Edoardo Ballerini’s remarkable performance keeps listeners completely engrossed in Seay’s sophisticated, original, elaborately plotted novel. In 2003, in Las Vegas, Curtis Stone searches for gambler Stanley Glass, who skipped out on a debt. Maybe. Flash back to Venice, California, 1958. Sixteen-year-old con artist Stanley searches for Adrian Welles, author of THE MIRROR THIEF, a collection of poetry about sixteenth-century alchemist Crivano. Flash back even further to Venice, Italy, 1592. Crivano is ordered to find the craftsmen who make the most flawless mirrors of the day. Ballerini adjusts tone and tempo, accents and rhythms smoothly. As the three stories intertwine, Ballerini dazzlingly produces flesh-and-blood characters and beautifully realizes the gorgeous writing, challenging ideas, unanswered questions, and illusory images. Leave lots of time to savor this one.
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2016
Duration: 22 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781501917592
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
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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