Audiobooks narrated by Ariel Blake

Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Change

From the New York Times-bestselling author of The 57 Bus comes Accountable, a propulsive and thought-provoking new young adult narrative nonfiction book about the revelation of a racist social media account that changes everything for a group of high school students and begs the question: What does it mean to be held accountable for harm that takes place behind a screen? When a high school student started a private Instagram account that used racist and sexist memes to make his friends laugh, he thought of it as “edgy” humor. Over time, the edge got sharper. Then a few other kids found out about the account. Pretty soon, everyone knew. Ultimately no one in the small town of Albany, California, was safe from the repercussions of the account’s discovery. Not the girls targeted by the posts. Not the boy who created the account. Not the group of kids who followed it. Not the adults—educators and parents—whose attempts to fix things too often made them worse. In the end, no one was laughing. And everyone was left asking: Where does accountability end for online speech that harms? And what does accountability even mean? Award-winning and New York Times–bestselling author Dashka Slater has written a must-read book for our era that explores the real-world consequences of online choices. A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Dashka Slater (Author), Ariel Blake (Narrator)

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Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?: A Novel

REESE'S BOOK CLUB MAY 2023 PICK A multigenerational saga that traverses the glamour of old Hollywood and the seductive draw of modern-day showbiz When Kitty Karr Tate, a White icon of the silver screen, dies and bequeaths her multimillion-dollar estate to the St. John sisters, three young, wealthy Black women, it prompts questions. Lots of questions. A celebrity in her own right, Elise St. John would rather focus on sorting out Kitty’s affairs than deal with the press. But what she discovers in one of Kitty’s journals rocks her world harder than any other brewing scandal could—and between a cheating fiancé and the fallout from a controversial social media post, there are plenty. The truth behind Kitty's ascent to stardom from her beginnings in the segregated South threatens to expose a web of unexpected family ties, debts owed, and debatable crimes that could, with one pull, unravel the all-American fabric of the St. John sisters and those closest to them. As Elise digs deeper into Kitty's past, she must also turn the lens upon herself, confronting the gifts and burdens of her own choices and the power that the secrets of the dead hold over the living. Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? is a sprawling page-turner set against the backdrop of the Hollywood machine, an insightful and nuanced look at the inheritances of family, race, and gender—and the choices some women make to break free of them. A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company.

Crystal Smith Paul (Author), Ariel Blake, Kineta Kunutu, Lynnette Nicholas (Narrator)

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For the Culture: Phenomenal Black Women and Femmes in Food: Interviews, Inspiration, and Recipes

A must-have anthology of the leading Black women and femmes shaping today’s food and hospitality landscape—from farm to table and beyond—chronicling their passions and motivations, lessons learned and hard-won wisdom, personal recipes, and more. Chef and writer Klancy Miller found her own way by trial and error—as a pastry chef, recipe developer, author, and founder of For the Culture magazine—but what if she had known then what she knows now? What if she had known the extraordinary women profiled within these pages—entrepreneurs, chefs, food stylists, mixologists, historians, influencers, hoteliers, and more—and learned from their stories? Like Leah Penniman, a farmer using Afro-Indigenous methods to restore the land and feed her community; Ashtin Berry, an activist, sommelier, and mixologist creating radical change in the hospitality industry and beyond; or Sophia Roe, a TV host and producer showcasing the inside stories behind today’s food systems. Toni Tipton-Martin, Mashama Bailey, Carla Hall, Nicole Taylor, Dr. Jessica B. Harris . . . In this gorgeous volume these luminaries and more share the vision that drives them, the mistakes they made along the way, advice for the next generation, and treasured recipes.. In addition, Miller shines a light on the matriarchs who paved the way for today’s tastemakers—Edna Lewis, B. Smith, Leah Chase, Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, and Lena Richard. These collective profiles are a one-of-a-kind oral history of a movement, captured in real time, and indispensable for anyone passionate about food. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Klancy Miller (Author), Ariel Blake, Janina Edwards, Karen Malina White, Klancy Miller, Machelle Williams, Sisi A. Johnson, Susan Dalian (Narrator)

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Hamlet (No Fear Shakespeare)

Don't be intimidated by Shakespeare! These popular guides make the Bard's plays accessible and enjoyable. Each No Fear guide contains: - The complete text of the original play - A line-by-line translation that puts Shakespeare into everyday language - A complete list of characters with descriptions - Plenty of helpful commentary When Shakespeare's words make your head spin, our audio translations will help you sort out what's happening, who's saying what, and why!

Sparknotes (Author), Ariel Blake, Dion Graham, Fred Berman, Gabra Zackman, Gabriel Vaughan, Imani Jade Powers, James Fouhey, Jennifer Van Dyck, Jonathan Davis, Robert Petkoff, Soneela Nankani, Therese Plummer (Narrator)

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Luster

The New York Times Bestseller ‘A taut, sharp, funny book about being young now. It’s brutal – and brilliant.’ Zadie Smith, author of Swing Time ‘Remarkable, the most delicious novel I’ve read.’ Candice Carty-Williams, author of Queenie 'I was blown away by this debut novel . . . It is exquisite.' Dolly Alderton, author of Ghosts 'A book of pure fineness, exceptional.' Diana Evans, Guardian Edie is just trying to survive. She’s messing up in her dead-end admin job in her all-white office, is sleeping with all the wrong men, and has failed at the only thing that meant anything to her, painting. No one seems to care that she doesn’t really know what she’s doing with her life beyond looking for her next hook-up. And then she meets Eric, a white, middle-aged archivist with a suburban family, including a wife who has sort-of-agreed to an open marriage and an adopted black daughter who doesn’t have a single person in her life who can show her how to do her hair. As if navigating the constantly shifting landscape of sexual and racial politics as a young black woman wasn’t already hard enough, with nowhere else left to go, Edie finds herself falling head-first into Eric’s home and family. Razor sharp, provocatively page-turning and surprisingly tender, Luster by Raven Leilani is a painfully funny debut about what it means to be young now.

