Mercurial May Staff Picks
Meddle with your mind with these mercurial May staff picks
Speak, Silence
By Kim Echlin
Narrated by: Athena Karkanis
Length: 5 hours 43 minutes
SHORTLISTED for the 2021 Toronto Book Award
From the internationally bestselling and Giller-shortlisted author of The Disappeared, an astounding, poetic novel about war and loss, suffering and courage, and the strength of women through it all.
It’s been eleven years since Gota has seen Kosmos, yet she still finds herself fantasizing about their... Read more »
Winter Counts
A Novel
By David Heska Wanbli Weiden
Narrated by: Darrell Dennis
Length: 8 hours 17 minutes
Winter Counts
“Weiden’s book is a thriller with an important social and political message. Following a Lakota ‘enforcer’ who enacts extrajudicial punishment to fill the gaps in the legal system, Winter Counts is a twisty new addition to the growing Indigenous literature canon. While some of the action may fall into somewhat predictable territory, Weiden’s exploration of the injustices of reservation life are vital.”
Ashley Baeckmann, Briars & Brambles Books
The Beautiful Ones
A Novel
By Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Narrated by: Imani Jade Powers
Length: 12 hours 18 minutes
From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic comes a sweeping romance with a dash of magic.
They are the Beautiful Ones, Loisail’s most notable socialites, and this spring is Nina’s chance to join their ranks, courtesy of her well-connected cousin and his calculating wife. But the Grand Season has just begun, and already Nina’s...
Klara and the Sun
A Novel
By Kazuo Ishiguro
Narrated by: Sura Siu
Length: 10 hours 16 minutes
Klara and the Sun
“When I read Ishiguo's work, I feel as if a veil has been lifted, and suddenly the world—or range—of humanness, and all it's uncomfortable possibilities, are clear. I'm so grateful for his extraordinary talents and ability to manifest new understandings inside the mind this reader. Whether it's the source of human emotion, the impact of memory, the grappling of regret, or simply the purpose of human life, I finish his books with greater insight into the scope of the living. Klara is no different—an inhuman character who in one almost childlike voice, reveals the boundaries between human and inhuman, between a future and obsolescence, between the bonds and boundaries of love. Thank you Mr. Ishiguro ~ again.”
Cassie, Roundabout Books
Tender is the Flesh
By Agustina Bazterrica
Narrated by: Joseph Balderrama
Length: 6 hours 43 minutes
Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans—though no one calls them that anymore.
His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made... Read more »
Uprooted
By Naomi Novik
Narrated by: Julia Emelin
Length: 17 hours 43 minutes
Uprooted
“Uprooted by Naomi Novik is like every fairy tale you've ever heard turned on their head. You have the girl trapped in a tower, a dragon, and a prince. You've heard this story before, but this one isn't so simple. I mean, if it was, what fun would that be? Novik draws heavily on her Polish roots and it creates a story that feels like home. Warm, inviting, and full of secrets that don't leave the walls. The antagonist is written in such a way that you can almost feel the Wood staring at you while you read, but the fact that it doesn't outright speak makes it more menacing. With a rich cast of characters that follow their own moral compasses, a beautifully built world, and a magic system that feels authentic, this book will leave you wanting more.”
Ash, Story on the Square
Annihilation
The Southern Reach Trilogy: Book #1
By Jeff VanderMeer
Narrated by: Carolyn McCormick
Length: 6 hours
If J. J. Abrams, Margaret Atwood, and Alan Weisman collaborated on a novel … it might be this awesome.
Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; all the members of the second...
Read more »
Too Good to Be True
A Novel
By Carola Lovering
Narrated by: Amy McFadden, Andi Arndt & Stephen Dexter
Length: 12 hours 19 minutes
ONE LOVE STORY. TWO MARRIAGES. THREE VERSIONS OF THE TRUTH.
Too Good to Be True is an obsessive, addictive love story for fans of Lisa Jewell and The Wife Upstairs, from Carola Lovering, the beloved author of Tell Me Lies.
Skye Starling is overjoyed when her boyfriend, Burke Michaels, proposes after a whirlwind courtship. Though Skye seems to...
When the Stars Go Dark
A Novel
By Paula McLain
Narrated by: Marin Ireland
Length: 11 hours 28 minutes
When the Stars Go Dark
“No matter what the genre, McLain is a masterful storyteller. Her protagonist in this latest novel is one of the most authentic and powerful characters I have ever experienced. Anna Hart, a missing persons detective, shares not only her knowledge as an expert on missing children but she lays bare her own personal demons as she struggles to find a teen who has disappeared. I was captivated from page one and couldn’t stop until I finished this intense and provocative story. Absolutely mesmerizing!”
Stephanie Crowe, Page and Palette
The Soulmate Equation
By Christina Lauren
Narrated by: Patti Murin
Length: 9 hours 39 minutes
The Soulmate Equation
“I finished this in one sitting and my neck is killing me. I loved this new story from Christina Lauren, from the third-person point-of-view to the mix of science and romance! It was perfect, from every last side character to the sexual tension between the mains.”
Blair Boles, Beausoleil Books
To Sir Phillip, with Love
Bridgertons: Book #5
By Julia Quinn
Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
Length: 10 hours 26 minutes
Sir Phillip knew that Eloise Bridgerton was a spinster, and so he'd proposed, figuring that she'd be homely and unassuming, and more than a little desperate for an offer of marriage. Except . . . she wasn't. The beautiful woman on his doorstep was anything but quiet, and when she stopped talking long enough to close her mouth, all he wanted to... Read more »
An Offer from a Gentleman
Bridgertons: Book #3
By Julia Quinn
Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
Length: 12 hours 22 minutes
Sophie Beckett never dreamed she'd be able to sneak into Lady Bridgerton's famed masquerade ball-or that "Prince Charming" would be waiting there for her! Though the daughter of an earl, Sophie has been relegated to the role of servant by her disdainful stepmother. But now, spinning in the strong arms of the debonair and devastatingly handsome... Read more »
Work Won't Love You Back
How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone
By Sarah Jaffe
Narrated by: Sarah Jaffe
Length: 12 hours 59 minutes
A deeply-reported examination of why "doing what you love" is a recipe for exploitation, creating a new tyranny of work in which we cheerily acquiesce to doing jobs that take over our lives.
You're told that if you "do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life." Whether it's working for "exposure" and "experience," or enduring poor... Read more »
We Had a Little Real Estate Problem
The Unheralded Story of Native Americans & Comedy
By Kliph Nesteroff
Narrated by: Kliph Nesteroff
Length: 9 hours 34 minutes
From Kliph Nesteroff, “the human encyclopedia of comedy” (VICE), comes the important and underappreciated story of Native Americans and comedy.
It was one of the most reliable jokes in Charlie Hill’s stand-up routine: “My people are from Wisconsin. We used to be from New York. We had a little real estate problem.”
In We Had a Little Real Estate... Read more »
Sister of the Bollywood Bride
By Nandini Bajpai
Narrated by: Soneela Nankani
Length: 8 hours 27 minutes
For fans of Morgan Matson's Save the Date comes a charming novel about one teen's summer tackling disasters including, but not limited to, family, romance, and weather—as she plans her sister's Bollywood-style Indian wedding.
Mini's big sister, Vinnie, is getting married. Their mom passed away seven years ago and between Dad's new start-up and... Read more »
Sparrow
A Novel
By Mary Cecilia Jackson
Narrated by: Andrew Eiden & Rachel L. Jacobs
Length: 10 hours 45 minutes
In the tradition of Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak, Mary Cecilia Jackson's devastating but hopeful YA debut is about a ballerina who finds the courage to confront the abuse that haunts her past and threatens her future.
There are two kinds of people on the planet. Hunters and prey
I thought I would be safe after my mother died. I thought I could...
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
By Malinda Lo
Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
Length: 12 hours 25 minutes
Acclaimed author of Ash Malinda Lo returns with her most personal and ambitious novel yet, a gripping story of love and duty set in San Francisco's Chinatown during the 1950s.
"That book. It was about two women, and they fell in love with each other." And then Lily asked the question that had taken root in her, that was even now unfurling its... Read more »
Treasure of the World
By Tara Sullivan
Narrated by: Gisela Chipe
Length: 11 hours 22 minutes
A young girl must find a way to help her family survive in a desolate and impoverished Bolivian silver mining community in this eye-opening tale of resilience.
Twelve-year-old Ana wants nothing more than to escape the future set for her and her classmates in her small mining village. Boys her age are beginning to leave school to become silver... Read more »
Billy Miller Makes a Wish
By Kevin Henkes
Narrated by: Dan Bittner
Length: 2 hours 8 minutes
“Full of heart and depth.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Henkes is a master of characterization. —The Horn Book (starred review)
“A first-rate choice for reading aloud.”—Booklist (starred review)
Billy Miller is back! This stand-alone companion to two-time Newbery Honor author Kevin Henkes’s award-winning, acclaimed, and bestselling The Year of...
Read more »