Have you Heard? Books About Books

Check out these audiobook recommendations from the Plano Public Library. This is just a sample of the audiobooks in our collection, and you can visit a library location for assistance in finding personalized recommendations.

Adult

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, narrated by Helen Laser. What’s the harm in a pseudonym? Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American.  As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves. With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface takes on questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation not only in the publishing industry but the persistent erasure of Asian-American voices and history by Western white society. Print / Playaway / eAudiobook / eBook.

Once Upon a Tome written and read by Oliver Darkshire. By turns unhinged and earnest, Once Upon a Tome is the colorful story of life in one of the world’s oldest bookshops and a love letter to the benign, unruly world of antiquarian bookselling, where to be uncommon or strange is the best possible compliment. Print / eAudiobook.

The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books by Edward Wilson-Lee, read by Richard Trinder. At the peak of the Age of Exploration, Hernando Colon sailed with his father Christopher Columbus on his final voyage to the New World, a journey that ended in disaster, bloody mutiny, and shipwreck. After Columbus’s death in 1506 Hernando sought to create the greatest library in the world, only to lose part of his collection to another maritime disaster in 1522, setting him off on a race against time to complete his sublime project. Print / eAudiobook.

The Gilded Page written and read by Mary Wellesley. Ranging from the earliest intact book in Europe, to the only known literary manuscript to be written in Shakespeare’s hand, scholar Mary Wellesley reveals the secret lives of these literary and artistic treasures. Print / eAudiobook.

Book Lovers by Emily Henry, narrated by Julia Whelan. A by-the-book literary agent must decide if happily ever after is worth changing her whole life for in this insightful, delightful new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read and People We Meet on Vacation. Print / Playaway / eAudiobook / eBook / Large print.

Index, a History of the by Dennis Duncan, read by Neil Gardner. Here, for the first time, is the secret world of the index: an unsung but extraordinary everyday tool, with an illustrious but little-known past. Charting its curious path from the monasteries and universities of thirteenth-century Europe to Silicon Valley in the twenty-first, Duncan uncovers how it has saved heretics from the stake, kept politicians from high office, and made us all into the readers we are today. Print / eAudiobook.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torz, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld. Two estranged half-sisters tasked with guarding their family’s library of magical books must work together to unravel a deadly secret at the heart of their collection–a tale of familial loyalty and betrayal, and the pursuit of magic and power. Print / eAudiobook / eBook.

The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz, read by Gail Shalan. While attending a month-long writing retreat at the estate of a feminist horror writer who issues a life-changing challenge, Alex, determined to win this seemingly impossible contest, ignores the strange happenings around her until the disappearance of a fellow writer leads her on a desperate search for the truth. Print / eAudiobook / eBook.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, read by Jonathan Davis. A boy named Daniel selects a novel from a library of rare books, enjoying it so much that he searches for the rest of the author’s works, only to discover that someone is destroying every book the author has ever written. Print / eAudiobook / eBook / Spanish.

Books: a Memoir by Larry McMurtry, read by William Dufris. In a prolific life of singular literary achievement, Larry McMurtry has succeeded in a variety of genres. Now, in Books: A Memoir, McMurtry writes about his endless passion for books: as a boy growing up in a largely “bookless” world; as a young man devouring the vastness of literature with astonishing energy; as a fledgling writer and family man; and above all, as one of America’s most prominent bookmen. Print / eAudiobook.

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Teen

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, narrated by Allan Corduner. Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel–a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors. Print / Playaway / CD Book / eAudiobook / eBook / Spanish / Chinese / Large print.

By the Book by Amanda Sellet, narrated by Laura Knight Keating. A teen obsessed with 19th century literature tries to cull advice on life and love from her favorite classic heroines to disastrous results–especially when she falls for the school’s resident lothario. Print / eAudiobook / eBook.

Lost in a Book by Jennifer Donnelly, narrated by Jenna Augen. Smart, bookish Belle, a captive in the Beast’s castle, has become accustomed to her new home and has befriended its inhabitants. When she comes upon Nevermore, an enchanted book unlike anything else she has seen in the castle, Belle finds herself pulled into its pages and transported to a world of glamour and intrigue. Print / Playaway / eAudiobook / eBook.

The Book Jumper by Mechthild Glaser, narrated by Mary Sarah. A teen girl discovers she is a book jumper–she can leap directly into books, meet the characters, and experience the world of the book. Print / eAudiobook.

Mother-Daughter Book Camp by Heather Bogel Frederick, narrated by a full cast. Emma, Jess, Megan, Becca, and Cassidy go to Camp Lovejoy in New Hampshire to serve as counselors and when some of the young campers are stricken with homesickness, the friends decide to start a summer camp book club. Print / eAudiobook / eBook.

Suggested Reading by Dave Connis, narrated by Kyla Garcia. After her principal bans a number of books from the school library, bibliophile student Clara joins forces with her friends to start an underground library. Print / Playaway / eAudiobook / eBook.

The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe, narrated by Marisa Calin. Follows Dita Kraus from age fourteen, when she is put in charge of a few forbidden books at Auschwitz concentration camp, through the end of World War II and beyond. Print / Playaway / CD Book / eAudiobook.

Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult. Told in their separate voices, sixteen-year-old Prince Oliver, who wants to break free of his fairy tale existence, and fifteen-year-old Delilah, a loner obsessed with Prince Oliver and the book in which he exists, work together to seek his freedom. Print / CD Book.

Here lies the Librarian by Richard Peck, narrated by Lara Everly. Fourteen-year-old Eleanor “Peewee” McGrath, a tomboy and automobile enthusiast, discovers new possibilities for her future after the 1914 arrival in her small Indiana town of four young librarians. Print / CD Book / eAudiobook.

The Reader by Traci Chee, narrated by Kim Mai Guest. Set in a world where reading is unheard-of, Sefia makes use of a mysterious object to track down who kidnapped her aunt Nin and what really happened the night her father was murdered. Print / eAudiobook / eBook.

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Children’s

The Bad Seed Goes to the Library by John Jory, narrated by Andrew Eiden. The bad seed is in a good mood…for once. That’s because there’s a really cool book at the library available for checkout. The bad seed reads, and reads, until the book can’t be read anymore. But suddenly, he gets bad news: The book must be returned to the library so another seed can enjoy it. Will the bad seed return to his baaaaaad ways and keep the book? Print / Wonderbook.

A Land of Books: Dreams of Young Mexihcah word Painters by Duncan Tonatiuh, narrated by Carolina Hoyas. Illustrations and text describe how the Mixtecs create painted manuscripts, or codices, that reflect their way of life and document their history, science, land tenure, tribute, and sacred rituals. Print / Wonderbook.

Everything in its Place: a Story of Books and Belonging by Pauline David-Sax, narrated by Imani Parks. A shy girl who feels most at home in the school library gains the courage to extend herself to others when she encounters a group of unique, diverse, inspiring women at the diner where her mother works. Print / Vox book.

Words on Fire by Jennifer A. Nielsen, narrated by Kathleen McInerney. In 1893 twelve-year-old Audra lives on a farm in Lithuania, and tries to avoid the Cossack soldiers who enforce the Russian decrees that ban Lithuanian books, religion, culture, and even the language; but when the soldiers invade the farm Audra is the only one who escapes and, unsure of what has happened to her parents, she embarks on a dangerous journey, carrying the smuggled Lithuanian books that fuel the growing resistance movement, unsure of who to trust, but risking her life and freedom for her country. Print / Playaway / CD Book / eAudiobook / eBook.

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein, narrated by Jesse Bernstein. Twelve-year-old Kyle gets to stay overnight in the new town library, designed by his hero (the famous gamemaker Luigi Lemoncello), with other students but finds that come morning he must work with friends to solve puzzles in order to escape. Print / Playaway / CD Book / eAudiobook / eBook.

Ban this Book by Alan Gratz, narrated by Bahni Turpin. A fourth grader fights back when From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg is challenged by a well-meaning parent and taken off the shelves of her school library. Print / eAudiobook / eBook.

Attack of the Black Rectangles by A.S. King, narrated by Pete Cross and Gretchen Bender. When sixth-grader Mac discovers several words of his classroom copy of Jane Yolen’s The Devil’s Arithmetic are blacked out he is outraged, so he, his friends, and his eccentric family set out to do something about the censorship imposed by one teacher and the school board. Print / eAudiobook.

Answers in the Pages by David Levithan, narrated by Christopher Gebauer, Vikas Adam and Oliver Wyman. When Donovan left his copy of The Adventurers on the kitchen counter, he didn’t think his mom would read it–much less have a problem with it. It’s just an adventure novel about two characters trying to stop an evil genius. But soon the entire town is freaking out about whether the book’s main characters are gay, Donovan’s mom is trying to get the book removed from the school curriculum, and Donovan is caught in the middle. Print / eAudiobook / eBook.

The Bookwanderers by Anna James, narrated by Aysha Kala. Eleven-year-old Tilly Pages, who has found comfort in her grandparents’ bookshop since her mother’s disappearance, now learns that she can bookwander into stories, and decides to seek her mother. Print / eAudiobook / eBook.

How to read a Book written and narrated by Kwame Alexander. Suggests a method of reading that begins with planting oneself beneath a tree and leads to a book party one hopes will never end. Print / eAudiobook.