Bingham, Emily. Irrepressible: The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham. Tantor. ISBN 9781494567972. Read by Christina Delaine.
Raised like a princess in one of the most powerful families in the American South, Henrietta Bingham was offered the helm of a publishing empire. Instead, she ripped through the Jazz Age like an F. Scott Fitzgerald character: intoxicating and intoxicated, selfish and shameless, seductive and brilliant, endearing and often terribly troubled. In New York, Louisville, and London, she drove both men and women wild with desire, and her youth blazed with sex. But her love affairs with women made her the subject of derision and after the speed and pleasure of her early days, the toxicity of judgment from others coupled with her own anxieties resulted in years of addiction and breakdowns. And perhaps most painfully, she became a source of embarrassment for her family. For Emily Bingham, delving into the secret of who her great-aunt was and why her story was concealed for so long led to this work.
Calhoun, Ada. St. Marks Is Dead: The Many Lives of America’s Hippest Street. Tantor. ISBN 9781494568146. Read by Carla Mercer-Meyer.
This idiosyncratic work of reportage tells the many layered history of New York City’s St. Marks Place—from its beginnings as Colonial Dutch Director-General Peter Stuyvesant’s pear orchard to today’s hipster playground. In a narrative enriched by hundreds of interviews, St. Marks native Calhoun profiles iconic characters, including W.H. Auden, Abbie Hoffman, Keith Haring, and the Beastie Boys. She argues that St. Marks has variously been an elite address, an immigrants’ haven, a mafia war zone, and a hippie paradise, but it has always been a place that outsiders call home.
Daugherty, Tracy. The Last Love Song: A Biography of Joan Didion. Blackstone. ISBN 9781504672337. Read by Bernadette Dunne.
Joan Didion met her late husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, while the two were working in New York City: Didion at Vogue and Dunne writing for Time. They became wildly successful writing partners when they moved to Los Angeles and co-wrote screenplays and adaptations together. Didion is well known for her literary journalistic style in both fiction and nonfiction. Daugherty takes listeners on a journey back through time, following a young Didion in Sacramento through to her adult life as a writer. Daugherty interviews those who know and knew Didion personally while maintaining a respectful distance from the reclusive literary great.
Fenton, Reuven. Stolen Years: Stories of the Wrongfully Imprisoned. Tantor. ISBN 9781494551841. Read by Will Damron, JD Jackson, & Bahni Turpin.
There is a grisly murder in your neighborhood. You stand outside with your neighbors and watch, or maybe you peek out your curtains. Hours pass, then days, maybe years. Then one day there is a knock at your door and the police take you in for questioning. Do you remember what happened? Do you have an alibi? Can you take countless hours of interrogation without breaking? Stories from The Fixer to The Shawshank Redemption have for decades catered to audiences’ grim fascination with wrongful imprisonment—one’s worst nightmare come to life. Here the stories are true. The ten former inmates profiled fended off despair so they could keep fighting for freedom. Then once out, they faced a new struggle: getting back to living after losing so many years behind bars.
Gondelman, Josh & Joe Berkowitz. You Blew It!: An Awkward Look at the Many Ways in Which You’ve Already Ruined Your Life. Recorded Books. ISBN 9781501904783. Reader TBA.
Humankind is doomed. Especially you. From overstaying your welcome at a party, to leaving passive-aggressive notes on your roommate’s belongings, to letting your date know the extent of the Internet reconnaissance you did on them—you’re destined to embarrass yourself again and again. Gondelman and Berkowitz dissect a range of painfully hilarious faux pas as they break down the code violations of modern culture—particularly our fervent, ridiculous addiction to technology.
Good, David. The Way Around: A Life in Two Worlds. Blackstone. ISBN 9781504645935. Reader TBA.
The son of an American anthropologist and a tribeswoman from a distant part of the Amazon, it took Good 20 years to embrace his identity, reunite with the mother who left him when he was six, and claim his heritage. Moving from the wilds of the Amazonian jungle to the paved confines of suburban New Jersey and back, it is the story of his parents, his American scientist-father, and his mother who could not fully adapt to the Western lifestyle. Good writes sympathetically about his mother’s abandonment and the deleterious effect it had on his young self; of his rebellious teenage years marked by depression and drinking; and the near-fatal car accident that transformed him and gave him purpose to find a way back to his mother.
Hilton, Lisa. Elizabeth: Renaissance Prince. Blackstone. ISBN 9781504673129. Read by Kelly Birch.
This new biographical portrait casts the queen as she saw herself—not as an exceptional woman, but as an exceptional ruler. Queen Elizabeth I was all too happy to play on courtly conventions of gender when it suited her “weak and feeble woman’s body” to do so for political gain. But Hilton offers ample evidence of why those famous words should not be taken at face value. With new research from France, Italy, Russia, and Turkey, Hilton’s interpretation is of a monarch who saw herself primarily as a Renaissance prince and used Machiavellian statecraft to secure that position, depicting a queen who was much less constrained by her femininity than most treatments claim.
Honnold, Alex with David Roberts. Alone on the Wall. Blackstone. ISBN 9781504643955. Reader TBA.
Only a few years ago, Honnold was little known beyond a small circle of hardcore climbers. Today, at age 30, he is probably the most famous adventure athlete in the world. Free soloing, Honnold’s specialty, is a type of climbing performed without a rope, a partner, or hardware for aid or protection. The results of climbing this way are breathtaking, but the stakes are ultimate: if you fall, you die. Here Honnold recounts the seven most astonishing climbing achievements so far in his meteoric and still-evolving career. Veteran climber Roberts writes part of each chapter in his own voice, and he calls on other climbers and the sport’s storied past to put Alex’s tremendous accomplishments in perspective.
Kaplan, Matt. Science of the Magical: From the Holy Grail to Love Potions to Superpowers. Tantor. ISBN 9781494564612. Read by Eric Michael Summerer.
Can migrations of birds foretell our future? Do phases of the moon hold sway over our lives? Are there sacred springs that cure the ill? What is the best way to brew a love potion? In this friendly armchair guide to the world of the supernatural, Kaplan plumbs the rich, lively, and surprising history of the magical objects, places, and rituals that infuse ancient and contemporary myth. From the strengthening powers of Viking mead to the super soldiers in movies like Captain America, Kaplan ranges across cultures and time periods to point out that there is often much more to these enduring magical narratives than mere fantasy.
Kaufman, Sarah L. The Art of Grace: On Moving Well Through Life. HighBridge. ISBN 9781622319763. Read by Christina Delaine.
Kaufman celebrates grace in the way bodies move, exploring how to stand, walk, and dress well. She deplores the rarity of grace among public figures and glories in it where found (Beyoncé at a fashion show). She singles out grace in sports and in the arts, from tennis and football to sculpture, pop music, and, of course, dance, and in the everyday ways people interact, from the grace of a good host to the unexpected kindness of strangers.
Klein, Stefan. We Are All Stardust: Scientists Who Shaped Our World Talk about Their Work, Their Lives, and What They Still Want to Know. Blackstone. ISBN 9781504663793. read by Gildart Jackson, Simon Vance, Kate Reading, & Sean Runnette.
In this collection of intimate conversations with 19 of the world’s best-known scientists, today’s leading minds reveal what they still hope to discover—and how their paradigm-changing work entwines with their lives outside the lab. From the sports car that physicist Steven Weinberg says helped him on his quest for “the theory of everything” to the jazz musicians who gave psychologist Alison Gopnik new insight into raising children, these scientists explain how they find inspiration everywhere.
Nye, Bill. Unstoppable: Harnessing Science to Change the World. Macmillan Audio. ISBN 9781427271730. Reader TBA.
With a scientist’s thirst for knowledge and an engineer’s vision of what can be, Nye sees today’s environmental issues not as insurmountable, depressing problems but as chances for our society to rise to the challenge and create a cleaner, healthier, smarter world. We need not accept that transportation consumes half our energy, and that two-thirds of the energy you put into your car is immediately thrown away through the tailpipe. We need not accept that dangerous emissions are the price we must pay for a vibrant economy and a comfortable life. Above all, we need not accept that we will leave our children a planet that is dirty, overheated, and depleted of resources. As Nye shares his vision, he debunks some of the most persistent myths and misunderstandings about global warming.
Sethi, Simran. Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love. HarperAudio. ISBN 9780062190604. Read by Therese Plummer.
Sethi reveals how the foods we enjoy are endangered by genetic erosion—a slow and steady loss of diversity in what we grow and eat. In America today, food often looks and tastes the same, whether at a San Francisco farmers’ market or at a Midwestern potluck. Though supermarkets seem to be stocked with endless options, the differences between products are superficial, primarily in flavor and brand. Sethi draws on interviews with scientists, farmers, chefs, vintners, beer brewers, coffee roasters, and others with firsthand knowledge of our food to reveal the multiple and interconnected reasons for this loss, and its consequences for our health, traditions, and culture.
Simon, Carly. Boys in the Trees. Macmillan Audio. ISBN 9781427271952. Reader TBA.
Simon’s memoir reveals her remarkable life, beginning with her storied childhood, her musical debut as half of The Simon Sisters performing folk songs with her sister Lucy in Greenwich Village, and her meteoric solo career. The memoir recalls a childhood enriched by music and culture, but also one shrouded in secrets that would eventually tear her family apart. The author brilliantly captures moments of creative inspiration, the sparks of songs, and the stories behind writing “Anticipation” and “We Have No Secrets,” among many others. In addition, Simon recounts the romantic entanglements that fueled her confessional lyrics and describes the unraveling of her storybook marriage to James Taylor.
Stevens, Christopher. Written in Stone: A Journey Through the Stone Age and the Origins of Modern Language. Tantor. ISBN 9781494565589. Read by Michael Healy.
Half the world’s population speaks a language that has evolved from a single, prehistoric mother tongue. First spoken in Stone Age times, on the steppes of central Eurasia 6,500 years ago, this mother tongue spread from the shores of the Black Sea across almost all of Europe and much of Asia. Stevens combines mythology, ancient history, archaeology, technology and warfare, and linguistics to explore that original mother tongue, in the process uncovering the most influential and important words used by our Neolithic ancestors and demonstrating how they are used today.
Tattersall, Ian & Rob DeSalle. A Natural History of Wine. Recorded Books. ISBN 9781490686554. Reader TBA.
Tattersall, a palaeoanthropologist, and DeSalle, a molecular biologist, explore the many intersections between science and wine, embracing almost every imaginable area of the sciences, from microbiology and ecology (to understand what creates this complex beverage) to physiology and neurobiology (for insight into the effects of wine on the mind and body). The authors draw on physics, chemistry, biochemistry, evolution, and climatology, and they expand the discussion to include insights from anthropology, primatology, entomology, Neolithic archaeology, and Classical history.
Timbaland & Veronica Chambers. The Emperor of Sound. HarperAudio. ISBN 9781504645829. Read by William Harper.
Producer Timbaland has been a fixture on the pop charts, with more top-ten hits than Elvis or the Beatles. Though he works with such artists as Mariah Carey, Missy Elliott, Nelly Furtado, Madonna, and his childhood friend Pharrell Williams, Timbaland shuns parties, stays out of gossip columns, and rarely gives interviews. Here he offers fans an unprecedented look into his life and work, taking them backstage with 50 Cent and live on-stage with Justin Timberlake. He reveals the magic behind the music, sharing the creative impulses that arise while he’s producing, and the layering of sounds that have created dozens of number-one hits.
Utley, Robert M. Wanted: The Outlaw Lives of Billy the Kid and Ned Kelly. Tantor. ISBN 9781494565190. Read by Tom Perkins.
The oft-told exploits of Billy the Kid and Ned Kelly survive vividly in the public imaginations of their respective countries, the United States and Australia. But the outlaws’ reputations are so weighted with legend and myth that the truth of their lives has become obscure. In this double biography, Utley reveals the true stories and parallel courses of the two notorious contemporaries who lived by the gun, were executed while still in their twenties, and remain compelling figures in the folklore of their homelands.
Vinciguerra, Thomas. Cast of Characters: Wolcott Gibbs, E. B. White, James Thurber, and the Golden Age of the New Yorker. Blackstone. ISBN 9781504658751. Read by Tony Pasqualini.
At the heart of this narrative is the largely forgotten life of Wolcott Gibbs, the New Yorker’s theater critic and all-around wit, author of an infamous 1936 parody of Time magazine. Around him swirled a legendary roster of writers, editors, and illustrators, including E.B. and Katharine White, James Thurber, Charles Addams, Peter Arno, and John O’Hara. Their stories are told here, along with those of equally colorful but overlooked figures such as managing editor St. Clair McKelway, head factchecker Frederick Packard, and the flamboyant film reviewer John Chapin Mosher.
White, Andrew St. Pierre & Gwynn White. Torn Trousers: A True Story of Courage and Adventure: How A Couple Sacrificed Everything To Escape to Paradise. Tantor. ISBN 9781494567552. Read by Charlotte Anne Dore & James Langton.
Thirtysomethings Andrew and Gwynn White sold everything they owned and escaped their humdrum nine-to-five existence for life in paradise—a tiny island accessible only by boat or air in one of the remotest spots on Earth: the Okavango Delta in Botswana. Woefully inexperienced, they took control of a luxury game lodge where the rich and famous went to sip gin and tonics with lions and elephants. Trouble soon followed. The couple’s lives were threatened daily by snakes, elephants, baboons, and a hyena with a plastic fetish—not to mention the endless, and often insurmountable, challenge of keeping their five-star guests fed in a world where the closest supermarket was an air flight away.
Wilson, Rainn. The Bassoon King: My Life in Art, Faith, and Idiocy. Books on Tape. ISBN 9780553544695. Read by the author.
For nine seasons Wilson played Dwight Schrute, work nemesis and beet farmer, on The Office. Here he explains how he grew up “bone-numbingly nerdy before there was even a modicum of cool attached to the word” and chronicles his journey from nerd to drama geek, his years of mild debauchery and struggles as a young actor in New York, his many adventures around and insights about The Office, and finally, achieving success and satisfaction, both in his career and spiritually, as he reconnects with the values of the Bahá’í faith he grew up in.
Ziegler, Dominic. Black Dragon River: A Journey Down the Amur River at the Borderlands of Empires. Brilliance. ISBN 9781501299407. Read by Steve West.
The world’s ninth largest river, the Amur serves as a large part of the border between Russia and China. Ziegler follows a journey from the river’s top to bottom, discussing history, ecology, and peoples to portray a region obsessed with the past—and to show how this region holds a key to the complex and critical relationship between Russia and China today.