Occasionally, a book is better in print than on tape, no matter how expert the reader. Moore's youthful, androgynous voice is perfect for the teenaged diarist in O'Brien's remarkable Doomsday novel. But the book, grimly fascinating on the page, reveals distracting weaknesses read aloud. Its formal prose (using no contractions) becomes awkward and stilted. And an important element--the narrator's gender is not revealed at first--is spoiled, not by the performance, but by the packaging; Christina Moore's name, and the cover illustration, give away the secret. Still, Moore's well-crafted performance and O'Brien's moving, suspenseful story go far to make up for these flaws. This is good for car trips--the plot will enthrall adults, as well as teens. S.P. © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
Reading a novel is kind of a strange experience: there are voices in your head telling you a story, often pretending you’re there in the room with them—or, even stranger, pretending that you are inside their minds. Books in the form of a diary are much less strange to contemplate: it’s perfectly reasonable to imagine you’ve picked […]
These days it’s generally accepted that if you create a popular character or series of novels, someone will helpfully step in to write more of them for you after you die. Robert Ludlum only wrote three Bourne novels in his lifetime, but Eric Van Lustbader has written nine more, with the tenth on the way. No […]
We love summer movies (air conditioning was made for darkened movie theaters), but we especially love summer movies when they bring our favorite books to life. Here are the adaptations we can’t wait to watch this summer.