This book was a pleasant surprise. I was instantly drawn to request this book by the title. The narration of this audiobook is quite the production. With sound effects, conversational writing, and lots of character it was a joy to listen to. I laughed and cried with the story as she told her experiences that her life circumstances took her through. The experiences that the author took us through were profound and powerful. I will definitely be on the search for more books by this wonderful author.

Cara Romero finds herself at a loss at the beginning of this novel but she is not at a loss for words. She has lost her factory employment of over 20 years and she needs a job. The book is set over the course of 12 sessions with an appointed job counselor helping senior (50-something like Cara) jobseekers. Cara needs to reevaluate what her strength and weaknesses and takes us on a journey through her experiences good and bad. Cara came to the US as a fresh start but as her story unravels she is quite torn between the ways she learned as correct and the more modern views her son and younger sister take - always taking into account… what would people think ? She is at a risk of loosing so much it is not just the job she lost, but also the son with whom she isn’t in touch anymore, the sister who has lived in the same bullring forever but is now moving away from Brooklyn to Staten Island, the elderly neighbor who is in her 90s and will not need her forever even if she needs her now, the apartment that she has lived in for over 20year but that she is now in danger of being evicted from … how can Cara Romero get out from under all these problems and issues and were to even start unpicking this pile of issues. Cara Romero starts by telling her job counselor everything through weekly sessions interspersed with eviction notices, job application forms and other documents that throw her for a loop she gets to tell her story and what a story it is …
I listened to the audio book for this one and it was marvelously done, I loved the choice of Rossmery Almonte as a narrator for this book - she brought Cara Romero alive and I would have loved this short book to be longer ! It is a great story and k love the interesting setup and structure !

“It’s true you can write a book about me. Because what I’ve lived has a hundred chapters”

Phew. What a book! This book (and especially the audiobook) was incredible, thought provoking, funny, and so dang creative.

We follow Cara Romero, a 56 year old woman who has lost her job at a factory she’s worked at for ages, as she goes through 12 sessions with a job counselor through a Senior Workforce Program that is mandatory if she’d like to continue her unemployment benefits. We only get Cara’s side of the counseling sessions and she is *beyond* chatty, telling us all about her life.

I thought this layout was SO unique. I really loved the approach and it allowed for us to truly get to know Cara and her immigrant experience on a pretty deep level as she opens up to the job counselor.

This is a moving story about community and how difficult it is for immigrants in America. It touches on so many aspects of how exhausting daily life can be, but you know Cara is keeping it entertaining as we go! This is the story of a woman, a mother, a caretaker, and a friend that I cannot recommend enough!

The audio was fantastic and really added to the story being told, especially with the vignettes between each of Cara’s counseling sessions! Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy!!

If you enjoy books that draw you deeply into the mind of one character, this book is for you. If you enjoy books that show you both the attributes and flaws of a character in equal measure, again, this is a book for you. If you want to learn about the experiences of immigrants, seniors, the poor and the damaged, that's all in here as well. Angie Cruz is back after her smash hit, Dominicana (one I've been meaning to read for ages and now really wish I had!), with a new book about one Cara Romero, a woman in her 50s trying to find a job in early 2000s New York.

The book seems simple on the surface. It takes the form, primarily, of twelve interviews between Cara and her job counsellor. But these are in no way job interviews. As Cara points out, she talks a lot, and if she's asked about mangoes, she will talk about yucca. She talks about yucca for an entire book here - it's one very long tangent - and yet... I was completely transfixed.

The format was a bit odd at first, and I wasn't convinced it would work. By the end of the book I couldn't possibly imagine Cara's story being told in any other way. The format allows us to see some of the strongest characteristics of this formidable woman. She's by turns stoic, dramatic, self-aggrandizing, boastful, vulnerable, stubborn and wise. Over the course of the twelve interviews we learn about Cara's failed marriage, her panicked dash from her husband's wrath that led her across the water to America, her abusive mother, her estranged son, her brother and sister, her neighbours (and friends), her sense of responsibility for them, her loneliness, her love affairs and her financial woes. A whole life is laid out in just 200-odd pages, and yet it feels fully formed, completely realized and is told with a vibrance that is irresistible.

At its core this book grapples with the interesting dichotomy that exists between who we perceive ourselves to be, and who the world perceives us to be. Both are correct in a certain sense, but sometimes how we are seen from the outside can teach us about ourselves. For Cara, who has been through a lot of trauma, who has been abused and tormented and who then had to figure out how to raise a son alone in a strange country, she has a sense of being the victim rather than the perpetrator. But as we learn more about her life, we begin to see that, in fact, she is both.

Cara isn't a "good" person in many ways. She could be too tough on her son, she can be judgmental, she is willfully obtuse at times (particularly when it comes to an online psychic who she believes is really sending cut-rate deals that are specially for her), lacking in concern for how her actions affect others and proud to a fault. And yet, despite all these difficult traits, I came to love her. She felt so real, so unfiltered, and just so completely her that I couldn't help but feel strongly connected to her, problematic viewpoints and all.

This book ticks so many boxes. It's beautifully written. And not just on a line-by-line basis, but it perfectly and evenly captures Cara's voice throughout. It creates connections between different details in the book that slowly form a beautiful interlinking backdrop to the story. It manages to tackle poverty, gentrification, immigration, abuse, isolation and ageism without being too overt about any of it. There's a punchy humour to the book, even though it's not a happy story, and I found myself nodding along and smiling (even giggling) several times as I listened. It never once dragged or felt forced. And it captures a whole culture in a way that makes it feel like you've stepped right into her home and community and are surrounded by the laughter, the wonderful smells of her cooking, the lyrical flow of her mother tongue (and there are Spanish words and phrases throughout that anyone who speaks a bit of the language will instantly get and that everyone regardless of familiarity with the language will find to perfectly punctuate her speech), and the never-ending energy. It even dances, every so slightly, towards hints of magical realism with Cara's unique and extremely sensitive sense of smell that allows her to tell when someone is ill.

I cannot recommend the audiobook format for this book highly enough. The narrators, Rossmery Almonte and Kimberly M. Wetherell, do an amazing job. The voice of Cara is so exactly the voice I would have chosen for Cara, and she captures every hint of subtle double meaning, every change in pacing and has a perfect grasp of the intonations of the language and Cara's use of it. The book also has background noises that work to bring it to life, making it a cross between a typical audiobook and an audio play. One of the best audiobook productions I've heard all year - and most of my reading is audio format, so that's saying something!

I'm so grateful that I chose now to hop back into Netgalley reviewing, that this book just happened to be one of the first to capture my interest, and that I was given early access to it. I had so much fun reading it, and I can't wait to double back and pick up Dominicana now that I know what I've been missing!

How Not To Drown in a Glass of Water, follows Cara, who has lost her job in the middle of the recession. In her mid-50’s, she must now complete job counseling sessions. These sessions were supposed to help Cara find new employment, but over the course of the 12 sessions, Cara recounts her life, both the good and the bad.

This was such a fantastic audiobook. I was pulled in immediately by Cara’s story. The narrator Rossmery Almonte brought the character to life. The audiobook also included different background sounds which really enhanced the whole audiobook experience. This is one audiobook I won’t soon forget,

This audiobook is everything. The sound effects! The narrator! Not to mention the writing style, in interview format where we only hear one side of the conversation. Despite this, Cara will tell you everything you need to know about her life, experiences, hardships, triumphs, and the evil that is gentrification. I absolutely loved Cara. She was hilarious, real, and fierce. This is such a great choice for national hispanic/latinx heritage month.

Angie Cruz’s funny, poignant and formally inventive “How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water” has shot up the list of my favourite audiobooks of 2022.

Kimberly M. Wetherell efficiently directs and co-narrates the author’s fourth novel, while Rossmery Almonte, a brilliant Dominican actress and comedian, is the star of the audiobook.

Cruz introduces her character with the opening sentence: “My name is Cara Romero, and I came to this country because my husband wanted to kill me.”

It’s 2009 and Cara Romero, a 56-year-old Dominican immigrant in Washington Heights is attending 12 sessions of job training while the Senior Workforce Program in New York City pays her extended unemployment benefits. Instead, the job counselling sessions become monologues about her life. Nothing is sacred. Her history is punctuated by documents such as job application forms and rent notices, as well as delicious Spanish turns of phrase.

Cara Romero is one of the most delightful, fiery, resilient and memorable heroines I’ve met. You won’t regret listening to this audiobook.

Recently I have been reading books with great intros and Cruz delivers another of those: “My name is Cara Romero, and I came to this country because my husband wanted to kill me. Don't look so shocked. You're the one who asked me to say something about myself.”

