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BETTER TO HAVE GONE

LOVE, DEATH, AND THE QUEST FOR UTOPIA IN AUROVILLE

Narrator Vikas Adam is the contemplative voice behind this true story about one family's pair of mysterious deaths. Adam is sober and measured throughout the detailed explanation of John Walker and Diane Maes's arrival in India, and their eventual untimely ends. Fans of journalistic storytelling will be drawn into this overlapping tale of missing parents and the adult children who are exploring the legend behind their demise. Adam's delivery reflects the gravity of the author, the son-in-law of the deceased. The overall effect for listeners is of tuning in to a caring reporter who is shifting through facts, memories, and anecdotes to help us all make sense of an unsolved tragedy.

Pub Date: July 20, 2021

Duration: 12 hrs, 30 mins

DD ISBN: 9781797127712

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026

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    THE EMERSON CIRCLE

    THE CONCORD RADICALS WHO REINVENTED THE WORLD

    Listeners will find much worth discovering in the lives of these vanguards of American intellectual life.

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    Kevin R. Free’s voice is the perfect vehicle for this fascinating portrait of a remarkable group of artists, philosophers, abolitionists, and social reformers who all happened to live in Concord, Massachusetts in the 19th century. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott and her father, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller, and many others called themselves transcendentalists and became the first truly American philosophical movement. With his genial delivery, Free is up to the task of narrating this complicated account of many intersecting lives; his inflections add character to the correspondence and inject life into the often formal writings the Circle left behind.

    Listeners will find much worth discovering in the lives of these vanguards of American intellectual life.

    Pub Date: April 28, 2026

    Duration: 9 hrs, 53 mins

    DD ISBN: 9781668132777

    Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

    Review Posted Online: July 14, 2026

    Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026

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      CAVE MOUNTAIN

      A DISAPPEARANCE AND A RECKONING IN THE OZARKS

      An interesting Ozark history that doesn’t quite cohere.

      Author Hale presents the case of his young cousin Haley's disappearance on Cave Mountain in 2001 and the ensuing search and rescue operation, the largest in Arkansas history. Hale connects this with the murder of 3-year-old Bethany by a small and isolated religious sect decades earlier on the same mountain. Narrating these two stories in a low, slightly gruff tone, Hale weaves together family anecdotes, Ozark lore, local and broader history, and Christian theology. While the two cases are intriguing, the work lacks focus and contains extraneous details.

      An interesting Ozark history that doesn’t quite cohere.

      Pub Date: March 3, 2026

      Duration: 11 hrs, 9 mins

      DD ISBN: 9780063398153

      Publisher: Harper Audio

      Review Posted Online: March 10, 2026

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