Summer Listens for Pre-Teens and Teens

According to audiopub.org, “The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children.” Listening to audiobooks increases reading accuracy by 52% and improves comprehension by 76%.

Why not promote learning by choosing a fun story below that your children can listen to. You can listen to a sample and read the descriptions below to chose the right book for your child.

Great Listens for Pre-Teens

The Lifters by Dave Eggers, narrated by Dion Graham

Publisher Summary:

Journey to an underground world where adventure awaits and heroes are made in this middle grade novel from the bestselling, Pulitzer-nominated author of The Monk of Mokha and Her Right Foot.

When Gran and his family move to Carousel, he has no idea that the town is built atop a secret. Little does he suspect, as he walks his sister to school or casually eats a banana, that mysterious forces lurk mere inches beneath his feet, tearing up the earth like mini-hurricanes and causing the town to slowly but surely sink.

When Gran’s friend, the difficult-to-impress Catalina Catalan, presses a silver handle into a hillside and opens a doorway to underground, he knows that she is extraordinary and brave, and that he will have no choice but to follow wherever she leads. With luck on their side, and some discarded hockey sticks for good measure, Gran and Catalina might just find a way to lift their town–and the known world–out of danger.

In The Lifters, critically acclaimed author Dave Eggers establishes himself as a storyteller who can entertain and inspire readers of any age.

Read more and sample the audio →

The Whispers by Greg Howard, narrated by Robin Miles, Kivlighan De Montebello

Publisher Summary:

A middle grade debut that’s a heartrending coming-of-age tale, perfect for fans of Bridge to Terabithia and Counting By 7s.

Eleven-year-old Riley believes in the whispers, magical fairies that will grant you wishes if you leave them tributes. Riley has a lot of wishes. He wishes bullies at school would stop picking on him. He wishes Dylan, his 8th grade crush, liked him, and Riley wishes he would stop wetting the bed. But most of all, Riley wishes for his mom to come back home. She disappeared a few months ago, and Riley is determined to crack the case. He even meets with a detective, Frank, to go over his witness statement time and time again. 

Frustrated with the lack of progress in the investigation, Riley decides to take matters into his own hands. So he goes on a camping trip with his friend Gary to find the whispers and ask them to bring his mom back home. But Riley doesn’t realize the trip will shake the foundation of everything that he believes in forever.

Read more and sample the audio →

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, narrated by Adam Grupper

Publisher Summary:

This stirring and unforgettable novel from renowned author Katherine Applegate celebrates the transformative power of unexpected friendships. Inspired by the true story of a captive gorilla known as Ivan, this novel is told from the point of view of Ivan himself.

Having spent 27 years behind the glass walls of his enclosure in a shopping mall, Ivan has grown accustomed to humans watching him. He hardly ever thinks about his life in the jungle. Instead, Ivan occupies himself with television, his friends Stella and Bob, and painting. But when he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from the wild, he is forced to see their home, and his art, through new eyes.

The One and Only Ivan was hailed as a best book of the year by Kirkus, School Library Journal, and Amazon, demonstrating it is a true classic in the making.

In the tradition of timeless stories like Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little, Katherine Applegate blends humor and poignancy to create Ivan’s unforgettable first-person narration in a story of friendship, art, and hope.

Read more and sample the audio →

The Oddmire: Changeling by William Ritter, narrated by Jonathan Todd Ross

Publisher Summary:

The first book in an action-packed fantasy adventure series featuring witches, shape-shifters, and other creatures of fairytale and folklore, including two brothers-one human and one a goblin changeling-on a life-changing quest into the Oddmire.

Magic is fading from the Wild Wood. To renew it, goblins must perform an ancient ritual involving the rarest of their kind-a newborn changeling. But when the fateful night arrives to trade a human baby for a goblin one, something goes terribly wrong. After laying the changeling in a human infant’s crib, the goblin Kull is briefly distracted from his task. By the time he turns back, the changeling has already perfectly mimicked the human child. Too perfectly: Kull cannot tell them apart. Not knowing which to bring back, he leaves both babies behind. Tinn and Cole are raised as human twins, neither knowing what secrets may be buried deep inside one of them. Then when they are twelve years old, a mysterious message arrives, calling the brothers to be heroes and protectors of magic. The boys must leave behind their sleepy town of Endsborough and risk their lives in the Wild Wood, crossing the perilous Oddmire swamp and journeying through the Deep Dark to reach the goblin horde and discover who they truly are.

Read more and sample the audio →

Great Listens for Teenagers

Eve of Man by Tom Fletcher, Giovanna Fletcher, narrated by Josh Dylan, Charlotte Ritchie

Publisher Summary:

She survived against all odds. The first girl born in fifty years. They called her EVE.

Scythe meets The Handmaid’s Tale in this gripping new dystopian trilogy written by UK-bestselling authors Tom and Giovanna Fletcher.

On the first day, no one really noticed. All those babies wrapped in blue blankets–not a pink one in sight. On the third day, people were scared–a statistic-defying abundance of blue. Not just entire hospitals, not only entire countries, but the entire world. Boys. Only boys.

Until Eve. The only girl born in fifty years. The savior of mankind. Kept protected, towering above a ruined world under a glass dome of safety until she is ready to renew the human race.

But when the time comes to find a suitor, Eve and Bram–a young man whose job is to prepare Eve for this moment–begin to question the plan they’ve known all along. Eve doesn’t only want safety, and she doesn’t only want protection. She wants the truth. She wants freedom.

Read more and sample the audio →

Nyxia by Scott Reintgen, narrated by Dominic Hoffman, Sullivan Jones

Publisher Summary:

Every life has a price in this sci-fi thriller—the first in a trilogy—that has the nonstop action of The Maze Runner and the high-stakes space setting of Illuminae.

What would you be willing to risk for a lifetime of fortune?

Emmett Atwater isn’t just leaving Detroit; he’s leaving Earth. Why the Babel Corporation recruited him is a mystery, but the number of zeroes on their contract has him boarding their lightship and hoping to return to Earth with enough money to take care of his family.

Forever.

Before long, Emmett discovers that he is one of ten recruits, all of whom have troubled pasts and are a long way from home. Now each recruit must earn the right to travel down to the planet of Eden—a planet that Babel has kept hidden—where they will mine a substance called Nyxia that has quietly become the most valuable material in the universe.

But Babel’s ship is full of secrets. And Emmett will face the ultimate choice: win the fortune at any cost, or find a way to fight that won’t forever compromise what it means to be human.

Read more and sample the audio →

Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian, narrated by Lauren Ambrose, Vikas Adam, Michael Crouch

Publisher Summary:

It’s 1989 in New York City, and for three teens, the world is changing.

Reza is an Iranian boy who has just moved to the city with his mother to live with his stepfather and stepbrother. He’s terrified that someone will guess the truth he can barely acknowledge about himself. Reza knows he’s gay, but all he knows of gay life are the media’s images of men dying of AIDS.

Judy is an aspiring fashion designer who worships her uncle Stephen, a gay man with AIDS who devotes his time to activism as a member of ACT UP. Judy has never imagined finding romance…until she falls for Reza and they start dating.

Art is Judy’s best friend, their school’s only out and proud teen. He’ll never be who his conservative parents want him to be, so he rebels by documenting the AIDS crisis through his photographs.

As Reza and Art grow closer, Reza struggles to find a way out of his deception that won’t break Judy’s heart-and destroy the most meaningful friendship he’s ever known.

This is a bighearted, sprawling epic about friendship and love and the revolutionary act of living life to the fullest in the face of impossible odds.

Read more and sample the audio →

Aurora Rising by Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman, narrated by Kim Mai Guest

Publisher Summary:

The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the academy would touch . . .

A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm
A sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates
A smart-ass tech whiz with the galaxy’s biggest chip on his shoulder
An alien warrior with anger-management issues
A tomboy pilot who’s totally not into him, in case you were wondering

And Ty’s squad isn’t even his biggest problem–that’d be Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, the girl he’s just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler’s squad of losers, discipline cases, and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.

NOBODY PANIC.

Read more and sample the audio →

New to Audiobooks.com? Get a free audiobook when you sign up for our one month free trial. Digital audiobooks make audible stories come to life when you’re commuting, working out, cleaning, cooking and more! Listening is easy with our top-rated free audiobook apps for iOS and Android, which let you download & listen to bestselling audiobooks on the go, wherever you are. Click here to get your free audiobook!

