Local bookseller recommendations

Sisters

By: Daisy Johnson

Narrated by: Daisy Edgar-Jones & Anna Koval

Length: 4 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR

“[A] skillfully crafted gothic mystery . . . Johnson pulls off a great feat in this book.” —Financial Times

“It reminded me, in its general refusal to play nice, of early Ian McEwan.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Johnson crafts an aching thriller about the dangers of loving too intensely.” —Time

From a... Read more

Dear Girl

By: Aija Mayrock

Narrated by: Aija Mayrock

Length: 44 minutes

Abridged: No

From a poet and celebrated spoken-word performer comes a debut poetry collection that takes readers on an empowering, lyrical journey exploring truth, silence, wounds, healing, and the resilience we all share.
Dear Girl is a journey from girlhood to womanhood through poetry
It is the search for truth in silence
The freeing of the tongue
It is deep... Read more

Fully Automated Luxury Communism

By: Aaron Bastani

Narrated by: Shaun Grindell

Length: 7 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

A different kind of politics for a new kind of society—beyond work, scarcity, and capitalism

In the twenty-first century, new technologies should liberate us from work. Automation, rather than undermining an economy built on full employment, is instead the path to a world of liberty, luxury, and happiness—for everyone. Technological advance... Read more

The Switch

By: Beth O'Leary

Narrated by: Alison Steadman & Daisy Edgar-Jones

Length: 10 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

"Daisy Edgar-Jones and Alison Steadman team up as a fun, quirky grandmother and granddaughter pair in this lively narration...The two narrators, each portraying her respective character's point of view, are a perfect match." --AudioFile Magazine

This program is read by British actors Alison Steadman and Daisy Edgar-Jones, star of Hulu's... Read more

Impersonation

By: Heidi Pitlor

Narrated by: Dylan Moore

Length: 11 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

“By turns revealing, hilarious, dishy, and razor-sharp, Impersonation lives in that rarest of sweet spots: the propulsive page-turner for people with high literary standards.” —Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers

Allie Lang is a professional ghostwriter and a perpetually broke single mother to a young boy. Years of navigating her own... Read more

Borges and Me

By: Jay Parini

Narrated by: Fred Sanders

Length: 8 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

In this evocative work of what the author in his afterword calls “a kindof novelistic memoir,” Jay Parini takes us back fifty years, when he fled the United States for Scotland—in flight from the Vietnam War and desperately in search of his adult life. There, through unlikely circumstances, he meets the famed Argentinian author Jorge Luis... Read more

Jackie and Maria

By: Gill Paul

Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan

Length: 12 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

From the #1 bestselling author of The Secret Wife comes a story of love, passion, and tragedy as the lives of Jackie Kennedy and Maria Callas are intertwined—and they become the ultimate rivals, in love with the same man.
The President's Wife; a Glamorous Superstar; the rivalry that shook the world...Jackie Kennedy was beautiful, sophisticated,... Read more

Grown Ups

By: Emma Jane Unsworth

Narrated by: Chloe Massey

Length: 8 hours 24 minutes

Abridged: No

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
“[E]ssential reading for our dismal times.” —The Wall Street Journal
One of Bustle’s “Most Anticipated Books of Summer 2020”
Good Housekeeping’s “25 New Fall Books You Have to Read This Season”
Lit Hub’s “Most Anticipated Books of 2020”

Fleabag meets Conversations with Friends in this brutally honest, observant,... Read more

Breathe the Sky

By: Michelle Hazen

Narrated by: Brittany Pressley

Length: 10 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

Two strangers start out saving animals and end up rescuing each other in this heartwarming romance from the author of Unbreak Me.  

Mari Tucker is a wildlife biologist who scoops bunnies and endangered tortoises out of harm’s way on construction sites. Still haunted by her past, she takes the most remote jobs in the Mojave Desert to avoid people... Read more

Northernmost

By: Peter Geye

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini & Lisa Flanagan

Length: 11 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

ONE OF HOUSTON CHRONICLE'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

From the acclaimed author of Wintering: a thrilling ode to the spirit of adventure and the vagaries of loss and love.

"A beautiful, big-hearted, triumphant novel.”—Nathan Hill, author of The Nix

In 1897, Odd Einar Eide returns home from a near-death experience in the Arctic only to discover his own... Read more

A Room Called Earth

By: Madeleine Ryan

Narrated by: Madeleine Ryan

Length: 5 hours 24 minutes

Abridged: No

“A resolute deep dive into an inner self, a transcendent character study, and a timely reminder that there’s an entire universe inside of everyone we meet. You will be moved.” —Matthew Quick, New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook

“[N]uanced and uplifting.” —Buzzfeed

An unforgettable story of a fiercely original young... Read more

The Path of Paganism

By: John Beckett

Narrated by: Charles Constant

Length: 9 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

Paganism is a way of seeing the world and your place in it. It means challenging the assumptions of mainstream society and strengthening your relationships with the gods, the universe, your community, and your self. The Path of Paganism provides practical advice and support for honoring your values and living an authentic Pagan life in... Read more

