The Red House Mystery by A. A. Milne

Source: LibriVox (zipped mp3's | iTunes)

Length: 6 hr, 55 min
Reader: Kristen Hughes

The book: Arriving at a friend's house in the English countryside a few minutes after a murder has taken place, Tony Gillingham is thrust into a classic-style locked room mystery. He takes on his role as amateur detective with enthusiasm, finding false identities, hidden passages and blown alibis as he delves deeper into the secrets of the Red House and its inhabitants.

The best mysteries are those that use the mystery as a backdrop for an additional layer of complexity: The mediation on guilt in And Then There Were None, the exploration of a corrupt town in Red Harvest , the fusion of magic and the modern world in the Dresden Files. This book is simply a fun mystery novel, not much more.  It's worthwhile as a few hours of entertainment or as an insight into Milne's writing outside his Winnie-the-Pooh series, but it's also not a must-read.

Rating: 7 /10

The reader: I've mentioned it before, but Hughes is an excellent amateur reader. She doesn't have the polish and voices that are the hallmarks of the pro's and some of the other great readers at LibriVox, but her narration is warm and pleasing. This style of reading is less of a dramatic performance and more of a friend reading to you at your bedside. The little quirks and imperfections make it more enjoyable knowing it's an ordinary person on the other side of the microphone.

Buy a paperback copy of The Red House Mystery

House of Mirth by Edith Warton

Source: LibriVox (zipped mp3s | iTunes)

Length: 12 hr, 32 min
Reader: Elizabeth Klett

The book: Lilly Bart, an unmarried woman on the fringes of New York high society, is trying to parlay her looks and eligibility into a suitable marriage to a wealthy man. But in the Gilded Age, a single woman without family protection was at the mercies of rumors and Lilly's self-willed spirit make her particularly susceptible to intrigue. The rules of society and the whims of love both seem to be working against Lilly as she tries to climb the social ladder, or at least avoid poverty.

Although set in roughly the same time period, this book plays out as the inverse of Downton Abbey.  Where Downton is English and rural, House of Mirth is American and urban. Where the Crawleys are an aristocratic family trying to hold onto its wealth, Lilly is trying to work her way into wealth and privilege. Yet, the battlefield of manners and drawing-room politics are similar. I ended up enjoying this book much more than I thought I would.

Rating: 8/10

The reader: Elizabeth Klett is one of Librivox's best readers. She has an expressive American voice that makes the story easy to follow. Klett doesn't exactly "do voices" here, but her intonation and expression change enough to make it clear who is speaking and give the speaker some characterization. The recording is clean and nicely produced.

Buy a paperback copy of  The House of Mirth

"The Wine Breath" by John McGahern

Source: The New Yorker Fiction Podcast (mp3)
Length: 39 minutes
Reader: Yiyun Li

The story: Each year, The Reading Life hosts Irish Short Story week during the week of Saint Patrick's Day. Last year, I listened to stories from two familiar Irish writers, "The Dead" by James Joyce and "My Oedipus Complex" by Frank O'Connor. This year, I'm branching out to an Irish writer I had never encountered before, John McGahern.

This story is a quiet, wistful reflection on the paths a life can take as it travels toward the inevitable death. These types of stories with almost no plot don't usually appeal to me. However, McGahern keeps the story interesting by opening new insights into the life of his main character, a priest, as the narrative jumps from the present to the priest's memories. The absence of any clear plot reinforces the seeming aimlessness of the priest's life, yet the fact that there is a plot, hidden beneath flashbacks and descriptions, hints that we can impose a meaning on our lives whether or not any true meaning exists.

Rating: 8 /10

The reader: Li has a noticeable Chinese accent which can make it difficult to understand individual words. Since I routinely speak with native Chinese speakers on a daily basis, I did not find the accent distracting, but others may dislike this reading. Avoiding this story for the accent alone would be unfortunate, since it's a quite good story and Li otherwise does a decent job of reading it. The conversation with fiction editor Deborah Treisman opened up new ideas for me about the story and inspired me to listen to it a second time.


