MAY 3, 2019

Happy Friday everyone! It’s been a weird week. We learned about the existence of a raisin mafia and frankly, we were shook. Fortunately we knew just the raisin expert to turn to for answers—right here in the office.

Editor Michael has a lot of feelings about raisins.

I love raisins. In all their wondrous forms: chocolate covered, in a cookie, sprinkled into chicken soup [editor’s note: 😒]. They are the first thing I ever talked about with my current girlfriend of three years, and basically the reason we met. The recent raisin industry exposé revealed a litany of raisin cartels to rival The Godfather. And I have to say, what was once such a pure facet of what my teammates call my geriatric diet and lifestyle has indeed soured. These days, it’s hard to know what exactly your habits are supporting. Maybe I’ll have to move further up the supply chain and settle on grapes instead, but I think my love affair with dried fruit has just turned into a full-blown tryst. —Michael D.

We all want to be seen.

As editor Aaron grew up in his expansive Jewish family, he knew he wanted to be exposed to more adoption narratives or to make literary connections to his Latin American birth family, because it was a search for a community he craved a further tie to. But it never negated his joy with the full life and loving family he gained. In a touching personal essay Aaron shares some listens that resonated for him as he reconciled a very specific kind of otherness with a general happiness with his life.

A delightful black hole of books.

Nothing gets us out of a listening rut faster than hearing what super-smart people are into. So we thanked our lucky stars when The Paris Review posted book recommendations from the Event Horizon Telescope team, which captured the first image of a black hole. Is it on brand for astronomers to like Douglas Adams and Isaac Asimov? Sure, yet we applaud their excellent taste. We also added The Dispossessed to our #TBLT list after one scientist called the main character his model for how to act as a physicist. Ursula K. Le Guin = career mentor goals. Check out the full list here.

Baby on the brain.

Last week we touched on the C-suite baby boom, highlighting a trend for high-powered female execs to embrace their journey into parenthood. But this week the New York Times called out a different trend that it claims is actually widening the gender gap: extended working hours have made it harder for educated women and mothers to pursue and sustain coveted business roles. The solution? It’s time to move away from the 24-hour work culture and embrace flexibility for both women and men.

Sometimes you CAN go back.

Our nostalgia dial is set to high right now! It’s been three decades since we first binged The Baby-Sitters Club books, and now we’re ready to dive back in. This week we announced that the beloved series is at long last coming to Audible. In mid-August we’ll be releasing all 131 titles (bless you, Ann M. Martin) in the original series, with Elle Fanning narrating the first five. From book six onward, we’ve paired a fantastic narrator with each of the baby-sitters. Now if summer could just get here already!
Till Next Week!
—the audible editors

Audiobooks in This Edition

The Godfather Audiolibro Por Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola - introduction, Anthony Puzo - note, Robert J. Thompson - after
I, Robot Audiolibro Por Isaac Asimov arte de portada
The Dispossessed Audiolibro Por Ursula K. Le Guin arte de portada
Sleeping with Your Smart Phone Audiolibro Por Leslie A. Perlow arte de portada
Virtual Culture Audiolibro Por Bryan Miles arte de portada
We're Going to Need More Wine Audiolibro Por Gabrielle Union arte de portada
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