27 Essential Principles of Story

By: Daniel Joshua Rubin

Narrated by: Daniel Joshua Rubin

Length: 13 hours 4 minutes

Abridged: No

“So often people ask me if there’s a book on story I can recommend. This is the one. I can’t recommend it highly enough.”––Alexa Junge, writer/producer, Friends, Sex and the City, The West Wing
 
A master class of 27 lessons, drawn from 27 diverse narratives, for novelists, storytellers, filmmakers, graphic designers, and more. Author Daniel... Read more

Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything

By: Raquel Vasquez Gilliland

Narrated by: Inés del Castillo

Length: 8 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

“In a world where we are so often dividing ourselves into us and them, this book feels like a kind of magic, celebrating all beliefs, ethnicities, and unknowns.” —The New York Times Book Review

Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe meets Roswell by way of Laurie Halse Anderson in this astonishing, genre-bending novel about a... Read more

Coraline

By: Neil Gaiman

Narrated by: Neus Sendra

Length: 3 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

Acompaña a Coraline y déjate transportar al mundo de fantasía y terror creado por el premiado autor Neil Gaiman. «Damas y caballeros, niñas y niños, pónganse en pie y aplaudan: Coraline es una obra maestra.»
Philip Pullman, The Guardian Al día siguiente de mudarse de casa, Coraline explora las catorce puertas de su nuevo hogar. Trece se pueden... Read more

The Bright Side Sanctuary for Animals

By: Becky Mandelbaum

Narrated by: Tim Paige, Rebekkah Ross & Gabra Zackman

Length: 9 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

From the winner of the 2016 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction comes a “heartwarming and sharp-witted debut” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) set over one emotionally charged weekend at an animal sanctuary in western Kansas, where maternal, romantic, and community bonds are tested in the wake of an estranged daughter’s homecoming.

The... Read more

How to Argue With a Racist

By: Adam Rutherford

Narrated by: Adam Rutherford

Length: 4 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

Race is not a biological reality. Racism thrives on our not knowing this.



Racist pseudoscience is on the rise—fueling hatred, feeding nationalism, and seeping into our discourse on everything from sports to intelligence. Even the well-intentioned repeat stereotypes based on "science," because cutting-edge genetics are hard to grasp—and all too... Read more

The Eighth Detective

By: Alex Pavesi

Narrated by: Emilia Fox

Length: 11 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

"Dizzying, dazzling… When did you last read a genuinely original thriller? The wait is over."
—A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

There are rules for murder mysteries. There must be a victim. A suspect. A detective.

Grant McAllister, a professor of mathematics, once sat down and worked all the rules out –... Read more

Lobizona

By: Romina Garber

Narrated by: Sol Madariaga

Length: 12 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

"Garber’s gorgeous novel combines the wonder of a Hogwarts-style magic school with the Twilight-esque dynamics of a hidden magical species that has strict rules about interacting with the human world." -- BOOKLIST (Starred Review)

Some people ARE illegal.

Lobizonas do NOT exist.

Both of these statements are false.

Manuela Azul has been crammed... Read more

Scary Stories for Young Foxes

By: Christian McKay Heidicker

Narrated by: Christian McKay Heidicker

Length: 6 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

THE HAUNTED SEASON HAS ARRIVED IN THE ANTLER WOOD. NO FOX KIT IS SAFE.Seven little foxes in the twisted Antler Wood, listening to stories much later than they should.THE FIRST flees the teacher with dark, gooey eyes.THE SECOND from six sisters whose tongues tell lies.THE THIRD escapes a woman who peels foxes’ skins.THE FOURTH slinks away from... Read more

The Buddhist on Death Row

By: David Sheff

Narrated by: Michael Boatman

Length: 7 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Boy explores the transformation of Jarvis Jay Masters who has become one of America’s most inspiring Buddhist practitioners while locked in a cell on death row.

Jarvis Jay Masters’s early life was a horror story whose outline we know too well. Born in Long Beach, California, his house was... 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

Universe of Two

By: Stephen P. Kiernan

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 15 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

From the critically acclaimed author of The Baker’s Secret and The Curiosity comes a novel of conscience, love, and redemption—a fascinating fictionalized account of the life of Charlie Fisk, a gifted mathematician who was drafted into Manhattan Project and ordered against his morals to build the detonator for the atomic bomb. With his musician... Read more

True Story

By: Kate Reed Petty

Narrated by: Kristen Sieh, Alexander Cendese & Cassandra Cam...

Length: 8 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

“A gripping, ripped-from-headlines tale.” —People 

“Spellbinding.” —Megan Abbott, The New York Times Book Review 

Tracing the fifteen-year fallout of a toxic high school rumor, a riveting, astonishingly original debut novel about the power of stories—and who gets to tell them

2015. A gifted and reclusive ghostwriter, Alice Lovett makes a living... Read more