Category: Audiobooks

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.

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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.

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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 Tuesday and Friday too!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Hola Audiophiles, and greetings from my Lair of Social Distance. How are we holding up? I know for me it’s been a challenge to spend so much time alone and indoors; I hope you’re finding ways to stay engaged, connected, and calm.

Let’s talk new audiobook releases, a little news you can use, and some resources to get us all through this rough patch. I’m sending you all a virtual hug right now! Thanks for rocking with me, you’re all pretty cool.

Ready? Let’s audio.

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Before we begin, 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.

New Releases – March 17, 2020  (publisher descriptions in quotes)

After Me Comes the Flood by Sarah Perry, narrated by Leighton Pugh – This is Sarah Perry’s debut novel, written before The Essex Serpent and Melmoth made her a big bookish deal. A man’s car breaks down on an isolated road on his way to visit his brother. He goes looking for help and finds a dilapidated house where a woman comes out to greet him. She and a big ol’ clan of people inside say they’ve been awaiting his arrival. Funny story: he’s never seen any of these people before in his life.

Narrator Note: I sampled this expecting a woman’s voice because the only Leighton I know of is Leighton Meester. Whoops! Turns out Leighton is a gentleman; should have recognized the name from New Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan.

Conjure Women bye Afia Atakora, narrated by Adenrele Ojo – Set in the South before and after the Civil War, this story introduces us to three unforgettable women: Miss May Belle, a wise healing woman; her observant daughter Rue who’s reluctant to follow in her footsteps as a midwife; and Varina, their master’s daughter. “The secrets and bonds among these women and their community come to a head at the beginning of a war and at the birth of an accursed child, who sets the townspeople alight with fear and a spreading superstition that threatens their newly won, tenuous freedom.”

Narrator Note: True story: I read this plot description and immediately thought of Deb Spera’s Call Your Daughter Home (read that, so good). It turns out Adenrele Ojo (along with the amazing Robin Miles and Brittany Pressley) also narrates that very book!

Goldie Vance: The Hotel Whodunit by Lilliam Rivera and Elle Power, narrated by Frankie Corzo – Goldie Vance is the brown Nancy Drew I craved in my childhood! The mystery at the heart of this whodunit involves a missing diamond-encrusted swim cap. Amazing! Based on Hope Larson and Brittney Williams’s critically acclaimed Goldie Vance comic, this middle grade caper sounds like so much fun.

Narrator Note: I loved Frankie Corzo’s performance of Chanel Cleeton’s Next Year in Havana. Other notable credits include Natalie Sylvester’s Everyone Knows You Go Home and Meg Medina’s Merci Suarez Changes Gears.

Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel, narrated by Megan Dodds, Jill Winternitz – If you love books about complicated of mother-daughter relationships, buckle up. For the first 18 years of her life, Rose Gold Watts was in a wheelchair, practically lived in a hospital, and was convinced she was seriously ill. It turns out her mom Patty Watts was just a really good liar. Fresh out of prison, Patty asks Rose Gold for a place to stay. She says she’s forgiven Rose Gold for turning her in, but Rose Gold knows her better than that. But this time, she’s also prepared.

Narrator Note: Megan Dodds has narrated several titles for Jodi Picoult and Meg Cabot, while Jill Winternitz is a newcomer to the audio game.

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, narrated by Daniel Henning – A case worker in the Department in Charge of Magical Youth has been tasked with determining whether six magical children are about to bring about the end of the world. The master of the orphanage is like, “Nah, fam” and will do anything to keep those kiddos safe, even if it means the world will go up in fuego. Gail Carriger describes this as “1984 meets The Umbrella Academy with a pinch of Douglas Adams thrown in.” I didn’t know that was a combo I wanted, but I do.

Narrator note: There is something so clear, crisp, and rather calming about Daniel Henning’s voice. I was thinking that to myself while sampling this audiobook when I realized he narrates a book of meditations called Practicing Mindfulness; if you’re an Audible member and are looking for some guided meditations (because again, world = garbage fire), try it out!

Make Those Listens Count

Rather than talk about my latest listen (it’s Sherry Thomas all day over here, comfort listens for the win), I want to share two important audiobooks resources.

1. This post from a few years back on free places to get audiobooks is one I’ve shared with all kinds of folks this week. Between economic uncertainty and just general worries over COVID-19, I think a lot of us could use a reminder of how to get some listens in for free.
2. My peeps over at Libro.fm put together this list on ways to support indie bookstores through the chaos of COVID-19. If you can afford to spend some money, and it doesn’t have to be much, to help booksellers, here are several ways you can do so.

From the Internets

I don’t necessarily care that a book is narrated by a celebrity just because they’re a celebrity, but this list does indeed include some of my favorite performances by talented celebrity narrators: Claire Danes performing The Handmaid’s Tale, Leah Remini narrating Troublemaker, and Michelle Obama reading Becoming.

About those free books: here’s reminder that Libby is an excellent resource for free ebooks and audiobooks and look, yet another reminder! Spread the good word to folks not in the know, especially during these quarantine days.

Over at the Riot

My middle thirties self finds these feel-good middle grade audiobooks most delightful.

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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 Tuesday and Friday too!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Hola Audiophiles! How is everyone holding up?? I hope you’re all managing to stay healthy or have the resources and support systems to cope if you aren’t. While I hope it doesn’t come to this, at least there are a whole bunch of audiobooks for you to take solace in if you find yourself stuck at home. Wash those hands and get plenty of rest!

Ready? Let’s audio.

