Audiobooks 3/25/21

I can’t wait to get my hands on this! The title Horizontal Vertigo refers to the ever-present threat of earthquakes that led Mexicans to build their capital city outward rather than upward. “With the perspicacity of a keenly observant flaneur, Juan Villoro wanders through Mexico City seemingly without a plan, describing people, places, and things while brilliantly drawing connections among them. In so doing he reveals, in all its multitudinous glory, the vicissitudes and triumphs of the city’s cultural, political, and social history: from indigenous antiquity to the Aztec period, from the Spanish conquest to Mexico City today…” Those are admittedly some fancy words to describe what sounds like a really wonderful deep-dive into the history (and a tour of) the sprawling metropolis that is my mother country’s capital city (nonfiction, travel guide, history, in translation)

Read by Gabriel Porras (The Other Americans by Laila Lalami). Gabriel is a Mexican actor born in Mexico City with this beautiful, richly accented voice. This should be a real treat on audio.

Oh my gatos, Aiden Thomas’ next book is here! In this dark and twisty reimagining of Peter Pan, Wendy and her two brothers went missing five years ago in the woods behind her house. Wendy was found, but her brothers weren’t. Years later, Wendy is 18 and the town’s children have started to disappear, bringing questions about her brothers’ mysterious disappearances back into the light and casting new suspicions on Wendy. She attempts to run away from it all and in doing so almost runs over an unconscious boy in the middle of the road. His name is Peter, a boy she thought lived only in her stories, and he wants Wendy to help him rescue the missing kids. Time for Wendy to face whatever’s waiting in those woods… I’m so excited to see what they’ve done with this story after the sheer delight that was Cemetery Boys. (YA fantasy)

Read by Avi Roque, who also read the audiobook of Cemetery Boys. Avi is a Latinx, trans, nonbinary actor & artist whose voice work is so bright and rather youthful sounding—perfect for Aiden’s books.

Virginia, 2004: After her fiancé disappears on what should have been their wedding day, Lara Barnes embarks on a desperate search for answers that leads her to her great-grandmother’s diaries. Those diaries speak of the dark and magical circus in 1920s Paris “where women weave illusions of magnificent beasts, carousels take you back in time, and trapeze artists float across the sky.” The Secret Circus owners’ daughter meets a charming young painter and embarks on a passionate affair that may have set off the curse that has haunted the women of Lara’s family for generations. That curse may also have something to do with her fiancé’s disappearance. (fantasy)

Read by Emily Lawrence (House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig)

Ooh, a spy thriller! CIA agent Lyndsey Duncan crossed a line with a colleague while on assignment and she’s been benched as a result. So when a former colleague and chief of the Russia Division recruits Lyndsay to join her for an internal investigation, Lyndsey jumps at the chance to help find a mole and prove herself. During the investigation, she strikes up an unusual friendship with fellow agent Theresa Warner, the wife of a former director killed in the field under suspicious circumstances who’s now known as the “Red Widow.” She has knowledge that proves invaluable to Lyndsey, but when she uncovers a “surprising connection to Theresa that could answer all of her questions, she unearths a terrifying web of secrets within the department, if only she is willing to unravel it…” (mystery, spy thriller)

Read by Mozhan Marnò (The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict).

This is part memoir, part cultural critique recounting Cathy Park Hong’s childhood and life as the daughter of Korean immigrants. She describes “minor feelings” such as shame and suspicion as occurring when American optimism contradicts lived experience—when you believe the lies you’re told about your own racial identity. (Read by the author)

Nicole Chung was a transracial adoptee, raised by a white family in a sheltered Oregon town when her Korean parents put her up for adoption at her premature birth. As Nicole grew up and found her identity both as an Asian American and as a writer (while facing discrimination her parents couldn’t see), she began to question the veracity of the mythologized version of her adoption story she’d been told all her life, one that painted her biological parents as making the ultimate sacrifice to give her a better life. (Read by Janet Song)

This comprehensive history by professor Erika Lee tells the story of Asians in America, including Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and other Asian identities from the 16th century to the present. It makes plain a pattern of anti-Asian policies and examines the labeling of Asian Americans as America’s “model minorities.” (Read by Emily Woo Zeller)

This is a graphic novel and thus not suited for audio, but worth the read. Activist and actor Takei shares the story of his family’s harrowing experience in multiple Japanese internment camps during World War II. Takei’s story is reminder of just how recent this atrocity in our nation’s history is and the importance of discussing that history in the here and now, especially when it’s so rarely taught in schools.

Here’s another bonus pick because of its visual element. Published in 2014, this comprehensive archive of anti-Asian images and writing documents the rise of the idea of the Yellow Peril (anti-Asian fear-mongering and paranoia) through an extensive collection of paintings, photos, pulp novel drawings, movie posters, comics, pop culture ephemera, and more.