Sponsored by Size Zero by Abigail Mangin.
Condom dresses and space helmets have debuted on fashion runways. A dead body becomes the trend when a coat made of human skin saunters down fashion’s biggest stage. The body is identified as Annabelle Leigh, the teenager who famously disappeared over a decade ago from her boyfriend’s New York City mansion. This new evidence casts suspicion back on the former boyfriend, Cecil LeClaire. Now a monk, he is forced to return to his dark and absurd childhood home to clear his name. He teams up with Ava Germaine, a renegade ex-model. And together, they investigate the depraved and lawless modeling industry behind Cecil’s family fortune.
Hola Audiophiles! How goes it on this fine (hahahah, “fine”) Thursday? Let’s get right to the audiobook thing before thinking too hard about anything else makes my blood pressure spike.
Let’s audio.
New Releases – week of August 25 (publisher descriptions in quotes)
Darius the Great Deserves Better by Adib Khorram, read by Michael Levi Harris (contemporary YA fiction) – This is the sequel to Darius the Great is Not Okay. Darius is back home in the U.S., playing soccer, dating his very first boyfriend, and maintaining a long distance friendship with Sohrab. Then things sort of fall apart: his new internship at a tea shop doesn’t go according to plan, Sohrab sort of ghosts him, and both of Darius’ grandmothers are in town. Darius has to decide whether to accept that this is just how life goes, or if he perhaps deserves better,
Narrator Note: Michael Levi Harris is back! If you enjoyed his reading of Darius the Great Is Not Okay, you’re back in good hands for the sequel.
Useless Vanessa Note: There’s such a thing as a tea shop internship??? Why wasn’t I informed?!
Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden, read by Darrell Dennis (mystery/thriller) – Virgil Wounded Horse lives on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota where he’s basically an enforcer; when the American legal system or the tribal council fail to being about justice, people come to him for help of a certain kind. “But when heroin makes its way into the reservation and finds Virgil’s own nephew, his vigilantism suddenly becomes personal.”
Narrator Note: You may recognize Darrell Dennis as one of the narrators of Tommy Orange’s There There.
Desperate Plea from Vanessa Note: Can we, maybe… call Rosebud? I need someone to enforce on 2020’s ass.
The Great Offshore Grounds by Vanessa Veselka, read by Xe Sands (fiction) – It’s been years since half sisters Cheyenne and Livy have seen each other, but Cheyenne is back in Seattle and crashing on Livy’s couch after a failed marriage. Livy restores boats for a living and is beginning to resent Cheyenne for her free-loading ways when they get in the way of plans to fish off the coast of Alaska. The light at the end of the tunnel for everyone is the promise of financial security: on the day of their estranged father’s wedding, the sisters set out to claim their inheritance. Plot twist! Their father gives them not money, but a name, a name that leads to the unearthing of a wild family secret.
Narrator Note: Xe Sands has a lot of audiobooks under her belt, and I personally cosign her performance of Sarah Gailey’s Magic for Liars. Magic school! Noir! A hardened P.I. jealous of her magical sister! TEENAGERS! She does it all so well.
Latest Listens
I am about to dive into Tehlor Kay Mejia’s River of Tears, a middle grade fantasy adventure based on the Mexican legend of La Llorona (the crying woman, aka the source of many Mexican children’s nightmares). This latest book from the Rick Riordan Presents line is everything Little Vanessita would have wanted way back when! Adult Vanessa will read it gleefully on her behalf.
In the meantime, let me dig into some backlist and recommend The Cutting Season by Attica Locke, read by Quincy Tyler Bernstine. Before I go any further, please be advised that this book takes place on a plantation in modern day and contains discussions of slavery and related violence. It’s been some time since I read it so I don’t recollect how detailed or graphic those scenes are; I can tell you that I am very sensitive to violence and sexual assault and was still able to enjoy the story.
The plot: Caren Gray is a young black single mother who manages Belle Vie, a massive antebellum plantation in Louisiana where the past and the present bleed into one another most creepily. Belle Vie has been turned into a ridiculous tourist attraction featuring full-dress re-enactments and fully restored slave quarters (why yes, now would be a good time to scream). Caren is caught up in her own issues—the challenges of raising a daughter on her own, questioning her life choices and career trajectory—when she discovers the body of a migrant worker on the plantation grounds. The search to find the killer unearths another mystery from the plantation’s past.
I was reminded just how much I love this book after talking about Bluebird, Bluebird on the latest episode of the Read Harder Podcast. Like Locke’s Highway 59 series, The Cutting Season is a riveting mystery paired with discussions of race in America as well as motherhood, the complicated legacy of the South, and human nature’s darkest proclivities. Quincy Tyler Bernstine, who was part of the ensemble cast of Jacqueline Woodson’s Red at the Bone, delivers a wonderful performance. Her voice is rich, warm, and a little bit breathy, all in perfect measure based on the intensity of the scene. Pick this one up if you’re in the mood for a thrilling read that examines this country’s ugly history of racial violence. Also, plantations: PORQUE?
From the Internets
Audible has unveiled a new subscription plan structure.
Libro.fm has released its list of Fall’s Most Anticipated Audiobooks (or as they call it, their TBLT—to be listened to, I presume?). It features titles by (deep breath) Walter Mosley, Lindy West, David Sedaris, Dolly Parton, Megan Rapinoe, Rebecca Roanhorse, Desus & Mero, Elena Ferrante and okay I’m out of breath now but there are so many more.
File this BuzzFeed piece under “relatable content:” Audiobooks Are — And I Can’t Stress This Enough — Saving My Sanity During COVID-19
Over at the Riot
I love when I find an entire audiobook series to really sink my teeth (ears?) into, don’t you? Here’s a list of juicy series to keep you busy for days.
On audiobooking while you sleep – I’m so curious to know how many people do this!
Thanks for hanging with me today! Shoot me an email at vanessa@riotnewmedia.com with with all things audiobook or find me on Twitter and the gram @buenosdiazsd. Sign up for the In The Club newsletter and catch me once a month on the All the Books podcast.
Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa