Book: Starting from Scratch
Author: Georgia Beers
Publisher: Brisk Press
Producer: Dog Ear Audio
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| A non-traditional cookbook |
I was truly fortunate to have grown up in a
home with two parents. And, though it sometimes led to a quirky confluence of
family dynamics, my mother’s father lived with us from the time I was six.
Still, I was closest to my father’s mother—a tough-as-nails farmwoman who
weighed 100 lbs. soaking wet, and who never saw fit to drive a car, drink a cup
of coffee, or wear a pair of pants.
Her name was Wilma. I called her Grandma.
Growing up, Grandma was my best friend, and
closest confidant. She was a playfully eccentric old woman who dyed her lovely
gray hair a shimmering shade of auburn not found in nature, walked to town
twice a week to do her trading, wouldn’t eat cheese because it “cramped” her,
and made the best chocolate chip cookies in the universe. When she passed away,
I inherited her “cookbook,” an old-timey spiral notebook full of handwritten recipes
for concoctions such as Osgood Pie, Crackled Sugar Cookies, Olive Taylor’s Slaw
to Freeze, Albolene Cream for Dry Skin, and “Cleans Drains.”
Grandma was a simple woman—if you mixed it together, then it was a
recipe.
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| A well-loved cookie recipe |
Of course, the woman had standards— she put a
big black “X” across Glenna
McDowell’s Hot Water Pie Crust recipe, with a firm rejoinder, “(Don’t Like).” Still, I loved her
cookies, and the first time I went to bake up a batch of the transcendent
chocolate chip, I was tickled to realize it was the original Toll House Cookie
recipe—only written in the down-home vernacular that she spoke.
And for every imaginable reason, I Iove that last part most of
all.
A few years ago I cracked open Starting from Scratch by Golden Crown
Literary Society 2013 Conference Keynote Speaker, Georgia Beers. This classic
romance tells the story of Avery King, a self-deprecating cookie baking, child fearing
introvert. Suckered into coaching her best friend’s t-ball team, Avery comes
face-to-face with a hoard of dreaded children. She surprises herself when she
succeeds at not breaking any of the kids, or thumping their parents up-side the
head. She’s even more surprised when she finds herself hurtling headlong into a
relationship with the very hot mother of one of the t-ballers.
Of course, nothing is ever easy, and Avery
has a long laundry list of mommy issues dating back to the age of four, when
she was abandoned into the care of her about-to-retire grandmother. Still,
Avery is great with little Max, and her relationship with his mother is going
gangbusters until a slightly bitter ex-girlfriend exposes all of Avery’s fears
and failures. And, as much as Max’s mom, Elena, has come to love Avery, she
needs a partner who understands that children come first…always. What happens
next is enough to turn Avery inside out, as everything in her life begins to
change in ways she never could bring herself to imagine.
Admittedly, it’s been a while, but I remember
that Starting from Scratch was a
well-written novel that was balanced on almost every level. It was equal parts
sweet, smart, sad, and saucy; the characters had both depth and definition, the
plot was predictable but plausible, and the pacing was universally apropos to
the elements of the storyline. Overall, it was a better-than-average romance
that left me with a warm and gooey feel-good vibe.
Recently, however, the good folks of Dog Ear
Audio slipped me an audiobook copy of Starting
from Scratch, and asked if I’d consider taking it out for a spin.
Duh…
The audiobook market has always been the red headed
second cousin, once removed, from the publishing industry. However, it serves a
deserving audience that ranges from long distance commuters and exercise
enthusiasts to those with physical and neurological disabilities. Some traditional readers
refuse to listen to a book, believing that it lessens the impact. Of course,
many folks who prefer audiobooks claim that listening requires you to
experience every word—something that is often lost when readers devour written
books in huge gulps. There is no universal right or wrong way to experience a
book: it is as personal as any subject matter or genre preference a reader
might have.
Still, for any audiobook to succeed, a lot of elements must converge.
The interplay between literary content and
technical production is a balancing act that would make any of the Flying
Wallendas proud. A truly effective audiobook maintains a balance between strong
content and faultless production values.
In Starting
from Scratch, which is read by author, Georgia Beers, narration is the
foundation to the listening experience. Her reading is authentic and
appropriate to the first-person narrative content, with voices that match the
regional dialect, as well as the genders, ages, and moods of the characters.
She uses well-placed inflections and tones, conveying the storyline through
engaging expression, emotion, and energy. Technical terms and other challenging
phrases and words are pronounced correctly and with ease.
Ms. Beers consistently maintains and
differentiates character voices and dialects, and narrative descriptions (e.g.,
“I gulped,”) are read appropriately. She reads in a straightforward manner,
using her natural voice with suitable inflections, tones, and emphasis,
allowing the narration to stay true to the spirit and context of the written
word, and forging a direct, personal connection with the listener.
Production factors work in tandem with the
reading to create total listener engagement. Dog Ear Audio provides a clean,
crisp sound that allows for periods of silence and a range of dynamics. Volume
levels remain consistent throughout the recording. Music is used as a framework
to the narration, but it is not obtrusive and does not interrupt the narrative
flow. The recording was free of sibilant or plosive microphone pickups, and no noticeable
sound effects were used— if they were, then they subtly enhanced rather than
detracted from the reading.
For audiobooks, the packaging should
correctly note title, author, readers’ names, running times, and abridgment
status. In this instance, Dog Ear Audio provided a download from Payloadz that
went into my iTunes Library instead of the more traditional format of Compact
Discs. As a result, the only information provided within iTunes on my iPad was
the running time, and the document title of “sfs_payloadzsinglefile”—leaving it
difficult, but not impossible, to distinguish from other audiobook titles in my
library. It should be noted, however, that the title, author, and narrator were
stated at the onset of the audio recording.
An audiobook must stand alone as a fully
realized expression of the author’s intent and meaning, and the clear mark of
an excellent audiobook lies in its ability to remove the wall of performance
and draw the listener into the story with minimal effort. Georgia Beers’ Starting from Scratch allowed me the
luxury of experiencing the novel in both written and audio forms. I distinctly
remember enjoying the story when I first read it in 2010, but I was impressed
by, and enjoyed, the audiobook more than I could have imagined.
Fans of Georgia Beers, and those who are
looking for a textbook romance that is sweet, smart, funny, and a little bit
sad, will likely love Starting from
Scratch. And, for those who have a little more than seven hours, and are
looking for something to entertain them on the treadmill, on the train, or on a
rainy weekend—the audiobook from Dog Ear Audio will not disappoint.
The payloadz.com
download rings up at $22.50 USD, and the CD set will set you back $24.95 USD—a
healthy sum for one story. Still, if you’re in the market for a quality lesbian
fiction audiobook, Starting from Scratch
is well worth the price.
