|
|
|
Young Jane Young
by Gabrielle Zevin
Cruelly branded for her affair with her congressman boss, an intern and blogger changes her name and moves to a remote town in Maine with her young daughter before local prompting to run for public office forces her to reckon with the past. Narrator Karen White excels at using accents, intonations, and emotions to create believable portrayals of primary and secondary characters. Just as smoothly White transitions between the novel's various literary devices, which include emails and a second-person "choose your own adventure" format.
|
|
|
A Colony in a Nation
by Christopher Hayes
An Emmy Award-winning news anchor and New York Times best-selling author argues that there are really two Americas—a Colony and a Nation.
|
|
|
Glass Houses
by Louise Penny
In his third narration of Louise Penny's popular Three Pines series, Robert Bathurst emphasizes the humanity and compassion of Chief Superintendent Armand Gamache. Throughout the series, the character has reflected an exceptional benevolence, disavowing the macho cop stereotype. However, the events in Glass Houses challenge Gamache's conscience unlike any of the previous audiobooks, with Bathurst prying open the hero's heart and soul and laying it bare for listeners to experience at a visceral level.
|
|
|
South Pole Station
by Ashley Shelby
Cooper Gosling has passed the rigorous physical and psychological tests required to spend a year in Antarctica in the National Science Foundation's Artists and Writers program. A talented painter who, at 30, has not yet realized her potential, Cooper is recovering from a family tragedy and looking for escape. She finds herself integrating with a community that includes scientists, artists, builders, and support staff with wildly different personalities, each seeking or fleeing something.
|
|
|
The Almost Sisters
by Joshilyn Jackson
Swept off her feet by a costumed man at a comics convention, a graphic novelist discovers that she is pregnant with a biracial child and avoids telling her conventional Southern family while assisting her elderly grandmother, who has been hiding a dangerous secret linked to the Civil War. This multifaceted story is rich in heart and significance and it showcases Joshilyn Jackson's double talents as author and narrator. Jackson works to full advantage her "insider knowledge" of what the author intends to convey and conceal at every stage.
|
|
|
American Fire : Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land
by Monica Hesse
Available on Hoopla. Documents the trial of a man charged with dozens of counts of arson in a rural Virginia county, sharing insight into his struggles with addiction, his relationship with his accomplice girlfriend, and the impact of the fires on their community. Monica Hesse paints a vivid portrait of a struggling community that is both divided and united by the baffling crimes.
|
|
| Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman; narrated by Cathleen McCarronAdult Fiction. Eleanor Oliphant -- despite her social isolation and the rules she sets to survive weekends -- insists that she is just fine. But is she really? The gentle overtures of a coworker who accepts her as she is provide her the emotional support she needs when a horrific (and embarrassing) event forces her to reevaluate her life. As it turns out, Eleanor Oliphant is absolutely not completely fine...but she will be. Her earnest but misguided perceptions of other people offer charm, poignancy, and humor, portrayed well in Cathleen McCarron's reading, which "shines in setting the story's emotional tone" (AudioFile). |
|
| The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck; narrated by Cassandra CampbellAdult Fiction. Once a fashionable gathering place for Germany's smart set, the Bavarian castle of Burg Lingenfels is now, in the immediate aftermath of World War II, a crumbling ruin. This character-driven novel portrays Marianne von Lingenfels, who offers shelter to Benita Fledermann and Ania Grabarek, the widows of men who fought for the resistance alongside her late husband. The narrative follows all three from their prewar years as teenagers through the war's devastation and their postwar emotional recoveries. Cassandra Campbell's strong and nuanced reading sensitively portrays the women's complexities. |
|
|
The Hello Girls : America's First Women Soldiers
by Elizabeth Cobbs
Available on Hoopla. Narrator Susan Ericksen is the perfect choice for this gem of overlooked history, which tells the story of America's first female soldiers. Known informally as the "hello girls," the 223 women of the United States Signal Corps were the backbone of the nascent telecommunications infrastructure for the American Expeditionary Forces during WWI. Ericksen gives a steady performance, including impeccable French pronunciation, allowing listeners to absorb the balanced blend of military, political, and personal history that squarely places the story of the Signal Corps in a broader social context.
|
|
| The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti; narrated by Elizabeth WileyAdult Fiction. Career criminal Samuel Hawley has spent much of his life on the road, dragging his young daughter Loo along, until she enters adolescence and he tries to leave his criminal past behind. They've moved to the Massachusetts town where Loo's long-dead mother grew up, and they're cautiously making inroads into the community. But Loo's desire to understand her mother's death sets her at odds with her father, who still carries his late wife's makeup, shampoo, and robe to each new home. Elizabeth Wiley provides a well-paced and finely shaded rendition of this suspenseful story, told from Loo's and Samuel's alternating perspectives. |
|
Contact your librarian for more great audiobooks!
|
|
|
If you are having trouble unsubscribing to this newsletter, please contact the Fremont Public Library District at 847-566-8702. |
|
|