Sponsored by William Morrow, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
A lifetime together. Six months of silence. One last chance.
“The premise alone had me, but The Silent Treatment itself is just heartrendingly lovely. It’s beautiful, so moving and clever.” — Josie Silver, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One Day in December
The Silent Treatment by Abbie Greaves Available April 7th
Hola Audiophiles! Greetings from my isolation station (my apartment) where I’m running low on hair products (‘sup, frizz?) and cooking feels like a daily episode of Chopped. Print reading is still a struggle, so audiobooks are once again coming in clutch. Allow me to share some new releases and my latest listens.
I hope you are well, friends! Take a deep breath, bring those shoulders down from your ears, do some stretching, and give yourself space to be a little bit of a mess.
Ready? Let’s audio.
New Releases – March 24 (publisher descriptions in quotes)
The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin, narrated by Robin Miles (fantasy) – “Every great city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She’s got six. But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs in the halls of power, threatening to destroy the city and her six newborn avatars unless they can come together and stop it once and for all.”
Narrator Note: Robin Miles! Robin Miles! I just got a physical copy in the mail but bruuuuuuh it’s Robin Miles!
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel, narrated by Dylan Moore (fiction) – Vincent used to be a bartender at a five star hotel. Now she’s been posing as the trophy wife for that hotel’s owner, a fraud who’s swindled a whole bunch of people out of millions in an international Ponzi Scheme. When it all comes crashing down, Vincent walks away quietly like Cersei in that penultimate episode of GOT. Years and years later, a victim of that Ponzi scheme is hired to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a woman from the deck of a container ship between ports of call. These two events are inextricably linked.
Narrator Note: Dylan Moore narrated Riley Sager’s Lock Every Door and You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. She has a voice that’s warm, a bit higher in pitch, but commanding enough to keep tension high.
If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane, narrated by Sara Novak (romance) – Laurie is humiliated when news of her ex’s pregnant girlfriend gets out, the ex that just broke up with her after a decade of dating. Then she meets Jamie in a broken-down elevator, the office playboy who doesn’t believe in love but does need a suitable girlfriend to impress their bosses. Since Laurie is in the market for a hottie that will give the ol’ rumor mill something new to talk about, it’s a match made in fauxmance heaven. But there’s a fine line between pretending to catch feels and catching them for real…
Narrator Note: I’m not quite cool enough to name the specific region of Sara Novak’s accent but I loooove it. Check that sample – it’s just so fun to listen to!
Had I Known by Barbara Ehrenreich, narrated by Suzanne Toren (nonfiction, essays) – Barbara Ehrenreich is a self-proclaimed “myth buster by trade,” a journalist and political activist who’s covered an extensive range of topics in her career. I’ve had her book Natural Causes on my TBR for awhile, which examines how we’re killing ourselves to live longer, not better. Had I Known is a collection of the articles and excerpts from a long-ranging career that perhaps best showcase her unique flavor of social consciousness and wit.
Narrator Note: Is it just me, or does Suzanne Toren sound like the voice that narrated Desperate Housewives once upon a time? I saw maybe two episodes of that show but I swear, that is what the narration sounded like! I dig it.
Tigers Not Daughters by Samantha Mabry, narrated by Luis Moreno (YA) – The Torres sisters dream of escape from their tyrannical widowed father and the San Antonio neighborhood where everybody knows all ya business. Then in the summer after her senior year of high school, the oldest Torres sister dies tragically. A year later, the three remaining sisters are still consumed by their grief when strange things start happening around the house: mysterious laughter, weird shadows, creepy writing on the walls. Is their dead sister trying to send them a message? What is she trying to tell them?
Narrator Note: You wanna talk range? Luis Moreno has narrated for everyone from Chuck Palahniuk to Danielle Steele, performing romance, thrillers, narrative nonfiction, fantasy, and everything in between.
Latest Listens
I inhaled Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson and am now plowing through the rest of the series! The books are set at Ellingham Academy, a boarding school in Vermont established by Albert Ellingham. He was an uber-rich, early 20th century tycoon who created the academy as a place for his obsession with games to play out. Getting in is an elusive process: there’s no application, there’s no scouting. You just sort of have to make your case for why you should be allowed to attend without really knowing what the rubric is for selection.
Oh and also: shortly after the school opened, Ellingham’s wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only clue in the case was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed “Truly, Devious.” Decades later, the case remains one of the great unsolved crimes in American history.
Enter Stevie Bell, a teen true crime aficionado. She throws up a Hail Mary and writes to Ellingham Academy, asking to be let in because she believes she can solve the case. She’s accepted, arrives at the school and meets the motley crue of students also accepted into this mysterious school. Then a student turns up dead, opening up a whole new can of worms.
These books are an homage to Agatha Christie and classic murder mysteries, and candy for anyone who loves a boarding school setting. Narrator Kate Rudd manages to voice everyone from a 20th century tycoon to an apathetic teen without once making it feel gimmicky. A+!
Note: a lot of people in the reviews for the first book are BIG mad about the cliffhanger ending. It’s a series, so… keep… reading? The whole trilogy is out now so you don’t have to wait.
From the Internets, or My Email Inbox
I heard from Libro.fm that #ShopBookstoresNow has been a huge success! The $50,000 goal was surpassed and indie bookstores have seen a giant increase in both web traffic and memberships (we’re talking 800% and 200% respectively). Keep on keepin’ on, Libro!
Over at the Riot – So much great audiobook content!
- 10 of the Best Audiobook Series – I need to keep going with Attica Locke!
- Where to Find the Best Audiobook Reviews Online – SUCH a useful resource.
- Bookish Puzzles and the Audiobooks to Listen to While Doing Them – Funny story: I started Moon of the Crusted Snow (amazing, btw) without knowing what it was really about. Cool cool cool, the power is out, evil’s afoot, and everyone’s panicking and buying up all the food. Gulp.
- Audiobook Adventures with Animal Crossing
- 7 Authors I Only Read on Audio
- Audible Launches Audible Stories for Children and Teens While School is Out – for all my parents/guardians/caregivers with young ones suddenly at home.
Reminder: Book Riot has rounded up COVID-19 updates from the bookish world in one convenient place. You’ll find everything from free resources for children (story times! drawing lessons!) to news updates and a list of reliable online sources for staying informed.
That’s all I got today! Shoot me an email at vanessa@riotnewmedia.com with audiobook feedback & questions or find me on Twitter and the gram @buenosdiazsd. Sign up for the In The Club newsletter, peep the Read Harder podcast, and watch me booktube every Tuesday and Friday too!
Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa