This August, we’re celebrating Margins Bookselling Month, a month dedicated to amplifying BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, and neurodivergent-owned bookshops across the United States! Follow along on social media with #MarginsBookselling and @WordIsDiversity and read on for audiobook recommendations from #MarginsBookstores booksellers.
Take My Hand
by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
“Good historical fiction drives events from the theoretical into the immediate, it brings to light what we’d sometimes most like to overlook. Take My Hand is about reproductive justice in the Deep South in the 1960s. It’s about hope, family, poverty, mental illness, and systemic racism. But there is also an undeniable thread of black joy, black family, black future that runs through the narrative. It’s tragic, hopeful, and deeply powerful. And the narration by Lauren J. Daggett is not to be missed.”
—Kendra Gayle Lee | Bookish Atlanta
Dead Collections
by Isaac Fellman
“I was instantly charmed by this wryly funny vampire novel/mature trans romance. For a character who is technically already dead, the protagonist—a melancholy vampire and archivist named Sol—jumps to life on the page. With evocative characterizations (we know that Sol sounds like Steve Buscemi and looks like Clea Duvall in “But I’m a Cheerleader”) and thoughtful world-building, Isaac Fellman immerses us into the underground and refreshingly subdued life of a vampire.”
—Esme Joy | Firestorm Books
Living Resistance
by Kaitlin B. Curtice
“There’s been a huge move for many Indigenous Peoples—including myself—to reconnect with their roots and tribe. Sometimes this is difficult if you don’t have an elder to turn to. However, Kaitlin’s book is a beautiful start! Her words being good medicine to the soul, healing generations, bringing us home. Living Resistance presents a radical but gentle way of living, embracing our humanity and becoming whole once more.”
—Dominique Burleson | Paperbacks & Frybread Co.
How Far the Light Reaches
by Sabrina Imbler
“I keep three copies with me at all times so that I can hand it to anyone who asks me for a book recommendation—and I always recommend the audiobook as well so you can hear the author narrate the story themselves. This is a beautiful collection of essays exploring gender, sexuality, race, family, and some seriously cool deep sea creatures. It is vulnerable and tender and strange, and I will never stop yelling about it.”
—Kaitlyn Mahoney | Under the Umbrella Bookstore
Quietly Hostile
by Samantha Irby
“This audiobook is best listened to when you’re alone, because you’ll inevitably laugh out loud (literally) and talk back to Samantha Irby as she tells her relatable stories and shares all-too-familiar anecdotes with new twists. This book normalizes so many small and large human experiences, and hearing it in Irby’s own voice makes it an eleven out of ten.”
—Emily Autenrieth | A Seat at the Table Books
Whether supporting these shops through your Libro.fm audiobook purchases, visiting in person, or shopping from them directly online, we hope you’ll join us in uplifting these bookshops not just this August, but all year long!
Margins Bookselling Month
This August, we’re celebrating Margins Bookselling Month, a month dedicated to amplifying BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, and neurodivergent-owned bookshops across the United States! Check out these audiobook recommendations from #MarginsBookstores booksellers.