Regular price: £19.99
Eleanor Oliphant has learned how to survive - but not how to live. Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend. Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world....
Once a celebrated author of short stories now in his twilight years, Anthony Peardew has spent half his life lovingly collecting lost objects, trying to atone for a promise broken many years before. Realising he is running out of time, he leaves his house and all its lost treasures to his assistant, Laura, the one person he can trust to fulfil his legacy and reunite the thousands of objects with their rightful owners.
England,1976. Mrs Creasy is missing, and The Avenue is alive with whispers. As the summer shimmers endlessly on, 10-year-olds Grace and Tilly decide to take matters into their own hands. And as the cul-de-sac starts giving up its secrets, the amateur detectives will find much more than they imagined.
There are three things you should know about Elsie. The first is that she's my best friend. The second is that she always knows what to say to make me feel better. And the third...might take a little bit more explaining. Eighty-four-year-old Florence has fallen in her flat. As she waits to be rescued, Florence wonders if a terrible secret from her past is about to come to light; and, if the charming new resident is who he claims to be, why does he look exactly like a man who died 60 years ago?
The new audiobook from number one best-selling author Jodi Picoult, with the biggest of themes: birth, death, and responsibility. When a newborn baby dies after a routine hospital procedure, there is no doubt about who will be held responsible: the nurse who had been banned from looking after him by his father. What the nurse, her lawyer and the father of the child cannot know is how this death will irrevocably change all of their lives, in ways both expected and not.
Ben Jewell has hit a breaking point. His 10-year-old son, Jonah, has severe autism, and Ben and his wife, Emma, are struggling to cope. When Ben and Emma fake a separation - a strategic decision to further Jonah's case in an upcoming tribunal - Ben and Jonah move in with Georg, Ben's elderly father. In a small house in North London, three generations of men - one who can't talk, two who won't - are thrown together.
Eleanor Oliphant has learned how to survive - but not how to live. Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend. Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world....
Once a celebrated author of short stories now in his twilight years, Anthony Peardew has spent half his life lovingly collecting lost objects, trying to atone for a promise broken many years before. Realising he is running out of time, he leaves his house and all its lost treasures to his assistant, Laura, the one person he can trust to fulfil his legacy and reunite the thousands of objects with their rightful owners.
England,1976. Mrs Creasy is missing, and The Avenue is alive with whispers. As the summer shimmers endlessly on, 10-year-olds Grace and Tilly decide to take matters into their own hands. And as the cul-de-sac starts giving up its secrets, the amateur detectives will find much more than they imagined.
There are three things you should know about Elsie. The first is that she's my best friend. The second is that she always knows what to say to make me feel better. And the third...might take a little bit more explaining. Eighty-four-year-old Florence has fallen in her flat. As she waits to be rescued, Florence wonders if a terrible secret from her past is about to come to light; and, if the charming new resident is who he claims to be, why does he look exactly like a man who died 60 years ago?
The new audiobook from number one best-selling author Jodi Picoult, with the biggest of themes: birth, death, and responsibility. When a newborn baby dies after a routine hospital procedure, there is no doubt about who will be held responsible: the nurse who had been banned from looking after him by his father. What the nurse, her lawyer and the father of the child cannot know is how this death will irrevocably change all of their lives, in ways both expected and not.
Ben Jewell has hit a breaking point. His 10-year-old son, Jonah, has severe autism, and Ben and his wife, Emma, are struggling to cope. When Ben and Emma fake a separation - a strategic decision to further Jonah's case in an upcoming tribunal - Ben and Jonah move in with Georg, Ben's elderly father. In a small house in North London, three generations of men - one who can't talk, two who won't - are thrown together.
Loveday Cardew prefers books to people, and her job in a York bookshop is her refuge. If you look carefully, you might see the first lines of the novels she loves the most tattooed on her skin, but there are secrets Loveday will never share. Into the bookshop come a poet, a lover, a friend and three mysterious deliveries, each of which stirs unsettling memories she wants to forget. Turning the pages of her past will be the hardest thing Loveday has ever done. Can she trust those around her?
