Biting insects and intrepid parasites populate this memoir of a misunderstood illness and a family. Narrator Frankie Corzo's deft voice brings Daisy Hernandez's story full circle from childhood to adulthood and then to a poignant blend of both. Hernandez was 5 when her Aunt Dora moved from Colombia to New Jersey to seek care for a parasitic illness called Chagas, transmitted by the insect Triatominae. Corzo's capable narration of Hernandez's research on the disease helps the listener better understand risk factors, transmission rates, and symptoms as part of the larger problem of healthcare inequity in the U.S. Additionally, Corzo's blend of American and Latinx dialects perfectly conveys Hernandez's bittersweet realization at the book's end: She and her seemingly old-fashioned aunt were more alike than different.
Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2021
Duration: 7 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781665020701
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Kozol’s shocking exposé of inequities in the funding of our public schools contrasts white suburban schools with those serving black and Hispanic populations. Interviews with students, teachers, and school administrators add eloquent testimony to Kozol’s disturbing presentation of facts. Narration by Jack Winston is clear and brisk, but the pace is unrelenting, with little pause for transition between scenes or chapters. Winston’s cool, detached voice contrasts with Kozol’s impasssioned and outraged message. The sheer repetition and magnitude of Kozol’s damning evidence is numbing; the narration gives no relief. Powerful medicine, most easily taken in small doses. Music signalling tape changes is jarringly inappropriate.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 8 hrs
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
This highly informative history of prehistory tells a new story of how Homo sapiens settled down and started civilizing.
This is historian and popular podcaster Wyman’s second audiobook, after The Verge (2021), which spanned the years 1490-1530 during the European Renaissance. Here his focus is 10,000 years earlier, at the end of the Ice Age, and the spread of what could now be called humans. The story of how, all over the globe, they gave up the migratory life, settled, and started building is wonderfully, richly told in this outstanding history. Wyman doesn’t have the smoothest or most melodic of voices, but he easily wins over the ear and the imagination with his solid research and his adept storytelling.
This highly informative history of prehistory tells a new story of how Homo sapiens settled down and started civilizing.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
Duration: 14 hrs, 55 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063256514
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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