Local bookseller recommendations

Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians

By: Brandon Sanderson

Narrated by: Ramón de Ocampo

Length: 6 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

Experience the action-packed first book in #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson’s laugh-out-loud middle-grade fantasy series like never before—now with all new covers!

AN ANCIENT RIVALRY REAWAKENS.

Everything I’d known about the world was a lie.

On my thirteenth birthday, I, Alcatraz Smedry (yes, I got named after a prison, don’t... Read more

The Best of Connie Willis

By: Connie Willis

Narrated by: Eliza Foss, Jessica Almasy & Mia Barron

Length: 16 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: No

Few authors have had careers as successful as that of Connie Willis. Inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and recently awarded the title of Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Willis is still going strong. Her smart, heartfelt fiction runs the gamut from screwball comedy to profound tragedy, combining... Read more

The Hearts of Men

By: Nickolas Butler

Narrated by: Adam Verner

Length: 11 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

Camp Chippewa, 1962. Nelson Doughty, age thirteen, social outcast and overachiever, is the Bugler, sounding the reveille proudly each morning. Yet this particular summer marks the beginning of an uncertain and tenuous friendship with a popular boy named Jonathan.Over the years, Nelson, irrevocably scarred from the Vietnam War, becomes... Read more

Blackout

By: Sarah Hepola

Narrated by: Sarah Hepola

Length: 7 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

In this unflinchingly honest and hilarious memoir, a woman discovers that her best life is a sober one.

For Sarah Hepola, drinking felt like freedom; part of her birthright as a twenty-first-century woman. But there was a price–she often blacked out, having no memory of the lost hours. On the outside, her career was flourishing, but inside, her... Read more

The Wicked Bargain

By: Gabe Cole Novoa

Narrated by: Vico Ortiz

Length: 10 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

El Diablo is in the details in this Latinx pirate fantasy starring a transmasculine nonbinary teen with a mission of revenge, redemption, and revolution. From the New York Times bestselling author of Most Ardently.

On Mar León de la Rosa's sixteenth birthday, el Diablo comes calling. Mar is a transmasculine nonbinary teen pirate hiding a magical... Read more

A Brief History of Earth

By: Andrew H. Knoll

Narrated by: Tom Parks

Length: 4 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

How well do you know the ground beneath your feet? A primer for every Earth resident, by Harvard’s acclaimed geologist.“A sublime chronicle of our planet."" –Booklist, STARRED reviewOdds are, where you’re standing was once cooking under a roiling sea of lava, crushed by a towering sheet of ice, rocked by a nearby meteor strike, or perhaps choked... Read more

Can We All Be Feminists?

By: June Eric-Udorie

Narrated by: Various

Length: 9 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

"As timely as it is well-written, this clear-eyed collection is just what I need right now."  —Jacqueline Woodson, author of Brown Girl Dreaming

"The intersectional feminist anthology we all need to read" (Bustle), edited by a feminist activist and writer who "calls to mind a young Audre Lorde" (Kirkus)

Why do some women struggle to identify as... Read more

Waiting for Eden

By: Elliot Ackerman

Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews

Length: 3 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

“Patiently, and unflinchingly, Ackerman is becoming one of the great poet laureates of America’s tragic adventurism across the globe.” —Pico Iyer

Eden lies in a hospital bed, unable to move or speak. His wife Mary spends every day on the sofa in his room. We see them through the eyes of Eden’s best friend, a fellow Marine who didn’t make it back... Read more

Soulswift

By: Megan Bannen

Narrated by: Hayden Bishop

Length: 12 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

A dark, epic fantasy about a girl who must rethink everything she believes after she is betrayed and hunted by the religion that raised her—from Megan Bannen, author of The Bird and the Blade. Perfect for fans of The Winner’s Curse and The Girl of Fire and Thorns. Gelya is a Vessel, a girl who channels the word of the One True God through song.... Read more

Growing Home

By: Beth Ferry

Narrated by: Kate Coventry

Length: TBA

Abridged: No

An unlikely team of talkative plants, a curious spider, and a grumpy goldfish use their newfound magical abilities to defend their family from a greedy human in this charming middle grade novel from New York Times bestselling author Beth Ferry, with illustrations from the award-winning Fan brothers.

Ivy is the beloved houseplant of young Jillian... Read more

The Daughter of Auschwitz

By: Tova Friedman & Malcolm Brabant

Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld

Length: 7 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

*INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*

WITH A FOREWORD BY SIR BEN KINGSLEY

A powerful memoir by one of the youngest survivors of Auschwitz, Tova Friedman, following her childhood growing up during the Holocaust and surviving a string of near-death experiences in a Jewish ghetto, a Nazi labor camp, and Auschwitz.

"I am a survivor. That comes with a... Read more

The Museum of Failures

By: Thrity Umrigar

Narrated by: Vikas Adam

Length: 12 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

The bestselling author of The Space Between Us and Reese's Book Club pick Honor delivers a powerful story about family secrets, a mother's power, and the importance of forgiveness.

