Spring Booknotes 2021

The Arsonists' City

By: Hala Alyan
Narrated by: Leila Buck
Length: 19 hours 34 minutes

A rich family story, a personal look at the legacy of war in the Middle East, and an indelible rendering of how we hold on to the people and places we call home. The Nasr family is spread across the globe—Beirut, Brooklyn, Austin, the California desert. A Syrian mother, a Lebanese father, and three American children: all have lived a life of... Read more

Detransition, Baby

A Novel

By: Torrey Peters
Narrated by: Renata Friedman
Length: 12 hours 31 minutes

“This book led to my favorite book club conversation to date. The characters are messy and mostly unlikeable and Peters unflinchingly dives straight into topics in trans identity often considered taboo, without worrying about placating a cisgender audience. A quietly chaotic and fascinating character study. Read more

The Duke Undone

By: Joanna Lowell
Narrated by: Mary Jane Wells
Length: 12 hours 34 minutes

An artist stumbles upon a naked duke and an unlikely love story begins in this captivating Victorian historical romance.
 
When Royal Academy painting student Lucy Coover trips over a naked man passed out in an East End alley, she does the decent thing. She covers him up and fetches help. Trouble is, she can't banish his muscular form from her... Read more

Fake Accounts

By: Lauren Oyler
Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
Length: 10 hours 13 minutes

“This novel about our technological age is subversive from the very start. Its dense, wordy paragraphs seem the opposite of the endless bite-sized chunks of information we consume online. Yet within its density, it also mimics the internet experience through the stream-of-consciousness voice of its not-always-reliable narrator. It’s a fun story... Read more

The Five Wounds

A Novel

By: Kirstin Valdez Quade
Narrated by: Gary Tiedemann
Length: 15 hours 43 minutes

It's Holy Week in the small town of Las Penas, New Mexico, and thirty-three-year-old unemployed Amadeo Padilla has been given the part of Jesus in the Good Friday procession. He is preparing feverishly for this role when his fifteen-year-old daughter Angel shows up pregnant on his doorstep and disrupts his plans for personal redemption. With... Read more

Hot Stew

By: Fiona Mozley
Narrated by: Nneka Okoye
Length: 9 hours 47 minutes

“A young millionaire wants to turn an old Soho brothel into luxury condos, but the tenants aren’t going to leave without a fight. A riveting tale about wealth, class, gentrification, power, and gender, this story shows readers just how unjust the world can be. A 2021 must-read! Read more

The House on Vesper Sands

By: Paraic O'Donnell
Narrated by: Charles Armstrong
Length: 10 hours 20 minutes

“Paraic O’Donnell leavens the dark foreboding of a truly sinister, otherworldly mystery with distinctively clever storytelling and a decidedly marvelous cast of characters. You are in the best of hands with Inspector Cutter and Gideon Bliss on the case, along with the intrepid and resourceful reporter Octavia Hillingdon. Beautifully done! Read more

How Beautiful We Were

A Novel

By: Imbolo Mbue
Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi, Janina Edwards, Dion Graham, JD Jackson, Allyson Johnson & Lisa Renee Pitts
Length: 14 hours 7 minutes

A fearless young woman from a small African village starts a revolution against an American oil company in this sweeping, inspiring novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Behold the Dreamers.

ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, People• ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review,The... Read more

Klara and the Sun

A Novel

By: Kazuo Ishiguro
Narrated by: Sura Siu
Length: 10 hours 16 minutes

“Told from the first person perspective of a very perceptive "Artificial Friend", Klara and the Sun, brings up questions of what it means to be human and the depths of the human heart. In a future where teenagers are all doing school online (future or present?) and they have required socialization parties and AI who are there to be their... Read more

Remote Control

By: Nnedi Okorafor
Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
Length: 4 hours 7 minutes

“I have absolutely loved everything Nnedi Okorafor has ever written, and this latest book from her is no exception! Her amazing ability to blend traditional African stories and themes with hardcore science fiction is spectacular. While Sankofa cannot remember her name, she does remember her past as she travels from town to town. Even as a child,... Read more

The Removed

A Novel

By: Brandon Hobson
Narrated by: Gary Farmer, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, DeLanna Studi, Katie Rich & Christopher Salazar
Length: 7 hours 6 minutes

