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One size does not fit all: the long and short of it
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REVIEWS BY SUKEY HOWARD
By John Irving Random House AudioBooks, $49.95 ISBN 037540290X
By Frank McCourt Simon & Schuster Audio, $50 ISBN 067158037X
By Billie Letts Brilliance, $24.95 ISBN 1567400566
The Dark Tower series is Stephen King's foray into the fantastical, wherein Roland of Gilead, "The Last Gunslinger," struggles against awesome odds to reach the elusive Tower. Repackaged and read by Frank Muller, it is offered in three volumes of incremental lengths: The Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger is six hours, The Dark Tower 2: The Drawing of Three is 12, and The Dark Tower 3: The Wastelands is 16. King-craver-autumn-alert -- Bag of Bones, the hot new Stephen King blockbuster, will be out in September.
By Stephen King Penguin Audiobooks, $25.95 ISBN 0140867163
The Dark Tower 2: The Drawing of Three
The Dark Tower 3: The Wastelands
Bag of Bones
Short but not so sweet Sounds Like Murder, a new series of mystery stories -- all original, unabridged, and approximately two hours long -- offers six titles that will keep you on the edge of your seat, be it car, plane, train, or otherwise. Each story is by an acclaimed mystery writer, including Ed McBain, June Thomson, Peter Lovesey, Christopher Newman, Stephen Solomita, and S.J. Rozan.
By Various Authors Random House AudioBooks, $12.95 each Listen up, Civil War buffs Three fascinating and quite different novels set during and after the Civil War make outstanding audios. The Last Full Measure, Jeff Shaara's concluding work in the trilogy that began with his father's classic, The Killer Angels, follows the War to its end through the eyes and thoughts and hopes of Robert E. Lee, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, and Ulysses S. Grant. Powerful, moving, and elegantly narrated by Stephen Lang.
By Jeff Shaara Random House AudioBooks, $25.95 6 hours ISBN 0375403094
By Kaye Gibbons Simon & Schuster Audio, $23 4.5 hours ISBN 0671573012
Jacob's Ladder: A Story of Virginia During the War by Donald McCaig is an epic tale of the "shame and glory" of the Confederacy. There's a big cast of characters, white and black, master and slave, good and bad, honorable and despicable, their lives intertwined. McCaig's grasp of historical detail allows him to move with ease from the bloodied battlefields of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville to Richmond's elegant salons, from plantation slave quarters to Bahamian banquets. Performer Ira Claffey's wonderful range of accents, timbres, and cadences allows us to hear each character's unique personality.
A Story of Virginia During the War By Donald McCaig Audio Renaissance, $24.95 6 hours ISBN 1559275081
The wave of patriotism, the fervor on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line, is no where better documented than in the actual words of men who left their homes to fight. Voices of the Civil War: Soldier Life, Letters Home and Journals of the War lets you hear these young men who went to war without an inkling of what lay ahead, who fought, were injured and scarred by what they saw and endured. This full cast rendering captures the intensity, the range of feelings from anguish and despair to the laughter and joy of camaraderie and triumph.
Soldier Life, Letters Home and Journals of the War Time Warner AudioBooks, $12 90 minutes The medium to beat the tedium There's nothing like an interesting audio to take the "Mommy, are we there yet" out of travel -- so if you're packing the kids in the car for a late summer jaunt, don't be caught tapeless! Dominic, William Steig's tale of the sweet dog who sets off on a trip to nowhere and finds adventures everywhere, is a modern classic that continues to delight.
By William Steig Listening Library, $16.98 3 hours, Ages 8 and up ISBN 0807278939
By Marguerite Henry BDD Audio, $18.99 3.5 hours, Ages 9 and up ISBN 055347829X
Redwall, a great mouse epic in three parts follows the good defenders of Redwall Abbey as they battle the wrath of Cluny the Scourge and his minions. Performed here by author Brian Jacques and a full cast: Redwall: Book One, Book Two, Book Three.
By Brian Jacques Listening Library, $19.95 All ages ISBN 0807278408
Book Two, $19.95
Book Three, $15.95
Sukey Howard reports on spoken word audio each month.
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Support your 
If a lengthy listen suits your mood, settle back and let the stories unfold. John Irving's new novel, A Widow for One Year, is perhaps his most appealing post-"Garp" effort. And it's all here
in a 24-hour-plus presentation read by George Guidall.
Even if you've read Angela's Ashes, and especially if you haven't, this may be
the right time to listen to Frank McCourt's brogue-brushed, full-length, 15-hour
reading of his best-selling memoir. It's an audio gem.
Billie Letts's sadly sweet new novel, The Honk and Holler Opening Soon, is a delight, made even more so by Dick Hill's
fine performance in this full-length, nine-hour presentation. The odd group of
characters we meet at this roadside cafe in Oklahoma -- a wheelchair-bound
Vietnam vet, a young Crow woman drifting nowhere, a lonely middle-aged widow, a
Vietnamese refugee, a three-legged dog -- all suffer with their own particular
pain and loss. Yet, with a little help from their friends, each one gets by and
gets better. Only the coldest of hearts won't be warmed and touched.
In On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon, Kaye Gibbons's most recent work, Emma Garnet tells her life story with the kind of compelling, low-key eloquence that rings true and resonates in your heart. Raised in privilege on a James River plantation, yet deeply aware of the injustice of slavery, she becomes the wife of a Boston-bred surgeon in Raleigh. As Emma Garnet grows older, she grows stronger, more emboldened to try to right the wrongs she sees around her. Gibbons has created a truly memorable woman, and Polly Holliday, who reads, has given her a memorable voice.
Marguerite Henry's King of the Wind, the classic horse story that has enraptured children for 50 years, will thrill listeners anew as David McCallum reads.