Kirsten Potter has narrated 196 audiobooks on Listento.it by 134 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 3,728 ratings. The most-rated is Station Eleven.
The Death of Vivek Oji
Summary
Instant New York Times Best Seller A New York Times Editor’s Choice Long-Listed for the Dylan Thomas Prize "Electrifying." (O: The Oprah Magazine) Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, USA Today, Vanity Fair, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, Shondaland, Teen Vogue, Vulture, Lit Hub, Bustle, Electric Literature, and BookPage What does it mean for a family to lose a child they never really knew? One afternoon, in a town in Southeastern Nigeria, a mother opens her front door to discover her son's body, wrapped in colorful fabric, at her feet. What follows is the tumultuous, heart-wrenching story of one family’s struggle to understand a child whose spirit is both gentle and mysterious. Raised by a distant father and an understanding but overprotective mother, Vivek suffers disorienting blackouts, moments of disconnection between self and surroundings. As adolescence gives way to adulthood, Vivek finds solace in friendships with the warm, boisterous daughters of the Nigerwives, foreign-born women married to Nigerian men. But Vivek’s closest bond is with Osita, the worldly, high-spirited cousin whose teasing confidence masks a guarded private life. As their relationship deepens - and Osita struggles to understand Vivek’s escalating crisis - the mystery gives way to a heart-stopping act of violence in a moment of exhilarating freedom. Propulsively listenable, teeming with unforgettable characters, The Death of Vivek Oji is a novel of family and friendship that challenges expectations - a dramatic story of loss and transcendence that will move every listener.
©2020 Akwaeke Emezi (P)2020 Penguin Audio
The Guy Who Died Twice
Summary
Sergeant Detective D. D. Warren confronts the strangest case of her career in this exclusive eBook short story by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner.
A USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestseller!
D. D. Warren was pretty sure she’d seen it all. Then a man walks into police headquarters, attempting desperately to convince the squad that he’s dead. Explaining to him that he’s very much alive, they finally send him on his way…and then hours later, he turns up actually dead. And it’s on D. D. Warren to figure out how and why the dead man died…twice.
Plus: an early look at Gardner’s next riveting thriller, Never Tell.
©2019 Lisa Gardner (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
The Wave
Summary
From Susan Casey, bestselling author of The Devil’s Teeth, an astonishing book about colossal, ship-swallowing rogue waves and the surfers who seek them out.For centuries, mariners have spun tales of gargantuan waves, 100-feet high or taller. Until recently scientists dis?missed these stories - waves that high would seem to violate the laws of physics. But in the past few decades, as a startling number of ships vanished and new evidence has emerged, oceanographers realized something scary was brewing in the planet’s waters. They found their proof in February 2000, when a British research vessel was trapped in a vortex of impossibly mammoth waves in the North Sea - including several that approached 100 feet. As scientists scramble to understand this phenomenon, others view the giant waves as the ultimate challenge. These are extreme surfers who fly around the world trying to ride the ocean’s most destructive monsters. The pioneer of extreme surfing is the legendary Laird Hamilton, who, with a group of friends in Hawaii, figured out how to board suicidally large waves of 70 and 80 feet. Casey follows this unique tribe of peo?ple as they seek to conquer the holy grail of their sport, a 100-?foot wave. In this mesmerizing account, the exploits of Hamilton and his fellow surfers are juxtaposed against scientists’ urgent efforts to understand the destructive powers of waves - from the tsunami that wiped out 250,000 people in the Pacific in 2004 to the 1,740-foot-wave that recently leveled part of the Alaskan coast. Like Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, The Wave brilliantly portrays human beings confronting nature at its most ferocious.
©2010 Susan Casey (P)2010 Random House Audio
Broken Dawn
Summary
Nick Belanger can't stop thinking about the single mother who lives next door. She's smart. She's funny. She's so beautiful he can't stare at her too long for fear his eyes will start to glow. But Kayla thinks he's just an ordinary guy who works in security. Finding out he instead is a powerful immortal warrior who hunts and slays psychotic vampires for a living may not go over well, particularly since she has a daughter she doesn't want to endanger. Kayla Dorman can keep neither her gaze nor her thoughts from straying to the man next door. Who can blame her really? He is the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome with smart, charming, and honorable thrown in. He's also a few years younger than her and surely would not be interested in a single mom who hasn't dated since her divorce. At least that's what she thinks until an accident nearly takes her life and Nick risks all to save her. The dynamics of their relationship swiftly change. The friendship they've developed over the years deepens into love as the two spend every minute they can together, laughing and teasing, never suspecting a threat may lurk in the shadows. Contains mature themes.
©2020 Dianne Duvall (P)2020 Tantor
Blade of Darkness
Summary
Dana Pembroke has been able to glimpse the future of those she touches for as long as she can remember. But she never saw Aidan coming. When the tall, dark Celt with the charming grin yet world-weary eyes walks through her door, the future she sees for him is one full of violence, danger, deception...and passion. Because amidst the terrifying battles that unfold in her visions, she also sees herself in Aidan's arms and in his bed. Dana knows she should keep her distance, but the tender moments and laughter they share entice her even as she finds herself thrust into a world of vampires, immortals, and other preternatural beings. Immortal Guardian Aidan O'Byrne has been hunting and slaying psychotic vampires for nearly 3,000 years, so visions of bloody battles don't trouble him. The battles Dana foresees, however, show Aidan's brethren turning against him, so he can't help but feel alarmed. While he spends as much time as he can with Dana, struggling to decipher her dire predictions, Aidan finds himself utterly smitten. Hope rises that he has finally found a woman who can banish the darkness and loneliness that plague him. But when vampires begin targeting Dana and a powerful enemy spawns chaos, will fate grant them time to find happiness together? Contains mature themes.
©2017 Dianne Duvall (P)2017 Tantor
A Sorceress of His Own
Summary
Since the day Lord Dillon earned his spurs, rumors of his savagery on the battlefield have preceded him into every room, stilling tongues and sparking fear. Weary of battle, he wishes only to find a woman he can wed who will approach him not with fear but with the tenderness that has been absent from his life for so long. Yet only the wisewoman seems invariably at ease in his presence. For seven years Alyssa has been by Lord Dillon's side - counseling him from the shadows, healing him, and staving off the worst of his loneliness. Blessed - or cursed - with gifts that label her a sorceress, she is forced to conceal her youth and the love she harbors for him, leading Dillon and his people to believe she is the same wisewoman who served his father. All is revealed, however, and passions flare when an enemy threatens Dillon's life and Alyssa sacrifices everything to save him. When Dillon discovers that the wisewoman is far from elderly, he is instantly entranced. And, as he and Alyssa work together to defeat an enemy bent on destroying them both, Dillon will risk anything - even the wrath of his king - to be with her.
©2000 Leslie Duvall (P)2015 Tantor
Mrs. Mike
Summary
Recently arrived in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, after a long, hard journey from Boston, 16-year-old Katherine Mary O'Fallon never imagined that she could lose her heart so easily or so completely. Standing over six feet tall, with "eyes so blue you could swim in them", Mike Flannigan is a well respected sergeant in the Canadian Mounted Police and a man of great courage, kindness, and humor. Together, he and his beloved Kathy manage to live a good, honest life in this harsh, unforgiving land and to find strength in a love as beautiful and compelling as the wilderness around them.
©2002 Benedict and Nancy Freedman (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Night Unbound
Summary
For centuries, Lisette d'Alençon has been a warrior against the dark. She fights alongside her brothers and comrades. But when the dreams start coming, she can't bear to confess them to the Immortal Guardians' command. She dreams of a dark-haired man with soft eyes and brutal wounds, a man her heart aches for - and a man she knows has been declared a traitor. Zach is an exile, a loner. He won't defend himself against false accusations or grovel to those who should have faith in him. But he'll damn sure defend the woman who kept him sane against a plague of supervamps that seems to have appeared from nowhere. The Guardians will blame him, and that will make Lisette suspect, too. With life, death, and eternity on the line, who can they really trust?
©2014 Dianne Duvall (P)2014 Tantor
I Was Told to Come Alone
Summary
For her whole life, Souad Mekhennet, a reporter for the Washington Post who was born and educated in Germany, has had to balance the two sides of her upbringing - Muslim and Western. She has also sought to provide a mediating voice between these cultures, which too often misunderstand each other. In this compelling and evocative memoir, we accompany Mekhennet as she journeys behind the lines of jihad, starting in the German neighborhoods where the 9/11 plotters were radicalized and the Iraqi neighborhoods where Sunnis and Shia turned against one another, and culminating on the Turkish/Syrian border region where ISIS is a daily presence. In her travels across the Middle East and North Africa, she documents her chilling run-ins with various intelligence services and shows why the Arab Spring never lived up to its promise. She then returns to Europe, first in London, where she uncovers the identity of the notorious ISIS executioner "Jihadi John", and then in France, Belgium, and her native Germany, where terror has come to the heart of Western civilization. Souad Mekhennet is an ideal guide to introduce us to the human beings behind the ominous headlines as she shares her transformative journey with us. Hers is a story you will not soon forget.
©2017 Souad Mekhennet (P)2017 Tantor
Darkness Rises
Summary
Krysta is used to getting the drop on vampires. Her "special abilities" aren't much, but the plan is simple - she plays helpless pretty young thing to lure them in. Then her shoto swords come out and it's bye-bye, bloodsucker. Until one night she finds herself with an unexpected ally. He's a vampire, all right, but different. Mysterious. Handsome. And more interested in saving her skin than draining it. Etienne has been an Immortal Guardian for two hundred years-long enough to know that Krysta is special. He can't stop thinking about her long legs, even more than her short swords. Then he discovers the vamps she's exterminating have friends in high places, and the Guardians are in danger, too. He'll have to accept Krysta's help to save them. The stakes for a mortal are high. But the cost to his heart might be higher . . .
©2013 Leslie Duvall (P)2013 Tantor
The Unthinkable
Summary
It lurks in the corner of our imagination, almost beyond our ability to see it: the possibility that a tear in the fabric of life could open up without warning, upending a house, a skyscraper, or a civilization.
Today, nine out of 10 Americans live in places at significant risk of earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, terrorism, or other disasters. Tomorrow, some of us will have to make split-second choices to save ourselves and our families.
How will we react? What will it feel like? Will we be heroes or victims? Will our upbringing, our gender, our personality - anything we've ever learned, thought, or dreamed of - ultimately matter?
Amanda Ripley, an award-winning journalist for Time magazine, set out to discover what lies beyond fear and speculation. Ripley retraces the human response to some of history's epic disasters, from the explosion of the Mont Blanc munitions ship in 1917, to a plane crash in England in 1985 that mystified investigators for years, to the journeys of the 15,000 people who found their way out of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
Then, to understand the science behind the stories, Ripley turns to leading brain scientists, trauma psychologists, and other disaster experts, formal and informal, from a Holocaust survivor who studies heroism to a master gunfighter who learned to overcome the effects of extreme fear.
Finally, Ripley steps into the dark corners of her own imagination, having her brain examined by military researchers and experiencing through realistic simulations what it might be like to survive a plane crash into the ocean or to escape a raging fire.
Ripley comes back with precious wisdom about the surprising humanity of crowds, the elegance of the brain's fear circuits, and the stunning inadequacy of many of our evolutionary responses. Most unexpectedly, she discovers the brain's ability to do much, much better, with just a little help.
©2008 Amanda Ripley (P)2008 Random House, Inc.
The Chelsea Girls
Summary
The bright lights of the theater district, the glamour and danger of 1950s New York, and the wild scene at the iconic Chelsea Hotel come together in a dazzling new novel about the 20-year friendship that will irrevocably change two women's lives - from the New York Times best-selling author of The Lions of Fifth Avenue. From the dramatic redbrick facade to the sweeping staircase dripping with art, the Chelsea Hotel has long been New York City's creative oasis for the many artists, writers, musicians, actors, filmmakers, and poets who have called it home - a scene playwright Hazel Riley and actress Maxine Mead are determined to use to their advantage. Yet they soon discover that the greatest obstacle to putting up a show on Broadway has nothing to do with their art and everything to do with politics. A red scare is sweeping across America, and Senator Joseph McCarthy has started a witch hunt for communists, with those in the entertainment industry in the crosshairs. As the pressure builds to name names, it is more than Hazel and Maxine's Broadway dreams that may suffer as they grapple with the terrible consequences, but also their livelihood, their friendship, and even their freedom. Spanning from the 1940s to the 1960s, The Chelsea Girls deftly pulls back the curtain on the desperate political pressures of McCarthyism, the complicated bonds of female friendship, and the siren call of the uninhibited Chelsea Hotel.
©2019 Fiona Davis (P)2019 Penguin Audio
The Things We Cherished
Summary
An ambitious novel that spans decades and continents, The Things We Cherished tells the story of Charlotte Gold and Jack Harrington, two fiercely independent attorneys who find themselves slowly falling for one another while working to defend the brother of a Holocaust hero against allegations of World War II-era war crimes. The defendant, wealthy financier Roger Dykmans, mysteriously refuses to help in his own defense, revealing only that proof of his innocence lies within an intricate timepiece last seen in Nazi Germany. As the narrative moves from Philadelphia to Germany, Poland, and Italy, we are given glimpses of the lives that the anniversary clock has touched over the past century and learn about the love affair that turned a brother into a traitor. Rich in historical detail, Pam Jenoff’s astonishing new work is a testament to true love under the worst of circumstances.
©2011 Pam Jenoff (P)2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC
The Lasaran
Summary
New York Times best-selling author Dianne Duvall brings listeners the first novel in a thrilling new sci-fi romance series full of action, intrigue, humor, and romance. When an ally reveals that his younger sister was seized and is being held prisoner on Earth, Taelon descends upon the blue planet, intent on freeing her and exacting vengeance. However, all does not go as planned. Before he can find her, Taelon is captured and becomes the subject of torturous experiments. For what feels like an eternity, all he knows is pain and fury...until a mind tentatively touches his own and a woman's voice forever changes his world. After suffering tragic losses, Lisa is finally beginning to carve out a future for herself when chance sends her to the Anomalous Cognition Research Institute. What at first appears to be a benign organization instead turns out to be a government facility harboring a much darker intent. Lisa discovers this too late and soon becomes the unwilling subject of a terrifying experiment. Just as fear and desperation threaten to consume her, a deep, compelling voice penetrates the looming insanity and lends her hope. Contains mature themes.
©2019 Dianne Duvall (P)2020 Tantor
Reclaiming Conversation
Summary
Renowned media scholar Sherry Turkle investigates how a flight from conversation undermines our relationships, creativity, and productivity - and why reclaiming face-to-face conversation can help us regain lost ground. We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection. Preeminent author and researcher Sherry Turkle has been studying digital culture for over 30 years. Long an enthusiast for its possibilities, here she investigates a troubling consequence: at work, at home, in politics, and in love, we find ways around conversation, tempted by the possibilities of a text or an email in which we don't have to look, listen, or reveal ourselves. We develop a taste for what mere connection offers. The dinner table falls silent as children compete with phones for their parents' attention. Friends learn strategies to keep conversations going when only a few people are looking up from their phones. At work we retreat to our screens although it is conversation at the water cooler that increases not only productivity but commitment to work. Online we want to share only opinions that our followers will agree with - a politics that shies away from the real conflicts and solutions of the public square. The case for conversation begins with the necessary conversations of solitude and self-reflection. They are endangered: These days, always connected, we see loneliness as a problem that technology should solve. Afraid of being alone, we rely on other people to give us a sense of ourselves, and our capacity for empathy and relationship suffers. We see the costs of the flight from conversation everywhere: Conversation is the cornerstone for democracy, and in business it is good for the bottom line. In the private sphere, it builds empathy, friendship, love, learning, and productivity. But there is good news: We are resilient. Conversation cures.
©2015 Sherry Turkle (P)2015 Penguin Audio
The Poison Squad
Summary
A New York Times Notable Book. The inspiration for PBS's American Experience film The Poison Squad. From Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times best-selling author Deborah Blum, the dramatic true story of how food was made safe in the United States and the heroes, led by the inimitable Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, who fought for change By the end of 19th century, food was dangerous. Lethal, even. "Milk" might contain formaldehyde, most often used to embalm corpses. Decaying meat was preserved with both salicylic acid, a pharmaceutical chemical, and borax, a compound first identified as a cleaning product. This was not by accident; food manufacturers had rushed to embrace the rise of industrial chemistry and were knowingly selling harmful products. Unchecked by government regulation, basic safety, or even labelling requirements, they put profit before the health of their customers. By some estimates, in New York City alone, thousands of children were killed by "embalmed milk" every year. Citizens - activists, journalists, scientists, and women's groups - began agitating for change. But even as protective measures were enacted in Europe, American corporations blocked even modest regulations. Then, in 1883, Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, a chemistry professor from Purdue University, was named chief chemist of the agriculture department, and the agency began methodically investigating food and drink fraud, even conducting shocking human tests on groups of young men who came to be known as, "The Poison Squad". Over the next 30 years, a titanic struggle took place, with the courageous and fascinating Dr. Wiley campaigning indefatigably for food safety and consumer protection. Together with a gallant cast, including the muckraking reporter Upton Sinclair, whose fiction revealed the horrific truth about the Chicago stockyards; Fannie Farmer, then the most famous cookbook author in the country; and Henry J. Heinz, one of the few food producers who actively advocated for pure food, Dr. Wiley changed history. When the landmark 1906 Food and Drug Act was finally passed, it was known across the land, as "Dr. Wiley's Law". Blum brings to life this timeless and hugely satisfying "David and Goliath" tale with righteous verve and style, driving home the moral imperative of confronting corporate greed and government corruption with a bracing clarity, which speaks resoundingly to the enormous social and political challenges we face today.
©2018 Deborah Blum (P)2018 Penguin Audio
A Laird for All Time: A Laird for All Time, Book 1
Summary
After 10 long years of education and residency, Dr. Emmy MacKenzie decides it's time for a much-deserved vacation. But when she's traveling the British Isles, a twist of fate at the gates of the ancient castle of Duart hurls Emmy more than a hundred years into the past and into the arms of a magnificent Highlander who thinks she is his long-lost wife, Heather MacLean. The 10 years since his new bride abandoned him on his wedding day have brought Connor MacLean, earl of Strathclyde, nothing but misery and bitterness, but that is nothing compared to the anger he feels when she shows up on the 10th anniversary of that day. Determined to punish her for the humiliations she dealt him, he is shocked when his wife insists that she is not his wife at all. Though he tries to cling to his anger, Connor cannot deny the attraction he feels for his mysterious wife, and soon he finds himself wanting nothing more than to take her in his arms and make her his. When the truth of Heather MacLean's disappearance comes to light, more than just Connor's life could be destroyed. Choices will have to be made. Forgiveness begged. Second chances taken not just for the people of Duart but for Emmy herself.
©2011 Angeline Fortin (P)2015 Tantor
3 Truths and a Lie
Summary
In Lisa Gardner's second short story, after the New York Times bestseller The 7th Month, Detective D.D. Warren takes on her most intimidating assignment yet: a fifty-minute class meant to educate a horde of bloodthirsty thriller writers on the ways of actual police work. Yet sometimes life really does imitate fiction, as D.D. takes the writers through the reality of one of her most twisted cases - a case that involves a seedy motel room, drugs, prostitution...and a severed leg. With Gardner's trademark suspense, sharp observations, and thrilling storytelling, 3 Truths and a Lie is a fascinating chapter in D.D.'s storied career.
©2016 Lisa Gardner, Inc. (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
Phantom Shadows
Summary
Dr. Melanie Lipton is no stranger to the supernatural. She knows immortals better than they know themselves, right down to their stubborn little genes. So although a handsome rogue immortal seems suspicious to her colleagues, Sebastien Newcombe intrigues Melanie. His history is checkered, his scars are impressive, and his ideas are daring. But it's not his ideas that have Melanie fighting off surges of desire.... Bastien is used to being the bad guy. In fact, he can't remember the last time he had an ally he could trust. But Melanie is different - and under her calm, professional exterior he senses a passion beyond anything in his centuries of experience. Giving in to temptation is out of the question - he can't put her in danger. But she isn't asking him....
©2012 Dianne Duvall (P)2012 Tantor
Shadows Strike
Summary
US law enforcement agent Heather Lane can read minds but not the future. The dream of battle and blood that recurs every night must be a fluke, some obscure terror from her own mind. What its significance might be, she can't guess: an attack from seven psychotic vampires at once, only separated from nightmare by an eighth very different immortal. A handsome, brave man fighting at her side, a man she misses when she wakes. Then the dream comes true. Heather is flung into a war between predators and protectors of humanity, with the man from her dreams beside her again. Except now that she's awake, she isn't sure that she can trust Ethan or the shadow organization he represents. The US military doesn't trust either of them. But against an onslaught of evil like the one that's coming, it will take everything they have just to survive....
©2015 Dianne Duvall (P)2015 Tantor