Top Shelf: Two Mini Reviews

I just finished two audiobooks that I really enjoyed! They feature completely different themes, character types and settings, but both were thoughtful and entertaining.

The first was Someone Else's Shoes by Jojo Moyes. The novel features two main female characters living vastly different lives, both in the midst of a crisis.

Sam is a middle-class, middle-aged British mom who leaves her depressed husband home every day to go to work for an insensitive, chauvinist boss. Nisha is a wealthy American living in England, but she has just been abandoned by her husband without a penny to her name. All she wants is to be with her son...and get her wardrobe back.

They are each fortunate enough to have a friend who provides them with much-needed support at critical moments. While their backgrounds suggest they would never cross paths, their stories are intertwined due to a very special pair of shoes.

The other novel is Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld. This a unique, witty story of a 30-something female comedy writer on The Night Owls, a late-night comedy show that is essentially the fictional version of Saturday Night Live.

Sally Milz is a blunt, occasionally crude, feminist with a posse of equally strong and funny female writer friends. The story begins with the intriguing hour-by-hour details of preparing a weekly episode. The featured week's host and musical guest is Noah Brewster, a pop star who forms a connection with Sally on the week's sketches. They seem to have great work and personal chemistry, but a careless conversation ends what might have been.

Enter...the pandemic. Sally is in Kansas City, and Noah in LA, when he sends her an email out of the blue. What follows is a series of witty, honest email banter. Where it leads, neither knows.

I highly recommend each for entertaining stories of women persevering and pushing for what they deserve. They are each charming in their own way and offer excellent audiobook versions.

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