Audiobook Spotlight : The Plague and I - Betty MacDonald
Author: Betty MacDonald
Narrator: Heather Henderson
Length: 8 hours 48 minutes
Publisher: Post Hypnotic Press⎮2016
Genre: Humor, Memoir
"The Plague and I" recounts MacDonald's experiences in a Seattle sanitarium, where the author spent almost a year (1938-39) battling tuberculosis. The White Plague was no laughing matter, but MacDonald nonetheless makes a sprightly tale of her brush with something deadly.
"Anybody Can Do Anything" is a high-spirited,
hilarious celebration of how "the warmth and loyalty and laughter of a big
family" brightened their weathering of the Great Depression.
In "Onions in the Stew", MacDonald is in unbuttonedly
frolicsome form as she describes how, with husband and daughters, she set to
work making a life on a rough-and-tumble island in Puget Sound, a ferry ride
from Seattle.
Betty Bard
MacDonald (1907–1958), the best-selling author of
The Egg
and I and the classic Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle children’s books, burst onto the
literary scene shortly after the end of World War II. Readers embraced her
memoir of her years as a young bride operating a chicken ranch on Washington’s
Olympic Peninsula, andThe Egg and I sold its first million copies in less
than a year. The public was drawn to MacDonald’s vivacity, her offbeat humor,
and her irreverent take on life. In 1947, the book was made into a movie
starring Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert, and spawned a series of films
featuring MacDonald’s Ma and Pa Kettle characters.
MacDonald
followed up the success of The Egg and I with the creation of
Mrs.
Piggle-Wiggle, a magical woman who cures children of their bad habits, and with
three additional memoirs: The Plague and I
(chronicling her time in a tuberculosis sanitarium just outside
Seattle), Anybody Can Do Anything (recounting her madcap attempts to find
work during the Great Depression), and Onions in the
Stew
(about her life raising two teenage daughters on Vashon Island).
Author Paula
Becker was granted full access to Betty MacDonald’s archives, including
materials never before seen by any researcher. Looking for Betty
MacDonald, the first official biography of this endearing Northwest
storyteller, reveals the story behind the memoirs and the difference between
the real Betty MacDonald and her literary persona.
Heather
Henderson is a voice actress and audiobook narrator with a 20-year career in
literary and performing arts. Her
narrations include the NYT bestseller (now also a feature film)
Brain on
Fire; and Sharon Creech’s
The Boy
on the Porch, which won her an Earphones award and was named one of the Best
Children’s Audiobooks for 2013 by Audiofile
Magazine. She earned her Doctor
of Fine Arts degree at the Yale School of Drama, and is co-curator of
AudioEloquence.com, a pronunciation research site for the
audiobook industry. In 2015, Heather was
a finalist for a Voice Arts Award (Outstanding Narration, Audiobook Classics),
for her narration of Betty MacDonald’s The Egg and I.
Click to listen
to an excerpt of The Plague and I
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