Kids of Appetite
show more
David Arnold, read by Ryan Vincent Anderson, Michael Crouch, and Phoebe Strole. Listening Library, , unabridged, 8 CDs, 10 hrs., $50 ISBN 978-0-7352-8747-1
When grieving teenager Vic flees his home to disperse his father’s ashes, he finds solace with a motley crew of semihomeless teens led by Baz, a Congolese refugee who is being accused of a New Jersey murder, and falls in love with Mad, an intrepid bookworm. Stage actor Strole captures Mad’s biting wit, and Crouch nails Vic’s wistful optimism. (Crouch also gamely tries his best with a sequence that likely worked well in print but is almost unbearably awkward for the listener, in which Vic recites his mantra one hundred times in rapid succession. Points to Crouch for his attempts to vary the delivery.) Where the audiobook falls short is in failing to utilize the talents of Anderson, an experienced audiobook performer who is woefully overlooked here as Baz, mostly serving as a scene-setter at the start of each chapter while Strole and Crouch coarsely attempt to read Baz’s dialogue in their respective sections of the story. A Viking hardcover. Ages 14–up. (Sept.)
What Light
show more
Jay Asher, read by Mandy Siegfried. Listening Library, , unabridged, 6 CDs, 6.5 hrs., $40 ISBN 978-0-7352-8470-8
Every year after Thanksgiving, Sierra leaves her home on an Oregon Christmas tree farm to accompany her family to California to sell their trees. Conflict arises this year, when Sierra meets the boy of her dreams but finds he has a troubled past. Actor Siegfried nails the breathless and giggly way high school girls sometimes talk to each other, especially when Sierra is talking with her three best friends. The problem is the girls all tend to sound the same, even Heather, Sierra’s take-charge friend in California, who is a more prominent character than Sierra’s other two sidekicks. The novel’s young male characters are likewise vocally indistinguishable from one another, including Caleb, the tortured love interest; his former best friend; and a jealous, angry hired hand at the tree lot. Ages 12–up. A Razorbill hardcover. (Oct.)
Last Girl Before Freeway: The Life, Loves, Losses and Liberation of Joan Rivers
show more
Leslie Bennetts, read by Erin Bennett. Hachette Audio, , unabridged, 15 CDs, 16 hrs., $35 ISBN 978-1-4789-8763-5
Bennett does her best with this biography of Joan Rivers, the comedian who is credited with forcing open late-night TV and stand-up comedy clubs to women. Bennett tries to liven up the prose by imitating Rivers’s style and delivery when quoting her brash onstage humor and recounting numerous offstage anecdotes about her neuroses, sinking defeats, and soaring successes, but she mostly just plows through the book sentence by sentence. Anyone interested in Rivers’s life and career will find this audio edition worthwhile. A Little, Brown hardcover. (Nov.)
‘The Daily Show’ (the Audiobook): An Oral History as Told by Jon Stewart, the Correspondents, Staff and Guests
show more
Chris Smith, read by a full cast. Hachette Audio, unabridged, 13 CDs, 16 hrs., $35 ISBN 978-1-4789-3655-8
The structure of this book, which groups brief memories and insights from numerous people into a dialogue-like format, requires each narrator to name the speaker as well as his or her job and years of employment for every quote included. The repetition is clunky and awkward in the audio edition, which employs several actors to read in place of the people involved in the show. Unfortunately, the voices are uneven; it sounds as though the actors were taped separately. That said, Daily Show fans and comedy mavens will love learning about the behind-the-scenes politics, the relationships among the players, and the unfolding of a seminal comedy show, from its inception in 1996 to Stewart’s first appearance in 1999, to his last night with all the adoring gang, Bruce Springsteen, and Stewart’s replacement, Trevor Noah. A Grand Central hardcover. (Nov.)
Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous
show more
Gabriella Coleman, read by Tavia Gilbert. Tantor Audio, , unabridged, 10 CDs, 12.5 hrs., $42.99 ISBN 978-1-5159-1694-9
Anthropologist Coleman studies the many facets of the Internet collective known as Anonymous, hackers known for being everything from tricksters and trolls to social crusaders and information warriors. She pulls back the curtain to reveal feuding factions, evolving purposes, scatological humor, and a healthy dose of bizarre in-jokes. The book draws on Coleman’s firsthand experience as an ethnographer interacting with the group over several years; interviews, chat logs, leaked documents, and personal recollections. Reader Gilbert maintains a clear and consistent tone that captures Coleman’s prose effectively. She keeps listeners attuned during long paragraphs of detailed information but also switches to live or chat-based conversation and infuse the relevant emotions and tones throughout. Her natural delivery moves effortlessly through the prose that she sounds as familiar with the text as an author reading her own words. A Verso paperback. (Jan.)
