Tag: AA2020

Amazing Audiobooks (#AA2020) Nominees Round Up, May 1 Edition

Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds
Blackstone Audio
Publication Date: March 3, 2019
ISBN: 9781982609344 

Jack King is happy planning for college, hanging out with his two best friends and meeting the girl of his dreams, Kate. And then Kate suddenly dies and Jack sent back to the night they met. The time loop means Jack might have a chance to save Kate. Each time he comes back he has to face consequences of his actions hoping that one of the times he will get it right and save Kate and keep his friends.

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Amazing Audiobooks (#AA2020) Nominees Round Up, April 24 Edition

The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philipe; Narrated by James Fouhey
HarperAudio
Publication Date: January 8, 2019
ISBN: 1982607815

Norris Kaplan, a Haitian French Canadian teen, is immigrating for the second time in his life. This time he is moving from Montreal, Quebec to Austin, Texas. As he tries to survive the sweaty heat, he records his observations of the teens around him as an attempt to keep the threat of making friends in this new land at bay. Soon, his assumptions over his new classmates are challenged, and a few friendships seep in.

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Amazing Audiobooks (#AA2020) Nominees Round Up, April 17 Edition

Becoming by Michelle Obama
Random House, Inc.
Publication Date: November 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-0525633679

Michelle Obama’s memoir begins with her early childhood memories growing up on Chicago’s south side through law school, parenting, her time in the White House, culminating with the end of Barack’s presidency.  From the indignity of forgetting a color in kindergarten to a social faux pas with the Queen of England, Michelle is able to skillfully relay her life experiences ranging from the ordinary to the extraordinary. She also does not shy away from her struggles throughout her life to fit in, balance motherhood and career, and find her way in the White House. Throughout Becoming, Obama relays many engaging, relatable and enlightening memories of her life.

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Amazing Audiobooks (#AA2020) Nominees Round Up, April 10 Edition

Lovely War by Julie Berry
Listening Library
Publication Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN 9781984838254

From the heights of the Royal Albert Hall to the gore of the trenches at the front, Berry’s novel uses the sweeping backdrop of World War One to explore themes of love, connection, forgiveness, and beauty. Jayne Entwhistle as omniscient and occasionally omnipotent Aphrodite, delivers a bravado performance as four young people find, and then lose, their soulmates as the war rages.

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Amazing Audiobooks (#AA2020) Nominees Round Up, April 3 Edition

Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America edited by Ibi Zoboi, narrated by  Bahni Turpin, Ron Butler
HarperAudio
Published Date: January 8, 2019
ISBN13: 9780062698742

From a girl at a camp in the Oregon woods trying to make peace with the life she sees her half-sister having, to a nerdy Foot Locker employee in a Chewbacca shirt trying to hit on the cute girl from Nordstroms, this anthology of seventeen A-list authors looks at the diverse experiences of Black teens across the country. From the funny story of Coe Booth’s New York teen spending summers at Hackathons to having your heartstrings pulled in Jay Coles story of two boys on the wrong side of a family feud falling in love, but having to compete against each other in horse racing, and to Brandy Colbert’s of a girl often seen as an “oreo,” who secretly applied to a HBCU without telling her parents, each story stands out as it explores identity where being Black is Black Enough.

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Amazing Audiobooks (#AA2020) Nominees Round Up, March 27 Edition

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas; Narrated by Bahni Turpin
Harper Collins
Publication Date: February 5, 2019
ISBN: 9780062840691

Bri’s life has not been easy – her dad was shot when she was young, her brother made it out of the neighborhood and went to college, but is now working for minimum wage at a pizza place, and her mom just lost her job. Bri dreams of becoming a famous rapper as an answer to their troubles. She is trying to be her own person – more than the younger sister who can’t live up to her brother’s grades and more than the daughter following in her rapper father’s footsteps. She wants to be known as a rapper based on her own skills and not those of her father. In Bri’s quest to become a rapper, she must decide who and what she is willing to compromise.

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Amazing Audiobooks (#AA2020) Nominees Round Up, March 20 Edition

The Love and Lies of Ruhksana Ali by Sabina Khan
Scholastic Audio
Published Date: January 29, 2019
ISBN: 978-1987156225

This audio version of this debut novel immerses the listener in a domestic crisis as Ruhksana’s immigrant parents spirit her away to Bangladeshi to grapple with her sexual orientation and their own expectations. Meanwhile, Ruhksana tries to keep her relationship with her girlfriend Ariana going long-distance and works to explore her family’s own shadowy history. Narrator Richa Shukla does a deft job in switching between characters among three generations of Bangladeshi and Bangladeshi Americans, punctuating with particular enthusiasm the especially mouth-watering descriptions of South Asian foods.

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Amazing Audiobooks (#AA2020) Nominees Round Up, March 13 Edition

Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus; Narrated by Sophie Amoss and Kirby Heyborne
Random House, Inc., Listening Library
Publication Date: January 8, 2019
ISBN: 9781984882370

True crime fan, Ellery, and her twin brother Ezra move to live with their grandmother in a town where two girls have gone missing or been killed near homecoming, including Ellery and Ezra’s aunt. Five years ago, a girl was found dead after homecoming, and the murderer was never caught. Malcolm has not had any easy go at high school, his brother was dating the girl who was killed five years ago and was the prime suspect. Since then, Malcolm and his family have been outcasts within the small town. When new threats start to appear near homecoming, Malcolm is suspected and Ellery could be in danger.

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Amazing Audiobooks (#AA2020) Nominees Round Up, March 6 Edition

Fire Song by Adam Garnet Jones, narrated by Dillan Meighan Chiblow
Annick Press
Published Date: December 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1554519774

Shane, a closeted-gay Anishinabe teenager living in Northern Ontario, has one main goal – to leave his reservation to go to college and live a freer life. Reeling from his sister’s suicide, his mother has shut down, forcing Shane to make a lot of hard choices, but with very few options, and while managing his own grief. Tensions start to surface as he is unable to reciprocate intimacy to his girlfriend Tara, and from his forbidden hidden romance with David.

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