It is not often that the listener is asked to multitask, but here we are invited to be audience, critic, and student all at once. With a voice that expresses academic passion and easy humor, Syracuse University creative writing professor George Saunders takes us on a deep dive into the literary craft, psychology, and historic background of seven superb nineteenth-century Russian short story classics by four authors: Chekhov, Tolstoy, Turgenev, and Gogol. There is so much to glean from Saunders's musings, but the real stars, of course, are the stories themselves, read by a host of absolute first-rate name talents. Extra kudos go to narrator Nick Offerman for accentuating the natural humor in Turgenev's "The Singers" and to Keith David for his finely honed ear for detail and pace in reading Tolstoy's towering "Master and Man."
Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
Duration: 14 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9780593394021
Publisher: Random House 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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