Local bookseller recommendations

The Line Becomes a River

By: Francisco Cantú

Narrated by: Francisco Cantú

Length: 6 hours 29 minutes

Abridged: No

NAMED A TOP 10 BOOK OF 2018 BY NPR and THE WASHINGTON POST
WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE IN CURRENT INTEREST
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE NONFICTION AWARD

The instant New York Times bestseller, "A must-read for anyone who thinks 'build a wall' is the answer to anything." --Esquire

For Francisco Cantú, the border is in... 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

The Widows of Malabar Hill

By: Sujata Massey

Narrated by: Soneela Nankani

Length: 14 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

Introducing an extraordinary female lawyer-sleuth in a new historical series set in 1920s Bombay! Bombay, 1921: Perveen Mistry, the daughter of a respected Zoroastrian family, has just joined her father's law firm, becoming one of the first female lawyers in India. Armed with a law degree from Oxford, Perveen also has a tragic personal history... Read more

The Prey of Gods

By: Nicky Drayden

Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi

Length: 12 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

From a new voice in the tradition of Lauren Beukes, Ian McDonald, and Nnedi Okorafor comes The Prey of Gods, a fantastic, boundary-challenging tale, set in a South African locale both familiar and yet utterly new, which braids elements of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and dark humor. In South Africa, the future looks promising. Personal... Read more

Uncommon Type

By: Tom Hanks

Narrated by: Tom Hanks

Length: 10 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

A collection of seventeen wonderful short stories showing that two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks is as talented a writer as he is an actor.

A gentle Eastern European immigrant arrives in New York City after his family and his life have been torn apart by his country's civil war. A man who loves to bowl rolls a perfect game--and then another and... Read more

An Unkindness of Ghosts

By: Rivers Solomon

Narrated by: Cherise Boothe

Length: 11 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She’s used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, she’d be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remains of her world.Aster lives in the lowdeck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space... 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

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

By: Stephen Chbosky

Narrated by: Noah Galvin

Length: 6 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: No

“A timeless story for every young person who needs to understand that they are not alone.” —Judy Blume

“Once in a while, a novel comes along that becomes a generational touchstone. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is one of those books.” —R. J. Palacio, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wonder

This #1 New York Times bestselling... Read more

My Absolute Darling

By: Gabriel Tallent

Narrated by: Alex McKenna

Length: 15 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 
LA TIMES BOOK PRIZE FINALIST
NBCC JOHN LEONARD PRIZE FINALIST
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES'S MOST NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2017
ONE OF THE WASHINGTON POST’S MOST NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2017
ONE OF NPR’S ‘GREAT READS’ OF 2017
A USA TODAY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
AN AMAZON.COM BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
A BUSINESS INSIDER BEST BOOK OF THE... Read more

Refugee

By: Alan Gratz

Length: 7 hours 36 minutes

Abridged: No

A tour de force from acclaimed author Alan Gratz (Prisoner B-3087), this timely -- and timeless -- novel tells the powerful story of three different children seeking refuge.A New York Times bestseller!JOSEF is a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the... Read more

The Almost Sisters

By: Joshilyn Jackson

Narrated by: Joshilyn Jackson

Length: 12 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

With empathy, grace, humor, and piercing insight, the author of gods in Alabama pens a powerful, emotionally resonant novel of the South that confronts the truth about privilege, family, and the distinctions between perception and reality---the stories we tell ourselves about our origins and who we really are.Superheroes have always been Leia... Read more

Made for Love

By: Alissa Nutting

Narrated by: Suzanne Elise Freeman

Length: 10 hours 19 minutes

Abridged: No

Soon to be an HBO Max series starring Ray Romano and Cristin Milioti 
NAMED A RECOMMENDED READ BY
GQ • PopSugar • NPR • Huffington Post • Electric Literature • The New Yorker • Publishers Weekly • New York Magazine • Buzzfeed • Refinery29 • Vulture • Nylon
From one of our most exciting and provocative young writers, a poignant, riotously funny... Read more

Chemistry

By: Weike Wang

Narrated by: Julia Whelan

Length: 4 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

Named by The Washington Post as a Notable Work of Fiction in 2017 and by Entertainment Weekly as a Best Debut Novel of 2017
Named a Best Book of 2017 by NPR, Ann Patchett on PBS NewsHour, Minnesota Public Radio, Maris Kreizman, and The Morning News

National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” Honoree

Longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize

A luminous... Read more

The Women in the Castle

By: Jessica Shattuck

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 12 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: No

Three women, haunted by the past and the secrets they holdSet at the end of World War II, in a crumbling Bavarian castle that once played host to all of German high society, a powerful and propulsive story of three widows whose lives and fates become intertwined—an affecting, shocking, and ultimately redemptive novel from the author of the New... Read more

A Piece of the World

By: Christina Baker Kline

Narrated by: Polly Stone

Length: 8 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the smash bestseller Orphan Train, a stunning and atmospheric novel of friendship, passion, and art, inspired by Andrew Wyeth’s mysterious and iconic painting Christina’s World. ""Later he told me that he’d been afraid to show me the painting. He thought I wouldn’t like the way he portrayed me:... Read more

All Our Wrong Todays

By: Elan Mastai

Narrated by: Elan Mastai

Length: 10 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

One of Wall Street Journal’s Best of 2017

“Entertainingly mixes thrills and humor.”—Entertainment Weekly

“[An] amazing debut novel. . . . Dazzling and complex. . . . Fearlessly funny storytelling.”—The Washington Post

“Instantly engaging. . . . A timeless, if mind-bending, story about the journeys we take, populated by friends, family, lovers,... Read more

4 3 2 1

By: Paul Auster

Narrated by: Paul Auster

Length: 36 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

*This is an MP3 CD edition*

"...listening to 4 3 2 1 in audio is worth the commitment, thanks to the author’s easy-on-the-ears baritone" — Newsday

This program is narrated by—and includes a bonus interview with—the author.

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize
A New York Times , Los Angeles Times , Boston Globe , and Indiebound Bestseller

Paul... 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 Trouble with Goats and Sheep

By: Joanna Cannon

Narrated by: Paula Wilcox

Length: 10 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

“I loved this book. It's one of those books that you just want to give to everybody.” —Nancy Pearl on NPR’s Morning Edition

“An astute, engaging debut” (Publishers Weekly), The Trouble with Goats and Sheep is a quirky and utterly charming tale of a community in need of reconciliation and two girls learning what it means to belong.

England,... Read more

Lily and the Octopus

By: Steven Rowley

Narrated by: Michael Urie

Length: 8 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: No

A national bestseller combining the emotional depth of The Art of Racing in the Rain with the magical spirit of The Life of Pi, “Lily and the Octopus is the dog book you must read this summer” (The Washington Post).

Ted—a gay, single, struggling writer is stuck: unable to open himself up to intimacy except through the steadfast companionship of... Read more

The Fireman

By: Joe Hill

Narrated by: Kate Mulgrew

Length: 22 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

From the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of NOS4A2 and Heart-Shaped Box comes a chilling novel about a worldwide pandemic of spontaneous combustion that threatens to reduce civilization to ashes and a band of improbable heroes who battle to save it, led by one powerful and enigmatic man known as the Fireman.The fireman is... 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

Be Frank With Me

By: Julia Claiborne Johnson

Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert

Length: 8 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: No

A sparkling talent makes her fiction debut with this infectious novel that combines the charming pluck of Eloise, the poignant psychological quirks of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and the page-turning spirit of Where’d You Go, Bernadette.Reclusive literary legend M. M. “Mimi” Banning has been holed up in her Bel Air mansion... Read more

Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl

By: Carrie Brownstein

Narrated by: Carrie Brownstein

Length: 7 hours 4 minutes

Abridged: No

From the guitarist of the pioneering band Sleater-Kinney, the book Kim Gordon says "everyone has been waiting for" and a New York Times Notable Book of 2015-- a candid, funny, and deeply personal look at making a life--and finding yourself--in music.

Before Carrie Brownstein became a music icon, she was a young girl growing up in the Pacific... Read more