Before it went defunct, I contributed to the local newspaper’s books blog online and had shared my recent audiobook recommendations under the title Audiowalking. This title sums up when I’m often listening to audiobooks as was the case today with Dolly Parton, Storyteller: My Life in Lyrics. I don’t think there could be a better way to engage with the book other than the audiobook spoken by Dolly herself. But this post isn’t only about recommending the audiobook but my realization in listening to her explain her life’s experiences and turning them in to poetry and songs that the reason I’m a reader and a country music listener is for exactly that reason: it’s all about the story.

Yes my first exposure to country music was from my parents, but I loved it all the same. And, I was an avid reader from the get-go remembering fondly my insistence in re-reading Heidi, the American Girl books, and The True Adventures of Charlotte Doyle. And, I also started my first two books when I was in fourth and fifth grade- one about a pirate ship and one about an Indigenous girl and her younger brother. Then I became a librarian. And all of these have a commonality- storytelling.

Even now when I read, I often take pictures of the text or Post-it a passage to keep in a folder on my computer to revisit when the mood strikes me because words have power. But the story the words create is stronger. Dolly knows it. Country music creates it. I get lost in it. Dolly’s audiobook re-centered my gratitude to authors and songwriters for being able to weave the magic of words into the stories that embed in our lives. Aside from asking everyone to listen to her audiobook, I’ll also leave you with one of my favorite country songs. You be sure to let me know if you missed the story in this song.