The Greatest
Summary
Audie Award, Autobiography/Memoir, 2017. In his own words, the heavyweight champion of the world pulls no punches as he chronicles the battles he faced in and out of the ring in this fascinating memoir edited by Nobel Prize-winning novelist, Toni Morrison. Growing up in the South, surrounded by racial bigotry and discrimination, Ali fought not just for a living, but also for respect and rewards far more precious than money or glory. He was named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and the BBC. Ali redefined what it meant to be an athlete by giving hope to millions around the world and inspiring us all to fight for what is important to us. This is a multifaceted portrait of Muhammad Ali only he could render: sports legend, unapologetic anti-war advocate, outrageous showman and gracious goodwill ambassador, fighter, lover, poet, and provocateur, and an irresistible force to be reckoned with. Who better to tell the tale than the man who went the distance living it?Â
©1975 Muhammad Ali, Herbert Muhammad, Richard Durham (P)2016 Graymalkin Media
Black Leopard, Red Wolf
Summary
One of Timeâs 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time Winner of the LA Times Ray Bradbury Prize Finalist for the 2019 National Book Award The New York Times best seller Named a Best Book of 2019 by The Wall Street Journal, Time, NPR, GQ, Vogue, and The Washington Post "A fantasy world as well-realized as anything Tolkien made." (Neil Gaiman) "Gripping, action-packed.... The literary equivalent of a Marvel Comics universe." (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times) The epic novel, an African Game of Thrones, from the Man Booker Prize-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings In the stunning first novel in Marlon James' Dark Star trilogy, myth, fantasy, and history come together to explore what happens when a mercenary is hired to find a missing child. Tracker is known far and wide for his skills as a hunter: "He has a nose," people say. Engaged to track down a mysterious boy who disappeared three years earlier, Tracker breaks his own rule of always working alone when he finds himself part of a group that comes together to search for the boy. The band is a hodgepodge, full of unusual characters with secrets of their own, including a shape-shifting man-animal known as Leopard. As Tracker follows the boy's scent - from one ancient city to another; into dense forests and across deep rivers - he and the band are set upon by creatures intent on destroying them. As he struggles to survive, Tracker starts to wonder: Who, really, is this boy? Why has he been missing for so long? Why do so many people want to keep Tracker from finding him? And perhaps the most important questions of all: Who is telling the truth, and who is lying? Drawing from African history and mythology and his own rich imagination, Marlon James has written a novel unlike anything that's come before it: a saga of breathtaking adventure that's also an ambitious, involving read. Defying categorization and full of unforgettable characters, Black Leopard, Red Wolf is both surprising and profound as it explores the fundamentals of truth, the limits of power, and our need to understand them both.
©2019 Marlon James (P)2019 Penguin Audio
Concrete Rose
Summary
International phenomenon Angie Thomas revisits Garden Heights 17 years before the events of The Hate U Give in this searing and poignant exploration of Black boyhood and manhood. If thereâs one thing 17-year-old Maverick Carter knows, itâs that a real man takes care of his family. As the son of a former gang legend, Mav does that the only way he knows how: dealing for the King Lords. With this money he can help his mom, who works two jobs while his dadâs in prison. Lifeâs not perfect, but with a fly girlfriend and a cousin who always has his back, Mavâs got everything under control. Until, that is, Maverick finds out heâs a father. Suddenly he has a baby, Seven, who depends on him for everything. But itâs not so easy to sling dope, finish school, and raise a child. So when heâs offered the chance to go straight, he takes it. In a world where heâs expected to amount to nothing, maybe Mav can prove heâs different. When King Lord blood runs through your veins, though, you can't just walk away. Loyalty, revenge, and responsibility threaten to tear Mav apart, especially after the brutal murder of a loved one. Heâll have to figure out for himself what it really means to be a man.
©2021 Angie Thomas (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers
Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site
Summary
Down in the big construction site, tough trucks work with all their might. But now it's time to say goodnight! Little truck drivers will drift off to sleep to this soothing good-bye to the day.
©2011 Chronicle (P)2012 Weston Woods
The Force
Summary
All Denny Malone wants is to be a good cop. Heâs the king of Manhattan North, a highly decorated NYPD detective sergeant and the real leader of âDa Force.â Malone and his crew are the smartest, the toughest, the quickest, the bravest, and the baddest, an elite unit given unrestricted authority to wage war on gangs, drugs, and guns. Every day and every night for the eighteen years heâs spent on the Job, Malone has served on the front lines, witnessing the hurt, the dead, the victims, the perps. Heâs done whatever it takes to serve and protect in a city built by ambition and corruption, where no one is cleanâincluding Malone himself. What only a few know is that Denny Malone is dirty: he and his partners have stolen millions of dollars in drugs and cash in the wake of the biggest heroin bust in the cityâs history. Now Malone is caught in a trap and being squeezed by the feds, and he must walk the thin line between betraying his brothers and partners, the Job, his family, and the woman he loves, trying to survive, body and soul, while the city teeters on the brink of a racial conflagration that could destroy them all. The Force is a haunting story of greed and violence, inequality and race, crime and injustice, retribution and redemption that reveals the seemingly insurmountable tensions between the police and the diverse citizens they serve. A searing portrait of a city and a courageous, heroic, and deeply flawed man who stands at the edge of its abyss, it is a masterpiece of urban realism full of shocking twists, leavened by flashes of dark humor, a morally complex and utterly riveting dissection of modern American society and the controversial issues confronting us today.
©2017 Don Winslow (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
French Short Stories for Intermediate Level
Summary
Improve your listening comprehension and make learning new vocabulary so much easier with seven French short stories. Introducing a fun and effective method of learning French. When you can't slip away from daily life to immerse yourself in a French-speaking country, listening to French stories is the next best thing. By learning this way, you will be able to: Understand grammar concepts without the monotonous chore of memorizing rules Grasp new vocabulary that you can immediately put to use in everyday conversations, and Practice your listening skills with the stories narrated by a native French speaker Familiarize yourself with spoken French. The over ten hours of audio recorded by French native speakers will drastically improve your pronunciation. Each story is recorded in several ways: Female voice Male voice Vocabulary audio flash-card No more need for a dictionary. Each story is broken down with a French and English glossary to introduce you to the words and phrases you might not understand. This removes any painful back-and-forth process of continually searching for definitions or translations. Ideal for beginner and intermediate level. The stories are written for new French learners, but a basic understanding of French is recommended for maximum enjoyment and effectiveness of the lessons. Perfect for anyone who wants to brush up on their French. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2017 Frederic Bibard (P)2017 Frederic Bibard
New York
Summary
The best-selling master of historical fiction weaves a grand, sweeping drama of New York from the city's founding to the present day.Â
Rutherfurd celebrates America's greatest city in a rich, engrossing saga that showcases his extraordinary ability to combine impeccable historical research and storytelling flair. As in his earlier, best-selling novels, he illuminates cultural, social, and political upheavals through the lives of a remarkably diverse set of families.Â
As he recounts the intertwining fates of characters rich and poor, black and white, native born and immigrant, Rutherfurd brings to life the momentous events that shaped New York and America: the Revolutionary War, the emergence of the city as a great trading and financial center, the excesses of the Gilded Age, the explosion of immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the trials of World War II, the near-demise of New York in the 1970s and its roaring rebirth in the '90s, and the attacks on the World Trade Center. Sprinkled throughout are captivating cameo appearances by historical figures ranging from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln to Babe Ruth.Â
New York is the book that millions of Rutherfurd's American fans have been waiting for. A brilliant mix of romance, war, family drama, and personal triumphs, it gloriously captures the search for freedom and prosperity at the heart of our nation's history.
©2009 Edward Rutherford (P)2009 Random House
Dear Martin
Summary
"Powerful, wrenching.â (John Green, number-one New York Times best-selling author of Turtles All the Way Down) "Raw and gripping." (Jason Reynolds, New York Times best-selling coauthor of All American Boys) "A must-read!â (Angie Thomas, number one New York Times best-selling author of The Hate U Give) Raw, captivating, and undeniably real, Nic Stone joins industry giants Jason Reynolds and Walter Dean Myers as she boldly tackles American race relations in this stunning number one New York Times best-selling debut, a William C. Morris Award Finalist. Justyce McAllister is a good kid, an honor student, and always there to help a friend - but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. Despite leaving his rough neighborhood behind, he can't escape the scorn of his former peers or the ridicule of his new classmates. Justyce looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. But do they hold up anymore? He starts a journal to Dr. King to find out. Then comes the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny, windows rolled down, music turned up - way up, sparking the fury of a white off-duty cop beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. Justyce and Manny are caught in the crosshairs. In the media fallout, it's Justyce who is under attack. "Vivid and powerful." (Booklist, starred review) "A visceral portrait of a young man reckoning with the ugly, persistent violence of social injustice." (Publishers Weekly)
©2017 Nic Stone (P)2017 Listening Library
The Monk of Mokha
Summary
From the best-selling author of The Circle, the true story of a young Yemeni-American man, raised in San Francisco, who dreams of resurrecting the ancient art of Yemeni coffee but finds himself trapped in Sana'a by civil war, and his riveting tale of escape. Mokhtar Alkhanshali grew up in San Francisco, one of seven siblings raised by Yemeni immigrants in a tiny apartment. At age 24, unable to pay for college, he works as a doorman. Until: a statue of an Arab raising a cup of coffee awakens something in him. He sets out to learn the rich history of coffee in Yemen and the complex art of tasting and identifying varietals. He travels to Yemen, collects samples of beans, eager to bring improved cultivation methods to the farmers. And he is on the verge of success when civil war engulfs Yemen in 2015 and he is trapped in Sana'a. Desperate to escape, he embarks on a passage that has him twice kidnapped at gunpoint, dodging US-made bombs dropped by the Saudi air force, and crossing the Red Sea onboard an unsafe skiff, all the while carrying two suitcases of coffee. A heart-pounding true story that weaves together the history of coffee, the ongoing Yemeni civil war, and the courageous journey of a young man - a Muslim and a US citizen - following the most American of dreams.
©2018 Dave Eggers (P)2018 Random House Audio
From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back (Star Wars)
Summary
Celebrate the legacy of The Empire Strikes Back with this exciting reimagining of the timeless film featuring new perspectives from 40 acclaimed authors. On May 21, 1980, Star Wars became a true saga with the release of The Empire Strikes Back. In honor of the 40th anniversary, 40 storytellers recreate an iconic scene from The Empire Strikes Back through the eyes of a supporting character, from heroes and villains, to droids and creatures. From a Certain Point of View features contributions by best-selling authors and trendsetting artists: Austin Walker explores the unlikely partnership of bounty hunters Dengar and IG-88 as they pursue Han Solo. Hank Green chronicles the life of a naturalist caring for tauntauns on the frozen world of Hoth. Tracy Deonn delves into the dark heart of the Dagobah cave where Luke confronts a terrifying vision. Martha Wells reveals the world of the Ugnaught clans who dwell in the depths of Cloud City. Mark Oshiro recounts the wampaâs tragic tale of loss and survival. Seth Dickinson interrogates the cost of serving a ruthless empire aboard the bridge of a doomed Imperial starship. Plus more hilarious, heartbreaking, and astonishing tales from: Tom Angleberger, S.A. Chakraborty, Mike Chen, Adam Christopher, Zoraida Córdova, Delilah S. Dawson, Alexander Freed, Jason Fry, Christie Golden, Rob Hart, E. K. Johnston, Lydia Kang, Michael Kogge, R.F. Kuang, C.B. Lee, Mackenzi Lee, John Jackson Miller, Michael Moreci, Daniel José Older, Amy Ratcliffe, Beth Revis, Lilliam Rivera, Cavan Scott, Emily Skrutskie, Karen Strong, Anne Toole, Catherynne M. Valente, Django Wexler, Kiersten White, Gary Whitta, Brittany N. Williams, Charles Yu, Jim Zub  All participating authors have generously forgone any compensation for their stories. Instead, their proceeds will be donated to First Book - a leading nonprofit that provides new books, learning materials, and other essentials to educators and organizations serving children in need. To further celebrate the launch of this book and both companiesâ longstanding relationships with First Book, Penguin Random House will donate $100,000 to First Book, and Disney/Lucasfilm will donate 100,000 childrenâs books - valued at $1,000,000 - to support First Book and their mission of providing equal access to quality education. Read by Jonathan Davis, Sean Kenin Elias-Reyes, Dion Graham, Jon Hamm, January LaVoy, Soneela Nankani, Marc Thompson, Sam Witwer, and Emily Woo Zeller.Â
©2020 Ballantine (P)2020 Random House Audio
American War
Summary
An audacious and powerful debut novel: a second American Civil War, a devastating plague, and one family caught deep in the middle - a story that asks what might happen if America were to turn its most devastating policies and deadly weapons upon itself. Sarat Chestnut, born in Louisiana, is only six when the Second American Civil War breaks out in 2074. But even she knows that oil is outlawed, that Louisiana is half underwater, that unmanned drones fill the sky. And when her father is killed and her family is forced into Camp Patience for displaced persons, she quickly begins to be shaped by her particular time and place until, finally, through the influence of a mysterious functionary, she is turned into a deadly instrument of war. Telling her story is her nephew, Benjamin Chestnut, born during the war - part of the Miraculous Generation - and now an old man confronting the dark secret of his past, his family's role in the conflict and, in particular, that of his aunt, a woman who saved his life while destroying untold others.
©2017 Omar El Akkad (P)2017 Random House Audio
Another Country
Summary
First published in 1962, this is an emotionally intense novel of love, hatred, race, and liberal America in the 1960s, taking on the then-taboo themes of interracial couples, bisexuality, and extramarital affairs. Set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France, Another Country tells the story of the suicide of jazz-musician Rufus Scott and the friends who search for an understanding of his life and death, discovering uncomfortable truths about themselves along the way. Another Country is a work that is as powerful today as it was 40 years ago - and expertly narrated by Dion Graham.
©1990 Gloria Baldwin Karefa-Smart (P)2008 BBC Audiobooks America
2034
Summary
From two former military officers and award-winning authors, a chillingly authentic geopolitical thriller that imagines a naval clash between the US and China in the South China Sea in 2034 - and the path from there to a nightmarish global conflagration. On March 12, 2034, US Navy Commodore Sarah Hunt is on the bridge of her flagship, the guided missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones, conducting a routine freedom of navigation patrol in the South China Sea when her ship detects an unflagged trawler in clear distress, smoke billowing from its bridge. On that same day, US Marine aviator Major Chris "Wedge" Mitchell is flying an F35E Lightning over the Strait of Hormuz, testing a new stealth technology as he flirts with Iranian airspace. By the end of that day, Wedge will be an Iranian prisoner, and Sarah Hunt's destroyer will lie at the bottom of the sea, sunk by the Chinese Navy. Iran and China have clearly coordinated their moves, which involve the use of powerful new forms of cyber weaponry that render US ships and planes defenseless. In a single day, America's faith in its military's strategic pre-eminence is in tatters. A new, terrifying era is at hand. So begins a disturbingly plausible work of speculative fiction, co-authored by an award-winning novelist and decorated Marine veteran and the former commander of NATO, a legendary admiral who has spent much of his career strategically outmaneuvering America's most tenacious adversaries. Written with a powerful blend of geopolitical sophistication and human empathy, 2034 takes us inside the minds of a global cast of characters - Americans, Chinese, Iranians, Russians, Indians - as a series of arrogant miscalculations on all sides leads the world into an intensifying international storm. In the end, China and the United States will have paid a staggering cost, one that forever alters the global balance of power. Everything in 2034 is an imaginative extrapolation from present-day facts on the ground combined with the authors' years working at the highest and most classified levels of national security. Sometimes it takes a brilliant work of fiction to illuminate the most dire of warnings: 2034 is all too close at hand, and this cautionary tale presents the listener a dark yet possible future that we must do all we can to avoid. * This audiobook edition includes an exclusive interview with co-author Admiral James Stavridis.
©2021 Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis (P)2021 Penguin Audio
This Year You Write Your Novel
Summary
No more excuses. "Let the lawn get shaggy and the paint peel from the walls," best-selling novelist Walter Mosley advises. Anyone can write a novel now, and in this essential book of tips, practical advice, and wisdom, Walter Mosley promises that the writer-in-waiting can finish it in one year. Mosley tells how to: Create a daily writing regimen to fit any writer's needs - and how to stick to it. Determine the narrative voice that's right for every writer's style. Get past those first challenging sentences and into the heart of a story. Intended as both inspiration and instruction, This Year You Write Your Novel provides the tools to turn out a first draft painlessly and then revise it into something finer.
©2007 Walter Mosley (P)2019 Hachette Audio
How Beautiful We Were
Summary
From the celebrated author of the New York Times best seller Behold the Dreamers comes a sweeping, wrenching story about the collision of a small African village and an American oil company. "A novel with the richness and power of a great contemporary fable, and a heroine for our time." (Sigrid Nunez, author of The Friend, winner of the National Book Award) We should have known the end was near. So begins Imbolo Mbueâs powerful second novel, How Beautiful We Were. Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, it tells of a people living in fear amid environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of cleanup and financial reparations to the villagers are made - and ignored. The countryâs government, led by a brazen dictator, exists to serve its own interests. Left with few choices, the people of Kosawa decide to fight back. Their struggle will last for decades and come at a steep price. Told from the perspective of a generation of children and the family of a girl named Thula who grows up to become a revolutionary, How Beautiful We Were is a masterful exploration of what happens when the reckless drive for profit, coupled with the ghost of colonialism, comes up against one communityâs determination to hold on to its ancestral land and a young womanâs willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of her peopleâs freedom.
©2020 Imbolo Mbue (P)2020 Random House Audio
Death by Black Hole
Summary
Neil deGrasse Tyson has a talent for explaining the mysteries of outer space with stunning clarity and almost childlike enthusiasm. This collection of his essays from Natural History magazine explores a myriad of cosmic topics, from astral life at the frontiers of astrobiology to the movie industry's feeble efforts to get its images of night skies right. Tyson introduces us to the physics of black holes by explaining what would happen to our bodies if we fell into one; he also examines the needless friction between science and religion, and notes Earth's status as "an insignificantly small speck in the cosmos". Renowned for his ability to blend content, accessibility, and humor, Tyson is a natural teacher who simplifies some of the most complex concepts in astrophysics while sharing his infectious excitement for our universe.
©2007 Neil deGrasse Tyson (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.
In the Heat of the Night
Summary
The pioneering novel featuring African American police detective Virgil Tibbs âThey call me Mr. Tibbsâ was the line immortalized by Sidney Poitier in the 1967 Oscar-winning movie adaptation of In the Heat of the Night, which won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel and the Crime Writersâ Association Gold Dagger Award and was named one of the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the 20th Century by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. Now fans of classic crime can rediscover this suspense-filled novel whose hero paved the way for James Pattersonâs Alex Cross, George Pelecanosâs Derek Strange, and other African American detectives. A small southern town in the 1960s. A musician found dead on the highway. Itâs no surprise when white detectives arrest a black man for the murder. What is a surprise is that the black man - Virgil Tibbs - is not the killer but a skilled homicide detective, passing through racially tense Wells, South Carolina, on his way back to California. Even more surprising, Wellsâs new police chief recruits Tibbs to help with the investigation. But Tibbsâs presence in town rubs some of the locals the wrong way, and it wonât be long before the martial arts-trained detective has to fight not just for justice, but also for his own safety.
©1965 John Ball (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
X
Summary
Co-written by Malcolm X's daughter, this riveting and revealing novel follows the formative years of the man whose words and actions shook the world. I am Malcolm. I am my father's son. But to be my father's son means that they will always come for me. They will always come for me, and I will always succumb. Malcolm Little's parents have always told him that he can achieve anything, but from what he can tell, that's nothing but a pack of lies - after all, his father's been murdered, his mother's been taken away, and his dreams of becoming a lawyer have gotten him laughed out of school. There's no point in trying, he figures, and lured by the nightlife of Boston and New York, he escapes into a world of fancy suits, jazz, girls, and reefer. But Malcolm's efforts to leave the past behind lead him into increasingly dangerous territory when what starts as some small-time hustling quickly spins out of control. Deep down, he knows that the freedom he's found is only an illusion - and that he can't run forever. X follows Malcolm from his childhood to his imprisonment for theft at age twenty, when he found the faith that would lead him to forge a new path and command a voice that still resonates today.
©2015 Ilyasah Shabazz, original book published by Candlewick Press (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
Washington Black
Summary
A dazzling, original novel of slavery and freedom, from the author of the international best seller Half-Blood Blues Longlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize When two English brothers arrive at a Barbados sugar plantation, they bring with them a darkness beyond what the slaves have already known. Washington Black - an 11-year-old field slave - is horrified to find himself chosen to live in the quarters of one of these men. But the man is not as Washington expects him to be. His new master is the eccentric Christopher Wilde - naturalist, explorer, inventor and abolitionist - whose obsession to perfect a winged flying machine disturbs all who know him. Washington is initiated into a world of wonder: a world where the night sea is set alight with fields of jellyfish, where a simple cloth canopy can propel a man across the sky, where even a boy born in chains may embrace a life of dignity and meaning - and where two people, separated by an impossible divide, can begin to see each other as human. But when a man is killed one fateful night, Washington is left to the mercy of his new masters. Christopher Wilde must choose between family ties and young Washington's life. What follows is a flight along the eastern coast of America, as the men attempt to elude the bounty that has been placed on Washington's head. Their journey opens them up to the extraordinary: to a dark encounter with a necropsicist, a scholar of the flesh; to a voyage aboard a vessel captained by a hunter of a different kind; to a glimpse through an unexpected portal into the Underground Railroad. This is a novel of fraught bonds and betrayal. What brings Wilde and Washington together ultimately tears them apart, leaving Washington to seek his true self in a world that denies his very existence. From the blistering cane fields of Barbados to the icy plains of the Canadian Arctic, from the mud-drowned streets of London to the eerie deserts of Morocco, Washington Black teems with all the strangeness of life. This inventive, electrifying novel asks, What is freedom? And can a life salvaged from the ashes ever be made whole?
©2018 Ides of March, Inc. (P)2018 Penguin Random House
Birthday Suit
Summary
New York Times best-selling author Lauren Blakely is back, with an irresistible standalone romance in this all-star production. Revel in a full cast of 12 fan favorite performersâled by award-winning narrators Andi Arndt and Sebastian York. Leo Hennessey, a charming but introspective executive at a chocolate company, is familiar with rule number one of the Man Code: No matter how beautiful, smart, and witty, never fall in love with your best friendâs woman. Lulu Diamond, for example, the now former wife of one of his fondest friends. Despite Leo secretly pining for this quirky and bold free spirit, she is definitely off-limits. Then Lulu decides to restart her life and fulfill her dream of opening a chocolate shopâand lands back in Leoâs life in a big, unexpected way. Keep listening for an exclusive backstage conversation with Arndt and York, the electric duo whose chemistry as Lulu and Leo is too delicious to resist. This audiobook is performed by: Andi Arndt (Lulu), Sebastian York (Leo), Erin Mallon (Ginny), R.C. Bray (George), January Lavoy (Kingsley), Dion Graham (Cameron), Shane East (Dean), Jason Clarke (Tripp), Joe Arden (Noah), Julia Whelan (Tabitha), Robin Miles (Mariana and Vivian), and Savannah Peachwood (RaeLynn).Â
©2018 Lauren Blakely (P)2018 Lauren Blakely Books
There Are No Children Here
Summary
This New York Public Library selection, as one of the 150 most important books of the 20th century, is a true-life portrait of growing up in the Chicago projects. This national best-seller chronicles the true story of two brothers coming of age in the Henry Horner public housing complex in Chicago. Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers are 11 and nine years old when the story begins in the summer of 1987. Living with their mother and six siblings, they struggle against grinding poverty, gun violence, gang influences, overzealous police officers, and overburdened and neglectful bureaucracies. Immersed in their lives for two years, Kotlowitz brings us this classic rendering of growing up poor in Americaâs cities.
©1991 Alex Kotlowitz (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Dear Justyce
Summary
The stunning sequel to the number-one New York Times best seller Dear Martin. Incarcerated teen Quan writes letters to Justyce about his experiences in the American juvenile justice system. Perfect for fans of Jason Reynolds and Angie Thomas. In the highly anticipated sequel to her New York Times best seller, Nic Stone delivers an unflinching look into the flawed practices and silenced voices in the American juvenile justice system. Vernell LaQuan Banks and Justyce McAllister grew up a block apart in the Southwest Atlanta neighborhood of Wynwood Heights. Years later, though, Justyce walks the illustrious halls of Yale University...and Quan sits behind bars at the Fulton Regional Youth Detention Center. Through a series of flashbacks, vignettes, and letters to Justyce - the protagonist of Dear Martin - Quan's story takes form. Troubles at home and misunderstandings at school give rise to police encounters and tough decisions. But then there's a dead cop and a weapon with Quan's prints on it. What leads a bright kid down a road to a murder charge? Not even Quan is sure. "A powerful, raw, must-read told through the lens of a Black boy ensnared by our broken criminal justice system." (Kirkus, starred review)
©2020 Nic Stone (P)2020 Listening Library
Evicted
Summary
Pulitzer Prize winner, General Nonfiction, 2017. National Book Critics Circle Award winner, General Nonfiction, 2016. From Harvard sociologist Matthew Desmond, a landmark work of scholarship and reportage that will forever change the way we look at poverty in America. In this brilliant, heartbreaking book, Matthew Desmond takes us into the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukee to tell the story of eight families on the edge. Arleen is a single mother trying to raise her two sons on the $20 a month she has left after paying for their rundown apartment. Scott is a gentle nurse consumed by a heroin addiction. Lamar, a man with no legs and a neighborhood full of boys to look after, tries to work his way out of debt. Vanetta participates in a botched stickup after her hours are cut. All are spending almost everything they have on rent, and all have fallen behind. The fates of these families are in the hands of two landlords: Sherrena Tarver, a former schoolteacher turned inner-city entrepreneur; and Tobin Charney, who runs one of the worst trailer parks in Milwaukee. They loathe some of their tenants and are fond of others, but, as Sherrena puts it, "Love don't pay the bills". She moves to evict Arleen and her boys a few days before Christmas. Even in the most desolate areas of American cities, evictions used to be rare. But today, most poor renting families are spending more than half of their incomes on housing, and eviction has become ordinary, especially for single mothers. In vivid, intimate prose, Desmond provides a ground-level view of one of the most urgent issues facing America today. As we see families forced into shelters, squalid apartments, or more dangerous neighborhoods, we bear witness to the human cost of America's vast inequality - and to people's determination and intelligence in the face of hardship. Based on years of embedded fieldwork and painstakingly gathered data, this masterful book transforms our understanding of extreme poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving a devastating, uniquely American problem. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible.Â
©2016 Matthew Desmond (P)2016 Random House Audio
Bad Men and Wicked Women
Summary
Affairs of the heart can be lethal in this sensual, thrilling novel from New York Times best-selling author Eric Jerome Dickey. As a low-level enforcer in Los Angeles, Ken Swift knows danger, but nowhere does he feel it more than in his tangled romances. Divorced from one woman, in love with another, and wrestling with a strong desire to get to know a third, his life is far from perfect, and it becomes all the more complicated when his troubled daughter resurfaces. Marguax is pregnant, and when she demands $50,000 for her shotgun wedding, the tension-filled father/daughter reunion escalates into a clashing of wills and desires that spread far beyond their family. As raw emotions surface, they ignite revenge, love, longing, desperation, and despair...and the flames just might be deadly. With the strong characters, heart-pounding action, and intense passion he is known for, New York Times best seller Eric Jerome Dickey lays bare a tale of lust and angst that will leave listeners breathless.Â
©2018 Eric Jerome Dickey (P)2018 Random House Audio
Johnny Get Your Gun
Summary
Johnny Get Your Gun (also known as Death for a Playmate) is the third in the Virgil Tibbs mystery series that began with In the Heat of the Night. In this story, a nine-year-old boy, lonely after a family move, shoots an older child who stole something from him, thus igniting the militant blacks and racist whites of 1960s Pasadena into a black-white conflict involving riots, brutalities, a chase through Disneyland, and a heart-warming as well as heart-breaking scene toward the end of the book that takes place in a baseball park of the California Angels. Here you will find childhood gone awry, racism that ought to shock but in context does not (we know it too well), and political conflicts that add fuel to the fire.
©1969 John Ball (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales
Summary
Brought to life by Academy Award®-winning actor F. Murray Abraham and an ensemble cast of narrators, and featuring original music by Michael Bacon, this collection contains Hans Christian Andersenâs most beloved fairy tales, as well as a selection of lesser-known favorites. Unlike the Brothers Grimm, who collected and retold folklore and fairy tales, Hans Christian Andersen adopted the most ancient literary forms and distilled them into a genre that was uniquely his own. His fairy tales are remarkable for their sense of fantasy, power of description, and vivid imagination. They are like no others written before or since. Recognizing the literary merit of Andersen's own simple colloquial language, Erik Haugaard has remained faithful to the original text in the translation from Danish to English. Listeners will rediscover Hans Christian Andersen's best-known fairy tales, and find new favorites. Stories: The Princess and the Pea Thumbelina The Little Mermaid The Emperor's New Clothes The Steadfast Tin Soldier The Wild Swans The Nightingale The Ugly Duckling The Snow Queen The Little Match Girl "The Will-o'-the-Wisps Are in Town," said the Bog Witch The Rags The Adventures of a Thistle Luck Can Be Found in a Stick The Days of the Week Cast: F. Murray Abraham Edoardo Ballerini Marisa Calin Cynthia Darlow Ari Fliakos Dion Graham January LaVoy Jennifer Lim Euan Morton Robert Petkoff Rebecca Soler Marc Thompson
Public Domain (P)2018 Listening Library
Mighty, Mighty Construction Site
Summary
At last - here from the team behind the beloved international best seller comes a companion to Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site. All of our favorite trucks are back on the construction site - this time with a focus on team-building, friendship, and working together to make a big task seem small!
©2017 Chronicle (P)2019 Weston Woods Studios Inc
Lovely War
Summary
Listen to the novel New York Times best-selling author of The Alice Network Kate Quinn called "easily one of the best novels I have read all year". A critically acclaimed, multilayered romance set in the perilous days of World Wars I and II, where gods hold the fates - and the hearts - of four mortals in their hands. They are Hazel, James, Aubrey, and Colette. A classical pianist from London, a British would-be architect turned soldier, a Harlem-born ragtime genius in the US Army, and a Belgian orphan with a gorgeous voice and a devastating past. Their story, as told by goddess Aphrodite, who must spin the tale or face judgment on Mount Olympus, is filled with hope and heartbreak, prejudice and passion, and reveals that, though war is a formidable force, it's no match for the transcendent power of love. Hailed by critics, Lovely War has received seven starred reviews and is an indie best seller. Author Julie Berry has been called "a modern master of historical fiction" by Bookpage and "a celestially inspired storyteller" by The New York Times, and Lovely War is truly her masterwork.Â
©2019 Julie Berry (P)2019 Listening Library
Odd One Out
Summary
From the number one New York Times best-selling author of Dear Martin comes an honest and touching depiction of friendship, first love, and everything in between. Perfect for fans of Love, Simon and What If It's Us. Courtney Cooper and Jupiter Sanchez (Coop & Jupe!) have been next-door neighbors and best friends since they were seven years old. She's his partner in crime and other half. But lately, Cooper can't ignore he might want something more than friendship from Jupiter. When Rae Chin moves to town she can't believe how lucky she is to find Coop and Jupe. Being the new kid is usually synonymous with pariah, but around these two, she finally feels like she belongs. She's so grateful she wants to kiss him...and her. Jupiter has always liked girls. But when Rae starts dating Cooper, Jupe realizes that the only girl she ever really imagined by his side was her. One story. Three sides. No easy answers. An NPR Best Book of the Year A Boston Globe Best Children's Book of 2018 "Fans of Nic and new readers will find themselves engrossed." (Teen Vogue) "Declaring yourself - how you would like to be represented and whom you want to love and connect with - is treated with real tenderness." (The New York Times)
©2018 Nic Stone (P)2018 Listening Library
Resurrecting Midnight
Summary
International assassin Gideon spilled blood for the first time when he was seven years old, with a single shot to the head of a man who was attempting to kill the woman Gideon had known as his mother. The victim was none other than his own father, a man of unspeakable evil. This pivotal event shaped Gideon throughout his life, made him who he is, one of the fiercest, most feared hired guns in the world.
And one of the most hunted.
After nearly losing his life in Antigua during a mission that went terribly wrong, Gideon trusts no one. But when a former lover and grifter, Arizona, resurfaces in need of his skills, she reminds him he was indebted to a man who had once saved his life: the son of the legendary con-man Scamz. Gideon is forced to take on an assignment which will lead him to Argentina in pursuit of a briefcase containing one part of a larger puzzle.
The "package" contains material that another group of assassins - the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - will kill to obtain and protect. One of the leaders of the Four Horsemen has a connection to Gideon that neither man is aware of - a connection that will be exposed when they meet face-to-face and gun-to-gun.
Each member of The Four Horsemen is a world-class killer, each with a dark and dangerous past, and nothing will stop that team of renegades from completing their mission.
As Gideon struggles to keep promises and uncover information about his past, he finds himself at the center of the ultimate double-cross and he is forced to do what he must to protect himself and those closest to him. Set amidst the exotic and vibrant streets of Miami and Buenos Aires, Resurrecting Midnight is an action-filled, pulse-pounding thriller from best-selling author Eric Jerome Dickey.
©2009 Eric Jerome Dickey (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Recorded by arrangement with Dutton, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
The Smash-Up
Summary
A marriage spirals out of control when the issues of our day - cultural, political, and social - becoming intensely personal in this fresh, whip-smart novel for listeners of Meg Wolitzer and Fleishman Is in Trouble.  âSharply funny, perceptive, and surprising at every turn.... Ali Benjamin is Edith Wharton with fresh eyes.â (Amy Bloom, author of White Houses) Itâs September 2018. In Washington, DC - and in cities and towns across America - women have taken to the streets to protest a Supreme Court nominee. And in Starkfield, Massachusetts - a sleepy rural town where nothing much ever happens - Ethan Fromeâs otherwise quiet life has turned upside down. Ethan's wife, Zo, is so enraged by the national political scene that sheâs transformed their home into a local headquarters for the Resistance. His college roommate and former business partner faces #metoo allegations, sending Ethan into increasingly desperate financial straits. His unruly, headstrong daughter, Alex, grows more challenging by the day. Enter Maddy Silver - a breezy, blue-haired millennial making her way through the gig economy. Suddenly Ethan and Zo must question everything: their past, their future, their marriage, and what they value most. And all the while, a world-rocking cultural smash-up inches ever closer to home. Inspired by a classic Edith Wharton novella about a strained marriage in a small town, The Smash-Up is at once an intimate, moving portrait of a family in distress, a vivid examination of our roiling national rancor, and a powerful exploration of how the things we fail to notice can shatter a family, a community, and a nation.
©2021 Ali Benjamin (P)2021 Random House Audio
Broca's Brain
Summary
Carl Sagan, writer and scientist, returns from the frontier to tell us about how the world works. In his delightfully down-to-earth style, he explores and explains a mind-boggling future of intelligent robots, extraterrestrial life and its consequences, and other provocative, fascinating quandaries of the future that we want to see today.
©1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979 Carl Sagan (P)2017 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material: Cornell University Press: "An Analysis of 'Worlds in Collision'" by Carl Sagan, in Scientists Confront Velikovsky, edited by D. Goldsmith. © 1976 by Cornell University Press. Encyclopedia Americana: "UFO's." © 1975 by Americana Corporation. Field Enterprises: "The Climates of Planets" in Science Year 1975. © 1975 by Field Enterprises Educational Corporation. William Morrow & Company, Inc.: Excerpts from The Planets by Diane Ackerman. © 1975, 1976 by Diane Ackerman. Reprinted by permission of William Morrow & Company, Inc.
We Own This City
Summary
The astonishing true story of "one of the most startling police corruption scandals in a generation" (The New York Times), from the Pulitzer Prize-nominated reporter who exposed a gang of criminal cops and their years-long plunder of an American city. "A work of journalism that not only chronicles the rise and fall of a corrupt police unit but can stand as the inevitable coda to the half-century of disaster that is the American drug war." (David Simon, author of Homicide, coauthor of The Corner, and creator of The Wire) Baltimore, 2015. Riots are erupting across the city as citizens demand justice for Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old Black man who has died under suspicious circumstances while in police custody. Drug and violent crime are surging, and Baltimore will reach its highest murder count in more than two decades: 342 homicides in a single year, in a city of just 600,000 people. Facing pressure from the mayorâs office - as well as a federal investigation of the department over Grayâs death - Baltimore police commanders turn to a rank-and-file hero, Sergeant Wayne Jenkins, and his elite plainclothes unit, the Gun Trace Task Force, to help get guns and drugs off the street. But behind these new efforts, a criminal conspiracy of unprecedented scale was unfolding within the police department. Entrusted with fixing the cityâs drug and gun crisis, Jenkins chose to exploit it instead. With other members of the empowered Gun Trace Task Force, Jenkins stole from Baltimoreâs citizens - skimming from drug busts, pocketing thousands in cash found in private homes, and planting fake evidence to throw Internal Affairs off their scent. Their brazen crime spree would go unchecked for years. The result was countless wrongful convictions, the death of an innocent civilian, and the mysterious death of one cop who was shot in the head, killed just a day before he was scheduled to testify against the unit. In this urgent book, award-winning investigative journalist Justin Fenton distills hundreds of interviews, thousands of court documents, and countless hours of video footage to present the definitive account of the entire scandal. The result is an astounding, riveting feat of reportage about a rogue police unit, the city they held hostage, and the ongoing struggle between American law enforcement and the communities they are charged to serve.
©2021 Justin Fenton (P)2021 Random House Audio
Song Machine
Summary
Over the last two decades, a new type of song has emerged. Today's hits bristle with "hooks", musical burrs designed to snag your ear every seven seconds. Painstakingly crafted to tweak the brain's delight in melody, rhythm, and repetition, these songs are industrial-strength products made for malls, casinos, the gym, and the Super Bowl halftime show. The tracks are so catchy and so potent that you can't not listen to them. Traveling from New York to Los Angeles, Stockholm to Korea, John Seabrook visits specialized teams composing songs in digital labs with novel techniques, and he traces the growth of these contagious hits from their origins in early '90s Sweden to their ubiquity on today's charts. Featuring the stories of artists like Katy Perry, Britney Spears, and Rihanna as well as expert songsmiths like Max Martin, Ester Dean, and Dr. Luke, The Song Machine will change the way you listen to music.
©2015 John Seabrook. Recorded by arrangement with W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. (P)2015 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Swordspoint
Summary
Audie Award, Audio Drama, 2013 Award-winning author, narrator, and screenwriter Neil Gaiman personally selected this book, and, using the tools of the Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX), cast the narrator and produced this work for his audiobook label, Neil Gaiman Presents. A few words from Neil on Swordspoint: "It's as if Jane Austen wrote fantasy... an imaginary world where the characters are real people: a Vanity Fair of aristocrats, rogues, orphans, and heroes; a book where the best swordsman in the land can make far more money dueling at private parties than he can as a knight-errant. Ellen Kushner casts her sharp eye over them all, but with great affection and lavish detaiI.... couldn't think of a better performer for Swordspoint than Ellen, and her reading is polished, intimate, and â since Riverside is of her creation â wholly authentic. "What really makes this production of Swordspoint unique, though, is the supporting cast in this special "illuminated production". Several key scenes are fully dramatized, and throughout the entire book's soundscapes you will hear the cadences of the marketplace, the music of the drawing rooms, and of course the ring of steel drawn from the scabbard. Ellen actually wrote new dialogue for the crowd scenes, so the actors aren't just mumbling "rhubarb rhubarb" to simulate speech.... You'll be able to hear performances from acclaimed and award-winning actors, including Dion Graham, Katherine Kellgren, Robert Fass, Nick Sullivan, and the remarkable Simon Jones." In this exciting new "illuminated production", the author herself reads her own work, supported by a full cast. Author Ellen Kushner is also a popular performer and National Public Radio host (Sound & Spirit). For years, fans have been asking her to record her own audiobook of Swordspoint. To mark the 25th anniversary of the book's publication, Ellen teamed up with Sue Zizza of SueMedia Productions, known for her signature touches of soundscapes and sound effects, multi-voiced dramatizations, and all the techniques of "illuminated production". Together they have made Swordspoint a brand-new audio experience, in which the full supporting cast dramatizes and illuminates key scenes from Ellen's compelling narration. On the streets of Riverside, a man lives and dies by the sword. Even the nobles on the Hill turn to duels to settle their disputes. And in this city, the swordsman Richard St. Vier is the undisputed master, as skilled as he is ruthless â until a death by the sword is met with outrage instead of awe, and the city discovers that the line between hero and villain can be altered in the blink of an eye. Because every man lives at sword's point, if you can only find his weakness. And even the greatest swordsman in Riverside has one thing he cares for deeply. Hailed by critics as "a bravura performance, a delight from start to finish" (Locus), "intelligent, humorous and dramatic" (Publishers Weekly) and "witty, beguiling and ingenious" (Interzone) , Kushner's "Melodrama of Manners" has become a classic, a favorite not only of Neil Gaiman but a host of distinguished colleagues, including George R. R. Martin ("unforgettable!"), Orson Scott Card ("powerful") and Gene Wolfe ("as if Noel Coward had written a vehicle for Errol Flynn!"). The artwork used for the audiobook edition of Swordspoint is based on the artwork and design by Thomas Canty for the original first US edition of the book.
©1987 Ellen Kushner (P)2011 SueMedia Productions
Shaq Uncut
Summary
Superman. Diesel. The Big Aristotle. Shaq Fu. The Big Daddy. The Big Shaqtus. Wilt Chamberneezy. The Real Deal. The Big Shamrock. Shaq. You know him by any number of names, and chances are you know all about his legendary basketball career: Shaquille "Shaq" O'Neal is a four-time NBA champion and a three-time NBA Finals MVP. After being an All-American at Louisiana State University, he was the overall number one draft pick in the NBA in 1992. In his 19-year career, Shaq racked up 28,596 career points (including 5,935 free throws!), 13,099 rebounds, 3,026 assists, 2,732 blocks, and 15 All-Star appearances. These are statistics that are almost as massive as the man himself. His presence - both physically and psychologically - made him a dominant force in the game for two decades. But if you follow the game, you also know that there's a lot more to Shaquille O'Neal than just basketball. Shaq is famous for his playful, and at times, provocative personality. He is, literally, outsize in both scale and persona. Whether rapping on any of his five albums, challenging celebrities on his hit television show Shaq Vs., studying for his PhD or serving as a reserve police officer, there's no question that Shaq has led a unique and multi-dimensional life. And in this rollicking new autobiography, Shaq discusses his remarkable journey, including his candid thoughts on teammates and coaches like Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Phil Jackson, and Pat Riley. From growing up in difficult circumstances and getting cut from his high school basketball team to his larger-than-life basketball career, Shaq lays it all out in Shaq Uncut: My Story.Â
©2011 Shaquille O'Neal (P)2011 Hachette
Before We Were Wicked
Summary
From New York Times best-selling author Eric Jerome Dickey, "one of the most successful Black authors of the last quarter-century" (The New York Times), a novel about the how one chance meeting can change everything in this thrilling, sexy tale of star-crossed lust. They say the love of money is the root of all evil, but for Ken Swift, it's the love of a woman. Ken is 21, hurting people for cash to try to pay his way through college, when he lays eyes on Jimi Lee, the woman who will change the course of his entire life. What's meant to be a one-night stand with the Harvard-bound beauty turns into an explosion of sexual chemistry that neither can quit. And when Jimi Lee becomes pregnant, their two very different worlds collide in ways they never could have anticipated. Passion, infidelity, and raw emotion combine in Eric Jerome Dickey's poignant, erotic portrait of a relationship: the rise, the fall, and the scars? - and desire? - that never fade.
©2019 Eric Jerome Dickey (P)2019 Random House Audio
Black Panther
Summary
Black Panther. Ruler of Wakanda. Avenger. This is his destiny. But right now, he's simply T'Challa - the young prince. Life is comfortable for 12-year-old T'Challa in his home of Wakanda, an isolated, technologically advanced African nation. When he's not learning how to rule a kingdom from his father - the reigning Black Panther - or testing out the latest tech, he's off breaking rules with his best friend, M'Baku. But as conflict brews near Wakanda, T'Challa's father makes a startling announcement: he's sending T'Challa and M'Baku to school in America. This is no prestigious private academy - they've been enrolled at South Side Middle School in the heart of Chicago. Despite being given a high-tech suit and a Vibranium ring to use only in case of an emergency, T'Challa realizes he might not be as equipped to handle life in America as he thought. Especially when it comes to navigating new friendships while hiding his true identity as the prince of a powerful nation, and avoiding Gemini Jones, a menacing classmate who is rumored to be involved in dark magic. When strange things begin happening around school, T'Challa sets out to uncover the source. But what he discovers in the process is far more sinister than he could ever have imagined. In order to protect his friends and stop an ancient evil, T'Challa must take on the mantle of a hero, setting him on the path to becoming the Black Panther.Â
©2018 Ronald L. Smith (P)2018 Listening Library
Say You're One of Them
Summary
Each story in this jubilantly acclaimed collection pays testament to the wisdom and resilience of children, even in the face of the most agonizing circumstances. A family living in a makeshift shanty in urban Kenya scurries to find gifts of any kind for the impending Christmas holiday. A Rwandan girl relates her family's struggles to maintain a facade of normalcy amid unspeakable acts. A young brother and sister cope with their uncle's attempt to sell them into slavery. Aboard a bus filled with refugees - a microcosm of today's Africa - a Muslim boy summons his faith to bear a treacherous ride across Nigeria. Through the eyes of childhood friends the emotional toll of religious conflict in Ethiopia becomes viscerally clear. Uwem Akpan's debut signals the arrival of a breathtakingly talented writer who gives a matter-of-fact reality to the most extreme circumstances in stories that are nothing short of transcendent.
©2009 Uwem Akpan (P)2009 Hachette
Five Pieces of Jade
Summary
Who murdered the importer? Was it Yumeko, the beautiful half-black, half-Japanese girl who lived with him? Johnny Wu, a rich Chinese American? Another customer? Or a political enemy from overseas? Homicide detective Virgil Tibbs finds himself in the middle of a deadly situation involving hard drugs, Communist Chinese agents, and the exotic settings of the jade trade as he coolly tracks down the murderer.
©1972 John Ball. (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
Finding Langston
Summary
When 11-year-old Langston's mother dies in 1946, he and his father leave rural Alabama for Chicago's brown belt as a part of what came to be known as the Great Migration. It's lonely in the small apartment with just the two of them, and Langston is bullied at school. But his new home has one fantastic thing. Unlike the whites-only library in Alabama, the local public library welcomes everyone. There, hiding out after school, Langston discovers another Langston, a poet whom he learns inspired his mother enough to name her only son after him.
©2018 Lesa Cline-Ransome (P)2018 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Darkwater
Summary
The distinguished American civil rights leader, W. E. B. DuBois first published these fiery essays, sketches, and poems individually in 1920 in the Atlantic, the Journal of Race Development, and other periodicals. Reflecting the author's ideas as a politician, historian, and artist, this volume has long moved and inspired readers with its militant cry for social, political, and economic reform. It is essential reading for all students of African American history.
©1999 Dover Publications (P)2014 Blackstone Audio
New Stories From the South
Summary
Pages magazine says this collection represents âthe absolute best in short literary fiction.â This installment exhibits a fresh batch of immensely talented writers, all of whom exemplify the level of accomplishment that has kept this acclaimed series running strong since 1985. Comprising 20 stories, this rich and varied collection features everything from a fresh take on the classic Southern gothic to a velvet-smooth work of erotic suspense.
©2006 Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill (P)2007 Recorded Books, LLC
Sooley
Summary
New York Times best-selling author John Grisham takes you to a different kind of court in his first basketball novel. Samuel âSooleyâ Sooleymon is a raw, young talent with big hoop dreamsâ¦and even bigger challenges off the court. In the summer of his 17th year, SamÂuel Sooleymon gets the chance of a lifetime: a trip to the United States with his South Sudanese teammates to play in a showcase basketÂball tournament. He has never been away from home, nor has he ever been on an airplane. The opportunity to be scouted by dozens of college coaches is a dream come true. Samuel is an amazing athlete, with speed, quickÂness, and an astonishing vertical leap. The rest of his game, though, needs work, and the American coaches are less than impressed. During the tournament, Samuel receives devÂastating news from home: A civil war is raging across South Sudan, and rebel troops have ranÂsacked his village. His father is dead, his sister is missing, and his mother and two younger brothers are in a refugee camp. Samuel desperately wants to go home, but itâs just not possible. Partly out of sympathy, the coach of North Carolina Central offers him a scholarÂship. Samuel moves to Durham, enrolls in classes, joins the team, and prepares to sit out his freshman season. There is plenty of more mature talent and he isnât immediately needed. But Samuel has something no other player has: a fierce determination to succeed so he can bring his family to America. He works tirelessly on his game, shooting baskets every morning at dawn by himself in the gym, and soon heâs dominating everyone in practice. With the Central team losÂing and suffering injury after injury, Sooley, as he is nicknamed, is called off the bench. And the legend begins. But how far can Sooley take his team? And will success allow him to save his family? Gripping and moving, Sooley showcases John Grishamâs unparalleled storytelling powers in a whole new light. This is Grisham at the top of his game.
©2021 John Grisham (P)2021 Random House Audio
The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears
Summary
Ethiopian émigré Dinaw Mengestu is a skilled observer of people who offers a colorful debut work of fiction. Insightful and swiftly paced, this novel evokes past and present in the course of its compelling narrative. It's the `70s, and one D.C. neighborhood is undergoing big changes. In the mix is Ethiopian grocery owner Sepha Stephanos - a man with a complex past who fled his homeland after seeing his father brutalized by themilitary. He hopes for new prospects in D.C.'s gentrification process, but his store is struggling. Next door to his apartment building lives Judith, a successful white woman working to renovate her house. As Sepha bonds with Judith and her biracial, 11-year-old daughter Naomi, he is inevitably subject to the mounting pressures of race and class that are in flux around them.
©2007 Dinaw Mengestu (P)2008 Recorded Books
Trouble Is What I Do
Summary
Morally ambiguous P.I. Leonid McGill is back - and investigating crimes against society's most downtrodden - in this installment of the beloved detective series from an Edgar Award-winning and best-selling crime novelist. Leonid McGill's spent a lifetime building up his reputation in the New York investigative scene. His seemingly infallible instinct and inside knowledge of the crime world make him the ideal man to help when Phillip Worry comes knocking. Phillip "Catfish" Worry is a 92-year-old Mississippi bluesman who needs Leonid's help with a simple task: Deliver a letter revealing the black lineage of a wealthy heiress and her corrupt father. Unsurprisingly, the opportunity to do a simple favor while shocking the prevailing elite is too much for Leonid to resist. But when a famed and feared assassin puts a hit on Catfish, Leonid has no choice but to confront the ghost of his own felonious past. Working to protect his client and his own family, Leonid must reach the heiress on the eve of her wedding before her powerful father kills those who hold their family's secret. Joined by a team of young and tough aspiring investigators, Leonid must gain the trust of wary socialites, outsmart vengeful thugs, and, above all, serve the truth -no matter the cost.
©2020 Walter Mosley (P)2020 Mulholland Books
The Son of Mr. Suleman
Summary
From New York Times best-selling author Eric Jerome Dickey - named one of USA Todayâs 100 Black Novelists and Fiction Authors You Should Read - comes his final work: an unflinchingly timely novel about history, hearts, and family. Itâs the summer of 2019, and Professor Pi Suleman is a Black man from Memphis with a lot to endure - not only as a Black man in Trumpâs America but in his hard-earned career as an adjunct professor. Pi is constantly forced to bite his tongue in the face of one of his tenured colleagueâs prejudices and microaggressions. At the same time, heâs being blackmailed by a powerful professor who threatens to claim he has assaulted her, when in fact the truth is just the opposite, trapping him in a he-said-she-said with a white woman that, in this society, Pi knows he will never win. When he meets Gemma Buckingham, a sophisticated entrepreneur who has just moved to Memphis from London to escape a deep heartbreak, things begin to look up. Though Gemma and Pi hail from separate cultures, their differences fuel a fiery and passionate connection that just may consume them both. But Piâs whirlwind romance is interrupted when his absentee father, a celebrated writer, passes away and Pi is called to Los Angeles to both collect his inheritance and learn about the man who never acknowledged him. With the complicated legacy of his famous father to make sense of, Gemmaâs visa expiration date looming, and the threats of his colleague becoming increasingly intense, Pi must figure out who he is and what kind of man he will become in his fatherâs shadow. In The Son of Mr. Suleman, Eric Jerome Dickey takes listeners on a powerful journey exploring racism, colorism, life as a mixed-race person, sexual assault, microaggressions, truth and lies, cultural differences, politics, family legacies, perceptions, the impact of enslavement and Jim Crow, code-switching, the power of death, and the weight of love. It is an extraordinary story, page-turning and intense, and a book only Dickey could write.Â
©2020 Eric Jerome Dickey (P)2020 Random House Audio
Lot
Summary
One of Barack Obamaâs âFavorite Books of the Yearâ "Phenomenal." (Justin Torres, author of We the Animals) "Brilliant." (Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Here Comes the Sun) âA profound exploration of the true meaning of borders.â (The New York Times Book Review) Named One of The 10 Best Books of 2019 in the New York Times by Dwight Garner A New York Times Notable Book of 2019 In the city of Houston - a sprawling, diverse microcosm of America - the son of a black mother and a Latino father is coming of age. He's working at his family's restaurant, weathering his brother's blows, resenting his older sister's absence. And discovering he likes boys. Around him, others live and thrive and die in Houston's myriad neighborhoods: a young woman whose affair detonates across an apartment complex, a ragtag baseball team, a group of young hustlers, hurricane survivors, a local drug dealer who takes a Guatemalan teen under his wing, a reluctant chupacabra. Bryan Washington's brilliant, viscerally drawn world vibrates with energy, wit, raw power, and the infinite longing of people searching for home. With soulful insight into what makes a community, a family, and a life, Lot explores trust and love in all its unsparing and unsteady forms.
©2019 Bryan Washington (P)2019 Penguin Audio
Radiance of Tomorrow
Summary
A haunting, beautiful first novel by the best-selling author of A Long Way Gone. When Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone was published in 2007, it soared to the top of best-seller lists, becoming an instant classic: a harrowing account of Sierra Leone's civil war and the fate of child soldiers that "everyone in the world should listen to". (The Washington Post). Now Beah, whom Dave Eggers has called, "arguably the most listened-to African writer in contemporary literature", has returned with his first novel, an affecting, tender parable about postwar life in Sierra Leone. At the center of Radiance of Tomorrow are Benjamin and Bockarie, two longtime friends who return to their hometown, Imperi, after the civil war. The village is in ruins, the ground covered in bones. As more villagers begin to come back, Benjamin and Bockarie try to forge a new community by taking up their former posts as teachers, but they're beset by obstacles: a scarcity of food; a rash of murders, thievery, rape, and retaliation; and the depredations of a foreign mining company intent on sullying the town's water supply and blocking its paths with electric wires. As Benjamin and Bockarie search for a way to restore order, they're forced to reckon with the uncertainty of their past and future alike. With the gentle lyricism of a dream and the moral clarity of a fable, Radiance of Tomorrow is a powerful audiobook about preserving what means the most to us, even in uncertain times.
©2014 Ishmael Beah (P)2013 Macmillan Audio
Black Water Rising
Summary
Writing in the tradition of Dennis Lehane and Greg Iles, Attica Locke, a powerful new voice in American fiction, delivers a brilliant debut thriller that readers will not soon forget. Porter is hardly the lawyer he set out to be. His most promising client is a low-rent call girl and he runs his fledgling law practice out of a dingy strip mall. But he's long since made peace with not living the American Dream and carefully tucked away his darkest sins: the guns, the FBI file, the trial that nearly destroyed him. Houston, Texas, 1981. It is here that Jay believes he can make a fresh start. That is, until the night in a boat out on the bayou when he impulsively saves a woman from drowning - and opens a Pandora's box. Her secrets put Jay in danger, ensnaring him in a murder investigation that could cost him his practice, his family, and even his life. But before he can get to the bottom of a tangled mystery that reaches into the upper echelons of Houston's corporate power brokers, Jay must confront the demons of his past. With pacing that captures the reader from the first scene through an exhilarating climax, Black Water Rising marks the arrival of an electrifying new talent.
©2009 Attica Locke (P)2009 HarperCollins Publishers
The Circle
Summary
The Circle is the exhilarating new audiobook from Dave Eggers, bestselling author of A Hologram for the King, a finalist for the National Book Award. When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world's most powerful internet company, she feels she's been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users' personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company's modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can't believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world - even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public. What begins as the captivating story of one woman's ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.
©2013 Dave Eggers (P)2013 Random House Audio
Clean Getaway
Summary
From number one New York Times best-selling author Nic Stone comes a timely middle-grade road-trip story through landmarks of the Civil Rights movement and the map they lay for contemporary race relations. How to go on an unplanned road trip with your grandma: Grab a suitcase: prepacked from the big spring break trip that got cancelled. Fasten your seatbelt: G'ma's never conventional, so this trip won't be either. Use the green book: G'ma's most treasured possession. It holds history, memories, and most important, the way home. What not to bring: A cell phone: Avoid contact with Dad at all costs. Even when G'ma starts acting stranger than usual. Set against the backdrop of the segregation history of the American South, take a trip with this New York Times best seller and an 11-year-old boy who is about to discover that the world hasn't always been a welcoming place for kids like him, and things aren't always what they seem - his G'ma included. "Truly a delight." (Christopher Paul Curtis, author of Newbery Medal winner Bud, Not Buddy)
©2020 Nic Stone (P)2020 Listening Library
We Are the Ship
Summary
"We are the ship; all else the sea." - Rube Foster, founder of the Negro National League The story of Negro League baseball is the story of gifted athletes and determined owners; of racial discrimination and international sportsmanship; of fortunes won and lost; of triumphs and defeats on and off the field. It is a perfect mirror for the social and political history of black America in the first half of the 20th century. But most of all, the story of the Negro Leagues is about hundreds of unsung heroes who overcame segregation, hatred, terrible conditions, and low pay to do the one thing they loved more than anything else in the world: play ball. Using an "Everyman" player as his narrator, Kadir Nelson tells the story of Negro League baseball from its beginnings in the 1920s through its decline after Jackie Robinson crossed over to the majors in 1947. The voice is so authentic, you will feel as if you are sitting on dusty bleachers listening intently to the memories of a man who has known the great ballplayers of that time and shared their experiences. But what makes this book so outstanding are the dozens of full-page and double-page oil paintings - breathtaking in their perspectives, rich in emotion, and created with understanding and affection for these lost heroes of our national game. We Are the Ship is a tour de force for baseball lovers of all ages.
©2008 Kadir Nelson (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Going to Meet the Man
Summary
"There's no way not to suffer. But you try all kinds of ways to keep from drowning in it."Â The men and women in these eight short fictions grasp this truth on an elemental level, and their stories, as told by James Baldwin, detail the ingenious and often desperate ways in which they try to keep their heads above water. It may be the heroin that a down-and-out jazz pianist uses to face the terror of pouring his life into an inanimate instrument. It may be the brittle piety of a father who can never forgive his son for his illegitimacy. Or it may be the screen of bigotry that a redneck deputy has raised to blunt the awful childhood memory of the day his parents took him to watch a black man being murdered by a gleeful mob.
©1957, 1958, 1960, 1965 James Baldwin (P)2012 AudioGO
Infinite Hope
Summary
From celebrated author and illustrator Ashley Bryan comes a deeply moving memoir about serving in the segregated army during World War II and how love and the pursuit of art sustained him. In May of 1942, at the age of 18, Ashley Bryan was drafted to fight in World War II. For the next three years, he would face the horrors of war as a black soldier in a segregated army. He endured the terrible lies white officers told about the black soldiers to isolate them from anyone who showed kindness - including each other. He received worse treatment than even Nazi POWs. He was assigned the grimmest, most horrific tasks, like burying fallen soldiers...but was told to remove the black soldiers first because the media didnât want them in their newsreels. And he waited and wanted so desperately to go home, watching every white soldier get safe passage back to the US before black soldiers were even a thought. For the next 40 years, Ashley would keep his time in the war a secret. But now, he tells his story. The story of the kind people who supported him. The story of the bright moments that guided him through the dark. And the story of his passion for art that would save him time and time again. This illuminating and moving memoir by Newbery Honor-winning illustrator Ashley Bryan is both a lesson in history and a testament to hope.
©2019 Ashley Bryan (P)2019 Simon & Schuster
Flying Lessons & Other Stories
Summary
Whether it is basketball dreams, family fiascos, first crushes, or new neighborhoods, this bold anthology - written by the best children's authors - celebrates the uniqueness and universality in all of us. In a partnership with We Need Diverse Books, industry giants Kwame Alexander, Soman Chainani, Matt de la Peña, Tim Federle, Grace Lin, Meg Medina, Walter Dean Myers, Tim Tingle, and Jacqueline Woodson join newcomer Kelly J. Baptist in a story collection that is as humorous as it is heartfelt. This impressive group of authors has earned among them every major award in children's publishing and popularity as New York Times best sellers. From these distinguished authors comes 10 distinct and vibrant stories. Table of contents and cast of narrators: "Foreword", written and read by Ellen Oh "How to Transform an Everyday Hoop Court into a Place of Higher Learning and You at the Podium" by Matt de la Peña, read by Dion Graham "The Difficult Path" by Grace Lin, read by Samantha Quan "Sol Painting, Inc.", written and read by Meg Medina "Secret Samantha" by Tim Federle, read by Julia Whelan "The Beans and Rice Chronicles of Isaiah Dunn" by Kelly J. Baptist, read by Adam Lazarre-White "Choctaw Bigfoot, Midnight in the Mountains", written and read by Tim Tingle "Main Street" by Jacqueline Woodson, read by Abigail Revasch "Flying Lessons" by Soman Chainani, read by Sunil Malhotra "Seventy-Six Dollars and Forty-Nine Cents", written and read by Kwame Alexander "Sometimes a Dream Needs a Push" by Walter Dean Myers, read by Dominic Hoffman "About We Need Diverse Books", read by Ellen Oh
©2016 Ellen Oh (P)2016 Listening Library
Dying for Revenge
Summary
International hit man Gideon never misses his target, but when a job in Detroit goes bad, he should have killed his client - a cold-blooded woman who hired him to kill her husband - when he had the chance. Now the city's mayor and with money and power to spare, this woman will stop at nothing to see that Gideon gets what he deserves.
Gideon soon finds himself in the crosshairs of two hired assassins: a seasoned killer known as El Matador and his voluptuous but ruthless wife, who dons Manolo Blahniks for even the dirtiest jobs. But when Gideon proves himself an impossible target, the lady from Detroit sets her sights on those closest to him.
On the exotic island of Antigua, Gideon enlists the help of his friend and fellow assassin Hawks to square off against his deadliest adversary yet. Amid palm trees and white sands, sparks and bullets fly as Gideon must outsmart and defeat his pursuers before it's too late.
Featuring Dickey's trademark blend of passion and suspense, Dying for Revenge is a pulse-pounding and deliciously sexy thrill-ride through a Caribbean island paradise.
©2008 Eric Jerome Dickey (P)2008 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
A Slave No More
Summary
Slave narratives are extremely rare. Of the 100 or so of these testimonies that survive, a mere handful are first-person accounts by slaves who ran away and freed themselves. Now, two newly uncovered narratives, and the biographies of the men who wrote them, join that exclusive group. Wallace Turnage was a teenage field-hand on an Alabama plantation, John Washington an urban slave in Virginia. They never met. But both men saw opportunity in the chaos of the Civil War, both escaped North, and both left us remarkable accounts of their flights to freedom. Handed down through family and friends, these narratives tell gripping stories of escape. Working from an unusual abundance of genealogical material, historian David W. Blight has reconstructed Turnage's and Washington's childhoods as sons of white slaveholders and their climb to black working-class stability in the North, where they reunited their families. In A Slave No More, the untold stories of two ordinary men take their place at the heart of the American experience.
©2007 David W. Blight (P)2007 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.
Overground Railroad
Summary
From the award-winning author and illustrator of Before She Was Harriet comes an original and moving perspective of the Great Migration, as seen through the eyes of the young girl Ruth Ellen, whose family journeys from North Carolina to New York City.
©2020 Lesa Cline-Ransome (P)2020 Live Oak Media
Down the River unto the Sea
Summary
"Mosley writes with great power here about themes that have permeated his work: institutional racism, political corruption, and the ways that both of these issues affect not only society at large but also the inner lives of individual men and women." (Booklist, starred review) Joe King Oliver was one of the NYPD's finest investigators, until, dispatched to arrest a well-heeled car thief, he is framed for assault by his enemies within the NYPD, a charge which lands him in solitary at Rikers Island. A decade later, King is a private detective, running his agency with the help of his teenage daughter, Aja-Denise. Broken by the brutality he suffered and committed in equal measure while behind bars, his work and his daughter are the only light in his solitary life. When he receives a card in the mail from the woman who admits she was paid to frame him those years ago, King realizes that he has no choice but to take his own case: figuring out who on the force wanted him disposed of - and why. Running in parallel with King's own quest for justice is the case of a Black radical journalist accused of killing two on-duty police officers who had been abusing their badges to traffic in drugs and women within the city's poorest neighborhoods. Joined by Melquarth Frost, a brilliant sociopath, our hero must beat dirty cops and dirtier bankers, craven lawyers, and above all keep his daughter far from the underworld in which he works. All the while, two lives hang in the balance: King's client's, and King's own.
©2018 Walter Mosley (P)2018 Hachette Audio
Miles
Summary
Universally acclaimed as a musical genius, Miles Davis was one of the most important and influential musicians in the world. Here, Miles speaks out about his extraordinary life. Miles: The Autobiography, like Miles himself, holds nothing back. For the first time Miles talks about his five-year silence. He speaks frankly and openly about his drug problem and how he overcame it. He condemns the racism he encountered in the music business and in American society generally. And he discusses the women in his life. But above all, Miles talks about music and musicians, including the legends he has played with over the years: Bird, Dizzy, Monk, Trane, Mingus, and many others. The man who gave us some of the most exciting music of the twentieth century here gives us a compelling and fascinating autobiography.
©1989 Miles Davis. All rights reserved. (P)2012 AudioGo
Romance in Marseille
Summary
The pioneering novel of physical disability, transatlantic travel, and black international politics. A vital document of black modernism and one of the earliest overtly queer fictions in the African American tradition. Published for the first time Buried in the archive for almost 90 years, Claude McKay's Romance in Marseille traces the adventures of a rowdy troupe of dockworkers, prostitutes, and political organizers - collectively straight and queer, disabled and able-bodied, African, European, Caribbean, and American. Set largely in the culture-blending Vieux Port of Marseille at the height of the Jazz Age, the novel takes flight along with Lafala, an acutely disabled but abruptly wealthy West African sailor. While stowing away on a transatlantic freighter, Lafala is discovered and locked in a frigid closet. Badly frostbitten by the time the boat docks, the once-nimble dancer loses both of his lower legs, emerging from life-saving surgery as what he terms "an amputated man." Thanks to an improbably successful lawsuit against the shipping line, however, Lafala scores big in the litigious United States. Feeling flush after his legal payout, Lafala doubles back to Marseille and resumes his trans-African affair with Aslima, a Moroccan courtesan. With its scenes of black bodies fighting for pleasure and liberty even when stolen, shipped, and sold for parts, McKay's novel explores the heritage of slavery amid an unforgiving modern economy. This first-ever edition of Romance in Marseille includes an introduction by McKay scholars Gary Edward Holcomb and William J. Maxwell that places the novel within both the "stowaway era" of black cultural politics and McKay's challenging career as a star and skeptic of the Harlem Renaissance.
©2020 The Literary Estate for the Works of Claude McKay (P)2020 Recorded Books
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Summary
Dave Eggers scored a worldwide phenomenon with this memoir that topped national best-seller lists and has since become a staple for summer reading and book clubs. A compelling voice for Generation X, Eggers hererecounts his early 20s, caring for his younger brother after their parentsâ unexpected deaths and his endeavors in a variety of media.
©2000 David K. Eggers (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC
The White Rose: Munich, 1942-1943
Summary
The White Rose tells the story of Hans Scholl and Sophie Scholl, who in 1942 led a small underground organization of German students and professors to oppose the atrocities committed by Hitler and the Nazi Party. They named their group the White Rose, and they distributed leaflets denouncing the Nazi regime. Sophie, Hans, and a third student were caught and executed. Written by Inge Scholl (Han's and Sophie's sister), The White Rose features letters, diary excerpts, photographs of Hans and Sophie, transcriptions of the leaflets, and accounts of the trial and execution. This is a gripping account of courage and morality. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2012 Inge Aicher-Scholl (P)2020 Post Hypnotic Press Inc.
Narwhal and Jelly, Books 1-5
Summary
The first five books in this New York Times best-selling series are now available in a "fintastic" audiobook collection! The Narwhal and Jelly books are delightfully silly graphic novels full of heart, friendship, and playful adventure. Adapted for audio with sound effects and a full cast - including a special appearance by the author - listeners can now get the first five books (Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea, Super Narwhal and Jelly Jolt, Peanut Butter and Jelly, Narwhal's Otter Friend, and Happy Narwhalidays) in the series in one audiobook collection.
©2020 Ben Clanton (P)2020 Tundra Books
At Night All Blood Is Black
Summary
"Heartbreaking and poetic." - The Guardian Named a most anticipated book by Literary Hub | Electric Literature| The Millions | Refinery29 Selected by students across France to win the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, David Diopâs English-language, historical fiction debut At Night All Blood is Black is a âpowerful, hypnotic, and dark novelâ (Livres Hebdo) of terror and transformation in the trenches of the First World War. Alfa Ndiaye is a Senegalese man who, never before having left his village, finds himself fighting as a so-called âChocolatâ soldier with the French army during World War I. When his friend Mademba Diop, in the same regiment, is seriously injured in battle, Diop begs Alfa to kill him and spare him the pain of a long and agonizing death in No Manâs Land. Unable to commit this mercy killing, madness creeps into Alfaâs mind as he comes to see this refusal as a cruel moment of cowardice. Anxious to avenge the death of his friend and find forgiveness for himself, he begins a macabre ritual: every night he sneaks across enemy lines to find and murder a blue-eyed German soldier, and every night he returns to base, unharmed, with the Germanâs severed hand. At first his comrades look at Alfaâs deeds with admiration, but soon rumors begin to circulate that this super soldier isnât a hero, but a sorcerer, a soul-eater. Plans are hatched to get Alfa away from the front, and to separate him from his growing collection of hands, but how does one reason with a demon, and how far will Alfa go to make amends to his dead friend? Peppered with bullets and black magic, this remarkable novel fills in a forgotten chapter in the history of World War I. Blending oral storytelling traditions with the gritty, day-to-day, journalistic horror of life in the trenches, David Diop's At Night All Blood is Black is a dazzling tale of a manâs descent into madness.
©2018 David Diop. Translation © 2020 by Anna Moschovakis. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Pick-Up Game
Summary
Itâs one single steamy July day at the West 4th Street Court in New York City, otherwise known as the Cage. Hotshot baller ESPN is wooing the scouts, Boo is struggling to guard the weird new guy named Waco, a Spike Lee wannabe has video rolling, and virgin Irene is sizing up six-foot-eight-and-a-half-inch-tall Chester. Nine of young-adult literatureâs top writers reveal how it all goes down in this searing novel in short stories that each ingeniously pick up where the last one ends. Characters weave in and out of narratives, perspectives change, and emotions play out for a fluid and fast-paced ode to the game. Crackling with humor, grit, and streetball philosophy, and featuring poems by Charles R. Smith Jr., this anthology is a slam dunk. Whoâs got next? One day. One court. Ten voices.
©2011 Marc Aronson and Charles R. Smith Jr (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
America the Beautiful
Summary
What is America becoming? Or, more importantly, what can she be if we reclaim a vision for the things that made her great in the first place? In America the Beautiful, Dr. Ben Carson helps us learn from our past in order to chart a better course for our future. From his personal ascent from inner-city poverty to international medical and humanitarian acclaim, Carson shares experiential insights that help us understand what is good about America, where we have gone astray, and which fundamental beliefs have guided America from her founding into preeminence among nations. Written by a man who has experienced America's best and worst firsthand, America the Beautiful is at once alarming, convicting, and inspiring. You'll gain new perspectives on our nation's origins, our Judeo-Christian heritage, our educational system, capitalism versus socialism, our moral fabric, health care, and much more. An incisive manifesto of the values that shaped America's past and must shape her future, America the Beautiful calls us all to use our God-given talents to improve our lives, our communities, our nation, and our world.
©2011 Ben Carson, Candy Carson (P)2011 Zondervan
Locomotion
Summary
When Lonnie Collins Motion was seven years old, his life changed forever. Now Lonnie is eleven and his life is about to change again. His teacher, Ms. Marcus, is showing him ways to put his jumbled feelings on paper. And suddenly, Lonnie has a whole new way to tell the world about his life, his friends, his little sister, Lili, and even his foster mom, Miss Edna, who started out crabby but isnât so bad after all. Award-winning author Jacqueline Woodsonâs lyrical voice captures Lonnieâs thoughtful perspectives of the world and his determination to one day put a family together again.
©2003 Jacqueline Woodson (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
The Rock and the River
Summary
Audie Award, Teens, 2011
For 13-year-old Sam it's not easy being the son of known civil-rights activist Roland Childs. Especially when his older (and best) friend, Stick, begins to drift away from him for no apparent reason. And then it happens: Sam finds something that changes everything forever.Â
Sam has always had faith in his father, but when he finds literature about the Black Panthers under Stick's bed, he's not sure who to believe: his father or his best friend. Suddenly, nothing feels certain anymore.Â
Sam wants to believe that his father is right: You can effect change without using violence. But as time goes on, Sam grows weary of standing by and watching as his friends and family suffer at the hands of racism in their own community. Sam beings to explore the Panthers with Stick, but soon he's involved in something far more serious - and more dangerous - than he could have ever predicted. Sam is faced with a difficult decision. Will he follow his father or his brother? His mind or his heart? The rock or the river?Â
©2010 Kekla Magoon (P)2010 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Daredevil
Summary
An arsonist's twisted handiwork claims hundreds of lives in the roughest neighborhood in New York - Daredevil's turf. Daredevil digs up the root of the problem and comes up with a ruthless crime boss bent on brutally wrestling control of New York's underworld from the corrupt clutches of the Kingpin of Crime. The new crime boss' enforcer? The bloodthirsty Bullseye, master assassin with a pathological enmity for Daredevil. Bullseye takes to his work with deadly efficiency, killing his way toward the Man Without Fear. Daredevil is forced to ask for help from the Kingpin - his deadliest foe - before Bullseye's fatal obsession and an explosive gang war destroy the city he's sworn to protect.
©2019 Marvel (P)2019 Marvel
Divided Soul
Summary
In this intimate biography of the Prince of Soul, David Ritz provides a candid look at a star and a friend. Ritz had been collaborating with Marvin Gaye on his story for several years before the singer's tragic death and had conducted a series of extraordinary interviews in which Gaye discussed his deepest secrets. What emerges is a full-scale portrait of a charming but tortured artist, a brilliant singer with a divided soul.  Here is Marvin's story, from his early years in the slums of Washington, D.C. to his rise to the top of the Motown industry, his fall from grace, his comeback, and finally his sudden, shocking end at the hands of his own father. It is also the story of his glorious music and the music of Black America over the past 50 years, an epic tale whose cast of characters includes Diana Ross, Berry Gordie, Smokey Robinson, and Stevie Wonder.
©1991 David Ritz (P)1995 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Dancer
Summary
Taking his inspiration from biographical facts, novelist Colum McCann tells the erotically charged story of the Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev through the cast of those who knew him. There is Anna Vasileva, Rudi's first ballet teacher, who rescues her protégé from the stunted life of his provincial town; Yulia, whose sexual and artistic ambitions are thwarted by her Soviet-sanctioned marriage; and Victor, the Venezuelan street hustler, who reveals the lurid underside of the gay celebrity set. Spanning four decades and many worlds, from the horrors of the Second World War to the wild abandon of New York in the '80s, Dancer is peopled by a large cast of characters, obscure and famous: doormen and shoemakers, nurses and translators, Margot Fonteyn, Eric Bruhn, and John Lennon. And at the heart of the spectacle stands the artist himself, willful, lustful, and driven by a never-to-be-met need for perfection.
©2003 Colum McCann (P)2021 Random House Audio
Hamlet (No Fear Shakespeare)
Summary
Donât be intimidated by Shakespeare! These popular guides make the Bardâs plays accessible and enjoyable. Each No Fear guide contains: The complete text of the original play A line-by-line translation that puts Shakespeare into everyday language A complete list of characters with descriptions Plenty of helpful commentary When Shakespeareâs words make your head spin, our audio translations will help you sort out whatâs happening, whoâs saying what, and why!
©2018 SparkNotes (P)2021 SparkNotes Audio/No Fear Shakespeare
Waking with Enemies
Summary
New York Times best-selling author Eric Jerome Dickey sizzles in this rapid-fire sequel to Sleeping with Strangers, which finds international hit man Gideon waking up with his past haunting him and danger knocking at his door.
After a heated encounter inside a London hotel room - where he was pursued by three very different women - Gideon finds himself living in a world where there's no one to trust.
Someone has taken out a hit on the hit man - but who? Could it be the man he left alive in Tampa, the woman who taught him to kill, the scorned woman he still desires, or some other unseen enemy?
The clock is ticking as Gideon struggles to find out who from his past may have ordered the hit, while attempting to outsmart the assassin who was sent to kill him - a cold-blooded killer who isn't afraid to harm any woman involved with Gideon and is determined to make his reputation off Gideon's death.
As the hunter becomes the hunted, Gideon's hedonistic lifestyle turns into a deadly game of cat and mouse. He will need to find his friends - and also depend on his enemies - to get out of the game alive.
©2007 Eric Jerome Dickey (P)2007 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Recorded by arrangement with Dutton, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
The Cut
Summary
Spero Lucas has a new line of work. Since he returned home after serving in Iraq, he has been doing special investigations for a defense attorney. He's good at it, and he has carved out a niche: recovering stolen property, no questions asked. His cut is 40 percent. A high-profile crime boss who has heard of Lucas's specialty hires him to find out who has been stealing from his operation. It's the biggest job Lucas has ever been offered, and he quickly gets a sense of what's going on. But before he can close in on what's been taken, he tangles with a world of men whose amorality and violence leave him reeling. Is any cut worth your family, your lover, your life? Spero Lucas is George Pelecanos's greatest creation, a young man making his place in the world one battle and one mission at a time. The first in a new series of thrillers featuring Spero Lucas, The Cut is the latest confirmation of why George Pelecanos is "perhaps America's greatest living crime writer" (Stephen King).
©2011 George Pelecanos (P)2011 Hachette
Little Family
Summary
From the number-one New York Times best-selling author of A Long Way Gone A powerful novel about young people living at the margins of society, struggling to replace the homes they have lost with the one they have created together. Hidden away from a harsh outside world, five young people have improvised a home in an abandoned airplane, a relic of their country's tumultuous past. Elimane, the bookworm, is as street-smart as he is wise. Clever Khoudiemata maneuvers to keep the younger kids - athletic, pragmatic Ndevui, thoughtful Kpindi, and especially their newest member, Namsa - safe and fed. When Elimane makes himself of service to the shadowy William Handkerchief, it seems as if the little family may be able to keep the world at bay and their household intact. But when Khoudi comes under the spell of the "beautiful people" - the fortunate sons and daughters of the elite - the desire to resume an interrupted coming of age and follow her own destiny proves impossible to resist. A profound and tender portrayal of the connections we forge to survive the fate we're dealt, Little Family marks the further blossoming of a unique global voice.
©2020 Ishmael Beah (P)2020 Penguin Audio
Shaker
Summary
Meet Roy Cooper, stoic, unassuming "errand runner" for various New York criminals. Roy arrives in Los Angeles to shoot a man named Martin Shine a week after a powerful earthquake has knocked out cell service, buckled the freeways, and thrown LA into chaos. Roy doesn't know who Shine is or why he has to die, but he does his job and does it well. Except for one thing: After the hit, Roy can't find where he parked his car. Wandering the streets of North Hollywood, he stumbles upon a jogger getting mugged and beaten by four young gangbangers. Despite his attempt to simply put his head down and walk away, Roy winds up in the middle of another killing. Things get more complicated when the murdered jogger turns out to be a controversial mayoral candidate. Roy himself is shot twice, hospitalized in critical condition, and mistaken for a hero when a local resident leaks a video that goes viral. Now meet the rest of the cast of characters, including Kelly Maguire, a disgraced LAPD detective with an anger management problem and strange feelings about LA's newest hero; Science, the teenage gangbanger/shooter who needs to keep Roy quiet about what he's seen; Mayor Miguel Santiago, who finds himself facing accusations that he's just had his opponent whacked; Albert Budin, Roy's onetime mentor and one of the scariest, creepiest characters in recent crime fiction; and myriad criminals, politicians, and cops who all need Roy to disappear - preferably forever. Finally, meet Scott Frank, who has created not just one of the most entertaining novels of the year but also one of the most surprising. This first novel is fun and funny as well as moving and textured, nuanced, and powerful. Shaker is the debut work of fiction by a major new storyteller.
©2016 Scott Frank (P)2016 Random House Audio
The Spook Who Sat by the Door
Summary
A classic in the black literary tradition, The Spook who Sat by the Door is both a comment on the civil rights problems in the United States in the late 1960s and a serious attempt to focus on the issue of black militancy.Â
Dan Freeman, the "spook who sat by the door", is enlisted in the CIA's elitist espionage program. Upon mastering agency tactics, however, he drops out to train young Chicago blacks as "Freedom Fighters" in this explosive, award-winning novel.
As a story of one man's reaction to ruling-class hypocrisy, the audiobook is autobiographical and personal. As a tale of a man's reaction to oppression, it is universal.
©1969 Sam Greenlee (P)2020 Random House Audio
The Dead Are Arising
Summary
An epic biography of Malcolm X finally emerges, drawing on hundreds of hours of the author's interviews, rewriting much of the known narrative.  Les Payne, the renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, embarked in 1990 on a nearly 30-year-long quest to interview anyone he could find who had actually known Malcolm X - all living siblings of the Malcolm Little family, classmates, street friends, cellmates, Nation of Islam figures, FBI moles and cops, and political leaders around the world. His goal was ambitious: to transform what would become more than a hundred hours of interviews into an unprecedented portrait of Malcolm X, one that would separate fact from fiction.  The result is this historic biography that conjures a never-before-seen world of its protagonist, a work whose title is inspired by a phrase Malcolm X used when he saw his Hartford followers stir with purpose, as if the dead were truly arising, to overcome the obstacles of racism. Setting Malcolm's life not only within the Nation of Islam but against the larger backdrop of American history, the book traces the life of one of the 20th century's most politically relevant figures from street criminal to devoted moralist and revolutionary.  In tracing Malcolm X's life from his Nebraska birth in 1925 to his Harlem assassination in 1965, Payne provides searing vignettes culled from Malcolm's Depression-era youth, describing the influence of his Garveyite parents: his father, Earl, a circuit-riding preacher who was run over by a street car in Lansing, Michigan, in 1929, and his mother, Louise, who continued to instill Black pride in her children after Earl's death. Filling each chapter with resonant drama, Payne follows Malcolm's exploits as a petty criminal in Boston and Harlem in the 1930s and early 1940s to his religious awakening and conversion to the Nation of Islam in a Massachusetts penitentiary.  With a biographer's unwavering determination, Payne corrects the historical record and delivers extraordinary revelations - from the unmasking of the mysterious NOI founder Fard Muhammad, who preceded Elijah Muhammad; to a hair-rising scene, conveyed in cinematic detail, of Malcolm and Minister Jeremiah X Shabazz's 1961 clandestine meeting with the KKK; to a minute-by-minute account of Malcolm X's murder at the Audubon Ballroom.  Introduced by Payne's daughter and primary researcher, Tamara Payne, who, following her father's death, heroically completed the biography, The Dead Are Arising is a penetrating and riveting work that affirms the centrality of Malcolm X to the African American freedom struggle.
©2020 Les Payne and Tamara Payne (P)2020 Recorded Books
Milo Imagines the World
Summary
The team behind the Newbery Medal winner and Caldecott Honor book Last Stop on Market Street and the award-winning New York Times best seller Carmela Full of Wishes once again delivers a poignant and timely children's book that's sure to become an instant classic. Milo is on a long subway ride with his older sister. To pass the time, he studies the faces around him and makes pictures of their lives. There's the whiskered man with the crossword puzzle; Milo imagines him playing solitaire in a cluttered apartment full of pets. There's the wedding-dressed woman with a little dog peeking out of her handbag; Milo imagines her in a grand cathedral ceremony. And then there's the boy in the suit with the bright white sneakers; Milo imagines him arriving home to a castle with a drawbridge and a butler. But when the boy in the suit gets off on the same stop as Milo - walking the same path, going to the exact same place - Milo realizes you can't really know anyone just by looking at them.
©2021 Matt de la Peña (P)2021 Listening Library
Coming Through Slaughter
Summary
Many readers still claim this haunting, atmospheric novel of Michael Ondaatje's as their first love - a novel as sensual and erotic today as ever it was.Â
At the turn of the century, the Storyville district of New Orleans had some 2000 prostitutes, 70 professional gamblers, and 30 piano players. But it had only one man who played the cornet like Buddy Bolden - he who cut hair by day at N. Joseph's Shaving Parlor, and at night played jazz, unleashing an unforgettable wildness and passion in crowded rooms. Self-destructively in love with two women, he embodied all the dire claims that music places on its acolytes. At the age of 31, Buddy Bolden went mad. From these sparse facts, Michael Ondaatje has created a story as beautiful and chilling as a New Orleans funeral procession, where even the mourners dance.
"Coming Through Slaughter...is so stuffed full of the dolour and lust that both buoys and blemishes a life, it reads like a story dying to be told." (Books in Canada)
©1976 Michael Ondaatje (P)2020 Knopf Canada
Married Men
Summary
Carl Weber is a recipient of the Blackboard Bookseller of the Year Award. Married Men is a fresh and funny take on modern love that has been described as Waiting to Exhale on testosterone. Lifelong friends Kyle, Allen, Wil, and Jay all make mistakes in their marriages-and all get kicked to the curb by their wives. What follows is a wild ride with stops in sleazy hotels, divorce court, and even jail. In their adventure, fueled by Viagra and lovely young ladies, the four men always have each other to lean on. The complete list of narrators includes Myra Lucretia Taylor, Pat Floyd, Peter Jay Fernandez, J. D. Jackson, and Robin Miles.
©2001 Carl Weber (P)2002 Recorded Books,LLC
The Parade
Summary
From the best-selling author of The Monk of Mokha and The Circle comes a taut, suspenseful story of two foreigners' role in a nation's fragile peace. An unnamed country is leaving the darkness of a decade at war, and to commemorate the armistice, the government commissions a new road connecting two halves of the state. Two men, foreign contractors from the same company, are sent to finish the highway. While one is flighty and adventurous, wanting to experience the nightlife and people, the other wants only to do the work and go home. But both men must eventually face the absurdities of their positions and the dire consequences of their presence. With echoes of J. M. Coetzee and Graham Greene, this timeless novel questions whether we can ever understand another nation's war and what role we have in forging anyone's peace.
©2019 Dave Eggers (P)2019 Random House Audio
Leaving Lymon
Summary
Behind every bad boy is a story worth hearing and at least one chance for redemption. It's 1946, and Lymon, uprooted from his life in the Deep South and moved up North, needs that chance. Lymon's father is, for the time being, at Parchman Farm - the Mississippi State Penitentiary - and his mother, whom he doesn't remember all that much, has moved North. Fortunately, Lymon is being raised by his loving grandparents. Together, Lymon and his grandpops share a love of music, spending late summer nights playing the guitar. But Lymon's world as he knows it is about to dissolve. He will be sent on a journey to two Northern cities far from the country life he loves - and the version of himself he knows. In this companion novel to the Coretta Scott King Honor-winning Finding Langston, listeners will see a new side of the bully Lymon in this story of an angry boy whose raw talent, resilience, and devotion to music help point him in a new direction.
©2020 Lesa Cline-Ransome (P)2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC
But Beautiful
Summary
In eight poetically charged vignettes, Geoff Dyer skillfully evokes the music and the men who shaped modern jazz. Drawing on photos, anecdotes, and, most important, the way he hears the music, Dyer imaginatively reconstructs scenes from the embattled lives of some of the greats: Lester Young fading away in a hotel room; Charles Mingus storming down the streets of New York on a too-small bicycle; Thelonious Monk creating his own private language on the piano. However, music is the driving force of But Beautiful, as is wildly metaphoric prose that mirrors the quirks, eccentricity, and brilliance of each musician's style.
©1996 Geoff Dyer (P)2019 Tantor
Muck City
Summary
In a town deep in the Florida Everglades, where high school football is the only escape, a haunted quarterback, a returning hero, and a scholar struggle against terrible odds. The loamy black "muck" that surrounds Belle Glade, Florida, once built an empire for Big Sugar and provided much of the nation's vegetables, often on the backs of roving, destitute migrants. Many of these were children who honed their skills along the field rows and started one of the most legendary football programs in America. Belle Glade's high school team, the Glades Central Raiders, has sent an extraordinary number of players to the National Football League - 27 since 1985, with five of those drafted in the first round. The industry that gave rise to the town and its team also spawned the chronic poverty, teeming migrant ghettos, and violence that cripples futures before they can ever begin. Muck City tells the story of quarterback Mario Rowley, whose dream is to win a championship for his deceased parents and quiet the ghosts that haunt him; head coach Jessie Hester, the town's first NFL star, who returns home to "win kids, not championships"; and Jonteria Willliams, who must build her dream of becoming a doctor in one of the poorest high schools in the nation. For boys like Mario, being a Raider is a one-shot window for escape and a college education. Without football, Jonteria and the rest must make it on brains and fortitude alone. For the coach, good intentions must battle a town's obsession to win above all else. Beyond the Friday night lights, this book is an engrossing portrait of a community mired in a shameful past and uncertain future but with the fierce will to survive, win, and escape to a better life.
©2017 Bryan Mealer (P)2017 Random House Audio
The Laws of Our Fathers
Summary
In Kindle County, a woman is killed in an apparent random drive-by shooting. The woman turns out to be the ex-wife of a prominent state senator and an old acquaintance of Judge Sonia Klonsky, on whose desk the case lands. As the pursuit of justice takes bizarre and unusual turns, Judge Klonsky is brought face-to-face with a host of extraordinary personalities and formidable enemies bent on her destruction.
©2010 Scott Turow (P)2010 Hachette
Ball Don't Lie
Summary
Newbery Award-winning author Matt de la Pena's Ball Don't Lie, about basketball, "is a must-read" (The Bulletin). Sticky is a beat-around-the-head foster kid with nowhere to call home but the street and an outer shell so tough that no one will take him in. He started out life so far behind the pack that the finish line seems nearly unreachable. He's a white boy living and playing in a world where he doesn't seem to belong. But Sticky can ball. And basketball might just be his ticket out, if he can only realize that he doesn't have to be the person everyone else expects him to be. Matt de la Peña's breakout urban masterpiece, Ball Don't Lie takes place where the street and the court meet and where a boy can be anything if he puts his mind to it.
©2007 Matt de la Peña (P)2017 Listening Library
Life and Other Inconveniences
Summary
From the New York Times best-selling author of Good Luck with That comes a new novel about a blue-blood grandmother and her black-sheep granddaughter who discover they are truly two sides of the same coin. Emma London never thought she had anything in common with her grandmother Genevieve London. The regal old woman came from wealthy and bluest-blood New England stock, but that didn't protect her from life's cruelest blows: the disappearance of Genevieve's young son, followed by the premature death of her husband. But Genevieve rose from those ashes of grief and built a fashion empire that was respected the world over, even when it meant neglecting her other son. When Emma's own mother died, her father abandoned her on his mother's doorstep. Genevieve took Emma in and reluctantly raised her - until Emma got pregnant her senior year of high school. Genevieve kicked her out with nothing but the clothes on her back...but Emma took with her the most important London possession: the strength not just to survive but to thrive. And indeed, Emma has built a wonderful life for herself and her teenage daughter, Riley. So what is Emma to do when Genevieve does the one thing Emma never expected of her and, after not speaking to her for nearly two decades, calls and asks for help?
©2019 Kristan Higgins (P)2019 Recorded Books
Homeland
Summary
Homeland is the remarkable memoir of George Obama, the youngest son of the Obama clan and President Obama's Kenyan half-brother. The father that the brothers shared was as elusive a figure for George as he had been for Barack Obama; he died when George was six months old and George was raised by his mother and stepfather. But after his mother and stepfather separated, he drifted into gangs and petty crime. Arrested for robbery, restless, willful, and troubled, he lost himself in Nairobi's vast Mathare ghetto. After being framed for an armed robbery he did not commit and spending time in jail, he represented himself at trial and won the case. Vowing to turn his life around, he finished his education and set up the George Hussein Obama Homeland Foundation to help street kids overcome the miseries surrounding them. George Obama's story describes his unique struggles with family, tribe, inheritance, and redemption and the seminal influence his brother had on his own future.
©2010 George Obama (P)2010 Blackstone Publishing & Urban Audiobooks
Tempted by Trouble
Summary
Dmytryk Knight was a respectable man who had followed the blueprints for the American Dream: go to college, find the girl of your dreams, get married, buy a house on the affluent side of Detroit. Heâd done it all by the book. But when a crippling recession annihilates the auto industry, Dmytryk and his wife, Cora, suddenly find themselves without jobs and in foreclosure. And after two years of taking any job they can find and trying to live honestly, they realize that integrity just doesnât pay the bills.
Given the right circumstances, even the best of us can turn bad.
When a powerful and ruthless criminal named Eddie Coyle arrives from Rome and gives Dmytryk an opportunity to make fast money, Cora urges him to man up. All he has to do is join Eddie Coyleâs crew and rob some banks: two minutes, in and out, nobody gets hurt. Torn between desperation and his values, but unable to resist the promise of instant cash, Dmytryk gives in - but no sooner does he enter a life of crime than Cora vanishes.
Now, more determined than ever to get his life back on track, Dmytryk is only one bank job away from having enough money to leave Eddie Coyle and find Cora. But when the job goes dangerously wrong, Dmytryk is forced to test his moral compass in ways he never imagined and realizes that we can plan all we want, but sometimes fate has a different agenda....
©2010 Brilliance Audio, Inc.; 2010 Eric Jerome Dickey
Avengers: Infinity
Summary
The Avengers journey into deep space, where they unite the intergalactic races against the Builders - deadly aliens who seek to destroy the known galaxy. While the heroes are gone, Thanos sets his sights on Earth, sending the Black Order to launch the assault. It falls to the other heroes of Earth - the Inhumans, the Black Panther, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Doctor Strange, the X-Men, and more - to defend Attilan, Wakanda, Atlantis, and the rest of the planet. To defeat Thanos, the defending forces will need to deploy a new weapon - one that may be as deadly as the invading force.
©2020 Marvel (P)2020 Marvel
The Corner
Summary
The crime-infested intersection of West Fayette and Monroe Streets is well-known - and cautiously avoided - by most of Baltimore. But this notorious corner's 24-hour open-air drug market provides the economic fuel for a dying neighborhood. David Simon, an award-winning author and crime reporter, and Edward Burns, a 20-year veteran of the urban drug war, tell the chilling story of this desolate crossroad. Through the eyes of one broken family - two drug-addicted adults and their smart, vulnerable 15-year-old son, DeAndre McCollough, Simon and Burns examine the sinister realities of inner cities across the country and unflinchingly assess why law-enforcement policies, moral crusades, and the welfare system have accomplished so little. This extraordinary book is a crucial look at the price of the drug culture and the poignant scenes of hope, caring, and love that astonishingly rise in the midst of a place America has abandoned.
©1998 David Simon and Edward Burns (P)2020 Random House Audio
Cross Country
Summary
When the home of Alex Cross' oldest friend, Ellie Cox, is turned into the worst murder scene Alex has ever seen, the destruction leads him to believe that he's chasing a horrible new breed of killer. As Alex and his girlfriend, Brianna Stone, become entangled in the deadly Nigerian underworld of Washington DC, what they discover is shocking: a stunningly organized gang of lethal teenagers headed by a powerful, diabolical man - the African warlord known as the Tiger. Just when the detectives think they're closing in on the elusive murderer, the Tiger disappears into thin air. Tracking him to Africa, Alex knows that he must follow. Alone.
©2008 James Patterson (P)2008 Hachette Audio
They Called Themselves the KKK
Summary
YALSA Nonfiction Finalist, 2011 A thoroughly-documented, chilling history of one of the worldâs most recognizable extremist groups, this is the true story of terrorism in America. âBoys, let us get up a club.â With these chilling words, six restless young men raided the linens at a friendâs mansion, pulled pillowcases over their heads, hopped on horses, and cavorted through the streets of Pulaski, Tennessee. They called their new club the Ku Klux Klan, and it quickly grew into the self-proclaimed Invisible Empire, with secret dens spreading across the South. Award-winning author Susan Campbell Bartoletti weaves together vivid personal accounts from oral histories, congressional documents, and diaries in this enlightening, surprising, and disquieting story, which has received a slew of starred reviews from Kirkus, Publisherâs Weekly, Booklist, and other esteemed publications. Her extensive research places the length of the Klanâs history into a larger context that sheds new light on the roots of hate groups. When you purchase They Called Themselves the KKK, youâll get exclusive bonus audio from a conversation with the author and Audie Award-winning narrator Dion Graham.
©2010 Susan Campbell Bartoletti (P)2010 Audible, Inc.
The Way Home
Summary
Hidden beneath the floorboards in a house he's remodelling, Christopher Flynn discovers something very tempting - and troubling. Summoning every bit of maturity and every lesson he's learned the hard way, Chris leaves what he found where he found it and tells his job partner to forget it, too. Knowing trouble when he sees it-and walking the other way - is a habit Chris is still learning. Chris's father, Thomas Flynn, runs the family business where Chris and his friends have found work. Thomas is just getting comfortable with the idea that his son is grown, working, and on the right path at last. Then one day Chris doesn't show up for work-and his father knows deep in his bones that danger has found him. Although he wishes it weren't so, he also knows that no parent can protect a child from all the world's evils. Sometimes you have to let them find their own way home.
©2009 George Pelecanos (P)2010 Orion Publishing Group
Sleeping with Strangers
Summary
A powerful hit man, Gideon is the master of the game in a jet-setting world dominated by money, women, and violence. Living off the grid, making love on the run, he makes his living as a contract killer by enacting the revenge of the brokenhearted...for a price.
One woman taught him to kill, another motivates him to succeed in the business of revenge. If he can amass a million dollars, the woman he desires has promised to run away with him.
For her sake, Gideon takes a high-profile job that earns him dangerous enemies, and hops a plane to London hoping to escape the aftermath. On the plane he meets two mysterious women - have they been sent to bring him down? Have his past transgressions caught up with him at last? Or will one of these strangers help him choose a life of love over a life of violence?
In this underworld of grifters and killers, brokenhearted squares and streetwalkers, loyal fans will spot some familiar faces from Dickey's previous books. A thrilling ride through extremes of love and danger, Sleeping with Strangers thrives on the darker passions of revenge and desire.
©2007 Eric Jerome Dickey (P)2007 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
The Cool Cottontail
Summary
The Cool Cottontail is the second in the Virgil Tibbs mystery series. In this mystery, Tibbs finds himself at a nudist colony in Los Angeles where the victim (who was not one of the guests) is found floating dead in the pool. Set against this unusual backdrop, the guests of the resort prefer guarding their secrets to solving the murder mystery, particularly when the investigating detective is black. Author John Ball often used social issues of the day to feature as issues in his work, making his work controversial but at the same time, some of the best and most relevant fiction of his time. Along with racism other social taboos, Ball had no problem with nudism; naked people are the least of the problems these characters face.
©1996 John Ball (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved
The Future Is Yours
Summary
Two best friends create a computer that can predict the future. But what they canât predict is how it will tear their friendship - and society - apart. âAn impossibly addictive brainteaser wrapped in a buttery popcorn kernel.â (Aneesh Chaganty, director and co-writer of Searching and Run) In development as an HBO Max Original Series If you had the chance to look one year into the future, would you? For Ben Boyce and Adhi Chaudry, the answer is unequivocally yes. And theyâre betting everything that youâll say yes, too. Welcome to The Future: a computer that connects to the internet one year from now, so you can see who youâll be dating, where youâll be working, even whether or not youâll be alive in the year to come. By forming a start-up to deliver this revolutionary technology to the world, Ben and Adhi have made their wildest, most impossible dream a reality. Once Silicon Valley outsiders, theyâre now its hottest commodity. The device can predict everything perfectly - from stock-market spikes and sports scores to political scandals and corporate takeovers - allowing them to chase down success and fame while staying one step ahead of the competition. But the future their device foretells is not the bright one they imagined. Ambition. Greed. Jealousy. And, perhaps, an apocalypse. The question is...can they stop it? Told through emails, texts, transcripts, and blog posts, this bleeding-edge tech thriller chronicles the costs of innovation and asks how far youâd go to protect the ones you love - even from themselves.
©2021 Dan Frey (P)2021 Random House Audio
METAtropolis: Green Space
Summary
Audie Award Finalist, Original Work, 2014 Audibleâs Audie Award-winning and Hugo Award-nominated vision of the not-too-distant future returns! As METAtropolis: Green Space moves into the 22nd Century, human social evolution is heading in new directions after the Green Crash and the subsequent Green Renaissance. Nearly everyone who cares to participate in the wired world has become part of the "Internet of things", a virtual environment mapped across all aspects of the natural experience. At the same time, the serious back-to-the-land types have embraced a full-on paleo lifestyle, including genetically engineering themselves and their offspring. At the same time, a back-to-space movement is seeking the moon, a green Mars, and even the stars, with the eventual goal of leaving a pristine and undisturbed Earth behind. METAtropolis: Green Space is the creation of Hugo and World Fantasy Award nominee Jay Lake; Hugo Award winning writers Seanan McGuire, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Elizabeth Bear; New York Times best-selling author Tobias S. Buckell; Aurora Award winner Karl Schroeder; and critically-acclaimed author Ken Scholes.
©2013 Joseph E. Lake, Jr., Elizabeth Bear, Karl Schroeder, Seanan McGuire, Tobias S. Buckell, Mary Robinette Kowal, Ken Scholes (P)2013 Audible Inc.
They Said This Day Would Never Come
Summary
The thrilling, unlikely story of Barack Obama's first presidential campaign, as told by the volunteers and staff who propelled the longshot candidate to the presidency In the year leading up to the Iowa caucuses, few thought a freshman senator named Barack Hussein Obama would be able to win the Democratic nomination - not to mention become the most popular leader in the world. But something was stirring. Hundreds of young people from all over the country began assembling first in Iowa. These "kids" became the foundation of one of the most improbable presidential campaigns of the modern era. Chris Liddell-Westefeld was one of those kids. He and thousands of other staff and volunteers dedicated every minute of their time, intelligence, and resources to help elect Barack Obama, as what started in the midwest spread nationwide. Drawn from more than 200 interviews with alumni including David Axelrod, David Plouffe, Alyssa Mastromonaco, Dan Pfeiffer, Valerie Jarrett, Josh Earnest, Tommy Vietor, Jon Favreau, and President Obama himself, They Said This Day Would Never Come takes listeners deep inside the most inspirational presidential campaign in recent history. Â This audiobook is voiced by the following contributors: The Author, Chris Liddell-Westefeld, Ally Coll, Alyssa Mastromonaco, Anne Filipic, Annick Febrey, Ava Hinds Lawson, Barack Obama, Bess Evans, Brynne Craig, Carianna Suiter, Chelsea Kammerer, Chris Wyant, Cody Keenan, Dan Pfeiffer, David Axelrod, David Plouffe, Danielle Crutchfield, Dean Fluker, Elizabeth Wilkins, Emily Parcell, Esther Morales, Francis Iacobucci, Graham Wilson, Greg Degen, Howli Ledbetter, Jackie Bray, Jamal Pope, James Schuelke, Janice Rottenberg, Jason Waskey, Jeremy Bird, Joe Cupka, Joe Paulsen, Jon Carson, Jon Favreau, Josh Earnest, Kal Penn, Katherine Onyshko, Kristin Avery, Lauren Champaign, Lauren Kidwell, Maggie Thompson, MaryGrace Galston, Megan Simpson, Meghan Goldenstein, Michael Blake, Michael Halle, Mitch Stewart, Nicole Young, Patricia King, Paul Tewes, Paulette Aniskoff, Pete Rouse, Rachel Haltom-Irwin, Shannon Valley, Stephanie Speirs, Steve Dunwoody, Tom Zimmerman, Tommy Vietor, Tony Rediger, Tripp Wellde, Tyler Lechtenberg, Valerie Jarrett, Victoria McCullough, Yohannes Abraham
©2020 Chris Liddell-Westefeld (P)2020 PublicAffairs
Truth, by Omission
Summary
A heart-wrenching saga set on three continents, over four decades, Truth, by Omission seamlessly intertwines factual events of recent times in Africa with a compelling set of contemporary fictional circumstances. After surviving a desperate childhood of lawlessness and violence, Alfred Olyontombo makes his way to a refugee camp while Rwanda's genocide rages behind him. His knowledge of local languages catches the attention of an idealistic young doctor who opens the door to a whole new life for Alfred. Seizing the chance, he moves forward, embracing the American dream and becoming a respected physician married to a successful lawyer in Colorado. However, his new life comes to a screeching halt when the transgressions of his youth come back to haunt him. With his future hanging in the balance, Alfred is forced to face the misdeeds - and the nemesis - he'd hoped time had buried forever. But is it too late for the truth to matter? And which version of the truth can save him?
©2019 Daniel Beamish (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing
We Cast a Shadow
Summary
"An incisive and necessary" (Roxane Gay) debut for fans of Get Out and Paul Beattyâs The Sellout, about a fatherâs obsessive quest to protect his son - even if it means turning him white "Stunning and audacious...at once a pitch-black comedy, a chilling horror story and an endlessly perceptive novel about the possible future of race in America." (NPR) Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the Pen/Open Book Award, and the Pen/Faulkner Award ⢠Named one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR and The Washington Post "You can be beautiful, even more beautiful than before." This is the seductive promise of Dr. Nzingaâs clinic, where anyone can get their lips thinned, their skin bleached, and their nose narrowed. A complete demelanization will liberate you from the confines of being born in a Black body - if you can afford it. In this near-future Southern city plagued by fenced-in ghettos and police violence, more and more residents are turning to this experimental medical procedure. Like any father, our narrator just wants the best for his son, Nigel, a biracial boy whose black birthmark is getting bigger by the day. The darker Nigel becomes, the more frightened his father feels. But how far will he go to protect his son? And will he destroy his family in the process? This electrifying, hallucinatory novel is at once a keen satire of surviving racism in America and a profoundly moving family story. At its center is a father who just wants his son to thrive in a broken world. Maurice Carlos Ruffinâs work evokes the clear vision of Ralph Ellison, the dizzying menace of Franz Kafka, and the crackling prose of Vladimir Nabokov. We Cast a Shadow fearlessly shines a light on the violence we inherit, and on the desperate things we do for the ones we love.
©2019 Maurice Carlos Ruffin (P)2019 Random House Audio
What Is the What
Summary
In a heartrending and astonishing novel, Dave Eggers illuminates the history of the civil war in Sudan through the eyes of Valentino Achak Deng, a refugee now living in the United States. We follow his life as he's driven from his home as a boy and walks, with thousands of orphans, to Ethiopia, where he finds safety - for a time. Valentino's travels, truly Biblical in scope, bring him in contact with government soldiers, Janjaweed-like militias, liberation rebels, hyenas and lions, disease and starvation, and a string of unexpected romances. Ultimately, Valentino finds safety in Kenya and, just after the millennium, is finally resettled in the United States, from where this novel is narrated. In this book, written with expansive humanity and surprising humor, we come to understand the nature of the conflicts in Sudan, the refugee experience in America, the dreams of the Dinka people, and the challenge one indomitable man faces in a world collapsing around him.
©2006 Dave Eggers (P)2007 BBC Audiobooks America
The Real Cool Killers
Summary
To detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, it looked like an open and shut case. After all, Sonny Pickens was still standing over the body of Ulysses Galen, smoking gun hanging from his hand. Only one problem: Sonny's gun was loaded with blanks. There were plenty of people who wanted Galen dead, but who was responsible? Sonny? A jealous husband? Or one of the street toughs from a gang calling themselves the Real Cool Moslems? Coffin Ed and Grave Digger pound the mean streets of 1950s Harlem in search of the Real Cool Killer.
©1959 Chester Himes, copyright renewed 1987 by Lesley Himes (P)2011 Audible, Inc.
Fanon
Summary
Frantz Fanon (1925 - 1961) fought to free Algeria from French rule and rallied against the oppressive grip of colonialism. In this fictionalized view of the revolutionary's life, an African-American writer travels the world to do research for a biography of Fanon. In a tale that is part love story, mystery, and biography, Fanon examines how a political radical's views apply in a post-9/11 world.
©2008 John Edgar Wideman (P)2008 Recorded Books, LLC
Her Right Foot
Summary
If you had to name a statue, any statue, odds are good you'd mention the Statue of Liberty. Have you seen her? She's in New York. She's holding a torch. And she's in mid-stride, moving forward. But why? In this fascinating and fun take on nonfiction, Dave Eggers investigates a seemingly small trait of America's most emblematic statue. What he finds is about more than history, more than art. What he finds in the Statue of Liberty's right foot is the powerful message of acceptance that is essential of an entire country's creation.
©2017 Dave Eggers (P)2018 Recorded Books
American Histories
Summary
In this singular collection, John Edgar Wideman, the acclaimed author of Writing to Save a Life, blends the personal, historical, and political to invent complex, charged stories about love, death, struggle, and what we owe each other. With characters ranging from everyday Americans to Jean-Michel Basquiat to Nat Turner, American Histories is a journey through time, experience, and the soul of our country. "JB & FD" reimagines conversations between John Brown, the antislavery crusader who famously raided Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist and orator, conversations that belie the myth of race and produce a fantastical, ethically rich correspondence that spans years and ideologies. "Maps and Ledgers" eavesdrops on a brother and sister today as they ponder their father's killing of another man. "Williamsburg Bridge" sits inside a man sitting on a bridge who contemplates his life before he decides to jump. "My Dead" is a story about how the already-departed demand more time, more space in the lives of those who survive them. Navigating an extraordinary range of subject and tone, Wideman challenges the boundaries of traditional forms, and delivers unforgettable, immersive narratives that touch the very core of what it means to be alive. An extended meditation on family, history, and loss, American Histories weaves together historical fact, philosophical wisdom, and deeply personal vignettes. More than the sum of its parts, this is Wideman at his best - emotionally precise and intellectually stimulating - an extraordinary collection by a master.
©2018 John Edgar Wideman (P)2018 Novel Audio Inc.
Box
Summary
What have I to fear? My master broke every promise to me. I lost my beloved wife and our dear children. All, sold South. Neither my time nor my body is mine. The breath of life is all I have to lose. And bondage is suffocating me.Â
Henry Brown wrote that long before he came to be known as Box; he "entered the world a slave". He was put to work as a child and passed down from one generation to the next - as property. When he was an adult, his wife and children were sold away from him out of spite. Henry Brown watched as his family left bound in chains, headed to the deeper South. What more could be taken from him? But then hope - and help - came in the form of the Underground Railroad. Escape!Â
In stanzas of six lines each, each line representing one side of a box, celebrated poet Carole Boston Weatherford powerfully narrates Henry Brown's story of how he came to send himself in a box from slavery to freedom.
©2020 Carole Boston Weatherford (P)2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC
A Child's Introduction to African American History
Summary
A comprehensive, entertaining look at heroes, heroines, and critical moments from African American history - from the slave trade to the Black Lives Matter movement - by award-winning author Jabari Asim.  Jabari Asim goes beyond what's taught in the classroom to reveal a fact-filled history of African American history through politics, activism, sports, entertainment, music, and much more. You'll follow the road to freedom beginning with the slave trade and the middle passage through the abolitionist movement and the Civil War where many African Americans fought as soldiers. You'll learn how slave songs often contained hidden messages and how a 15-year-old Jamaican-born young man named Clive Campbell helped to create hip-hop in the early 1970's. You'll experience the passionate speeches, marches, and movements of the Civil Rights era along with and the sacrifices of Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, and many others. Along the way there are dozens of profiles of political trailblazers like Shirley Chisholm, the first black women elected to Congress in 1968; dominants athletes like Tiger Woods who, in 1995, was only the second African American to play in a Master's Golf Tournament which he went on to win in 1997; popular musicians like Miles Davis, one the most influential artists of the 20th century; and inspiring writers like Toni Morrison, the first African American to win the Nobel Prize in literature. Filled with beautiful illustrations by Lynn Gaines that bring these figures and events to life, plus a removable historical timeline poster, A Child's Introduction to African American History is a fascinating and comprehensive guide to this often overlooked yet immensely important part of American history.Â
©2018 Jabari Asim (P)2018 Hachette Audio
Letter from Birmingham Jail
Summary
Audie Award Finalist, Original Work, 2013 April 16th, the year is 1963. Birmingham, Alabama, has had a spring of nonviolent protests known as the Birmingham Campaign, seeking to draw attention to the segregation against blacks by the city government and downtown retailers. The organizers longed to create a nonviolent tension so severe that the powers that be would be forced to address the rampant racism head on. Recently arrested was Martin Luther King, Jr.... It is there in that jail cell that he writes this letter; on the margins of a newspaper he pens this defense of nonviolence against segregation. His accusers, though many, in this case were not the white racist leaders or retailers he protested against, but eight black men who saw him as "other" and as too extreme. To them and to the world he defended the notion that "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere".
Public Domain (P)2013 eChristian
Finding Gideon
Summary
A professional job turns personal for jet-setting contract killer Gideon in this sexy, thrilling pause resister by New York Times best-selling author Eric Jerome Dickey. As a hit man from the time he was very young, money, women, and danger have always ruled Gideon's life; but for the first time, the job is taking its toll. Neither Gideon nor the city of Buenos Aires has recovered from the mayhem caused during Gideon's last job. But before the dust has settled and the bodies have been buried, Gideon calls in backup - including the lovely Hawks, with whom Gideon has heated memories - to launch his biggest act of revenge yet...one he believes will destroy his adversary, Midnight, once and for all. Yet Midnight and his second-in-command, the beautiful and ruthless Señorita Raven, are launching their own revenge, assembling a team of mercenaries the likes of which the world has never seen...and Gideon isn't their only target. Gideon will need all of his skills if he is to save not only his team but his family as well. Dickey's new novel stirs up a whirlwind of sex and violence that spans the globe...and leaves no moral boundary uncrossed.
©2017 Eric Jerome Dickey (P)2017 Random House Audio
Odd Girl Out
Summary
When former government agent Frank Compton steps back into his apartment after his tangle with the Modhri - a coral-like group mind - he finds a young woman with his gun in her hands waiting for him. Her little sister's life is in danger and Compton is the only one who can help. After retrieving his gun and kicking her out, he finds himself falsely acused of her murder. With a little help, he posts bail, gets a new identity, and begins the search for the littl girl.
©2008 Timothy Zahn (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC
New Stories From the South
Summary
The 19th addition of this annual anthology exhibits a collection of short fiction from award-winning Southern authors and rising stars including Edward P. Jones and Silas House. Each storyâs derivation is explained in an illuminating note from the author following the rich and entertaining tales.
©2006 Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill (P)2007 Recorded Books, LLC
The Eyes of Buddha
Summary
A partially decomposed body of a young woman is discovered in a park in Pasadena, California. The woman was strangled but not sexually assaulted. The police suspect she might be a missing heiress who disappeared over a year ago, but dental records prove them wrong. But who is she? And is there a link between the heiress and this corpse? The celebrated detective Virgil Tibbs reshapes the known facts regarding these two women and discovers astonishing connections. His quest leads him around the world to Katmandu where, beneath the searing "eyes of Buddha" at the famed Monkey Temple, he learns the truth in a striking denouement.
©1976 John Ball (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved
Furious Cool
Summary
Audie Award, Non-Fiction, 2015 Richard Pryor was arguably the single most influential performer of the second half of the twentieth century, and certainly he was the most successful black actor/comedian ever. Controversial and somewhat enigmatic in his lifetime, Pryor's performances opened up a new world of possibilities, merging fantasy with angry reality in a way that wasn't just new - it was heretofore unthinkable. His childhood in Peoria, Illinois, was spent just trying to survive. Yet the culture into which Richard Pryor was born - his mother was a prostitute; his grandmother ran the whorehouse - helped him evolve into one of the most innovative and outspoken performers ever, a man who attracted admiration and anger in equal parts. Both a brilliant comedian and a very astute judge of what he could get away with, Pryor was always pushing the envelope, combining anger and pathos, outrage and humor, into an art form, laying the groundwork for the generations of comedians who followed, including such outstanding performers as Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, and Louis C.K. Now, in this groundbreaking and revelatory work, David and Joe Henry bring him to life both as a man and as an artist, providing an in-depth appreciation of his talent and his lasting influence, as well as an insightful examination of the world he lived in and the influences that shaped both his persona and his art.
©2013 David Henry and Joe Henry (P)2013 Tantor
Return of the Spirit Rider
Summary
Acclaimed novelist Cotton Smith is a Western legend. Here, he continues the masterfully drawn saga of a prosperous white man closely guarding the truth of his tragic past as an Oglala Sioux.
©2008 Cotton Smith (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC
The Devil Finds Work
Summary
Baldwin's personal reflections on movies gathered here in a book-length essay are also a probing appraisal of American racial politics. Offering an incisive look at racism in American movies and a vision of America's self-delusions and deceptions, Baldwin challenges the underlying assumptions in such films as In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and The Exorcist. Here are our loves and hates, biases and cruelties, fears and ignorance reflected by the films that have entertained us and shaped our consciousness. And here too is the stunning prose of a writer whose passion never diminished his struggle for equality, justice, and social change.
©1976 James Baldwin (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Double
Summary
Every man has his dark side...Spero Lucas confronts his own in the most explosive thriller yet from one of America's best-loved crime writers. The job seems simple enough: retrieve the valuable painting - "The Double" - Grace Kinkaid's ex-boyfriend stole from her. It's the sort of thing Spero Lucas specializes in: finding what's missing, and doing it quietly. But Grace wants more. She wants Lucas to find the man who humiliated her--a violent career criminal with a small gang of brutal thugs at his beck and call. Lucas is a man who knows how to get what he wants, whether it's a thief on the run - or a married woman. In the midst of a steamy, passionate love affair that he knows can't last, in pursuit of a dangerous man who will stop at nothing to get what he wants, Lucas is forced to decide what kind of man he is - and how far he'll go to get what he wants.
©2013 George P. Pelecanos (P)2013 Hachette Book Group
Inside a Silver Box
Summary
Walter Mosley's talent knows no bounds. Inside a Silver Box continues to explore the cosmic questions entertainingly discussed in his Crosstown to Oblivion. From life's meaning to the nature of good and evil, Mosley takes listeners on a speculative journey beyond reality. In Inside a Silver Box, two people brought together by a horrific act are united in a common cause by the powers of the Silver Box. The two join to protect humanity from destruction by an alien race, the Laz, hell-bent on regaining control over the Silver Box, the most destructive and powerful tool in the universe. The Silver Box will stop at nothing to prevent its former master from returning to being, even if it means finishing the earth itself.
©2015 Walter Mosley (P)2015 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Cotton Comes to Harlem
Summary
Black flim-flam man Deke O'Hara is no sooner out of Atlanta's state penitentiary than he's back on the streets, working the scam of a lifetime. As sponsor of the Back-to-Africa movement, he's counting on the big Harlem rally to produce a big collection - for his own private charity. But the take ($87,000) is hijacked by white gunmen and hidden in a bale of cotton that suddenly everyone wants to get his hands on. With Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones on everyone's trail and piecing together the complexity of the scheme, Cotton Comes to Harlem (made into a film in 1970) is one of Himes's hardest-hitting and most entertaining thrillers.
©1965 Chester Himes; copyright renewed 1993 by Lesley Himes (P)2011 Audible, Inc.
Then Came Violence
Summary
Virgil Tibbs, the cool, highly competent black detective of the Pasadena Police Department, returns one day to his bachelor apartment to find that it has been expertly stripped to the bare walls - not a thing remains to show that he has ever lived there. At headquarters he is given a cryptic note from Police Chief McGowan, sending him to a certain address in the better section of Pasadena. When he arrives he finds his possessions carefully installed in a fine new home. But that's not all. The door is opened by a very attractive young woman who informs him that she is Mrs. Virgil Tibbs. He has never seen her before, and he certainly isn't responsible for the two children who greet him as their father. Meanwhile a brutal holdup is followed by an execution-type hanging of one of the bandits. More violence follows, and Pasadena's ace homicide investigator is tested to the limits by a double assignment calling for every bit of his tact, skill, and discipline.
©1980 John Ball (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
Overnight Service
Summary
A brand-new full-cast production of a stand-alone romance from number one New York Times best-selling author Lauren Blakely, performed by a cast of 10 all-star narrators - Jason Clarke, Emma Wilder, Andi Arndt, Shane East, Erin Mallon, Teddy Hamilton, Vikas Adam, Dan Bittner, Lili Valente, and Dion Graham. Top three reasons why sleeping with the enemy is a bad idea.... She's my fiercest rival. She's also my fiery ex. We're going up against each other in a stiff competition to win the hottest new client on the market. And yet, I'd like to be up against the wall in a stiff competition to get her to call out my name. Time to double down on my resistance to her tough-as-nails, take-no-prisoners, sexy-as-sin attitude. The same attitude I find irresistible. That's a big problem, because in this race to nab the client, I run into Haven in the hotel, on the beach, in the guest quarters late at night. Hate sex would be a terrible idea. Except it's the complete opposite, and now we can't keep our hands off each other. Trouble is, I'm not so sure it's hate I'm feeling anymore. And that's the biggest reason sleeping with the enemy you're falling for is a bad idea - my job literally depends on never letting her into my heart.
©2019 Lauren Blakely (P)2019 Lauren Blakely Books
Standing at the Scratch Line
Summary
Raised in the steamy bayous of New Orleans in the early 1900s, LeRoi "King" Tremain, caught up in his family's ongoing feud with the rival DuMont family, learns to fight. But when the teenage King mistakenly kills two white deputies during a botched raid on the DuMonts, the Tremains' fear of reprisal forces King to flee Louisiana.
©1998 Guy Johnson (P)2005 Recorded Books,LLC
Alice's Farm
Summary
"Dion Graham is pure magic behind the microphone as he narrates this fun family-friendly story about Alice the rabbit and her furry companions.... Graham imbues each character with such passion and personality that listeners will cherish every second of this beautifully woven tale." (AudioFile Magazine) This program includes an author's note read by the author. In Maryrose Wood's stunning middle-grade novel Alice's Farm, a brave young rabbit must work with her natural predators to save her farmland home and secretly help the farmâs earnest but incompetent new owners. When a new family moves into Prune Street Farm, Alice and the other cottontails are cautious. The new owners are from the city; the family and their dog are not at all what the rabbits expect, and soon Alice is making new friends and doing things no rabbit has done before. When she overhears a plan by a developer to run the family off and bulldoze the farm, Alice comes up with a plan, helped by the farmerâs son and other animals, including a majestic bald eagle. Here is a stunning celebration of life, the bitter and the sweet. Alice is some rabbit - a character listeners will love for generations to come. A Macmillan Audio production from Feiwel & Friends
©2020 Maryrose Wood (P)2020 Macmillan Audio
Unsung
Summary
A new historical anthology from transatlantic slavery to the Reconstruction curated by the Schomburg Center, that makes the case for focusing on the histories of Black people as agents and architects of their own lives and ultimate liberation, with a foreword by Kevin Young This is the first Penguin Classics anthology published in partnership with the Schomburg Center, a world-renowned cultural institution documenting Black life in America and worldwide. A historic branch of NYPL located in Harlem, the Schomburg holds one of the world's premiere collections of slavery material within the Lapidus Center for Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery. Unsung will place well-known documents by abolitionists alongside lesser-known life stories and overlooked or previously uncelebrated accounts of the everyday lives and activism that were central in the slavery era, but that are mostly excised from today's master accounts. Unsung will also highlight related titles from founder Arturo Schomburg's initial collection: rare histories and first-person narratives about slavery that assisted his generation in understanding the roots of their contemporary social struggles. Unsung will draw from the Schomburg's rich holdings in order to lead a dynamic discussion of slavery, rebellion, resistance, and anti-slavery protest in the United States.
©2021 Schomburg Center, Michelle Commander, and Kevin Young (P)2021 Penguin Audio
The Martini Shot
Summary
Short stories and a novella from one of crime fiction's most revered writers. Whether they're cops or conmen, savage killers or creative types, gangsters or God-fearing citizens, George Pelecanos's characters are always engaged in a fight for their lives. They fight to advance or simply to survive; they fight against odds, against enemies, even against themselves. In this, his first collection of stories, the acclaimed novelist introduces readers to a vivid and eclectic cast of combatants. A seasoned claims investigator tracks a supposedly dead man from Miami to Brazil, only to be thrown off his game by a kid from the local slum. An aging loser takes a last stab at respectability by becoming a police informant. A Greek-American couple adopts an interracial trio of sons and then struggles to keep their family together, giving us a stirring bit of background on one of Pelecanos's most beloved protagonists, Spero Lucas. In the title novella - which takes its name from Hollywood slang for the last shot of the day, the one that comes before the liquor shots begin - we go behind the scenes of a television cop show, where a writer gets caught up in a drama more real than anything he could have conjured for a script. By turns heartbreaking and humane, brutal and funny, these finely constructed tales expose the violence and striving beneath the surface of any city and within any human heart. Tough, sexy, fast-paced, and crackling with energy, The Martini Shot is Pelecanos at his very best.
©2015 George Pelecanos (P)2014 Hachette Audio
This Bridge Will Not Be Gray, Revised
Summary
The Golden Gate Bridge is the most famous bridge in the world. It is also, not entirely coincidentally, the world's first bright-orange bridge. But it wasn't supposed to be that way. In this book, bridge lover Dave Eggers tells the story of how it happened - how a bridge that some people wanted to be red and white, and some people wanted to be yellow and black, and most people wanted simply to be gray, instead became, thanks to the vision and stick-to-itiveness of a few peculiar architects, one of the most memorable man-made objects ever created. Told with irresistible prose, This Bridge Will Not Be Gray is a joyful history lesson - a gorgeously crafted story that teaches us how beauty and inspiration tend to come from the most unexpected places. Sometimes you have to fight for what you believe in, even if it's just a color.
©2015 Dave Eggers (P)2018 Recorded Books
Blind Man with a Pistol
Summary
New York is sweltering in the summer heat, and Harlem is close to the boiling point. To Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, at times it seems as if the whole world has gone mad. Trying, as always, to keep some kind of peace - their legendary nickel-plated Colts very much in evidence - Coffin Ed and Grave Digger find themselves pursuing two completely different cases through a maze of knifings, beatings, and riots that threatens to tear Harlem apart.
©1969 Estate of Chester Himes (P)2011 Audible, Inc.
Train
Summary
Winner of the National Book Award, Pete Dexter has been declared "one of America's most original and elegiac voices" by People magazine. Train is a gripping piece of crime noir destined to become an American classic. Lionel Walk, better known as Train, is a young black caddy at an elite Los Angeles golf course. There, he navigates between careless hostility of patrons and the volatile brutality of the other caddies. One day, he finds an unexpected protector: police sergeant Miller Packer, who Train dubs "the Mile-Away Man" for his distant gaze. Packer is investigating a botched and bloody boat hijacking that left a lone survivor: achingly beautiful Norah Still. When the lives of these three people intersect, both violence and tenderness swiftly rise to the surface. Train exhibits the sureness of style and keen, compassionate eye that made Dexter's previous novels, including The Paperboy, best sellers. Dion Graham's powerful narration draws listeners deep into the currents of danger, dreams, and desire.
©2003 Pete Dexter (P)2003 Recorded Books, LLC
Winged Creatures
Summary
Winged Creatures is the startling and intimate story of six survivors of a gun massacre. Hidden under a table, teenagers Anne and Jimmy watched as the gunman indiscriminately murdered Anne's father and others, then himself. Struggling to understand her father's death, Anne experiences a virulent religious conversion. Jimmy ceases to speak, protecting a secret that he and Anne share until it nearly destroys him and his fractured family. Charlie, a barely-wounded driving-school teacher, attempts to make his incredible luck work for him at the casino. Carla, the restaurant cashier, loses her ability to take care of herself and her infant son. Ron Abler, a psychologist, attempts to help the survivors, but is met with suspicion and little response. Dr. Laraby, an ER physician who failed to save two of the victims, turns to his wife as someone to "save". Driven by secret torments and dangerous compulsions, they each struggle to regain their trust in the ordinary world.
©2007 Roy Freirich (P)2008 Blackstone Audiobooks
Two Friends
Summary
Two friends, Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass, get together for tea and conversation. They recount their similar stories fighting to win rights for women and African-Americans.
©2016 Orchard (P)2016 Weston Woods Studios Inc.
5 O'Clock Band
Summary
This companion title to Trombone Shorty - Caldecott Honor, Coretta Scott King Award, and Odyssey Honor winner - is a well-tuned, beautiful exploration of a beloved community as Shorty visits the streets of New Orleans to find answers on how to be a leader in his band.
©2019 Harry N. Abrams Inc. (P)2019 Live Oak Media
The Heat's On
Summary
From the start, nothing goes fright for Coffin Ed and Grave Digger Jones. They are disciplined for use of excessive force. Grave Digger is shot and his death announced in a hoax radio bulletin. Bodies pile up faster than Coffin Ed and Grave Digger Jones can run. Yet, try as they might, they always seem to be one hot step behind the cause of all the mayhem: three million dollars' worth of heroine and a simple albino called Pinky.
©1966 Chester Himes (P)2011 Audible, Inc.
Singapore
Summary
When Madame Motamboru, widow of the assassinated president of Bakara, is framed for murder in Singapore, she requests that her old friend Virgil Tibbs take part in the investigation. Because of US interests in the area, Tibbs is cleared for passage. Upon arrival, Tibbs finds that the police there are convinced of Madame Motamboru's guilt. All the evidence says that only she could have shot the man who visited her hotel suite. It's up to Tibbs to save her from hanging by uncovering the truth and outwitting the sinister organization that wants her dead. And when Tibbs gets involved in another more bizarre murder case, it will take all of his legendary intelligence and cool-headed savvy to find the answers to two deadly and, apparently, unsolvable puzzles.
©1986 John Ball (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved
Dark Sky Rising
Summary
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. presents a journey through America's past and our nation's attempts at renewal in this look at the Civil War's conclusion, Reconstruction, and the rise of Jim Crow segregation.  This is a story about America during and after Reconstruction, one of history's most pivotal and misunderstood chapters. In a stirring account of emancipation, the struggle for citizenship and national reunion, and the advent of racial segregation, the renowned Harvard scholar delivers a book that is illuminating and timely. Real-life accounts drive the narrative, spanning the half century between the Civil War and Birth of a Nation. Here, you will come face-to-face with the people and events of Reconstruction's noble democratic experiment, its tragic undermining, and the drawing of a new "color line" in the long Jim Crow era that followed. In introducing young listeners to them, and to the resiliency of the African American people at times of progress and betrayal, Professor Gates shares a history that remains vitally relevant today.
©2019 Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (P)2019 Scholastic Inc.
The Big Gold Dream
Summary
After arriving on the American literary scene with novels of scathing social protest like If He Hollers Let Him Go and The Lonely Crusade, Chester Himes created a pioneering pair of dangerously effective African-American sleuths: Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson, Harlem's toughest detective duo, who must carry the day against an absurdist world of racism and class warfare. The Big Gold Dream is the explosive and shocking hardboiled classic that explores the shadowy underbelly of New York as a urban civil war erupts on the side streets of Harlem, pitting murderers and prostitutes against corrupt politicians and racist white detectives. Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson attempt to maintain some kind of order - in the neighborhood they have sworn to protect - in a world gone mad around them.
©1960, 1996 Chester Himes (P)2011 Audible, Inc.
The Crazy Kill
Summary
Outside the apartment where a wake is going on, the manager of the A&P across the street is robbed. Reverend Short, a storefront preacher addicted to opium and brandy, is watching from a bedroom window in the flat. He leans out too far and falls, but a huge bread basket, sitting outside the bakery below, saves him. Back inside, he says he sees a vision of a dead man. Outside, in the very basket Short landed in, lies the body of Valentine Haines. Who murdered Val? It is up to Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson to find out.
©1959 Chester Himes, copyright renewed 1987 by Lesley Himes (P)2011 Audible, Inc.
Peace, Locomotion
Summary
Twelve-year-old Lonnie is finally feeling at home with his foster family. But because he's living apart from his little sister, Lili, he decides it's his job to be the "rememberer" - and write down everything that happens while they're growing up. Lonnie's reflections in his letters to Lili are bittersweet. He's happy that they both have good foster families, but while his new family brings him joy, it also brings new worries: With a foster brother in the army, concepts like peace have new meaning for Lonnie. Told through letters from Lonnie to Lili, this thought-provoking companion to Jacqueline Woodson's National Book Award finalist Locomotion tackles important issues in captivating, lyrical language. Lonnie's reflections on family, loss, love, and peace will strike a note with listeners of all ages.
©2009 Jacqueline Woodson (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
All Shot Up
Summary
A golden Cadillac big enough to cross the ocean has been seen sailing along the streets of Harlem. A hit-and-run victim's been hit so hard she got embedded in the wall of a convent. A shootout with three heistmen dressed as cops has left an important politician in a coma - and a lot of money missing. And Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson are the ones who have to piece it all together. All Shot Up is chaotic, bloody - and completely unforgettable. Chester Himes wrote detective fiction darker, dirtier, and more extreme than anyone else dared.
©1960 Chester Himes (P)2011 Audible, Inc.
Cross Country
Summary
When the home of Alex Cross's oldest friend, Ellie Cox, is turned into the worst murder scene Alex has ever seen, the destruction leads him to believe that he's chasing a horrible new breed of killer. As Alex and his girlfriend, Brianna Stone, become entangled in the deadly Nigerian underworld of Washington D.C., what they discover is shocking: a stunningly organized gang of lethal teenagers headed by a powerful, diabolical man--the African warlord known as the Tiger. Just when the detectives think they're closing in on the elusive murderer, the Tiger disappears into thin air. Tracking him to Africa, Alex knows that he must follow. Alone.
©2008 James Patterson (P)2008 Hachette Audio
Twenty-Seven Bones
Summary
The brilliant author of Fear Itself pulls readers into an intricate web of ritual killings orchestrated by an evil pair of murderers who always manage to be one step ahead of the law. Former FBI Special Agent E.L. Pender may be retired, but he jumps at the chance to help solve a particularly gruesome series of crimes in the U.S. Virgin Islands. This is no ordinary case, seeing as the right hand on each body in the string of murders is missing. The police want to keep the existence of a serial killer under wraps; they hope to solve the crime before a stampede sets in. Meanwhile, Pender is convinced the killer must be the husband of the last victim and sets out to capture him, but he's only partly right. The husband is connected to the case, but the real murderers are a cunning husband-and-wife team of archeologists who believe that if they breathe in their victim's last breath they will live forever. Never before has Pender come up against such savvy, diabolical opponents. From one trail of dead ends to another, readers will feel Pender's fever to prevent more murders from occurring, and his sheer panic when he can't. Twenty-Seven Bones is that most quintessential of thrilling reads, always providing a visceral experience of chills and excitement.
©2004 Jonathan Nasaw (P)2004 Recorded Books
Alone Together
Summary
Alone Together: Love, Grief, and Comfort During the Time of COVID-19 is a collection of essays, poems, and interviews to serve as a lifeline for negotiating how to connect and thrive during this stressful time of isolation as well as a historical perspective that will remain relevant for years to come. Ms. Haupt rallied a diverse roster of more than 90 authors to contribute their work to Alone Together, free of charge, including Kwame Alexander, Jenna Blum, Andre Dubus III, Jamie Ford, Nikki Giovanni, Pam Houston, Jean Kwok, Major Jackson, Caroline Leavitt, Ada Limón, Dani Shapiro, David Sheff, Garth Stein, Luis Alberto Urrea, Steve Yarbrough, and Lidia Yuknavitch. Alone Together is divided into five sections: What Now?, Grieve, Comfort, Connect, and Don't Stop. The overarching theme is how this age of isolation and uncertainty holds the possibility of changing us as individuals and a society. Narrated by a full cast, including Edoardo Ballerini, January LaVoy, Dion Graham, Julia Whelan, Adenrele Ojo, Emily Woo Zeller, Thérèse Plummer, Ron Butler, Adjoa Andoh, Christian Barillas, Almarie Guerra, Cynthia Farrell, and Dawn Harvey.
©2020 Podium Audio (P)2020 Podium Audio
How to Escape from a Leper Colony
Summary
Like Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez, Edwidge Danticat, and Maryse Condé before her, Tiphanie Yanique has crafted a debut collection that is heartbreaking, hilarious, and mesmerizing. Set mostly in the U.S. Virgin Islands, these lyrical and haunting stories are part oral history, part postcolonial narrative - but ultimately a loving portrait of a wholly unique place.
©2010 Tiphanie Yanique (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC
Cracking the Curiosity Code
Summary
In Dr. Diane Hamiltonâs provocative new book, she uncovers what could foreseeably be the next movement to enhance human performance, a critical and direct link to improving motivation and communication-based issues that challenge organizations. Drawing on decades of research and incorporating interviews from some of the top leaders of our time, Hamilton examines the factors that influence curiosity including fear, assumptions, technology, and environment (FATE). Her ground-breaking research provides an action plan to transform individuals and organizations. The organization that can stimulate its workers' curiosity can enhance employee engagement, emotional intelligence, innovation, productivity, and the many other by-products that come with that intrinsic, but under-utilized attribute. By developing curiosity and the ability to communicate without fear of repercussions, second-guessing, or judgmental responses, employees can be better aligned and emotionally committed to their jobs, which in turn, can lead to improved productivity. Foreword by former Chairman and CEO of DocuSign, Keith Krach. Dr. Diane Hamilton is a nationally syndicated radio show host, consultant, and speaker. She writes and speaks on business, leadership, curiosity, emotional intelligence, personality assessment, career, and education. She is the author of multiple books including Itâs Not You Itâs Your Personality.
©2019 Diane Hamilton (P)2019 Diane Hamilton