Series ✦ Penny’s Take 🎧 Audiobook
What Makes a Marriage Last
Marlo Thomas & Phil Donahue · 2020
🎙 Narrated by Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue (authors), with a supporting full cast including Tom Zingarelli, Maggi-Meg Reed, Therese Plummer, Adam Verner, Ryan Vincent Anderson, Robin Miles, Eileen Stevens, and Sean Patrick Hopkins
75/100
👍 Worth It
Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue pull together forty real couples — from the Carters to John McEnroe and Patty Smyth — and let their actual stories do the teaching instead of pushing a one-size-fits-all formula. It's a bestseller for good reason, and the full-cast narration keeps all those different voices distinct, genuinely worth the listen. One heads-up: the roster includes at least one same-sex couple, so faith-conscious listeners should know that going in.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: Profiles 40 couples including at least one same-sex couple (Elton John and David Furnish) alongside heterosexual couples — worth knowing before faith-conscious listeners choose this title.. We still scored it 75; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
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🎙 Narration: excellent Full-cast HarperAudio production; authors narrate framing material while professional narrators voice different couples, keeping the large roster of voices distinct.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
Faith & family safety75
Substance / usefulness75
Craft & writing80
Originality70
Evidence & accuracy78
Hype vs delivers60
Age-fit82
Human-eye read78
Penny’s verdict75
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