STAFF PICK: Sisters of the Winter Wood

Posted on September 26, 2018 by Emma

Title: Sisters of the Winter Wood
Author: Rena Rossner
Narrator: Ana Clements

Inspired by Russian lore, Sisters of the Winter Wood is a mix of fairy tale, Ukrainian history, Jewish religion, and coming-of-age that tie together in ways I didn’t expect. Two sisters are left to fend for themselves just as mysterious things start happening in the woods where they live. With the girls facing challenge after challenge, this was one of those story lines that drew me in until it was done.

I was unfamiliar with many of the story’s themes, and that added to my surprise at each twist and turn. I wondered constantly how I might have dealt with their circumstances. When you need to feed yourself, protect yourself, and keep a life-changing secret, which takes priority? Weaved into the struggle is the obligation of sisterly duty; the sisters are opposites, and so are their ideas of the best solution, but they’re determined to protect each other. Rena Rossner separates the sisters even before the story starts by having one read in prose and the other in poetry. As the adventure progressed, I enjoyed listening to the characters balance the line between what their life was, and the fantastical world it became.

Ana Clements’ narration was well-paced and smooth. Her voice was well-suited to a fairy tale and it’s clear in her speaking when the prose and poetry changes with the sisters’ points of view. She was good at transitioning between different accents for different characters, and seamlessly integrated the Jewish words as she read.

This was a lovely tale of fantasy and family that kept my curiosity and imagination churning.

Sisters of the Winter Wood

Celebrate Banned Books Week

Posted on September 24, 2018 by Michelle

Banned Book Week celebrates the freedom of reading, including books that express ideas, characters, and storylines that are unorthodox. Check out this post (as well as our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages) every weekday to find out which banned audiobooks we’ll be featuring and the reason some have deemed them too controversial.

1. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, narrated by Dan Miller
Reason for being banned: Sexual content, abortion, murder

In Theodore Dreiser’s classic portrait of the dark side of the American dream, Clyde Griffiths finds his social-climbing aspirations and love for a rich and beautiful debutante threatened when his lower-class pregnant girlfriend gives him an ultimatum. Based on an actual crime case, An American Tragedy tells the story of a society whose values shape Clyde’s ambitions and seal his fate.
Read more and sample the audio.

2. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, narrated by Jeff Woodman
Reason for being banned: Offensive language, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (profanity and atheism)

Christopher John Francis Boone knows every country of and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow. Christopher’s quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog makes for one of the most captivating, unusual, and widely heralded novels.
Read more and sample the audio.

3. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien, narrated by Rob Inglis
Reason for being banned: Supernatural themes

Inspired by The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings was created to provide “the necessary background of history for Elvish tongues.” The Fellowship of the Ring, the first in the trilogy, tells the fateful power of the One Ring. It begins a magnificent tale of adventure that plunges the members of the Fellowship of the Ring into a perilous quest and sets the stage for the ultimate clash between powers of good and evil.
Read more and sample the audio.

4. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, narrated by James Colby
Reason for being banned: Sexually explicit, violence, anarchist themes, smoking, and drinking

Internationally best-selling author Chuck Palahniuk’s uproarious and irreverent debut novel Fight Club was transformed into a wildly successful film starring Edward Norton and Brad Pitt. When a listless office employee meets Tyler Durden, his ho-hum life takes a dramatic turn as a contender in amateur bare-knuckle street fighting matches that soon develop a fanatical following.
Read more and sample the audio.

5. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson, narrated by Robert Sean Leonard
Reason for being banned: Allegations that the book promotes secular humanism, New Age religion, occultism, and Satanism

Jess Aarons has been practicing all summer so he can be the fastest runner in the fifth grade. And he almost is, until the new girl in school, Leslie Burke, outpaces him. The two become fast friends and spend most days in the woods behind Leslie’s house, where they invent an enchanted land called Terabithia. One morning, Leslie goes to Terabithia without Jess and a tragedy occurs. It will take the love of his family and the strength that Leslie has given him for Jess to be able to deal with his grief.
Read more and sample the audio.

6 Audiobooks for Budding Entrepreneurs

Posted on September 21, 2018 by Michelle

Get answers and inspiration to help kick-start your start-up.

