Was John Wilkes Booth a mad thespian, crowning himself in the drama of assassination? Robertson's portrait shows a man convinced of the rightness of all his acts, reveling in his part in the world as a stage. For the young photographer, Suratt, he presented enchantment and disillusion. The aging Surratt, surrounded by diaries and trial transcripts, debates telling Booth's story and his own part in it for a D.W. Griffith movie (thus, symbolically encompassing both occupations). With his steady journalistic tones, Herrmann gives little depth to the youth or (with quavering tones) the old man. Instead, music furnishes some odd emotional emphasis. The result is a diminishing of Robertson's rather elegiac atmosphere.
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 1997
Duration: 5 hrs, 45 mins
Publisher: Random House 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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