Kristen Sieh gives an absorbing, well-paced performance of a woman who is navigating the mysteries of love, loss, and space-time. When NASA "human computer" Annie Fisk discovers a wormhole anomaly capable of transporting items back and forth in time, she's forced to examine her New Mexico childhood anew, alongside her work with the Manned Spacecraft Center. Sieh nimbly guides listeners through narrative shifts between Annie's youth in post-WWII America, voiced at an engaged remove, and her college years and career with NASA during the 1960s. Both parts are performed with a nuanced first-person perspective. Sieh beautifully conveys the emotional tenor of Annie's foundational relationships with her gentle father, a physicist; her irrepressible Texas-raised college girlfriend, Evelyn; and her charming NASA colleague, Norm. A rewarding listen, hopeful and bittersweet.
Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2023
Duration: 9 hrs
DD ISBN: 9780593787564
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Ayla, one of the "others," is adopted by a clan of Neanderthal cave people. She struggles to conform to their ways, but her advanced human traits overwhelm and threaten their primitive culture in this initial installment of an immensely popular series. Although the story might benefit from abridgment, Rowena Cooper easily carries out the formidable task of enlivening the mostly silent and stereotypical characters with consistent, diverse personalities and human dimension. Through skillful phrasing and inflection, she maintains the reader's interest and suspense, especially with Ayla and her plight, throughout this rambling and imaginative story.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 22 hrs
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America/ Chivers
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
This lyrical, sensual novel of woman's lot in Manchu, China, is as well researched as it is well written. Authentic in tone, it's nonetheless written for Westerners by a Western expert on China. Moreover, Susan Clark performs the demanding text superbly, with only occasional signs of fatigue. For the most part she not only sustains the quaint diction and Asian atmosphere, but also, creates whole worlds with her voice. She acts the book, rather than reads it, and, in so doing, turns a pretty trifle into a stupendous beauty.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 4 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: Audio Literature
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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