Author: Vanessa Diaz

Hola Audiophiles!

Heyyyy I’m back from Cuba and the Bahamas! My sunburn is just about healed and I may just be left with my version of a tan, so I think we can all call this trip a success. If you subscribe to In the Club, you’ll already have been these photos but I’m just gonna share ‘em again. Not pictured: the many, many…. MANY mojitos and Cuba Libres imbibed.

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Sponsored by Oasis Audio and The Ravenwood Saga by Morgan L. Busse.

Lady Selene is heir to the House of Ravenwood and the secret family gift of dreamwalking—the ability to enter a person’s mind and manipulate their greatest fears or desires. Soon Selene discovers her family’s dark secret: The Ravenwood women are using their gift for hire to plot assassinations. Selene is torn between upholding her family’s legacy or seeking the true reason behind her family’s gift. Her dilemma comes to a head when she is tasked with assassinating the one man who can bring peace to the nations, but who will also bring about the downfall of her own house.

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A stroll through Old Havana

The most adorable bookshop!

Daiquiris at El Floridita with Hemingway

While my reading goals were indeed a little lofty (as predicted), I still got a lot done! I’ll give you the skinny on my favorite listen in just a sec. For those interested, I’ll go over both my audio and  my print reading in this week’s YouTube video too; head to the Book Riot channel on Friday to tune in!

But first… let’s audio.

Latest Listen

Foodies listen up: the new Ruth Reichl memoir Save Me the Plums is all that and a bag of bone marrow. I was gonna say “and a bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos Limon” because I will absolutely %#& up some FHCs, but it felt hella disrespectful to compare such an elegant and esteemed food writer to a bag of processed, fake-cheese-dusted snacks. Moving on.

Ruth Reichl is an acclaimed and award-winning food writer, restaurant critic and general foodie goddess who wrote for the LA Times and New York Times before taking over as editor of Gourmet in 1999. This memoir focuses on her time at the magazine: her decision to take the job, the task of revamping its vision, and the challenges of balancing a demanding career with being a wife and mother at fifty years of age.

This woman knows food and describes it with the kind of lyricism and sensuousness that makes you pine for the dish she’s describing and look at your own lunch with straight up disdain. She is sublimely talented but also humble and unassuming, shying away from the more pretentious parts of her job and the industry at large while staying true to her love of a delectable bite of food. Sure, she’ll extoll the cloudy perfection of Jean Georges’ foie gras; she’ll also tell you the most perfect midnight snack is a bowl of quick and easy spicy noodles made at home.

I savored this audiobook (which Reichl narrates) while soaking up the sun on my trip and recommend it highly. I will add though that I’ll want to own this one in print too: she provides several recipes in the memoir (including those spicy noodles), ones that I need written down as opposed to read to me in a quick two minute bit.

Listens on Deck

Last week I briefly talked about a tiny hangup with listening to fiction on audio, specifically feeling like I don’t always get the same emotional impact in audiobooks that I think I would have if I’d read them in print. I was about to take a break from fiction audiobooks, but several readers wrote in to agree with my musing that the narrator makes all the difference. Since so many of these readers listed Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine as an example of fiction audio done really right, I decided my next listen will be The Editor after all. It’s listed as a comp for Eleanor Oliphant and was one of the books I didn’t get to on my vacation reading list.

For those that need a plot refresher: a struggling writer in 90s NYC gets his big break with the help of some lady who’s apparently a pretty big deal. What was her name again? Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, or something.

From the Internets, Etc

Between spring break and a quickly approaching summer, road trip season is pretty much upon us! If you have a long drive ahead of you in the near future, Good Housekeeping suggests these audiobooks for the ride.

I almost didn’t include this one because bruuuuh you’re late to this party, Men’s Health. But fine, here it is: I Listen to Audiobooks When I Work Out—Am I Alone? WHY HAD NONE OF US THOUGHT OF THIS?

Over at the Riot

If you audio often–and I know you do–you probably have your list of narrator faves. Here’s one Rioter’s list of “this is going to be good” narrators. Bahni Turpin is one of my top ten for sure!

A recent report from Rakuten Overdrive shows that audiobooks continue to rise in popularity – that we know. It also shows that Millenials and Gen Z are the primary audience driving audiobook listenership. What do you think: is it just ease of use and our relationship to technology?

My Read Harder Podcast host Tirzah Price has put together a sweet list of YA poetry audiobooks to get into and I love it! On a recent episode of the show, we talked about wanting to listen to more poetry on audio since poetry is meant to be read aloud. Here she is making it so easy for us to do it!

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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 Friday too!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Hola Audiophiles!

As with this week’s In the Club newsletter, this edition of Audiobooks comes to you from a sleep-deprived, dewy-skinned person who looks a lot like me, sitting in a hotel patio in some serious Miami humidity trying to crank out some revisions before she hops on a cruise to Cuba.

This humidity is no joke, y’all! I’ll suffer the sheen of sweat for the glow it gives my skin but this hair…. it is multiplying by the second. Who cares though! It’s vacation time. I’ve got my audiobooks locked and loaded and am ready for some serious R&R. 

But first… let’s audio.

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Sponsored by Oasis Audio and The Ravenwood Saga by Morgan L. Busse.

Lady Selene is heir to the House of Ravenwood and the secret family gift of dreamwalking—the ability to enter a person’s mind and manipulate their greatest fears or desires. Soon Selene discovers her family’s dark secret: The Ravenwood women are using their gift for hire to plot assassinations. Selene is torn between upholding her family’s legacy or seeking the true reason behind her family’s gift. Her dilemma comes to a head when she is tasked with assassinating the one man who can bring peace to the nations, but who will also bring about the downfall of her own house.

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Latest Listens

I did end up finishing Nocturna by Maya Motayne, narrated by Kyla Garcia, a Latinx-inspired fantasy trilogy that comes out in May. It’s about a prince grieving the loss of the brother who was taken from him in a failed coup and who should have been the heir to the throne. The prince isn’t convinced that his brother is dead so much as kidnapped and goes to some sketchy lengths to get him back, unleashing an ancient, deadly power in the process that he must now do all he can to destroy. He’s accompanied by the mysterious face-shifting thief he meets at a high-stakes card game, who accompanies him reluctantly but ends up being an invaluable partner in this quest.

Overall, I loved the story! It was great to spend some time in a magical word where the spells are commands spoken in Spanish and where characters use the descriptor maldito quite profusely. I can’t wait to see where else the story goes in the next two books.

I do however wonder if maybe I’m running into an issue that I’ve long suspected might be a problem for me in listening to fiction on audio: I don’t think I’m as emotionally impacted when I do audio vs print! This might come down to narration; thinking back to On the Come Up by Angie Thomas, narrator Bahni Turpin really does the thing. She had me tearing up a few times with her passionate rendition of Bri. Kyla Garcia does perfectly fine job with Nocturna but I don’t think I really felt some of those scenes in my chest like I might have if I’d been reading it in print. Does anyone else have this issue?? Discuss.

Listens on Deck

Nothing new to add here since I’m about to get on a boat. Here’s a recap on the books I hope to tackle this trip:

• Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl: when food writer goddess Ruth Reichl writes a food memoir, you read that sh*t. Narrated by Ruth on audio… check please!
• The Editor by Stephen Rowley, narrated by Michael Urie – a struggling writer in 90s NYC gets his big break with the help of some lady named Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

From the Internets, Etc

Audiofile Magazine has a piece up on their blog on poets and audiobooks. It features discussion of work my Maria Popova, Richard Blanco, and Leonard Cohen. So rad.

Over at the Riot

Speaking of the power of a good narrator… Rioter Heather Bottoms wrote a great piece on some of her favorite audiobook narrators. She has a background in theater so you know she appreciates a good voice actor.

Over at the Book Riot YouTube channel, I share some vacation reading tips that clearly involve audiobooks because duh.