You feel with your whole being that Cara Romero never had a chance to reflect back on her life and discuss it with someone. Story was overflowing from her. All her struggles, all her mistakes, and all her regrets. Only problem is she was telling this to someone who was supposed to help her find a job; she didn’t need to know this much 😅😅 During the 12 session she had to keep her unemployment and senior benefits, Cara gave us a front seat to her show and what a show it was!

I really enjoyed the way story was structured and told. Audiobook was especially entertaining with narrator’s tone, reactions, and hint of Dominican accent. I was cracking up when she was talking about moments she was feeling like herself and forgot where she was. Also, “can I have some water?!”

The story is told almost exclusively from Cara's point of view/in her voice. That is, we're reading/listening to her side of the conversation during the dozen meetings with a job counselor required to keep her unemployment benefits. Cara is busy and easily distracted, so the sessions rarely are focused on the most important task at hand: getting a new job placement. We learn quite a bit about Cara's family, friends, and neighbors, and she exhausts herself in the telling of particularly challenging relationships and events.

I didn’t love the one-sided conversation format as many advance readers did; but it moves quickly, so there's no time for boredom. It was hard for me to invest in Cara's situation, given her scattered sessions. I warmed to her slightly at the end, when a different perspective on the session transcripts is offered.

Thank you, NetGalley and Macmillan Audio, for the audio ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review. Publication is expected September 13.

Beautifully chaotic, this book felt like listening to a Dominican grandmother unload in the most comical way. It is a one-sided conversation of Cara Romero during mandatory workforce counseling she needs to recieve unemployment from "the Obama". I vacillated from amused, sad, hopeful and angry throughout the whole book and though it was 95% one-sided conversation I remain entertained. Insightful, funny and familiar, not my usual read but it will stick with me 4.5⭐️

“My name is Cara Romero, and I came to this country because my husband wanted to kill me. Don’t look so shocked. You’re the one who asked me to say something about myself.”

I haven’t ever read a book quite like this. Cara Romero is a 56-year-old woman who we get to know through interviews, questionnaires, and multiple sessions of a senior workforce program that she is required to attend to maintain her unemployment benefits. Her life story unfolds before our eyes in stories that are sometimes sad, sometimes hilarious, and always humanizing. What I was not expecting from this book was the ability it would have to make me laugh out loud genuinely. Cara Romero’s personality was so well-crafted, that I felt like I put down this book knowing her.

I liked How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water so much I finished it in less than 24 hours (I had to go to sleep but finished the last 11 minutes immediately upon waking). The audio felt like I was sitting in the interview room with Cara while still able to be transported to the apartment building or other places her life story took us. Her application answers were hilarious!

There was a time midway through the book that I was not Cara's biggest fan. Her old-school way of parenting and viewing the parent-child dynamic in this day and age (2007-2009, but still) and dismissal of therapy as a way to understand oneself and grow to be a better person was frustrating. I had to remind myself that she is perfectly imperfect, as we all are, and made mistakes. Who am I to judge? But also, the fact that Angie Cruz had me feeling strong emotions at all automatically increased my rating from 4 stars to 5. It shows that I care and am invested.

Rossmery Almontewas a joy to listen to as Cara. My only complaint is Kimberly M. Wetherell wasn't a part of the interview. It would have been more enjoyable if it was a back and forth between them, even briefly, instead of Cara "repeating" what was said to show dialogue.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing me with an ALC.

Write this down: Cara Romero will make a home in your heart. HOW NOT TO DROWN IN A GLASS OF WATER is a true delight and extraordinary audio experience.

Cara Romero is an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who finds herself looking for work when her job at a NYC factory she held for decades is eliminated due to the recession. The structure of the story is unique as Cara divulges her life to her job counselor over the course of 12 sessions.

Angie Cruz, has given Cara such a distinctive voice! With a zany personality, a tender heart for her estranged son, and a deep loyalty to those she loves, Cara is a character I won’t soon forget. This story is infused with so much heart and humor I actually laughed out loud (which never happens for this stoic reader!)

Taking in this story through your ears is undoubtedly the way to go; the audiobook experience is incredibly immersive. Cara’s accent and antics shine through the narration of Rossmery Almonte. The audio experience is completely immersive with various background sound effects that enhance the story such as footsteps, typing sounds, and of course swallowing a glass of water.

After finishing this story, I immediately added Cruz's DOMINICANA to my TBR. If you’re looking for a laugh out loud story with themes of found family and an #ownvoices immigrant experience, add HOW NOT TO DROWN IN A GLASS OF WATER to your *audiobook* TBR!


