the return audiobook review

• 3.7 • 999 Ratings

Publisher Description

In the romantic tradition of Dear John , an injured Navy doctor meets two extremely important women whose secrets will change the course of his life in this #1 New York Times bestseller. Trevor Benson never intended to move back to New Bern, North Carolina. But when a mortar blast outside the hospital where he worked sent him home from Afghanistan with devastating injuries, the dilapidated cabin he'd inherited from his grandfather seemed as good a place to regroup as any. Tending to his grandfather's beloved beehives, Trevor isn't prepared to fall in love with a local . . . yet, from their very first encounter, Trevor feels a connection with deputy sheriff Natalie Masterson that he can't ignore. But even as she seems to reciprocate his feelings, she remains frustratingly distant, making Trevor wonder what she's hiding. Further complicating his stay in New Bern is the presence of a sullen teenage girl, Callie, who lives in the trailer park down the road. Trevor hopes Callie can shed light on the mysterious circumstances of his grandfather's death, but she offers few clues—until a crisis triggers a race to uncover the true nature of Callie's past, one more intertwined with the elderly man's passing than Trevor could ever have imagined. In his quest to unravel Natalie and Callie's secrets, Trevor will learn the true meaning of love and forgiveness . . . and that in life, to move forward, we must often return to the place where it all began.

APPLE BOOKS REVIEW

Clear your schedules and charge your devices, people—Nicholas Sparks is back. In The Return , navy surgeon Trevor Benson has reluctantly returned to his small North Carolina hometown after suffering a bad injury in Afghanistan. Recuperating in the cabin that was once his grandfather’s, he finds himself falling for a local woman named Natalie—and getting wrapped up in the small town’s tight web of secrets. Sparks blends his trademark heart-melting romance with a shadowy mystery that goes back generations. Narrator Kyf Brewer is fantastic at building anticipation as he leads us toward the answers behind this clever tale’s biggest questions. Listening to detailed descriptions of everything from the intricate beehives of Trevor’s grandfather to the troubled trailer park up the road made us feel like we were a part of New Bern too. If you like a little suspense with your romance, The Return will pull at your heartstrings and your curiosity.

Customer Reviews

Some parts didn’t totally make sense and the ending wasn’t the best either so ehh

The narrator was amazing in this book, really captivated my interest. Love Nicholas sparks!

It’s a mystery!!

This story has excellent grammar and sentence structure. The narrator is good. It is told from a male’s point of view with linear progression and minimal discussion of feelings. When a feeling is brought up it is simply stated and left. There is no sizzle and this book barely fits in the romance genre. VictoriaG1.

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Nicholas Sparks's New Novel, The Return, May Be the Comforting Book You Need Right Now

Updated on 8/30/2020 at 11:05 AM

Ever since I was little, reading has always been a major source of comfort for me . Despite reading and writing all day for my job (the staff writer life is pretty freakin' cool!), I still look forward to the hours I spend at night on the couch, lost in a good book. Oddly enough, thrillers and murder mysteries have historically been my go-to genre, but as soon as the pandemic set it, my preferences seemed to change overnight. Recently, I've been craving the comfort of heartwarming, romantic stories from authors I've read in the past. Case in point? Nicholas Sparks's new novel, The Return .

Officially hitting the shelves Sept. 29, The Return centers on Trevor Benson, an orthopedic surgeon who was wounded by a mortar explosion while working in Afghanistan. Plagued with injuries and a debilitating case of post-traumatic stress disorder, Trevor returns to the small town of New Bern, NC, to take care of his late grandfather's dilapidated cabin before returning to medical school to study psychiatry.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Nicholas Sparks's book without a sudden love interest at play. After settling in, Trevor meets Natalie Masterson, a local sheriff's deputy who's hiding a big secret. The plot thickens when Trevor meets a local teenager named Callie. Often seen walking to her job at one of New Bern's restaurants, Callie is as standoffish and as mysterious as they come. Eventually, readers learn how both Natalie and Callie will profoundly affect Trevor's life and what incredible strength it takes to overcome tragedy.

A deeply reflective character by nature, Trevor is unprepared "to fall in love with a local" and quickly becomes consumed with the beehives his grandfather left on the property. Little does he know that the hives will act as a springboard, propelling him toward Natalie. Although Natalie appears to have a strong sense of self-discipline at first, Trevor eventually finds that she's staying "frustratingly distant" for a heartbreaking reason.

For those who are looking for a cozy fall read or simply order every single one of Sparks's titles as soon as they come out, there's something about The Return that had an instantaneous calming effect on me. Between his tried-and-true knack for depicting Rockwellesque Southern towns (as a Jersey girl, I love this element!) to his ability to develop sympathetic characters, Sparks's latest novel reminds me that we're all human.

There's also something about Sparks's writing that is incredibly nostalgic for me. His books take me back to family vacations spent reading on the beach or to my college summer breaks, when I dutifully decompressed from my final exams with one of his books in hand. Long story, short? If you're looking for your next fall romance or are desperate to get out of a months-long reading rut , The Return by Nicholas Sparks ($20) will pull you in from the very first page.

The Sweet Spot Summary

Anyone who's in the mood for a heartfelt romance novel will not be able to put The Return down. If you enjoyed titles like When We Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O'Neal or Delia Owens's debut novel Where the Crawdads Sing , add The Return to the top of your TBR pile ASAP.

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• By: Nicholas Sparks
• Narrated by: Kyf Brewer
• Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
• 4.3 out of 5 stars 4.3 (166 ratings)

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Publisher's Summary

Number one New York Times best-selling author Nicholas Sparks returns with a moving new novel about an injured army doctor and the two women whose secrets will change the course of his life.

Trevor Benson never intended to move back to New Bern, North Carolina. But when a mortar blast outside the hospital where he worked as an orthopaedic surgeon sent him home from Afghanistan with devastating injuries, the dilapidated cabin he'd inherited from his grandfather seemed as good a place to regroup as any. 

Tending to his grandfather's beloved beehives while preparing for a second stint in medical school, Trevor isn't prepared to fall in love with a local.... Yet, from their very first encounter, Trevor feels a connection with deputy sheriff Natalie Masterson that he can't ignore. But even as she seems to reciprocate his feelings, she remains frustratingly distant, making Trevor wonder what she's hiding.

Further complicating his stay in New Bern is the presence of a sullen teenage girl, Callie, who lives in the trailer park down the road. Claiming to be 17, she works at the local sundries store and keeps to herself. Discovering that she was once befriended by his grandfather, Trevor hopes Callie can shed light on the mysterious circumstances of his grandfather's death, but she offers few clues - until a crisis triggers a race that will uncover the true nature of Callie's past, one more intertwined with the elderly man's passing than Trevor could have ever anticipated.

In his quest to unravel Natalie and Callie's secrets, Trevor will learn the true meaning of love and forgiveness...and that in life, to move forward, we must often return to the place where it all began.

• Unabridged Audiobook
• Categories: Literature & Fiction

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• The Guardian
• Every Breath
• Long Road to Mercy

What listeners say about The Return

• 4.5 out of 5 stars 4.3 out of 5.0
• 4.5 out of 5 stars 4.4 out of 5.0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.com.au reviews, amazon reviews.

• Overall 5 out of 5 stars
• Performance 5 out of 5 stars
• Story 5 out of 5 stars

• Anonymous User

Right from the start you want to know where this is going. I could not stop listening. Breathtaking , emotional, bittersweet . I can highly recommend this .

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1 person found this helpful

It has everything you would expect from Nicholas Sparks. I managed to finish it in two days, as I couldn't put it down.

I will definitely read this author again.

The accompanying music played at the start made me doubt my purchase at first but the story drew me in and kept me there to the very end - which jerked my crying nerve ( a very hard thing to do). I will be looking for more from this author once the deep echoes of this book fade somewhat. Brilliant.

• Overall 4 out of 5 stars
• Story 4 out of 5 stars

A lovely story

Really lovely to listen to. A beautiful love story. Felt engaged the entire time I listened.

• Overall 3 out of 5 stars
• Performance 2 out of 5 stars
• Story 3 out of 5 stars

• Jacqueline Rogers

A good fill-in-time

This was a nice story and enjoyable but not like The Lucky One, The Notebook, etc

3 people found this helpful

Very enjoyable

It commenced a little slower but then rapidly becomes a story of intrigue and mystery with a splash of romance for good measure. I read it in two sittings as I just wanted to know the ending..

Fantastic narration. Really beautiful story as all of Nicholas Sparks books are. Had me very close to tears.

Not the Spark I had hoped for

Lovely story, if a little predictable. I found the pace lagged in the middle, I honestly found it tough, but picked back up at the end.

