Local bookseller recommendations

The Unsinkable Greta James

By: Jennifer E. Smith

Narrated by: Mae Whitman

Length: 8 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: No

An indie musician reeling from tragedy and a public breakdown reconnects with her father on a weeklong cruise in “a pitch-perfect story about the ways we recover love in the strangest places” (Rebecca Serle, bestselling author of In Five Years)

“The characters are drawn with a generosity that allows them to be wrong but also right, loving but... Read more

The Indian Card

By: Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz

Narrated by: Amy Hall

Length: 7 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

A groundbreaking and deeply personal exploration of Tribal enrollment, and what it means to be Native American in the United States

“Candid, unflinching . . . Her thorough excavation of the painful history that gave rise to rigid enrollment policies is a courageous gift to our understanding of contemporary Native life.” —The Whiting Foundation... Read more

Barn 8

By: Deb Olin Unferth

Narrated by: Brittany Pressley

Length: 7 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

Janey and Cleveland are two auditors for the US egg industry who go rogue and conceive a plot to steal a millionchickens in the middle of the night—an entire egg farm’s worth of animals. They assemble a precarious, quarrelsometeam and descend on the farm on a dark spring evening. It doesn’t go as planned.In her most powerful work yet, Deb Olin... Read more

Dry

By: Neal Shusterman & Jarrod Shusterman

Narrated by: Neal Shusterman, Jarrod Shusterman, Jenni Barbe...

Length: 11 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

When the California drought escalates to catastrophic proportions, one teen is forced to make life and death decisions for her family in this harrowing story of survival from New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman.

The drought—or the Tap-Out, as everyone calls it—has been going on for a while now. Everyone’s lives... Read more

Undercover Bromance

By: Lyssa Kay Adams

Narrated by: Andrew Eiden

Length: 9 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

One of OprahMag.com’s Best Romances of 2020 

Braden Mack thinks reading romance novels makes him an expert in love, but he’ll soon discover that real life is better than fiction. 

Liv Papandreas has a dream job as a sous chef at Nashville’s hottest restaurant. Too bad the celebrity chef owner is less than charming behind kitchen doors. After she... Read more

Band of Sisters

By: Lauren Willig

Narrated by: Julia Whelan

Length: 15 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

“With heart and humor, Willig explores the complexities of female friendships—feuds, forgiveness, and all. A touching portrait of triumph and found family in the midst of war. Bravo!”—Stephanie Dray, New York Times Bestselling author of America's First Daughter & The Women of Chateau LafayetteA group of young women from Smith College risk... Read more

Plot Twist

By: Erin La Rosa

Narrated by: Mela Lee

Length: 9 hours 10 minutes

Abridged: No

“I give it five stars—and five chili pepper emojis.” —Kate Spencer, author of In a New York Minute

She’s written off more than she can chew…

Romance author Sophie Lyon’s ironic secret just went viral: she’s never been in love—and it’s ruining her reputation. With a manuscript deadline looming, Sophie makes an ambitious plan to overcome her... Read more

How to Become a Planet

By: Nicole Melleby

Narrated by: Rachel Jacobs

Length: 6 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

A Publishers Weekly Best Middle Grade Book of 2021
One of The Nerd Daily's “Anticipated Queer Book Releases You Can’t Miss in 2021”
One of Lambda Literary's “May’s Most Anticipated LGBTQ Literature”

“Gorgeous.” —BuzzFeed

The two most important things to know about Pluto Timoney:  (1) she’s always loved outer space (obviously); and (2) her favorite... Read more

Coo

By: Kaela Noel

Narrated by: Jesse Vilinsky

Length: 7 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

In this exceptional debut, one young girl’s determination to save the flock she calls family creates a lasting impact on her community and in her heart. Gorgeous and literary, this is an unforgettable animal story about friendship, family, home, and belonging. For readers who love books by Kate DiCamillo and Katherine Applegate.Ten years ago, an... Read more

Ghettoside

By: Jill Leovy

Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman

Length: 13 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, USA TODAY, AND CHICAGO TRIBUNE • A masterly work of literary journalism about a senseless murder, a relentless detective, and the great plague of homicide in America

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE... Read more

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea

By: Rita Chang-Eppig

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller

Length: 10 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

For listeners of Outlawed, Piranesi, and The Night Tiger, a riveting, roaring adventure novel about a legendary Chinese pirate queen, her fight to save her fleet from the forces allied against them, and the dangerous price of powerWhen Shek Yeung sees a Portuguese sailor slay her husband, a feared pirate, she knows she must act swiftly or die.... Read more

Storm Child

By: Michael Robotham

Narrated by: Joe Jameson

Length: 11 hours 4 minutes

Abridged: No

Cyrus Haven and Evie Cormac return in this “razor-sharp and emotionally charged” (Lisa Gardner) psychological thriller, which finally unlocks the secrets of Evie’s past and reaffirms why Stephen King has proclaimed Michael Robotham “an absolute master.”

The mystery of Evie Cormac’s background has followed her into adulthood. As a child, she was... Read more

The Woman with the Blue Star

By: Pam Jenoff

Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya, Emily Lawrence & Nancy Pet...

Length: 12 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

"An emotional novel that you will never forget." —Lisa Scottoline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eternal

From the author of The Lost Girls of Paris comes a riveting tale of courage and unlikely friendship during World War II -- Now a New York Times bestsller!

1942. Sadie Gault is eighteen and living with her parents in the Kraków Ghetto... Read more

Transcription

By: Kate Atkinson

Narrated by: Fenella Woolgar

Length: 11 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

A dramatic story of WWII espionage, betrayal, and loyalty, by the #1 bestselling author of Life After Life

In 1940, eighteen-year old Juliet Armstrong is reluctantly recruited into the world of espionage. Sent to an obscure department of MI5 tasked with monitoring the comings and goings of British Fascist sympathizers, she discovers the work to... Read more

Vespertine

By: Margaret Rogerson

Narrated by: Caitlin Davies

Length: 12 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

An international bestseller!

From the New York Times bestselling author of Sorcery of Thorns and An Enchantment of Ravens comes a thrilling, “dark coming-of-age adventure” (Culturess) about a teen girl with mythic abilities who must defend her world against restless spirits of the dead.

The spirits of the dead do not rest.

Artemisia is training... Read more

Tehrangeles

By: Porochista Khakpour

Narrated by: Mikaela Hoover & Manijeh Khakpour

Length: 10 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR SO FAR BY VOGUE, HARPER'S BAZAAR, W MAGAZINE, AND VANITY FAIR! •  MEET THE MILANIS. FAST-FOOD HEIRESSES, L.A. ROYALTY, AND YOUR NEWEST REALITY TV OBSESSION • "Think the Kardashians meet Little Women and Crazy Rich Asians…An indelible, uproarious snapshot of young womanhood."—Vogue

“Delightfully twisted and... Read more

Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl

By: Carrie Brownstein

Narrated by: Carrie Brownstein

Length: 7 hours 4 minutes

Abridged: No

From the guitarist of the pioneering band Sleater-Kinney, the book Kim Gordon says "everyone has been waiting for" and a New York Times Notable Book of 2015-- a candid, funny, and deeply personal look at making a life--and finding yourself--in music.

Before Carrie Brownstein became a music icon, she was a young girl growing up in the Pacific... Read more

The Talented Miss Farwell

By: Emily Gray Tedrowe

Narrated by: Allyson Ryan

Length: 9 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

Catch Me If You Can meets Patricia Highsmith in this electrifying page-turner of greed and obsession, survival and self-invention that is a piercing character study of one unforgettable female con artist.""Becky Farwell is one of the most wickedly compelling characters I've read in ages -- a Machiavellian marvel, a modern Becky Sharp, a... Read more

Dying of Politeness

By: Geena Davis

Narrated by: Geena Davis

Length: 7 hours 36 minutes

Abridged: No

From two-time Academy Award winner and screen icon Geena Davis, the surprising tale of her “journey to badassery”—from her epically polite childhood to roles that loaned her the strength to become a powerhouse in Hollywood.At three years old, Geena Davis announced she was going to be in movies. Now, with a slew of iconic roles and awards under... Read more

Long Division

By: Kiese Laymon

Narrated by: Ruffin Prentiss III & Jaime Lincoln Smith

Length: 8 hours 10 minutes

Abridged: No

Winner of the NAACP Image Award for Fiction

From Kiese Laymon, author of the critically acclaimed memoir Heavy, comes a “funny, astute, searching” (The Wall Street Journal) debut novel about Black teenagers that is a satirical exploration of celebrity, authorship, violence, religion, and coming of age in post-Katrina Mississippi.

Written in a... Read more

The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly

By: Sun-mi Hwang

Narrated by: Jill Larson

Length: 2 hours 58 minutes

Abridged: No

A Korean Charlotte's Web

More than 2 million copies sold
 
This is the story of a hen named Sprout. No longer content to lay eggs on command, only to have them carted off to the market, she glimpses her future every morning through the barn doors, where the other animals roam free, and comes up with a plan to escape into the wild—and to hatch an... Read more

Hiding Mengele

By: Betina Anton

Narrated by: Taylor Harvey

Length: 9 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

Read the international sensation already translated into 9 languages! A Brazilian journalist’s investigation unearths the story of a network of people responsible for hiding The Angel of Death, the infamous Nazi doctor who fled to South America and escaped justice for over thirty years. Josef Mengele, known worldwide for unimaginably cruel human... Read more

The Witches of Moonshyne Manor

By: Bianca Marais

Narrated by: Amy Landon

Length: 10 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

“Bianca Marais is a genius” — Ann Patchett, #1 New York Times bestselling author

A coven of modern-day witches. A magical heist-gone-wrong. A looming threat.

Five octogenarian witches gather as an angry mob threatens to demolish Moonshyne Manor. All eyes turn to the witch in charge, Queenie, who confesses they’ve fallen far behind on their... Read more

The Men Who Killed the News

By: Eric Beecher

Narrated by: Eric Beecher

Length: 13 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

Readings Best Books of 2024, Non-Fiction

Crikey owner and ex-News Corp and Fairfax editor lifts the lid on the abuse of power by media moguls – from William Randolph Hearst to Elon Musk – and on his own unique experience of working for (and being sued by) the Murdochs.  

What’s gone wrong with our media? The answer: its owners. From William... Read more