A must-listen holiday novella in the Fallen Crest series.
C. J. Carmichael presents Book 2 in the Shannon Sisters series.
She’s the Christmas light in a world that seems so dark . . .
Jackie Lau presents Book 2 in the Holidays with the Wongs series.
Greg Wong hates when things don’t go according to plan, so he definitely doesn’t appreciate it when his mother insists he drive Tasha Edwards back to Mosquito Bay for the Christmas holidays. He likes peace and quiet when he’s in the car, and that’s the opposite of what he’ll get with Tasha, his high school sweetheart. The first woman he ever loved.
In Trick Shot, a spicy Christmas novella, Leo, Riley, and Jace embark on a passionate and unconventional romance that challenges societal norms. As they navigate their desires and explore the boundaries of their connection, they discover that love knows no bounds, especially during the enchanting holiday season.
Hugo Award–winning editor, and horror legend, Ellen Datlow presents a terrifying and chilling horror anthology of original short stories exploring the endless terrors of winter solstice traditions across the globe, featuring chillers by Tananarive Due, Stephen Graham Jones, Alma Katsu, and many more.
This completely addictive psychological thriller from bestselling author Mikayla Davids is packed with chilling twists that will keep you up all night! Perfect for fans of Lucy Foley, Lisa Jewell, and Ruth Ware.
From the New York Times–bestselling author, a tale of family tensions and foul play at a snowed-in Connecticut country house.
They come in with the snow. They are the snow . . .
The true story of a man whose life is transformed when he takes an unlikely caretaking job for a disabled 87-year-old who is more than he seems.
“Readers will be warmed and inspired by his story.” —Candace Smith,Booklist
tags: self-help, biography, memoir
In this gripping, high-stakes novel of World War II, the bestselling author of Before the Storm draws on real events to tell the story of one woman’s daring role in the Dutch resistance as part of a most unusual task force.
tags: historical, fiction, women, military
Family history, modern genetics, and well-kept secrets collide as Angie Bier is drawn into a search for a stranger’s birth father hidden somewhere in her own family tree. The search leads to dusty archives, clues hidden in plain sight, and the cutting edge of commercial genetic testing.
tags: mystery, family, autobiography, adoption
In The Kremlin’s Noose Amy Knight tells the riveting story of Vladimir Putin and the oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who forged a relationship in the early years of the Yeltsin era.
“A chilling, compellingly written exploration of Russian politics.” —Kirkus Reviews Starred Review
“Putin casts a larger shadow over Russia’s fate than anyone expected when he became president and so do those who got him to the Kremlin. Berezovsky first among them. Their roles in Russia’s history must be investigated. A veteran Russia watcher, Amy Knight is perfectly equipped to do this.” —Andrei Soldatov,The Compatriots
tags: history, Russia
When a notorious art thief surfaces, warring detective exes reunite for the hunt. A second-chance lesbian romantic suspense that fuses the fine line between love and hate.
tags: lesbian, romance, mystery, detectives
Nicole Fox presents Book 2 in the Groza Bratva series. I’m taking our baby and I’m running. Let him try to catch us if he can.
From the downright chilling, to scary and the weird, this collection of REAL ghost stories is ideal for a Halloween thrill or an insight into a unique haunted history.
tags: supernatural, ghosts, unexplained phenomena
A group of boyhood friends in the summer of 1977. An annual rite of passage in a dark and alluring Pennsylvania wood. The channeling of a malevolent Presence. And a childhood game about to go terribly wrong . . .
tags: horror, occult, supernatural, thrillers
Four brand-new horror novellas from “a modern-day Algernon Blackwood” all about books, stories, manuscripts—the written word has never had sharper teeth . . .
tags: short stories, thrillers, psychological, horror, suspense
A girl suffering from paralyzing night terrors finds a missing poster hanging from the door of her apartment building. On that poster is a photograph of a frighteningly familiar face. It’s her. Only, she’s never seen this photo before and something about its grin scares her. She must discover: What is real and what is the nightmare?
tags: horror, thrillers, psychological
In a bewitchingly melancholy, thrillingly modern ghost story for fans of Eve Chase, Megan Shepherd, and Lisa Jewell, the new inhabitants of a centuries-old castle perched on a remote island in northwest Scotland must confront its tragic and terrifying history . . .
tags: gothic, historical, occult, supernatural
A Goodreads Most Anticipated Horror of 2024 and a must-listen for fans of gothic fiction.
“A Sapphic séance of preternatural proportions, My Darling Dreadful Thing summons a stunning new literary voice to be reckoned with. Johanna van Veen reaches beyond the veil to conjure up a gothic shocker like no other.” —Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters
A work of literary horror in the gothic tradition, The Invisible Hotel is a startling, speculative tale of a woman in crisis and in stasis, and a country’s shifting identity in the long afterlife of the Korean War.
tags: gothic, occult, supernatural
A captivating tale of two Victorian gentlemen hiding their relationship away in a botanical garden who embark on a Frankenstein-style experiment with unexpected consequences.
The ten years separating Stella Cruz and I matter a whole hell of a lot. She has a year of college left and I have another Cup to win. Hockey leaves no room for anything else, not even someone as incredible as Stella. So, I left her in my bed. Out of sight, out of . . . sight. Because I damn sure can’t get her out of my mind.
Mandi Beck presents Book 1 in the FU HOCKEY series.
Performed by Janina Edwards
Gods and lawyers battle for the soul of the world in the action-packed second volume of Max Gladstone’s Craft Wars, an epic fantasy like no other.
Performed by Kim Niemi
Bestselling author, TEDx speaker, and podcaster Allison Carmen’s new audiobook, Maybe Everything is Okay: A Parent’s Guide to Less Stress and Worry, offers parents a powerful and uplifting tool called the “Maybe mindset” to help them navigate the unknown with greater ease and renewed hope.
Performed by Lauren Elkin
A novel of Paris, desire, love, psychoanalysis, and the turbulent affairs of two couples across time.
Performed by Brian Telestai
In this rich and engrossing guide for music lovers everywhere, you’ll discover how a single song can make history.
Queer women have been written out of history since, well, forever. A Short History of Queer Women sets the record straight on women who have loved other women through the ages.
Performed by Ben Allen
Bad Gays is a passionate argument for rethinking gay politics beyond questions of identity and the search for solidarity across boundaries.
Performed by Patrick Lawlor
From the author of the groundbreaking bestseller Queer in America, a myth-shattering look at the present and future of gay rights.
Performed by Graham Halstead
In 1978, Harvey Milk asked Gilbert Baker to create a unifying symbol for the growing gay rights movement, and on June 25 of that year, Baker’s Rainbow Flag debuted at San Francisco’s Gay Liberation Day parade. Baker had no idea his creation would become an international emblem of freedom, forever cementing his place and importance in helping to define the modern LGBTQ+ movement.
Guidebooks
Performed by Amy Deuchler
This easy-to-use dictionary introduces the most essential vocabulary surrounding LGBTQ+ identities. Whether you’re questioning your own identity or simply interested in learning more, this useful guide will help you navigate the world with knowledge, understanding, and kindness.
Performed by Sarah Beth Pfeifer
Fully revised and updated guide with frank, sensitive information for LGBTQ teens, their families, and their allies.
Performed by Christopher Solimene
Lesbian. Bisexual. Queer. Transgender. Straight. Curious. This book is for everyone, regardless of gender or sexual preference. This book is for anyone who’s ever dared to wonder. This book is for you.
Memoirs
Performed by the author
A personal and culture-driven exploration of the most pressing questions facing the transgender community today, from leading activist, musician, and academic CN Lester.
Performed by Nicky Endres
In this searingly honest LGBTQ+ memoir, Maeve DuVally tells the story of coming out transgender in one of the most high-profile financial institutions in America, Goldman Sachs.
Performed by the author
Leg is an extraordinarily funny and insightful memoir from a daring new voice. Packed with outrageous stories of a singular childhood, it is also a unique examination of what it means to transform when there are parts of yourself you can’t change, a moving portrait of a family in crisis, and a tale of resilience of spirit.
Performed by the author
This witty memoir traces a touching and often hilarious spiralic path to embracing a gay, Latinx identity against a culture of machismo—from a cockfighting ring in Nicaragua to cities across the U.S.—and the bath houses, night clubs, and drag queens who help redefine pride.
Performed by John Dickhout
From early childhood, through coming out first as a lesbian and then as a man, and his battles with epilepsy and refusal to give in, Soar, Adam, Soar chronicles Adam Prashaw’s drive to define himself, his joyful spirit, and his love of life, which continues to conquer all.
Collections
Performed by Robin Eller
In this charged collection of fifteen essays and speeches, influential poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class, and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change.
Performed by Sarah Beth Pfeifer
What happens when your gender doesn’t fit neatly into the categories of male or female? In this groundbreaking book, thirty authors highlight how our experiences are shaped by a deeply entrenched gender binary.