(photo by bripod via flickr. Creative Commons Attribution, Non-Commercial)

"The Scarlet Ibis" by James Hurst

Source: Miette's Bedtime Story Podcast (mp3)
Length: 39 minutes
Reader: Miette

The story: When I first read this short story in early high school, it was presented as sort of an "Introduction to Symbolism" text. I don't know how at the time I thought the symbolism obtuse, when reading it again it seems so explicitly stated. Having just read and enjoyed Moby Dick, it's interesting to see how far I've come in my lifetime as a reader.

The story itself is presented as a childhood memory. Hurst contrasts the idyllic nostalgia of the relationship between him and his little brother Doodle with the darker undertones of the story. These causally mentioned themes - the desire to kill Doodle as a baby, the cruelty that grows out of the narrator's pride, and the background of the carnage of World War I - combine with other more subtle, morbid clues to make a story that's worth rereading.

Rating: 8 / 10

The reader: Miette is a charming reader. She's by no means perfect - her reading at two seperate times is hilariously interrupted by a tweeting bird and a chiming tone - but this, and her embarrassed "Sorry" just adds to the charm. She reads slowly, but with meaningful inflection. I find her accent lovely, but some people may have trouble understanding a few words. As the title of the podcast suggests, this is not a professional reading, but the kind of intimate storytelling you would expect at your bedside.

"Second Variety" by Phillip K. Dick

Source: Librivox (Part 1 | Part 2)
Length: 1 hour, 24 minutes
Reader: Greg Margarite

The story: In case you haven't noticed, I usually try to pair the stories I review with the book I've reviewed earlier in the week. I like the way that interesting comparisons sometimes result from the juxtaposition of two narratives. This week, the book was a science fiction novel that is no longer plausible because the basis in scientific fact has been overturned. In this science fiction story, the science aspect is still plausible, but the political situation it depicts is history.

In the story, a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the U.N. has turned Earth into a battlefield. American scientists left robots called "claws" to battle the Soviets, then fled Earth to the moonbase. When a U.N. General returns to Earth to negotiate a peace treaty, he discovers what the Russians already know -- that the robots have modified themselves into a human form to better trap unsuspecting soldiers. No one can be trusted - anyone could be a robot in disguise.

If you feel you've heard this before, it's because Dick's story has become hugely influencial in science fiction. The 1995 film Screamer's was directly based off the story. More significantly, both The Terminator and the newer version of Battlestar Galactica have elements of Dick's paranoid thriller.
Rating: 8 /10

The reader: I've reviewed Margarite's readings before on this blog, including his tendency to give a William Shatner-like delivery. The more I listen to him, though, the more I like him. It's a good thing that I 've grown to love his readings, since he has an extensive catalogue of science fiction stories that he's narrated for LibriVox.

"The Interior Castle" by Jean Stafford

Source: Miette's bedtime podcast (mp3)
Length: 1 hour, 1 minute
Reader: Miette

The story: In 1938, Stafford was seriously injured in a car accident, an experience which led her to write "The Interior Castle." In the story, Pansy Vanneman is bedridden in the hospital, with a host of injuries and an upcoming reconstructive surgery on her nose. Stafford's description of the pain Pansy experiences both before and during the surgery are some of the most disturbing passages I've ever read.

What's more striking, though, is not the physical pain but the emotional pain. The surgery becomes a violation of Pansy's body as the surgeon probes deeper and causes more pain. The picture of modern medicine is that of impersonal doctors with a veneer of bedside manner, but who see patients as a problem to be solved. This is a story, along with Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Illyich (reviewed previously) that all doctors and medical students should read.

Rating: 8 /10

The reader: Miette has a lovely velvet voice. She has an accent that I just love, with beautiful round vowels. Her phrasing is a bit unconventional at times and she repeats a line at least once, but these imperfections serve to make her reading less professional and more personal. Her reading starts with a little personal anecdote about round food which I initially mistook for the story. The recording cuts off with about 10 minutes to go. None of the story is lost, but there's a considerable bit of silence at the end.