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New Releases – March 10  (publisher descriptions in quotes)

The Animals of Lockwood Manor by Jane Healey, narrated by Sarah Lambie – I think I knew and then forgot that so much art survives today because museums in England (and I believe Europe and the US) relocated entire collections to keep them safe from the bombings during World War II. In this work of historical fiction set in August 1939, Hetty Cartwright lands a job looking over one such collection of stuffed animals when it’s moved from London to a decaying mansion in the countryside. The manor’s owner is a tyrant, his daughter is unstable and haunted, and the animals keep disappearing and reappearing in disconcerting places. Well okay then!

Narrator Note: I know next to nothing about Sarah Lambie but do know this: she’s an English actress and has the most deliciously haunting voice in this performance.

Good Citizens Need Not Fear by Maria Reva, narrated by Allen Lewis Rickman, Kathleen Gati, David Pittu, Yelena Shmulenson, and Ilyana Kadushin – This book reminds me a lot of Tim Murphy’s Christodora. These stories mostly take place in and around a single crumbling apartment building in Ukraine in the chaotic years leading up to and following the fall of the Soviet Union. There are nine narratives in total that weave together in some darkly comic and surprisingly tender ways.

Narrator Note: SO glad they went with an ensemble cast to really bring this motley crue of characters to life!

A Phoenix First Must Burn edited by Patrice Caldwell, narrated by York Whitaker – If you’ve been looking for more Black girl magic, look no further. Whew, this collection! Contributors include Elizabeth Acevedo, Dhonielle Clayton, L.L. McKinney, Ibi Zoboi, Justina Ireland, and more. Do yourself a big ol’ favor and check out these gorgeous, imaginative stories that center Black women and gender nonconforming individuals through fantasy, science fiction, and magic.

Narrator Note: Another narrator I know little about but am excited to get to know! Listen to that sample; she gives me January LaVoy vibes but a tad more natural (and that’s no shade, January just has a very big voice). I’m intrigued!

Most Likely by Sarah Watson, narrated by Christie Moreau – Ava, CJ, Jordan, and Martha have been besties since kindergarten, and one of them will be the first woman president of the United States (lolsobit’sokayI’mfinereallyIam). “This is the story of four best friends who have one another’s backs through every new love, breakup, stumble, and success–proving that great friendships can help young women achieve anything…even a seat in the Oval Office.”

Narrator Note: Christie Moreau also narrated Susannah Cahalan’s The Great Pretender, which I’ve been meaning to get to as a huge fan of Brain on Fire

A Murderous Relation by Deanna Raybourn, narrated by Angele Masters – This is the fifth installment in the Veronica Speedwell series, a historical mystery series set in Victorian England that I’m SO glad I finally made time for last week. Veronica is one of my fave lady detectives- a whip smart, capable natural historian turned lady detective who studies butterflies and suffers no fools. A Murderous Relation involves a scandal with the royal family that must be avoided, but oh yeah: Jack the Ripper has also begun terrorizing London.

Narrator Note: If you’ve ever wondered what the phrase “and who asked you anyway?” would sound like if distilled down to one voice, WHOMP there it is. Perfect narration for Veronica’s I-do-what-I-want confidence and smarts.

Latest Listens

No lie, I treated myself to some more of the Lady Sherlock series and am now on the Libby waitlist for book four! I just can’t get enough of Charlotte’s cake-loving quirk. I love me a lady spy!

I am the most excited that my hold for Maureen Johnson’s Truly Devious has at last come in after a very long (I be inpatient, yo) twelve weeks. Stevie Bell takes a wild leap of faith and applies for entrance into the elusive Ellingham Academy, an exclusive boarding school in Vermont with a decades-old cold case involving the original owner’s kidnapped (and long presumed dead) daughter. Steve is obsessed with true crime and solving mysteries, so much so that she’d made it her mission to find out what happened long ago. But once at Ellingham, things take a turn and someone winds up dead. That murder points to Truly Devious, the nameless villain from that very kidnapping.

Will report back next week!

From the Internets

Drumroll please: announcing the 2020 Audie Award winners!

Why it matters that Asian representation is growing in audiobooks

Do you love an ensemble cast? These audiobooks feature multiple cast members.

Over at the Riot

I’ve been saying I need to read more books with disabled representation, but have largely forgotten to include nonfiction in that goal; enter these five own voices audiobooks about women with chronic illnesses and disabilities.

5 great audiobooks narrated by Saskia Maarleveld, who has just the best name.

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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 Tuesday and Friday too!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Hang on to your headphones, audiophiles! This here is a wild week in new releases. I’m going to blurb a few of them for you and then go a little more brief with some others because ain’t nobody got time for a 2,000 word newsletter. Good luck picking which to read next! So much good stuff for those earholes.

Ready? Let’s audio.

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New Releases – March 10  (publisher descriptions in quotes)

Anna K by Jenny Lee, narrated by Jenna Ushkowitz – In this opulent YA reimagining of Anna Karenina, Anna K is 17 years old and sitting pretty at the top of the world: she’s got horses and dogs, a perfect boyfriend (if a little boring), and she makes her Korean American father proud most of the time. Her friends and family are all embroiled in some drama—a sexting scandal, the end of an ice-dancing career, unrequited love—but Anna always seems to float above it all. All of that changes when she meets a young playboy named Alexia who soon has Anna K out here wanting to risk it all.

Narrator note: Jenna Ushkowitz is a Tony Award-winning producer, actress, singer and podcast host known for her performances in the Broadway musical Waitress and Glee. This is her first audiobook performance and the sample online sounds promising!

The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu – This is Marie Lu’s first historical fiction novel! Nannerl Mozart is a musical prodigy who wants to be remembered forever, but the odds of her becoming an acclaimed composer are slim. Sucks to be a woman in 18th century Europe! As Nannerl’s musical dreams seem less and less attainable with each passing year, her brother Wolfgang (you may have heard of him) only garners more and more acclaim. “His brilliance begins to eclipse her own, until one day a mysterious stranger from a magical land appears with an irresistible offer. He has the power to make her wish come true – but his help may cost her everything.”

