Actor Richard Attlee has the rare ability among audiobook narrators of extracting full value from each word and syllable while seeming to do nothing at all. What in a lesser narrative might have seemed affected here achieves a singular ease and naturalism. Art historian Pears's richly detailed, expertly written "Love Story from a Lost Continent" comes from firsthand acquaintance with the Russian woman Larissa Salmina and British man Francis Haskell who, after vastly different pasts, met and fell in love in Venice in 1962. Their immediate affinity, set at the very height of the Cold War, represents a common European culture based on reading and the arts that defied borders and ideologies--a Europe now irredeemably lost.
Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2025
Duration: 7 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9798897560363
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Carol Matthau epitomizes a glamour and lifestyle not associated with the 1990's. Here is a life of privilege, tragedy and worry about what friends would think of her new frock or lover. Matthau possesses a voice and delivery that simply could not be improved on. In her coy whisper, she tells compelling stories involving everyone from William Saroyan (husband #1) and Truman Capote to Carson McCullers, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Walter Matthau (husband #2). This excellent audio presentation will leave you wanting to read the entire book to discover what juicy tidbits were left out.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 3 hrs
Publisher: The Publishing Mills
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Quite interesting, if ancient history is one’s interest.
Born in Wales, Llewellyn-Jones is professor of ancient history at Cardiff University, and his narration is both heavily accented and professorial. His history of one of the world's first great metropolises is based on hard archeological evidence and is in equal parts a debunking and a rehabilitation. Much of Babylon still remains, in fact. While all those layers of grit are still being sifted and those thousands of mostly mundane cuneiform tablets translated, what Llewellyn-Jones focuses on here is primarily a line of kings and some epics. His research is thorough, scrupulous, and detailed. A particular high point is his retelling of the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Quite interesting, if ancient history is one’s interest.Pub Date: July 7, 2026
Duration: 19 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9798318569005
Publisher: Tantor Media
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2026
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