Will Patton delivers Denis Johnson’s elegant, earthy, excruciating reflections on the war in Vietnam. Patton is outstanding as he narrates the story of Skip Sands, a CIA spy for “history’s greatest nation” in Vietnam in the ’60s, just before the Tet Offensive. Johnson’s writing sings with truth, poetry, humor, and desperation; the story is as unsentimental and uplifting as it is horrific and painful. Patton’s performance is quiet, powerful, and gut-wrenching. He hurls listeners directly into a tangle of young men “on the cutting edge of reality itself, right where it turns into a dream,” and moments before dream becomes nightmare. This is must listening. Without being preachy, Johnson’s novel clarifies any lingering confusion about that period in our recent history, both at home and in Southeast Asia.
Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2007
Duration: 23 hrs
Publisher: Macmillan 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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