Jocund July Staff Picks

Great Circle

A novel

By: Maggie Shipstead
Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell & Alex McKenna
Length: 25 hours 16 minutes

“Like so many big, statement-making novels, Maggie Shipstead's Great Circle is an inviting, ambitious, and commodious work. But unlike so many of them, Great Circle makes the statement without dragging across its page count. It gallops, in fact, in its telling of Marian Graves's triumphant and ill-fated trek across the globe and of the Hollywood... Read more

Legends of the North Cascades

By: Jonathan Evison
Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
Length: 9 hours 11 minutes

“A sad, sweet, and ultimately hopeful novel of loss, family, and wilderness. Even while maneuvering through two very different story lines, Legends of the North Cascades is imaginative, endearing, and poignant. This is my new favorite of Evison’s novels. Read more

Sharks in the Time of Saviors

By: Kawai Strong Washburn
Narrated by: Tui Asau, G.K. Bowes, Kaleo Griffith & Jolene Kim
Length: 10 hours 37 minutes

“Night Marchers, gods, goddesses, and the dead all walk Hawaii with the Flores family, if only they can stop struggling to survive long enough to see them. At seven years old, Nainoa falls into the Pacific only to be brought back to his mother in the mouth of a shark, unharmed and now burdened with the rumor of legend. Noa struggles to... Read more

The Secret Keeper of Jaipur

The Jaipur Trilogy: Book #2

By: Alka Joshi
Narrated by: Sneha Mathan, Ariyan Kassam & Deepa Samuel
Length: 11 hours 8 minutes

“At the grand opening of the Royal Jewel Cinema there are secrets left untold. Secrets about adoptions that happened, and those that didn't. Secrets about marriages arranged to build dynasties and those to save face. And a man who was a nobody as a boy is going by a different name, and some recognize him and others either don't or choose not... Read more

The Archer

By: Paulo Coelho
Narrated by: Vikas Adam
Length: 49 minutes

From the #1 best-selling author of The Alchemist comes an inspiring story about a young man seeking wisdom from an elder, and the practical lessons imparted along the way. Includes stunning illustrations by Christoph Niemann.

“A novelist who writes in a universal language.” —The New York Times

In The Archer we meet Tetsuya, a man once famous for... Read more

One Two Three

A Novel

By: Laurie Frankel
Narrated by: Emma Galvin, Jesse Vilinsky & Rebecca Soler
Length: 14 hours 58 minutes

“One, Two, and Three—the names triplets Mab, Monday, and Mirabel—have for each other—are atypical 16-year-old high school girls. Born to a newly-widowed mother in a New England town polluted by a local chemical plant, their mission in life is to support their mother's fight, to prove Belsen Chemical's guilt. When heirs to the plant arrive in town... Read more

Of Women and Salt

A Novel

By: Gabriela Garcia
Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
Length: 7 hours 7 minutes

“This is a story about women—mothers, daughters and how history shapes a life. Gabriella Garcia, a Cuban American, tells two immigration stories—one from Cuba, and the other from El Salvador—and how the past impacts decisions in their own lives. Garcia’s sentences and word choice ring with purpose when you listen to the story as an audiobook.... Read more

The Maidens

A Novel

By: Alex Michaelides
Narrated by: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith & Louise Brealey
Length: 9 hours 18 minutes

“Intensely dark, mysterious, and intelligent, The Maidens is reminiscent of Thomas Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs. The charming and brilliant Edward Fosca provides ample moments of tension in this game of cat and mouse. To top it off, the use of Greek mythology that weaves throughout the narrative lends an aura of the fantastic that makes the... Read more

When the Stars Go Dark

A Novel

By: Paula McLain
Narrated by: Marin Ireland
Length: 11 hours 28 minutes

“No matter what the genre, McLain is a masterful storyteller. Her protagonist in this latest novel is one of the most authentic and powerful characters I have ever experienced. Anna Hart, a missing persons detective, shares not only her knowledge as an expert on missing children but she lays bare her own personal demons as she struggles to find a... Read more

The Therapist

A Novel

By: B.A. Paris
Narrated by: Olivia Dowd & Thomas Judd
Length: 10 hours 5 minutes

“Quick and smart–this thriller will keep you guessing until the end! Read more

Dream Girl

A Novel

By: Laura Lippman
Narrated by: Jason Culp
Length: 8 hours 53 minutes

“Carve out a lot of time for when you start Dream Girl, because you're not going to want to stop! Haunting, atmospheric and often funny — this is one of Lippman's best, which is saying a lot! Read more

For the Wolf

The Wilderwood: Book #1

By: Hannah Whitten
Narrated by: Inés del Castillo
Length: 13 hours 40 minutes

The first daughter is for the Throne.
The second daughter is for the Wolf.

For fans of Uprooted and The Bear and the Nightingale comes a dark, sweeping debut fantasy novel about a young woman who must be sacrificed to the legendary Wolf of the Wood to save her kingdom. But not all legends are true, and the Wolf isn't the only danger lurking in the... Read more

She Who Became the Sun

The Radiant Emperor Duology: Book #1

By: Shelley Parker-Chan
Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
Length: 14 hours 36 minutes

“Zhu’s tooth-and-nail fight for her destiny merges hero and antihero into a transcendent figure with an incomparably strong will. She Who Became the Sun carves out a bold and bloody new genre of epic fantasy. Read more

The World Gives Way

A Novel

By: Marissa Levien
Narrated by: Christine Lakin
Length: 12 hours 57 minutes

“The World Gives Way gave me so many things: a crime novel, a science fiction epic, but also something that explores the beauties of love and the strive to survive through it all. This is an adventure that I won't be forgetting any time soon. Read more

A Master of Djinn

Dead Djinn Universe: Book #1

By: P. Djèlí Clark
Narrated by: Suehyla El-Attar
Length: 15 hours 37 minutes

“Fatma el-Sha’arawi is one of the most talented agents in Ciaro’s Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities. Though it is 1912, she has worked her way up the male-dominated agency with a combination of raw magical talent, wit, and force of will. When a room of men burnt to a crisp with no sign of fire shows up, Fatma is put on... Read more

Dreamcatcher Movie-Tie In

By: Stephen King
Narrated by: Jeffrey DeMunn
Length: 22 hours 46 minutes

Once upon a time, in the haunted city of Derry, four boys stood together and did a brave thing. It was something that changed them in ways they could never begin to understand.
Twenty-five years after saving a Down's-syndrome kid from bullies, Beav, Henry, Pete, and Jonesy -- now men with separate lives and separate problems -- reunite in the... Read more

The Woman They Could Not Silence

One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear

By: Kate Moore
Narrated by: Kate Moore
Length: 14 hours 36 minutes

“As this country waged war against slavery, a quiet heroine fought for the rights of women. A must read for all! Read more

Minor Feelings

An Asian American Reckoning

By: Cathy Park Hong
Narrated by: Cathy Park Hong
Length: 6 hours 52 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER• ONE OF TIME’S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE• A ruthlessly honest, emotionally charged, and utterly original exploration of Asian American consciousness

“Brilliant . . . To read this book is to become more human.”—Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen

In... Read more

Let My People Go Surfing

The Education of a Reluctant Businessman--Including 10 More Years of Business Unusual

By: Yvon Chouinard
Narrated by: Christopher Grove & Yvon Chouinard
Length: 7 hours 58 minutes

In his long-awaited memoir, Yvon Chouinard-legendary climber, businessman, environmentalist, and founder of Patagonia, Inc.-shares the persistence and courage that have gone into being head of one of the most respected and environmentally responsible companies on earth. From his youth as the son of a French Canadian blacksmith to the thrilling,... Read more

The Darkness Outside Us

By: Eliot Schrefer
Narrated by: James Fouhey
Length: 9 hours 49 minutes

They Both Die at the End meets The Loneliest Girl in the Universe in this mind-bending sci-fi mystery and tender love story about two boys aboard a spaceship sent on a rescue mission, from two-time National Book Award finalist Eliot Schrefer. Stonewall Honor Award winner!Two boys, alone in space. Sworn enemies sent on the same rescue... Read more