RATING: 4.5/5 (rounded up to 5 stars)
PUB DATE: September 13, 2022

Many thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an ALC in exchange for an honest review
Review will be posted to www.instagram.com/kellyhook.readsbooks in advance of publication

Title: How Not To Drown in A Glass of Water
Author: Angie Cruz
Available Sept

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫

What a great audiobook! The narrator is on point playing the part of Cara Romero, a Dominican immigrant living in Washington Heights. When she loses her job at the factory, she ends up in a 12 session program to help her find employment.

Through her sessions we learn all about her life, loves and troubles. She will literally have you laughing out loud and then have you really appreciating the struggle of a single working mom trying to do her best. I loved her relationship with her neighbors and all her idiosyncrasies. The author and narrator really captured an authentic immigrant story in an effortless way.

Cara Romero is a great character. Write that down. 😉

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️4/5

Really enjoyed this audiobook. Thank you to @netgalley for the ARC. This was entertaining.

I was laughing during this but some parts of it were actually quite sad. It was touching and I was reminded of my late grandmother at times as well.

This one is outside my norm of books I would pick but I really enjoyed it. Thanks to @kellyhook.readsbooks for recommending it.

I highly recommend the audio of this one. It is SO well done.

Basically- interviews with Cara who is trying to get work assistance.

✨ Review ✨ How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz; Narrated by Kimberly M. Wetherell; Rossmery Almonte

This is hands down my favorite audiobook I've ever listened to. Rossmery Almonte knocks this one OUT OF THE PARK. I laughed. I cried. I raved about it to anyone who would listen.

The book takes place as a series of one-sided interviews (monologues, I guess?) by Cara Romero, a 50-something Dominican woman in NYC, who has recently started an unemployment program for seniors trying to reenter the workforce. These stream-of-consciousness style chapters slowly moves through layers of Cara's life story while also building up the world of people around her in her Washington Heights apartment building. Interludes between chapters provide excerpts from the training program, job applications and listings, rent bills, and more. Throughout the book, Cara spills the tea as she gives you all the chisme.

What started as an absolute riot of a book grew more serious as it progressed, shining light into the struggles faced by urban residents through gentrification and evictions, unemployment and underemployment, caretaking expectations, immigration and citizenship processes, and so much more. While I still laughed at parts throughout the book, I also thought Cruz, and Almonte, through her reading, humanized Cara and people like her in such a brilliant way. Understanding that Cara's unemployment in part stems from her caretaking of friends, family, kids, pets, elders, and disabled folks around her, helped me see her in a deeper way.

The style of the book was more experimental, and will probably frustrate some readers, but I loved it and thought it translated so well to the audio format. This brilliant book will be sticking with me for a long time!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: literary fiction
Location: NYC
Reminds me of: Dominicana (also by Angie Cruz), In the Heights
Pub Date: Sept 13, 2022

Read this if you like:
⭕️ experimental literary fiction
⭕️ strong Latina / Dominicana voices
⭕️ chisme worthy of giggles and gasps
⭕️ AMAZING audio narration that brings the story to life

Thanks to Macmillan Audio, Flatiron Books, and #netgalley for an advanced e-copy of this book!

Oh my goodness, what a beautiful collection of "sessions" composed by Angie Cruz, depicting one spunky immigrant's tale of navigating Unemployment through NYC after being laid off after 20-something years. Thank you so much to NetGalley, RB Media, Flatiron, and Angie Cruz for sending me this Advanced Listener's Copy prior to its publication date of September 13, 2022. This one doesn't miss.

When Cara Romero loses her factory job after successfully keeping it for so many years, she's left to handle the Unemployment office and make regular visits to a job counselor within the senior citizen unemployment decision to guide her through job searches, interviews, and getting back on her feet. Instead of discussing work-related skills and accomplishments, Cara moreover uses this time to vent about the chaos of her life. From the love affairs, fleeing from perilous situations, and her struggles with her son and friends, we learn more about her character than anyone would be able to extrapolate from any sort of government-funded job fair/training/etc.,

Cara is a wonderful woman, but definitely doesn't qualify as a receptionist, childcare provider, school security informant, or many of the other position titles that her counselor suggested for her, and in the very best way. Her character and gusto are enough to leave you breathless and speechless (for you can hardly get a word in around her venting/rambling flow) and addicted to the duration of each new session. What will she bring through the door, and will any of it be job-related??? Likely not, but nonetheless it was a pleasure to be in her company.