"Major Pettigrew's Last Stand"

English village novels are almost always reliable as audiobooks. Helen Simonson might have made the Major's love interest a bit too perfect.

• This was the dull ache of grief in the real world; more dyspepsia than passion.
• Really, his son was becoming as unedited as Marjorie's family.
• It would be satisfying to puncture the vapid conversation with the nail of deliberate cruelty.
• ... all of whom cultivated an air of establishment that was slightly marred by the almost audible hum of social ambition.
• In an attempt to sound delicate, he squeezed the words out of his mouth like the last of the toothpaste from the tube.
• He had found it a great comfort to open his iron strongbox, spread out the thick pages of his will, and read over the list of assets and
  distributions. It read like a list of achievements.
• Hugh's book order had resulted in six unnoticed monthly credit card charges for membership to a furry friends website...; it had been passed around the village as a friendly warning, but there were a few people who now called their dogs to heel when passing Whetson in the lane.
• ... Italian jardinières and tossed them on the compos like dead petunias. Alice Pierce, his neighbor, was quite public in her annual compost heap raids.
• She made him a little less anonymous.
• The world seemed to have shrunk to fit quite perfectly inside the room.