Love and Fatigue in America, by Roger King
Roger King was an English professor, who, filled with a bit of hubris, accepted a prestigious appointment in the US, and got ready to start what he thought would be his new sex and romance-filled, ego-stoking adventure.
To his shock, his health crashed, and no one could explain what the hell had happened to him. He'd developed chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or ME.
Love and Fatigue in America is his fictionalized account of his experience.
Instead of teaching college students, the nameless narrator ends up wandering state to state, and woman to woman, sleeping on strangers' couches, the only constant in his life, his dog.
His insights into masculinity, sexuality, and the American healthcare system, in the face of the mysteries and incapacities of ME, are startling.
His poetic, satiric epilogue, "The Benefits of Illness," should be made into a poster and widely wheat-pasted at every doctor's office!
Narrated by Graeme Malcolm, a fantastic narrator who's read everything from Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet to The Tale of Despereaux.
--Susie Bright
When I first brought Ellora's Cave novels to Audible— and their own singular brand of explicit romance, the first task at hand was particularly daunting. Who would bring these books to life?
We needed to cast actors with moxie, passion, and the chops to narrate erotic romance without any inhibitions.
After multiple auditions and heart-to-heart interviews: we found them. I've asked my favorite romance VO's (as we call stars in the audiobook biz) to tell us something about themselves.
Narrator: Virtual Reality by Joey W. Hill
The daughter of an American diplomat father and a model mother, Suzy Lexington has been traveling the globe since she was born.
Currently, Suzy is working as a journalist and living in NYC.
Narrator:
Breeds series by Lora Leigh
Reaper’s Property by Joanna Wilde
Originally hailing from North Carolina, Stella Bloom is a classical actress based in New York City.
She is also a world traveler and garden enthusiast. Having journeyed from the rock gardens of Japan to the Rose gardens of England, she is currently writing a book about horticulture and romance called, “Meet Me In The Garden: Stories of Forbidden Love Amongst the Blossoms.”
Her work, as always, is dedicated to D.J.
Narrator: Wolf Breeds series by Lora Leigh
Nature of Desire series by Joey W. Hill
Maxine Mitchell grew up in a small town outside Philadelphia, Pa.
She went to George Washington University where she double majored in Broadcast Journalism and Psychology.
After a few unfulfilling years working in local radio, Maxine began narrating audiobooks and hasn’t looked back.
She now lives in Brooklyn, NY with her partner and their two dogs.
Narrator: Riding the Raines series by Laurann Dohner
Liz Chastain is an army brat turned Renaissance woman who spent her early years touring the world with her cabaret performances.
She now makes her home in New Orleans where she still is on stage as a singer and story teller. She hopes to soon open her business, Voodoo Mama Mystics and BodyWork, near the French Quarter.
Love and Thanks to her partner James Arnold!
Narrator: Zorn Warriors series by Laurann Dohner
Coyote Breeds series by Lora Leigh
Simone Lewis is a librarian from Charlotte, NC.
Being a librarian is fun, but for a little more fun, in her free time Simone loves to garden (herbs and wildflowers), dance (mostly salsa) and record audiobooks. She also loves to travel (often in search of the yummiest chocolates and wines).
Simone is thrilled to be working with Audible and Ellora’s Cave on these titillating titles!
Narrator: Foreign Affairs series by Mari Carr and Lexxie Couper
India Plum was born in Bangalow, in the hills around Byron Bay in northern New South Wales. Her earliest memories are of kangaroos jumping through the bamboo trees in her parent's garden.
She is a writer and actor living in Rose Bay, Sydney.
Narrator: Men of August series by Lora Leigh
Summer Roberts was born in Massachusetts on a wintery December night. (Thanks to her parents’ sense of humor, Summer got her name.)
She went to college in California (goodbye winters!) where she studied acting and psychology.
When not narrating audiobooks, she can be found doing yoga, watching the Red Sox, or drinking good wine with friends. Some of her favorite authors are Jasinda Wilder, H.M Ward, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Nora Roberts (no relation!).
Narrator: Trek Mi Q'An, by Jaid Black
Named for the Asbury Park Tillies, or American writer and feminist Tillie Olson, depending on who you ask, Ms. Hooper hails from a long line of brassy dames. (Women's rights activist, Elizabeth Cady Stanton is a family member.)
A storyteller from an early age, she began narrating audiobooks at the suggestion of a longtime actor friend and has been supremely grateful for the excellent fit.
