Brittany's Recs for The Diverse Baseline

Dear America

Notes of an Undocumented Citizen

By: Jose Antonio Vargas
Narrated by: Jose Antonio Vargas
Length: 5 hours 44 minutes

“Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas didn’t know he was an undocumented immigrant until he went to get his driver’s license at the age of 16. Vargas’s story is sadly not unusual, which is part of why it’s so important. His writing is emotional, powerful, and full of purpose. More memoir than political statement, Dear America is... Read more

Evil Eye

A Novel

By: Etaf Rum
Narrated by: Vaneh Assadourian & Gail Shalan
Length: 11 hours 13 minutes

“A moving meditation on motherhood, inter-generational trauma and how surface appearances often obscure a deeper truth. . . . A stunning second novel from a writer who set the bar very high with her first!”—Tara Conklin, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Romantics and Community BoardThe acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of... Read more

Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

By: Joya Goffney
Narrated by: Jordan Cobb
Length: 9 hours 39 minutes

Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry by debut author Joya Goffney is a story of an overly enthusiastic list maker who is blackmailed into completing a to-do list of all her worst fears. It’s a heartfelt, tortured, contemporary YA high school romance. Fans of Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and Kristina Forest’s I Wanna Be Where You Are will... Read more

Daughter of the Moon Goddess

A Novel

Celestial Kingdom: Book #1

By: Sue Lynn Tan
Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
Length: 15 hours

“Glimmering with lavish imagery and ethereal world-building, Daughter of the Moon Goddess is a hero's journey where love is essential to coming of age. A remarkable debut filled with monsters, magic, power, and my favorite — dragons. Read more

Amari and the Night Brothers

Supernatural Investigations: Book #1

By: B. B. Alston
Narrated by: Imani Parks
Length: 11 hours 11 minutes

“WOW!! This is my new favorite Middle Reader book, hands down!! Amari Peters is a fantastic character full of spunk and determination. She is on a mission to find her brother when she dives headfirst into a brilliant, brutal world of imagination and magic, a world of supernatural affairs. But in this world of supernaturals, magicians are illegal... Read more

This Woven Kingdom

This Woven Kingdom: Book #1

By: Tahereh Mafi
Narrated by: Kate Reading
Length: 13 hours 21 minutes

New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller! Clashing empires, forbidden romance, and a long-forgotten queen destined to save her people—Tahereh Mafi’s first in an epic, romantic trilogy inspired by Persian mythology.To all the world, Alizeh is a disposable servant, not the long-lost heir to an ancient Jinn kingdom forced to hide... Read more

The Forest Demands Its Due

By: Kosoko Jackson
Narrated by: Desean Terry
Length: 11 hours 25 minutes

A Lesson in Vengeance meets The Taking of Jake Livingston in this page-turning dark academia novel about a queer Black teen who discovers the sinister history of his boarding school and the corrupt powers behind it all. A USA Today bestseller!Regent Academy has a long and storied history in Winslow, Vermont, as does the forest that surrounds it.... Read more

Kindling

By: Traci Chee
Narrated by: Catherine Ho, Jeanne Syquia, Amielynn Abellera, Allison Hiroto, Erika Ishii, Joy Osmanski & Ferdelle Capistrano
Length: 13 hours 7 minutes

From bestselling and award-winning author Traci Chee comes a stand-alone fantasy set against a war-ravaged world where kindling warfare—the use of elite, magic-wielding teenage soldiers—has been outlawed. In this rich and evocative novel, seven kindlings search for purpose and identity as they prepare for one final battle. For fans of the... Read more

If You Still Recognize Me

By: Cynthia So
Narrated by: Leanne Yau
Length: 9 hours 58 minutes

This heartfelt, poignant YA debut is a second-chance summer romance that will steal your heart—perfect for fans of Heartstopper, Some Girls Do, and It’s Not Like it’s a Secret.This summer, Elsie is finally going to confess her feelings to her longtime—and long-distance—crush. Ada’s fanfics are to die for, and she just gets Elsie like no one... Read more

Finding My Elf

By: David Valdes
Narrated by: André Santana
Length: 6 hours 54 minutes

Single All the Way meets Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda in this festive romcom about Cam, who’s trying to find the “the one” and also trying to find himself—while spending winter break working at a hectic Santa’s Village. Escaping to NYU for college didn’t turn out the way Cameron planned—he’s flunking his theater classes, about to lose his... Read more

The Moon That Turns You Back

Poems

By: Hala Alyan
Narrated by: Hala Alyan
Length: 1 hour 37 minutes

From the author of The Arsonists’ City and The Twenty-Ninth Year, a new collection of poetry that traces the fragmentation of memory, archive, and family–past, present, future–in the face of displacement and war. A diaspora of memories runs through this poetry collection—a multiplicity of voices, bodies, and houses hold archival material for one... Read more

Trick Mirror

Reflections on Self-Delusion

By: Jia Tolentino
Narrated by: Jia Tolentino
Length: 9 hours 45 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “From The New Yorker’s beloved cultural critic comes a bold, unflinching collection of essays about self-deception, examining everything from scammer culture to reality television.”—Esquire
 
Book Club Pick for Now Read This, from PBS NewsHour and The New York Times • “A whip-smart, challenging book.”—Zadie Smith • “Jia... Read more

Darius the Great Is Not Okay

By: Adib Khorram
Narrated by: Michael Levi Harris
Length: 7 hours 33 minutes

“Darius is struggling. He doesn't fit in at school. He has trouble making friends. He's bullied. And to top that off, he's plagued by horribly negative thoughts including the very painful feeling that his father doesn't like him and wishes to replace him with his younger sister. Darius, indeed, is not okay. Everything changes when Darius meets... Read more

Arsenic and Adobo

A Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery: Book #1

By: Mia P. Manansala
Narrated by: Danice Cabanela
Length: 9 hours 20 minutes

A RUSA Award-winning novel!

The first book in a new culinary cozy series full of sharp humor and delectable dishes—one that might just be killer....

When Lila Macapagal moves back home to recover from a horrible breakup, her life seems to be following all the typical rom-com tropes. She's tasked with saving her Tita Rosie's failing restaurant,... Read more

Beasts of Prey

By: Ayana Gray
Narrated by: Keylor Leigh, Tovah Ott & Ronald Peet
Length: 15 hours 41 minutes

In this blockbuster fantasy series, perfect for fans of Firekeeper’s Daughter and Iron Widow, fate binds two Black teenagers together as they journey into a magical jungle to hunt down a vicious monster.

“Rich in magic and mythos, Beasts of Prey is a feast for all the senses.” —Renée Ahdieh, New York Times bestselling author of The Beautiful

An... Read more

Disorientation

A Novel

By: Elaine Hsieh Chou
Narrated by: Jennifer Kim
Length: 11 hours 45 minutes

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE SELECTION * A MALALA BOOK CLUB PICK * AN INDIE NEXT PICK * A FAVORITE BOOK OF 2022 BY NPR AND BOOK RIOT * A MUST-READ MARCH 2022 BOOK BY TIME, VANITY FAIR, EW AND THE CHICAGO REVIEW OF BOOKS * A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2022 BY GOODREADS, NYLON, BUZZFEED AND MORE

A Taiwanese American woman’s... Read more

How to Read Now

Essays

By: Elaine Castillo
Narrated by: Elaine Castillo
Length: 9 hours 3 minutes

“How to Read Now explores the politics and ethics of reading, and insists that we are capable of something better: a more engaged relationship not just with our fiction and our art, but with our buried and entangled histories.”

“A book that doesn’t seek to shut down the current literary discourse so much as shake it up.” (The New York Times Book... Read more

Solito

A Memoir

By: Javier Zamora
Narrated by: Javier Zamora
Length: 17 hours 8 minutes

“Solito follows the journey of nine-year-old Javier Zamora, a boy from El Salvador, as he attempts to cross into the United States on his own. Though Zamora is supported and loved by his family in El Salvador, they are unable to make the voyage with him, meaning that he must face the challenges and unfamiliar terrain with a group of strangers... 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

“I really enjoyed this dystopian look at our possible future with a special focus on Asian hate. There's this thing about art; spoken, written, drawn. Humanity needs art. And brave souls, if we're going to keep being human. I listened to this on Libro.Fm and it was so well read by Lucy Liu! Brava! I also enjoyed the author's note at the end. Read more

Hijab Butch Blues

A Memoir

By: Lamya H
Narrated by: Ashraf Shirazi
Length: 7 hours 32 minutes

“This memoir absolutely blew me away. Structured around stories from the Qur'an, Lamya H beautifully explores the intersections between faith, identity, culture, and belonging. I learned so much while reading this book, and really valued Lamya's unique perspective on queerness and religion. Incredibly raw and honest, this is a memoir I will be... Read more