Author: Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
Reader: Michael Shanks
Short Review: Star crossed lovers set in an intricately woven universe including space ships, elements of magic and linguistics. The reader needed someone to insist on better pacing in an otherwise very solid performance.
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Author: David Sedaris
Reader: David Sedaris
Short review: One of Sedaris’ best books of essays and stories, read tenderly and hilariously and scathingly by the author. Several pieces are live performances, and many of them are downright great.
Me Talk Pretty One Day Author: David Sedaris Reader: David Sedaris Short Review: Sedaris’ funny, self-deprecating, heart-breaking stories about moving to France with his partner Hugh, learning French, his family, and his own flaws and experiences. The author reads his own work in his distinctive voice, never flinching as he excoriates himself either in front [...]
Author: Neil Gaiman
Reader: Neil Gaiman
Short Review: A stunning story beautifully read by the author. Coraline’s boredom leads her to a place just beyond our reality. What at first seems just odd and fun becomes creepy and worth escape, but only by delicate inches. Gaiman’s voice lulls and tantalizes. He is just so good at painting images with the combination of words and his own voice.
The Graveyard Book Author: Neil Gaiman Reader: Neil Gaiman Short Review: Neil Gaiman reads his Newbery Medal winning book beautifully. His nod to Kipling’s The Jungle Book is just scary enough, intriguing, inventive, well-written, enchanting . . . it’s downright wonderful. I loved Bod, Silas, Scarlett, Liza, Miss Lupescu, and the rest of the graveyard’s [...]
Fragile Things: Stories Author: Neil Gaiman Read by: Neil Gaiman Short Review: A solid book of short stories read beautifully by the author. Long Review: I am a fan of Gaiman’s, so I was bound to pick this up eventually. Jeanne’s glowing review spurred me to pick it up at the library, and I was [...]
Short Review: The third and final book in a wonderful trilogy, well-read by the author and a full cast.
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 [...]
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Anathem Author: Neal Stephenson Reader: Oliver Wyman, Tavia Gilbert, William Dufris, Neal Stephenson Short Review: A pretty good but overly long book from one of my favorite authors, read less-than-ideally. This alternate future tale depicts a world where the intellectual elite are forcibly cloistered in pseudo-monastic communities around the world where they’re free to think [...]