Coming of Age Audiobooks | Fiction & Literature

Scarborough, 1880. Young Jeannie spends her days watching her mother and the other harbour girls sitting at the water's edge - mending nets, gutting herring - and waiting for her friend Ethan Wharton to come in on his father's fishing smack. As she was growing up, Jeannie always expected to marry Ethan, who is loyal and dependable. But then she meets Harry - a stranger who has come to visit from Hull for the day - and she falls for him. He is exciting and irresistible, and seems very keen on her. But he breaks his promise to come back for her, and Jeannie finds herself young, pregnant and feeling very isolated.Jeannie moves to the port town of Hull where her new, difficult life with a child - touched by illness, tragedy and poverty - is often made bearable by the kindness of others. But she finds herself wishing for the simpler times of her past, wondering if she will ever find someone who will truly love her - and if Ethan will ever forgive her...

Val Wood (Author), Anne Dover (Narrator)

Audiobook

Longing

Longing, book three in the Bailey Flanigan Series, picks up where Learning ended. After a long and lonely silence from Cody Coleman, Bailey Flanigan becomes closer to her one-time Hollywood co-star, Brandon Paul. Nights on the town in New York City and long talks on the balcony of Brandon's Malibu Beach home make Bailey dizzy with new feelings and cause her to wonder if her days with Cody are over forever. Meanwhile, Cody's work coaching a small-town football team has brought him and his players national attention. In the midst of the celebration and success, Cody finds himself much closer to a woman who seems to better understand him and his new life. Even so, never does much time go by without Bailey and Cody experiencing deep feelings of longing for each other, longing both for the past and for answers before they can move forward. Will an unexpected loss be the turning point for Cody? Will Cody and Bailey find a way back together again for the first time in more than a year? And if they do, will their brief time together be enough to help them remember all they've been longing for?

De Cuir Young, Karen Kingsbury (Author), Amanda Carin, Carin Rudnicki De Cuir Amanda Young Stefan Gabrielle Jud, Carin Rudnicki de Cuir Amanda Young Stefan Gabrielle Jud, De Cuir Young, Gabrielle De Cuir, Judy Young, Judygabrielle Stefan Amanda Young De Cuir Rudnicki Carin, Paul Boehmer, Stefan Rudnicki (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Cat's Table

In the early 1950s, an eleven-year-old boy in Colombo boards a ship bound for England. At mealtimes he is seated at the cat's table as far from the Captain's Table as can be with a ragtag group of insignificant adults and two other boys, Cassius and Ramadhin. As the ship makes its way across the Indian Ocean, through the Suez Canal, into the Mediterranean, the boys tumble from one adventure to another, bursting all over the place like freed mercury. But there are other diversions as well: one man talks with them about jazz and women, another opens the door to the world of literature. The narrator's elusive, beautiful cousin Emily becomes his confidante, allowing him to see himself with a distant eye for the first time, and to feel the first stirring of desire. Another Cat's Table denizen, the shadowy Miss Lasqueti, is perhaps more than what she seems. And very late every night, the boys spy on a shackled prisoner, his crime and his fate a galvanizing mystery that will haunt them forever. As the narrative moves between the decks and holds of the ship and the boy's adult years, it tells a spellbinding story by turns poignant and electrifying about the magical, often forbidden, discoveries of childhood and a lifelong journey that begins unexpectedly with a spectacular sea voyage.From the Hardcover edition.

Michael Ondaatje (Author), Michael Ondaatje (Narrator)

Audiobook

Lamb: A Novel

Lamb traces the self-discovery of David Lamb, a narcissistic middle-aged man with a tendency toward dishonesty, in the weeks following the disintegration of his marriage and the death of his father. Hoping to regain some faith in his own goodness, he turns his attention to Tommie, an awkward and unpopular eleven-year-old girl. Lamb is convinced that he can help her avoid a destiny of apathy and emptiness and even comes to believe that his devotion to Tommie is in her best interest. But when he decides to abduct a willing Tommie for a road trip from Chicago to the Rockies, planning to initiate her to the beauty of the mountain wilderness, they are both shaken in ways neither of them expects. Lamb is a masterful exploration of the dynamics of love and dependency that challenges the boundaries between adolescence and adulthood, confronts preconceived notions about conventional morality, and exposes mankind's eroded relationship with nature. 'Lamb is a remarkable debut by a writer to watch.'I will be thinking about these characters for a long time.''Aimee Bender, New York Times bestselling author

Bonnie Nadzam (Author), Tavia Gilbert (Narrator)

Audiobook

The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean

I wos a secrit shy and tungtied emptyheded thing. I wos tort to read and rite and spell by my tenda littl muther & by Mr McCaufrey the butcha & by Missus Malone and her gosts. So I am not cleva, so please forgiv my folts and my mistayks. I am the won that glares into your harts & that prowls insyde yor deepist dremes. Wonce I was The Anjel Childe. Now I am The Monster. Just lissen and take note. Let the words enter yor blud & boans. I am Billy Dean. This is the truth. This is my tale. This is the downloadable audiobook edition of David Almond's striking and original work, The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean, complete and unabridged and read by the author himself.

David Almond (Author), David Almond (Narrator)

Audiobook

Remember Tuesday Morning

A wall went up around Alex Brady's heart when his father, a New York firefighter, died in the Twin Towers. Turning his back on the only woman he ever loved, Alex shut out all the people who cared about him to concentrate on fighting crime. He and his trusty K9 partner, Bo, are determined to eliminate evil in the world and prevent tragedies like 9-11. Then the worst fire season in California's history erupts, and Alex faces the ultimate challenge to protect the community he serves. An environmental terrorist group is targeting the plush Oak Canyon Estates. At the risk of losing his job, and his soul, Alex is determined to infiltrate the group and put an end to their corruption. Only the friendship of Clay and Jamie Michaels---and the love of a dedicated young woman---can help Alex drop the walls around his heart and move forward into the future God has for him.

Cassandra Campbell, Karen Kingsbury (Author), Cassandra Campbell, Don Leslie, Hillary Huber, Stefan Rudnicki (Narrator)

Audiobook

Mama Ruby

In this stirring prequel, New York Times best-selling author Mary Monroe returns to the "cold-blooded yet fascinating" (Publishers Weekly) character from her acclaimed novel The Upper Room. Ruby is a wild youth, with a thirst for boys and booze by the age of 15. When she discovers she's pregnant, the only person she can confide in is her best friend Othella. But Othella talks Ruby into giving up the child, leaving Ruby emotionally shattered and adamant that Othella is to blame for her loss.

Mary Monroe (Author), Kevin R. Free (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Muir House

Willa Muir can't remember her fourth year of life. An early, undefined childhood trauma blacks her memory behind what feels like an impenetrable wall. And with her parents in the hereafter, she can't ask them to clarify what happened. She can't see the invisible, so she researches to obsession, aching to know the truth. Leaving the burnt-to-the-ground house that held all her notes, she ventures back to her hometown of Rockwall, Texas, haunted by a simple sentence spoken over her and a gold ring that promises love. Can she uncover the mystery of her early tragedy within the four walls of her childhood home and find the courage she needs to embrace the man who loves her

Mary E Demuth, Mary E. DeMuth, Renee Raudman (Author), Renee Raudman, Reneé Raudman (Narrator)

Audiobook

Big Girl Small

Judy Lohden is your above average sixteen year old: sarcastic and vulnerable, talented and uncertain, full of big dreams for a big future. With a singing voice that can shake an auditorium, she should be the star of Darcy Arts Academy, the local performingarts high school. So why is a girl this promising hiding out in a seedy motel room on the edge of town? The fact that the national media is on her trail after a controversy that might bring down the whole school could have something to do with it. And that scandal has something—but not everything—to do with the fact that Judy is three feet nine inches tall. Rachel DeWoskin remembers everything about high school: the auditions (painful), the parents (hovering), the dissection projects (compelling), the friends (outcasts), the boys (crushable), and the girls (complicated), and she lays it all out with a wit and wistfulness that is half Holden Caulfield, half Lee Fiora, Prep's ironic heroine. Big Girl Small is a scathingly funny and moving book about dreams and reality, at once light on its feet and unwaveringly serious. "DeWoskin handles the story with the sensitivity of a scalpel and a humor that leaves the reader howling. I was delighted and moved."—Helen Simonson, New York Times bestselling author

Kim Liggett, Rachel DeWoskin, Rachel Dewoskin (Author), Tai Sammons (Narrator)

Audiobook

Skippy Dies

The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Paul Murray's hilarious book, Skippy Dies. Read by the actor Patrick Moy. 'Skippy and Ruprecht are having a doughnut-eating race one evening when Skippy turns purple and falls off his chair . . .' And so begins this epic, tragic, comic, brilliant novel set in and around Dublin's Seabrook College for Boys. Principally concerning the lives, loves, mistakes and triumphs of overweight maths-whiz Ruprecht Van Doren and his roommate Daniel 'Skippy' Juster, it features a frisbee-throwing siren called Lori, the joys (and horrors) of first love, the use and blatant misuse of prescription drugs, Carl (the official school psychopath), various attempts to unravel string theory . . . while at the same time exploring the very deepest mysteries of the human heart. 'Noisy, hilarious, tragic, endlessly inventive, plain brilliant. A carnival of a novel' The Times

Paul Murray (Author), Patrick Moy (Narrator)

Audiobook

Patterns of Love

My dear Beth, Though Uppsala, Iowa, takes its name from a city in my native Sweden, life here is different from what I have known. With my parents' blessing, I have taken employment in the home of Mr. Bridger, a dairy farmer, caring for his ill mother and two young, orphaned nieces. It is most unlike me to leave home, even in a temporary manner. But the need is great and Hattie Bridger and the children are so endearing. As for Dirk Bridger, he is an unhappy man, but also loyal, hardworking, and honorable. And, I should add, quite handsome. My younger sisters were smitten the instant they saw him. Young flirts! And with beauty to match. I, on the other hand, am considered to have common sense to attend my common looks. But, friend Beth, I am afraid my heart betrays my wisdom---for I, too, long to be seen as beautiful. Not just by anyone. By Dirk Bridger. Your friend, Inga Linberg In rural Iowa, life is both the planter and uprooter of dreams. As love, long delayed, springs to life in the heart of a young Swedish immigrant, one man struggles with his withered ambitions---and new blessings that could take their place if he would but allow them room. Patterns of Love is Book Two in the Coming to America series about women who come to America to start new lives. Set in the late 1800s and early 1900s, these novels by best-selling author Robin Lee Hatcher craft intense chemistry and conflict between the characters, lit by a glowing faith and humanity that will win your heart. Look for other books in the series at your favorite Christian bookstore.

Pam Ward, Robin Lee Hatcher, Zondervan Publishing (Author), Pam Ward, Zondervan Publishing (Narrator)

Audiobook

Leaving

The Bailey Flanigan series begins with Bailey leaving Bloomington for the adventure of a lifetime. She has won an audition for the ensemble of a Broadway musical in New York City. She's determined to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but is she really ready to leave family and friends for the loneliness of the city? And what of Cody? His disappearance has her worried about their future and praying that their love can survive. In order to be closer to his mother in jail, Cody takes a coaching job in a small community outside Indianapolis. New friends, distance, and circumstances expose cracks in his relationship with Bailey Flanigan. Love, loneliness, big opportunities, and even bigger decisions highlight the first book in the new Bailey Flanigan series that features members of the popular Baxter family and finally completes the Bailey Flanigan/Cody Coleman story.

Audiobook

Coming of Age Audiobooks in Fiction & Literature