JUNE 21, 2019

It may be gray and rainy here in Newark, but for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere today marks the summer solstice, the longest day and shortest night of the year. For some people, summer is all about sunshine, music festivals, and calling in sick to head to the beach (is our boss reading this??). Bur for Editor Katie, summer means one thing…

It’s YA dystopian fantasy time!

In the brand new episode of Audicted, in which our editors talk about their favorite summer listens, Katie raves about the newly re-recorded Hunger Games series, performed by actress Tatiana Maslany. Well, the book gods must have been smiling upon her, because this week Suzanne Collins announced that a new installment in the Hunger Games series—a prequel set in Panem—is coming next year! Now please excuse us while we polish off our bows and arrows in preparation.

An author takes a stand.

On Juneteenth this week, Between the World and Me author Ta-Nehisi Coates continued the conversation he began with his article The Case for Reparations by appearing at the House committee hearing on a bill that would establish a commission to study reparations. His opening statement was a rebuttal to an earlier statement from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that no one alive was responsible for slavery, so why should America be held liable. Coates, whose first work of fiction comes out this September, reminded us all of the history of redlining, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration, challenging our concept of the responsibilities of citizenship. The conversation continues.

Let’s hear a big collective awwww.

Everyone knows that dog is man’s best friend, but with the US pet industry valued at ~$75B (here at Audible we even curated a collection of audiobooks for dogs) we have to wonder if it’s dogs who domesticated us humans. A new study indicates that that’s at least partly true. Scientists have concluded that the muscles around a dog’s eyes—specifically the one that raises the inner eyebrow—evolved to appeal to humans, triggering in us a nurturing response. While we recently learned from This Is Your Brain on Parasites that there are lots of critters out there that change our behavior in mysterious and horrible ways, we’re completely ok with this adorable discovery, and are more than happy to be suckers. Which clearly we are, because this book exists.

Joyful poetry news!

Congratulations to Audible author Joy Harjo, who is America’s newest poet laureate! She’s the 23rd poet and first Native person to hold this honor, and in further evidence that she’s one of the coolest creatives out there, she’s also an accomplished memoirist and musician. Editor Rachel was especially excited by the announcement, as Harjo’s memoir Crazy Brave is one of her faves and made her ultimate list of 100 must-listen memoirs. When asked about her plans as poet laureate, Joy Harjo simply said that she hopes to remind people that poetry belongs to everyone.

Never felt so #seen.

As the Audible editors are recovering from an onslaught of workday-interrupting end-of-school-year celebrations, this piece on work-life conflict went viral, and we’ve never felt so #seen as parents. This conversation tends to center on maternity (and, more recently, paternity) leave, but as we know all too well, childrearing doesn’t end once the diaper days are done. Several Audible authors espouse a humane approach to juggling parenthood with work—as does Audible’s Chief People Officer Anne Erni, who recently held a session with our Moms@Audible group to provide tips on how to navigate flexible schedules. Now if we could just get our partners’ workplaces on board with this mindset…

This floats our boat.

We love a good cruise story—probably because we’re both fascinated by and terrified of the idea of sharing a big ol’ boat with a bunch of strangers. But we weren’t expecting to straight-up weep at Shannon Keating’s piece on taking a lesbian cruise, which explores the dynamics of lesbian spaces in the gender revolution while also being an ugly-cry-inducing love story. For more stories from the (vastly diverse) LGBTQIA+ experience, editor Michael put together a brilliant list of the voices to hear for Pride Month and any time of year.
Till Next Week!
—the audible editors