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Lightning in Her Hands

Review by Tami Orendain

Teal needs a date to an ex’s wedding, and Carter needs to be married to earn his inheritance. Even though things are now tense and awkward between the once-best friends, a fake marriage seems like the best solution for everyone. But their perfect plan is complicated by Teal’s inability to control her family gift: power over the weather. Desperate for a way to keep her emotions from throwing the atmosphere into chaos, the two seek out Teal’s missing mother—and along the way, learn more about vulnerability, family and love.

Lightning in Her Hands (9 hours), the sequel to Raquel Vasquez Gilliland’s adult romance debut, Witch of Wild Things, is told from Teal’s point of view and narrated by Marcella Black. Black gives Teal a young, charming voice—one that draws readers into her emotional inner world. She expertly captures a range of Teal’s experiences, from the story’s fiery romance to its cheeky, adult humor to its deep, emotional drama. The result is a complex story that bridges the gap between romance and speculative fiction. Perfect for fans of both genres, Lightning in Her Hands makes for a fun, engaging listen.

Read our review of the print version of Lightning in Her Hands.

Marcella Black’s charming narration expertly captures Lightning in Her Hands’ fiery romance; cheeky, adult humor; and deep, emotional drama.
Audio

Notes from an Island

Review by Tami Orendain

Tove Jansson and Tuulikki “Tooti” Pietila spent 30 years on Klovharun, an island off the Gulf of Finland, painting, writing and exploring the lush seaside. Known for her novel The Summer Book and the popular comic strip Moomin, Jansson reflects on her and Tooti’s time on Klovharun in Notes from an Island (2 hours).

Notes from an Island is a sweeping, meditative exploration of time spent in nature. Orlagh Cassidy’s narration is emotive, taking a knowing, buoyant tone for everyday events, laughing during funny moments and dipping into a reflective murmur when Jansson is introspective. A relatively short listen, the audiobook comes with a downloadable file of personal photographs, paintings by Tooti and a map created by Jansson’s mother, Signe Hammarsten Jansson. Listeners will be immersed in the story of how these women loved, created art and built a life together.

Listeners will be immersed in this meditative exploration of time spent in nature—the story of Moomin creator Tove Jansson and her partner Tooti Pietila’s life together on an island off the Gulf of Finland.
Audio

How Does That Make You Feel, Magda Eklund?

Review by Deborah Mason

Sara always had an outsize impact on her best friend, Magda. Even after her death, Sara still manages to coerce Magda into going on a road trip. With Magda at the wheel and Sara’s ashes on the front seat, Anna Montague’s moving and surprisingly humorous debut, How Does That Make You Feel, Magda Eklund? (9 hours), depicts Magda’s struggle with the insanity of grieving.

Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor Cynthia Nixon’s performance sensitively juxtaposes Magda’s sorrowful introspection with the vitality of the people in her life and the vibrancy of her memories of Sara. Nixon also brings out the dark humor that frequently accompanies mourning. The result is a convincing portrayal of not only the sheer hell of grief, but also its potential for leading to reconciliation with the past and hope for the future.

Read our review of the print version of How Does That Make You Feel, Magda Eklund?

Read by Cynthia Nixon, Anna Montague’s moving and surprisingly humorous debut, How Does That Make You Feel, Magda Eklund? shows grief’s potential to lead to reconciliation and hope.
Audio

Lifeform

Review by Jessica Peng

Lifeform (5 hours) is a collection of comedic and heartfelt personal essays from acclaimed actress and comedian Jenny Slate. These essays encompass the chaos and wonder of living during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing in particular on Slate’s experiences with romance and new parenthood. She writes with immense imagination, opening doors to rooms filled with raccoon rumor mills, extended therapy dialogues and codependent dishwashers. At the same time, Lifeform explores subjects like pregnancy, body image, social anxiety and depression with authenticity and gratitude.

The narration, done primarily by Slate herself with appearances from George Saunders, Vanessa Bayer and Will Forte, is a theatrical delight. Slate’s droll tone is perfectly paired with her roundabout style of humor, while simultaneously capturing her writing’s air of innocence. This audiobook is ideal for listeners who prefer shorter-form audio experiences like podcasts. The essays build on one another but also stand alone, meaning you can easily set Lifeform aside and pick it back up when it’s convenient for you. Or, feel free to finish it in one sitting: Slate’s writing (and reading) is insightful, witty and definitely binge worthy.

Read our starred review of the print version of Lifeform.

Comedian Jenny Slate’s Lifeform is insightful, witty and definitely binge worthy. She writes, and reads, these essays with immense imagination.
Audio

We Solve Murders

Review by Deborah Mason

Famous for the Thursday Murder Club series, Richard Osman has inaugurated a new series with We Solve Murders (10.5 hours). Amy Wheeler, a professional bodyguard, and her father-in-law, Steve, a retired police investigator, stumble upon a money smuggling scheme involving ChatGPT and murdered social media influencers. With all the energy of a Carl Hiaasen novel, We Solve Murders also has the dry wit and well-defined characters of Osman’s earlier books.

Audie Award-winner Nicola Walker is a superb narrator whose exquisite comic timing makes We Solve Murders an engaging audiobook. Walker resists the temptation to play comic characters broadly, and instead gives even minor characters individuality. Her portrayal of Rosie D’Antonio, the world’s second-bestselling author (after Lee Child), is a terrific blend of world-weary wisdom, generosity and killer amounts of tequila. Walker similarly teases out the nuances of Amy and Steve’s relationship, leading us up to an outcome not only believable but inevitable.

Read our starred review of the print version of We Solve Murders.

Audie Award-winner Nicola Walker is a superb narrator whose exquisite comic timing makes the audiobook of Richard Osman’s We Solve Murders terrifically engaging.
Audio

Connie

Review by Maya Fleischmann

Legendary journalist Connie Chung narrates her tell-all memoir with the same warm authoritativeness she built her legacy on decades ago. The first Asian American to anchor a major network’s evening news program, and one of the first women to do so, Chung never let the fact that journalism was a white man’s world deter her from her goals. Inspired by her idol, Walter Cronkite, the determined 5-foot-3-inches tall Chung, the youngest of five in a Chinese household, used moxie and motivation to land herself a job as a CBS correspondent in 1971, at just 25 years old.

Now in her late 70s, Chung delivers her life story with her signature soft raspiness and confident authenticity. Her reflections on her professional life, as well as her personal life as a wife and mother, are infused with tenderness, chutzpah and humor. Chung gives insight into American history with its changing sociopolitical landscape, and names those who helped (and hindered) her success, while throwing in delightful impersonations of prominent individuals.

Inspiring, entertaining and strikingly relevant, Connie (11.5 hours) will appeal to those interested in the changing roles of women in society and the evolution of American media.

Read our review of the print version of Connie.

Inspiring, entertaining and strikingly relevant, Connie will appeal to those interested in the changing roles of women in society and the evolution of American media.
Audio

Mina’s Matchbox

Review by Deborah Mason

Mina’s Matchbox (8.5 hours), by award-winning author Yoko Ogawa, is a magical coming-of-age story centered on two girls on the brink of adolescence: sturdy, pragmatic Tomoko and her fragile, artistic cousin, Mina. Told from Tomoko’s point of view and set in Ashiya, Japan, in 1972, Mina’s Matchbox is touched with fairy-tale enchantment, depicting a family in quiet crisis with delicacy and wonder.

Stephen B. Snyder’s translation is lyrical and humorous, and it’s enhanced by Nanako Mizushima’s nuanced narration. Mizushima conveys Tomoko’s awe towards her cousin’s wealthy, enigmatic family, expressing both her extreme awkwardness and her intense loyalty to Mina. Mizushima’s depiction of Mina is equally convincing, revealing both Mina’s frailty and her boundless heart. The result is a delightful audiobook that captures the everyday magic of friendship and love.

Read our starred review of the print version of Mina’s Matchbox.

Mina’s Matchbox is a delightful audiobook touched with fairy-tale enchantment, depicting the friendship between two cousins in 1972 Japan.
Audio

The Modern Fairies

Review by Tami Orendain

Clare Pollard’s The Modern Fairies (8 hours) transports listeners to a high-class Paris salon where socialites gather to do what they do best: tell stories. A work of historical fiction that features real famous writers Marie D’Aulnoy and Charles Perrault, The Modern Fairies is a sensual, clever reimagining of France during the reign of Louis XIV.

Narrator Kathryn Drysdale takes on the complex challenge of not only voicing a cast of dynamic characters, but also performing the fairy tales that they recite for one another. Energetic and enthusiastic, Drysdale expertly captures the bawdiness of these salons—as well as the darkness that dwells underneath.

Witty and sly, the audiobook edition of The Modern Fairies asks listeners to lean in to scandal, debauchery and deception, inviting us to be part of the gossip and in on the joke. Listening will make you feel like you’re in the salon yourself, allowing you to be a wary observer of the upper class, and giving you a front-row seat to the glittering origins of the fairy tale genre.

Read our starred review of the print version of The Modern Fairies.

Listening to Kathryn Drysdale read The Modern Fairies will make you feel like you’re in a 17th-century Paris salon yourself, with a front-row seat to the glittering origins of the fairy tale genre.
Audio

Lo Fi

Review by Norah Piehl

In Liz Riggs’ Lo Fi (10.5 hours), Alison Hunter has put her dreams of musical stardom firmly behind her after a near-disastrous open mic night and subsequent (song)writer’s block, and for now she’s satisfied to check IDs and stamp wrists at The Venue, a landmark music club in Nashville, spending her 20s aimlessly hooking up with bartenders and snagging free drinks. But that’s before her old flame Nick comes back into town, and before an up-and-coming indie musician goes missing. Audiobook narrator Jesse Vilinsky effectively captures Alison’s voice, which alternates between dreamy lyricism and sharp observation of the Nashville music scene and its wannabes, and she also portrays Allison’s love interests with masculine huskiness. Although the lists of songs that bookend many chapters are initially confusing for a listener, once you understand the project, you’ll enjoy reminiscing over them. The only downside to the audio version of Lo Fi is that you can’t play these nostalgia-laced playlists at the same time as you listen.

Audiobook narrator Jesse Vilinsky captures dreamy lyricism and sharp observation of the Nashville music scene and its wannabes in the audiobook of Liz Riggs’ Lo Fi.
Audio

Somewhere Beyond the Sea

Review by Maya Fleischmann

Daniel Henning’s animated performance provides the perfect splash of drama and drollness in the audiobook of TJ Klune’s sequel to The House in the Cerulean Sea.

In Somewhere Beyond the Sea (16 hours), Arthur Parnassus and his boyfriend, Linus, have welcomed a 10-year-old yeti to their growing orphanage for magical children. But this endeavor of love is threatened by the interference of a social worker, who, believing the children’s abilities to be a threat to society, tries to wrangle enough proof of the danger they pose to remove them from the orphanage. Will Arthur be able to change the political climate in time to save his family?

An engaging storyteller, Henning masters a diverse range of character voices, especially his entertaining Scooby-Doo-esque voice for Chauncey, an adorable gelatinous creature who dreams of becoming a hotel bellhop. Though some plot elements can feel overly simplistic or didactic, Henning’s articulate, earnest narration winningly underscores Somewhere Beyond the Sea’s central themes of self-confidence, kindness, acceptance of others and the importance of working for sociopolitical reform.

Read our starred review of the print version of Somewhere Beyond the Sea.

Daniel Henning’s articulate, earnest narration winningly underscores Somewhere Beyond the Sea’s central themes of self-confidence, kindness and acceptance of others.
Audio

The Transit of Venus

Review by Deborah Mason

The Transit of Venus (15.5 hours), Shirley Hazzard’s 1980 novel and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, tells the story of two Australian sisters, Grace and Caroline Bell, from their arrival in postwar England to their middle age. It is a nuanced and richly detailed exploration of love, power, fate and remorse that gets better with each rereading—and is now available for the first time as an audiobook.

Hazzard’s writing is at once deceptively simple and surprisingly complex, full of wordplay, literary and scientific allusions, and sharp-eyed observations. It could have been tempting for a narrator to exaggerate the puns and games, to make sure that the reader “gets it.” Happily, acclaimed actor Juliet Stevenson beautifully balances wit, irony and compassion to mirror the subtle richness of Hazzard’s novel. The result is a performance that invites the audience to listen again and again to this remarkable book.

Acclaimed actress Juliet Stevenson’s performance is a beautifully balanced blend of wit, irony and compassion that mirrors the subtle richness of Shirley Hazzard’s remarkable 1980 novel, The Transit of Venus.
Audio

Better Faster Farther

Review by Norah Piehl

While women’s basketball and soccer gain attention and fans, journalist Maggie Mertens also makes a compelling case for women who run to get their due in Better Faster Farther: How Running Changed Everything We Know About Women (9.5 hours). More than that, Mertens uses the history of women’s running as a lens through which to examine—and debunk—centuries-old assumptions about physiology, gender and race. From the mythical figure of Atalanta to the latest research on women’s ultramarathon performances exceeding men’s, Mertens incorporates elements of history, sociology, gender studies and science in her thoroughly researched account. Mertens’ reading of her work is matter-of-fact but engaging, and the audiobook includes image files so listeners can see pictures of the running heroes she profiles. Better Faster Farther’s stories of female athletes who changed the running game just might inspire you to lace up your running shoes, throw in your earbuds and go for a jog.

Read our starred review of the print edition of Better Faster Farther.

Lace up your running shoes, throw in your earbuds and go for a jog accompanied by Maggie Mertens’ Better Faster Farther, an inspiring account of female athletes who changed the running game.
Audio

Humor Me

Review by Maya Fleischmann

Effortlessly engaging, Ferdelle Capistrano’s easygoing performance highlights humor and authentic character interaction in the audiobook of Humor Me (10.5 hours), Cat Shook’s sweet tale about navigating relationships.

Presley Fry, Humor Me’s 20-something protagonist, is an overworked and underappreciated assistant at a New York City late night show. Presley keeps romantic prospects at a distance, and has mixed feelings about her BFF getting too close to someone else. Though her job entails literally looking for humor—she scouts talent at comedy clubs—Presley’s been distracted since the recent death of her mother, Patty.

Capistrano’s dulcet tones and flawless delivery capture the endearing Presley, and she shows her range with other characters, like Susan Clark, Patty’s compassionate and quirky friend. Seamless transitions between characters in dialogue and well-timed asides bring out the humor without overdoing it. This charming audiobook will engage and delight fans of romantic comedies.

Read our review of the print edition of Humor Me.

Presley Fry, Humor Me’s 20-something protagonist, is an overworked assistant at a late night show who’s been distracted since the recent death of her mother. This charming audiobook will engage and delight fans of romantic comedies.

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