1. You Are A Mogul by Tiffany Pham, narrated by Tiffany Pham

As the founder of Mogul—praised by Sheryl Sandberg as the #1 millennial platform — Tiffany Pham created a global technology and media empire by the age of 27. As living proof that the old rules of success no longer apply, Tiffany writes the new rules for following your passions and forging your own path in an age of disruption.
Read more and sample the audio.

2. The New Science of Radical Innovation by Sunnie Giles, narrated by Janet Metzger

Discover a groundbreaking, science-based approach to leadership that generates radical innovation for dramatic and permanent results. Today’s business arena is undergoing a revolutionary transformation, equivalent in impact to the Industrial Revolution. While most traditional companies are still built for the old-world economy, the companies that thrive today enter the market with a new approach.
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3. Dear Founder by Maynard Webb and Carlye Adler, narrated by Chris Ciulla

More than 600,000 new businesses are launched each year. How can a start-up find the funding it needs to survive? How does an entrepreneur build and manage a workplace and create a lasting legacy? Maynard Webb has helped found, fund, and grow dozens of successful companies. Now, he’s sharing his lessons with aspiring entrepreneurs, at any age and stage in their careers.
Read more and sample the audio.

4. Influencer by Brittany Hennessy, narrated by Brittany Hennessy

If you’ve ever scrolled through your Instagram feed and thought, ‘Why can’t someone pay me to live my best life?’ this audiobook is for you. Every influencer started with zero followers and had to mistakes to get where they are today, earning more money each year than their parents made in the last decade. But to be a top creator, you need to understand the strategies behind the Insta-lifestyle.
Read more and sample the audio.

5. Big Ideas for Small Businesses by John Lamerton, narrated by John Lamerton

Struggling to find marketing ideas for your business? Do you find traditional business books uninspiring? Former civil servant John Lamerton has run more than 60 small businesses, making millions of dollars and mistakes along the way. This is a collection of the lessons and successes he uses to mentor small business owners, teaching them to think bigger and design their business around the lifestyle they want.
Read more and sample the audio.

6. A Dozen Lessons for Entrepreneurs by Tren Griffin, narrated by Steven Jay Cohen

A Dozen Lessons for Entrepreneurs

With insight and verve, Tren Griffin argues that venture capital is a service business that depends hugely on “human factors.” He suggests that these investors succeeded because of their sense of hustle, keen judgment, hard work, and good luck. But most of all, they share a deep love of building businesses that goes beyond financial considerations.
Read more and sample the audio.

STAFF PICK: American Prison by Shane Bauer

Posted on September 19, 2018 by Michelle

Title: American Prison
Author: Shane Bauer
Narrator: Shane Bauer and James Fouhey

Curious about what the inside of a prison is really like? So was award-winning investigative journalist Shane Bauer, who was hired for just $9 an hour to work as an entry-level prison guard at a private prison in Winnfield, Louisiana. He used his real name. There was no significant background check. He lasted four months.

American Prison combines Shane’s firsthand experience as a prison guard with the history of for-profit prisons in America, from their origins in the decades leading up to the Civil War. Shane describes how private prisons became entrenched in the southern United States as part of a systemic effort to continue African-American labor force in the aftermath of slavery, and how the smoke of these origins still lingers today.

What I found most fascinating about American Prison was Shane’s recognition that he was becoming crueler and more aggressive towards the inmates the longer he worked in the prison. In a town where the average family income is $25,000 a year, the prison sees a high turnover rate for staff who often leave to pursue less stressful jobs that pay similar wages. In Winnfield, it isn’t unusual to see a former prison guard working at a fast food restaurant or greeting you as you walk into Walmart.

Guards are trained not to intervene when inmates fight each other, sometimes with handmade weapons, sometimes ending in violent death.

I volunteered at a not-for-profit women’s prison for a couple of years, and this audiobook still shocked me. My relationship with the officers and the inmates was neutral, and despite the occasional complaint from inmates regarding what they considered petty rules and officers not feeling respected by particular inmates, the environment inside the prison did not reflect the animosity, anxiety, and danger that runs rampant in for-profit prisons across the United States.

Shane’s investigation of a broken system is disturbing, gripping, and most importantly, long overdue. The stories of the inmates will stay with you long after finishing the audiobook, and Shane’s own experience of being imprisoned for two years in Iran makes him the perfect person to expose the reality of corporate-run prisons.

