Hi!
The City We Became by NK Jemisin is a *fantastic* audiobook. Bonus points for it being about the spirit/essence of New York. The narrator does a beautiful job bringing voice to the burrows.
-Athina
Oooohhh – that sounds great! Thank you so much for the recommendation 🙂
*runs off to search for it at the library*
-Becky
Oh my goodness – you may have just opened a can of worms! In my mind, librarians are akin to the best magicians.✨
My taste is all over the map – I enjoy a good murder mystery and anything by Alice Hoffman. I recently read the Legacy of Orisha series by Tomi Adeyemi and loved it. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and The Dictionary of Lost Words are recent favorites, and I always try to keep one non-fiction book at the ready.
So I’m seeing those books and thinking you like thoughtful fantasy and wacky/quirky true stories (because the history of the Oxford English Dictionary is delightfully odd).
- She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
- Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
- Into the Mist by P. C. Cast
- Last Exit by Max Gladstone
- Book of Night by Holly Black
- In a Garden Burning Gold by Rory Power
- Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen (comes out August 30)
- Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
- Index, A History of the by Dennis Duncan
- Botanical Curses and Poisons: The Shadow-Lives of Plants by Fez Inkwright
- Eating to Extinction: The World’s Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them by Dan Saladino
Podcasts!
Safe travels. Two recommendations for Audio Books: The Cork O’Conner series by William Kent Krueger. The series covers the Ojibwa culture, northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, and northern Michigan, and if you haven’t read Harry Potter, the British voice makes a drive go so fast!
I would definitely recommend the audiobook version of “Braiding Sweetgrass,” especially since you are headed to NY. The author reads her beautifully written book.
I have a couple of podcasts I have really liked lately.
- Bad Women: The Ripper Story Retold. It is the history of the women who were victims of “Jack the Ripper.” Super interesting!
- Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford. Stories of awful human error, tragic catastrophes & hilarious fiascos.
- Stuff you Missed in History Class. Crazy things I should have learned….
I live in Utah and one of my favorite places is Springdale outside of Zion National Park. It is such a fun community! Also, if you are down that way, Tuacahn theater has a Saturday market that is really cool.
Have a safe drive!
Roxanne T
Thank you to everyone who took the time to share their recommendations; it was such a pleasure to read them all!
To wrap this up, I thought I would share some of my favorites, but you can easily see them on my Goodreads page. So instead, I thought I would share the book recommended to me when I embarked on my cross-country adventure over five years ago.
I was at lunch with my good friend, Susan, trying my best to explain what I was doing with my life. In a feeble attempt to sum it up without babbling, I said, “I’m selling the house and all my belongings and buying a van. Bubba (my standard poodle) and I are going to travel the country.” Not missing a beat, she replied, “Like Travels With Charley!” I stared at her blankly, and she simply said, “Steinbeck.”
So I leave you with John Steinbeck, the OG “I’m going to leave it all behind and hit the road with my poodle,” author of Travels with Charley: In Search of America.
So much love,
Becky
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6 Comments. Leave new
What a great uplifting read this morning. I need this vibe. Looking forward to Bad Women listening and Braiding Sweetgrass. Audio book. Thanks, am knitting but unable to do your Knitmas at this time.
I’m glad you enjoyed it! I had so much fun collecting the info and sharing.💕
-B
This book was very good- fantasy/eerie/ and a twist
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/41539.The_Good_House
The Good House by Tananarive Due
Thanks for the recommendation – it sounds great! -B
The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood is a great audiobook — Ann wrote it after her five-year-old daughter died unexpectedly — it’s fiction, but it deals with the role knitting and knitting friends can play in helping us navigating through a period of grief. (other Ann Hood books are great audiobooks, too.)
Thank you for the suggestion! I know we can all relate in some way to healing through knitting💕