Sound Commentary - Your Wise Guide to Audiobooks and Audio Book Reviews

The Pigman and The Pigman's Legacy by Paul Zindel

Paul Zindel (1936-2003) was discovered in the mid-1960’s by Charlotte Zolotow, who had seen a television production of his Pulitzer Prize–winning play, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man–in–the–Moon Marigolds and decided that Zindel must try his hand at young adult fiction. Mr. Zindel went on to become a pioneer in the genre as we know it today. His books for Harper Collins include The Doom Stone and Loch, both Recommended books for the Reluctant YA Reader (ALA), and the tragicomic memoir The Pigman & Me, which School Library Journal said in a starred review "allows readers a glimpse of Zindel's youth, gives them insight into some of his fictional characters, and provides many examples of universal experiences that will make them laugh and cry." The Pigman & Me was both a 1993 ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a 1993 ALA Notable Children's Book.

A Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult

Animals Make Us Human by Temple Grandin

Picking Cotton by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino

November Blues by Sharon M. Draper

Sharon Draper is a two-time Coretta Scott King Award-winning author, most recently for Copper Sun, and previously for Forged by Fire. She's also the recipient of the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Author Award for New Talent for Tears of a Tiger and the Coretta Scott King Author Honor for The Battle of Jericho and November Blues. Her other books include Romiette and Julio, Darkness Before Dawn, and Double Dutch. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she taught high school English for twenty-five years. She's a popular conference speaker, addressing educational and literary groups both nationally and internationally.

The Man Who Loved China by Simon Winchester

Simon Winchester's many books include The Professor and the Madman, The Map That Changed the World, Krakatoa, and A Crack in the Edge of the World. Each of these has been a New York Times bestseller and has appeared on numerous best and notable lists. Mr. Winchester was made Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by HM The Queen in 2006. He lives in western Massachusetts.

Three Weeks to Say Goodbye by C.J. Box

C. J. Box is the author of seven Joe Pickett novels and has won the Anthony, Macavity, Gumshoe, and Barry awards, as well as the French Prix Calibre .38. He has also been an Edgar Award and Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. His novel Open Season was a New York Times Notable Book. He lives outside Cheyenne, Wyoming with his family.

White Witch, Black Curse by Kim Harrison

New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison was born and raised in the upper Midwest but has since fled south to better avoid snow. She spends her time tending orchids, cooking with some guy in a leather jacket, and training her new dog. Her current vices include good chocolate and exquisite sushi. Kim is the author of the bestselling Hollows series, including The Outlaw Demon Wails, and she contributed to the paranormal collection Prom Nights From Hell.

A Most Wanted Man by John LeCarre

John le Carré was born in 1931. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, secured him a worldwide reputation, which was consolidated by the acclaim for his trilogy: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honorable Schoolboy, and Smiley's People. His novels include The Little Drummer Girl, A Perfect Spy, The Russia House, Our Game, The Taileor of Panama, and Single & Single. John le Carré lives in Cornwall.

Why We Make Mistakes by Joseph T. Hallinan

JOSEPH T. HALLINAN, a former writer for The Wall Street Journal, is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a former Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He lives in Chicago with his wife and children.

Genghis: Bones of the Hills by Conn Iggulden

Conn Iggulden is the author of Genghis: Birth of an Empire, the first novel in the series, as well as the Emperor novels, which chronicle the life of Julius Caesar: Emperor: The Gates of Rome, Emperor: The Death of Kings, Emperor: The Field of Swords, and Emperor: The Gods of War, all of which are available in paperback from Dell. He is also the co-author of the bestselling nonfiction work The Dangerous Book for Boys. He lives with his wife and three children in Hertfordshire, England.

The Kinds of Friends We Used to Be by Frances O'Roark Dowell

Frances O'Roark Dowell is the bestselling and critically acclaimed author of Dovey Coe, Where I'd Like to Be, The Secret Language of Girls, Chicken Boy, Phineas L. MacGuire...Erupts!,and Phineas L. MacGuire...Gets Slimed! A veteran Army brat, she spenther formative years moving hither and yonder, and is a former resident of Fort Hood, Texas, just like Elvis Presley/ She lives with her husband and two sons in Durham, North Carolina.

The Yankee Years by Joe Torre

Joe Torre is the most successful–and most respected–baseball manager of the modern era, steering the Yankees to six American League pennants and four World Series championships.

Sima's Undergarments for Women by Ilana Stanger-Ross

lana Stanger-Ross grew up in Brooklyn. She holds an undergraduate degree from Barnard College and an MFA from Temple University. She is currently a student midwife on the University of British Columbia faculty of medicine. She has received several prizes for her fiction, including a Timothy Findley Fellowship, and her work has been published in Bellevue Literary Review, Lilith magazine, The Globe and Mail, and The Walrus magazine, among others.

The Heretic Queen by Michele Moran

MICHELLE MORAN is the author of the national bestselling novel Nefertiti. She lives in California with her husband and a garden of more than two hundred roses.

Twilight Hour by Carol Smith

Carol Smith lives in the UK.

