Ballerini leads listeners on a memorable journey of discovery.
Narrator Edoardo Ballerini continues to prove he’s among the best in the business, brilliantly bringing to life the young, American, somewhat aimless curator “Giovedì” (Thursday), so named by the idiosyncratic 92-year-old Baronessa Coco. Greer’s charming coming-of-age tale, set in sun-drenched Tuscany, is filled with love, loss, and life lessons. Ballerini skillfully handles a variety of accents and ages as well as poignant plot twists as the lovable and constantly confused protagonist finds himself in an unexpected affair with a married man. The novel’s witty tone, enhanced by Ballerini’s performance, offers listeners a delightful glimpse into a vibrant world—complete with scenes of gin-swilling princesses and a plethora of colorful characters and stunning locations.
Ballerini leads listeners on a memorable journey of discovery.Pub Date: June 9, 2026
Duration: 8 hrs, 36 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217340248
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
American colleges are favorable locales for ghastly event and hair-tearing circumstance. There is, for instance, a good deal of pleasure to be had out of professor and past-prodigy Grady Tripp's awful life, as portrayed by Michael Chabon in WONDER BOYS. There is a certain amount of slapstick here, but it's balanced by Chabon's superb portrait of a gale-force mid-life crisis, a soul-destroying albatross of an unfinished novel and the mind-numbing inconsequence of writers' conferences. David Colacci sounds a little starved for oxygen in his reading, but that's not exactly out of keeping with Grady Tripp's personal gestalt.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: N/A
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Class lurks in varying degrees behind every great English comedy, its ineffable code being so endlessly conducive to ironic subtlety. QUEEN LUCIA, the first of the great Lucia novels of E.F. Benson, is imbued with it. Nonetheless, social striving rather than class per se gives the novel its real comic force. At its center is Lucia, the regnant, self-appointed social and cultural leader of a genteel, middle-class circle. She’s a schemer and poser of awesome theatricality and self-delusion. Although the narrative is conducted in the third person, the characters’ doings, most especially Lucia’s, are as often as not reported in the light in which the perpetrators hope to be viewed. Still, the true facts and motivations, usually base, shine luminously through. Geraldine McEwen’s reading truly enhances the work, being a model of cultivated discretion and ironic pacing.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 9 hrs
Publisher: ISIS Audio Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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