart about their child (whether it was related to a sexual orientation or a racial/ethnic/religious marriage of a child) without much of a personal growth aspect other than this is their child and would rather have them in their lives than not. And yes,I have also seen the opposite where there is no acceptance of the child.

Beverly wrote: "As it has been mentioned several times on these threads before - the "fun" part is the different pov on the books and sharing them..."

I enjoyed reading your thoughts about the happy ending here Beverly because you're looking at it from inside the story--whether the mother and daughter in this story can plausibly find a way to accept one another. I like your comment to about it being more plausible to have a hopeful ending because the protagonist is still young vs. if she were older and had experienced more setbacks in life too.

I realized from your comment also that I'm usually thinking about my reading in a different way from what you describe. I usually think more from the writer's perspective than from a character's perspective. I'm always thinking: why did the writer make this choice for this given scene? The writer sits down to a completely blank future for a given character and can make anything happen at all. Okparanta chose to write about hope, and to give me as a reader hope as well. She didn't leave me in a pit of despair about humanity.

Another way to look at this novel is as a social awareness novel, as awareness building, which is certainly one of Okparanta's goals. How does it succeed on that vector? I think pretty well, where I got close to a character and learned about how oppressive cultural norms are affecting the lives of gay Nigerians, and where the social message didn't overwhelm the novelistic aspects of my read. Okparanta refrains from stark stereotyping or easy messages and I liked that. I really was expecting Ijeoma's husband to rape her or perhaps expose her to the community and let them deal with her. I felt the novel did it just right, where he is abusive but holds back from any extreme retribution. And he lets her go. That choice Okparanta made, to allow these characters to resolve their differences without extreme violence, made both characters more human to me.

There were a few other novels this year that also are written to inform at least as much to entertain, for example And West Is West by Ron Childress about the morality of drone technology, and All Involved by Ryan Gattis, set in the days just after the Rodney King verdict, which has quite a bit to say about class and race in LA.

poingu wrote: "Beverly wrote: "As it has been mentioned several times on these threads before - the "fun" part is the different pov on the books and sharing them..."

I enjoyed reading your thoughts about the hap..."

I do think we read books differently.
I usually like to understand a little bit about an author before I read a book to get their perspective about the book and/or their personality. Which is why I love that this information is already set up for us in this challenge. But I do not usually read the in-depth reviews on books until I have read the book so I assume I am reading with an open mind. But I know I bring by life experience, my prior readings, and how the world events are currently influencing my thoughts.

I have And West Is West on my tbr list. I have read many of the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction winners and this is one prize that I follow.

Beverly wrote: "I have And West Is West on my tbr list. I have read many of the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction winners and this is one prize that I follow. "

Beverly, thanks so much for drawing my attention to this prize. I saw the prize mentioned on the cover of And West Is West in the bookstore and assumed it was an after-publication award. I just linked to the site and realize now this novel won as an unpublished manuscript, and that part of the award includes publication of the manuscript by Algonquin.

Here is a link for everyone else:

http://www.pen.org/content/penbellwet...

It says something about the current state of "socially engaged fiction" that a prize exists to encourage people to write more of it.

New to Goodreads, but read this book recently and loved it. This young author is quite brave, in my opinion. I found the writing elegant and the story very subtly powerful.

Raymond wrote: "New to Goodreads, but read this book recently and loved it. This young author is quite brave, in my opinion. I found the writing elegant and the story very subtly powerful."

Hi Raymond! Did you search for groups reading this book and find us that way? If so that's very cool, welcome, you've landed in a group of people who like to read newly published fiction very much.

This morning I read a NYT review of a book called Workshops of Empire: Stegner, Engle, and American Creative Writing during the Cold War, a book that claims that the predominant definition of "GOOD WRITING" in the West came out of artists reacting to the Cold War and that we're all still uncritically following these values when we decide what is 'good.'

A weird idea at first but it made sense by the end of the review:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/29/boo...

Why am I noting this here? Because one of the aesthetic values the author of "Workshops of Empire" says came from Cold War influence was "no message fiction"--the belief that novels should not have a social agenda. Another aesthetic value the author credits to the West's reaction to Cold War politics was the adage "show, don't tell."

Under the Udala Trees is definitely a "message book" and it is also a bit of a "tell, don't show" book, so I thought of this novel when I read the article.

It was sobering to be reminded that my individual preferences are so grounded in my cultural milieu, and that to a great extent my reactions to a book aren't my 'individual preferences" at all, but are instead mostly based on values I've uncritically picked up from my environment. That must be true, otherwise I'd be a fan of the unreadable Sir Walter Scott, but even so unnerving to be reminded of it.

I finished this book last night. I did enjoy it but for me it sits at a 3-star read (maybe 3.5-stars). I am still mulling over why that its. Perhaps it was the writing style and the way the story unfolded. I did get the sense that things were left out (the jump from Ijeoma being asked on a date by Chobindu to the marriage proposal, for example) and I felt that some of the characters seemed not fully formed.

I do believe that it is a very important book with a very timely topic given the new laws in Nigeria. I think that the book excels at establishing the setting - the civil war and post-civil - but not having it overwhelm everything. I appreciate that Okparanta has blended the devout religion of Ijeoma and her family with the folk tales,dreams and superstitions that must hold a great deal of weight to many Nigerians. I would recommend that anyone interested in reading a novel about the LGBTQ community in Nigeria should definitely read it. But I also feel that anyone curious about women's lives in Nigeria in general would find it interesting, too.

(This is the second book that I have read this year written by a Nigerian author, set in Nigeria as I read The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives in the Spring. It is a much different story dealing with a polygamist marriage. I am so glad that I have read both books as they have given me a better picture of what the women of Nigeria are facing and how diverse the country is.)

Jane from B.C. wrote: "This is the second book that I have read this year written by a Nigerian author, set in Nigeria as I read The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives in the Spring...."

it was interesting to think of these two books together -- i did the same thing! :)

I'm hoping we get more readers for this novel now that it's on the Tournament of Books Longlist. Well worth your time--I found it remarkable.

poingu wrote: "I'm hoping we get more readers for this novel now that it's on the Tournament of Books Longlist. Well worth your time--I found it remarkable."

I've got it on audio and am looking forward to it. Listening to Landfalls right now, which I'm enjoying. Also loving the variety of books you and Jennifer have pulled together. Outstanding!!!

I'm about halfway through this book and frantically trying to finish listening before it expires and zooms back to the library. I'm really enjoying it. Same narrator as An Untamed State - Robin Miles - and so far I'm really impressed by her performance. I'm going to have to add some of the other books she's read to my audio queue.

that's cool, vanessa. i don't use audio books, but i love hearing about narrators doing great work, and how audio book users have favourites they seek out in helping choose their reads!

Vanessa wrote: "I'm about halfway through this book and frantically trying to finish listening before it expires and zooms back to the library. I'm really enjoying it. Same narrator as An Untamed State - Robin Mil..."

Robin Miles is one of my fav narrators.
In fact I can credit her for my audio book habit to go along with my print book and ebook habit.

She narrated the first audio book I tried - Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff.

Oooh! I loved Robin Miles narration in An Untamed State and think she would be fabulous hear. Now I'm sad I read it in print instead!

@ beverly -- cool! i was very impressed by schiff's Saint-Exupéry, and have had Cleopatra: A Life on my bookshelf since since before its publication. sigh! so many books!!! (i also am hoping for her new one, The Witches: Salem, 1692!!) (all in paper. i have trouble with audio books... i get lulled to sleep every time. every. time. haha!! my husband used to have very long commutes so would have audio books in the car.)

Another Robin Miles fan checking in!! Isn't she great?!?

Glad to hear about a good narrator. I haven't enjoyed my fiction forays on audiobooks so far (I'm a novice) and I fully blame the narrators rather than the text, so I've been hesitant to keep trying without cheers for the voice. Can you sort by narrator on Hoopla or Overdrive apps?

Amy wrote: "Glad to hear about a good narrator. I haven't enjoyed my fiction forays on audiobooks so far (I'm a novice) and I fully blame the narrators rather than the text, so I've been hesitant to keep tryin..."