Narrator Note: Confession, I did not 100% love Lauren Ezzo’s narration of Renee Ahdieh’s The Beautiful. Parts of it were phenomenal! The voice of the villain though? It was so slow and bordered on comical for me. I have since sampled more of Ezzo’s work and really enjoyed what I heard! Long story short: give this a shot even if The Beautiful wasn’t your thing.

The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski, narrated by Justine Eyre – “Where Nirrim lives, crime abounds, a harsh tribunal rules, and society’s pleasures are reserved for the High Kith. Life in the Ward is grim and punishing. People of her low status are forbidden from sampling sweets or wearing colors. You either follow the rules, or pay a tithe and suffer the consequences. Nirrim keeps her head down, and a dangerous secret close to her chest. But then she encounters Sid, a rakish traveler from far away, who whispers rumors that the High Kith possess magic. Sid tempts Nirrim to seek that magic for herself. But to do that, Nirrim must surrender her old life. She must place her trust in this sly stranger who asks, above all, not to be trusted.”

Narrator Note: Justin Eyre is on my to-listen list for sure; she narrates both Sarah Maclean’s Bareknuckle Bastards series and Scandal & Scoundrel series too, and was the voice of Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian.

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson, narrated by Graham Halstead – Malcolm Kershaw is a mystery aficionado and bookshop owner in Boston who compiled a list that he called Eight Perfect Murders: a roundup of titles containing some of literature’s most unsolvable crimes. Years later, he’s called upon by the FBI with some unsettling news: there’s a murdered on the loose, one who is using those Eight Perfect Murders as inspiration for their killings.

Some of the books on that list, by the way, are Agatha Christie’s A. B. C. Murders, Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, and Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. Color me interested!

Narrator note: If you enjoy Graham Halstead’s narration, be sure to check out Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America.

Other New Releases to Check Out:

Docile by K. M. Szpara, narrated by: Mark Sanderlin and Vikas Adam – This is “a science fiction parable about love and sex, wealth and debt, abuse and power, a challenging tour de force that at turns seduces and startles.”

Salty, Bitter, Sweet by Mayra Cuevas, narrated by Jennifer Araya – “A slow-burn romance in a cutthroat kitchen!” Cooking, Cubans, complicated families, and romance? Si, si, si.

Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn, narrated by Jolene Kim, Kaleo Griffith, G. K. Bowen, and Tui Asau – Our very own Amanda Nelson recent raved about this “groundbreaking debut novel that folds the legends of Hawaiian gods into an engrossing family saga; a story of exile and the pursuit of salvation” that I swear I am going to read this year.

Rust: A Memoir of Steel and Grit by Eliese Colette Goldbach, narrated by Kelly Pekar – “A young woman’s debut memoir of grit and tenacity, as she returns to the conservative hometown she always longed to escape to earn a living in the steel mill that casts a shadow over Cleveland.”

Latest Listens

Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev is one of the most fun books I’ve read in awhile. I’m going to give you the review I wrote on the gram because I stand by it rull hard: “Trisha Raj is an overachiever and San Francisco’s neurosurgeon mas chingona, which you’d think would be enough to impress her influential Indian American family but a) brown families, amirite? and b) #itscomplicated. She meets up-and-coming chef zaddy DJ Caine at a schwanky dinner put on by her family, but the only sparks that fly are the bad kind. She’s all, ‘He’s the hired help!’ and he’s all, ‘Esa vieja se cree mucho!’ except, like, not in Spanish and with a charming English accent.

As luck would have it, Trisha’s family hires DJ to cater a bigger, badder, affair, a job DJ desperately needs to pay his terminally ill sister Emma’s medical bills. And wouldn’t you know it, Trisha is Emma’s surgeon, and she’s found a way to save Emma’s life. Secrets from the past, complex family dynamics, and a metiche with an axe to grind get all kinds of in the way of these two crazy kids getting along. Will love (and lust 👀) prevail? Maybe. This Pride and Prejudice remix is a really fun story and romance jam packed with brown people and absolutely tantalizing food descriptions that literally made me make curry for dinner.”

Finally, A+ audiobook narration by Soneela Nankani: great variation in tone that made the inner monologues distinct from the interpersonal conversations, which is a thing I’ve come to so appreciate in audiobooks! The accents are perfect, the pacing is spot on (I still sped up to 1.25x but 1.0x was totally fine too). I can’t wait to start the galley of the next book in this series, Recipe for Persuasion!

From the Internets

I saw a post out there that said something to the tune of “Audiobooks to listen to when you’ll probably have to be quarantined” and I just could not.

Instead, here’s this piece on 17 Best Audiobooks To Listen To When You Want To Zone Out In 2020, which is a little less panic-making but still captures the “go home, 2020: you’re drunk” vibe a lot of us are feeling.

Over at the Riot

It’s Women’s History Month! What a wonderful time to dive into nonfiction feminist audiobooks.

I’ve been working in more poetry into my reading life and have found that audiobooks are my favorite way to do it! Poetry was meant to be read aloud, ya know? Check these must listens by poets of color.

If you aren’t using Libby yet, here’s how to get the most out of it! I do a LOT of my audiobooking via Libby. Who doesn’t love a book that’s $Free.99??

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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 Tuesday and Friday too!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Hola Audiophiles! It’s Vanessa here with the latest from the audiobook world. I’ve finally gotten back on a good listening streak after striking out with *seven* different “meh” listens! I’ll share one of the good ones with you all today, but first: let’s get to new releases.

Ready? Let’s audio.

