The author's journalistic style and poetic eye for description combine with narrator Tom Parks's conversational tone to make this story about Virginia island life easy to listen to. Tangier Island, 12 miles off the Virginia coast, is home to a few hundred hardy souls who have one foot in the past--an economy based on commercial crabbing--and one in the present--a changing... Read More

In this razor-sharp indictment of the government, doctors, and Big Pharma, Beth Macy, author and narrator of this audiobook, exposes their attempts to control what is now an epidemic of opioid addiction among people of all walks of life in our nation. Doctors who do not understand the depth of the problem are overprescribing pain medications for small injuries and creating drug... Read More

Meet the NEW Portia Hobbs! The American screwup is trading in her partying and drinking for a sword-making apprenticeship at a Scottish armory. Narrator Karen Chilton warmly exudes Portia's newfound confidence and occasional bouts of uncertainty as she tangles with Tavish Mckenzie--the armory's grumpy master swordsmith. Chilton's Scottish accent has a soft lilt but not enough... Read More

Narrators Marisol Ramirez and Almarie Guerra team up to deliver this story of how 7-year-old Chula and her family's 15-year-old maid, Petrona, forge an unlikely bond as each struggles to find stability and safety in the waning years of Pablo Escobar's violent hold on Colombia. Early on, Ramirez infuses Chula's irrepressible curiosity and intelligence with naïveté; whereas,... Read More

This audiobook delves into the lives and minds of its characters with care. Two stories run parallel throughout the novel, one unfolding during the early days of the AIDS epidemic in Chicago and the other taking place in a more contemporary time in Paris. The earnestness of Michael Crouch's performance suits the tone of both narratives well. Crouch is expressive and empathetic,... Read More

With such a volatile title, it's surprising that this audiobook remains rather still in its narration. Keong Sim's performance is sleepy, halting, and easily dismissed instead of creating the momentum the story itself demands. The novel contains threats such as domestic terrorism, vanished love, and extremist cults. Such drama should be compelling. Indeed, the story itself... Read More

In this lovely audiobook an English farm wife, fascinated by the Tollund Man, an iron age Dane found uncannily preserved in a peat bog, begins a correspondence with a curator at the museum in Jutland that houses the remains. Helen Lloyd's Tina is warm, thoughtful, and seeking. The curator, Anders, who has been fairly recently widowed, is writing to her in his second language,... Read More

Susan Bennett masterfully narrates a stunning retelling of BEOWULF that confronts all manner of monsters. Dana Mills went away to war and came back with a son she has to keep safe from everything; Willa Herot lives at Herot Hall with a son who has been given everything. Bennett portrays a wide cast of characters, including both Dana and Willa, and does a particularly good job... Read More

With his newest audio thriller, Olen Steinhauer hits a nerve. In a United States led by a polarizing president, with mistrusted and disrupted (or not) intelligence services, a charismatic leader named Martin Bishop emerges. Is his grassroots movement, The Massive Brigade, a peaceful resistance force, or is that a pose, disguising the coming terrors of a Baader-Meinhof gang, or... Read More

Atandwa Kani's portrayal of Nelson Mandela is so engrossing that listeners will be completely absorbed. This audiobook is composed of letters that Mandela wrote while imprisoned for decades for protesting against the government of South Africa and its system of Apartheid. The letters are in chronological order. Many were never delivered and are presented publicly here for the... Read More

Greenwood reimagines the real-life abduction and subsequent captivity of young Sally Horner, which began in 1948 and ended in early 1950. Narrator Thérèse Plummer's striking characterizations and focused tone immerse listeners in the rapidly changing characters and settings. Although the subject matter is disturbing, Greenwood's stylistic choices and Plummer's steadfast... Read More

Narrator Charlie Thurston deftly navigates this road story of a father and son on the run. Silas House's depiction of conflicted evangelical faith in the South begins with Pastor Asher Sharp, who makes an offer to help a gay couple following a flood and then loses his job and, after a messy divorce, custody of his precocious 9-year-old son, Justin, because of this act of... Read More

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Diana Marcum's memoir, narrated by Rebecca Mozo, transports listeners from California to the beautiful islands of the Azores. Whether the author is at home in the U.S., speaking with other Americans, or overseas, speaking with native Azoreans, Mozo's performance breathes life into the real-life people in this audiobook. Though Marcum speaks little... Read More

Narrator Bernadette Dunne demonstrates her wide range of voice skills in performing the role of Meg, the main character in the Meg Langslow series. Dunne effectively conveys the fear Meg experiences when she sees a light in a church crypt and finds a murdered man there and five cremation niches broken open. Soon the listener catches the contagious enthusiasm of Meg's father as... Read More

In the follow-up to her bestseller, READING LIKE A WRITER, author and critic Francine Prose recommends some of her favorite literary works. Narrator Allyson Johnson perfectly evokes Prose's conversational tone. Some of these essays have been published before and some not. A handful of classic novels are covered, as well as lesser-known works and authors. Throughout her... Read More