The Word On The Street Toronto
The Word On The Street Toronto is a festival of storytelling, ideas, and imagination – and a community hub of brilliant and resilient storytellers. This playlist is a selection of the titles that will be presented at the virtual festival on September 26 & 27, 2020. Start a new Libro.fm membership and get 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 ($14.99 USD) with code WOTS2020.
Hench
A Novel
By Natalie Zina Walschots
Narrated by Alex McKenna / 14 hours 14 minutes
Hench
“How can I describe a book so compelling that I couldn't put it down and so engrossing that I screamed out loud? Natalie Zina Walschots has taken many of the tropes of the superhero genre and twisted them to look at the real human cost of those actions. HENCH asks what separates a villian from a hero and how much are we willing to sacrifice in the quest for "justice". Her characters are flawed in exquisite ways, and real enough that even if they are villains the reader still wants to spend time with them. I loved HENCH and cannot wait to see what she does next. Content warnings: assault, gaslighting, violence, body horror.”
Faith, Page 158 Books
Lean Out
A Meditation on the Madness of Modern Life
By Tara Henley
Narrated by Tara Henley / 8 hours
INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"Travel to the land of Couldn't Be More Timely."--Margaret Atwood on Lean Out, in the West End Phoenix
"What begins as one woman's critique of our culture of overwork and productivity ultimately becomes an investigation into our most urgent problems: vast inequality, loneliness, economic precarity, and isolation from... Read more »
Witches of Ash and Ruin
By E. Latimer
Narrated by Katharine Lee McEwan / 12 hours 42 minutes
Modern witchcraft blends with ancient Celtic mythology in an epic clash of witches and gods, perfect for fans of V.E. Schwab's Shades of Magic trilogy and A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES.
Seventeen-year-old Dayna Walsh is struggling to cope with her somatic OCD; the aftermath of being outed as bisexual in her conservative Irish town; and the return of her... Read more »
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Mexican Gothic
A Novel
By Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Narrated by Frankie Corzo / 10 hours 39 minutes
Mexican Gothic
“Creepy and romantic, Mexican Gothic is easily one of my favorite books of 2020! Upon receiving a strange letter from her cousin, Noemi Taboada goes to investigate the happenings of High Place, a decaying manor filled with secrets, and is plagued by terrifying dreams and visions. Moreno-Garcia delivers a fresh take on a classic gothic novel that will grab your attention from the very first chapter!”
Tyrinne Lewis, Rakestraw Books
Dead Mom Walking
A Memoir of Miracle Cures and Other Disasters
By Rachel Matlow
Narrated by Rachel Matlow / 9 hours 21 minutes
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"A comedy for catastrophic times." --CBC
"A hilarious memoir of effervescent misadventures." --Toronto Star
"How am I laughing at someone's mother's cancer? How? We think we can't laugh about death, about cancer, about our mothers and their suffering . . . and we can't, but we can. And there's so much relief in that." --Carolyn... Read more »
The Wagers
By Sean Michaels
Narrated by Sean Michaels / 11 hours 59 minutes
Scotiabank Giller-winner Sean Michaels is back with his widely anticipated second novel, The Wagers, a deeply satisfying story of long odds, magical heists and the dizzying gamble of life. Where does luck come from? What is it worth? And how much of it do you need to be happy?
Theo Potiris is a grocer and a comedian who never repeats his jokes.... Read more »
Petra
By Shaena Lambert
Narrated by Taylor Price / 7 hours 16 minutes
Inspired by Petra Kelly, the original Green Party leader and political activist who fought for the planet in 1980s Germany, Shaena Lambert brings us a captivating new novel about a woman who changed history and transformed environmental politics--and who, like many history-changing women, has been largely erased. Award-winning novelist Madeleine... Read more »
This Red Line Goes Straight to Your Heart
A Memoir in Halves
By Madhur Anand
Narrated by Ellora Patnaik, Asha Vijayasingham & Raoul Bhaneja / 9 hours 56 minutes
“Wondrously and elegantly written in language that astonishes and moves the reader…This is an important book: an emotional and intellectual tour de force.” —Jane Urquhart
An experimental memoir about Partition, immigration, and generational storytelling, This Red Line Goes Straight to Your Heart weaves together the poetry of memory with the... Read more »
This Is Not the End of Me
Lessons on Living from a Dying Man
By Dakshana Bascaramurty
Narrated by Farah Merani & A. K. Wilson / 8 hours 3 minutes
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
For readers of Paul Kalanithi's When Breath Becomes Air and Will Schwalbe, the moving, inspiring story of a young husband and father who, when diagnosed with terminal cancer at the age of thirty-three, sets out to build a legacy for his infant son.
i can't make you feel what it's like to be a young, dumb, naïve thirty-year-old... Read more »
Songs for the End of the World
A Novel
By Saleema Nawaz
Narrated by Alex Paxton-Beesley, Amelia Sargisson, Tyrone Savage, Braden Wright, David Reale, Christina Ho, Douglas E. Hughes, Stephanie Belding, John Fray, Victoria Carr, Ali Hassan, Odario Williams, Nana aba Duncan & Amy Matysio / 14 hours 39 minutes
"In these dark days, Saleema Nawaz dares to write of hope. Songs for the End of the World is a loving, vivid, tenderly felt novel about men, women, and a possible apocalypse. I couldn't put it down." -- Sean Michaels, author of Us Conductors and The Wagers
INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER. An immersive, deeply engaging, and hopeful novel about the... Read more »
Missing from the Village
The Story of Serial Killer Bruce McArthur, the Search for Justice, and the System That Failed Toronto's Queer Community
By Justin Ling
Narrated by Justin Ling / 8 hours 51 minutes
The tragic and resonant story of the disappearance of eight men--the victims of serial killer Bruce McArthur--from Toronto's queer community.
