The Very Nice Box by Eve Gleichman and Laura Blackett [in Booklist]
29 Sep, by in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost
Ava Simon’s life might seem, well ...
BookDragon Audio
Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri, translated by Jhumpa Lahiri [in Booklist]
27 Sep, by in Adult Readers, Audio, European, Fiction, Indian American, Repost, South Asian American, Translation
Pulitzer Prize-winning polyglot Jhumpa Lahiri’s second title in Italian arrives in her own translation, narrated by Italian American Susan Vinciotti Bonito. Despite Bonito’s fluency in their shared language, her noticeably youthful timbre isn’t initially convincing as Lahiri’s unnamed, 40-something protagonist. And yet Lahiri’s unadorned, sharply...
Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi [in Booklist]
21 Sep, by in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Memoir, Nigerian, Nigerian American, Nonfiction, Repost
Just as only Akwaeke Emezi could have narrated their Freshwater debut, no other voice could have manifested their first nonfiction title. Presented as an epistolary mosaic addressed to family, friends, lovers, betrayers, and heroes, Emezi’s raw voice lays bare their unadorned writing. Although the vulnerability, arrogance, and...
House of Sticks by Ly Tran [in Booklist]
17 Sep, by in Adult Readers, Audio, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Southeast Asian American, Vietnamese American
In 1993, 3-year-old Ly Tran arrived in Queens with her parents and three older brothers from South Vietnam. Their new apartment was not the nhà là – “a house made of sticks and dried leaves” – that had been their former home; stability, however, was...
Mixed Plate: Chronicles of an All-American Combo by Jo Koy [in Booklist]
16 Sep, by in Adult Readers, Audio, Filipina/o, Filipina/o American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Southeast Asian American
That Jo Koy has created a sold-out, standing-ovation-earning stand-up career making people laugh while mining intimate family stories means no one else could possibly narrate his memoir. His hard-earned superstardom translates seamlessly into an audiobook, giving him a double-debut credit as author and narrator, presenting...
Hell of a Book by Jason Mott [in Booklist]
15 Sep, by in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost
*STARRED REVIEW Thanks to veteran narrator JD Jackson and newbie Ronald Peet, Mott’s fourth novel is also a “hell of an audiobook.” An unnamed writer (impeccably embodied by Jackson) embarks on his inaugural book tour because he’s written Hell of a Book. He’s been coached, trained,...
The Guncle by Steven Rowley [in Booklist]
05 Sep, by in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost
*STARRED REVIEW Titles about lonely survivors with just the right balance of lightening humor and lasting gravitas make for an undeniably popular genre. Think international sensation A Man Called Ove, whose global mega-success probably fueled the popularity of acerbic-but-redeemable-left-behinds-who-get-happy-endings sort of books. Steven Rowley’s latest is a prime example, superbly improved...
Good Eggs by Rebecca Hardiman [in Booklist]
04 Sep, by in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Irish, Nonethnic-specific, Repost
An octogenarian shoplifter doesn’t quite seem like a likely hero, but British actor Siobhan Waring will certainly make you believe otherwise. Kleptomaniacal Irish matriarch Millie is caught yet again at the village shop and this time her son Kevin (energetically embodied by Irish-born Gary Furlong)...
The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur [in Booklist]
01 Sep, by in Audio, Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Fiction, Korean, Korean American, Repost, Young Adult Readers
Korean Canadian June Hur’s enthralling debut, The Silence of Bones, vividly captured 19th-century fatal court intrigue during Korea’s Joseon Dynasty. Her follow-up is another tautly plotted thriller, set in 15th-century Joseon, and helmed by relative audiobook newbie Sue Jean Kim, who adroitly controls a sprawling...
Between Perfect & Real by Ray Stoeve [in Booklist]
28 Aug, by in Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Young Adult Readers
Debut novelist Ray Stoeve’s first chapter has three short sentences: “I think I might be trans. I mean, I know I am. I think.” Seattle high-school senior Dean already came out as lesbian, is lovingly partnered with Zoe, and has supportive friends (quality over quantity)....
How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue [in Booklist]
26 Aug, by in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers
*STARRED REVIEW Imbolo Mbue’s PEN/Faulkner-winning Behold the Dreamers unveiled immigrants chasing the American Dream; her searing sophomore title exposes U.S. destruction beyond its borders. In an unnamed African nation, oil giant Pexton has been poisoning the farming village of Kosawa – water, land, air, and people....
Once Upon a Quinceañera by Monica Gomez-Hira [in Booklist]
21 Aug, by in Audio, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost
Not to be confused with bestselling Julia Alvarez’s book of the same title – hers, a nonfiction examination of Latina coming-of-age quinceañera traditions – Monica Gomez-Hira makes her YA debut with a rollicking fable of quinceañeras lost and found. Eighteen-year-old Carmen never got her party: her...
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner [in Booklist]
16 Aug, by in Adult Readers, Audio, Hapa/Mixed-race, Korean American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost
*STARRED REVIEW Michelle Zauner’s mother Chongmi died in 2014 – she was just 56, Zauner 25. Her grief inspired her first album as Japanese Breakfast in 2016. Her viral 2018 New Yorker essay, “Crying in H Mart,” morphed into the first chapter of this, her dual author/narrator...
The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation by Anna Malaika Tubbs [in Booklist]
15 Aug, by in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Nonfiction, Repost
Sociology scholar Anna Malaika Tubbs double debuts as author and narrator in her empowering examination of three mothers: Alberta King, Berdis Baldwin, and Louise Little, who “have been almost entirely ignored throughout history,” although their sons are renowned: Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin, and...
Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell [in Booklist]
14 Aug, by in Adult Readers, Argentinian, Audio, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories, South American, Translation
*STARRED REVIEW Mariana Enriquez’s second collection, after 2017’s Things We Lost in the Fire, is insatiably addicting even as the dozen stories are gruesome, lurid, and utterly weird. As a Buenos Aires journalist, she witnessed true horror, the consequences of dictatorship, corruption, 30,000 disappeared; her literary...
No One Is Talking about This by Patricia Lockwood [in Booklist]
08 Aug, by in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost
Patricia Lockwood, who shocked and/or delighted with her memoir, Priestdaddy (2017), continues to disquiet with her new sort-of-in-the-end tragic (but uplifting, too) family drama. Kristen Sieh might be her ideal accomplice, as she oh-so-comfortably ciphers zingers and wisecracks most readers probably never expected to hear,...
All Kinds of Other by James Sie [in Booklist]
01 Aug, by in Audio, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Indian American, Repost, Young Adult Readers
James Sie (Still Life Las Vegas) multitasks as author and partial narrator in his first YA novel: the theme might seem common – a high school love story complicated by parents and friends – but the narrative’s specifics elevate the familiar into memorable. Sie gamely...
The Shape of Thunder by Jasmine Warga [in Booklist]
31 Jul, by in Audio, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Lebanese American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Repost
Next-door neighbors Cora Hamed and Quinn McCauley’s best-friendship began in toddlerhood, but they’ve spent the last 10 months in silence. Cora’s sister Mabel is dead. Quinn’s brother Parker murdered her; he took a gun to school and killed four people, including himself. Mourning defines the Hamed...
A Taste for Love by Jennifer Yen [in School Library Journal]
25 Jul, by in Audio, Fiction, Repost, Taiwanese American, Young Adult Readers
Her model – yep, as in runway – older sister Jeannie couldn’t be more perfect, leaving Liza all too familiar with their Taiwanese immigrant mother’s disappointment and frustration. Despite Mom’s “no dating while you’re in school” rule, she ironically can’t get over Liza’s lack of...
Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson [in School Library Journal]
24 Jul, by in Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Poetry, Repost, Verse Novel/Nonfiction
*STARRED REVIEW The “Before” was when ZJ’s football-playing father was “everybody’s … next great hero,” but to ZJ, world-famous “Zachariah 44!” was “just my dad … which means / he’s my every single thing.” For most of 12-year-old ZJ’s life, Daddy was the very best parent,...