"Pigeons from Hell" by Robert E. Howard

Source: Gremlin Radio (mp3)
Length: 1 hr
Reader: various

The story: Robert E. Howard is best known for his Conan the Barbarian stories (previously reviewed here), but he was also a great horror writer. He also wrote the Solomon Kane stories, featuring a roving Puritan hunting monsters, but this is one of his stand-alone stories. This is one of Howard's scariest stories and a favorite of Stephen King.

When two New Englanders visit the South, they make the mistake of camping out in a deserted antebellum mansion. Despite the title, the pigeons play little direct role in the story - this is not The Birds. Rather, this is a creepy nightmare, full of atmosphere and building suspense. Even though Halloween is over, there's still good reasons to scare yourself silly.

Rating: 8 / 10

The readers: Although I love this story, I'm less enthralled by the audio production. Gremlin Radio went with an old-time style audio theater production for this story. The additional sound effects and music are redundant to a well-crafted piece of prose. The asides voiced by the actors are even more intrusive and have the cheesy effect of doubling the narration with dialog (A paraphrased example: "He wondered where he was. 'Where am I?'"). The distracting effect lessens as the story proceeds, but I wish they had just stuck with Howard's words.

"That Damned Thing" by Ambrose Bierce

 

Source: Naxos Audiobooks (mp3)
Length: 20 minutes
Reader: Johnathan Keeble

The story: "Seeing is believing." Unlike most other mammals, we primates rely on our sense of sight over our hearing or sense of smell. So when we can't see something, we become suspicious.

In this story, an invisible monster is on the loose in a mountain wilderness. Bierce plays with the imagery of sight: characters squint at a dead man's dairy, react when they see his mangled body, and disbelieve the testimony of an eyewitness to his death. Yet, we get the sense that the monster is not actually evil, but simply hated because he cannot be seen.

Rating: 7 / 10

The reader: Keeble is a professional voice actor in a professional audiobook. He creates distinct voices for each of the characters, making it easy to follow the action. His performance definitely adds to the appeal of this story. This is a free sample of a larger collection of stories. It's only free until the end of October, 2011, so download it soon.

The Willows by Algernon Blackwood

Source: LibriVox (zipped mp3s)
Length: 2 hours, 21 minutes
Reader: Michael Thomas Robinson

The book: Considered one of the greatest stories in horror literature, The Willows lives up to its reputation. Two friends canoeing down the Danube stop for the night on an island in the middle of a huge expanse of willow trees. The place seems mystic, almost otherworldly, and in the night the two interlopers find out why.

Blackwood could have set this story in any exotic river in the world, but he chose the Danube. This river, which runs through the heart of Europe, is the wildness that runs through what was then the epitome of civilization. As the atmosphere of this turns from idyllic to terrifying, Blackwood is showing that the unknown horrors of the world can be anywhere, even where we should be the most safe. This, I think, is the most horrifying realization of all.

Rating: 9 / 10

The reader: At first, I was not impressed by Robinson's voice. He's somewhat nasal, and starts the book with a bored, straightforward style. As the story went on, though, I realized the initial bored tone was probably intentional, contrasting with the building dread of the story. His pace quickens and slows to build the tension, drawing the listener into the horror of what the narrator is experiencing. Despite my early misgivings, I greatly enjoyed this reading.

(entered in Cym Lowell's Book Review Party Wednesday)

"A & P" by John Updike

Source: The New Yorker Fiction Podcast (mp3)
Length: 29 minutes
Reader: Allegra Goodman

The story: People don't grow up all at once. Sammy, the narrator of this great short story, is a young man crossing the doorstep of adulthood. At the A & P Supermarket where he works, three girls come in dressed in swimsuits. Sammy's response to them is a mixture of teenage objectification mixed with the kernel of a more mature view. He seems to lurch between wondering if girls think at at all and feeling great empathy for them when a manager scolds the girls.

I love the character of this narrator. I never really liked Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye; Sammy's attitude is similar to Holden's, but much more interesting to me in all his flaws. I think that's because Sammy shows more promise of growing into a person I would want to be. In such a short introduction, Updike lets us know the hope and tragedy of being young.

Rating: 8 /10

The reader: As she says in the introduction, Goodman really enjoys this story. Her familiarity and love of the piece comes through in the vibrancy of her reading. Her imitation of the cash register's song made me laugh. One of the things I enjoy the most about the New Yorker fiction podcast is the discussion afterwords. It's always fun to see what they thought about the story and compare their thoughts with my own observations.

(photo by RoadsidePictures via flickr. Creative Commons by attribution non-commercial.)

"A Wagner Matinee" by Willa Cather

Source: McDougal Littell Literature, Grade 11 (mp3)
Length: 20 min
Reader: Unlisted

The story: When I first moved to a city for college, I knew I'd never go back to living in a suburb. All around me were art galleries, coffee shops, neighborhood bars, funky stores that sold things I had never seen and restaurants that didn't serve photocopied meals from corporate headquarters. Best of all was the music, not the recorded stuff that passes out of radios, but real live music played by people I could see and touch. I don't go to concerts as much as I did as a student, but I still try to make it to a few concerts every year, be it rock, blues, classical, or choral.

In this story, Willa Cather takes a break from her usual setting of the plains of Nebraska to tell of an old farm wife who visits her nephew in Boston. Knowing that she was once an accomplished musician in Boston, the nephew takes her to the Boston Opera House for a Wagner performance. Cather's description of the aunt's reaction to the music shows the author's great empathy for her characters and understanding of humanity. This is a great short piece about the power of live music and the pain of choices that change our lives forever.

Rating: 7 / 10

The reader: This is a professionally produced recording and narrator, though I can't seem to find the reader's name on the website. The source is from McDougal Littell's webpage for users of its high school literature textbooks, but the audio files are available to the public. There's lots of great stories listed on the page, but most are short summaries with only a few being full-length readings of the stories or poems.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Source: LibriVox (zipped mp3 | M4B file)
Length: Approx. 4 hours
Reader: Kristin Luoma

The book: Conrad's notoriously difficult book is like the jungle it depicts: full of mystery, intimidating, but with great wonders lurking beneath the surface. The surface story tells the tale of Charles Marlow, an ivory trader sent into the wilds of Africa to find and bring back Kurtz, another ivory trader who has gone insane. As Marlow continues his journey up the river, the narrative grows more nightmarish and dense. It's a daunting experience for the reader, but rewards with nesting questions of the nature of good and evil, civilization and wildness, European and colonial.

Like a jungle expedition, this one is made much more enjoyable with a good guide. Fortunately, the first time I read this book in high school, I had a great teacher as a guide. The characters' words and actions are not always in line with what Marlow as narrator or Conrad as author really believe. Readers, even knowledgeable ones, can read different meanings into the book. Though it's interesting to debate the symbols and motivations within the book, I think Conrad's real purpose is to show that we sometimes can't know a jungle (or man or culture) fully, only appreciate the complexity.

Rating: 8 /10

The reader: Kristin is a experienced reader for LibriVox. She doesn't put the emotion and dynamism into the reading that some other readers do, but reads with a clear, steady pace and neutral tone. In such an ambiguous novel as this, that means that it's up to the listener to interpret meaning. There's more work on the listeners' brain, which makes it harder to listen to, but ultimately can be a more free experience.

(entered in Cym Lowell's Book Review Party Wednesday. Follow the link for more reviews of other books)

"Rashomon" by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Source: peopleTalk (mp3)
Length: 16 min
Reader: Sadao Ueda

The story: If you've heard of this story before, it's probably from the excellent 1950 film of the same name directed by Akira Kurosawa. The movie, however, takes most of its plot from another story by this same author. So, if you've already seen the film, you're not losing anything by reading this classic Japanese story as well.

