Poets Hala Alyan, Joy Sullivan, and Kate Baer perform this collection of poet Mary Oliver's essays. The narrators deliver different sections of the audiobook, adding short personal descriptions about why they love Oliver's work. The essays in this collection illustrate the author's eye for prose; Oliver's background as a poet ensures that not a word is out of place. Sullivan and Baer narrate the middle sections of the book, which focus on Oliver's reverence for other poets such as Shelley, Whitman, and Poe. But Alyan's performance of the first and last sections of the audiobook is the standout. She captures Oliver's intense love for the natural world and the ways that her obsession with nature fills her work.
Pub Date: April 18, 2023
Duration: 4 hrs
DD ISBN: 9798985080285
Publisher: Pushkin Industries
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
The author describes her efforts to implement a meaningful sustainability initiative for Wales and the world at large. An educator and minister of the environment, sustainability, and housing in her tiny country, she's a wonderful narrator who sounds at once relaxed and passionate, likable and dignified. Her voice is a perfect vehicle for amplifying her humanitarian intentions as well as the breadth of her methodical thinking. But what makes this audio so inspiring are the personal asides she shares throughout concerning her willingness to be vulnerable and her calm resolve to do something for the world's future generations. Davidson's descriptions of the laborious process of cultural transformation would have been dry listening without her pleasing UK speaking voice.
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2020
Duration: 6 hrs, 45 mins
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
When Captain Salvador Alvarenga and his young assistant, Ezequiel Cordova, set out from Costa Azul, Mexico, on a fishing expedition, the experienced captain could not possibly have expected the type of journey that lay ahead. Narrator George Newbern does an excellent job delivering the story of Alvarenga's struggle to survive at sea in an open boat for 438 days before finally coming ashore on a remote island many miles away in the South Pacific. Newbern’s consistent pace and varied tone keep the compelling story going, communicating the harrowing aspects of the journey as well as Alvarenga's inspirational will to survive his extended ordeal at sea.
Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2015
Duration: 7 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781442396029
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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