Shine Shine Shine

By: Lydia Netzer

Narrated by: Joshilyn Jackson

A New York Times Notable Book!

"Over the moon with a metaphysical spin. Heart-tugging…it is struggling to understand the physical realities of life and the nature of what makes us human….Nicely unpredictable…Extraordinary." —Janet Maslin, The New York Times

When Maxon met Sunny, he was seven years, four months, and eighteen-days old. Or, he was 2693 rotations of the earth old. Maxon was different. Sunny was different. They were different together.

Now, twenty years later, they are married, and Sunny wants, more than anything, to be "normal." She's got the housewife thing down perfectly, but Maxon, a genius engineer, is on a NASA mission to the moon, programming robots for a new colony. Once they were two outcasts who found unlikely love in each other: a wondrous, strange relationship formed from urgent desire for connection. But now they're parents to an autistic son. And Sunny is pregnant again. And her mother is dying in the hospital. Their marriage is on the brink of imploding, and they're at each other's throats with blame and fear. What exactly has gone wrong?

Sunny wishes Maxon would turn the rocket around and come straight-the-hell home.

When an accident in space puts the mission in peril, everything Sunny and Maxon have built hangs in the balance. Dark secrets, long-forgotten murders, and a blond wig all come tumbling to the light. And nothing will ever be the same.…
A debut of singular power and intelligence, Shine Shine Shine is a unique love story, an adventure between worlds, and a stunning novel of love, death, and what it means to be human.

Shine Shine Shine is a New York Times Notable Book of 2012.

©2012 Lydia Netzer (P)2012 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“While Jackson conveys all the book's humor, her reading is also full of empathy, and she brings out the characters' underlying humanity. This masterful, flawless narration of an imaginative novel is something special and not to be missed.” —Publishers Weekly on Shine Shine Shine, a Publishers Weekly ‘Best Audiobook of the Year', 2012

“Netzer's storytelling method is as poetic as her language. She slowly assembles a multitude of pinpoint insights that converge to form a glimmering constellation...a stellar, thought-provoking debut” —The New York Times Book Review

“The novel traces Maxon and Sunny's relationship from their childhoods in Burma and Appalachia to outer space, revealing the futility of chasing an ideal of what's normal…Shine Shine Shine breaks free of the gravitational pull of traditional romantic clichés.” —The Washington Post

Loved it!

Didn't think I would like this book at all from the description. It had been sitting in my library, unread, for ages and each time I looked at it, I wondered why on earth I had bought it. But as soon as I started listening, I realized the narrator was one of my favorite authors and I had bought it because she recommended it. So glad I did. Amazing story, great characters, held my attention the whole way through.

Dumb ending

And overall, really, how many times can you use the F word and make it sound that you’d be better off without it. Story didn’t make sense.

Good story, great narration

I chose this book because Joshilyn Jackson is the narrator/reader and I love her, both as an author and as an e-book narrator/reader. Joshilyn Jackson did a fabulous job; I loved the voice she used for Bubber. I loved the story right up until the last hour or so when it went slightly off the rails. The rest of the book makes it worth it, and the ending is ok, it just seems unnecessarily strange. I would still recommend it.

A few stars, cloudy sky

The writing is good, the performance good, the presentation of the story....confusing. The author takes chances here. The characters are fresh and interesting and she takes them almost to a place of satisfaction, then drops off. This is the sort of book that I wish brought home the build up, but it just doesn't. I think it's character heavy while the three main characters= the family, are short changed.

A Delightful Surprise

I'm a voracious reader, not normally a big fan of audio books. My attention tends to wander easily. I can't sing along, so the radio beckons.

When I first saw the amazing reviews for this novel, I downloaded the sample text pages to my Kindle. Truth is, although I really wanted to like it, I just didn't feel compelled to keep reading. There's so many fantastic novels out there competing for my attention, more books than I could possibly read in my lifetime, so I gave up on this one...much too prematurely, as it turns out.

Two things happened: (1) my commute to work suddenly increased substantially with many of my favorite radio stations out of range for part of the trip, & (2) I learned that one of my most favoritest authors in the whole world performed the audio version of the novel and she posted a link to listen to the first chapter.

Wow! What a difference! Most of the subtle tones and nuances that I missed when reading the first pages suddenly came alive. What was going on with this slightly Stepford Sonny person? I had to know more...immediately! So I signed up for membership and used my first credit on Shine, Shine, Shine. This audio book took me prisoner and wouldn't release me until I learned the fate of the whole crazy, bizarre, dysfunctional-in-a-good-way family of misfits. Not only did I listen on my commute, I spent a few evenings with my earbuds plugged into the Kindle, totally ignoring all my favorite TV shows (much to the joy of my fiancé who got to watch the science shows that I normally hate and refuse to watch).

Speaking of which, this book is better than relationship therapy if you are a woman lucky enough to be coupled with a partner who resembles Maxon more than Mr. Darcy.

Highly, highly, highly recommended. Now I'm going to have to go back and purchase the actual novel.

This was an odd duck.

For some reason I was under the impression that this was going to be a science fiction novel, but it is not that at all… it is a contemporary novel. This worked out for me because I tend to like the latter genre more anyway. This story is about Sunny and Maxon. They are a unique married couple who were also close childhood friends, so they have had a long history together. Maxon is a scientist going to the moon to start a robot colony there… he also seems to be maybe have Asperger's or some other type of autism. Sunny is pregnant at this time and they have a toddler called Bubber who also has autistic tendencies. The story goes back and forth between their present life and their past. I enjoyed the story when Sunny "narrated" more than when Maxon did. Maxon is a bit too robotic and scientific for me. I found myself losing my attention span when it was the "Maxon" parts. "Sunny's" parts were much more interesting and spontaneous to listen to. I felt that this story was about how we hide behind who we really are. How humans put up barriers and facades to fit in to what they think is "normal" society. This book is also about breaking down those barriers and being who we really are in the midst of all this "normalcy". I have to say that the book got better as it went on and I did really enjoy the story, but it took time to grow on me. Joshilyn Jackson was only an ok narrator and this took away from the overall listening experience. Thus, the 3 star rating.

quirky and lovable

Interesting book, it slows after the initial introduction of characters and plot but hang in there; from the middle onward it crescendos into one of the better books I've come across. I liked the reader, she captured to the tone of the voices well and especially made Sunny come to life.

Fabuously Complex Characters & Relationships

What made the experience of listening to Shine Shine Shine the most enjoyable?

The complexity of the relationships and the events that formed them.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Shine Shine Shine?

When Maxon was hallucinating about Bubber

Which character – as performed by Joshilyn Jackson – was your favorite?

Joshilyn Jackson could read Audible Privacy Notice in Hebrew and I would love listening to her... but her specialty seems to be strong, flirtatious and damaged women and Sunny was no different. She came alive for me and I'm going to miss her.

If you could rename Shine Shine Shine, what would you call it?

Fix It! Fix It! Fix It!

Lackluster

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Prob not... pretty lackluster considering all the time it took to set up the story itself, it could have ended so much better.

Any additional comments?

Forest Gump meets space.

Makes one think...

What did you love best about Shine Shine Shine?

The flawed characters, the science/society interplay, the pain of being damaged, the hope of forgiveness, the mystery of life.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The character of Maxon was, by far, the most fascinating. Brilliant, misunderstood, a survivor and a pioneer.

What does Joshilyn Jackson bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

It was actually the post hoc knowledge that she is a best friend of the author that made me, in retrospect, appreciate her effort in delivering an almost flawless performance.

If you could take any character from Shine Shine Shine out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Maxon, to understand how his logical mind imagines the future of mankind.

Any additional comments?

I feel like I know Lydia Netzer now. Some part of her, at least. I like her.