Lisa Renee Pitts has narrated 56 audiobooks on Listento.it by 59 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.3★ across 589 ratings. The most-rated is Homefront: An Expeditionary Force Audio Drama Special.
Pushkin and the Queen of Spades
Summary
Windsor Armstrong is a polished, Harvard educated, African-American professor of Russian literature. Her son, Pushkin X, is an exceedingly famous pro-football player, an achievement that impresses his mother not at all. Even more distressing, however, is that her beloved son has just become engaged to a gorgeous white Russian émigré who also happens to be a lap dancer. For Windsor, this is no laughing matter. Determined to get to the source of it, she embarks on a journey into her own rich past. As she moves ever closer to the secret that has cast a shadow over her life, she discovers that the half-lies she has fed her son don't add up to the beauty of the truth.
©2004 Alice Randall (P)2004 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Forty Days on Being a Nine
Summary
What is it like to be an Enneagram Nine? Writer and speaker Marlena Graves reflects on this question in a spirit of honest self-assessment and with a desire for personal and spiritual growth. She draws wisdom from the deep wells of both counseling and spirituality using illustrations from both Scripture and life. Each reading concludes with an opportunity for further engagement such as a journaling prompt, a prayer, or a spiritual practice. Any of us can find aspects of ourselves in any of the numbers. The Enneagram is a profound tool for empathy, so whether or not you are a Nine, you will grow from learning about Nines and enhance your relationships across the Enneagram spectrum.
©2021 Marlena Graves (P)2021 eChristian
The Country of Ice Cream Star
Summary
In the aftermath of a devastating plague, a fearless young heroine embarks on a dangerous and surprising journey to save her world in this brilliantly inventive thriller. In the ruins of a future America, fifteen-year-old Ice Cream Star and her nomadic tribe live off the detritus of a crumbled civilization. Theirs is a world of children; before reaching the age of twenty, they all die of a strange disease they call Posies - a plague that has killed for generations. There is no medicine, no treatment, only the mysterious rumor of a cure. When her brother begins showing signs of the disease, Ice Cream Star sets off on a bold journey to find this cure. Led by a stranger, a captured prisoner named Pasha who becomes her devoted protector and friend, Ice Cream Star plunges into the unknown, risking her freedom and ultimately her life. Traveling hundreds of miles across treacherous, unfamiliar territory, she will experience love, heartbreak, cruelty, terror, and betrayal, fighting to protect the only world she has ever known. A postapocalyptic literary epic as imaginative as The Passage and as linguistically ambitious as Cloud Atlas, The Country of Ice Cream Star is a breathtaking work from a writer of rare and unconventional talent.
©2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc. (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Sing a Rhythm, Dance a Blues
Summary
A groundbreaking and visionary call to action on educating and supporting girls of color, from the highly acclaimed author of Pushout. Wise Black women have known for centuries that the blues have been a platform for truth-telling, an underground musical railroad to survival, and an essential form of resistance, healing, and learning. In her highly anticipated follow-up to the widely acclaimed Pushout, now a core text for teachers and principals on the criminalization of Black girls in schools, leading advocate Monique W. Morris invokes the spirit of the blues to articulate a radically healing and empowering pedagogy for Black and Brown girls. A clarion call for educators, parents, and anyone who has a stake in a better tomorrow to transform schools into places where learning and collective healing can flourish, this book takes listeners on a journey from Oakland to Ohio and from New York to Iowa City and beyond. Morris describes with candor and love what it looks like to meet the complex needs of girls on the margins. In doing so, she offers a collection of gems from educators who are attuned to the patterns of pain and struggle, and who show how adults working in schools can harness their wisdom to partner with students and help the girls they teach find value and joy in learning.
©2019 Monique W. Morris (P)2019 Tantor
Queens of the Resistance: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Summary
Part of the four-book Queens of the Resistance series, saluting some of the most beloved boss ladies in Congress: a celebration of AOC, the youngest woman ever to serve in Congress and its newest superstar. Not long ago, no one could even imagine a 28-year-old Latina upstart running for Congress representing Queens and the Bronx: It required facing the city’s nearly all-white, all-male political machine. But since Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez graced the scene in all her bartending, tweet-talking, mold-breaking glory, the face of politics in the 21st century has changed. Today, Ocasio-Cortez is a foremost advocate for progress, whipping up support among her colleagues and gaining the secret admiration of her foes. She's jousting with an outrageous president and a conservative media sphere that place her under relentless attack. Why? Because they fear her gift for speaking truth to power. With deep research and writing as endlessly quotable as she is, Queens of the Resistance pays tribute to this phenomenal woman. About the series: Each book of the Queens of the Resistance series is a celebration of the rebellion against the oppression of women and an embracement of the new in the United States government. The series is adorned with sass, discernment, and the badassery of the present and future leadership. The Doomsday Clock is at a minute to midnight, and the patriarchal power grid that lights "the shining city on a Hill" is about to black out. It's time to yield to the alternative - the power of women.
©2020 Brenda Jones and Krishan Trotman (P)2020 Penguin Audio
Overground Railroad
Summary
The first book to explore the historical role and residual impact of the Green Book, a travel guide for Black motorists. Published from 1936 to 1966, the Green Book was hailed as the "Black travel guide to America". At that time, it was very dangerous and difficult for African Americans to travel because Black travelers couldn't eat, sleep, or buy gas at most White-owned businesses. The Green Book listed hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and other businesses that were safe for Black travelers. It was a resourceful and innovative solution to a horrific problem. It took courage to be listed in the Green Book, and Overground Railroad celebrates the stories of those who put their names in the book and stood up against segregation. It shows the history of the Green Book, how we arrived at our present historical moment, and how far we still have to go when it comes to race relations in America.
©2020 Candacy Taylor (P)2020 Tantor
Wheel of the Infinite
Summary
Every year in the great Temple City of Duvalpore, the image of the Wheel of the Infinite must be painstakingly remade to ensure another year of peace and harmony for the Celestial Empire. Every hundred years the sacred rite takes on added significance. For it is then that the very fabric of the world must be rewoven. Linked by the mystic energies of the Infinite, the Wheel and world are one. Should the holy image be marred, the world will suffer a similar injury. But a black storm is spreading across the Wheel. Every night the Voices of the Ancestors - the Wheel's constructors and caretakers - brush the darkness away and repair the damage with brightly colored sands and potent magic. Each morning the storm reappears, bigger and darker than before, unraveling the beautiful and orderly patterns. With chaos in the wind, a woman with a shadowy past has returned to Duvalpore. A murderer and traitor - an exile disgraced, hated, and feared, and haunted by her own guilty conscience - Maskelle has been summoned back to help put the world right. Once she was the most revered of the Voices, until cursed by her own actions. Now, in the company of Rian - a skilled and dangerously alluring swordsman - she must confront dread enemies old and new and a cold, stalking malevolence unlike any she has ever encountered.
©2000 Martha Wells (P)2013 Tantor
D.C. Noir
Summary
Brand new stories by: George Pelecanos, James Grady, Kenji Jasper, Jim Beane, Jabari Asim, Ruben Castaneda, James Patton, Norman Kelley, Jennifer Howard, Richard Currey, Lester Irby and others. Mystery sensation Pelecanos pens the lead story and edits this groundbreaking collection of stories detailing the seedy underside of the nation's capital. This is not an anthology of ill-conceived and inauthentic political thrillers. Instead, in D.C. Noir, pimps, whores, gangsters, and con-men run rampant in zones of this city that most never hear about. The complete list of narators includes Cassandra Campbell, William Dufris, Mirron Willis, Carol Monda, Ray Porter, Nick Sullivan, Victor Bevine, Scott Brick, Anthony Bowden, Pentice Onayemi, David Ledoux, Kevin Free, and Johnny Heller.
©2006 Akashic Books (P)2014 Audible Inc.
The Hero Two Doors Down
Summary
Stephen Satlow is an eight-year-old boy living in Brooklyn, New York, which means he only cares about one thing - the Dodgers. Steve and his father spend hours reading the sports pages and listening to games on the radio. Aside from an occasional run-in with his teacher, life is pretty simple for Steve. But then Steve hears a rumor that an African-American family is moving to his all-Jewish neighborhood. It's 1948 and some of his neighbors are against it. Steve knows this is wrong. His hero, Jackie Robinson, broke the color barrier in baseball the year before. Then it happens - Steve's new neighbor is none other than Jackie Robinson! Steve is beyond excited about living two doors down from the Robinson family. He can't wait to meet Jackie. This is going to be the best baseball season yet! How many kids ever get to become friends with their hero?
©2016 Sharon Robinson (P)2017 Tantor
City of Inmates
Summary
City of Inmates explains how the City of Angels became the capital city of the world's leading incarcerator. Marshaling more than two centuries of evidence, historian Kelly Lytle Hernandez unmasks how histories of native elimination, immigrant exclusion, and Black disappearance drove the rise of incarceration in Los Angeles. In this telling, which spans from the Spanish colonial era to the outbreak of the 1965 Watts Rebellion, Hernandez documents the persistent historical bond between the racial fantasies of conquest, namely its settler colonial form, and the eliminatory capacities of incarceration. But City of Inmates is also a chronicle of resilience and rebellion, documenting how targeted peoples and communities have always fought back. They busted out of jail, forced Supreme Court rulings, advanced revolution across bars and borders, and, as in the summer of 1965, set fire to the belly of the city. With these acts those who fought the rise of incarceration in Los Angeles altered the course of history in the city, the borderlands, and beyond. This book recounts how the dynamics of conquest met deep reservoirs of rebellion as Los Angeles became the City of Inmates, the nation's carceral core. It is a story that is far from over.
©2017 Kelly Lytle Hernández (P)2020 Tantor
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
Bluish
Summary
Friendship isn't always easy. Natalie is different from the other kids in Dreenie's fifth-grade class. She comes to school in a wheelchair. She always wears a knitted hat. And she's allowed to bring her puppy to class. The kids in the class call Natalie "Bluish" because her skin is tinted blue from chemotherapy. Dreenie is fascinated by Bluish, and a little scared of her, too. She watches Bluish and writes about her in her journal. Slowly, the two girls become good friends. But Dreenie still struggles with Bluish's illness. Bluish is weak and frail, but she also wants to be independent. How do you act around a girl like that?
©1999 Virginia Hamilton (P)2006 Blackstone Audio Inc.
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 Mbue’s 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 country’s 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 community’s determination to hold on to its ancestral land and a young woman’s willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of her people’s freedom.
©2020 Imbolo Mbue (P)2020 Random House Audio
Diversity in the Workplace
Summary
Contemporary and compassionate teachings for building true workplace diversity In order to create an inclusive working environment, it is important for companies to understand the experiences that diverse employees face in the workplace. Diversity in the Workplace is a guided tour of what it means to be a minority in today's labor force. Containing 25 real-life interviews, including stories of trailblazers fighting inequality, you'll be exposed to a slice of life you may not have been privy to. This book explores real-world issues in a modern workday dynamic for members of marginalized communities and managers looking to equalize an imbalance. Diversity in the Workplace includes: Exploring intersectionality - learn about the diversity identities shaping disparity at work: race, gender, LGBTQ+, age and ability, and religion and culture. Key takeaways - each section is followed by summaries that encourage reflection and action. Deep dive - learn tips on how to have progressive conversations with colleagues, and build awareness with key terms such as "unconscious bias". Move toward a more fair and bias-conscious future with Diversity in the Workplace.
©2020 Rockridge Press (P)2021 Tantor
The Talk
Summary
This powerful collection of short stories, essays, and poems is a call-to-action that invites all families to be anti-racist and advocates for change. Thirty diverse, award-winning authors and illustrators - including Renee Watson (Piecing Me Together), Grace Lin (Where the Mountain Meets the Moon), Meg Medina (Merci Suarez Changes Gears), and Adam Gidwitz (The Inquisitor's Tale) - engage young people in frank discussions about racism, identity, and self-esteem. Featuring stories filled with love, acceptance, truth, peace, and an assurance that there can be hope for a better tomorrow, The Talk is an inspiring anthology and must-have resource published in partnership with Just Us Books, a black-owned children's publishing company that's been in operation for over 30 years. Just Us Books continues its mission grounded in the same belief that helped launch the company: Good books make a difference. So, let's talk. Featured contributors: Selina Alko, Tracey Baptiste, Derrick Barnes, Natacha Bustos, Cozbi A. Cabrera, Raúl Colón, Adam Gidwitz, Nikki Grimes, Rudy Gutierrez, April Harrison, Wade Hudson, Gordon C. James, Minh Lê, E. B. Lewis, Grace Lin, Torrey Maldonado, Meg Medina, Christopher Myers, Daniel Nayeri, Zeke Peña, Peter H. Reynolds, Erin K. Robinson, Traci Sorell, Shadra Strickland, Don Tate, MaryBeth Timothy, Duncan Tonatiuh, Renée Watson, Valerie Wilson Wesley, Sharon Dennis Wyeth Features original music by Curtis Hudson. This audiobook includes a downloadable PDF of sources and notes from the authors. "The go-to book for talking to kids about race and privilege. Thoughtful. Thought-provoking. A must-read for every family." (Ellen Oh, editor of Flying Lessons & Other Stories and cofounder of We Need Diverse Books) "The ingredients are all here. May this magnificent collection inspire us to move from dialogue to deep action." (Kirkus starred review) PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2020 Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson (P)2020 Listening Library
The Memory Keeper
Summary
From the USA Today best-selling author of The Summer House comes a story about lost loves, chasing dreams, and the people who show up when they're needed the most. Hannah Townsend has the perfect job at a New York magazine, a small but elegant apartment in the Upper West Side, and a successful beau named Miles Monahan. This year, she’s leaving the icy city sludge for sunshine! She’s got tickets for two to Barbados, and she’s meeting Miles at the airport for a week of cocktails, sandy beaches, and the music of steel drums. But her life is turned upside down in the span of that one morning. Hannah is rocked by the news that her beloved grandmother is very sick, and Hannah needs to come home to her small Tennessee town right away to be with her family and help run her gran’s dilapidated flower shop. If that isn’t enough to deal with, she discovers her boyfriend is seeing someone else. On her birthday, she finds herself packed into a car on a ride-share to her hometown of Franklin, Tennessee. When everything seems to be going wrong, it’s the kindness of a handsome man from Hannah’s past named Liam McGuire that might just save her. But a new development that threatens Gran’s shop and secrets surrounding Liam could alter both their lives forever.
©2021 Jenny Hale (P)2021 Jenny Hale