Today marks the 105th birthday of legendary singer Peggy Lee. She was discovered singing in a noisy club in Palm Springs. That noisy club played an important role in her sultry singing style. She said,
I knew I couldn’t sing over them, so I decided to sing under them. The more noise they made, the more softly I sang. When they discovered they couldn’t hear me, they began to look at me. Then, they began to listen. As I sang, I kept thinking, ‘softly with feeling’. The noise dropped to a hum; the hum gave way to silence. I had learned how to reach and hold my audience—softly, with feeling.
In 1941, she would go on to be the singer in Benny Goodman’s orchestra. She enjoyed a seven decade career which included songwriting and singing. She recorded over 1100 songs and of those co-wrote 270 of them.
Her record label kept her very busy, but she did find time to do some acting. In 1955 she did some voice work for Disney’s The Lady and the Tramp and starred with Jack Webb in Pete Kelly’s Blues. She played an alcoholic blues singer in the film and her performance earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Peggy sang 9 songs in the film. One of which was Sugar.
Fun Fact: Peggy Lee was used as inspiration for the Miss Piggy character in 1974. Originally called Miss Piggy Lee, her name was shortened to Miss Piggy when the Muppets gained fame.
As a bonus, for Peggy’s birthday, I want to include one of my favorite Peggy Lee songs. I mentioned earlier her sultry voice. I can think of no better song to demonstrate her sexiness and sultriness than Big Spender.
In the song she has her eyes on a guy with a big money roll. He caught her eye as soon as he arrived and she wants him to spend some time with her. The arrangement of the song makes you picture her walking slowly and deliberately over to him. You can picture her staring him in the eyes and shifting her hips from side to side as she moves closer.
When I was in Jazz Band in high school we played this song. I remember the director asking us to picture a beautiful woman walking towards us slyly as we played. As silly as that sounds, it made the saxes play the melody with a bit more feeling, it made us trumpets really hit to “stab” notes, and the trombones really made their glissandos loud and sloppy.
I’m a firm believer in using your imagination. In today’s society, we can plop down in front of the TV and watch shows and not really have to think about what’s going on. Everything is right there on the screen. However, back in the days before television, there was radio.
Radio was a medium that brought the listener’s imagination to life! You and I could listen to the same show, but each see our own version because we’d picture things differently. There is a reason that so many folks used the phrase “theater of the mind” when talking about old time radio.
One of the best radio dramas was a show simply called Suspense. If I had to describe it, I’d say it was the radio version of the Twilight Zone. I say that because there was often a twist at the end of each show. If you really want to hear REAL acting, Suspense featured it every week! Actors and actresses only had the use of their voice to display the wide range of human emotions – and they did it flawlessly!
Suspense was a half-hour drama series that aired on the CBS radio network from 1940 to 1962 (for the first half of 1948, episodes lasted for 60 minutes). That multi-year run made it one of network radio’s longer lasting dramatic series with nearly 950 episodes produced.
At its height, the radio series featured a cross-section of well known Hollywood actors and actresses (it was aired from Los Angeles from 1943 through into the 1950s) who were attracted by the quality of the scripts and show’s production values. For years, the host was simply “The Man in Black” who would almost whisper the opening line “. . . And now, another tale well-calculated to keep you in . . . Suspense.”
82 years ago today, Suspense aired one of its classic episodes. It is an episode that will often come up when anyone speaks of the Golden Age of Radio. It starred a young Agnes Moorehead (who would go on to play Endora on TV’s Bewitched). I am talking about the classic “Sorry, Wrong Number.
“Sorry, Wrong Number,” a classic suspense radio drama, explores the chilling scenario of a woman accidentally eavesdropping on a murder plot. The episode, broadcast on May 25, 1943, tells the story of Mrs. Stevenson, a woman who listens to a phone call between two men planning a murder. She realizes the crime is set to happen that night, and she desperately tries to alert authorities. Sadly she finds her efforts blocked by indifference and bureaucracy, leading to a terrifying climax where she realizes she might be the intended victim.
In an essay by Christopher H. Sterling, he says,
In a modern era of digital cellphones, the impact of this period program is sometimes difficult to understand. But when it was originally broadcast in the midst of World War II, in an analog era of operator-assisted telephone calls and shared “party” lines, radio listeners could readily identify with the situations they heard.
