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The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon
Reader: Peter Riegert
Extra features: The audiobook includes an interview with Michael Chabon about his inspiration for the book, his favorite books and genres, and his writing process.
Short Review: Chabon’s Hugo and Nebula award-winning alternate history of a world without Israel but with a temporary Jewish homeland in Sitka, Alaska. Hard-boiled detective Meyer Landsman investigates the murder of a junkie chess-player with his partner and cousin Berko Shemets, a half-Tlingit, half-Jewish cop who is a good father, a good Jew, and a good partner trying to save Landsman from himself. As the case progresses, more and more connections to organized crime, shady US government machinations, separatist Orthodox communities, and zealotry reveal themselves. Riegert is an ideal reader, comfortable with accents, Yiddish, noir, and sadness.
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The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
The Shipping News Author: Annie Proulx Reader: Paul Hecht Short Review: Proulx’s amazing, National Book Award- and Pulitzer-winning novel about loss, reclamation, love, and Newfoundland read well but slightly too stiffly by Paul Hecht. Long Review: I love this novel, well and truly. It’s one of the finest books I’ve read on paper in years, […]
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In the Woods by Tana French
In the Woods Author: Tana French Reader: Steven Crossley Short Review: This Edgar Award winning novel traces a murder in Ireland, following the detectives investigating the case and flashing back to an earlier, similar unsolved case. It is a good novel beautifully read by Crossley, but the novel itself annoys me in a few spots […]
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Fragile Things: Stories Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman
Read by: Neil Gaiman
Short Review: A solid book of short stories read beautifully by the author.
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Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood
Reader: Barbara Caruso
Short Review: Atwood’s Governor General’s Award-winning bildungsroman about girls’ cruelty to other girls, art, childhood, and memory; read crisply by Barbara Caruso. The book follows Elaine Risley, an artist, as she remembers her youth in Canada while preparing for a retrospective of her artwork. It is heartbreaking and beautiful, which makes it hard to listen to at times. Pain is perhaps more real when it’s expressed out loud–this isn’t a fun listen, but it’s a very good one.
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The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
The Killer Angels Available from Audible.com Author: Michael Shaara Reader: Stephen Hoye Short Review: Michael Shaara’s Pulitzer Prize winning masterwork about the Battle of Gettysburg, well-read and voiced by Stephen Hoye. One of the best pieces of historical fiction ever written, Shaara’s story alternates from North to South, depicting the mistakes of some leaders and […]
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Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: A Novel Author: Susanna Clarke Reader: Simon Prebble Short Review: A gorgeously read version of a Hugo Award winning modern epic I absolutely love. Clarke’s novel is part Harry Potter, part Tolkein, part comedy of manners, and part historical fiction of the Napoleonic Wars. It’s long, detailed, engaging, and by […]
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Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx
Author: Annie Proulx
Reader: Campbell Scott
Short Review: A ground-breaking story about the nature of love and sexuality, beautifully-read by one of my favorite audio book narrators.
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Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
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.
