Category: Audiobooks

Audiobooks

Audiobooks – 8/8

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date August 8, 2019

Audiobooks – 8/1

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date August 1, 2019

Moving Mayhem + Magical Librarians

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date July 25, 2019

More July Audiobooks and a Special Announcement!

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date July 18, 2019

Hola Audiophiles!

Guess what guess what guess what?! Ok I’ll tell you: as of Monday, July 15th, I am Book Riot’s new Associate Editor! I’ll be relocating to Portland in August as part of the job and will likely regale you with my moving chronicles. Moving is the worst, but I’m so pumped to finally be able to share this news!

I will still be putting together both Audiobooks and In the Club, yapping about books on our YouTube channel, managing social media several days a week, etc. If anything, you’ll probably see more of me.

Enough about me though. Let’s audio.

Sponsored by TBR: Tailored Book Recommendations.

TBR is Book Riot’s new subscription service offering Tailored Book Recommendations for readers of all stripes. Been dreaming of a “stitchfix for books?” Now it’s here!

New Releases (publisher’s descriptions in quotes)

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno Garcia, narrated by Yetta Gottesman (July 23)

Casiopea is a young woman in a small Mexican village during the Jazz Age, dreaming of a life where she’s not the family servant or subject to her grandfather’s abuse. Then one day she opens a mysterious box and out pops the Mayan god of death, long dormant after his twin brother betrayed him. An epic journey ensues that takes us everywhere from Mexico City to Baja California in a quest for revenge and restoration of balance in the world of both gods and men. It gave me such glee to hear the places, phrases, and legends of my childhood in a modern work of mythology!

Narrator note: You may recognize narrated Yetta Gottesman from last year’s Sick: A Memoir by Porochista Khakpour. I like her style, balanced and clear, but wasn’t able to get a sample of her Spanish pronunciation.

Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman, narrated by Susan Bennett (July 23)

It’s 1966 in Baltimore and reporter Maddie Schwartz has just walked away from a 20-year stint as a pampered housewife. She’s starting to make a name for herself at a local newspaper when she comes across a story that could make her career: a missing woman’s body is discovered in the fountain of a city park lake. She further she looks into the case, the less clear the truth becomes. “Her inability to look beyond her own needs will lead to tragedy and turmoil for all sorts of people – including the man who shares her bed.” Snap!

Narrator note: Susan Bennett has narrated other Laura Lippman works as well as stuff by Charlaine Harris and Christopher Moore. There’s something about her lower register that matches perfectly with a good mystery/thriller!

My Friend Anna: The True Story of the Fake Heiress Who Conned Me and Half of New York City by Rachel DeLoache Williams, narrated by the author (July 23)

I love me a good “rich people problems” book, but this is next level. It’s “rich people who got the %@*# conned out of them problems!” You may be familiar with this bonkers true story as it recently made all the headlines: a young con artist posed as a German heiress in New York and scammed muchos rich peoples out of $@%*ing boatloads of cash. The book is by the former Vanity Fair photo editor whom Anna scammed out of more than $62,000. QUE!?!

Narrator note: No lie: I’m pretty stoked (with a touch of schadenfreude) to hear this lady’s tale of getting bilked out of all that cash by a poser.

Brazen and the Beast by Sarah MacLean, narrated by Justine Eyre (July 30)

This is the second book in Sarah MacLean’s Bareknuckle Bastards series about a trio of brothers bound by a salacious secret they can’t escape. In this installment, Lady Henrietta Sedley is entering her 29th year and fully embracing her spinsterhood. “Everything is going perfectly…until she discovers the most beautiful man she’s ever seen tied up in her carriage and threatening to ruin the Year of Hattie before it’s even begun.” Oh yes!

Narrator note: Justine Eyre narrates a lot of Sarah Maclean’s books, including the first book in this series, Wicked and the Wallflower. She’s done tons of other work by everyone from Tessa Dare to Sujata Massey, but I loved her performance of Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian (give me ALL of the Dracula things).

