The warm rumble of Sean Barrett's sonorous voice pairs beautifully with this noteworthy history of libraries from ancient clay tablets to today's computers. Accessible and erudite, the audiobook is perfect for lovers of history, libraries, and literature. Admittedly, it is long and filled with complex sentences. But Barrett's expert pacing transforms them into models of clarity full of such fascinating factoids as library membership increased after workdays shortened in the nineteenth century and the papyrus scrolls in ancient Alexandria's famed library were probably rotting long before the building was destroyed. It's remarkable and heartening that--amid so much sacking, burning, and neglect, and so many earthquakes, floods, and insects--libraries have survived. May they continue to adapt and endure forever.
Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2021
Duration: 15 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781549139857
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Buruma’s subtle and effective narration style is essential to this chronicle.
Bard College historian Buruma has a personal link to WWII-era Berliners, his Dutch father having been a forced laborer in wartime Berlin. Buruma’s account highlights instances of the survival and rescue of Jews and of the Berlin residents who came forward to assist them. But of most Berliners, he says, “Their main aim was to stay out of trouble.” Buruma’s performance as both historian and narrator is a model of restraint and reliance on fact. He shapes a powerful narrative around Germany’s defeat at Stalingrad and year-by-year shifts in civilian morale. As deprivation and disillusion with the Nazi regime set in, the struggle for survival extended to all Berliners.
Buruma’s subtle and effective narration style is essential to this chronicle.Pub Date: today
Duration: 12 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217282210
Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: yesterday
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
A hint of hijinks in sleepy Königsberg sets ears ablaze.
The obscure uproar so vividly portrayed in this brief audiobook couldn’t be farther from today’s media commotions—or nearer. This “small vortex of turbulence” sounds like a stage farce: It’s set in backwater Königsberg, capital of East Prussia, in the 1830s, during the lull between the Napoleonic wars and the 1848 Revolution. Take a preposterous but compelling religious cult and two guileless but strikingly handsome Lutheran clergymen, add only a hint of fornication, and gossip does the rest. Vidish Athavale’s measured, finely nuanced narration gives edge and authority to a narrative without a wasted word or useless detail. And he clearly relishes the polysyllabic 19th-century German names.
A hint of hijinks in sleepy Königsberg sets ears ablaze.Pub Date: March 10, 2026
Duration: 4 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217282234
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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