Davina Porter is a standout here. If you know almost nothing about Montaigne, the great sixteenth-century French “father of the essay,” that’s only one reason to listen to this superb match of narrator, biographer, and subject. Author Sarah Bakewell focuses on the question she considers central to Montaigne’s writing: How to live? Her “one question and twenty attempts at an answer” is a focused, lively, highly engaging reconstruction of Montaigne’s life and times, which Davina Porter delivers with wonderful flair and sensitivity. Anyone who has read Montaigne, or Bakewell’s highly praised book—which for many of today’s readers has “reinvented” Montaigne—will love this rendering, in which narrator Porter reinvents him once again.
Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2011
Duration: 13 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781455815500
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
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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