Audiobooks narrated by Cheryl Smith

Birding to Change the World: A Memoir Audiobook

"In this uplifting memoir, a professor and activist shares what birds can teach us about life, social change, and protecting the environment. Trish O’Kane is an accidental ornithologist. In her nearly two decades writing about justice as an investigative journalist, she'd never paid attention to nature. But then Hurricane Katrina destroyed her New Orleans home, sending her into an emotional tailspin. Enter a scrappy cast of feathered characters—first a cardinal, urban parrots, and sparrows, then a catbird, owls, a bittern, and a woodcock—that cheered her up and showed her a new path. Inspired, O'Kane moved to Madison, Wisconsin, to pursue an environmental studies PhD. There she became a full-on bird obsessive—logging hours in a stunningly biodiverse urban park, filling field notebooks with bird doings and dramas, and teaching ornithology to college students and middle-school kids. When Warner Park—her daily birdwatching haven—was threatened with development, O’Kane and her neighbors mustered a mighty murmuration of nature lovers, young and old, to save the birds' homes. Through their efforts, she learned that once you get outside and look around, you're likely to fall in love with a furred or feathered creature—and find a flock of your own. In Birding to Change the World, O'Kane details the astonishing science of bird life, from migration and parenting to the territorial defense strategies that influenced her own activism. A warm and compelling weave of science and social engagement, this is the story of an improbably band of bird lovers who saved their park. And it is a blueprint for muscular citizenship, powered by joy."

Trish O'kane (Author), Cheryl Smith (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Spider's House: A Novel

"Originally published in 1955, Paul Bowles’s remarkable novel set in Fez, Morocco, during the last days of the French colonial empire, is an expansive piece of writing—vintage Bowles The dilemma of the outsider in an alien society, and the gap in understanding between cultures, recurrent themes of Paul Bowles’s writings, are dramatized with brutal honesty in this novel set in Fez, Morocco, during that country’s 1954 nationalist uprising. Totally relevant to today’s political situation in the Middle East and elsewhere, richly descriptive of its setting, and uncompromising in its characterizations, The Spider’s House is perhaps Bowles’s best, most beautifully subtle novel."

Paul Bowles (Author), Cheryl Smith, Raphael Corkhill (Narrator)

Audiobook

Too Far from Home

Paul Bowles (Author), Abby Craden, Cheryl Smith, Graham Halstead, Mike Ortego, Raphael Corkhill, Tom Zahner (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Night to Die For

"When a boy finds a girl's body in the ditch on prom night...he becomes the primary suspect in her murder. Prom dreams. Prom Screams. Mario Woods is looking forward to one normal night before he graduates. He's spent most of high school riding solo. But when fate lands him a date for prom, he figures this might be his chance to be less of a loner. Only, prom turns out to be a disaster. Just when Mario thought the night couldn't get any worse, he sees something on the side of the road while driving home. That something is Prom Queen Maribelle Starr-murdered and left for dead. All Mario wanted was to go to prom...but somehow, he ended up in hell. "

Lisa Schroeder (Author), Andrew Eiden, André Santana, Cassandra Campbell, Charlie Thurston, Cheryl Smith, Dallis Seeker, Danny Campbell, Dominque Dibbell, Giordan Diaz, Lee Osorio, Lillie Ricciardi, Max Meyers, Michael Crouch, Victoria Villarreal (Narrator)

Audiobook

American Melancholy: Poems

"A new collection of poetry from an American literary legend, her first in twenty-five years Joyce Carol Oates is one of our most insightful observers of the human heart and mind, and, with her acute social consciousness, one of the most insistent and inspired witnesses of a shared American history. Oates is perhaps best known for her prodigious output of novels and short stories, many of which have become contemporary classics. However, Oates has also always been a faithful writer of poetry. American Melancholy showcases some of her finest work of the last few decades. Covering subjects big and small, and written in an immediate and engaging style, this collection touches on both the personal and political. Loss, love, and memory are investigated, along with the upheavals of our modern age, the reality of our current predicaments, and the ravages of poverty, racism, and social unrest. Oates skillfully writes characters ranging from a former doctor at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army hospital to Little Albert, a six-month-old infant who took part in a famous study that revealed evidence of classical conditioning in human beings. "

Joyce Carol Oates (Author), Cheryl Smith (Narrator)

Audiobook

Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars.

"The bonds of family are tested in the wake of a profound tragedy, providing a look at the darker side of our society Night Sleep Death The Stars is a gripping examination of contemporary America through the prism of a family tragedy: when a powerful parent dies, each of his adult children reacts in startling and unexpected ways, and his grieving widow in the most surprising way of all. Stark and penetrating, Joyce Carol Oates’s latest novel is a vivid exploration of race, psychological trauma, class warfare, grief, and eventual healing, as well as an intimate family novel in the tradition of the author’s bestselling We Were the Mulvaneys."

Joyce Carol Oates (Author), Cheryl Smith (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness

"Moving, harrowing, and ultimately uplifting, Lori Schiller's memoir is a classic testimony to the ravages of mental illness and the power of perseverance and courage. At seventeen Lori Schiller was the perfect child-the only daughter of an affluent, close-knit family. Six years later she made her first suicide attempt, then wandered the streets of New York City dressed in ragged clothes, tormenting voices crying out in her mind. Lori Schiller had entered the horrifying world of full-blown schizophrenia. She began an ordeal of hospitalizations, halfway houses, relapses, more suicide attempts, and constant, withering despair. But against all odds, she survived. In this personal account, she tells how she did it, taking us not only into her own shattered world, but drawing on the words of the doctors who treated her and family members who suffered with her."

Amanda Bennett, Lori Schiller (Author), Brittany Pressley, Cheryl Smith, Gregory Abbey (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Cheryl Smith