With insight and compassion, a team of narrators performs this collection of more than 100 unpublished letters by and about American literary icon Flannery O'Connor and her contemporaries. Novelists Walker Percy and Caroline Gordon (NONE SHALL LOOK BACK) and editor Robert Giroux, among others, fill out the portrait of the sometimes cantankerous O'Connor in knowing and empathetic tones. Narrators John Mayer, Arthur Morey, Dorothy Dillingham Blue, and Kimberly Farr represent the full cast of intellectuals and scholars of O'Connor's age, the 1950s and '60s, who helpfully supported and gently guided the writing and rewriting of this singular talent. The letters explore themes such as creativity, faith, suffering, and writing during a time of social struggle in America. O'Connor's takes on racial equality and religious freedom still ring true today.
Pub Date: 2019
Duration: 14 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781984883681
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Claudette Monica Powell wanted to be a nun since she watched the movie A NUN'S STORY at age 7. Now she is Sister Monica Clare, Sister Superior of the Community of Saint John Baptist, an Episcopal order of women in rural New Jersey. A former acting student at New York University, Sister Monica Clare delivers an approachable, folksy account of her long and often painful path to the convent. Her chaotic and abusive childhood led to a loveless marriage, intensifying her already towering insecurity. Now she has a TikTok, @nunsenseforthepeople, with 200,000 followers. An energetic and engaging storyteller, Sister Monica Clare relays tidbits from her Hollywood days, as well as details of monastic life in this warm and engrossing memoir.
Pub Date: 2025
Duration: 8 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217064878
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Colm Tóibín's consummate narration of his new collection of essays charms and educates in equal measure. The 11 pieces, written between 1995 and 2022, explore topics ranging from Catholic popes and the author Marilyn Robinson to Tóibín's homosexuality, treatment for testicular cancer, and childhood in Ireland. An award-winning journalist, novelist, and poet, Tóibín is analytical, elegiac, and often very funny, with a great eye for the telling detail. His soft, slightly nasal tenor and gentle Irish intonation are interestingly mellifluous; "power" becomes "paar" and "carefully" is "kerfully." He narrates deliberately, giving listeners time to absorb the writing. Occasionally, he lingers over words and phrases for maximum effect. It's a poet's approach, which works. The result is entrancing.
Pub Date: 2023
Duration: 9 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781797153230
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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