The Night Circus
By Erin Morgenstern, read by Jim Dale, Random House, 13.5 hours on 11 CDs, unabridged, $51
In this highly hyped debut novel, two young magicians, Celia and Marco, compete in an elaborate game set against the backdrop of the mysterious, black-and-white-striped Cirque des Rêves. Their masters and mentors, who set up the contest, await the results, and the relationship between the two youngsters deepens. But neither realizes that the conclusion of the game could well be tragic.
Don Quixote
By Miguel de Cervantes, translated by John Ormsby, revised and updated by Roy McMillan, read by Roy McMillan, Naxos, 36 hours on 29 CDs, unabridged, $139.99
Thought by many to be the best novel ever written, Don Quixote was published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615. The tale of the old man who is driven mad by books of chivalry, who sets out on adventurous journeys to right wrongs and rescue the oppressed, was an instant success and has been published countless times in virtually every language.
Flash and Bones
By Kathy Reichs, read by Linda Emond, Simon & Schuster, 8 hours on 7 CDs, abridged, $34.99
As Race Week begins, a body is found in a barrel of asphalt buried near North Carolina’s Charlotte Motor Speedway. Forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan is called in to identify the remains, but the next day, a NASCAR crew member shows up to tell the story of his sister, an aspiring racer who disappeared 12 years before along with her boyfriend. Could the newly discovered body be hers?
How to Win Friends and Influence People
By Dale Carnegie, read by Andrew MacMillan, Simon & Schuster, 8 hours on 10 CDs, abridged, $56.99
The 75th-anniversary edition of the first self-help bestseller, which many people believe is still among the best. Good, commonsensical advice on how to make people like you, how to win people to your way of thinking, how to get the job you want, how to improve the job you have and how to make any situation work for you.
The Last Werewolf
By Glen Duncan, read by Robin Sachs, Random House, 11.5 hours on 9 CDs, unabridged, $45
Jake is 200 years old and about to turn 201 – the youthful-looking product of non-stop sex and exercise and a diet of red meat – but he’s wondering if it’s all worthwhile. He’s the last of his kind, and he’s seriously contemplating suicide. But two powerful forces are determined to keep him alive, and not for his benefit.
A Shropshire Lad
By A.E. Housman, read by Samuel West, Naxos, 1.1 hours on 1 CD, unabridged, $13.99
Self-published by the poet in 1896, the A Shropshire Lad took a while to find its audience. But its nostalgic recreation of idyllic rural settings, and its stories of young men dying early, struck a chord in Britain during the Boer War and the First World War, and the book became a bestseller.
The Greater Journey
Americans in Paris, by David McCullough, read by Edward Herrmann and David McCullough, 17 hours on 16 CDs, unabridged, $56.99
As Pulitzer-winning historian McCullough says, “Not all pioneers went west.” Thousands of ambitious and adventurous young Americans – artists, writers, architects, students, doctors and even politicians – journeyed to Paris between 1830 and 1900, hoping to expand their horizons and advance their careers.
Grand Pursuit
The Story of Economic Genius, by Sylvia Nasar, read by Ann Twomey and John Bedford Lloyd, 20 hours on 16 CDs, unabridged, $56.99
Nasar (A Beautiful Mind) tackles nothing less than the history of how the study and application of economics has improved the lot of humankind. Beginning with Charles Dickens and Henry Mayhew reporting on the conditions of London’s poor, it continues through the efforts of Marx, Engels and others to put their insights into action, and goes on to modern economists such as John Maynard Keynes, Milton Friedman and Nobel-winning Amartya Sen.
Robopocalypse
By Daniel H. Wilson, read by Mike Chamberlain, Random House, 12.5 hours on 10 CDs, unabridged, $45
The computer that goes out of control and attacks humans is an old trope, but Wilson puts a new spin on it by having the computer networks of the world meld into the personality of one shy boy, Archos, who is silently taking over the systems that run the world’s affairs.
A Dance with Dragons
A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five, by George R.R. Martin, read by Roy Dotrice, Random House, 49 hours on 38 CDs, unabridged, $80
Once again, the future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance as bitter conflicts spread, lovers and friends betray one another, and apparently insurmountable obstacles present themselves.
H.J. Kirchhoff is deputy Books editor for The Globe and Mail.
