A delightful and thorough history.
With a broadcaster’s energy and exuding a sense of curiosity and wonder, author Bennett reads his copiously researched and compelling history of Black comic entertainment. Bennett deftly connects pre-Civil War minstrel shows with the classic days of vaudeville through the high times of 1960s-70s stand-up (Bill Cosby, Flip Wilson, Richard Pryor) to the Black sitcom smash hits of the 1990s (In Living Color, Living Single). From 19th-century performers to Moms Mabley and Redd Foxx, Black comics straddled a segregated world where they were essentially required to perform entirely different material for white and Black audiences. Listeners can hear the pride in Bennett’s voice as he relates how Black comics became some of the most successful, most beloved entertainers in the world.
A delightful and thorough history.Pub Date: March 24, 2026
Duration: 9 hrs, 56 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063418202
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2026
Narrator Lisa Flanagan has a wonderful vocal personality--lithe with a broad palette of pitch patterns and a range of believable emotional tones. Her friendly voice works well with this lighthearted overview of how dramatically the Internet has changed the world in the past 30 years. Though being digitally connected has improved life in many ways, the author says we've lost many of the interpersonal experiences that used to sustain us. We have less privacy, don't need all those reference books, and have largely forgotten how to have vocal conversations with other people. The audiobook is entertaining nostalgia for anyone who feels incompetent navigating the World Wide Web, and a soothing reminder that those of us who miss the simplicity of the pre-Internet era are not alone.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
Duration: 5 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780593418055
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Craig Brown tickled our ear with 99 GLIMPSES OF PRINCESS MARGARET, a brisk, irreverent assembly of tiny chapters that ran a satisfactory 12+ hours. For the Beatles, he adds 51 more glimpses and another eight hours, with a proportionally diluted effect. Brown himself, Kate Robbins, and Mark McGann share the narration, which is interesting, insightful, well performed, and packed with some new and a lot of old information. All of it is shaped by Brown's propensity for "easing sense into nonsense." The self-mocking Beatles are harder to deflate than a pretentious princess, but Brown's accounts of touring Beatles sites in Liverpool and his histories of Beatles contemporaries swept up--and aside--by their spectacular rise will amaze and beguile listeners.
Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
Duration: 20 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781250770127
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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