Narrator Jasmine Blackborow captivatingly re-creates England during WWII, focusing on its hardworking women and a BBC-sponsored contest to use the limited ingredients of food rations to prepare tasty, healthy dishes. Listeners will experience life in tiny Finley, including occasional air raids, and meet evacuees from other places and four women who are determined to win the competition. Blackborow's delightfully diverse ladies include Audrey Langdon, a war widow with three children; her estranged upper-class sister, Lady Strickland; young, insecure housemaid and fabulous cook Nell Brown, and Zelda DuPont, a successful London chef who's billeted with Langdon. Most memorable is elderly cook Mrs. Quince, who dispenses wisdom and kindness. Lively accents, blooming romance, and people coping with difficulties make for a worthwhile and poignant listen.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2021
Duration: 13 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780593345399
Publisher: Random House 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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