BEST VOICES OF 2009- FICTION & CLASSICS

Rosalyn Landor — Count on Rosalyn Landor’s voice, pacing, expressiveness, and intelligence to enhance whatever story she’s narrating. In TWENTIES GIRL, she successfully differentiates between the two 20-something women protagonists--one from the 1920s and the other modern-day.

Listen to our conversation with Rosalyn Landor:

BEST VOICES OF 2009 - CHILDREN & FAMILY LISTENING

Jim Dale — One of the most impressive aspects of Jim Dale’s narration of RETURN TO THE HUNDRED ACRE WOOD, a new story in A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh series written by David Benedictus, is that he creates voices for a whole cast of characters, and none of them evoke any of the voices that he created for the Harry Potter series of audiobooks. That’s the mark of a true master of narration, that even such a well-known and well-loved voice can create something new. In addition to creating character voices for Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Kanga, Roo, Eeyore, Christopher Robin, and more, Jim Dale sings all of Pooh’s “hums,” rhyming songs he makes up. Dale also shared a tidbit with AUDIOFILE about choosing voices and last-minute recording decisions: “Within thirty seconds of starting, I decided to swap the voice of Piglet for that of Pooh and vice versa. Thank goodness I did, or I know I would have spent the rest of my life kicking myself! What I have heard of the audiobook, I know I was right!” The result is an audiobook that’s charming and accessible to Pooh fans from any generation. Fans of Jim Dale can also find him reading Nancy Tillman’s THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS and the latest in Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson’s Peter Pan series, PETER AND THE SWORD OF MERCY.

Listen to our conversation with Jim Dale:

BEST VOICES OF 2009 - MYSTERY & SUSPENSE

Phil Gigante — Narrator Phil Gigante’s skill and versatility are easily apparent in two very different Earphones Award-winning mysteries: He’s utterly believable as Texas sleuths (SAVAGE SEASON) and international spies (THE DEFECTOR): “Gigante handles a smorgasbord of accents and intricate narrative with the same level of professionalism as the spies who are willing to kill and to die for their countries.”

Listen to our conversation with Phil Gigante:

BEST VOICES OF 2009 - NONFICTION & CULTURE

Simon Prebble — Money was on everyone’s minds in 2009, and Simon Prebble made Niall Ferguson’s “financial history of the world” accessible. Our review raves, “Prebble moves along this metaphysical history of dinero with command, authority, and a BBC accent. His tone and timing add an element of class to the project. It’s sort of like sitting in on a really fab Oxford lecture.”

Listen to our conversation with Simon Prebble:

BEST VOICES OF 2009 - BIOGRAPHY & HISTORY

Armando Durán — In Jon Lee Anderson’s biography of Che Guevara, ”gifted bilingual narrator Armando Durán speaks both American English and the book’s abundant Latin-American Spanish without a trace of accent from the other. His fluency with both languages synchronizes the messenger with the message. He enunciates every word with precision and chooses a pace that will keep listeners’ attention for all 36-plus hours. Together, in language rich with personal and political details, both author and narrator produce a riveting biography of a career revolutionary.” We’ve also noted Duran’s ease with accents in his narrations of Oscar Hijuelos’s YA novel DARK DUDE, Tim Maleeny’s mystery GREASING THE PIÑATA, and Stefan Kanfer’s biography of Marlon Brando, SOMEBODY, and we can’t wait to hear more from him.

Listen to our conversation with Armando Durán:

BEST VOICES OF 2009 - AUTHOR-READERS

Malcolm Gladwell — In an interview with AUDIOFILE, author Malcolm Gladwell told us, “I do think audiobook listeners are having a different experience than readers of the text. In a certain sense they’re experiencing the book in a way much closer to the way I would like them to read it. When you read print, you can miss a lot of things that the author intends because you read it in your own idiosyncratic way. But I can really dictate the terms of the experience a lot more when I’m reading my book myself.” He bears out that authorial intention in narrations of his nonfiction works OUTLIERS and WHAT THE DOG SAW: “Gladwell reminds us that authors can effectively read their own books by turning in a well-crafted, subtle performance. His slightly husky upper-register voice is calm and assured, and he knows exactly where to pause, provide emphasis, and how to deliver a punch line.”

Michael J. Fox — Seven years after his first memoir, LUCKY MAN, Michael J. Fox returns to recount, in a familiar but somewhat changed voice, “the major shifts in his life, which include leaving his acting career, creating the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, advocating for PD research, and coping with the disease itself, which has been tyrannical of recent years. However, PD is also a source of Fox’s optimism—which the listener can clearly hear in his poignant and impassioned delivery.” Thanks to Fox’s reading, ALWAYS LOOKING UP is a unique, and uniquely personal, audio experience.

Tim Green — Author Tim Green is a triple threat and then some: former professional football player, lawyer, bestselling writer of books for adults and children, and narrator of his own audiobooks. Green’s 15-year-old son, Troy, and 11-year-old daughter, Tate, voice central characters in a full-cast production of his novel for children, FOOTBALL GENIUS, and Green himself narrates deftly among the almost two dozen other cast members. He goes solo with the audiobook of BASEBALL GREAT, to great effect: “As narrator, Tim Green breathes life and depth into the characters of this story, leaving an indelible impression.”

Maya Angelou
Letter to my Daughter

Amy Dickinson
The Mighty Queens of Freeville

Michael J. Fox
Always Looking Up

Jeffrey Gitomer
The Little Black Book of Connections

Malcolm Gladwell
Outliers
What the Dog Saw

Daniel Goleman
Ecological Intelligence

Tim Green
Baseball Great
Football Genius

Norman Ollestad
Crazy for the Storm

David Sedaris
Live for Your Listening Pleasure

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BEST VOICES OF 2009 - YOUNG ADULT

Carolyn McCormick — Having previously narrated murder mysteries from Tess Gerritsen, James Patterson, and Chelsea Cain, Carolyn McCormick made a triumphant entrance into young adult audiobooks with Suzanne Collins’s THE HUNGER GAMES, “a riveting dystopia story of a fascist United States, where rebellious districts are punished by the government with the annual Reaping.” This year’s sequel, CATCHING FIRE, picks up shortly after where THE HUNGER GAMES left off. Our review raves, “McCormick delivers the first-person narrative of Katniss, the heroine whose brilliant strategy turned her and her partner, Peeta, into victors. McCormick’s phrasing is clipped, almost staccato, a style that embodies Katniss’s secretive, wary attitudes. At the climax McCormick narrates at a breakneck pace as Katniss and Peeta compete against all previous winners of the combat tournament. Listeners will be eager for the next installment.” We’re equally eager to hear more from Carolyn McCormick.

Listen to our conversation with Carolyn McCormick:

BEST VOICES OF 2009 - SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

Mark Bramhall — His facility with accents and his thoughtful, understated narrations distinguish Mark Bramhall’s audiobook performances. In Lev Grossman’s THE MAGICIANS, “Bramhall sets up the delicate lines between reality and fantasy in the story of Quentin, a teenager from Brooklyn who is surprised to find himself at Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy. Sound a lot like Harry Potter? Bramhall delivers the author's irony and allusions as he portrays a maturing, fully-dimensional protagonist.” And in Arthur C. Clarke’s THE LAST THEOREM, “Bramhall’s outstanding performance is the perfect complement for the novel.”

Listen to our conversation with Mark Bramhall: