Local bookseller recommendations

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

By: Catherynne M. Valente

Narrated by: Catherynne M. Valente

Length: 7 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

"This is a kind of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by way of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland—it's the sort of book one doesn't want to end." —Publisher's Weekly, starred reviewSeptember is a girl who longs for adventure. When she is invited to Fairyland by a Green Wind and a Leopard, well, of course she accepts. (Mightn’t you?) But Fairyland is in... Read more

The Snowman

By: Jo Nesbo

Narrated by: Robin Sachs

Length: 15 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: No

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • Inspector Harry Hole tracks a Norwegian serial killer in this “fiendishly complex and terrifically entertaining” (The New York Times Book Review) installment of the New York Times bestselling series.

"Maddeningly addictive.” —Vanity Fair

One night, after the first snowfall of the year, a boy named Jonas wakes up and... Read more

Passing Through

By: Colin Channer

Narrated by: Dion Graham, Simon Prebble & Robin Miles

Length: 11 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

From the national bestselling author of Waiting in Vain and Satisfy My Soul comes a sexy, witty collection of connected stories set on San Carlos, a tiny island with an old volcano in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning the early 1900s up to modern times, the stories trace the intersecting lives of travelers, expatriates, and local folks in ways that... Read more

Please Look After Mom

By: Kyung-Sook Shin

Narrated by: Various

Length: 7 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

A million-plus-copy best seller in Korea—a magnificent English-language debut poised to become an international sensation—this is the stunning, deeply moving story of a family’s search for their mother, who goes missing one afternoon amid the crowds of the Seoul Station subway.

Told through the piercing voices and urgent perspectives of a... Read more

Come to the Edge

By: Christina Haag

Narrated by: Christina Haag

Length: 9 hours 36 minutes

Abridged: No

When Christina Haag was growing up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, John F. Kennedy, Jr., was just one of the boys in her circle of prep school friends, a skinny kid who lived with his mother and sister on Fifth Avenue and who happened to have a Secret Service detail following him at a discreet distance at all times. A decade later, after... Read more

Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie

By: Jordan Sonnenblick

Narrated by: Joel Johnstone

Length: 4 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

From first-time novelist Jordan Sonnenblick, a brave and beautiful story that will make readers laugh and break their hearts at the same time.Thirteen-year-old Steven has a totally normal life: he plays drums in the All-Star Jazz band, has a crush on the hottest girl in the school, and is constantly annoyed by his five-year-old brother, Jeffrey.... Read more

The Vampire Archives

By: Otto Penzler

Narrated by: Various

Length: 61 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

The Vampire Archives is the biggest, hungriest, undeadliest collection of vampire stories, as well as the most comprehensive bibliography of vampire fiction ever assembled. Dark, stormy, and delicious, once it sinks its teeth into you there’s no escape.

Vampires! Whether imagined by Bram Stoker or Anne Rice, they are part of the human ... Read more

Thalia Book Club: Emma Donoghue's Room

By: Emma Donoghue

Narrated by: Michael Cunningham, John Connolly & Maria Tucci

Length: 1 hour 28 minutes

Abridged: No

Emma Donoghue discusses her extraordinary new novel with author Michael Cunningham (The Hours and By Nightfall). This wondrous book is told from the point of view of a five-year-old boy who lives with his mother in an 11-by-11 foot room. Performance playlist: Reading by Michal Friedman, a conversation between Emma Donoghue and Michael... Read more

In the Bleak Midwinter

By: Julia Spencer-Fleming

Narrated by: Suzanne Toren

Length: 12 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

Clare Fergusson, Saint Alban's new priest, fits like a square peg in the conservative Episcopal parish at Miller's Kill, New York. She is not just a "lady" but also a tough ex-army chopper pilot—and nobody's fool. Then a newborn infant left at the church door brings her together with the town's police chief, Russ Van Alstyne, who is also ex-army... Read more

Reckless

By: Cornelia Funke

Narrated by: Elliot Hill

Length: 6 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

Beyond the mirror, the darkest fairy tales come alive. . . .

For years, Jacob Reckless has enjoyed the Mirrorworld’s secrets and treasures.

Not anymore.

His younger brother has followed him.

Now dark magic will turn the boy to beast, break the heart of the girl he loves, and destroy everything Jacob holds most dear. . . .

Unless he can find a way to... Read more

World Made by Hand

By: James Howard Kunstler

Narrated by: Jim Meskimen

Length: 9 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

In The Long Emergency, celebrated social commentator James Howard Kunstler explored how the terminal decline of oil production combined with climate change had the potential to put industrial civilization out of business. In World Made by Hand, an astonishing work of speculative fiction, Kunstler brings to life what America might be, a few... Read more

Wise Blood

By: Flannery O’Connor

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

Length: 4 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

Flannery O’Connor’s astonishing and haunting first novel is a classic of twentieth-century literature. It is the story of Hazel Motes, a twenty-two-year-old caught in an unending struggle against his innate, desperate faith. He falls under the spell of a “blind” street preacher named Asa Hawks and his degenerate fifteen-year-old daughter. In an... Read more

The Passage

By: Justin Cronin

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 36 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • This thrilling novel kicks off what Stephen King calls “a trilogy that will stand as one of the great achievements in American fantasy fiction.”

