Small Blessings

By: Martha Woodroof

Narrated by: Lorelei King

From debut novelist Martha Woodroof comes an inspiring tale of a small-town college professor, a remarkable new woman at the bookshop, and the ten-year-old son he never knew he had.

Tom Putnam has resigned himself to a quiet and half-fulfilled life. An English professor in a sleepy college town, he spends his days browsing the Shakespeare shelves at the campus bookstore, managing the oddball faculty in his department and caring, alongside his formidable mother-in-law, for his wife Marjory, a fragile shut-in with unrelenting neuroses, a condition exacerbated by her discovery of Tom's brief and misguided affair with a visiting poetess a decade earlier.

Then, one evening at the bookstore, Tom and Marjory meet Rose Callahan, the shop's charming new hire, and Marjory invites Rose to their home for dinner, out of the blue, her first social interaction since her breakdown. Tom wonders if it's a sign that change is on the horizon, a feeling confirmed upon his return home, where he opens a letter from his former paramour, informing him he'd fathered a son who is heading Tom's way on a train. His mind races at the possibility of having a family after so many years of loneliness. And it becomes clear change is coming whether Tom's ready or not.

Martha Woodroof's Small Blessings is funny, heart-warming and poignant, with a charmingly imperfect cast of cinema-ready characters. Listeners will fall in love with the novel's wonderfully optimistic heart that reminds us that sometimes, when it feels like life is veering irrevocably off track, the track changes in ways we never could have imagined.

©2014 Martha Woodroof (P)2014 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“In Small Blessings, Woodroof displays a lovely gift for inventive plot turns and glittering moments. The novel brims with life and complexity and characters who never stop surprising themselves, and each other. This is a delightful and splendidly intelligent comedy.” —Margot Livesey, New York Times bestselling author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy

“Small Blessings is a comedy of manners that will capture your heart. Woodroof's prose is tart and sweet -- smart enough to make you laugh, but with an aching soul that will make you cry. I loved these characters even as I was chuckling at them, and I know Rose and Tom are a couple you'll relish rooting for. If Jane Austen and Evelyn Waugh collaborated on a story about a small academic community in the South, and Woody Allen directed, Small Blessings might be the result. Get ready for pure pleasure shot through with moments of illumination: maybe this is how love really is.” —Lydia Netzer, author of Shine Shine Shine

“In the world of Small Blessings, to choose happiness is to take a risk... Optimistic, wise, and beautifully written, this book about love in all its colors, hope, and the glory of third chances will stay with you long after you close the cover.” —Joshilyn Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of A Grown Up Kind of Pretty

Top listen of the year!

Would you consider the audio edition of Small Blessings to be better than the print version?

I didn't read the print edition, so cannot offer any opinion.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I can't pick just one, they were all so wonderful, so human, so quirky in their humanness.

What about Lorelei King’s performance did you like?

Her ability to give voice to each character was wonderful. She made me "see" them as people in a way few narrators have done.

Any additional comments?

A perfectly lovely book, a wonderful story, filled with humor, sadness, humanity. I loved this book.

Happy Endings

A nice story, a romance with literary aspirations. A few too many plot elements to resolve as conveniently as they do in this story, but it's nice to have an uncomplicated happy ending on occasion. Wonderful narration !

Quotes don't count

Writing a novel where the characters think and speak in famous quotes (Shakespearean or otherwise) does not bode well with this listener. Even Lorelei King's amazing performance couldn't save the awkward conversations. Moreover, a story in which virtually every character is self aware is tiresome...especially when their internal dialogue is repeated over again. Spare me. Even the characters that weren't present were self monitoring! Ugh! This was simply awful. Please don't waste your money or time.

Sweet

This was a pleasant listen. Nothing heavy and wrapped up with a nice bow. A bit on the light side for me but I enjoyed it.

Sweet, fun, perfect narration

Love this all around.
Story, storyline and storytelling.
Easy to listen and a nice tale that would good for teens and adults

A blessing to me..

I so enjoyed this book. I love to listen to Lorelei King narrate as she brings all of the characters alive. What a wonderful story did not want it to end. Thanks to Martha Woodroof. Can’t wait for your next book!

I loved these characters

This is a well-written novel, a study of human emotions and actions revealed within a highly unusual plot. Despite a few overly elaborated moments, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Sweet and Predictable

Would you consider the audio edition of Small Blessings to be better than the print version?

Did not read

What other book might you compare Small Blessings to and why?

The quintessential Boy gets Girl novel.

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

Love her! She does a nice job on characters and always enjoy her as the Girl Bounty Hunter.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No - it was as expected.

First book I could not finish

What disappointed you about Small Blessings?

Unbelievable plot .....adolescent contrived...

What could Martha Woodroof have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Rewrite it

How could the performance have been better?

Her voice was to animated.....

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Small Blessings?

To many to count ...it was all so unrealistic .... Written as a fairy tale

Our Book Club Choice

I struggled to finish this, a romance novel narrated with annoying southern accents. The unsurprising ending was a relief.