MARCH 2023 - AudioFile
Kristen Sieh's bright, expressive tones enliven this quirky audiobook, set in 2019. Twenty-nine-year-old Darcy takes a leave from her actuary position and returns to her parents' home in small-town Massachusetts after her husband leaves her. Darcy is surprised to discover that her parents have moved to Arizona without telling her, so as not to upset her. She hunkers down in her parents' home, subsisting on canned food and baked treats left by a neighbor until her search for work forces her into the community. Sieh provides unique voices for every character, including various locals whose humorous posts on the community board are interspersed throughout. This whimsical story about learning to navigate life's uncertainties is well served by Sieh's enthusiastic and versatile performance. M.J. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
01/02/2023
Conklin’s quirky but undercooked latest (after The Last Romantics) follows the travails of a brokenhearted woman as she returns to her Massachusetts hometown. Darcy Clipper, 29, works as a junior actuary and lives with her husband, Skip, in Boston. When Skip announces he’s leaving her, she retreats to Murbridge, hoping for a warm embrace from her parents. To her surprise, they’ve just relocated to Arizona, where they’re “trying out” a retirement community. Hunkered down in her parents’ house, she insists they come back, but after weeks of solitude, she reluctantly starts looking for work. Through some odd jobs, Darcy makes new friends like Marcus Dash-LaGrand; his husband, Dan; and their three kids. Newcomers to town, Marcus and Dan hope to build a playground and open their backyard to the children in the community, a plan that homophobe local Jake—who has his eyes on their property—tries to thwart. Coincidences and surprise revelations involving Jake’s scheming lead to a showdown at a town meeting, where the playground’s fate is decided. The plot is paper-thin and the tone too cutesy, but Conklin ably conveys Darcy’s state of arrested development, as well as her transition into a stronger person who strives to help her friends despite her anxieties. This is far from life-changing, but there’s fun to be had. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
Sometimes we’re not ready to jump. We need a little push. When Darcy Clipper — a heroine for the ages — gets a major shove, she finds herself in a brave new world of second chances, radical decisions, and transformative change. Funny, cinematic, and heartfelt, Community Board is a propulsive delight.” — Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Exiles
“I can’t believe how good this book is! Tara Conklin once again dazzles with a hilarious, heartfelt, and wholly original tale. She writes about depression and grief with such a light touch, and her mesmerizing sentences immediately draw you into this quirky and fun community—one I was sad to leave behind! Read this!” — Etaf Rum, author of the New York Times bestseller A Woman Is No Man
“A brilliant, hilarious look at modern-day community and the distance between who we are and who we say we are. Insightful, honest, and surprisingly sly. I loved this book.” — Maria Semple
“A droll investigation of what we owe our neighbors and ourselves.” — Vanity Fair
“Conklin delivers a winning third novel, with Darcy’s smart, introspective voice at the heart of it. Her unconventional adventures (often hilarious, always interesting) drive home the importance of community and how important it is to show up and participate.” — Booklist
“Oh, how I loved this delightful, unputdownable novel! A pitch-perfect comedy of manners, a balm for difficult times, a charming coming of age story, Community Board is ultimately the literary equivalent of a warm hug.” — Joanna Rakoff, bestselling author of My Salinger Year
"Timely and hilarious! For all its madcap glory, COMMUNITY BOARD is a sweet and surprisingly plausible tale for our time." — Jonathan Evison, author of Small World
“Tara Conklin’s brilliance jumps from the pages of this quirky delicious delight. I loved every second of this fabulous take on community and the on-line board that unites them.” — Jane L. Rosen, author of Eliza Starts a Rumor
"A bittersweet, laugh-out-loud novel...Community Board is a crafty send-up about one woman struggling to come to terms with—and rebuild—her battered self-esteem.... Darcy may seem a poor soul, but her sharp, bright, enlightened mind—and her snarky, lovably endearing narrative voice, supplemented with zany e-mails and community posts—will easily win the affection of readers rooting wholeheartedly for her reinvention." — Shelf Awareness
“Conklin has created a heartening look at a community whose people realize they're better together than alone.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Heartwarming, hilarious.” — BookBub
New York Times bestselling author Maria Semple
A brilliant, hilarious look at modern-day community and the distance between who we are and who we say we are. Insightful, honest, and surprisingly sly. I loved this book.”
MARCH 2023 - AudioFile
Kristen Sieh's bright, expressive tones enliven this quirky audiobook, set in 2019. Twenty-nine-year-old Darcy takes a leave from her actuary position and returns to her parents' home in small-town Massachusetts after her husband leaves her. Darcy is surprised to discover that her parents have moved to Arizona without telling her, so as not to upset her. She hunkers down in her parents' home, subsisting on canned food and baked treats left by a neighbor until her search for work forces her into the community. Sieh provides unique voices for every character, including various locals whose humorous posts on the community board are interspersed throughout. This whimsical story about learning to navigate life's uncertainties is well served by Sieh's enthusiastic and versatile performance. M.J. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2023-01-25
The story of a woman trying to isolate herself from the world and the town where she’s holed up.
It's 2019, and 29-year-old Darcy Clipper returns to her hometown of Murbridge, Massachusetts, after her husband, Skip, leaves her for a sky diving instructor. As an only child, she hopes to escape into the comfort of her parents' care, but when she arrives at her childhood home, she discovers her folks have moved to a retirement community in Arizona and didn't tell her because they didn't want to upset her. Fortunately, they're not planning to sell their house for a while. Darcy spirals into a circle of depression, grief, and self-isolation. Her only contact is with an online community message board and a police officer who's called to the house regularly by spying neighbors accusing her of trespassing. She pages through her parents' National Geographic collection and doesn't leave the house all winter until she eats her way through the canned food her mother stored in the basement ahead of Y2K. Then, with only a few cans of chickpeas left, her point of view starts to shift. After a shower and a good primal scream, she decides to get more involved in the community, albeit in tiny chunks punctuated by extreme social anxiety. Searching for missing pets posted on the community board, she finds the reward money easy and the outdoor air and blooming tulips good for her mood. Her confidence lifts through her interactions with other people, including chance encounters with bird-watchers and a job working for Marcus, one of the town's newest residents, who wants to build a public playground on an empty lot next to his house. As spring turns into summer, the community board becomes a place of threats and protests against the playground, spurred on by a corporate developer who wants to turn the land into a casino. Darcy must decide whether to take a stand or return to the walls of her childhood bedroom. Readers feel Darcy's isolation through the first quarter of the novel and, like the main character, relax into the enjoyment of getting to know the quirky lives of those who populate the neighborhood.
Conklin has created a heartening look at a community whose people realize they're better together than alone.
