I listen to audiobooks to wind down so I can sleep. I’m looking for recommendations! Fiction only, please.

I’m very particular about the narrator:
Single voice actor only
Distinct characters
No monotone delivery
No background music/sounds/distractions (I loved reading Dune but couldn’t tolerate the audiobook)

Examples I love:
Chronicles of St. Mary’s (Zara Ramm, narrator)
Malabar House series (Maya Saroya, narrator)
Rivers of London series (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, narrator)
Murderbot Diaries (Kevin R. Free, narrator)
Logan MacRae series (Steve Worsley, narrator)

If you have similar favourites, what are they?

#VoiceActor
#Audiobook
#GenreFiction

Cornell University: Digital humanities scholars chart lost art of maps in novels. “Digital humanities scholars from the Cornell Ann S. Bowers of Computing and Information Science have developed a computational system to mine maps from nearly 100,000 digitized books from the 19th and early 20th centuries, discovering that just 1.7% of novels include maps, mostly at the beginning or end, among […]

Public libraries’ top check-outs in 2025 include ‘The Women’ – NPR

Book News & Features

Genre fiction and female authors top U.S. libraries’ most-borrowed lists in 2025

December 29, 20256:00 AM ET, Heard on All Things Considered

By Neda Ulaby 3-Minute Listen Transcript

Searching the stacks at a Miami-Dade Public Library on July 19, 2023, in Miami. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The Women was among the most checked-out books in U.S. public libraries this year, making top 10 lists in library systems as far-flung as those in Clawson, Mich., Lawrence, Kan., Flathead County, Mont., and the entire state public library system of Hawaii. It was also the year’s most-borrowed ebook on the public library app, Libby.

The bestselling novel by Kristin Hannah follows a U.S. Army nurse from the front lines of the Vietnam War to a family deeply divided about the war and her service. The Women, which came out in 2024, was also extremely popular among public library patrons last year, topping numerous most-borrowed lists, and included in NPR’s “Books We Love.”

“I shouldn’t be surprised, but I kind of was, that The Women was No. 1 yet again,” says Harold Escalante, the assistant director of collections and access for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library in North Carolina. “[Hannah] is a powerful storyteller. She’s really good. She’s engaging, she sucks you in with her story, and they’re big books.”

As it happens, books by women dominated most-borrowed library lists in 2025. All of the top 10 books on Libby were by women. Three of the top 10 titles for the country’s biggest public library system, in New York City, were part of a bestselling romantasy series by Rebecca Yarros: Fourth Wing, Iron Flame and Onyx Storm. Yarros’ books also showed up on most-borrowed lists from the Boston Public Library, and public libraries in Boone County, Ky. and Kern County, Calif. Other female authors with multiple titles on most-borrowed lists across the country included Freida McFadden, Holly Jackson and Emily Henry.

Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods, a 2024 thriller about the disappearance of a teenager from an Adirondack summer camp showed up on numerous most-borrowed lists, including those in Island Park, N.Y., at the Timberland Regional Library in Washington state, and in Lombard, Ill. Other popular novels this year included The Wedding People by Alison Espach, Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez and Atmosphere: A Love Story by Taylor Jenkins

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Public libraries’ top check-outs in 2025 include ‘The Women’ : NPR

Is there a term in #fiction (specifically #genrefiction like #scifi and #fantasy) when a work acknowledges its own genre /genre contemporaries?

For instance how Zombieland's characters recognize their situation as zombie apocalypse? Or when The Magicians references the existence of the Harry Potter books?

The puberty-activated superpowers trope is overdone. Give us menopause-activated superpowers!

#GenreFiction #SuperHeros

https://otherwiseaward.org/2025/10/apply-for-otherwise-fellowships-by-december-15

We're now soliciting applications for two 2025 Otherwise Fellows, to support and recognize creators of speculative work that is changing our view of gender today! Apply by Dec. 15th for USD $500 to support a new or ongoing project.

#Fellowships #grants #funding #SpeculativeFiction #sff #GenreFiction #fantasy #sciencefiction #scifi

I'm now free to announce that at World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, UK, I'll be on two panels.
Feminism and Feminist Themes in Genre Fiction.
Older People in Fantasy and Horror.
Both subjects near and dear to me, so I'm thrilled.

#WritingCommunity #GenreFiction #WritersOfMastodon #WritersOfSpeculativeFiction #WorldFantasyConvention #FantasyFiction #HorrorFiction #Feminism