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    Nora, Nora
    Nora, Nora
    Nora, Nora
    Audiobook9 hours

    Nora, Nora

    Written by Anne Rivers Siddons

    Narrated by Kate Reading

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Twelve-year-old Peyton McKenzie isn’t ready to share her widowed father with anyone—certainly not with her cigarette-smoking redheaded cousin Nora, who just rolled into sleepy Lytton, Georgia, this summer behind the wheel of a pink Thunderbird. But her father seems to like Nora, and prim Aunt Augusta hates her, which means she can’t be all bad. And when Nora takes a job teaching the first integrated honors class at the local high school, it appears she might be staying forever.

    But there’s something troubling Peyton’s unorthodox cousin, something more than the outspoken town gossips’ complaints about Nora’s “unsouthern ways.” When the truth comes to light, it will rock the segregated small community—and teach Peyton an unforgettable lesson about the enormous cost of love.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateSep 27, 2005
    ISBN9780060879150
    Nora, Nora
    Author

    Anne Rivers Siddons

    Anne Rivers Siddons is the New York Times bestselling author of 19 novels that include Nora, Nora, Sweetwater Creek, Islands, Peachtree Road, and Outer Banks. She is also the author of the nonfiction work John Chancellor Makes Me Cry.

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    Reviews for Nora, Nora

    3.5/5

    115 ratings12 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book by Siddons. It is yet another coming of age story of a young girl being raised by her father and a domestic. Their lives are more common than common and then wonderful colors rush into their lives in the form of a cousin come to stay. Life suddenly becomes interesting with this fascinating whirlwind of an addition to their family. I loved how the author drew her characters and even the smaller of them (Boot, Ernie, the aunt and the grandmother) were wonderful characters and though they had small parts in the novel somehow they were huge in relation to the main characters. I wanted this book to go on and while not disappointed by the ending I would like to know more about what became of Peyton, her father, Chloe and of course Nora.
    • 4/5
      A competent tale no doubt, but I suppose the fact that I read Siddons' "Sweetwater Creek" immediately before made it seem a bit "been there done that." It had characters drawn from many of the same molds (e.g. a pre-teen motherless girl trying not to discover her adulthood, closed off but really wounded father, young adult female who guides the girl and then splits) but if you are going to read it on its own it's not a bad way to go
    • 4/5
      I really loved this book. I may have a bit of a soft spot for this one though, because the main character, Peyton, reminds me so thoroughly of myself. I first read this book in the Reader's Digest Condensed form, then listened to it on audio tape, and then FINALLY got my hands on the actual novel. This is a great, though somewhat formulaic, coming-of-age story. Loved it!
    • 4/5
      a step above Siddon's usual novels, which often veer into the dreaded genre of Romance.
    • 4/5
      Siddons writes wonderful tales of the South...This story starts in Lyton,Georgia. The year is 1961 and the civil rights movement has yet to reach the little town not far from Atlanta.They still have "colored" and "white" drinking fountains and Brown vs Education is ignored..Peyton a twelve year old girl lives with her widowed father. Something is missing from their lives then along comes Cousin Nora..stirring up the small town.... Is a very good book to read. I enjoyed it
    • 2/5
      coming of age novel, good
    • 5/5
      When twelve-year-old Peyton's mother and older brother die, she and her father are trapped in their grief. Then along comes Peyton's mother's cousin, Nora for a visit that changes Peyton's life forever. I liked this story and give it an A+!
    • 5/5
      I don't even know where to begin with this book. The writing was excellent, the story was so good, the themes in the story were so important (and so well handled), and it was very enjoyable. I loved Nora. She just didn't care, but at the same time she cared so much. I know that sounds weird but I don't know how else to describe her. She stood up for herself, and prided herself on simply enjoying life however it's handed to you. Peyton on the other hand was such the opposite. And while Nora had a huge impact on Peyton's life and the changes in Peyton were drastic Peyton will always be Peyton. The story touches on so many different issues. First it takes place in the south in the 60s, so there's the racial issues. Then Peyton is in a place in her life where she needs the guidance of a woman, but Nora is so unconventional it is question whether her ideals should have influence on Peyton. I can't really give any more because it would take away from the web of the story. The narrator did an excellent job. While I tend to think it would have been really hard to have a bad narration for such an amazing book Cristine McMurdo-Wallis did a really good job. She had such a dramatic voice and since Nora was such a dramatic person it fit perfectly together. Cristine's voice was just perfect for this one. She was very pleasant to listen to. She also did a great job of staying in character so you always knew who was talking.
