Audiobooks, 2008 List
Sold into slavery, Octavian and his mother, an African princess, only gradually come to realize the truth about their new life: they are part of a scientific experiment. James' deliberate pace and formal enunciation capture the time period perfectly and connect the dots of the episodic plot as it gathers gradually toward a horrifying turning point that spins Octavian's life off in a different direction entirely.
When 11-year-old Dewey Kerrigan moves west to be with her father we are plunged into the chaos of 1943. Narrator Julie Dretzin takes us to Los Alamos to find Dewey's father working on a top secret "gadget." Dretzin's soft voice mimics the innocence of the time while simultaneously hinting at the drama of the science being created in the desert.
From sly and creepy to wildly hilarious, these nine original stories seem written to be read aloud. Pull up a virtual rocking chair, sit back, and let the voices of three master storytellers transport you to a vanished time and place.
When D. J. Schwenk begins her first season as a football player, she grapples with a push-me-pull-you relationship with Brian, the opposing QB; learns more about the lives of her parents and what it takes to be an adult; and copes with a tragedy that changes her world in less than a second. Moore carries her splendid performance of the first volume straight on into this one.
From bisou to la vache, Campbell breathes life and individuality into the quirky cast of characters who inhabit Hard Pan, California. Brigitte is charming and oh-so-French, Miles's peskiness is simultaneously irritating and heartbreaking, and Lucky's voice veers from wonder to anger to fear and back again in the space of a paragraph.
Okay fine, I love Clementine, which means I may not be totally the best unbiased person to talk about this audio which is a big adult way of saying "don't take my word for it." Anyway, Jessica Almasy has the P-E-R-F-E-C-T perfect voice and you will think so too, because it's pretty spectacularful. Especially the ceiling snakes.
James Goode superbly voices a fresh and humorous retelling of an old classic that wafts us back to its original locale, China. When Aladdin uses the lamp to win Princess Badr-al-Budur as his bride, he must deal with the angry Moor who comes after it. A perfect audio for family listening.
Excessively logical and detached about people, 12-year-old Emma-Jean tries to use her analytical mind to solve interpersonal problems among her classmates—with surprising results. Gummer’s reading captures Emma-Jean's bewildered attitude toward illogical behavior, and her youthful voice creates a winsome portrait of an unusual girl on the brink of adolescence.
In sometimes horrifying detail, 17-year-old Matthew writes a letter to his younger sister explaining their traumatic childhood with an erratic, even dangerous, mother. Passer's flat tone and matter-of-fact delivery speak volumes about damaged emotions and equally damaged lives.
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