Zarifa Adiba's joy and hopefulness shine through her story and in every word she speaks from her memoir. Zarifa has big dreams to play the viola, conduct an orchestra, go to Harvard, meet Michelle Obama. She also faces major obstacles as she grows up in a country that doesn't value girls and opposes any musical expression. Zarifa earns money for her family by teaching English in Kabul. Her English is perfect but with an Afghan accent and a slightly singsong intonation that infuses authenticity and charm. Zarifa navigates complicated family relationships, especially with her mother, that sadden and infuriate her and underlie all her achievements and challenges. Listeners will both root for her and fear for her.
Pub Date: April 16, 2024
Duration: 7 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781501208751
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
As an audiobook author, historian Matthew Restall is spirited, witty, highly informed, and full of insights and revelations. As a narrator, he's more subdued, even a bit flat. But no matter. Restall's steady, evenhanded narration reenforces the balance and objectivity of his history of the "nine lives of Christopher Columbus." Over five centuries, Columbus has been hailed and reviled, a discoverer and a destroyer, one century symbolized as Columbia and paired with Washington on statuary, the next denounced for perpetuating the Spanish devastation of the New World. Restall's restraint keeps the focus on the historical processes at work, and on his richly layered portrait of Columbus. History is fluid, it seems, and malleable--something this well-researched, well-told history demonstrates.
Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
Duration: 11 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9798318519789
Publisher: Tantor Media
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Mark Bramhall gives an excellent performance of this WWII story. Nina Willner weaves the lives of her father, Eddie Willner, and his Jewish family in Germany with the lives of several American GIs who saved his life at the end of the war. Her father and another companion were found by members of the 32nd Armored Regiment just before V-E Day. The two Germans assisted the GIs in the final weeks of the war. Willner describes the parallel tracks of all their lives and how Providence brought them all together. Bramhall provides a steady delivery and effective accents for the characters. Willner, who has a winsome voice, narrates like a pro as she splendidly recounts how she tracked down the GIs who rescued her father.
Pub Date: July 22, 2025
Duration: 9 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217076901
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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