Narrator Bahni Turpin engages the listener with this complex dual biography of writers Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes. While both are known as luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance, this audiobook explores the lesser known aspects of their friendship and collaboration throughout the 1920s and ‘30s, which ended in a bitter split. Turpin keeps the pace of the work flowing even as she covers dense biographical background, as well as the development of African-American literary society of the time. Her pleasingly neutral tones for the narrative make the passages in which she voices the boisterous Hurston and the mercurial Hughes stand out in contrast. The listener will delight in discovering how these two exceptional people understood themselves and each other.
Pub Date: May 14, 2019
Duration: 8 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781684418923
Publisher: HighBridge 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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