Briar Patch Books

Tag: Audio Books

  • Maggie Hope, back in the U.S.A.

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson MRS. ROOSEVELT’S CONFIDANTE. By Susan Elia MacNeal. BOT (Random House). Read by Susan Duerden. 10 ½ hours; 9 CDs.  Also available in paperback from Bantam, $15. This is the fifth novel in Susan Elia MacNeal’s Maggie Hope mystery series, and, like the others, it combines the intrigue of a mystery,…

  • Deprivation, survival and life lessons

    Paul O’Connor takes a break from his readings of history to review a book about something that, unfortunately, is as contemporary as it is terrible: life in North Korea. By Paul T. O’Connor IN ORDER TO LIVE. By Yeonmi Park. Penguin Audio. 9 hours and 30 minutes. Read by Eji Kim. 8 CDs. $40. Download…

  • Elizabeth George back in top form with her new novel

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson A BANQUET OF CONSEQUENCES. By Elizabeth George. Read by John Lee. 18 CDs; 21 ½ hours. $50. Also available in print from Viking. Fans of Elizabeth George’s long-running British detective series starring Inspector Thomas Lynley and company can rejoice. A Banquet of Consequences is the best novel in this series…

  • Not ‘Hitler’s Pope’

    Chances are, you’ve heard more than once the criticism that the Pope was silent while Hitler was perpetrating the Holocaust. Paul O’Connor reviews a fascinating book that tells the story of what was going on behind the scenes. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor CHURCH OF SPIES: THE POPE’S SECRET WAR AGAINST HITLER. By Mark Riebling.…

  • Another romp with Fox and O’Hare

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson Some books are perfect for listening while driving on long interstate stretches or crammed into an airplane seat. Janet Evanovich’s various series fit this category well. They’re highly entertaining, and they don’t require deep thinking. Stephanie Plum, Evanovich’s intrepid bounty hunter and endearing klutz, is by far my favorite, but…

  • Shhh!: Librarians tracking killers

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson BOOKS CAN BE DECEIVING. By Jenn McKinlay. Read by Allyson Ryan. Books on Tape (Penguin Random House).  Six CDS; 7 ½ hours.  Also available in print. Sometimes, you just need a light, cozy mystery to entertain you. For a lover of books, if that mystery has a library as a…

  • Afloat with love and literature

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE LITTLE PARIS BOOK SHOP. By Nina George. Read by Steve West and Emma Bering, with Cassandra Campbell. Random House Audio. 11 hours; 9 CDs. $46. Also available in print from Crown. Monsieur Perdu runs a floating bookshop, on a barge moored in the Seine in Paris. But he’s more…

  • Heroes and myths

    Paul O’Connor, who’s putting his summer break from teaching aspiring journalists to good use, reviews a book about the Doolittle Raiders, who struck back against the Japanese just months after Pearl Harbor. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor TARGET TOKYO: JIMMY DOOLITTLE AND THE RAID THAT AVENGED PEARL HARBOR. By James M. Scott. Read by L.J.…

  • History is what we make it

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson I approached this book with hope but also some trepidation, having loved The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society so much that I read it in print AND listened to it as an audio book. Annie Barrows co-wrote that wonderful book with her aunt, Mary Ann Shaffer. As its…

  • Just in time for the movie

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson I’m hearing good things about the new movie version of Far From the Madding Crowd, and I hope to see it sometime. But before seeing a movie adaptation of a classic novel, I wanted to read the novel. Despite having been an English major, I’d never read this book. Fortunately,…