To Read, or Not To Read

Available for a Limited Time Remember — grab these titles before they are replaced by a new pairing on 6/6/2019! While the title availability is time-limited, your listening time is not. Once you have downloaded the MP3 files, the audiobook is yours to keep and listen to at your leisure. 





by Kerry Kletter | Read by Jorjeana Marie
Published by Penguin Random House Audio/Listening Library
Cassie O'Malley has spent the past two and a half years in a mental institution—dumped there by her mother, against her will. Now, at 18, Cassie emancipates herself, determined to start over. She attends college, forms new friendships, and even attempts to start fresh with her mother. But before long, their unhealthy relationship threatens to pull Cassie under once again. As Cassie struggles to reclaim her life, childhood memories persist and confuse, and Cassie must consider whose version of history is real, and more important, whose life she must save.




by Wendelin Van Draanen | Read by Alex McKenna
Pub…

The Royal Secret (The Love Letter in the UK) by Lucinda Riley Hardcover, 528 pages Expected publication: May 21st 2019 by Atria Books 9781982121273
Summary In this suspenseful and heart-pounding novel from New York Times bestselling author Lucinda Riley, an ambitious young journalist unravels a dangerous mystery that threatens to devastate the British monarchy. 
My thanks to Atria and NetGalley for providing me with a review copy of the book. It in no way influenced my opinion.  My ThoughtsThe Royal Secret (also called The Love Letter in the UK) by Lucinda Riley has had an interesting road to publication. In an Author's Note at the beginning of the book, Riley explains that she began writing The Royal Secret in 1998 under the title Seeing Double. 2000 was not the year for this book. With the "popularity of the monarchy being at an all-time low and the Queen Mother's centenary year," this book didn't see the light of day. A part of me wonders if it was because th…

Available for a Limited Time
Remember — grab these titles before they are replaced by a new pairing on 5/30/2019! While the title availability is time-limited, your listening time is not. Once you have downloaded the MP3 files, the audiobook is yours to keep and listen to at your leisure. 




by Jennifer A. Nielsen | Read by Kate Simses Published by Scholastic Audiobooks



With the rise of the Berlin Wall, Gerta finds her family suddenly divided. She, her mother, and her brother Fritz live on the eastern side, controlled by the Soviets. Her father and middle brother, who had gone west in search of work, cannot return home. Gerta knows it is dangerous to watch the wall, yet she can't help herself. She sees the East German soldiers with their guns trained on their own citizens; she, her family, her neighbors and friends are prisoners in their own city. But one day on her way to school, Gerta spots her father on a viewing platform on the western side, pantomiming a peculiar dance. Gerta co…

The Jane Austen Diet: Austen's Secrets to Food, Health, and Incandescent Happiness by Jane Austen,  Bryan Kozlowski Hardcover, 304 pages Published March 19th 2019 by Turner 9781684422111

My thanks to NetGalley and Turner Publishing for granting me a review copy of this book. I have not been compensated for this review. All opinions are my own.
Summary With a multimillion-fan base, Austen is already a "lifestyle" celebrity: imitating her ideas on love and romance lie at the heart of her fabulous fame. In his newest literary romp author, Bryan Kozlowski offers a new twist on the Austen way of romancing life. The Jane Austen Diet, is the first retrospective look at the healthiest characters in classic literature and what they can teach us today.
My Thoughts There are two things I want to get out of the way first. 1. Jane Austen did not co-author this book. While the author uses many excerpts and examples from her work, unless she rose from the dead, it is quite impossible …

Available for a Limited Time Remember — grab these titles before they are replaced by a new pairing on 5/23/2019! While the title availability is time-limited, your listening time is not. Once you have downloaded the MP3 files, the audiobook is yours to keep and listen to at your leisure. 


by Leigh Fondakowski | Read by Elisa Bocanegra, Gilbert Glenn Brown, Nicholas Hormann, Travis Johns, Jane Kaczmarek, James Morrison, Darren Richardson, Kate Steele, Mark Jude Sullivan Published by L.A. Theatre Works



In April of 2010, British Petroleum gave orders to speed up production on its colossal drilling rig, the Deepwater Horizon. Despite the objections of many on the rig, safety measures were ignored or overlooked. On April 20th, the Deepwater Horizon exploded. Eleven men paid the ultimate price and countless thousands who call the Gulf Coast home found their lives irrevocably altered. Includes a conversation with Jim Morris, Managing Editor for the Environment and Worker Safety for the Cen…

A Murderous Malady by Christine Trent Publication Date: May 7, 2019 Crooked Lane Books Hardcover & eBook; 336 Pages Genre: Historical Mystery

For fans of Charles Todd and Deanna Raybourn comes Christine Trent’s second Florence Nightingale mystery.

Cholera has broken out in London, but Florence Nightingale has bigger problems when people begin dying of a far more intentional cause—murder.

The London summer of 1854 is drawing to a close when a deadly outbreak of cholera grips the city. Florence Nightingale is back on the scene marshaling her nurses to help treat countless suffering patients at Middlesex Hospital as the disease tears through the Soho slums. But beyond the dangers of the disease, something even more evil is seeping through the ailing streets of London.

It begins with an attack on the carriage of Florence’s friend, Elizabeth Herbert, wife to Secretary at War Sidney Herbert. Florence survives, but her coachman does not. Within hours, Sidney’s valet stumbles into the hosp…

Available for a Limited Time Remember — grab these titles before they are replaced by a new pairing on 5/16/2019! While the title availability is time-limited, your listening time is not. Once you have downloaded the MP3 files, the audiobook is yours to keep and listen to at your leisure. 
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by F.C. Yee | Read by Nancy Wu Published by Recorded Books


The struggle to get into a top-tier college consumes sixteen-year-old Genie's every waking thought. But when she discovers she's a celestial spirit who's powerful enough to bash through the gates of heaven with her fists, her perfectionist existence is shattered. Enter Quentin, a transfer student from China whose tone-deaf assertiveness beguiles Genie to the brink of madness. Quentin nurtures Genie's outrageous transformation-sometimes gently, sometimes aggressively-as her sleepy suburb in the …

The Strongman and the Mermaid by Kathleen Shoop Publication Date: February 28, 2019 eBook & Paperback; 573 Pages Series: The Donora Story Collection (Book 2) Genre: Historical Fiction/Saga

Myscowa, Poland—1910
Once upon a time in tiny, rural Myscowa, Lukasz Musial competes in feats of strength against his lifelong nemesis to win passage to America. He leaves behind grinding poverty and despair, to seek the clear blue skies, and better life he sees on a postcard. Settled in Donora’s Polish community, Lukasz secures a coveted job in the wire mill, and is matched to marry Donora’s very own Polish princess. Life is set on course. The American Dream is nearly his.

Donora, Pennsylvania—1910
Mary Lancos is no princess. A tall, athletic girl who loves the water, she spends her days keeping house for families in town, digging coal out of a backyard seam and rowing her father across the Monongahela River for work. Mary is dependable, tenacious, and always ready to help when someone needs h…

SYNC is back! And I'm a little behind. My apologies. If you're new to SYNC, here's what you need to know:

SYNC is a free summer audiobook program for teens. Returning April 25, 2019, SYNC will give away two complete audiobook downloads a week - pairs of high interest titles, based on weekly themes. Sign up for email or text alerts and be first to know when new titles are available to download at www.audiobooksync.com.

Every Thursday SYNC releases two new titles. Sign up for their email and you'll get a reminder in your inbox, or just come here and I'll have a link to where you can download the titles. Here's a list of this year's titles:


This week's titles are: 

Remember, you only have until WEDNESDAY to download these titles, so don't wait. It's super easy and fast to do.



by William Shakespeare | Read by Ewan McGregor, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kelly Reilly, Edward Bennett, James Laurenson, Tom Hiddleston, Alastair Sims, David Mara, Michael Hadley, Mi…

THE GIRL IN RED
By Christina Henry
Berkley Trade Paperback Original
ISBN: 9780451492289
$16.00 / 304 pages
June 18, 2019
ABOUT THE BOOK
From the national bestselling author of Alice comes a postapocalyptic take on the perennial classic "Little Red Riding Hood"...about a woman who isn't as defenseless as she seems. It's not safe for anyone alone in the woods. There are predators that come out at night: critters and coyotes, snakes and wolves. But the woman in the red jacket has no choice. Not since the Crisis came, decimated the population, and sent those who survived fleeing into quarantine camps that serve as breeding grounds for death, destruction, and disease. She is just a woman trying not to get killed in a world that doesn't look anything like the one she grew up in, the one that was perfectly sane and normal and boring until three months ago. There are worse threats in the woods than the things that stalk their prey at night. Sometimes, there are men. Men …