Audio Book

Audiobook: The Secret History of Wonder Woman

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by Jill Lepore
Read by the Author
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Content: There is some swearing (no f-bombs, I think), and talk of unusual partering situations. It’s in the Sociology section of the bookstore.

In this book, which is essentially a biography of William Moulton Marston, Lepore details the social situations and history that led Marston to create Wonder Woman and become her first writer. It’s a bit of a sweeping history – ranging from his childhood through his education and his marriage (and unusual parterning relationships; we’re not calling him a polygamist, but he kind of was) to the creation and impact of Wonder Woman as a comic character.

I’ve been meaning to read this for years, ever since it came out, and while in between audiobooks, I remembered this one. Lepore was an excellent narrator, thoroughly entertaining and doing all the voices. I was fascinated by the story – Marston was a wild, weird person – and it helped that I had just finished Mrs America, which had a bit of an intersection with the early feminism of the 1920s, which is what Wonder Woman was born out of. It was a fascinating social history, and one that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Audiobook: Pole Position

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by Rebecca J Caffrey
Read by Joshua Chase & James Joseph
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Content: There’s a lot of swearing, including many f-bombs. There’s talk of sex and on-page sex scenes. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Are we here for gay sports books? Yes. Yes, we are.

Kian Walker is the reigning F1 World Champion, and he has so much going for him. He’s methodical, prepared, focused, and the best in the world. Harper James is the exact opposite. A talented driver, but a party boy – he’s determined to never let anyone close enough to find out what demons he’s chasing. So when he ends up in the second driver position with Kian, sparks fly. And it doesn’t help that they feel this…. attraction. It’s not going to be an easy season for either of them.

I picked this up – I’ve had it kicking around for a while – because F1 started up again! So why not celebrate with a little gay F1 romance? It’s not deep, though they deal with abandonment issues and the trauma from bad parents, as well as the death of a parent. I did like the F1 references- sure, the teams were made up, but I think Caffrey captured the intensity of the sport and the way the drivers make decisions on and off the track. It’s probably not entirely accurate, but for a mid-level fan like me, it fit the bill. And I did like Kian and Harper’s relationship. I liked the push and pull and the way they eventually came to trust one another. And the narrators kept me engaged when the plot wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be.

So, was it great? No. But it was a lot of fun, which was excatly what I was looking for.

Audio book: French Windows

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by Antoine Laurain
Read by Alex Wyndam
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Content: There is mention of infidelity and murder, and there’s some mild swearing. It’s in the Fiction section of the bookstore.

Doctor Faber is a pretty run-of-the-mill psychologist. No remarkable clients, nothing remarkable to speak of. That is, until Nathalia Guitry comes into his office, saying that she has lost her artistic drive ever since she photographed a murder. Faber suggests an unorthodox treatment: why doesn’t she tell the stories of the people in the apartment building where the murder took place, and she can work out what’s bothering her. There’s a reclusive cartoonist, a social media influencer, and on and on as Nathalia spins her stories.

This is all about the power of fiction. Are Nathalia’s stories true? Maybe. Maybe there are some elements that are. But mostly, she’s getting at the heart of what makes people do the things they do. There’s also a twist that I kind of saw coming. Even so, it felt satisfying. Wyndam was a good narrator as well, though I kind of struggled to figure out when he was in “story mode” and when he was in “Doctor Faber narration” mode. That said, it was a short book, and an intriguing one at that.

Audiobook: Black AF History

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by Michael Harriot
Read by the author
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Content: There is swearing in this, including multiple f-bombs, and true to its title, Harriot doesn’t water down the abuses of white people in history.

This one is exactly what it says: American history through the lens of Black people. It starts in the pre-colonial era and goes through the present day, which is a lot to ask out of one book. That said, I think Harriot does a good job making history both interesting and challenging. I thought, when I began, that I wouldn’t learn anything after reading Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi, but I learned a bunch. Hariot doesn’t just stick with “known” history – he weaves in stories from his family history, giving this book a distinctly personal touch. I liked his three little questions at the end of each chapter and the supplemental stories.

