A good story well told cuts across every category of audiobook listening. This remarkable tale of a high-profile fraud combines elements of scripture studies, academic politics, investigative journalism, and true-crime reporting. Narrator Robert Petkoff is pitch-perfect in delivering author Ariel Sabar's examination of "The Gospel of Jesus's Wife," a forged parchment of dubious origin that duped a Harvard professor, made headlines, and here unfolds into a provocative study of the uneasy relationship between fact, belief, and the dedicated pursuit of truth. Petkoff maintains a firm, steady pace for a narrative that some listeners may find too detailed. But it's Sabar's painstaking attention to detail that exposes layer after layer of fraud and self-deception, and in the end provides a compelling and memorable listening experience.
Pub Date: Aug. 11, 2020
Duration: 15 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780593212509
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Listeners will find much worth discovering in the lives of these vanguards of American intellectual life.
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
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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