Raven Leilani (Author), Ariel Blake (Narrator)

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Say Anarcha: A Young Woman, a Devious Surgeon, and the Harrowing Birth of Modern Women's Health

A compelling reckoning with the birth of women’s health that illuminates the sacrifices of a young woman who changed the world only to be forgotten by it—until now For more than a century, Dr. J. Marion Sims was hailed as the “father of modern gynecology.” He founded a hospital in New York City and had a profitable career treating gentry and royalty in Europe, becoming one of the world’s first celebrity surgeons. Statues were built in his honor, but he wasn’t the hero he had made himself appear to be. Sims’s greatest medical claim was the result of several years of experimental surgeries—without anesthesia—on a young enslaved woman known as Anarcha; his so-called cure for obstetric fistula forever altered the path of women’s health. One medical text after another hailed Anarcha as the embodiment of the pivotal role that Sims played in the history of surgery. Decades later, a groundswell of women objecting to Sims’s legacy celebrated Anarcha as the “mother of gynecology.” Little was known about the woman herself. The written record would have us believe Anarcha disappeared; she did not. Through tenacious research, J. C. Hallman has unearthed the first evidence of Anarcha’s life that did not come from Sims’s suspect reports. Hallman reveals that after helping to spark a patient-centered model of care that continues to improve women’s lives today, Anarcha lived on as a midwife, nurse, and “doctor woman.” Say Anarcha excavates history, deconstructing the biographical smoke screen of a surgeon who has falsely been enshrined as a medical pioneer and bringing forth a heroic Black woman to her rightful place at the center of the creation story of modern women’s health care. A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt & Company.

J. C. Hallman (Author), Ariel Blake, Peter Ganim (Narrator)

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That Way Madness Lies: 15 of Shakespeare's Most Notable Works Reimagined

In That Way Madness Lies, fifteen acclaimed YA writers put their modern spin on William Shakespeare’s celebrated classics! West Side Story. 10 Things I Hate About You. Kiss Me, Kate. Contemporary audiences have always craved reimaginings of Shakespeare’s most beloved works. Now, some of today’s best writers for teens take on the Bard in these 15 whip-smart and original retellings! This program is read by: Lily Anderson, Ariel Blake, Patrice Caldwell, Caitlin Davies, Ramon de Ocampo, Almarie Guerra, Cary Hite, North Homewood, Barrie Kreinik, Nikki Massoud, Joy McCullough, Mark Oshiro, Avi Roque, Julia Whelan, and Landon Woodson Contributors include Dahlia Adler (reimagining The Merchant of Venice), Kayla Ancrum (The Taming of the Shrew), Lily Anderson (All’s Well That Ends Well), Melissa Bashardoust (A Winter’s Tale), Patrice Caldwell (Hamlet), Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy (Much Ado About Nothing), Brittany Cavallaro (Sonnet 147), Joy McCullough (King Lear), Anna-Marie McLemore (Midsummer Night’s Dream), Samantha Mabry (Macbeth), Tochi Onyebuchi (Coriolanus), Mark Oshiro (Twelfth Night), Lindsay Smith (Julius Caesar), Kiersten White (Romeo and Juliet), and Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka (The Tempest). A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books

Dahlia Adler (Author), Almarie Guerra, Ariel Blake, Avi Roque, Barrie Kreinik, Caitlin Davies, Cary Hite, Joy Mccullough, Julia Whelan, Landon Woodson, Lily Anderson, Mark Oshiro, Nikki Massoud, North Homewood, Patrice Caldwell, Ramon De Ocampo (Narrator)

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The Black Girls Left Standing

In Juliana Goodman's powerful young adult debut The Black Girls Left Standing, Beau Willet will stop at nothing to clear her sister's name. Sixteen-year-old Beau Willet has dreams of being an artist and one day leaving the Chicago projects she’s grown up in. But after her older sister, Katia, is killed by an off-duty police officer, Beau knows she has to clear her sister’s name by finding the only witness to the murder; Katia’s no-good boyfriend, Jordan, who has gone missing. If she doesn't find him and tell the world what really happened, Katia's death will be ignored, like the deaths of so many other Black women who are wrongfully killed. With the help of her friend, Sonnet, Beau sets up a Twitter account to gather anonymous tips. But the more that Beau finds out about her sister's death, the more danger she finds herself in. And with a new relationship developing with her childhood friend, Champion, and the struggle to keep her family together, Beau is soon in way over her head. How much is she willing to risk to clear her sister's name and make sure she's not forgotten? A Macmillan Audio production from Feiwel & Friends.

Juliana Goodman (Author), Ariel Blake (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Ariel Blake