Welcome back to our monthly blog feature, Book Clubbin’!
Is one of your resolutions for this year to read more books or start a book club? If you’re reading this, this is your sign to take the plunge! We know that it can be a little tough with stay-at-home orders, lockdowns, and social distancing, but don’t let it stop you! Start up a virtual book club with a couple friends where you can chat all about your latest read/listen via Zoom, FaceTime, or whatever you choose!
This month’s Book Clubbin’ pick is Delia Owen’s Where the Crawdad’s Sing. Chances are, you’ve heard of this book a lot over the past few years. Where the Crawdads Singwas Owens’ debut novel and it held its ground on the New York Times Fiction Bestsellers list for 25 weeks in total. So, you know it’s worth a listen!
Where the Crawdads Sing takes us to Barkley Cove, North Carolina in 1969, where rumors have circulated of the ‘Marsh Girl’ for years. When the handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, all fingers point to Kya Clark, the so-called ‘Marsh Girl.’ But there is more to Kya than meets the eye. After surviving alone in the marsh for so long, she yearns to be loved and when two men in town become intrigued by her, Kya is opened up to a new life…until the unthinkable happens.
Ready to start chatting about Where the CrawdadsSing with your bookclub, then get started with the discussion questions below. Beware— SPOILERS ahead.
—————MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!————
1) Jumpin’ and Mabel know that Kya is living on her own as a 10 year-old, and while they do offer support through clothing and other transactions, they never contact anyone to come remove her from the marsh. Why do you think this is?
2) Kya decides not to return to school after she was bullied. How do you think this affected her life?
3) Chase and Tate are both drawn to Kya, how do their relationships with her differ?
4) How did the fireflies that Kya observed one night influence her outlook on relationships and contribute to her actions later in the book?
5)Delia Owens is not only an author, but also a zoologist and has studied animals in remote parts of the world. Do you think her experience seeped into Where the Crawdads Sing? What similarities do you see with both Kya and wild animals?
6) Let’s discuss Kya’s trial. Do you think that the local’s presumptions and opinions about her colored the case and its outcome?
7) Did you suspect that Kya actually did kill Chase? Were you surprised when Tate found Kya’s secret stash/confession after her death?
8) Thinking of the title, why do you think Delia Owen titled her novel, Where the Crawdads Sing?
9) Reese Witherspoon’s production company is planning to adapt this novel into a movie. Which actors do you picture for the characters in the book?
New to Audiobooks.com? Get your first book free, PLUS a bonus book from our VIP selection 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 audiobooks!
Spooky season is in full swing, which means now is the perfect time to dive into a new thrilling listen. As the colorful leaves begin to gather on the front yards in my neighborhood, there’s truly no better vibe than just curling up inside with some apple cider, pressing play on a new and chilling audiobook, and just escaping for a while. Sometimes, when I’m feeling extra wild, I’ll even light a candle.
Jokes aside, if you are looking to get scared this season, check out some of the newest horror listens below. From psychological thrillers to creepy paranormal listens, find your next fright before Halloween.
If you enjoyed The Twisted Ones from T. Kingfisher, then you’ll definitely want to jump into their latest release, The Hollow Places, this season. This compelling horror novel follows a freshly divorced Kara who moves back in with her uncle and helps manage his museum of curiosities. Kara finds a hole in the wall that holds a hallway leading to countless portals to alternate realities that are haunted by creatures.
Five friends are headed to a cabin for one last getaway before they go their separate ways. Their plan is to play their favorite murder mystery game, but when the game and reality start to blend with deadly consequences, it’s a race against the clock for “game over.” If you’re looking for the classic “teenagers at a cabin in the woods” type of listen with some shocking thrills along the way, look no further.
Fans of The Secret History will want to pick up These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever. This unputdownable debut tells the story of two college students whose escalating obsession with one another leads to an act of unspeakable violence. Explore the depths of human desire and the darkness it can bring forth in us.
Looking for something a little different this season? In The Hole, Oghi wakes from a coma after causing the car accident that took his wife’s life and left him paralyzed and disfigured. He is left in the care of his mother-in-law who is grieving the loss of her only child. This listen is an unnerving story about the horrors of isolation and neglect in all of its banal and brutal forms.
