It’s audiobook month! As a life-long audiobook lover, I’m always here for a good audiobook. Thank goodness, because when Gwen was a puppy, she would cry endlessly, and I’d have to play audiobooks just to calm her down. Dylan, well, he preferred Josh Groban. A true corgi of culture. So for my two right recs, I’m discussing two of my favorite audiobooks! But first, let’s jump into bookish goods and new books!
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Bookish Goods
Bibliophile volume 2- Read Banned Books by the Geek And Artsy Store
The perfect addition to any bookish wardrobe, this pin say it all. And it’s cute, too. $15
New Releases
Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery by Joseph McGill Jr.
Joseph McGill Jr. founded the Slave Dwelling project in 2010. This book is based on his travels around the country, during which he would spend nights in former slave dwellings from all across the United States.
The Elissas: Three Girls, One Fate, and the Deadly Secrets of Suburbia by Samantha Leach
One of the most anticipated nonfiction books of the year, The Elissas follows three girls who meet at a boarding school for troubled teens. Less than a decade later, all of them are dead. This is their story.
For a more comprehensive list, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
The Untold Story of the Talking Book by Matthew Rubery, Performed by Matthew Rubery
I’ve been listening to audiobooks for my entire life, but I’ve never read a history of them! Rubery has compiled a detailed history of the “talking book,” as they were first known. From the very first moments of the initial invention of sound recording, people began to ask questions around what would happen if they recorded a book onto audio? For decades they didn’t have the funds or other resources to make recording widely available. Rubery covers the role disability played in pushing technology forward. I loved how detailed this history was, and think it’s the perfect choice for audiobook reading.
Quietly Hostile by Samantha Irby
Samantha Irby is back with her fourth essay collection, Quietly Hostile. Like her previous essays, Irby uses humor to discuss the difficult things in her life. Chronic illness, the end of a dream, the pandemic — Irby approaches each one with a fresh quip or spot of dark humor. In one essay, Irby and her wife adopt a terrible dog that they definitely didn’t mean to keep. In another essay, Irby describes a major allergic reaction she has when she tries out one of her wife’s supplements. And if you love audiobooks, this is definitely one you need to check out on audio. Irby is a phenomenal narrator, using her sense of perfect comedic timing to create a laugh-out-loud performance that will have you being far too loud in quiet spaces.
That’s it for this week! You can find me over on my substack Winchester Ave, over on Instagram @kdwinchester, or on my podcast Read Appalachia. As always, feel free to drop me a line at kendra.d.winchester@gmail.com. For even MORE bookish content, you can find my articles over on Book Riot.
Happy Reading, Friends!
~ Kendra