Emily Raboteau reads with purpose, a clear voice, and a conversational tone that works well for the personal essays in this satisfying audiobook. Her delivery style adjusts to the varied subjects: a sense of wonder at identifying birds, exasperation at dealing with New York City real estate, and empathy for a water-starved Palestinian family. She has a gift for languages; in particular, she delivers Spanish well and emulates Chaucerian English impressively. The subjects range from a eulogy to her father to mothering her two Black sons and to profiling a friend who is a prepper living in an RV. In one of the most effective chapters, she traverses New York, discovering art that comments on climate change. In another chapter, she photographs urban birds. The lessons in this text are hard earned and elegantly expressed.
Pub Date: March 12, 2024
Duration: 9 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781250890672
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
As an audiobook author, historian Matthew Restall is spirited, witty, highly informed, and full of insights and revelations. As a narrator, he's more subdued, even a bit flat. But no matter. Restall's steady, evenhanded narration reenforces the balance and objectivity of his history of the "nine lives of Christopher Columbus." Over five centuries, Columbus has been hailed and reviled, a discoverer and a destroyer, one century symbolized as Columbia and paired with Washington on statuary, the next denounced for perpetuating the Spanish devastation of the New World. Restall's restraint keeps the focus on the historical processes at work, and on his richly layered portrait of Columbus. History is fluid, it seems, and malleable--something this well-researched, well-told history demonstrates.
Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
Duration: 11 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9798318519789
Publisher: Tantor Media
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Mark Bramhall gives an excellent performance of this WWII story. Nina Willner weaves the lives of her father, Eddie Willner, and his Jewish family in Germany with the lives of several American GIs who saved his life at the end of the war. Her father and another companion were found by members of the 32nd Armored Regiment just before V-E Day. The two Germans assisted the GIs in the final weeks of the war. Willner describes the parallel tracks of all their lives and how Providence brought them all together. Bramhall provides a steady delivery and effective accents for the characters. Willner, who has a winsome voice, narrates like a pro as she splendidly recounts how she tracked down the GIs who rescued her father.
Pub Date: July 22, 2025
Duration: 9 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217076901
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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