July Audiobook Round-Up

Welcome to my July audiobook round-up! I’ve had one of my most productive audiobook months yet, a combination of compelling choices and a lot of new cross stitch projects. I’ve also read an extraordinary amount of non-fiction this month, with most of them as audiobooks! It is so satisfying to learn while doing something basic like washing the dishes or folding laundry.

As well as LibroFM, for whom I’m an affiliate, I started using my library’s audiobook borrowing service, BorrowBox. Libraries need our support more than ever, and this is a great way to do it! My library has a surprisingly good selection of audiobooks to rent.

If you like the sound of any of my audiobook recommendations, you can follow my link or enter my code ABREADS at the checkout when you buy a new membership with LibroFM. This will get you two audiobooks for the price of one during the first month when you sign up for a monthly membership. Currently LibroFM’s monthly memberships are only available in the US and Canada. However, international folk can purchase ‘gift memberships’ for themselves. These offer one, three, six or twelve credits to be used at any time. My affiliate code does not apply to these gift memberships, only the monthly ones.

Please note this post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission on any purchase you make through them at no extra cost to you. Titles marked with an * were gifted as part of Libro’s ALC programme. This has not affected my opinion in any way.

Let’s crack on with this month’s audiobook round-up!

We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin (narrated by Dion Graham)

I originally saw this book over at The Stacks Podcast, so when I saw it on BorrowBox’s browse page, I hit that borrow button so quickly! It had such an intriguing concept that I paid no mind to whether I actually enjoy satire – and it turns out, I do!

In We Cast a Shadow, the protagonists live in the American south in the near future, when racism has become an even bigger issue than it is now. Black people have started undergoing ‘demelanization’ processes, which turns their skin white and alters their facial features. Our nameless narrator is determined to have his biracial son undergo the procedure, while his white wife is vehemently against it.

Ruffin explores a lot of thought-provoking issues here, in a story that is in turn funny and horrifying. Dion Graham does a great job of voicing the main character’s humour and desperation. It’s hard to sympathise with him at first, but then you realise he just wants to protect his son from a system that is irreparably broken when it comes to Black people.

I highly recommend this one for a read that makes you think. And then I recommend going to listen to The Stacks podcast where Traci discusses the book with Chris L. Terry, as well as her interview with the author Maurice Carlos Ruffin!

Prefer a physical copy? Buy We Cast a Shadow at Blackwell’s

Breathe: A Letter to My Sons by Imani Perry (narrated by the author)

Another title recommended by The Stacks Podcast! Breathe was the July book club pick and I’m so happy I read this beautiful, tender book. As the title suggests, Imani Perry is speaking directly to her sons in this book. In this intensely personal memoir, Perry reflects on her experience raising Black sons in America. She is adamant about her two sons claiming beauty and joy in a country which does not want them to thrive. I don’t think anyone could read this and fail to be moved by it.

One thing though. Although I recommend the book wholeheartedly for its content, I think I’d recommend picking up the physical copy if you can. The audiobook had some strange noises in the background, like other people coughing and doors opening. That was rather unnerving when I was listening to the book alone at home! That said, Imani Perry has a beautiful reading voice and she does a stellar job of the narration itself.

Prefer a physical copy? Buy Breathe at Blackwell’s

Don’t Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri (narrated by the author)

This was another BorrowBox find, and one that came highly recommended from Tasnim @reads.and.reveries and Enobong @enobooks on Instagram. This is a book I could recommend in both physical and audio formats. Dabiri is a great narrator, injecting some humour here and there. However, it’s also so chock-full of information that you might want to tab it half to death.

Dabiri covers so many topics in this book, which by the way, if you’re in America, it’s called Twisted over there. She takes us on a journey from pre-colonial Africa, through to the Harlem Renaissance and all the way up to the Natural Hair movement. The last chapter on mathematics in ancient Africa blew my mind. I had no idea that essential calculations we still use today have their origins in Africa. But it’s never talked in Western societies because it doesn’t fit with the ‘primitive’ narrative of the continent.

Within the historical and political context, Dabiri also tells us about her own personal hair journey. She grew up in Ireland at a time when there was no visible Black community. That means she struggled to look after her own hair with the products and salons available to her then.

A fascinating and eye-opening book that I can’t recommend enough! A standout of July’s audiobook round-up.

Prefer a physical copy? Buy Don’t Touch My Hair at Blackwell’s

The Groom Will Keep His Name: and Other Vows I’ve Made about Race, Resistance and Romance* by Matt Ortile (narrated by the author)

Another non-fiction title! Who am I? And this is another winner honestly, I picked them well this month! This was a LibroFM ALC pick and although I expected it to be more light-hearted than it was, this isn’t a bad thing. I appreciated the occasional bursts of humour while Ortile unpacked his experiences around colonisation, the minority myth, and sex and power.

I loved how refreshingly honest and open the author is about his life, from Grindr meet-ups to his relationship with his parents and the Philippines. He moved to America with his mother as a young boy, where he then struggled with his identity as a young gay Filipino immigrant. He really goes on a journey, from dreaming of marrying a white man, to the man he is today on a mission to decolonise his mind.

It was illuminating to read Ortile’s experience with the model minority myth, as well as selective forgetting. White people are so keen to remind us to ‘never forget’ when it comes to white suffering and white deaths. But when BIPOC bring up slavery, internment camps, or genocide, that’s ‘in the past’ and we should ‘forget about that already’.

Overall a great selection of thought-provoking essays with a distinct millennial flavour that I loved.

Prefer a physical copy? Buy The Groom Will Keep His Name at Blackwell’s

The Travelers by Regina Porter (narrated by Bahni Turpin & Dominic Hoffman)

Finally back to familiar ground with fiction – this audiobook round-up was looking very non-fiction heavy! At the start of this audiobook I felt overwhelmed by the character list read out at the start. How was I going to keep track of all these characters without being able to see them written down? But then I reminded myself that even when I read physical books, I don’t memorise the character list. I just read and figure it out as I go along.

Admittedly, I do think I would have been able to keep better track of the characters with a physical copy. However, it never took me that long to remember who was who – I wouldn’t have said no to a family tree though!

My favourite threads in The Travelers were Eloise, a lesbian with dreams of being a pilot and Agnes, one of the central characters whose traumatic experience at the start of the book is pivotal to the rest of the story. From the Vietnam War and segregation in America, to sexuality and interracial relationships, Porter addresses so many themes within these pages. There’s bound to be something that interests everyone. It is very sprawling though, so you need to concentrate or else you’ll be lost.

If you enjoy multigenerational sagas then I definitely recommend you give this one a go. I rarely reread books but I’ll be treating myself to a physical copy of this in the future and enjoying it once again.

Prefer a physical copy? Buy The Travelers at Blackwell’s

That’s it for this month’s audiobook round-up! You can check out my previous audiobook recommendation posts here and here.