TABULA RASA Tabula Rasa, Volume 1

This audio collection of essays and sketches is a marriage of good storytellers. Author John McPhee has the ability to make topics like plate tectonics, commercial shipping, and life under Covid lockdown interesting, as well as informative. Combine that with the mellow voice of Grover Gardner, and you have a work that nearly any listener will enjoy. The audiobook is a collection of McPhee’s ideas that never came to fruition as books or magazine articles—topics such as his mother’s autobiography, blind skiers, and lessons in geology. They’re interesting and engaging. Gardner slows things down a bit when a passage is technical, such as a description of geomorphology. Otherwise, he carries the work along with an even pace and pleasant voice. R.C.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2023 Best Audiobook © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2023]