What do you do when you wake up in your mid-40s and realize you've been living a lie your whole life? Do you tell? Or do you keep it to yourself? Laura James found out that she was autistic as an adult, after she had forged a career for herself, married twice and raised four children. Odd Girl Out tracks the year of Laura's life after she receives a definitive diagnosis from her doctor, as she learns that 'different' doesn't need to mean 'less' and how there is a place for all of us, and it's never too late to find it.
Lou Clark knows a lot of things. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop, and she might not love her boyfriend Patrick. Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live, and now everything feels small and joyless. What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.
A brother chosen. A brother left behind. And a family where you'd least expect to find one. Leon is nine, and has a perfect baby brother called Jake. They have gone to live with Maureen, who has fuzzy red hair like a halo, and a belly like Father Christmas. But the adults are speaking in low voices, and wearing pretend faces. They are threatening to give Jake to strangers.
A poignant, surprising love story told backwards over five decades, with a devastating secret at its heart. Robbie and Emily they have been together for decades. Now, their joints are creaking and their eyesight is failing - but their love for each other is as fresh and fierce as the day they first met. They have had children and grandchildren, lived full and happy and intimate lives. But they have been keeping a secret since the day they met, when their lives changed forever. Over the years, the sacrifices and choices they made have sealed their fates together.
Calling Major Tom is a funny, uplifting tale of friendship and community about a man who has given up on the world...but discovers in the most unlikely way that it might not have given up on him. We all know someone like Thomas. The grumpy next-door neighbour who complains to the residents' committee about the state of your front lawn. The man who tuts when you don't have the correct change at the checkout. The colleague who sends an all-company email when you accidentally use the last drop of milk.
Ove is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet. He isn't as young as he used to be. He drives a Saab. He points at people he doesn't like the look of. He is described by those around his as 'the neighbour from hell'.Every morning he makes his inspection rounds of the local streets. He moves bicycles and checks the contents of recycling bins, even though it's been years since he was fired as Chairman of the Residents' Association in a vicious 'coup d'état'.
Meet the daughters of Iris Parker. Dee, sensitive and big-hearted; Rose, uptight and controlled; and Fleur, the reckless free spirit. At the reading of their mother's will, the three estranged women are aghast to discover that their inheritance comes with very tricky strings attached. If they are to inherit her wealth, they must spend a series of weekends together over the course of a year and carry out their mother's bucket list.
The hilarious, heartbreaking novel by the author of the international best seller A Man Called Ove. Granny has been telling fairy tales for as long as Elsa can remember. In the beginning they were only to make Elsa go to sleep, to get her to practise Granny's secret language, and a little because Granny is just about as nutty as a granny should be. But lately the stories have another dimension as well. Something Elsa can't quite put her finger on....
A reclusive ex-film star living in the wilds of Ireland, Claudette Wells is a woman whose first instinct, when a stranger approaches her home, is to reach for her shotgun. Why is she so fiercely protective of her family, and what made her walk out of her cinematic career when she had the whole world at her feet? Her husband Daniel, reeling from a discovery about a woman he last saw twenty years ago, is about to make an exit of his own. It is a journey that will send him off-course, far away from the life he and Claudette have made together.
When a paragraph in an evening newspaper reveals a decades-old tragedy, most readers barely give it a glance. But for three strangers, it's impossible to ignore. For one woman it's a reminder of the worst thing that ever happened to her. For another it's the dangerous possibility that her darkest secret is about to be discovered. And for a third, a journalist, it's the first clue in a hunt to uncover the truth. The Child's story will be told.
From the celebrated author of the international bes tseller The Secret Life of Bees comes an extraordinary novel about two exceptional women. Sarah Grimké is the middle daughter. The one her mother calls difficult and her father calls remarkable. On Sarah's eleventh birthday, Hetty 'Handful' Grimke is taken from the slave quarters she shares with her mother, wrapped in lavender ribbons, and presented to Sarah as a gift.
The Richard and Judy Book Club 2017 Best Seller
A beautiful, funny and surprising story of autism, family and love, perfect for fans of The Rosie Project, David Nicholls' Us and Nick Hornby's About a Boy.
