Audiobooks

Microserfs read by Matthew Perry Plain Tales from the Hills read by Martin Jarvis

Audio is exactly the right medium for Douglas Coupland's disturbing, very American, but strangely engaging Microserfs (HarperCollins, 3hrs, pounds 7.99), a high-tech totally switched-on version of Friends which takes a peek into the lives of a cohort of young computer nerds making a bid to escape from the all-powerful Microsoft to become cyberlords in their own right. Acutely socially observant and very funny.

Rudyard Kipling's Plain Tales from the Hills (CSA, 6hrs, pounds 11.99) is too often assumed to be a rah-rah for the Raj collection for hooray Henries with a hankering for howdahs. They are in fact largely love stories, full of timeless characters and remarkably perceptive on the human condition. Read with wisdom and affection by Martin Jarvis.