Adult Books We Love

Chain Gang All Stars: A Read with Jenna Pick

National Book Award Finalist

By: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Narrated by: Shayna Small, Aaron Goodson, Michael Crouch & Lee Osorio
Length: 13 hours 38 minutes

“In the near future, US prisons are run by private corporations for maximum profit and maximum punishment. Prisons are a hellscape of physical pain and emotional torture. But there is an avenue of escape for those who are desperate enough: The Chain-Gang All-Stars. Prisoners can volunteer for a modern-day Roman arena where they fight their... Read more

All the Sinners Bleed

A Novel

By: S. A. Cosby
Narrated by: Adam Lazarre-White
Length: 13 hours 5 minutes

“S.A. Cosby has given us an early favorite for the best crime fiction novel of the year with All the Sinners Bleed. We are big fans of his two previous books (Blacktop Wasteland and Razorblade Tears), and Cosby knocks it out of the park as he writes from the perspective of a town’s first black sheriff and his descent into the mid of a serial... Read more

The Other Black Girl

A Novel

By: Zakiya Dalila Harris
Narrated by: Aja Naomi King, Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Heather Alicia Simms & Bahni Turpin
Length: 13 hours 33 minutes

“This is the tale of two Black women co-workers in the cutthroat publishing industry trying to determine if they are friends or enemies. A literary fiction tale with a side of suspense, this expertly woven critique on society is bound to keep readers on the edge of their seats. Read more

Our Share of Night

A Novel

By: Mariana Enriquez
Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
Length: 27 hours 16 minutes

“A masterpiece of supernatural horror.”—The Washington Post
“An enchanting, shattering, once-in-a-lifetime reading experience.”—The New York Times (Editors’ Choice)

ONE OF TIME AND THE ATLANTIC’S TEN BEST NOVELS OF THE YEAR • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S TEN BEST HORROR BOOKS OF THE YEAR • LONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD • GOOD MORNING... Read more

Let Us Descend

A Novel

By: Jesmyn Ward
Narrated by: Jesmyn Ward
Length: 8 hours 12 minutes

“When Jesmyn Ward speaks you listen. Her voice in this new novel is so powerful. This novel should be in everyone's hands as it walks you through the life of a young slave girl before the Civil War. Will make a great book club book! Read more

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

A Novel

By: James McBride
Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
Length: 12 hours 21 minutes

“This is a humorous, compassionate and insightful novel, and my favorite of 2023 so far! A skeleton found at the bottom of a well, clutching a mezuzah. This is the mystery that McBride puts at the outset of his fabulous new novel, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. From this opening, McBride populates the world of 1930s Pottstown,... Read more

The Ferryman

A Novel

By: Justin Cronin
Narrated by: Scott Brick & Suzanne Elise Freeman
Length: 19 hours 55 minutes

“Unknowingly, I've been waiting for this novel all this time. Cronin's writing style, world building, and character development is deeply immersive - exactly what I was expecting. What I wasn't expecting, the audible gasp when it all clicked. I loved everything about this book. So much so, that words to describe it are failing to come together... Read more

Empire of Wild

A Novel

By: Cherie Dimaline
Narrated by: Michelle St. John
Length: 8 hours 16 minutes

“Cherie Dimaline’s latest novel packs a wallop of a story. Absolutely stunning in every way, this latest offering follows the story of Joan, whose husband has disappeared, and her courage when confronted with truths and lies. She and her husband, Victor, live in a Métis community, close and tight knit. As Joan deals with the fallout of her... Read more

As the Wicked Watch

The First Jordan Manning Novel

Jordan Manning series: Book #1

By: Tamron Hall
Narrated by: Susan Dalian
Length: 12 hours 53 minutes

The first in a thrilling new series from Emmy Award-winning TV Host and Journalist Tamron Hall, As The Wicked Watch follows a reporter as she unravels the disturbing mystery around the deaths of two young Black women, the work of a serial killer terrorizing Chicago.When crime reporter Jordan Manning leaves her hometown in Texas to take a job at... Read more

The Fifth Season

The Broken Earth: Book #1

By: N. K. Jemisin
Narrated by: Robin Miles
Length: 15 hours 27 minutes

“This book has the most high altitude world building I’ve ever seen. Tolkien may have written volumes and volumes of history of Middle Earth, but Jemisin’s world building goes beyond - considering how environment shapes culture, civilization, history, systems of oppression. At the same time, the series is so grounded in its utterly compelling... Read more

The Stone Sky

The Broken Earth: Book #3

By: N. K. Jemisin
Narrated by: Robin Miles
Length: 14 hours 16 minutes

Humanity will finally be saved or destroyed in the shattering conclusion to the post-apocalyptic and highly acclaimed NYT bestselling trilogy that won the Hugo Award three years in a row.