Life is built on the little things....
Eight-year-old Sam has always been different - beautiful, surprising and autistic. For all he loves his family, dad Alex has always struggled to connect with Sam, and the strain has pushed Alex's marriage with Jody to the edge. So Alex moves in with his merrily irresponsible best friend on the world's most uncomfortable blow-up bed, wondering how to win back his wife and son.
As Alex navigates single life, long-buried family secrets and part-time fatherhood, his son begins playing Minecraft. Sam's imagination blossoms, and the game opens up a whole new world for the two to share. Can one fragmented family put themselves back together one piece at a time?
A Boy Made of Blocks is a tear-jerking, hilarious and, most of all, true-to-life novel about the power of difference and one very special little boy.
An informative, interesting and ultimately very moving account from the perspective of the father (Alex) of an autistic child (Sam). We see the frustrations and challenges of the parents and the resultant relationship strains. We feel the pain, anger and guilt that accompany the nurturing of a seemingly unresponsive and 'disruptive' child... would we cope any better?
Interesting insights and strategies re managing children on the spectrum are peppered across the text, identifying mechanisms through which to facilitate communication, achievement and satisfaction, building on strengths, identifying and controlling some of the triggers to the child's isolation and frustration.
Alex is a distant and perhaps selfish father, unable to find the means of communicating with his son... until he discover's Sam's brilliance in playing an online game Minecraft. This game and Alex' slowly developing understanding and respect for eight-year old Sam, is central to this story. Alex himself had a traumatic youth having lost his older brother in a tragic traffic event while both were still at school. We experience also the pain of not having dealt with prior traumas and of the lasting strain this places on daily life.The route to improved outcomes in this troubled family is the discovery of the computer game that requires agility, planning, strategy and more - this becomes the vehicle for the all important lines of communication between father and son.
This is a fascinating, engaging and very moving book. It's well written and sensitively narrated. While I never stopped and rewound the audio to contemplate how beautifully a sentence was crafted or an idea conveyed, it is certainly a compelling end enjoyable read. Step out of your comfort zone and into a set of troubled relationships, frustrations and difficulties for a while.
Spoiler alert ... many of the frustrations, challenges and losses come right in the end.... While this might not reflect much of real-life, it is a tonic and feel-good outcome to the understandable daily tensions and strains.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
I had never heard of this author and chose this as on Richard and Judy bookclub.
Keith Stuart has a son diagnosed on the Autistic Spectrum in 2012. This is his debut novel. I felt the narrative was good.
This is a fictitious tale of a family with a child on the spectrum based on his experiences.
Alex the father has virtually no relationship with his autistic son. This causes severe disharmony within his marriage to Jody and he leaves the family home.
I found it hard to warm to the character of Alex as I felt he was somewhat lacking in any emotional connection to anyone. This made his relationships feel directionless. Maybe this was because of his past life experience with his brother’s death.
Having worked with children on the spectrum I felt Sam was represented well with his autism simply explained.
I thought there were too many characters and it felt so ‘full on’.
The following are all going on simultaneously
* Alex is not bonded with his son
* Alex and his friend Dan living together and all that entails
* Emma Alex’s sister returns home after 10 years travelling fleeing past experience
* Alex and Sam bond over Mindcraft
* Alex struggles with the death of his brother
* Alex’s mother has a health problem
There were other sub plots but the above were the main ones. I think it would have been better if less was going on so the focus could have been on Sam and his autism.
In my opinion it started off well with autism as its focus and then merged into a version of Jojo Moyes ‘Me before you’.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
I loved this book!! Yes, its predictable and yes it its a bit soppy in bits but then dont we all crave that sometimes. Pick this book and read!! You wont be disappointed just warm hearted.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
This is indeed a heartwarming story like "about a boy". The boy is very high functioning and is not that much of a problem compared to some other autistic boys, and you can see what's coming very often, but it is still engaging and I certainly enjoyed it.
The first person narrative from a bloke who finds it achingly difficult to process and express emotions but is capable of funny cynicism chimes well with this English man.
