Byron Wagner sounds mostly straightforward as he tells listeners of possible Viking visits along the Canadian and New England coasts. Author Martyn Whittock thoroughly presents the archaeological finds and Norse sagas that raise this possibility. At the same time, he observes how Vikings have landed in the American psyche--whether in the right-wing assertions of groups such as QAnon or in pop culture touchstones like Marvel's Thor. Wagner lightens up for an anecdote about a SpongeBob SquarePants history celebration. He hints of skepticism as he recounts the story of a runestone found on a Minnesota farm. And he speeds up amusingly to narrate lists of other possible Viking landing locations and businesses branded with Viking imagery. This audiobook is an entertaining look at legendary events and their impact.
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2024
Duration: 7 hrs
Publisher: Spotify Audiobooks
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
HISTORY | GENERAL HISTORY | MILITARY | WORLD | EXPEDITIONS
Buruma’s subtle and effective narration style is essential to this chronicle.
Bard College historian Buruma has a personal link to WWII-era Berliners, his Dutch father having been a forced laborer in wartime Berlin. Buruma’s account highlights instances of the survival and rescue of Jews and of the Berlin residents who came forward to assist them. But of most Berliners, he says, “Their main aim was to stay out of trouble.” Buruma’s performance as both historian and narrator is a model of restraint and reliance on fact. He shapes a powerful narrative around Germany’s defeat at Stalingrad and year-by-year shifts in civilian morale. As deprivation and disillusion with the Nazi regime set in, the struggle for survival extended to all Berliners.
Buruma’s subtle and effective narration style is essential to this chronicle.Pub Date: March 17, 2026
Duration: 12 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217282210
Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
A hint of hijinks in sleepy Königsberg sets ears ablaze.
The obscure uproar so vividly portrayed in this brief audiobook couldn’t be farther from today’s media commotions—or nearer. This “small vortex of turbulence” sounds like a stage farce: It’s set in backwater Königsberg, capital of East Prussia, in the 1830s, during the lull between the Napoleonic wars and the 1848 Revolution. Take a preposterous but compelling religious cult and two guileless but strikingly handsome Lutheran clergymen, add only a hint of fornication, and gossip does the rest. Vidish Athavale’s measured, finely nuanced narration gives edge and authority to a narrative without a wasted word or useless detail. And he clearly relishes the polysyllabic 19th-century German names.
A hint of hijinks in sleepy Königsberg sets ears ablaze.Pub Date: March 10, 2026
Duration: 4 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217282234
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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