June's Bookseller-Recommended Audiobooks

The House of Impossible Beauties

A Novel

By: Joseph Cassara
Narrated by: Christian Barillas
Length: 15 hours 35 minutes

“Joseph Cassara's debut novel follows the life of Angel, a young transgender woman who goes on to become the "House Mother" of the legendary House of Xtravaganza. Gritty, yet always tender, House of Impossible Beauties explores the 1980's Harlem drag ball scene made famous in Jennie Livingston's documentary Paris is Burning in a way that is... Read more

The Confessions of Frannie Langton

A Novel

By: Sara Collins
Narrated by: Sara Collins & Roy McMillan
Length: 12 hours 13 minutes

“Drawing on her experiences of growing up in the Cayman Islands, attending university in London, and practicing law, outstanding debut author Sara Collins has drawn a character one will not soon forget. Told with evocative language, Frannie Langton’s confession is a life story not to be missed. Raised on a sugar plantation in Jamaica, then... Read more

Take a Hint, Dani Brown

A Novel

The Brown Sisters

By: Talia Hibbert
Narrated by: Ione Butler
Length: 10 hours

“Le swoon. I feel so healed. This book is pure and wonderful and and hilarious and utterly charming. Talia Hibbert has made a fake-dating trope convert out of me - her execution was just that perfect. Dani Brown is the career-focused nerd so many women have been told not to be and I felt so seen in her struggles to balance her needs in a... Read more

The (Un)Popular Vote

By: Jasper Sanchez
Narrated by: TL Thompson
Length: 11 hours 48 minutes

“"All we owe to each other is the best we have to give." This is now underlined along with several other lines like "God, this boy's laugh could eclipse the sun." I flew through this book, but did pause a couple of times to look up a few unfamiliar-to-me words. This is the first book I've read about a transgender teen, and it won't be the last.... Read more

The Death of Vivek Oji

A Novel

By: Akwaeke Emezi
Narrated by: Yetide Badaki & Chukwudi Iwuji
Length: 7 hours 38 minutes

“I am fairly new to audiobooks because I've found myself to be incredibly picky when it comes to narration. That being said, I couldn't have picked a better book to listen to. Not only is this a beautiful and important story, but the narrators are nothing short of brilliant. I still think about this one often and highly recommend! Read more

Pizza Girl

A Novel

By: Jean Kyoung Frazier
Narrated by: Jeena Yi
Length: 5 hours 33 minutes

“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.... Read more

Something to Talk About

By: Meryl Wilsner
Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie & Xe Sands
Length: 9 hours 6 minutes

“Something to Talk About is an incredible debut about a Hollywood showrunner, Jo, and her assistant, Emma, who realize the tabloids may be correct in thinking there is something romantic between the two of them. The slowest of slow-burn romances in the best possible way, Something to Talk About touches on the #MeToo movement, the meaning of... Read more

Broken Horses

A Memoir

By: Brandi Carlile
Narrated by: Brandi Carlile
Length: 10 hours 2 minutes

“For Brandi Carlile fans, her memoir Broken Horses is an intimate look into her life and her music. I always pull up songs mention in books I am reading, but in this case, the Libro.fm audiobook makes it even better. Brandi not only reads, but sings throughout the book. Read more

Girl, Woman, Other

By: Bernardine Evaristo
Narrated by: Anna-Maria Nabirye
Length: 11 hours 6 minutes

“The twelve Black British women who are the central characters in Bernardine Evaristo's GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER are so vastly different that when their connections are slowly revealed, like a spider web you didn't see until the light hits it just so, you'll settle in and become entranced. I loved this deep dive into a part of British culture that... Read more

Docile

By: K.M. Szpara
Narrated by: Mark Sanderlin & Vikas Adam
Length: 16 hours 31 minutes

