Shortly after the three disasters of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown in March 2011, Gretel Ehrlich visited the Tohoku coast in Japan to survey the damage and interview survivors. Sumalee Montano's narration is heartbreaking, understated, and even poetic. It perfectly captures Ehrlich's grave but surprisingly optimistic storytelling. Montano rolls through the many Japanese names of people and places with authenticity. She renders the dignity and tragedy of victims, including an 84-year-old geisha carried to higher ground on the back of a younger man, those who rescued abandoned pets from radioactive towns, fishermen unable to accept government instruction to move away from the coast to grow vegetables, and the Fukushima 50, who remained to decommission the stricken power plant. Ehrlich is most impressed by the Japanese acceptance of impermanence and communal responsibility.
Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2013
Duration: 6 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9780804193702
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
While Tapper is a hortatory narrator of his own work, his audiobook deserves to be heard.
Tapper’s hopeful tone separates this audiobook from gloomier environmental writing. According to Tapper, forests can be managed, species can be saved, and we can embrace the wonders that remain. While recognizing the loss of species and habitats and threats to the environment due to climate change and other factors, he points out how resilient trees and animals are. And he knows what he’s talking about. A longtime professional forester, Tapper is also a dedicated birder who restored 175 desolate acres in Vermont. He dubbed it Bear Island, and it’s now a thriving forest with an emerging orchard.
While Tapper is a hortatory narrator of his own work, his audiobook deserves to be heard.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2026
Duration: 8 hrs, 22 mins
DD ISBN: 9781668660348
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2026
This gentle work celebrates the butterflies of Denmark and the beauty that is the natural world.
Like the subjects themselves, this catalog of Danish butterflies is a delicate and vocally colorful experience. Listeners expecting a kind of field guide to butterflies need to be prepared for much more. The author writes about the 64 species native to her home country of Denmark and her quest to see them all in one year, but the real focus is almost a love song to the beauty and wonder of the natural world. Ela Lee’s narration exactly suits the material. She keeps her voice soft but not somnolent. Her pace and tone allow the author’s words and emotions to sink in. A welcome addition to this audiobook would have been a PDF of the 64 hand-drawn illustrations of the butterflies themselves.
This gentle work celebrates the butterflies of Denmark and the beauty that is the natural world.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
Duration: 8 hrs, 41 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217406722
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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