Sorry, Wrong Number was initially broadcast live twice on May 25, 1943 (once for East Coast listeners–with a minor flub in one line—and then repeated for the West Coast). It was rebroadcast other eight times (on August 21, 1943; February 24, 1944; September 6, 1945; November 18, 1948; September 15, 1952; October 20, 1957; and February 14, 1960).
In 1948, the play was made into a movie starring Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster. The film is excellent, but nothing compares to the amazing performance of Agnes Moorehead on the radio version.
Do yourself a favor, pull up a chair and give it a listen. Let your imagination go wild! Listen to what she is able to convey simply with her voice. Let’s go back 82 years and enjoy a masterpiece!
It isn’t always the case, but many times the title of a book is enough to peak my curiosity. Many times, I am pleasantly surprised and the book was worth the read. That was the case with the latest read.
This is the first book I have read from Max Berry. The 22 Murders of Madison May had me wondering. Is Madison the one who kills 22 times? Nope. It is Madison that is murdered 22 times. How can that happen? Let’s look at the Goodreads Synopsis:
From the critically acclaimed author of Jennifer Government and Lexicon comes mind-bending speculative psychological suspense about a serial killer pursuing his victim across time and space, and the woman who is determined to stop him, even if it upends her own reality.
I love you. In every world.
Young real estate agent Madison May is shocked when a client at an open house says these words to her. The man, a stranger, seems to know far too much about her, and professes his love–shortly before he murders her.
Felicity Staples hates reporting on murders. As a journalist for a midsize New York City paper, she knows she must take on the assignment to research Madison May’s shocking murder, but the crime seems random and the suspect is in the wind. That is, until Felicity spots the killer on the subway, right before he vanishes.
Soon, Felicity senses her entire universe has shifted. No one remembers Madison May, or Felicity’s encounter with the mysterious man. And her cat is missing. Felicity realizes that in her pursuit of Madison’s killer, she followed him into a different dimension–one where everything about her existence is slightly altered. At first, she is determined to return to the reality she knows, but when Madison May–in this world, a struggling actress–is murdered again, Felicity decides she must find the killer–and learns that she is not the only one hunting him.
Traveling through different realities, Felicity uncovers the opportunity–and danger–of living more than one life.
You may be saying to yourself, “Oh great. Here is another time travel book Keith read.” However, it really isn’t time travel. The synopsis references other dimensions. In a sense each dimension is an alternate reality of the previous one. In the various dimensions, Madison’s jobs seem to change. Strangely, it seems that Felicity’s does not. That was my only real hang up in the story.
It is an exciting race against time, in almost each dimension to prevent the murder of Madison. It’s also sort of a cat and mouse game. It is a constant pursuit of a killer who is always after the same target. How can they stop these murders? Can Felicity get back to the dimension she started from? Will she forever be jumping from one dimension to the other?
I didn’t have any high expectations because I picked the book without reading the synopsis. I picked it on the title alone and enjoyed a great read because of that.
Sam and I were discussing how badly we want to go on a little vacation. One of the possible destinations was Mackinac, MI. It is located at the tip of the mitten where the Mackinac Bridge connects the Upper Peninsula to the Lower Peninsula.
As a kid, my folks took my brother and I there one summer. It had to be around 1980 or so. I found a ridiculous photo from that trip. (It is dated 1981, but who know when the photos were taken?)
This had to be taken at one of the forts in Mackinac. My brother can be seen on the right side of the picture. I am the goofball in the denim cowboy hat. I think this was in one of the living quarters or something. Obviously it is a dining table with old bowls and silverware on it. I suppose my mom or dad thought this would be a great photo op.
Outside of the transition lenses on my glasses and cowboy hat, there is one thing that screams out at me. You may or may not be able to see it, but it was the first thing I noticed. Just to the left of the bowl in front of me pinned to my tank top is a sheriff badge. I loved that badge. It was the only souvenir that I wanted on the trip.
The Dukes of Hazzard was a huge show at the time. I loved Rosco P. Coltrane (James Best). We often rode around on our bikes in the neighborhood. Someone’s bike was the General Lee and I, as Rosco, would chase them around. Naturally, I’d often “crash” my bike as the Duke boys would get away.
The one thing I didn’t have was a badge. The badge was worn proudly every day when we were outside. I think the weld that held the pin to the badge eventually broke and I was devastated. I was able to find another badge at the toy store, but it was not the 6 sided star I got on that trip.
They brought out new dryer to the house yesterday. After my poor attempt at fixing the old one, we finally caved and got a new one. The old one was a gas dryer, but my wife decided that we’d get an electric one to save a couple hundred bucks.
The delivery people brought it in, attached everything and then tried to turn it on. No power. We have a 220 plug there, and the breakers were all good. He told me to check the plug before sending back the dryer. So I called my brother-in-law and father-in-law.
They came out and took a look. They found the problem. Apparently when they put the central air in, the company yanked the 220 wire from the plug and used it for the AC unit. So we saved a couple hundred on the dryer, however, it will probably cost me a couple hundred to run a new wire and add a breaker so we can get the thing to work.
URGH!
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We had two soccer games this pas weekend. One day it was cold and the next day it was raining. Needless to say, I wasn’t feeling all that great on Monday and Tuesday. However, Sam got to come out and watch us practice. She took a couple pictures of Andrew and me out on the field.
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I was sad to hear of George Wendt’s passing this week. I always liked him on Cheers. Of course, he did so much more. He seemed to pop up a lot on various TV shows as a guest. One time he was the murderer that Columbo pestered in an episode called Strange Bedfellows. As I mentioned yesterday, he was also in Michael Jackson’s video for Black or White.
I’m always impressed how some political cartoonists can capture a person’s spirit or personality in a tribute cartoon. Here are a couple examples:
This is the tribute that really got me…
Thanks for the laughs, George!
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Yesterday was my daughter’s last day of preschool. Boy, did that time fly right by!
It was pouring rain this morning, but she let Sam get a “last day” picture. Compared to the “first day” picture, it is amazing how much has changed.
I noticed that I accidentally scheduled this to post at 8pm instead of 8am. Sorry I am late.
This is sort of a continuation of the Music of My Life feature. It focused on music from 1970-2025. It featured tunes that have special meaning to me, brought back a certain memory or a tune that I just really like. I found that with the first three decades, there were songs that I didn’t feature. So I sat down with my original lists and selected some songs that “bubbled under,” so to speak.
I figured a good way to present them was to focus on a decade. 10 years = 1 song per year = 10 songs. Last week I wrapped up the 80’s. This week we move on to the 90’s. So, let’s check out a few “Decade Extras.”
1990
My first song this week is one from a group that has music in their bloodline – Wilson Phillips. Chynna Phillips is the daughter of John Phillips and Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas, while Carnie Wilson and Wendy Wilson are the daughters of Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys and Marilyn Rovell of The Honeys.
Around this time I was really going through some depression. There were so many things coming at me at home, at work, and life in general. Hold On, cheesy as this may sound, really helped me get through some of those times. The song was the breakout hit for the group, and it was a huge one, peaking at #1 on June 9, 1990.
According to Songfacts.com, Chynna Phillips wrote the lyrics about her drug and alcohol addiction.
Producer Glen Ballard had been working with Wilson Phillips when he handed Chynna a cassette tape with some music that needed words. Phillips took it home to work on the lyrics, but inspiration struck before she even got to the front door.
She wrote about the pain of a lost love and the substance that surrounded it while sitting in her driveway. “I thought to myself, ‘Well, AA tells me, just hold on, just one day at a time. I thought, ‘OK, if I can just hold on for one more day, then I can do this.'”
Hold On
1991
The plea for racial tolerance had been going on long before 1991 (and remains to this day). Michael Jackson offered up his plea in the song Black or White. The song was the fastest-rising single in 22 years (since The Beatles’ “Get Back”), jumping from #35 to #3 in its second week, and landing at #1 in its third week.
The video was originally 11 minutes long, but eventually edited down for airplay on channels like MTV. It featured a morphing technique that was very innovative at the time. We see this kind of thing all the time today, but in 1991, it was one of the coolest things I had ever seen.
The video features Macaulay Culkin and George Wendt (Norm from the sitcom Cheers, who passed away yesterday) appeared in it, as well as Tyra Banks before she gained supermodel status.
Black or White
1992
Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton is just a beautiful (albeit sad) song. Clapton wrote this about his four-year-old son Conor, who died on March 20, 1991 when he fell out of a 53rd floor window in the apartment where his mother was staying in New York City. He wrote it with Will Jennings. Jennings told Songfacts:
“Eric and I were engaged to write a song for a movie called Rush. We wrote a song called ‘Help Me Up’ for the end of the movie… then Eric saw another place in the movie for a song and he said to me, ‘I want to write a song about my boy.’ Eric had the first verse of the song written, which, to me, is all the song, but he wanted me to write the rest of the verse lines and the release (‘Time can bring you down, time can bend your knees…’), even though I told him that it was so personal he should write everything himself. He told me that he had admired the work I did with Steve Winwood and finally there was nothing else but do to as he requested, despite the sensitivity of the subject. This is a song so personal and so sad that it is unique in my experience of writing songs.”
Clapton wasn’t sure he wanted this song to be released at all, but the director of Rush, Lili Zanuck, convinced him to use it in the film. “Her argument was that it might in some way help somebody, and that got my vote,” Clapton said.
The song was a huge hit. It won Grammys in 1993 for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Male Pop Vocal. Clapton was nominated for nine Grammys that year and won six.
Tears in Heaven
Clapton played an acoustic version on his 1992 MTV Unplugged special. Personally, I love this version best.
1993
There are some songs that will be forever associated with television or movies. The next song is one of those. If I say “What is Love” by Haddaway, you know what you think of …. SNL.
According to Songfacts, this song gained popularity when it was used in a recurring Saturday Night Live sketch about three guys who go clubbing. They dress alike – in outdated fashion – and torment women at the clubs by forcing their dancing upon them. There is very little dialogue in the sketches, and this song plays throughout, with the three men bobbing their heads in unison. In 1998, the skit was extended to a full-length movie called A Night At The Roxbury.
The two regular performers in the skit (and movie) were SNL cast members Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan. The host of the show would often be their third man in the bits – Jim Carrey and Sylvester Stallone each did a turn as the head-bobbing swingers.
Although the song is an upbeat dance track, the lyrics are rather gut-wrenching, as Haddaway sings about trying to love a girl who won’t love him back.
What is Love
1994
1994 features a cover song. The original was done by Vicki Sue Robinson in 1976, and it was her only hit. That song was Turn the Beat Around.
Gloria Estefan’s nearly identical cover version in 1994 was used in the Sharon Stone movie The Specialist. Her version was a #1 Dance hit and went to #13 on the Hot 100. The song reminds me of many of the dances that I DJ’d over the years where it was a big dance tune.
Turn the Beat Around
1995
The next song was meant to be a tribute to Bob Dylan. Apparently, Dylan felt the “tribute” infringed too closely on original work, and he sued the group who recorded it for unauthorized use of his lyrics. Bob wound up receiving a large, out-of-court settlement in 1995. The song? Only Wanna Be With You. The group? Hootie and the Blowfish.
When singer Darius Rucker recorded a country album, he stopped by our station. It was in the late afternoon and I was the morning guy. I honestly didn’t think his country stuff would go anywhere, so I skipped the visit. For what it is worth, that first country album had some great tunes on it and I regret not stopping in.
I Only Wanna Be With You
1996
One of the biggest slow dance songs of 1996 came from a movie that featured – Cartoon characters! R. Kelly wrote I Believe I Can Fly for Space Jam, a movie starring Michael Jordan and other NBA stars in a world of cartoons (including Bugs Bunny). The song plays in the opening scene where a young Jordan is practicing late at night. When his father comes to bring him inside, they talk about Michael’s aspirations: to play at North Carolina; to play in the NBA; to fly.
The movie was big at the box office, but this song was even bigger, becoming an inspirational anthem often played at weddings and used in video tributes. Kelly got an early copy of the movie to view for inspiration. According to Rolling Stone magazine, Kelly said, “I studied it and I prayed over it because I wanted the best thing to come out of it.”
Fun Fact: Kelly may claim that he believes he can fly in this song, but in reality the R&B superstar has a chronic fear of air travel. Kelly is so scared of planes that he even takes boats when he tours Europe.
I Believe I Can Fly
1997
I was still working at the mailroom at EDS when Tonic released If You Could Only See. It played a lot on Planet 96.3 in Detroit when I was doing deliveries. I had no idea how the song came about, but it is a neat story.
Songfacts says, Tonic frontman Emerson Hart wrote this song after a tense phone call with his mother. Hart was 21 years old and planning to get married – not what his mother had in mind. She tried to talk him out of it, but you can’t argue with love. Emerson told her: “If you could only see the way she loves me, then maybe you would understand,” and then he hung up.
With his fire sparked, Hart started writing the song, and it came very quickly, with him taking aim at his mother’s “manipulations” and “lies” during the strident verses, then slowing it down to present his side of the story in the chorus. The song was very cathartic and helped him work out his feelings, but in the end his mother was right: it didn’t work out with the girl and they never got married.
This was Tonic’s first single, but it almost didn’t make the album. The band got a deal with Polydor Records after playing clubs for a few years in the Los Angeles area. When it came time to record their debut album, Emerson Hart wasn’t sure if they should use “If You Could Only See,” since it was a very vulnerable song and he wasn’t sure how it would be received. Polydor, however, loved it and made sure it was the debut single.
If You Could Only See
1998
I’ve said before, Jewel was one of the greatest interviews I ever did. She was such a wonderful and delightful person. The story that proceeds her success is inspiring.
At a February 2008 concert in Las Vegas, Jewel explained that when she was 18, she was living in a van and did some shoplifting. She was going to take a dress when she looked at her hands and realized that she controlled them. Said Jewel, “I realized I was cheating myself. No matter how you work with your hands your own dignity is up to you.”
She played mostly new tracks from her country album when she was with us. I did get her to play Hands for us while we not on the air. She also did a Christmas version on her Christmas album.
Jewel performed this on Late Night with David Letterman a week after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The song was a popular choice on the radio when a DJ remixed the track after the tragedy.
Hands
1999
American Woman by the Guess Who was the song that was number one on the day I was born. It was featured in the first installment of this feature. It’s interesting that it shows up again in 1999, but this time by Lenny Kravitz.
This was used in the movie Austin Powers 2, The Spy Who Shagged Me. The video featured Heather Graham, who was in the movie, as the American Woman. Kravitz told how he came to record the song in an interview:
“I was called by the people making Austin Powers and they simple asked me to cover ‘American Woman,’ which I thought was odd but I accepted thinking it was an interesting challenge and did my best to change it as much as possible while still respecting the original. I was pleased when Burton Cummings called me to tell me how much he loved it.”
Lenny’s version is actually pretty good. I think he did a great job making it his own. People liked it, too, as it won a Grammy in 1999 for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance.
American Woman
There’s Round 1 of the 90’s. We’ll revisit the decade again next week before moving on into the 2000’s and wrapping up the feature.
Cher is celebrating her 79th birthday today. She gained fame as half of the duo Sonny & Cher in 1965. Their hits included I Got You Babe and The Beat Goes On. In the 1970’s she appeared on TV in The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour and her own show, Cher.
Fun Fact: Cher is the only solo artist to have number one songs on the US Billboard Charts in seven consecutive decades (1960’s – 2020’s)!
She not only found success with music, but she had success as an actress, too. Her films include, Silkwood, Mask, Suspect, The Witches of Eastwick, Moonstruck, and Mermaids.
She had many hits in the 1970’s including Gypsies Tramps and Thieves, Half Breed, and Dark Lady. Dark Lady is a song that always reminds me a bit of Delilah by Tom Jones because of the subject matter – the discovery (and murder) of a cheating partner.
The song was written by Johnny Durrill. He was in the Five Americans and the Ventures and is known for his keyboard playing and songwriting. He says that he submitted it to Cher’s producer, Snuff Garrett, who had some definitive feedback.
“When I was on tour in Japan with the Ventures, I was writing an interesting song,” Durrill explained. “I telegraphed the unfinished lyrics to Garrett. He said to ‘make sure the bitch kills him.’ Hence, in the song both the lover and fortune teller were killed. That song became ‘Dark Lady’ which Cher cut; it went to #1 in 1974.”
According to Durrill, everyone but Cher knew they had a hit on their hands. He said: “Everybody knew it was a hit the minute they heard Cher’s vocal on the playback, though she didn’t particularly like it.”
In 1991, Cher expressed how she felt about the song to Vox:
“‘Dark Lady’ was a pain in the ass because there was no place to take a breath – there were so many words in that stupid song!”
Celebrating its 21st anniversary today is Shrek 2, which debuted in theaters May 19, 2004. It brought back our favorite characters from the first film and introduced us to some new ones.
The soundtrack included some great songs. Accidentally in Love by Counting Crows was written especially for the film. It also included Changes by David Bowie, Funky Town by Lipps Inc, and Holding Out for a Hero by Frou Frou. One of my favorites on the soundtrack is a cover of an old Buzzcocks tune.
Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)? dates all the way back to 1977. Band member and songwriter, Pete Shelley, explained that the song was inspired by a line of movie dialogue. “We were on a roll. It was only six months since we’d finished the first album. Up in Manchester this was what we used to dream of… a whirlwind of tours, interviews, TV. We were living the life. One night in Edinburgh we were in a guest house TV lounge watching the musical Guys and Dolls. This line leaped out – ‘Have you ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn’t have?’ The next day the van stopped outside a post office and I wrote the lyrics there. I did have a certain person in mind, but I’ll save that for my kiss’n’tell. The music just seemed to follow, fully formed.”
A few folks have covered the song including the Fine Young Cannibals in 1986. For Shrek 2, it was Peter Yorn who did it.
Yorn has been recognized as one of his generation’s best songwriters. He is also a singer and musician. One of the things he is known for is playing the majority of instruments on all of his songs.
Fun Fact: Peter Yorn has collaborated twice with actress/singer Scarlett Johansson: first in 2009’s Break Up and again with 2018’s Apart.
In the film, Shrek, Donkey and Puss in Boots are in the Fairy Godmother’s lab trying to find a specific potion. Puss in Boots finds it, but has issues getting it out of the case. This leads to a mess and the Godmother’s security system going off. As the trio tries to escape, an abbreviated version of Yorn’s song plays.
I know quite a few people struggling with grief right now. I can’t say that I know for sure that Jim Carrey said this, but it is too good not to share:
Jim Carrey once said: Grief is not just an emotion—it’s an unraveling, a space where something once lived but is now gone. It carves through you, leaving a hollow ache where love once resided.
In the beginning, it feels unbearable, like a wound that will never close. But over time, the raw edges begin to mend. The pain softens, but the imprint remains—a quiet reminder of what once was. The truth is, you never truly “move on.” You move with it. The love you had does not disappear; it transforms. It lingers in the echoes of laughter, in the warmth of old memories, in the silent moments where you still reach for what is no longer there. And that’s okay.
Grief is not a burden to be hidden. It is not a weakness to be ashamed of. It is the deepest proof that love existed, that something beautiful once touched your life. So let yourself feel it. Let yourself mourn. Let yourself remember.
There is no timeline, no “right” way to grieve. Some days will be heavy, and some will feel lighter. Some moments will bring unexpected waves of sadness, while others will fill you with gratitude for the love you were lucky enough to experience.
Honor your grief, for it is sacred. It is a testament to the depth of your heart. And in time, through the pain, you will find healing—not because you have forgotten, but because you have learned how to carry both love and loss together.
This book kept coming up in blogs I read and as a recommendation on Goodreads. I was in between books and saw that this was a relatively short audiobook, so I read it. Small Things Like These is book that makes you think.
It felt more like a short story or novella to me, and when it ended, I wanted to know more. The Goodreads Synopsis is short (so is the book, so I guess it makes sense). Here it is:
It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.
Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.
I felt that there was a great message in the story, but it probably could have been delivered in a shorter story. Don’t let that steer you away from it, because the “extra” stuff gives you a broader sense of the characters and makes the story’s message hit a bit harder.
The book ends quickly. I almost felt like maybe the audio book wasn’t completely done. I felt like further chapters were missing. That isn’t the case and the ending leaves you wondering what happened afterward. It’s a bit open ended in a way that you can sort or imagine what happened next.
While searching for information on the book, I found out that it has already been made into a film last year. The movie seems to follow the book, however, it ends a little different than the book. Hollywood tends to take creative license with books turned into movies.
At any rate, if you are looking for a quick read, this may be for you. The audiobook was about 2 hours.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 