Roxanne’s Summer Reads 2016

All Things Cease to Appear

A novel

By: Elizabeth Brundage
Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
Length: 14 hours 19 minutes

A dark, riveting, beautifully written book—by “a brilliant novelist,” according to Richard Bausch—that combines noir and the gothic in a story about two families entwined in their own unhappiness, with, at its heart, a gruesome and unsolved murder
 
Late one winter afternoon in upstate New York, George Clare comes home to find his wife killed... Read more

American Housewife

Stories

By: Helen Ellis
Narrated by: Kathleen McInerney, Lisa Cordileone, Rebecca Lowman & Dorothy Dillingham Blue
Length: 3 hours 45 minutes

“American Housewife is a little arsenic cupcake of a book: adorable and lethal! Each of the stories features a housewife who does all the usual hausfrau things, but with a homicidal twist. Each of these ladies stand by their man -- and sometimes they kill for him. I was spellbound and loved every vicious one of them, from their perfectly coiffed... Read more

America's Bank

The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve

By: Roger Lowenstein
Narrated by: Robertson Dean
Length: 9 hours 38 minutes

A tour de force of historical reportage, America’s Bank illuminates the tumultuous era and remarkable personalities that spurred the unlikely birth of America’s modern central bank, the Federal Reserve. Today, the Fed is the bedrock of the financial landscape, yet the fight to create it was so protracted and divisive that it seems a small... Read more

Before the Fall

By: Noah Hawley
Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
Length: 12 hours 55 minutes

“When a private plane plunges into the ocean off Martha's Vineyard, the media and the government want answers. The two survivors -- a middle-aged artist along for the ride and the 4-year-old son of a prominent and powerful family - have little to say. Before the Fall takes the reader on a thrilling ride through the past lives of the other... Read more

Fates and Furies

A Novel

By: Lauren Groff
Narrated by: Will Damron & Julia Whelan
Length: 14 hours 3 minutes

“It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with this book. It’s the kind of novel where I don’t mind if nothing happens, because the prose itself is gorgeous enough to sink into. But plenty does happen in this portrait of a lifelong marriage, seen first from Lotto’s point of view and then from Mathilde’s. The many plaudits and plentiful praise... Read more

Grit

The Power of Passion and Perseverance

By: Angela Duckworth
Narrated by: Angela Duckworth
Length: 9 hours 22 minutes

In this instant New York Times bestseller, Angela Duckworth shows anyone striving to succeed that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent, but a special blend of passion and persistence she calls “grit.” “Inspiration for non-geniuses everywhere” (People).

The daughter of a scientist who frequently noted her lack of “genius,” Angela... Read more

Homegoing

A novel

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

“AN EXCELLENT LISTEN. Read more

Just Mercy

A Story of Justice and Redemption

By: Bryan Stevenson
Narrated by: Bryan Stevenson
Length: 11 hours 10 minutes

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING MICHAEL B. JORDAN AND JAMIE FOXX • A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice—from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time.

“[Bryan Stevenson’s] dedication to fighting for justice... Read more

Kill 'Em and Leave

Searching for James Brown and the American Soul

By: James McBride
Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
Length: 8 hours 59 minutes

“You won’t leave this hypnotic book without feeling that James Brown is still out there, howling.”—The Boston Globe
 
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Good Lord Bird, winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction, Deacon King Kong, and Five-Carat Soul
 
Kill ’Em and Leave is more than a book about James Brown. Brown embodied... Read more

Modern Lovers

By: Emma Straub
Narrated by: Jen Tullock
Length: 9 hours 1 minute

“Set in trendy Brooklyn, Straub's latest novel follows the lives of former bandmates Zoe, Elizabeth, and Andrew and their teenage children, Ruby and Harry. When Ruby and Harry begin a relationship, their parents are forced to face and reveal long-buried tensions and secrets. Straub's spot-on depictions of middle-age suburban life and teenage... Read more

My Name Is Lucy Barton

A Novel

By: Elizabeth Strout
Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
Length: 4 hours 11 minutes

“Strout has the incredible ability to take ordinary, even mundane situations and use them to make acute observations on the human condition. A mother's visit to her daughter in the hospital becomes the vehicle for an astute examination of daily needs, desires, yearnings, wishes, and dreams that become so much of the remembered experience. Using... Read more

Old Age

A Beginner's Guide

By: Michael Kinsley
Narrated by: Danny Campbell
Length: 3 hours 38 minutes

Vanity Fair columnist Michael Kinsley escorts his fellow Boomers through the door marked "Exit."

The notorious baby boomers—the largest age cohort in history—are approaching the end and starting to plan their final moves in the game of life. Now they are asking: What was that all about? Was it about acquiring things or changing the world? Was it... Read more

The Bridge Ladies

A Memoir

By: Betsy Lerner
Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy
Length: 8 hours 51 minutes

A fifty-year-old Bridge game provides an unexpected way to cross the generational divide between a daughter and her mother. Betsy Lerner takes us on a powerfully personal literary journey, where we learn a little about Bridge and a lot about life.After a lifetime defining herself in contrast to her mother’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” generation,... Read more

The Girls

A Novel

By: Emma Cline
Narrated by: Cady McClain
Length: 9 hours 44 minutes

“Evie Boyd is a lonely 14-year-old adjusting to her parents' recent divorce and an emotional break with her childhood best friend. She encounters a wild and enchanting group of girls and is immediately drawn into their world of reckless abandon. Seduced by their thrilling, cult-like family hidden in the California hills, Evie finds herself pulled... Read more

The Light of the World

A Memoir

By: Elizabeth Alexander
Narrated by: Elizabeth Alexander
Length: 3 hours 44 minutes

A deeply resonant memoir for anyone who has loved and lost, from acclaimed poet and Pulitzer Prize finalist Elizabeth Alexander.

In The Light of the World, Elizabeth Alexander finds herself at an existential crossroads after the sudden death of her husband. Channeling her poetic sensibilities into a rich, lucid price, Alexander tells a love... Read more

The Nest

By: Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
Narrated by: Mia Barron
Length: 11 hours 6 minutes

“Welcome to the strikingly dysfunctional Plumb family: four siblings connected by little more than 'The Nest,' a joint trust fund that each has earmarked to support their unrealistic lifestyles. When Leo, the older brother and the center of the Plumb family universe, injures himself and a 19-year-old waitress in a scandalous car accident and... Read more

When Breath Becomes Air

By: Paul Kalanithi
Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra & Cassandra Campbell
Length: 5 hours 34 minutes

“With a message both mournful and life-affirming, When Breath Becomes Air chronicles a young doctor's journey from literature student to promising neurosurgeon and finally to a patient in his own hospital after being diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. Always profound, never sentimental, this important book refuses to take refuge in platitudes,... Read more