The Moon will soon return. Whether this heralds the destruction of humankind or something worse will depend on two women.

Essun has inherited the power of... Read more

The Obelisk Gate

The Broken Earth: Book #2

By: N. K. Jemisin
Narrated by: Robin Miles
Length: 13 hours 19 minutes

Essun's missing daughter grows more powerful every day, and her choices may destroy the world in this "magnificent" Hugo Award winner and NYT Notable Book. (NPR)

The season of endings grows darker, as civilization fades into the long cold night.

Essun -- once Damaya, once Syenite, now avenger -- has found shelter, but not her daughter. Instead... Read more

How to Excavate a Heart

By: Jake Maia Arlow
Narrated by: Hope Newhouse
Length: 8 hours 38 minutes

“Not even sure where to start - I loved this book for so many reasons! Lesbian romance, first year of college woes, nerdy excitement, a badass 96-year-old landlady, corgi booties… a delightfully real (messy and imperfect) picture of early adulthood. Read more

Biting the Hand

Growing Up Asian in Black and White America

By: Julia Lee
Narrated by: Julia Lee
Length: 7 hours 5 minutes

"Lee's narration of her brilliant memoir is penetrating with insight, raw with confessions, radiant with fury. Her meticulous writing is already stupendous, but the unguarded emotions that flow through her candid voice are a remarkable enhancement. Her tears of frustration and gratitude will surely prove contagious." - Booklist (starred... Read more

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

A Vera Wong Novel: Book #1

By: Jesse Q. Sutanto
Narrated by: Eunice Wong
Length: 10 hours 41 minutes

“A perfect book. Not since Anxious People have I fallen in love with a group of people so fast, and Vera Wong is just the best anchor of all. A book that i need made into a movie/show immediately, and I need a sponsored line of teas cause the descriptions of the flavors had me drooling. The ending was incredibly satisfying, and knowing Sutanto's... Read more

Hula

A Novel

By: Jasmin Iolani Hakes
Narrated by: Mapuana Makia
Length: 10 hours 43 minutes

“Hakes implores her audience to consider what makes a family, a community, a people, and at what cost. Incredible storytelling, rich complex characters, and a beautiful window into Hawaiian culture! Read more

How to Be an Antiracist

By: Ibram X. Kendi
Narrated by: Ibram X. Kendi
Length: 10 hours 29 minutes

“Among the multi-faceted array of antiracist literature newly published in the last two years, Ibram X. Kendi’s How To Be an Antiracist stands alone as a definitive source of history and socio-political critique, while offering a new paradigm of thought aimed at paving the way for correcting centuries of social injustice. Hearing this visionary... Read more

The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts

By: Soraya Palmer
Narrated by: Jaimi Gray
Length: 9 hours 11 minutes

Sisters Zora and Sasha Porter are drifting apart. Bearing witness to their father’s violence and their mother’s worsening illness, an unsettled Zora escapes into her journal, dreaming of being a writer, while Sasha discovers sex and chest binding, spending more time with her new girlfriend than at home. But the sisters, like their parents, must... Read more

Our Missing Hearts

Reese's Book Club (A Novel)

By: Celeste Ng
Narrated by: Lucy Liu & Celeste Ng
Length: 9 hours 51 minutes

“Set in an uncomfortably plausible dystopian near-future, Our Missing Hearts pulls no punches. Ng wrestles with how to find hope for ourselves and our children against forces that bend toward authoritarianism and nationalism. Read more

How Far the Light Reaches

A Life in Ten Sea Creatures

By: Sabrina Imbler
Narrated by: Sabrina Imbler
Length: 5 hours 40 minutes

“Part memoir, part nature/science writing, this is an amazing book. The author's ability to weave together the wonders of marine biology with stories exploring their own existence and coming of age lets us experience the world in a different light. Original and thought-provoking. Looking for a good audio book to listen to? This is a great choice,... Read more