Pamela Garelick gives a powerful performance of this mesmerizing story. Lonely Sarah Piper, a young woman living and working in London just after WWI, is hired to assist an eccentric but kindly ghost hunter. Along with another hunter, who has secrets of his own and an attraction to Sarah, they embark on a mission to solve the riddle surrounding the ghost of a young girl who was driven to hang herself and who is haunting a barn in rural England. Garelick is masterful in giving each character the perfect nuances. Her accents for all the characters—whether aristocrat, local policeman, common laborer, elderly widow, or housekeeper—are flawless. This is an audio experience to savor.
Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2013
Duration: 10 hrs
Publisher: Blackstone 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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