Local bookseller recommendations

Four Treasures of the Sky

By: Jenny Tinghui Zhang

Narrated by: Jenny Tinghui Zhang & Katharine Chin

Length: 12 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

“Narrator Katharine Chin’s outstanding performance will have listeners weeping as they hear Zhang’s debut novel, based on actual events.” – Library Journal (Starred Review)

"Reader Katharine Chin has a young, clear voice that captures Daiyu’s determination and spirit. Chinese names and phrases flow easily, and Chin voices the cast of characters... Read more

Through the Groves

By: Anne Hull

Narrated by: Anne Hull

Length: 5 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

This program is read by the author,

“Anne Hull has written some of the most important stories of our time, beautifully, unflinchingly.”
—Rick Bragg

"Hull delivers her book with a gentle twang and the unpretentious tone of someone who has lived the experiences she describes. Through her character work and emotionally intelligent delivery, Hull helps... Read more

Friends and Strangers: A Read with Jenna Pick

By: J. Courtney Sullivan

Narrated by: Kate Rudd

Length: 14 hours 4 minutes

Abridged: No

A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK!

An insightful, hilarious, and compulsively readable novel about a complicated friendship between two women who are at two very different stages in life, from the best-selling author of Maine and Saints for All Occasions (named one of the Washington Post's Ten Best Books of the Year and a New York Times... Read more

Seven Blades in Black

By: Sam Sykes

Narrated by: Daisy-May Parsons

Length: 20 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

Acclaimed author Sam Sykes returns with a brilliant new epic fantasy that introduces an unforgettable outcast mage caught between two warring empires.

Her magic was stolen. She was left for dead.

Betrayed by those she trusts most and her magic ripped from her, all Sal the Cacophony has left is her name, her story, and the weapon she used to carve... Read more

Dear Miss Metropolitan

By: Carolyn Ferrell

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

Length: 11 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

A finalist for the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
A finalist for the 2022 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel

Introducing an extraordinary and original writer whose first novel explores the intersections of grief and rage, personal strength and healing—and what we owe one another.

Fern seeks refuge from her mother’s pill-popping and boyfriends... Read more

Only Killers and Thieves

By: Paul Howarth

Narrated by: David Linski

Length: 11 hours 29 minutes

Abridged: No

Two brothers are exposed to the brutal realities of life and the seductive cruelty of power in this riveting debut novel—a story of savagery and race, injustice and honor, set in the untamed frontier of 1880s Australia—reminiscent of Philipp Meyer’s The Son and the novels of Cormac McCarthy.An epic tale of revenge and survival, Only Killers and... Read more

Dead Astronauts

By: Jeff VanderMeer

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller

Length: 7 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

A messianic blue fox who slips through warrens of time and space on a mysterious mission. A homeless woman haunted by a demon who finds the key to all things in a strange journal. A giant leviathan of a fish, centuries old, who hides a secret, remembering a past that may not be its own.Three ragtag rebels waging an endless war for the fate of... Read more

The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy

By: Mackenzi Lee

Narrated by: Moira Quirk

Length: 11 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

In this highly anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestselling The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, Felicity Montague must use all her womanly wits and wiles to achieve her dreams of becoming a doctor—even if she has to scheme her way across Europe to do it. A must-have for fans of Mackenzi Lee’s extraordinary and Stonewall... Read more

Dominicana

By: Angie Cruz

Narrated by: Coral Peña

Length: 10 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

A GOOD MORNING AMERICA COVER TO COVER BOOK CLUB PICK

This program includes a bonus conversation with the author.

Named a Most Anticipated Book by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Washington Post, O Magazine, Time, Real Simple, Chicago Review of Books, Kirkus Reviews, Nylon, BuzzFeed, Lit Hub, The Millions, Instyle, Bustle,... Read more

D (A Tale of Two Worlds)

By: Michel Faber

Narrated by: Isabel Adomakoh Young

Length: 6 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

“Glorious. A story that will be found and enjoyed and dreamed about for years to come.”—Neil Gaiman

A stunning modern-day Dickensian fable and a celebration of friendship and bravery for freethinkers everywhere.

It all starts on the morning the letter D disappears from language. First, it vanishes from Dhikilo’s parents’ conversation at breakfast,... Read more

Little Thieves

By: Margaret Owen

Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld

Length: 13 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

A scrappy maid must outsmart both palace nobles and Low Gods in a new YA fantasy by Margaret Owen, author of the Merciful Crow series.

The little thief steals gold, but the great one steals kingdoms;
And only one goes to the gallows…

Vanja Schmidt knows no gift is freely given, not even a mother’s love. Abandoned to Death and Fortune as a child,... Read more

Barry Squires, Full Tilt

By: Heather Smith

Narrated by: Irene Poole

Length: 4 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: No

Barry Squires, Full Tilt takes readers on a romp through the streets of St. John's and into the Squires household, a place where tragedy strikes but love prevails. Derry Girls meets Billy Elliot with an East coast twist.