Everyone loves a good suspenseful thriller. I know I do! The Girl in the Mirror has everything you’ll need to keep you on the edge of your seat. A whodunit thriller mixed with family drama, topped with an evil twin, The Girl in the Mirror is a listen you can’t pass up!
Turner Falls is a small town in the hills of western Oregon, the perfect town for a tourist’s getaway. When an outbreak develops, this slice of heaven becomes the epicenter of an epidemic. With teenagers ill, murderous, and on the loose, Lucy and her friends must do whatever it takes to survive the night. Fans of Stranger Things and World War Z will love this heart-racing dark satire.
New to Audiobooks.com? Get your first book free, PLUS a bonus book from our VIP selection 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 audiobooks!
Since there’s nothing better than curling up in bed with a good audiobook, we’ve created a new genre of top titles that are perfect for bedtime listening. From mindfulness and meditation lessons to hand-picked bedtime stories, there’s something for every nighttime listener. Plus, our handy sleep timer will snooze your audiobook when you snooze.
Learn more about Audiobooks.com’s sleep timer below and check out our top picks of audiobooks that will help you get a great night’s sleep.
How to use Audiobooks.com’s sleep timer
1) Open up the Audiobooks.com app
2) Navigate to the audiobook you’re listening to
3) Tap the moon icon at the bottom of the screen
4) Simply select the amount of time to play your audiobook for as you fall asleep, hit “Apply,” and the audiobook will automatically pause when your sleep timer is up
Sleep is vital for health and well-being. Sleep Well contains six different guided audio practices that have been devised specifically to help relax both body and mind and encourage restful sleep so that you wake feeling refreshed, recharged, and rejuvenated. They are to be followed at the end of the day prior to falling asleep or if you wake during the night and struggle to go back to sleep. These audios will encourage deep relaxation. By making relaxation your goal, falling asleep becomes so much easier.
Sleep Well contains “Relaxations for Sleep,” “More Relaxations for Sleep,” and “Meditations for Sleep,” all by leading yoga teacher Sue Fuller. “Relaxations for Sleep” contains two different thirty-minute guided relaxation sessions that will deeply relax your body and mind, leading you into a fantastic sleep from which you will wake feeling calm, refreshed, and revitalized. “More Relaxations for Sleep” also contains two thirty-minute guided relaxation sessions created to clear your mind, relax your whole body, and lead you into a fantastic, deep, refreshing sleep. “Meditations for Sleep” contains two thirty-minute guided meditation sessions created to help relax and clear the mind, so that the body can relax, sleep hormones will be produced, and falling asleep is achievable.
Defeat anxiety, reach deep sleep, and heal yourself with this Guided Meditations Bundle! Listen to the calm voice and beat of this 3 in 1 guided meditations bundle to heal yourself and relieve stress in a few minutes! Guided meditations play an important role when it comes to self-healing and anxiety relief practices. Listening to a soft voice guiding you through the practice is the best way to get the most out of your meditation session.
Jane, our narrator, will guide you with the calm tone of her voice, allowing you to heal yourself reaching deep levels of relaxation and relief.
Do you want to access the deepest states of relaxation?
Yoga nidra, otherwise known as “sleep of the yogis,” is an accessible meditation practice that cultivates wellbeing on multiple levels. This simple practice of guided, deep relaxation promotes deep rest.
The technique incorporates a detailed body scan with awareness placed on the breath and the sensation of relaxation, part by part. Yoga nidra helps to calm the nervous system, reduce your stress level and enhance general health.
The easiest way to accommodate a yoga nidra practice is to make it part of your daily bedtime routine as a way to help you unwind for the night. Even if you fall asleep, you’ll still receive benefits as the unconscious mind continues to absorb this powerful practice.
Yoga nidra provides you with a space to relax and fully embody your physical and subtle bodies, as well as an opportunity to let go of any long-held emotions that arise. Each of the 3 guided meditations is 20 minutes long and features three soothing background music options, enabling you to customize the meditation to your preference.
