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ID: 387439

Title: Escape Artist

Author: Helen Fremont

Narrator: Gabra Zackman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 08:50:18

Language: English

Release date: 02-11-20

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Genres: Biography & Memoir, Health & Wellness, Marriage & Family, History & Culture

Summary:

A luminous new memoir from the author of the critically acclaimed national bestseller After Long Silence, The Escape Artist has been lauded by New York Times bestselling author Mary Karr as “beautifully written, honest, and psychologically astute. A must-read.”

In the tradition of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home and George Hodgman’s Bettyville, Fremont writes with wit and candor about growing up in a household held together by a powerful glue: secrets. Her parents, profoundly affected by their memories of the Holocaust, pass on to both Helen and her older sister a zealous determination to protect themselves from what they see as danger from the outside world.

Fremont delves deeply into the family dynamic that produced such a startling devotion to secret keeping, beginning with the painful and unexpected discovery that she has been disinherited in her father’s will. In scenes that are frank, moving, and often surprisingly funny, She writes about growing up in such an intemperate household, with parents who pretended to be Catholics but were really Jews—and survivors of Nazi-occupied Poland. She shares tales of family therapy sessions, disordered eating, her sister’s frequently unhinged meltdowns, and her own romantic misadventures as she tries to sort out her sexual identity. Searching, poignant, and ultimately redemptive, The Escape Artist is a powerful contribution to the memoir shelf.

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ID: 386436

Title: Adequate Yearly Progress: A Novel

Author: Roxanna Elden

Narrator: Roxana Ortega

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11:08:00

Language: English

Release date: 02-11-20

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Contemporary Women

Summary:

A debut novel told with humor, intelligence, and heart, a “funny but insightful look at teachers in the workplace…reminiscent of the TV show The Office but set in an urban high school” (The Washington Post), perfect for fans of Tom Perrotta and Laurie Gelman.

Roxanna Elden’s “laugh-out-loud funny satire” (Forbes) is a brilliantly entertaining and moving look at our education system.

Each new school year brings familiar challenges to Brae Hill Valley, a struggling high school in one the biggest cities in Texas. But the teachers also face plenty of personal challenges and this year, they may finally spill over into the classroom.

English teacher Lena Wright, a spoken-word poet, can never seem to truly connect with her students. Hernan D. Hernandez is confident in front of his biology classes, but tongue-tied around the woman he most wants to impress. Down the hall, math teacher Maybelline Galang focuses on the numbers as she struggles to parent her daughter, while Coach Ray hustles his troubled football team toward another winning season. Recording it all is idealistic second-year history teacher Kaytee Mahoney, whose anonymous blog gains new readers by the day as it drifts ever further from her in-class reality. And this year, a new superintendent is determined to leave his own mark on the school—even if that means shutting the whole place down.

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ID: 500107

Title: Abandoned: America's Lost Youth and the Crisis of Disconnection

Author: Anne Kim

Narrator: Janet Song

Format: Unabridged

Length: 06:54:10

Language: English

Release date: 02-11-20

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Genres: Non-Fiction, Politics, Social Science, Public Policy

Summary:

A deeply affecting exposé of America’s hidden crisis of disconnected youth, in the tradition of Matthew Desmond and Adrian Nicole LeBlanc

For the majority of young adults today, the transition to independence is a time of excitement and possibility. But nearly five million young people—or a stunning 11.7 percent of youth aged sixteen to twenty-four—experience entry into adulthood as abrupt abandonment, a time of disconnection from school, work, and family. For this growing population of Americans, which includes kids aging out of foster care and those entangled with the justice system, life screeches to a halt when adulthood arrives. Abandoned is the first-ever exploration of this tale of dead ends and broken dreams.

