Lorenzo Val
- 23
- reviews
- 11
- helpful votes
- 318
- ratings
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The Life Impossible
- A Novel
- By: Matt Haig
- Narrated by: Joanna Lumley, Jordan Stephens
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,488
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,413
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,413
When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan. Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Went absolutely nowhere
- By Joy on 09-27-24
- The Life Impossible
- A Novel
- By: Matt Haig
- Narrated by: Joanna Lumley, Jordan Stephens
I wanted to like it, but was mostly irritated.
Reviewed: 10-24-24
Being full of well meaning and meaningful tropes, alas, does not a good novel make. Needed to be edited by at least a third - so much repetition was highly annoying and unnecessary details (and I usually enjoy details) just kept going. Why the villain was so hateful and murderous is never really adequately explained, so that he was just a cookie cutter bad guy, while the heroine's motives and guilt went on and on. The themes are good: the importance of protecting nature, that all is connected and we need to care for each other and the planet, but this is not news. It becomes a lecture after a while - we get it! It might be more successful as a TV film. The narrator was excellent as the British heroine but her other accents were odd and weird.
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Tell Me Everything
- A Novel
- By: Elizabeth Strout
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,100
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,054
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,054
With her remarkable insight into the human condition and silences that contain multitudes, Elizabeth Strout returns to the town of Crosby, Maine, and to her beloved cast of characters—Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge, Bob Burgess, and more—as they deal with a shocking crime in their midst, fall in love and yet choose to be apart, and grapple with the question, as Lucy Barton puts it, “What does anyone’s life mean?”
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2 out of 5 stars
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Very disappointed
- By Cheri on 09-11-24
- Tell Me Everything
- A Novel
- By: Elizabeth Strout
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
Perhaps my favorite Strout of all! Gorgeous!
Reviewed: 09-16-24
I loved all the books about these characters and families, and this one ties them together so well ( but probably can stand on its own) and we meet a new family as well.
It is a beauty of a book, intimate and deep and moving. Contrary to some of the other reviewers, I LOVED the narrator's slow thoughtful narration. It is a book about human connection and the pauses allow the listener to feel the characters reacting in real time to each other. If you want a speed read or listen, I'd suggest another author. This novel is one to savor!
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The Bright Sword
- A Novel of King Arthur
- By: Lev Grossman
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith, Lev Grossman
- Length: 23 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 393
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 365
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 365
A gifted young knight named Collum arrives at Camelot to compete for a spot on the Round Table, only to find that he’s too late. The king died two weeks ago at the Battle of Camlann, leaving no heir, and only a handful of the knights of the Round Table survive. They aren’t the heroes of legend, like Lancelot or Gawain. They’re the oddballs of the Round Table, from the edges of the stories, like Sir Palomides, the Saracen Knight, and Sir Dagonet, Arthur’s fool, who was knighted as a joke.
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2 out of 5 stars
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A rambling woke mess
- By Adam on 07-18-24
- The Bright Sword
- A Novel of King Arthur
- By: Lev Grossman
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith, Lev Grossman
Terrific tale, terrific prose, terrific narration!
Reviewed: 08-14-24
I enjoyed this so much I didn't want it to end. Grossman is a brilliant writer who gives us a full sensory experience. His take on the Arthurian legend is fresh but obviously full of love for all the traditional iterations. The narration is superb and adds to the drama, pathos and humor.
My favorite audio this year!
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The Comfort of Ghosts
- Maisie Dobbs, Book 18
- By: Jacqueline Winspear
- Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 912
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 845
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 845
London, 1945: Four adolescent orphans with a dark wartime history are squatting in a vacant Belgravia mansion—the owners having fled London under heavy Luftwaffe bombing. Psychologist and Investigator Maisie Dobbs visits the mansion on behalf of the owners and discovers that a demobilized soldier, gravely ill and reeling from his experiences overseas, has taken shelter with the group.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Never let me down! Awesome consistency through series.
- By Amazon Customer on 06-25-24
- The Comfort of Ghosts
- Maisie Dobbs, Book 18
- By: Jacqueline Winspear
- Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy
Lots of recapitulation in this final book of the series.
Reviewed: 06-12-24
I am probably in the minority here, but I can barely stand to listen Cassidy’s narration, especially after listening to several books narrated by the fine British actress, Eleanor Bron. I recommend this as a paper read not a listen, unless you like your prose syrupy and sentimental and affected. It’s so sweet it made my teeth hurt.
The story, unfortunately, is a lot of rehash of the previous novels with some new good tidbits thrown in-perhaps the author’s way of looking back over the long series, and saying farewell, but it also seems to presuppose that the reader,who is now on the final book,is new to the story. As a result, I found much of it rather tedious.
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The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club
- A Novel
- By: Helen Simonson
- Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham, Helen Simonson
- Length: 15 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 180
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 169
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 169
It is the summer of 1919, and Constance Haverhill is without prospects. Now that all the men have returned from the front, she has been asked to give up her cottage and her job at the estate she helped run during the war. While she looks for a position as a bookkeeper or—horror—a governess, she’s sent as a lady’s companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside hotel. Despite having only weeks to find a permanent home, Constance is swept up in the social whirl of Hazelbourne-on-Sea after she rescues the local baronet’s daughter, Poppy Wirrall, from a social faux pas.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Well done
- By lyjo on 07-31-24
- The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club
- A Novel
- By: Helen Simonson
- Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham, Helen Simonson
Engrossing story, sympathetic heroine, lovely seaside setting.
