The Bright List

A Romantic Lesbian Thriller for Fans and Newbies Alike

Rainey Nights, by R. E. Bradshaw

Grab your cozy socks, and a blanket, and curl up with a mug of spiked cocoa. Here’s a smart lesbian mystery thriller to get you through a dreary winter weekend.

In this follow-up to Rainey Days, FBI special agent behavioral specialist, Rainey Bell has been called in to help solve a series of violent crimes against young women. This time, there's so much more  at stake because she now has a family to protect (as well as one who's reluctnant to compromise!)

Mixed into this smart puzzle is brutal violence, yes, but also a sexy romance. 

Fans and newbies alike will certainly enjoy this.

Narrated by Shannon McManus.

-Willow Pennell

Bill Russell's Basketball Revolution

King of the Court, by Aram Goudsouzian

"Goudsouzian captures the complexities of the man behind the fame, both his strengths and his foibles."--Choice

Basketball legend, human rights activist, and Medal of Freedom recipient Bill Russell became the first black  superstar on the court in 1956. During his thirteen years with the  Boston Celtics, they won eleven championships. His defensive style of play changed how the game was played throughout the league. 

Not one to bob his head and act grateful for being “allowed” into the mostly white Boston Celtics, he was careful to point out the iniquities around him. His career spanned the Civil Rights movement, and it informed his entire career and philosophy. By the time he retired, basketball had become a sport dominated by African-Americans.

Russell's association with the Nation of Islam, and his not-suffering-fools attitude toward the press gave him a legacy of less celebrity than he deserves. ( Here's a clip of George Stephanopoulos mistaking him for Morgan Freeman at the Inauguration!)

One of basketball's greatest players had to endure racial epithets while he lead his team to victory time and again—how did this affect him? In the hands of Goudsouzian, who has a knack for bringing the insights of a political scholar together with entertaining storytelling, we learn. 

Narrated by one of our favorite narrators: J. D. Jackson.

-- Willow Pennell

Betty Dodson Writes Her Memoir— Unforgettable

My Romantic Love Wars, by Betty Dodson

Finally, the 83=year-old godmother of female sexual liberation writes her memoir— what a life!

"After five years of formal art training, and years of being a professional artist, I knew the creative process was about defying convention and seeking my own vision," she writes. Dodson applies this to her sexual life and what follows is literally, feminist history.

Romantic Love Wars is a book to get absorbed in. Betty’s writing is so nonchalant, so scream-out-loud funny in parts, so wise about every subject she touches on. 

My biggest surprise was her homage to her tough-as-nails mother back in Kansas. Her familial loyalty gave her the strength and backbone to be nothing less than a sexual revolutionary.

Narrated with just the right smokey notes of knowing humor by Barbara Rosenblat, one of the most respected and popular narrators of audiobooks today. 

-- Aretha Bright & Willow Pennell

Pony Play + S/M + Intellectual Treat = Erotic Legend

Safe Word: An Erotic S/M Novel, by Molly Weatherfield

This is the sequel to the legendary Carries’s Story.

The witty, sharp Carrie is our heroine. (This was BEFORE Sex and the City, dammit!)

Carrie is introduced to "Pony Play" by her lover in the first book,  and is taken to Greece by her new master in Safe Word— where she finds even more pleasure in obedience and human dressage.

Weatherfield's the master of convincing, erotic S/M scenes. Her characters are flawed and endearing enough make you want to know what comes next, the classic book you can't put down until you get to the last drop. Those of you who loved this book since its debut are going to be drooling over the audio! 

Narrated by Shaina Savage  and William Sharpe. 

Iraq & Afghanistan Vets — Of Every Stripe— Tell It Like It Is

Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan: Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations, by Iraq Veterans Against the War,  Aaron Glantz, and  Anthony Swofford

“The only way this war is going to end is if the American people truly understand what we have done in their name.” - Kelly Dougherty, executive director of Iraq Veterans Against the War

The REAL story of what’s happened in Iraq and Afganistan, as told by the veterans and current soldiers living in the middle of it—Talk about getting behind the scenes!

You will NEVER hear these stories on the front page of the family newspaper— they're certainly not on the broadcast TV news. 

These important, sometimes tragic stories from the front tell not only of the war crimes and tresspasses in the combat zones, but of the institutionalized military culture that changes every outcome, often at great personal expense.

In matter-of-fact, un-sensationalized voices, we get the view from the Front and from within. 

Anthony Swofford, former U.S. Marine and author of the highly acclaimed Jarhead, wrote the opening to Winter Soldier and also did a piece for Slate Magazine on the book.

The studio team at Audible did a terrific job casting this audiobook— it comes alive with multiple voices that sound like the amazing diversity of the book: every region of America, every race and class, men and women, young and old.

Required listening, and a real honor for everyone in the Audible studio to be a part of.

Narrated by Brian Sutherland, Julia Farhat, Edoardo Ballerini, Suzanne Toren, Peter Ganim, Stephen Bel Davies, Matthew Dudley, Jonathan Davis, Lameece Issaq,Anthony Haden Salerno, Karen Chilton, Gabra Zackman,Lauren Fortgang, Anthony Bowden, Ira Rosenberg, David Ledoux

--Aretha Bright and Willow Pennell

Julie Klausner's "How Was Your Week" is the Cherry on Top

The New York Times recently wrote a rave review of Julie Klausner's hilarious podcast, How Was Your Week.

You may recall, her excellent book,  I Don't Care About Your Band was recently released on Audible and reviewed here on the Bright List.

The cream does rise to the top, and Julie is getting the attention she deserves. Brava, Julie!

Washed Up by Sixteen— Are We Pushing Young Athletes Too Far?

Until It Hurts: America’s Obsession with Youth Sports and How It Harms Our Kids, by Mark Hyman

At what cost are we asking our kids to live out our dreams? Hard work and love of sport are one thing—but sixteen year olds, used up and limping around like old men— is quite another.

Mark Hyman examines the youth sports culture that drives kids to be "superstar" athletes at earlier and earlier ages-- starting with himself.

Hyman has been in the trenches as a "sports dad," getting  heavily involved in the leagues and practices, until it became “as much a fulltime job as my fulltime job.”

I always thought the push for excellence in young players was so they could get scholarships to colleges, or into professional leagues. If their injuries make them used up before they even get there, what are we doing?

Hyman offers solutions and perspective— he knows how many people have this on their minds.  I'd recommend this book to anyone with kids, especially those ferrying their kids to three kinds of practice every day of the week.

Narrated by Mike Chamberlain.

--Willow Pennell

Mark Hyman Tallys the Price of Kids' Sport Teams— in Dollars and Lives

The Most Expensive Game in Town: The Rising Cost of Youth Sports and the Toll on Today’s Families, by Mark Hyman

Mark Hyman tallys the price of youth sports in the USA in dollars and lives. From equipment to private lessons, from tournament trips to MRIs, parents are bleeding themselves dry for their children’s activities. 

The example of the parents who skipped health insurance payments to pay for their son’s golf lessons was shocking! 

Some parents try to live their dreams through their children. They believe they're investing in their children’s future,  led astray by the many corporate youth programs who tell them their kids are the next Venus & Serena Williams— they just need more lessons, more workshops, more camps.

Fine investigative journalism might make you think twice before you send your kid across the country to Lacrosse summer camp.

Narrated by Mike Chamberlain.

--Willow Pennell

Fifty-Two Reasons to Pick Up Chomsky

Making the Future: Occupations, Interventions, Empire, and Resistance, by Noam Chomsky

The follow up to Interventions, Making the Future is fifty-two tightly reasoned, incendiary essays written for the New York Times  between 2007 and 2011.

Chomsky covers events from the presidential campaign, the inauguration of Barack Obama, to the rise of the Left in Latin America. 

Grasping the data, and using uncompromising logic, Chomsky offers a counter-narrative to the rah-rah mock distress of mainstream reportage on U.S. foreign policy--"We had no choice but to go in there, we have to support these dictators to spread freedom."

As Pete Seeger would sing: Waist Deep in the Big Muddy, AGAIN.

Afghanistan, Israel, global melting, the recession-- you'll recognize every current headline as well as less-talked-about conflicts in Somalia, and Georgia. 

One of the reasons Chomsky's writing is so meaningful to his readers is that he never fails to relish the alternative. He has his eyes set on those who are trying— and winning— their battle against corporate hegemony. He groks the daily triumphs and insights, not the ceremonies and awards.

If you FEEL the dissonance between what you hear in the news vs. what you see in front of you— start here to find out why.

Narrated by Peter Johnson.

--Willow Pennell

Milk Mustaches, Trimming, and An Old-Fashioned "Snow Job" - Classic Erotic Anthology

Going Down: Oral Sex Stories, by Rachel Kramer Bussel

Lip-smackingly superb. 

Out of the sea of bad sex books, this is a really good one built on a “classic” sex topic! This is among Rachel Kramer Bussel’s top five erotica anthologies. 

Chapters include: 

'Milk Mustache'

'Trimming'

'Snow Job'

'Do You Speak French?'

This is book that you should keep close to your bedside. 

Narrated by Samantha Prescott, Carmen Rose, and Freddie Bates.

-Aretha Bright