After a glorious twenty years in NYC, Ms. Hooper currently lives in on a small ranch in Wyoming with her longtime cowboy beau and sweeping family of animal pals, including her favorite chicken, Kat.
She loves travel adventures with her beau, the Jazz Age, championing the environment, and finding a great deal.
Narrator: Cyborg Seduction series by Laurann Dohner
Mindy Kennedy is a thrill-seeker. She loves outdoor sports, spontaneous travel, and never says no to a dare.
She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her dogs, Jake and Honey.
Narrator: Men With Tools series by Lynn Lafleur
Kasha Kensington had childhood aspirations of becoming a trapeze performer, but in the end she decided to pursue a degree in Communications at SUNY Binghamton, where she discovered a gift for voiceover work. She works extensively in both radio and the audiobook industry.
When not in the recording booth, Kasha loves knitting, reading, and her guilty pleasure, Nascar.
Narrator: Unveiled series by Cari Quinn
Isabelle Gordon is an audiobook narrator, actress and writer. She is based in New York but can often be found wandering the country, working in theaters, writing her stories, and searching for adventure, art, and romance.
She is an avid reader, a lover of Romance and poetry, and has begun baking all sorts of treats in her spare time.
Narrator: Surrender series by Riley Murphy
Bonnie D. Jones is always up for a good read and a good time. She is thrilled to join Ellora's Cave as a narrator (and die-hard fan herself).
The Surrender series by Riley Murphy marks Bonnie's first BDSM Erotica trilogy and now that she’s started she can't stop.
Love to Craig for making her feel smart and sexy.
Thanks to all of our fine narrators for making our hearts sing—and our cheeks flush.
Flasher: A Memoir, by Tsaurah Litzky
I have published Tsaurah Litzky more often than any other author I've ever worked with--- and after 600 authors and 20 anthologies and countless magazines... that's saying something.
Now Tsaurah is ready to dish the real dirt on her real New York bohemian life in her poetic memoir, Flasher.
Tsaurah is a poet, a revolutionary, and a hippie chick; an intellectual and an educator; and a sex-positive proponent of free love long before the phrase was coined.
Tsaurah doesn’t hold back in Flasher. It’s raw and confessional. You are fully inside her head as she jumps from incident to incident. Her life as an amorous poet, dutiful daughter and eager lover is harrowing and moving.
Here is the full video from her Flasher launch party.
To say Litzky is influenced by the beat poets would be off base. She IS an original.
Narrated by Dina Pearlman who does this sassy New Yorker justice.
"Forgive me, but Greg Boyd is like Kafka and Grimm wrapped up in one, with a better sense of humor."
Stephen Haske, Amazon
Horny: Stories Selected and New, by Greg Boyd
When people ask me, "Who's your favorite writer few others have ever heard of?"-- I say Greg Boyd.
I discovered his work through Harold Jaffe's Fiction International in San Diego in 1992. When I was asked to do the first Best American Erotica series, it was Greg's epic crucifix satire, "Horny" was at the top of my list. —Before Nicholson Baker, Patrick Califia, Samuel Delany, or Anne Rice.
When Simon and Schuster asked me to curate their first series of novellas, I called Mr. Boyd, who created the most original work of the group, two parallel suspended narratives, titled "The Widow".
In my best living room performance art, I held a seance with Greg's "Mark Twain" sequel set in the barrens of the L.A. River: "The Further Adventures of Huck, Tom, and Jim."
Finally, when Audible asked me to make a list of the authors I most wanted to see in audio, again, in my little list, I wrote: Greg Boyd.
With the meticulous collaboration of publisher Jordan Jones at Leaping Dog Press, I'm proud to announce Audible has published Horny: Stories Selected and New.
Atlas of the Human Heart, by Ariel Gore
With gorgeous, honest prose and calls ‘em-like-she-sees-‘em narration, Ariel Gore will have you thinking differently about the nature of "home" and what it means to be a mama.
Gore's memoir takes you from the meticulously mapped grounds of Palo Alto High School to a teenage vagabond life across Asia and Europe, "Traveling around the world, meeting random people that became family in a matter of days" and finally back in the Bay Area, new daughter in tow.
This book is an essential feminist memoir, one that changed so many minds (mine included) about what it means to be a mother and a feminist and still one's true self.
Gore ushers you on a journey following a terrestrial map, mapping her own heart.
Superbly narrated by Liisa Ivary with a great sense Ariel's irony and humor.
--Willow Pennell
Public Enemy: Memoirs of an American Dissident, by Bill Ayers
Bill Ayers got caught in the crossfire of the 2008 presidential election during a Clinton--Obama primary debate. While he and his graduate students watched from his living room, moderator George Stephanopoulos all but accused Obama of conspiring with domestic terrorists—him.
Ayers describes the night of the debate in his introduction as having the “sudden sense that this cartoon character, Bill Ayers, who looked exactly like me and shared my name, address, and social security number, was about to become a punching bag in a presidential campaign.”
The Right took that baton and ran with it, making a public enemy out of a college professor and community activist, “The Weather Underground, suspended in amber all these years, was reborn out of the blue, not only active and breathing fire, but all of a sudden, more menacing and dangerous—and far, far better known—than it had ever been before.”
In Public Enemy, Ayers picks up where he left off in Fugitive Days, with he and his partner, Weather Underground leader Bernardine Dohrn, emerging from hiding to become educators, advocates for the disenfranchised, and parents.
Ayers explores the state of the left today and what it’s like when all the money and power of the Right turns its ugly glare on you.
Narrated by Jeff Woodman, who also read Ayers's Fugitive Days.
--Willow Pennell
Valencia, by Michelle Tea
"I can't think of anyone who has done a better job telling the story of the dark, but enticing queer-addict world. This is one of those books I would be willing to read several times. It's the diamond on my shelf."
This rent girl memoir is dangerous. Unrepentantly sexy. If Scott Fitzgerald was a dyke and lived in the Mission before Google ate its soul.
Michelle Tea has been a part of the San Francisco writing bohemia, sex worker activism, and queer scene for years, one of the founders of Sister Spit.
She has some stories to tell. Blood-spattered love affairs, corporate shit-heads behind closed doors, and friends who stick with her through it all.
Narrated with searing bravado by Bright List favorite Abby Craden.
--Willow Pennell
A Clockwork Scarab: A Stoker and Holmes Novel, Book 1, by Colleen Gleason
Strong young-women heroines, friendship, bravery, mystery-solving, and romance in Steampunk Victorian England? Yes, please!
Colleen Gleason takes several well-established tropes and blends them together to get something fresh and kick-ass.
Sherlock Holmes's niece, Mina and the Bram Stoker’s sister, Eveline are brought together to solve a mystery involving a steam-punk Egyptian mechanized scarab. Holmes has the logic, Stoker has the passion. They must overcome their rivalry and learn to trust each other to save the day.
The set up is genious, but it's the friendship at the heart of this story, as dynamic as any love affair, that keeps you listening.
Colleen Gleason is the NEW YORK TIMES and USA Today bestselling author of the Gardella Vampire Chronicles. I'm so glad she turned her imagination to Steampunk.
Narrated By Jayne Entwhistle with whom I could happily spend hours. I love her zesty characterizations of Mina and Eveline.
--Willow Pennell
Chain Saw Confidential: How We Made the World's Most Notorious Horror Movie, by Gunnar Hansen
The urban legends that swirl around the film Texas Chainsaw Massacre, that it was based on real events; that there were violent, drug-fueled orgies on set; that it was a “snuff” film; are far nuttier than the real deal. And yet—even the most outlandish rumors have kernels of truth in them.
Gunnar Hansen sets out to give us the real dope—and an eye-opening lesson in film-making along the way.
It’s just as juicy and pop-cult-crazed as it sounds—the heightened tension on the set, the unending brutal heat, blown takes, and the pot brownies, everyone just barely holding it together—it gets a little visceral.
Not to mention the horrific truth about the radical financial and physical exploitation of the cast and crew.
Chain Saw Confidential, is a remarkable film history document, that covers everything from scene-to-scene breakdowns, to the philosophical and aesthetic debates over the nature of horror itself.
Anyone aspiring to work in the film industry could learn a thing or two from Gunnar.
Narrated from the backwoods of Maine by Gunnar Hansen himself.
--Susie Bright and Willow Pennell
The Testosterone Files, by Max W. Valerio
Max Wolf Valerio gives a poetic, explosive reading of his own female-to-male gender-transition memoir.
His story comes across as a thing of wonder.
With an adventurer's spirit, Max writes of actually living out his childhood fantasies, of going covertly behind enemy lines, of donating his body to science. Not a tale of feeling lost and in the wrong body, but of being a revolutionary and an explorer finding alternative ways of being.
This is a book for all independent spirits and lovers of powerful, poetic writing.
Highly recommended.
Narrated by the author.
--Willow Pennell