Remy Wadia left India for the United States long ago, carrying his resentment of his mother with him. He has now returned to Bombay to adopt a baby from a young... Read more

Styxx

By: Sherrilyn Kenyon

Narrated by: Fred Berman

Length: 31 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

The most highly-anticipated novel in the Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter series since Acheron is here—the unforgettable story of Styxx, Acheron's twin brother and one of the most powerful beings on earth

Just when you thought doomsday was over . . .

Centuries ago Acheron saved the human race by imprisoning an ancient evil bent on absolute... Read more

Garden of the Cursed

By: Katy Rose Pool

Narrated by: Jennifer Blom

Length: 11 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

In Garden of the Cursed, a romantic, enemies-to-lovers fantasy mystery, cursebreaker Marlow Briggs reluctantly pretends to be in love with a powerful noble to gain entry into an illustrious—and deadly—society that holds clues to her mother's disappearance. This edge-of-your-seat novel is perfect for fans of Veronica Mars, These Violent Delights,... Read more

The Three of Us

By: Ore Agbaje-Williams

Narrated by: Jake Fairbrother, T'Nia Miller & Tariye Peterside

Length: 4 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

Best Book of the Year
Time • Real Simple • Oprah Daily

A Belletrist Book Club Pick

"As short and sharp as a pairing knife . . . Moves along so briskly and with such sly wit . . . Deliciously wicked." —Ron Charles, The Washington Post

Long-standing tensions between a husband, his wife, and her best friend finally come to a breaking point in this... Read more

Walking on the Ceiling

By: Aysegül Savas

Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò

Length: 3 hours 47 minutes

Abridged: No

"[Savaş] writes with both sensuality and coolness, as if determined to find a rational explanation for the irrationality of existence..." -- The New York Times

"I fell in love with this book." -- Katie Kitamura, author of A Separation

A mesmerizing novel set in Paris and a changing Istanbul, about a young Turkish woman grappling with her past and... Read more

Homeland Elegies

By: Ayad Akhtar

Narrated by: Ayad Akhtar

Length: 10 hours 19 minutes

Abridged: No

This "profound and provocative" work by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Disgraced and American Dervish followsan immigrant father and his son as they search for belonging—in post-Trump America, and with each other (Kirkus Reviews). "Passionate, disturbing, unputdownable." —Salman Rushdie
​
A deeply personal work about identity and belonging... Read more

Oak Flat

By: Lauren Redniss

Narrated by: Lauren Redniss, Darrell Dennis, Kyla Garcia, Ki...

Length: 4 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: No

A powerful work of visual nonfiction about three generations of an Apache family struggling to protect sacred land from a multinational mining corporation, by MacArthur “Genius” and National Book Award finalist Lauren Redniss, the acclaimed author of Thunder & Lightning.

Oak Flat is a serene high-elevation mesa that sits above the... Read more

The Girl and the Ghost

By: Hanna Alkaf

Narrated by: Mirai Booth-Ong

Length: 6 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

* Chosen as a 2020 Kirkus Prize Finalist for Young Readers' Literature! *A Malaysian folk tale comes to life in this emotionally layered, chilling middle grade debut, perfect for fans of The Book of Boy and The Jumbies. I am a dark spirit, the ghost announced grandly. I am your inheritance, your grandmother’s legacy. I am yours to command.... Read more

A Botanical Daughter

By: Noah Medlock

Narrated by: Keval Shah

Length: 11 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

It is an unusual thing, to live in a botanical garden. But Simon and Gregor are an unusual pair of gentlemen. Hidden away in their glass sanctuary from the disapproving tattle of Victorian London, they are free to follow their own interests without interference. For Simon, this means long hours in the dark basement workshop, working his... Read more

Rosetown Summer

By: Cynthia Rylant

Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan

Length: 1 hour 17 minutes

Abridged: No

From Newbery Medalist Cynthia Rylant comes the sweet and resonant follow-up to the critically acclaimed Rosetown, continuing the story of ten-year-old Flora Smallwood’s life in quiet Rosetown, Indiana.

It’s August in Rosetown, Indiana.

Ten-year-old Flora is having a calm and busy summer filled with old friends and new projects, dear pets, and,... Read more

Missing from the Village

By: Justin Ling

Narrated by: Justin Ling

Length: 8 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

The tragic and resonant story of the disappearance of eight men--the victims of serial killer Bruce McArthur--from Toronto's queer community.
 
Shortlisted for the 2021 Toronto Book Awards



In 2013, the Toronto Police Service announced that the disappearances of three men--Skandaraj Navaratnam, Abdulbasir Faizi, and Majeed Kayhan--from Toronto's gay... Read more

All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days

By: Rebecca Donner

Narrated by: Rebecca Donner

Length: 13 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

The INSTANT New York Times Bestseller

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography
Winner of the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award 
Winner of the Chautauqua Prize
Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award
Finalist for the Plutarch Award
A New York Times Notable Book of 2021
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
A New... Read more

Island Rule

By: Katie M. Flynn

Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan, Corey Brill, Erin deWard, Kit...

Length: 9 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

From the author of the “urgent and heartfelt” (San Francisco Chronicle) novel The Companions, a genre-bending collection of interconnected short stories in the tradition of Jennifer Egan and Karen Russell.

An angry mother turns into a literal monster. A company in San Francisco can scrub your entire reputation and create a new one…for a price. A... Read more