Adams's book examines Emily Brontë, Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Emily Dickinson, and Edith Wharton through their relationships with their dogs. You will meet charming characters such as Flush, the cocker spaniel who drew Browning out of her agoraphobic depression, and Carlo the Newfoundland, who brought security to Dickinson's terror-filled world. Polly Stone does a stellar job narrating these biographical portraits of the relationship between humans, animals, and literature. She has an engaging and serious tone as a narrator and believably voices each author in the first person when her published writing, personal letters, and memoirs are quoted. Adams, a writer and psychologist, demonstrates sympathy and astuteness toward the featured artists as she sheds new light on them.
Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2007
Duration: 9 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: Books on Tape
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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