The Bright List

New York Times Discovers Audio Narrators— It's About Time!

 

"Gabra Zackman is a new kind of acting star: she is heard, but unheard-of.

"Ms. Zackman had classical training through the Shakespeare Theater of Washington, has worked in regional theaters for the last two decades and has had a sprinkling of appearances on television shows like “Law and Order.” Those performances, however, have brought neither fame nor fortune.

 

"Actors Today don't Just Read for the Part. Reading IS the Part,"

by Leslie Kaufman for New York Times

 

"Instead, like a growing number of actors, she has found steady employment as a reader in the booming world of audiobooks.

"In recent years, Ms. Zackman has recorded more than 200 titles, and she says she can now count on steady work of two books a month, earning $1,000 to $3,000 a book. The income helps her make the payments on her one-bedroom Manhattan apartment while giving her the freedom to travel around the country and perform..."

 

Continued here! 

Photo: Gabra Zackman in "Midsummer Night's Dream." 

Richard Kadrey's Epic, Butcher Bird, on Audio

Butcher Bird, by Richard Kadrey

It’s like a road trip through The Matrix into The Wizard of Oz— ending up at the The Sandman and Hellblazer.

I’m impressed that Kadrey just made me compare Butcher Bird to all my favorite action fantasy epics.

Protagonist Spyder, a San Francisco tattoo artist, is clairvoyantly infected by a demon with a power that lets him see other "Dominions" of angels and devils. He now must go looking through these Dominions for a set of lost books that will keep the worlds in balance.

Kadrey describes the coolest other-worldly creatures and scenes:

"People threw money at the Volt-Eater's feet after each demonstration of her electric skills. It made Spyder a little sad to see her. On any other night, she would have been the hands-down highlight... Tonight, however, the Volt Eater was just a pretty girl spitting watts, no more or less miraculous than Bible-quoting kittens or the lion-woman who'd just pronounced him both a fool and a hero."

Narrated by Jonathan Davis who also read Neil Stephenson's classic, Snow Crash.

--Aretha Bright

The Restaurant Critic Mom and the Anorexic Daughter — A Recovery Story Beyond Cliché

Hungry: A Mother and Daughter Fight Anorexia, by Sheila Himmel and Lisa Himmel

While Sheila Himmel was out reviewing restaurants for The San Jose Mercury News, and winning a James Beard award, her teenage daughter, Lisa was at home starving herself.

The irony was lost on neither of them.

Hungry is an examination of Lisa's eating disorders, anorexia and bulemia, from both of their viewpoints. Common explanations for anorexia like "perfectionist daughter, demanding mother, distant father," were all absent in the Himmel household.  Sheila and Lisa had to examine themselves on a very different level to find any kind of answer.

Not just a book for those with eating disorders, Hungry will appeal to any mother or daughter wanting to examine this complex relationship in their lives.

Narrated by Mia Chiaromonte, and Tamara Marston, sounding exactly like real-life mother and daughter.

--Willow Pennell

Yes, Sir—Rachel Kramer Bussel's Stories of Submission on Audio

Yes, Sir: Stories of Female Submission, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel

“As close as a Dom breathing against the back of your ear..."

--ThatWordChick, Amazon

Rachel Kramer Bussel has done it again. The reigning queen of feminist porn has brought together some of the hottest, most compelling stories of female submission. From BDSM virgins, to women who've been "in the life" for years, these stories of women who want to “shine on the bottom’s throne” will have you on your knees.

Don’t worry, no animals were harmed in the making of this book. As Bussel writes in her introduction, “These writers make clear just how much their characters get off when they say, ‘Yes, Sir.’”

You will listen to this book, sweet pea. (...Now what do you say?)

Narrated by Hooper Tillie who does an excellent job of keeping the moments real. 

--Willow Pennell

Feisty First Ladies—Taking the White House Beyond Expectations

Feisty First Ladies and Other Unforgettable White House Women, by Autumn Stevens

At some point in your education, you were probably asked to memorize a list of American presidents. But how much have you learned about their wives?

The FLOTUS has the eyes of the nation on her, as she fulfills her duties as wife-in-chief, but is usually promptly forgotten.

Feisty First Ladies has details and anecdotes about the First Ladies that will shock and surprise you. You’ve probably heard that Mary Todd Lincoln was “eccentric,” but did you know Julia Gardiner Tyler jokingly called herself "Queen of America" and would greet visiting dignitaries with a crown and a contingent of handmaidens?

There is so much entertaining trivia, and inspiring activism in the history of First Ladies, that it’s practically your patriotic duty to learn more.

Narrated by Dawn Harvey, our contest winner for narration of Sex and the Single Girl: The Unmarried Women's Guide to Men. Whatta  voice!

--Willow Pennell

The Day Nina Simone Stopped Singing - Al-Joundi's Masterpiece on Audio!

The Day Nina Simone Stopped Singing, by Darina Al-Joundi

"Born in Lebanon in 1968, Darina Al-Joundi came of age at the height of the Lebanese civil war. Her father initiated his three daughters into not only poetry and freedom of opinion, but alcohol, cigarettes, and erotic independence.

"By the time she reached her early twenties, she had held jobs ranging from TV actress to Red Cross worker, and had seen her native city bombed to oblivion. Al-Joundi's book reconstitutes the misadventures of her youth in a style that is at once heart-breaking and very funny."

—Nancy Huston, author of Fault Lines

 

Darina Al-Joundi grew up wild in secular Beirut: Baudelaire, Clockwork Orange, dancing all night, fine lovers and finer Bordeaux.

When her father died, she sang Nina Simone's "Sinnerman," per his last wish, instead of the suras of the Koran.

This did not go over so well with her surviving family.

Life turned violent. Bombs started falling in Lebanon's civil war, and fundamentalism took over secular communities. The rest of her family weren’t as liberal as her father had been, and Darina was forcibly placed in an insane asylum. 

Al-Joundi survived— and wrote this unforgettable memoir in exile in Paris.  She is legendary throughtout the Middle East as a performer, and best known in Europe and North America for her hit play by the same title as the book. 

Narrated by  Lameece Issaq, with complete panache. This is one of my favorite audio productions of the year!

Willow Pennell and Susie Bright

Erica Jong Does Time Travel, Shakespeare-Style. Shylock's Daughter on Audio!

Shylock’s Daughter: A Tale of Love in Venice, by Erica Jong

“Jong writes wonderfully in the language of the past, capturing its rhythm and vocabulary while adding a modern twist.

Jong the novelist is playful, sometimes bawdy— but Jong the poet also leaves her shimmery touch on this delightful fantasy.”

--Library Journal

A most excellent historical romance from the one and only Erica Jong; Shylock’s Daughter is my favorite of her novels.

Movie star Jessica Pruitt goes to Italy for the Venice film festival, and gets pulled back in time to the sixteenth century. She has an affair with a traveling, bi-sexual William Shakespeare, and inspires his Merchant of Venice, while being equally creatively inspired herself.

Full of sensuality and wit; at once fantastical and breathing, Jong brings Venice in its grandeur to life.

Narrated by Susan Varon, who memorably narrated Joan Didion's White Album.

Sex, Crime, Humor—and Paris. Scott Phillips is Back with the Rake.

Rake, by Scott Phillips

Rake, cad, roué, scoundrel. He's the man you love to hate-- or hate to love. The anti-hero of Rake, actor Crandall Taylor, is all these things. 

Scott Phillips, author of The Ice Harvest,  has set his latest thriller in Paris. His fox in the henhouse is Crandall, the lead villain of a trashy Santa Barbara-like soap opera which has flopped in the States, but is making it big in Europe.

Taylor moves to Paris to enjoy the life of a celebrity, and exploit his capital to make a film. But by "inhabiting his character," he's has made powerful enemies.

Written with striking immediacy, momentum, and knowing humor, Rake is modern noir at its caddish, loutish, suspenseful best.

Narrated by Christian Rummel,  who's narrated so many wonderful titles, from Jean Craighead George's Newbery-honored classic My Side of the Mountain, to Stephen King's Guns.

--Willow Pennell

Finding The Invisible Heart— The Only Love Story Ever Blurbed by Milton Friedman!

The Invisible Heart, by Russell Roberts

This has got to be the only romance ever endorsed by Milton Friedman— the thought of that alone made me open the pages.  —At first with a raised eyebrow, and then with  applause!

My professor friends are crazy about this book; that's how I found it. Everyone thinks THEY'RE the one of the two star-and money-crossed lovers.

Think there’s no throbbing passion in finance? Here’s a genius lesson in economics tucked inside a witty love story. 

Two lovers, a teacher of economics, and of English, verbally spar over the school year, illuminating free markets, how they work (and don't work) and their effects on the world.

Never obvious, the characters are well-drawn opposites that, yes, attract.

This is MIT’s bestselling non-textbook book today and I can see why; it’s marvelous. 

"A page-turning, well-written love story that also teaches an impressive amount of good economics."

--Milton Friedman, Nobel Laureate

 

Narrated by Kirby Heyborne, an Audible veteran who performed on Gone Girl: A Novel, and Cloud Atlas among many others.

-- Susie Bright and Willow Pennell

Before Sandman Slim, There Was: Kamikaze L'Amour. Richard Kadrey at His Best!

Kamikaze L’Amour, by Richard Kadrey

“As though some gorgeous Ballardian eco-catastrophe was rear-ended ba a Steve Erickson novel on its way to the Viper Room. Killer.”

--William Gibson

I’ve known Richard Kadrey since the early 80s, when he was one of the virtual reality, WELL, and WIRED pioneers. He's a longtime San Francisco artist who became celebrated for his popular Sandman Slim series.

Meet the young Kadrey, as I did: Kamikaze L'Amour is one of his first three novels that started it all. 

This novel is cyber-punk at its primitive vortex: The Amazon Jungle is growing North, consuming California. San Francisco is the last bastion of civilization. A famous rock star has faked his own death and is hiding in the City, where he meets a waitress, who believes she's calling the jungle North with its song.

Meanwhile, sinister forces  try to coax Mr. Rock God back into the spotlight—but to what end?

Kadrey's work is entirely original. —"Like alley cats and razor blades at a million decibals over a tense candomblé backbeat."

His story, the heart of the Kamikaze, finds the emotional core of future dystopia. 

Narrated By Kevin T. Collins, who narrated To Repair the World: Paul Farmer Speaks to the Next Generation.

--Susie Bright and Willow Pennell