In 1931, Budgie and Lily, students at Smith College, meet Jewish football player Nick Greenwald, from Dartmouth. Although Lily and Nick fall in love, they don't end up together due to family pressure. Narrator Kathleen McInerney gives an emotional reading of this novel. By 1938, just before a devastating hurricane, Budgie is married to Nick and summering in Seaview, Rhode Island, where they encounter Lily. McInerney sensuously delivers this story of friendship, rivalry, and anti-Semitism. She ably makes the transitions between timeframes and fills in the background of Budgie and Lily's relationship, which is rife with tension in the later years.
Pub Date: 2013
Duration: 11 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781101620892
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Ayla, one of the "others," is adopted by a clan of Neanderthal cave people. She struggles to conform to their ways, but her advanced human traits overwhelm and threaten their primitive culture in this initial installment of an immensely popular series. Although the story might benefit from abridgment, Rowena Cooper easily carries out the formidable task of enlivening the mostly silent and stereotypical characters with consistent, diverse personalities and human dimension. Through skillful phrasing and inflection, she maintains the reader's interest and suspense, especially with Ayla and her plight, throughout this rambling and imaginative story.
Pub Date:
Duration: 22 hrs
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America/ Chivers
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
This lyrical, sensual novel of woman's lot in Manchu, China, is as well researched as it is well written. Authentic in tone, it's nonetheless written for Westerners by a Western expert on China. Moreover, Susan Clark performs the demanding text superbly, with only occasional signs of fatigue. For the most part she not only sustains the quaint diction and Asian atmosphere, but also, creates whole worlds with her voice. She acts the book, rather than reads it, and, in so doing, turns a pretty trifle into a stupendous beauty.
Pub Date:
Duration: 4 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: Audio Literature
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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