10 Audiobooks that Explore the Natural World

Posted on September 12, 2018 by Michelle

Take a walk through the natural landscapes of our world with these moving and insightful travelogues.

1. Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey of the Silk Road by Kate Harris, narrated by Amy Landon

From what Kate Harris could tell of the world, there was nothing left to be discovered. Looking beyond earth, she decided to become a scientist and go to Mars. In between studying at Oxford and MIT, Harris set off by bicycle down the fabled Silk Road with her childhood friend. Pedaling mile upon mile in some of the remotest places on earth, the farther she traveled, the closer she came to a world as wild as she felt within.
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2. Rough Beauty: Forty Seasons of Mountain Living by Karen Auvinen, narrated by Jayme Mattler

During a difficult time, Karen Auvinen flees to a primitive cabin in the Rockies to live in solitude as a writer and to embrace all the beauty and brutality nature has to offer. When a fire incinerates every word she has ever written and all of her possessions-except for her beloved dog Elvis, her truck, and a few singed artifacts, Karen embarks on a heroic journey to reconcile her desire to be alone with her need for community.
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3. Chesapeake Requiem: A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island by Earl Swift, narrated by Tom Parks

A brilliant, soulful, and timely portrait of a 200-year-old crabbing community in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay as it faces extinction from rising sea levels — part natural history of an extraordinary ecosystem, starring the beloved blue crab; part paean to a vanishing way of life; and part meditation on man’s relationship with the environment.
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4. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed, narrated by Bernadette Dunne

In the wake of tragedy, Cheryl Strayed‘s family and marriage were destroyed. With nothing to lose, she made a decision: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington — alone. Cheryl faces rattlesnakes and black bears, intense heat and record snowfalls, and the beauty and loneliness of the trail. Wild captures the terrors and pleasures of her journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.
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5. The Final Frontiersman by James Campbell, narrated by Dan Woren

Originally from Wisconsin, Heimo Korth traveled to the Arctic in his 20s. Now, more than four decades later, he lives with his wife 200 miles from civilization – a sustainable, nomadic life bounded by the migrating caribou, swollen rivers, and the demands of daily life. Heimo’s cousin, James Campbell, chronicles the family’s experience, adventures, and the tragedy that shapes their lives.
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6. Deep South by Paul Theroux, narrated by John McDonough

For the past 50 years, Paul Theroux has traveled to the far corners of the earth. In Deep South, he turns his gaze to a region much closer to home. Traveling through North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas, he writes of the stunning landscapes he discovers — the deserts, the mountains, the Mississippi — and the lives of the people he meets.
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7. Wide-Open World by John Marshall, narrated by John Marshall

John Marshall‘s 20-year marriage was floundering. His two teenage kids were lost in cyberspace most of the time. He felt disconnected from his work, his family, his life. Which is when he had an idea: Let’s volunteer our way around the world. He’d heard that some peoples’ lives were changed by a week of overseas service — what might half a year accomplish for his family?
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8. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, narrated by Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Elizabeth explores the art of pleasure in Italy, the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali.
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9. Walking the Americas by Levison Wood, narrated by Barnaby Edwards

Beginning in the Yucatán, Levison‘s journey takes him from sleepy barrios to glamorous cities to ancient Mayan ruins in the wild. The relationships he forges along the way are at the heart of his travels, and the personal histories, cultures, and legends he discovers paint a riveting history of Mexico and Central America. While contending with natural obstacles, he also witnesses surreal beauty.
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10. Four Fish by Paul Greenberg, narrated by Christopher Lane

Paul Greenberg takes us on a culinary journey that explores how fish get to our tables and how to fight for sustainable seafood. He visits Norwegian megafarms that use genetic techniques to grow millions of pounds of salmon a year, the river of the Yupik Eskimos to see the only Fair Trade-certified fishing company in the world, and almost sinks in the South Pacific while searching for an alternative to endangered bluefin tuna.
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13 Audiobooks Coming to the Big Screen at TIFF

Posted on September 6, 2018 by Michelle

Love books and film? This year’s Toronto International Film Festival, best known as TIFF, promises to be one for the books.

1. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, narrated by Bahni Turpin

Starr moves between two worlds: her poor neighborhood and her fancy prep school. The balance between the two shatters when she witnesses the fatal shooting of her best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed, and his death is a national headline. As protesters take to the streets, what Starr does or doesn’t say could upend her community and endanger her life.
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2. Beautiful Boy by David Sheff, narrated by Anthony Heald

Before meth, Sheff‘s son, Nic, was a varsity athlete, honor student, and award-winning journalist. After meth, he stole money from his eight-year-old brother and lived on the streets. With haunting candor, Sheff traces the first warning signs, the attempts at rehabilitation, and, at last, the way past addiction. Whatever an addict’s fate, the rest of the family must care for one another, too, lest they become addicted to addiction.
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3. Tweak by Nic Sheff, narrated by Paul Michael Garcia

Tweak.

Nic Sheff was drunk for the first time at age 11. In the years that followed, he would regularly smoke pot, do cocaine and ecstasy, and develop addictions to crystal meth and heroin. Even so, he felt like he would always be able to quit and put his life together whenever he needed to. It took a violent relapse one summer in California to convince him otherwise.
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4. Boy Erased by Garrard Conley, narrated by Michael Crouch

The son of a Baptist pastor and deeply embedded in church life in small town Arkansas, Garrard was terrified and conflicted about his sexuality. While in college, he was outed to his parents, and was forced to make a life-changing decision: either agree to attend a church-supported conversion therapy program that promised to “cure” him of homosexuality; or risk losing family, friends, and his faith.
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5. First Man by James R. Hansen, narrated by Jeremy Bobb

Soon to be a major motion picture, this is the first-and only-definitive authorized account of Neil Armstrong, the man whose “one small step” changed history. When Apollo 11 touched down on the Moon’s surface in 1969, the first man on the moon became a legend and American icon.
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6. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt, narrated by John Pruden

Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. The enigmatic and powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen, Eli and Charlie Sisters, will make sure of it. Though Eli doesn’t share his brother’s appetite for whiskey and killing, he’s never known anything else. But their prey isn’t easy, and on the road from Oregon City to Warm’s gold-mining claim outside Sacramento, Eli begins to question what he does for a living.
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7. Widows by Lynda La Plante, narrated by Ann Mitchell

Facing life alone, they turned to crime together. A van heist goes disastrously wrong and three women are left widowed. When Dolly Rawlins discovers her gang boss husband’s plans for the failed hijack, an idea forms. Could she and the other wives finish the job their husbands started? As the women rehearse, it becomes clear that someone else must have been involved. Who was he? And where is he now?
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8. If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin, narrated by Bahni Turpin

Told through the eyes of Tish, a 19-year-old girl in love with Fonny, a young sculptor who is the father of her child. Tish and Fonny have pledged to get married, but Fonny is falsely accused of a terrible crime and is imprisoned. Their families set out to clear his name, and as they face an uncertain future, the young lovers experience a kaleidoscope of emotions-affection, despair, and hope.
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9. Girl Boy Girl by Savannah Knoop, narrated by Kristen Stewart

In 2006, the New York Times unmasked Savannah Knoop as the face of the mysterious author JT LeRoy. A media frenzy ensued as JT’s fans, mentors, and readers came to terms with the fact that the gay-male-ex-truck-stop-prostitute-turned literary-wunderkind was really a girl from San Francisco, whose sister-in-law wrote the books. Girl Boy Girl is the story of how Savannah led this bizarre double life for six years.
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10. A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, narrated by Oliver Wyman

