Still, for Dickens completists, this is a welcome and often entertaining addition to the audio canon.
David Timson is a marvelous interpreter of Dickens’ novels. These pieces are not, however, dramatic or narrative; they are sketches (some quite long, but still) written in the last 10 years of Dickens’ life in the hybrid style of partly-fictionalized reportage popular in his youth. It’s a type of essay more dated than novels and, some will feel, calls for a more intimate, less theatrical rendering than Timson chooses. It’s one thing for a narrator to chuckle when a character in a novel is said to chuckle. It’s another to chuckle when delivering expository prose in case listeners are too dim to recognize humor for themselves.
Still, for Dickens completists, this is a welcome and often entertaining addition to the audio canon.Pub Date: July 31, 2025
Duration: 16 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781781985625
Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2026
In this fascinating coming-of-age portrait, Thomas Black Bull's journey from the child, Bear's Brother, to the fearsome rodeo rider, Killer Tom Black, is painted with compassion and insight. Forced to learn the White Man's ways, Tom reaches adulthood consumed by rage. Read with great vigor by Norman Dietz, the recording bursts with the energy of rodeo circuit and transports the listener to the southwest. The accurate portrayal of Tom's Ute ancestry and way of life, the sorrow and frustration of losing his heritage, and his angry retaliation at the world make this an excellent listening choice for adults and teenagers. It would also be a wonderful addition to high school units on the Native American experience.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 10 hrs
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
George S. Irving adopts Patrick McManus's characters with gusto. Sit back and listen to yarn after yarn. Irving relishes each story, whether it's fishing stories, such as "Claw of the Sea-Puss" or "To Filet or Not to Filet," or the escapades with McManus's wary but vulnerable neighbors. Irving has the jocular chuckle down pat, and the low comedy satire comes off without a hitch. Listeners can imagine Irving tipping back a chair at the country store swapping lies with cronies and entertaining any comers with these hilarious tales. His repertoire of more than eight collections of McManus stories encourages this kind of ownership!
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 3 hrs
Publisher: DH Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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