Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

The Pulitzer Prize-winning Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is a series of interconnected essays which challenge the listener to contemplate the natural world beyond its commonplace surfaces. Cassidy's lively, youthful voice is perfect for Dillard's beautiful alliterative phrasing, glorious imagery, and inspired themes. Cassidy's interpretation shimmers with the meanings of this energetic, Thoreauvian ramble through Nature's seasons and secrets. Coming across a cedar tree one day, Dillard sees "the tree with the lights in it," a spiritual phenomenon emblematic of her uncanny way of knowing what is real and true about a universe designed by "a maniac." Cassidy brilliantly conveys Dillard the seer interacting with the grotesque majesties of the scene. This production is a delight. P.W. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Annie Dillard's 1975 Pulitzer Prize-winning work about the year she spent living in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia as a young woman in her twenties is voiced by Tavia Gilbert. She provides the proper measure of youthful enthusiasm and wide-eyed wonder at both the grandest and the most minute details of the natural world. As the author combines descriptive imagery and quirky observation with personal anecdotes, Gilbert channels her intense focus on detail with precision. The work itself is contemplative. Although poetic, it has a meandering quality in the audio format that may allow the listener's mind to wander. S.E.G. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine