Category: Audiobooks

Cynical 23-year-old August has just moved to New York City with a very firm “magical love stories don’t exist” mentality. Then she meets a dazzling, edgy, and mysterious woman named Jane on the train and BOOM, instant crush. Jane soon becomes the best part of August’s day, until she discovers a pretty big problem: Jane doesn’t just look and dress like an old school punk rocker: she literally IS from the 70s. August will have to use everything she tried to leave in her own past to help June get back where she belongs. (romance)

Read by Natalie Naudus (The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo, a new queer retelling of Gatsby!)

Four years ago, Addie and Dylan fell in love under the Provence sun. He was a wealthy Oxford student vacationing at their friend Cherry’s gorgeous villa and she a wild-child working there as a caretaker for the summer. They were a perfect match…until they weren’t. Now their lives have collided most comically: on their way to Cherry’s wedding, Dylan and Addie’s cars are involved in a crash. With one car wrecked and time a’ticking, Addie and her sister Deb find themselves begrudgingly agree to drive Dylan and his best friend Marcus to the rural Scotland wedding. Things so super smoothly, right? Wrong. Hilarious! But so, so wrong. (romance, rom-com)

(tw: sexual assault, non-graphic)

Read by Eleanor Tomlinson (One Day in December by Josie Silver) and Josh Dylan (Saturdays at Noon by Rachel Marks)

Ashley C. Ford is an American writer, podcaster and educator and this is her much-anticipated memoir. “Through poverty, adolescence, and a fraught relationship with her mother, Ashley Ford wishes she could turn to her father for hope and encouragement. There are just a few problems: he’s in prison, and she doesn’t know what he did to end up there.” Ford shares her deeply personal story with readers, exposing how isolating a childhood growing up a poor with a family fragmented by incarceration can be. This promises to be an impactful, if heartbreaking, read. (memoir)

This audiobook is read by the author and includes a bonus conversation with Clint Smith—who also has a new book out this week!

It’s August 1983 in Malibu. The four Rivas siblings are the offspring of legendary singer Mick Riva. There’s Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer and the other a famed photographer; and their baby sister, Kit. Together the siblings command a Kardashian-esque fascination the world over. Nina is getting ready to throw her annual end-of-summer party; but over the course of 24 hours, all of their lives will change forever. (historical fiction)

Read by Julia Whelan (People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid)

Many of you may know writer and poet Clint Smith’s wonderful work from The Atlantic. This is his debut work of nonfiction, a “deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery and its imprint on centuries of American history.” He starts with his hometown of New Orleans and takes readers on a tour of moments and landmarks that tell an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping this nation. I am going to take my time with this one. (history)

Read by the author

This debut is the first in a new historical mystery series set during the Harlem Renaissance, so I’m already sold. Louise is a young Black woman who works at a café by day and at Harlem’s hottest speakeasy by night. When a girl turns up dead in front of the café—the third local Black girl to turn up dead in the past few weeks—Louise is forced to confront a past she’s tried so hard to run from. When an altercation with a cop gets her arrested, Louise is given an ultimatum: she can help the police catch the killer or wind up in a jail cell. Not really much of a choice, is there? Louise will have to go toe-to-toe with a murderer bent on taking more lives, possibly her own… (mystery)

Read by Shayna Small (The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna)

I haven’t been great about reading short stories lately and wanted to change that, so I borrowed this audiobook from Libby after no less than seven friends commended it (LOL: one of them told me to read “this amazing audiobook, I think it’s called Women Who Go to Church?). I told myself I’d listen to one story every night during my skincare routine. Theeeeen I liked it so much that I finished it in a day.

The collection of nine stories is described as exploring “the raw and tender places where Black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good.” I couldn’t have put that better myself if I tried. There’s the story of two 40-year-old lifelong friends whose relationship turned sexual years ago; on New Year’s Eye 1999, the narrator suggests to her friend that they could be more than occasional lovers, but the friend stills dream of life as a “good Christian woman” and rebuffs her with horrified disgust. In another stories, two women have fled their hometown in the south to live freely and safely as a same-sex couple. But one of the women grapples with the concept of home, of family, of longing for the people and places that made you even though they may no longer be good for you. There’s another story of a teenage girl reckoning with her mother’s cold, abusive behavior and years-long affair with their pastor. She struggles to understand who or what God really is, and what it means to be a god-fearing person at all.

The stories are read with such warmth and tenderness by Janina Edwards (The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton, The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory). She puts so much heart into each narrative, like she’s reading from her own diary and not a collection of short fiction. On a personal level, I related sooo hard to the stories where characters examined their relationship with faith and religion with new eyes. I cried in my car at least twice as these fake people poured their hearts out and shared the softest parts of their conflicted souls.

This is one of the best story collections I’ve read in years and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

I despise the word “guncle” (it reminds me of barnacle? and knuckle?), but I love Steven Rowley and the premise of this book. Patrick, or Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP for short, LOL) loves his niece and nephew. But when the kids lose their mother tragically and their father is faced with a major health crisis, Patrick finds himself taking on the role of primary guardian. Having the kids round the clock, it turns out, is just a touch more demanding than having them over for weeklong visits, and his life in Palm Springs as a gay man with a stalled acting career isn’t exactly suited to the lives of two small children. As Patrick stumbles his way through this new set of responsibilities, he learns that sometimes, “even being larger than life means you’re unfailingly human.” (fiction)

Read by the author. I was totally expecting Michael Urie to read this since he narrated both of Rowley’s last books (Lily and the Octopus and The Editor), but I’m really digging the sample I just listened to!

