Who Asked You? by Terry McMillan (2013)

I listened to the audiobook of McMillan's latest novel, and much like reading Stephen King, I was so pleased to be back in Terry McMillan's world again. I forgot how much I loved Waiting to Exhale and her other books.  I was disappointed by her sequel to Waiting to Exhale (so dark!), but this renewed my love for McMillan all over again.

Betty Jean has her hands full.  She has an ill husband, two opinionated sisters, a hard job, and challenging grown children.  Things just got even more complicated as her daughter has just flaked off and left her children in Betty Jean's care.  

The audiobook is read by Phylicia Rashad, Michael Boatman, Carole DeSantis, and the author and it's one of the best audiobooks I've ever listened to.  The novel is structured so that a variety of characters are narrating the action, and the narrators so perfectly embody the characters, I can hear them in my head right now. Rashad narrates all three sisters and she creates three separate characters so wonderfully that you never wonder who's telling the story, and you can practically see the characters.

I loved this book and I've never listened to an audiobook where I actually said (out loud in my car) things like: "WHAT?" or "Oh, Luther!" The whole book surprised, touched and delighted me. I often half listen to audiobooks but this had me fully engaged and invested. LOVED.

Good Boss, Bad Boss: How To Be the Best-- and Learn from the Worst by Robert I. Sutton (2010)

While waiting for Sutton's The No Asshole Rule, I picked up this one instead.  I read and started marking all the parts that really hit home.  When I found post-its sprouting on way too many pages, I realized that I would surely need to buy it. Which I did, for full price (almost) at Barnes & Noble, no less.

Sutton, whose No Asshole Rule is subtitled: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't has a great, humane view on management, and admits that there are no easy answers.  Sutton's stance is that management is a great balancing act, and he includes real-life stories and great advice to successfully balancing. Definitely a must for any manager's professional bookshelf. Too many good points to possibly include here!

The Girl You Left Behind by JoJo Moyes (2013)

Jojo Moyes has written some books that I very much enjoyed.  Windfallen, an unfortunately titled novel with a terrible cover, but nonetheless a lovely novel about a stately home and the family it belongs to, and Me Before You, about a girl who works for a young man who has been paralyzed.

This is a different feel from those, as it is set during WWI in France (at least in the beginning) and focuses on Sophie Lefevre, the wife of an artist (currently off fighting) and her struggles with the Germans who have occupied her town and one General's obsession with a portrait of her. The second half of the novel is about Liv Halston, who owns the painting now and is facing a challenge to return the painting to its "rightful" owner. A wonderfully unfolding story, with vivid characters and a truly suspenseful plot. Very enjoyable.

I do have to quibble with the cover art, though. It looks exactly like the art for Me Before You, which was a great success for Moyes, but this novel is so very different from that one, it seems like it should have a different cover.