The setting is the decaying Rashomon gate in Kyoto during a economic depression. A laid-off servant shelters under the gate, trying to decide whether to live an honest life and probably starve or turn to a life of crime in order to survive. As I listened, I couldn't help but think about people in modern society thrust into the same situation. This story would be a great starting place for a discussion on the validity or invalidity of the concept of moral relativity and its application.

Rating: 8 /10

The reader: Ueda is a professional actor who really knows how to use his voice for storytelling. He builds the excitement of the story to the climax through his use of pacing and rhythm. Ueda has a Japanese accent that is not so strong as to interfere with the understanding of the story, but lends some authenticity to the telling. Apart from some muddy sound and confusing language effects in the introduction, this is a well-recorded piece.

(photo of Nanzen-ji Gate, Kyoto by rdvark via flickr. Creative Commons attribution, non-commercial license)

Botchan by Soseki Natsume

Source: LibriVox (zipped mp3s or M4B)
Length: 5 hrs, 7 min
Reader: Availle

The book: According to Wikipedia, Botchan is one of the most popular novels in Japan. Natsume is the greatest Japanese novelist of the early twentieth century; until a recent anti-counterfeiting redesign, his face appeared on the 1000 yen note. Now that school is back in session, it's the perfect time to read this humorous book about the experiences of a math teacher.

As a name for the main character, "Botchan" can be appropriately translated as "young master" with both the connotation of a privileged background and of a schoolteacher. The narrator moves from a pampered upbringing in Tokyo to teaching at a middle school (what Americans would call a high school) in a provincial town. He gives the other teachers sarcastic nicknames like "Red Shirt" and "Porcupine" and views himself as superior to them. Much of the humor in this novel comes from the conflict between his airs of superiority and the students' attempts to bring him down through their pranks.

As a former teacher at a small college, I was surprised to see the same small-scale squabbles among teachers playing out in a setting halfway around the world and a century in the past.  I suppose departmental politics are the same at every level of education all across the globe. Anyone who's a teacher or is interested in teaching should listen to this classic.

Rating: 8 /10

The reader: Availle has an accent that is hard to place, sometimes sounding like British received pronunciation and sometimes sounding Asian, possibly Japanese. This accent adds spice to the recording, rather than making it difficult to understand. She pronounces the Japanese words with enough confidence that I assume she's correct. For the different characters, she adopts various tones, matching each voice to the character's personality. This is a good amateur recording of this translation.

(Entered in Cym Lowell's Book Review Wednesday. Visit the link for other book reviews)

"A Martian Odyssey" by Stanley G. Weinbaum

Source: LibriVox (mp3)
Length: 58 minutes
Reader: Greg Margarite

The book:  In 1970, The Science Fiction Writers of America voted "A Martian Odyssey" as the second best science fiction story of all time, after Isaac Asimov's "Nightfall" (previously reviewed). While I disagree that it's that great of a story, I can appreciate how influential it was on all science fiction that came after it.

The tale is told by astronaut Dick Jarvis to his fellow explorers on the first human mission to Mars. After Jarvis's sidetrip from the expedition ends in a rocket crash, he sets out on foot for the main rocket. Along the way, he meets several alien species including the intelligent bird-like creature who introduces itself as "Tweel."

Tweel and Jarvis's attempts to communicate and understand one another comprises the leap that Weinbaum made over his contemporaries. Weinbaum imagines an intelligent being who is not just odd sounding or funny-looking, but actually alien in its thought patterns. This took the alien in science fiction from being either a bug-eyed antagonist or a green-skinned stand-in for other humans, to being a rational but unknown xenobiology species. Although this isn't among the best science fiction stories you'll ever read, it is a good one that all fans of the genre should know.

Rating: 7 / 10


The reader: Greg Margarite has read numerous science fiction stories for LibriVox. He has an expressive voice that clearly conveys the printed page. In this story, Jarvis is narrating his adventures to the other members of the crew, so Margarite gives the astronaut a cocky tone that fits well with his character. He emphasizes the international nature of the rest of the crew by giving them accents for their few lines. Margarite narrates other Weinbaum stories in the Collected Public Domain Works of Stanley G. Weinbaum at LibriVox, including the sequel to this story "The Valley of Dreams."

The Green Odyssey by Philip Jose Farmer

Source: LibriVox (zipped mp3s)
Length: 6 hours, 6 minutes
Reader: Mark Nelson

The book: Philip Jose Farmer is best known for his Riverworld series, in which people from throughout history are reincarnated in a mysterious land with a river running through the center. That mish-mash of people from disparate times results in people like 19th century explorer Richard Burton meeting Nazi leader Herman Goring. In this standalone novel, Farmer does a similar mashup, this time with genres. The Green Odyssey reads like a combination of A Princess of Mars (previously reviewed) with a pirate adventure novel.

Astronaut Alan Green has been living as a harem-slave to a queen on a semi-barbarous planet since his spaceship crashed there two years ago. He manages to escape imprisonment and flee to a merchant ship so he can search for two other astronauts rumored to have recently crashed on another part of the planet. The science-fiction coolness factor is that that on this planet, ships don't travel across the water, but instead roll across giant plains of grass. Although I found the ending a bit disappointing, the rest of the novel was good pulpy adventure in an improbable, but interesting, setting.

Rating: 7 / 10

The reader: Mark Nelson is a great reader. I've reviewed his readings multiple times here at Free Listens: Right Ho, Jeeves, "The Call of Cthulu," Plague Ship, and the previously-mentioned A Princess of Mars.  I really can't think of anything else to say about him that I haven't already. He has everything you'd want in a LibriVox reader: a clear strong voice, a good sense of pacing, and the ability to do a few voices without going over the top.

"The Friends of Hector Jouvet" by James Powell

Source: SFFaudio podcast (mp3)
Length: 34 minutes
Reader: J. J. Campanella

The story: When a Canadian tourist named Brown climbs to a cliff overlooking a European mini-nation, he notices an old man following him. Confronting the old man, Brown learns about the city and the old man himself. Through this conversation, the hidden agendas of both Brown and the old man peel back layer by layer until they realize a new secret that neither of them know on his own.

In this efficient little piece, Powell puts an interesting twist on the classic mystery story. All the action takes place within a conversation, but the characters are so interesting that my attention was gripped through the ending. Jouvet's character, with its French speech patterns and diffident manner, reminds me of Agatha Christie's Poirot. This is an enjoyable story full of humor and misdirection that packs several "Aha!" moments into a short time.

Rating: 8 / 10

The reader: Campanella is a familiar voice at Free Listens, having read stories ranging from Ted Chiang's time-travelling novellette "The Merchant and the Alchemist Gate" to P.G. Wodehouse's hilarious Jeeves in the Morning. Campanella's greatest strength is his ability to do interesting and personality-filled voices for different characters. Here, he performs the French accent of Jouvet to perfection. The recording is excellent both in narrator quality and freedom from technical errors.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

Source: Maria Lectrix (zipped mp3s)
Length: 8 hours, 8 minutes
Reader: Maureen O'Brien

The book: Agatha Christie gets a bad reputation for writing books full of unlikely circumstances and formulaic plots. Read enough of Christie and her imitators and this reputation starts to feel earned. Still, Christie shouldn't be blamed for the work of knockoffs and the demands of her fans to write "another one like the last one but different."  At her best, Agatha Christie books are entertaining and memorable reads.

