Listen to Best Full Audiobooks in Fiction, Coming of Age

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/499012 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Mary Jane: A Novel

Author: Jessica Anya Blau

Narrator: Caitlin Kinnunen

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 9 hours 44 minutes

Release date: May 11, 2021

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.65 of Total 31

Ratings of Narrator: 4.5 of Total 6

Genres: Coming of Age

Publisher's Summary:

''The best book of the summer.'' -- InStyle ''I LOVED this novel....If you have ever sung along to a hit on the radio, in any decade, then you will devour Mary Jane at 45 rpm.'' —Nick Hornby Almost Famous meets Daisy Jones & The Six in this ''delightful'' (New York Times Book Review) novel about a fourteen-year-old girl’s coming of age in 1970s Baltimore, caught between her straight-laced family and the progressive family she nannies for—who happen to be secretly hiding a famous rock star and his movie star wife for the summer. In 1970s Baltimore, fourteen-year-old Mary Jane loves cooking with her mother, singing in her church choir, and enjoying her family’s subscription to the Broadway Showtunes of the Month record club. Shy, quiet, and bookish, she’s glad when she lands a summer job as a nanny for the daughter of a local doctor. A respectable job, Mary Jane’s mother says. In a respectable house. The house may look respectable on the outside, but inside it’s a literal and figurative mess: clutter on every surface, Impeachment: Now More Than Ever bumper stickers on the doors, cereal and takeout for dinner. And even more troublesome (were Mary Jane’s mother to know, which she does not): the doctor is a psychiatrist who has cleared his summer for one important job—helping a famous rock star dry out. A week after Mary Jane starts, the rock star and his movie star wife move in. Over the course of the summer, Mary Jane introduces her new household to crisply ironed clothes and a family dinner schedule, and has a front-row seat to a liberal world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll (not to mention group therapy). Caught between the lifestyle she’s always known and the future she’s only just realized is possible, Mary Jane will arrive at September with a new idea about what she wants out of life, and what kind of person she’s going to be.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/521947 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Elora Magdove: Rise Of A Sinking Warrior

Author: Kirk Smoothy

Narrator: Torii Alaniz

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 8 hours 21 minutes

Release date: May 10, 2021

Genres: Coming of Age

Publisher's Summary:

Elora has been suspended from the council… …but it’s only the beginning of her journey. Elf Elora is something of a celebrity in her home city. After being tested as a child, it’s discovered that her magical ability is off the charts—it can’t even be measured. Since working as a paranormal investigator at the royal palace and working on a cure for “half curses” Elora has been putting her abilities to good use. Until now… Will her suspension ruin her reputation and put the kindgom at risk? Can she regain their trust? She now teams up with Vertha, a fellow elf she met several years prior. Life goes by as she awaits in the dark... A vicious warlord is planning to ransack the kingdom. Also, Elora's new friend needs help! With chaos everywhere and nothing as it once was, will Elora find it in herself to do what needs to be done? Or will everything go to pieces? Rise of a Sinking Warrior is a young adult fantasy for people who love a slice of the magical world, finding courage and fighting for what is right in the first of this action packed series.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/520885 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: An Audio Bundle: Pinned & Perfected By Girls

Author: Alfred C. Martino

Narrator: Mark Shanahan, Jen Taylor

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 13 hours 36 minutes

Release date: May 5, 2021

Genres: Coming of Age

Publisher's Summary:

Ivan Korske and Bobby Zane are two high school seniors embarking on the most important winter of their lives in a quest for the New Jersey state high school wrestling championship. Ivan Korske is the pride of Lennings, a rural town tucked away in the farmlands of western Jersey, and the odds-on favorite to be crowned state champion in the 129-pound weight class. For Ivan, the stakes are impossibly high. A state championship fulfills a promise he made to his mother before she passed away nine months earlier and will, perhaps, stem his father's continued withdrawal from life. But mostly, Ivan dreams of getting a scholarship to a college far from his dreary hometown. To him, anything short of the title is failure. In Short Hills, a wealthy town on the other side of the state, Bobby Zane protects his younger brother Christopher from the fallout of their parents' impending divorce, while searching for comfort from Carmelina Carrillo, a girl from a depressed part of Newark. Despite the distractions from the intense pressures of adolescent love and the family's breakup, Bobby realizes his quest for the coveted 129-pound state title may be his only hope for salvation. Pinned follows Ivan and Bobby's season-long efforts toward overcoming forces within and beyond their control toward a title that only one of them can capture! In Perfected By Girls, navigating high school isn't easy for Melinda Radford. She's the lone girl on the Ashton High wrestling team, grappling with opponents who refuse to compete against her, a few who want to crush her, and a coach who's less-than-pleased having a female in his practice room. At home, Mel's parents forbid her from seeing her new boyfriend, her grandmother insists she start preparing for her future by taking a dreary office internship, and her infuriating older brother, who's the varsity team captain, flirts with her best friend, Jade. Just when it seems things can't get any more complicated, an off-handed comment puts Mel at odds with her teammates, her brother, and, worst of all, her coach. But through a twist of tragedy and fate, Mel is given an unexpected opportunity to accomplish something no girl in her school's history has ever done--something that just may redeem herself in the eyes of her detractors. But is she strong enough to handle the pressure?

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/497706 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Monkey Boy: A Novel

Author: Francisco Goldman

Narrator: Robert Fass

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 12 hours 12 minutes

Release date: May 4, 2021

Genres: Coming of Age

Publisher's Summary:

Our narrator, Francisco Goldberg, has been living and working in Mexico City as a journalist for over a decade, but has recently returned to New York City in hopes of 'going home again.' It's been five years since the end of his last relationship and he is falling in love again. Soon he is beckoned back to Boston by the high school girlfriend who was witness to his greatest youthful humiliations, and his mother, Yolanda, around whom his story orbits like a dark star. Backdropping this five day trip to his childhood home is the specter of Frank's recently deceased father, Bert, an immigrant from Ukraine, volcanically tempered, pathologically abusive, yet also at times infuriatingly endearing; as well as the high school bullies who gave him the moniker 'monkey boy' and his estranged, larger-than-life sister, Lexi. Told in an open, irresistibly funny and passionate voice, this extraordinary portrait of growing up outside the dominant culture unearths the hidden cruelties in a predominantly white, working-class Boston suburb where Francisco—a.k.a. Paco, aka Frankie Gee—came of age. A crowning achievement from one of the most important American voices in the last forty years.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/516482 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: [Spanish] - La Efeba Salvaje

Author: Carlos Velazquez

Narrator: Luis Carlos De La Lombana

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 3 hours 31 minutes

Release date: April 27, 2021

Genres: Coming of Age

Publisher's Summary:

Con el peculiar estilo que lo caracteriza, el humor corrosivo del que ha hecho su sello personal, y ensayando nuevos registros, Carlos Velázquez engendra su cuarto libro de relatos. Una mirada despiadada que se ve enriquecida por la madurez narrativa, producto de las más retorcidas obsesiones.Barbie Moreno es una chica del clima que «Se había prometido a sí misma que jamás volvería a bailar en un chiquichor a cuarenta grados afuera de un depósito de cerveza para una bola de macuarros». Tras ser removida de su cargo, emprenderá una pesquisa para desenmascarar al zar de los deportes en Multimiedos, Gómez Yonque, cuyo oscuro clan trafica con un material clandestino transportado en hieleras de unicel.Los afanes de la Barbie nos transportan —al igual que el resto de los relatos de este volumen— a una espiral de acontecimientos que reflejan el abismo que se erige de manera insalvable entre la realidad y el anhelo. La desesperación, ese alimento del despecho, es uno de los hilos conductores de La efeba salvaje.En los seis relatos que conforman el libro la traición se revela como uno de los males que rigen nuestro tiempo. Un hombre adicto a la cocaína y las apuestas encuentra consuelo en una heredera rubia y decadente; Stormtrooper, mote con el que Carmela ha bautizado a su primer hijo varón, se transforma en la versión encarnizada de las peores pesadillas de Rober; Alberto ha atraído al núcleo de su vida a una sombra de tres metros que se le aparece por las noches ante la mirada desesperada de su prometida Aída; el gordo Tony (mejor conocido como Porcel) encuentra en la desventura amorosa el único antídoto efectivo contra el galopante conteo de sus triglicéridos; para sacar de la depresión que le ha ocasionado a su hija, Ed recurre a los oscuros ardides del indio Mr. Mojo Risin, resucitador de caballos.La efeba salvaje apuntala la trayectoria de Carlos Velázquez como uno de los prosistas más agudos, talentosos y originales de la actualidad. El ritmo y el lenguaje de sus relatos han logrado en corto tiempo la difícil tarea de labrar una voz que sólo puede referenciarse por sí misma.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/517092 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: [Spanish] - Los abismos (Premio Alfaguara de novela 2021)

Author: Pilar Quintana

Narrator: Carolina Gómez

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 5 hours 1 minute

Release date: April 22, 2021

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.33 of Total 3

Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 1

Genres: Coming of Age

Publisher's Summary:

PREMIO ALFAGUARA DE NOVELA 2021 Y UNO DE LOS 50 MEJORES LIBROS DE 2021 SEGÚN BABELIA Una novela sobre el fin de la infancia y sus fantasmas «Cómo resumir todo lo que me fascinó de Pilar Quintana. El brutal lirismo. Su caminar contra lo esperado. Esa tensión afiladísima, poética y nada complaciente.» Sara Mesa Claudia vive con sus padres en un apartamento invadido por plantas que se estiran para tocarla. Como todas las familias, la suya contiene una crisis, y solo hará falta que algo o alguien llegue a detonarla. Cada quien tiene un punto de quiebre en la infancia, y Claudia, la protagonista de esta historia, narra, desde la expectación y la mirada aguda de cuando fue una niña, los hechos que abrieron las grietas por donde se colaron los peores temores, aquellos que son irreversibles y empujan al borde del precipicio. Los abismos es un relato estremecedor en el que una hija asume las revelaciones de su madre y los silencios de su padre para empezar a construir su propio mundo. Tras el éxito de La perra, con esta novela, Pilar Quintana consolida el importante lugar que ha conquistado en las letras hispanoamericanas. «Los abismos se adentra en la oscuridad del mundo de los adultos a través del punto de vista de una niña que, desde la memoria de su vida familiar, intenta comprender la conflictiva relación entre sus padres. Con el telón de fondo de un mundo femenino de mujeres atadas a la rueda de una noria de la que no pueden o no saben escapar, la autora ha creado una historia poderosa narrada desde una aparente ingenuidad que contrasta con la atmósfera desdichada que rodea a la protagonista. Con una prosa sutil y luminosa en la que la naturaleza nos conecta con las posibilidades simbólicas de la literatura, y los abismos son tanto los reales como los de la intimidad.» Del acta del jurado La crítica ha dicho: «Pilar Quintana está acostumbrada a enfrentarse a sus abismos. No le dan miedo los precipicios. Mira al vacío y sonríe, consciente de que ha ganado, de que lo logró cuando dijo basta, al articular un quiero y postular un puedo». Miguel Ángel Santamarina, Zenda «¿A qué abismos se asoma una niña todavía atónita ante los misterios de la familia y del mundo? Su piso es una selva, su hogar un supermercado, su país unas montañas cubiertas de niebla que oculta precipicios. Así el lector se abisma en los abismos de Pilar Quintana». Héctor Abad Faciolince «Con una voz poderosa e inquietante, Pilar Quintana explora los miedos de la infancia junto a las fragilidades y violencias de los adultos. Entre la lucidez, la inocencia, el suspense y los laberintos del deseo, traza un mapa inolvidable del desgarrador camino hacia la libertad». Irene Vallejo «Quintana firma una novela sobre mujeres condenadas a vidas incumplidas que esquiva la simpleza confiriendo opacidad a su protagonista [y] apuesta por un tono amable, casi naíf, que no obstante arrincona y carga de dolor la mirada de la narradora». Carlos Pardo, Babelia «Aquí valen todos las definiciones de abismo. Porque la escritora habla de esa profundidad grande, imponente y peligrosa, esa realidad inmaterial inmensa e insondable que puede ser un precipicio. Ese infierno que también puede suponer ser madre». Lula Gómez, Público «De este libro se sale distinto. Hay aquí una mirada sobre la maternidad, la crueldad y lo inexorable de la naturaleza —en el paisaje selvático, tan hermoso como brutal de la costa colombiana— que resulta inolvidable». Mariana Enriquez

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/513739 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: June Bug

Author: Chris Fabry

Narrator: Chris Fabry

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 10 hours 20 minutes

Release date: April 20, 2021

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 2

Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 1

Genres: Coming of Age

Publisher's Summary:

From the best-selling author of War Room comes a Christy Award finalist, now a Lifetime original movie called Child of Grace. “I believed everything my daddy told me until I walked into Wal-Mart and saw my picture on a little poster . . .” For as long as she can remember, June Bug and her father have traveled the back roads of the country in their beat-up RV, spending many nights parked at Wal-Mart. One morning, as she walks past the greeter at the front of the store, her eyes are drawn to the pictures of missing children, where she is shocked to see herself. This discovery begins a quest for the truth about her father, the mother he rarely speaks about, and ultimately herself. But when her father’s past catches up with them, forces beyond his control draw them back to Dogwood, West Virginia, down a winding path that will change their lives forever.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/503203 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: My Ride or Die: A Novel

Author: Leslie Cohen

Narrator: Rachel Jacobs, Katie Koster

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 10 hours 36 minutes

Release date: April 20, 2021

Genres: Coming of Age

Publisher's Summary:

A timely and hilarious millennial women’s fiction novel about two friends who decide to give up their search for a perfect man and devote their lives to each other—but their careful plan soon begins to unravel with unexpected consequences.  Fall in love. Get married. Turn to your female friends to be truly understood. Friends for over a decade, Amanda and Sophie decide it’s time to flip the script. Why not spend their lives with each other and keep men on the side for fun, sex, and occasionally fixing things around the house? Amanda is a lawyer who excels in her professional life but crumbles at the slightest sign of a common cold. Sophie is an aspiring artist who has lived all over the world and doesn’t crumble, period. Together, they’ve been through it all. But when their romantic lives implode at the same time, they decide enough is enough. Enough pretending that traditional relationships work for everyone. Enough fantasizing about an old-fashioned ideal.  They decide to form an alliance: They will rely on each other and give men the secondary role that they deserve. And much to their surprise, it actually works. They fix up a run-down brownstone and create the home they’ve always wanted. Soon, they have love and emotional support as well as a wide variety of male “crushes” on the side. But when one of their crushes becomes something more, Amanda and Sophie must reconsider the life they’ve begun to build and how far they’re willing to go to keep it. In this brilliantly funny novel, Leslie Cohen asks: must friendship always be second to love? This is female friendship at its finest. Smart. Witty. And no holds barred.  “A delightful story of female friendship that will have you reaching for your phone to call your best friend.”--Jill Shalvis, New York Times bestselling author

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/497954 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: White City

Author: Kevin Power

Narrator: Patrick Moy

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 11 hours 45 minutes

Release date: April 15, 2021

Genres: Coming of Age

Publisher's Summary:

From the highly acclaimed author of Bad Day in Blackrock – inspiration for the 2012 award-winning film What Richard Did, directed by Lenny Abrahamson... ? Shortlisted for the 2021 An Post Irish Book Awards Eason Novel of the Year... A darkly funny, gripping and profoundly moving novel about a life spinning out of control, a life live without the bedrock of familial love, and the corruption of material wealth that tears at the soul. ‘It was my father’s arrest that brought me here, although you could certainly say that I took the scenic route.’ Here is rehab, where Ben – the only son of a rich South Dublin banker – is piecing together the shattered remains of his life. Abruptly cut off, at the age of 27, from a life of heedless privilege, Ben flounders through a world of drugs and dead-end jobs, his self-esteem at rock bottom. Even his once-adoring girlfriend, Clio, is at the end of her tether.  Then Ben runs into an old school friend who wants to cut him in on a scam: a shady property deal in the Balkans. The deal will make Ben rich and, at one fell swoop, will deliver him from all his troubles: his addictions, his father’s very public disgrace, and his own self-loathing and regret. Problems solved. But something is amiss. For one thing, the Serbian partners don’t exactly look like fools. (In fact they look like gangsters.) And, for another, Ben is being followed everywhere he goes. Someone is being taken for a ride. But who?

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/491074 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Jungle Book: A BBC Radio full-cast reimagining of the classic story

Author: Rudyard Kipling

Narrator: Rajit Kapur, Namit Das, Shernaz Patel, Full Cast

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 1 hour 53 minutes

Release date: April 15, 2021

Genres: Coming of Age

Publisher's Summary:

Rudyard Kipling's timeless story re-imagined as a gangland coming-of-age fable In this radical radio reboot, Kipling's family classic is given a darker twist and reimagined in the concrete jungle of present-day India. Born in a tenement block in Mumbai, orphan boy Mowgli is brought up by the Wolves, a gang of tough, streetwise petty criminals, and quickly learns how to survive in that world. But when the villainous politician Tiger Khan threatens his life, two residents of the block, the 'black panther' Bagheera and the 'bear' Baloo, offer to help him escape. Leaving behind the only home he's ever known, Mowgli embarks on a journey of self-discovery through the city, meeting 'creatures' along the way who don't always have his best interests at heart... Dramatised by Ayeesha Menon, whose radio version of Midnight's Children won Best Adaptation at the 2018 Audio Drama Awards, this stunning audio retelling features Namit Das (A Suitable Boy) as Mo, with Bollywood stars Rajit Kapur and Shernaz Patel as Tiger Khan and Mrs Gupta. Written and directed by Ayeesha Menon Based on the novel by Rudyard Kipling Produced by Nadir Khan Executive producer: John Scott Dryden Music by Sacha Puttnam Recorded in India A Goldhawk Production Cast Mo/Adult Mo - Namit Das Tiger Khan - Rajit Kapur Mrs Gupta - Shernaz Patel Mr Gupta - Zafar Karachiwala Bugs - Sukant Goel Yuva - Abir Abrar Kala/Adult Kala - Shikha Talsania Rikita - Devika Shahani Father Carvalho - Sohrab Ardeshir Young Kala/ Rani - Preetika Chawla Young Mo - Omkar Kulkarni Dimple - Trisha Kale Bobby - Alka Sharma Varun/Boy - Ajitesh Gupta Amma - Prerna Chawla Raksha - hivani Tanksale Rafiq/Naag - Tavish Bhattacharyya Baldeo/Tabaqui/Purun Bhagat - Vivek Madan Akhil - Nadir Khan First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 28 February-6 March 2021 © 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (p) 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd