Month: January 2016

  • Quiet and powerful

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON. By Elizabeth Strout. Random House Audio. Read by Kimberly Farr. Four CDs; four hours. $30. Also available in print from Random House. Elizabeth Strout’s books are so different from anything else I read, indeed, from most of today’s fiction as far as I can tell,…

  • Wealth, danger and scandal – what more could you want?

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson SCANDALOUS BEHAVIOR. By Stuart Woods. Penguin Audio. Read by Tony Roberts. Six CDs, seven hours. $35. Also available in print from G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Stone Barrington, having had many adventures, close calls and romantic encounters recently (as always), decides to get a little R&R visiting a friend (lady of…

  • A sense of duty, a desire to win

    Amid the sound and fury of the presidential campaign, Paul O’Connor finds that the new biography of George H.W. Bush presents a thought-provoking contrast. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor DESTINY AND POWER: THE AMERICAN ODYSSEY OF GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH.  By Jon Meacham. Penguin Random House Audio. Read by Paul Michael. 25 hours. 20 CDs.…

  • The death of the republic

    A new semester of commuting to the journalism school at Chapel Hill provides new opportunities to listen to outstanding audio books. Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson DICTATOR. By Robert Harris. Read by David Rintoul. Random House Audio. 11 CDs; 14 hours. $45. Also available in print from Knopf, $26.95. Cicero comes down to us through…

  • A worthy conclusion

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson GOLDEN AGE. By Jane Smiley. Read by Lorelei King. Random House Audio. Nine CDs, 17 ½ hours. $50. Also available in print from Knopf. If you’ve read the first two volumes of Jane Smiley’s Last Hundred Years trilogy, which, by all accounts I’ve found, are masterpieces, all you need to…

  • Fighting back

    Tom Dillon put off reading this book for quite a while, but after he picked it up, he was glad he did. Reviewed by Tom Dillon FACTORY MAN. By Beth Macy. Little, Brown and Company, 2014. 451 pages. $28. You know that bricked-up abandoned factory down the street, the one you remember from the golden…