In 2013, the Toronto Police Service announced that the disappearances of three men--Skandaraj Navaratnam, Abdulbasir Faizi, and Majeed Kayhan--from Toronto's gay village were, perhaps, linked. When the... Read more »
Seven
By Farzana Doctor
Narrated by Farzana Doctor, Ellora Patnaik & Raoul Bhaneja / 12 hours
When Sharifa and her husband travel to India, she expects her time will be spent researching her great-great grandfather, a wealthy businessman and philanthropist. However, what she doesn’t expect is to be swept up in the story of his four wives, oddly excluded from her family history.
As Sharifa’s imagination is overtaken with these four... Read more »
Peace and Good Order
The Case for Indigenous Justice in Canada
By Harold R. Johnson
Narrated by Craig Lauzon / 3 hours 11 minutes
An urgent, informed, intimate condemnation of the Canadian state and its failure to deliver justice to Indigenous people by national bestselling author and former Crown prosecutor Harold R. Johnson.
"The night of the decision in the Gerald Stanley trial for the murder of Colten Boushie, I received a text message from a retired provincial court... Read more »
How to Pronounce Knife
Stories
By Souvankham Thammavongsa
Narrated by James Tang & Kulap Vilaysack / 2 hours 58 minutes
WINNER OF THE 2020 SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE
Named one of the best books of spring 2020 by The New York Times, Salon, The Millions, and Vogue, and featuring stories that have appeared in Harper's, Granta, The Atlantic, and The Paris Review, this revelatory book of fiction from O. Henry Award winner Souvankham Thammavongsa establishes her as an... Read more »
A Woman Alone
By Author
Narrated by Chloe Cannon / 8 hours 16 minutes
A high-stakes, pulse-pounding thriller from the bestselling author of Girl Last Seen.
A year after a brutal home invasion that left her traumatized, Cecelia, along with her husband and their three-year-old daughter, move into a new house with a complex security system that is supposed to make her feel safe.
But reality proves different as... Read more »
Adventures in Opting Out
A Field Guide to Leading an Intentional Life
By Cait Flanders
Narrated by Christine Lakin / 6 hours 18 minutes
Opt out of expectations and live a more intentional life with this refreshing guide from the national bestselling author of The Year of Less.
We all follow our own path in life. At least, that's what we're told. In reality, many of us either do what is expected of us, or follow the invisible but well-worn paths that lead to what is culturally... Read more »
The Starr Sting Scale
The Candace Starr Series
By C.S. O'Cinneide
Narrated by Rebecca Gibel / 7 hours 55 minutes
Candace Starr likes to think of herself as retired since she got out of prison. That’s until society maven Kristina Corrigan tries to hire her to permanently remove her daughter’s barnacle of a boyfriend, Tyler Brent, from their lives. The only catch? Tyler is seventeen years old. Even Candace usually draws the line at taking out a target who... Read more »
Misconduct of the Heart
A Novel
By Cordelia Strube
Narrated by Eve Passeltiner / 17 hours 48 minutes
Stevie, a recovering alcoholic and kitchen manager of Chappy’s, a small-chain restaurant, is frantically trying to prevent the people around her from going supernova: her PTSD-suffering veteran son, her uproariously demented parents, the polyglot eccentrics who work in her kitchen, the blind geriatric dog she inherits, and a damaged... Read more »
Disfigured
On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space
Exploded Views
By Amanda Leduc
Narrated by Amanda Barker / 8 hours 17 minutes
Fairy tales shape how we see the world, so what happens when you identify more with the Beast than Beauty? If every disabled character is mocked and mistreated, how does the Beast ever imagine a happily-ever-after? Amanda Leduc looks at fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm to Disney, showing us how they influence our expectations and behaviour... Read more »
Moon of the Crusted Snow
A Novel
By Waubgeshig Rice
Narrated by Billy Merasty / 6 hours 46 minutes
Moon of the Crusted Snow
“Highly recommend this audiobook of Moon Of The Crusted Snow. Narrator Billy Merasty brings Rice's characters to life and enriches the traditional Anishinaabe stories with his lyrical storytelling voice. The story itself, of a Canadian Anishinaabe band forced to contend with a new reality when the power goes out and deliveries halt to their Reserve just as winter sets in, is gripping and shockingly realistic and a damning take on reservation life. Evan Whitesky—father, husband, and one of the young leaders—has been learning traditional ways so he's better equipped to hunt and forage than other members of the band who've come to rely on video games and other modern trappings for survival and entertainment. Just as it becomes clear that the power outage is widespread and likely the result of some catastrophic event, a menacing stranger arrives, threatening the band's unity and possibly its very survival. Completely immersive.”
Susan, Belmont Books