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Recent favorites from the Perkins recording studio narrators: Perkins’ Recommended Reads

Take a recommendation from some local book readers. If there’s one thing the Perkins Library narrators like to do, it is read! When asked to share the titles of some of the books they had read recently, there was an immediate and enthusiastic response.

Take a recommendation from some local book readers.

If there’s one thing the Perkins Library narrators like to do, it is read! When asked to share the titles of some of the books they had read recently, there was an immediate and enthusiastic response. Not only do our narrators read a LOT of books, they read from a wide variety of genres: fiction, historical fiction, science fiction, humor, politics, history, mystery, science and beloved classics. Here’s a list of the titles that were particular favorites for you to enjoy!

Digital book (DB), braille (BR), large print (LT), and audio described videos (DVD) copies of these titles are available from the Perkins Library or the Worcester Talking Book Library. Please contact the library to order any of these books.

Prepared by Nancy Gahagan
Recording Studio Manager
Perkins Library


After Alice

Gregory Maguire

Ada, a friend of Alice’s from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (DB 50842), falls down the same hole Alice has recently disappeared into. As she searches for her friend, Ada encounters many of the same inhabitants of Wonderland, including the Cheshire Cat, the March Hare, and the Mad Hatter. 2015.

Download After Alice, DB 83521

Download After Alice, BR 21408

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

Lewis Carroll

Extraordinary things happen when a little girl falls down a rabbit hole and encounters the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, and other unusual characters. Alice’s second adventure takes her to a land with a peculiar back-to-front order in which everything is reversed. For grades 3-6 and older readers. 1865.

Download Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, DB 50842

Arcadia

Iain Pears

In 1960, Oxford scholar and sometime British spy Henry Lytten spends much of his time inventing stories of a fantasy world. Unbeknownst to him, his lover, Angela, has left behind a portal to other times and worlds in his cellar. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2016.

Download Arcadia, DB 83748

Beloved

Toni Morrison

Related in kaleidoscopic fashion and set in rural Ohio during the period immediately following the Civil War, this chronicle of slavery and its aftermath traces the life of Sethe, a former slave. Sethe has a secret in her past so horrific that it has alienated the community, driven off her two sons, isolated her surviving daughter, and threatened her new, loving relationship with Paul D., also a former slave. Some violence. 1987.

Download Beloved, DB 26026

Download Beloved, BR 16707

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

Trevor Noah

The host of TV’s The Daily Show shares his coming-of-age story as the child of a white father and black mother in South Africa. Their very union was considered a crime, and when the author was born during apartheid, his biracial status made him an outcast. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2016.

Download Born a Crime, DB 86608

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

Daniel James Brown

Recounts the accomplishments of nine working-class athletes from the University of Washington who beat elite teams at home and abroad and won the gold medal for rowing at the 1936 Nazi-orchestrated Berlin Olympics. Bestseller. 2013.

Download The Boys in the Boat, DB 77138

Download The Boys in the Boat, BR 21495

Caleb’s Crossing

Geraldine Brooks

Bethia Mayfield secretly befriends Caleb, a Martha’s Vineyard Wampanoag Indian. After smallpox kills Caleb’s family, Bethia’s minister father takes him in to be educated. Bethia follows Caleb and her brother Makepeace to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1660 as an indentured servant while the boys prepare to attend Harvard College. Bestseller. 2011.

Download Caleb’s Crossing, DB 73473

Educated: A Memoir

Tara Westover

Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty, and of the grief that comes from severing one’s closest ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one’s life through new eyes, and the will to change it. 2018.

Download Educated, DB 90188

First Family

Joseph J. Ellis

A Pulitzer-prize winning author chronicles the brilliant lives of America’s founding couple, John and Abigail Adams. This is an illuminating and often moving volume that is part political history, part biography, and part love story. 2010. Produced in the Perkins Library Recording Studio.

Download First Family, DBC 3786

Download First Family, BR 19446

Girl Waits with Gun

Amy Stewart

Constance Kopp towers over most men, has no interest in marriage or domestic affairs, and has been isolated since a family secret sent her and her sisters into hiding fifteen years ago. But when Constance is forced to confront her past and defend her family, she does it in a way that few women of 1914 would have dared. 2015.

Download Girl Waits with Gun, DB 86312

Grant

Ron Chernow

Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Washington (DB 72132) and Alexander Hamilton (DB 58364) provides a detailed portrait of Civil War general and eventual president Ulysses S. Grant. Discusses Grant’s life prior to the Civil War, his business troubles, his remarkable role in the war, his later political career, and more. 2017.

Download Grant, DB 89541

The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health

David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé

Married couple geomorphologist Montgomery and biologist Biklé recount the efforts they have made in transforming their yard into a thriving garden and the ways their experiences factored into Biklé’s cancer diagnosis. The authors discuss the need for introducing organic material and maintaining a healthful balance with microbes, among other subjects. 2016.

Download The Hidden Half of Nature, DB 83845

Download The Hidden Half of Nature, BR 21432

In a Dark, Dark Wood

Ruth Ware

Twenty-six-year-old British crime-fiction writer Leonora Shaw is shocked to be invited to her long-estranged friend’s hen party. Soon after their arrival at the remote glass house in the woods, it becomes obvious that someone besides the invitees is on the property. Then Leonora awakens in the hospital. Strong language and some violence. 2015.

Download In a Dark, Dark Wood, DB 82625

Download In a Dark, Dark Wood, BR 21161

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

Bryan Stevenson

Attorney and law professor discusses founding the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need. Describes one of his first cases–defending Walter McMillian, a young man sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2014.

Download Just Mercy, DB 80035

Lab Girl

Hope Jahren

Geobiologist chronicles her life in science. Describes growing up with a father who encouraged her interest in the field; research field trips that have taken her to Florida, the North Pole, and Ireland; and her enduring work relationship with lab partner Bill Hagopian. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller. 2016.

Download Lab Girl, DB 84436

Less

Andrew Sean Greer

A failed novelist turning fifty is invited to his ex-boyfriend’s wedding. Instead of attending, he decides to accept every other invitation he has received, even if it means traveling the world for random, odd literary events. Won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2017.

Download Less, DB 88794

Download Less, BR 22198

Little Fires Everywhere

Celeste Ng

Elena Richardson and her family lead an orderly existence in Shaker Heights, Ohio, until Mia and her daughter rent a house from them. When a neighbor tries to adopt a baby, Elena and Mia end up on opposing sides of the custody battle. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2017.

Download Little Fires Everywhere, DB 89018

Download Little Fires Everywhere, BR 22149

Making Masterpiece

Rebecca Eaton

Executive producer of PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery! reminisces about productions she has been a part of; decisions she has made, including her efforts to attract younger viewers; and the development of the Masterpiece brand during her tenure. Preface by Kenneth Branagh. 2013.

Download Making Masterpiece, DB 77764

Download Making Masterpiece, BR 20346

No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Jack Reacher

Lee Child

Twelve entries featuring itinerant loner Jack Reacher, who constantly stumbles upon—and tackles—crime. In “Too Much Time,” Reacher thwarts a bag snatcher, only to be arrested after giving his witness statement. Includes some stories found elsewhere in the NLS/BPH collection. Violence, some strong language, and some explicit descriptions of sex. Bestseller. 2017.

Download No Middle Name, DB 88274

Download No Middle Name, BR 21908

Pachinko

Min Jin Lee

Sunja, the beloved daughter of a prominent Korean family, finds herself pregnant and abandoned by her lover. To save her family’s reputation, she marries a tubercular minister and moves to Japan. She and her descendants deal with being separated from their homeland and never quite accepted. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2017.

Download Pachinko, DB 86934

A Place for Us: A Novel

Fatima Foreen Mirza

Parents Layla and Rafiq gather their family together for their daughter Hadia’s wedding—including youngest and only son Amar, who has been estranged from the family for three years. Secrets and resentments bubble forth as the reasons for the fracture of the family are revealed. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2018.

Download A Place for Us, DB 91422

Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon

Robert Kurson

Profile of the Apollo 8 space mission, which launched in December 1968 after a year of turmoil in the United States and was the first manned spacecraft to orbit the moon. Also profiles the crew, including astronauts Frank F. Borman II, James A. Lovell, Jr., and William A. Anders. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2018.

Download Rocket Men, DB 91450

Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman

Lindy West

This collection of humorous essays from a writer and performer tackles topics ranging from pop culture to body image. She argues for fat acceptance, and addresses online trolls who target women, sharing her own experiences. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2016.

Download Shrill, DB 84703

Things that Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics

Charles Krauthammer

Conservative Pulitzer Prize winner Krauthammer, who was trained as a psychiatrist, compiles favorite columns from his thirty-year writing career. In addition to politics, government, and autobiographical pieces, his topics include creationism, Judaism, chess, and border collies. Bestseller. 2013.

Download Things that Matter, DB 77730

Vinegar Girl: A Novel

Ann Tyler

A modern take on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew (DB 35793). Prickly Kate Battista looks after her father and pretty younger sister, Bunny, while working in a preschool. Her father wants her to marry his lab assistant, Pyotr, to keep him from being deported. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2016.

Download Vinegar Girl, DB 84781

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