Carmel Valley Community Favorites

Crook Manifesto

A Novel

By: Colson Whitehead
Narrated by: Dion Graham
Length: 10 hours 47 minutes

“I loved the precursor to this book, Harlem Shuffle, and I love the return of Ray Carney and Pepper in this novel. These characters and the 1970s Harlem they inhabit are so vivid. Loved it! Read more

Taste

My Life Through Food

By: Stanley Tucci
Narrated by: Stanley Tucci
Length: 6 hours 50 minutes

“As a lover of food, I snacked my way through Taste: My Life Through Food, chuckled at Stanley Tucci's puns, and found myself adding his movies to my queue for a repeat screening. His ability to describe food, history, and food on sets was thorough, entertaining, and just plain fun. His passion for good food, family time, and forming lifetime... Read more

Demon Copperhead

A Novel

By: Barbara Kingsolver
Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
Length: 21 hours 2 minutes

WINNER OF THE 2023 PULITZER PRIZE • WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTIONA New York Times "Ten Best Books of 2022" • An Oprah’s Book Club Selection • An Instant New York Times Bestseller • An Instant Wall Street Journal Bestseller • A #1 Washington Post Bestseller "Demon is a voice for the ages—akin to Huck Finn or Holden Caulfield—only even... Read more

Tom Lake

A Novel

By: Ann Patchett
Narrated by: Meryl Streep
Length: 11 hours 22 minutes

“Storytelling at its very best!! Set during the pandemic summer of 2020 when they are toiling at harvesting the cherries on their Michigan farm during the lock-down, a mother regales her three 20-something daughters the story of her youth when she dated an actor who would later become famous. The performance of Meryl Streep, who reads this audio... Read more

Horse

A Novel

By: Geraldine Brooks
Narrated by: James Fouhey, Lisa Flanagan, Graham Halstead, Katherine Littrell & Michael Obiora
Length: 14 hours 5 minutes

“Another well researched historical fiction by Brooks. This time she writes about race and horse racing, transporting the reader to the Antebellum South. The book is written from the point of view of several people in the life of the famous race horse and sire named Lexington. We follow his life primarily through the eyes of his enslaved groom... Read more

Remarkably Bright Creatures

A Novel

By: Shelby Van Pelt
Narrated by: Marin Ireland & Michael Urie
Length: 11 hours 16 minutes

“Meet a hardworking widow, a lost soul, and a giant Pacific octopus (yes, an octopus) in this heartfelt story that reveals there’s still plenty of living to do for those with their eyes — and hearts — open to the unexpected. A bright debut! Read more

The Year of Magical Thinking

By: Joan Didion
Narrated by: Barbara Caruso
Length: 5 hours 10 minutes

Didion's journalistic skills are displayed as never before in this story of a year in her life that began with her daughter in a medically induced coma and her husband unexpectedly dead due to a heart attack.

This powerful and moving work is Didion's "attempt to make sense of the weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had... Read more

A Living Remedy

A Memoir

By: Nicole Chung
Narrated by: Jennifer Kim
Length: 5 hours 58 minutes

Named a Best Book of the Year by: Time * Harper’s Bazaar * Esquire * Booklist * USA Today * Elle * Good Housekeeping * TimeFrom the bestselling author of ALL YOU CAN EVER KNOW comes a searing memoir of family, class and grief—a daughter’s search to understand the lives her adoptive parents led, the life she forged as an adult, and the lives... Read more

The Personal Librarian

By: Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray
Narrated by: Robin Miles
Length: 12 hours 22 minutes

“I dearly loved this historical fiction based on the life of J.P. Morgan's personal librarian. My favorite combination of entertaining and educational! Read more

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

By: Charlie Mackesy
Narrated by: Charlie Mackesy
Length: 58 minutes

Charlie Mackesy’s beloved The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse has been adapted into an animated short film, now available to stream on Apple TV+
“A surprise bestseller about kindness and vulnerability is bringing people together.” – Washington Post
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” asked the mole.
“Kind,” said the boy.

Charlie Mackesy... Read more

The Henna Artist

The Jaipur Trilogy: Book #1

By: Alka Joshi
Narrated by: Sneha Mathan
Length: 10 hours 55 minutes

A NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER

A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB PICK

"Captivated me from the first chapter to the final page."—Reese Witherspoon

Vivid and compelling in its portrait of one woman’s struggle for fulfillment in a society pivoting between the traditional and the modern, The Henna Artist opens a door into a world that is at... Read more

The Creative Act

A Way of Being

By: Rick Rubin
Narrated by: Rick Rubin
Length: 5 hours 44 minutes

“The Creative Act by Rick Rubin is a wise and inspiring discussion of what it means to be an artist, a maker. He emphasizes that creativity is a way of being in the world - open, attentive, accepting of awe. And makes the case that each of us has a unique vantage onto the world and that expressing how life looks and feels to us is worth... Read more

Your Brain on Art

How the Arts Transform Us

By: Susan Magsamen & Ivy Ross
Narrated by: Ellyn Jameson
Length: 9 hours 11 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A life-altering journey through the science of neuroaesthetics, which offers proof for how our brains and bodies transform when we participate in the arts—and how this knowledge can improve our health, enable us to flourish, and build stronger communities.

“This book blew my mind!”—Angela Duckworth, #1 New York Times... Read more

Trust (Pulitzer Prize Winner)

By: Hernan Diaz
Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Jonathan Davis, Mozhan Marnò & Orlagh Cassidy
Length: 10 hours 20 minutes

“Hernan Diaz does things I've never seen in a novel before. Trust ties up threads of money and art, family and history, lies and truth. Think historical fiction turned meta, with a beating heart and spectacular writing. Read more

The Four Winds

A Novel

By: Kristin Hannah
Narrated by: Julia Whelan
Length: 15 hours 2 minutes

“A brilliantly woven narrative set during the Dust Bowl years on the High Plains of Texas, The Four Winds is a story of survival that inspires us to persist. Hannah extensively researched the devastation of this climatic and agricultural phenomenon and its toll on communities, which seamlessly informs the deftly woven narrative of the life of... Read more

Crying in H Mart

A Memoir

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

“I was struck by just how much I loved this book for how it walks through grief not as a way to leave it behind, but as a way to remember its exact shape. I’m grateful for its funny, self-deprecating, and wise observations, and for its difficult beauty. Read more

Braiding Sweetgrass

Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

By: Robin Wall Kimmerer
Narrated by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
Length: 16 hours 44 minutes

As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our... Read more

The Honey Bus

A Memoir of Loss, Courage and a Girl Saved by Bees

By: Meredith May
Narrated by: Candace Thaxton
Length: 9 hours 30 minutes

An extraordinary story of a girl, her grandfather and one of nature’s most mysterious and beguiling creatures: the honeybee.

Meredith May recalls the first time a honeybee crawled on her arm. She was five years old, her parents had recently split and suddenly she found herself in the care of her grandfather, an eccentric beekeeper who made honey... Read more

A Dangerous Business

By: Jane Smiley
Narrated by: Thérèse Plummer
Length: 7 hours 47 minutes

“Jane Smiley once again shows she is a natural born storyteller in this skillfully told story of a young women who finds herself a widow (something she is happy about), far from home and from her strait-laced Christian parents, working as a prostitute in the 1850’s gold rush era wild west town of Monterey. Smiley manages to describe Eliza’s job... Read more