Elaine Castillo is that rare author who writes a stimulating series of essays and is also a fine narrator. She uses pauses adeptly, restrains irony, and has a naturally empathetic tone. Plus, she has a gift for languages: Her French is spot-on; her German, Germanic . . . Her essays have a distinctively political valence. White supremacy in publishing, literature, and life is skewered. Sacred cows like Joan Didion and Jane Austen are milked. But there are real appreciations of the late English author John Berger and Native American poet Tommy Pico. The title is more didactic than the audiobook; the book itself is more of an invitation to examine how we read--what predispositions we bring--than a how-to manual. This audiobook is provocative and fun.
Pub Date: July 26, 2022
Duration: 9 hrs
DD ISBN: 9780593590546
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Inspiring collections of Angelou reading her poetry. These selections showcase Angelou's smooth, lyrical voice and her warm vitality. Her innate rhythm celebrates her verse and offers the poems to listeners as they should be remembered. Occasionally Angelou comments between the selections, and occasionally she interjects a resonant laugh.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: N/A
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Hakimi does his best to keep this encyclopedic history of film moving.
Aden Hakimi possesses a classic narrator’s voice, polished and mellow, adaptable to a wide range of subjects. His accomplished performance and steady pacing anchor a narrative that is more a roll call than a history. In this vast assembly of movie titles and synopses, Hakimi’s skilled voice is the unifying element. The author is expansive, perceptive, and highly versed, and listeners may well find that his taste in films is matchless. But while his narrative proceeds more or less chronologically, it doesn’t supply its narrator with a discernable theme or thread—or anything distinctly revisionist, for that matter.
Hakimi does his best to keep this encyclopedic history of film moving.Pub Date: July 7, 2026
Duration: 11 hrs, 57 mins
DD ISBN: 9781668141717
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2026
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