Fiction & Literature Audiobooks

Buying into the dream that education is the road out of poverty, a teen mom takes a chance on bettering herself, gets on welfare rolls, and talks her way into college. But once she's there, phallocratic narratives permeate every subject, and creative writing professors depend heavily on Freytag's pyramid to analyze life.So Ariel turns to a rich subcultural canon of resistance and failure, populated by writers like Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, Gloria Anzaldúa, Tillie Olsen, and Kathy Acker.Wryly riffing on feminist literary tropes, We Were Witches documents the survival of a demonized single mother. She's beset by custody disputes, homophobia, and America's ever-present obsession with shaming strange women into passive citizenship. But even as the narrator struggles to graduate?often the triumphant climax of a dramatic plot?a question uncomfortably lingers. If you're dealing with precarious parenthood, queer identity, and debt, what is the true narrative shape of your experience? Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award.

Ariel Gore (Author), Ariel Gore (Narrator)

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Whiskey: A Novel

Whiskey is bitter to swallow and burns pleasantly as it goes down, but has a lasting, powerful effect on listeners. Brothers Andre and Smoker were raised in a cauldron of their parents' failed marriage and appetite for destruction, and find themselves in the same straits as adults-navigating not only their own marriages, but also their parents' frequent collision with the law and one another. The family lives in Electric City, Washington, just a few miles south of the Colville Indian Reservation. Fiercely loyal and just plain fierce, they're bound by a series of darkly comedic and hauntingly violent events: domestic trouble; religious fanaticism; benders punctuated with pauses to dry out that never stick. When a religious zealot takes off with Smoker's daughter, there's no question that his brother-who continues doggedly to try and put his life in order-will join him in an attempt to return her. Maybe the venture will break them both beyond repair or maybe it will redeem them. Or perhaps both. Whiskey is an audiobook about two brothers, their parents, and three wrecked marriages, a searching examination of family life at its most distressed-about kinship, failure, enough liquor to get through it all, and ultimately a dark and hard-earned grace. With an authentic literary voice all his own, Bruce Holbert traverses the harsh landscape of America's northwestern border and finds a family unlike any you've met before.

Bruce Holbert (Author), Bruce Holbert (Narrator)

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This Scorched Earth: A Novel of the Civil War

This Scorched Earth is an amazing tour de force depicting a family's journey from devastation to rebirth following the American Civil War, from New York Times bestselling author William Gear. The American Civil War tore at the very roots of our nation and destroyed most of a generation. To truly understand the madness and despair of such a horrendous conflict one needs to pick a moment. Or see that war through one family's eyes. In rural Arkansas, such was the Hancocks. Devastated by a cruel war, they faced down their personal hells and in spite of it all survived. Their survival is a testament to the power of love...and the American spirit. This is their story. And ours.

William Gear (Author), Alex Hyde-White (Narrator)

Audiobook

Taking the Lane: The Feminist Bicycle Revolution

This audiozine features authors and others reading some of the most popular essays and stories in the first ten issues of the Taking the Lane zine series. Essays and vignettes range from personal to political, and a number of science fiction stories are included. One woman reads about riding her bike to the birth center while having contractions. A man reads about being led on an enchanting bicycle chase. On the fiction end, there are postapocalyptic cautionary tales and a charming time travel story set in Portland.

Elly Blue (Author), Various, Various Narrators (Narrator)

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Classic Literature: Ten Classic Literature Titles in Hour-Long Dramatizations

Bring history back to life through this historically accurate and edifying program read by Jim Hodges. These high-quality radio theater performances reenact great literature written by Dickens, Twain, Austen, and Cervantes. Many accredited universities used this series as a supplement to correspondence college courses. It was an ambitious series that employed famous actors, sound effects, and dramatic music to convey the story in an entertaining manner. Use as an introduction to, or summary of, the books you've read by these famous authors, or purely as entertainment. You will not be disappointed! Look for the Old Time Radio Show Collection from the '30s, '40s, and '50s! These classic stories will capture your attention as they reenact history in short programs.

