Audiobooks narrated by Beresford Bennett

In this wry take on the post-apocalyptic horror novel, a pandemic has devastated the planet. The plague has sorted humanity into two types: the uninfected and the infected, the living and the living dead. Now the plague is receding, and Americans are busy rebuilding civilization under orders from the provisional government based in Buffalo. Their top mission: the resettlement of Manhattan. Armed forces have successfully reclaimed the island south of Canal Street aka Zone One but pockets of plague-ridden squatters remain. While the army has eliminated the most dangerous of the infected, teams of civilian volunteers are tasked with clearing out a more innocuous variety the malfunctioning stragglers, who exist in a catatonic state, transfixed by their former lives. Mark Spitz is a member of one of the civilian teams working in lower Manhattan. Alternating between flashbacks of Spitz's desperate fight for survival during the worst of the outbreak and his present narrative, the novel unfolds over three surreal days, as it depicts the mundane mission of straggler removal, the rigors of Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder, and the impossible job of coming to grips with the fallen world. And then things start to go wrong. Both spine chilling and playfully cerebral, Zone One brilliantly subverts the genre's conventions and deconstructs the zombie myth for the twenty-first century.

Colson Whitehead (Author), Beresford Bennett (Narrator)

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Zone One

A pandemic has devastated the planet, sorting humanity into two types: the uninfected and the infected, the living and the living dead. The worst of the plague is now past, and Manhattan is slowly being resettled. Armed forces have successfully reclaimed the island south of Canal Street - aka 'Zone One' and teams of civilian volunteers are clearing out the remaining infected 'stragglers'. Mark Spitz is a member of one of these taskforces and over three surreal days he undertakes the mundane mission of malfunctioning zombie removal, the rigours of Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder, and attempting to come to terms with a fallen world. But then things start to go terribly wrong...

Colson Whitehead (Author), Beresford Bennett (Narrator)

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We Were Eight Years in Power: 'One of the foremost essayists on race in the West' Nikesh Shukla, aut

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates, read by Beresford Bennett. From 2008-2016, the leader of the free world was a black man. Obama's presidency reshaped America and transformed the international conversation around politics, race, equality. But it attracted criticism and bred discontent as much as it inspired hope - so much so, that the world now faces an uncertain future under a very different kind of US President. In this essential new book, peerless journalist and thinker Ta-Nehisi Coates takes stock of the Obama era, speaking authoritatively from political, ideological and cultural perspectives, and drawing a sophisticated and penetrating portrait of America today.

Ta-Nehisi Coates (Author), Beresford Bennett (Narrator)

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We Were Eight Years in Power

In these "urgently relevant essays,"* the National Book Award-winning author of Between the World and Me "reflects on race, Barack Obama's presidency and its jarring aftermath"*-including the election of Donald Trump. "We were eight years in power" was the lament of Reconstruction-era black politicians as the American experiment in multiracial democracy ended with the return of white supremacist rule in the South. In this sweeping collection of new and selected essays, Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the tragic echoes of that history in our own time: the unprecedented election of a black president followed by a vicious backlash that fueled the election of the man Coates argues is America's "first white president." But the story of these present-day eight years is not just about presidential politics. This book also examines the new voices, ideas, and movements for justice that emerged over this period-and the effects of the persistent, haunting shadow of our nation's old and unreconciled history. Coates powerfully examines the events of the Obama era from his intimate and revealing perspective-the point of view of a young writer who begins the journey in an unemployment office in Harlem and ends it in the Oval Office, interviewing a president. We Were Eight Years in Power features Coates's iconic essays first published in The Atlantic, including "Fear of a Black President," "The Case for Reparations," and "The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration," along with eight fresh essays that revisit each year of the Obama administration through Coates's own experiences, observations, and intellectual development, capped by a bracingly original assessment of the election that fully illuminated the tragedy of the Obama era. We Were Eight Years in Power is a vital account of modern America, from one of the definitive voices of this historic moment. *Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Ta-Nehisi Coates (Author), Beresford Bennett (Narrator)

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Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America

An acclaimed chronicler of the Civil Rights Movement, Peniel Joseph presents this sweeping overview of a key component of the struggle for racial equality-the Black Power movement. This is the story of the men and women who sacrificed so much to begin a more vocal and radical push for social change in the 1960s and 1970s.

Peniel E. Joseph (Author), Beresford Bennett (Narrator)

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The Secrets of Newberry

Victor McGlothin is the Essence best-selling author of Autumn Leaves. In The Secrets of Newberry, McGlothin crafts a stunning portrait of race relations in New Orleans circa 1955. When Hampton Bynote meets Bones Arcineaux, the two begin stealing from the rich whites of the French Quarter as a way of recovering the pride that was once taken from them. But when one burglary takes a turn for the worse, the consequences haunt the two men for years to come. 'McGlothin's rugged prose captures the sultry locale '''Publishers Weekly

Victor McGlothin (Author), Beresford Bennett (Narrator)

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The Honeymoon is Over

National best-selling author Keith Lee Johnson enjoyed breakout success for his novel Little Black Girl Lost. Now Johnson introduces Nelson Kennard, a former number one NBA draft pick who blew his chance at the big time-and is about to lose the best thing that's ever happened to him, sexy school teacher Parris Stalls. Soon-to-be-dissed Nelson may have been a playa back in the day, but there's always another baller waiting in the wings.

Keith Lee Johnson (Author), Beresford Bennett (Narrator)

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The Gift of Fire / On the Head of a Pin

The Gift of Fire In ancient mythology, the Titan Prometheus was punished by the gods for bringing man the gift of fire-an event that set humankind on its course of knowledge. As punishment, Prometheus was bound to a rock. But in The Gift of Fire, those chains cease to be, and the great champion of man walks from that immortal prison into present-day South Central Los Angeles. Disheveled and lost, he is thrown in jail, where he meets lifelong criminal Nosome Blane. Shocked at what humanity has done with his gift, he looks for another way to empower his cause. His only hope lies with Nosome's bedridden fourteen-year-old nephew, Chief Reddy, who is anointed with Prometheus's second gift of fire . . . On the Head of a Pin Joshua Winterland and Ana Fried are working at Jennings-Tremont Enterprises. JTE is developing advanced animatronics editing techniques that will create high-end movies indistinguishable from live action. But one night Joshua and Ana discover something lingering in the rendered footage . . . an entity that will eventually reveal itself as "the Sail" and lead Joshua and Ana into a new age . . . beyond the reality they have come to know, and deep into the true nature of good and evil.

Walter Mosley (Author), Beresford Bennett, Dominic Hoffman (Narrator)

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The Child in the Electric Chair: The Execution of George Junius Stinney Jr. and the Making of a Trag

At 7:30 a.m. on June 16, 1944, George Junius Stinney Jr. was escorted by four guards to the death chamber. Wearing socks but no shoes, the 14-year-old Black boy walked with his Bible tucked under his arm. The guards strapped his slight, five-foot-one-inch frame into the electric chair. His small size made it difficult to affix the electrode to his right leg and the face mask, which was clearly too large, fell to the floor when the executioner flipped the switch. That day, George Stinney became, and today remains, the youngest person executed in the United States during the twentieth century. How was it possible, even in Jim Crow South Carolina, for a child to be convicted, sentenced to death, and executed based on circumstantial evidence in a trial that lasted only a few hours? Through extensive archival research and interviews with Stinney's contemporaries?men and women alive today who still carry distinctive memories of the events that rocked the small town of Alcolu and the entire state?Eli Faber pieces together the chain of events that led to this tragic injustice. The first book to fully explore the events leading to Stinney's death, The Child in the Electric Chair offers a compelling narrative with a meticulously researched analysis of the world in which Stinney lived?the era of lynching, segregation, and racist assumptions about Black Americans. Faber explains how a systemically racist system, paired with the personal ambitions of powerful individuals, turned a blind eye to human decency and one of the basic tenets of the American legal system that individuals are innocent until proven guilty. As society continues to grapple with the legacies of racial injustice, the story of George Stinney remains one that can teach us lessons about our collective past and present. By ably placing the Stinney case into a larger context, Faber reveals how this case is not just a travesty of justice locked in the era of the Jim Crow South but rather one that continues to resonate in our own time.

Eli Faber (Author), Beresford Bennett, Karen Chilton (Narrator)

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Sometimes Farmgirls Become Revolutionaries: Florence Tate on Black Power, Black Politics and the FBI

Sometimes Farmgirls Become Revolutionaries is the story of an unsung civil rights organizer, Black Power activist, and barrier-breaking Black woman, Florence Louise Tate (1931-2014). Tate was close to the young leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. She became a mentor, a mother-of-themovement, and a target of J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. Tate defied stereotypes of the 1960s, playing key roles in the lives and work of an astonishing number of high-profile leaders of the most influential social-change organizations and events of the twentieth century. She also worked with numerous Black Nationalist leaders and Pan-African activists, US politicians, and members of the Congressional Black Caucus. She was close to Marion Barry and Jesse Jackson, serving both men as press secretary. An accomplished activist, most people never knew that Tate was bravely fighting chronic depression. She endured years of electroconvulsive shock treatments and therapy to live a full life, contribute to her community, fight for human and civil rights, and be available to her family. Farmgirls is an engaging collage of Tate's life, woven together from her journal entries, memories from people who knew her, and excerpts from her FBI files. These multiple perspectives bring into focus the complex and complicated saga of a public persona engaged in private struggle, defying and overcoming the odds.

Florence Tate, Jake-Ann Jones (Author), Beresford Bennett, Kim Staunton (Narrator)

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So You Call Yourself a Man

New York Times best-selling author Carl Weber amps up the sexiness and pulse-quickening drama in this riveting novel. All's good for James and Cathy'until a woman shows up with James' love child. Undeniably suave Brent thinks he's found happiness with a born-again churchgoer, until another leads him into temptation. And longtime friend Sonny is going to need help from James and Brent if he's to have any hope of salvaging his marriage. 'A raucous 'desperate husbands' story line'co-starring crazy baby mamas, shady churchgoers and various deranged personalities'ups the conflict quotient significantly.' 'Publishers Weekly

Carl Weber (Author), Beresford Bennett, Marc Damon Johnson, Robert Jason Jackson, Various Readers (Narrator)

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Race First: The Ideological and Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Im

'This book has the important element that is missing in most of the books and articles on Garvey-a political analysis of what the Garvey Movement was about.'-John Henrik Clarke, The Black Scholar A classic study of the Garvey movement, this is the most thoroughly researched book on Garvey's ideas by a historian of black nationalism.

Tony Martin (Author), Beresford Bennett (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Beresford Bennett