by Barbara Nevins Taylor
Researchers used brain scans to see if we process information differently when we read compared to when we listen to the same material. A 2019 study by University of California researchers Fatma Deniz and Jack Gallant, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, found that we absorb information much the same when we read as when we listen. They wrote,”…the semantic representations evoked by listening versus reading are almost identical.”
But my brain uses another factor when I listen to an audiobook. The voices of the narrators change the book equation for me. I find it difficult to listen to many narrators, even some of those who are extremely popular. So it takes me a long time to find books that are well-written, tell a good story and are narrated by a voice that my brain accepts.
These are few of the recent books that I think make great audiobook listening for summer 2023.
I discovered Five Decembers by James Kestrel and narrated by Edoardo Ballerini because I generally like Ballerini’s narration. The story begins during Thanksgiving weekend 1941, just before Pearl Harbor. Honolulu police detective Joe McGrady gets a call about the murders of a man and woman gutted and hanging upside down in a barn. At the request of Admiral Husband H. Kimmel, commander of the Pacific Fleet, he follows the trail of the killer across the Pacific to Hong Kong and then Japan. In the meantime, the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and McGrady, still hunting for the killer, is trapped in Asia. The book may remind you of Raymond Chandler noir, but it is so much more. The beautifully written story covers crime, corruption, politics, love and dedication. James Kestrel, according to the New York Times, is a pseudonym for horror and suspense writer Jonathan Moore. Five Decembers won the 2022 Edgar Award for Best Novel.
My Asian listening theme continued accidentally with On Java Road by Lawrence Osborne, narrated by Michael Obiora. This is a contemporary historical novel, set around 2019, that puts you in Hong Kong during the protests against the Chinese government. It is a detective story of sorts, told from the point of view of Adrian Gyle, an aged-out British journalist, who is trying to find a rich, young woman protestor who mysteriously disappeared. She was the lover of the billionaire college friend of Gyle and her activism jeopardized the political standing of the lover’s family and others in the Hong Kong elite. Gyle loves Hong Kong so much, or is so stuck, that he finds it difficult to leave and return to London even though his life may be in danger.
The Audible Original, The Angel of Rome by Jess Walter and narrated by Edoardo Ballerini, is a short story that will make you laugh out loud as you listen. Jack Rigel, a young American studying for the priesthood at the Vatican, accidentally wanders on to a film set in Rome. He becomes mesmerized by a beautiful woman on the set and then bumps into an American actor named Ronnie Tower. When Tower learns that Jack is learning Latin, he hires him to woo the woman on his behalf. But Jack speaks pigeon Latin and the results are hilarious. Ultimately, Jack becomes a screen doctor on the movie and it gets funnier.
The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz, narrated by Julia Whelan, is an intricately plotted story that uses humor to explore love, betrayal and family drama. While the themes are universal, the wealthy Oppenheimer family at the center of the story is very much a depiction of wealthy Jewish New York. A New York Times review of the book compares the story to one that Edith Wharton might have written about exclusive Christian New York in another century.
The story starts at Cornell University with an accident that will mark Salo Oppenheimer forever. He graduates from college, enters the family investment banking firm, and becomes a shrewd art collector. When Joanna stumbles into his life, she pursues him and they marry. After years of trying to have a baby, Joanna Oppenheimer convinces Salo to try in-vitro fertilization. The story sails into family life and our unnamed narrator tells us that almost from the moment of their birth the triplets born from this effort wanted nothing to do with each other. In the meantime, Salo becomes more and more remote burying himself in his art collection. The saga follows the family as the children grow up and there are hilarious send-ups of an elite, fabulously expensive socialist private school in Brooklyn Heights and a conservative think-tank and elite conservative college. The story ultimately comes to a head on Martha’s Vineyard, one of wealthy New York’s summer retreats. The book is fascinating, funny, touching, and I didn’t want it to end.
