Cy Oggins spied for the Russians from 1926 to 1943. For that his employers locked him up twice in the gulags and finally killed him. The author fails to let us get to know the man or to ever reveal what he accomplished. Narrator David Chandler treats the sentences one at a time. He raises his voice to a crescendo by the middle of each and drops it at the end, unable to make a natural transition from one to another. The effect gives every sentence undeserved importance, a consequence the author doesn’t intend. Since our spy lived in France, Germany, Russia, and China, Chandler faces many foreign names and places. All of them make him sound uncomfortable in his pronunciations.
Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2008
Duration: 12 hrs
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Carol Matthau epitomizes a glamour and lifestyle not associated with the 1990's. Here is a life of privilege, tragedy and worry about what friends would think of her new frock or lover. Matthau possesses a voice and delivery that simply could not be improved on. In her coy whisper, she tells compelling stories involving everyone from William Saroyan (husband #1) and Truman Capote to Carson McCullers, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Walter Matthau (husband #2). This excellent audio presentation will leave you wanting to read the entire book to discover what juicy tidbits were left out.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 3 hrs
Publisher: The Publishing Mills
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Tales of the rescued don’t diminish the sorrow for the millions lost.
Jim Meskimen’s authoritative voice and evenhandedness carry a narrative with many highs and lows and steeped in tragic irony. As Nazi attacks on Jews worsened in the 1930s, a group of poker-playing friends in Manila, including Dwight D. Eisenhower, conceived a plan to repatriate German Jews to the Philippines. Hundreds of people were subsequently saved, but antisemitism bothin the U.S. and the Philippines blocked a full effort. Most effectively, this episode offers a fresh perspective on the Pacific theater and subsequent independence of the Philippines—and on the careers of two men at the table, one of whom almost became a U.S. president, and one of whom did.
Tales of the rescued don’t diminish the sorrow for the millions lost.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2026
Duration: 11 hrs, 13 mins
DD ISBN: 9798228966093
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Review Posted Online: Aug. 18, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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