Audiobooks You Can Sink Your Teeth Into – Shark Week 2019

Since July 17, 1988, Shark Week has been featured every summer (around July or August) on the Discovery Channel to bring awareness to sharks, focused and dedicated to conservation efforts and to correct the misconceptions humans have about the shark species. Below is a mix of educational and fun audiobooks about sharks to enhance this years’ Shark Week experience.

A few fun facts about sharks from National Geographic:

1. “Thirty years ago the blockbuster Jaws brought the terror of shark attack to movie theaters. The record-breaking film, directed by Steven Spielberg and based on a best-selling novel by Peter Benchley, grossed nearly 130 million dollars (U.S.) in the United States alone.”

2. “Sharks are among Earth’s most ancient animals. The fossil record dates ancestors of modern sharks to as far back as 400 million years ago. Shark species have changed relatively little during that time span and are sometimes called living fossils.”

3. “While sharks kill fewer than 20 people a year, their own numbers suffer greatly at human hands. Between 20 and 100 million sharks die each year due to fishing activity, according to data from the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File. The organization estimates that some shark populations have plummeted 30 to 50 percent.”

Our Top 7 Book Suggestions:

Emperors of the Deep by William McKeever, narrated by Tim Andres Pabon

Publisher Summary:

In this remarkable groundbreaking book, a documentarian and conservationist, determined to dispel misplaced fear and correct common misconceptions, explores in-depth the secret lives of sharks—magnificent creatures who play an integral part in maintaining the health of the world’s oceans and ultimately the planet.

From the Jaws blockbusters to Shark Week, we are conditioned to see sharks as terrifying cold-blooded underwater predators. But as Safeguard the Seas founder William McKeever reveals, sharks are evolutionary marvels essential to maintaining a balanced ecosystem. We can learn much from sharks, he argues, and our knowledge about them continues to grow. The first book to reveal in full the hidden lives of sharks, Emperors of the Deep examines four species—Mako, Tiger, Hammerhead, and Great White—as never before, and includes fascinating details such as:

Sharks are 50-million years older than trees; Sharks have survived five extinction level events, including the one that killed off the dinosaurs;Sharks have electroreception, a sixth-sense that lets them pick up on electric fields generated by living things;Sharks can dive 4,000 feet below the surface; Sharks account for only 6 human fatalities per year, while humans kill 100 million sharks per year. McKeever goes back through time to probe the shark’s pre-historic secrets and how it has become the world’s most feared and most misunderstood predator, and takes us on a pulse-pounding tour around the world and deep under the water’s surface, from the frigid waters of the Arctic Circle to the coral reefs of the tropical Central Pacific, to see sharks up close in their natural habitat. He also interviews ecologists, conservationists, and world-renowned shark experts, including the founders of Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior, the head of the Massachusetts Shark Research Program, and the self-professed “last great shark hunter.”

At once a deep-dive into the misunderstood world of sharks and an urgent call to protect them, Emperors of the Deep celebrates this wild species that hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of the ocean—if we can prevent their extinction from climate change and human hunters.

Read more and sample the audio →

Jaws by Peter Benchley, narrated by Erik Steele

Publisher Summary:

Jaws is the classic, blockbuster thriller that inspired the three-time Academy Award-winning Steven Spielberg movie and made millions of beachgoers afraid to go into the water. Experience the thrill of helpless horror again – or for the first time! Jaws was #48 in the American Film Institute’s 100 Years…100 Movies, and the film earned the coveted #1 spot on the Bravo network’s 100 Scariest Movie Moments countdown. This timeless tale of man-eating terror that spawned a movie franchise, two video games, a Universal Studios theme park attraction, and two musicals is finally available on audio for the first time ever!

Read more and sample the audio →

Demon Fish by Juliet Eilperin, narrated by Bernadette Dunne

Publisher Summary:

A group of traders huddles around a pile of dried shark fins on a gleaming white floor in Hong Kong. A Papua New Guinean elder shoves off in his hand-carved canoe, ready to summon a shark with ancient magic. A scientist finds a rare shark in Indonesia and forges a deal with villagers so it and other species can survive.

In this eye-opening adventure that spans the globe, Juliet Eilperin investigates the fascinating ways different individuals and cultures relate to the ocean’s top predator. Along the way, she reminds us why, after millions of years, sharks remain among nature’s most awe-inspiring creatures.

From Belize to South Africa, from Shanghai to Bimini, we see that sharks are still the object of an obsession that may eventually lead to their extinction. This is why movie stars and professional athletes go shark hunting in Miami and why shark’s fin soup remains a coveted status symbol in China. Yet we also see glimpses of how people and sharks can exist alongside one another: surfers tolerating their presence off Cape Town and ecotourists swimming with sharks that locals in the Yucatán no longer have to hunt.

With a reporter’s instinct for a good story and a scientist’s curiosity, Eilperin offers us an up-close understanding of these extraordinary, mysterious creatures in the most entertaining and illuminating shark encounter you’re likely to find outside a steel cage.

Read more and sample the audio →

The Meg by Steve Alten, narrated by Sean Runnette

Publisher Summary:

On a top-secret dive into the Pacific Ocean’s deepest canyon, Jonas Taylor found himself face-to-face with the largest and most ferocious predator in the history of the animal kingdom. The sole survivor of the mission, Taylor is haunted by what he’s sure he saw but still can’t prove exists-Carcharodon megalodon, the massive mother of the great white shark. The average prehistoric Meg weighs in at twenty tons and could tear apart a Tyrannosaurus rex in seconds.

Written off as a crackpot suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, Taylor refuses to forget the depths that nearly cost him his life. With a PhD in paleontology under his belt, Taylor spends years theorizing, lecturing, and writing about the possibility that Meg still feeds at the deepest levels of the sea. But it takes an old friend in need to get him to return to the water, and a hotshot female submarine pilot to dare him back into a high-tech miniature sub.

Diving deeper than he ever has before, Taylor will face terror like he’s never imagined, and what he finds could turn the tides bloody red until the end of time.

Read more and sample the audio →

The Devil’s Teeth by Susan Casey, narrated by Kimberly Farr

Publisher Summary:

Travel thirty miles north, south, or east of San Francisco city hall and you’ll be engulfed in a landscape of thick traffic, fast enterprise, and six-dollar cappuccinos. Venture thirty miles due west, however, and you will find yourself on what is virtually another planet: a spooky cluster of rocky islands called the Farallones. Journalist Susan Casey was in her living room when she first glimpsed this strange place and its resident sharks, their dark fins swirling around a tiny boat in a documentary. These great whites were the alphas among alphas, the narrator said, some of them topping eighteen feet in length, and each fall they congregated here off the northern California coast. That so many of these magnificent and elusive animals lived in the 415 area code, crisscrossing each other under the surface like jets stacked in a holding pattern, seemed stunningly improbably–and irresistible.

Within a matter of months she was in a seventeen-foot Boston Whaler, being hoisted up a cliff face onto the barren surface of Southeast Farallon Island–part of the group known to nineteenth-century sailors as the “Devil’s Teeth.” There she joined the two biologists who study the sharks, bunking down in the island’s one habitable building, a haunted, 120-year-old house spackled with lichen and gull guano. Less than forty-eight hours later she had her first encounter with the famous, terrifying jaws and was instantly hooked. The Devil’s Teeth offers a rare glimpse into the lives of nature’s most mysterious predators, and of those who follow them. Here is a vivid dispatch from an otherworldly outpost, a story of crossing the boundary between society and an untamed place where humans are neither wanted nor needed.

Read more and sample the audio →

Sharkman by Steve Alten, narrated by Andrew Eiden

Publisher Summary:

Kwan Wilson was a high school basketball star living in San Diego when a tragic accident changed his life in ways no one could predict. He only looked at his phone for a few seconds, but that was all the time it took to crash his car into a telephone pole, killing his mother and paralyzing him from the waist down. After the accident his father, Admiral Douglas Wilson, sent him off to live with his maternal grandmother in South Florida. Kwan’s new principal, anticipating his depression andisolation, tells him about an internship at a genetics lab in Miami that is testing shark stem cells on rats in an effort to cure cancer and repair spinal injuries. Kwan declines until he learns the beautiful Anya Patel is an intern at the lab. When Kwan takes the internship, he learns that the good news is that the stem cells are curing their rat subjects; the bad news is it alters their DNA so much it kills them. But after a promising breakthrough is made, Kwan risks his life and injects himself with the experimental stem cells, forever altering his destiny and the lives of millions in the process.

Read more and sample the audio →

The Shark Club by Ann Kidd Taylor, narrated by Emily Rankin

Publisher Summary:

A warm and wonderfully vivid novel about taking second chances—in life and in the sea.