Recent computer science grad Julia Lerner was living in Moscow in 2006 when she was recruited by Russia’s largest intelligence agency. Now she’s the COO of Tangerine, a giant Silicon Valley tech company, where she steadily funnels intelligence back to the motherland. When Alice, a low-level Tangerine employee, discovers a loophole in the company’s security settings during a routine performance check, she has the sneaking suspicion that Julia herself is abusing that loophole. The closer Alice gets to Julia, the more Julia questions her loyalties to Mother Russia. (fiction, spy thriller)

Read by Lauren Fortgang (Shadow and Bone and I believe all the books in the Grishaverse by Leigh Bardugo, Pretty Things by Janelle Brown)

Everyone at school likes popular, easy going Hani Khan. But when she comes out to her friends as bisexual, they tell her she can’t be bi since she’s only dated guys. Hurt and invalidated, Hani panics and blurts out that she’s actually in a relationship with Ishu Dey, a girl (take that!) her friends absolutely hate. But that’s a lie! Overachieving Ishu is nothing like Hani, but she does think being more popular could help her become head girl and increase her chances of getting into college. She agrees to help Hani and go along with this fake relationship thing, but in a twist absolutely no one on this earth saw coming—no one I say!—they start developing real feelings for each other. (YA rom-com)

Embarrassing Confession Time: For years I thought “head boy” and “head girl” were made-up roles that only existed at Hogwarts. When I heard a kid say he’d made head boy while visiting England a few years ago, I thought to myself, “Aww, bless him.”

Read by Reena Dutt (The Shape of Thunder by Jasmine Warga) and Shubhangi Karmakar. The sample of this is so cute, I can’t stand it!

This second Installment in the Runaway Royals series is a queer Anastasia retelling! Makeda Hicks has just lost both her job and her girlfriend, so she’s in no mood to rehash the story of her grandmother’s infamous fling with a runaway prince from Ibarania. Then the sleek and sexy investigator tasked with searching for that missing heir crashes into Makeda’s life and she finds herself singing a different tune (yep, you guessed it: insert body roll here). “When a threat to her grandmother’s livelihood pushes Makeda to agree to return to Ibarania, Bez takes her on a transatlantic adventure with a crew of lovable weirdos, a fake marriage, and one-bed hijinks on the high seas.” (romance)

Read by Karen Chilton (Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon), whom Alyssa Cole fans will recognize from the books in both the Runaway Royals and the Reluctant Royals series as well as several of her standalone romance).

Meddelin Chan has just accidentally killed her blind date, as one does when said date gets all gross and gropey and doesn’t get that no means no so you have to taser his ass while he’s driving. Meddy’s meddlesome mother calls her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body, then the corpse accidentally ends up in a cake cooler en route to the billionaire California coast wedding that the Chan women, who run a family wedding business, are working. Things go from bad to OH SH*T worse when Meddy’s ex, the one who got away, makes a surprise appearance at the wedding. What could possibly go wrong?

I laughed so hard while listening that I had to stop applying my makeup and send a voice note to Book Riot Contributing Editor Nusrah Javed (who raved about the book on Read or Dead) to let her know what she’d done to me. The second chance romance plot line is adorable, and the “mystery” (which is obvs not a whodunnit so much as a “how are they going to fix this?!” situation) is both low-key stressful and hilarious to watch as one thing goes wrong after another. But its Meddy’s mom and aunties who steal the show, a hilarious group of Indonesian women whose love for each other is as fierce as the petty rivalries between them. As the descendant of immigrants myself, I cackled at the very relatable miscommunication that results from language barriers and stuff that just gets lost in translation, like Meddy having to explain to her mom that the guy she set her up with was not, indeed, offering to cook her dinner when he sent over a bunch of eggplant emojis, or that she had been catfished, not “goldfished.”

Risa Mei, an LA-based singer and actress fluent in Indonesian, brings every one of the women’s big personalities to life with her performance, from the aunties’ hilarious one-liners in their accented English to Meddy’s flummoxed inner dialogue. I sometimes forgot it was just one person reading all the roles!

This book was an absolute romp from start to finish. It’s a little corny and a little slapstick in the best possible way and a heartfelt love letter to the bond of family.

Izumi Tanaka, a young Japanese American woman in a mostly white northern California town, was raised by a single mom and no idea as to her father’s identity. Then she discovers that pops is none other than the Crown Prince of Japan, making Izzy is a literal princess. She travels to Japan to meet the dad she never known and get a taste of all that glitters, but the glamorous life may not be all it’s cracked up to be. This is pitched as The Princess Diaries meets Crazy Rich Asians, and that sounds like a super fun time. (young adult)

Read by Ali Ahn (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han, Claudia and Mean Janine (The Baby-Sitters Club, Book 7) by Ann M. Martin, plus all the recent BSC recordings of books told from Claudia’s perspective)

Ophelia “Ophie” Harrison learned she could see ghosts on the night her Georgia home and her father were taken from her in an act of cruelty. She and her mother have started a new life in Pittsburgh where Ophie’s mother secured her a job as a maid at Daffodil Manor, the same manor house where she works for the wealthy Caruthers family already. The manor is haunted by memories, prejudices, and wrongdoings from days gone by, not to mention the ghosts that only Ophie can see. She befriends a ghost whose life was ended suddenly and unjustly, hoping she might be able to help… but that haunted old house may hold more secrets that she realizes. (middle grade)

Read by the g.o.a.t. Bahni Turpin (The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera)

How many ways do I already love this book!? One: It’s by Alexis Hall, whose Boyfriend Material was one of my favorite audiobooks of 2020. Two: It’s a rom-com set at a baking show. Three: it’s the first in a series called Winner Bakes All. Give it to me! The titular Rosaline is a single mom who dropped out of college to raise her daughter and is now teetering on the edge of financial ruin. But where there’s a whisk there’s a way (hehe), and Rosaline gets a shot at turning things around when she lands a spot on a beloved baking show. That prize money would be life-changing, but there’s more than just the usual baking challenges to contend with; fellow contestant and shy electrician Harry Dobson makes Rosaline question everything she believes about herself, her family, and what she wants out of life. (romance, romantic-comedy)

Read by Fiona Hardingham (An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir, We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal)

Fifty-one-year-old twins Jeanie and Julius live in isolation with their mother, Dot, in a cottage in the English countryside, secluded and sheltered from the modernizing world all their lives. When Dot dies and their landlord takes back the cottage, the twins are hit with a harsh dose of reality as they try to navigate life on their own. Julius is torn between his loyalty to Jeanie and a desire for independence while Jeanie struggles to find a job and and home for the two of them. “And just when it seems there might be a way forward, a series of startling secrets from their mother’s past come to the surface, forcing the twins to question who they are, and everything they know of their family’s history.” (fiction)

Read by Kim Bretton – I’m unfamiliar with Bretton’s work but I was sucked in by the sample enough to include it here in spite of being an Audible exclusive. I love her cadence, the slight rasp to the lower registers of her voice, and her lovely accent, of course.

This historical YA mystery had me hooked from start to finish! In mid-1400s Joseon, Korea, Min Hwani’s family has never been the same since she and her sister went missing as children and were later found unconscious in a nearby forest next to a grizzly murder scene.Years later, their detective father has learned that 13 other girls have disappeared in that same forest—and now it’s him that’s gone missing. He traveled to their hometown on the South Korean island of Jeju to investigate and hasn’t been seen since. Min Hwani takes it upon herself to find her father and get to the bottom of these awful and mysterious disappearances, but the secrets she unburies in the process suggest the answer could lie within her own buried memories.

Some of you may just be cooler than I am, but this book kept me guessing the entire time. It casts suspicion on just about every character convincingly with lots of deftly placed red herrings, but also in examining how some crimes aren’t just the result of one act of evil. The heart of the crime explores women’s lack of bodily agency at the time and the danger that results when obsessive protection and misogyny combine. Add this to your TBL, journey to Jeju, and enjoy this suspenseful, atmospheric mystery.

Funny story: I was debating whether to read this book or If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha next, and it turns out they’re both read by Sue Jean Kim! I absolutely loved this performance. Sue Jean Kim manages the suspense and tension really wonderfully and keeps each of the characters really distinct. I can’t wait to spend time with her work again soon.

Finally! The sequel to Incendiary and conclusion to the Hollow Crown duology is here! I’m about to give a spoiler for Incendiary, so stop reading now if you intend on reading it. Go! Be Gone!

For those of you who are still reading, Renata and Prince Castian are on their way back to Puerto Leones to bring justice to the kingdom. Ren is reeling from betrayal by the Whispers and unsure if she can trust Castian and his bombshell revelations (oof! that ending!), but she and ol’ princey prince embark on a dangerous mission to find the fabled Knife of Memory, kill b*tch a** King Fernando, and bring peace to the nation. (YA fantasy)

Read by Frankie Corzo (Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Incendiary)

This is the third book and first full-length novel in The Dead Djinn universe, all set in an alternative, steampunk version of Cairo in 1912 (see my latest listen for more!). Special Investigator Fatma el Sha-arawi has been tasked with investigating the murder of a brotherhood dedicated to a Sudanese mystic. The murderer claims to be that very mystic, al-Jahiz, a man who disappeared decades ago after tearing a hole in the veil between the magical and mundane worlds. Together with her partner and a friend from Dead Djinn in Cairo (ehhem love interest ehhem), Fatma sets out to solve the case and uncover the truth about this self-professed prophet.

Read by Suehyla El-Attar (A Dead Djinn in Cairo)

Jessamyn Teoh has just moved back to Malaysia with her parents after not having been back since she was a toddler. She’s closeted, broke, has no job, no prospects, so this homecoming isn’t exactly triumphant. When she begins to hear a voice in her head, she at first chalks it up to stress. Turns out that voice is actually her dead grandmother, who in her life was an avatar to a deity called the Black Water Sister. Ah Ma wants revenge on a business magnate who insulted the Black Water Sister, and she’s going to use Jessamyn to get that vengeance—even if it’s against her will.

Read by Catherine Ho (Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune by Roselle Lim, How Much of These Hills is Gold by C Pam Zhang)

A brain implant called a Pilot is the hot new thing taking the country by storm, going from a curiosity to a necessity to facilitate multitasking and keep up with school or work. Soon the implications are clear: you either get a Pilot or get left behind. And why wouldn’t you get one? They’re subsidized and they’re everywhere! “Those are the questions Sophie and her anti-Pilot movement rise up to answer, even if it puts them up against the Pilot’s powerful manufacturer and pits Sophie against the people she loves most.”

Read by Bernadette Dunne (We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson)

In the ancient city of Bassa, Danso is a scholar on the brink of achieving a greatness that he did not ask for and doesn’t want. What he does want is to explore what lies beyond the city walls, a place the Bassai elite claim contains nothing of interest. “But when Danso stumbles across a warrior wielding magic that shouldn’t exist, he’s put on a collision course with Bassa’s darkest secrets. Drawn into the city’s hidden history, he sets out on a journey beyond its borders.”

Read by Korey Jackson (Not So Pure and Simple by Lamar Giles, Let Me Hear a Rhyme by Tiffany D. Jackson)

When she isn’t out there fighting for democracy, Stacey Abrams is an author! She’s published several romance novels under the name name of Selena Montgomery as well as a book on leadership and activism (Lead from the Outside). Her first legal/political thriller, set within the halls of the US Supreme Court, is about young law clerk Avery Keene. Her life is completely upended when she learns that one of the Supreme Court justices has slipped into a coma and left instructions for her to serve as his legal guardian and power of attorney. As she’s plunged into a role she never saw coming, she discovers that justice may have secretly been researching a controversial case—and “suspected a dangerously related conspiracy that infiltrates the highest power corridors of Washington.”

Read by Adenrele Ojo (Call Your Daughter Home by by Deb Spera, Conjure Women by Afia Atakora)

Like I mentioned above, The Dead Djinn universe is set in an alternative, steampunk version of Cairo in 1912. Decades earlier, it’s said that Sudanese mystic and inventor al-Jahiz shook the world when he literally drilled a hole in the veil between the magical world and the non-magical world using a mix of magic and machinery, then disappeared. Some say he still roams both the magical and non-magical realms, wreaking havoc and chaos in his wake.

Because the world is now magical, beings like Angels and Djinn exist alongside humans. Special Investigator Fatma el-Sha-arawi, the youngest woman working for the Ministry or Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities, is investigating what appears at first to be the suicide of a Djinn. The case sends her on a ride through the city’s underbelly that brings her into contact with nefarious ghouls, assassins, clockwork angels, and a sinister plot that could alter the course of time.

This is a shorty at just over an hour, but I was sucked into the story from the very beginning thanks to Suehyla El-Attar’s stellar performance. She really embodies the quirk and swagger of our investigator and gives a distinct voice to the myriad characters—both human and fantastical—packed into this fast-paced novella. El-Attar also leans into the book’s examination of gender, class, and colonialism with her delivery. Readers (listeners) won’t be able to look away from what this tiny wonder of a book has to say.

Come for the steampunk details and world building, stay for the colonialism side eye and feminist themes. This was so, so much fun.

I have been waiting for this book for months! It’s the first in a new foodie cozy series and it’s by an author of color. To quote the great philosopher Britney Jean Spears, “gimme gimme more, gimme more, gimme gimme more.”

Lila moves back home after an awful breakup who’s then tasked with saving her Tita Rosie’s failing restaurant, and then has to deal with her matchmaking aunties who are equal parts loving an judgy AF. Things get complicated when a notoriously nasty food critic kicks the bucket moments after a confrontation with Lila, especially since said food critic is kind of her ex.

Read by Danice Cabanela, an actress and produce known for Forget Me Nots (2019) and The Debt Collector (2018). Really digging that sample!

I forgot Rivers Solomon had another book out this year! Vern is seven months pregnant and desperate to escape the religious compound where she was raised. She flees for the woods and gives birth to twins, planning to raise them far away from the clutches of the outside world. But when she’s hunted by the community that refuses to let her go, she unleashes a kind of brutality that she did not know she was capable of, that she shouldn’t be capable of. “To understand her metamorphosis and to protect her small family, Vern has to face the past, and more troublingly, the future – outside the woods.” (fiction)

Read by Karen Chilton (The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr., A Prince on Paper by Alyssa Cole))

Valora Luck has a ticket for the Titanic and big dreams of escaping England to pursue a career as a circus performer in New York, but she’s turned away because Chinese aren’t allowed into America. She simply has to get on board if she’s going to find her twin brother Jamie and audition for an influential circus owner though, both of whom are on the ship. She finds her way on as a stowaway, so she should stay hidden and out of sight. She has only seven days to find her twin brother, perform for that circus owner, and get him to help both her and Jamie into America. (YA historical fiction)

Read by Rebecca Yeo, an actress and producer, known for work such as Six Feet Apart (2021), Dead End – Dead Man Walking (2020)

Ariadne, Princess of Crete, grows up in the lap of luxury. But beneath her golden palace lies the threat that is her brother, the Minotaur, the monster who demands blood sacrifice. Then Theseus arrives, and in him Ariadne sees the possibility of escape. She defies the gods in an act of betrayal against her family and country and helps the Prince of Athens slay the Minotaur. But will doing so give her the happy ending she so craves?

Circe lovers: this one’s for us! I am so excited for another exploration of the forgotten women of Greek mythology.

Read by Barrie Kreinik (Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy, Code Name Hélène by Ariel Lawhon)

I admit the American education system failed me (and SO many others) in not teaching me about Juneteenth; it’s pretty sad to think that I only came to know about it in my twenties. “Weaving together American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed’s On Juneteenth provides a historian’s view of the country’s long road to Juneteenth, recounting both its origins in Texas and the enormous hardships that African Americans have endured in the century since, from Reconstruction through Jim Crow and beyond.” (nonfiction, history)

Read by Karen Chilton, her second appearance on this newsletter!

Listen to this one now! Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine is a biracial, unenrolled tribal member with dreams of studying medicine, but those dreams are put on hold when she defers enrollment to stay local and care for her mother and grandmother. Her world is rocked even further when she witnesses the murder of her best friend, a killing followed by a strings of other deaths all linked to a new lethal cocktail of meth. Daunis gets pulled into an undercover criminal investigation into the source of the meth but also pursues her own secret investigation, using her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine to get to uncover buried secrets in her community. Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Ojibwe woman and decide far she’s willing to go to protect her community, not to mention how to handle her complicated feelings for the new boy in town who may have something to hide.

Isabella Star LaBlanc is a Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota stage and screen actor and her performance of this book is pitch-perfect! It would have been practically criminal to have this narrated by a non-indigeouns person and I’m glad someone had the sense to remember that. LaBlanc not only gives us just proper Anishinaabemowin pronunciations of words, names, and places, but also warm delivery of res slang and colloquialisms. The sense of place and community jumped off the page with her delivery. I hope we get to see more of her audiobook work soon!

If you’re looking to diversify your reading with books by indigenous authors, this is a fantastic, well-paced YA (bordering on New Adult) mystery that asks readers to ponder the importance of tradition and community, the attempted erasure of indigenous culture, and the politics of identity—not to mention how law enforcement ain’t always, shall we say, helpful.

TW: drug abuse, drug overdose, sexual assault (mostly off page, no graphic details)

I love this book’s origin story so much. Brené Brown and Me Too movement founder Tarana Burke are friends who’d recently been exchanging home decor ideas when Tarana reached out to Brené to ask if she was free to jump on a call. Brené expected wallpaper talk and got something much more serious: Tarana confessed that as a Black woman, she often felt like she had to do serious work to see herself in Brené’s words. Tarana suggested working together on a book about the Black experience with vulnerability and shame resilience, and the idea for You Are Your Best Thing was born. Contributors include Kiese Laymon, Imani Perry, Laverne Cox, Jason Reynolds, Austin Channing Brown, and more. (nonfiction, essays)

Read by Tarana Burke, Brené Brown, and the book’s contributors, as well as Mirron Willis, Bahni Turpin, JD Jackson, L Morgan Lee (in other words: hot fire!!)

I knew I needed this book about a woman who accidentally kills her blind date (whoopsie!) when Jamie highlighted it in this list of “It Was Self Defense! But Help Me Hide the Body!” crime novels. Meddelin Chan’s meddlesome mother calls her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body, and that turns out to be a lot harder than it seems. The corpse kiiiinda ends up in a cake cooler en route to the billionaire California coast wedding that the Chan women are working. What could possibly go wrong? (mystery)

Read by singer and actress Risa Mei

Elissa Washuta grew up surrounded by cheap imitations of Native spiritual tools, superficial interests in occult trends, “starter witch kits” full of sage and crystals, and the like. After a decade of abuse, addiction, PTSD, and a misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder, she found herself drawn to the real spirits and practices of her displaced ancestors in her search to find love and meaning. Here she writes about “land, heartbreak, and colonization, about life without the escape hatch of intoxication, and about how she became a powerful witch” as she explores “questions of cultural inheritance and the particular danger, as a Native woman, of relaxing into romantic love under colonial rule.” (nonfiction, essays)

Read by Kyla Garcia (There There by Tommy Orange, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez)

I don’t usually see the word “toddler” in a romance title, so when I do, I need to know more. The Widow’s Grace is a secret society that helps ill-treated widows regain their reputations, their families, and even find true love. After barely surviving a shipwreck en route to London from Jamaica that leaves her imprisoned and with a case of amnesia, Jemina St. Maur is relying on the society to unearth her true identity. Barrister Daniel Thackery, Lord Ashbrook, who was widowed by that same shipwreck, betrays the law he holds so dear to free Jemina from prison. But can he be trusted? Can she? As “ruthless adversaries close in, will the truth require him, and Jemina, to sacrifice their one chance at happiness?” (romance)

Read by Bahni Turpin (The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas)

Amanda Gorman: ever heard of her? Consider this a reminder to revisit the stunning, powerful, soul-shaking poem first read at President Biden’s inauguration. This nine-minute recording is just of the titular poem, but what a standout nine minutes those are. Don’t forget to check out her debut collection (The Hill We Climb and Other Poems) when it hits shelves in September.

