The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village

By: Joanna Nell

Narrated by: Deidre Rubenstein

Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Joanna Nell's life-affirming debut is a moving, funny, heartwarming tale of love and community in the spirit of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Grace and Frankie.

The life of 79-year-old pensioner Peggy Smart is as beige as the décor in her retirement village. Her week revolves around aqua aerobics and appointments with her doctor. Following a very minor traffic accident, things have turned frosty with her grown-up children, and she is afraid they are trying to take away her independence. Noticing her memory isn't what it used to be, Peggy is taking ever more inventive steps to cover up her dwindling faculties.

The highlight of Peggy's day is watching her neighbour Brian head out for his morning swim. She dreams of inviting the handsome widower - treasurer of the Residents' Committee and one of the few eligible men in the village - to an intimate dinner. But why would an educated man like Brian, a chartered accountant no less, look twice at Peggy? As a woman of a certain age, she fears she has become invisible, even to men in their 80s.

But a chance encounter with an old school friend she hasn't seen in five decades - the glamorous fashionista Angie Valentine - sets Peggy on an unexpected journey of self-discovery.

©2018 Joanna Nell (P)2018 Hachette Australia Audio

A nice book to motivate oneself

So nicely read! And the plot fills one with hope - not with exuberance maybe, but with that steady hope that allows you to look calmly and positively at your future. There's a lot of inspiration in this book. It's not particularly full of novel ideas, but good for some light reading. Sometimes I got bored, but every time a new problem arose and I wanted to follow it together with the characters, who are all very convincing.

Oh My Gosh, She Is Me!

Peggy is me. Right down to the inside-out blouse! I didn't discover mine until I was already at a family get-together at my son and daughter-in-laws home. We've discussed my lack of filter and social faux pas and decided to approach the embarrassing situations with laughter. I must say, so far it's easier for me to laugh at myself than it is for my son and daughter-in-law. I lost interest with the romance angle. I know some ladies still yearn for the attention, my next door neighbor was one of them. I'm not. So, for me, the first half of the book was fun. I pretty much half-listened to the rest. Thank goodness there was no sex.
Was there?

Fun and uplifting

Loved the story of seniors having a blast!

I’m going to do it myself before it’s too late!

ALMOST really good

This novel has lots of good moments -- the main character's spoonerisms are sometimes hilarious, and the juxtaposition of funny-old-lady-spoonerism with more serious flashbacks to her marriage give it a nice texture. But, finally, it becomes a little too sweet. The residents of the retirement village are not all well-drawn, IMHO. The narration is pretty good. I expected more local color, more "this is Australia," but there was very little of that. It's not bad, but it won't be one that I want to hear again and again. (Yes, I reread and relisten.)

Fun

This was a fun book to listen to. It was sad sometimes, but mostly I feel it was about aging without losing your sense of humor

Very entertaining

Thoroughly enjoyed the characters. The feisty ones made me laugh. Portrayed the retirement home atmosphere accurately as well as all the issues a senior/pensioner deals with.

Not for me.

I confess I did not finish this one. The characters seemed one dimensional and the “humour” such as it was, felt clumsy and unnatural. I likely won’t be reading any other books by this author.