“In telling the story of a Native family in Oklahoma who lost a teenage son to a shooting, The Removed examines the power of inherited trauma and the strength of family to keep people together. The book is told in the voices of the various family members left after the death of their son/brother and explores the effects on their lives of their... Read more

Aftershocks

By: Nadia Owusu
Narrated by: Nadia Owusu
Length: 8 hours 32 minutes

In the tradition of The Glass Castle, this “gorgeous” (The New York Times, Editors’ Choice) and deeply felt memoir from Whiting Award winner Nadia Owusu tells the “incredible story” (Malala Yousafzai) about the push and pull of belonging, the seismic emotional toll of family secrets, and the heart it takes to pull through.

“In Aftershocks, Nadia... Read more

The Book of Difficult Fruit

Arguments for the Tart, Tender, and Unruly (with recipes)

By: Kate Lebo
Narrated by: Tanya Eby
Length: 7 hours 50 minutes

A is for Aronia, berry member of the apple family, clothes-stainer, superfruit with reputed healing power. D is for Durian, endowed with a dramatic rind and a shifting odor—peaches, old garlic. M is for Medlar, name-checked by Shakespeare for its crude shape, beloved by gardeners for its flowers. Q is for Quince, which, fresh, gives off the... Read more

Broken (in the best possible way)

By: Jenny Lawson
Narrated by: Jenny Lawson
Length: 8 hours 18 minutes

“I've said it before and I'll say it again: Jenny Lawson is a genius. She can make me sob uncontrollably from both laughter and the heartbreakingly honest way she talks about mental illness. She takes the worst things in life and finds a way to laugh through them. Her ability to bring people together in a celebration of human awkwardness is just... Read more

Crying in H Mart

A Memoir

By: Michelle Zauner
Narrated by: Michelle Zauner
Length: 7 hours 22 minutes

“This memoir is an unflinchingly honest portrayal of grief as well as a tender look at the complex relationship between a mother and daughter bridging generational and cultural gaps through the comforting creation of food. This book had me simultaneously sobbing and starving. A perfect read. Read more

Four Lost Cities

A Secret History of the Urban Age

By: Annalee Newitz
Narrated by: Chloe Cannon
Length: 8 hours 14 minutes

“Analee Newitz looks at the fate of four so-called 'lost' cities on three continents in this book. They describe the way modern day archeologists are turning their findings into stories about what life was like in these early urban centers. For a book about falling civilizations, I found it incredibly optimistic! Political and environmental... Read more

Land

How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World

By: Simon Winchester
Narrated by: Simon Winchester
Length: 13 hours 46 minutes

“In many ways, Land combines bits and pieces of many of Winchester’s previous books into a satisfying, globe-trotting whole. . . . Winchester is, once again, a consummate guide.”—Boston Globe
The author of The Professor and the Madman, The Map That Changed the World, and The Perfectionists explores the notion of property—bought, earned, or... Read more

A Little Devil in America

Notes in Praise of Black Performance

By: Hanif Abdurraqib
Narrated by: JD Jackson
Length: 9 hours 38 minutes

“I loved Hanif Abdurraqib’s A Little Devil in America. This essential book explores a handful of Black performers—some world-famous, others everyday people—across a wide variety of disciplines, seamlessly woven into snippets and stories from Hanif’s own life about Black culture and the performance of Blackness. JD Jackson’s low and easy narration... Read more

Tom Stoppard

A Life

By: Hermione Lee
Narrated by: Stephen Crossley
Length: 37 hours 47 minutes

A NEW YORK TIMES CRITICS' TOP BOOK OF THE YEAR • One of our most brilliant biographers takes on one of our greatest living playwrights, drawing on a wealth of new materials and on many conversations with him.

“An extraordinary record of a vital and evolving artistic life, replete with textured illuminations of the plays and their performances,... Read more

Under a White Sky

The Nature of the Future

By: Elizabeth Kolbert
Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
Length: 6 hours 21 minutes

“Under a White Sky is a scary book. It's about climate change, invasive species, and how Louisiana is disappearing into the ocean. It's about how humans, as a species, have screwed up the planet, and how we tend to screw it up more when we try to fix our mistakes. It's also about how we're developing a bunch of new fixes to go after our old... Read more