28 | MAY 7 • 2020 

Arts&Life

books

Oratory Art

Audiobooks have increased in popularity 
the last few years and provide an escape 
to another setting for those stuck at home.

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

M

issy Selfon began lis-
tening to audiobooks 
while coping with a 
family member’
s serious illness. 
She needed a literary distraction 
available more readily than in 
traditional book format while she 
fulfilled everyday responsibilities 
as a wife, mom and employment 
counselor. 
Now retired and following 
social distancing advice to avoid 
the coronavirus, Selfon still val-
ues audiobooks as distractions. 
Through her local library, she 
installed audiobook iPhone apps 
that provide free borrowing 
opportunities without leaving 
home. Free audiobook apps 
through libraries include cloudLi-
brary, Hoopla and OverDrive. 
Commercial apps, like Audible, 
also are available.
Selfon is among the growing 
number of listeners, authors, 

narrators and publishers in the 
Jewish community giving reasons 
for their attractions to audio-
books.
“I not only look out for what 
the book is about, I also look 
out for the reader,
” said Selfon 
of White Lake, active with 
Congregation Shaarey Zedek and 
Hadassah. “The right reader can 
make characters come alive, and 
it’
s easy to picture them in my 
mind.
”
Selfon recently finished The 
Wartime Sisters, a novel by Lynda 
Cohen Loigman, and liked the 
narrator. When it comes to 
biographical works, she enjoys 
listening to writers reciting their 
own texts, such as with Michelle 
Obama’
s memoir, Becoming. 
Sarah Hurwitz, a speechwriter 
for the former first lady, wrote 
and narrated her own memoir, 
Here All Along: Finding Meaning, 

Spirituality and a Deeper Connection 
to Life — in Judaism. 
“Because this book is so inti-
mate, I didn’
t want an actor read-
ing it,
” Hurwitz said.
Altie Karper, editorial director 
at Schocken Books in New York, 
welcomes the growing interest in 
audio as she heads up publishing 
projects with Jewish themes. 
Karper explains that books writ-
ten by celebrities are more likely 
to be narrated by the authors as a 
selling point.
“
Audiobooks have become a 
phenomenon throughout the 
publishing industry over the last 
four or five years because of the 
advent of digital audio files that 
can be downloaded onto listening 
devices,
” Karper said. 
Recent Schocken audiobooks 
include Aharon Appelfeld novels 
and Deborah Lipstadt’
s History on 
Trial, which is about anti-Sem-

itism. Newly discovered books 
by Eli Wiesel, unpublished until 
now, soon will be audiobooks. 
A survey by the Audio 
Publishers Association found that 
sales of audiobooks reached near-
ly $1 billion in 2018. Fifty-five 
percent of audiobook listeners 
were under age 45, and 51 per-
cent of frequent listeners were 
between 18 and 44.
“What we love about audio-
books is that they expand the 
readership for our books the 
same way ebooks have been 
expanding readership,
” said 
Karper, who listens to audio-
books on the train to and from 
work.
What actors and voiceover 
artists especially love about 
audiobooks is that they add job 
opportunities.
Eva Kaminsky, recognized for 
guest performances on popular 

