Euan Morton presents Christopher Moore’s vision of La Belle Époque with lighthearted insouciance. Beginning with the death of Vincent van Gogh, the story travels backward through time through the eyes of a would-be painter, Paris baker Lucien Lessard. Morton presents Moore’s very funny, mostly fictional, anecdotes of Pissarro, Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir, and a mysterious figure known as “the Colorman,” combining moments of pathos with moments of near-farce. Moore tells us, “This is a story about the color blue. . . . You cannot get a grip on blue. . . . It’s a butterfly, a bird, a spicy joke, the saddest song, the brightest day. . . . Blue. She is like a woman.” SACRÉ BLEU is funny, informative, and ingenious, and Morton’s rendering of art, artists, and fin-de-siècle France is delightful.
Pub Date: April 3, 2012
Duration: 13 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9780062097422
Publisher: Harper 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: N/A
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: N/A
Duration: 4 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: Audio Literature
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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