Listen to this audiobook in full for free on https://hotaudiobook.com/free
ID: 498921
Title: Anybody Can Do Anything
Author: Betty MacDonald
Narrator: Heather Henderson
Format: Unabridged
Length: 08:07:22
Language: English
Release date: 01-01-21
Publisher: Post Hypnotic Press
Genres: Biography & Memoir
Summary:
"Well, Betty MacDonald has done it again. Here is the merriest, maddest book of the year . . . with that fabulour MacDonald sparkle in every line of its fascinating pages." Marge Lyon, Chicago Sunday Tribune, August 27, 1950.
The Narrator:
We are incredibly fortunate to have the award winning Heather Henderson narrating Betty MacDonald's wonderful memoirs. Heather's warm voice, knack for characterizations and engagement with Betty MacDonald's writing equal a superb listening experience. And we're not the only one's who have noticed. Henderson was a finalist in the 2015 Voice Arts Awards for her narration of The Egg and I, and a UK audible customer wrote:
"Not a reader I had come across but she is amazing - she brings out the fact that Betty was brought up to be a lady which makes her misadventures and tribulations even funnier - imagine Margo from The Good Life suddenly finding herself running a chicken farm! The characterization is vivid without being cartoonish, her pronunciation of certain words is (to my English ears) delightful and you can tell she is having a ball reading this book and is delighted to share it with you! Her reading is heartfelt, droll and wry. As Juliet Stevenson is to Jane Austen on audio so Heather Henderson is to Betty MacDonald - and there is no higher praise!"
Indeed!
The Audiobook:
Comedy is probably not the first thing that springs to mind when we recall the Great Depression, but when Betty MacDonald recounted her experiences of that "hard" and "dreary" era in Anybody Can Do Anything, she found lots to laugh about.
Chronologically, this book takes place after her misadventures on a chicken ranch - the subject of Betty's first book, The Egg and I - and before her account of a year spent in a tuberculosis sanatorium, recounted in The Plague and I (both of which are also available in audio from Post Hypnotic Press). Despite the hilarity with which she described her time spent chicken farming, she was unhappy in her marriage and terribly lonely. Anybody Can Do Anything opens with her leaving the farm and her husband and making her way with her two children back to Seattle and the bosom of her family, just as the Depression begins. She and her family - a mother, a brother, and three sisters, plus her two young girls - live in a "modest dwelling in a respectable neighborhood, near good schools and adequate for a normal family." As the Depression goes on, they find much comfort in having that home and in having each other to rely on and commiserate with.
With two children to support, Betty was desperate for work as jobs became more and more scarce. But she also had her sister, Mary, an eccentric and energetic finder of jobs and organizer of people. Since childhood, Mary had been getting Betty in and out of situations. With Mary's 'can do' attitude, Betty was propelled into jobs and sent on dates, regardless of whether she possessed the skills necessary for the job or had anything in common with her date. Betty credits Mary's positive attitude with getting them through the hard years:
"Mary, one of those fortunate people who are able to bring forth great reserves of strength and fortitude during times of stress, accepted the Depression as a personal challenge.