Fortunately for Free Listens, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, along with The Secret Adversary (reviewed previously) are in the public domain in the United States. Christie's first mystery featuring the Belgian detective Poirot, the mystery is told from the point of view of Poirot's own Watson, Lt. Arthur Hastings. While Hastings is home on leave from World War I, he visits his friend John Cavendish at Styles manor. A murder occurs, as it tends to do in these stories, and Hastings calls on his acquaintance Poirot, a detective who is living nearby as a war refugee. As Poirot investigates, suspicion falls on each character in turn before the murderer is finally revealed. This basic plot, with some twists, was recycled in later stories, but it's worthwhile to go back and enjoy the first incarnation of a classic devise.

Rating: 9/10

The reader: O'Brien has a lovely voice that conveys the emotions of the characters. She varies her voice slightly for the cast, with a slight Belgian-French pattern of speech for Poirot and accents that approximate English accents for most of the others. The recording is of middling quality; it's good enough to listen to, but has some muddy sound that can be overlooked for a free reading. The book is in the public domain in the U.S., but in many other countries it's still under copyright by the Christie estate, so check your local laws before downloading.

(photo by connerdowney via flickr. Creative Commons Attribution, No derivatives, Non-commercial license.)
(Review entered in Cym Lowell's Book Review Wednesday Party. Follow the link for more book reviews)

"The Swimmer" by John Cheever

Source: The New Yorker Fiction Podcast (mp3)
Length: 43 minutes
Reader: Anne Enright

The story: One lazy summer day, Ned Merril decides to swim across the county by way of swimming pools. His bizarre Odyssey starts out fine with the first few swimming pools, but as he goes along, he dives into less appealing pools. Odd reminders of the past (or present?) pop up and his final few laps are a struggle to return to his home.

As Enright and Treisman point out, this story has a similar feel to the better episodes of The Twilight Zone. Everything starts out normal, so when the plot takes a turn to the strange, our minds try to work for an explanation. I think this desperate effort to explain is why the story has become so widely-discussed in English literature classes. Ned's journey is a microcosm of a life, with many of the most important events happening while our heads are underwater and no way to understand our situation when we come up for air.

The reader: From the first sentence of the story, Anne Enright's sense of humor comes through. As the story goes on, her writer's understanding of the flow and intricacies of the piece bring the depth of the story to light through her narration. Her discussions with New Yorker fiction editor Deborah Treisman before and after her reading are entertaining and enlightening. The podcast is nicely produced and recorded well.

(photo by mr. rollers via flickr. Creative Commons Attribution, No derivatives  Noncommercial license.)

A Room With A View by E.M. Forster

Source: LibriVox (zipped mp3s)
Length: 7 hours, 9 min
Reader: Elizabeth Klett

The book: "Summer lovin', had me a blast . . ." Well, okay, so this isn't Grease, but it does have a number of similarities. Forster's first novel, A Room with a View is a romantic comedy about meeting people on vacation, then having to deal with different social classes back home. It's a funny and entertaining look at how people act in foreign countries and how they change when they return home.

While travelling in Italy, Lucy and her chaperone Charlotte meet a variety of fellow English tourists at an English-owned boarding house in Florence. Lucy and most of the other tourists dutifully follow their guidebooks' proscriptions of what to see and which artists to appreciate. A few of the tourists, like old Mr. Emerson and his son George, are unconventional in their approach to Italy, not following the standard opinions of the crowd. Lucy's friendship with the Emersons comes back to complicate her life when she returns to England, where conventions are more rigid and class distinctions more distinct. Forster paints a marvelous portrait of the transition of his native country out of the Victorean Era and into the modern age, couching it in a moving romance and witty comedy of manners.

Rating: 8 /10

The reader: Ms. Klett does a superb job reading this book. Her voice is clear and light, with a nondescript American accent for the narration. Her characters are all voiced in appropriate British accents, each distinct enough to distinguish different characters. Her voicing goes a long way toward developing the characters as fully fleshed-out people. I particularly loved her portrayal of the hypocritical but ultimately sympathetic Charlotte. As with Howards End, I would take Ms. Klett's reading of this book over any commercial recording.

(Entered in Cym Lowell's Book Review Wednesday. Follow the link for more book reviews)