Bright Futures by Stuart M. Kaminsky

Stuart M. Kaminsky is the author of more than 60 novels and an Edgar Award winner who has been given the coveted Grand Master Award by the Mystery Writers of America. In addition to his Lew Fonesca series (for which the Sarasota Convention and Visitors Bureau has officially recognized him as “The Voice of Sarasota”), Kaminsky is also the creator of the critically acclaimed Inspector Rostinkov, Toby Peters, and Abe Lieberman mystery series. He resides with his family naturally enough, in Florida.

I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass

Julia Glass is the author of Three Junes, which one the National Book Award for Fiction, and The Whole World Over. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Her short fiction has won several prizes, including the Tobias Wolff Award and the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society Medal for the Best Novella. She lives with her family in Massachusetts.

The World According to Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith

Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the huge international phenomenon The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series and The Sunday Philosophy Club series. He was born in what is now known as Zimbabwe and was a law professor at the University of Botswana and at Edinburgh University. He lives in Scotland.

Flight by Sherman Alexie

Robert Burleigh lives in Chicago, Illinois and has written many children's books.

Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh

AMITAV GHOSH is the internationally bestselling author of many works of fiction and nonfiction, including The Glass Palace, and is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes. Ghosh divides his time between Kolkata and Goa, India, and Brooklyn, New York.

The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin

Ariana Franklin is the pen name of British writer Diana Norman. A former journalist, Norman has written several critically acclaimed biographies and historical novels.

Greasing the Pinata by Tim Maleeny

Tim Maleeny is the Macavity Award-winning author of Stealing The Dragon, a novel Lee Child called “a perfect thriller debut” that was named a “Killer Book” by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.

First Family by David Baldacci

David Baldacci lives with his family in Virginia. He and his wife have founded the Wish You Well Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting literacy efforts across America.

Misery by Stephen King

STEPHEN KING is a prolific and perennially bestselling author and an recognized master of the horror genre. He was the 2003 recipient of The National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

The Book of Unholy Mischief by Elle Newmark

Elle Newmark is an award-winning writer whose books are inspired by her travels. She and her husband live in the hills north of San Diego.

Some Day This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron

PETER CAMERON is the author of several novels, including Andorra and The Weekend. He lives in New York City.

Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation M.T. Anderson

M. T. Anderson is the author of several novels for Young Adults, including THE ASTONISHING LIFE OF OCTAVIAN NOTHING, a National Book Award Winner and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist; FEED, a National Book Award Finalist and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and two darkly entertaining novels (THIRSTY and BURGER WUSS). M.T. Anderson is the author of several notable picture books, including THE SERPENT CAME TO GLOUCESTER, illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline; ME ALL ALONE AT THE END OF THE WORLD, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes; and a picture book biography, HANDEL WHO KNEW WHAT HE LIKED, also illustrated by Kevin Hawkes. The author teaches at Vermont College's MFA Program in Writing for Children and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Another Country by James Baldwin

James Baldwin (1924-1987) was educated in New York. He is the author of more than twenty works of fiction and nonfiction, including Go Tell It on the Mountain, Notes of a Native Son, Another Country, and Blues for Mister Charlie. He has received many awards including the Eugene F. Saxon Memorial Trust Award, a Rosenwald Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Partisan Review Fellowship, and a Ford Foundation grant. He was made a Commander of the Legion of Honor in 1986.

Defiance by Nechama Tec

Nechama Tec is Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut, Stamford. She is the author of six books, including In the Lion's Den: The Life of Oswald Rufeisen, the winner of the 1990 Christopher Award, When Light Pierced the Darkness, and Dry Tears, a memoir of her experiences during the years of the Nazi occupation of Poland.

The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman

Pulitzer Prize-winning classic.

The Snake Stone by Jason Goodwon

Jason Goodwin is the author of The Janissary Tree and Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire among other books of nonfiction.

The Visible World by Mark Slouka

Mark Slouka is the child of Czech immigrants himself, and draws on his personal experience and the inevitable intrusions of the past on the present. He is the author of the novel God’s Fool, named a Best Book of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle, the short story collection Lost Lake, a New York Times Notable Book in 1998, and the nonfiction work War of the Worlds. Three of his essays have been selected for inclusion in The Best American Essays, and his short story “The Woodcarvers Tale” won the National Magazine Award for fiction. He is a contributing editor at Harper’s Magazine, and is currently the director for the writing program at the University of Chicago.

To Siberia by Per Petterson

Per Petterson won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for his novel Out Stealing Horses, which has been translated into more than thirty languages and was named a Best Book of 2007 by The New York Times.

In the Belly of the Bloodhound by L.A. Meyer

L. A. MEYER is the author of the Bloody Jack Adventures series, which has been praised for its spirited heroine and rousing sense of adventure. Mr. Meyer lives in Corea, Maine.

Joe and Marilyn by Roger Kahn

Roger Kahn is the award-winning author of The Boys of Summer, the classic bestseller about Jackie Robinson, the Dodgers and growing up in Brooklyn. He is the author of many other books whose subjects range from baseball to political activism, including Joe & Marilyn: A Memory of Love about the courtship and marriage of Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe and A Flame of Pure Fire, A New York Times Notable Book of the Year 1999 about boxing great Jack Dempsey.