They Could Have Named Her Anything by Stephanie Jimenez, narrated by Almarie Guerra (July 30)

Maria Anis takes an hour-long subway ride from her home in Queens to a bougie private high school on the Upper East Side every day. She’s struggling to fit in as one of the only Latinx students when she meets Rocky, a wealthy, white, rebellious classmate whose privilege is astonishing to Maria Anis.

As a bond develops between these unlikely friends, neither can see what they share most—jealousy and the desire for each other’s lives. But crackling under the surface of their seemingly supportive alliance, the girls begin to commit little betrayals as they strive to get closer to their ideals regardless of the consequences.

Narrator Note: I’ve never listened to any of Almarie Guerra’s performances, but I do know a couple of people who really enjoyed her performance in the audiobook of Ingrid Rojas Contreras’ Fruit of the Drunken Tree.

Speaking of Summer by Kalisha Buckhanon, narrated by Karen Chilton (July 30)

On a winter’s night in Harlem, Summer Spencer walks up to the rooftop of the brownstone she shares with twin sister Autumn and is never seen again. Local authorities don’t seem interested in solving the case, so Autumn takes matters into her own hands (she’s clearly never read a literary thriller). “[T]he loss becomes too great, the mystery too inexplicable, and Autumn starts to unravel, all the while becoming obsessed with murdered women and the men who kill them.”

Narrator note: Karen Chilton has narrated several of Alyssa Cole’s audiobooks and gets the Vanessa Diaz Stamp of Accent Approval.

From the Internets

The summer reading and listening lists doth persist! Here’s the latest from Bustle: 15 New Audiobooks To Listen To On Your Summer Vacation. I spy a few faves: The Satapur Moonstone, Gods of Jade and Shadow, and With the Fire on High!

Over at the Riot

Hey you: you look like you could use some free audiobooks. If you’re a Prime member, these 25 audiobooks are available to you for $Free.99. If you’re a Kindle Unlimited user, here are 50 of the best Kindle Unlimited Audiobooks.

There are several audiobook subscriptions out there these days, and thank goodness for that. Yay for not having to lug around a Discman and 12 CDs! You all know I’m a Libro.fm girl, but for those curious about Audible: check out these FAQs.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Audiobooks

July Audiobooks!

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date July 10, 2019

Hola Audiophiles!

Did ya miss me? I missed you! I didn’t get to hit you with the news books last week because I was busy eating lobster and drinking micheladas in Mexico on the 4th of July. *shrugs*

Don’t worry though, I’ve got you covered this week and next with the listens I’ve loved or can’t wait to get to in July. So much good stuff, I can hardly keep up! Summer is ‘bout to be lit.

Ready? Let’s audio.

Sponsored by Dreamscape Media and Hallmark Publishing

Celebrate Christmas in July with classic Hallmark Publishing audiobooks available now on hoopla digital, Kobo, and Audible! These heartwarming, clean, romantic audiobooks based on some of your favorite Hallmark Channel Original Movies show you what happens after the first kiss! Don’t miss out on the (second) most wonderful time of the year!

New Releases (Publisher’s descriptions in quotes)

Temper by Layne Fargo, narrated by Jayme Mattler and Hillary Huber (July 2) – Struggling actress Kira is offered the theater role of a lifetime. The catch? She’ll have to work with a director known for pushing his actors past their limits both on and off the stage. Then there’s Joanna, the theater’s cofounder; she’s jealous of Kira and is hiding a pretty gnarly secret about the show. Who’s the greater threat and who should Kira trust, and what lengths will both women go to in the name of ambition?

Fun fact: Narrator Jayme Mattler can also be heard in the audiobook of The Mueller Report. I guess shady characters are sort of Mattler’s thing!

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman, narrated by Emily Rankin (July 9) – I’m a little partial to books about books and way partial to books about bookstores, so this one is ringing all of my bells. It’s about a bookseller whose life changes unexpectedly when the father she never knew dies and she discovers she has a big ol’ giant family living nearby. It’s all a lot to process and she doesn’t quite know if she wants to get to know them. I mean, she could just as easily stay home and read with her car named Phil. What to do?!?

This one is narrated by Emily Rankin, who you may recognize from Before We Were Yours or Rules for Visiting. I find her work to always be pleasantly consistent, and a perfect match for what sounds like a charming story.

Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss by Margaret Renkl, narrated by Joyce Bean (July 9) – This debut gave me H is for Hawk vibes, a reflection on loss and grief through observation of the natural world. It’s a collection of brief and beautiful essays on Renkl’s upbringing, her relationship with her parents, and her transition from daughter to caregiver, all woven into musings on everything from the beauty of bluebirds to the wonder of bees.

I don’t think I’ve listened to anything narrated by Joyce Bean before, but some of you may be familiar. She’s performed the work of Kristin Hannah, Sandra Brown, Nora Roberts and much, much more.

Three Women by Lisa Taddeo, narrated by Tara Lynne Barr, Marin Ireland, Mena Suvari, and the author (July 9) – WOOOOOW I don’t think I can keep this blurb short. Award-winning journalist Lisa Taddeo spent almost a decade writing this book, driving across the country multiple times and living with the subjects of her research into women’s desire. What results is a fully immersive dive into three women’s sex lives: a neglected housewife in suburban Indiana having an affair that consumes her; a glamorous New England restauranteur whose husbands enjoys watching her have sex with other people; a North Dakota high school student whose relationship with her English teacher tears her life, his life, and that of their community apart.

These stories aren’t neat or pretty; they’re messy and complicated and often paint their subjects in flawed and unflattering light. It dares to explore the power of the beauty and pain of women’s longing, of the importance of asking not only what women don’t want done to us but in turn what we do. This would make such a fiery book club read and is fantastic on audio; the voices for each of the three women’s parts fit their narratives perfectly (hey Mena Suvari, where ya been??).

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, narrated by JD Jackson and Colson Whitehead (July 16) – I don’t know if I’m ready, y’all. This treasure of an author takes us to the Jim Crow South where young Elwood Curtis has plans to enroll in the local black college. Then an innocent mistake lands him in the Nickel Academy, a juvenile “reform school” and living nightmare where young black men sustain every manner of horrifying abuse. Elwood believes the way to survive is to embody Dr. King’s message of love, but is it enough? “Based on the real story of a reform school in Florida that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers.”

The Marriage Clock by Zara Raheem, narrated by Ariana Delawari (July 23) – Can I get an amen for romance by authors of color? This one sounds nothing short of delightful, the story of a young Indian woman who at age 26 is starting to get a little nervous about her lack of husbandly prospects. Does she want to get married? Yes! Does she want the arranged marriage her parents so desperately want for her? Not so much. And she’s only got three months to prove to them that she can find a good man all by herself.

If you listened to A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum or The Wrath of the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh and liked what you heard, you’re in luck! Ariana Delawari is a new narrator for me, but I loved what I heard in a few sample listens.

From the Internets

Why yes, Women.com: I do have an audiobook-shaped hole in my wallet and I do love me some audio drama!

Over at the Riot

Yo… 25 BILLION dollars! That was the net revenue for publishing in 2018, with audiobooks, children’s and YA nonfiction leading the earnings pack.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Audiobooks

Havana in the Heart (and Ears), Kids’ Audiobook Series, and More

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date June 26, 2019

Hola Audiophiles!

Blink and you may just miss the end of the month – June is passing us by, friends! It’s been fun sharing Audiobook Month with all of you. Not that we need an excuse to geek out over audiobooks…

As wrap things up, let’s do a little check in: what audiobooks have you been loving? Usually I’m the one doing all the talking: your turn to share the audio love.

Ready? Let’s audio.

Mythology, Magic, and Teenagers

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date June 19, 2019

Hola Audiophiles!

How goes it this week? I’m over here with a renewed mythology obsession thanks to Madeline Miller wordsmithing (more on that in a minute). I tell you: my allergies and travel tendencies don’t make pet adoption very likely, but I swear I’d name my puppies Circe and Patroclus if I had any. I’m also obsessed with the name Ariadne for a daughter, pero… a) I still don’t know if I want kids, and b) I can already hear my abuelos going, “Ari-QUE?”