STAFF PICK: Heartland by Sarah Smarsh

Posted on September 18, 2018 by Michelle

Title: Heartland
Author: Sarah Smarsh
Narrator: Sarah Smarsh

Born a fifth generation Kansas wheat farmer on her paternal side and the product of generations of teen moms on her maternal side, Sarah Smarsh has joined the ranks of the brilliant authors behind Educated, Hillbilly Elegy, The Glass Castle, Evicted, and Nickle and Dimed, who have successfully portrayed America’s working-class poverty.

During her childhood in the 1980s and 1990s, Sarah was on a free-lunch program in school and moved between trailer homes and farms in rural Kansas. Sarah was determined to break her family’s cycle of poverty and teen parenthood. Weaving in the larger dynamics of American capitalism that began with the Reagan government and continuing into modern day, Heartland reveals what it’s like to grow up poor in one of the richest countries in the world.

Heartland challenges readers to look more closely at the class divide in the United States and examines the myths about people who are considered less because they earn less, and Sarah’s narration makes the audiobook even richer. I listened to much of the audiobook with my eyes closed and envisioned the Kansas soil beneath my feet and stalks of wheat grazing my hands that reminded me of what it was like to grow up in a rural town.

America is known for its excess. Big box stores, excess waistlines, and long list of “world’s largest _____” prevail, and yet so much of its population lacks access to more of what citizens truly need — health care, education, and opportunity.

Blending experience, research, and stunning storytelling, Sarah’s powerful analysis of what it means to be poor is as raw as it is remarkable. Her ability to contextualize the reality of working six or seven days a week with no vacation and stretching a dollar as far as possible to barely cover the bills will pull readers into an issue no one can afford to ignore.

STAFF PICK: The Bus on Thursday by Shirley Barrett

Posted on September 18, 2018 by admin

Post by Laura Laidman

Title: The Bus on Thursday
Author: Shirley Barrett
Narrator: Katherine Littrell

The tagline of The Bus on Thursday, “Bridget Jones meets The Exorcist,” didn’t just grab my attention — it had me hitting download the moment it was available. Balancing snappy comedic diaries with one of my all-time favorite horror movies was something I needed to get in my headphones immediately.

That, and I was also curious to see if it was actually doable.

I was really pleased that The Bus on Thursday was able to combine the fast paced, comedic timing and humility I was looking for and the dark, demonic mystery that has me dying for cooler weather, sweaters, and all things Halloween. In this hilariously evil audiobook from author and screenwriter Shirley Barrett, we meet Eleanor Mellett, a primary school teacher whose life is turned upside down after a bad breakup and a breast cancer diagnosis in her early 30s.

Eleanor finds herself out of work and being sliced, diced, and reconstructed, all while trying to figure out her love life and what comes next. Once she receives a clean bill of health, Eleanor knows she needs a fresh start — one that doesn’t involve her old job, ex, and best frenemy. That’s when she finds Talbingo, a small town in immediate need of a new teacher.

At first glance, Talbingo seems perfect. Nestled near the mountains with learning-hungry kids and friendly neighbors is exactly what Eleanor had in mind. But things aren’t exactly what they seem in this quaint Australian town. The last teacher has been declared missing, and the kids aren’t the biggest fans of their new teacher. There’s also a local priest who is convinced that Eleanor’s cancer isn’t a medical issue, but a demonic one.

Through witty blog posts, Eleanor invites us into her life and the craziness that is Talbingo. Day by day, readers learn about the overly attached teen that is getting too close in class, the handsome neighbor who may know more about the previous teacher’s absence than he lets on, the petite woman from church who is crying over her decoupage, and the rest of Talbingo’s more interesting residents.

The Bus on Thursday is a clever, fast-paced listen that kept me guessing with each minute. Is Eleanor possessed by a demon? Or is she just losing her mind due to the isolation of Talbingo? Is her new paramour the devil? Or is he just not looking for a commitment? Either way, Eleanor is hilarious and going through this journey with her kept me laughing and spooked at the same time — just in time for Halloween.

Eleanor’s blog is brought to life with fiery sass by the amazing Katherine Littrell. Her inflection, attitude, and heart really added to the story in a way that made me feel like Eleanor was a friend pouring her heart out to me rather than being just a character in the book. Even as she’s breaking down, she kept me laughing and I dreaded having to hit pause.

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