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New Releases – February 25  (publisher descriptions in quotes)

Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore, narrated by Brittany Pressley – It’s 1982 on New Year’s Eve and Oona Lockhart will turn 19 at midnight. Then she faints, wakes up, and BAM! She’s 51 years old in a strange house she learns belongs to her. She also learns that with each passing year, she’ll wake up at a different point in her life at random.

Narrator Note: I’ve had my eyes on Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb which Brittany Pressley also narrates. You may recognize her from lots of thriller titles by David Baldacci, Fiona Davis, Mary Burton, and Carolyn Brown. She also narrates Zoraida Cordova’s YA Star Wars novel A Crash of Fate!

Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall, narrated by the author – I know the term “searing” gets thrown around a lot, but this very much sounds like it earns the searing badge of honor. It asks: “How can we stand in solidarity as a movement when there is the distinct likelihood that some women are oppressing others?” Basically, it flames white feminism, indicting the glaring blindspot therein that ignores women outside a particular category of race, class, and privilege. I’m always looking for ways to keep myself accountable; this book promises to be a powerful reminder on the importance of intersectionality.

Narrator Note: Listen to that sample, yo. Mikki Kendall is a natural; she narrates like she’s speaking her words to you in an in-person conversation.

Too Much: How Victorian Constraints Still Bind Women Today by Rachel Vorona Cote, narrated by Suehyla El Attar – Rachel Vorona Cote is a Victorian scholar who draws some interesting (and maddening!) parallels between that era’s fixation on women’s “hysterical” behavior and the policing of women’s behavior that still very much occurs today. How dare we “illicit liberties to feel or fuck or eat with abandon!” It encourages women to reconsider the beauty of their excesses; as I like to say whenever I’m called a handful, maybe some of y’all just need bigger hands!

Bonus: Rachel Vorona Cote recently wrote a piece for Lit Hub that rang ALL of my bells: How Ramona Quimby Taught a Generation of Girls to Embrace Brashness. Have I ever told you all that I named one of my dolls Chevrolet?

Narrator Note: Suehyla El Attar is one of the narrators on Trust Exercise by Susan Choi, a book that most people seem either love or hate with no in between!

We Unleash the Merciless Storm by Tehlor Kay Mejia, narrated by Kyla Garcia – This is the sequel to Latinx inspired fantasy We Set the Dark on Fire and gaaaaah I can’t say much here without spoiling it! In the first book, the Medio School for Girls trains young women for one of two roles in their highly polarized society: Primeras run their husbands’ households and Segundas raise their children. Dani is stoked when she’s named Primera to Medio’s most eligible bachelor, until mean girl Carmen is appointed her Segunda. To make matters worse, Daniela is approached by a resistance group who will only keep Daniela’s deepest, darkest secret if she agrees to help them spy on her husband, who it turns out is kind of a jerk face. What to do???

We Unleash the Merciless Storm picks up right after We Set the Dark on Fire‘s cliffhanger ending. It promises high stakes, political intrigue, and (I hope) a continuation of a certain queer love story. Gimme!!

Narrator Note: Yes, yes, I’ve been critical of Kyla Garcia’s narration in the past. I’m pleased to report that I enjoyed her work here and had no issues with any of the pronunciations!

Latest Listens

A Conspiracy in Belgravia by Sherry Thomas, narrated by Kate Reading – This is the second book in the Lady Sherlock series and I think Lady Sherlock is my fave! The famed detective Victorian-era London knows as Sherlock Holmes is actually Charlotte Holmes, who solves cases with the help of a generous benefactor, a camera, and a few little white lies about her brother Sherlock being in another room. Huzzah! In A Conspiracy in Belgravia, Lady Ingram writes to “Sherlock” to ask for help finding the man she loves. Problem! The missing love of her life is not the man she’s married to but he is Charlotte’s estranged half brother. Problem, part two: Lady Ingram’s husband is Lord Ingram, the gentleman our dear Charlotte happens to be in love with.

I’ll admit that it took me a second to get into this listen, but I don’t think that was due to any fault on Reading’s part. As is often the case with this style of whodunnit, a lot of facts needs to be laid out before we get to the good stuff. About a quarter of the way in, I was hooked! I am a sucker for an English accent, and I love how smoothly Reading switches between numerous dialects and how she paces her narration. I’m excited to keep going with this series!

From the Internets

I sometimes naively forget that not everyone has hopped aboard the audiobook train.. Let’s welcome all newbies with open arms and remind them that now is a great time to start!

Jude Law, Evanna Lynch, Jason Isaacs, Bonnie Wright and several other actors from the HP universe have signed on to narrate the new Tales of Beedle the Bard audiobook! J.K. Rowling isn’t someone I’m eager to throw my money at these days, but guess what else is true: Jude Law could get it is very nice on the eyes and ears (as are the rest of the cast) and no amount of hate can take those stories from my Hogwarts-loving corazon. Also, sales of the new audiobook will go to the Lumos foundation.

Over at the Riot

Sometimes you need a quick listen and that’s where short stories come in. Here’s a list of some excellent short story collections for you ear holes.

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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 Tuesday and Friday too!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Hola Audiophiles! It’s that time of the week again already! Time for some new releases and audiobooks news. This week I have a whole bunch of audio content from the Book Riot site too, because I really just have zero regard for your TBRs. So open up that Libby app, fire up Hoopla, and get those Libro or Audible credits in line.

Ready? Let’s audio.

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New Releases – February 18, 2020  (publisher descriptions in quotes)

Of Curses and Kisses by Sandhya Menon, narrated by Shiromi Arserio, Jason Carpenter – The Rao and Emerson families have been feuding for centuries, and Princess Jaya Rao decides she’s had it when the Emersons begin to target her little sister. When she realizes that she and his Lordship Grey Emerson will attend the same elite boarding school, she concocts a plan: she’ll make him fall in love with her and then stomp, stomp, stomp on his heart! Meanwhile, Grey knows that his 18th birthday spells doom thanks to a curse placed on him by a long dead matriarch of the Rao family. When he meets Jaya, he immediately senses that she’s hiding something from him; it might just have something to do with the rose-shaped pendant she wears around her neck, and the curse.

