Mary Burkey's Reading List

"Mary: So this is a nonfiction title about 9/11. It’s snips of memoirs: just like Robin said, memoirs are very attractive as audiobooks because you feel like you’re hearing somebody’s personal story told to you over a cup of coffee. The Only Plane in the Sky is an amazing work that takes a nonfiction book and makes it even more immediate, and brings in that emotion. Robin: This book is incredibly powerful and important in many ways. The author calls it an oral history but, to me, it doesn’t become a real oral history until it’s an aural history. When I looked at the book in print I thought, ‘I can’t figure out how to get through this.’ It’s one sentence by one person and then another sentence by another person. They’re all identified and they’re talking about a particular time in the day, but I just couldn’t imagine reading it all with my eyes. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . Did you have that impression Mary? Mary: Absolutely. The other thing is that The Only Plane in the Sky has clips of the actual transcripts, the actual sounds from that moment in time. So it’s not only an oral history, as it’s subtitled, it’s also a documentary. It’s a social history that we can hear with our ears, in the way that it actually happened and in the way that the people in the book meant for it to be heard, those little individual snippets. It’s interesting to compare and contrast this Audiobook of the Year from the Audie Awards with Lincoln in the Bardo , which was the Audie Awards Audiobook of the Year in 2018. I tried to read Lincoln in the Bardo and it’s the same sort of thing, little snippets that are identified with footnotes. I couldn’t get through it reading it in print, but the audiobook is astounding. That’s another one where I don’t think the print book should exist anymore, only the audiobook. Mary: It’s a punch to the stomach listening to it. Robin: It’s very important and incredibly powerful and lasting. It’s a documentary that I think will be cherished as a record of an extraordinary time with actual comments from the real people that were involved."

"Mary: This book points to the lasting influence, throughout the whole history of audiobooks, of drama as audio. Like the recordings BBC Radio release of theatrical works, this type of performance has been there from the get-go, as Robin noted. Angels in America builds on that tradition of how audiobooks can bring stage plays into your home through the audio experience. Angels in America was a landmark, Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, and having it available on audio for everyone to experience in a different way—but in the out loud fashion that it was written for—is really important. We all know it’s different to read Shakespeare than to see Shakespeare, here you’re adding in hearing Shakespeare as a whole other level. That’s what you get with Angels in America, in my opinion. Robin: And we should add that while Angels in America was a finalist for Audiobook of the Year, it won in the Audie Awards 2020 Audio Drama category."

"Robin: Becoming was a finalist for Audiobook of the Year and won in the Audie Awards 2020 Autobiography and Memoir category. This is a case where you have to hear Michelle Obama read her story. She puts her whole emotional self into it. Robin: If they have the ability to stay with the emotional content, yes. But that’s not always easy, because a lot of the memoirs have some very tough parts to them. The author may have written a memoir and put it down on paper, but that’s not the same as being isolated in a booth and reliving it all again. Robin: Years ago, I interviewed Katharine Graham, who was the publisher of the Washington Post , about her memoir. She had done loads of interviews about her memoir, including TV interviews. She told me that the hardest part of any of that was recording some of the painful passages and chapters for the audiobook. It was as if she had to live it again. In a way, once she had put it down on paper, it was done, but narrating the audiobook brought it all back."

"Mary: One thing that’s great—even in these times where lots of audiobooks are coming out as simultaneous releases with new titles—is that publishers are also going back and revisiting classics that that are loved and cherished, like Charlotte’s Web . They’ve taken a book that many people treasure and know almost by heart and brought in not only a celebrity narrator like Meryl Streep, but also some of the very best audiobook narrators out there. This full cast production of Charlotte’s Web honours that cherished title with the very best of the best voices. It was also very nice having a title for younger children recognized as a truly stellar audiobook. Sometimes people think that audiobooks are to help kids learn to read, and not for them to fall in love with literature. But that’s what the audiobook recording of Charlotte’s Web does. It lets young kids and their parents revisit a beautiful title and fall in love with the book."

"Robin: Tom Hanks has a great voice. He did a great job. Mary: He really did. For me, personally, I have to say it’s not often that a celebrity narrator truly disappears into the book. It’s not a good thing when you hear a celebrity narrator like Tom Hanks, and the whole time all you can picture is Tom Hanks behind the mic, because then you don’t enter into the life of those characters. But when a celebrity narrator can disappear into the book, that’s when it belongs on that small shelf of truly amazing celebrity narrators. And that’s what Tom Hanks does in The Dutch House. Mary: I read an advanced reader copy of The Dutch House and I had my own voice in my head, because that’s what happens when you read it yourself. And then I thought, ‘I guess I should listen to Tom Hanks narrating it, because it’s been nominated for Audiobook of the Year.’ I sat down and listened and it was a whole other experience. There’s your personal voice in your head and then there’s how an audiobook brings a whole new way to experience a title. It’s a great book. Even if you’ve read it, go listen to it."