Performed by Lee Osorio
A Great Gay Book: Stories of Growth, Belonging and Other Queer Possibilities is a gorgeously designed collection of essays, short fiction, poetry, interviews, profiles, as well as new material from many of today’s biggest LGBTQ+ creatives.
Need tips this gardening season? Look no further than these listens!
Performed by Stephen R. Thorne
In a friendly, straightforward style, professional horticulturist Steven A. Frowine distills fifty years of gardening experience to show you how to start growing your expertise—from planning out your own mini-Eden and planting your first annuals, bulbs, and perennials through to laying the perfect lawn, raising tasty crops, and even introducing fish to your landscape.
Performed by Tanya Enby
Whether your thumb is a fertile green or you’ve never put plant-to-pot before, this book will bring out your inner farmer: you’ll find everything required to transform your garden into a self-renewing larder—and complement every meal with a crisp, healthy, home-grown treat.
Performed by Chelsea Stephens
Melissa K. Norris, fifth generation homesteader and host of the popular Pioneering Today podcast, explains how to plant a garden that will yield healthy, wholesome food throughout the year.
Performed by April Doty
Make healthier life choices to heal yourself and the environment through self-sufficiency. Holistic Homesteading by Roxanne Ahern provides the tools for living slowly, intentionally, and better through permaculture, edible gardening, and organic farming.
Performed by Amanda Ronconi
In Getting Baked, sustainable living expert Barb Webb takes you on an in-depth journey through everything you ever wanted to know about CBD, including the science, side effects, dosages, and benefits. You’ll also take a deep dive into herbs and botanicals that complement CBD and complete your medicinal garden.
Although I have written, spoken, and produced audiobooks for years, I’m excited that Johnny Heller is reading my words for Tantor Media, Inc.’s release of the audiobook of Say Hello to My Little Friend: A Century of Scarface.
The print edition of my exhaustive history of both Howard Hawks’s 1932 Scarface and Brian DePalma’s brilliant 1983 remake is available in print from Kensington Publishers. This spoken counterpart from Tantor brings both films to life for fans who want to enjoy it on the go or just hanging in the crib remembering what it was like the first time they saw Tony Montana do his thing.
Scarface was a phenomenon. The saga of Cuban refugee Tony Montana (Al Pacino) and his friend Manny Ribera (Steven Bauer) rising through the cocaine trade in South Florida in the 1980s was always a great movie, but it took years for it to find its most appreciative audience. When it did, it exploded: Scarface clothes, posters, do-dads, video games, and even a hip-hop artist who changed his name in homage.
Why does Scarface continue to resonate forty years after its release?
For starters, it’s not about drugs. Well, okay, it is about drugs, but it also isn’t; it’s really about American capitalism, supply and demand, enforcement, chicanery, and, especially, competition. Some people even say it’s really about Hollywood.
At its base, it’s the story of a smart man who does dumb things, a man whose exploits are a mixture of desperation and ambition. It just happens that what he does is illegal. Oliver Stone caught that irony in his script (which he wrote while waiting for Platoon to get financed), and everyone involved with the film shared a commitment to excellence.
I lost count of how many interviews I did about the book when it came out and am still doing. The one thing I constantly heard from everyone I spoke to is how much they loved Scarface because it was so over-the-top. And it’s true. Its characters are larger than life, the violence is beyond description, and the language—well, I’m looking forward to hearing how Johnny deals with it, since Tantor is producing it un-censored.
Going back nearly a hundred years to its source, the 1932 Scarface, which starred Paul Muni, was an original film, but not an original story. Based on the novel by Armitage Trail, it was more or less about the life and sordid career of Al Capone, the Chicago gang boss who ran the Windy City in the 1920s. King of the bootleg booze trade, Capone had his gangland rivals wiped out and bribed enough city officials to keep control of the illegal liquor trade. In the end, he was undone, not by a rival, but by failure to pay his income taxes.
In fictionalizing Capone’s seamy story, Trail added a family conflict, a backstory in World War I, and a brother who was on the right side of the law. When Ben Hecht wrote the script for Howard Hawks to direct for producer Howard Hughes, he stripped the story to its bare essentials, threw in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, and created a sensation.
Al Pacino happened to see a revival of the 1932 film when he was in Hollywood in the early 1980s and decided he wanted to star in a remake. Pacino being Pacino, he called his manager/producer Martin Bregman, and Bregman called Universal Pictures (who happened to have just acquired the rights to the 1932 movie), and within hours they had a deal.