We Should All Be Feminists
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, read by the author. Random House Audio, unabridged, digital download, 1 hr., $7.50 ISBN 978-1-5247-8176-7
Its tough to imagine anyone other than Adichie narrating the audio edition of her feminist manifesto, which originated as a TED Talk and was later adapted into a book. Many listeners will recognize the Nigerian writer’s voice and words from pop star Beyoncé’s song “Flawless,” which featured sound bites from Adichie’s original speech. Here, those sound bites are put into context and given weight as Adichie lays out her creed. Her voice is both gentle and confident as she takes listeners through the deeply conditioned sexism she has encountered, beginning with her encounters with the label “feminist” growing up and drawing on her own experiences as well as those of other women in her life. She coolly relays the story of a woman in Nigeria who decided to sell her house because she didn’t want to intimidate a man who might want to marry her, followed by another story of an unmarried woman who wears a wedding ring to conferences so that her colleagues show her more respect. Adichie presents these anecdotes in a deliberate, matter-of-fact style. She keeps heightened emotions and urgency out of her voice, instead making use of poignant pauses to let what is she is saying sink in. It’s a powerful message, recorded in a way that will make people listen again and again. A Vintage paperback. (Feb.)
This review has been corrected. An earlier version listed the wrong paperback publisher.
Grim: Dark Fairy Tales for the Psychologically Minded
show more
Joseph Burgo, read by Stuart Packer. New Rise, , unabridged, digital download, 9 hrs., $17.46 ASIN B01M7TMWV1
Three classic fairy tales—the stories of Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel—get a more sinister retelling in this three-novella collection by Burgo. Cinderella grapples with depression and a sense of dread about getting what she thought she wanted, Snow White’s mother hones her psychopathic tendencies to try to kill her daughter, and Rapunzel must deal with mommy issues and self-worth. Burgo creates strong narratives that add nuance and sophistication to these tales; the titular grimness manifests as sexual violence, rape fantasies, and ruthless seductresses. For portions from a male point of view, Packer makes a spectacular narrator with a resonant English accent and brooding tone reminiscent of Christopher Lee in his Hammer Films days. He does create believable and complex female character voices, but it seems strange to choose a male reader for a production that focuses on nearly all female protagonists. A New Rise paperback. (BookLife)
Siddhartha
show more
Hermann Hesse, read by Paul Ansdell. Dreamscape Media, unabridged, 4 CDs, 4.5 hrs., $34.99 ISBN 978-1-5200-1870-6
Actor Ansdell guides listeners in his firm and gentle voice through Hesse’s lyrical prose depicting the self-discovery journey of his protagonist, Siddhartha. Ansdell’s pacing and English accent give his reading for the audiobook an air of philosopher’s wisdom. Ansdell is especially good at pauses and inflections that express Siddhartha’s moods of exaltation and utter despair at various points in his life as a young Brahman, an ascetic, a lover, businessman, and then as a father and elderly recluse who sits by the river and finally experiences the peace and tranquility he has always sought. Published in German in 1922 and in English in 1951, the revival of Hesse’s novel in this era of widespread interest in Eastern religions offers Ansdell a vehicle for his diverse narrative talents. (Sept.)
The Turn of the Screw
show more
Henry James, read by Simon Prebble and Rosalyn Landor. Dreamscape Media, unabridged, 4 CDs, 5 hrs., $34.99 ISBN 978-1-5200-1918-5
Prebble’s strong, cultured voice pulls listeners directly into the deep suspense of James’s famous Gothic tale. He plays the unnamed narrator who, at the start of the novel, prepares his audience for what is posed as a most sinister ghost story involving young children and their newly appointed governess. Then actor Landor takes over to relate the story as a first-person account from the governess. She reads with an accent that sounds a bit upper-class for a country governess, but no matter; her diction is extremely clear, which is essential to allowing the listener to traverse James’s long, complex sentences. She is entirely convincing both as the emotional governess and as Mrs. Grose, the housekeeper, as the two try to extricate their young charges, eight- and 10-year-old Flora and Miles, from the grasp of the two ghosts who inhabit their gloomy country house. The story remains ambiguous to the end: Are the children manipulated by the ghosts? Are the ghosts real? Is the governess simply mad? With the help of both Prebble and Landor, listeners will be at the edge of their seats. (Oct.)
Thus Bad Begins
show more
avier Marías, trans. from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa, read by Robert Fass. HighBridge Audio, unabridged, 13 CDs, 16.5 hrs., $39.99 ISBN 978-1-6816-8280-8
Voice actor Fass raises to the challenge of reciting Marías’s latest novel, which is told from the perspective of Juan De Vere, a 23-year-old assistant to the Spanish film director Eduardo Muriel. The story is set in Spain in 1980, five years after the death of Franco—a period of the transition for Spain and its citizens. The damage of his dictatorship is very much present throughout, as De Vere becomes aware of the lasting effects of Franco’s regime and grapples with who did what to whom in the fascist era and who is to be forgiven and who punished, how and by whom. The title of the book is taken from Act III of Hamlet: “Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.” In keeping with the novel’s tone, Fass reads in a vocal range that is dreary, yet often seductive, and sometimes tense or jocular. The challenge to both reader and listener is intensified by Marías’s style of prose, which mirrors life’s complexity by beginning each sentence with a thought, then digressing from or contradicting or narrowing or expanding it. Conjunctions link long, breathless trains of thought together throughout. A Knopf hardcover. (Nov.)
Page
| Next
1 - 10 of 15 Audio reviews
