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The Early Birds

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The Early Birds

By: Laurie Graham
Narrated by: Liza Ross
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About this listen

The Early Birds is the feel-good and funny follow-up to The Future Homemakers of America that proves that no matter what life throws at you, great friends and regular cocktails will always see you through.

Peggy, the Southern belle. Kath, the pragmatist with the only Norfolk accent in New York State. Gayle, the preacher with healing hands. Mrs Colonel Audrey Rudman, forever keeping up the standards of the Officers' Wives Club. Lois, who's never had a thought she didn't voice. Loudly. Their menfolk may be long retired, but once a US Air Force wife, always an Air Force wife, and the bonds of friendship forged in base after military base are still going strong 50 years later.

Time is rendering its accounts payable for all of them now: hip replacements, eye problems, forgetfulness and departures. In this hymn to lifelong female friendship, Peggy soldiers on through new upheavals, including her ex-husband Vern's Alzheimer's diagnosis, the death of one of her nearest and dearest, a life-changing house move and the world-shattering events of 9/11 with the help of her sharp-tongued, often eccentric but always loyal group of friends.

©2017 Laurie Graham (P)2018 Quercus Editions Limited Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Women's Fiction Marriage Feel-Good Solider Friendship Air Force

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Critic reviews

"Why is Laurie Graham not carried on people's shoulders through cheering crowds? Her books are brilliant!" (Marian Keyes)
All stars
Most relevant
It was not her best and the ending was poor. Not as many laughs as we expect from Laurie.

It was not her best

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I enjoyed following the lives of these women from Future Homemakers of America and parts of the book made me laugh. However, some of the explanation of the characters was a bit repetitious and the differentiation between the accents was not as good as the previous book....I missed the New York sounding Lois and it took a while for English Kath to emerge. Even so nice to hear what happened to these old friends.

Enjoyable

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Mainly a character study novel. Very enjoyable easy read. Felt like following old friends as follow up to first novel 'homemakers' and seeing how later years treated them. Recommended. Find myself hoping it will be adapted as a television series.

Character Novel

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