    • 4/5
      Even though some of the phrases used in this book are familiar to me through the other ARS books I have read (Downtown and Outer Banks), I liked this very much. Nora is a real person and Peyton is drawn so well that it’s almost painful. Others are mere caricatures – aunt Augusta is the nasty old lady, clinging to ancient southern ways, Peyton’s dad is the silent widower, trying to bring up his girl with as little interaction with her as possible, Peyton’s grandmother is a semi-crazy old woman who sees the future in bowls of soup and tells the crows in the town square to go tell the devil. As Peyton reaches her early teens, she is very afraid to let go of her childhood. She deliberately dresses badly, does nothing stylish with her hair and only has The Loser’s Club for friends. The loser’s club consists of Peyton, an 8-year-old black boy called Boot (after the orthopedic boot he must wear because of his club foot) and a much older Ernie who hates himself so much that he cultivates his pseudo-intellectual ways so he can “legitimately” look down on other people. He is pure poison, but Peyton looks up to him because she has no one else. Peyton floats through life with a major inferiority complex and the absolute conviction that she killed her mother.Of course Nora is just what she needs. Nora is approximately 30, unmarried and a free spirit. It is 1961 and when she comes to Litton (just outside Atlanta) she turns it upside-down. She starts teaching an English class for black and white students together. In this class she has them read To Kill a Mockingbird and The Tropic of Cancer. At first the students go along with hiding this information, but when she has to expel a cheerleader, all hell breaks loose when the cheerleader tells. But by that time, Nora doesn’t care. Half the town loves her and the other half she doesn’t care about.Eventually though, she screws up badly. She tells off and expels a student whose daddy is a big wheel in town. The girl spills the fact that they were reading Tropic of Capricorn, which the town immediately flips out about because of its racy theme and depictions. She is fired. She is pissed off. Peyton is secretly hopeful that she and her father will ‘hook up’. Peyton is also very attached to Nora. She agrees to give the valedictory speech at her graduation because Nora coaches her all the way through it and helps edit her speech, which is kind of like an Our Town for Litton. Nora promises to be there on graduation even though she has been the chosen escort of Litton’s own celebrity. The women in town are green with envy and hate Nora even more. But Nora is around less and less. She doesn’t turn up for Peyton’s big speech and Peyton chokes and is laughed off the stage by students and adults alike.In a towering rage at Nora, Peyton hides in her treehouse. When Nora eventually comes home, many of the towns people have also come to apologize to Peyton. There is quite a crowd gathered when Peyton reveals Nora’s biggest secret – that while in Cuba, she had an illegitimate child with a black man. The child is still there. Nora was forced to leave after her son was hidden by the village that embraced her but still thought she couldn’t raise one of its own.Nora’s ‘boyfriend’ deserts her and she leaves town. Peyton and dad languish. Life after Nora just seems to have all the air sucked out of it. So they track her down and bring her back – not caring a whit for what anyone thinks. And Nora is happy to be back. Nice happy ending all the way around that is the usual for this author.
    • 3/5
      This novel left me wanting. I couldn't help but compare it to Colony, a book that I absolutely loved. It never did measure up. The story is one of a young girl who idolizes her cousin Nora, a carefree spirit searching for a place of comfort and safety. Nora seemed to be much older than 30 (more like 60), and her words of wisdom got rather tiresome at times. The characters seemed almost to be caricatures of Jem, Atticus, and Aunt Alexandra of To Kill a Mockingbird fame. Needless to say, I was disappointed.
    • 3/5
      I have a strange relationship with Anne River Siddons books. They always start off really slow for me, and I have to struggle through the first several chapters. However, they really pay off in the end. I guess maybe there's just too much background and set-up for me. So, I like them, but I wish she'd get to the story sooner.
    • 4/5
      I really loved this book. I may have a bit of a soft spot for this one though, because the main character, Peyton, reminds me so thoroughly of myself. I first read this book in the Reader's Digest Condensed form, then listened to it on audio tape, and then FINALLY got my hands on the actual novel. This is a great, though somewhat formulaic, coming-of-age story. Loved it!