Summer Listening
Are you planning a long drive this summer or planning to work on a project? How about taking an audiobook along for company, or an interesting story to listen to while you are working on your projects? McNichols Library has over 250 audiobooks that are brilliant, inspiring, funny, exciting, enjoyable, mysterious, and profound. Come discover a wonderful read you can listen to.
History
In the Garden of Beasts written by Erik Larson in 1933, President Roosevelt personally selected William E. Dodd to be the United States Ambassador to Nazi Germany. Dodd took his family with him, including his daughter Martha. Initially enamored with the Nazi party and its passion, Martha supported the Third Reich. However, when Hitler’s violent policies became apparent, Martha changed her opinion and watched in horror. Here, author Erik Larson offers a chilling first-person account of Germany’s transformation under Hitler’s rule. E748 D6 L37 2011ab
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks written by Rebecca Skloot. Her Name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer, yet her cells–taken without her knowledge–became one of most import tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown
in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer and viruses; helped lead to in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks is buried in an unmarked grave. Her family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. The story of the Lacks family is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of–from publisher description. RC 265.6 L24 S55 2009
Fiction
(There are so many we cannot do justice to all of them so here is just one)
The Elegance of the Hedgehog written by Murial Barbery. The lives of fifty-four-year old concierge Rene Michel and extremely bright, suicidal twelve-year-old Paloma Josse are transformed by the arrival of a new tenant, Kakuro Ozu. PQ 2662 A6523 E4413 2009b
Family
The whole family may enjoy the Alexander McCall Smith series The Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. We have several audiobooks in the series. In contemporary Botswana, sleuth Precious Ramotswe decides to go against tradition and start her own business–a detective agency. Soon she is in the thick of several perplexing cases. PR 6063 .C326 N6 2003, PR 6063 C326 M67 2003, PR 6063 T43 2003
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie written by Alan C. Bradley, first time author in his 70′s, is 
about eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce an aspiring chemist. When her father is arrested for murder she begins a search for the truth that will lead her all the way to the King of England It takes place in the 1950′s. It is a book written for the adults, but children with very large vocabularies may also enjoy it. PR 9199.4 B7324 S94 2009ab
Self Help
The Art of Conversation: A Guided Tour of a Neglected Pleasure written by Catherine Blyth is a wide-ranging, exhortatory look at the pleasures of great conversation, including strategies for how to bring it about. BJ 9199.4 B59 2009
Sizzling Summer Listening (definitely not for children!!!)
50 shades Trilogy: 50 Shades of Grey, 50 Shades Darker, 50 Shades Freed. This is listening for very private spaces, and only with the most intimate of companions. Oh, we’re blushing just typing this. PR 6110 a4555 2012
To see a complete list of the over 250 audiobooks use the keyword search in the catalog and type audiobook cd. The CDs are kept at the Check Out & Customer Service Desk.
Have a wonderful summer and happy listening!