One summer day on the beach in Florida, two extraordinary things happen to Maeve Donnelly. First, she is kissed by Daniel, the boy of her dreams. Then, she is bitten by a blacktip shark.

Eighteen years later, Maeve has thrown herself into her work as a world-traveling marine biologist discovering more about the minds of misunderstood sharks. But when Maeve returns home to the legendarily charming and eccentric Hotel of the Muses where she was raised by her grandmother, she finds more than just the blood orange sunsets and key lime pies she’s missed waiting for her.

While Maeve has always been fearless in the water, on land she is indecisive. A chance meeting on the beach with a plucky, irresistible little girl who is just as fascinated by the ocean as Maeve was growing up leaves her at a crossroads: Should she re-kindle her romance with Daniel, the first love she left behind when she dove into her work? Or indulge in a new romance with her colleague, Nicholas, who turns up in her hometown to investigate an illegal shark-finning operation?

Set against the intoxicating backdrop of palm trees, calypso bands, and perfect ocean views, The Shark Club is a story of the mysterious passions of one woman’s life: her first love and new love; the sea and sharks that inhabit it.

Read more and sample the audio →

New to Audiobooks.com? Get a free audiobook when you sign up for our one month free trial. Digital audiobooks make audible stories come to life when you’re commuting, working out, cleaning, cooking and more! Listening is easy with our top-rated free audiobook apps for iOS and Android, which let you download & listen to bestselling audiobooks on the go, wherever you are. Click here to get your free audiobook!

Page to Screen in June 2019

Thinking of going to see a movie in June? Get the best experience by listening to the books they were based on before seeing the film & TV adaptations.

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill, narrated by Kate Mulgrew
Expected Release Date: June 2

Charles Talent Manx (Zachary Quinto) likes to take children for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the vanity plate NOS4A2. In the Wraith, he and his innocent guests can slip out of the everyday world and onto hidden roads that lead to an astonishing playground of amusements he calls Christmasland. The journey across the highway of Charlie’s twisted imagination transforms his precious passengers, leaving them as terrifying and unstoppable as their benefactor. Only one has escaped Charlie’s evil: her name is Vic McQueen (Ashleigh Cummings), she is grown up and craving revenge. Who will win this life-and-death battle, Vic or Charlie? This thrilling mystery debuts this June on Amazon.

Read more and sample the audio →

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty, narrated by Caroline Lee
Expected Release Date: June 9

The first season was so suspenseful that it left us wanting more. What will happen next with this group of ladies who have become friends? Another murder, tragic accident, even more lies? Listen to the audiobook before watching the much anticipated second season of Big Little Lies which is back on HBO this month.

Read more and sample the audio →

Leila by Prayaag Akbar, narrated by Tania Rodrigues
Expected Release Date: June 16

This novel is a wonderful blend between The Girl in the Red Coat and Slumdog Millionaireand will be available on Netflix this month starring Huma Qureshi, Siddharth, and Rahul Khanna. Leila disappears on her 3rd birthday. Every year her mother, Shalini, kneels by a specific wall and buries 2 candles for herself and her husband. If Leila is found, she plans on going back and digging every single candle out of the ground. But will Leila ever return?

Read more and sample the audio →

Instinct by Howard Roughan & James Patterson, narrated by Edoardo Ballerini
Expected Release Date: June 16

A copy of Dr. Dylan Reinhart (Allan Cumming) novel about criminal behavior shows up at the scene of a gruesome murder, and it is found with a note from the killer himself. Will Detective Liz Needham (Bojana Novakovic) and Dr. Reinhart find the serial killer responsible for these murders? Instinct, based on James Patterson’s Murder Games, is returning for season two this month on CBS.

Read more and sample the audio →

Hamlet (Film Adaptation: Ophelia) by William Shakespeare, narrated by Frank Muller
Expected Release Date: June 28

Ophelia is an adaptation of Hamlet, told from (you guessed it!) Ophelia’s perspective. With Daisy Ridley in the titular role, This film adaptation is hitting theaters at the end of the month. If you’ve never listened to Shakespeare’s classic play or just need a refresher, Frank Muller’s performance of Hamlet is an excellent place to start.

Read more and sample the audio →

New to Audiobooks.com? Get a free audiobook when you sign up for our one month free trial. Digital audiobooks make audible stories come to life when you’re commuting, working out, cleaning, cooking and more! Listening is easy with our top-rated free audiobook apps for iOS and Android, which let you download & listen to bestselling audiobooks on the go, wherever you are. Click here to get your free audiobook!

STAFF PICK: Unlearn by Humble The Poet

Title: Unlearn: 101 Simple Truths for a Better Life
Author: Humble the Poet
Narrator: Humble the Poet

Are you an over-thinker? Do you need help prioritizing your life? Want to know how to think differently in order to deal with difficult situations? This, my fellow listeners, is for you!

A friend of mine highly recommended Unlearn by Humble the Poet but I was a bit skeptical at first. It took me a week to get started but as soon as I did, I could not stop listening. I got hooked on all of his words of wisdom and his epic quotes. I feel a lot of people will enjoy this audiobook and have a lot of takeaways to apply to their everyday life.

As we get older, life seems to get more complex and more overwhelming. Unlearn offers simple, manageable, and counterintuitive lessons on how to reach our full potential. Humble the Poet helps us realize we need to shed the problematic lessons we have come to learn throughout our lives that limit us. Instead of being bound by bad habits, unflexible mindsets, and past mistakes, we must learn to cope with situations in a new and unconventional way so we can move forward in life.

There is something special about self-help books being read by the author, and Humble the Poet narrating this audiobook himself is captivating and makes you really take in what he is saying. He gets straight to the point, sometimes very bluntly (which, sometimes, is just how we need to be told something), which makes it easy for you to remember his advice.

Humble the Poet, aka Kanwer Singh, is an elementary school teacher, writer, musician, and blogger. His goal is to motivate and inspire you to explore your unknown potential to make life a little easier. But it is ultimately up to you to take his advice and put it into action in your daily life.

The quotes in this book are amazing and one of my favorites that really resonated with me is: “The best thing you can wear is your confidence and happiness.” Humble the Poet is so unique and brings his own honest twist to the self-help genre and I have become a big fan. We can all be more flexible in our thinking, and we should strive to not complicate and overthink everything. I cannot wait to see what is next for him and for the wisdom that Humble will continue to share with us.

Publisher Summary:

The internationally bestselling self-empowerment book from influencer, rapper, and spoken word artist Humble the Poet, now available in a new edition with a new foreword by the author. Unlearn offers short, accessible, and counterintuitive lessons for reaching our full potential.

Beloved for his sincerity, playfulness, and sage advice, globally famous rapper, spoken word artist, poet, blogger, and influencer Humble the Poet has traditionally shared his message of self-discovery, creativity, and empowerment with his fans through music and written word. That message has now been extended to this empowering book, offering insights and wisdom that challenge conventional thinking and help you tap into your best, most authentic self.

Humble sees life with unique clarity. In Unlearn, he opens our eyes to our own lives, helping us to recognize the possibilities that await us and the challenges that prevent us from realizing our dreams. With his characteristic honesty and forthrightness, he helps us shed the problematic lessons we’ve learned throughout our lives that limit us, from sabotaging habits, to fixed mindsets, to past regrets, and relearn new, unconventional ways of moving through life. Among his 101 lessons are: Fitting In Is a Pointless Activity, Don’t Trust Everything You Feel, Killing Expectations Births Happiness, Comparisons are Killer, Baby Steps Add Up, You Decide Your Worth. Profound in its simplicity, Unlearn is the perfect invitation to a new beginning and to pursue a life of fulfillment.

Read more and sample the audio →

New to Audiobooks.com? Get a free audiobook when you sign up for our one month free trial. Digital audiobooks make audible stories come to life when you’re commuting, working out, cleaning, cooking and more! Listening is easy with our top-rated free audiobook apps for iOS and Android, which let you download & listen to bestselling audiobooks on the go, wherever you are. Click here to get your free audiobook!

Page to Screen in April 2019

Thinking of going to see a movie this April? Get the best experience by listening to the books they were based on before seeing the film & TV adaptations.

Pet Sematary by Stephen King, narrated by Michael C. Hall
Expected Release Date: April 5

When Dr. Louis Creed (Jason Clarke) takes a new job and moves his family to Ludlow, Maine, this new beginning seems too good to be true. There’s an undercurrent of danger that lingers…like the graveyard in the woods near the Creed’s home, where generations of children have buried their beloved pets. Behind the “pet sematary,” there is another burial ground, one that lures people to it with seductive promises and temptations. A blood-chilling truth is hidden there—proving to the Creeds that sometimes, dead is better. After you listen the novel you’ll be yearning to see the film on the big screen.

Read more and sample the audio →

The Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South by Osha Gray Davidson, narrated by Keith Sellon-Wright
Expected Release Date: April 5

Rich with details about the rhythms of daily life in the mid-twentieth-century South, The Best of Enemies (released on Amazon this April) offers a vivid portrait of a relationship that defied all odds. By placing this very personal story into a broader context, Osha Gray Davidson demonstrates race is intimately tied to issues of class and that cooperation is possible—even in the most divisive situations— when people begin to listen to one another.

Read more and sample the audio →

Quicksand by Malin Persson Giolito, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld
Expected Release Date: April 5

Crime drama Quicksand is coming to Netflix on April 5th, and is based on the 2016 novel of the same name. A mass shooting has taken place at a prep school in Stockholm’s wealthiest suburb. Maja Norberg (Hanna Ardehn) has just spent nine horrible months in jail and is now on trial for her involvement in the massacre where her boyfriend and best friend were killed. The time has come for her to enter the courtroom.

Read more and sample the audio →

Native Son by Richard Wright, narrated by Peter Francis James
Expected Release Date: April 6

Right from the start, Bigger Thomas (Ashton Sanders) had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic. Wright’s powerful novel—set in the 1930s—is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country. The film adaptation is set to debut on HBO Films on April 6.

Read more and sample the audio →

After by Anna Todd, narrated by Elizabeth Louise & Hero Fiennes Tiffin
Expected Release Date: April 12

Could this be love for Tessa (Josephine Langford) and Hardin (Hero Fiennes-Tiffin)? Soon to be a major motion picture, Anna Todd‘s sensational novel is now available with a bonus chapter read by Hero Fiennes Tiffin and a letter to listeners read by the author.

Tessa is the good girl with a sweet, reliable boyfriend back home. Hardin is the bad boy with tattoos and a bad attitude. Hardin is the polar opposite of her sweet boyfriend back home. He is mean and rude, but as soon as they kiss, it ignites a passion within her she’s never known until now. Each time he pushes her away, she only feels pulled in deeper by her desire to find the real Hardin beneath his lies.

Read more and sample the audio →

I’m Special: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves by Ryan O’Connell, narrated by Ryan O’Connell
Expected Release Date: April 12

From the beloved blogger turned voice of an online generation comes an unforgettable and hilarious memoir-meets-manifesto exploring what it means to be a millennial gay man living with cerebral palsy. Ryan shares his story of how, through extensive trial and error, he figures out how to take his life from bleak to chic.

The TV adaptation called Special will be released on Netflix April 12 and there will be eight episodes in total for Season 1.

Read more and sample the audio →

The Breakthrough: The Miraculous True Story of a Mother’s Faith and Her Child’s Resurrection by Joyce Smith, narrated by Elisabeth Rodgers
Expected Release Date: April 17

Coming to a theater near you on April 17, Breakthrough is the impossible true story about the powerful impact of prayer starring Chrissy Metz, Topher Grace, Dennis Haysbert, and Josh Lucas.

When Joyce Smith’s fourteen-year-old son, John, fell through an icy lake, he lay lifeless at the hospital for more than sixty minutes. But Joyce was not ready to give up on her son. She gathered all her faith and strength and cried out to God to save him. This is an extraordinary story of the death and resurrection of the Smith’s son.

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Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, narrated by Roy Dotrice
Expected Release Date: April 18

Winter is coming. Who will win the battle, fire or ice? The long anticipated wait is almost over for season eight of Game of Thrones. While you wait for the show to return to HBO, you can make the wait more enjoyable by listening to Games of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire (Book One) to set the mood for what is about to come.

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Selection Day by Aravind Adiga, narrated by Sartaj Garewala
Expected Release Date: April 22

Did you see the Original Netflix series Selection Day last year? If you did, we have good news for you: part 2 of the show is finally arriving this month! It’s a brilliant novel about two brothers in a Mumbai slum who are raised by their obsessive father to become cricket stars, and whose coming of age threatens their relationship, future, and sense of themselves. Many fans can’t wait to see how the story of the Kumar brothers concludes.

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Holiday page to screen

Get even more into the spirit by listening to these classic holiday books that have been turned into classic holiday movies.

1. The Polar Express by Theodor Seuss GeiselRob KapilowChris Van Allsburg, narrated by Nathan GunnIsabel LeonardOlivia LombardiThe Metamorphosis Chamber Orchestra, and The Polar Express Children’s Choir

The Polar Express.

On Christmas Eve, a young boy climbs aboard a magic train filled with other children being treated to goodies while en route to the North Pole, where Santa is to offer the very first Christmas gift to one lucky passenger. This magical Christmas story is one of self-discovery that shows listeners that the wonders of life never fades for those who believe.
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2. How The Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss, narrated by Walter Matthau

How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

The Grinch, whose heart is two sizes too small, hates Who-ville’s holiday celebrations, and plans to steal all the presents to prevent Christmas from coming. To his amazement, Christmas comes anyway, and the Grinch discovers the true meaning of the holiday.
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3. The Greatest Gift (film adaptation: It’s A Wonderful Life) by Philip Van Doren Stern, narrated by Edward Herrmann

The Greatest Gift.

Unable at first to find a publisher for his tale of a man named George who ponders suicide until he receives an opportunity to see what the world would be like without him, Stern originally published the story in a small pamphlet and sent it out as his Christmas card for 1943. One of those copies found its way into the hands of a producer, and the film that has become a cherished holiday tradition for many was born.
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4. A Christmas Carol (film adaptation: Scrooge) by Charles Dickens, narrated by Paul Scofield

A Christmas Carol.

“Every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding,” says Scrooge. Mean old Scrooge despises Christmas… until Christmas Eve, when a haunted voice from the past changes his life overnight.
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5. A Christmas Story by Jean Shepherd, narrated by Dick Cavett

A Christmas Story.

Ralphie Parker is in for a disappointing Christmas: he discovers his decoder ring is really an Ovaltine promotion; his parents battle over a lascivious leg lamp; the savagery of bullies is ripe; and, most crucially, Ralphie’s campaign to get a Red Ryder carbine action 200-shot range model air rifle results in the adult world saying, “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid.”
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6. Skipping Christmas (film adaptation: Christmas With The Kranks) by John Grisham, narrated by Dennis Boutsikaris

Skipping Christmas.

Luther and Nora Krank decide to skip Christmas this year. Theirs will be the only house without a rooftop Frosty; they won’t be hosting their annual Christmas bash; they aren’t even going to have a tree. Instead, they’re going on a Caribbean cruise. But, as this weary couple is about to discover, skipping Christmas brings consequences.
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7. The Bishop’s Wife by Robert Nathan, narrated by Stephen R. Thorne

The Bishop's Wife.

Bishop Henry Brougham wants to build a new cathedral, but doesn’t know how he’ll find an archdeacon to help fund it. But that’s not his only problem. Him and his wife, Julia, are in a passionless marriage. When the bishop prays for help, it comes in the form of Michael, who takes the position of archdeacon. With the holidays approaching, the bishop senses the attraction between Julia and Michael.
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8. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, narrated by Barbara Caruso

Little Women.

Lovely Meg, talented Jo, frail Beth, spoiled Amy: these are hard lessons of poverty and of growing up in New England during the Civil War. Through their dreams, plays, pranks, letters, illnesses, and courtships, women of all ages have become a part of this remarkable family and have felt the deep sadness when Meg leaves the circle of sisters to be married.
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9. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer by Robert L. May, narrated by Stephen R. Thorne

Rudolph.

Rudolph, loveable and generous, humble and good, embodies the spirit of Christmas, and reminds us of the magical possibilities that exist within us all. In the companion story, “Rudolph Shines Again,” Rudolph loses his light and is certain he is of no use to Santa now; he decides to go far away, where no one knows how bright his nose used to be. But on his journey, something magical happens.
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New to Audiobooks.com? Get a free audiobook when you sign up for our one month free trial. Digital audiobooks make audible stories come to life when you’re commuting, working out, cleaning, cooking and more! Listening is easy with our top-rated free audiobook apps for iOS and Android, which let you download & listen to bestselling audiobooks on the go, wherever you are. Click here to get your free audiobook!