Local bookseller recommendations

Bewilderness

By: Karen Tucker

Narrated by: Brittany Pressley

Length: 7 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

Set in rural, poverty-stricken North Carolina, this “beautiful, gritty, and piercing” novel follows two young women—best friends—as they “journey through the highs and lows of friendship, love, and addiction,” perfect for readers of Julie Buntin’s Marlena (Erika Carter, author of Lucky You).

Irene, a lonely nineteen-year-old in rural North... Read more

Paper Names

By: Susie Luo

Narrated by: Austin Ku

Length: 8 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

*A Publishers Lunch Buzz Book*

An unexpected act of violence brings together a Chinese-American family and a wealthy white lawyer in this propulsive and sweeping story of family, identity and the American experience—for fans of Jean Kwok, Mary Beth Keane and Naima Coster.

Set in New York and China over three decades, Paper Names explores what it... Read more

Tsarina

By: Ellen Alpsten

Narrated by: Anna Krippa

Length: 18 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

"Makes Game of Thrones look like a nursery rhyme." —Daisy Goodwin, New York Times bestselling author of The Fortune Hunter

“[Alpsten] recounts this remarkable woman’s colourful life and times." —Count Nikolai Tolstoy, historian and author

Before there was Catherine the Great, there was Catherine Alexeyevna: the first woman to rule Russia in her... Read more

When Ghosts Come Home

By: Wiley Cash

Narrated by: JD Jackson

Length: 10 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

Winner of the SIBA Southern Book Prize for Fiction“I loved it and devoured it with fury, straight to its blazing end.” —Lily King, author of Writers & LoversFrom the New York Times bestselling author of A Land More Kind Than Home, a tender and haunting story of a father and daughter, crime and forgiveness, race and memory.When the roar of a... Read more

Wonderland

By: Zoje Stage

Narrated by: Xe Sands

Length: 10 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

Shirley Jackson meets The Shining in this richly atmospheric and thrillingly tense novel from the acclaimed author of the "deliciously creepy" Baby Teeth (New York Post).

One mother's love may be all that stands between her family, an enigmatic presence—and madness.

After years of city life, Orla and Shaw Bennett are ready for the quiet of New... Read more

Return to Valetto

By: Dominic Smith

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini

Length: 8 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

"Edoardo Ballerini’s adroit narration conveys the subtle changes in
the family, set against the splendor of Valetto’s changing landscape."- Bookpage

From the bestselling author of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, Dominic Smith’s Return to Valetto tells of a nearly abandoned Italian village, the family that stayed, and long-buried secrets from... Read more

The Latecomer

By: Jean Hanff Korelitz

Narrated by: Julia Whelan

Length: 16 hours 19 minutes

Abridged: No

"Golden Voice Julia Whelan expertly narrates the unhappy story of the wealthy Oppenheimer family of New York. Whelan narrates as though she were acting out the Oppenheimers' history on stage, playing each character part." -AudioFile on The Latecomer

This program is masterfully narrated by award-winning "Golden Voice" narrator Julia Whelan.

From... Read more

They're Going to Love You

By: Meg Howrey

Narrated by: Meg Howrey

Length: 8 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2022 • A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE MONTH • A BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB PICK • A gripping novel set in the world of professional ballet, New York City during the AIDS crisis, and present-day Los Angeles. • "Beautiful...[A] finger-trap puzzle of a plot."—New York Times Book Review

“They’re Going to Love You is my idea of... Read more

The Modern Fairies

By: Clare Pollard

Narrated by: Kathryn Drysdale

Length: 7 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

A BookPage Best Historical Fiction Book of the Year • “Artfully composed…keenly alive…this memorable novel reminds the reader of the enduring power of storytelling to transform and even save lives.” —The New York Times

Lauren Groff’s Matrix meets Ophelia Field’s The Favourite in this wry and “bawdy” (Los Angeles Times) historical novel—inspired... Read more

Invisible Cities

By: Italo Calvino

Narrated by: Richard Higgins

Length: 2 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

“Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.” — from Invisible Cities

In a garden sit the aged Kublai Khan and the young Marco Polo — Mongol emperor and Venetian traveler. Kublai Khan has sensed... 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

Red Dress in Black and White

By: Elliot Ackerman

Narrated by: Maggi-Meg Reed

Length: 10 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

From the widely acclaimed author of Waiting for Eden: a stirring, timely new novel that unfolds over the course of a single day in Istanbul: the story of an American woman attempting to leave behind her life in Turkey--to leave without her husband.

Catherine has been married for many years to Murat, an influential Turkish real estate developer,... Read more

Tell Me Everything

By: Minka Kelly

Narrated by: Minka Kelly

Length: 8 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

This program is read by the author.

"Kelly is so piercingly honest, you just want to reach out and give her a hug...It’s totally gripping: I couldn’t take my earbuds out." —Vulture

"Kelly reads the book with grace, even when she gets to the tough moments, and you’ll walk away afterward with your jaw on the floor." —Shondaland

“A timely, urgent... 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 Lying Club

By: Annie Ward

Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt

Length: 10 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: No

"If you loved Big Little Lies and Little Fires Everywhere, allow me to introduce you to your next obsession. —Kim Liggett, New York Times bestselling author of The Grace Year

A tangled web of lies draws together three women in this explosive thriller of revenge, murder and shocking secrets

At an elite private school nestled in the Colorado... 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

The Tree Doctor

By: Marie Mutsuki Mockett

Narrated by: June Angela

Length: 8 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

When the unnamed narrator of Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s stirring second novel returns to Carmel, California, to care for her mother, she finds herself stranded at the outset of the disease. With her husband and children back in Hong Kong, and her Japanese mother steadily declining in a care facility two hours away, she becomes preoccupied with her... Read more

Paved Paradise

By: Henry Grabar

Narrated by: Rob Shapiro

Length: 10 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

Shortlisted for the Zócalo Book Prize

Named one of the best books of the year by The New Yorker and The New Republic

“Consistently entertaining and often downright funny.” —The New Yorker

“Wry and revelatory.” —The New York Times

"A romp, packed with tales of anger, violence, theft, lust, greed, political chicanery and transportation policy gone... Read more

The Soulmate

By: Sally Hepworth

Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik & Jessica Douglas-Henry

Length: 7 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

"Listeners will be captivated as the narrators create tension and drop hints about the real problem in this “ideal” family." —Booklist on The Younger Wife

"Narrators Barrie Kreinik and Jessica Douglas-Henry enhance the air of anxiety by weaving an engaging web of emotion. Their Australian accents aid in the immersive nature of the narrative and... Read more

The Collector’s Apprentice

By: B. A. Shapiro

Narrated by: Xe Sands

Length: 10 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

It's the summer of 1922, and nineteen-year-old Paulien Mertens finds herself in Paris—broke, disowned, and completely alone. Everyone in Belgium, including her own family, believes she stole millions in a sophisticated con game perpetrated by her then-fiancé, George Everard. To protect herself from the law and the wrath of those who lost... Read more

The More the Terrier

By: David Rosenfelt

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 6 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

"Listening to Grover Gardner narrating a David Rosenfelt novel is like sliding into favorite slippers at the end of a long day: One feels the joyful gratification of a perfect fit."—AudioFile on Bark of Night

The next installment in David Rosenfelt’s bestselling Andy Carpenter series brings a lone pup to his doorstep, but when it comes to dogs,... Read more

Adelaide

By: Genevieve Wheeler

Narrated by: Caitlin Kelly

Length: 10 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

“A beautifully-written, deeply felt exploration of what it means to love and be loved.”–– Jill Santopolo, New York Times bestselling author of The Light We Lost

In love . . .

For twenty-six-year-old Adelaide Williams, an American living in dreamy London, meeting Rory Hughes was like a lightning bolt out of the blue: this charming Englishman was... Read more

Soulless

By: Gail Carriger

Narrated by: Emily Gray

Length: 10 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

Buffy meets Jane Austen in the first book of this wickedly funny NYT bestselling series about a young woman whose brush with the supernatural leads to a deadly investigation of London's high society.

Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian... Read more

Off the Map

By: Trish Doller

Narrated by: Sarah Naughton

Length: 6 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: No

"Naughton delivers a delightful performance...listeners will enjoy this light yet heartfelt romance from start to finish."- AudioFile

Trish Doller's idyllic romance Off the Map proves sometimes a wrong turn can lead to the exact right destination.

On the road to love, you don't need a GPS...

Carla Black’s life motto is “here for a good time, not... Read more