Diane

I really have enjoyed all of Michael Lewis's books and this one is no exception. Dylan Baker has a voice perfect for reading satirical books. His voice is perfect for encouraging you to laugh at the follies of humankind, including your own.

Powerful, thought provoking, and beautifully performed. You would have to be made of stone not to be moved by this book.

I received a copy of this book from my maiden great-aunt when I was 11. My aunt had bought it new in 1917. I loved it then, and I still do. The narrator, Venessa Maroney, has the various Yorkshire accents down perfectly. It was like time traveling back to Yorkshire a hundred years ago.

I really liked getting to know Justice Sotomayor a little. Her life is, and has been, very interesting. She managed to overcome a lot of obstacles a lesser person might have collapsed under. She is tremendously hard working and learned early to recognize her shortcomings and limitations and figure out a way to overcome them. Unlike many very successful people, she doesn't seem invested in being right all the time and therefore she sees what needs to be fixed and usually finds out a way to fix it.

The only reason I gave the performance a four star review instead of five is because I really liked hearing Justice Sotomayor's New York accent when she read the prologue. It sounded so earthy and real. Rita Moreno was good, but I wish she had used that New York accent instead of a neutral American accent.

I read Middlemarch for the first time twenty-five years ago. I remember the first 100 pages were a bit of a slog, but after that I was hooked. Since then I have read it again twice and listened to it twice. Juliet Stevenson is the only reader I have ever heard whose performance adds, rather than takes away from, the profound insights expressed by the omnipotent narrator into the minds of her characters and the vivid portrayal of time and place, (1830's England). To quote Virginia Woolf, Middlemarch is "the magnificent book that, with all its imperfections, is one of the few English novels written for grown-up people."

I love Juliet Stevenson's readings of Austen, George Elliot, and Charlotte Bronte, however I think Prunella Scales is the best by a nose as regards to "Emma". I listen to it about once every year or two, and always get something new out of it, in addition to the frequent laughs it provokes.

The story, the characters, (including the overall geographic character, L.A. County), and the issues are all important enough to engage your mind as well as your emotions. It's a funny satire, but unusually for that genre, it is warm and real and sympathetic. The performance by Frankie J. Alvarez was terrific. The book is written in English, but with a lot of Spanish, not all of it translated in the text. Nevertheless, Alverez is such a good voice actor that he communicates very well even if you don't understand and Spanish. I will look for him again the next time I'm looking for another Audible book.