NOW A FOX TV SERIES!

NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST HORROR BOOKS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST NOVELS OF THE YEAR BY TIME AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The... Read more

Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer

By: John Grisham

Narrated by: Richard Thomas

Length: 5 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

The thrilling young mystery series from internationally bestselling author John Grisham!

In the small city of Strattenburg, there are many lawyers, and though he’s only thirteen years old, Theo Boone thinks he’s one of them. Theo knows every judge, policeman, court clerk—and a lot about the law. He dreams of being a great trial lawyer, of a life... Read more

The Other Wes Moore

By: Wes Moore

Narrated by: Wes Moore

Length: 6 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the governor of Maryland, the “compassionate” (People), “startling” (Baltimore Sun), “moving” (Chicago Tribune) true story of two kids with the same name: One went on to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated combat veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison.

The... Read more

Wuthering Heights

By: Emily Brontë

Narrated by: Carolyn Seymour

Length: 11 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

The sole novel of Emily Brontë, who died a year after its publication at the age of thirty, Wuthering Heights is one of the most original classics in the canon of English literature. Set amid the wild and stormy Yorkshire moors, it is the tale of childhood playmates who grow into soul mates, and whose tempestuous natures and obsessive love... Read more

101 Hymn Stories

By: Kenneth Osbeck

Narrated by: Various

Length: 4 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

This collection of uplifting, informative stories behind your favorite hymns will warm your heart and revitalize your worship. Each entry comes with the hymn’s full text and musical score. Perfect for devotions, sermon demonstrations, bulletin inserts, and introducing congregational hymns, each hymn story includes information about the author,... Read more

Peter Pan

By: J. M. Barrie

Narrated by: Christopher Cazenove

Length: 5 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

Barrie works an indisputable magic on listeners of all ages in this classic tale of the boy who wouldn’t grow up. As a baby, Peter Pan fell out of his carriage and was taken by fairies to Neverland. There, he can fly and is the champion of the Lost Boys and a friend to the fairy Tinker Bell. Revisiting England, Peter becomes involved with Wendy... Read more

From the Mixed-up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

By: E.L. Konigsburg

Narrated by: Jill Clayburgh

Length: 3 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021)

Run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with E. L. Konigsburg’s beloved classic and Newbery Medal­–winning novel From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

When Claudia decided to run away, she planned very carefully. She would be gone just long enough to teach her parents a lesson in Claudia... Read more

Wuthering Heights

By: Emily Bronte

Narrated by: Donada Peters

Length: 11 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

"After a moment he smiled a teasing smile. 'I still think it would be a better story if either of them had one redeeming quality.'
'I think that may be the point,' I disagreed. 'Their love is their only redeeming quality.'"
--Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer
 
Perhaps the most haunting and tormented love story ever written, Wuthering Heights is the tale of... Read more

Hush, Hush

By: Becca Fitzpatrick

Narrated by: Caitlin Greer

Length: 8 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

Nora finds forbidden love with her fallen angel, in the first in the New York Times bestselling Hush, Hush saga.

For Nora Grey, romance was not part of the plan. She's never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how much her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch came along.

With his easy smile and eyes... Read more

Bait of Satan

By: John Bevere

Narrated by: John Bevere

Length: 5 hours

Abridged: No

Escape the enemy's deadly trap!  The Bait of Satan exposes one of the most deceptive snares Satan uses to get believers out of the will of God— offense. Most people who are ensnared by the bait of Satan don’t even realize it. Don’t be fooled! You will encounter offense, and it’s up to you how it will affect your relationship with God. Your... Read more

Flowers for Algernon

By: Daniel Keyes

Narrated by: Jeff Woodman

Length: 8 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

Charlie Gordon knows that he isn't very bright. At 32, he mops floors in a bakery and earns just enough to get by. Three evenings a week, he studies at a center for retarded adults. But all of this is about to change for Charlie. As part of a daring experiment, doctors are going to perform surgery on Charlie's brain. They hope the operation and... Read more

The Savage Detectives

By: Roberto Bolaño

Narrated by: Eddie Lopez & Armando Durán

Length: 26 hours 58 minutes

Abridged: No

The late Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño has been called the García Márquez of his generation. In this dazzling novel, the book that established his international reputation, Bolaño tells the story of two modern-day Quixotes—the last survivors of an underground literary movement, perhaps of literature itself—on a tragicomic quest through a... Read more