Audiobooks narrated by Roxana Ortega

A Light in the Dark: Surviving More than Ted Bundy

When Kathy Kleiner survived Ted Bundy’s attack to testify against him, the news media swarmed the courthouse. Young women sat in the courtroom and fawned at him from a distance, staring Kathy down. Within a year, one of the serial killer’s friends published a book about him, describing him as intelligent and crafty. She made his victims seem naive and stupid, as if they could have prevented their murders. But, several, like Kathy, were attacked in their beds as they slept soundly. Others were startled or attacked from behind. And many witnesses, particularly those who saw him in the hours before he killed, found him alarming and odd. And yet, the legend of the charming serial killer persisted. The truth is, Ted Bundy wasn’t a charming serial killer. He was a nightmare. The truth is, the victims weren’t seduced to their deaths. We’ve been missing the full story all this time. The book ends with brief biographies of the women and girls murdered by this monster. Their stories have always been reduced to an afterthought that lingers behind the Bundy legend. In telling her story, Kathy Kleiner Rubin hopes to shine a light on their stories too.

Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi, Kathy Kleiner Rubin (Author), Roxana Ortega (Narrator)

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ER Nurses: True stories from the frontline

Brought to you by Penguin. Around the clock, ER nurses dedicate their lives to helping us when we need it most. This book puts names and faces to these men and women who are there for us whenever we need them, who fight for our lives and never give up. Through numerous interviews with frontline healthcare staff, James Patterson and Matt Eversmann, acclaimed and bestselling co-authors of Walk in My Combat Boots, reveal why nurses do what they do. © James Patterson 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

James Patterson (Author), Betsy Foldes Meiman, Christine Lakin, Erin Bennett, Kiff Vandenheuvel, Mela Lee, Rick Zieff, Roxana Ortega, Sterling Sulieman, Tracey Leigh, Will Collyer (Narrator)

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Illegal

Emiliano and Sara made it across the border. Now, they need to survive in America. Emiliano and his sister Sara have successfully fled organized crime in Mexico, illegally crossing into the United States. But now, Sara is in jail, and Emiliano's reunion with their father in Chicago is more awkward than celebratory. When Emiliano is falsely accused of a crime against a missing local girl, it sets off a tense and dangerous race to find her, before he can even "find himself" in this new place he must call home.

Francisco X. Stork (Author), Christian Barillas, Roxana Ortega (Narrator)

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No Justice in the Shadows: How America Criminalizes Immigrants

This provocative account of our immigration system's long, racist history reveals how it has become the brutal machine that upends the lives of millions of immigrants today. Each year in the United States, hundreds of thousands of people are arrested, imprisoned, and deported, trapped in what leading immigrant rights activist and lawyer Alina Das calls the 'deportation machine.' The bulk of the arrests target people who have a criminal record -- so-called 'criminal aliens' -- the majority of whose offenses are immigration-, drug-, or traffic-related. These individuals are uprooted and banished from their homes, their families, and their communities. Through the stories of those caught in the system, Das traces the ugly history of immigration policy to explain how the U.S. constructed the idea of the 'criminal alien,' effectively dividing immigrants into the categories 'good' and 'bad,' 'deserving' and 'undeserving.' As Das argues, we need to confront the cruelty of the machine so that we can build an inclusive immigration policy premised on human dignity and break the cycle once and for all.

Alina Das (Author), Alina Das, Roxana Ortega (Narrator)

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Mañanaland

Max loves stories, especially the fantastical tale Buelo tells him about a mystical gatekeeper who can guide brave travellers on a journey into tomorrow. If Max could see tomorrow, he would know if he'd make Santa Maria's celebrated fútbol team, and whether he'd ever find his mother, who left when he was a baby. Papa refuses to talk about her, so Max has learned to stop asking. But when Papa is forced to reveal his involvement in an underground network of guardians that led people fleeing a neighboring country to safety, and the surprising reason Max's spot on the fútbol team may be threatened, everything he knew about himself and his family is upended. A treasured compass, a haunted tower, a mysterious stone rubbing, and a peregrine falcon propel Max on a dangerous search for clues about who he is and what the future holds.

Pam Muñoz Ryan (Author), Roxana Ortega, Sisi Aisha Johnson (Narrator)

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Sabrina & Corina: Stories

Latinas of Indigenous descent living in the American West take center stage in this haunting debut story collection—a powerful meditation on friendship, mothers and daughters, and the deep-rooted truths of our homelands. Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s magnetic story collection breathes life into her Indigenous Latina characters and the land they inhabit. Against the remarkable backdrop of Denver, Colorado—a place that is as fierce as it is exquisite—these women navigate the land the way they navigate their lives: with caution, grace, and quiet force. In “Sugar Babies,” ancestry and heritage are hidden inside the earth but tend to rise during land disputes. “Any Further West” follows a sex worker and her daughter as they leave their ancestral home in southern Colorado only to find a foreign and hostile land in California. In “Tomi,” a woman leaves prison and finds herself in a gentrified city that is a shadow of the one she remembers from her childhood. And in the title story, “Sabrina & Corina,” a Denver family falls into a cycle of violence against women, coming together only through ritual. Sabrina & Corina is a moving narrative of unrelenting feminine power and an exploration of the universal experiences of abandonment, heritage, and an eternal sense of home. Audiobook Table of Contents: Sugar Babies read by Almarie Guerra Sabrina & Corina read by Roxana Ortega Sisters read by Alma Cuervo Remedies read by Ana Isabel Julian Plaza read by Kyla Garcia Galapago read by Marisol Ramirez Cheesman Park read by Roxana Ortega Tomi read by Kyla Garcia Any Further West read by Marisol Ramirez All Her Names read by Alma Cuervo Ghost Sickness read by Roxana Ortega Advance praise for Sabrina & Corina “Here are stories that blaze like wildfires, with characters who made me laugh and broke my heart, believable in everything they said and did. How tragic that American letters hasn’t met these women of the West before, women who were here before America was America. And how tragic that these working-class women haven’t seen themselves in the pages of American lit before. Thank you for honoring their lives, Kali. I welcome them and you.'—Sandra Cisneros “Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s collection of stories, Sabrina & Corina, isn’t just good, it’s masterful storytelling. Fajardo-Anstine is a fearless writer: her women are strong and scarred witnesses of the violations of their homelands, their culture, their bodies; her plots turn and surprise, unerring and organic in their comprehensiveness; her characters break your heart, but you keep on going because you know you are in the hands of a master. . . . Her stories move through the heart of darkness and illuminate it with the soul of truth. Comparisons came to mind: the Alice Munro of the high plains, the Toni Morrison of indigenous Latinas—but why compare her to anybody? She is her own unique voice, and her work will easily find a place, not just in Latinx literature but in American literature and beyond.”—Julia Alvarez, author of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents

Kali Fajardo-Anstine (Author), Alma Cuervo, Almarie Guerra, Ana Isabel, Kyla Garcia, Marisol Ramirez, Roxana Ortega, Various (Narrator)

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Noncompliant: A Lone Whistleblower Exposes the Giants of Wall Street

A first-hand account of the oversight of the big banks in the wake of the financial crisis, from the Federal Reserve examiner who refused to be silenced In 2011, Carmen Segarra took a job as at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York supervising for Goldman Sachs. It was an opportunity, she believed, to monitor the big bank's behavior in order to avoid another financial crisis. Segarra was shocked to discover, however, the full extent of the relationship between Goldman and the Fed. She began making secret recordings that later became the basis of a This American Life episode that exposed the Fed's ineffectiveness in holding banks accountable. In Noncompliant, Segarra chronicles her experience blowing open the doors on the relationship between the big banks and the government bodies set up to regulate them. As we mark the tenth anniversary of the 2008 financial crisis, Noncompliant shows us how little has changed, and offers an urgent call for real reforms.

Carmen Segarra (Author), Roxana Ortega (Narrator)

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American Like Me

From award-winning actress and political activist America Ferrera comes a vibrant and varied collection of first person accounts from prominent figures about the experience of growing up between cultures. America Ferrera has always felt wholly American, and yet, her identity is inextricably linked to her parents' homeland and Honduran culture. Speaking Spanish at home, having Saturday-morning-salsa-dance-parties in the kitchen, and eating tamales alongside apple pie at Christmas never seemed at odds with her American identity. Still, she yearned to see that identity reflected in the larger American narrative. Now, in American Like Me, America invites thirty-one of her friends, peers, and heroes to share their stories about life between cultures. We know them as actors, comedians, athletes, politicians, artists, and writers. However, they are also immigrants, children or grandchildren of immigrants, indigenous people, or people who otherwise grew up with deep and personal connections to more than one culture. Each of them struggled to establish a sense of self, find belonging, and feel seen. And they call themselves American enthusiastically, reluctantly, or not at all. Ranging from the heartfelt to the hilarious, their stories shine a light on a quintessentially American experience and will appeal to anyone with a complicated relationship to family, culture, and growing up.

America Ferrera (Author), America Ferrera, Auli'i Cravalho, Bambadjan Bamba, Eugene Kim, Geena Rocero, Heather Alicia Simms, Janina Edwards, Jennifer Ikeda, Jennifer Lim, Joy Cho, Lameece Issaq, Martin Sensmeier, Neela Vaswani, Ramón De Ocampo, Roxana Ortega, Sunil Malhotra, Tanaya Winder, Tim Chiou (Narrator)

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Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy

What to read after What to Expect . . . . A badass, feminist, and personal deep-dive into the science and culture of pregnancy and early motherhood that debunks myths and dated assumptions, offering guidance and camaraderie to women navigating one of the biggest and most profound changes in their lives.Like most first-time mothers, Angela Garbes was filled with questions when she became pregnant. What exactly is a placenta? How does a body go into labor? Why is breast best? What are the signs and effects of post-partum depression?But as she discovered, it’s not easy to find satisfying answers. Your OB will cautiously quote statistics; online sources will scare you with conflicting and often inaccurate information; and even the most trusted books will offer information with a heavy dose of judgment. To educate herself, the food and culture writer embarked on an intensive journey of exploration, diving into the scientific mysteries and cultural myths that surround motherhood to find answers to her questions that had only previously been given through a lens of what women ought to do—instead of allowing them the freedom to choose the right path themselves.In Like a Mother, Angela offers a rigorously researched and compelling look at the physiology, biology, chemistry, and psychology of pregnancy and motherhood, informed by research, reportage, and her own experience. With a journalist’s curiosity and discipline, a mother’s urgency, and a food writer’s insatiability, she explores the science behind the pressing questions women have about a number of subjects, including postpartum hormones, breast milk, and miscarriage.Infused with candor and humor, born out of awe, appreciation, and understanding of the human body and its workings, Like a Mother is a full-frontal look at what’s really happening underneath your skin (and to it), and why women need to know.

Angela Garbes (Author), Angela Garbes, Roxana Ortega (Narrator)

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Disappeared

You've never read a Francisco X. Stork novel like this before! A missing girl, a determined reporter, and a young man on the brink combine for a powerful story of choices, suspense, and survival. Four Months Ago Sara Zapata's best friend disappeared, kidnapped by the web of criminals who terrorize Juarez. Four Hours Ago Sara received a death threat -- and with it, a clue to the place where her friend is locked away. Four Weeks Ago Emiliano Zapata fell in love with Perla Rubi, who will never be his so long as he's poor. Four Minutes Ago Emiliano got the chance to make more money than he ever dreamed -- just by joining the web. In the next four days, Sara and Emiliano will each face impossible choices, between life and justice, friends and family, truth and love. But when the web closes in on Sara, only one path remains for the siblings: the way across the desert to the United States.

Francisco X. Stork (Author), Christian Barillas, Roxana Ortega (Narrator)

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Lola

An astonishing debut crime thriller about an unforgettable woman who combines the genius and ferocity of Lisbeth Salander with the ruthless ambition of Walter White The Crenshaw Six are a small but up-and-coming gang in South Central LA who have recently been drawn into an escalating war between rival drug cartels. To outsiders, the Crenshaw Six appear to be led by a man named Garcia . . . but what no one has figured out is that the gang's real leader (and secret weapon) is Garcia's girlfriend, a brilliant young woman named Lola. Lola has mastered playing the role of submissive girlfriend, and in the man's world she inhabits she is consistently underestimated. But in truth she is much, much smarter--and in many ways tougher and more ruthless--than any of the men around her, and as the gang is increasingly sucked into a world of high-stakes betrayal and brutal violence, her skills and leadership become their only hope of survival. Lola marks the debut of a hugely exciting new thriller writer, and of a singular, magnificent character unlike anyone else in fiction.

Melissa Scrivner Love (Author), Roxana Ortega (Narrator)

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Lucky Boy

A gripping tale of adventure and searing reality, Lucky Boy gives voice to two mothers bound together by their love for one lucky boy. "A fiercely compassionate story about the bonds and the bounds of motherhood and, ultimately, of love." --Cristina Henríquez, author of The Book of Unknown Americans Solimar Castro Valdez is eighteen and drunk on optimism when she embarks on a perilous journey across the US/Mexican border. Weeks later she arrives on her cousin's doorstep in Berkeley, CA, dazed by first love found then lost, and pregnant. This was not the plan. But amid the uncertainty of new motherhood and her American identity, Soli learns that when you have just one precious possession, you guard it with your life. For Soli, motherhood becomes her dwelling and the boy at her breast her hearth. Kavya Reddy has always followed her heart, much to her parents' chagrin. A mostly contented chef at a UC Berkeley sorority house, the unexpected desire to have a child descends like a cyclone in Kavya's mid-thirties. When she can't get pregnant, this desire will test her marriage, it will test her sanity, and it will set Kavya and her husband, Rishi, on a collision course with Soli, when she is detained and her infant son comes under Kavya's care. As Kavya learns to be a mother--the singing, story-telling, inventor-of-the-universe kind of mother she fantasized about being--she builds her love on a fault line, her heart wrapped around someone else's child. Lucky Boy is an emotional journey that will leave you certain of the redemptive beauty of this world. There are no bad guys in this story, no obvious hero. From rural Oaxaca to Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto to the dreamscapes of Silicon valley, author Shanthi Sekaran has taken real life and applied it to fiction; the results are moving and revelatory.

Shanthi Sekaran (Author), Roxana Ortega, Soneela Nankani (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Roxana Ortega