Adenrele Ojo has narrated 152 audiobooks on Listento.it by 137 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 2,729 ratings. The most-rated is Sword of Destiny.
Until the Last Breath
Summary
Years ago, I fell in love with a man named Maximilian Grant: tall, smooth talking, and handsome as hell. He was my everything; a man who could do no wrong. Then, he did the one thing he promised he’d never do...he broke my heart. Now, nearly seven years later, I’m happily married to a man who has completely changed my life. But with my health hanging in the balance, I often wonder what his future entails, because I know there is a possibility that he’ll have to live without me. John, my husband, is the love of my life, and I have never questioned our love. Until my past came knocking at the door. Every girl has that one guy - the one whom she can’t seem to forget or completely let go of, no matter how toxic the relationship was or how badly it ended. Well, this story is a little different. This is the story of how Maximilian Grant went from being my toxic first love, to the man who ultimately saved my life. And trust me, it will not play out the way you think it will.
©2020 Shanora Williams (P)2020 Podium Audio
The Narrows
Summary
Link Williams is a handsome and brilliant Dartmouth graduate who tends bar due to the lack of better opportunities for an African-American man in a staid mid-century Connecticut town. The routine of Link’s life is interrupted when he intervenes to save a woman from a late-night attack. Drinking in a bar together after the incident, “Camilo” discovers that her rescuer is African American and he learns that she is white. Unbeknownst to him, “Camilo” (actually Camilla Treadway Sheffield) is a wealthy married woman who has crossed the town’s racial divide to relieve the tedium of her life. Thus brought together by chance, Link and Camilla draw each other into furtive encounters that violate the rigid and uncompromising social codes of their own town and times. As The Narrows sweeps ahead to its shattering denouement, Petry shines a harsh yet richly truthful light on the deforming harm that race and class wreak on human lives. In a fascinating introduction to this new edition, Keith Clark discusses the prescience with which Petry chronicled the ways tabloid journalism, smug elitism, and mob mentality distort and demonize African-American men.
©1953 Ann Petry (P)2021 Audible, Inc.
Fault Lines in the Constitution
Summary
Many of the political issues we struggle with today have their roots in the US Constitution. Husband-and-wife team Cynthia and Sanford Levinson take listeners back to the creation of this historic document and discuss how contemporary problems were first introduced - then they offer possible solutions. Think Electoral College, gerrymandering, even the Senate. Many of us take these features in our system for granted. But they came about through haggling in an overheated room in 1787, and we're still experiencing the ramifications. Each chapter in this timely and thoughtful exploration of the Constitution's creation begins with a story - all but one of them true - that connects directly back to a section of the document that forms the basis of our society and government. From the award-winning team - Cynthia Levinson, children's book author, and Sanford Levinson, constitutional law scholar - Fault Lines in the Constitution will encourage exploration and discussion from young and old listeners alike. Read by Mark Bramhall, Arthur Morey, Kimberly Farr, Erin Spencer, and Adenrele Ojo.
©2017 Cynthia Levinson, Sanford Levinson (P)2017 Listening Library
The Bridge to Brilliance
Summary
The inspirational account of the creation of a path-breaking inner-city middle school in Brooklyn, New York, by the magnetic young principal who rocketed to national fame via Humans of New York. When 13-year-old Vidal Chastanet told photographer Brandon Stanton that his principal, Ms. Lopez, was the person who most influenced his life, it was the pebble that started a whirlwind for Nadia Lopez and her small, new public school in one of Brooklyn's most wretched communities. The posting on Stanton's wildly popular site, Humans of New York (HONY), went megaviral. Lopez - not long before on the verge of quitting - found herself in the national spotlight and headed for a meeting with Obama as well as the beneficiary of a million-dollar IndieGoGo campaign for the school. Here is her first-person account of what it took to get to that moment. Mott Hall Bridges Academy isn't just a hallway inside a typically underserved public school in one of New York City's most underprivileged communities - it is a school that glows with energy and excitement. Lopez tells the kids every day that they're extraordinary and that she loves them. When trouble stirs, she asks, "Would I have been proud to see what happened in that classroom? No? Then why did it happen?" She tells her teachers, "Don't tell me our scholars can't learn, because if you can't teach them, then I'll come teach your class for a couple of weeks." Everything was an uphill battle - to get the school launched, to recruit faculty and students, to solve a million new problems every day, from violent crime to vanishing supplies, but Lopez illustrates how leadership often means just picking the right people to support you. In middle school, one year lost with an unengaged teacher is a year that can send a kid down a terrible path. And then, of course, there is the educational system itself, how "teaching to the test" is an enormous problem, particularly in schools with kids who are already disadvantaged and underprepared. The Bridge to Brilliance is an audiobook filled with common sense and caring that will carry her message to classrooms far from Brooklyn. As she says modestly, "There are hundreds of Ms. Lopezes around this country doing good work for kids. This honors all of them." With an introduction read by the author.