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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 Friday too!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Hola Audiophiles!

The time has finally come! My Cuba trip is but days away and your girl really, really needs to pack. Books are of course one of my favorite parts about traveling, so today I’ll be sharing some of my vacation listens. I also go on for a little while about my latest listen, hope you’ll indulge me and my bookish feelings!

Let’s audio.

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Sponsored by Dreamscape Media, LLC and Laura Pohl’s The Last 8

Where’s the best place to go when aliens invade Earth? Area 51, of course. Clover Martinez has always been a survivor, which is the only reason she isn’t among the dead when aliens invade and destroy her planet. After discovering a group of ragtag survivors with tons of secrets, she needs to figure out who she can actually trust. This #ownvoices story features LGBT representation and some intense plot twists perfect for fans of Stranger Things and The 5th Wave. Don’t miss your chance to listen to one of the biggest releases of 2019.

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Before we get to audio love, I have to rave about our new podcast Kidlit These Days! Hosted by kidlit connoisseurs Karina Yan Glaser and Matthew Winner, the show pairs the best of children’s literature with what’s going on in the world today. 

Latest Listens

I recently finished Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams and I have lots of feelings! Queenie is a Jamaican British twenty-something Londoner who like so many of us at that age is a whole, entire, girl-please-get-it-together mess. She’s going through a breakup, she’s super broke, and she’s so distraught that she’s messing up at the job that she really can’t afford to lose. Reeling from the breakup and some unprocessed trauma, Queenie goes into self destruct mode until forced to confront what she’s doing and who she’s doing it for.

I almost DNFed the book in my rage over Queenie’s terrible choices and abysmal sense of self-worth, but putting the book down before Queenie could examine her pain would have been a mistake. The book touches on a lot of important topics: identity politics, the silent toxicity of untreated trauma, how mental illness and therapy are viewed in communities of color, racism as a series of tiny, maddening micro-aggressions, the fetishization of black women… I could go on. Not enough women of color get to unpack these issues in books and more space should be made for them to do so.

There are a couple of plot elements that didn’t sit super well with me. Queenie’s employer basically tells her to tone it down with all the BLM talk and in the end it’s sort of just… fine? The ex-boyfriend Tom and his family’s casual racism are mentioned and obviously terrible but not as aggressively condemned as I’d hoped (can we say gaslighting??). Still I’m glad I pushed through and allowed Queenie the same flawed coming-of-age journey most often afforded to white characters. And y’all… the book is so funny!

Listens on Deck

I board a plane on Saturday night and spend one day in Miami before heading to Cuba. I intend to eat and drink all the things, soak up the sights, and try really hard not to burn off a layer of skin. Shout out to my genetics for really screwing me on the melanin. ‘Preciate that, thanks.

As for reading, there are two cross-country flights in my future and some pool/beachside lounge time; while that makes for some solid reading time, I’m doing a thing I always do where I get real delusional about how many books to pack/download. Come on, Diaz: it’s a one week trip, not a month long reading marathon. That being said, here’s a quick and dirty sampling of my super ambitious listening plan! I won’t even list the print books I’m packing. Sssssh, it’s all fine.

• Nocturna by Maya Motayne, narrated by Kyla Garcia – This is the first book in a Latinx-inspired fantasy trilogy: a prince accidentally unleashes an ancient, deadly power and must destroy it with the help of a face-shifting thief before it destroys the earth.
• Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl: when food writer goddess Ruth Reichl writes a food memoir, you read that sh*t. Narrated by Ruth on audio… check please!
• The Editor by Stephen Rowley, narrated by Michael Urie – a struggling writer in 90s NYC gets his big break with the help of some lady named Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

From the Internets, Etc

George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire audiobooks are now available in Spanish! I’ve been calling the series Juego de Tronos for awhile now, looks like I’m ahead of the curve. Listen to a sample here.

Here’s some food for thought: can audiobooks be the great equalizer for students with learning differences?

Thanks to the increasing popularity of audiobooks (wut wut!), the Indies Choice Awards added an Audiobook of the Year category last year. A spotlight on the finalists is up now at the Libro.fm blog.

Over at the Riot

Rioter Rachel recently brought us this sweet list of YA books to add to your spring TBR. Seeing my BFF-in-my-head Elizabeth Acevedo’s book With the Fire on High on this list made me curious to see if she’d be narrating the audiobooks like she usually does. She does indeed (listeners rejoice!) and also shares some behind-the-scenes footage of the process here. P.S.  who knew about those green apples??  

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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 Friday too!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Hola Audiophiles!

Happy Thursday and welcome to April! The first quarter of the month is officially behind us and spring is finally…springing! It was almost 80 degrees in San Diego this weekend and I had to remind myself that this is what I’d been asking for after the chilliest winter we’ve seen in a really long time. I just wasn’t prepared to sweat through my top while sampling nut milks at the Farmers Market!! I know, I know: I shouldn’t complain.

Enough of that: let’s get to the rest of those new books I promised you last week. These are all releases in the second half of the month. Let’s audio!

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Sponsored by the audiobook edition of The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis Graves.

Jonathan and Annika first meet at chess club in college, where Jonathan loses his first game of chess, and his heart, Annika. Brilliant but shy, Annika prefers to be alone. But Jonathan accepts that about her, admiring Annika, quirks and all. Their relationship that follows is tumultuous, but strong, until an unforeseen tragedy forces them apart. A decade later, fate brings them back together… She’s a librarian and he’s a divorced Wall Street whiz seeking a fresh start. Their feelings are instantly rekindled, but until they confront the fears and anxieties that drove them apart, their second chance will end before it truly begins.

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Before we begin, have you tuned into our new podcast Kidlit These Days yet? It’s hosted by author and BR contributor Karina Glaser and children’s librarian Matthew Winner, your kidlit connoisseurs, pairing the best of children’s literature with what’s going on in the world today. Give it a listen! 

New Releases (publisher’s descriptions in quotes)

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim, narrated by Jennifer Lim (April 16)

Young and Pak Yoo live in rural Virginia where they offer a super experimental medical treatment: they heal patients of assorted medical maladies and conditions with healing “dives” in a special pressurized oxygen chamber. Sh*t hits the fan when the magic healing machine mysteriously explodes and kills two people; secrets come to light and nefarious motives are uncovered as a dramatic murder trials ensues. This exciting debut draws from the author’s own experience as a Korean immigrant and trial lawyer. She is also the mother of a real-life “submarine” patient; get ready for this one.

Normal People by Sally Rooney, narrated by Aoife McMahon (April 16)

Connell and Marianne are two teens from a rural town who are opposites in just about every way. They’re undeniably drawn to each other in spite of differences in class and personality, circling around each other, growing apart and coming together time again from high school through adulthood. “This heartbreaking narrative that delves into the potency of first loves and how people can change over time” is already killing me softly. Sounds like one of those maddeningly addicting love stories that makes me yell things at my audiobook app like, “JUST KISS ALREADY!”

The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia, translated by Simon Bruini, narrated by Xe Sands and Angelo di Loreto (April 16)

It’s 1918: the Mexican Revolution is in its eighth year and the influenza epidemic is ravaging the world’s population. A baby boy is found abandoned under a bridge, scaring most of the locals in a small Mexican town with his disfigurements and the swarm of bees that follows him around. He doesn’t scare Francisco and Beatriz Morales, landowners who take him in and raise him like he was their own. They soon learn that their adopted son possesses a rare and unnatural ability, one that he will use to keep his family safe: he can see the future when he closes his eyes. “The Murmur of Bees captures both the fate of a country in flux and the destiny of one family that has put their love, faith, and future in the unbelievable.” Yay for fantastic Mexican authors in translation!

Hope for the Best by Jodi Taylor, narrated by Zara Ramm (April 23)

How am I just finding out about the Chronicles of St Mary’s series when it’s 10 books in?! Any series that “follows a group of tea-soaked disaster magnets as they hurtle their way around History” rings all my Jasper Ffordian bells. Historian Dr. Madeleine “Max” Maxwell works for St. Mary’s Institute of Historical Research, using time travel to investigate major historical events and right past wrongs in present day. In this 10th series installment, Max and the St. Mary’s team find themselves in the 16th century, tasked with unraveling the chaos that’s placed the wrong Tudor queen on the throne.

Will somebody page Thursday Next!? I think she and Max could make beautiful music together.

The Tiger at Midnight by Swati Teerdhala, narrated by Sneha Mathan (April 23)

I have many fist pumps for fantasy being set in non-European countries! Inspired by Indian history and Hindu mythology, The Tiger at Midnight is the first in a trilogy that imagines an alternate ancient India. Esha and Kunal are a rebel assassin and reluctant soldier whose paths cross one fateful night. In the midst of chaos in their war-ravaged land, the two must decide where their loyalties lie and navigate the ultimate inconvenience: an undeniable but forbidden love. Stupid love, always getting in the way.

What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About: Fifteen Writers Break the Silence by Michelle Filgate, narrated by various (April 30)

Over a decade ago, Michele Filgate sat down to write an essay on her stepfather’s abuse. It took a long time for her to realize what she really needed to write about: the abuse’s effect on her relationship with her mother. She did finally share the essay and it sort of blew up, garnering the attention of women like Rebecca Solnit and Anne Lamont. The experience gave Filgate the inspiration for this anthology, a collection of essays from fifteen writers exploring the profound impact of our relationships–the good kind, the bad kind, and everything in between–with our mothers.

The stellar list of contributors includes Leslie Jamison, Melissa Febos, Alexander Chee, Kiese Laymon, Carmen Maria Machado and more. Waaaaaant…..

A Prince on Paper by Alyssa Cole, narrated by Karen Chilton (April 30)

*whispers in shame* I’ve never read Alyssa Cole before. I’m new to romance, I have catching up to do in the queen of inclusive historical romance’s repertoire!! This latest in the The Reluctant Royals series transports readers to Thesolo: Nya Jerami is home from New York for a wedding and winds up in bed with a celebrity prince (don’t you just hate when that happens?). That prince is Johan van Braustein, “the redheaded step-prince of Liechtienbourg,” whose antics and tomfoolery are all a ploy to distract the paparazzi and protect his brother, the heir to the throne. A fake engagement should do the trick, throwing Nya and Johan into a whirlwind fake-romance that might just be the real deal.

Cape May by Chip Cheek, narrated by George Newburn (April 30)

It’s September 1957 and Georgia native newlyweds Henry and Effie arrive in Cape May, New Jersey for their honeymoon. They find the place deserted and a bit of bust, so they decide they’ll just head home when a beguiling and mysterious set of strangers entices them to stay. Clara is a glamorous socialite, Max is a richity rich playboy, and Alma is Max’s aloof half-sister; together they rope Henry and Effie into a whirlwind of… well, gin, sexy times, and nude abandoned-town shenanigans that results in a loss of innocence and betrayal. This thrilling debut “explores the social and sexual mores of 1950s America through the eyes of a newly married couple from the genteel South corrupted by sophisticated New England urbanites.”

From the Internets

The interwebs were low on audiobooks news this week, but I did come across this very important, very serious, not-at-all-a-prank announcement: Audible is launching Audible for Fish! Headphones sold separately.  

Over at the Riot

Hey, you’re new here, right? Welcome to Audiophilia! If it’s your first time, don’t be scared. Here’s some advice for your new audio journey.  

The latest Riot Roundup is live now, our quarterly collective book-gush where we Rioters share the best books we’ve read. I rant for a solid paragraph on my love of Helen Oyeyemi’s Gingerbread which you may recall I did on audio. So good! There are a couple of other suggestions here for fantastic audiobooks–check it out!

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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 Friday too! 

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa