AudioFile - Find your next great audiobook
Get our Newsletter
blog post image
Robin's Roundup: February 9 New Audiobook Reviews

This week I noticed an impressive crop of nonfiction audiobooks reviewed. Thoughtful and powerful audiobooks on immigration, politics, abuse, and race give us the chance to listen to important and varied perspectives. We often see some of these complex topics handled in both nonfiction and fiction. Listeners usually have a specific preference—a factual account, or the same topic with imagined historical or emotional detail.  Here are some thoughts on audiobook pairs from our recent reviews.

It Occurs to Me that I Am America
Revolution Song

Russell Shorto’s new history REVOLUTION SONG takes a look at the American Revolution through the stories of six people. I’ll pair that with IT OCCURS TO ME THAT I AM AMERICA, a collection of short stories by Richard Russo, Joyce Carol Oates, Neil Gaiman, Lee Child, Mary Higgins Clark, and thirty other contemporary authors.

How Democracies Die
Munich

For another pair, I’ll put HOW DEMOCRACIES DIE  by Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt alongside MUNICH, Robert Harris’s novel of political history focusing on Neville Chamberlain’s meeting with Adolf Hitler in 1938.

So You Want To Talk About Race
Green

GREEN by Sam Graham-Felsen, is clearly inspired by the author’s background, but is also the story of two teen boys seeing the racial landscape of the 1990s. A counterpoint might be  SO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT RACE by Ijeoma Oluo, with an Earphones Award-performance  by Bahni Turpin. Olou presents real-life examples to illustrate complex concepts.

The Woman Who Smashed Codes
Dare Mighty Things

And one last pairing—and an easy one to make, since we have seen so many great (re)discovered histories of women’s roles in science, like HIDDEN FIGURES and RISE OF THE ROCKET GIRLS, and now the new audiobook THE WOMAN WHO SMASHED CODES, which is reviewed this week. Let’s pair that one with the young adult novel DARE MIGHTY THINGS by Heather Kaczynski.

Can you recommend some interesting duos from what you’ve been listening to?
Pairs: two identical, similar, or corresponding things that are matched for use together.

Share This
More From Audiofile
blog post image
Robin's Roundup: February 2 New Audiobook Reviews

Each February we're pleased to find a crop of new audiobooks that chronicle Black History  and celebrate lives of African Americans. Two important history titles in our

blog post image
Robin's Roundup: January 5 New Audiobook Reviews
2018 has roared into Maine with frigid temps and plenty of snow. This is great curl-up-and-read/listen weather. [gallery type="rectangular" ids="18028,18024"] Just what
blog post image
Tease: Pairing Up for the New Year
My niece (a smart cookie!) received a matching game for Christmas. All of her animal shapes in neat matching pairs made me think about how none of us like to be alone for New
blog post image
Thankful for Great Narrators
Last Thursday was Thanksgiving in the U.S. And as we have been thinking about all that we're thankful for, I'm reminded of how thankful I am for great stories, creative story
The latest audiobook reviews, right in your inbox.

Get our FREE Newsletter and discover a world of audiobooks.

envelope

AudioFile Newsletter

Let us recommend your next great audiobook!

No algorithms here!
We pick great audiobooks for you.
Sign up for our free newsletter with audiobook love from AudioFile editors.

If you are already with us, thank you! Just click X above.

×

Thank you for signing up.

×

Thanks!

Thank you for contacting us!

Our group will review and follow up within 72 hours.
Thanks for your interest!

Back Home ×

Thanks!

Thank you for signing up!

Our group will review and follow up soon.

Back Home ×