With understated naturalism, Rob Shapiro introduces listeners to Sid Caesar, the first comic superstar of television. From 1949 to 1957, as many as 60 million viewers tuned in weekly to Caesar's inspired improvisational sketch comedy juggernauts, "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour." Caesar's writers' room of protégés such as Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, and Neil Simon went on to influence the entertainment world for close to 70 years. Shapiro's delivery reflects the author's emphatic, almost argumentative, opinion that even with his volatile temper, self-doubt, addictions, and professional burnout, Caesar should be fondly remembered. Who's forgetting? The rags-to-riches story of a Jewish boy from Yonkers practically inventing television comedy is the stuff of legend.
Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2025
Duration: 13 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217165575
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Throughout this solid performance, listeners will hear both pain and steadfastness.
This is a different take on the celebrity memoir. Lundgren, the Swede best known as Russian fighting behemoth Drago in Rocky IV, offers a straightforward, unadorned, and candid text with a workmanlike narration that suits his firsthand reflections. The perspectives of male members of his entourage, such as his managers and trainers, are voiced with great skill and variety by Rick Adamson, while personal reflections from women are voiced by the equally skilled Nan McNamara. Lundgren has suffered multiple bouts of cancer, and his memoir goes beyond karate belts and film performances to focus on his health battles. Now an American citizen, Lundgren shares his love for his adopted country.
Throughout this solid performance, listeners will hear both pain and steadfastness.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
Duration: 5 hrs, 43 mins
DD ISBN: 9781400255214
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: Sept. 22, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2026
In a book that often holds listeners at arm’s length, even as MacLachlan describes his own reticence, it’s a...
Audio is the ideal medium for experiencing MacLachlan’s smart, well-written memoir, which he narrates himself—and it’s the only format that’ll allow you to hear MacLachlan’s pitch-perfect impressions of figures like Anthony Hopkins, Ethan Hawke, and, of course, David Lynch, with whom MacLachlan maintained a close creative and personal relationship. A point midway through the audiobook, when MacLachlan describes the time he and Hopkins sat around trading Lynch impressions—and then impersonates Hopkins’ impersonation of Lynch—is a particular high point. As he recounts his well-known roles and occasional missteps, MacLachlan returns often to the idea that actors, especially, maintain multiple selves: There’s the private, interior self, but also the public self who finds his face splashed across billboards—and occasionally, the two find themselves untethered from each other.
In a book that often holds listeners at arm’s length, even as MacLachlan describes his own reticence, it’s a perfect motif.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
Duration: 10 hrs, 32 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217406883
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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