Narrator Adam Lazarre-White draws listeners into the thought-provoking story of Titus Crowne, the first Black sheriff in the small Virginia county of Charon. As listeners enter Titus's world, he is faced with a shooter at the high school, a neo-Confederate group on the march, and a serial killer terrifying the town. Lazarre-White masterfully portrays people of multiple races,... Read More

This thought-provoking audiobook, primarily narrated by Shayna Small, imagines an America in which convicted murderers duel to the death in a wildly popular televised sport. Thurwar and Staxxx, two Black women who are lovers, are close to freedom after years in the arena. Narrating immersively, Small voices a variety of prisoners, a sensationalizing commentator, chanting... Read More

Actor and singer Sheryl Lee Ralph narrates her own self-help/memoir mash-up with drama and feeling. The audiobook is full of delicious anecdotes about her life in the theater and music business, along with personal reflections on how to succeed, how to keep going when success isn't happening, and how to treat others to maintain one's integrity. DIVA (Divinely Inspired,... Read More

Dion Graham superbly narrates this riveting audiobook, emulating the majestic cadence of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, speeches. He captures the Civil Rights leader's deep, resonant tone; deliberate ministerial intonation; and, during offstage moments, his world-weariness. When portraying Coretta Scott King, Graham modulates his style, and he shifts into reportorial mode,... Read More

Kevin R. Free delivers a dazzling performance of a novel that centers around contemporary artists living in Iowa City. Poets, writers, and musicians sit around at parties, in bars, and at cafés, discussing what it means to be an artist. Their social lives are deliciously messy as they fall in and out of love, seeking companionship to rid themselves of their loneliness. Free's... Read More

From Billie Fulford-Brown's first words, Jane Austen's world bursts into life. Characters from across the Austen spectrum populate this sequel to Gray's earlier mystery, THE DEATH OF MR. WICKHAM. This time, Jonathan Darcy, son of Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth Darcy (PRIDE AND PREJUDICE), and Juliet Tilney, daughter of Henry and Catherine Tilney (NORTHANGER ABBEY), find themselves... Read More

Tom Hanks brings his star quality to performing his digressive story about the 75-year transition of a 1940s comic book into a contemporary superhero movie. The audiobook covers so many levels of detail that the listener may get a little lost. Ultimately, the story of a flamethrower-wielding Marine from WWII who evolves into a movie superhero is well worth the journey,... Read More

Guy Lockard takes the mic as narrator while Nile Bullock voices high school student Miles Morales, who's "Boriqua and Black and Brooklyn as hell." He's also Spider-Man. But this adventure finds Miles stuck in in-school suspension after leading a protest against his racist history teacher's revisionist lessons. Even in suspension, though, Miles's Spidey-sense tells him... Read More

Adenrele Ojo returns to portray smart, feisty Supreme Court clerk Avery Keene in her second adventure. Once again, Abrams has written a complex plot that sweeps Avery into a dangerous situation, this time involving a threat to the power grid. Listeners get a disturbing insider's view of the complicated and competitive relationships among federal agencies, including the Supreme... Read More

Two narrators prove twice as nice in this engaging audiobook from a thriller titan. Lisa Flanagan does the heavy lifting, smoothly portraying the female characters, notably Mickey Gibson, a single mom and detective turned asset retriever, and Clarisse, a con artist who tricks Mickey into investigating the murder of a reclusive businessman. Corey Carthew is kept busy voicing a... Read More

This short audiobook makes the listener want more. Wisely, Adam Gopnik asks questions, provides context and insights, then lets the protean Steve Martin tell his own stories. The work comes across as a kind of memoir. Martin's conversational tone elevates the personal recollections of his complex life. His fine intellect and love of literature, music, and art shine through, as... Read More

Isabella Star LaBlanc, a Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota narrator, accurately delivers Native intonations and rhythms while narrating a second book about an Indigenous heroine from Sugar Island, Michigan. Sixteen-year-old Perry Firekeeper-Birch is often compared unfavorably to her anxious, academically driven, compliant twin. LaBlanc portrays Perry's growth after she's forced into a... Read More

Kwame Alexander, poet and narrator of several of his own books, brings poignancy to his "snapshots of a man learning to love. Again." His memoir is a savory-sweet mix of poems, letters, and recipes. Regardless of form, they are shot through with a poet's rhythms, sensory memories, moving moments of learning, and unique experiences that strike a universal chord. Candidly,... Read More

Narrator Eric Mok makes this wonderfully inventive and diverse fantasy eminently accessible. Kaiisteron, a demon prince of the underearth with the power to possess other bodies, wakes up imprisoned and confused. Kai and his dear friend, the witch Ziede, escape and, along with a growing motley crew, set off to find Ziede's missing wife. The story jumps between the present time... Read More

Imogen Church performs this suspenseful mystery with conviction. Jack and her husband, Gabe, work in the security field; she checks for penetration, and he hacks computer systems. After a long night working on a test gone awry, Jack returns home to find Gabe dead. Church delivers a compelling narrative of anguish, confusion, and mental fatigue with a strained, shaky voice and... Read More