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    Carry Yourself Back to Me
    Carry Yourself Back to Me
    Carry Yourself Back to Me
    Audiobook8 hours

    Carry Yourself Back to Me

    Written by Deborah Reed

    Narrated by Tanya Eby and James Langton

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    With a broken heart, a stalled career, and a troubled family, singer-songwriter Annie Walsh seeks refuge at her secluded home, surrounded by a lush Florida tangelo grove and the company of her old dog Detour. But a crime connected to her brother Calder threatens to tear her family apart, and Annie is forced to shore up her loyalties and question some profound disappointments of her past. From the ever-changing present, where each hour brings an unforeseen piece of news, to the poignant childhood days of first allegiances and life-changing losses, circumstances converge and Annie steps out to lull the listener into this soulful, stirring journey like a fine and forlorn love ballad.

    Carry Yourself Back to Me cultivates an often tender, sometimes tart world of love and loss. Inflected with melancholy and redeemed by melody, this deeply affecting story is certain to strike a resonant chord in the heart.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateSep 20, 2011
    ISBN9781455831876
    Carry Yourself Back to Me
    Author

    Deborah Reed

    DEBORAH REED is the author of the novels Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan, The Days When Birds Come Back,Olivay,Things We Set on Fire, and Carry Yourself Back to Me. She has written two thrillers under the pen name Audrey Braun. She lives on the coast of Oregon and is the owner of Cloud and Leaf, an independent bookstore in Manzanita, Oregon.

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    Reviews for Carry Yourself Back to Me

    4/5

    37 ratings5 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Everybody knows that there is never good timing for heart ache. It can take the form of a fog, or a striking pain, it is different for everyone and has no miracle cure. Annie Walsh is a singer song writer, no longer fresh to the scene but with bated breath fans waiting for her next release. They will be waiting a longer than they expect though, as Annie has lost her muse and she is hermit-ted, seemingly a new person (broken).Annie has been self medicating as only she can see fit. She has been hiding from the world for months. When her boyfriend Owen abruptly left her, her focus switched to the grove of Tangelos out front and ensuring that they are tended to. Her secondary focus is on sandpapering Owen out of her existence. Music no longer matters..After sIx months of hiding out, wallowing in her pain, and seething in her anger.. Annie is just beginning to numb, to reach an internal understanding and start to heal. Because the universe is cruel (and authors are more so) this poor woman just cannot catch a break, Annie’s brother Calder is arrested for murder. This news brings her back into the celebrity spotlight, and brings Owen back into her town and knocking on her door. She is forced to come out into the light, and deal with her life.–On the Novel – It is hard to go into too much detail on this book, it does not deserve to be critically analyzed or torn apart; it begs to be consumed to be embraced to be thrown across the room in a fit of “I hate you” and to be gently picked back up to continue consumption. Deborah Reed built it with layer upon layer of emotion and I am finding it hard to do it justice in any form of discussion.. It is painful to read and heart wrenching to put down. Reed’s book made my soul ache.This is easily one of the best novels I have read in years. I am proud to have this book on my shelf. Folks who are into literary fiction, musician novels, being stabbed emotionally, and experiencing ambiguity as to your personal opinion of cheating lying men.. This book may be for you. If you are a cheating lying man, this may also be for you. If you like sad tales of like those of country story tellers past, this may be for you.I say pick it up, even if you do not know if it is up your alley. You know 15 people you can give it to who will thank you for it and love it when you are done. It’s just that good.On a slight aside note – You hear a lot of people ask authors “what did you listen to while you were writing this” or “what would be on the soundtrack for this book”. This book goes one further because it IS a soundtrack. The characters, being musicians make a number of references to great music, I highly suggest that readers who are unfamiliar with specific works mentioned should look them up. The prose of the novel is already melodic, and the strength of the characters provides a constant rhythm, backing it with real world music adds a depth, characters become real people.. Specifically check out Brush Prairie and the song “Carry Yourself Back To Me”. You will notice that the EP cover and the book cover are similar.. I do not know if the book inspired the song, or the other way, but both are excellent.On the Author – I listened to Reed do some speaking at WordStock 2011. She was kind to the fat bearded man (me) who walked up and advised he had never heard of her, but was glad to have caught her round table discussion. She was incredibly nice and interesting insert other pleasant words here. I was pleased to be able to catch her at the convention and chat for a couple minutes. I highly suggest fans go to her events and say “Hi”, you won’t regret it.--xpost RawBlurb.com
    • 5/5
      Everybody knows that there is never good timing for heart ache. It can take the form of a fog, or a striking pain, it is different for everyone and has no miracle cure. Annie Walsh is a singer song writer, no longer fresh to the scene but with bated breath fans waiting for her next release. They will be waiting a longer than they expect though, as Annie has lost her muse and she is hermit-ted, seemingly a new person (broken).Annie has been self medicating as only she can see fit. She has been hiding from the world for months. When her boyfriend Owen abruptly left her, her focus switched to the grove of Tangelos out front and ensuring that they are tended to. Her secondary focus is on sandpapering Owen out of her existence. Music no longer matters..After sIx months of hiding out, wallowing in her pain, and seething in her anger.. Annie is just beginning to numb, to reach an internal understanding and start to heal. Because the universe is cruel (and authors are more so) this poor woman just cannot catch a break, Annie’s brother Calder is arrested for murder. This news brings her back into the celebrity spotlight, and brings Owen back into her town and knocking on her door. She is forced to come out into the light, and deal with her life.–On the Novel – It is hard to go into too much detail on this book, it does not deserve to be critically analyzed or torn apart; it begs to be consumed to be embraced to be thrown across the room in a fit of “I hate you” and to be gently picked back up to continue consumption. Deborah Reed built it with layer upon layer of emotion and I am finding it hard to do it justice in any form of discussion.. It is painful to read and heart wrenching to put down. Reed’s book made my soul ache.This is easily one of the best novels I have read in years. I am proud to have this book on my shelf. Folks who are into literary fiction, musician novels, being stabbed emotionally, and experiencing ambiguity as to your personal opinion of cheating lying men.. This book may be for you. If you are a cheating lying man, this may also be for you. If you like sad tales of like those of country story tellers past, this may be for you.I say pick it up, even if you do not know if it is up your alley. You know 15 people you can give it to who will thank you for it and love it when you are done. It’s just that good.On a slight aside note – You hear a lot of people ask authors “what did you listen to while you were writing this” or “what would be on the soundtrack for this book”. This book goes one further because it IS a soundtrack. The characters, being musicians make a number of references to great music, I highly suggest that readers who are unfamiliar with specific works mentioned should look them up. The prose of the novel is already melodic, and the strength of the characters provides a constant rhythm, backing it with real world music adds a depth, characters become real people.. Specifically check out Brush Prairie and the song “Carry Yourself Back To Me”. You will notice that the EP cover and the book cover are similar.. I do not know if the book inspired the song, or the other way, but both are excellent.On the Author – I listened to Reed do some speaking at WordStock 2011. She was kind to the fat bearded man (me) who walked up and advised he had never heard of her, but was glad to have caught her round table discussion. She was incredibly nice and interesting insert other pleasant words here. I was pleased to be able to catch her at the convention and chat for a couple minutes. I highly suggest fans go to her events and say “Hi”, you won’t regret it.--xpost RawBlurb.com

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Carry Yourself Back to Me is Deborah Reed's debut novel under her own name, following close on the heels of the publication under her Audrey Braun pen name of the sassy thriller, A Small Fortune. In contrast to the whirligig adventure of her thriller, Carry Yourself Back to Me is a thoughtful, intense novel with Southern gothic overtones. Set in central Florida in the middle of a freak cold snap, the story focuses on Annie Walsh, a singer-songwriter recovering from the abrupt end of a long relationship with her music producer boyfriend. There are many threads to the story as Reed examines the relationships between Annie and her ex-lover, her brother Calder who has been accused of murdering his lover's husband, their parents, and their bachelor uncle. The story moves between the cold, snowy present, Annie and Calder's childhood, and the immediate past that left Annie alone in her cabin and Calder in jail. By the end, as the threads come together, the reader has been woven into the tale. Reed's descriptions are so tactile – Annie's rough hands, the ice-coated branches of the citrus trees, the warm fur of her dog's coat – and her characters are so authentic that to read the book is to live inside the story. This book is terrific.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Deborah Reed has written an engaging novel about relationships, accomplishing the rare feat of good prose and characterisation. Human, believable characters are rendered with an accomplished style.Country singer, Annie Walsh is trying to pick up the shattered pieces of her heart - the result of her lover, Owen's, infidelity. But when her brother gets into trouble, the pressure on Annie to get herself together intensifies. Love is hard, and gives no respite wheresoever it grows. I liked this book a lot. Reed has a beautiful understated prose; it's not ten dollar words fluttering across the page like rare hummingbirds, but it's very well-observed. The weather, the emotions, the people - they are all so real and tactile, and she does it with a pleasing economy. It's quite poetic in parts - apropos the country music - but never tips over into sentimentality or mawkishness. The same can be said for the characters. In a lot of ways, there's not a whole lot new here; we've seen forms of these people in a lot of "relationship" novels, but Reed writes about them so well, so intimately, it feels very fresh. Annie, obviously, is the lead, but Reed's insight is equally penetrating with most of the cast. We know these people, and we feel their emotions. The story in some ways is simply the fuel for this engine of characterisation and rumination. This is not to say that nothing happens, quite the contrary; there's a lot of narrative packed into Carry Yourself Back to Me, but it's the emotional stakes of the characters that give it heft. Indeed, this closeness Reed has to her characters leads to the novel's only - and slight - flaw. Rather than finishing at a natural break in the book, Reed can't resist following her protagonists just a little further. It lessens some of the impact of the book, and bends it to a more classical narrative with its conclusion. Personally, I felt the book didn't need the extras and it was slightly weaker for it. Nonetheless, this is a quibble in the face of very promising new voice. Recommended.
    • 4/5
      Singer, Carrie, has been deserted by her lover, Owen. She has taken refuge at her home in Florida and soon finds herself involved in the problems of her estranged brother, Calder, who has been accused of murdering his girlfriend's husband. This is an OK novel; nothing to rave about. The ending is fairly obvious.