Audio Book

Audiobook: Every Valley

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by Charles King
Read by Juliet Stevenson
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Release date: October 29, 2024
Content: There’s talk of slavery, colonialism, affairs, and general debauchery. It will be in the History section of the bookstore.

Much like anyone who grew up involved in music, I’m very familiar with Handel’s Messiah. But, until I saw this book in the November IndieNext, I never really gave much thought to how Handel came to compose the work. I probably assumed it was just something he composed at one point in his life. What I didn’t realize was the political and social circumstances that surrounded the piece. I never stopped to consider who wrote the libretto – I suppose I just assumed Handel adapted it from scripture – or the role it might have played in 18th-century England.

All this to say, I found this book fascinating. Stevenson is an excellent narrator for this journey. I learned a lot about Handel, but also the political circumstances in England and Europe and the eccentrics surrounding the piece of music. It sounds outlandish because it’s just an oratorio, but there is a pretty remarkable story about how a random oratorio in Handel’s repertoire became The Messiah.

All this to say: this book is excellent.

Audiobook: The Hotel Balzaar

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by Kate DiCamillo
Read by Allan Corduner
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Others in the series: The Puppets of Spellhorst
Content: It’s a short book, and there isn’t anything objectionable. It’s in the Beginning Chapter section of the bookstore (grades 1-2) but it could go older.

Lest you think this is a continuation of the puppet story in the first book, it’s not. I think it’s only a “series” because it’s so similar in feel and tone as the first one. There are no continuing characters and you absolutely could treat this as a stand-alone.

Marta is a girl that lives with her mother in the attic of the Hotel Balzaar. Her father is in the war, and has gone missing, and Marta has been told to not make any disturbances. But when an elegant Countess comes to the hotel, Marta finds herself entranced and spends time with the old woman, as she tells her seven stories.

That’s it for the plot. But, much like the first one, the charm is in the telling of the story. Again, like the first one, I think it’s best read aloud/listened to – Corduner does a fantastic job – because it’s not the plot or the characters that drive this book forward, it’s the telling. There’s an anti-war message and a bit about how telling stories gets us through hard times. It’s slight, but it’s enjoyable.

I’m curious to see what DiCamillo does with the next book in the series.

Audiobook: The Sherlock Society

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by James Ponti
Read by Marc Sanderlin
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Content: There are some intense moments. It’s in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

Alex Sherlock has taken inspiration from his last name and started The Sherlock Society at his middle school. It’s mostly just him and his friends Yadi and Lina, until the last day of school when Alex’s sister, Zoe, joins. She’s the one who comes up with the plan to take this society out into the larger world. With the help of their former-reporter grandfather, they set out to find a mystery to solve.

What starts out as trying to find Al Capone’s buried treasure in the Miami area turns into a discovery of corporate corruption and environmental disaster. Can they prove their case, or will the end up taking the fall?

Oh, this one was a lot of fun. I really liked Sanderlin’s narration; it was a good combination of earnest and deadpan to reflect the middle-grade book. Some moments were intense (I can see a younger kid being on the edge of their seat!) and it was often hilarious. I liked that the kids all had good parents (it was the grandpa out there helping them get into trouble, of sorts) and that their lawyer mom kept things mostly above board. It was a solid mystery, too; I guessed the ending but not too long before the characters got there.

I’ve had a coworker who has been trying to get me to read James Ponti’s spy series, and after this one, I think I really need to give it a try. He’s a fun writer, and I’m impressed with this book.

Audiobook: Apprentice to the Villain

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by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
Read by Em Eldridge
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Others in the series: Assistant to the Villain
Content: There is violence and swearing, including multiple f-bombs. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Spoilers for Assistant to the Villain, obviously.

Trystan has been taken by King Benedict, and it’s up to Evie to save him. Which she does, but that unleashes a chain of events that have both Trystan and Evie scrambling to fulfill the prophecy and save the magic in Rennedawn.

I enjoyed the first one well enough, and I honestly wanted to like this one. I enjoyed the narrator of the first one and thought that it would be just as much fun. But then, the slow-burn romance that started in the first book never really went anywhere. Sure, they almost kissed, but then he pulled back and they went back and forth with “I love him/her but I can’t” or “he/she doesn’t want me” and I just lost patience with it. Sure, there’s a plot that was supposed to be interesting, but about 80% of the way through the book and the plot wasn’t anywhere near to wrapping up and I just lost patience with it. I don’t want yet another book of will-they-won’t-they and pining and growling and being jealous and not communicating and I just bailed.

Some books are for some people. This one ultimately wasn’t for me.

Audiobook: Assistant to the Villain

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by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
Read by Em Eldridge
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There are descriptions of murder and mayhem, as well as a depiction of sexual assault. There are swear words, including a few f-bombs. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Evie Sage is on the run after quitting her less-than-desirable job at the town blacksmith when she encounters none other than The Villain. He’s the guy who’s been terrorizing the kingdom for years, the guy whom everyone is supposed to be afraid of. And he offers her a job? As his assistant?

Which she’s actually enjoying? (That’s not even bringing up the fact that her boss is actually hot. And a decent human being.)

So, when it looks like there’s a traitor in their midst, it’s up to Evie and The Villain to figure out what’s going on and stop them before they put too many (more) lives at stake.

I felt about this one much like I felt about Fourth Wing: was it good? Probably not. Was it a lot of fun? Yes.
Yes, it is. I like the magic system that Maehrer created, and it was highly amusing the way she superimposed a modern office space on this fantasy world. (There’s an HR Director!) I liked the push and pull between Evie and The Villain (though awkward power dynamic much there?). I really liked the narrator; I think she’s what made it really fun for me. I did have quibbles with the way the ending twists happened (the fake-out was the one that really bothered me), but in the end (even though it ended on a cliffhanger), I immediately picked up the second one.

You can’t get a higher recommendation than that, can you?

Audiobook: The Bookshop

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by Evan Friss
Read by Jay Myers
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Content: There were a few swear words, including a couple f-bombs. It’s in the Literary Reference section of the bookstore.

The subtitle of the book is “A History of the American Bookstore”, and that really sums it up. Friss looks at the role the bookstore has played in America from the time of Ben Franklin through to Amazon and Barnes & Noble today. He looks at small bookshops, publisher-run bookstores, the corporate giants, and used bookstores (as well as street vendors in New York City) and the role that they all play in the book publishing business.

Perhaps it’s because I am a bookseller and just a bookish person in general, but I found this fascinating. I did think it was a bit New York-centric for my tastes, but that probably can’t be helped: New York is the center of the publishing world, after all. I do think I learned things about the way bookstores have survived through the ups and downs over the years and the introduction of new technologies. I don’t think bookstores are on the way out; I think there is still value in buying and owning books, and I think Friss demonstrates that bookstores are still valued parts of society (at least in many places). It’s very much a self-congratulatory book (his wife works at an independent bookstore) but it’s a good one.

Audiobook: The Truth According to Ember

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by Danica Nava
Read by Siena East
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Content: There is blatant racism towards Native people, as well as some swearing including a few f-bombs. There is on the page, pretty spicy sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Ember Lee Cardinal hasn’t been able to catch a break. She had to drop out of college because she used her college money to bail out her younger brother from jail, but he skipped bail so she lost the money. She’s working a dead-end job at a bowling alley in a less-than-desirable part of Oklahoma City. And all her applications for better jobs come back as rejected. So she decides to be creative: she exaggerates her qualifications and checks the white box instead of the Native American one. (Her dad is white, so it’s not a super big stretch on that one.) She lands a job as an accounting assistant at a tech firm where she meets Danuwoa Colson, the IT guy and fellow Native. He even seems to be interested in her as well. Things are looking up. But when she gets an unexpected (and unwanted) promotion to the Executive Assistant to the CEO and when a coworker finds Ember and Danuwoa in a bit of a compromising position (they were kissing on an elevator at an offsite conference), her lies begin to build and get out of control. With everything – her job, her life, the relationship with Danuwoa – at stake, will Ember be able to come clean?