It's 1995. When the Full Tilt Dancers give an inspiring performance at the opening of the new bingo hall, twelve-year-old... Read more

Red Island House

By: Andrea Lee

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

Length: 11 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

From National Book Award–nominated writer Andrea Lee comes Red Island House, a travel epic that opens a window on the mysterious African island of Madagascar, and on the dangers of life and love in paradise, as seen through the eyes of a Black American heroine.

“People do mysterious things when they think they have found paradise,” reflects... Read more

Everyone Brave is Forgiven

By: Chris Cleave

Narrated by: Luke Thompson

Length: 12 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

The instant New York Times bestseller from Chris Cleave—the unforgettable novel about three lives entangled during World War II, told “with dazzling prose, sharp English wit, and compassion…a powerful portrait of war’s effects on those who fight and those left behind” (People, Book of the Week).

London, 1939. The day war is declared, Mary North... Read more

Waxing On

By: Ralph Macchio

Narrated by: Ralph Macchio

Length: 5 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: No

An instant New York Times Bestseller! 

Since The Karate Kid first crane-kicked its way into the pop culture stratosphere in June 1984, there hasn’t been a week Ralph Macchio hasn’t heard friendly shouts of “Wax on, wax off” or “Sweep the leg!” Now, with Macchio reprising his role as Daniel LaRusso in the #1 ranked Netflix show Cobra Kai, he is... Read more

How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House

By: Cherie Jones

Narrated by: Danielle Vitalis

Length: 8 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

In the tradition of Zadie Smith and Marlon James, a brilliant Caribbean writer delivers a powerful story about four people each desperate to escape their legacy of violence in a so-called "paradise."

In Baxter’s Beach, Barbados, Lala’s grandmother Wilma tells the story of the one-armed sister. It’s a cautionary tale, about what happens to girls... Read more

First Comes Like

By: Alisha Rai

Narrated by: Saira Ayers & Neil Shah

Length: 11 hours 10 minutes

Abridged: No

The author of The Right Swipe and Girl Gone Viral returns with a story about finding love in all the wrong inboxes...Beauty expert and influencer Jia Ahmed has her eye on the prize: conquering the internet today, the entire makeup industry tomorrow, and finally, finally proving herself to her big opinionated family. She has little time for love,... Read more

The Heart in Winter

By: Kevin Barry

Narrated by: Kevin Barry

Length: 5 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

A BEST BOOK OF 2024 FROM THE ECONOMIST AND THE MINNESOTA STAR TRIBUNE

Award-winning writer Kevin Barry’s first novel set in America, a savagely funny and achingly romantic tale of young lovers on the lam in 1890s Montana.

"A wedding of Cormac McCarthy with Flann O’Brien; a western but also the most Irish of novels; a tragedy written as farce . . .... Read more

A Lover's Discourse

By: Xiaolu Guo

Narrated by: Cindy Kay

Length: 5 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

"I don't believe in love at first sight."



I was taken aback. I thought we were definitely in love at first sight.



"What do you mean? Wasn't it clear the moment you picked the elderflowers by the park and we looked at each other? Or was it in that book club?"



You gave me a damp smile, as if my confusion proved that you were right.



A Chinese woman... Read more

Meet Me in Another Life

By: Catriona Silvey

Narrated by: Kristin Atherton

Length: 11 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

International Bestseller! Soon to be a major motion picture starring Gal Gadot!“Inventive, bold and surprising . . . Builds in suspense and emotion, revealing itself page by page, layer by layer. Cleverly constructed and highly entertaining.”  — CHARLES YURecommended by Popsugar • Bustle • Goodreads • Tor • Mashable • BookBub • io9 Gizmodo •... Read more

IQ

By: Joe Ide

Narrated by: Sullivan Jones

Length: 9 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

A resident of one of LA's toughest neighborhoods uses his blistering intellect to solve the crimes the LAPD ignores.

East Long Beach. The LAPD is barely keeping up with the neighborhood's high crime rate. Murders go unsolved, lost children unrecovered. But someone from the neighborhood has taken it upon himself to help solve the cases the police... Read more

The Haunting of Alejandra

By: V. Castro

Narrated by: Raquel Beattie

Length: 10 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: No

A woman is haunted by the Mexican folk demon La Llorona in this “utterly terrifying and wholly immersive . . . story about generational trauma, colonization, systemic oppression, and the horror at the heart of motherhood” (Library Journal, starred review).

“Castro is one of the most exciting genre authors on the scene right now, and this might... Read more

Blood Debts

By: Terry J. Benton-Walker

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin, Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Torian Brac...

Length: 14 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

This program features multicast narration.

GODS MEDDLE AND MAGIC WILL BETRAY YOU, BUT THIS TIME JUSTICE WILL REIGN.

Terry J. Benton-Walker's contemporary fantasy debut, Blood Debts, is "an extravaganza from start to finish" (Chloe Gong) with powerful magical families, intergenerational curses, and deadly drama in New Orleans.

Most Anticipated from... Read more

One Got Away

By: S. A. Lelchuk

Narrated by: January LaVoy

Length: 10 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

"Narrator January LaVoy guides listeners into the second book of the action-packed Nikki Griffin series with a performance that is captivating and versatile...LaVoy's stellar performance captures Griffin's determination to set things right and punish those at fault. LaVoy's diverse array of character voices for men and women, young and old is... Read more