Summer literary listening

(Cross-posting with Ana's Journal)

This has been a summer of audio books in the car. Our few trips to and from the "city" have found us all enthralled by well-read and captivating stories. It is not easy to find recordings capable of keeping the attention of listeners whose ages range from 5 to 19, but I list here three recent favorites we checked out from the public library:

Tales from Shakespeare, by Charles and Mary Lamb.
London, England ; New York, N.Y., USA : Penguin Audiobooks. Read by Alan Cumming, Nigel Davenport, Andrew Sachs, Juliet Stevenson. Retelling in prose of some of the most popular of Shakespeare's plays.
ISBN: 0140862803

The Lambs are the best in the retelling of Shakespeare in prose, and Number Six announced the other day her daughter will be named Miranda. Number Two, upon finding out The Tempest offers readers an unnusual Shakespearan happy ending, made sure to include it in her upcoming year's Brit Lit curriculum. (She has just finished reading the Greek Tragedies selection for the TAC summer program and is much eager for happier endings).

Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832)
New Millennium Audio; Abridged edition (December 2001), ISBN: 1590070070

You can't beat this excellent abridged version of a great story of intense action and romance! We have been listening to it every day as we drive the country roads between our acreage and swimming lessons. Many times we sit in the car finishing up a chapter...


Rabbit Hill (sound recording) by Robert Lawson. Unabridged. Narrated by Barbara Caruso.
Prince Frederick, MD : Recorded Books, p1995.
ISBN: 0788703846

My husband had read this aloud a few years ago but this time the younger kids enjoyed it with us. The descriptions of the vegetable garden are unequaled, and the climax of the story brings a heart-warming Catholic dimension to this delightful tale.

(Note: this is not the cover picture of the edition we listened to--I could not find a picture of the same cover. )

If you want to find a copy of any of these, I suggest you search either your local library or Amazon.com by the ISBN number included.