• Overall 1 out of 5 stars
• Story 1 out of 5 stars

• Stephen Gregory

Ugh! The author has misplaced his Spark on this one..

Was looking for an escape from COVID-realities, but ugh 😑 - the author has misplaced his Spark on this one..

2 people found this helpful

• Noelene Powell

Not enjoyable

Really struggled to finish this book. Unless you're interested in bees or PTSD wouldn't recommend it.

8 people found this helpful

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• By: Nicholas Sparks
• Narrated by: Kyf Brewer
• Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
• 4.4 out of 5 stars 4.4 (135 ratings)

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Listeners also enjoyed...

Number one New York Times best-selling author Nicholas Sparks returns with a moving new novel about an injured army doctor and the two women whose secrets will change the course of his life.

Trevor Benson never intended to move back to New Bern, North Carolina. But when a mortar blast outside the hospital where he worked as an orthopaedic surgeon sent him home from Afghanistan with devastating injuries, the dilapidated cabin he'd inherited from his grandfather seemed as good a place to regroup as any. 

Tending to his grandfather's beloved beehives while preparing for a second stint in medical school, Trevor isn't prepared to fall in love with a local.... Yet, from their very first encounter, Trevor feels a connection with deputy sheriff Natalie Masterson that he can't ignore. But even as she seems to reciprocate his feelings, she remains frustratingly distant, making Trevor wonder what she's hiding.

Further complicating his stay in New Bern is the presence of a sullen teenage girl, Callie, who lives in the trailer park down the road. Claiming to be 17, she works at the local sundries store and keeps to herself. Discovering that she was once befriended by his grandfather, Trevor hopes Callie can shed light on the mysterious circumstances of his grandfather's death, but she offers few clues - until a crisis triggers a race that will uncover the true nature of Callie's past, one more intertwined with the elderly man's passing than Trevor could have ever anticipated.

In his quest to unravel Natalie and Callie's secrets, Trevor will learn the true meaning of love and forgiveness...and that in life, to move forward, we must often return to the place where it all began.

• Unabridged Audiobook
• Categories: Literature & Fiction

More from the same

• The Wedding
• Every Breath
• Long Shadows
• The Last Mile

What listeners say about The Return

• 4.5 out of 5 stars 4.4 out of 5.0
• 4.5 out of 5 stars 4.5 out of 5.0
• 4.5 out of 5 stars 4.3 out of 5.0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.co.uk reviews, amazon reviews.

• Overall 5 out of 5 stars
• Performance 5 out of 5 stars
• Story 5 out of 5 stars

Beautiful story of beautiful feelings of beautiful people. loved every moment of it! ❤️ And performance is great

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• Overall 4 out of 5 stars
• Performance 4 out of 5 stars
• Story 4 out of 5 stars

• gemma waters

A nice easy listen.

It was a nice book, easy to listen to and well narrated. Could be a bit easy to get lost in what's going on from the opening chapter. But I'm not faulting it, I enjoyed it.

• Rosania veloso

Beautiful story, it’s my second time listening to the book

I recommend, The story is fantastic It’s easy to understand(I’m Brazilian) I really enjoyed the book.

• Amazon Customer

Romance and a beautiful story.

The story was easy to follow and yet nothing obvious of what the future may hold. Loved it.

Excellent I really enjoyed the story and all came together in the end,a happy ending better still.

beautiful bok to Read. Narrative was well read and caught your heart and attention.

• Overall 3 out of 5 stars
• Performance 3 out of 5 stars
• Story 3 out of 5 stars

• Dragon Rune Lady

took a bit to get into wasn't one of my favourites books by the author.. sadly I felt like skipping to the end

Beautiful story ❤️

Simply another beautiful story from my favourite author Nicholas Sparks. A story of love, forgiveness and overcoming painful experiences.

• Claire Stevens

Another winner by Nicholas Sparks! Loved the parallel story of his romance with Natalie, and the mystery of his grandfathers last journey. Keeps you guessing till the end.

When is the next book out

I love Nicolas Sparks books and this one again is another hit. You just have to keep reading or listening to the story. All the characters are brilliant. I cant wait to see if the film and I need the next book now

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#1 New York Times bestselling author Nicholas Sparks returns with a moving new novel about an injured army doctor and the two women whose secrets will change the course of his life.

Trevor Benson never intended to move back to New Bern, North Carolina. But when a mortar blast outside the hospital where he worked as an orthopedic surgeon sent him home from Afghanistan with devastating injuries, the dilapidated cabin he’d inherited from his grandfather seemed as good a place to regroup as any.

