Audio Archives - Page 21 of 56

A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi [in Booklist]

17 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Iranian American, Persian, Persian American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Already a best-selling fantasy YA author (the Shatter Me series), Tahereh Mafi firmly roots herself in familiar reality with her latest, a can’t-turn-away timely story about teens falling in love despite intolerant peer pressure, difficult family situations, and vast cultural divides. Sixteen-year-old Shirin has switched...

Lu [Track series: Book 4] by Jason Reynolds [in School Library Journal]

12 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Repost

The final title in two-time National Book Award-nominated Jason Reynolds’ popular Track tetralogy (Ghost, Patina, Sunny, Lu) is the third of the series voiced by the author’s childhood friend and anointed collaborator Guy Lockard. Meet “Lucky Lu,” “Lookie Lu,” “Lu the Lightning Bolt,” who’s co-captain...

Sunny [Track series: Book 3] by Jason Reynolds [in School Library Journal]

11 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers

“Dear Diary” started because Sunny's father wanted him to be "more hushy-hushy" than "yelly-yelly." Writing gave Sunny a place "to put the noise…whenever [he] needed to, which was all the time except for when [he] was running or sleeping." Sunny's a gifted runner yet being...

Tiffany Sly Lives Here Now by Dana L. Davis [in School Library Journal]

10 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Sixteen-year-old Tiffany Sly’s mother has just died of cancer when she’s sent from Chicago to Simi Valley, CA, to live with a father she’s never met. At her massive new home, she’s greeted by a white stepmother and four half-sisters because Dr. Anthony Stone’s away...

The Windfall [audio] by Diksha Basu [in Booklist]

09 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

Mr. Jha, who not so long ago comfortably supported his family on a monthly salary equivalent to $200, sells his website for $20 million. That titular windfall transforms his life, along with those of his family and friends. Money – who has it, how it’s...

My Name is Venus Black by Heather Lloyd

28 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers

Venus Black gets straight As, has never gotten drunk, smoked pot, or skipped a class. She’s also a 13-year-old murderer, sent to juvenile lock-up for shooting her stepfather. Within days, her younger half-brother Leo – “[he] has what [their mother] Inez calls ‘developmental issues’” –...

The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe, translated by Lilit Thwaites

26 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, European, Fiction, Jewish, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Spanish novelist Arturo Iturbe transforms real-life Holocaust survivor Dita Kraus into 14-year-old Edita Adler, forcibly sent to Auschwitz with her parents. She’s assigned to Block 31, a wooden hut where the children of the ignominiously named “family camp” are sent to be “entertained” while parents...

Five More (Audiobooks) to Go: Esi Edugyan’s Washington Black, read by Dion Graham [in The Booklist Reader]

21 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Black/African American, Canadian, Caribbean, Fiction, Repost

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan and read by Dion Graham George Washington Black – called "Wash" for short – is an enslaved 10- or 11-year-old (he "cannot say for certain") on Faith Plantation in 1830s Barbados. He is first owned by one brother, then stolen by another....

New Kids on the Audio Block | Book ’Em Now: Sing, Unburied, Sing’s Audacious Trio [in Booklist]

20 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Repost

Book ’Em Now: Sing, Unburied, Sing’s Audacious Trio Imagine choosing three first-time narrators to voice the next novel from a National Book Award winner. Takes faith! Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones won the 2011 NBA for fiction; six years later, she won her second NBA for...

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan [in Booklist]

18 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Canadian, Caribbean, Fiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW The deeply empathetic, decisively chameleonic Dion Graham proves himself to be an ideal aural collaborator for Esi Edugyan’s (Half-Blood Blues, 2012) stupendous novel, shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and Man Booker Prize. George Washington Black, called “Wash,” is a young slave on Faith Plantation...

Five More (Audiobooks) to Go: Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Labyrinth of the Spirits, read by Daniel Weyman [in The Booklist Reader]

13 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British, European, Fiction, Japanese, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Spanish, Translation, Young Adult Readers

The Labyrinth of the Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafón and read by Daniel Weyman Casting a male narrator for a novel featuring a female protagonist might initially seem like a bad idea, but actor Daniel Weyman (who also narrated Zafón's Marina) makes sure Alicia Gris, the...

The Science of Breakable Things by Tae Keller

11 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Korean American, Middle Grade Readers

In one of those “dorky old composition notebooks,” seventh-grader Natalie is “supposed to observe something that interests us and spend all year applying the scientific process to our capital-Q Question.” While she struggles to formulate that ideal Q, Natalie fills the pages with much more...

Not Our Kind by Kitty Zeldis [in Booklist]

07 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Jewish, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

Class, gender, and religious differences in post-WWII Manhattan drive this debut novel from the pseudonymous Zeldis in which two worlds literally collide in the opening chapter. Caught in a fender bender, Eleanor Moskowitz and Patricia Bellamy emerge from their respective taxis in a rare chance...

The Labyrinth of the Spirits [The Cemetery of Forgotten Books finale] by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, translated by Lucia Graves [in Booklist]

05 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, European, Fiction, Repost, Spanish, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Casting a male narrator for a female-protagonist-driven novel might seem initially ill-fitting, but Daniel Weyman, who also narrated Zafón’s Marina (2015), makes sure Alicia Gris gets well heard in the stupendous, well-worth-the-long-wait finale of Zafón’s Cemetery of Forgotten Books tetralogy plus short story. Anglicized by...

Five More (Audiobooks) to Go: Kate Atkinson’s Transcription, read by Fenella Woolgar [in The Booklist Reader]

03 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Canadian, European, Fiction, Hong Kongese, Japanese, Korean American, Lists, Repost

Transcription by Kate Atkinson and read by Fenella Woolgar Actress Fenella Woolgar and author Kate Atkinson have shared many creatively fruitful unions. Seasoned fans will recognize Woolgar from the 2011 BBC screen adaptation of Atkinson’s Case Histories, in which she played the sister of protagonist Jackson Brodie’s lover....

The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles) by Amy Spalding [in Library Journal]

28 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Without glossing over more difficult subjects – fat shaming, homophobia, parental (non)acceptance, matters of consent – Amy Spalding's (The New Guy [and Other Senior Distractions]) latest is a charming contemporary love story, complete with blogs, social media, rating apps, and more. For the summer before senior...

Transcription by Kate Atkinson [in Booklist]

23 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW So transforming was Fenella Woolgar’s performance of Kate Atkinson’s stupendous Life after Life (2013), the immediate reaction here is joyful relief at hearing Woolgar take aural control of another Atkinson novel. From an inexperienced, untested teenager embarking on her first job, in 1940, to...

Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough [in Library Journal]

08 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, European, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Verse Novel/Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW At 12, Artemisia Gentileschi loses her mother, but not before "Prudentia Montone spent/ the last of her strength/ to burn into [Artemisia's] mind/ the tales of women/ no one else would/ think to tell" – including biblical heroines Susannah and Judith, who thwarted male...

Florida by Lauren Groff [in Booklist]

07 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Short Stories

Lauren Groff (Fates and Furies, 2015) lives in Florida and is married with two sons – not unlike five of the protagonists among the 11 stories here. Unlike with her previous titles, Groff narrates, adding a layer of intimacy to further enhance the first-person perspective...

I Should Have Honor: A Memoir of Hope and Pride in Pakistan by Khalida Brodi [in Library Journal]

06 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Memoir, Nonfiction, Pakistani, Pakistani American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

When she was 25, Forbes named Khalida Brohi to its 2014 "30 Under 30: Social Entrepreneurs" list for founding Sughar Foundation, which trains and empowers rural Pakistani women. Brohi makes both her authorial and performance debuts as she chronicles her journey from a rural Pakistani...

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