It's read very well.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
A Boy Made of Blocks is a truly wonderful book! It takes you on the journey of a father-son relationship between Alex and his autistic son Sam.
Alex is struggling and Sam seems unreachable, but they eventually manage to find some common ground through the medium of Minecraft - yes, the pixelated computer game.
It sounds ludicrous but it's beautifully done. As someone with two children who are very much into this game week, I can completely relate. It's actually given me some understanding of it and conversation topics. Real life has imitated art once again.
For me, it isn't a book about autism. It's about families. It is a book about relationships. About how lost we all feel at times. How we're all winging it, pretending that we know how to be a grown up. About grief and how we deal with it. But, most of all, it's a book about being a parent and how challenging that can be sometimes.
It's eye-opening, touching, heartbreaking and heartwarming all at once. It's wonderful.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Eight year-old Sam is on the autistic spectrum and the cruel exhaustion of dealing with his daily meltdowns and difficulties has driven his parents Jody and Alex apart. Alex has de-camped to a blow-up mattress on the floor of his best friend Mat's flat, desperate to make it work between him and Jody and the little boy he loves, but clueless about how to do it. For anyone who has an autistic child, as does the author himself, the story of Alex's hard slog to get back could be some kind of life-saver, and it also teaches understanding to those who do not have first-hand experience of the life-sapping struggles and strains involved in raising a child to whom the environment can be a frightening puzzle.
The story is told by Alex and it's refreshing to have the father's point of view, but this doesn't mean Jody is side-lined. She's just as important. The breakdown of their marriage is painfully detailed and because it's so real, heart-breaking. The whole story is very much right now. This immediacy is helped by being firmly rooted in real Bristol with all its familiar typography and its recent physical and social developments. The core of the story involves Sam and Alex building their relationship brick by brick, block by block through the virtual world created through the computer game Minecraft. It is perfect for them as they interact socially and build a real relationship with each other as they build landscapes and castles together building their own world in this virtual one offered by Minecraft which Sam can understand and thrive in.
It's a wonderfully heartening story with genuinely tear-jerkingly moving scenes and moments as characters (not just Sam and Jody) find ways of re-connecting with love they thought they'd lost. Alex learns with joy the 'patterns and surprises' within Sam, and finds the blocks on which to cross the chasm which had divided them. The plot (and it's much more complex than this) does get a bit unrealistic, but never mind, it's such a genuinely moving ending, without ever down-playing the anguish and sheer hard work that has gone into it, that it leaves you uplifted and hopeful.
The 'right now-ness' of the story is also in the writing which is blokey: Alex and Dan call each other 'dude', they go 'bat-shit crazy' and Alex's sister Emma doesn't go travelling, but 'legs it to the other side of the planet'. But this works well: beneath all the blokey drinking and watching football and the language which goes with it are vulnerable human beings searching for answers, just as Sam strives to understand what is around him.
The narration is exactly right in capturing the seriousness beneath the dialogue. I didn't give it a full 5 because I thought it was a mistake to introduce the Bristolian accent for some of the characters. It's very difficult not to introduce the stereotypical through accent - and also why has Alex not got a Bristol accent, but his mother has? But that's a small quibble.
Download it - you won't be able to stop listening!
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
I loved listening to this. I have a son with autism just like Sam. The author's own experience with autism shines through in the details and observations. Brilliantly written from the fathers point of view. I think it has taught me a lot about what my own son's father may feel.
A little predictable plotwise but satisfying nontheless.
sad to have finished
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
This story is disturbingly similar to the reality of our household as we have a 7 year old autistic son who is obsessed with Minecraft (and amazingly good at it!). A must read, I really related to it
A great book, and sensitive to the real struggles of parenting an autistic child. The main character is somewhat unlikeable to start, but his guilt and struggles are very real and heartbreakingly familiar. It is a well written book, and wonderfully narrated. Be aware though that you may cry for the full last hour of the book.
I now have a better understanding of autism.
I Felt an efiinty with the righted I have been there on a break up.
touched me and made me smile laugh and cry.