This one was a ton of fun. There was a bit of second-hand embarrassment as Ember’s lies kept piling up, but I got why she kept doing it. The motivations were always there. Nava was great at making the spice pop as well as weaving in elements of what Native people have to deal with in the corporate workplace (it was SUPER cringe). I loved Ember’s best friend Joanna (not sure of the spelling of that, since I listened) and the way it was incredibly centered in Oklahoma. Additionally, East did an excellent job narrating, making all the characters come to life.

It ended up being one of those books where I kept driving just so I could keep listening, and there really isn’t any higher praise than that.

Audiobook: Buffalo Dreamer

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by Violet Duncan
Read by Ashley Callingbull
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There are some tough subjects, including the residential schools, but they are handled in an age-appropriate way. It’s in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

Summer is looking forward to a relaxing summer at the rez in Alberta where her mom grew up. But this year, there is a change: they have discovered a mass grave at a closed-down residential school where Summer’s grandfather was forced to attend. Additionally, Summer is having vivid dreams about a girl who ran away from a residential school and walked through a blizzard to escape.

It’s not a long book or even a harrowing one. But it is a sweet story about respecting and learning history, even (or maybe especially) hard history. Summer’s mom and aunties doesn’t think she’s ready to learn the history, and her grandfather is hesitant to speak about it, but when Summer shares the dreams, they are more willing to admit that talking about the hard and painful history can be a healing thing. I also appreciated learning about Summer’s heritage and family traditions as we went along; Duncan was excellent at weaving the small details in with the larger story.

The narrator was excellent as well; I really love listening to books by Native authors in audio because I know I would have no idea how to pronounce some of the words. I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

Audiobook: Done and Dusted

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by Lyla Sage
Read by Aaron Shedlock & Stella Hunter
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Content: There is on-page, quite graphic sex. There is also swearing, including several f-bombs. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

All Emmy Rider – the youngest of the three Rider kids – wanted to do was get out of her small Wyoming town and make something of herself. Which she did by going to college and making a name for herself on the barrel racing circuit. But, after a bad accident, she’s aimless back home at Rebel Blue, the family ranch, trying to figure out the next step. Enter in Luke Books, Meadowlark’s most eligible bachelor, and Emmy’s oldest brother’s best friend. He’s always been just annoying, but now – maybe he’s something more. Except for Emmy’s off-limits, because her brother wouldn’t take kindly to their being together.

Will that stop them? (We all know the answer to that question.)

We had Lyla Sage at the store over Bookstore Romance day, and I had the pleasure of working the event. It was a lot of fun, she’s smart and funny, and I found myself wondering if these were any good (especially since all the other romance readers at the store were raving about the books). And yes, yes they are. Well, it depends on what you mean by “good”. Are they high literature? No. Are they entertaining and sexy? Yes. And really, that’s all anyone really wants out of a romance book, after all. I did like the characters, and Sage is good at writing witty banter (almost a must for me in a romance book). It’s got a little bit of push and pull and some sexy scenes and it all came together quite nicely.

It was good on audio as well. Thankfully, the narrators realized that people from Wyoming don’t have an accent (we were worried about that), and they embodied the characters beautifully. It was entertaining and fun, and you really can’t want anything more than that in a romance.

Audiobook: Arya Khanna’s Bollywood Moment

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by Arushi Avachat
Read by Nikhaar Kishnani
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Content: There is mention of mental illness, including depression, and some kissing. It’s in the YA section (grades 6-8) of the bookstore.

Arya’s senior year has been super complicated so far: she’s ben at odds with the school council president, Dean, since the year started; and her older sister has finally come home after three years to get married. It’s a lot to deal with, especially since she might have feelings for Dean. The question is: how is she going to manage everything.

Yes, it’s a fluff plot, and not a very deep book, but it was cute. The narrator was fun to listen to and there was enough to keep me entertained, My favorite part about it all, though, was the Bollywood references. I desperately needed a playlist (both audio and video) for the book, and was sad that I couldn’t find one.

So, no, not the best book out there, but a fun one.