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Author: Kelly Link Title: White Cat, Black Dog Narrator: Rebecca Lowman, Dan Stevens, Dominic Hoffman, Kristen Sieh, Ish Klein, Tanya Cubric, Patton Oswalt Publication Info: Books on Tape, 2023 Other Books Read By the Same Author: Stranger Things Happen Summary/Review: Kelly Link’s collection of short stories draws on the inspiration of classic fairy tales such as “The Musicians of Bremen,”…
Author: Celeste Ng Title: Our Missing Hearts Narrator: Lucy Liu, Celeste Ng Publication Info: Penguin Audio, 2022 Summary/Review: Our Missing Hearts is a dystopian novel that draws upon the actions of historic authoritarian governments and current events. Set in the United States in the near future after a global cataclysm called the “Crisis” that leads to the enactment of PACT (The Preserving…
Author: Rupi Kaur Title: Milk and Honey Narrator: Rupi Kaur Publication Info: Simon & Schuster Audio, 2016 Summary/Review: This book is on the list of 13 books recently banned in Utah schools. It is a collection of poems by poet Rupi Kaur born in India and now from Canada. Her poems deal with sexual abuse, healing, feminism, sexuality, and lover and is divided into sections entitled “the…
Around the World for a Good Book selection for Morocco. Author: Secret Son Title: Laila Lalami Publication Info: Algonquin Books, 2009 Summary/Review: Youssef El Mekk comes of age in the slums of Casablanca where he attends university but harbors no hopes for the future. He learns that his father whom his mother had said was dead is actually the prosperous businessman Nabil Amrani. Nabil had a…
Author: Octavia E. Butler Title: Fledgling Narrator: Tracey Leigh Other Books Read by the Same Author: Kindred Parable of the Sower Publication Info: [North Kingstown, R.I.] : Sound Library, 2007. [Originally published: 2005] Summary/Review: In Butler’s final novel, we meet what appears to be an 11-year-old girl, injured and amnesiac in a cave. After regaining her strength she is picked up by…
Around the World for a Good Book selection for Azerbaijan Author: Kurban Said Title: Ali and Nino: A Love Story Translator: Jenia Graman Publication Info: ABRAMS, Inc., [First published in 1937] Summary/Review: Considered the national novel of Azerbaijan, Ali and Nino was written under the pseudonym Kurban Said and the true identity of the author remains a topic of debate. Set against the…
Author: Toni Morrison Title: God Help the Child Narrator: Toni Morrison Publication Info: Random House Audio, 2015 Other Books I’ve Read by the Same Author: The Bluest Eye Sula Song of Solomon Tar Baby Beloved Jazz Paradise Love A Mercy Home Summary/Review: When Bride is born with significantly darker skin than her parents, she is raised without love. Her mother even insists on being called…
Author: Jodi Taylor Title: Just One Damned Thing After Another Narrator: Zara Ramm Publication Info: Headline, 2021 [Originally published, 2013] Summary/Review: Madeline “Max” Maxwell is recruited by St. Mary’s Institute of Historical Research to be a historian. The researchers at St. Mary’s use time travel to observe the past and provide data to mysterious, wealthy clients. Max relates her…
Author: Matt Haig Title: The Midnight Library Narrator: Carey Mulligan Other Books Read by the Same Author: How to Stop Time Publication Info: Penguin Audio, 2020 Summary/Review: “In the Midnight Library you can’t take the same book out twice.” Feeling useless and unloved, Nora Seed attempts to end her life through an overdose. Instead she finds herself in a library managed by Mrs. Elm, a…
Around the World for a Good Book selection for Tajikistan Author: Gulsifat Shahidi Title: The City Where Dreams Come True Publication Info: Hertforshire Press, 2016 Summary/Review: After the fall of the Soviet Union, the newly independent Republic of Tajikstan fell into civil war. Author Gulsifat Shahidi witnessed the war as a journalist, and tells how it affected the Tajik people in these four…
Author: Toni Morrison Title: A Mercy Narrator: Toni Morrison Publication Info: Books on Tape, 2008 Summary/Review: A lyrical meditation on betrayal and abandonment, as well as love in all its forms, A Mercy is a story set on a farm in rural New York in the late 1600s. The nonlinear narrative shifts perspectives among several women all of whom live in a state of unfreedom and are orphans in some…
Author: Connie Willis Title: The Road to Roswell Narrator: Jesse Vilinsky Publication Info: Del Rey (2023) Other Books I’ve Read by the Same Author: Lincoln’s Dreams Doomsday Book Bellwether To Say Nothing of the Dog Passage Inside Job All Clear Blackout Summary/Review: Francie travels to Roswell, New Mexico to be maid of honor in her best friend’s wedding to a UFO obsessive, hoping she can…
Author: Lauren Groff Title: Matrix Narrator: Adjoa Andoh Publication Info: Penguin Audio, 2021 Summary/Review: This story inspired by the real-life Marie de France, details the life and accomplishments of the abbess of an abbey in 12th-century England. At 17, the tall and not conventionally attractive Marie is sent by Eleanor of Aquitaine to the impoverished abbey. Over the course of her life…
Author: Roddy Doyle Title: Love Narrator: Morgan C. Jones Publication Info: Penguin Audio (2020) Summary/Review: Two old friends meet in a Dublin pub. Davy, the narrator, has long ago emigrated to England, only returning to visit his ailing father. Joe does most of the talking, telling a story of a woman named Jessica who they were both attracted to four decades earlier when they were young…
Author: Gabrielle Zevin Title: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow Narrator: Jennifer Kim, Julian Cihi Publication Info: Books on Tape, 2022 Summary/Review: Sadie Green and Sam Masur bond as children over their shared love for video games. Years later they reunite in Cambridge where they’re attending different colleges, and decide to work on developing their own game. Sam’s protective…
Author: Marie Brennan Title: A Natural History of Dragons : A Memoir by Lady Trent Narrator: Kate Reading Publication Info: Macmillan Audio, 2013 Summary/Review: Written as a “memoir” in stuffy, aristocratic tones which belie that its author Lady Isabella Trent has actually devoted her life to the decidedly not ladylike pursuit of the study of dragons. Growing up an outsider for not fitting…
Author: Shanna Miles Title: For All Time Narrator: Joniece Abbott-Praatt and Landon Woodson Publication Info: New York : Simon & Schuster Audio, 2021 Summary/Review: Set after the COVID pandemic, For All Time is a young adult romance about teenage sweethearts – Tamar and Fayard – who spend some moments together at the airport in their hometown of Columbia, South Carolina before their world is…
