Comedian Tom Papa sounds like his low-key, charming self doing stand-up. This audiobook is smoother than his live performances, but it's not too polished, and his vocal quality and understated emotionality are perfect for his brand of homespun humor. He complains about his own mistakes--overeating, erratic decision-making, letting others control him--and supplies a hilarious list of human foibles, injustices, and insults that almost everyone suffers. All of this is to illustrate the point of his message: In spite of these realities, we're going to be okay; in fact, we are okay--even with our missteps, foolish choices, and self-delusion. Papa's delivery is perfect because it suggests the kind of lovable NYC everyman who would care enough to have these kinds of thoughts and share them with the rest of us.
Pub Date: May 12, 2020
Duration: 6 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781250752598
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Narrator Lisa Flanagan has a wonderful vocal personality--lithe with a broad palette of pitch patterns and a range of believable emotional tones. Her friendly voice works well with this lighthearted overview of how dramatically the Internet has changed the world in the past 30 years. Though being digitally connected has improved life in many ways, the author says we've lost many of the interpersonal experiences that used to sustain us. We have less privacy, don't need all those reference books, and have largely forgotten how to have vocal conversations with other people. The audiobook is entertaining nostalgia for anyone who feels incompetent navigating the World Wide Web, and a soothing reminder that those of us who miss the simplicity of the pre-Internet era are not alone.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
Duration: 5 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780593418055
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Craig Brown tickled our ear with 99 GLIMPSES OF PRINCESS MARGARET, a brisk, irreverent assembly of tiny chapters that ran a satisfactory 12+ hours. For the Beatles, he adds 51 more glimpses and another eight hours, with a proportionally diluted effect. Brown himself, Kate Robbins, and Mark McGann share the narration, which is interesting, insightful, well performed, and packed with some new and a lot of old information. All of it is shaped by Brown's propensity for "easing sense into nonsense." The self-mocking Beatles are harder to deflate than a pretentious princess, but Brown's accounts of touring Beatles sites in Liverpool and his histories of Beatles contemporaries swept up--and aside--by their spectacular rise will amaze and beguile listeners.
Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
Duration: 20 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781250770127
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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