Whether fact or fiction, this month’s best audio selections challenge the heart and the mind with thought-provoking stories. 

★ Such a Fun Age 

In Kiley Reid’s debut novel, Such a Fun Age, Emira is a black woman babysitting for a white family while figuring out what to do with her life. Late one night, while perusing a supermarket’s aisles with the family’s toddler, she is accused of kidnapping. In this intense scene, the listener is put in the shoes of a young black woman who may be sent to jail—or worse—for something so obviously unjust. Emira’s name is cleared, but the event shifts her relationship with her employer. The mom, Alix, wants Emira to view her as a trusted friend while continuing to treat her like a servant. When someone from Alix’s past gets tangled up in Emira’s life, things get even crazier. Narrator Nicole Lewis so effortlessly switches between Emira and Alix that I thought there were two narrators. This is a thoroughly fun listen with the feel of a good gossip sesh, but it’s also an utterly current take on race and class in America with the power to transform how many listeners view and react to the subtle cues of racism.

Tightrope

With Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope, Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn address the devastating challenges faced by working-class Americans as they attempt to gain an even footing, let alone try to achieve the American dream. The book narrows in on real stories, tells us where we went wrong as a country and offers hopeful solutions—if we’ll only listen and make a change. Listening to the audiobook feels like bingeing a few great episodes of “This American Life.” Personal stories from blue-collar America show the lives behind the statistics and make their struggles hard to ignore. Actor Jennifer Garner, narrating an audiobook for the first time, lends an emotional weight to these harrowing stories.

Loveboat, Taipei

Abigail Hing Wen’s fun and exciting Loveboat, Taipei follows 18-year-old dancer Ever Wong, an Ohio-raised teen who has little in common with her Chinese parents. She feels pressured by them to go to medical school instead of pursuing her love for dance and choreography. When they send her to Taipei to study Chinese during the summer before college, she thinks she’s being punished. Instead, she discovers a thrilling world run by smart, creative teenagers where love connections abound. Narrator Emily Woo Zeller navigates a large cast of characters from multiple countries and regions and captures Ever’s earnest passion and inner turmoil.