Rent The Firebird

. . . and skillfully read.Im not really reviewing the book here. Thats been done very well by many others but I dont very often give 5 stars its two tales, each lovely, with a perfectly splendid surprise at the end. What Im reviewing is the audio version.I dont usually care for female narrators. I listen in my car, and perhaps thats why female voices usually seem difficult to hear, especially when a female narrator artificially lowers her voice as a male character. Initially, when I saw that The Firebird was narrated by a female, I thought Id read the book as I did The Winter Sea rather than listen to the audio.In this case, however, Im happy I listened rather than read. The story was enhanced by the narrator, who carried off with perfection a wide variety of characters voices, with the wonderful inflections of Scots, Brit, eastcoast American, and Irish English, as well as a credible accent for the Russian characters. She even managed to let us hear Annas childish, untutored Scots accent gradually change into that of a welleducated and welltrained young woman. And the male characters sounded unforced and natural. The narrator truly brought the book to life.All in all, very well done.