Check It Out Category: Audiobooks

Denise’s Pick: You Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins

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Denise Staff Pick photoYou Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins is an interesting story of a family that emigrated from India to London and then to the U.S. in the ’70s. The story’s focus is on three generations of women and their experiences while trying to find their place in a new home. Hopes, dreams, relationships – it’s all there! The e-audio format is a lovely way to experience the story.

Have you taken up this summer’s challenge of Reading Takes You Everywhere? Enjoy this book for any one of the following categories:

D. Read or listen to a digital book.
K. Read a book set in two different time periods.
W. Read a prize-winning book.
Y. Read a book from the Young Adult collections.

Summer Reading: Destination D – Read or Listen to a Digital Book

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Have you taken up this summer’s challenge of Reading Takes You Everywhere? If Destination D: Read or Listen to a Digital Book is a stop on your journey, perhaps one of these books will get you there! Check out the first lines of these five books to see if any pique your interest.  Each of these is available to you on Hoopla with your Mount Prospect library card — and with no waiting!

Dietland book cover“It was late in the spring when I noticed that a girl was following me, nearly the end of May, a month that means perhaps or might be.”
Dietland
by Sarai Walker

“It was summer when I went to talk with Cudjo so his door was standing wide open.”

Barracoon: The Story of the Last Black Cargo
by Zora Neale Hurston

 

Then She Was Gone book ocver
“Laurel let herself into her daughter’s flat.”
Then She Was Gone
by Lisa Jewell
Book of M book cover
“The end of Ory’s world began with a deer.”
The Book of M
by Peng Shepherd

“You aren’t going to like me very much.”
Lie to Me
by J.T. Ellison

 

Cathleen’s Pick: Skin Game by Jim Butcher

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Cathleen Staff Pick photoAn ideal gateway into fantasy for crime story fans, Skin Game by Jim Butcher is a thrilling heist adventure with Chicago’s only professional wizard leading the gang. Narrator James Marsters is nothing short of spellbinding in telling the smart, twisty, and witty tale of a motley crew under duress breaking into the vault of Hades for the literal Holy Grail.

Have you taken up this summer’s challenge of Reading Takes You Everywhere? Enjoy this book for any one of the following categories:

A. Read a book written by a new-to-you author.
D. Read or listen to a digital book.
L. Read a book set in the Chicagoland area.
Q. Read a book of fantasy or magical realism.

Kelda’s Pick: Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

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Kelda Staff Pick photoI appreciated the audiobook Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter because it served as a jumping off point for further reading, viewing, and listening. I became interested in reading books about the Golden Age of Hollywood, viewing movies of that era, particularly Cleopatra, and listening to more books read by the actor Edoardo Ballerini.

Road-Trip Audiobooks about Road Trips

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road trip view photoSpring is here, and we can’t help but think of travel. Whether that travel takes the form of an actual vacation or is only a mental getaway between home and work, a great audiobook can make the experience all the more vivid. As long as you are on the move, why not choose one of these tales of road trip adventure to double the experience? Among true-life narratives and stories of imagination, many with companions both human and animal, we guarantee you’ll find a kindred spirit of exploration.

 

Driving with the Top Down book coverDriving with the Top Down
by Beth Harbison
In an attempt to rediscover joy in her life, Colleen Bradley takes an antiquing road trip down the East Coast with her old friend Bitty and teenager Tamara, where the three women learn about true friendship.
Assassination Vacation book coverAssassination Vacation
by Sarah Vowell
In this highly unusual travelogue, a journalist explores the history of American presidential assassinations by visiting assassination sites, museums, prisons, monuments, and even a religious commune from the Florida Keys all the way to Alaska.
Carrying Albert Home book coverCarrying Albert Home
by Homer Hickam
The funny, sweet, and sometimes tragic tale of a young couple and a special alligator on a crazy 1000-mile adventure undertaken to return the pet alligator given to them by the wife’s former paramour, dancer Buddy Ebsen.

 

Longest Road book coverThe Longest Road
by Philip Caputo
In a journey of over four months and seventeen thousand miles, the author and his wife haul an Airstream camper from Key West, Florida to Deadhorse, Alaska, interviewing Americans from all walks of life along the way.
Boomer's Bucket List book coverBoomer’s Bucket List
by Sue Pethick
When her cuddly canine companion Boomer is diagnosed with a rare heart condition, Jennifer Westbrook decides to take a leave of absence from her busy PR job—and take Boomer on the greatest road trip of his life.
Lost and Found book coverLost & Found
by Brooke Davis
A shared encounter between an abandoned seven-year-old, a widowed shut-in, and a nursing home escapee results in the three embarking on a road trip across Western Australia to find the child’s mother.

 

Turn in the Road book coverA Turn in the Road
by Debbie Macomber
Bethanne Hamlin, her daughter Annie, and her former mother-in-law Ruth go on a road trip across the country in an adventure that changes all of their lives as they each contemplate taking different paths in their romantic lives.
Heroes of the Frontier book coverHeroes of the Frontier
by Dave Eggers
Struggling through a painful separation, the loss of her dental practice and the senseless death of a young man, Josie embarks on an RV road trip to Alaska with her kids that is marked by both national wonders and the shadows of past regrets.
Loop Group book coverLoop Group
by Larry McMurtry
Best friends Maggie and Connie are getting past their prime, which is why they plan to have one last great adventure. Packing a .38 Special, they blaze their trail across the Southwest, bumping into one zany character after another.

 

Travels with Charley book coverTravels with Charley
by John Steinbeck
With his elderly French poodle, Charley, author John Steinbeck embarked on a quest to rediscover the America he’d been writing about for so many years, from the northermost tip of Maine to California’s Monterey Peninsula.
One Plus One book coverOne Plus One
by Jojo Moyes
A single mom, her math genius daughter, her eye-shadow-wearing stepson, a wealthy computer geek and a smelly dog all get into a car to drive to the Math Olympiad. What could go wrong? What could go right?
On the Road book coverOn the Road
by Jack Kerouac
A penniless writer named Sal Paradise becomes inspired to hitchhike across America. Joining up with fellow vagabonds who are in love with life and open to adventure, they explore jazz, sex, drugs, and mysticism on the fringes of society.

Kelda’s Pick- Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck

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Picture of KeldaRoad trip anyone? Give a listen to Travels With Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck, read by Gary Sinise. Steinbeck sets out to find the truth about our country and he finds it accompanied by his noble steed Charley, a French poodle with personality. The prose of Steinbeck and the styling of Sinise are a perfect pairing.

Jenny’s Pick: The Hopefuls by Jennifer Close

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Jenny from Fiction/AV/Teen suggests The Hopefuls by Jennifer Close

The Hopefuls book coverBeth’s husband Matt accepts a job with President Barack Obama’s staff, relocating the couple from Wisconsin to Washington D.C. While this head-first plunge into politics has ignited a new dream and passion for Matt, Beth is left adrift and skeptical of this move. She has no job ambition, no friends, and despises the political scene. Plus, now they live close to her in-laws who she does not get along with. However, there is hope as Matt and Beth get close to another White House staffer, Jimmy Dillon, and his wife Ashleigh. The couples hit it off and become inseparable. But as Jimmy progressively moves up in his career, their friendship must start weathering new tensions of jealousy, competitiveness, and resentment.

If you have in-laws you’re less than happy about, if you have interest in the social side of politics, if the tension of compromising to pursue dreams in relationships draws you, and/or you just want to read a solid contemporary piece of fiction where the characters are very much human with all of their error and grace, The Hopefuls by Jennifer Close is for you! Try it in audio! The audiobook, narrated by Jorjeana Marie, makes for an incredible reading experience.

For more books of new beginnings and the drama of political social life, try…

Eighteen Acres book coverEighteen Acres by Nicolle Wallace
Three women–White House chief of staff Melanie Kingston, White House correspondent Dale Smith, and president Charlotte Kramer–struggle through a year filled with lies, tragedies, and difficult decisions.
Trudy Hopedale book coverTrudy Hopedale by Jeffrey Frank
The follies and foibles of the nation’s capital are seen from the perspective of quintessential Washington hostess Trudy Hopedale and her social-climbing friend, Donald Frizzâe, during the summer and fall of 2000.

 

Piece of Mind book coverPiece of Mind by Michelle Adelman
Unable to relate to people or hold a job after suffering a head injury in early childhood, talented artist Lucy is forced out of her protective Jewish home and into a New York City studio apartment with her college-age brother, where she struggles to adapt to life without a safety net.
American Wife Book CoverAmerican Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
When her husband is elected president of the United States, Alice Blackwell finds her new life as first lady increasingly tumultuous as she reflects on the privileges and difficulties of her position as her private beliefs conflict with her public responsibilities.
The Senator's Wife book coverThe Senator’s Wife by Sue Miller
Two unconventional women, neighbors in adjacent New England townhouses–Meri Fowler, pregnant, newly married, and discovering the gap between reality and expectation, and Delia Naughton, wife of a notoriously unfaithful liberal senator–confront the costs and challenges of love.

Audiobook: The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

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Strange Library audiobook cover

For most of us, the prospect of being imprisoned in a library seems more dream than nightmare, but in the hands of Haruki Murakami, we might have to think twice. The Strange Library, a surreal tale full of tentative wonder and vague dread, is an experience that lasts only a single hour. Narrator Kirby Heyborne plays the odd characters with just the right touch of near-caricature appropriate for this fable, which adds to the distorted fun house experience. This light introduction into Japanese magical realism may be the right portion to tempt fans of the series Twin Peaks.

Donna S’s Pick: Short Fiction by Maeve Binchy and Stephen King on Audio

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Picture of DonnaIf you are busy and can’t find time to read, try audiobooks! Many famous authors have collections of short stories that are perfect if you have only small commutes in your daily life. From Maeve Binchy’s A Few of the Girls, featuring warm stories about female friendships, to the horror fiction of Stephen King’s Everything’s Eventual: Five Dark Tales, there is something for every mood.

Audiobook: Morgue Drawer Four by Jutta Profijt

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Morgue Drawer Four audiobook cover

As a finalist for one of Germany’s most prestigious crime novel awards, Morgue Drawer Four could have been…stiff. Dear listeners, it isn’t. Instead we have mild-mannered Martin who likes the solitude of his work as a coroner. One day he performs his customarily precise autopsy on car thief Pascha — and then begins hearing the man’s ghost. First smart-alecky and then downright obnoxious, Pascha wants Martin to get to the bottom of the ‘accident’ that claimed his life.

Reader MacLeod Andrews effectively plays up Pascha’s wry, self-absorbed narration as well as the tension of Martin’s out-of-character escapades. Written by Jutta Profijt and translated from German by Eric J. Macki, this odd-couple pairing of reluctant detective and annoyed ghost is a promising pick for those who like action-driven mysteries with a decidedly sarcastic bent.