Jeff's Staff Recommendations

Into the Silence

The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest

By: Wade Davis
Narrated by: Enn Reitel
Length: 28 hours 52 minutes

On June 6, 1924, two men set out from a camp perched at 23,000 feet on an ice ledge just below the lip of Mount Everest’s North Col. George Mallory, thirty-seven, was Britain’s finest climber. Sandy Irvine was a young Oxford scholar of twenty-two with little previous mountaineering experience. Neither of them returned.
 
In this magisterial... Read more

The Serpent and the Rainbow

A Harvard Scientist's Astonishing Journey into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, and Magic

By: Wade Davis
Narrated by: Sean Runnette
Length: 11 hours 34 minutes

A scientific investigation and personal adventure story about zombis and the voudoun culture of Haiti by a Harvard scientist.



In April 1982, ethnobotanist Wade Davis arrived in Haiti to investigate two documented cases of zombis—people who had reappeared in Haitian society years after they had been officially declared dead and had been buried.... Read more

Children of Ash and Elm

A History of the Vikings

By: Neil Price
Narrated by: Samuel Roukin
Length: 17 hours 25 minutes

“The very word 'Viking' conjures up all kinds of thrilling images: horned warriors, bloodthirsty berserkers, many-oared longships, brutal battles, and pillaged monasteries all spring to mind. However, in CHILDREN OF ASH AND ELM, archaeologist Neil Price peels back centuries of myth and misconception and propaganda to paint a fascinating,... Read more

The Darkness Outside Us

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

“The Darkness Outside Us uses the space setting of a spaceship hurtling through space to explore humanity, love, and humanity's responsibility to a future. Ambrose wakes up in a spaceship on a mission to save his sister on Titan. She was on a mission to create a human settlement, but her settlement went dark too soon after she landed. As he... Read more

Red Rabbit

By: Alex Grecian
Narrated by: John Pirhalla
Length: 13 hours 4 minutes

“Looking for a supernatural horror western with a great cast and sinister-as-all-hell atmosphere? Well then, I've got the perfect treat for you! A bounty placed on the witch Sadie Grace's head spurs into action several groups thirsty for money and magic blood. Among them is our central cast, an unlikely group, thrown together through chance and... Read more

In the Lives of Puppets

By: TJ Klune
Narrated by: Daniel Henning
Length: 15 hours 22 minutes

“In this creative retelling of Pinocchio, T. J. Klune weaves together an eclectic cast of characters into a family bound by love and connection. Despite being an amalgamation of both robots and humans, the bonds that everyone in the book feels for one another are clear and, at times, heart wrenching. One of my favorite aspects of this book is its... Read more

The Sentence

By: Louise Erdrich
Narrated by: Louise Erdrich
Length: 11 hours 49 minutes

“A heartfelt and occasionally hilarious account of life and work at an independent bookstore through the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. While the reflections on family and pandemic life are cathartic, this book is also about identity and how our history and present shape it. Through encounters with the ghost of a troublesome lifelong customer, and the... Read more

Red, White & Royal Blue

A Novel

By: Casey McQuiston
Narrated by: Ramon de Ocampo
Length: 12 hours 15 minutes

“This book is so much more than a captivating romance—it's a bubble bath, a warm hug, a delicious dessert, a catharsis full of feeling and hope and queer joy that still makes me cry and laugh even as I've reread it 10+ times! The audiobook is skillfully narrated, and de Ocampo does far better British and Texan accents than my brain could come up... Read more

A Memory Called Empire

Teixcalaan: Book #1

By: Arkady Martine
Narrated by: Amy Landon
Length: 15 hours 36 minutes

“I love a good political intrigue, and this space opera has that plus a who-dunnit, linguistics AND cool tech. Mahit has dreamed of visiting the Teixcalaanli Empire and has studied her whole life to be an ambassador from her station. But the last ambassador turns up missing and his memories, downloaded into her, end up being much less helpful... Read more

Homegoing

A novel

By: Yaa Gyasi
Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
Length: 13 hours 10 minutes

“AN EXCELLENT LISTEN. Read more

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

Wayfarers: Book #1

By: Becky Chambers
Narrated by: Rachel Dulude
Length: 14 hours 23 minutes

“How to be human? What better way to learn than from exploring the diverse species of the universe in this gem from Becky Chambers. I stand by my assertion that this book should be required reading for high schoolers. Learn how to work with all kinds of people and understand that there are many ways to lead, many ways to care, many ways to be yet... Read more

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

By: Becky Albertalli
Narrated by: Michael Crouch
Length: 6 hours 45 minutes

“Like an old familiar smell, or the first cool day in fall, this book yanks you right back into high school in all the best ways. Simon and his friends are charming, smart, and genuinely funny. Don’t be surprised if by the end of the book you find yourself pining once again for that crazy time in life where it feels like you age a decade in a... Read more

Red Rising

Red Rising: Book #1

By: Pierce Brown
Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
Length: 16 hours 11 minutes

“Red Rising is a compelling read for fans of dystopian sci-fi, offering a fast-paced, action-packed story about a rebellion against a brutal, class-based society, with themes of betrayal, revenge, and the fight for justice. Read more

The Orphan Master's Son

A Novel

By: Adam Johnson
Narrated by: Tim Kang, Josiah D. Lee, James Kyson Lee & Adam Johnson
Length: 19 hours 18 minutes

“The Orphan Master’s Son tells a captivating, humorous, and heartbreaking tale of life in the reclusive Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Set to themes of propaganda and identity, we follow the story of Pak Jun Do, an orphan whose journey takes him from fighting in tunnels for the North Korean army, to a seafaring kidnapper, to a spy in... Read more

Cutting for Stone

A Novel

By: Abraham Verghese
Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra
Length: TBA

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the author of The Covenant of Water: A beautifully written, page-turning family saga of Ethiopia and America, doctors and patients, exile and home. • “Filled with mystical scenes and deeply felt characters.... Verghese is something of a magician as a novelist.” —USA Today

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of... Read more

Pride and Prejudice

By: Jane Austen
Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
Length: 12 hours 2 minutes

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was first published in 1813. The story follows Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, moral rightness, education and marriage in her aristocratic society of early 19th century England. Elizabeth is the second eldest of five daughters of a country gentleman living in the fictional town... Read more

Contact

By: Carl Sagan
Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
Length: 14 hours 45 minutes

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cosmos and renowned astronomer Carl Sagan’s international bestseller about the discovery of an advanced civilization in the depths of space remains the “greatest adventure of all time” (Associated Press).

The future is here…in an adventure of cosmic dimension. When a signal is discovered that seems to come... Read more

A Short History of Nearly Everything

By: Bill Bryson
Narrated by: Richard Matthews
Length: 18 hours 16 minutes

Bill Bryson's quest to understand everything that has happened in the history of the earth, from the Big Bang theory to the rise of civilization and beyond—revised to reflect the last two decades of scientific advancement.

How did we get from being nothing at all to where we are today? How did the age of the dinosaurs eventually give way to the... Read more