Audiobooks: fun to listen to while relaxing by the pool, great to listen to while working in the yard, and a non-screen way to pass time on a long car ride. This summer, as vacations are in full swing, think about taking an audiobook with you. Here are some audiobooks that are great for the whole family and all are available with your Chatham Area Public Library card.
For the family with young ones, try these. ¡Vamos! Let’s Go Eat by Raúl the Third and read by Gary Tiedemann is available through the cloudLibrary app and the hoopla app. This 17 minute story is about Little Lobo and his dog visiting food trucks for lunch before a Lucha Libre match. Overground Railroad by Lesa Cline-Ransome and James Ransome is the story of Ruth Ellen as she and her family embark on a train from North Carolina to New York City during the Great Migration. Each leg of the journey brings new revelations and glimpses of the freedom and opportunity her family hopes to find, such as when the curtain that separates the colored car is removed. This 14 minute audiobook is available from cloudLibrary and as a read along book with both the ebook and audiobook together from hoopla. A longer book, and a classic for younger listeners is Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White. This 4 hour audiobook, read by Meryl Streep and a full cast, is available on cloudLibrary and will keep everyone captivated with the story of Wilbur the pig and how, through his friendship with Charlotte the spider, he becomes famous and learns about life and death. Older kids might like the sci-fi book, Last Gate of the Emperor by Kwame Mbalia and read by Araya Mengesha. This is the story of Yared, an isolated outsider in the hardscrabble city of Addis Prime. He’s also a star player in an underground augmented reality game. But when a change in the game causes real life changes, Yared is forced to team up with his rival to fight city-razing monsters and find his uncle. This 6.5 hour audiobook is available on hoopla.
Young adult listeners might enjoy these audiobooks. Slingshot by Mercedes Helnwein and read by Jesse Vilinsky is a young adult novel about 15 year old Grace, who is stuck at a third-tier boarding school in Florida. She’s perfectly content existing alone, until she accidently saves the new kid, Wade, from being beat up. Now, she must find a new way to exist with Wade in her life. This coming of age audiobook is 11.5 hours long and available through cloudLibrary. Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson and read by Imani Parks is a gripping, heartbreaking story about a girl in middle school who goes missing. When Claudia’s friend, Monday, goes missing and Monday’s mother refuses to give her a straight answer, Claudia digs into her disappearance. This 10 hour audiobook touches tough social issues and is available on Library on the Go, cloudLibrary, and hoopla.
Here are some adult audiobooks that will keep you captivated. The Summer I Met Jack by Michelle Gable and read by Ilyana Kadushin is loosely based on the real life of Alicia Corning Clark, a beautiful young Polish refugee who arrived in Massachusetts in 1950 to work as a maid for one of the wealthiest families in America. She is dazzled by the large family, but especially the oldest son, Jack Kennedy. This 17 hour audiobook is available through hoopla. Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies follows 3 mothers, each at crossroads, and their potential involvement in a riot at a school trivia night that leaves one parent dead in what appears to be a tragic accident, but which evidence shows might have been premeditated. This 16 hour audiobook is read by Caroline Lee and is available as physical CDs and though Library on the Go.
These and many more audiobooks are available to you free with your Chatham Area Public Library card. The Library’s sources for electronic audiobooks are Library on the Go (the app is called Libby), cloudLibrary, and hoopla. These can all be accessed through the library’s website: www.chathamlib.org/books-more/digital-library or by downloading the free apps from your device’s app store.