Summer is right around the corner! It’s the perfect time to start listening to a fresh new find while you go exploring or do your spring cleaning. We understand that at times it could be a challenge narrowing down your next listen, so we had our acquirers narrow down some of their top picks for you.

Untangling a Red, White, and Black Heritage

Examining the legacy of racial mixing in Indian Territory through the land and lives of two families, one of Cherokee Freedman descent and one of Muscogee Creek heritage, Darnella Davis’s memoir writes a new chapter in the history of racial mixing on the frontier.

Note: Using personal family history and scholarly research, Darnella Davis opens wide the discussion of racial mixing in Indian Territory and the effects this rarely discussed heritage has on identity and national history.  -Kim Budnick

Publishing Date: 6/15/2021

Written by: Darnella Davis

Read by: Janina Edwards

Horrid

From the author of You Must Not Miss comes a haunting contemporary horror novel that explores themes of mental illness, rage, and grief, twisted with spine-chilling elements of Stephen King and Agatha Christie.

Note: A haunting contemporary horror for fans of Stephen King and Agatha Christie, Leno confronts mental illness head on. Returning to your childhood home and readjusting to school life after your father’s death isn’t easy, it’s even harder when your mother is keeping an insidious secret locked within storage room that isn’t so empty as you’d once thought. Come take a look inside—I dare you. -Ashley Fortier

Publishing Date: 6/15/21

Written by: Katrina Leno

Read by: Heather Costa

Loving Deep (Steele Ridge Book 3)

Tracey Devlyn presents Book 4 in the Steele Ridge series. Contains mature themes.

Note: Romance? Check. Drama? Check. Keeps you sitting on the edge of your seat? Check! Loving Deep is such a great mix of family dynamics and tension filled romance that you’ll keep flipping the pages until the end. In the third installment of Steele Ridge, Britt & Miranda find themselves in a fight over Miranda’s family land. This steamy enemies to lovers is one you don’t want to miss! -Kelly Srubas

Publishing Date: 6/15/21

Written by: Tracey Devlyn

Read by: Tor Thom

Ellis Island: A People’s History

A dramatic, multi-vocal account of the personal agonies and ecstasies that played out within the walls of Ellis Island, as told by Poland’s greatest living journalist. This is the people’s history of Ellis Island—the people who passed through it, and the people who were turned away from it.

Note: We have all heard the stories and seen the photos of the huddled masses arriving at Ellis Island, but how many of us have heard the firsthand accounts of their experiences? Step back in time and listen to newly unearthed commentaries from those who passed through and worked at Ellis Island. Once thought lost to history, these diverse testimonies inspire the imagination and bring us closer to one of the United States’ most enigmatic and fabled locations. -Sonia Brand-Fisher

Publishing Date: 6/15/2021

Written by: Małgorzata Szejnert, translated by Sean Gasper Bye 

Read by: Carlotta Brentan