Kevin R. Free has narrated 118 audiobooks on Listento.it by 107 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 3,191 ratings. The most-rated is The Sun Does Shine.
Brooklyn Noir
Summary
New York's punchiest borough asserts its criminal legacy with all new stories from a magnificent set of today’s best writers. Brooklyn Noir moves from Coney Island to Bedford-Stuyvesant to Bay Ridge to Red Hook to Bushwick to Sheepshead Bay to Park Slope and far deeper, into the heart of Brooklyn’s historical and criminal largesse, with all of its dark splendor. Each contributor presents a brand new story set in a distinct neighborhood. Brooklyn Noir mixes masters of the mystery genre with the best of New York’s literary fiction community - and, of course, leaves room for new blood. These brilliant and chilling stories see crime striking in communities of Russians, Jamaicans, Hasidic Jews, Puerto Ricans, Italians, Irish and many other ethnicities - in the most diverse urban location on the planet. Contributors include Pete Hamill, Nelson George, Sidney Offit, Arthur Nersesian, Pearl Abraham, Ellen Miller, Maggie Estep, Adam Mansbach, CJ Sullivan, Chris Niles, Norman Kelley, and many others. Akashic Books announces Brooklyn novelist Tim McLoughlin as the editor of the anthology (in addition to his contributing a story). McLoughlin's respect on any Brooklyn street predates the publication of his debut novel Heart of the Old Country (Akashic, 2001), a selection of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Program that was hailed by Entertainment Weekly as "an inspired cross between Richard Price and Ross McDonald". For years, McLoughlin has worked in the Kings County Supreme Court in downtown Brooklyn. The complete list of narrators includes Michael Braun, Adam Chase, Karen Chilton, Paul L. Coffey, Jane Cramer, Kevin R. Free, Rob Granniss, Saskia Maarleveld, Erin Mallon, Jennifer O'Donnell, Pete Ohms, Prentice Onayemi, Tim Gerard Reynolds, and Chris Ruen.
©2004 Akashic Books (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Signed, Sealed, and Delivered
Summary
The first definitive biography of music legend Stevie Wonder. Stevie Wonder's achievements as a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer are extraordinary. During a career that has spanned almost fifty years, he has earned more than 30 Top 10 hits, 26 Grammy Awards, and a place in both the Rock and Roll and Songwriter Halls of Fame - and he's not finished yet. On the verge of turning 60, he is still composing, still touring, and still attracting dedicated fans around the world. For the first time, Signed, Sealed, and Delivered takes an in-depth look at Stevie Wonder's life and his evolution from kid-soul pop star into a mature artist whose music helped lay the groundwork for the evolution of hip hop and rap. Explores the life, achievements, and influence of one of America's biggest musical icons, set against the history of Motown and the last 50 years of popular music. Based on extensive interviews with Motown producers, music executives, songwriters, and musicians, including founding Temptation Otis Williams, Mickey Stevenson, surviving Funk Brother Eddie Willis, synthesizer genius Malcolm Cecil, guitar legend Michael Sembello, and many others. Traces Stevie's personal and musical development through the decades, from the early 1960s R&B of "Fingertips" to the social and political themes of "Living for the City" and other 1970s classics, through periods of musical and personal confusion, uncertainty, and, later, renewal. Listen to Signed, Sealed, and Delivered to explore the life and work of one of pop music's most compelling masters of invention.
©2010 Mark Ribowsky (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
Missing Isaac
Summary
When a black field hand disappears, a wealthy white boy he has befriended sets out to find him. But Pete McLean discovers more than he bargained for - including unexpected love and difficult truths about race and class in 1960s Alabama. There was another South in the 1960s, one far removed from the marches and bombings and turmoil in the streets that were broadcast on the evening news. It was a place of inner turmoil, where ordinary people struggled to right themselves on a social landscape that was dramatically shifting beneath their feet. This is the world of Valerie Fraser Luesse's stunning debut, Missing Isaac. It is 1965 when black field hand Isaac Reynolds goes missing from the tiny, unassuming town of Glory, Alabama. The townspeople's reactions range from concern to indifference, but one boy will stop at nothing to find out what happened to his unlikely friend. White, wealthy, and fatherless, young Pete McLean has nothing to gain and everything to lose in his relentless search for Isaac. In the process, he will discover much more than he bargained for. Before it's all over, Pete - and the people he loves most - will have to blur the hard lines of race, class, and religion. And what they discover about themselves may change some of them forever.
©2018 Valerie Fraser Luesse (P)2018 Recorded Books
Here I Am
Summary
Winner of the Gold Pen, Romantic Times Career Achievement, and Zora Neale Hurston Literary Awards, Rochelle Alers has nearly two million copies of her books in print. Here she crafts the tale of a hotshot athlete and the woman who can fulfill his dreams. Super Bowl MVP Brandt Wainwright’s good fortune runs out when he crashes his SUV into a tree. During the long recuperation, the fun-loving quarterback becomes cranky and sullen - until private nurse Ciara Dennison shows up for duty.
©2011 Rochelle Alers (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC
Send Pics
Summary
At Jonesville High, casual misogyny runs rampant, slut-shaming is a given, and school athletes are glorified above all else. Best friends Suze, Nikki, Ani, and Lydia swear they'll always have each other's backs against predatory guys - so when Suze suddenly starts dating wrestling star and toxic douchebag Tarkin Shaw, it's a big betrayal. Turns out, it's not a relationship - it's blackmail. At first, Suze feels like she has no choice but to go along with it, but when Tarkin starts demanding more, she enlists the help of intelligent misfits DeShawn and Marcus to beat Tarkin at his own game. As Marcus points out, what could possibly go wrong? The answer: everything. And by the time the teens realize they're fighting against forces much bigger than the Tarkin Shaws of the world, losing isn't an option.
©2020 Lauren McLaughlin (P)2020 Recorded Books
Letters to a Young Sister
Summary
Winner of two NAACP awards for his writing, best-selling author Hill Harper is an acclaimed actor known for his role on CSI: NY. A Brown University and Harvard Law School alum, Harper is also a passionate public servant. In this book he offers comforting advice for today's youth through his own wisdom as well as that of such luminaries as Michelle Obama and Angela Bassett.
©2008 Harper Hill (P)2008 Recorded Books, LLC
Let the Lord Sort Them
Summary
New York Times Editors’ Choice A deeply reported, searingly honest portrait of the death penalty in Texas - and what it tells us about crime and punishment in America. “Remarkably intimate, fair-minded, and trustworthy reporting on the people arguing over the fate of human life.” (Robert Kolker, New York Times best-selling author of Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family) Winner of The J. Anthony Lukas Work-In-Progress Award In 1972, the United States Supreme Court made a surprising ruling: The country's death penalty system violated the Constitution. The backlash was swift, especially in Texas, where executions were considered part of the cultural fabric and a dark history of lynching was masked by gauzy visions of a tough-on-crime frontier. When executions resumed, Texas quickly became the nationwide leader in carrying out the punishment. Then, amid a larger wave of criminal justice reform came the death penalty’s decline, a trend so durable that even in Texas, the punishment appears again close to extinction. In Let the Lord Sort Them, Maurice Chammah charts the rise and fall of capital punishment through the eyes of those it touched. We meet Elsa Alcala, the orphaned daughter of a Mexican American family who found her calling as a prosecutor in the nation's death penalty capital, before becoming a judge on the state's highest court. We meet Danalynn Recer, a lawyer who became obsessively devoted to unearthing the life stories of men who committed terrible crimes, and fought for mercy in courtrooms across the state. We meet death-row prisoners - many of them once-famous figures like Henry Lee Lucas, Gary Graham, and Karla Faye Tucker - along with their families and the families of their victims. And we meet the executioners, who struggle openly with what society has asked them to do. In tracing these interconnected lives against the rise of mass incarceration in Texas and the country as a whole, Chammah explores what the persistence of the death penalty tells us about forgiveness and retribution, fairness and justice, history and myth. Written with intimacy and grace, Let the Lord Sort Them is the definitive portrait of a particularly American institution.
©2021 Maurice Chammah (P)2021 Random House Audio
Wonder Horse
Summary
Emily Arnold McCully won a Caldecott Medal for her book Mirette on the High Wire. In Wonder Horse, McCully crafts a charming tale based on the true story of Doc Key and his remarkable horse, Jim. When Doc Key decides to breed a racehorse, what he gets is a foal with weak legs yet an unusually sharp mind. So Doc decides to teach his horse some new tricks - including reading and writing.
©2010 Emily Arnold McCully (P)2011 Recorded Books
Genius: The Con
Summary
Three teen geniuses from diverse backgrounds must work together to stop a vicious warlord, protect their families, and save the world in this fast-paced sequel to Genius: The Game. On the run! Tunde: This 14-year-old self-taught engineering genius from Nigeria is in a race against time to save his village from a ruthless warlord. Painted Wolf: This mysterious 16-year-old activist blogger and strategist from China is searching for a way to rescue her father from the corruption he's inadvertently been caught up in. Rex: This 16-year-old Mexican-American has proven himself to be one of the best programmers in the world, only to be falsely accused of stealing billions of government secrets for the terrorist hacking group Terminal. Pursued by the police, the FBI, and most dangerous of all, Kiran Biswas, visionary CEO and evil mastermind, three teen geniuses have to move fast and stay low as they race to find a missing brother, stop a vicious warlord, and save the world in Genius: The Con by Leopoldo Gout. Listen to the whole series! Genius: The Game Genius: The Con Genius: The Revolution
©2017 Leopoldo Gout (P)2017 Macmillan Audio
Preaching to the Chickens
Summary
Critically acclaimed author Jabari Asim gives listeners a fascinating glimpse into the boyhood of civil rights leader John Lewis. Even as a very young boy, John Lewis knew he wanted to be a preacher when he grew up. He wanted to be the kind of leader who could use his passionate speeches to stir hearts to change, minds to think, and bodies to take action. But why wait to grow up? At five years old, when he became the official caretaker of the 60 chickens on his family's farm, he realized he had a wonderful audience to practice on - and they became this brave civil rights activist's first flock, content under his watchful care and riveted by the power of his words.
©2016 Jabari Asim (P)2016 Recorded Books
Girl, 11
Summary
“A masterful, heart-pounding suspense that ushers in an astonishing new voice in crime fiction." (Samantha M. Bailey, internationally best-selling author of Woman on the Edge) Elle Castillo once trained as a social worker, supporting young victims of violent crime. Now, she hosts a popular true crime podcast that focuses on cold cases of missing and abducted children. After four seasons of successfully solving these cases in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, Elle decides to tackle her white whale: The Countdown Killer. Twenty years ago, TCK was terrorizing the community, kidnapping and ritualistically murdering three girls over seven days, each a year younger than the last. Then, after he took his eleven-year-old victim, the pattern - and the murders - abruptly stopped. No one has ever known why. When Elle follows up on a listener tip only to discover the man’s dead body, she feels at fault. Then, within days, a child is abducted - a young girl who seems to fit suspiciously into the TCK sequence halted decades before. While media and law enforcement long ago concluded that TCK had suicided, Elle has never believed TCK was dead. She had hoped her investigation would lay that suspicion to rest, but her podcast seems instead to be inciting new victims. “A tale of obsession, dark histories, and one woman’s quest to bring a terrifying killer to justice, GIRL, 11 is delivered with poise, style, and cunning - making it impossible to put down.” (Alex Segura, acclaimed author of Miami Midnight and Blackout)
©2021 Amy Suiter Clarke (P)2021 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
The Sacred Place
Summary
Widely hailed for its historical resonance, Daniel Black's The Sacred Place is a powerful examination of racial tensions in 1955 Mississippi. Visiting from Chicago, 14-year-old Clement is unfamiliar with the social customs of the tiny town of Money. Striding into a general store, he offends the white store clerk by not placing his nickel in her hand. This seemingly innocuous act leads to a horrific murder and a conflict drawn along racial lines.
©2007 Daniel Omotosho Black (P)2007 Recorded Books
Let'er Buck!
Summary
"Nelson plaits her narrative with Western lingo and homespun similes.... A champion indeed." (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) The true tale of a cowboy's epic rodeo ride from acclaimed author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson. In 1911, three men were in the final round of the famed Pendleton Round-Up. One was white, one was Indian, and one was black. When the judges declared the white man the winner, the audience was outraged. They named black cowboy George Fletcher the "people's champion" and took up a collection, ultimately giving Fletcher far more than the value of the prize that went to the official winner. Award-winning author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson tells the story of Fletcher's unlikely triumph with a western flair that will delight kids - and adults - who love true stories, unlikely heroes, and cowboy tales.
©2019 Vaunda Micheaux Nelson (P)2019 Recorded Books
Like and Subscribe
Summary
Remember that hunky guy on YouTube who caught your eye? The one with the awesome pecs and killer smile? I bet you couldn't stop watching his videos. Just imagine if you had a chance to meet him and all your fantasies started coming true. There's only one catch: Between you and your dream guy is his less-than-pleased boyfriend. They say that love conquers all, but can love conquer love? "Like and Subscribe" is a new short story by Jay Bell, the author of Something Like Summer.
©2013 James Bell (P)2014 James Bell
Shadow Land
Summary
Ditchfield is the most notorious juvenile detention center in Maryland, so when a young man escapes, the city of Baltimore goes on high alert. His name is Charlie. He has an uncertain agenda and a dark past, and both involve Gordon Pope. Gordon Pope wants nothing more than to marry the love of his life. He's pretty sure Dana Frisco would say yes, but it looks like the world has other ideas. Meanwhile, Marty Cicero is just getting over Dana. He's moved on and found new love and a place where he is at peace. Until Charlie upends everything. The search for the young escapee will force Gordon, Dana, and Marty to make decisions they never thought they'd be able to make, and reveal a side of Baltimore that astonishes all of them. For years, Gordon has searched for the dark secret at the heart of Ditchfield. Charlie holds the key, but it will take all of them standing together to unearth the truth.
©2021 Griffith Publishing (P)2021 Griffith Publishing
Pastor Needs a Boo
Summary
Michele Andrea Bowen made a name for herself years ago during the African-American inspirational fiction craze. Now, in Pastor Needs a Boo, she's back with an amazing journey of faith, drama, and love. It was a regular New Jerusalem Gospel United Church work day for Reverend Denzelle Flowers when Veronica Washington, Keisha Jackson, and Marsha Metcalf showed up after losing their jobs on the same day, same morning, and almost at the same time. Denzelle struggled to solve that first problem. The other problem - the lovely Marsha - would be much harder to solve. Denzelle didn't even know how to fight wanting to turn in the playah's card and getting "booed" up with the poster girl for "church girls". Marsha Metcalf and her fellow unemployed church members aren't Denzelle's biggest problem, though. He is running for bishop, and his enemies - a more ruthless consortium of corrupted clergy - want power badly enough to go to rather extreme lengths for it because the stakes are just that high. Now, his ex-wife was back and sleeping with the enemy, digging for dirt. Reverend Denzelle can't fight this battle alone. This pastor needs a "boo" who will stand by his side. Before the dust settles, both Marsha and Denzelle's faith and love will be put to the ultimate test.
©2014 Michele Andrea Bowen (P)2014 Recorded Books
Bone Chase
Summary
In true The Da Vinci Code fashion, a taut thriller filled with rival factions vying for control of the truth in a giant global conspiracy. There were giants on the earth in those days - at least that's what the Bible says. But, where are they? Did they ever really exist at all? When out-of-work math teacher Ethan McCloud is sent a mysterious box, he and his ex-girlfriend begin to unravel a mystery 10,000 years in the making - and he is the last hope to discovering the world's greatest conspiracy. Chased by both the Six-Fingered Man and the Council of David, Ethan must survive the chase - and find the truth.
©2020 Weston Ochse. All rights reserved. (P)2020 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chasing the North Star
Summary
On a moonless night in the spring of 1851, a young slave makes a bid for freedom with only the North Star to guide him. Best-selling novelist and historian Robert Morgan returns with a stunning new work of historical fiction. In Chasing the North Star, Morgan brings to full and vivid life the story of a runaway slave named Jonah Williams who, on his 18th birthday, flees the South Carolina plantation on which he was born with only a few stolen coins, a knife, and the clothes on his back. No shoes, no map, no clear idea of where to head except north, hiding during the day and running through the night. Although Jonah eludes the men sent to capture him, the one person who never loses his trail is Angel, a slave girl he meets in North Carolina, a young woman with a remarkably free spirit who sees Jonah as her way to freedom and sets out to follow him. Morgan's clear, plain prose brings an urgency and authenticity to this spellbinding story of two teenage runaways and their terrifying world. Filled with adventure and romance, Chasing the North Star is storytelling of the highest caliber.
©2016 Robert Morgan (P)2016 Recorded Books
The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary
Summary
Eighteen kids, one year of poems, one school set to close. Two yellow bulldozers crouched outside, ready to eat the building in one greedy gulp. But look out, bulldozers. Ms. Hill's fifth-grade class has plans for you. They're going to speak up and work together to save their school. Laura Shovan's engaging novel is a time capsule of one class' poems during a transformative school year. The students grow up and move on in this big-hearted debut about finding your voice and making sure others hear it.
©2016 Laura Shovan (P)2016 Recorded Books
Mama Ruby
Summary
In this stirring prequel, New York Times best-selling author Mary Monroe returns to the “cold-blooded yet fascinating” (Publishers Weekly) character from her acclaimed novel The Upper Room. Ruby is a wild youth, with a thirst for boys and booze by the age of 15. When she discovers she’s pregnant, the only person she can confide in is her best friend Othella. But Othella talks Ruby into giving up the child, leaving Ruby emotionally shattered and adamant that Othella is to blame for her loss.
©2011 Mary Monroe (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC