What We’re Listening To: Mika’s August Picks
By Mika Ellison
Hi! I’m Mika Ellison, the Audio Production Intern this summer at Penguin Random House! I’m an NPR devotee (especially their weekend programming), boba enthusiast, and an absolute sucker for a good Shakespeare adaptation.
Books and road trips are possibly my favorite things in the entire world, and I’ve been having the time of my life learning about how audiobooks, my favorite entertainment to listen to on the road, get made.
I’m an omnivorous reader, but I turn to audiobooks when I feel like immersing myself in another world. When you’re listening to a story, your imagination can run wild and you can be transported through time or across space in an instant, with your favorite characters right next to you.
The Love of My Afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood
Everyone loves a romance trope, and I have to admit that I am absolutely in that majority. I’m not immune to the lure of a good enemies-to-lovers fantasy romp, or a there-was-only-one-bed fiasco, and The Love of My Afterlife has both if you can believe it.
Trope-y romance novels may be the hot new thing, but it’s not often you come across one that nails the dynamic between its characters as satisfyingly as this one. Kirsty Greenwood’s dry humor and hilarious details leap off the page, and Sofia Oxenham’s narration of the audiobook brought the story to life. I found myself pacing my apartment and laughing out loud like an absolute maniac from the very first pages. By the end of the book, I was incredibly attached to the characters, and Delphie’s journey stole my heart. This is the kind of book you force all your friends to read so you can debrief with them later over popcorn and a movie. The perfect summer rom-com, in my opinion, supernatural/heavenly intervention and all.
Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong
Time Is a Mother couldn’t be more different vibe-wise from The Love of My Afterlife, but it holds a special place in my heart. I downloaded it to listen to during a heinous midterms season last year and was instantly in a different place.
Ocean Vuong narrates his own poems in the audiobook, and it makes a world of difference. When Vuong talks about butterflies, they really do float across the room. The imagery of Vuong’s poems, which trace the fault lines of grief, family, and love, was a reminder of the things in life that really matter, more than grades or midterms . In particular, his poem about his mother’s Amazon shopping history absolutely wrecked me. These poems, especially in audio format, reminded me of the way poetry can literally change lives. I did ace those midterms, but your mileage on transcendental poems may vary.
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
When You Reach Me is a bit of a vault pick (I think I first remember seeing it in a Scholastic Book Fair catalogue), but it’s what truly got me into audiobooks.
It’s a coming-of-age story with so much heart. My entire family sobbed while listening to it on a road trip. It’s an initially innocuous book, but by the end of it you’re fully invested in the characters and their lives. It’s also a bit of a mystery story, which I find exciting to listen to in audio format: you’re biting your fingernails at the end, waiting with bated breath to discover if there’s an answer that can explain all of those mysterious happenings and anonymous notes.
The Secret of Us by Gracie Abrams
This album is going triple platinum in my house. I’m a hopeless romantic, if you couldn’t tell by now, and Gracie Abrams’ music is made for maladaptive daydreaming, long car rides, and dissecting every second of a completely normal interaction until it’s imprinted in your brain’s synapses.
If you’re looking for summer anthems to play over and over again as you dream of the year ahead or look back at the one you just left, I can’t recommend this album enough. To me, it’s nearly always Yearning Hours, and Gracie Abrams is the queen of quietly hopeless romantics.
Pop Culture Happy Hour
If you’ve ever seen or related to that meme about how listening to podcasts feels like hanging out with a bunch of friends who are actually celebrities, and your favorite part of consuming media is discussing it with friends after, then boy, do I have the podcast for you. Pop Culture Happy Hour is where I get most of my recommendations and opinions, and it’s also where I learned that even the silliest seeming pop culture phenomenon can be analyzed deeply without making it into something it’s not.
Every time I watch a new movie, whether it’s Challengers or Despicable Me 4, I tune in to see what NPR’s finest pop culture reporters have to say about it, and form my opinions accordingly. I am not their best friend, but they are most assuredly mine [heart hands emoji]. Also, every week they talk about what’s making them happy, and every week there’s something in their recs that genuinely does improve my life, whether it’s taking time to relax with family or a fun new video game I need to try.
