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The older half of the tennis-playing Williams duo breaks down her personal growth audiobook into eight principles. They provide a well-organized but approachable path to becoming a better you. While some authors are not adept at narrating their own work, Williams is outstanding. Her diction is perfect, and she obviously knows when to inflect emotion while laying out her... Read More

Nearly all of these 20 stories are better heard than read. Guest editor Lauren Groff vied for "rawer, meaner, spikier" stories that have their own "weird logic." Her choices are striking and unpredictable but tend to ramble over stretches of time without much suspense or dramatic resolution. This diverse ensemble brings variety, contrast, and narrative vigor that is mostly... Read More

Joniece Abbott-Pratt, who narrated THE DAVENPORTS, applies a rhythmic, energetic style to this follow-up. The story features four young Black women from Chicago in the early twentieth century. Abbott-Pratt captures their determined searches for love and self-actualization. Ruby deals with rumors that unseat her, while her younger sister Helene struggles to modernize the family... Read More

Joniece Abbott-Pratt narrates this gripping origin story of Ororo before she became Storm of the X-Men. Orphaned in Cairo, Ororo has had years to hone her skills as a thief, hiding her conspicuous white hair beneath a scarf. Desperate for answers about her heritage, she joins young T'Challa of Wakanda on a journey across Africa. But staying anonymous becomes harder as her... Read More

James Baldwin's three-act play focuses on the power of religion to shield people from the perils outside church walls, as dramatized by an African American family. The cast are quirky, protective, gossipy, dogmatic, and spirited. Dion Graham begins the production as Baldwin, clearly and confidently sharing the importance of this story. A chorale then swells--warm, collective,... Read More

Joniece Abbott-Pratt gives a dramatic performance of this flawed but interesting social issue drama. Her remarkably beautiful voice makes a sympathetic vehicle for the heroine, Deena Wood, a young, Black lawyer who has come home to Brunswick, Georgia, to nurse her wounds after a series of personal disasters. Deena's growing obsession with an old man's strange disappearance... Read More

Joniece Abbott-Pratt performs this multigenerational novel set over several decades in the American South. In the 1830s, a mysterious woman named Saint frees enslaved people from plantations throughout Arkansas and brings them to a town they call Ours. There they find a safe haven from the rest of the world. But when Saint tightens her control of the townspeople, they begin to... Read More

Magic, mystery, and history meet when the old-fashioned spectacles Winna's grandfather gives her grant wishes. Narrator Joniece Abbott-Pratt depicts Winna's youth with a bright voice. Her slightly hesitant delivery is central to Winna's tone of intelligence tempered by having to be polite to a world of fools. Winna has enough worries with her mom being sick in the hospital and... Read More

Joniece Abbott-Pratt masterfully re-creates a 1950s Florida reformatory in this story based on a relative of author Tananarive Due and other actual people and events. Listeners meet 12-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., and Gloria, his 16-year-old sister, after Robbie is arrested for defending her from a white boy. While in the segregated reform school, Robbie experiences and... Read More

Jordan Peele introduces this horror anthology featuring 19 Black authors. Each of the stories blends realism with horror or science fiction, providing an insightful perspective while still remaining chilling. From cars with huge eyes that direct racist cops on whom to arrest, to a pair of stranded travelers in Alabama, each story captures the ear with unsettling horror and... Read More

Narrators Joniece Abbott-Pratt, André Santana, and Logan Rozos deliver outstanding performances that magnify this sci-fi series's epic finale. As the narrators lead listeners across the galaxy, Zaira, a reincarnated god, leaves her home to defeat a great evil. Abbott-Pratt portrays Zaira with a youthful, bold voice. Accompanying Zaira is Wesley, an expert pilot who is charged... Read More

The second short story collection that Walter Dean Myers has set in 21st-century Harlem features characters introduced in 145TH STREET, along with new characters and voices. An ensemble of skilled narrators enhances these rich stories with authentic voices that express their range of ages, relationships, and neighborhood roles. JaQwan J. Kelly stands out for his capacity to... Read More

Beanland's audiobook is perfect for a full-cast production, and its strong performances are consistently gripping. In 1811, a fire destroyed the Richmond Theatre in Virginia, killing more than 70 people. Stagehand error and hubris were at fault, but local enslaved people were blamed. Four characters are featured in alternating passages: Jack (Michael Crouch), a stagehand and... Read More

Seven enthusiastic narrators join author Valerie Fridland in this entertaining and educational apologia for speaking like, um, a regular, you know, person. Fridland, a professor of linguistics, explores the role and often surprising history of language placeholders and other speech habits. With chapters on everything from "like" and "you know" and "they" as a singular pronoun... Read More

Joniece Abbott-Pratt brings alive the secrets of a small town's women in this new novel of the supernatural and the Old West. As Adelaide Henry runs from the burning bodies of her dead parents, she brings with her a padlocked trunk filled with unknown horrors. Traveling from the farms of California to a struggling town in Montana, Adelaide soon learns that if she wants to... Read More

Jim Meskimen takes the pivotal role of the narrator in this dazzling audiobook with a thoughtful tone and sure-handed style. Among an exceptionally talented cast, Robin Miles captures the angsty brilliance of matriarch Naomi; she smoothly performs the character's contradictory combination of self-delusion and self-awareness. Jason Culp portrays her estranged husband, the... Read More

Joniece Abbott-Pratt narrates the alternating perspectives of four young, Black women who seek romance and a sense of themselves in 1910 Chicago. Abbott-Pratt portrays the propriety of Olivia, the eldest daughter of a wealthy family, and her shift to discomfort when she meets a fiery Alabama lawyer who speaks out against Jim Crow. Abbott-Pratt presents a different picture of... Read More

Magic flows as Joniece Abbott-Pratt brings to life Nic Blake’s 12th birthday. It’s the day her father promised to instruct her in using her Manifestor gift. Abbott-Pratt’s rich narration shows Nic’s frustration at having to hide her magical ability in a world of Unremarkables. Abbott-Pratt expresses Nic’s spirited brilliance, the closeness and humor she shares with her father,... Read More

Joniece Abbott-Pratt and Zeno Robinson capture the voices of Cristina and Clement Trudeau, Black teenage twins who are growing up in a New Orleans family that practices magic. A year after their father's death, their mother is sick, and they fear she'll succumb to her mysterious illness. Then they discover she's actually cursed--and they're targets, too. As Cris and Clem set... Read More

FROM THE PUBLISHER: A conversation starter like Three Women but centering the experiences of women of color: a mellifluous chorus celebrating the liberation, individuality, and joy of African women's multifaceted sexuality. Thanks to her blog, Adventures from the Bedrooms of African Women, Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah has spent decades talking openly and intimately to African women... Read More

Joniece Abbott-Pratt brings boundless energy to her narration of this action-packed fantasy. At the end of LEGENDBORN, Bree Matthews has unlocked new powers in herself, and now she must learn to control them in order to reunite and protect her court, and her friends. Abbott-Pratt embodies all of Bree's determination and verve--as well as her exhaustion and rage--while also... Read More

The narrators match the warmth of the authors in delivering these interconnected stories in this follow-up to BLACKOUT as a group of teenagers combat a winter storm, and mistakes they have made. While the authors of the individual stories are not identified, each story offers both humor and emotional moments in this celebration of Black love. Danielle Shemaiah and Shayna Small... Read More

After a moody jazz riff, Sidik Fofana and a stand-out cast of performers transport listeners to the Banneker Terrace apartments in Harlem. Written in vibrant Black American vernacular, these witty, sad, uplifting stories are ideal for audio. Joniece Abbott-Pratt's Mimi is a beautician behind on the rent. Fofana's Swan might mess up because of a visitor. André Santana's Darius... Read More

From this audiobook’s opening line, Joniece Abbott-Pratt’s narration creates an immersive listening experience. She perfectly embodies the first-person perspective of Kiara, a high school dropout who is living with her older brother, Marcus, in a shabby apartment in East Oakland, California. Their father is dead, and their mother is gone, leaving them with only each other.... Read More

Joniece Abbott-Pratt brings listeners back to futuristic Toronto in this tense yet satisfying conclusion to the Blood Like Magic duology. Teenager Voya is thrust into the role of family matriarch, and everyone, including her, questions her decisions. Her cousin hates her, she still has feelings for Luc, and the family business is in danger. After seeing a bleak vision of the... Read More