By the time James Frey enters a drug and alcohol treatment facility, he has so thoroughly ravaged his body that the doctors are shocked he is still alive. Inside the clinic, he is surrounded by patients whose friendship and advice seem stronger and truer than the clinic’s droning dogma of How to Recover.
He insists on accepting sole accountability for the person he has been and fights to survive on his own terms.
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11. Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto, narrated by Michael Kramer

On the same day that Roy Cady is diagnosed with a terminal illness, he senses that his boss, a dangerous loan-sharking bar-owner, wants him dead. Before Roy makes his getaway, he realizes there are two women in his apartment, one of them is still breathing. He takes her with him as he goes on the run to Galveston. The girl is too young, too tough, too sexy —and far too much trouble. They hide in the seascape of country-western bars and seedy hotels, a world of treacherous drifters, pickups, and ashed-out hopes.
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12. Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden, narrated by James Jenner and Ali Ahn

Joseph Boyden‘s first novel, Three Day Road, was a Today Show Book Club selection. Through Black Spruce is the exceptional follow-up to his acclaimed debut. Cree bush pilot Will Bird lies comatose in a hospital, while his wayward niece Annie arrives to sit in silent vigil by his side. Slowly their stories reveal two people previously separated by great distances, beaten and broken, and searching for some sense of where they belong in the world.
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13. Hold The Dark by William Giraldi, narrated by Richard Ferrone

Three children have been taken from an isolated Alaskan village, including Medora and Vernon Slone’s son. Russell Core arrives to investigate the killings, and discovers the horrifying darkness at the heart of Medora Slone and learns of an unholy truth harbored by this village. As Russell Core attempts to rescue Medora from her husband, he comes face-to-face with an unspeakable secret.
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6 Fiction Audiobooks About College Life

Posted on September 5, 2018 by Michelle

Whether you’re a freshman or a graduate dreaming of your glory days, these audiobooks about college life will leave you yearning for the book stacks.

1. Sorority by Genevieve Sly Crane, narrated by Caitlin Davies

Twinsets and pearls, secrets and kinship, rituals that hold sisters together in a sacred bond of everlasting trust. Certain chaste images spring to mind when one thinks of sororities. But make no mistake: these women are not braiding each other’s hair and having pillow fights — not by a long shot.
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2. We Are Okay by Nina LaCour, narrated by Jorjeana Marie

Marin hasn’t spoken to anyone from her old life since the day she left everything behind. No one knows the truth about those final weeks. Not even her best friend Mabel. But even from the California coast, at college in New York, Marin still feels the tragedy she’s tried to outrun. Now, alone in an emptied dorm for winter break, Marin waits. Mabel is coming to visit and Marin will be forced to face everything that’s been left unsaid and confront her loneliness.
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3. The Preservationist by Justin Kramon, narrated by Charlie Thurston

To Sam, meeting Julia is the best thing that has ever happened to him. Working at the local college and unsuccessful in his previous relationships, he’d been feeling troubled about his approaching fortieth birthday, but being with Julia makes him feel young. Julia, a freshman, is flattered by Sam’s attention. But their relationship is tested by a shy young man with a secret.
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4. The Red Word by Sarah Henstra, narrated by Emily Woo Zeller

A smart, dark, and take-no-prisoners look at rape culture and the extremes to which ideology can go, The Red Word is a campus novel like no other. As her sophomore year begins, Karen enters into the back-to-school revelry, particularly at a fraternity called GBC. When she wakes up one morning on the lawn of Raghurst, a house of radical feminists, she gets a crash course in the state of feminist activism on campus.
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5. We’ll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han, narrated by Jessica Almasy

Belly has only loved two boys, Conrad Fisher and his brother Jeremiah. Now that she and Jeremiah are on the verge of a permanent commitment, Belly confronts her lingering feelings for Conrad and faces a painful reality. She must figure out which brother is her soulmate, which means someone’s heart will get broken.
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6. Inescapable by Amy A. Bartol, narrated by Emily Woo Zeller

Inescapable.