Narrator note: Romance readers may be familiar with the work of Jason Carpenter, a veteran with a catalog of titles by Colleen Hoover, J.R. Ward, Abbi Glines, and Christina Lauren.

The Boston Massacre: An Intimate History by Serena Zabin, narrated by Andrea Gallo – You may have guessed that this is a history of the Boston Massacre! In case you need a refresher (like I did): on a late winter evening in 1770, British soldiers shot five local men to death in a storied event that helped trigger the American Revolution. Serena Zabin, a professor of American Studies at Carleton College, argues that the Massacre arose from not only political but personal conflicts. The wives and children of British soldiers had integrated into Boston society and formed a community with its residents; when the troops shot down those five men, a very intimate personal bond was shattered.

Narrator Note: I’m not familiar with Andrea Gallo who narrates a lot of nonfiction. I do see that she narrates a self help book called I Wanted Fries with That and friends, I feel seen.

The Antidote for Everything by Kimmery Martin, narrated by Dorothy Dillingham Blue – Georgia Brown is a urologist at a South Carolina hospital where her best friend Jonah is also a family practice doctor. When she travels out of the country for a medical conference, Jonah calls with an urgent message: the hospital has instructed its physicians to stop treating all transgender patients. Jonah, a gay man, refuses to comply and is fired for his resistance. Georgia takes a stand to fight alongside her best friend but ends up doing incalculable harm.

*I was initially hesitant to highlight a book about trans issues written by a cishet woman; I ultimately decided to include it after reading several reviews citing how she consulted with numerous sensitivity readers and actually took their advice.

Narrator note: If you enjoyed Emily Griffin’s All We Ever Wanted or Phil Stamper’s The Gravity of Us, Dorothy Dillingham Blue was a part of both of those productions.

The Other Mrs. by Mary Kubica, narrated by Piper Goodeve, Jeremy Arthur – Sadie and her husband Will have only just moved their family from Chicago to small-town Maine when a neighbor is found dead in her home. The murder rocks the entire community but really, really shakes Sadie, who’s terrified at the idea of a killer in her own backyard. It’s not just the death though; it’s also the old, creepy house they inherited after Will’s sister died unexpectedly and the dark and threatening presence of Will’s disturbed teenage niece, not to mention the couple’s troubling past. As Sadie is drawn deeper into the details of the murder, she begins to realize just how much she has to lose if the truth ever comes to light.

Narrator note: Piper Goodeve is awesome in Meg Cabot’s No Judgements, and Jeremy Arthur most recently narrated Kindness and Wonder: Why Mister Rogers Matters Now More Than Ever by Gavin Edwards.

Latest Listens

I’m currently very engrossed by Sherry Thomas’ A Conspiracy in Belgravia! I am a huge fan of this Lady Sherlock concept and have been lagging on keeping up with the series. I’ll report back when I’m done with this one. So far, so great!

From the Internets

Paste’s roundup of February’s best audiobooks. I’ve had my eye on Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara; according to my audiobook fairy Jamie Canaves, it has a fantastic cast and is a wonderful read.

A reader with a killer commute writes into an advice column to extoll the virtues of audiobooks.

What do Claire Danes, Nick Offerman, Colin Firth, and Meryl Streep have in common? They’ve all narrated audiobooks! Check out this list of audiobooks narrated by these celebrities and more.

Over at the Riot

SO much good audio content on the site this week!

Check out these middle grade and YA audiobooks with Muslim girl protagonists.

We all know what it’s like to find that perfect narrator and immediately want more of their work; here’s a roundup of narrators we want more from asap!

Black History Month is a great time to get into these 20 must-read audiobooks narrated by Black women. We of course love them year round.

Are you an Audible person? Here are 15 books available on Audible Escape.

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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 Tuesday and Friday too!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Hola Audiophiles! Well, if I haven’t said it before, I’ve officially reached that point where so many new books come out each week that picking which ones to include in this newsletter is hard. It feels like deciding which kids get to be perform in the school play and which ones get rejected! While I sit here with my guilt that matters literally not at all, get into these new listens and tell me what you’ve been loving lately!

Ready? Let’s audio.

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New Releases – February 11 (publisher descriptions in quotes)

Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, narrated by Maria Liatis – It’s 1979 in Baja California, Mexico and Viridiana is bored. Real bored. The most bored. Then a trio of wealthy American tourists arrives for the summer and Viridiana is immediately drawn to them, mixing herself up in their glamorous lives. Problem! One of them turns up dead. Guess she should have minded her business!

Narrator Note: Maria Liatis recently Adam Silvera’s Infinity Son, is part of the ensemble cast of both One of Us is Lying and Once of Us is Next Karen McManus by Karen McManus, and is also the voice of Zoraida Cordova’s Bruja Born.

American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI by Kate Winkler Dawson, narrated by the author – From the author of Death in the Air comes this account of the birth of criminal investigation as we know it. “Based on years of research and thousands of never-before-published primary source materials, American Sherlock captures the life of the man who pioneered the science our legal system now relies upon – as well as the limits of those techniques and the very human experts who wield them.”

A Witch in Time by Constance Sayers, narrated by Courtney Patterson, Claire Christie, Brittany Wilkerson, Stephanie Willis – Helen Lambert has lived life after life—she’s been an actress in old Hollywood, a rock star in 1970s LA, a piano virtuoso in 1890s Paris. The thing is: she doesn’t know it. That is until a mysterious presence in her latest life hits her with a tale too far gone to be true, except it is: she was cursed long ago to experience the same tragic love story over and over again, but might now have the power to break that terrible spell.

Narrator Note: I know just about nothing about this cast of narrators! they each have a decent to extensive catalog of work, just none that I am particularly familiar with. I did sample A Witch in Time though and I liked what I heard!

Stormsong by C.L. Polk, narrated by Moira Quirk – Yessssssss, the followup to Witchmark is here! Grace grapples with the consequences of helping her brother Miles reveal a dark and terrible secret at the based of Aeland society. “With the power out in the dead of winter and an uncontrollable sequence of winter storms on the horizon, Aeland faces disaster. Grace has the vision to guide her parents to safety, but a hostile queen and a ring of rogue mages stand in the way of her plans. There’s revolution in the air, and any spark could light the powder.”

Narrator Note: Elizabeth Hoyt readers may recognize Mora Quirk as she narrates a lot of Hoyt’s work. She’s also the voice of Gail Carriger’s Finishing School series and of Book Riot favorite Gideon the Ninth!

Latest Listens

All this election stuff has my head spinning and rely on the Pod Save America podcast to help weed through the mess. They break it all down and make it so accessible! If you aren’t already hip to this show, it is one of many in the growing Crooked Media empire. My latest fave, Hysteria, is what got me thinking of this backlist bump: Who Thought This Was A Good Idea by Alyssa Mastromonaco.

Alyssa is one of the regular hosts of Hysteria this is one of my faves of the Obama staffer books. It chronicles her career in politics, focusing in large part on her time working as Barack Obama’s Deputy Chief of Staff. It’s a political memoir, and a good one, but it’s also a really honest and hilarious account of what it’s like to be a woman in politics specifically: the discrimination, the fight to make your voice heard, the second guessing of our instincts. She gets really real about the toll it often took on her physical and emotional being to do her job, in spite of having a really rad freaking boss. I love this audiobook, though I do wish I’d known about playback controls back when I listened to it. There are a couple of times when her narration feels a liiiiilte bit too I’m-reading-the-words-on-this-page-and-forgetting-to-include-my-personality, but I think some of that can be remedied by kicking up that playback to a 1.5x.

From the Internets

15 Podcasts and Audiobooks to Help Your Commute Fly By from Self.com

The best audiobook apps for Android 

Over at the Riot

This roundup of new and forthcoming LGBTQ YA audiobooks reminded me how badly I want to read We Unleash the Merciless Storm by Tehlor Kay Mejia and Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore, and now a whole bunch of other books too!

What are your audiobook quirks?

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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 Tuesday and Friday too!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Hola Audiophiles! Welcome to February and the land of books aplenty. It is getting harder and harder to pick just a few audiobooks to highlight each week, which is, of course, a good problem to have. I might start including a bulleted list of titles in addition to the ones I blurb in detail – what do you think of that plan?

For now, let’s dive into some of the listens out this week.

Ready? Let’s audio.

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New Releases – February 4

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey, narrated by Romy Nordlinger – Esther is a stowaway who’s just been found in the book wagon of the Librarians. She’s running away from home to escape (deep breath, here I go!) an arranged marriage set up by her influential father to a man who used to be engaged to her best friend Beatriz, the best friend whom Esther was in love with and who was just hung for possession of resistance propaganda. This queer, near-future, post-apocalyptic take on the pulp Western about lesbian librarians on horseback is just so good!

Narrator note: This book is also my latest listen! More on that in a bit.

18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics by Bruce Goldfarb, narrated by Nan McNamara – Did you know that a woman is responsible for advancing modern forensics? I didn’t! She was a grandmother with no college degree who was so respected for her intelligence and skill as a researcher that she was able to break down barriers in women’s education. She sounds like a Miss Marple type, a woman whose keen observations of everyday life made her a force to be reckoned with—she helped change the face of science!

Narrator Note: Nan McNamara is an actress you may recognize from her work on TV series like Hawaii Five-O and Criminal Minds

Black Sunday by Tola Rotimi Abraham, narrated by Ron Butler and Liz Femi – It’s 1996 and twins sisters Bibike and Ariyike are living a comfortable life in Lagos, Nigeria. Then their mother loses her job and the family turns to a local church whose lead pastor isn’t shy about worshipping material wealth. Things go from iffy to terrible when the girls’ father puts the family home up on a “sure bet” and loses it. The twins and their siblings are forced to move in with their reluctant grandmother and soon find themselves drifting further and further from one another.

Narrator Note: Liz Femi is an actress and casting director who’s newer to audiobooks; Ron Butler has narrated the work of James Patterson, N.K. Jemisin, and James Baldwin, and more

The Lost Book of Adana Moreau by Michael Zapata, narrated by Coral Peña – In 1929 in New Orleans, Adana Moreau writes a work of science fiction about a young Dominican immigrant not unlike herself in search of a lost city. The book does well and Adana begins to write a sequel, then destroys it with the help of her son when she suddenly becomes ill. Decades later in Chicago, Saul is cleaning out the home of his recently deceased grandfather when he finds a manuscript of—whaddya know—that allegedly destroyed sequel. How does this manuscript exist? Why does his grandfather have it? Saul will find himself in New Orleans in the thick of Katrina to get to the truth.

Narrator Note: Coral Peña is the voice behind Angie Cruz’ Dominicana, a book I’ve had on my TBR since it came out last year! From the samples I’ve listened to, she reminds me of the mellow but effective style of Almarie Guerra, the voice behind Ann Davila Cardinal’s Five Midnights.

Latest Listens

I went on a hike through Portland’s Forest Park over the weekend (after first getting super lost and wandering through some uphill a$$ neighborhoods), allowing me to finish Upright Women Wanted in one listen. I knew this would be good because Sarah Gailey always comes through, but it was even better than expected!

If you don’t already know, horseback librarians were a real thing! Much like with River of Teeth (did ya know the U.S. once tried to make hippos our primary meat source??), Gailey took a real moment from history with Upright Women Wanted, put their unique flavor on it, and packaged it in a page-turner novella. This was my first audiobook by Romy Nordlinger and I am an immediate fan! You all know how quickly exaggerated, gimmicky accent work turns me off, and I was rull worried when I realized the accents here were… hmm, what to call them: Western, maybe, or “cowboy” twang? Nordlinger was spot-on though and built a nice level of suspense, not to mention the excellent job she did of conveying conflict and desire. So fun!

From the Internets

I know you all like audiobooks, but maybe you know someone who has yet to dip their toe in these waters. If you know a podcast fan who’s audiobook curious, have them start with these short stories.

Eight audiobooks about queer women to add to your queue

Over at the Riot

Ya girl (it’s me, I’m the girl) talked about audiobook speed on YouTube last week. Weigh in: do you adjust your audiobook speed?

Curious about Libro.fm? Tirzah answers some FAQs about my favorite audiobook platform, one that supports indie bookstores!

Five of the best audiobooks by narrator Soneela Nankani as picked by Rioter Kendra. I’m glad it wasn’t my job to narrow it down to just five because Soneela is so fantastic! Some of my most recent faves include Internment by Samira Ahmed and Sonali Dev’s Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors.

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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 Tuesday and Friday too!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Hola Audiophiles! We’ve finally reached the last few days of January, which somehow lasted 17 seconds and yet also went on for 45 years. One of the bright spots I’ve held onto is the number of awesome titles that hit shelves this month, including one this week by a Rioter! Let’s dive into some of those now.

Ready? Let’s audio.

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New Releases – January 28 (publishers’ descriptions in quotes)

Highfire by Eoin Colfer, narrated by Johnny Heller – Wyvern used to roam the skies looking for angry mobs to scorch. Now this dragon has taken human form and spends his days getting drunkity drunk on his recliner wearing his favorite Flashdance t-shirt, as one does! When a young man named Squib faces death by grenade launcher after witnessing a corrupt cop commit a murder, Wyvern saves Squib from that fiery death. The two unlikely companions strike up a deal: Squib will bring Vern all the booze he wants and keep him company in exchange for protection against the cop who continues to hunt him.

Narrator Note: Did anyone else catch the audiobook of The Swallows by Lisa Lutz? Johnny Heller was part of that ensemble cast. He also narrated Christopher Moore’s latest, Noir.

A Delicate Deception by Cat Sebastian, narrated by Joel Leslie – This is the latest in Cat Sebastian’s Regency Imposter series, a trilogy of queer and queer-adjacent regency romances. Here we meet reclusive historical novelist Amelia and Sydney, an engineer, both of whom have fled London for the respite of the English countryside. Neither of them is really looking for company, but they find it and whoops, now they’re kidding. Then a friend of Sydney’s comes to town and reveals a secret Sydney’s been holding onto that could spell doom for his relationship with Amelia.

Narrator Note: First: if you’re looking for queer romance, Joel Leslie had narrated a lot, and I do mean a lot, of it. Go forth! Second: I sampled four different audiobooks to get a sense for his sound and got everything from gruff sexy Englishman to angsty lustful millennial. He doth contain multitudes.

Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, narrated by Tim Andres Pabon – Marcelo Hernandez Castillo is an award-winning poet and activist who was five years old when he and his family prepared to cross the US-Mexico border. Castillo went blind temporarily from the stress of it but thankfully regained his vision. With it came an understanding: crossing the border would mean learning to hide in plain sight, to make himself less visible for his very safety and that of his family.

Narrator note: Tim Andres Pabon has a deep catalog of business, finance, and self help books. I admit that isn’t my usual lane, but his crisp, mellow voice pairs beautifully with Children of the Land.

Hi Five by Joe Ide, narrated by Zeno Robinson – Private detective Isaish Quintabe is back in the fourth installment in Joe Ide’s IQ series. A man is found murdered in a boutique owned by his girlfriend Cristiana, whose father happens to be the biggest arms dealer on the west coast. He convinces IQ to take Cristiana’s case by threatening to harm IQ’s new love interest should he fail to prove her innocence. Sounds like a sticky situation, and there’s more: Cristiana has multiple personalities, and all of them were witness to the crime.

Narrator Note: I was wondering how this narration was going to work after sampling Zeno Robinson’s performance of James Patterson’s Alex Cross. He sounds so young and fresh in it and I thought, “Would that work for Joe Ide’s IQ?” No reason to worry: turns out he’s just, ya know, talented. Nails it.

Don’t Read the Comments by Eric Smith, narrated by Richa Shukla Moorjani, Sunil Malhotra – Yaaaaay, this is finally out in the world! Eric Smith is a literary agent and also one of our own, the co-host of our Hey YA podcast! He introduces us to Divya Sharma, known as celebrity gamer D1V in the world of a popular video game.  She and fellow gamer Aaron Jericho run to the game for escape from the real world and troubles thy each have at home; when virtual harassment in the game bleeds into real life, Divya and Aaron band together to fight back against the trolls.

Narrator Note: I am obsessed with this narrator combo! Sunil Malhotra is awesome in When Breath Becomes Air and Eleanor & Park. I believe Richa Shukla Moorjani is newer to the game, but I am really loving the chemistry these two have here so far!

Latest Listens

I have no new listens this week, friends. My choices have all failed me! I’ve ditched three different titles in the last week because they either didn’t pull me in, the narration was meh, or the book had severely problematic plot points. So instead I’m giving a shout out to Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. I saw Rebecca re-reading this on Instagram and decided to revisit it myself. It’s a warm hug for my soul, but with swear words. If you want to learn a lot about the restaurant industry, about Anthony Bourdain’s roots and thoughts on life and food, or just revisit an oldie but goodie like I did, treat yourself.

From the Internets

If you’ve been looking to get into audiobook narration, here’s how to do it!

Over at the Riot

Did you know that not a lot of Australian books are published here in the US? I learned that in this post, a roundup of awesome Australian audiobooks!

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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 Tuesday and Friday too!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Hola Audiophiles! How goes it? All this rainy Portland weather has put me in the mood for cooking lots of warm and tasty meals and that has in turn shot my audiobook consumption through the roof! Today I’ll share my thoughts on my most recent listen, and of course hit you with a batch of new releases.

Ready? Let’s audio.

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New Releases – January 21 (publishers descriptions in quotes)

The Seep by Chana Porter, narrated by Shakina Nayfack – After a “gentle alien invasion” by an entity known as The Seep, fifty-year-old trans woman Trina and her wife Deeba thrive in The Seep’s new utopia. That is until Deeba abandons Trina to go off and be reborn as a baby, because that’s a thing you can do now! Trina falls apart until a chance meeting with a lost boy sends her on an unexpected quest. This alien invasion (but a gentle one!) with a side of Inception is part social commentary and part speculative fiction, “perfect for fans of Jeff VanderMeer and Carmen Maria Machado.”

Narrator Note: You may know actress and transgender activist Shakina Nayfack from her recurring role on TV show Difficult People. 

The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia by Emma Copley Eisenberg, narrated by the author – Emma Copley Eisenberg went to Pocahontas County, West Virginia to reinvestigate the Rainbow Murders case, a double murder of two hitchhikers on their way to a festival that took place in 1980. The author seeks to not only determine the truth behind the killings, but to unpack the trauma it inflicted on the locals.

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende, narrated by Edoardo Ballerini – This work of historical fiction begins in 1930s Spain just as General Franco has overthrown the government. Pregnant young widow Roser finds her life intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, her deceased love’s brother. They marry one another reluctantly for survival and embark on a ship with 2,000 other refugees bound for Chile. There they embrace exile while Europe erupts in world war, finding “that home might have been closer than they thought all along.”

Narrator Note: Edoardo Ballerini is an audio pro with a deep catalog of James Patterson and Dean Koontz’ work. He also recently joined Anna Chlumsky in narrating Inland by Téa Obreht.

Homie by Danez Smith, narrated by the author – Danez Smith is a poet who you need to know if you don’t already. This collection is an homage to the saving grace of friendship. “Rooted in the loss of one of Smith’s close friends, this book comes out of the search for joy and intimacy within a nation where both can seem scarce and getting scarcer.”

Narrator Note: Sweet slam poetry perfection, Batman: this is stunning on audio. I’m not all the way through, but Danez’ powerful delivery gives me chills every few minutes.

The Majesties by Tiffany Tsao, narrated by Nancy Wu – Gwendolyn and Estella are sisters and best friends, each other’s shoulder to lean on when their very powerful, wealthy, and often deceitful family is a little too much to handle. Plot twist! Gwendolyn, who’s now in a coma, is the only remaining member of her family. Why? Because Estella poisoned everybody else. Getting to the bottom of this extreme betrayal will reveal secrets about the family that Gwendolyn might wish had stayed hidden.

Narrator Note: If you’ve enjoyed the audiobooks of Marie Lu’s Warcross series, Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, or Ling Ma’s Severance, that’s Nancy Wu! She brings such power and weight to her performances.

Latest Listens

I finally plucked We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia from my To Listen folder after keeping it on ice for months. The premise: The Medio School for Girls trains young women for one of two roles in their polarized society; they’ll either be a Primera, aka Wife Numero Uno who will run her husband’s household, or a Segunda, Wifey Numero Dos who will raise his children. Both paths promise a life in the lap of luxury, far from the political unrest and demonstrations of the lower class who live beyond the wall.

After a lot of hard work and a few well-placed lies about her family’s true origins, Dani earns herself a place as Primera to Mateo Garcia, Medio’s wealthiest and most eligible bachelor. But boooo: her arch-nemesis and mean girl Carmen is to be Mateo’s Segunda, and Mateo is not at all the charming or noble dude Dani thought him to be. When a member of a rebel group named La Voz threatens to expose Dani’s true identity unless she helps them with their cause, she starts to question who the good guys really are, whom she can trust, and what she’s willing to risk to do the right thing.

This book would have made teenage me giddy (like it did for mid thirties me), a story of political intrigue and girl badassery with a touch o’romance. It features brown girl spies and queerness and gutsy rebellions and an ending that made me check my WiFi connection because surely there had to be more!!

Kyla Garcia, who I’m sure you recall I’ve been critical of before, did a pretty great narration job overall. Good pacing, appropriate inflections to convey emotion, correct pronunciation of the Spanish parts of the story. My one gripe here: I’m 95% positive Garcia mispronounced the author’s name both at the beginning and the end, which just feel SO sloppy and I really hope I’m wrong. Still, give this a listen if you haven’t. Such a fun story and the sequel is out this year!

From the Internets

WaPo critics suggest these three recent audiobooks. I’ve had my eye on Lisa Jewell’s twisty thriller The Family Upstairs; this may just be the convincing I needed.

Over at the Riot

Give this roundup of queer audiobook memoirs narrated by their authors a look. You know how I feel about In the Dream House, definitely need to add these others to my list.

2019 was a banner year for digital checkouts! Over 326 million ebooks and audiobooks were checked out from libraries and schools.

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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 Tuesday and Friday too!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa