AUDIOBOOK read by Scott Brick

Late last year, I listened to Tropper’s This is Where I Leave You and thoroughly enjoyed it.  When that happens, I usually go in search of other books by the author to see if it’s a trend or an anomaly.  After reading The Book of Joe, I think I can say it’s a trend.  Joe is a writer in his early thirties whose first best-selling novel was a fictionalized autobiography that painted a lot of people from his home town in a bad light.  When his dad has a stroke, Joe returns to his home town for the first time in 17 years and has to deal with the hatred found there as well as a number of complicated relationships from his past.  At times, the book is laugh out loud funny and at times it is tear-wrenchingly sad.  Much like This is Where I Leave You, this is not a feel-good book with a guaranteed happy ending.  The writing is fantastic and you feel yourself drawn into a number of the characters as they deal with their hangups and issues.  I also enjoyed the flashbacks to high school and often found myself drifting back into my own memories of those years.  As for the audiobook, Scott Brick is one of my favorite narrators and he doesn’t disappoint here.  He’s so good in fact, that I may have to track down some of the other books that he’s narrated much like I do with authors.