Sound Commentary - Your Wise Guide to Audiobooks and Audio Book Reviews

Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer

A Cup of Friendship by Deborah Rodriguez

Mozhan Marno obviously knows the accents and people of Afghanistan and renders them flawlessly….

In Deep Water by Peter Lehner

Listeners may agree or disagree, but Tom Weiner’s deeply authoritative, self-assured and compelling narration of the facts provided by Lehner makes it almost impossible not to believe that there must be drastic change about our search for and use of oil or we are doomed.

Alphaville by Michael Codella

Exciting, candid and as mean as the streets themselves, Alphaville is sure to please all who enjoy reading about crime.

*Scaramouche by Raphael Sabatini

Sabatini's classic swashbuckler is as good as the genre gets: a fast-paced action filled plot, an assortment of unusual situations and characters, romance, the French Revolution, and a thoroughly engaging protagonist whose wit is as quick as it is barbed.

Despair by Vladimir Nabokov

As Nabokov lovers will know to expect, the prose is elegant, the humor abundant, and the plot and themes convoluted. Art and reality twist, duplicate, blur, merge, and twist again and again. Hermann is a chronic liar and everything he says in both the novel and the book within the novel is completely unreliable.

Elizabeth I by Margaret George

While facts yield too frequently to fiction, those who love historical novels won't mind and can enjoy the intrigue and the author's in-depth portrayals of the principal characters.

Fadeaway Girl by Martha Grimes

Performer Kim Mai Guest sounds so much like a 12 year old girl that it is not until she speaks the adult dialogue that listeners will realize the extent of her actual talents.

The Bone House by Brian Freeman

[Narrator Joe Barrett’s] choices for characters' voices are totally appropriate and he deftly conveys their emotions as well as the suspense.

Shadowplay by Tad Williams

[Narrator] Dick Hill... captures the arrogance, the fear, the confusion, and the desperation of the main characters and their many opponents very effectively by means of his accents, his tone variation, and the excellent pacing of his reading. Fantasy fans will enjoy many pleasurable hours listening to this fine fantasy tale

*Does the Noise in My Head Bother You by Steven Tyler

Jeremy Davidson (a veteran audiobook reader of Eric Van Lustbader's recent reprisals of the Robert Ludlum Bourne books) tackles the material with a bravado that approximates Tyler's motor-mouthed and irreverent style, which is no small task.

*The Mermaid Garden by Santa Montefiore

[Narrator Rosalyn] Landor’s characters breathe, Montefiore’s descriptions glisten, and listeners, who will be able to smell the salt air and freshly baked cakes and taste the cream scones with clotted cream, will not be able to turn this off until the end. Highly recommended as the best way to travel or to get away from everything these days

Keeping Company by Tami Hoag

The plot follows the “he/she loves me, he/she loves me not” formula to its obvious conclusion interspersed with lots of neck nuzzling, graphic foreplay, descriptive undressing, and well-practiced seduction

Falling Home by Karen White

Lyssa Browne’s reading is truly remarkable. She is able to create a unique Southern drawl for each of the characters living in Georgia….

The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahearn

Narrator Ali Coffey’s sardonic reading brings Tamara to life and as she matures, the narrator reflects that wisdom in her voice. The Irish accent and the descriptions of the people and settings also ground the story….

The Dangerous Edge of Things by Tina Whittle

[Narrator Renee Raudman’s] performance is good but for this listener she could not overcome the book's weaknesses.....still might have appeal for those listeners who enjoy southern settings and this type of mystery.

The Sentry by Robert Crais

Fans are in for a treat and first-timers will be hooked from the first sentence

*Pacific Glory by P.T. Deutermann

Three time Audie Award (the audiobook industry’s top award) winner Dick Hill’s performance here is outstanding - the battle scenes are so vivid, realistic, and exciting, that the listener is transported onto the ships and fighter planes and are able to experience 'first hand' what it was like.

The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith

[Narrator Lisette] Lecat's South African accent, rhythm, and manner of speaking perfectly mesh with the story and its characters. Fans of the series will love this and Smith is sure to gain more fans when they listen to this well-performed book.

West of Here by Jonathan Evison

This is really two novels about the West – one set in the 1890’s...and the other set in 2006.... The perils and advantages of living in such a beautiful, rugged place may be different 110 years apart, but for both generations, there are some of the same problems.

The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly

This timely mystery seems to have been ripped directly from today’s newspaper headlines, and is recommended for fans of Connelly’s other works, as well as for fans of suspenseful courtroom dramas.

Open City by Teju Cole

Open City is like walking into a crowded room, where hundreds of people are speaking at the same time, but through all of the chatter there is a persistent whisper that you can just barely hear, until everyone stops speaking at once.

*Self Comes to Mind by Antonio Dimasio

In an illuminating production neuroscientist Antonio Damasio explores the evolution of consciousness.... There is passion along with exacting analysis in Damasio’s prose which is captured in an outstanding narration by Fred Stella

Toys by James Patterson

New breeds, called Elites, have taken control of the earth....The production is a wild ride filled with fanciful elements, including the Elite’s many toys, such as dolls that can be programmed to only give hugs and kisses or to kill.

*The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson

What to say about a beautifully narrated, well-written, funny book about two friends and their old professor, especially if the characters are not particularly likeable?

*The Lonesome Gods by Louis L'Amour

Louis L’Amour’s The Lonesome Gods is a beautifully written coming-of-age story set in the American West in the 19th century, with a riveting plot, fascinating characters and many mystical, philosophical, and cultural observations.

Buddha's Brain by Rick Hanson

[Buddha’s Brain] is a practical, well-written guide that contributes to other scholarly works that are purging the fuzzy new-ageism that used to surround meditative practices

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

Upton Sinclair did for the meatpacking industry in 1906 what Harriet Beecher Stowe did for slavery in 1852. Sinclair's famous muckraking novel exposed both the lack of sanitation in the meatpacking factories in Chicago and the lack of social support for its workers, many of whom died of neglect, starvation, and disease.

*A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Tough to choose between Simon Prebble or John Lee, but, if forced, I would give a slight edge to Prebble because of the emotional scenes, of which there are many. Both versions are highly recommended.

*Augustus by John Williams

A vast story from a vastly talented novelist read by a vastly gifted narrator.

Rose in A Storm by Jon Katz

This is an unsentimental yet deeply emotional portrayal of the respect and cooperation that exists between a working dog and its master.... Highly recommended for dog lovers of all ages

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

Since [Sam Spade] is forever linked with Humphrey Bogart in the film version, it takes a special reader to resist the temptation to imitate Bogart. However Eric Meyers manages to create his own Sam Spade and also does a good job voicing the remaining characters

*Damage by John Lescroart

[David Colacci’s] is an emotional performance and listeners will be immediately absorbed in it. There is plenty of evil and many people to hate and listeners shouldn't be surprised to find themselves getting very angry at times

*Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin

Kyung-Sook Shin’s novel Please Look After Mom looks at the mystery of how one’s closest relationships are full of unknowns. Set in modern Korea, the novel vividly captures how much South Korean family life has changed in just one generation with this story of an illiterate country woman who is accidentally left at a subway station in Seoul as she and her husband come into the city to visit one of their grown children.

Love You More by Lisa Gardner

fascinating listening in a well-written story with lots of unexpected twists in the plot

*The Pig Did It/*Comes to Dinner/*Goes to Hog Heaven by Joseph Caldwell

Each novel in the series, each hailed by critics as a “shaggy pig story,” can be taken as a “stand alone.” ... All three are humorous, tragic, historical, slightly hysterical and bacon-wrapped.

Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff

When a plane load of WACS and G.I.s took off on a sightseeing trip over Shangri-La, one of World War II's most thrilling survival and rescue stories was about to unfold. This Shangri-La, its name based on the old black and white movie of some 70 years ago, was a lush valley in New Guinea.

*Black Swan by Chris Knopf

[Chris] Knopf’s descriptions of atmosphere, place, weather, storms and the ocean are vivid and his dialog is realistic; and of course Sam and Eddie are sheer fun. A winner for Sam Acquillo fans; ... listeners new to the series will want the earlier volumes

*There Are Things I Want You to Know by Eva Gabrielsson

Fans of the Millennium Trilogy [The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who played with Fire, The Girl Who kicked the Hornet’s Nest] will devour this and anyone who wants to know the “real, new image of” Sweden will find this of interest. Excellent text; outstanding reading.