Author Jonathan Lethem pairs with Mark Deakins, whom Lethem calls his favorite narrator, in an excellent rendition of this sprawling, sometimes plodding, oftentimes sublime collection of essays, introductions, and reviews. A collection of “occasional pieces” is by nature a ragtag form. This one has a central theme—cultural influences—and the range and disparity of subjects are in this case a virtue. Lethem’s and Deakins’s voices are highly compatible, and you might not notice the difference except that Deakins’s is more polished and steady, Lethem’s more natural and more true to the text. There are excellent pieces on James Brown, Bob Dylan, and Lethem’s central theme of plagiarism and “sampling,” in which he shows once again the novelist’s ability to open and shape our outlook.
Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2011
Duration: 16 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780307940865
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Narrator Lisa Flanagan has a wonderful vocal personality--lithe with a broad palette of pitch patterns and a range of believable emotional tones. Her friendly voice works well with this lighthearted overview of how dramatically the Internet has changed the world in the past 30 years. Though being digitally connected has improved life in many ways, the author says we've lost many of the interpersonal experiences that used to sustain us. We have less privacy, don't need all those reference books, and have largely forgotten how to have vocal conversations with other people. The audiobook is entertaining nostalgia for anyone who feels incompetent navigating the World Wide Web, and a soothing reminder that those of us who miss the simplicity of the pre-Internet era are not alone.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
Duration: 5 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780593418055
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Craig Brown tickled our ear with 99 GLIMPSES OF PRINCESS MARGARET, a brisk, irreverent assembly of tiny chapters that ran a satisfactory 12+ hours. For the Beatles, he adds 51 more glimpses and another eight hours, with a proportionally diluted effect. Brown himself, Kate Robbins, and Mark McGann share the narration, which is interesting, insightful, well performed, and packed with some new and a lot of old information. All of it is shaped by Brown's propensity for "easing sense into nonsense." The self-mocking Beatles are harder to deflate than a pretentious princess, but Brown's accounts of touring Beatles sites in Liverpool and his histories of Beatles contemporaries swept up--and aside--by their spectacular rise will amaze and beguile listeners.
Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
Duration: 20 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781250770127
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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