It turned out that that was the easy part. As I tell in my book, getting the film made after that was an adventure in Hollywood politics. The result, as we all know, was worth it.
Say Hello to My Little Friend: A Century of Scarface answers just about every question for people who already know a lot about the movie but want to hear more. It was a privilege to be able to write it and to speak to some of the people who worked on the film, and that’s what listeners will hear when they embark on the audio book of the story behind the story of Scarface.
Nat Segaloff is a writer, producer, journalist, and Hugo and Locus Award–nominated author of more than two dozen books about filmmakers and film history, including Hurricane Billy: The Stormy Life and Films of William Friedkin. He covered the film industry for the Boston Herald and worked on A&E’s flagship Biography series as well as programming for The Learning Channel, New World, Disney, Turner Classic Movies, and USA Network. As one of the original publicists on The Exorcist, he closes a haunting chapter in his life with The Exorcist Legacy. Segaloff lives in Los Angeles and can be found online at natsegaloff.com.
It’s February 9, are you celebrating National Pizza Day?
Why not add a little pizza knowledge (or fun) while you chow down on your favorite slice.
Fun facts:
In the US, we consume approximately 3 billion pizzas a year. That is the equivalent to 350 slices per second.
17% of all restaurants in the USA are pizza shops
The top 10 US states that eat the most pizza in order are: Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Iowa, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Ohio, West Virginia
And if you are craving more, here are a few pizza related titles for your dining pleasure.
We don’t know about you, but we can’t wait to listen to all of the new audiobooks releasing this month!
We understand that at times it could be a challenge narrowing down your next listen, so we had our acquirers narrow down a few of their top picks for you. Roadtrips, poolside, or beachside? We’ve got you covered!
S. M. Boyce presents Book 2 in the Wraithblade series. Outlaw. Assassin. Aspiring warlord. Connor Magnuson’s been called many names, but which of them are true?
Note: The Wraithblade saga continues! Return to the story of Connor as he struggles with god-like powers, even as new adversaries loom. – Greg
A must-listen contemporary romance from #1 New York Times bestselling author Natasha Preston.
Note: Natasha Preston is known as the queen of YA thrillers, however, her contemporary romances are just as good as her thrillers! And you don’t want to miss this new to audio new adult romance. In this story, Savannah and Kent meet for the first time and can’t stand each other. One hates liars and the other is holding nothing but secrets…- Jordan
We don’t know about you, but we can’t wait to listen to all of the new audiobooks releasing this month!
We understand that at times it could be a challenge narrowing down your next listen, so we had our acquirers narrow down a few of their top picks for you. Roadtrips, poolside, or beachside? We’ve got you covered!
How to stay in charge in a world populated by algorithms that beat us in chess, find us romantic partners, and tell us to “turn right in 500 yards.”
Note: Is AI really coming after your job? After your way of life? In How to Stay Smart in a Smart World, Gerg Gigerenzer explores the areas that AI succeeds in and where it still falls short and will likely continue to. The author removes the panic and technology jargon from the conversation, leaving a level-headed book that all of us can look to for an idea of what the future holds for Human-AI interactions. – Jenn Eschrich
By Man Asian Literary Prize winner Kyung-Sook Shin, “a moving delve into a lonely psyche” that follows a neglected young woman’s search for human connection in contemporary Seoul (YZ Chin).
Note: An isolated young woman confronts her own loneliness and personal desires as she navigates a bustling city, a new job in a flower shop, and unwanted social pressures. Atmospheric in its prose, Kyung-Sook Shin’s Violets examines the perspective of a marginalized woman and the society that ignores her, in 1990s Seoul. – Sonia Brand-Fisher
Bruce Lee revolutionized martial arts by combining influences drawn from around the world. Uncommonly determined, physically gifted, and artistically brilliant, Lee rose to fame as part of a wave of transpacific globalization that bridged the nearly seven thousand miles between Hong Kong and California. Like Water unpacks Lee’s global impact, linking his legendary status as a martial artist, actor, and director to his continual traversals across the newly interconnected Asia and America.
Note: A detailed look at the cultural impact of Bruce Lee, both in Asia and throughout the rest of the world. A unique blend of cultural history and biography, Like Water, unearths the cultural strands that Lee intertwined in his rise to a new kind of global stardom. A wonderful retelling of the legacy of the first Asian-American superstar.- Scott Smith
Tantor Media 