I don't use Hoopla, and I don't think you can sort by narrator on Overdrive but you should be able to search by narrator on Audible, even if you don't have a subscription.

Amy wrote: "Glad to hear about a good narrator. I haven't enjoyed my fiction forays on audiobooks so far (I'm a novice) and I fully blame the narrators rather than the text, so I've been hesitant to keep tryin..."

You can search by narrator on Overdrive. Mozhan Marno is my absolute favorite, but there are so many good ones!

nomadreader (Carrie D-L) wrote: "Amy wrote: "Glad to hear about a good narrator. I haven't enjoyed my fiction forays on audiobooks so far (I'm a novice) and I fully blame the narrators rather than the text, so I've been hesitant t..."

Ooo good to know. Thanks!

Jan wrote: "Another Robin Miles fan checking in!! Isn't she great?!?"

Robin Miles is incredible. I think she possibly makes this an even better book to listen to vs. read--this is a time when I might actually prefer audio. The novel itself feels more to me like a spoken account/oral history rather than a writerly work. It's very beautiful language, but it's simple language. I first read it in hardcover but I'm now listening to the early chapters of Miles's narration and she just sounds like Ijeoma to me.

Vanessa wrote: "Amy wrote: "Glad to hear about a good narrator. I haven't enjoyed my fiction forays on audiobooks so far (I'm a novice) and I fully blame the narrators rather than the text, so I've been hesitant t..."

I have not seen the option to sort by narrator on Hoopla.
But as mentioned you can at audible and hear samples - often can interesting if you listen to a narrator read in different genres/storylines.
Also on Audible it is interesting to read the book comments as they usually have a statement or two about the narrator.

Well, I've only finished four Alt-TOB books so far (Aquarium, Braggsville, Mountain Story and this one) but this book is by far my favorite of the four. I'm going to have to go out and pick up a copy for my mom this afternoon.

Vanessa wrote: "Well, I've only finished four Alt-TOB books so far (Aquarium, Braggsville, Mountain Story and this one) but this book is by far my favorite of the four. I'm going to have to go out and pick up a co..."

I keep trying to figure out whether there are any patterns to our prefernces, and I also keep making incorrect assumptions, like, "people who like Aquarium will like The Mountian Story" (no) or "people who like Oreo will like The Story of my Teeth" (not always).

I still think people who like Udala Trees will like Star Side of Bird Hill so you may want to try it, but otoh I've been really bad at predicting these things.

poingu wrote: "Vanessa wrote: "Well, I've only finished four Alt-TOB books so far (Aquarium, Braggsville, Mountain Story and this one) but this book is by far my favorite of the four. I'm going to have to go out ..."

Good to know! I just got the library's email saying Bird Hill zoomed to my Kindle so it'll be next on my reading list. After finishing Udala I was out of library books so I just started Delicious Foods on Audible. My to-read order is largely dictated by a combination of what can I get from the library when and what do I need to buy so I have something to read in between waiting on library holds :) For me, this is one of the biggest reasons I love the TOB (and now Alt-TOB!) - I don't really have to decide what I want to read based on whether I think I'll like it or not, I just load up my library holds and start with whichever book is available.

Amy wrote: "Glad to hear about a good narrator. I haven't enjoyed my fiction forays on audiobooks so far (I'm a novice) and I fully blame the narrators rather than the text, so I've been hesitant to keep tryin..."

Amy, long-time audiobook enthusiast here. I think it's a combination of a good narrator and a suitable book. "Suitable" for me means not-too-dense prose, fairly linear storytelling, etc. Mysteries are usually great. Popular fiction, YA, and lighter literary fiction are also good. Anything with a lot of accents, humor or vernacular language is enhanced by audio, esp with a good narrator... Angela's Ashes read by McCourt himself, A Brief History of Seven Killings, all the Harry Potter books....

poingu wrote: "I still think people who like Udala Trees well like Star Side ..."

You might be on to something here. I liked Star Side and am enjoying Udala (about a fourth of the way through).

I thought this was a beautiful book that earned its hopeful ending. So poignant reading it in light of current events. It moved me.