Hello, audiobook listeners! Amanda Nelson one more time, filling in for Katie while she’s on summer break (she’ll be back next week, never fear). This week, I’ve got links to recommendations for LGBTQ+ memoirs to celebrate Pride month, short nonfiction audiobooks, and more:
Sponsored by THE EMPEROR OF SHOES by Spencer Wis
A transfixing story about an expatriate and his burgeoning relationship with a seamstress intent on inspiring political change.
Alex Cohen, a 26-year-old Jewish Bostonian, is living in southern China, where his father runs a shoe factory. Alex reluctantly assumes the helm of the company, and quickly comes to a grim realization: employees are exploited, and his own father is engaging in bribes to protect the bottom line.
Then Alex meets a seamstress named Ivy, who is secretly sowing dissonance among her fellow laborers. Will Alex remain loyal to his father and his heritage? Or will the sparks of revolution ignite?
15 LGBTQ+ memoirs for Pride Month, including Jennifer Finney Boylan’s She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders, Alan Cumming’s memoir Not My Father’s Son (narrated by the author), and the ever-amazing Roxane Gay’s Hunger. Stock up now for excellent listening for June and beyond.
Need a shorter listen? Try these 50 must-read nonfiction audiobooks under 10 hours! We’ve got poetry, feminist manifestos, memoirs, and Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon. And then scroll through this list of 50 must-read FICTION audiobooks under 10 hours.
For listeners looking for a YA audiobook fix, try these award-winning YA listens, curated by our own Kelly Jensen, former YA librarian.
Finally, have a listen to the audiobook excerpt of Liz Nugent’s latest thriller, Lying in Wait, to see if it’s chilling enough (heh) to keep you cool in the summer heat.
That’s it for this week! Katie will be back with your next edition–happy listening!
Amanda