Tending to his grandfather’s beloved bee hives while preparing for a second stint in medical school, Trevor isn’t prepared to fall in love with a local . . . yet, from their very first encounter, Trevor feels a connection with deputy sheriff Natalie Masterson that he can’t ignore. But even as she seems to reciprocate his feelings, she remains frustratingly distant, making Trevor wonder what she’s hiding.

Further complicating his stay in New Bern is the presence of a sullen teenage girl, Callie, who lives in the trailer park down the road. Claiming to be 17, she works at the local sundries store and keeps to herself. Discovering that she was once befriended by his grandfather, Trevor hopes Callie can shed light on the mysterious circumstances of his grandfather’s death, but she offers few clues—until a crisis triggers a race that will uncover the true nature of Callie’s past, one more intertwined with the elderly man’s passing than Trevor could have ever anticipated.

In his quest to unravel Natalie and Callie’s secrets, Trevor will learn the true meaning of love and forgiveness . . . and that in life, to move forward, we must often return to the place where it all began.

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Inspiration

Inspiration notes for The Return are coming soon.

New Bern, NC New Bern is a quiet town on the coast of North Carolina. Located in Craven County, New Bern is the second oldest town in North Carolina. It is a town rich in American history, a site of Civil War battle, and the birthplace of Pepsi-Cola. New Bern’s downtown is bustling with restaurants and entertainment, and the town’s southern reaches are home to the quieter Croatan National Forest. With historic homes, beautiful gardens, and quaint shops, New Bern provides the setting for many Nicholas Sparks novels including The Notebook, The Wedding, A Bend in the Road, Safe Haven and The Return.

International Editions

Related news, book news, film, tv & stage news, from nick an exclusive first look at dreamland for email subscribers and a preorder sweepstakes, book news, film, tv & stage news, from nick the return is now in paperback + special giveaways for the wish, book news, from nick news for the wish and my newly reissued memoir, subscribe to nicholas’s mailing list.

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Novelgossip

Audiobook review: the return of ellie black by emiko jean.

Release date: May 7, 2024

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s life is turned upside down when she gets the call Ellie Black, a girl who disappeared years earlier, has resurfaced in the woods of Washington state—but Ellie’s reappearance leaves Chelsey with more questions than answers.

“I stayed up late into the night turning the pages until I learned the truth of what happened to Ellie—and gasped when Jean delivered a truly jaw-dropping twist.” —Jessica Knoll, New York Times bestselling author of Luckiest Girl Alive and Bright Young Women

It’s been twenty years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she’s been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey’s line of work.

Then a glimmer: local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, has been found alive in the woods of Washington State.

But something is not right with Ellie. She won’t say where she’s been, or who she’s protecting, and it’s up to Chelsey to find the answers. She needs to get to the bottom of what happened to Ellie: for herself, and for the memory of her sister, but mostly for the next girl who could be taken—and who, unlike Ellie, might never return.

The debut thriller from New York Times bestselling author Emiko Jean, The Return of Ellie Black is both a feminist tour de force about the embers of hope that burn in the aftermath of tragedy and a twisty page-turner that will shock and surprise you right up until the final page.

I absolutely love a missing persons story, I never seem to tire of them but I love when the missing person returns even more so this one sounded right up my alley and it was! I was hooked from the start, of course I wanted to know where Ellie had been and who had kept her for two years but I was also very invested in Chelsey as well. She was such a well developed character, really all the characters were well drawn and the way her past shaped her as a detective was so interesting and heartbreaking. This one is pretty dark and disturbing and the psychological aspects on both Ellie and Chelsey were examined in detail making for some chilling reading. There are multiple viewpoints and the audio version had a terrific cast of narrators so if you like to listen to books I can highly recommend that version. Hearing parts of this out loud gave me serious chills and made this one all the more memorable than it already was. If you want a solid and twisty suspense this was excellent.

Overall rating: 4/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.

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Harry Potter Series Reimagined at Audible With 100+ Voice Actors

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels will be reimagined into a new series of audiobooks.

Harry Potter fans are in for a treat because the seven books will be reimagined with a brand-new audiobook series. J.K. Rowling's seven books were released between 1997 and 2007.

Amazon Audible is joining forces with Pottermore Publishing for the series, slated for release in late 2025, Variety reports. The original Harry Potter audiobooks were released starting 1999, and were narrated by Stephen Fry and Jim Dale. However, the new ones will be reimagined with over 100 voice actors.

Daniel Radcliffe Doesn't Think He Was Very Good in the Harry Potter Films

The upcoming series will be available exclusively on Audible, and it will include full-cast productions. The new audiobook series will “ bring these iconic stories to life as never heard before .” The new audiobooks will provide “ immersive audio entertainment through high-quality sound design in Dolby Atmos, stunning scoring, a full range of character voices and real-world sound capture ,” Audible and Pottermore Publishing said.

Audible CEO Bob Carrigan expressed his excitement about the project, noting the enduring appeal of the Harry Potter stories. "With millions upon millions of Audible listeners devouring Harry Potter at an astonishing rate, we are thrilled about the opportunity to be part of this next chapter — delighting new and old fans alike with a reinvigorated listening experience that Audible is expertly positioned to create."

Neil Blair, chairman of Pottermore Publishing, shared about the upcoming project: "We’re certain this sophisticated, immersive audio experience will not only add a new listening dimension for existing fans but will introduce a whole new generation of listeners to the wizarding world .”

At the time of publishing, there are no other official details about the content specifics, global release dates, or voice casting. Audible's current Harry Potter collection has the stars of the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them star Eddie Redmayne reading the eponymous book, Dan Fogler reading Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - Makers, Mysteries and Magic: A Behind the Scenes Documentary , and Jude Law narrating The Tales of Beedle the Bard .

Other famous names include Game of Thrones ' Natalie Dormer, who narrated Harry Potter: A History of Magic , Harry Potter 's Warwick Davis, who narrated another version of The Tales of Beedle the Bard , and The Walking Dead 's Andrew Lincoln, who narrated Quidditch Through the Ages , among others.

J.K. Rowling Children's Book Set for Feature Film Adaptation

The new seven books will accompany the upcoming harry potter reboot.

It's been over a decade and a half since the last of the seven Harry Potter books , Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , came out in 2007. The last film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part Two , came out in 2011. However, the excitement and interest in the Wizarding World hasn't lessened. Despite the ongoing controversy with the series' author J.K. Rowling and her comments about transgender rights, some fans decided to separate their love for Harry Potter from its author.

In April 2023, Warner Bros. announced Harry Potter would be rebooted into a TV series, set to release on its streaming service, Max. The studio is currently looking for a showrunner based on its latest update, and the TV series will reportedly follow the books more closely with a 10-season plan. The original Harry Potter cast isn't tapped to return.

The eight Harry Potter films are available to stream on Max.

Source: Variety

How our treatment of animals has changed — and hasn’t — in 150 years

‘our kindred creatures’ takes readers through the history of the animal rights movement.

It was a “revolution in kindness,” we read in “ Our Kindred Creatures: How Americans Came to Feel the Way They Do About Animals .” That’s how Bill Wasik, the editorial director of the New York Times Magazine, and his wife, the veterinarian Monica Murphy, describe the animal welfare movement, launched in 1866 after the Civil War when Henry Bergh, an American diplomat, founded the ASPCA, the first animal protection organization in the United States.

This well-researched book is an enlightening if somewhat rambling survey of how our treatment of animals has changed over the past century and a half. It is also, frustratingly, a testament to how much has stayed the same.

The story Wasik and Murphy tell begins on the streets of New York, where workhorses forced to haul overloaded carts were routinely whipped by their owners, and dog and cock fights were staged for gambling and entertainment. Such public displays of cruelty offended the new urban elite, who were increasingly taking dogs and cats into their homes as pets. Those who had fought slavery now found other objects for their liberating zeal. The crusade for animal welfare, the authors tell us, was a small part of a larger ethical awakening that swept the nation after its fratricidal bloodbath. Within a year of the founding of the ASPCA, New York state had enacted an anti-cruelty law, and the organization was given the jurisdiction to enforce it. By 1871, Wasik and Murphy write, eight of the nation’s 10 largest cities had their own SPCAs, all of them granted legal powers by their respective states.

No one surpassed Bergh in sheer zeal and theatricality. Daily, the rail-thin son of a German shipping magnate took to the streets of Manhattan to command coach drivers to stop beating their horses, and to haul abusive butchers off to court. The Daily Herald compared Bergh to the inquisitor Torquemada, and cartoonists lampooned the sallow-faced activist with a drooping mustache as a sanctimonious sniveler. By contrast, the New-York Tribune (owned by the vegetarian and reformer Horace Greeley) editorialized that Bergh’s crusade deserved “the approval of all right thinking people.”

The authors dedicate an entertaining chapter to Bergh’s clash with circus magnate P.T. Barnum, who displayed a menagerie of exotic creatures in his American Museum, a five-story emporium in downtown Manhattan, which included hippos and electric eels, assorted snakes, and “the Learned Seals, ‘Ned’ and ‘Fanny.’”

While “Bergh had not ranked animal exhibitions highly, if at all, in his tallies of the worst offenders,” we read, he did draw a line at Barnum’s feeding boa constrictors live rabbits, a display of nature’s innate cruelty that he feared would erode the moral character of the young people who witnessed it. When Barnum went into the circus business after his museum burned down in 1865, Bergh focused on circuses’ mistreatment of animals, objecting to the use of sharpened bullhooks to train elephants. The Barnum and Bailey Circus, he declared, “should not be patronized by respectable and humane citizens.”

Instead of resisting Bergh and his irksome crusade, Barnum shrewdly forged an unlikely friendship with his nemesis and eventually joined the board of his local SPCA chapter in Bridgeport, Conn. Whether this marked a sincere late-life conversion or a publicity stunt is hard to say. But Barnum’s public embrace of Bergh and animal rights helped to sway opinion at a critical moment.

Meanwhile, bison were being slaughtered to the edge of extinction on the Great Plains; passenger pigeons, whose massive flocks once darkened American skies, were wiped out in a matter of decades by hunters, as were Carolina parakeets and other birds decimated for feathers to adorn women’s hats. The Audubon Society was established in 1886 to help safeguard imperiled species.

Fashion could be cruel to animals, but so too could science. The authors introduce Caroline Earle White, a Philadelphia Quaker converted to Catholicism. White channeled her religious belief in the sanctity of life to the founding of the American Anti-Vivisection Society, an organization that opposed the testing of animals in laboratories.

The medical establishment of the day fought back. Animal experimentation had produced remarkable benefits, including several lifesaving vaccines developed by the French microbiologist Louis Pasteur in the 1870s and ’80s. However, in less-able hands, the authors point out, millions of animal lives had been needlessly wasted — and continue to be wasted — “to no good end.”

Like so many of the debates initiated by animal activists in the late 19th century, this controversy continues today. Medical experiments, now regulated, are still performed on countless creatures. But a still greater source of mass suffering is the treatment of livestock. Rudyard Kipling, who visited Chicago in 1889, described scenes in the packinghouses where pigs, “still kicking,” were dropped into boiling vats and cattle “were slain at the rate of five a minute.”

The Illinois Humane Society, we read, was co-opted by the burgeoning meat industry. (Beef baron Philip D. Armour was a major contributor and a member of the society’s board of directors.) And while Upton Sinclair’s muckraking novel “The Jungle” brought public attention to the abuses of the meatpacking industry, the Federal Meat Inspection Act, passed soon after it was published, would regulate sanitary conditions in plants but not animal suffering.

Serious efforts to improve the treatment of livestock would have to wait for the animal rights movement spurred by the writings of the Australian moral philosopher Peter Singer during the 1970s and beyond. But the authors remind us that progress has been slow. Sows are still imprisoned in metal gestation crates; chickens are raised so tightly packed together that they can barely turn around. America has more cows and pigs than cats and dogs, we read, but their welfare garners far less attention. And, while we remain focused on charismatic species like polar bears and whales, thousands of others teeter on the edge of extinction.

Yet Wasik and Murphy are finally optimistic that the “circle of our care” is slowly expanding. The question is whether this gradual blossoming of compassion will come fast enough in an era of climate change to save our kindred creatures — and ourselves.

Richard Schiffman is an environmental journalist.

Our Kindred Creatures

How Americans Came to Feel the Way They Do About Animals

By Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy

Knopf. 450 pp. $35

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‘shōgun’ episode 10 review: a powerful finale, but not what i was expecting.

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If I could use words

Like scattering flowers and falling leaves,

What a bonfire my poems would make.

~a poem by Mariko

I admit, that for perhaps the first time in Shōgun’s limited run, I walked away with mixed feelings. While there were some powerful moments in the series finale, it’s hard not to feel let down by what we didn’t get to see. It was already going to be a hard episode, given the fate of Mariko (Anna Sawai) last week, but I thought we might make up for that with a final battle.

Instead, Blackthorne is smuggled out of Osaka and kept alive by the Jesuits, who made a deal with Mariko and Lord Toranaga to usher him safely back to Ajiro. The deal, we discover later, was the Anjin’s life in exchange for the ship, which Toranaga sunk and then blamed on Christian spies. He ruthlessly cracks down on the villagers as some kind of test for the Anjin, which Blackthorne passes when he offers up his own life in exchange for the villagers.

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The secret heart of yoshii toranaga.

By far the best part of this episode was the conversation between Yabushige and Toranaga before the former commits seppuku, with Toranaga as his second. While it was interesting to hear Toranaga finally lay out his plans—including the fact that Crimson Sky morphed into simply sending Mariko to Osaka in a bid to change Ochiba na Kata’s mind and weaken Ishido’s grip on the noble families—the more fascinating bits were just the two men talking, old friends (frenemies?) who have known one another for a long time and are saying one last bloody farewell. Yabushige, when he realizes that Toranaga has been planning his rise to power te the entire time, exclaims: “You’re no better than the rest of us in your secret heart!”

“How does it feel to shape the wind to your will?” he asks.

“I don’t shape the wind,” Toranaga replies. “I only study it.”

When he begs to know what comes next, Toranaga grimly replies: “Why tell a dead man the future?” I almost wish Yabushige had said: “Why not?”

Toranaga and Yabushige

Of course much of the brilliance of this final scene between these two compelling characters (whose names I can finally spell without looking up, just in time for the show to end) comes down to the performances. This is the longest scene we’ve had with just Hiroyuki Sanada and Tadanobu Asano in it, two legends of Japanese cinema, and they pull it off so perfectly, out there on the cliffs by the sea.

Of course, Yabushige wanted a different death. A good death, as he puts it, not ritual suicide but rather being torn apart by dogs or flesh-eating fish or whatever other imaginative death would suit him best (perhaps boiled alive?).

He writes a death poem. It lacks the stirring beauty of Mariko’s poem, but seems a fitting outro for the scheming Lord of Izu:

My dead body

Don’t burn it, don’t bury it, just leave it in the field

And with it fill the belly of some hungry dog.

The Fate Of The Anjin

Blackthorne and Toranaga

Blackthorne, meanwhile, seas only part way through Toranaga’s scheming. He doesn’t believe for a second that Christians burned his ship, but he comes to the conclusion that it was Mariko acting alone who arranged the deal with the Jesuits, rather than Toranaga pulling all the strings. When he attempts to commit seppuku, Toranaga stops him and relents on his punishment of the villagers. He tells Blackthorne to rebuild the ship and then build him a fleet. Later, Toranaga tells Yabushige that he doesn’t think the Anjin will ever leave Japan.

Toranaga also explains to Yabushige why he’s kept the Anjin alive when he had so many opportunities to let him die. “Not because he’s important,” he says, “but because he makes me laugh. And it’s good to have something to distract our enemies.” This feels like a sort of meta-commentary, letting viewers know that Blackthorne’s character really wasn’t particularly important in the big scheme of things—almost a purposeful departure from the book, which centers on the European, but also to some degree the history that inspired James Clavell’s novel.

Blackthorne and Fuji

Blackthorne is based on the real life English pilot, William Adams, the first Englishman to land on Japanese soil. He become a key advisor to Tokugawa Ieyasu, helped train his men with cannons, and assisted in two major battles, including the Battle of Sekigahara, which saw Ieyasu overthrow his enemies and rise to power. He was clearly at least a little bit more important than just a distraction or a clown. (Adams never went back to England, dying in Japan at the age of 55).

On The Matter Of Epic Battles

It is on the matter of battles, however, that I cannot help but take some umbrage with the series finale. The flash-forward didn’t work for me. Not only is it a flash-forward of the battle, it’s merely one narrated by Toranaga to Yabushige explaining to him what will happen in the future —a prognostication that lends fuel to the notion that Toranaga has a Dumbledore problem . Nor do we see any of the actual battle, just the armies arrayed for battle, and Ishido (Takehiro Hira) receiving word that Ochiba (Fumi Nikaido) has betrayed him. After all this build-up to some kind of epic confrontation between Toranaga and Ishido, I expected a little more. Maybe that’s just my TV brain, trained on Game Of Thrones and Vikings and so forth to expect epic confrontations and clashes of steel. But I felt a little deflated, wishing we had one more episode to make room for the war.

