\u2014Leo Lasdun, editorial production associate<\/p>\n
\u201cBrideshead Revisited<\/a>,\u201d by Evelyn Waugh, narrated by Jeremy Irons<\/p>\n Jeremy Irons puts his \u201cLion King\u201d voice-actor skills to impressive use in the audiobook version of \u201cBrideshead Revisited.\u201d Evelyn Waugh\u2019s story of a man navigating his way through an English Catholic family is beautifully and heartbreakingly rendered in prose, but listening to Irons perform it is something else. Having portrayed the book\u2019s narrator, Charles Ryder, in the wonderful 1981 TV serial, Irons uses his familiarity with the characters to full effect. He adds a certain airiness to his voice to become immediately recognizable as Sebastian, or a slight aloofness to embody Julia. One is carried along by that voice, which is soothingly smooth, and arresting in its beauty.<\/p>\n \u2014Lily Healey, senior developer<\/p>\n \u201cRiding the Elephant<\/a>,\u201d by Craig Ferguson, read by the author<\/p>\n The best audiobooks get you so tuned in you can anticipate when the performer will take a breath. An author who also performs his own work\u2014who writes for the ear and has the dexterity to be a captivating narrator\u2014is a special kind of entertainer. Craig Ferguson handles this dual challenge by guiding listeners from one laughing fit to the next, with his signature sounds-drunk delivery. He is generous with his callousness, but he matches his insults with a funny devotion to those whom he is insulting. Life, as the author describes it, is an elephant\u2014you don\u2019t really have any control if it runs off course. His skill as a performer and memoirist, high in spirited comedy and Scottish cursing, leaves the listener wondering whether the stampede of their own runaway elephant may one day be just another funny story.<\/p>\n \u2014Jasper Lo, senior fact checker<\/p>\n \u201cGideon the Ninth<\/a>,\u201d by Tamsyn Muir, narrated by Moira Quirk<\/p>\n Be warned of the first entry in Muir\u2019s \u201cLocked Tomb\u201d series, a set of sci-fi books about necromancers in space: the author drops you into the world with minimal explanation. But if you accept that you\u2019ll be confused at the beginning and go along for the ride, the ending is very rewarding. (Jesmyn Ward recommended the second book in the series in her recent list of books that bewilder<\/a>.) The reader, Moira Quirk, does an amazing job creating different character voices, making it possible for the listener to not just follow along but also to get fully invested. I found myself going out of my way to listen to it, instead of just having it on in the background during a commute or while taking care of chores.<\/p>\n \u2014Sara Nies, puzzles-and-games producer<\/p>\n \u201cThe Bonfire of the Vanities<\/a>,\u201d by Tom Wolfe, narrated by Joe Barrett<\/p>\n If you have an unfathomably long drive in your future, may I recommend using it to tackle Tom Wolfe\u2019s prescient epic \u201cThe Bonfire of the Vanities,\u201d which centers on a bond trader named Sherman McCoy. Joe Barrett\u2019s excellent narration is an ideal guide for Wolfe\u2019s rollicking racial and class drama, leading you through Park Avenue parties dotted with \u201csocial X-rays.\u201d He seamlessly toggles from the comforting voice of the omnipresent narrator to the guttural yelling of Wall Street\u2019s \u00e9lite. Barrett\u2019s timbre immerses you completely in the trenches of New York City in the nineteen-eighties\u2014and you won\u2019t soon forget what the character Maria Ruskin sounds like, as she screams \u201cShuh-man\u201d in her grating Southern accent, demoralizing our \u201cMaster of the Universe\u201d in the process. You\u2019ll hardly believe twenty-seven hours have passed.<\/p>\n \u2014Sigrid Dilley, associate managing editor<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s Pick<\/p>\n Illustration by Derek Abella<\/p>\n Sniffies Translates Cruising for the Digital Age<\/p>\n Dating apps have, over time, become their own form of labor, requiring attractive photographs, a clever bio, and hours of scrolling. Instead, cruising\u2014the search for impersonal sex in public places\u2014offers \u201cqualities of anonymity and spontaneity\u201d that feel particularly appealing in the digital era, Emily Witt writes. Enter Sniffies, accessible via the web, where users can log on anonymously and get a real-time sexual map of their neighborhood. Read the story \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n More Top Stories<\/p>\n How Bad Is It?<\/p>\n Columbia University settled with the Trump Administration over claims that the school had been discriminatory and had failed to protect Jewish students. It will pay more than $200 million, and, as part of the agreement, the government will unfreeze some of the school\u2019s federal funding.<\/p>\n Just how bad is it? \u201cDeals between the government and regulated entities, whether universities or companies, to settle legal investigations are common,\u201d Jeannie Suk Gersen, a New Yorker contributor and professor at Harvard Law School, told us over e-mail. \u201cBut this one resembles extortion. It began with the government announcing pre\u00ebmptive cutoff of funds to Columbia without even pretending to undertake the required legal process<\/a> to determine whether the university had violated civil-rights statutes. This agreement could set a precedent for regulating universities\u2014and who knows what other entities\u2014not by law but by shakedown.\u201d<\/p>\n Daily Cartoon<\/a><\/p>\n Cartoon by Roland High<\/p>\n Puzzles & Games<\/p>\n P.S. \u201cSouth Park\u201d premi\u00e8red its twenty-seventh season last night, days after its creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, finalized a $1.5-billion streaming deal with Paramount. The first episode, unsurprisingly, ruthlessly mocked the network\u2019s recent settlement with President Trump. Watch Bill Hader, who writes for \u201cSouth Park,\u201d talk about how some of the show\u2019s most incendiary jokes get created<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2014Leo Lasdun, editorial production associate \u201cBrideshead Revisited,\u201d by Evelyn Waugh, narrated by Jeremy Irons Jeremy Irons puts his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[3357,223,14487,88,28946,28945,28944,777],"class_list":{"0":"post-35132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-_sensitivecontent","9":"tag-books","10":"tag-disable-inline-signup-unit","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-onecolumnnarrow","13":"tag-textabovecentersmallwithrule","14":"tag-the-daily","15":"tag-web"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}