Here are some young adult audiobooks you are sure to enjoy!
Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi
In debut novelist Choi's quirky love-story-of-sorts, narrators Osmanski's and Roy convincingly propel two misfits toward each other. Osmanski's Penny is slightly detached, avoiding her mother's orbit by escaping to UT Austin, hoping to find a whole new world. Roy voices Sam, Penny's roommate's
21-year-old ex-uncle-by-marriage (got all that?). Penny and Sam's chance second meeting involves a panic-not-heart-attack. They fatefully designate each other "emergency contacts", and their texting begins...
Mariam Sharma Hits the Road by Sheba Karim
Mariam, Ghazala, and Umar are three best friends, their aural personalities immediately differentiated by chameleonic Nankani. Despite sharing Pakistani American and New Jersey backgrounds, their families couldn't be more different. When Ghaz gets shamed by their pious Muslim community for posing (scantily clad) for a clothing ad that appears sky high in Times Square, her conservative parents lock her in her room. Mariam and Umar orchestrate her breakout, embarking on a road trip through the South that gives Mars the chance to confront her deadbeat dad, while Umar contemplates coming out to his homophobic parents.
Darius the Great is Not Okay
Darius Kellner, 16, is a self-described "fractional Persian": His mother is an Iranian immigrant, his father a "Teutonic Uber-mensch." But like Dad, Darius is clinically depressed, and their only noncombative interactions involve watching Star Trek episodes. When Darius' grandfather falls terminally ill, the Kellners trek 32 hours to Yazd, Iran, for an overdue family reunion. The visit proves life-changing, as Darius experiences his first true friendship.
A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi
Best-selling author Mafi grounds her latest in reality in this can't-turn-away, timely story about teens falling in love despite intolerant peer pressure, difficult family situations, and cultural divides. This post-9/11 coming-of-age story of Persian American teen Shirin should be an effective catalyst for engaging important family conversations.
A Thousand Beginnings and Endings edited by Ellen Oh & Elsie Chapman
Myths and tales with East and South Asian roots get vibrantly reimagined by 15 best-selling, award-winning authors of Asian descent. Alyssa Wong, a fifth-generation Chinese American, sets hungry ghosts in Arizona, where "there's a long history of Chinese immigrants." E.C. Myers uses gaming and cosplay to create a "mash-up of the greatest hits of Korean mythology and folk literature." Aisah Saeed give agency to a dancing courtesan of the Mughal Empire. Guest narrates 12 of the 15, occasionally faltering on Asian words. Adam affectingly reads the rest. Quibbles aside, the impressive collection lingers.
The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan
Assisted by a huge red bird, mysterious strangers, and all the people who love her, 15-year-old Leigh begins the aching journey back to life, laughter and even first love after her mother's suicide. Hsu reads with youthful rawness, embodying the broad spectrum of Leigh's experiences across realities, oceans, cultures, and fanily histories.
Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough
Combing both free verse and prose, McCullough's revelatory historical fiction debut is enhances by Xe Sands' perceptive reading of this portrait of an artist as a young woman, which introduces Renaissance painter Artemisia Gentileschi, whose career was throttled by sexual violence.
Dumplin' by Julie Murphy
This book stars self-proclaimed "cashier, Dolly Parton enthusiast" and resident "fat girl" Willowdean Dickson, who enters the local beauty contest- run by her former beauty queen mom.
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
A giddy delight about college freshman Cath's growing up, growing apart (from her twin), and growing in love (for the first time), featuring Rebecca Lowman who voices the novel, with fan-fiction interludes elegantly recited in posh British by Maxwell Caufield.
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
Acevedo narrates her debut novel-in-verse, and that's a sublime gift. She's undoubtedly the ideal aural arbiter of her dazzling coming-of-age tale about a Harlem teen whose generational, cultural, religious, and emotional conflicts coalesce to teach her "to believe in the power of her own words."
Sadie by Courtney Summers
A stupendous, fully realized production- including podcasts with ads!- about a murdered girl, the sister determined to track down her killer, and the journalist desperate to figure out what happened. Riveting, though maybe best not listened to at night.
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
With their marriage apparently already arranged, Dimple is all but guaranteed to shun Rishi, her intended...we're talking a setup in a prestigious pre-college science summer program in 21st-century northern California, after all.
~Enjoy!
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