Allow me to gush just a little bit more about Achilles & friends, and to share a refreshing magical mystery that I can’t stop thinking about. Don’t forget to check out Book Riot’s Amazon storefront. We’ve put together a selection of our favorite books and bookish stuff for summer!

For now, let’s audio.

Free Books, New Books, All the Books!

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date June 12, 2019

Hola Audiophiles!

Well, amigx (has that caught on yet?): I am ruined! I asked you all to help me pick my next listen and the winner was Song of Achilles. I definitely showed up to a lunch date with my dad with bloodshot eyes and a broken heart. Taco Tuesday is supposed to be a happy occasion, Madeline Miller! How dare you rip me wide open AGAIN with your mythical word magic??

This newsletter is sponsored by Libro.fm.

Get three audiobooks for the price of one, with code BR19!

While I wipe away my tears and whisper Patroclus’ name into the wind, read on for a quick announcement and several chances to win free books! Then we’ll get into Part Dos of June audiobooks.

We want to hear from you! Fill out a quick survey on the Audiobook content you want to see and you’ll be entered to win a $50 Amazon gift card. Easy!
We also have 250 early digital downloads of Laura Lippman’s Lady in the Lake to give away! The audio edition is performed by Susan Bennett via Libro.fm and sounds like a summer stunner.
You want more, you say? We’re giving away six months of Audible to one reader who signs up for our Audiobooks newsletter! You’re already ahead of the game, so you get to enter too.
Lastly, we’ve put together a selection of our favorite books and bookish stuff for summer! Go check out Book Riot’s Amazon storefront and nab some bookish swag.

Survey done? Giveaways entered? Storefront shopped? Let’s audio.

New Releases (publisher descriptions in quotes)

Fleishman Is in Trouble by: Taffy Brodesser-Akner, narrated by Allyson Ryan (June 18)

Doctor Toby Fleishman and his wife of 15 years have separated and are navigating the wonderful world of coparenting when Rachel up and vanishes into thin air. Toby is left with their two young kids and is trying to balance fatherhood with his career, not to mention his newly active sexy-time schedule (thanks dating apps!). He’s convinced himself that it’s all Rachel’s fault, that her ambition was the undoing of their marriage and her disappearance an act of selfishness. He soon learns that there truly are two sides to every story, and that his side maaaaybe ain’t all there is to it.

This exploration of marriage, divorce, and ambition is insightful, smart, and really damn funny debut.

The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull, narrated by Janina Edwards and Ron Butler (June 18)

Spaceships, feuding families, missions of vengeance: all of this goodness from a writer I’ve seen compared to Octavia Butler. “An alien ship rests over Water Island. For five years, the people of the US Virgin Islands have lived with the Ynaa, a race of super-advanced aliens on a research mission they will not fully disclose. They are benevolent in many ways but meet any act of aggression with disproportional wrath. This has led to a strained relationship between the Ynaa and the local Virgin Islanders, and a peace that cannot last.”

A year after a young boy has died at the hands of an Ynaa, an inevitable conflict comes to a head that will leave not a soul untouched.

The Travelers by Regina Porter, narrated by Bahni Turpin and Dominic Hoffman(June 18)

**insert air horns** Bahni Turpin in the house! I love that she’s narrating this book, one I had the privilege of reading it earlier this year while serving as a panelist for Indies Introduce Summer/Fall 2019. This was taken from the blurb I shared on the American Booksellers Association page:

“I’m blown away by the fact that this stunning work is a debut effort. It’s a sweeping history of our country and the traumas we have yet to fully heal from, spanning the American South in the 50s through the early years of Obama’s presidency. It’s told through a series of narratives that connect unexpectedly and beautifully, exploring the many nuanced layers of the human condition with each emotional character arc. The writing is both powerful and restrained, one of sparse but evocative details that quietly crack your heart wide open when you least expect it.”

