• Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews - Audio And Video Online Reviews 1991-2018
  *Starred Review* Sent home from Vassar for poor grades, Vivian is dispatched to New York City, where she becomes the costumer for Aunt Peg, owner of The Lily Playhouse, and her assistant, English-accented Olive. The exciting vibrancy of 1940s New York, enhanced by narrator Brown's pacing, thrills Vivian. By day, Vivian designs and sews costumes, but at night she and gravelly voiced showgirl Celia are on the town, enjoying drinks and other favors from men. Young and reckless, Vivian and Celia are photographed kissing the husband of British actress Edna Parker Watson. Forced to apologize to Edna, Vivian is shredded by the scornful dismissal of her as a "not interesting" person, delivered in restrained British elegance. A miserable Vivian returns home, but luckily The Lily calls her back to provide propaganda-based entertainment for the Brooklyn Navy Yard workers during lunch hour. WWII eventually ends, the Playhouse is torn down, and NYC changes, allowing Vivian to strike out on her own and begin a new cycle of her life. Throughout the audio, Brown portrays various New York City accents, from Manhattan to the Bronx and Brooklyn, peppered with the British speech of Olive and Edna and the determined, courageous voice of Vivian, which becomes more empathetic as she ages. City of Girls is reflective of the time and Brown stays true to the characters, in this engrossing audio by the author of Eat, Pray, Love (2006). Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.
• Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2019 August #1
  *Starred Review* Sent home from Vassar for poor grades, Vivian is dispatched to New York City, where she becomes the costumer for Aunt Peg, owner of The Lily Playhouse, and her assistant, English-accented Olive. The exciting vibrancy of 1940s New York, enhanced by narrator Brown?s pacing, thrills Vivian. By day, Vivian designs and sews costumes, but at night she and gravelly voiced showgirl Celia are on the town, enjoying drinks and other favors from men. Young and reckless, Vivian and Celia are photographed kissing the husband of British actress Edna Parker Watson. Forced to apologize to Edna, Vivian is shredded by the scornful dismissal of her as a ?not interesting? person, delivered in restrained British elegance. A miserable Vivian returns home, but luckily The Lily calls her back to provide propaganda-based entertainment for the Brooklyn Navy Yard workers during lunch hour. WWII eventually ends, the Playhouse is torn down, and NYC changes, allowing Vivian to strike out on her own and begin a new cycle of her life. Throughout the audio, Brown portrays various New York City accents, from Manhattan to the Bronx and Brooklyn, peppered with the British speech of Olive and Edna and the determined, courageous voice of Vivian, which becomes more empathetic as she ages. City of Girls is reflective of the time and Brown stays true to the characters, in this engrossing audio by the author of Eat, Pray, Love (2006). Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.

Elizabeth Gilbert is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Big Magic, Eat Pray Love, and several other internationally bestselling books of fiction and nonfiction. Gilbert began her career writing for Harper&;s Bazaar, Spin, the New York Times Magazine, and GQ, and was a three-time finalist for the National Magazine Award. Her story collection Pilgrims was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award; The Last American Man was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. The follow-up memoir Committed became an instant #1 New York Times bestseller. Her novel, The Signature of All Things, was named a Best Book of 2013 by the New York Times, O Magazine, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and the New Yorker. Gilbert&;s short fiction has appeared in Esquire, Story, One Story, and the Paris Review. Her new novel, City of Girls, will be released June 2019.

Blair Brown won a Tony Award for her performance in Copenhagen. She received an Ace Award and five Emmy nominations for The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd. She is a an accomplished narrator for BOT, including recordings of Last Kiss by Luanne Rice and The Senator's Wife by Sue Miller.