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The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams
Reader: Jenna Lamia
Short Review: A good book about a controversial subject, improved by an excellent reading by Jenna Lamia.
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The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke
Readers: Davina Porter and Simon Prebble
Short Review: Clarke’s entrancing, charming short stories about the magical world introduced in Jonathan Strange & Mr.Norrell particularly focusing on the women who practice magic in this alternate England and run-ins between Englishpeople and faeries. Prebble and Porter are incomparably good readers, taking turns reading stories about men and women, respectively. Clarke’s storytelling is downright fascinating, and her language precise and beautiful. I love this audiobook, have listened to it twice, and know I’ll listen to it again and again. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
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Four Souls by Louise Erdrich
Four Souls Author: Louise Erdrich Reader: Anna Fields Short Review: Four Souls is a belated sequel to Tracks, and thus the continuation of the story of Fleur Pillager—one of the recurrent characters in Erdrich’s series of novels that follow an Ojibwe tribe. Read starkly and beautifully by Anna Fields, the plot is intricate and engrossing, […]
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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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My Dream of You by Nuala O’Faolain
My Dream Of You Author: Nuala O’Faolain Reader: Dearbhla Molloy Short Review: A beautiful first novel from one of Ireland’s best memoir and non-fiction writers, gorgeously read by Dublin’s excellent Dearbhla Molloy with just the right accent and diction. The novel interlaces a story of a woman approaching menopause while re-awakening her sense of romance, […]
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Paula Spencer by Roddy Doyle
Paula Spencer Author: Roddy Doyle Reader: Ger Ryan Short Review: A novel featuring the engaging lead character from Doyle’s The Woman Who Walked Into Doors gloriously read in the perfect Dublin accent by Ger Ryan. Long Review: Paula Spencer is a recovering alcoholic, recovering longtime victim of domestic violence, widow, house-cleaner, and mother weighed down […]
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The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
Short Review: Margaret Atwood’s retelling of a portion of The Odyssey in Penelope’s voice, her contribution to the Canongate Myth Series, read by Laurel Merlington.
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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.