"Robin: Obviously the book is totally fascinating as a print book. What happened with the audiobook is that because of the Hulu adaptation, a lot of the actors who were in the Hulu program were used for the audiobook production. That puts The Testaments in a different category, in that it will probably attract people who might not have thought of trying the audiobook. They see the actors that they know from the Hulu series and think, ‘Wow, that sounds interesting. How would that be?’ So I think the audiobook of The Testaments really opened the door to new listeners with this production. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter Mary: Yes, and this brings to light one of the criteria for this category. When you have awards, you have to have criteria to help the judges pick out points of quality in audiobooks. The criteria for Audiobook of the Year are that it’s a title that not only will be a benchmark for excellence in production, but will also bring new listeners into the format. The idea of a celebrity narrator, or having the actors from the TV show that listeners can picture in their head as they listen, might make that first-time audiobook listener more comfortable with the format and hook them for life."

"I’m going to talk about this interesting new intersection between audiobooks and graphic novels, because it is a very interesting alignment. It’s not brand new. If you know The Invention of Hugo Cabret , that a big fat book that won the Caldecott Medal in 2008 for its illustrations—how do you change all those illustrations into sound? Years ago, the audiobook of it was incredible. It recreated the book. That same phenomenon is occurring now with full cast audiobooks that are made from graphic novels. “Especially if we’re going to be home together for a few weeks or months now, it’s good to have something to discuss with your teen.” Moving on to our winner this year, Hey, Kiddo is an amazing book. It won the Odyssey Award, which is given by the American Library Association for the best audiobook for children and teens—and it was originally a graphic memoir. The author worked with Scholastic Audio to recreate the book so that you could ‘hear’ the images with the full cast. One thing that’s also really appealing is that there are children’s voices doing children’s parts. A youth listener will strongly identify with those youth voices. There’s also a couple of other graphic novels/memoirs that have been turned into audiobooks with a full cast. Another one is New Kid , which won the Newbery Medal this year. I’ve done interviews over the years with the producers and narrators of books that have won the Odyssey Award, and many of them, oddly enough, are from books that have strong illustrations or graphic content. What many of them say is that having an image as well as words on a page really helps them round out the sound of the book because they can see it. They can portray it in sound even more."

"Mary: To me, Lovely War is one of those really strong representations of a multi-voiced production. It also is one of those crossover titles. As an adult, I loved it just as much as I think a teen would. It’s historical fiction, it includes those little cues of music because music is a strong component of the book. It lets you hear the cultural background of the characters. There’s just so many ways that it’s an amazing production, and one that’s for both teens and adults, in my opinion. Mary: Yes, it’s true. With your teenager you spend a lot of time in the car and audiobooks are a great way to discuss literature together. Especially if we’re going to be home together for a few weeks or months now, it’s good to have something to discuss with your teen. One cool thing about audiobooks is when you’re playing an audiobook nobody owns it. When a mom is reading a book or a dad is reading a book you can tell their opinion, they can start and stop, the kid is the receiver and the parent is in control. But when you’re a family listening to an audiobook all of you are on the same level. You’re all sitting in the storyteller circle and it just gives a different dynamic."

"Robin: Before we talk about On the Come Up , we should perhaps talk about The Hate U Give . That’s Angie Thomas’s book that is so well-known and was read by Bahni Turpin. It received loads of awards, both for the print and the audiobook. On the Come Up was certainly a very moving and strong book, but I’m not sure it was quite at the same level. Mary: As Robin says, The Hate U Give was one of those blockbuster books that connected with so many teens, no matter what their cultural background might have been. It let them see into another world and forged this super-strong connection with so many teens and adults. Sign up here for our newsletter featuring the best children’s and young adult books, as recommended by authors, teachers, librarians and, of course, kids. Replicating the same duo of author plus narrator—with Bahni Turpin again doing Angie Thomas’s book—there’s this nice alignment of an author-narrator team. That might bring continued listening by people who might not listen to every book in the world. So I think having that same team again makes a big difference. Robin: It certainly does, you can hold onto teen listeners with something like this. The two stories are not exactly related, I don’t believe. So it’s not as if you had have to listen to one or the other. It’s just that it’s a great combination of narrator plus author."

"Mary: This author, Elizabeth Acevedo, had another book about a year ago called The Poet X . The coolest thing about her books is that they are novels in verse. Hearing poetry as it’s written and spoken by the actual author brings it to an entire different level. She’s one of those authors where you cannot imagine anyone else narrating her book. She is one of those ‘own voices’, where you hear her culture, you hear everything. Robin: I completely agree. Both With the Fire on High and The Poet X are just spectacular listening for teens. Elizabeth is a performance artist, she writes in verse, she’s the whole deal. Mary: Robin, has she ever narrated anybody else’s books? I would love to hear her. Robin: Yes, she narrated Ibi Zoboi’s Pride, which we reviewed here . It’s a retelling of Pride and Prejudice ."

"Mary: We’ve been focusing on the Audie Awards, but I’d also like to mention resources from the American Library Association that recognise the best audiobooks of the year: ALSC’s Notable Children’s Recordings for children through age 14, YALSA’s Amazing Audiobooks for teens (from age 12 through adult titles with teen appeal), the Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production for children and teens, and the Listen List for adult audiobooks. Mary: I’m a former public librarian, so I would also send you to your public library where those titles are available for free. Mary: Many audiobooks aren’t even available now as a CD. That format is kind of last century. What’s really making the audiobook field boom is that we all have our phones in our pocket; those are audiobook listening tools. Libraries subscribe to many different services. You go to your library’s website, click on the service—whether it be Overdrive, Hoopla, or RBdigital—look for a title, and then download it to your device using your library card number. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . And, as a former school librarian, I’ll point out that many schools also offer free downloadable digital titles through their website, audiobooks included. There are long-established audiobook programs through educational and governmental sources that exist to serve those with disabilities, at no cost. Plus, you’ll find plenty of free classics for all ages on audio at Open Culture , Project Gutenberg , and Librivox . And if you are purchasing audiobook downloads, know that there are many suppliers—from mega vendors, to direct from publishers, to smaller companies that support indie bookstores. Robin: The other thing we should mention is that AudioFile Magazine runs a free summer program for teens, giving away two audiobooks per week. It starts April 30, and it’s completely free, so you definitely should sign up for that ."

"Robin: One I found really interesting is 200 Women . This is a series of interviews with 200 women around the world, from all different walks of life, many of whom I had never heard of. Some of them are people that you might know—celebrity chefs or politicians—but many of them are just women living in totally different kinds of circumstances. “I always like to use a seesaw analogy for audiobooks.” This team of New Zealand journalists and photographers went around the world and interviewed them and photographed them in place. It’s a fascinating program. There is an accompanying coffee table book with stunning photographs. This would definitely be a case where you’d want to look through the book as well as listen to these women answering questions. It’s a very interesting, very unusual book. Robin: It’s more like cultural commentary. The full title is 200 Women: Who Will Change the Way You See the World . They’re being asked exactly the same five questions. So you’ll be asked the same question as a woman who is herding goats in Afghanistan. It’s stunning. Mary: I think 200 Women is a good example of how many audiobooks today, especially the multi-voiced ones, have really strong appeal for podcast listeners. Podcasts are kind of the gateway drug to audiobooks. That whole idea of social history, finding out about a culture, little snippets, feels very comfortable to podcast listeners. This is a title that can bring podcast listeners into the audiobook fold."

"Mary: Oh my God, I love that book so much. That’s another one where the audiobook brings what’s written on the page so much more to life. It has many different characters telling the same story from different points of view, and you get to know the characters through how all of the other characters see them. It’s a perfect example of alignment in how the characters are portrayed and also the differences, by the way the emotional content comes through in the audiobook. Robin: It’s a great example of using so many narrators and getting the fun out of the book."

"Robin: Star Wars is a franchise that will never stop, including in audiobooks. Mary: I have served on a lot of different audiobook committees including the Notable Children’s Recordings. There is no deep dark secret about the deliberations of that particular committee: it’s open for people to come in and listen, so I’m not breaking any big secrets here. So I’ll just say that there was a Star Wars book, years ago, that made our Notable Children’s Recordings list. You might say to yourself, ‘ Star Wars, that’s not fine literature!’ But I always like to use a seesaw analogy for audiobooks. There can be a Pulitzer Prize-winning book that everyone recognizes as the finest literature, that gets a narrator who brings it down to not-so-good. The very best book in the world can have a terrible production and if you listen to it, you would think it was a terrible book. Conversely, there is the perfect balance. A lot of the time, that’s what the Audie Awards are going for: a book that is a great representative of its genre—because the Audie Awards have so many different genres: romance, business, etc—with perfect narration and audio representation. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . Then again, there are the occasional books that are not the world’s best literature, but the audiobook production makes that book sing and turns it into something that brings a smile to your face. And the Dooku: Jedi Lost Star Wars book, with the sounds of the light sabres and the absolute re-creation of those voices from the movies, just makes it a joy to listen to."

"Mary: Hey, Kiddo was a National Book Award finalist as a graphic memoir, recognising the literary power of Krosoczka’s personal story of his mother’s heroin addiction and childhood with alcoholic grandparents. It’s told from the point of view of Krosoczka at age 17, and teens forge an immediate connection with the author’s description of how his artistic talent helped him survive his upbringing. Krosoczka co-produced the audiobook with Scholastic Audio’s Paul Gagne, creating a labour of love where the work was literally rewritten and reshaped into a new aural work."

"Robin: It’s a spectacular production from the printed book. It was an incredible labour of love and meticulous care, with 45 actors and Holter Graham doing the surrounding narrative. The integration of all that material is extraordinary. Mary: It also points out to the large amount of teamwork that has to go into an audiobook. It’s different from a solitary author sitting down and writing words. An author does have an editor and a copyeditor and the same is true for an audiobook. Some audiobooks definitely display that quality production factor, that amazing sound quality, the editing. The producers are the hidden heroes of audiobooks."