Journalist Anne Kim skillfully weaves heart-rending stories of young people navigating early adulthood alone, in communities where poverty is endemic and opportunities almost nonexistent. She then describes a growing awareness—including new research from the field of adolescent brain science—that “emerging adulthood” is just as crucial a developmental period as early childhood, and she profiles an array of unheralded programs that provide young people with the supports they need to achieve self-sufficiency.

A major work of deeply reported narrative nonfiction, Abandoned joins the small shelf of books that change the way we see our society and point to a different path forward.

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ID: 500106

Title: Independence Square: A Novel

Author: A. D. Miller

Narrator: Tim Campbell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 06:21:27

Language: English

Release date: 02-04-20

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Mystery, Thriller & Horror, Literary Fiction, Espionage

Summary:

A powerful novel that moves seamlessly between the euphoria of revolution and the intimate and agonizing pull between love and loyalty.

A young woman scrambles up the icy hill above Independence Square in Kiev, desperate to avert the bloody crackdown that threatens the protesters below. The outcome of a revolution, and her brother’s safety, depend on her. And though neither of them realize it, so does the fate of the man she is frantic to see.

Over a decade later, Simon Davey, a disgraced diplomat, follows Olesya Zarchenko into the Tube in London, convinced that she was responsible for his ruin. When he tracks her to a riverside mansion, he begins to see that her life has not been what he thought it was, and neither has his own.

Moving from the euphoria of the barricades to an oligarch’s private dungeon, between idealism and corruption, Independence Square is the story of a country striving to escape its history, and a man struggling to understand his past.

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ID: 386434

Title: Molly Bit: A Novel

Author: Dan Bevacqua

Narrator: Emily Tremaine, Joy Osmanski

Format: Unabridged

Length: 09:13:42

Language: English

Release date: 02-04-20

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Genres: Fiction & Literature, Literary Fiction, Coming of Age, Contemporary Women

Summary:

A “slick page-turner” (Vanity Fair) about the rise of an enigmatic Hollywood star and her legacy, from Columbia MFA graduate Dan Bevacqua.

A tragic death was not part of the script.

Molly Bit is a great actress. From her first acting classes to her big break she is different from the others struggling to make it.

But fame is perilous. She uses—and is used by—the Hollywood system. Her collaborator is an addict. The producer who promises her stardom is ruthless and unhinged by grief. Fans, friends, strangers—they want and want. And one dangerously obsessed fan will take everything.

Insightful, witty, and shocking, Molly Bit “delves into the dark corners of fame…[while] managing to be a scathingly funny exposé of celebrity life” (Laura Sims, author of Looker) and explores the high stakes of our culture’s fascination with the famous and our complicity in their rise and fall. Molly Bit is a “fast, funny, and delightfully fun” (Adam Wilson, author of Flatscreen) debut novel that offers a heartbreaking reflection of fame, obsession, and art’s power to redeem loss.

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ID: 386484

Title: When Time Stopped: A Memoir of My Father's War and What Remains

Author: Ariana Neumann

Narrator: Rebecca Lowman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10:08:15

Language: English

Release date: 02-04-20

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Genres: History, Biography & Memoir, World

Summary:

In this astonishing story that “reads like a thriller and is so, so timely” (BuzzFeed) Ariana Neumann dives into the secrets of her father’s past: “Like Anne Frank’s diary, it offers a story that needs to be told and heard” (Booklist, starred review).

In 1941, the first Neumann family member was taken by the Nazis, arrested in German-occupied Czechoslovakia for bathing in a stretch of river forbidden to Jews. He was transported to Auschwitz. Eighteen days later his prisoner number was entered into the morgue book.

Of thirty-four Neumann family members, twenty-five were murdered by the Nazis. One of the survivors was Hans Neumann, who, to escape the German death net, traveled to Berlin and hid in plain sight under the Gestapo’s eyes. What Hans experienced was so unspeakable that, when he built an industrial empire in Venezuela, he couldn’t bring himself to talk about it. All his daughter Ariana knew was that something terrible had happened.