Reviewed: 06-10-24
The narrator, whose dialogue was fine, drove me nuts with her (non-dialogue) strange pauses which interrupted the flow of the phrase, sentence, or even two word description.
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1 person found this helpful
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The Men and the Girls
- By: Joanna Trollope
- Narrated by: Eleanor Bron
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 31
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 29
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Story4 out of 5 stars 28
Lifelong friends, now in their sixties, James, a teacher, and Hugh, a TV personality, both live with attractive women 25 years their junior. But the age difference is a time bomb, ticking away at the heart of both relationships. Kate's hunger for a life more in keeping with her own age threatens to bring her eight years with James to an end. And how is Julia to cope when her own career begins to blossom while Hugh's is withering before their eyes? The arrival of Miss Beatrice Bachelor, a razor-sharp Oxford spinster, fuels the discontent in both girls.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wish there had been at least one more chapter
- By Sharon G. on 11-21-13
- The Men and the Girls
- By: Joanna Trollope
- Narrated by: Eleanor Bron
Superb narration
Reviewed: 05-26-24
But an abrupt ending, rather disappointing. The author has created a carefully observed and described time and place in Oxford filled with interesting characters. The narrator brings it all to life perfectly. I would listen to anything that she narrates.
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Odd Girl Out
- By: Elizabeth Jane Howard
- Narrated by: Eleanor Bron
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 34
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 28
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Story4 out of 5 stars 30
Anne and Edmund Cornhill have a happy marriage and a charming house. They are content, complete, absorbed in their private idyll. Arabella, who comes to stay one lazy summer, is rich, rootless and amoral - and, as they find out, beautiful and loving.With her elegant prose the author traces the web of love and desire that entangles these three; but it is Arabella who finally loses out.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Tedious story, but worth it to hear Eleanor Bron .
- By Susan M on 08-05-16
- Odd Girl Out
- By: Elizabeth Jane Howard
- Narrated by: Eleanor Bron
beautifully written and performed heartbreaker
Reviewed: 05-14-24
Not my favorite from a favorite author only because it is so sad - about human foibles, frailties, inadequacies. But brilliant writing and detailed observation, as always, of place and character, and the narration is perfection. Howard is an oft overlooked talent. Everything she's written deserves listening!
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Confusion
- By: Elizabeth Jane Howard
- Narrated by: Jill Balcon
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 183
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 150
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 148
This, the third volume of the best-selling The Cazalet Chronicles, takes up the story of the Cazalet family in the spring of 1942 and follows them through the war to VE Day. Polly and Clary have left Home Place for London where Archie Lestrange keeps a close eye on them; Louise, surprisingly, has married; Polly makes a painful discovery; Zoe, despairing of Rupert's return, stumbles on solace; and Edward's duplicity demands a reckoning.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Just so very good
- By Jane on 06-10-16
- Confusion
- By: Elizabeth Jane Howard
- Narrated by: Jill Balcon
Exquisite prose, exquisite performance!
Reviewed: 04-19-24
The Cazalet series is one of the best audio experiences I’ve ever had. The narrator was one of Britain’s finest actresses, as well as the mother of the actor, DanielDay Lewis and close friend of the novelist. A tremendously moving and detailed World War II novel about the family at home,filled with love and loss.
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The Painted Drum
- By: Louise Erdrich
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 394
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 240
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 240
When Faye Travers is called upon to appraise the estate of a family in her small New Hampshire town, she isn't surprised to discover a forgotten cache of valuable Native American artifacts. However, she stops dead in her tracks when she finds in the collection a rare drum, ornamented with symbols she doesn't recognize and dressed in red tassels and a beaded belt and skirt, especially since, without touching the instrument, she hears it sound.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Worth sticking with
- By Kathy on 01-25-06
- The Painted Drum
- By: Louise Erdrich
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
Beautiful!
Reviewed: 10-16-23
Great prose, great narration, touching story. Fascinating tapestry of history and lives in two communities that interweave with with each other through a magical drum.
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When Women Were Dragons
- A Novel
- By: Kelly Barnhill
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr, Mark Bramhall
- Length: 15 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,645
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,477
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,472
Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours, except for its most seminal event: the Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales, and talons; left a trail of fiery destruction in their path; and took to the skies. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex’s beloved aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn’t know. It’s taboo to speak of.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Beautiful
- By Jennifer Torres on 05-08-22
- When Women Were Dragons
- A Novel
- By: Kelly Barnhill
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr, Mark Bramhall
Where was the editor?
Reviewed: 07-07-23
A wonderful, imaginative and relevant concept and lots of lively prose: I wanted to love it but was so annoyed by the repetition.
This could have easily been a much better book with much needed editing - as in cutting out pages and pages (or a few hours of narration). Makes me wonder what happened, or didn't, before the final draft.
Narration was terrific however.
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