Boy, did you say a monthful!

It's Audio Month -- so listen up and listen in to something special. No "pick-of-the-month" again, just great examples of what's available in this marvelous medium that keeps you entertained, enlightened, and in-the-know, and can keep you company almost anywhere you go.

REVIEWS BY SUKEY HOWARD

Oh, Italia!

Under the Tuscan Sun, Frances Mayes's thoroughly charming, often wise, celebration cum memoir of renovating an abandoned villa in southern Tuscany is, to me, a perfect example of the pleasures of audio. I don't read much nonfiction, but I found this audio version as irresistible as the Tuscan countryside and lifestyle Ms. Mayes so fondly describes. As she reads in her gentle Georgia accent, you'll be transported to this ancient terraced land with its olive trees and Etruscan treasures, its fabulous wines and even more fabulous food, its warm, friendly people and unavoidable shysters (construction seems to share the same problems everywhere in our galaxy). Mayes's language is as lovely as the landscape she writes about: You can feel the warmth of the sun, smell the fresh herbs, taste the pasta with porcinis, and wonder at the transformation of this neglected old house into a beautiful, beloved home.


Hearing is believing

Fine fiction on audio is no rarity, but Gloria Naylor's new novel, The Men of Brewster Place, is one of those wonderful instances where hearing the words can be better than reading them. Brewster Place, a blind alley leading to a dead end -- physically and figuratively -- was the scene of Naylor's first literary triumph; her focus then was on the women, now it's on the men. Some are proud, some are pitiful, but, as Ben (who leads us through these stories) says, "every black man and every mother's child who found himself here hoped for better." They share poverty, violence, and despair, some living on the edge, some falling over it. Ms. Naylor's prose, powerful and poignant, creates enduring characters. Joe Morton, fast topping my list of best audio performers, gives a virtuoso performance that is equally powerful, lending more than just voice to the men of Brewster Place.


Disease-driven drama

Medical menace (now vying with lawyers-in-legal-combat for the top spot in the mystery/thriller hit parade) always plays well on audio. The Eleventh Plague, a doozy of a disaster drama, by John Baldwin and John S. Marr, epidemiologist and expert on emerging infections, is truly menacing. A brilliant virologist turned bio terrorist is playing games and having fun. First, it's fun at the expense of only a few lives, then the numbers jump to possible plague proportions -- plagues that reenact the ten horrors visited on the Egyptians in the book of Exodus. The only man who can spot and stop this weird serial killer is himself suspected by the FBI -- and that doesn't help the cause. The good thing, if you're a medical mystery maven, is that the perp may live to try again, and that means another hair-raising audio episode of disease-driven drama. With it, I hope, will come another performance by reader John Shea.


Put on your dancin' shoes

Listening to Molly Ivins read her columns and commentary on politics, politicos, and hypocriticos (she might consider that redundant) is just a tad better than reading them yourself. She's at her outrageous, refreshing, informed, opinionated, liberal best in this newest collection of reflections, You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You: Politics in the Clinton Years. The "Thems" what have been brought are the high and mighty mega-pols on both sides of the aisle, and the "Thems" they have to dance with are the mega-paid lobbyists and the corporate interests they represent. So it doesn't take a sackful of smarts to figure out that Ms. Ivins is strongly aggrieved (close to having a "wall-eyed, blue-bellied snit") by the dance and strongly in favor of campaign finance reform. But while that theme threads through the whole, she can't stop herself from commenting on the follies and foibles of the silly and shallow, the pompous, the vulgar, and the obscenely mean. Along the way Dole, Gingrich, Buchanan, Phil Graham, Rush (whom she tears Limbaugh from Limbaugh), and many more get dowsed with her devilish humor.


Like mother, like daughter

While we're laughing, how about a kooky crime caper, another mystery/thriller genre that's going gangbusters and translates into great audios? Carol Higgins Clark's latest, Twanged, targets foolish greed in the form of fiddle-snatching and stars the resourceful Regan Reilly, private detective par excellence and daughter of the well-known, best-selling mystery writer Nora Regan Reilly. (How art doth mirror life -- Carol Higgins Clark is the daughter of Mary Higgins Clark.) Regan, protecting rising country singer Brigid O'Neill from fanatic fans and her fabulous Irish fiddle from the clumsy "Dumb" and "Dumber" duo that lusts after it, brings another job to a happy ending. Carol Higgins Clark does herself proud as reader. No family feuds here -- her mother's most recent bestseller, You Belong to Me (Simon & Schuster Audio, $18, 3 hours, 0671580663), is a winner as always.


Pandora's audio box

The voluptuous voice of the vampire is back with the audio presentation of Anne Rice's Pandora, the first in her new series of chronicles of the undead. Janet McTeer reads, and her rich sensual sound is just what I would imagine for an ancient, elegant blood drinker. Pandora, the first vampire the magnificent Marius ever bestowed the "dark gift" to, was mentioned by Lestat (hope you don't need remedial vampire history). Here, she comes into her own with the intriguing tale of her mortal life as a young woman in Rome under Augustus Caesar and her escape to Antioch where she begins her multi-millennial adventures. Good history, great fun -- as we've come to expect from a "Vampirier" by Ms. Rice. Also available unabridged, read by Kate Reading (Random House Audiobooks, $34.95, 9.5 hours).


A love of language

This season, when you travel, avoid the vexations, vagaries, and vicissitudes of vacations -- just voice the vernacular. In other words, speak up and speak out in French, Spanish, German, Czech, Italian, Urdo, or Arabic. How? Get audio aid from the experts and learn while you listen -- in the car, on the train, on the plane, walking, working out, cooking in. There's a tutorial on tape to suit every need.

The Pimsleur Language Program is an audio-only approach. Using a unique system that mirrors the way the mind actually acquires language, Dr. Pimsleur's method teaches you to combine words and phrases as native speakers do. The basic program (Simon & Schuster Audio, $25, 4 hours each), available in French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish, is divided into eight 30-minute incremental, self-practice segments that will have you carrying on simple conversations at the end of just four hours. I can attest to the method; we practiced with Pimsleur before going to Mexico, and it was both an excellent refresher course for me and intro for my husband.

Compact Pimsleur Language Programs -- ten lessons on five cassettes (Simon & Schuster Audio, $95) -- are designed for those who wish to learn a less commonly studied language. The 22 languages covered include Albanian, Armenian, Cantonese, Haitian Creole, Lithuanian, and Twi. Count on the same sound techniques here that are used in the basic program. (Available at the end of June.)

Language/30 exhorts you to "Start Speaking Today," and to that end offers instruction based on a method developed for U.S. Government personnel and offers it in 33 languages -- from the expected French, German, Spanish, and Italian to Finnish, Farsi, Tagalog, Thai, and Turkish. The package includes two cassettes, approximately 100 minutes, stressing the phrases both business and pleasure travelers usually need, and a verbatim phrase book (Educational Services, $16.95 each). I've used the Language/30 programs for both Arabic and Czech with some success (the "some" I must admit is definitely my fault, not theirs) and can recommend the series.

Living Language, a longtime leader in language learning, has an array of formats to choose from. All-audio courses ($29.95, 6 hours), designed for "on the go" beginner learning, are available in French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

The same four languages are offered in the Fodor's Languages for Travelers series ($16.95) with two cassettes, 90 minutes in all, and a phrasebook arranged by subject.

If time is of the essence, tune in to one of the 14 foreign languages featured in the Fast and Easy series (Living Language, $10). This 60-minute survival program contains 300 essential words and phrases on one cassette. It's a painless quickie that might just get you through, at least you'll know how to say "hi," "good-bye," and "how much is it?"

Penton Overseas, another major producer of popular language learning audios, has a new "Three-in-one Survival Kit," available in French, German, Italian, Spanish (Latin American and European), and Tagalog, called Travel Talk ($14.95). Packages include a one-hour audio cassette that's divided into 18 quick, easy-to-follow lessons, a transcript of the cassette for reference, and a 250-page Lonely Planet phrasebook and two-way dictionary.

For more in-depth study, you can't go wrong with the Learn in Your Car series (Penton, $39.95, 9 hours). But here you must be willing to face the grammatical aspects of the language head on, with the drills that build skills. This three-level course challenges you with the expanding vocabulary and grammar that will allow you to improve your comprehension and conversation. Available in French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish.


Walkie-talkies for travelers

For years I've wondered why the wonderful walking guides I'd read and followed through the streets of Paris and London weren't available on tape. And, voila, here they are, audio-assisted tours that let you keep your eyes on the sights, not on the guidebook.

With Pariswalks, read by actress Gates McFadden and authors Sonia and Alison Landes, and Londonwalks, read by Jean Marsh, you'll be personally escorted on four intimate walks in the most historic and enchanting neighborhoods of each of these magnificent cities. These guides don't take you to the main attractions like the Eiffel Tower or the Tower of London; here, you're off the beaten track, wandering down narrow lanes and streets, in and out of courtyards and parks, finding new gems while hearing the history, stories, and scandals of each area and gazing at the architectural details that the narrators point out. Move at your own pace -- though each tour can be accomplished in two hours, you can slow it down, walk through museums, browse in shops, stop at a cafe or pub. All you need to do is click off the tape when you want a breather -- or an aperitif -- and click it on again when you're ready for more. Maps for each walk are included, so don't worry, you'll get lost only in your own thoughts.

    Pariswalks
    Londonwalks
    By Sonia and Alison Landes
    Penton Overseas, $18
    3 hours each

Sukey Howard reports on spoken word audio each month.

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