Local bookseller recommendations

American Prometheus

By: Kai Bird & Martin J. Sherwin

Narrated by: Jeff Cummings

Length: 26 hours 29 minutes

Abridged: No

The inspiration for the major motion picture Oppenheimer, this is the definitive biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb for his country in a time of war and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress.American Prometheus is the first full-scale... Read more

Saving Fish from Drowning

By: Amy Tan

Narrated by: Amy Tan

Length: 17 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

San Francisco art patron Bibi Chen has planned a journey of the senses along the famed Burma Road for eleven lucky friends. But after her mysterious death, Bibi watches aghast from her ghostly perch as the travelers veer off her itinerary and embark on a trail paved with cultural gaffes and tribal curses, Buddhist illusions and romantic desires.... Read more

Anansi Boys

By: Neil Gaiman

Narrated by: Lenny Henry

Length: 10 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

Soon to be a streaming series!From #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman, a tale playful, profound, and rife with mayhem and mischief―one of ten classic Gaiman works repackaged with elegant original watercolor art by acclaimed artist Henry Sene YeeWhen Fat Charlie’s dad named something, it stuck. Like calling Fat Charlie “Fat... Read more

As I Lay Dying

By: William Faulkner

Narrated by: Various

Length: 6 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: No

Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time

From the Modern Library’s new set of beautifully repackaged hardcover classics by William Faulkner—also available are Snopes, The Sound and the Fury, Light in August, Absalom, Absalom!, and Selected Short Stories

One of William Faulkner’s finest novels, As I Lay Dying,... Read more

Shibumi

By: Trevanian

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

Length: 16 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

Nicholai Hel, born in the ravages of World War I China to an aristocratic Russian mother and a mysterious German father, and raised in the spiritual gardens of a Japanese Go master, survives the destruction of Hiroshima to emerge as the world’s most artful lover and its most accomplished and highly paid assassin. Genius, mystic, master of... Read more

Monstrous Regiment

By: Terry Pratchett

Narrated by: Stephen Briggs

Length: 11 hours 36 minutes

Abridged: No

“Wickedly satirical . . . nothing short of brilliant.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)New York Times bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett explores the inanity of war, sexual politics, and why the best man for the job is often a woman in this acerbically funny and poignant Discworld novel.In the small country of Borogravia, there are strict... Read more

The Journey of Crazy Horse

By: Joseph Marshall

Narrated by: Joseph Marshall

Length: 10 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

Most of the world remembers Crazy Horse as a peerless warrior who brought the U.S. Army to its knees at the Battle of Little Bighorn. But to his fellow Lakota Indians, he was a dutiful son and humble fighting man who—with valor, spirit, respect, and unparalleled leadership—fought for his people's land, livelihood, and honor. In this fascinating... Read more

The Good House

By: Tananarive Due

Narrated by: Robin Miles

Length: 21 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

Tananarive Due, author of The Living Blood (F0061) won the American Book Award and is praised as Stephen King's equal by Publishers Weekly. In The Good House, Due sets a story of ancient powers and modern retribution in a small Pacific Northwest town. When a young woman returns to her grandmother's empty mansion, she is pitted against demonic... Read more

Over the Edge of the World - Abridged

By: Laurence Bergreen

Narrated by: Laurence Bergreen

Length: 6 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: Yes

A majestic tale of discovery thatchanged many long-held views about the world In 1519 Magellan and his fleet of five ships set sail from Seville, Spain, to discover a water route to the fabled Spice Islands in Indonesia, where the most sought-after commodities -- cloves, pepper, and nutmeg -- flourished. Three years later, a handful of survivors... Read more

A Child's Christmas In Wales - Abridged

By: Dylan Thomas

Narrated by: Dylan Thomas

Length: 46 minutes

Abridged: Yes

First recorded in February of 1952, this remastered recording of Dylan Thomas reading A Child’s Christmas in Wales recalls all of the sights, smells, and sounds of a long-ago Christmas.Thomas’s wonderful recollection of this holiday in the seaside town of his youth is captured in this vivid performance. Also included are five poems selected and... Read more

The Hours

By: Michael Cunningham

Narrated by: Michael Cunningham

Length: 6 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: No

Winner of the Pulitzer prize, the Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and nominated for 9 Academy Awards, The Hours is now available on Unabridged CD.

Passionate, profound, and deeply moving, The Hours tells the story of three women: Clarissa Vaughan, who one New York morning goes about planning a party in honor of a beloved friend; Laura Brown, who... Read more

Holes

By: Louis Sachar

Narrated by: Kerry Beyer & Louis Sachar

Length: 4 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: No

This groundbreaking classic is now available in a special anniversary edition with bonus content. Winner of the Newbery Medal as well as the National Book Award, HOLES is a New York Times bestseller and one of the strongest-selling middle-grade books to ever hit shelves!

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his... Read more

Confessions of A Shopaholic

By: Sophie Kinsella

Narrated by: Emily Gray

Length: 11 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

Sophie Kinsella's debut is a rollicking romp through the perils of shopping and spending, spending, spending! Becky can't resist a sale, and she's only a little overdrawn on her VISA. Besides, that new scarf is just too cute to pass up. Readers will laugh aloud at Becky's retail adventures as she finds new and creative ways to relieve her... Read more

The Cruelest Miles

By: Gay Salisbury & Laney Salisbury

Narrated by: Barrett Whitener

Length: 9 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

The year is 1925. It is sixty degrees below zero. The wind sweeps tons of snow over the deep-frozen Alaskan landscape. The nearest railhead is seven hundred miles away. Airplanes cannot fly. The way to Nome is blocked by a treacherous frozen sound, an icebound port, and mountains to the west. But there is a diphtheria epidemic in Nome. The... Read more

The Secret Life of Bees

By: Sue Monk Kidd

Narrated by: Jenna Lamia

Length: 9 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

An intoxicating debut novel of "one motherless daughter's discovery of...the strange and wonderful places we find love" —The Washington PostSue Monk Kidd's ravishing debut novel has stolen the hearts of reviewers and readers alike with its strong, assured voice. Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily... Read more

The Orchid Thief

By: Susan Orlean

Narrated by: Jennifer Jay Myers

Length: 8 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK

In Susan Orlean's mesmerizing true story of beauty and obsession is John Laroche, a renegade plant dealer and sharply handsome guy, in spite of the fact that he is missing his front teeth and has the posture of al dente spaghetti. In 1994, Laroche and three Seminole Indians were arrested... Read more

Fraud

By: David Rakoff

Narrated by: David Rakoff

Length: 4 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

You've heard him on This American Life! Now read his book!

Wherever he is, David Rakoff is a fish out of water. Whether impersonating Sigmund Freud in a department store window during the holidays, climbing an icy mountain in cheap loafers, playing an evil modeling agent on a daytime soap opera, or learning primitive survival skills in the wilds... Read more

Pride and Prejudice

By: Jane Austen

Narrated by: Kate Reading

Length: 12 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

Introduction by Anna Quindlen
Commentary by Margaret Oliphant, George Saintsbury, Mark Twain, A. C. Bradley, Walter A. Raleigh, and Virginia Woolf
 
Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”... Read more

How the Irish Saved Civilization - Abridged

By: Thomas Cahill

Narrated by: Liam Neeson

Length: 3 hours 1 minute

Abridged: Yes

The perfect St. Patrick's Day gift, and a book in the best tradition of popular history -- the untold story of Ireland's role in maintaining Western culture while the Dark Ages settled on Europe. Every year millions of Americans celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but they may not be aware of how great an influence St. Patrick was on the subsequent... Read more

Like Water for Chocolate

By: Laura Esquivel

Narrated by: Kate Reading

Length: 5 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

Earthy, magical, and utterly charming, this tale of family life in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Mexico became a bestselling phenomenon with its winning blend of poignant romance and bittersweet wit. The classic love story takes place on the De la Garza ranch, as the tyrannical owner, Mama Elena, chops onions at the kitchen table in her final... Read more