AudioFile Earphone Awards

“Nina is a grifter. She was trained by the best - her mother. Nina meets handsome Lachlan, another con artist, through her mother. Nina and Lachlan become a con artist dream team. Nina gives most of her swindled money to her Mother for cancer treatment. Their "mark" is Vanessa, a very popular beauty and fashion Instagrammer. Vanessa also happens to be an heiress and lives in a mansion with a guest house on the property. Unbeknownst to Vanessa, Nina has a history with her family. Nina and Lachlan ease themselves into Vanessa's life by renting the guest cottage. The three become quite friendly and Vanessa radiates in the attention that Nina and Lachlan bestow upon her. It is at this point, that the story takes off with breakneck speed. Fasten your seatbelt, because there are twists and turns aplenty. This book kept me guessing until the bitter end. The narration was done by two pros who did a top-notch job. If you enjoy psychological thrillers, this book is for you.”

“Jean Kyoung Frazier’s Pizza Girl breathes honesty into narratives surrounding pregnancy and motherhood, and faces the desperate ambivalence that often accompanies these experiences but is left unspoken. We explore this through characters who cling to one another in an attempt to escape the disappointment and stresses of their own personal lives. Pizza Girl presents us with an important sentiment: You cannot outrun the fact that the people who created you will always be a part of you to some degree or another. But you can work to grasp the ways in which you manifest that into who you are as an individual.”

“This title says it all - Beach Read is the perfect romantic beach read book and not just because of the romance. Emily Henry has given us complex characters in a solid story line while keeping the sexual tension at a perfect, steamy temperature. Beach Read IS the perfect beach read; but it is also the perfect vacation read, staycation read, quarantine read, and escape read. Queue it up, pop in your ear buds, and the hours will disappear.”

“They Went Left by Monica Hesse distracted me from doing anything else. This is a compelling story of a young Polish Holocaust survivor, Zofia Lederman, searching for her brother in the chaotic days following the liberation of Europe. Through many emotional twists and turns, the reader learns that there are many places and ways to find hope and family and not always the ones we expect.”

“An astonishing look at a new widow’s attempt to make sense of her husband’s death and her newfound independence, through which she rediscovers her love of painting, forms new and profound bonds, rekindles previously dormant familial relationships, and ultimately finds peace in uncertainty. Set in Beijing and Tibet, Braised Pork is a poetic reflection on life and all of its meandering, unpredictable messiness.”

“Lyrically written with precise clarity and beautiful turn of phrase, National Book Award-winner Elizabeth Acevedo shares a poignant story of loss, identity, and family. I highly recommend the audio version because of the poetic cadence that begs to be read aloud and the voice of two women (including the author) who narrate the two points of view in the book, adding an extra dimension to the story.”

“In beautiful prose, Ishmael Beah gives us the story of five children living on their own in an unnamed postcolonial African nation. They have formed a little family with code phrases, special whistles, and other safety measures for their life of petty theft while living in an abandoned airplane. The most compelling storyline in LITTLE FAMILY is that of Khoudiemata, the young teenager who is starting to understand her strength and power. As Khoudi starts to make friends outside of her little family, she begins to see that what has seemed permanent won't last.”

“Astounding! In the talented hands of Anna Solomon, the lives of three women in different eras come to life with equal vibrancy. A compelling look at the roles of women through time (ancient Persia, 1970s D.C., and Brooklyn in 2016), as well as what it means to have and use power and to feel safe in a relationship. So much material here for discussion. I cannot wait to put this into the hands of our readers!”

“It is not a typical summer, pool-side novel; but this is no typical summer. For anyone who has found in quarantine an occasion to move inward, reflect, and stir, this novel might be a welcomed companion. The insistent interiority of the narrator is simultaneously evasive, mournful, self-interrogating and playful: a tone that Eimear McBride captures stunningly in voicing her audiobook. Don't be fooled: the shortness of this read belies its lingering end.”

“This book is beautiful, intimate, breathtaking, and heartbreaking. It reads like a novel and yet gives a better sense of what was happening to Jewish families during the Holocaust than any history book I’ve read. I feel so invested in the Neumann family and their friends, as if I know them personally. More than anything, my takeaway from this book is the love and hope that was so clearly poured into it.”