Jim Hodges Productions (Author), Full Cast (Narrator)

Audiobook

Acid West: Essays

A rollicking debut book of essays that takes listeners on a trip through the muck of American myths that have settled in the desert of our country's underbellyEarly on July 16, 1945, Joshua Wheeler's great grandfather awoke to a flash, and then a long rumble: the world's first atomic blast filled the horizon north of his ranch in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Out on the range, the cattle had been bleached white by the fallout.Acid West, Wheeler's stunning debut collection of essays, is full of these mutated cows: vestiges of the Old West that have been transformed, suddenly and irrevocably, by innovation. Traversing the New Mexico landscape his family has called home for seven generations, Wheeler excavates and reexamines these oddities, assembling a cabinet of narrative curiosities: a man who steps from the stratosphere and free-falls to the desert; a treasure hunt for buried Atari video games; a village plagued by the legacy of atomic testing; a lonely desert spaceport; a UFO festival during the paranoid Summer of Snowden.The radical evolution of American identity, from cowboys to drone warriors to space explorers, is a story rooted in southern New Mexico. Acid West illuminates this history, clawing at the bounds of genre to reveal a place that is, for better or worse, home. By turns intimate, absurd, and frightening, Acid West is an enlightening deep-dive into a prophetic desert at the bottom of America.

Joshua Wheeler (Author), Andrew Eiden (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Gesture Life

Chang-rae Lee's A Gesture Life is now available for the first time in audio! His remarkable debut novel was called "rapturous" (The New York Times Book Review), "revelatory" (Vogue), and "wholly innovative" (Kirkus Reviews). It was the recipient of six major awards, including the prestigious Hemingway Foundation/PEN award. Now Chang-rae Lee has written a powerful and beautifully crafted second novel that leaves no doubt about the extraordinary depth and range of his talent. A Gesture Life is the story of a proper man, an upstanding citizen who has come to epitomize the decorous values of his New York suburban town. Courteous, honest, hardworking, and impenetrable, Franklin Hata, a Japanese man of Korean birth, is careful never to overstep his boundaries and to make his neighbors comfortable in his presence. Yet as his story unfolds, precipitated by the small events surrounding him, we see his life begin to unravel. Gradually we learn the mystery that has shaped the core of his being: his terrible, forbidden love for a young Korean Comfort Woman when he served as a medic in the Japanese army during World War II. In A Gesture Life, Chang-rae Lee leads us with dazzling control through a taut, suspenseful story about love, family, and community--and the secrets we harbor. As in Native Speaker, he writes of the ways outsiders conform in order to survive and the price they pay for doing so. It is a haunting, breathtaking display of talent by an acclaimed young author

Chang-Rae Lee (Author), Greg Watanabe (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Autograph Man: A Novel

We live in a world of signs. But not everybody has to trade in them.... Alex-Li Tandem sells autographs. A small blip in a huge worldwide network of desire, his business is to hunt for names on paper, collect them, sell them, and occasionally fake them-all to give the people what they want: a little piece of Fame. But what does Alex want? Only the return of his father, the reinstatement of some kind of all-powerful, benevolent God-type figure, the end of religion, something for his headache, three different girls, infinite grace, and the rare autograph of forties movie actress Kitty Alexander. With fries. The Autograph Man is a deeply funny existential tour around the hollow things of modernity: celebrity, cinema, and the ugly triumph of symbol over experience. Through London and then New York, searching for the only autograph that has ever mattered to him, Alex follows the paper trail while resisting the mystical lure of Kabbalah and Zen, and avoiding all collectors, con men, and interfering rabbis who would put themselves in his path. Pushing against the tide of his generation, Alex-Li is on his way to finding enlightenment, otherwise known as some part of himself that cannot be signed, celebrated, or sold.

Zadie Smith (Author), Ben Barnes (Narrator)

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Paris by the Book: A Novel

A missing person, a grieving family, a curious clue: a half-finished manuscript set in Paris. Heading off in search of its author, a mother and her daughters find themselves in France, rescuing a failing bookstore and drawing closer to unexpected truths. Once a week, I chase men who are not my husband. . . . When eccentric novelist Robert Eady abruptly vanishes, he leaves behind his wife, Leah, their daughters, and, hidden in an unexpected spot, plane tickets to Paris. Hoping to uncover clues--and her husband--Leah sets off for France with her girls. Upon their arrival, she discovers an unfinished manuscript, one Robert had been writing without her knowledge . . . and that he had set in Paris. The Eady women follow the path of the manuscript to a small, floundering English-language bookstore whose weary proprietor is eager to sell. The whole store? Today? Yes, but Leah's biggest surprise comes when she hears herself accepting the offer on the spot. As the family settles into their new Parisian life, they can't help but trace the literary paths of some beloved Parisian classics, including Madeline and The Red Balloon, hoping more clues arise. But a series of startling discoveries forces Leah to consider that she may not be ready for what solving this mystery might do to her family--and the Paris she thought she knew. At once haunting and charming, Paris by the Book follows one woman's journey as her story is being rewritten, exploring the power of family and the magic that hides within the pages of a book.

Liam Callanan (Author), Kim Bubbs (Narrator)

Audiobook

America Is Not the Heart: A Novel

How many lives fit in a lifetime? When Hero De Vera arrives in America--haunted by the political upheaval in the Philippines and disowned by her parents--she's already on her third. Her uncle gives her a fresh start in the Bay Area, and he doesn't ask about her past. His younger wife knows enough about the might and secrecy of the De Vera family to keep her head down. But their daughter--the first American-born daughter in the family--can't resist asking Hero about her damaged hands. An increasingly relevant story told with startling lucidity, humor, and an uncanny ear for the intimacies and shorthand of family ritual, America Is Not the Heart is a sprawling, soulful debut about three generations of women in one family struggling to balance the promise of the American dream and the unshakeable grip of history. With exuberance, grit, and sly tenderness, here is a family saga; an origin story; a romance; a narrative of two nations and the people who leave one home to grasp at another.

Elaine Castillo (Author), Donnabella Mortel (Narrator)

Audiobook

Around the Way Girls 9

Urban Books' popular Around the Way Girls series is back, bringing readers more dramatic tales about the lives of some tough, resourceful women who can hold their own when things get rough on the streets.Growing up poor and biracial, Shannon never quite fit in. Not truly accepted by either side of her family, the confused teenager turns to the one thing that loves her back unconditionally-the streets. With a bottle of liquor at her side and a worthless mentality in tow, Shannon allows the local strip club and the pole to become her new family. When one of her best customers turns out to be her long-lost brother, all hell breaks loose.For Brionna 'Breezy' Lee, life has been hell for as long as she can remember. Being mentally, verbally, sexually, and physically abused at the hands of her mother, it seems as if she will never get a break. The only thing keeping her sane is her best friend King, who's always been by her side; but even he is starting to become frustrated, as she says she's fed up with the abuse but continually makes excuses for why she won't seek help. Will Breezy's loyalty to a mother who couldn't care less about her cause even more tragedy, or will she listen to her friend and get out before it's too late?Cori and Nique are tired of living bottom barrel in Detroit, with shut-off notices and eviction threats a constant reality. Seeing no other way out, the duo sets a plan into motion, becoming the go-to girls from the hood. From robbing an off-duty cop to running stolen gas cards, smash and grabs, or stealing bundles of expensive weave, they definitely don't play about their grind. In their world, sometimes being 'down 4 whatever' is your only option!

La'tonya West, La’tonya West, Michel Moore, Ms. Michel Moore, T. C. Littles (Author), Iikane, L. Steven, L. Steven Taylor, Stevie Washington (Narrator)

Audiobook

Powers of Darkness: The Lost Version of Dracula

Powers of Darkness is an incredible literary discovery: In 1900, Icelandic publisher and writer Valdimar Ásmundsson set out to translate Bram Stoker's world-famous 1897 novel Dracula. Called Makt Myrkranna (literally, "Powers of Darkness"), this Icelandic edition included an original preface written by Stoker himself. Makt Myrkranna was published in Iceland in 1901 but remained undiscovered outside of the country until 1986, when Dracula scholarship was astonished by the discovery of Stoker's preface to the book. However, no one looked beyond the preface and deeper into Ásmundsson's story.In 2014, literary researcher Hans de Roos dove into the full text of Makt Myrkranna, only to discover that Ásmundsson hadn't merely translated Dracula but had penned an entirely new version of the story, with all new characters and a totally reworked plot. The resulting narrative is one that is shorter, punchier, more erotic, and perhaps even more suspenseful than Stoker's Dracula. Incredibly, Makt Myrkranna has never been translated or even read outside of Iceland until now.Powers of Darkness presents the first ever translation into English of Stoker and Ásmundsson's Makt Myrkranna. With a foreword by Dacre Stoker, Bram Stoker's great-grandnephew and bestselling author, and an afterword by Dracula scholar John Edgar Browning, Powers of Darkness will amaze and entertain legions of fans of Gothic literature, horror, and vampire fiction. **Contact Customer Service for Additional Material**

Bram Stoker, Valdimar Asmundsson, Valdimar ásmundsson (Author), Adam Verner, Derek Perkins, Others, R. C. Bray, Ralph Lister, Robertson Dean, Various, Various Narrators (Narrator)

Audiobook