Light and easy listening is on the agenda this week. Please note that all audiobooks are available for download at independent bookstores and at your local library.
Calypso
David Sedaris; read by the author
Hachette Audio, six hours and 30 minutes, six CDs, $35/www.audible.com download, $30.79
This is the David Sedaris we fell in love with so many audiobooks ago. His weirdness is intact, and (for the most part) not uncomfortably so. Growing older has given his writing a patina of introspection that is warm, poignant and relatable. Middle age, travel and the death of his sister are viewed with sardonic humor and heartfelt emotion. There are some very funny essays in this collection and Sedaris reads with skill, knowing when to pause and when to punch up the humor. Listeners will find this surprisingly intimate, both in the narrative and the narration. A small flaw is that a couple of essays were recorded live and the transition is jarring. Grade: A-minus
Children of Blood and Bone
Tomi Adeyemi; read by Bahni Turpin
Macmillan Audio, 18 hours, 14 CDs, $44.99/www.audible.com download, $27.27
If you are taking a road trip with your older kids this summer, bring along this Y/A fantasy. It is a wild and imaginative ride stunningly narrated by Turpin. Three teenagers in a land inspired by West Africa tell the story of a world that once used magic until it was stolen by a hostile king. Turpin unveils a range of emotions and narrates the entire book with an African accent that never flags. She sings incantations, ages her voice and all three protagonists sound distinctive. Adeyemi, a Nigerian American, has a rich imagination and a wonderful ear for dialogue, creating a believable mythology woven with colorful African threads. This is the first in the Legacy of Orïsha trilogy. Grade: A-minus
The Last Time I Lied
Riley Sager; read by Nicol Zanzarella
Penguin Audio, 12 hours, 10 CDs, $45/ www.audible.com download, $31.50
This is yet another installation in a new genre of thriller in which the female protagonist may or may not have committed a crime and then, at the very end, there is a twist. That said, this is an easy listen that entertains, even if the plot is peppered with holes. Zanzarella is a natural. She creates different voices, including believable male intonations, and carries the story past the bumpier entries. The novel begins when a grown Emma Davis is invited back to the summer camp from which all three of her cabin mates had disappeared 15 years earlier. She is haunted, both literally and figuratively, by the event and hopes to solve the mystery of the missing girls in order to find her own inner peace. Grade: B
