FIGURING

It's difficult to imagine a better narrator than Natascha McElhone for this exploration of how art, music, writing, science, and love intersect across time and space, folding in on themselves and changing our worldviews and self-images. McElhone's soft voice and poetic cadence guide listeners into the personal and professional lives of groundbreaking women such as astronomer Maria Mitchell, poet Emily Dickinson, physicist Marie Curie, and marine biologist Rachel Carson--as well as several men who befriended or influenced them. McElhone's nonjudgmental, sensitive performance bolsters empathy for these brilliant women, and others like them, who bucked societal expectations with their careers and personal lives. Listeners may want to approach this captivating audiobook a track at a time to better absorb its ideas and connections. C.B.L. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2019]