Read by the author

Mary Oliver was the first poet that made me feel like I “got” poetry and her work resonates with me differently every time I read it. Her poetry is as soothing as it is striking in its perfect simplicity and so accessible, too. This audio collection of forty of the late great’s favorite poems is so special because it’s a rare one: in her decades long career, she rarely performed her poetry in live readings. Enjoy this very special treat and take a moment for some reflection.

Read by the author

I don’t normally do Audible originals as a rule, but this one feels special enough to make the exception. This collection isn’t strictly poetry but a mix of essays, poems, and interviews by and from over 90 authors including Kwame Alexander, Andre Dubus III, Nikki Giovanni, Pam Houston, Caroline Leavitt, Ada Limón, Dani Shapiro, David Sheff, Garth Stein, and Luis Alberto Urrea. Themed in the possibility of hope and change in the age of isolation and uncertainty, the book is divided into five sections (What Now?, Grieve, Comfort, Connect, and Don’t Stop).

The full cast of narrators is every bit as impressive as the author list, including the likes of January LaVoy, Dion Graham, Julia Whelan, Adenrele Ojo, Emily Woo Zeller, Thérèse Plummer, Adjoa Andoh, Almarie Guerra, and more.

I’m so excited for this one! This debut is a Jamaican-inspired fantasy about sworn enemies Iraya and Jazmyne, two witches who enter into a deadly alliance to take down their common enemy. Iraya has lived her life in a cell and Jazmyne is the queen’s daughter, and they’ll both have to navigate the intoxicating effects of power in this bloody pursuit of revenge. (YA fantasy)

Read by actress Nicola Lambo (American Crime Story: Versace, NCIS) and Tamika Keaton-Donegal — both appear to be new to audiobook narration but that sample sounds amazing.

I have been seeing this book everywhere, it’s time to add it to my queue. Michelle Zauner is an indie rock star of Japanese Breakfast fame and the author of the viral 2018 New Yorker essay that shares the title of this book. This is her memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother, and forging her own path in the wake of that loss. Everyone I know who’s read this has said it made them cry, too. (memoir)

Read by the author

In 1426 in Joseon (Korea), Hwani’s family hasn’t recovered since she and her younger sister went missing and were later found unconscious in a nearby forest next to a grizzly murder scene. Years later, Hwani’s detective father learns that 13 other girls have disappeared in that same forest. He travels to their hometown to investigate, then vanishes himself. Hwani takes it upon herself to find her father and get to the bottom of these awful disappearances, and the secrets she unburies in the process suggest the answer could lie within her own buried memories. (historical YA mystery)

Read by Sue Jean Kim (If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha, another book I keep meaning to read!)

Kate Garfield and Anderson Walker are super besties with a mutual love for all things musical theater and the same taste in boys. That becomes a wee bit of a problem when Matt, their long-distance crush, shows up at their school (how dare!) and lands the lead in a musical opposite Kate. Kate thinks Matt might actually be into her, but she doesn’t want to go for it and hurt her bestie’s feelings. Turns out mutual crushes are a little less fun with when real life feelings are involved. (YA romantic comedy)

Read by actress Bebe Wood (Love, Victor, The New Normal)

This enemies-to-lovers romance introduces us Hana Khan, a 24-year-old living in the close knit Toronto neighborhood of Golden Crescent. She works part time as a waitress at her parents’ restaurant, the only halal restaurant in town, but her real passion is telling stories: she produces a podcast under an anonymous name and also secures an internship at a local radio station (if only it didn’t entail a daily barrage of microagressions). When plans are announced for new upscale halal place to open in the Golden Crescent, Hana just knows it will threaten her mother’s already struggling restaurant. A hate-motivated attack on the neighborhood complicates the situation further, as does Hana’s growing attraction for Aydin, the inconveniently handsome young owner of that rival restaurant. (romance, rom-com)

Read by Ulka Simone Mohanty (Serena Singh Flips the Script by Sonya Lalli, A Burning by Megha Majumdar)

This collection came out last year in the UK and it’s finally out in the US! It’s an anthology of love stories from across the globe and throughout history; some of the stories reenvision Nigerian folklore or retell a Ghanaian love story, some are remixes of Greek mythology, and some of them are just original stories of her own, including one based on her own parents’ love story. Babalola takes such care with the stories to preserve their original elements but twist them in ways that give rather than take away power to women. These stories are just so amazing—I’m almost done with this one and want to keep on savoring each story. (short stories)

Read by Ajjaz Awad, Nneka Okoye, Bolu Babalola, Olukemi Babalola

I wanted to read this so badly for this week’s episode of All the Books but I didn’t get the galley in time! Tina may seem like your average teenager, but she’s actually the keeper of an interplanetary rescue beacon. When that beacon activates, she’ll finally get the chance to save all the worlds, go on all the interstellar adventures, and generally do all the things. The thing is…. the danger at hand is much worse than she anticipated, and the beacon doesn’t turn her into the brilliant tactician and military captain everyone expects her to be. “Luckily, Tina is surrounded by a crew she can trust, and her best friend Rachel, and she is still determined to save all the worlds. But first she’ll have to save herself.” (YA science fiction)

Read by Hynden Walch, an actress best known for voicing Starfire in Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go!

This collection is all about the ways in which “the mysterious bonds of family are tested, transformed, fractured, and fortified. A recent widower and his adult son ferry to a craggy Scottish island in search of puffins. An actress who plays a children’s game-show villainess ushers in the New Year with her deadbeat half brother. A mother, pining for her children, feasts on loaves of challah to fill the void.” Those are just a few of the stories in what sounds like a fabulous, thought-provoking collection about the ties that bind. (fiction, short stories)

Read by Kate Reading (A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas + the rest of the Lady Sherlock series, A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab) and can I just say yaaaaay! She is so good, I’ve been looking for another one of her books to read.

There is no new audiobooking in my life this week, so I thought I’d tell you about a listen from earlier this year (or was it late last year? Who even knows?) Shuri is the first in a three-book middle grade Black Panther series by the wonderfully talented Nic Stone, author of beloved YA novels like Dear Martin and Odd One Out. T’Challa’s younger sister is a skilled martial artist and science + technology wiz. But she’s also a teenager and a princess, so people try to undercut her at every turn. Surprising no one, Shuri don’t like that. When the Heart-Shaped Herb that’s essential to Wakanda’s survival and prosperity begin to die off, no one can figure out how to save it. Shuri knows something is seriously wrong, so she takes matters into her own hands. She travels from Wakanda to find out what’s killing the plant and how she can save it, but she’ll need to remember to save herself too.

I confess that my familiarity and love for Shuri and the Black Panther universe is all based on the films, but I know a lot of you go way back with these characters and their comic book origins. Whether you’re newer to the fandom like me or longtime honorary Wakandan, I think you’ll enjoy getting to spend this time with Shuri in all her brainy, badass glory. It’s so fun to finally see more books about girls in STEM, especially girls of color who go off on action-packed adventures and find their voice when the world tries to silence them.

The book is read by actress Anika Noni Rose (Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older) and wow, what a pitch-perfect pick. You may recognize her as the voice of Tiana, Disney’s first Black princess from The Princess and the Frog, but her filmography is a lengthy one that includes everything from Dreamgirls and Jingle Jangle to The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency and Little Fires Everywhere. Her voice is so beautiful and buttery one moment and tense and conflicted the next, capturing both the frustrations and brilliance of young Shuri and the menacing, slippery evil of the baddies. This was a perfect pick-me-up in a time when I felt low and in need of a little magic. I hope it can be that for you too!

It’s finally here!!!! My former Read Harder co-host and wonderful friend, Book Riot’s own Tirzah Price, has a book out in the world! This is the first in a series of YA murder mystery Austen retellings (weeee!) In Pride and Premeditation, 17-year-old Lizzie Bennet is an aspiring lawyer. When a scandalous murder rocks London society, Lizzy is convinced authorities have imprisoned the wrong person and sets out to solve the murder on her own. But as the case and her feelings for the heir to the prestigious Pemberley Associates firm (Mr. Darcy, you may have heard of him) become more complicated, Lizzie realizes her dream job could very well get her killed. (YA mystery)

Oh and ehhem, the book is also Barnes & Noble’s April YA Book Club Pick. Just a casual flex for the people!

I was so excited when I found out Morag Sims was reading Tirzah’s book (The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite, The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley). Such a perfect choice!

Harlem,1998: after a series of pregnancies that’ve ended in heartbreak, Laila turns to the Melancons, an old and powerful Harlem family, for help. She makes a deal to obtain a piece of caul from them, a precious layer of skin that’s said to be the source of their healing power; but the deal falls through and another pregnancy ends in tragedy. Meanwhile another baby is about to be born to her cousin Amara and then given to the Melancons to raise as their own. The matriarchs of that family predict that this child, Hallow, will restore the family’s prosperity, but Hallow grows up to question her identity and the way she was raised. As the Melancons thirst to maintain their status grows, Hallow’s mother Amara is determined to avenge her longstanding grudge against the family. Mother and daughter will cross paths, forcing Hallow to decide where she really belongs. (fiction)

Read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt (The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans, Legendborn by Tracy Deonn)

Helen Oyeyemi is an $@*# gem. Her books just take me out of my body! This latest is the story of Otto and Xavier Shin whose aunt has gifted them a magical train ride as a not-honeymoon honeymoon. The couple realizes that they appear to be alone on this former tea-smuggling train and soon realize that it’s not your average locomotive. When Otto discovers a secretive woman who issues a cryptic message, “further clues and questions pile up. As the trip upends everything they thought they knew, Otto and Xavier begin to see connections to their own pasts, connections that now bind them together.” (literary fiction)

Read by Ben Allen, Intae Kim, Jade Wheeler, Deana Taheri, Rosa Escoda, and Deepti Gupta. The only person I’m familiar with personally from that cast is Deep Gupta but I am already sold based on a preview!

If you don’t already know about Jenny Lawson and are looking for super candid, often hilarious, sometimes cringey (but charmingly so) musings on mental health peppered with personal anecdotes sharing some very honest struggles, look her up. This latest from Lawson “humanizes what we all face in an all-too-real way, reassuring us that we’re not alone and making us laugh while doing it. From the business ideas that she wants to pitch to Shark Tank to the reason why Jenny can never go back to the post office, Broken leaves nothing to the imagination in the most satisfying way.” (nonfiction, essays, autobiography/memoir)

Read by the author in her signature brand of wacky run-on sentences and relatable quirk. Love her so much.

This is a stunning beautiful desert fantasy set in the Americas. The main character is sixteen year old Xochitl, the cuentista in her village of Empalme. The people in her village give her their stories, then Xochitl returns those stories to the earth, to Solís, at the conclusion of the ritual. The confessor walks away free from the guilt and burden of their story, and Xochitl gives it story back to Solís and promptly forgets it. She’s been told, as have all cuentistas, that this ritual is a necessity for the protection off her village.

Hers is a lonely existence and often a heavy one; she longs to be free and to share her heart with a kindred spirit. Then a horrible tragedy in the village forces Xochitl to consider whether what she’s been told about her role is a lie. It’s on a journey across the desert to get answers that Xochitl is joined by Emilia, the cold and beautiful daughter of the murderous conqueror responsible for the tragedy that sent Xochitl on this quest in the first place. They agree to complete the rest of the journey as companions and soon find themselves drawn to one another. Their hearts could be the match Xochitl longs for… if they can survive the terrors that wait for them in the desert each night when the sun goes down.

We often get asked for recommendations for books where the setting is a character and this is precisely that kind of book. The desert is a living, breathing entity, one that both gives with unexpected benevolence and takes with horrible cruelty. This book is an homage to both the beauty and the terror as well as the people that inhabit these spaces. It’s a gorgeous F/F love story, an action-packed ride full of tons of Espańol, and a thought-provoking examination of the weight of taking on other people’s stories.

As for narration, Frankie Corzo (Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Everyone Knows You Go Home by Natalia Sylvester, Incendiary by Zoraida Córdova) really hasn’t let me down. Her tone pairs perfectly with the story, emotional and vulnerable yet full of quiet power just like Xochitl herself. She handles the pacing wonderfully and gives distinct personalities to each character deftly. I so enjoy spending time with her warm and lovely performances.

Borrowing its title from a speech by Josephine Baker at the March on Washington in 1963, Hanif Abdurraqib’s latest is a reflection on how Black performance is inextricably woven into the fabric of American culture. “With care and generosity, he explains the poignancy of performances big and small, each one feeling intensely familiar and vital, both timeless and desperately urgent.” If you’re a fan of Go Ahead in the Rain, Abdurraqib’s love letter to A Tribe Called Quest like I am, this is a must read/listen. (music, US history)

Read by JD Jackson (The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead)

Facing down an invasion by Fjerda, King Nikolai Lantsov must summon every tool at his disposal if he wants to win, including the monster within. Standing with him is Zoya the stormwitch who has lost too much to war and refuses to bury another friend; but duty demands she embrace her powers and become a weapon for the king, no matter the cost. Nina is working deep undercover as a spy in Fjerda, but her deep desire for revenge may cost her country its freedom—and the chance to heal her broken heart. (YA fantasy)

Read by Lauren Fortgang (Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo)

I love Wendy Heard and Frankie Corzo; put ’em both together in a YA thriller inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray set in my hometown and you get an instant addition to my TBR. Summer is winding down in San Diego; Veronica is bored and uninspired in her photography. Her best friend Nico is insatiable and obsessed with chaotic performance art. Then lonely, magnetic Mick changes everything between them, the perfect artistic subject and Veronica’s dream girl. As the days get hotter and longer, they soon find themselves falling in love. They’re so deep in all these feelings that they never see it coming: “One fire. Two murders. Three drowning bodies. One suspect . . . one stalker. This is a summer they won’t survive.” (YA thriller)

Read by Frankie Corzo (Each of Us a Desert by Mark Oshiro, Bailey Carr (The Night Swim by Megan Goldin), Stephen Dexter (To Good to be True by Carola Lovering)

This book sounds! so! good! Opal is a fierce, independent Black woman coming of age in Detroit pushing the envelope with her music and style. She’s discovered by aspiring British singer/songwriter Neville Charles at a bar’s amateur night, and off they go making rock music together. Then in 1970’s New York, just as she’s finding her place in it’s funky creative scene, a rival band signed to her label brandishes a Confederate flag at a concert. “Opal’s bold protest and the violence that ensues set off a chain of events that will not only change the lives of those she loves, but also be a deadly reminder that repercussions are always harsher for women, especially Black women, who dare to speak their truth.” (historical fiction)

Check out this ridiculous full cast: Janina Edwards, Bahni Turpin, James Langton, André De Shields, Dennis Boutsikaris, Steve West, and Gabra Zackman. Give it to me!