The Poison Thread by Laura Purcell, narrated by Jayne Entwistle and Elizabeth Knowelden (June 18)

I’m sorry, I hope you can hear me over the sound of all my bells ringing! In this Victorian gothic thriller, wealthy, beautiful Dorothea Truelove is obsessed with phrenology and goes to Oakgate Prison to test some theories on skull shape and crime. There she meets Ruth, a teenage seamstress with quite the story: she claims to possess a supernatural power to kill with only a needle and thread. Is homegirl for reals? Is she mad? Is she a cold-booded killer tryna make her sewing kit a scapegoat? This plot is giving me Sarah Waters Affinity vibes and me likey very much.

Side note: this one is performed in part of Jayne Entwhistle, the inimitable voice of Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce series!

Emperors of the Deep by Wiliiam McKeever, narrated by Tim Andres Pabon (June 25)

Shaaaarks! I love sharks! I mean, maybe not as much as Amanda loves sharks. I’ve never thrown a Shark Week party, but hey: there’s still time.

William McKeever is a documentarian and conservationist determined to correct common misconceptions on these beautiful, terrifying creatures. The book is rife with factoids that’d make even a casual shark lover giddy: sharks are 50-million years older than trees, account for only 6 human fatalities per year, and have a sixth-sense that lets them pick up on electric fields generated by living things. Through a fascinating examination of four shark types (Mako, Tiger, Hammerhead, and Great White), he explains why shark survival is essential for ecological stability.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything narrated by Tim Andres Pabon before, but I dig his delivery in spite of it sounding a little like a voice you might hear on the CVS pharmacy recording.

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes, narrated by Julia Whelan and Linda Holmes (June 25)

You may recognize Linda Holmes as the host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast! Her debut is the hope-filled, heartwarming story of Evvie, a grieving widow who rarely leaves her house, and Dean, a former Major League pitcher who’s off his game. Dean moves into an apartment behind Evvie’s home and the two agree not to ask each other questions about what ails them. But ya know: rules schmules. An unlikely friendship blossoms as they each share buried secrets, a bond that quickly grows into something more.

Look for lots of baseball analogies, some truly hilarious interactions, and top notch narration from the voice behind works like Educated, Gone Girl, and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beath Keane, narrated by Molly Pope (June 25)

“Two neighboring families in a suburban town, the friendship between their children, a tragedy that reverberates over four decades…:” Sound familiar? Fair Verona may not be a suburban town, but parts of this story certainly appear to draw from that star-crossed lovers tale. Two rookie NYPD cops end up living next door to one another in the Bronx and have children born six months apart. A close friendship develops between those children, a bond that is tested in their eighth grade year when a violent event tears their families apart. Ask Again, Yes explores how “the events of childhood look different when reexamined from the distance of adulthood – villains lose their menace, and those who appeared innocent seem less so.”

Sweet Heat by Zuri Day, narrated by Shari Peele (June 25)

I said to the universe: “Universe, your girl wants to read more romance by authors of color. Whatcha got?” The clouds parted and down from the heavens came this gem. Julian Drake is the youngest heir to a Northern California dynasty on the cusp of opening up his very own therapy practice. He runs into Nicki Long, a Broadway dancer and his long lost love; sparks fly, love is professed, and soon Nicki is relocating out west. The trouble is, she’s brought danger with her, a threat that could be her undoing and that of the illustrious Drake clan.

This one is part of the Blue Collar Lover Series – more to explore! Also, I’d listen to Shari Peele read the ingredients in my body wash.

From the Internets

We all know audiobook listenership is on the rise, but just how many people out there audio? A Publishers Association study suggests it’s as many as one in every five readers.

La verdad? I clicked on this because I saw the Coco thumbnail. Glad I did too, because I stumbled on a wonderful list of Spanish audiobooks to get kids reading from HipLatina.com.

Over at the Riot

In keeping with the Audiobook Month theme, last week’s YouTube video was all about my favorite audiobook narrators. Tell me: who are some of your faves?

Speaking of great audiobook narrators, don’t miss out on this piece on terrific memoirs narrated by their authors. It’s a solid list, and I firmly believe that everyone should experience Trevor Noah’s kid voice at least once.

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Audiobooks

Choose My Next Listen, Bodies in Barrels, and More in Audiobooks

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date June 5, 2019

Hola Audiophiles!

How was everyone’s weekend? I spent mine in lovely Portland, Oregon whose greenery makes San Diego look like a big brown blur. I love my hometown but good GAWD I love those trees!

Sponsored by Libby, the one-tap reading app from your library and OverDrive

Meet Libby. The award-winning reading app that makes sure you always have something to read. It’s like having your entire library right in your pocket. Download the app today and get instant access to thousands of ebooks and audiobooks for free thanks to your public library and OverDrive.

I also had the interesting experience of listening to an audiobook set in 1920s Portland while I was there. There I was, in what most of us think of as a super liberal and progressive city, listening to historical fiction that chronicles Oregon’s ugly history as a whites-only state. Every chapter opened up with a line from a piece of Oregon legislation or a local article/advertisement, each of which could have been pulled right out of the Jim Crow Handbook for Being a Racist A$$hole. Yikes… proof that we’ve come a long way but have a long, long way to go.

I’ll tell you all about that fascinating read and lots more goings on in the audiobook world. Ready? Let’s audio.

Latest Listens

Let’s talk The Paragon Hotel! A plot refresher, one mo’ time: the year is 1921 and Alice “Nobody” James is on a train ride west from Harlem to Portland with a couple of bullet wounds in her side. She’s on the run after a botched drug & booze deal puts a target on her head, and befriends Max, a black porter who takes her to the Paragon Hotel to get her the down-low medical care she needs. The residents of Portland’s only all-black hotel are immediately terrified at the idea of a white woman’s presence among them, and Alice soon learns why: the Klu Klux Klan has made its way to Oregon. Every moment she spends at the Paragon puts its inhabitants in danger.

The book flips back and forth between Alice’s time in New York and her arrival in Oregon, slowly revealing details of Alice’s past and how she came to be involved with the booze trade and the mafia (warning: references to horse death and bodies chopped up in barrels). As the threat of the clan grows stronger and a young boy from the Paragon goes missing, all manner of secrets bubble to the surface. No one, it would appear, is exactly who they seem.

I have to give it up again to narrator January LaVoy; she really goes in! She pulls off quite the cast of characters with a whole arsenal of accents and affectations that create distinction without ever resorting to the ridiculous. She pulls off smooth and buttery then harsh and sharp in the blink of an eye. Such skill, I tell you.

Listens on Deck + Audiobook Month News:

Help me pick my next listen! Do I go with:

A. Recursion by Blake Crouch: new, buzzy book about the threat of implanted memories reminiscent of Inception

B. Spinning Silver, a reimagining of Rumpelstiltskin set in a Eastern Europe-like country from fantasy maven Naomi Novik (it’s been on my TBR since it first came out in hardback)

C. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller since I’ve never rid myself of this Circe hangover

Help me decide!

Let’s also talk about some of the fun stuff out in the world for Audiobook Month!

Libro.fm has a whole month of festivities planned for Audiobook Month, all of which are detailed here. Check out the adorable graphic designed by beloved bookish artist Jane Mount!

Audiobooks.com is celebrating with some sweet giveaways: enter here to win one of three audiobook prize packs! They’re not messing around: you could win Air Pods, a Sonos speaker, or a Samsung smartwatch plus gift cards.

From the Internets

Where was this piece the year I attended *12* weddings (and was in eight of them, good grief)? Paste Magazine recommends these 10 must-listen audiobooks for wedding season. Some are kid-friendly too!

I’ve got that summertime, summertime playlist… yeah, I did sing that in my best languid Lana del Rey voice. Also, it’s Goodreads that has the playlist and it’s got 40 reader-approved road trip listens.

Brace yourself: it’s June and that means aaaall of the “best books of the year so far!” lists (no shade, we love these). Here’s one from The Guardian on the best audiobooks of 2019 thus far.

I’m newer to comics but have loved what I’ve read for both the stories and the treat for the eyes. Now it looks like the Marvel Comics will soon be a treat for the ears, too: they’re getting the audiobooks treatment according to Geek.com.

Over at the Riot

In case you missed it, I kicked off Audiobook Month with a quick video on where to get audiobooks. Did I mention some of them are free?

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa

Audiobooks

New June Audiobooks!

Post author By Vanessa Diaz
Post date May 28, 2019

Hola Audiophiles!

Guess what guess what guess what? June is Audiobook Month! And not just in my head either, but in real life. Because we’re friends, I will confess that I did a super awkward cha-cha dance when I realized this earlier that involved pointing at my ears and then miming the opening of a book. It was… well, strange.

Back to Audiobook Month! Various audiobook outlets are sure to have fun promos going so make sure to check those out. I’ll include any I hear about in the newsletter all month long. For now, you know what’s up: a new month around the corner means new audiobooks! Here’s a batch of new listens coming at you in June.

Let’s audio.

Sponsored by Whatbook, the first app for social readia

You’ve heard of social media, but Whatbook is the first app for social readia. Whatbook offers users a new platform to share and discover book recommendations from people- just like we do in real life! Choose to follow friends, family, and colleagues for reliable recommendations, while discovering new users with similar reading interests for a more varied, yet human
recommendation experience. Whatbook has also introduced podcasts onto the platform, so now users can find their next favorite podcast series alongside their next read. Now available for free in the app store. So, What book next?

New Audiobooks (publisher descriptions in quotes)

I’m sticking to the two-part breakdown again this month for new books. Does this work for you all, or are you like “Give them to us all at once, you fool!!”? Let me know what you prefer.

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey, narrated by Xe Sands (June 4)

If you don’t already know Sarah Gailey, they are the genius behind the American Hippos novellas, a fictional take on a very real moment in history when our government tried to breed hippos and make them our new meat source. Did these nutters never watch the nature channel??!

Magic for Liars is Gailey’s fantasy debut, wherein detective Ivy Gamble has a little Petunia Dursley thing going on. She was born without magic while her estranged twin Tabitha possesses the gift, and phew because Ivy don’t want it! Except, ya know, she does. When a grizzly murder goes down at the school where Tabitha teaches theoretical magic, Ivy gets pulled into a world of danger and secrets. Magic school + noir thriller? I’m so there.

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert, narrated by Blair Brown (June 4)

Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction with a book that’s a little less Eat, Pray, Love and a lot more Sex & the City. Set in the 1940s New York theatre scene, this sexy adventure is the story of an older woman looking back on her youth with a few regrets and a lot of pleasure. It’s nice to see more books exploring female sexuality and promiscuity without the slut shaming. What a concept: a woman can partake in casual sex and still be a good person who lives a fulfilling and meaningful life!

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, narrated by the author (June 4)

Every last person I know who’s read it has given me that “This will crack you open, prepare thyself!” look. It’s a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read told from the 20-something son’s perspective. It’s an exploration of class, race, and masculinity, of the importance of preserving our histories and the crippling effects of feeling we’ve gone unheard. “Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness,” it promises to be a truly powerful testament to the healing we find in storytelling.

Mostly Dead Things by Kristin Arnett, narrated by Jesse Vilinsky (June 4)

You know when a book is described as darkly funny? This is what you call a title that features a grieving widow with a habit of making lewd art with stuffed animal corpses, n’est-ce pas?

Jessa-Lynn Morton discovers her father’s dead body in the family taxidermy shop. In the thick of her grief, she steps up to take over the failing business while the rest of her family falls apart. Some of them go completely withdrawn, others walk away; then there’s the aforementioned mother’s own illicit taxidermy activity, a hobby that only escalates in its absurdity over time. Jessa must find a way to keep the business above water and figure out what her place is in her motley crew of a family.

Underland by Robert Macfarlane, narrated by Roy Mcmillan (June 4)

Robert Macfarlane is the award-winning author of books like The Old Ways and The Lost Words, a nature writer whose insatiable curiosity and endless respect for the natural world is evident with every word he puts to page. Underland is all about the worlds beneath our feet, a journey that takes us everywhere from Bronze Age burial chambers and Arctic sea caves to the Paris catacombs. It’s compelling and haunting in its implications as so much of his writing is, and beautiful to boot. This is shaping up to be one of my favorite books of the year.

We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib, narrated by Parmida Vand (June 4)

Whether as an Ahmadi Muslim in Pakistan or a refugee in Canada, there was never a time in Samra Habib’s life when it was safe to be her authentic self. Every aspect of her identity and physicality was policed by men and women insisting she fit a certain model of pious obedience, all while she navigated religious persecution, bullying, racism, and even an arranged marriage. “So begins an exploration of faith, art, love, and queer sexuality, a journey that takes her to the far reaches of the globe to uncover a truth that was within her all along.”

Bunny by Mona Awad, narrated by Sophie Amoss (June 11)

I saw this described as The Vegetarian meets Heathers, and that’s not wrong. But also: maybe Mean Girls meets The Craft??

Samantha Mackey is a student in a bougie New England MFA program who can’t stand the rest of the girls in her cohort. They’re rich, entitled, and extra AF, plus they call each other “Bunny.” Then she gets an invite from the Bunnies to join their clique and get into some weird ritual sh*t that makes the Burn Book look like a bedtime story, and dear Sam is all too quick to ditch her only friend Ava to get in with the Bunny crew. I’m making light of things here to keep an ominous sense of dread at bay; things get pretty dark and twisty before they come to a deadly and explosive end.

Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera, narrated by Robin Miles, Adenrele Ojo, and Brittany Pressley (June 11)

Told from each of their perspectives, this is the story of three Southern women in South Carolina in the years leading up to the Great Depression. Gertrude lives under the daily threat of death at the hands of her abusive husband and does the unthinkable to ensure her daughters’ survival. Retta, a freed slave employed by the Coles family that once enslaved her family, is learning that for some, freedom isn’t all the way free. Annie is the Coles family matriarch grappling with a terrible truth that has ripped her family apart. “These three women seemingly have nothing in common, yet as they unite to stand up to the terrible injustices that have long plagued the small town, they find strength in the bond that ties women together.”

The Darwin Affair by Tim Mason, narrated by Derek Perkins (June 11)

London, June 1860: moments after an assassination attempt against Queen Victoria, a low-level thief is found gruesomely murdered a block away. Something about the crimes makes Chief Detective Inspector Charles Field think the incidents are not only related but all a part of a grander, more sinister plot. He soon learns that Charles Darwin’s publication of On the Origin of Species is at the core of a string of murders, arson, and kidnapping; his pursuit of the culprit takes him on a high-stakes journey from London to the halls of Oxford that made me blow right through this book in a day.

P.S. the black-eyed villain Chorister is soooo creepy.

Recursion by Blake Crouch, narrated by Jon Lindstrom, Abby Craden (June 11)

I’ve been trying to write a brief description for this book for a half hour that isn’t just “This is like Inception with the WTF factor turned up high.” Barry is a New York cop investigating what’s known as False Memory Syndrome, a condition that drives its victims mad with memories of things that never actually happened. Helena is a neuroscientist working on a technology that would allow a person to preserve and re-experience their most cherished memories. Together they’re up against a dark and terrifying force that “attacks not just our minds, but the very fabric of the past.” It asks the mind-boggling question: what if someone had the power to implant a memory?

From the Internets

I somehow missed that the audiobook reviews I’ve seen from The Washington Post are a regular feature. Whoops! In any case, May’s roundup of recs from WaPo are titles that are the sounds of spring.

Libro.fm got the ball rolling early on Audiobook Month! They have a blog post up now previewing the fun stuff they’ve got planned in June.

Audiofile Magazine posted a blog entry earlier this month on audiobooks for kids that highlight STEM skills. I couldn’t love this more! I recommend the Ada Twist books to kids all the time at the bookstore and now have a whole batch of other titles to suggest to young readers.

Over at the Riot

Working on some thangs here ok STOP LOOKING AT ME WITH JUDGEMENT IN YOUR EYES!

Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa