Audiobooks

Below are the titles that the Senior Book Group will be reading in September, October, November, and December of this year.

September

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Pachinko follows one Korean family through the generations, beginning in early 1900s Korea with Sunja, the prized daughter of a poor yet proud family, whose unplanned pregnancy threatens to shame them all. Deserted by her lover, Sunja is saved when a young tubercular minister offers to marry and bring her to Japan. So begins a sweeping saga of an exceptional family in exile from its homeland and caught in the indifferent arc of history. Through desperate struggles and hard-won triumphs, its members are bound together by deep roots as they face enduring questions of faith, family, and identity.

Since 1987, the Horror Writers Association (HWA) has acknowledged fine writing in the horror and dark fiction genres by awarding the Bram Stoker Award to authors. 

The final ballot for each year is lengthy and allows for nominations of first novels, graphic novels, young adult, screenplays, and poetry collections. This highlights the HWA's dedication to honoring "superior achievements" by a variety of authors, not simply "best of the year."

Highlighted below are a few of the nominees that can be found at the library, in a variety of formats. A complete final ballot for the Bram Stoker Awards can be found here.

The only good Indians : a novel by 1972- Stephen Graham Jones
Also available in: audiobook | e-audiobook

Peter Straub's Ghost Story meets Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies in this American Indian horror story of revenge on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Four American Indian men from the Blackfeet Nation, who were childhood friends, find themselves in a desperate struggle for their lives, against an entity that wants to exact revenge upon them for what they did during an elk hunt ten years earlier by killing them, their families, and friends.

Many of this month's new large print titles are simultaneous releases. A simultaneous release refers to when the original release of a book and the large print version occur on the same date. This can happen with highly anticipated titles and best selling authors. If a title isn't a simultaneous release, the large print version may be published at a later date.

Listed below are just a few of the new large print titles in the library...

The push [large print] : a novel by 1982- Ashley Audrain
Also available in: print | e-audiobook

Blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm, comforting mother to her new baby Violet that she herself never had.

But in the thick of motherhood's exhausting early days, Blythe becomes convinced that something is wrong with her daughter--she doesn't behave like most children do.

Or is it all in Blythe's head? Her husband, Fox, says she's imagining things. The more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins to question her own sanity, and the more we begin to question what Blythe is telling us about her life as well.

Then their son Sam is born--and with him, Blythe has the blissful connection she'd always imagined with her child. Even Violet seems to love her little brother. But when life as they know it is changed in an instant, the devastating fall-out forces Blythe to face the truth.

The Push is a tour de force you will read in a sitting, an utterly immersive novel that will challenge everything you think you know about motherhood, about what we owe our children, and what it feels like when women are not believed.

Spin [large print] by Patricia Daniels Cornwell
Also available in: print | audiobook

In the aftermath of a sabotaged NASA rocket launch gone, Captain Calli Chase comes face-to-face with her missing twin sister, as well as the startling truth of who they really are, and now with a top secret program put in motion years ago has spun out of control, Calli embarks on a frantic search for the missing link between the sabotaged rocket launch and her predetermined destiny--a search that someone else is very interested in stopping.

Not all broken hearts come from love triangles, shattered promises, or deep secrets from the past. In some books, the broken heart comes from it being stabbed. With a knife. Watch your back (and your front), ladies and gentlemen.

If you love a little bit of murder with a little bit of romance, then the titles below might just be for you.

Everyone says Lord Ian Mackenzie is crazy-and possibly a murderer-but a young widow longing for passion is determined to bare the truth about the dashing and darkly charming Scotsman.

Also available in: e-book | e-audiobook

Korede is bitter. How could she not be? Her sister, Ayoola, is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola's third boyfriend in a row is dead.

Korede's practicality is the sisters' saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood, the trunk of her car is big enough for a body, and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures of her dinner to Instagram when she should be mourning her "missing" boyfriend. Not that she gets any credit.

Korede has long been in love with a kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where she works. She dreams of the day when he will realize that she's exactly what he needs. But when he asks Korede for Ayoola's phone number, she must reckon with what her sister has become and how far she's willing to go to protect her.

This Valentine's day, celebrate all kinds of love with these enchanting reads. Not into romance? We have something for you, too!

Black and POC Love Stories

Also available in: e-book | e-audiobook

Danika Brown knows what she wants: professional success, academic renown, and an occasional roll in the hay to relieve all that career-driven tension. But romance? Been there, done that, burned the T-shirt. Romantic partners, whatever their gender, are a distraction at best and a drain at worst. So Dani asks the universe for the perfect friend-with-benefits--someone who knows the score and knows their way around the bedroom. 

When big, brooding security guard Zafir Ansari rescues Dani from a workplace fire drill gone wrong, it's an obvious sign: PhD student Dani and former rugby player Zaf are destined to sleep together. But before she can explain that fact to him, a video of the heroic rescue goes viral. Suddenly, half the internet is shipping #DrRugbae--and Zaf is begging Dani to play along. Turns out his sports charity for kids could really use the publicity. Lying to help children? Who on earth would refuse? 

New large print titles this month highlight a number of reader favorites: a hunky Duke, true crime, and coffee. Not necessarily all found in the same book, but still enjoyable. Check out a few of the new large print titles below.

The Duke and I by Julia Quinn
Also available in: print

From New York Times bestselling author Julia Quinn comes the first novel in the beloved Regency-set world of her charming, powerful Bridgerton family, now a series created by Shonda Rhimes for Netflix.

In the ballrooms and drawing rooms of Regency London, rules abound. From their earliest days, children of aristocrats learn how to address an earl and curtsey before a prince--while other dictates of the ton are unspoken yet universally understood. A proper duke should be imperious and aloof. A young, marriageable lady should be amiable...but not too amiable.

Daphne Bridgerton has always failed at the latter. The fourth of eight siblings in her close-knit family, she has formed friendships with the most eligible young men in London. Everyone likes Daphne for her kindness and wit. But no one truly desires her. 

She is simply too deuced honest for that, too unwilling to play the romantic games that captivate gentlemen.

Amiability is not a characteristic shared by Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings. Recently returned to England from abroad, he intends to shun both marriage and society--just as his callous father shunned Simon throughout his painful childhood. Yet an encounter with his best friend's sister offers another option. If Daphne agrees to a fake courtship, Simon can deter the mamas who parade their daughters before him. Daphne, meanwhile, will see her prospects and her reputation soar.

The plan works like a charm--at first. But amid the glittering, gossipy, cut-throat world of London's elite, there is only one certainty: love ignores every rule...

This novel includes the 2nd epilogue, a peek at the story after the story. 

American traitor by 1965- Brad Taylor
Also available in: print | audiobook

Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill are enjoying a sunny vacation down under when they get disturbing news: their friend and colleague Clifford Delmonty is in serious trouble. While working as a contractor at an Australian F-35 facility, the former Taskforce member--callsign Dunkin--saw something he shouldn't have, and now he's on the run from Chinese agents. 

Pike and Jennifer soon discover that Dunkin's attackers are a dangerous link to a much larger scheme that could launch a full-on conflict between China and Taiwan. In its quest for dominance, China is determined to reclaim Taiwan--a pivotal ally the United States has sworn to protect. Pike learns that the Chinese have a devious plan to bait the island nation into all-out war by destabilizing the government and manipulating an artificial intelligence defense system. 

As the threat reaches a boiling point, Pike alone realizes that what they're seeing isn't actually real. A soldier who has always been trained to fight and win, Pike must now track down and neutralize the missing man who holds the key. With the help of Jennifer, the Taskforce team, and a brave Taiwanese intelligence agent, he races to prevent a catastrophic conflict from consuming a whole region of the world.

As the new year approaches, consider one of the new large print books featured below.

Also available in: print | e-book | audiobook | e-audiobook

Antiracism is a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism--and, even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. At its core, racism is a powerful system that creates false hierarchies of human value; its warped logic extends beyond race, from the way we regard people of different ethnicities or skin colors to the way we treat people of different sexes, gender identities, and body types. Racism intersects with class and culture and geography and even changes the way we see and value ourselves. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas--from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities--that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves.

Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society.

Untamed [large print] by 1976- Glennon Doyle
Also available in: print | e-book | audiobook | e-audiobook

Soulful and uproarious, forceful and tender, Untamed is both an intimate memoir and a galvanizing wake-up call. It is the story of how one woman learned that a responsible mother is not one who slowly dies for her children, but one who shows them how to fully live. It is the story of navigating divorce, forming a new blended family, and discovering that the brokenness or wholeness of a family depends not on its structure but on each member's ability to bring her full self to the table. And it is the story of how each of us can begin to trust ourselves enough to set boundaries, make peace with our bodies, honor our anger and heartbreak, and unleash our truest, wildest instincts so that we become women who can finally look at ourselves and say: There She Is.

"Breaking from the James Bond mold, he turned the spy novel into high art as he explored the moral compromises of agents on both sides of the Iron curtain." (New York Times)

From page to screen, check out the library's selection of works by this master of dark, emotional intrigue.

The spy who came in from the cold by 1931- John Le Carré
Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy by 1931- John Le Carré
Also available in: video

Summer titles are still hitting shelves! And while library browsing may currently be unavailable, users can still browse new materials that have arrived or are on order. If there is a title you're interested in, place it on hold and try the library's holds pick-up. We are also always available to help you over the phone with titles or authors you are interested in. 

In the meantime, here are some of the new large print titles that have arrived this summer.

Also available in: print | audiobook | e-audiobook

On Winston Churchill's first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally--and willing to fight to the end.

In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people "the art of being fearless." It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it's also an intimate domestic drama, set against the backdrop of Churchill's prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course 10 Downing Street in London. Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports--some released only recently--Larson provides a new lens on London's darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his family: his wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter, Mary, who chafes against her parents' wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful, unhappy wife, Pamela; Pamela's illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and the advisers in Churchill's "Secret Circle," to whom he turns in the hardest moments.

The house of Kennedy [large print] by 1947- James Patterson
Also available in: print | e-book | audiobook

The Kennedys have always been a family of charismatic adventurers, raised to take risks and excel, living by the dual family mottos: "To whom much is given, much is expected" and "Win at all costs." And they do--but at a price.

Across decades and generations, the Kennedys have occupied a unique place in the American imagination: charmed, cursed, at once familiar and unknowable. The House of Kennedy is a revealing, fascinating account of America's most storied family, as told by America's most trusted storyteller.

Canton Seniors Book Discussion Group: October

Join us for a live virtual program on Thursday, October 22, 2020 at 2:00PM via Zoom video conference as the Canton Seniors Book Discussion Group discusses:

Their eyes were watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Also available in: e-book | audiobook | e-audiobook

One of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century, Their Eyes Were Watching God brings to life a Southern love story with the wit and pathos found only in the writing of Zora Neale Hurston. Out of print for almost thirty years--due largely to initial audiences' rejection of its strong black female protagonist--Hurston's classic has since its 1978 reissue become perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature.​

This book is immediately available on Hoopla in e-book and e-audiobook formats. If you have registered for the program and would like to reserve a print copy, please call 734-397-0999 and select option 4.

Registered participants will receive an email one day before the program with a link to attend the discussion. To help you make the most of your virtual program experience we have compiled some tips and resources.
 

Upcoming sessions

There are no upcoming sessions available.

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