And, on top of that, Harriot is an engaging and funny writer/narrator. I know he wasn’t going for “funny”, but sometimes hard truths go down better with a laugh. Like his conversations with Racist Baby, or when his uncle “took over” the narrative.

It was tough listening at times, though I think it’s a good thing to be challenged in what one has learned. It’s good for that, yes, but I also think it’s a book worth reading on its own merit.

Audiobook: The Fundamentals of Being a Good Girl

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by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone
Read by Connor Crais, Victoria Connolly & Teddy Hamilton
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Content: There was swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and lots of explicit on-page sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Maddie is coming off a long-term relationship that has left her broke and unsure of her direction in life. So when she lands a job as an adjunct lecturer at the university in Mount Astra, Kansas, she jumps at the chance. Unfortunately, adjuncting doesn’t quite pay enough so she picks up a side job as a nanny to supplement her income.

Bram has been divorced for five years and has been raising his three girls with his ex-wife. Things are going well enough until his ex-wife gets a grant to study a glacier in Alaska for two months. It’s impossible with his job as a science professor at the university to handle all the childcare duties, so he hires a nanny.

He just wasn’t supposed to be so attracted to her (or she to him).

This was a mix for me. On the one hand, the characters kept feeling like they were bad for wanting this relationship (she is 26 and he is 35, and they actually had a one-night stand before she went to work for him), like it was some sort of terrible kink. It’s not. And that bugged me. As did the use of the word brat. (As in “she’s so bratty” or “the brat”). It was also borderline too much sex, not enough plot, but it managed to save itself in the end. I did like Maddie’s journey to figure out what she wanted – it felt realistic after coming out of a long-term relationship where she changed herself for the guy. And I appreciated that she was comfortable in her body, and the body-positive aspects of the story. I did love the side characters (except for Joey Kemp,who was just annoying and took up too much space in the book), and wouldn’t mind spending more time with them. I didn’t hate the book, but I didn’t love it either.

Audiobook: The Wedding Date

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by Jasmine Guillory
Read by Janina Edwards
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Content: There is some swearing, including a few f-bombs, and fade-to-black sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Drew doesn’t want to go to his ex-girlfriend’s wedding by himself, so when he meets Alexa (in the elevator), and there’s instant chemistry, he convinces her to go to the wedding with him. Where he accidentally calls her his “girlfriend”. But, they realize there’s something there and start a long-distance (well, LA to San Francisco) relationship of sorts. As their relationship goes on, though, they wonder if it could be something more.If only they weren’t so far away. If only one of them could say how they feel.

This was a fun romance. Nothing too deep – Alexa has a side project trying to get an arts program for troubled kids set up in Berkley – but it was fun. I didn’t like Drew – he was (especially in his internal narration) very reluctant to commit, and was so very often misunderstanding Alexa’s motivations. It was a trope, yes, but his end of it really annoyed me. The best thing, I think, was that these characters’ lives felt real. They ate. They went to the store. They had normal-sounding conversations. It was nice.

I enjoyed it enough that I think I’ll give another one of Guillory’s a try.

Audiobook: Red City

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by Marie Lu
Read by André Santana, Eunice Wong, Natalie Naudus & Sid Sagar
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Content: There is a lot of violence, much of it graphic. There is also sexual assault, on-page sex, and lots of swearing, including many f-bombs. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Growing up the child of a strict single mother, Sam wanted more for her life. She is smart – she has a perfect memory – and she had a promising future. That is, until her mom was in an accidental fire at the restaurant she worked at. Then, Sam turned to the syndicates – the organizations that control the drug Sand, and the magic in this alternate reality. She learns to be an alchemist and falls deep into this dangerous world.

Ari, on the other hand, was brought to Angel City from his home in India, recruited because of the strength of his charisma, his soul, to be a part of Luminos, one of the syndicates. He’s taught and trained since he was 10 to be a bioalchemist, someone who can persuade pretty much anyone of anything.

Ari and Sam were friends growing up, unaware of their involvement in rival syndicates, until they re-meet as adults, on the opposite side of a brewing war.

I didn’t know what to expect going in, but I really enjoyed this one. I was talking to K about the book and describing how they used alchemy as the magic system, and she was like “Oh, like Full Metal Alchemist”? And yes, exactly like that. Except mashed with the Godfather, and you have a good sense of this. But I liked the characters, I appreciated the way Lu developed the world that she set the story in, and I didn’t even mind the ending – there is still an opening for another book (hopefully, only a duology) but the story of this one is wrapped up. I loved the audio version; the narrators were amazing, capturing the emotion of the book as well as the action. I probably would have liked reading this, but I really enjoyed it on audio. Perhaps I’m being overly generous to this because I was listening to it while reading Spark of the Everflame, and it was just refreshing to have good worldbuilding and a unique, fully developed magic system.

I’ll definitely be on the lookout for the sequel to this one.

Annie Knows Everything

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by Rachel Wood
First sentence: “Statistically, the most common days of the week to be fired are Monday or Friday.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Release date: April 7, 2026
Content: There is swearing, including a few f-bombs and some on-page sex. It will be in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Annie’s life is unraveling: her sister, Shannon, is engaged a second time to a man that Annie hates. And Annie was just laid off from her job. She can’t deal with the idea of being unemployed, so she coerces her best friend in HR to get her a job in Data Strategy – a department that Annie isn’t remotely qualified to be in. But, her new boss, Connor, is cute. So it’s all good. She manages not to implode her sister’s engagement party, and she manages to get on the good side of Connor and the boys in DatStrat. So life is back to being good. Until she falls in love with her boss (uh-oh), gets into (another) huge fight with her sister, and spills some confidential company information, which gets her fired. Will she figure her life out?

This was… cute. When I started, I was hopeful it would be more. Fun, whimsical, charming, sweep-me-as-the-reader-off-my-feet. But in the end, it was just cute. Which isn’t bad. I liked it enough to finish it.

Which isn’t a bad thing. It’s just not what I hoped.

Audiobook: Fever Beach

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by Carl Hiaasen
Read by Will Damron
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Content: There is a LOT of swearing, including many, many f-bombs. There is also talk of sex toys. It’s in the Mystery section of the bookstore.

Dale Figgo got kicked out of the Proud Boys, and so he started his own right-wing, white supremacist group. Vida Morales, off of a bad divorce, is renting a room from Dale (unfortunately) and working for the (corrupt) Mink Foundation. She bumps into environmental activist Twilly Spree and somehow they get involved in trying to stop Figgo and his (very stupid) men from doing the bidding of a (corrupt and stupid) congressman to rig an election.

I think that about sums up the plot. This wasn’t a deep book, but it was an entertaining one. We listened to it on a long drive, and it had both of us cracking up at points. Hiaasen has NO respect for the Proud Boy-type or the corrupt congressman (as he should), dragging them as often as he possibly could. Vida and Twilly were both entertaining characters, with small scenes that just had us laughing. It’s all very Florida Man, and a very silly story.

So, not deep or probably worth reading, but I had a good time with it.

Audiobook: The River Has Roots

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by Amal El-Mohtar
Read by Gem Carmella
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Content: There is a murder, and some suggested abuse. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Esther and Isabella are sisters, and as Hawthornes, their job is to sing to the willows, to enhance their magic. They are happy, except Esther is more interested in Faeire, and has picked up a lover – Ren – from there. That is all fine and good, except a local man has his sights on Esther, and when she chooses Ren over him, there is consequences.

One of my co-workers mentioned in passing, when this one came out, that it was a delightful experience on audio, and I remember picking it up after she mentioned that. I needed something short to read on our way home from Wisconsin, and downloaded this just to see.

Oh, it was delightful. Not just the story – I love a feminist fairy tale with queer undertones! – but the performance of it was stellar. The use of sound and music enhances the story and makes the story that much better. And the short story that follows was just as engaging. I’m definitely a fan of El-Mohtar’s work now, and I know I need to pick up This is How You Lose the Time War now.

Highly recommended.