This audiobook asks what a Major League catcher, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, and a member of one of America's most famous families have in common? They all participated in espionage to help the U.S. develop the atomic bomb before the Nazis could. While this story is true, it's also a cracking thriller. Narrator Ben Sullivan does his best, using his deep voice and deliberate style, to entice listeners with the facts, and he alter his voice to denote characters. But while Sullivan delivers every word clearly and paces the book effectively, he fails to infuse enough excitement and emotion to carry the story forward. Better engagement would make the audiobook flow more smoothly rather than simply sounding like spoken words.
Pub Date: July 9, 2019
Duration: 14 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781549176050
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
GENERAL HISTORY | WORLD | MILITARY | HISTORY
This fact-packed account of the apprenticeship and career of a master restorer is an unexpected listening pleasure.
Author and narrator Warrack’s modest subtitle barely suggests his audiobook’s range of interest. Equal parts autobiography, travelogue, and cabinet of curiosities, his rich personal history of monument restoration is also a treasure-trove of offbeat facts. How does Venice, built on a salt marsh, supply its fresh water? What’s the best method for removing pigeon excreta from the outside of a cathedral? Warrack’s rich narrative and unpretentious style are fully engaging and immersive. By the end, the listener knows exactly how to clean and repair Rome’s Tivoli Fountain—and longs fervently to have worked there alongside Warrack.
This fact-packed account of the apprenticeship and career of a master restorer is an unexpected listening pleasure.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
Duration: 11 hrs, 42 mins
DD ISBN: 9798318583803
Publisher: Tantor Media
Review Posted Online: today
Utterly fascinating.
Narrator Soneela Nankani ushers listeners around the globe and through time in this sweeping survey of how humans use information to understand, interpret, and control. Author Risam begins her exploration 43,000 years ago and ends it with tantalizing peeks into possible futures. Ranging back and forth both geographically and temporally, she examines data collection and its use (or misuse) in the 23rd-century B.C.E. Akkadian Empire, Han-era China, 14th-century C.E. Mali, and elsewhere. Given this mammoth scope, the account could easily lose listeners along the way, but Nankani’s understated delivery is its perfect vessel. Voice rising and falling naturally, with emotion applied sparingly and skillfully, Nankani allows listeners full access to the argument Risam builds from the data she has so meticulously researched.
Utterly fascinating.Pub Date: July 14, 2026
Duration: 13 hrs, 59 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063430358
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: Sept. 8, 2026
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