2024 Literary Books

This is a really exciting year for me. I’m looking forward to literary fiction in ways that I haven’t before. The Storm We Made: A Novel by Vanessa Chan | 02 / 01 / 24 – S&S/Marysue Rucci Books Malaya, 1945. Cecily Alcantara’s family is in terrible danger: her fifteen-year-old son, Abel, has disappeared, and her youngest daughter, Jasmin, is confined in a basement to prevent being pressed into…

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My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell is one tough read

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell is one of the most challenging books I have ever experienced, including horror stories and even Lolita. It is not a novel that one enjoys reading; there is nothing enjoyable about it. Instead, it is the type of novel one appreciates for its unflinching look at something most people want to avoid. I didn’t just appreciate it; Ms. Russell blew my mind with…

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The Murder Rule by Dervla McTiernan is a #backlist book. “Hannah volunteers at UVA Law School with a group trying to save an innocent man from execution. But she knows something the others don’t. The man is not as innocent as they think. And she will do anything to keep him locked up…anything.” This book was sneaky good. Some excellent audiobook narration from Kate Orsini and Sophie Amoss. Dual timelines. Hannah is a character you are conflicted about. As you get the back story you think she’s justified - and then DM sneaks a curveball in there and you wonder what the real story is. DM leads you there with a surprising ending. A good, quick read from McTiernan. #themurderrule #dervlamctiernan #kateorsini #sophieamoss #audiobooks #harperaudio #williammorrow #bookstagram #bookshelves #booknerd #readinglife #bookphotography #bookcommunity #bookblogger #sodacityreads #suspensebook #bookhaul #literarycrimefiction #homelibrary #thrillerbooks #domesticthriller #crimefiction #thriller #characterdrivenbooks #mysterythriller #bookrecs https://www.instagram.com/p/CoxAWWar-Zg/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

(HarperAudio US)

Btw if you're pissed about the Hachette Book Group suing the Internet Archive, you can tell them how you feel. The least we can do is tell em we don't like what they're doing and that we'll take our business elsewhere (🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️) if they actually manage to burn down the library:

HachetteUS / HarperCollins / HarperCollinsUK / penguinrandom / PenguinBooks / WileyGlobal / randomhouse / penguinusa / PenguinUKBooks / PenguinRandomCA / PenguinClassics / PenguinTeen / harperteen / harperbooks / HarperFiction / HarperPerennial / HarperCollinsCh / HarperChildrens / HarperAudio / Harper360 / Wiley_Chemistry / WileyHumanities / WileyHealth / WileyEconomics / WileyPolitics / WileyPsychology / WileyEcolEvol / WileyNeuro / wileyearthspace / WileyEngineer / wiley_finance

If you're unsure what to say, you can refer to this article: https://www.eff.org/cases/hachette-v-internet-archive

I'm in the last act of the KINDLING audiobook, and I've been absolutely floored by the narrators, performing their own characters as well as each other, making for this intricate, seamless tapestry of voices, handing off the story to each other, one by one by one.

CATHERINE HO anchors the story in Leum's voice, as curt and grumpy as I always imagined her. She's a flawless introduction to the kindling world, invoking all the harshness of it, the jadedness, the frustration, the complication and beauty.

JEANNE SYQUIA plays our general, Amity, to perfection. That haughtiness! That power! (That denial.) Jeanne moves Amity effortlessly between the calculating leader and the frail human and always lands, somehow in both. Her last chapter? LITERAL CHILLS. I'd follow her into battle any day.

As Ket, AMIELYNN ABELLERA *gets* the rhythms of these ghost narrators, *gets* their pacing and musicality--her readings feel exactly the way the narration always felt in my head. (Plus, she takes the lead in voicing Tana, the girl who brought the kindlings together, whose seriousness and determination and brightness she brings to life so well.)

I already shouted out JOY OSMANSKI for knocking me out with a particular excerpt from a particular character, but her delivery of Emara is equally impressive. Thanks to Joy, Emara's chapters are always a party, bubbling over with humor and life.

ALLISON HIROTO's performance as Ben is as delicate as the character is, evoking the same lightness in her voice that Ben has on her feet. I'm in love with the way her reading pulls to the forefront Ben's contradictions and fragility: a killer desperate not to be a killer; a warrior in search of perfection; a fallible, terrified kid.

ERIKA ISHII was our first and only choice for Kanver, and I'm so thrilled they were available! They so perfectly capture Kanver's softness, their dreaminess, and, at the same time, their quiet clear-eyed criticism. Listening to Erika read Kanver *feels* like being in Kanver's head--drifting, drifting, always drawn toward beauty in what can be such an ugly world.

Siddie would be an easy character to dismiss as something of a child, or a clown, but FERDELLE CAPISTRANO makes it impossible to write her off. In her hands, Siddie is naive and stubborn and, yes, childish, but she's also intelligent, diligent, empathetic, and her last chapter, where she at last comprehends the reality of being a kindling, brought me to tears.

Thank you so much to HarperAudio, this incredible cast, and director RAMON DE OCAMPO for bringing such energy and nuance and *life* to these characters and to this story. It's been a pleasure and an honor hearing you read these words!

[Video description: Various shots of jagged mountains and high vistas, moving from sunrise toward sunset, overlaid with a twangy guitar soundtrack and a female voice reading the text, "HarperAudio presents KINDLING by Traci Chee" and "Ahead of you, that vast and jagged border looms--sharp, immense, severe. The fortresses of gods or the gods themselves, at the tail end of summer and still capped with snow. The Candiveras are all that stand between you and the kingdom of Ifrine beyond--the rest of the world beyond. You pause. You kneel. Scratch your dog behind the ears and adjust the tiny silver medal you wear around your neck. If you had to take one last look at your country, you couldn't ask for a better view than this." and one last shot of a horse and rider meandering off into the sunset with the text, "Performed by Catherine Ho, Jeanne Syquia, Amielynn Abellera, Joy Osmanski, Allison Hiroto, Erika Ishii, Ferdelle Capistrano; Directed by Ramon de Ocampo; audiobook available now."]

THE LAST TALE OF THE FLOWER BRIDE by Roshani Chokshi - Dive into these pages for an alluring experience

A captivating tale full of fairytales, gothic mysteries and more - THE LAST TALE OF THE FLOWER BRIDE by Roshani Chokshi, superbly narrated by Steve West and @surasiuaudio, is a new favorite. RTs and Clicks appreciated..!! Thank you @HarperAudio..

A sumptuous, gothic-infused story about a marriage that is unraveled by dark secrets, a friendship cursed to end in tragedy, and the danger of believing in fairy tales—the breathtaking adult debut from New York Times bestselling author Roshani Chokshi.Once upon a time, a man who believed in fairy tales married a beautiful, mysterious woman named Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada. He was a scholar of…

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❤️‍🔥 Zora Neale Hurston

Book Review: The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins

Around the World for a Good Book selection for Cayman Islands Author: Sara Collins Title: The Confessions of Frannie Langton Narrator: Sara Collins and Roy McMilan Publication Info: HarperAudio, 2019 Summary/Review: The Confessions of Frannie Langton takes on two 19th-century writing conventions, the gothic novel and the slave narrative, and deconstructs them both. The narrator is Frannie…

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Wreck the Halls by Tessa Bailey #BookReview #AvonBooks #HarperAudio #ContemporaryRomance #SpicyRomance #ChristmasRomance

...a sexy, hilarious standalone holiday rom-com about the adult children of two former rock stars who team up to convince their estranged mothers to play a Christmas Eve concert. #WrecktheHalls #AvonBooks #bookreview #christmasromance #spicyromance

Melody Gallard may be the daughter of music royalty, but her world is far from glamorous. She spends her days restoring old books and avoiding the limelight (one awkward tabloid photo was enough, thanks). But when a producer offers her a lot of money to reunite her mother’s band on live tv, Mel begins to wonder if it’s time to rattle the cage, shake up her quiet life… and see him again. The only…

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TITLE: Dating Dr. Dil by Nisha Sharma

TITLE: Dating Dr. Dil by Nisha Sharma My rating: 4 of 5 stars Format: Audiobook Published: March 15, 2022 by HarperAudio BLURB: Hi! I’m Kareena Mann. As cheesy as it sounds, I’m looking for my soulmate. In four months. And he must gain the approval of my meddling aunties. Kareena dreams of having a perfect love story like her parents did. That’s why on the morning of her thirtieth birthday, she’s…

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The Year of the Audiobook - Part 2

The Year of the Audiobook – Part 2

Part two of my one-sentence reviews for the many audiobooks I’ve listened to this year. Hang in there! I wanted to love this one so hard because it’s Neil Gaiman, but I found myself nodding off one too many times to say I enjoyed it. We all know that John Scalzi is a master author, but this first book of his Interdependency series is masterful. It seems that all my friends love this series, and…

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Secluded Cabin Sleeps is the newest novel from Lisa Unger. "Three couples rent a remote, luxury cabin in the woods for a weekend getaway. Something is off though. The private chef tells them of the murder that happened there years ago...and the young girl that haunts the lake. The owner is a little creepy and there's a big storm headed their way. But unknown to the group - there's someone lurking in the woods that's unwilling to let secrets lie buried any longer." There are several storylines so this takes a while to get going. There are the usual secrets of a thriller - the previous bad family decisions - a storm knocking the power out - and betrayal. It initially feels like it's going to be an "adults behaving badly" story but Unger adds more. She is one of a growing number of writers who are including the consequences of sharing DNA on geneology sites. Unger hides the bad guy and the betrayal well. There are clues but you're never sure. There is a Brad at the end who gets a paragraph. He's a tech mogul, money launderer who gets decapitated. Again, no love for Brads. Great job on the audiobook by Vivienne Leheny. Lots of voices and characters. Fans of domestic thrillers will enjoy this new story from Unger. Thanks to Harper Audio for the advanced listening copy. Have you sent your DNA to a site? Found any lost relatives? #secludedcabinsleepssix #lisaunger #harperaudio #vivienneleheny #geneology #bookstagram #bookshelves #booknerd #readinglife #bookphotography #bookcommunity #bookblogger #sodacityreads #suspensebook #bookhaul #literarycrimefiction #homelibrary #thrillerbooks #domesticthriller #crimefiction #thriller #characterdrivenbooks #mysterythriller #bookrecs https://www.instagram.com/p/CkqQfGbLsck/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[Free Audiobook] Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold & The Lantern's Ember by Colleen Houck [Award-Winning YA Contemporary Fairy Tale Fantasy & Horror Retelling]

The annual SYNC Summer of Listening program encouraging literacy among teens by giving away a themed weekly pair of audiobooks—usually 1 modern or non-fiction, 1 classic or drama—returns for another year, courtesy of sponsor AudioFile Magazine and participating publishers.

This 12th week's theme is “Transformative Legends, Legends Transformed”, featuring contemporary reworkings of fantastic old tales about character change, available from Thursday July 13th through Wednesday July 19th:

Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold, read by January LaVoy from HarperAudio. This is a YA contemporary dark fantasy/horror/social drama retelling of “The Little Red Riding Hood” fairy tale, set in the Pacific Northwest, as a teenaged girl deals with the fallout from fending off an attack by a wolf in the woods, when a predatory high school classmate is found with the same wounds after. The audiobook reading of this won AudioFile Magazine's own Earphones Award.

The Lantern's Ember by Colleen Houck, read by Piper Goodeve, from Highbridge Audio. This is a YA urban fantasy novel inspired by Washington Irving's spooky classic “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” as well as other tales, centred around a once-mortal boy conscripted centures ago as a “lantern” watching over the crossroads between realms, and a young witch drawn into the dangerous Otherworld, and the ensuing obligatory quest to avert a terrible fate.

The freebies are available via Overdrive's Sora service (listenable via browser on their website, or via their mobile app for iOS & Android devices). To claim them, you'll need to register on the SYNC website with a valid email address to use in a Sora account, using the setup code and directions in the instructions in SYNC's FAQ (no need to re-register if you've participated in previous years' giveaways), clicking “Borrow” to add them to your Sora library as a permanent loan. NB: if you need to free up space on your device later, follow the instructions in the FAQ to only “delete files” and DO NOT “Return” the title, which would remove your future access.

Offered worldwide through Wednesday July 19th until just before midnight Eastern Time, available via the Sora website and app. You can also browse AudioFile Magazine's planned season list to see what will be offered in the weeks ahead and if there's anything you'd especially like to get.