Bacon, John U. and John Sanders. Playing Hurt: My Journey from Despair to Hope. Blackstone. ISBN 9781478948902. Reader TBA.
The late ESPN broadcaster John Saunders, welcomes listeners into the heart of his desperate struggle through insights into the root causes of depression and explanations of modern medical and homeopathic treatments. His story unfolds among family, friends, and colleagues, but it also peers into places we don’t often discuss openly—psych wards and hospitals. Here is the honest story of a public figure facing his own mental illness head-on and emerging far better off for his effort.
Baldwin, Alec. Nevertheless: A Memoir. HarperAudio. ISBN 9780062657374. Reader TBA.
digital download.
Baldwin transcends his public persona, making public facets of his life he has long kept private. He introduces us to the Long Island child who felt burdened by his family’s financial strains and his parents’ unhappy marriage; the Washington, D.C., college student gearing up for a career in politics; the self-named “Love Taxi” who helped friends solve their romantic problems while neglecting his own; the young soap actor learning from giants of the theatre; the addict drawn to drugs and alcohol who struggles with sobriety; the husband and father who acknowledges his failings and battles to overcome them; and the consummate professional for whom the work is everything.
Bar-Joseph, Uri. The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel. Tantor Media. ISBN 9781515968443. Read by Neil Shah. digital download.
The sensational life and mysterious death of Ashraf Marwan—an Egyptian senior official who spied for Israel—offering new insight into the turbulent modern history of the Middle East.
Bauer, Wolfgang. Stolen Girls: Survivors of Boko Haram Tell Their Story. Translated by Eric Frederick Trump. High Bridge Audio. ISBN 9781681685892. Read by Bahni Turpin.
One night in April 2014, members of the terrorist organization Boko Haram raided the small town of Chibok in northeast Nigeria and abducted 276 young girls from the local boarding school. In Stolen Girls, Wolfgang Bauer gives voice to these girls, allowing them to speak for themselves—about their lives before the abduction, about the horrors during their captivity, and their dreams of a better future.
Bloomberg, Michael R. and Carol Pope. Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet. Macmillan Audio. ISBN 9781427288479. Reader TBA. digital download.
To environmental activist and New York City’s former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Sierra Club Executive Director, Carl Pope, it’s clear that to treat climate change as either a lost cause or a non-issue is the wrong approach. Global leaders are stymied by the enormity of the doom-and-gloom scenarios. So what happens when you tell leaders that they can definitely—right now, this year—reduce the number of children who have asthma attacks, save thousands of Americans from dying of respiratory disease, cut energy bills, increase the security of our energy supply, make it easier for everyone to get around town, and increase the number of jobs in their community—all while increasing the long-term stability of the global climate?
Brody, Lauren Smith. The Fifth Trimester: The Working Mom’s Guide to Style, Sanity, and Big Success After Baby. Books on Tape. ISBN 9781524750619. Read by Allyson Ryan.
Whether you’re in the final stages of pregnancy or hitting the panic button on your last day of leave, The Fifth Trimester offers honest and comforting tips, to-do lists, and take-charge strategies you’ll need to embrace your new identity as a working parent and set yourself up for success.
Callahan, Tom. Arnie: The Life of Arnold Palmer. Harper Audio. ISBN 9780062682321
Read by Danny Campbell.
Arnold Palmer changed golf—and sports—forever. The winner of more than 90 tournaments, including four Masters, the numbers on his resume don’t do justice to the greatness of his achievements. Because Palmer wasn’t just a golfer in the golden age of the sport, knocking heads with other greats like Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, he also was one of the first sportsmen to understand the marketing possibilities of his, and all, sports. Forging an alliance with sports agent Mark McCormick, Palmer parlayed his brilliance on the course into deals and paydays previously unheard of, and paved the way for the multi-million dollar promotional contracts that are standard across all sports today.
Cannell, Michael. Incendiary: The Psychiatrist, the Mad Bomber, and the Invention of Criminal Profiling. Macmillan Audio. ISBN 9781427285959. Reader TBA.
Long before the specter of terrorism haunted the public imagination, for nearly two decades, a serial bomber stalked the streets of 1950’s New York. From Grand Central, Penn Station, and Radio City Music Hall, the race to catch him would give birth to a new science called criminal profiling.
Chernow, Ron. The Death of the Banker: The Decline and Fall of the Great Financial Dynasties and the Triumph of the Small Investor. High Bridge Audio. ISBN 9781681686332. Read by Michael Kramer. digital download.
Bestselling author of the biography behind the Broadway smash hit, Hamilton, Ron Chernow, examines the forces that made dynasties like the Morgans, the Warburgs, and the Rothschilds the financial arbiters of the early twentieth century and then rendered them virtually obsolete by the century’s end.
Chopra, Dr. Sanjiv and David Fisher. The Big Five: Five Simple Things You Can Do to Live a Longer, Healthier Life. Dreamscape Media. ISBN 9781520072050.
The underlying promise of every exciting medical discovery, diet, and exercise program is the same: do this, buy this, or eat this, and you will look better, live longer, and be healthier. But these authors argue that if you adopt five simple, virtually free behaviors, you could live a longer and healthier life.
De Bellaigue, Christopher. The Islamic Enlightenment: The Struggle Between Faith and Reason, 1798 to Modern Times. Dreamscape Media. ISBN 9781520074337. Reader TBA.
Beginning his account in 1798, de Bellaigue demonstrates how the Middle East has long welcomed modern ideals and practices, including the adoption of modern medicine, the emergence of women from seclusion, and the development of democracy. De Bellaigue further shows how the violence of an infinitesimally small minority is, in fact, the tragic blowback from that modernization.
De Rosnay, Tatiana. Translated by Sam Taylor. Manderley Forever. Macmillan Audio. ISBN 9781427282330. Read by Kate Reading.
De Rosnay pays homage to the writer who deeply influenced her, following Rebecca author Du Maurier as a shy seven-year-old, a rebellious 16-year-old, a 20-something newlywed, and finally a cantankerous old lady. Manderley Forever is a portrait and celebration of an intriguing, popular, and underrated writer.
Edwards, Anne. Matriarch: Queen Mary and the House of Windsor. Tantor Media. ISBN 9781541451087. Narrated by Corrie James. digital download.
Bestselling biographer Anne Edwards(Royal Sisters; Vivian Leigh; Wallis) tells the fascinating story of Queen Mary, formerly Princess Mary of Teck. Born into a family of impoverished nobility, she was chosen by Queen Victoria as the bride for her eldest grandson, the scandalous Duke of Clarence, heir to the throne, who died mysteriously before their marriage. Despite this setback, she became queen, mother of two kings, grandmother of the current queen, and a lasting symbol of the British throne.
Engelin, Renee, PhD. Beauty Sick: How the Cultural Obsession with Appearance Hurts Girls and Woman. HarperAudio. ISBN 9780062669988. Read by Teri Schnaubelt.
Dr. Renee Engelin, whose TEDx talk on beauty sickness has received more than 250,000 views, reveals the shocking consequences of our obsession with girls’ appearance on their emotional and physical health and their wallets and ambitions, including depression, eating disorders, disruptions in cognitive processing, and lost money and time. She combines scientific studies with the voices of real women of all ages.
Ennico, Cliff. The Crowdfunding Handbook: Raise Money for Your Small Business or Start-Up with Equity Funding Portals. Dreamscape Media. ISBN 9781520072098. Reader TBA.
In April 2012, President Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act into law. This groundbreaking legislation empowers privately owned companies to raise capital from investors without going through the rigorous IPO and private-placement processes. In this book, small-business and legal expert Cliff Ennico explains the JOBS Act and translates the regulations into a set of do’s and don’ts, delivering targeted answers to issues such as whether or not crowdfunding is your best bet, how to pick the right legal entity, how to select types of securities to offer, how to reach the most promising investors, how to keep crowds under control, and more, helping entrepreneurs and small-business owners.
Evans, Harold. Do I Make Myself Clear?: Why Writing Well Matters. Blackstone. ISBN 97814789-68733. Reader TBA.
Evans has edited everything from the urgent files of battlefield reporters to the complex thought processes of Henry Kissinger. He’s even been knighted for his services to journalism. In Do I Make Myself Clear?, he brings his insight to us all in his definite guide to writing well. He provides practical examples of how editing and rewriting can make for better communication, even in the digital age.
Fronczak, Paul Joseph with Alex Tresniowski. The Foundling: The True Story of a Kidnapping, a Family Secret, and My Search for the Real Me. Simon & Schuster. Digital ISBN 9781508229254. Reader TBA.
The Foundling tells the true story of Paul Fronczak, a man who recently discovered via a DNA test that he was not who he thought he was—and set out to solve two 50-year-old mysteries at once. Along the way, he upturned the genealogy industry, unearthed his family’s deepest secrets, and broke open the second longest cold-case in US history, all in a desperate bid to find out who he really was.
Gandhi, Arun. The Gift of Anger And Other Lessons from My Grandfather Mahatma Gandhi. Simon & Schuster Audio. ISBN 9781508233855. Reader TBA. digital download.
The Gift of Anger takes listeners along with Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandi, his journey of self-discovery, as he learns to overcome his own struggle to express his emotions and harness the power of anger to bring about good. He shares ten life lessons about self-discovery, identity, dealing with anger, depression, loneliness, friendship, and family.
Henry, Ed. 42 Faith: The Rest of the Jackie Robinson Story. Blackstone. ISBN 9781536615517. Reader TBA.
Journalist and baseball lover Ed Henry reveals for the first time the backstory of faith that guided Jackie Robinson into not only the baseball record books but the annals of civil rights advancement as well. Through recently discovered sermons, interviews with Robinson’s family and friends, and even an unpublished book by the player himself, Henry details a side of Robinson’s humanity that few have taken the time to see.
Lamott, Anne. Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy. Books on Tape. ISBN 9781524734923. Reader TBA.
Bestselling author Lamott (Help, Thanks, Wow; Stitches) once again ventures forth to explore where we should look to find meaning in life. We should begin, she suggests, by “facing a great big mess, especially the great big mess of ourselves.” It’s up to each of us to recognize the presence and importance of mercy everywhere—“within us and outside us, all around us”—and to use it to forge a deeper understanding of ourselves and more honest connections with each other. While it can be difficult to do, it’s crucial.
Law, Keith. Smart Baseball: The Story Behind the Old Stats that are Ruining the Game, the New Ones that are Running it, and the Right Way to Think About Baseball. HarperAudio. ISBN 9780062660947. Read by Mike Chamberlain.
The renowned ESPN analyst and senior baseball writer demolishes a century’s worth of accepted wisdom, making the definitive case against the long-established view of the usefulness of baseball stats. Armed with concrete examples from different eras of baseball history, logic, a little math, and lively commentary, he shows how the allegiance to these numbers—dating back to the beginning of the professional game—is firmly rooted not in accuracy or success, but in baseball’s irrational adherence to tradition.
Leite, David. Notes on a Banana: A Memoir of Food, Love, and Manic Depression.
Blackstone. ISBN 9781538412237. Read by David Leite. digital download.
Born into a family of Azorean immigrants, David Leite grew up in the 1960s in a devoutly Catholic, blue-collar, food-crazed Portuguese home in Fall River, Massachusetts. “Banana” as his mother endearingly called him, obsessed over proper hair care, yearned to live in a middle-class house with a swinging kitchen door like the ones on television, and fell in love with everything French, thanks to his Portuguese and French Canadian godmother. But David also struggled with the emotional devastation of bipolar disorder. Until he was diagnosed in his mid-thirties, David found relief from his wild mood swings in cooking, Julia Child, and a Viking stove he named “Thor.”
Lowestein, Thomas. The Trials of Walter Ogrod: The Shocking Murder, So-Called Confessions, and Notorious Snitch That Sent a Man to Death Row. ISBN 978147081420. Reader TBA. digital download.
This exposé and investigation into the tragic 1988 murder of four-year-old Barbara Jean Horne and its aftermath leads readers through the facts of the case. Award-winning journalist Thomas Lowenstein attempts to make a case for the wrongful conviction of Walter Ogrod, a man with autism spectrum disorder who lived across the street from the girl’s family and who has been on death row since 1996.
Novarro, Joe. Three Minutes to Doomsday: An Agent, a Traitor, and the Worst Espionage Breach in U.S. History. Simon & Schuster Audio. ISBN 9781508237099. Reader TBA.
In 1988 Joe Navarro, one of the youngest agents ever hired by the FBI, was on a routine assignment to interview a “person of interest”—a former American soldier named Rod Ramsay—when he noticed his interviewee’s hand trembling slightly when he was asked about another soldier who had recently been arrested in Germany on suspicion of espionage. That thin lead was enough for the FBI agent to insist to his bosses that an investigation be opened. What followed is a two-year-long battle of wits between an FBI agent who couldn’t overtly tip to his brilliant target that he suspected him of wrongdoing, and a traitor whose weakness was the enjoyment he derived from sparring with his inquisitor.
Paxton, Robert O. The Anatomy of Fascism. Blackstone. ISBN 9781538414262. Read by Arthur Morey. digital download.
What is fascism? By focusing on the concrete (what the fascists did rather than what they said), esteemed historian Robert O. Paxton answers this question for the first time. From the first violent uniformed bands beating up “enemies of the state,” through Mussolini’s rise to power, to Germany’s fascist radicalization in World War II, Paxton shows why fascists came to power in some countries and not others, and he explores whether fascism could exist outside the early 20th-century European setting in which it emerged.
Salinas, Joel, M.D. Mirror Touch: Notes from a Doctor Who Can Feel Your Pain. HarperAudio. ISBN 9780062660886. Read by Adam Verner.
Dr. Joel Salinas is a Harvard-trained researcher and neurologist with extraordinary gifts that provide him unique access to his patients and enable him to experience life in an extraordinary way. He has mirror-touch synesthesia, a neurological trait that allows him to feel others’ emotions and physical sensations. Susceptible to the pain and discomfort of his patients—most of whom suffer from strokes, spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis, and a host of other painful disorders and extreme injuries—Salinas uses his heightened emphatic ability to help understand and better treat their conditions.
Sheffield, Rob. Dreaming the Beatles: The Love Story of One Band and the Whole World.
HarperAudio. ISBN 9780062472038. Read by Rob Sheffield.
Rob Sheffield, the Rolling Stone columnist and bestselling author of Love Is a Mix Tape, looks at the most popular band in history, the Beatles, and explores what they mean today and why they still matter to a generation that has never known a world without them.
Simon, Scott. My Cubs: A Love Story. Blackstone. ISBN 9780525497103. Reader TBA.
NPR’s Scott Simon’s personal, heartfelt reflections on his beloved Chicago Cubs, replete with club lore, anecdotes, frenetic fandom and wise and adoring intimacy that have made the world champion Cubbies baseball’s most tortured—and now triumphant—franchise.