MAY 7 • 2020 | 29
TV series like Billions, recently
has appeared on Broadway in
Harry Potter and
the Cursed Child.
She can be heard
on more than
200 audiobooks
and loves the one
coming out in May
— Anna Solomon’
s
The Book of V: A Novel. She
understands the Jewish point of
view through her father’
s side of
the family.
Kaminsky, who acted at
the Hope Summer Repertory
Theatre in Holland, Michigan,
listened to audiobooks before
a colleague suggested she look
into being a narrator.
“I feel really lucky making
part of my living telling stories
this way,
” Kaminsky said. “I feel
part of a large community that
earns a living in ways that make
their lives joyful.
”
In the midst of a career as
a voiceover artist, Alan Sklar
listened to audiobooks, decided
he could do that and arranged
auditions with publishers.
“I’
ve always been
a good salesman
and started getting
narrating jobs,
”
said Sklar, who
has recorded more
than 200 books,
including many of the Lawrence
Block mysteries as well as Think
Big and Kick Ass: In Business and in
Life by Donald Trump and Bill
Zanker.
Sklar’
s routine involves read-
ing each book more than a
month before recording, mak-
ing a list of words to check for
pronunciation and adhering to
a director in a recording studio.
When Sklar hasn’
t liked a
book offered for narration, he
said, he goes ahead with it any-
way with publisher assurances
that “the book will sell like
crazy.
” He tries to think of it as
an “interesting challenge.
”
Charles Baxter, author of Saul
and Patsy among many works
of fiction, has been asked to lis-
ten to audition tapes to review
audio versions of his works. He
is conscientious about narrators
because he has stopped listening
to an audiobook due to what he
considered an inept narrator.
Baxter, who has taught in
rural Michigan as well as at
Wayne State University and the
University of Michigan, has
developed Michigan settings
and Jewish characters because
of his many years in Michigan
and family within the Jewish
faith through marriage. His next
book, The Sun Collective, will be
available this November in an
audio version.
For those missing attendance
at religious services, the Jewish
Publications Society offers
free narration of each week’
s
Torah portion as well as the
Bible. Visit jps.org, click on
“Resources” and then click “JPS
Audio Bible.
”
“Over 20 years ago, we looked
for star readers, like Theodore
Bikel and Tovah Feldshuh, for
a variety of voices as narrators,
”
said Rabbi Barry Schwartz,
director, editor-in-chief and
executive of the publishing
organization that works with
texts communicating Jewish
thought and history.
Voice variety in popular
books has meaning for Beverly
Jonas of Farmington Hills, who
began listening to audiobooks
when she needed eye surgery.
Reading had always been a
favorite pastime so a friend rec-
ommended audiobooks during
her recovery.
“Listening is a different kind
of enjoyment,
” said Jonas, a
Hadassah member who just fin-
ished Alice Hoffman’
s The World
That We Knew. “It can be almost
like listening to a movie. I usu-
ally listen over my morning cof-
fee, when I lose track of time, or
when my husband is watching
sports. I can listen to three
books a week, and I’
ve joined an
online book club.
”
COURTESY OF EVA KAMINSKY
Eva
Kaminsky
Alan Sklar
COURTESY OF ALAN SKLAR
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