©2016 Nadia Lopez & Rebecca Paley (P)2016 Penguin Audio
Honor Bound
Summary
Savvy criminal turned skilled Leviathan pilot Zara Cole finds new friends and clashes with bitter enemies in the second book of this action-packed series from New York Times best-selling authors Rachel Caine and Ann Aguirre that’s perfect for fans of The 100 and The Fifth Wave. Zara Cole was a thief back on Earth, but she’s been recently upgraded to intergalactic fugitive. On the run after a bloody battle in a covert war that she never expected to be fighting, Zara, her co-pilot, Beatriz, and their Leviathan ship, Nadim, barely escaped the carnage with their lives. Now, Zara and her crew of Honors need a safe haven, far from the creatures who want to annihilate them. But they’ll have to settle for the Sliver: a wild, dangerous warren of alien criminals. The secrets of the Sliver may have the power to turn the tide of the war they left behind - but in the wrong direction. Soon, Zara will have to make a choice: run from the ultimate evil - or stand and fight.
©2019 Rachel Caine and Ann Aguirre (P)2020 HarperAudio
One
Summary
Jesus didn't say that the world would know we are his followers by our biting rhetoric, our political leanings, our charity work, or even by our knowledge of Scripture. He said the world would know us by our love for one another. Yet it's so easy to put others at arm's length, to lash out, to put up walls. Deidra Riggs wants us to put our focus on self-preservation aside and, like Jesus, make the first move toward reconciliation. In One, Riggs shows listeners that when Jesus offered himself up in our place, he was not only purchasing our salvation but also setting an example for us to follow. She helps listeners understand that they are secure in God's inexhaustible love, making them free to love others lavishly - not just in what they do but in what they say, what they don't say, what they will endure, and what they will forgive. Anyone who longs for unity in the church, in their family, and in their community will find in this book both inspiring examples of loving done well and encouragement to begin the often unnoticed hard work of building bridges with those around them.
©2017 eChristian (P)2017 eChristian
Unforgivable Love
Summary
In this vivid reimagining of the French classic Les Liaisons Dangereuses, in the summer when Jackie Robinson breaks Major League Baseball's color barrier and a sweltering stretch has Harlem's elite fleeing the city for Westchester County's breezier climes, two predators stalk amidst the manicured gardens and fine old homes. Heiress Mae Malveaux rules society with an angel's smile and a heart of stone. She made up her mind long ago that nobody would decide her fate. To have the pleasure she craves, control is paramount, especially control of the men Mae attracts like moths to a flame. Valiant Jackson always gets what he wants - and he's wanted Mae for years. The door finally opens for him when Mae strikes a bargain: seduce her virginal young cousin, Cecily, who is engaged to Frank Washington. Frank values her innocence above all else. If successful, Val's reward will be a night with Mae. But Val secretly seeks another prize. Elizabeth Townsend is fiercely loyal to her church and her civil rights attorney husband. Certain there is something redeemable in Mr. Jackson, little does she know that her worst mistake will be Val's greatest triumph.
©2017 Sophfronia Scott (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers
Create Your Yes!
Summary
Are you tired of hearing "No"? Then create your "Yes"! When you are faced with rejection, do you cringe or thrive? While it may seem that we are out of options when we try something and fail, there is almost a way to make your dreams a reality - in the face of any adversary! Angela Marie Hutchinson has a fairly simple motto: Dreams don't happen; dreams are made. Rather than admit defeat, Angela herself made her dreams of making a movie a reality by pushing forward despite each "no", "pass", and negative thought that came her way! Using her 12-step approach, those dreams you keep hearing "no" on - those plans that never seem to come to fruition - can finally be realized.
©2019 Angela Marie Hutchinson (P)2021 Random House Audio
In Search of the Color Purple
Summary
Alice Walker made history in 1982 when she became the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, both for The Color Purple. Published in the Reagan Era amid a severe backlash to civil rights, the jazz-age novel tells the story of an African American woman haunted by domestic and sexual violence. Prominent academic and activist Salamishah Tillet combines cultural criticism, history, and memoir to explore Walker’s epistolary novel, showing how it has influenced and been informed by the zeitgeist of the time. The Color Purple received both praise and criticism upon publication, and the conversation it sparked around race and gender still continues today. It has been adapted for an Oscar-nominated film and a hit Broadway musical. Through interviews with Walker, Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones, and others, as well as archival research, Tillet studies Walker’s life and the origins of her subjects, including violence, sexuality, gender, and politics. Reading The Color Purple at age 15 was a groundbreaking experience for Tillet. It continues to resonate with her - as a sexual-violence survivor, as a teacher of the novel, and as an accomplished academic. Provocative and personal, In Search of the Color Purple is a bold work from an important public intellectual.
©2021 Salamishah Tillet (P)2021 Dreamscape Media, LLC
The Best Advice I Ever Got
Summary
New York Times best seller For anyone who wants to see how today’s best and brightest got it right, got it wrong, and came out on top. What was the tipping point for Malcolm Gladwell? What unscripted event made Meryl Streep who she is? In this inspiration-packed book, Katie Couric reports from the front lines of the worlds of politics, entertainment, sports, philanthropy, the arts, and business - distilling the ingenious, hard-won insights of leaders and visionaries, who tell us all how to take chances, follow our passions, cope with criticism, and, perhaps most important, commit to something greater than ourselves. Among the many voices to be heard here are financial guru Suze Orman on the benefits of doing what’s right, not what’s easy; director Steven Spielberg on listening rather than being listened to; quarterback Drew Brees on how his (literal) big break changed his life; and novelist Curtis Sittenfeld on the secrets of a great long-term relationship (she suggests marrying someone less neurotic than you); not to mention: Michael Bloomberg: “Eighty percent of success is showing up...early.” Eric Stonestreet: “Remember that the old lady who’s taking forever in line is someone’s grandma.” Joyce Carol Oates: “Read widely—what you want to read, and not what someone suggests that you should read.” Jimmy Kimmel: “When in doubt, order the hamburger.’” Apolo Ohno: “It’s not about the forty seconds; it’s about the four years, the time it took to get there.” Madeleine K. Albright: “Never play hide-and-seek with the truth.” Along the way, Couric reflects on the good advice - and the missteps - that have guided her from her early days as a desk assistant at ABC to her groundbreaking role as the first female anchor of the CBS Evening News. She reveals how the words of Thomas Jefferson helped her deal with her husband’s tragic death from cancer, and what encouraged her to leave the security of NBC’s Today show for a new adventure at CBS. Delightful, empowering, and moving, The Best Advice I Ever Got is the perfect book for anyone who is thinking about the future, contemplating taking a risk, or daring to make a leap into the great unknown.
©2011 Katie Couric (P)2011 Random House
This Time for Keeps
Summary
She’s in town for her family.... Could love find her in the most unexpected place? Attorney Nicole Campos hasn’t spoken to local mechanic Fletcher Austen since their high school friendship went down in flames over a decade ago. But when her car breaks down during her return to Wickham Falls and Fletcher unexpectedly helps her out with a custody situation in court, they find themselves suddenly wondering if this time is for keeps...or if their past differences are just too much to overcome.
©2019 Rochelle Alers (P)2019 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited
My Sister's Ex
Summary
Rachel Merrell goes into shock when her ex-boyfriend, Jeffery Williams, begins dating her half sister Marlene Draper. At first, Rachel swears Jeff is feigning interest in Marlene just to get back at her for breaking up with him. Rachel pretends Jeff's interest in Marlene doesn't bother her, but when they unexpectedly hit it off and love begins to blossom, Rachel can't bear to watch the happy couple. Suddenly, Rachel wants Jeff back and she is determined to get him no matter what the cost, including Marlene's happiness. But when her attempts to regain Jeff's affections fail, Rachel decides to join an online dating service, creating a profile under an assumed name, just to test the waters. Surprisingly, Rachel's profile matches someone who sounds like he'd be the perfect replacement for Jeff, but when she sees a picture of the man of her dreams, she's dumbfounded and pissed: it IS Jeff! Despite Rachel's jealousy over her sister's relationship, she has to tell Marlene the truth about the two-timing Casanova. Now the women will work together to devise a way to make him pay for what he's done...and discover a thing or two about sisterhood in the process.
©2009 Cydney Rax (P)2009 Random House
The Supremes Sing the Happy Heartache Blues
Summary
From the author of the best-selling The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat, The Supremes Sing the Happy Heartache Blues, an exuberant and poignant new audiobook of passions, family, and forgiveness. When a late-life love affair blooms between Mr. Forrest Payne, the owner of the Pink Slipper Gentleman's Club, and Miss Beatrice Jordan, famous for stationing herself at the edge of the club's parking lot and yelling warnings of eternal damnation at the departing patrons, their wedding summons a legend to town. Mr. El Walker, the great guitar bluesman, comes home to give a command performance in Plainview, Indiana, a place he'd sworn - and for good reason - he'd never set foot in again. But El is not the only Plainview native with a hurdle to overcome. A wildly philandering husband struggles at last to prove his faithfulness to the wife he's always loved. And among those in this tightly knit community who show up every Sunday after church for lunch at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat are the lifelong friends known locally as "The Supremes" - Clarice, facing down her longing for, chance at, and fear of a great career; Barbara Jean, grappling at last with the loss of a mother whose life humiliated both of them; and Odette, reaching toward her husband through an anger of his that she does not understand. Edward Kelsey Moore's lively cast of characters, each of who has surmounted serious trouble and come into love, need not learn how to survive but how, fully, to live. And they do, every one of them, serenaded by the bittersweet and unforgettable blues song El Walker plays, born of his own great loss and love.
©2017 Edward Kelsey Moore (P)2017 Macmillan Audio
To Obama
Summary
President Barack Obama received 10,000 letters a day from his constituents. This is the story of the private and profound relationship with letter writers that shaped his presidency. Their voices combine to reveal a diary of a nation. Every evening for eight years, at his request, President Obama was given 10 handpicked letters written by ordinary American citizens - the unfiltered voice of a nation - from his Office of Presidential Correspondence. He was the first president to interact daily with constituent mail and to archive it in its entirety. The letters affected not only the president and his policies but also the deeply committed people who were tasked with opening and reading the millions of pleas, rants, thank-yous, and apologies that landed in the White House mailroom. In To Obama, Jeanne Marie Laskas interviews President Obama, the letter writers themselves, and the White House staff who sifted through the powerful, moving, and incredibly intimate narrative of America during the Obama years: There is Kelli, who saw her grandfathers finally marry - legally - after thirty-five years together; Bill, a lifelong Republican whose attitude toward immigration reform was transformed when he met a boy escaping MS-13 gang leaders in El Salvador; Heba, a Syrian refugee who wants to forget the day the tanks rolled into her village; Marjorie, who grappled with disturbing feelings of racial bias lurking within her during the George Zimmerman trial; and Vicki, whose family was torn apart by those who voted for Trump and those who did not. They wrote to Obama out of gratitude and desperation, in their darkest times of need, in search of connection. They wrote with anger, fear, and respect. And together, this chorus of voices achieves a kind of beautiful harmony. To Obama is an intimate look at one man’s relationship to the American people, and at a time when empathy intersected with politics in the White House. Full list of narrators includes: Macleod Andrews, Paula Christensen, Michael Crouch, Donna Coltharp, Sheryl Cousineau, Shane Darby, Ramon De Ocampo, Robert Fass, Lauren Fortang, Kyla Garcia, Heba Hallak, Marnie Hazelton, Lacey Higley, Tom Hoefner, Hillary Huber, Bobby Ingram, Marjorie McKinney, Thomas Meehan, Bob Melton, Alex Myteberi, Adenrele Ojo, Bill Oliver, Christine Reisman, Tara Sands, Vicki Shearer, Marc Thompson, and Emily Woo Zeller.
©2018 Jeanne Marie Laskas (P)2018 Random House Audio
Porch Lies
Summary
Master storyteller Patricia C. McKissack transports us to the front porch: a place where lightning bugs flash, lemonade is poured, and tales about slickster-tricksters are an every-night treat for the whole family to enjoy. Here you can listen to "porch lies": tales filled with humor and exaggeration about characters like: A one-of-a-kind trickster, Dooley Hunter, who tells such a whopper at the State Liars' Contest that it becomes known as the best lie ever told. A downright wily individual by the name of Noble "Cake" Norris, who some folks believe may have died 27 times. A little old lady slickster folks call Aunt Gran, who comes face to face with Frank and Jesse James, the two most notorious outlaws in America.Rich in African American history, these unforgettable tales range from sidesplittingly funny to spine-chillingly spooky. So hop on the porch swing and listen up: there's a story just starting.
©2007 Patricia McKissack (P)2007 Random House, Inc.
1968
Summary
Welcome to 1968 - a revolution in a book. Essays, memoirs, and more by fourteen award-winning authors offer unique perspectives on one of the world’s most tumultuous years. Nineteen sixty-eight was a pivotal year that grew more intense with each day. As thousands of Vietnamese and Americans were killed in war, students across four continents took over colleges and city streets. Assassins murdered Dr. King and Robert F. Kennedy. Demonstrators turned out in Prague and Chicago, and in Mexico City, young people and Olympic athletes protested. In those intense months, generations battled and the world wobbled on the edge of some vast change that was exhilarating one day and terrifying the next. To capture that extraordinary year, editors Marc Aronson and Susan Campbell Bartoletti created an anthology that showcases many genres of nonfiction. Some contributors use a broad canvas, others take a close look at a moment, and matched essays examine the same experience from different points of view. As we face our own moments of crisis and division, 1968 reminds us that we’ve clashed before and found a way forward - and that looking back can help map a way ahead. With contributions by: Jennifer Anthony Marc Aronson Susan Campbell Bartoletti Loree Griffin Burns Paul Fleischman Omar Figueras Laban Carrick Hill Mark Kurlansky Lenore Look David Lubar Kate MacMillan Kekla Magoon Jim Murphy Elizabeth Partridge
©2018 Marc Aronson and Susan Campbell Bartoletti, original book published by Candlewick Press. 2018 Elizabeth Partridge; Paul Fleischman; Lenore Look; Kate MacMillan; Kekla Magoon; Laban Carrick Hill; Jennifer Anthony; Mark Kurlansky; Susan Campbell Bartoletti; Mark Kurlansky; David Lubar; Omar Figueras; Jim Murphy; Loree Griffin Burns; Marc Aronson. (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
You Are Free: Stories
Summary
Danzy Senna's You Are Free is now available for the first time in audio! Each of these eight remarkable stories by Danzy Senna tightrope-walks tantalizingly, sometimes frighteningly, between defined states: life with and without mates and children, the familiar if constraining reference points provided by race, class, and gender. Tensions arise between a biracial couple when their son is admitted to the private school where they'd applied on a lark. A new mother hosts an old friend, still single, and discovers how each of them pities - and envies - the other. A young woman responds to an adoptee in search of her birth mother, knowing it is not she. Audiobook Table of Contents: "Admission", read by Adenrele Ojo "The Land of Beulah", read by January LaVoy "Replacement Theory", read by Cassandra Campbell "There, There", read by Bahni Turpin "The Care of the Self", read by January LaVoy "You Are Free", read by Cassandra Campbell "Triptych", read by Adenrele Ojo "What’s the Matter with Helga and Dave?", read by Bahni Turpin
©2011 Danzy Senna (P)2018 Penguin Audio
The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat
Summary
Meet Odette, Clarice, and Barbara Jean in the New York Times best-selling novel.... Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat is home away from home for this inseparable Plainview, Indiana, trio. Dubbed "The Supremes" by high school pals in the tumultuous 1960s, they weather life’s storms together for the next four decades. Now, during their most challenging year yet, dutiful, proud, and talented Clarice must struggle to keep up appearances as she deals with her husband’s humiliating infidelities. Beautiful, fragile Barbara Jean is rocked by the tragic reverberations of a youthful love affair. And fearless Odette engages in the most terrifying battle of her life while contending with the idea that she has inherited more than her broad frame from her notorious pot-smoking mother, Dora. Through marriage, children, happiness, and the blues, these strong, funny women gather each Sunday at the same table at Earl’s diner for delicious food, juicy gossip, occasional tears, and uproarious banter. With wit and love, style and sublime talent, Edward Kelsey Moore brings together four intertwined love stories, three devoted allies, and two sprightly earthbound spirits in a big-hearted debut novel that embraces the lives of people you will never forget.
©2013 Edward Kelsey Moore (P)2013 Random House Audio
Notes from a Black Woman's Diary
Summary
A recommended book of 2019 from: Vanity Fair Vogue The Huffington Post A stunning multi-cast audio collection of fiction, diary entries, screenplays, and scripts by the brilliant African American artist and filmmaker, featuring the voices of Nina Collins, Mari, Bahni Turpin, Adenrele Ojo, January LaVoy, and Robin Miles. Relatively unknown during her life, the artist, filmmaker, and writer Kathleen Collins emerged on the literary scene in 2016 with the posthumous publication of the short-story collection Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? Said Zadie Smith, "To be this good and yet to be ignored is shameful, but her rediscovery is a great piece of luck for us." That rediscovery continues in Notes from a Black Woman’s Diary, which spans genres to reveal the breadth and depth of the late author’s talent. The compilation is anchored by more of Collins’ short stories, which, striking and powerful in their brevity, reveal the ways in which relationships are both formed and come undone. Also collected here is the work Collins wrote for the screen and stage: the screenplay of her film Losing Ground, in which a professor discovers that the student film she’s agreed to act in has uncomfortable parallels to her own life; and the script for The Brothers, a play about the potent effects of sexism and racism on a mid-century middle-class black family. And finally, it is in Collins’ raw and prescient diaries that her nascent ideas about race, gender, marriage, and motherhood first play out on the page. Kathleen Collins’ writing brings to life vibrant characters whose quotidian concerns powerfully illuminate the particular joys, challenges, and heartbreaks rendered by the African American experience. By turns empowering, exuberant, sexy, and poignant, Notes from a Black Woman’s Diary is a brilliant compendium of an inimitable talent and a rich portrait of a writer hard at work.
©2019 Kathleen Collins (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers
The Rib King
Summary
“Ladee Hubbard’s voice is a welcome original.” (Mary Gaitskill) Upstairs, Downstairs meets Parasite: The acclaimed author of The Talented Ribkins deconstructs painful African American stereotypes and offers a fresh and searing critique on race, class, privilege, ambition, exploitation, and the seeds of rage in America in this intricately woven and masterfully executed historical novel, set in early the 20th century that centers around the Black servants of a down-on-its heels upper-class White family. For 15 years August Sitwell has worked for the Barclays, a well-to-do White family who plucked him from an orphan asylum and gave him a job. The groundskeeper is part of the household’s all-Black staff, along with “Miss Mamie”, the talented cook, pretty new maid Jennie Williams, and three young kitchen apprentices - the latest orphan boys Mr. Barclay has taken in to "civilize" boys like August. But the Barclays fortunes have fallen, and their money is almost gone. When a prospective business associate proposes selling Miss Mamie’s delicious rib sauce to local markets under the brand name “The Rib King” - using a caricature of a wildly grinning August on the label - Mr. Barclay, desperate for cash, agrees. Yet neither Miss Mamie nor August will see a dime. Humiliated, August grows increasingly distraught, his anger building to a rage that explodes in shocking tragedy. Elegantly written and exhaustively researched, The Rib King is an unsparing examination of America’s fascination with Black iconography and exploitation that redefines African American stereotypes in literature. In this powerful, disturbing, and timely novel, Ladee Hubbard reveals who people actually are, and most importantly, who and what they are not.
©2021 Ladee Hubbard (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers