His Dark Materials, Book Two: The Subtle Knife
Author: Philip Pullman
Reader: Philip Pullman and a full cast
Short Review: Like The Golden Compass, this is a wonderful adventure told by a surprisingly-talented author-narrator and a full cast. The book is a bit less fantastic, in a sense, because some of it is set in our world, but no less enjoyable.
His Dark Materials, Book I: The Golden Compass
Author: Philip Pullman
Reader: Philip Pullman and a full cast
Short Review: A fantastic tale of adventure, rebellion, childhood, growth, and bears told by a surprisingly-talented author-narrator and a full cast.
Long Review: I’m a big fan of this book and the others in the trilogy, so I was excited […]
Author: James Fenimore Cooper
Read by: Robertson Dean
Short Review: A beautifully-read version of a book I don’t actually like very much.
Author: Marilynne Robinson
Read by: Becket Royce
Short Review: Robinson’s prize-winning, gorgeous, intricate novel about women and the fragility of family, and of sanity, and the need to create and maintain a sense of home, no matter what happens. It is read well, if not perfectly, by Beckett Royce.
Into Thin Air
Author: Jon Krakauer
Read by: Jon Krakauer
Short Review: An author-narrated memoir of one of the most tragic seasons on Mt. Everest.
Long Review: This book was highly recommended to me by a family member, and I was very curious to literally hear the tale in the author’s own voice. Anyone familiar with the story of […]
The Master Butchers Singing Club
Author: Louise Erdrich
Read by: Louise Erdrich
Short review: A beautifully written historical novel set in Germany and North Dakota between the two World Wars.
Oryx and Crake
Author: Margaret Atwood
Read by: Campbell Scott
Short Review: A dystopian “speculative fiction” (Atwood’s term) novel tracking a young man’s experiences in pre- and post-apocalyptic world, complete with a ridiculously sheltered genius caste, chaotic plebe lands, corporations run amuck, transgenic species, genetic engineering and cloning to the nth degree, a new, broken Eden, with a side of crushing love-triangle thrown in for good measure.
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Lolita
Author: Vladimir Nabokov
Read by: Jeremy Irons
Short Review: Nabokov’s beautifully-written, disturbing story of a pedophile’s love for a young girl, read by the inimitable Jeremy Irons.