Staff Picks

“A slim, sensual, and often sapphic collection of stories about women, relationships, and the church. Whether the tension breaks in laughter or tears, it will keep you neglecting real life in leu of listening. You will fall in love with these women. It's remarkable with Philyaw has accomplished in such a short little book. It's incredible.”

“A powerful and visceral collection from one of today’s most unique voices that will take you out of your comfort zone. Yuknavitch focuses on the subject of the body: bodies trying to find comfort, bodies trying to become whole, bodies destroyed, bodies as an object, how they are connected to one another, how they can be broken, and how much they are worth. To dive into this collection is to let a cinderblock tied to your leg drag you down into unknown watery depths and instead of trying to loosen the knot, holding tight and letting the waters consume you.”

“What did I just listen to and why did I like it so much? Part of falling in love with this book was the listening experience, to be certain. The narration was stellar. The production was on point. But the story... the story itself is sublime. N.K. Jemisin has written a love letter to New York City - but not the one in bright, bold letters on the silver screen - the real city, and the real people who inhabit it and call it home, even if only temporarily. And it was beyond my wildest dreams (and nightmares). The City We Became is so incredibly layered and nuanced - diving into discussions of racism and sexism and the fallacy of good vs evil. I wanted nothing more than to steep in its long chapters, and get to know its boroughs as intimately as Jemisin would allow - not mere stereotypes but fully fleshed and brilliant, blinding avatars. Witty, subversive, imaginative, unbelievable. Get on this wild ride.”

“Janina is an eccentric middle-aged woman who translates William Blake, studies astrology, and is acutely attuned to the wilderness around her in rural Poland. When hunters and poachers begin to be gruesomely murdered, Janina informs the police that the animals are responsible. As the bodies mount, so does her involvement with the mystery, although her status as a crank and possible madwoman ensures that she’s ignored. This is an extraordinary and disturbing tale — a mystery that becomes more complex as the story continues, accompanied by Janina’s often witty observations on man, nature, justice, and identity. The ending of this hard-to-categorize novel, a finalist for the 2019 Man Booker International Prize, will knock the breath out of you. Don’t miss this excellent translated work from an award-winning writer!”

“Private Detective Ivy Gamble is hired to investigate a gruesome death at Osthorne Academy for Young Mages. Ivy has no magic and has more experience investigating insurance fraud cases than she has in solving murders. Now she has the chance to show off her detective skills at the same school her estranged magical twin sister teaches at...but will her relationship with her sister cause problems for the case? What at first seems to be another teenage wizard school drama instantly becomes an intriguing mystery that combines the best of urban fantasy with classic noir elements. I was immediately pulled to the protagonist, Ivy Gamble, and her complicated history she has with the magical world (and her sister). Who is the killer, one of the victim's fellow teachers or one of her hormone-crazed students? Can Ivy solve the case without knowing any magic at all? And how is Ivy supposed to sift through the lies surrounding Osthorne Academy when she can't even be truthful to herself?”

“On the island, things regularly disappear en masse. Boats. Roses. Birds. Calendars. The people of the island are expected to gather and destroy any remaining evidence of these disappearances, and with it, their memories. The narrator refers to "killing two creatures with one stone" long after the island's birds are disappeared--even the word itself is gone from her consciousness. But a small minority of people are still able to remember, and it is the job of the Memory Police to track those people down. The fragile, spare prose haunts you with many questions: Can humanity survive without memories? Without nostalgia? Without a material culture? This elegiac glimpse into the heart of authoritarianism will linger in your own memory for a long time to come.”

“Whoa. This is hardcore awesome. I hate to use popular books to compare, but it definitely is Ready Player One meets Hate U Give. And my favorite thing, there isn’t a specific heavy-handed message (at least in my opinion) which is the reason I don’t read too many popular books like this one. It asked some hard questions and left some of the decisions about the ‘correct’ answers for your own pondering. And the Libro.fm narration is great! A handful of narrators that made it feel rounded out and enthusiastic.”

“What a breathtaking collection. These stories are so artfully crafted and imaginatively constructed that at first blush they carry the same satisfaction as the best social satire out there and all the respect that goes along with the label; this collection, however, commands that and more. It is wrenching in its acute, precise indictment of white culture and its guardians, all the while offering language that is playfully impish in its originality. Adjei-Brenyah has an innate ability to create worlds that are familiar and distant and that feel like a privilege to be able to glimpse. This is not to be missed.”

“The Fifth Season is an amazing, dark, and gripping work that will hook you from the first sentence. I cannot express to you how much this book stunned me. Robin's narration is well paced and engaging. While I wish this was a book for everyone to listen to, it isn't; destruction, trauma, and rage follow the women and girls who tell their stories. This book is about the end of the world, that you actually don't want to stop reading.”