Anxious People

Read together January 2025

Before our "good company began", all three of us had previously read Fredrik Backman's, A Man Called Ove, which we LOVED.  I had read Anxious people a couple of years ago and thought it would be fun to read again with the girls. Let it be known, when I say "read" it might also be "listened", but I will likely clarify a bit with each review, because those narrators deserve a review too! I remembered what I loved most about (listening to) this book, was the narration. When I made the suggestion to read together, I had them sold on the audio version. 

 A little sidenote about us: presently, Karyn is mostly an audio reader, which is done where she spends 97% of her life... in her car. She still loves to cozy up on the couch or in bed with her Kindle or hard copy, but she can get way more books read with Audio versions! Heather, who admits to being slightly behind in the world of technology, is your good old fashioned hard copy kind of girl. She prefers to read the actual book in hand and turn the pages. She tends to get a little lost and distracted when listening to a book. E-books... well, she would likely try to scroll up instead of swiping each page, ending in frustration, which should be the opposite when reading for pleasure! Her local library definitely knows her by name. I think I'm right down the middle. I enjoy them all. Audio books tend to do the opposite for my very distracted brain. Put on my noise canceling headphones with a good book to keep me company, I can get any amount of mundane housework done. Reading an e-book on my phone has it's perks too... no need for a light, so I can read while in bed! But my favorite will always be hardcopy reading; collecting the books I read and watching my home library grow. 

Back to Backman... 

Anxious People was a well written fictional novel about a group of strangers who find themselves in a unique hostage situation. We meet each of these characters, along with the father /son law enforcement team handling the dilemma, and the therapist of one of the hostages. Each role, major or minor, plays an important part of the story, and connections between a few of them become clearer as the story plays out. All of us agreed that this book could almost be labeled as a dark comedy, as we found ourselves laughing over things that were surrounded by weighty circumstances. Comic relief was something the three of us mutually appreciated, helping to keep the emotions under control! The audio narrator, Marin Ireland, does a phenomenal job, absolutely nailing every voice, every inflection, every emotion...everything. You almost believe that you're listening to 15 different narrators throughout the book (hence my push for the audio version this time)! This read opened up the doors to some rich conversation... definitely one to read with some good company! 

Ratings:

Karyn: (audio)⭐⭐⭐⭐

Plot-7

Character Development-9

Writing-7

Entertaining- 9

Heather: (audio) ⭐⭐⭐

Plot-7

Character Development-9

Writing-6

Krista: (audio) ⭐⭐⭐

Plot-8

Character Development-7

Writing:7

Entertaining: 9