After all, the actual historical Battle of Sekigahara is quite incredible to read about, involving two armies with truly vast number—Tokugawa’s Eastern Army boasted 75,000 men, while Ishida’s Western Army dwarfed that number with 120,000 men. Its outcome resulted in a 200-year dynasty.

The battle took place on October 21st, 1600 on a morning draped in so much fog that neither side could plan an attack or even see where the other army stood. When the fog cleared and the battle began in earnest, the scale of it was truly epic. Two massive armies clashed along river banks and through the hills beneath the shadow of Mount Nangu. Here’s an Edo-period screen depicting the clash:

The Battle Of Sekigahara

The battle’s fierce fighting ended in betrayal on Mount Nangu, where the commander of the Mōri army refused to help a retreating Ishida, who was forced to surrender and was later executed. Elsewhere, sieges were laid to various strongholds around Japan. Tokugawa emerged victorious and founded the first Edo shogunate. It would have made for an epic hour of television.

I still enjoyed the conclusion to Shōgun, however, battle or no . It was poetic and beautifully shot, and I suppose we didn’t need to see the battle play out for the story to come to a satisfying conclusion. There were many little moments that I loved. Ishido finding Yabushige, half-mad in the garden; Blackthorne,learning that Fuji had decided to become a nun, at first recoiling and then, at last, telling her in Japanese that she’ll be the best nun; Buntaro setting aside his bitterness and helping the Anjin drag the Erasmus out of the sea; Muraji revealing his true samurai identity to Blackthorne. The beautiful score, the gorgeous costumes and cinematography. I’m sad it’s all over.

Still, including the key battle culminating in Toranaga’s ultimate victory certainly would have been fun . . . .

Oh well! No points docked (not that I give out points). Overall, I’ve very much enjoyed Shōgun. It’s one of my favorite shows of 2024 so far and I’ll definitely watch it again down the road. What did you think of the series finale? Let me know on Twitter and Facebook .

Update: I originally thought the scenes with an old Blackthorne in England indicated that he’d returned home, but as readers have pointed out, the title of this episode is “A Dream Within A Dream” and this is just Blackthorne dreaming about returning to England and the life he might have had there. The clue is Mariko’s cross, which he threw into the sea but still has in those scenes. I suppose I just thought he’d had another one made or something. It didn’t cross my mind that this might just be a dream.

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In Self-Deprecating Return to ‘The Daily Show’, Jon Stewart Beats His Critics to the Punch: TV Review

By Alison Herman

Alison Herman

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These similarities are lost on no one, least of all Stewart himself. Apart from an extended runtime and a quick appearance by former correspondent Jordan Klepper, there was little to announce tonight’s episode as a major event or break from routine. From the monologue to the staged “field” segment to the interview to the Moment of Zen, the run of show proceeded as usual — or rather, as it usually did until 2015, the last time Stewart occupied the chair. The primary feeling was not of triumphant return or even nostalgia, but déjà vu. For long stretches, it was as if Stewart had never made an abortive attempt at an animated news show for HBO, nor made an Emmy-nominated series for Apple TV+ until the tech company flinched at potential controversy . You could almost believe Stewart had stayed fixed in the seat where he still clearly feels comfortable, cuing up montages of news clips and grimacing at political gaffes.

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Jokes at Stewart’s expense helped to dispel the initial awkwardness, but they don’t resolve the fundamental tension underlying everything from the election to Bob Iger’s second stint at Disney to Stewart’s own full-circle moment. We’re at a crossroads where systems are stuck in a loop, running their own expired playbooks to increasingly diminished returns. “The Daily Show” itself runs on a network with increasingly little original programming, owned by a conglomerate frantically searching for a new owner as its value grows progressively smaller. Bringing Stewart back is a momentary bright spot, but there’s still another three days a week of episodes to fill. What are those going to look like, and for how long until a longer-term solution comes along — if it ever does?

Anyone who has living memories of the War on Terror is powerless to resist Stewart’s particular blend of cynicism and moral righteousness. Yet the lack of pomp and circumstance around his return means that its meta aspects become the most meaningful. Stewart could mock Biden’s fraying faculties or point out Trump’s infinite shortcomings in his sleep. It’s not the punchlines themselves that help demonstrate the snake-eating-its-tail absurdity of the current news cycle. It’s the man delivering them, and how many times we’ve seen him before.

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