Freshman Evie is determined to find out what an enigmatic fellow student is hiding. She hoped that once she arrived on campus, the nightmare she’s been having would go away. It hasn’t. Since meeting sophomore Reed Wellington, nothing makes any sense — but Reed acts as if Evie’s the worst thing that has ever happened. And for some reason, every time she turns around, he’s there. What is he hiding? Evie’s hoping that it’s anything but what she suspects: that he’s not exactly normal… and neither is she.
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STAFF PICK: 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari

Posted on September 5, 2018 by Lena Yang

Title: 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Author: Yuval Noah Harari
Narrator: Derek Perkins

A mere half-decade ago, a brilliant albeit obscure Israeli professor of history took the literary world by storm. Published first in Hebrew in 2011 and translated into English in 2014, Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens transformed the history of humankind—a gargantuan topic in itself—into a household conversation piece. In 2016, Harari published a follow-up, Homo Deus, which extended the scope of Sapiens to examine the future of humankind. Now, he has turned his sights to the present with 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, which reflects on topical issues plaguing the here and now.

Harari poses some big questions in his introduction: “What are today’s greatest challenges and choices? What should we pay attention to? What should we teach our kids?” The book, broken into five sections that cover technology, politics, fear, truth, and resilience, attempt to examine the major forces that will influence the future of our planet. The scope of the book is huge, yet Harari acknowledges the lessons and issues he grapples with within 300 pages is not exhaustive of all that we could learn. Rather, 21 Lessons for the 21 Century is, as he puts it, a stepping stone to “help readers participate in some of the major conversations of our time.”

Harari delves into topics ranging from immigration to religion to artificial intelligence with eloquence and clarity. As was made clear in Sapiens and Homo Deus, the true mark of his talent as a scholarly writer is his ability to delineate information in an accessible and engaging manner. Much of the content builds on what he has discussed before in Sapiens and Homo Deus, so readers familiar with Harari’s previous works will recognize certain arguments and strands of thinking.

Derek Perkins is, as always, an exquisite narrator. If I close my eyes, I can almost imagine I am once again sitting in a grand lecture hall at university, listening to a particularly captivating professor muse about the predicament of our world. Perkins, without fail, manages to transform Harari’s words into a lively conversation.

21 Lessons for the 21st Century may not be an exhaustive book, but it is a crucial book for anyone who wishes to join the global conversation. Those who have read Harari’s previous works will not be disappointed, and those discovering him for the first time may well stumble upon a new favorite.

STAFF PICK: Ponti by Sharlene Teo

Posted on September 5, 2018 by admin

Post by Miranda Winters-Sayle

Title: Ponti
Author: Sharlene Teo
Narrator: Vera Chok

Capturing the profound affect relationships have on our futures, Ponti is cleverly told through three perspectives that reflect the past, present, and future. Sixteen-year-old Szu struggles to connect with her distant mother, Amisa, a once beautiful actress who claimed her 15 minutes of fame in a B-list horror movie. Szu befriends Circe, a sharp-tongued privileged girl equally lonely as her, and the two develop an intense friendship that will change their lives forever.

Set in Singapore, Amisa’s younger years are explored as she stars in Ponti!, a horror movie about a monster that masquerades as a beautiful young woman to lure in its victims. Amisa, who plays a ghost, must come to terms that the movie has neither kick started her career as an actress or brought her the fame and happiness she dreamed of.

In the future, we learn that Circe is helping produce a remake of the Ponti! trilogy, which causes her to confront her own guilt for abandoning Szu after she experiences a major loss.

I was surprised that Ponti is Sharlene Teo‘s debut novel. The imagery she uses made me feel as though I were in Singapore, and the characters were so well developed that I felt like I knew them personally. The teenage relationship between Szu and Circe were written so realistically — their bond, dialogue, and teenage angst were relatable and recognizable.

Vera Chok was a fantastic choice to narrate Ponti, as she was able to seamlessly portray young Szu just as effectively as middle-aged Circe. Her knowledge of Chinese and Malay allowed her to perform accents, which is vital for a novel like Ponti, which reflects a distinct culture and its surreal cities and people.

Page to Screen in September 2018

Posted on September 5, 2018 by Lena Yang

Going to the movies this September? Get the best experience by listening to the books they were based on before seeing the film adaptations.

You by Caroline Kepnes, narrated by Santino Fontana
Expected release date: September 9

How far would you go for the perfect love? When aspiring writer and recent Brown graduate Guinevere Beck strides into the bookstore where Joe works, he’s instantly smitten. Beck is everything Joe has ever wanted: she’s gorgeous, tough, razor-smart, and as sexy as his wildest dreams. Joe needs to have her, and he’ll stop at nothing to do so. Read more and sample the audio.

The Bad Seed by William March, narrated by Elizabeth Wiley
Expected release date: September 9

There’s something special about eight-year-old Rhoda Penmark. With her carefully plaited hair and her sweet cotton dresses, she’s the very picture of old-fashioned innocence. But when their neighborhood suffers a series of terrible accidents, her mother begins to wonder: Why do bad things seem to happen when little Rhoda is around? Read more and sample the audio.

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness, narrated by Jennifer Ikeda
Expected release date: September 14 (UK)

Deep in the stacks of Oxford’s Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Read more and sample the audio.

A Simple Favor by Darcey Bell, narrated by Xe Sands, Andi Arndt, Matthew Waterson
Expected release date: September 14

It starts with a simple favor—an ordinary kindness mothers do for one another. When her best friend, Emily, asks Stephanie to pick up her son Nicky after school, she happily says yes. But, when Emily doesn’t come back from her high-demand job in Manhattan, Stephanie knows something is wrong. Then, she receives shocking news. Emily is dead. The nightmare of her disappearance is over.
Or is it? Read more and sample the audio.

The Children Act by Ian McEwan, narrated by Lindsay Duncan
Expected release date: September 14

Fiona Maye, a fiercely intelligent, well-respected High Court judge in London faces a morally ambiguous case involving a seventeen-year-old boy’s life while her own marriage crumbles. Read more and sample the audio.

The Predator by Christopher Golden, Mark Morris, narrated by James Patrick Cronin
Expected release date: September 14

For centuries Earth has been visited by warlike creatures that stalk mankind’s finest warriors. These deadly hunters kill their prey and depart as invisibly as they arrived, leaving no trace other than a trail of bodies. When a young boy accidentally triggers the universe’s most lethal Hunters’ return to earth, only a ragtag crew of ex-soldiers and a disgruntled science teacher can prevent the end of the human race. Read more and sample the audio.

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, narrated by Edward Herrmann
Expected release date: September 14

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War. Read more and sample the audio.

The House with a Clock its Walls by John Bellairs, narrated by George Guidall
Expected release date: September 21

When Lewis Barnavelt, an orphan, comes to stay with his uncle Jonathan, he expects to meet an ordinary person. But he is wrong. Uncle Jonathan and his next-door neighbor, Mrs. Zimmermann, are both witches! Lewis is thrilled until he accidentally discovers a clock built into the walls of the house that could obliterate mankind. Read more and sample the audio.

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt, narrated by John Pruden

Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. The enigmatic and powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen, Eli and Charlie Sisters, will make sure of it. Though Eli doesn’t share his brother’s appetite for whiskey and killing, he’s never known anything else. But, as the brothers embark on their journey, Eli begins to question what he does for a living–and whom he does it for. Read more and sample the audio.

The Old Man and the Gun by David Grann, narrated by Mark Deakins
Expected release date: September 28

In this mesmerizing collection, David Grann takes the reader on a journey through some of the most intriguing and gripping real-life tales from around the world. Read more and sample the audio.

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13 Audiobooks Coming to the Big Screen at TIFF

Page to Screen in September 2018

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