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| The Thread's Must Read |
Two Audiobooks for Fall Listening
I recently got drawn into the whole “is it reading when you’re listening” debate about audiobooks, again. I thought I’d put this to bed a few years ago, but every now and then a purist asserts that your eyes must have traveled the page to count as having read a book.
Nonsense! If you’ve engaged with the writer’s imagination, you’ve read the book!
With that settled, again, here are two must-listen nonfiction audiobooks that I love.
This is going to sound odd, but I think the only way I could’ve read this book was to listen to it. I just can’t imagine sitting in a half-lit room, next to a dark window — which is how I do much of my reading — and absorbing the tension and the violence and the sorrow in the late Michelle McNamara’s “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer.” McNamara died suddenly while she was researching the book.
Gabra Zackman, who reads the audio book, has a narrative tone that is straightforward and restrained as she reveals the horrors of the crime spree the Golden State killer committed over more than a decade and draws us in to McNamara’s obsession with the details of the investigation. Actor Patton Oswalt, who was married to McNamara, narrates the afterword, and thriller writer Gillian Flynn narrates the introduction.
Then, when you’ve finished the true crime audiobook, turn quickly to Lindy West’s “you can’t make this stuff up” audiobook of “Shrill.”
I’m immersed in all-things-Lindy at the moment. She’s coming to Talking Volumes in mid-November, and I love her voice — whether it’s on the page or in my ear. There’s nothing like listening to rapier-sharp social commentary in a voice that is delicious and light and anything but shrill.
-Kerri Miller |
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| | | Talking Volumes 2019 season guide |
MPR and the Star Tribune are proud to announce the 20th season of Talking Volumes. This season will feature interviews with Alice Hoffman, Saeed Jones, Tim O’Brien, Karen Armstrong, Lindy West and Tracy K. Smith.
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