American Housewife: Stories by Helen Ellis

American Housewife: Stories by Helen Ellis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a collection of slightly twisted stories about the things that housewives get up to during the day. I don't read short stories very often, so I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this. After several of the stories, I wished I could grab someone and say, "Listen to this!"

I experienced this on audio and I think the accents and fast pace of the reading (I listened at 1.25x speed) added a little more humor to the prose. If I had read the print version, I suspect I would have found some of these stories a bit more creepy. There were four different readers -- Kathleen McInerney, Lisa Cordileone, Rebecca Lowman, and Dorothy Dillingham Blue -- and they all did a fine job. A southern accent used to comic effect without being insulting is a fine thing, and the readers put it to good use here.

I had two favorites in this collection. "Dumpster Diving with the Stars" is set on a reality competition show and that is one of my favorite story settings; I wish it was a full novel. "The Fitter" was both weird and touching, and the accent the reader used was perfect. My least favorite was "Hello! Welcome to Book Club", probably because I know some kids on the autism spectrum so I had trouble finding some of the references in that story amusing.

The running length of the audiobook is three hours and 46 minutes, which makes it a fun choice without a huge time investment.

View all my reviews