Rosalyn Landor’s hushed voice perfectly renders the lives of the women who inhabit the sixteenth-century Benedictine convent of Santa Caterina. This story has two heroines. Sixteen-year-old Serafina, newly confined, seeks to renew the romance her father quelled. Landor creates Serafina's sense of entrapment and her furtive quest to regain control of her life. The second, older, heroine, Suora Zuanna, the convent’s medicinal mistress, serves as contrast. Landor gives her a calmness born out of her gratitude that she can explore the many remedies her beloved father once taught her. As the women's relationship develops, Landor fosters an air of agitation and restlessness that undermines Suora Zuanna's serenity. The author's research on Renaissance customs and the plight of women during that time is not lost in this nuanced reading.
Pub Date: 2009
Duration: 14 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: Random House 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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