Lee Smalley
5 books read for LibriVox
- A Negro Explorer at the North Pole non-fictionHenson writes like a man too busy surviving to brag, so the amazing parts (breaking trail ahead of Peary, speaking fluent Inuktitut, the brutal sledge runs over shifting ice) land quietly. If you like memoirs where the understatement does the work, this one rewards you.
- You follow Martin Arrowsmith from small-town doctoring into research, watching him fumble between money, prestige, and the pure science his mentor Gottlieb demands, and it stings because his failures are so human. Leora alone is worth it.
- You watch Gustav von Aschenbach, a disciplined writer who prides himself on self-control, unravel during a stay in Venice, where his fixation on the beautiful boy Tadzio turns the prose feverish and unsettling. It’s short, elegant, and deliberately uncomfortable rather than comforting.
- You’ll appreciate how quietly this family drama turns an ordinary inheritance into a crisis of jealousy, shame, and identity. Pierre’s restless suspicion and Jean’s calmer self-possession make the novel feel psychologically sharp, though its cool, measured pace suits you better than melodrama.