September 2011, Featured Articles, Biographies & Memoirs
*One Hundred Names for Love by Diane Ackerman
Diane Ackerman’s outstanding prose deserves the highest praise of course; but it is the pairing here with McCulloh’s precise and lilting voice that makes this deeply moving memoir really come alive.
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*Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen
Fifteen C.D.'s worth of incredible and incredulous reporting, the velvety smooth voice of Annie Jacobsen....
*The Wiseman's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
Nick Podehl’s semi-voiced reading is outstanding in all respects.
*Mayday by Nelson Demille and Thomas Block
despite Brick’s masterful, fully-voiced narration, as the authors advise, MAYDAY is not an audiobook listeners will want to listen to on a flight anywhere
*These Things Hidden by Heather Gudenkauf
We seem to love fiction that explores the idea of female criminals, especially the wildly insane or seductively murderous.
*Shadowrise by Tad Williams
Narrator Dick Hill, winner of three Audies, semi-voiced reading captures the characters and their trials perfectly.
I'll Never Get Out of this World Alive by Steve Earle
Earle's empathic reading of the audiobook has the feeling of a story told by the oddly familiar stranger at the neighboring barstool, and listeners get the added bonus of hearing the author sing the occasional snippet of a Hank Williams song
*One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde
This was so good, I let myself listen to it twice and I could do it again this very minute.
Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick
In a novel that could also be called ‘Estranged Bodies,’ Cynthia Ozick looks at the Nightingale/Nachtengale family in 1952, still suffering the effects of World War II
The Long Goodbye by Meghan O'Rourke
Anyone who has lost a parent, especially after a long illness, will relate to Meghan O’Rourke’s memoir of her experiences with her mother’s illness and death at 55 when O’Rourke was 32 years old.
Lucky Stiff by Deborah Coonts
This is rapid paced, with a filled plot and spicy behind the scenes look, at the gambling capital of America.
*The Daughter's Walk by Jane Kirkpatrick
Kimberly Farr’s reading is outstanding... [as she]captures narrator Clara’s emotion from fear to desperation, joy to sadness, anger to disappointment, love to heartbreak...
Tiger, Tiger by Margaux Fragoso
..Fragoso explains what she has discovered in her own recovery and research about pedophiles and what to look for in order to protect our children and to break the cycle of abuse through generations.
*The Beauty of Humanity Movement by Camilla Gibb
This novel gives an inside look at Hanoi years after the Vietnamese war, through the eyes of Maggie who left Vietnam as a baby and who has now returned as an art curator for one of the best hotels in the city.
Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
Listeners expecting the novel Doctor Zhivago to resemble the famous movie by the same name may be disappointed, for it is the revolution that takes center stage, not the love story of Zhivago and Lara
If You Ask Me by Betty White
This is the latest in Betty White's memoirs, focusing on the past 15 years of her life and covering such topics as aging, of course (she's approaching 90), friendship, her love for animals, and the celebrity life.
Hit List by Laurell K. Hamilton
Series fans will relish this addition
When the Thrill is Gone by Walter Mosley
Critics consider Walter Mosley’s new series set in contemporary New York, a fine follow-on to Mosley’s very popular Easy Rawlins series set in L.A. in the 40s to the 60s
Velocity by Alan Jacobson
Actress, voiceover artist and singer/songwriter Deanna Hurst captures this complicated story with its multiple characters and frantic story line
*Against All Enemies by Tom Clancy and Peter Telep
Clancy followers who were expecting a sequel to Dead or Alive will be disappointed, but shouldn’t be.... [This is] bloody, violent, and brutal but ultimately gripping especially with [Steven] Weber’s narration
*The Snowman by Jo Nesbo
Listeners who have read or listened to Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole books are in for a treat as this is one of the best.
*The Brothers of Baker Street by Michael Robertson
Actor and Award-winning narrator Simon Vance, with his aristocratic English accent, impeccable pacing, and fluidity of characterization gets everything right
*One Dog Night by David Rosenfelt
Master narrator Grover Gardner’s familiar voice adds just the right touch to this warm and witty mystery.
Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey
Zane Grey wrote a book meant to be read aloud and award winning actor and narrator Mark Bramhall was meant to read it
Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult
Therese Plummer, Brian Hutchison, Michele O. Medlin, Mia Barron voice each of the four major characters in Picoult’s emotionally-charged novel that explores gay marriage, in vitro fertilization, evangelical churches and alcoholism.
*The Latehomecomer by Kao Kalia Yang
With her quiet, sometimes quavery voice, [author Kao Kalia] Yang beautifully narrates her family’s story.
*Started Early by Kate Atkinson
Atkinson’s characters are crusty on the outside, cut off from the world, but vulnerable on the inside.
Meiditations for Manic Motorists by David Michie
This single CD audio is a good idea and could be a helpful addition to the in-car CD collection for type-A drivers.
The Jefferson Key by Steve Berry
...[Scott] Brick's performance is subtly voiced, and he reads with a punchy style that works well here, as the book is packed with intrigue, traitors, betrayals, conspiracy, and assassination
The White Devil by Justin Evans
Steve West, a British actor, has a beautiful voice that can turn chilling in an instant; his sickly, breathy vocalizations of the ghost made my skin crawl on a sunny afternoon.
When the Killing's Done by T.C. Boyle
Adults enamored of the locale (The Channel Islands off Santa Barbara), who like novels with much interwoven historical/scientific information, and who are interested in the issues surrounding animals rights, will enjoy this audiobook.
Cold Wind by C.J. Box
Box’s eleventh Joe Pickett novel ... includes fascinating information about the wind farms that are being established to use wind as an alternative energy source and the fraudulent businesses that are being created within that industry