This audio biography doesn't shimmer as brightly as its subject, the wildly talented and stereotype-defying Chinese American actor Anna May Wong. The author narrates the preface slowly in a wooden tone. Caroline McLaughlin narrates the rest in a scratchy voice that evokes the tinny, high-pitched quality of audio recordings made during Wong's career apex in the early twentieth century. While the author deftly illustrates the inherent racism in Hollywood studio culture, she only scratches the surface of Wong's personal life. This results in an audiobook that sounds like a catalog of Wong's movies, their casts, and their plots. McLaughlin struggles to enliven the author's heavy reliance on quotations from film reviews to describe how audiences responded to Wong's many enigmatic performances.
Pub Date: March 12, 2024
Duration: 12 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780593827482
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
James Michener tells the real stories behind the man and his books. The recording is read with skill and consistency although the reader does little to enhance the robust, larger-than-life incidents related in the book. Due to the first-person narrative format, there is no opportunity for the narrator to change his voice. This makes some chapters monotonous as they go on and on in the typical Michener style. The listener may also become confused because the stories are not told chronologically. This is not a great choice for the audio format, but Michener fans may stick with it to the end.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 22 hrs
Publisher: Books on Tape
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
In a quest for a sense of inner contentment and self-worth, Gloria Steinem brings the reader on a journey of investigation and discovery. Steinem reads the text herself in a straightforward and friendly, but not intimate, presentation which is so easy to listen to it invites repetition--thus ensuring the painless relearning of the lessons of the book. It's difficult to tell from the reading that this audiobook is abridged; each section can stand alone. Nonetheless, the listener wished the book were unabridged. Steinem left me wanting to learn more.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 3 hrs
Publisher: Dove Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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