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“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation,” Thoreau famously observed. He made that comment in WALDEN (1854), which describes his two years secluded in a log cabin near Walden Pond in Massachusetts. Here that work is paired with CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE (1849, original title: RESISTANCE TO CIVIL GOVERNMENT), which sets forth a theory of citizen resistance to evil governance,... Read More

Rupert Degas conveys the suspense in the third adventure of Skulduggery Pleasant. Stymied by multiple murders in his magical community, Skulduggery and his friend Valkyrie race the clock to foil a dangerous cabal. Degas combines skillful characterizations with nuanced narration in a thrilling performance. He assigns each character a unique identity with accents, pitch, and... Read More

About two-thirds of the way through THE AMERICAN FUTURE, the vast mosaic starts to come together. All the stories of people and movements begin to form a portrait of America at the time of the election of 2008. The account involves an enormous cast of characters, and Rupert Degas manages to give each one a personal presence. His American accents are subtle (sometimes a bit more... Read More

While hardly "essential," this small but sensible selection of the British Nobel winner's work through WWI receives top-notch readings. The pieces, which include poetry, short stories, and even correspondence, run in a rough chronological order that gives a sense of progression. Only the story "The Mark of the Beast," which also has a different sound quality, seems discordantly... Read More

Sherlock Holmes fans will appreciate this examination of the famous detective's creator, Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). It begins with a biographical sketch of Conan Doyle, a Scot educated in medicine at the University of Edinburgh. Holmes was his most celebrated creation by far, a fact that was more irritating than pleasing to Conan Doyle, whose prolific output included a... Read More

McCarthy's highly praised story of a father and son on the run in a postapocalyptic America is compelling and unsettling. Rupert Degas’s narration hits a rhythm and stride that drive the novel forward, engrossing the listener and keeping the stark setting in high relief. He ably portrays the purity and innocence of the boy and the desperation of the father who aims to protect... Read More

The unnamed hero of Haruki Murakami’s sixth novel is a somber, lonely writer whose dreams call him back to a run-down Sapporo hotel where he once lived. But when he tracks down the hotel, he finds a newly refurbished luxury high-rise. He falls for the receptionist, becomes guardian to a clairvoyant teen, and is transported to a haunted hallway, all while trying to solve a... Read More

Skeleton-sleuth Skulduggery Pleasant and his 13-year-old partner-in-mystery, Valkyrie Cain, are back to save the world for a second time. This time they face a diverse cast of villains--from a sorcerer rated “11 on the 10-point Evil Villain Scale” to a battalion of vampires. Rupert Degas uniquely characterizes each villain, creating chills with gravelly and whispery voices.... Read More

This production is exactly the reason young adult fantasy fare can work so well as audio entertainment. Narrator Rupert Degas will be known to fans of Philip Pullman as Pantalaimon in the audios of His Dark Materials, and he does a bang-up job here as well. This is dark comic fantasy, and Degas’s timing and complete grasp of the main character’s personality couldn’t be better.... Read More

Published in 2002 in Japan, these six stories center around the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Contrary to what listeners have come to expect from Americans writing about disasters close to home, there's little if any shock value here. Everything is extremely subtle, and almost nothing is resolved: the bored wife glued to the television and the child haunted by the Earthquake Man remain... Read More

Toru Okada is a friendly, easy-going fellow, but his life is foundering. After quitting his job, he loses his cat, then his wife. Strange people pop inexplicably into his life, complicating his story with their own. Is it possible these mean something? Narrator Rupert Degas juggles this rich layering of stories into a kind of clarity, if not exactly meaning--though meaning is... Read More

In this quirky novel from Japan, the unnamed 30-something narrator goes searching for his hidden friend, The Rat, and a magic sheep seemingly bent on world domination. Part satire, part mystery, the book dwells mostly on the protagonist's ruminations on personalities, events, and milieu. The British audio publisher has cast an American reader. Rupert Degas sounds like a likable... Read More

Living in an Irish village and raising her young nephew, Luke, isn't what interior designer Elizabeth Egan imagined, but she accepts her fate--until she meets Luke's not so imaginary friend, Ivan, and everything changes! Resonant with the charm and melancholy of Ireland, Susan Lynch's characterization is the strongest aspect of her reading, and her interpretation of rigid,... Read More

Holly and her husband, Gerry, would joke about leaving each other a list of things to do to help them move on if one of them passed away. When Gerry dies, Holly is amazed to find that he actually did make her a list. Each month he has left an envelope with instructions for a task that helps get her back into the world. Victoria Smurfit gives Holly an expressive Irish voice that... Read More