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This summer's audio answer to excursion aversion
REVIEWS BY SUKEY HOWARD You're off on a trip with the kids in the car, many the miles, few the true smiles. If that's been your vacation experience, you need to stock up on audiobooks -- the storytelling medium that beats the tedium.
Family classics They're entertaining, educational, and when read by celebrated actors, the perfect companions for vacation traveling. A new series, launched last month, offers just such treasures; the first two are in stores now, with more on the way this fall. Leading the list is the remarkable Mark Twain, whose enduring American masterpieces are made even more appealing by Paul Newman and Jack Lemmon. Newman reads The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Lemmon, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. These skillful abridgments make great introductions to classic literature, and will whet kids' appetites for more. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the National Center for Family Literacy -- so everyone benefits.
By Mark Twain Simon & Schuster Audio, $18 ISBN 0671581090
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
A vampire bunny? Yes, indeed, after 20 years on the printed page, James Howe's beloved Bunnicula, that very rare hare, and his band of furry friends made their audio debut this spring and, happily, Bunnicula titles are multiplying -- well, like rabbits. Five audio presentations are available to delight the younger set (ages 6 and up), and charm older ears as well (mine included, and that's talking old, jaded ears!). All of them -- Bunnicula; Bunnicula Strikes Again!; The Celery Stalks at Midnight; Howliday Inn; and Nighty-Nightmare -- are unabridged and wonderfully read by Victor Garber. He gives Chester, the somewhat superior, always suspicious cat, the purrfect voice, and true canine character to Harold, the shaggy, chocolate-loving dog, and Howie, the dumb pup. Even if your kids have read the books, these trip-shortening tapes will hold their attention.
By James Howe Listening Library, $18 ISBN 0807281867
Bunnicula Strikes Again!
The Celery Stalks at Midnight
Howliday Inn
Nighty-Nightmare
Monster, Walter Dean Myers's award-winning book, is a winner again as an unabridged, full-cast audio presentation. Steve, a 16-year-old Harlem boy fascinated with filmmaking, is arrested as an accomplice in a drugstore shooting. Overwhelmed by the sudden reversal of his life, horrified by being in jail, and justifiably scarred, he turns his experience into a movie script, a scene-by-scene account of the trial and of his emotions. Very well done in every way, this is the kind of audio that will provoke discussion of real issues -- a great way to pass the time and pass along some important values.
By Walter Dean Myers Listening Library, $18 ISBN 080728257X
Both the horses and the humans in Jane Smiley's delightful novel, Horse Heaven, have yearnings, problems, and distinctive personalities -- some appealing, some appalling -- and don't be surprised if you like some of the four-leggers better than the two. Most of the action takes place at the track where these large, elegant animals are trained and traded, adored, and abused by their owners and handlers. Amidst the herd of colorful characters, we get to know five horses, three trainers, a shady vet, a billionaire owner and his perfectly manicured and mannered, but not perfectly happy wife, a lusty "animal communicator," who reads equine thoughts, and a small Jack Russell terrier who seems to read people's thoughts. Reader Mary Beth Hurt captures them all in her flawless, spirited performance. There's some romance, some adultery, some soul searching, and a happy ending -- this is, after all, heaven on the hoof.
By Jane Smiley Random House Audiobooks, $25.95 ISBN 0375415750
By Robert B. Parker BBD Audio, $29.95 ISBN 0553502468
The sinking of the Essex, a whaleship that set out from Nantucket for the far Pacific in the fall of 1819, was one of the best-known marine disasters of the 19th century, the real-life model for the climactic scene of Moby Dick, and a whaleman's worst nightmare. In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick is the scrupulously researched detailing of that disastrous wreck and of survival, against all odds. Twelve of the 20 "warm hearts" aboard died; all suffered the unspeakable torments of thirst, hunger, exposure and, finally, the dreaded "custom of the sea," because of their officers' fatally flawed decisions. Though it may boggle our 21st century minds, this true tale remains an utterly fascinating portrayal of human endurance and human error. It's brilliantly retold here and performed with seasoned excellence by Edward Hermann.
The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex By Nathaniel Philbrick Penguin Audio, $24.95 ISBN 0141802189
In the Fall is Jeffrey Lent's first novel, and it's extraordinary. Though it begins much as Cold Mountain (the debut bestseller to which it's invariably compared), with a battle-scarred soldier walking home at the end of the Civil War, In the Fall takes its uniquely American saga to the eve of the Depression, encompassing three generations, and three men -- father, son, and grandson -- whose fates are shadowed by their disquieting heritage. Norman Pelham, the Civil War veteran, came home with Leah, a former slave haunted by a bitter secret, and at the novel's end, their grandson, having exposed the secret, heads west with his distant cousin, an odd, passionate young woman from the North Carolina town where his grandmother was born -- the circle devastatingly complete. Stephen Lang's quietly intense reading underscores the immediacy of Lent's prose.
By Jeffrey Lent HarperAudio, $25 ISBN 0694522740
Sukey Howard reports on spoken word audio each month.
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Funny bunny
Provocative issues for the YA crowd
Horsing around
Robert B. Parker sends Spenser into an equine environment in Hugger Mugger. But here the emphasis is definitely on finding the perps and piecing together a complicated puzzle. Someone has been shooting horses at Three Fillies Stable in LaMar, Georgia, for no apparent reason, and wealthy owner Walter Clive would like our Boston-based-brainy-bruiser to find out who it is. But, shortly after Spenser sets foot on Southern soil, Walter himself is shot and killed. With Penny, the youngest and smartest of Walter's three daughters controlling farm, funds, and family, Spenser is looking at a horse of a different color. Penny doesn't want his services, so he takes on the case for Walter's long-time mistress. Spenser, ever the droll, deadly detective, gets to the bottom of this sordid case, quipping all the way. Joe Mantegna doesn't have the Spenserian sound I'm used to hearing, but his style grows on you, and by the end I was ready for more.
Hell on the high seas
Dramatic debut