Audiobook roundup: fall 2024 edition

The Bell Jar

by Sylvia Plath

From the publisher: "A deep penetration into the darkest and most harrowing corners of the human psyche, The Bell Jar is an extraordinary accomplishment and a haunting American classic."

Library Journal says "this novel, written in 1927, is considered the best and most successful of the early mysteries." Out of more than eighty Agatha Christie books in print, Jim Mustich chooses this one by the queen of crime in his 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die. It involves a cozy English village, a murder (of course), Hercule Poirot, a plot twist, and no dearth of suspects. But Mustich also points out that it may well have inspired Christie's other famous detective. The narrator in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd bears a resemblance to Miss Jane Marple, Christie's curious, gossiping, elderly detective to come in later novels.

Brooklyn

by Colm Tóibín

In this quiet coming-of-age story, set just after the second World War, a young girl from Ireland's County Wexford is offered the opportunity to travel to America to settle in a a Brooklyn neighborhood that's "just like Ireland," with the assurance of an education and a good job. She had no intention of leaving home, but can't say this aloud, and so she goes. A poignant novel with homesickness at its heart, reminiscent of Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

Devil Is Fine

by John Vercher

Dion Graham is one of my favorite narrators, so I pounced on this new June release as soon as it was available on audio and was hooked from the first line. The story centers a biracial Black father grieving the recent death of his seventeen-year-old son, whose life is further unmoored when he inherits a plantation from his estranged white grandfather, and remains of both enslavers and enslaved are immediately discovered on the property. The man (whose name we never learn) is a writer and professor, and he thrills his agent by emailing her in the middle of the night with a book proposal based on these real-life events. But when morning comes he has no memory of writing the proposal his agent loves so much. He grows increasingly concerned as he begins hearing voices—and fears he's turning into a jellyfish. Vercher beautifully incorporates these elements of magical realism into his story to portray a man and father wrestling with past wrongs, and grasping at some sort of way forward. A book club could have a great time with this: there is so much to discuss. 8 hrs 36 mins.

How to Say Babylon

by Safiya Sinclair

This lyrical memoir, beautifully narrated by the author on audio, explores patriarchy, colonialism in Jamaica, and how she discovered her own power. Sinclair grew up in a strict Rastafarian home in Jamaica, where her father, a reggae musician, was obsessed with keeping the corruption of the Western world (that he called Babylon) at bay. Almost everything was forbidden to Safiya and her siblings: she wasn’t allowed to wear pants, make friends, or cut her hair, and any disobedience—perceived or real—was met with violence. In this moving story, she shares how she finds her voice and eventually, her escape, with the help of good books, teachers, and mentors. It took me a few chapters to get oriented in the story but once I did I couldn’t stop listening. 16 hrs 46 mins.

Sipsworth

by Simon van Booy

Eighty-three-year-old Helen Cartwright moves back to her English village hometown after sixty years in Australia. Her husband and adult son have both died and she doesn’t feel the need to seek out new friends. The quiet solitude is enough as she lives out the remainder of her life. When she finds and rescues an abandoned pet mouse whom she names Sipsworth, she has no idea just how much her life is about to change. A moving exploration of grief, loneliness, community, and second chances.

Burn Book: A Tech Love Story

by Kara Swisher

This was an interesting change of pace from my usual reading; I picked up the audiobook when our resident spreadsheet whisperer Donna mentioned she was enjoying the audio version. The author hosts a popular podcast and is a longtime tech reporter, but I wasn't familiar with her work when I dove in to her tale—part professional memoir, part recent history—of covering U.S. tech companies beginning in the 1990s. Swisher's breezy style and the breadth of material covered here made this entertaining reading for someone who doesn't pay all that much attention to what's happening in Silicon Valley, but would like to better understand the workings of an industry that affects all of us every day. Narrated by the author. 7 hrs 40 mins.

State of Paradise

by Laura van den Berg

Dreamy and surreal, this hybrid of autofiction and speculative fiction is set in the wake of a pandemic (but not our pandemic) and features a Florida ghostwriter grappling to make sense of the world as it is now, her troubling personal relationships, and the increasing pull a VR program called ELECTRA has on some community members and her own sister. This short novel is more than a little bit weird and had me constantly thinking of Lauren Groff's short story collection Florida for its similar mood and setting. I happened to read Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar just before picking up this book and that turned out to be fortuitous timing.

The Queen of Fourteenth Street

by Barrie Kreinik

Barrie Kreinik has long been one of my favorite audiobook narrators so when I saw that the narrator and playwright wrote her own audio original produced in the style of a 1930s radio drama, it's fair to say I pounced. This is Kreinik's adapted-for-audio version of a stage play she wrote, and much like the theater, it was performed and recorded by the entire cast in a single sitting. Her subject is the real-life early twentieth century theater icon Eva Le Gallienne, who founded NYC's innovative Civic Repertory Theatre in 1926 and successfully steered it through the Depression era. Narrated by a full cast including Barrie Kreinik and Orlagh Cassidy, with original audio design for a thoroughly immersive experience.

The Briar Club

by Kate Quinn

This historical fiction set during the McCarthy era in 1950 Washington, DC takes place almost entirely in the Briarwood House, a women's boardinghouse run by a parsimonious landlord. The structure is interesting: we hear from each of the house's residents in turn, but just once, and learn of her dreams, disappointments, and the secrets she's keeping from her housemates. But the house has its own opinions on what unfolds within its walls: we hear from the house itself repeatedly throughout the story, beginning in the opening chapter when it tells us two people have been murdered there. Beautifully constructed and highly entertaining. I definitely folded extra laundry so I could find out what happens next. If you opt for the audiobook narrated by Saskia Maarleveld, don't miss her conversation with Kate Quinn at the end.

Audiobook roundup: fall 2024 edition

a gateway

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