This book is about Eveleth “Evvie” Drake who changes her name back to her maiden name Eveleth “Evvie” Ashton. She has a best friend during a difficult time in her life which she does not share with anyone until much later in the book. Evvie was a transcriber. She worked with interview tapes from researcher and journalists. She had clients who wanted documentation of board meetings or presentations. The Boston Globe called her, “the only woman who can reliably translate mumble into English.” She plays the clarinet. She has a dog, Ziggy. Her extended family as well as her friends extended family are in the story as well.
The name of the book is “Evvie Drake Starts Over” by Linda Holmes. When she starts over, she meets a friend named Andy who is divorced for four years from Lori and has two girls. He is a math teacher. Evvie and Andy have quite a friendship. Because of Andy, Evvie meets Dean Tenney from New York City. He is an athlete living out his worst nightmare called the “yips.” He can’t throw straight anymore and even worst he can’t figure out why. He played for the Miami Marlins and the Yankees in New York. A professional baseball player.
Andy was Evvie’s first call and she says, “When something happens, good or bad, you can only call one person first. And if you’ve been somebody’s first call, its hard not to be their first call anymore. She says it’s one of the reasons why parents sometimes feel sad when their kids are getting married. It’s not just the empty nest. They’re not the first call anymore. It is okay to be sad.”
According to Linda Holmes book, she is a pop culture correspondent for National Public Radio and the host of the podcast, Pop Culture Happy Hour, which has held sold-out live shows in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, & elsewhere. She appears regularly on NPR’s radio show including Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition. Before NPR, she wrote for NY Magazine online and for TV Guide as well as for the influential website: Television Without Pity.
In her free time, she shares her Washington D.C. apartment with a dog who patiently indulges her desire to take his picture a lot. She watches far too many romantic comedy, reads in bed, and bakes bread, reads in bed, and recently knitted her first hat.
This was a nice story to read and I would give it a rating of 4 with 5 being the highest.
Literary Review 