Actress Leslie Uggams performs this audiobook about Sister Rosetta Tharpe's fifty-year career, which ended in 1973. When Sister Rosetta sang gospel music, she strutted across the stage, screaming and shouting and slamming her electric guitar. In short, she raised hell. Uggams is good, but her performance is weakened by a sometimes halting delivery, as if she were unfamiliar with the text. Even more distracting are the intrusive quotes by Shawn T. Andrew and Anthony Heilbut, sometimes only a few words long, dropped all through the work. The best part of the audiobook is the inclusion of actual performances by Tharpe, which express in song something hard to explain in words. Tharpe was an original, a rebel in a tough world who is regarded as a forerunner of rock and roll.
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2019
Duration: 11 hrs
Publisher: Beacon Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
James Michener tells the real stories behind the man and his books. The recording is read with skill and consistency although the reader does little to enhance the robust, larger-than-life incidents related in the book. Due to the first-person narrative format, there is no opportunity for the narrator to change his voice. This makes some chapters monotonous as they go on and on in the typical Michener style. The listener may also become confused because the stories are not told chronologically. This is not a great choice for the audio format, but Michener fans may stick with it to the end.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 22 hrs
Publisher: Books on Tape
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
In a quest for a sense of inner contentment and self-worth, Gloria Steinem brings the reader on a journey of investigation and discovery. Steinem reads the text herself in a straightforward and friendly, but not intimate, presentation which is so easy to listen to it invites repetition--thus ensuring the painless relearning of the lessons of the book. It's difficult to tell from the reading that this audiobook is abridged; each section can stand alone. Nonetheless, the listener wished the book were unabridged. Steinem left me wanting to learn more.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 3 hrs
Publisher: Dove Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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