A slow jazz interlude sets the tone for Robin Miles’s performance of this long-awaited new novel for adults by children’s author Jacqueline Woodson. As August’s father dies, she takes time away from studying funeral traditions around the world to come home. Returning brings myriad memories of “growing up ‘Girl’ in Brooklyn” in the 1970s—a time when the borough seemed idyllic to her and her three girlfriends but, in looking back, she now realizes was full of threats to the innocent. Miles’s rich voice embraces dialects, accents, and moods as August’s thoughts float back and forth in time, remembering childhood and adolescent experiences. Miles illuminates the novel’s themes, celebrating Woodson’s lines as if they were fine jazz improvisations.
Pub Date: 2016
Duration: 2 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9780062472663
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
An astonishingly unique historical novel, which begins in Trinidad in the 1940s, this is an example of the best that an audiobook can offer. The two narrators, Ron Butler and Bahni Turpin, are superb choices who move the listener smoothly between the two main characters. Farook and Marcia Garcia are star-crossed lovers who don’t have fate on their side. Turpin evokes the rhythms of English as spoken in Trinidad, lyrical, and rhythmic. Through her confident narrative style, Marica Garcia comes across as a strong, beleaguered young woman. Her trials evoke empathy in the listener. Butler establishes the contorted choices that face Farook as an Indian man who is prevented by racism from marrying his true love. This sprawling tale spans Trinidad and the United States, from the 1940s-1960s.
Pub Date: 2015
Duration: 13 hrs
Publisher: Tantor Media
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Sometimes a book pulls you in and holds on tight--this is definitely one of those. Narrator Erin Bennett is warm, engaging, and enthusiastic as Mallory Blessing and a host of wide-ranging, multidimensional characters. As the story begins, Mallory is dying and her son, Link, is given instructions to call a strange number belonging to Jake McCloud. Listeners are soon taken on a journey back in time as their 28-year love story unfolds. Bennett's narration perfectly matches each stage of Mallory's life--and her unconventional "same time next year" relationship with Jake--as she finds her place on Nantucket. Best of all, each chapter opens with a list of "things we were talking about" during each of the 28 years, making the novel's journey back in time even more memorable for listeners.
Pub Date: 2020
Duration: 15 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781549117367
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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