Cassandra Campbell provides a gripping performance of a family of women who are separated by misadventure and misunderstanding. After her mother dies, Mabel Fischer flees the cruel abuse of her stepfather, running away with the help of her younger sister Bertie’s beau. Never receiving the explaining letters sent by Mabel, Bertie feels betrayed. Campbell narrates this epic story with grace and understanding. As Mabel’s and Bertie’s lives move in widely disparate directions, each woman beginning her own dynasty of women, Campbell’s characters alternate between warmth and bitterness, awareness and self-delusion. From the Depression era to the current century, Nancy Jensen’s compelling novel unfolds a tapestry woven across generations, intricate in its detail, illustrating the events that tear families apart yet bind them, inextricably, together.
Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2011
Duration: 12 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781455117130
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
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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