“People will often refer to a book as one that’s ‘unlike anything they’ve ever read before,’ but for maybe the first time in my reading life, I can honestly say that about K.M. Szpara’s Docile. This erotic speculative science fiction novel takes place in a frighteningly plausible future where people become ‘dociles’ — essentially indentured... Read more

One Last Stop

By: Casey McQuiston
Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
Length: 12 hours 10 minutes

“Red, White, and Royal Blue fans rejoice: Casey McQuiston is back and better than ever! This book has everything I wanted and more. We've got time warps, we've got a found family dynamic, we've got a diner to save, and, of course, we've got Casey's delightfully funny writing style. What more is there to ask for? If you're looking for a fun... Read more

Sorrowland

A Novel

By: Rivers Solomon
Narrated by: Karen Chilton
Length: 12 hours 1 minute

“Vern is a captivating protagonist from page one: gritty, determined, flawed, clever, and resourceful. The story slowly fills in all the details of a life that wasn’t what it seemed, and offers an ending you can’t predict. Sorrowland is beautiful, ugly, engaging, and awe-inspiring. Read more

The Bright Lands

By: John Fram
Narrated by: Luis Selgas
Length: 12 hours 41 minutes

“Excuse my French here, but The Bright Lands is one scary-ass book. Think Friday Night Lights rewritten by Stephen King. Set in where else but high-school-football-obsessed Texas, the story revolves around the brutal murder of the Bison's quarterback. When his brother comes back for the funeral, the homophobic culture of his hometown seems to... Read more

Broken People

A Novel

By: Sam Lansky
Narrated by: Sam Lansky
Length: 8 hours 44 minutes

“Broken People tells one man’s deeply personal story of confronting insecurities, obsessions, and frustrations while challenging many current cultural constructs. The pain and self-doubt will be recognized by many a reader, who will in equal measure cheer and thank Lansky for sharing a hopeful journey to forgiveness. Read more

How We Fight For Our Lives

By: Saeed Jones
Narrated by: Saeed Jones
Length: 5 hours 34 minutes

“Saeed Jones is supremely talented, so I expected his memoir to be great. I did NOT expect, however, to be left immobile in my chair after reading that final paragraph, processing the beauty of his words and those indelible sentences he’s generous enough to share with us. How We Fight for Our Lives is a moving and intimate portrait of the writer... Read more

The Third Rainbow Girl

The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia

By: Emma Copley Eisenberg
Narrated by: Emma Copley Eisenberg
Length: 10 hours 32 minutes

“The facts are that in the summer of 1980, two young women were hitchhiking in Pocahontas County, West Virginia en route to the annual Rainbow Festival. Their murdered bodies were found in a remote clearing on a remote road. Over the years, multiple people confessed to the murders. Was it a local as many thought? Or an itinerant mass murderer... Read more

Sasha Masha

By: Agnes Borinsky
Narrated by: Agnes Borinsky
Length: 3 hours 30 minutes

“I wish I'd had this book in high school. I wish I'd had these kind of friends in high school—what an incredible found family (once Sasha Masha found it). Agnes has written an incredibly wholesome, hopeful, and real coming-of-age story that grapples with gender identity and social anxiety in particular. The style of writing is perfectly suited to... Read more

The Wicker King

By: K. Ancrum
Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
Length: 5 hours 16 minutes

“This book hurt. It still hurts. But it was so good. It took me on a whole journey, and brought me to my destination just like it intended the whole time. The author’s note at the end made me cry! The sheer NEED from this book, the way the main relationship develops and shifts, and how you PERCEIVE the main relationship develops and shifts. I’m... Read more

Mostly Dead Things

By: Kristen Arnett
Narrated by: Jesse Vilinsky
Length: 10 hours 28 minutes

“After her father commits suicide, Jessa is tasked with saving her family’s taxidermy business from going bankrupt. She also has to take care of her family’s strange problems — including her mother’s affinity for turning their taxidermy into risqué works of art. Mostly Dead Things is a fun, eccentric book with a steamy lesbian romance, ongoing... Read more