When Hans died, he left Ariana a small box filled with letters, diary entries, and other memorabilia. Ten years later Ariana finally summoned the courage to have the letters translated, and she began reading. What she discovered launched her on a worldwide search that would deliver indelible portraits of a family loving, finding meaning, and trying to survive amid the worst that can be imagined.

A “beautifully told story of personal discovery” (John le Carré), When Time Stopped is an unputdownable detective story and an epic family memoir, spanning nearly ninety years and crossing oceans. Neumann brings each relative to vivid life, and this “gripping, expertly researched narrative will inspire those looking to uncover their own family histories” (Publishers Weekly).

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ID: 393870

Title: Olympic Pride, American Prejudice: The Untold Story of 18 African Americans Who Defied Jim Crow and Adolf Hitler to Compete in the 1936 Berlin Olympics

Author: Blair Underwood, Deborah Riley Draper, Travis Thrasher

Narrator: Leon Nixon

Format: Unabridged

Length: 09:09:21

Language: English

Release date: 02-04-20

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Genres: History, Sports & Recreation, Biography & Memoir, North America, Other

Summary:

In this “must-read for anyone concerned with race, sports, and politics in America” (William C. Rhoden, New York Times bestselling author), the inspirational and largely unknown true story of the eighteen African American athletes who competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, defying the racism of both Nazi Germany and the Jim Crow South.

Set against the turbulent backdrop of a segregated United States, sixteen Black men and two Black women are torn between boycotting the Olympic Games in Nazi Germany or participating. If they go, they would represent a country that considered them second-class citizens and would compete amid a strong undercurrent of Aryan superiority that considered them inferior. Yet, if they stayed, would they ever have a chance to prove them wrong on a global stage?

Five athletes, full of discipline and heart, guide you through this harrowing and inspiring journey. There’s a young and feisty Tidye Pickett from Chicago, whose lithe speed makes her the first African American woman to compete in the Olympic Games; a quiet Louise Stokes from Malden, Massachusetts, who breaks records across the Northeast with humble beginnings training on railroad tracks. We find Mack Robinson in Pasadena, California, setting an example for his younger brother, Jackie Robinson; and the unlikely competitor Archie Williams, a lanky book-smart teen in Oakland takes home a gold medal. Then there’s Ralph Metcalfe, born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, who becomes the wise and fierce big brother of the group.

From burning crosses set on the Robinsons’s lawn to a Pennsylvania small town on fire with praise and parades when the athletes return from Berlin, Olympic Pride, American Prejudice has “done the world a favor by bringing into the sunlight the unknown story of eighteen black Olympians who should never be forgotten. This book is both beautiful and wrenching, and essential to understanding the rich history of African American athletes” (Kevin Merida, editor-in-chief of ESPN’s The Undefeated).

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ID: 386475

Title: Dragon Fire

Author: Lisa McMann

Narrator: Fiona Hardingham

Format: Unabridged

Length: 09:25:54

Language: English

Release date: 02-04-20

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Genres: Kids, Animals & Nature, Fairy Tales & Folklore

Summary:

Ten years after Alex and Aaron Stowe brought peace to Quill and Artimé, their younger twin sisters journey beyond Artimé in the fifth novel in the New York Times bestselling sequel series to The Unwanteds, which Kirkus Reviews called “The Hunger Games meets Harry Potter.”

Artimé is at war.

Led by the reckless new head mage, Frieda Stubbs, and swayed by her stoking their fear of the Revinir’s return, the people of Artimé have turned against the Stowe family. Aaron and his allies are captured while Fifer is left exposed to mortal danger.

Thisbe and the team of black-eyed children from Grimere journey to Artimé to help, leaving Dev behind to fend for himself against the increasingly powerful Revinir. Thisbe grapples with guilt and worry from multiple directions as her relationship with Fifer continues its downward spiral.

When things are at their bleakest and everything is on the line, Fifer is forced to make a decision that could change her destiny forever.

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ID: 386441

Title: Race Against Time

Author: Jerry Mitchell

Narrator: Jerry Mitchell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13:14:10

Language: English

Release date: 02-04-20

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Genres: History, Biography & Memoir, Non-Fiction, True Crime, Mystery, Thriller & Horror, Literary, North America

Summary:

“For almost two decades, investigative journalist Jerry Mitchell doggedly pursued the Klansmen responsible for some of the most notorious murders of the civil rights movement. This book is his amazing story. Thanks to him, and to courageous prosecutors, witnesses, and FBI agents, justice finally prevailed.” —John Grisham, author of The Guardians

On June 21, 1964, more than twenty Klansmen murdered three civil rights workers. The killings, in what would become known as the “Mississippi Burning” case, were among the most brazen acts of violence during the Civil Rights Movement. And even though the killers’ identities, including the sheriff’s deputy, were an open secret, no one was charged with murder in the months and years that followed.

It took forty-one years before the mastermind was brought to trial and finally convicted for the three innocent lives he took. If there is one man who helped pave the way for justice, it is investigative reporter Jerry Mitchell.

In Race Against Time, Mitchell takes readers on the twisting, pulse-racing road that led to the reopening of four of the most infamous killings from the days of the Civil Rights Movement, decades after the fact. His work played a central role in bringing killers to justice for the assassination of Medgar Evers, the firebombing of Vernon Dahmer, the 16th Street Church bombing in Birmingham and the Mississippi Burning case. Mitchell reveals how he unearthed secret documents, found long-lost suspects and witnesses, building up evidence strong enough to take on the Klan. He takes us into every harrowing scene along the way, as when Mitchell goes into the lion’s den, meeting one-on-one with the very murderers he is seeking to catch. His efforts have put four leading Klansmen behind bars, years after they thought they had gotten away with murder.

Race Against Time is an astonishing, courageous story capturing a historic race for justice, as the past is uncovered, clue by clue, and long-ignored evils are brought into the light. This is a landmark book and essential reading for all Americans.

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ID: 386416

Title: Why We're Polarized

Author: Ezra Klein

Narrator: Ezra Klein

Format: Unabridged

Length: 08:33:06

Language: English

Release date: 01-28-20

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Genres: History, North America, American Politics, Political Ideologies

Summary:

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2022

One of Bill Gates’s “5 books to read this summer,” this New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller shows us that America’s political system isn’t broken. The truth is scarier: it’s working exactly as designed. In this “superbly researched” (The Washington Post) and timely book, journalist Ezra Klein reveals how that system is polarizing us—and how we are polarizing it—with disastrous results.

“The American political system—which includes everyone from voters to journalists to the president—is full of rational actors making rational decisions given the incentives they face,” writes political analyst Ezra Klein. “We are a collection of functional parts whose efforts combine into a dysfunctional whole.”

“A thoughtful, clear and persuasive analysis” (The New York Times Book Review), Why We’re Polarized reveals the structural and psychological forces behind America’s descent into division and dysfunction. Neither a polemic nor a lament, this book offers a clear framework for understanding everything from Trump’s rise to the Democratic Party’s leftward shift to the politicization of everyday culture.

America is polarized, first and foremost, by identity. Everyone engaged in American politics is engaged, at some level, in identity politics. Over the past fifty years in America, our partisan identities have merged with our racial, religious, geographic, ideological, and cultural identities. These merged identities have attained a weight that is breaking much in our politics and tearing at the bonds that hold this country together.

Klein shows how and why American politics polarized around identity in the 20th century, and what that polarization did to the way we see the world and one another. And he traces the feedback loops between polarized political identities and polarized political institutions that are driving our system toward crisis.

“Well worth reading” (New York magazine), this is an “eye-opening” (O, The Oprah Magazine) book that will change how you look at politics—and perhaps at yourself.

Contact: [email protected]