Narrator Philip Stevens captures everything so familiar in Dickens's style--its energy, its drollery, its period flavor. However, author Robert Douglas-Fairhurst's narrative is an insightful biographical and social analysis focused on the single year 1851, the year Dickens began writing his pivotal novel BLEAK HOUSE, the year of London's Crystal Palace and Great Exhibition. Stevens's passages from that novel are superb, and one longs to hear him perform it in its entirety. Dickens himself turns out to be a fascinating, complex, but not entirely likable personality, who indulges in some perfectly awful behavior. Stevens enlivens but redefines Douglas-Fairhurst's tone and intent, making it several degrees lighter, and less incisive.
Pub Date: March 1, 2022
Duration: 11 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9780593551103
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Manchester’s incisive writing and Parker’s friendly narration make this a compelling package on the life of 20th century icon General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964). No student of modern times can ignore this vain, mercurial soldier whose battlefield brilliance conserved the lives of his soldiers even as they cut their opponents to ribbons. Listening to Parker, one imagines a jovial uncle delivering a slap on the back and sitting down to describe war experiences in a rich voice filled with humor and pathos. He pronounces Japanese names, New Guinea cities and American slang with effortless ease. The “you-are-there” quality grabs and holds. This is a carefully done, seamless audio presentation.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 16 hrs
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
An unwilling and divided nation gradually comes together to face fascism at home and abroad.
Narrator Gary Tiedemann brings impact and immediacy to this panoramic history of the rapid rise of fascism in the 1930s and the United States' slow awakening to its dangers. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, facing the Depression and the country’s prevailing isolationism, is depicted as expedient and reluctant to act. America, too, had its own share of racists and ideologues. With calculated restraint, Tiedemann tracks a history of international aggression and American violence that is still shocking today. Hitchcock’s powerful narrative highlights a small number of journalists and diplomats who sounded early warnings and, like Roosevelt eventually did, rose to meet the challenges that fascism posed.
An unwilling and divided nation gradually comes together to face fascism at home and abroad.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
Duration: 29 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9781797199153
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: today
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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