Here is an offering from Books on Tape that one wishes some more ambitious publisher had issued. Not that it will bore or offend you. It deals with a fascinating subject--the corpses of the last Czar of Russia and his family. The Romanovs were presumed assassinated during the revolution, but the stories were vague, the bodies missing and pretenders always showing up...until very recently. The book details how their bodies were found and scientifically identified, just as the Soviet Union was collapsing and the new order (or lack of it) beginning. The listener aches for the visual evidence (continually being referred to) that one can find in a conventional book or in the TV documentaries that have appeared on the subject. As in many BOT nonfiction titles, the narrator, in this case Geoffrey Howard, reads like a robot, pushing for clarity but investing no personality whatsoever. Fortunately, he at least pronounces all the foreign names and technical terms correctly and even knows what they mean.
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 1998
Duration: 10 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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