Even if you’re new to meditation, this book can help you create a life-changing practice that allows you to relax more profoundly and be more energetic and effective during your waking hours.
The Best Guided Sleep Meditation for Insomnia: Fall Asleep Fast and Get a Full Night’s Rest with Deep Relaxation Techniques by Peace Found Now is an in-depth, guided meditation designed to help anyone having trouble getting to sleep, staying asleep, or other symptoms of insomnia get the deep, refreshing sleep that we all need. This helpful audiobook features relaxation techniques, an extended guided meditation, and a dream sequence with a soothing voice and peaceful music. The techniques will completely calm and relax your mind and body so that you can get the sleep that you need. The audiobook can be used in a private setting or taken with you when you travel. You may even enjoy the guided meditation with a friend. It will always be available for your use whenever you need help falling asleep.
There are few more precious routines than that of the bedtime story. So why do we discard this invaluable ritual as grown-ups to the detriment of our well-being and good health?
In this groundbreaking anthology, Ben Holden, editor of the bestselling Poems That Make Grown Men Cry, challenges how we think about life, a third of which is spent asleep. He deftly explores not only the science of sleep but also why we endlessly tell stories—even to ourselves, as we dream.
Holden combines his own illuminating storytelling with a treasure trove of timeless classics and contemporary gems. Poems and short stories, fairy tales and fables, reveries and nocturnes—from William Shakespeare to Haruki Murakami, Charles Dickens to Roald Dahl, Rabindranath Tagore to Nora Ephron, Vladimir Nabokov to Neil Gaiman—are all woven together to replicate the journey of a single night’s sleep.
Some of today’s greatest storytellers reveal their choice of the ideal grown-up bedtime story: writers such as Margaret Drabble, Ken Follett, Tessa Hadley, Robert Macfarlane, Patrick Ness, Tony Robinson and Warsan Shire. Fold away your laptop and shut down your mobile phone. Curl up and crash out with the ultimate bedside book, one you’ll return to again and again. Full of laughter and tears, moonlight and magic, Bedtime Stories for Grown-ups joyfully provides the dream way to end the day—and begin the night.
How often do you think about your bedtime routine?
Almost half of people in Britain say they’re kept awake at night due to worry and stress—so making time to switch off in the hour before bed is more important than ever.
Penguin Sleep Tales are ten specially designed descriptive audio tales to help you wind down and relax before you drift off.
Developed with The Sleep Council, each track will transport you to a different location, encouraging you to visualise calming settings and landscapes to ease away the day’s anxiety or worry and get you in the right frame of mind for sleep.
Lie in a hammock on a tropical beach, relax by a campfire or shelter from a distant thunderstorm. These mindful tales are read slowly and soothingly, accompanied by relaxing sounds of nature.
One has been specially designed to appeal to those with Auto Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR), a physical reaction to sound which can be particularly relaxing.
Create a focused, peaceful environment so you can get a deep, natural night’s sleep and wake up refreshed in the morning. The perfect de-stressor after a long day.
Each track is 15 minutes long, so you can put your sleep timer on for any duration with no need to return to the screen.
So dim the lights, and get ready for a good night’s rest.
Includes ten relaxing tales: ‘Wakarango Mai’, ‘Hammock on a Distant Shore’, ‘The Purring Temple’, ‘Pegasus in the Night Sky’, ‘Dancing Flames’, ‘A Bothy in a Storm’, ‘The Warm Smell of Hay’, ‘Travel on the Overnight Train’, ‘The Magic Bookshop’ (ASMR story) and ‘Yara’s Song’ (inspired by the Brazilian folk tale ‘The Story of Yara’).
Sir Ian McKellen reads The Valley of Fear, the last of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s four Sherlock Holmes novels. The mystery begins with a coded warning of imminent danger, drawing the illustrious Sherlock Holmes and the faithful Dr. Watson to a secluded English country home. A trail of bewildering clues leads to sleuthing in the finest Holmesian tradition and the gripping backstory of a cult that terrorized a valley in the American West. First broadcast as Book at Bedtime on BBC Radio 4.
There’s a reason psychologists and child experts suggest reading a bedtime story to your kid.
Listening to a soothing, relaxing, and fun story before you close your eyes can help you unwind faster and enjoy deeper sleep.
Are you too old to jump into your parents’ bed and ask them to read you a bedtime story? No problem!
Our Bedtime Stories for the Overwhelmed Adult: 2 in 1 Bundle includes two audiobooks for busy, stressed adults: “Bedtime Stories for Stressed Adults: Sleep Meditation Stories to Melt Stress and Fall Asleep Fast Every Night” and “Bedtime Stories for Busy Adults: Sleep Meditation Stories to Find Your Inner Calm, Fall Asleep Fast, and Wake up Energized.”
It’s time to spoil your mind, body, and soul with a generous dose of calmness and serenity.
Do you have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep?
Cure your insomnia with the best natural sleep therapy you can get. Turn on the audio and relax as the soothing ocean waves and tropical rainforest sounds of a secluded beach in Costa Rica effortlessly lull you to sleep. Each audio is the perfect 8 hours in length for the optimal night’s sleep.
Simply start the audio when going to bed and when the soothing sounds end its time to get up, it’s that simple! At the end of eight hours, you’ve achieved the perfect night’s sleep and you will feel totally rested, rejuvenated, and ready to attack the day!
New to Audiobooks.com? Get your first book free, PLUS a bonus book from our VIP selection 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 audiobooks!
When Edward Cullen and Bella Swan met in Twilight, an iconic love story was born. But until now, fans have heard only Bella’s side of the story. At last, readers can experience Edward’s version in the long-awaited companion novel, Midnight Sun.
This unforgettable tale as told through Edward’s eyes takes on a new and decidedly dark twist. Meeting Bella is both the most unnerving and intriguing event he has experienced in all his years as a vampire. As we learn more fascinating details about Edward’s past and the complexity of his inner thoughts, we understand why this is the defining struggle of his life. How can he justify following his heart if it means leading Bella into danger?
On their first night in Paris, the Gamaches gather as a family for a bistro dinner with Armand’s godfather, the billionaire Stephen Horowitz. Walking home together after the meal, they watch in horror as Stephen is knocked down and critically injured in what Gamache knows is no accident, but a deliberate attempt on the elderly man’s life.
When a strange key is found in Stephen’s possession it sends Armand, his wife Reine-Marie, and his former second-in-command at the Sûreté, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, from the top of the Tour d’Eiffel, to the bowels of the Paris Archives, from luxury hotels to odd, coded, works of art.
It sends them deep into the secrets Armand’s godfather has kept for decades.
A gruesome discovery in Stephen’s Paris apartment makes it clear the secrets are more rancid, the danger far greater and more imminent, than they realized.
Soon the whole family is caught up in a web of lies and deceit. In order to find the truth, Gamache will have to decide whether he can trust his friends, his colleagues, his instincts, his own past. His own family.
For even the City of Light casts long shadows. And in that darkness devils hide.
While Eve examines a fresh body in Washington Square Park, her husband, Roarke, spots a man among the onlookers he’s known since his younger days on the streets of Dublin. A man who claims to be his half brother. A man who kills for a living—and who burns with hatred for him.
Eve is quick to suspect that the victim’s spouse—resentful over his wife’s affair and poised to inherit her fortune—would have happily paid an assassin to do his dirty work. Roarke is just as quick to warn her that if Lorcan Cobbe is the hitman, she needs to be careful. Law enforcement agencies worldwide have pursued this cold-hearted killer for years, to no avail. And his lazy smirk when he looked Roarke’s way indicates that he will target anyone who matters to Roarke…and is confident he’ll get away with it.
Eve is desperate to protect Roarke. Roarke is desperate to protect Eve. And together, they’re determined to find Cobbe before he finds them—even if it takes them across the Atlantic, far outside Eve’s usual jurisdiction…
When Mitch Rapp captures ISIS’s top technology expert, he reveals that he was on his way to meet a man who claims to have the ability to bring down America’s power grid. Rapp is determined to eliminate this shadowy figure, but the CIA’s trap fails.
The Agency is still trying to determine what went wrong when ISIS operatives help this cyber terrorist do what he said he could—plunge the country into darkness. With no concept of how this unprecedented act was accomplished, the task of getting the power back on could take months. Perhaps even years.
Rapp and his team embark on a desperate search for the only people who know how to repair the damage—the ones responsible. But his operating environment is like nothing he’s experienced before. Computers and communication networks are down, fuel can no longer be pumped from gas stations, water and sanitation systems are on the brink of collapse, and the supply of food is running out.
Can Rapp get the lights back on before America descends irretrievably into chaos?
Viewing an apartment normally doesn’t turn into a life-or-death situation, but this particular open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes everyone in the apartment hostage. As the pressure mounts, the eight strangers begin slowly opening up to one another and reveal long-hidden truths.
First is Zara, a wealthy bank director who has been too busy to care about anyone else until tragedy changed her life. Now, she’s obsessed with visiting open houses to see how ordinary people live—and, perhaps, to send an old wrong to right. Then there’s Roger and Anna-Lena, an Ikea-addicted retired couple who are on a never-ending hunt for fixer-uppers to hide the fact that they don’t know how to fix their own failing marriage. Julia and Ro are a young lesbian couple and soon-to-be parents who are nervous about their chances for a successful life together since they can’t agree on anything. And there’s Estelle, an eighty year-old woman who has lived long enough to be unimpressed by a masked bank robber waving a gun in her face. And despite the story she tells them all, Estelle hasn’t really come to the apartment to view it for her daughter, and her husband really isn’t outside parking the car.
As police surround the premises and television channels broadcast the hostage situation live, the tension mounts and even deeper secrets are slowly revealed. Before long, the robber must decide which is the more terrifying prospect: going out to face the police, or staying in the apartment with this group of impossible people.
Bob Woodward, the #1 international bestselling author of Fear: Trump in the White House, has uncovered the precise moment the president was warned that the Covid-19 epidemic would be the biggest national security threat to his presidency. In dramatic detail, Woodward takes readers into the Oval Office as Trump’s head pops up when he is told in January 2020 that the pandemic could reach the scale of the 1918 Spanish Flu that killed 675,000 Americans.
In 17 on-the-record interviews with Woodward over seven volatile months—an utterly vivid window into Trump’s mind—the president provides a self-portrait that is part denial and part combative interchange mixed with surprising moments of doubt as he glimpses the perils in the presidency and what he calls the “dynamite behind every door.”
At key decision points, Rage shows how Trump’s responses to the crises of 2020 were rooted in the instincts, habits and style he developed during his first three years as president.
Revisiting the earliest days of the Trump presidency, Rage reveals how Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats struggled to keep the country safe as the president dismantled any semblance of collegial national security decision making.
Rage draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand witnesses as well as participants’ notes, emails, diaries, calendars and confidential documents.
Woodward obtained 25 never-seen personal letters exchanged between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who describes the bond between the two leaders as out of a “fantasy film.”
Trump insists to Woodward he will triumph over Covid-19 and the economic calamity. “Don’t worry about it, Bob. Okay?” Trump told the author in July. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll get to do another book. You’ll find I was right.”
Jay Shetty, social media superstar and host of the #1 podcast On Purpose, distills the timeless wisdom he learned as a monk into practical steps anyone can take every day to live a less anxious, more meaningful life.
Shetty grew up in a family where you could become one of three things—a doctor, a lawyer, or a failure. His family was convinced he had chosen option three: instead of attending his college graduation ceremony, he headed to India to become a monk, to meditate every day for four to eight hours, and devote his life to helping others. After three years, one of his teachers told him that he would have more impact on the world if he left the monk’s path to share his experience and wisdom with others. Heavily in debt, and with no recognizable skills on his résumé, he moved back home in north London with his parents.
Shetty reconnected with old school friends—many working for some of the world’s largest corporations—who were experiencing tremendous stress, pressure, and unhappiness, and they invited Shetty to coach them on well-being, purpose, and mindfulness. Since then, Shetty has become one of the world’s most popular influencers. In 2017, he was named in the Forbes magazine 30-under-30 for being a game-changer in the world of media. In 2018, he had the #1 video on Facebook with over 360 million views. His social media following totals over 38 million, he has produced over 400 viral videos which have amassed more than 8 billion views, and his podcast, On Purpose, is consistently ranked the world’s #1 Health and Wellness podcast.
In this inspiring, empowering book, Shetty draws on his time as a monk to show us how we can clear the roadblocks to our potential and power. Combining ancient wisdom and his own rich experiences in the ashram, Think Like a Monk reveals how to overcome negative thoughts and habits, and access the calm and purpose that lie within all of us. He transforms abstract lessons into advice and exercises we can all apply to reduce stress, improve relationships, and give the gifts we find in ourselves to the world. Shetty proves that everyone can—and should—think like a monk.
The former director of special events at Vogue and producer of nine legendary Met Galas, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff met Melania Knauss in 2003 and had a front row seat to the transformation of Donald Trump’s then girlfriend from a rough-cut gem to a precious diamond. As their friendship deepened over lunches at Manhattan hot spots, black-tie parties, and giggle sessions in the penthouse at Trump Tower, Wolkoff watched the newest Mrs. Trump raise her son, Barron, and manage her highly scrutinized marriage.
After Trump won the 2016 election, Wolkoff was recruited to help produce the 58th Presidential Inauguration and to become the First Lady’s trusted advisor. Melania put Wolkoff in charge of hiring her staff, organizing her events, helping her write speeches, and creating her debut initiatives. Then it all fell apart when she was made the scapegoat for inauguration finance irregularities. Melania could have defended her innocent friend and confidant, but she stood by her man, knowing full well who was really to blame. The betrayal nearly destroyed Wolkoff.
In this candid and emotional memoir, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff takes you into Trump Tower and the White House to tell the funny, thrilling, and heartbreaking story of her intimate friendship with one of the most famous women in the world, a woman few people truly understand.
How did Melania react to the Access Hollywood tape and her husband’s affair with Stormy Daniels? Does she get along well with Ivanka? Why did she wear that jacket with “I really don’t care, do u?” printed on the back? Is Melania happy being First Lady? And what really happened with the inauguration’s funding of $107 million? Wolkoff has some ideas.
No matter your goals, Atomic Habitsoffers a proven framework for improving–every day. James Clear, one of the world’s leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.
If you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you’ll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.
Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field.
Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits–whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.
The bloody Battle of Tippecanoe was only the beginning. It’s 1811 and President James Madison has ordered the destruction of Shawnee warrior chief Tecumseh’s alliance of tribes in the Great Lakes region. But while General William Henry Harrison would win this fight, the armed conflict between Native Americans and the newly formed United States would rage on for decades.
In Killing Crazy Horse bestselling authors Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard venture through the fraught history of our country’s founding on already occupied lands, from General Andrew Jackson’s brutal battles with the Creek Nation to President James Monroe’s epic “sea to shining sea” policy, to President Martin Van Buren’s cruel enforcement of a “treaty” that forced the Cherokee Nation out of their homelands along what would be called the Trail of Tears. O’Reilly and Dugard take listeners behind the legends to reveal never-before-told historical moments in the fascinating creation story of America.
This fast-paced, wild ride through the American frontier will shock listeners and impart unexpected lessons that reverberate to this day.
New to Audiobooks.com? Get your first book free, PLUS a bonus book from our VIP selection 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 audiobooks!
In The Wolf’s Mother Speaks, Ben Dolnick takes listeners on an unforgettable, hauntingly funny journey alongside a mother whose love takes many forms. A mother (Joyce) finds out a secret about her estranged adult son, namely that he regularly turns completely into a wolf. No, not a werewolf half-man half-wolf creature, but a full-on actual wolf. It’s out of his control when it happens, and he’s done some terrible things. Once Joyce finds out, she goes to great lengths to help her beloved son. But as the novel unfolds, the narrative explores ideas not only of survival and murder and familial devotion in the face of the most challenging and unbelievable circumstances, but also of mental illness if not actual insanity. The result is a thrill ride with a lot of bumps and a substantial body count. Here Ben talks about his new audiobook!
1. In The Wolf’s Mother Speaks, the main character Joyce is dealing with a painful estrangement from her son, which seems very realistic, and then things take a turn into the supernatural. Where did the inspiration for The Wolf’s Mother Speaks come from?
I think the first inkling I had of this book was when, years ago, I read a story about a serial killer being arrested at his house in Kansas. This was one of those situations in which the killer has a wife, a family, neighbors who think they know him, the whole domestic scene. And I was so fascinated, particularly by his family members—what did they know? What did they think of him now?
But I knew that I didn’t want to write a standard serial killer book—I love a good serial killer novel (Red Dragon is one of the more compelling books I’ve ever read), but I didn’t want to write something with forensics, FBI agents, etc; I was after something weirder.
So, I handed those inputs—some murder, some family dynamics, some strangeness—to the mysterious mental organ where novels gestate, and out popped this book!
This was a much more “spoken” book than those—which is to say that the vast majority of the book is actually purporting to be transcribed speech. That made this book lots of fun to write—I love nothing more, as a writer, than doing various voices—but it also made for various narrative challenges. People tell stories very differently than they write them—there was no room for literary tricks, or elegant descriptions, or anything like that. It’s a much more compact and slangy sort of writing.
3. You’re an avid audiobook listener, which we love to hear! What is it about audiobooks that speaks to you, both in your personal listening, and as a writer?
Yes, audiobooks are the best! I’ve always thought of writing, despite the silence in which it takes place, as fundamentally an auditory medium. When I walk into a library where everybody’s quietly reading in their little carrels or whatever, I see it like one of those weird silent raves, where everybody’s wearing headphones and quietly thrashing around in ecstasy. This person is hearing Vonnegut, this person is hearing Toni Morrison, this person is hearing Murakami—and all that hearing is taking place entirely internally.
So audiobooks just make that aural quality of writing even more tangible. I spent a lot of the quarantine so far—55 hours of it, in fact!—listening to War and Peace, and I don’t think I could have gotten through it, certainly not with such pleasure, if I had just been reading it. Each character, however long it had been since I’d heard from them, was immediately identifiable by their voice. It felt even more intimate than reading, in a way. My eyes can skim or rush in a way that my ears usually don’t.
4. What was it like hearing your previous novels in audiobook form for the first time?
It was amazing! I was so used to hearing the books in my head—by the time a book is published, you can all but recite it—but here it was actually taking form in space, in the sound of a stranger’s voice. And it was fascinating to hear the little choices the readers made, both at the sentence-level and in terms of character. It was kind of a bittersweet thing, like (I imagine) watching a kid go off to college—you’ve worked so hard on this thing and off it goes to lead an independent existence, no longer under even the illusion of your control.
5. What do you personally like to read or listen to?
Everything! Lately I’ve been listening to classics—I’m moved onto Proust, after finishing War and Peace—but I also listen to lots of Buddhist stuff (Already Free by Bruce Tift is a recent favorite). And reading-wise I’m all over the place. I read a lot of thrillers — police procedurals (Ed McBain is great), supernatural stuff (Dracula,Frankenstein), espionage (Eye of the Needle is truly amazing). Lately I’ve been reading some more experimental fiction—Perec’s Life: A User’s Manual, a bunch by Mark Leyner, some Gerald Murnane. My bedside table is basically a perpetual avalanche of things I’m halfway through.
6. If you could curate a shelf for The Wolf’s Mother Speaks to sit on, what other books would be on it?
It would have to be an eccentric shelf! I think I’d love to put it somewhere between the funny, experimental, voice-obsessed books of, say, George Saunders and David Foster Wallace, on one side—and then on the other side I’d like to have the plotty, efficient novels of Ira Levin (Rosemary’s Baby, Stepford Wives, etc.). Oh, and let’s put some Alice Munro on that shelf too! She is hands-down the best at all things related to families—and she’s got quite a way with plot too. That would be a shelf where my book would live very, very happily.
7. What’s your favorite scary story?
I think Ira Levin’s [The] Boys from Brazil is my favorite of the moment. It’s tense and strange and brilliantly told. The whole last third—which I feel like I can’t describe at all without spoiling it—is just hilariously compelling. He’s able to do that Hitchcock thing of making you hold your breath for minutes at a time while the characters walk a tightrope over a flaming pit. ∎
New to Audiobooks.com? Get your first book free, PLUS a bonus book from our VIP selection 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 audiobooks!
Fall is creeping in, which means it’s time to bust out the sweaters and start doing cute autumnal activities. You know what I’m talking about: fall hikes, apple picking, baking cookies or pies (or anything pumpkin), and cozying up inside. “And how could we make those activities even better?” You ask. Simple, add an audiobook to the mix.
From now until September 21, 2020 we’re running our Fall Sale, which features tons of audiobooks for under $8 (£7 in the UK). On the hunt for something mysterious to listen to? Or are you in the mood to swoon over a new romance audiobook? Either way, we have something you’ll love.
We’ve rounded up a few of our fave picks from the sale below, but to browse the full sale list click the appropriate link below:
These days, few of us have time to contemplate the cosmos. So Neil deGrasse Tyson brings the universe down to Earth succinctly and clearly, with sparkling wit, in digestible chapters consumable anytime and anywhere in your busy day. While waiting for your morning coffee to brew, or while you’re in the car commuting or on a road trip, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry will reveal just what you need to be fluent and ready for the next cosmic headlines: from the Big Bang to black holes, from quarks to quantum mechanics, and from the search for planets to the search for life in the universe.
Saint Ambrose Prep is a place where the wealthy send their children for the best possible education. Traditionally a boys-only school, Saint Ambrose has just enrolled one hundred and forty female students for the first time. While most of the kids on the campus have all the privilege in the world, some are struggling. One day after the school’s annual Halloween event, a student lies in the hospital, her system poisoned by dangerous levels of alcohol. Everyone in this sheltered community—parents, teachers, students, police, and the media—are left trying to figure out what actually happened. Steel’s Moral Compass illuminates the dark side of one drunken night, with its tragic consequences, from every possible point of view. As the drama unfolds, the characters will reach a crossroads where they must choose between truth and lies, between what is easy and what is right…
Go back to the beginning with the very first installment of the In Death series! Eve Dallas is a New York police lieutenant hunting for a ruthless killer. In over ten years on the force, she’s seen it all. And she’s going against every warning telling her not to get involved with Roarke, an Irish billionaire—and a suspect in Eve’s murder investigation. But passion and seduction have rules of their own, and it’s up to Eve to take a chance in the arms of a man she knows nothing about.
Wanting to read the books before watching the show? Jump into the Virgin River series. This entry in the series tells the heartwarming lesson of second chances, rekindled love, and new hope.
Paradise Valley follows Rick Scudder, who joined the Marine Corps with high hopes, but left with a broken spirit and a shattered body. He’s been pushing away everyone close to him, including his father, Jack, and his longtime girlfriend, Liz. Now, Rick must find the strength to let Liz back into his heart.
Three sisters have returned to their childhood home, reuniting the eccentric Andreas family. Here, books are a passion and TV is something other people watch. Their father—a professor of Shakespeare who speaks almost exclusively in verse—named them after the Bard’s heroines. It’s a lot to live up to.
These sisters have a hard time with communication and they are now finding that when confronted with their parents’ frailty and their collective disappointment of how their lives turned out, not even a good book can help them now.
To celebrate the rise of their new queen, three goddesses of the moon created three stars: one of fire, one of ice, one of water. But then they fell from the sky, putting the fate of all worlds in danger. And now three women and three men join forces to pick up the pieces.
This thrilling listen features Joe Pickett, a game warden in Wyoming who finds his life in danger after he looks into a murder investigation and discovers a conspiracy involving an oil pipeline and its threat to an endangered species.
If you’re on the hunt for a new romance series, why not start with Where Good Girls Go To Die. This listen follows Livy, who knows she shouldn’t get involved with Parker James, her brother’s best friend, but she can’t resist. After having her heart broken, she runs.
Four years later, she runs into him again and he’s still just as she remembered him. Guarding her heart from him is top priority because Parker James is where good girls go to die. Unfortunately for him, Livy wasn’t a good girl anymore.
New to Audiobooks.com? Get your first book free, PLUS a bonus book from our VIP selection 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 audiobooks!
