Hundreds of books are added to the Library's collection each month. Here are the most popular Books on CD for adults.
The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on A Scorched Planet
An award-winning journalist who has been at the forefront of environmental journalism for decades presents a searing examination of the impact that rising temperatures will have on our lives.
Format: Audiobook CD
Availability: All copies in use
View The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on A Scorched PlanetPageboy: [a Memoir]
A groundbreaking coming-of-age memoir from the Academy Award-nominated actor Elliot Page. A generation-defining actor and one of the most famous trans advocates of our time, Elliot will now be known as an uncommon literary talent, as he shares never-before-heard details and intimate interrogations on gender, love, mental health, relationships, and Hollywood.
Format: Audiobook CD
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View Pageboy: [a Memoir]American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
J. Robert Oppenheimer is one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb for his country in a time of war and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress. When he proposed international controls over atomic materials, opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb, and criticized plans for a nuclear war, his ideas were anathema to powerful advocates of a massive nuclear buildup during the anti-Communist hysteria of the early 1950s. They declared that Oppenheimer could not be trusted with America's nuclear secrets. In this magisterial biography twenty-five years in the making, the authors capture Oppenheimer's life and times, from his early career to his central role in the Cold War.
Format: Audiobook CD
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View American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert OppenheimerThe Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece
Part One of this story takes place in 1947. A troubled soldier, returning from the war, meets his talented five-year-old nephew, leaves an indelible impression, and then disappears for twenty-three years. Cut to 1970: The nephew, now drawing underground comic books in Oakland, California, reconnects with his uncle and, remembering the comic book he saw when he was five, draws a new version with his uncle as a World War II fighting hero. Cut to the present day: A commercially successful director discovers the 1970 comic book and decides to turn it into a contemporary superhero movie. Cue the cast: We meet the film's extremely difficult male star, his wonderful leading lady, the eccentric writer/director, the producer, the gofer production assistant, and everyone else on both sides of the camera.
Format: Audiobook CD
Availability: All copies in use
View The Making of Another Major Motion Picture MasterpieceThe Collector
Legendary art restorer and spy Gabriel Allon joins forces with a brilliant and beautiful master thief to track down the world's most valuable missing painting but soon finds himself in a desperate race to prevent an unthinkable conflict between Russia and the West.
Format: Audiobook CD
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View The CollectorNervous: Essays on Heritage and Healing
The power of quiet can haunt us over generations, crystallizing in pain that Jen Soriano views as a form of embodied history. In this searing memoir in essays, Soriano, the daughter of a neurosurgeon, journeys to understand the origins of her chronic pain and mental health struggles. By the end, she finds both the source and the delta of what bodies impacted by trauma might need to thrive. In fourteen essays connected by theme and experience, Soriano traverses centuries and continents, weaving together memory and history, sociology and personal stories, neuroscience and public health, into a vivid tapestry of what it takes to transform trauma not just body by body, but through the body politic and ecosystems at large. Beginning with a shocking timeline juxtaposing Soriano's medical history with the history of hysteria and witch hunts, Jen navigates the human body, centering neurodiverse, disabled, and genderqueer bodies of color, within larger systems that have harmed and silenced Filipinos for generations. Soriano's wide-ranging essays contemplate the Spanish-American War that ushered in United States colonization in the Philippines; the healing power of an inherited legacy of music; a chosen family of activists from the Bay Area to the Philippines; and how the fluidity of our nervous systems can teach us how to shape a trauma-wise future.
Format: Audiobook CD
Availability: All copies in use
View Nervous: Essays on Heritage and HealingThe Body Keeps the Score: [brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma]
Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat on a daily basis; one in five Americans have been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Such experiences inevitably leave traces on minds, emotions, and even on biology. Sadly, trauma sufferers frequently pass on their stress to their partners and children. Renowned trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he transforms our understanding of traumatic stress, revealing how it literally rearranges the brain's wiring--specifically areas dedicated to pleasure, engagement, control, and trust. He shows how these areas can be reactivated through innovative treatments including neurofeedback, mindfulness techniques, play, yoga, and other therapies.
Format: Audiobook CD
Availability: All copies in use
View The Body Keeps the Score: [brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma]The Three-body Problem
Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.
Format: Audiobook CD
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View The Three-body ProblemAll the Light We Cannot See: [a Novel]
Marie Laure lives with her father in Paris and is blind by age six. Her father builds her a model of their neighborhood, so she can memorize it and navigate the real streets. When the Germans occupy Paris, they flee to Saint-Malo on the coast. In Germany, Werner grows up enchanted by a crude radio he finds. He becomes a master at building and fixing radios, which wins him a place with the Hitler Youth. Werner travels throughout Europe, and finally to Saint-Malo, where his meets Marie Laure.
Format: Audiobook CD
Availability: All copies in use
View All the Light We Cannot See: [a Novel]The Big Burn: [Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America]
In The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan put the environmental disaster of the Dust Bowl at the center of a rich history, told through characters he brought to indelible life. Now he performs the same alchemy with the Big Burn, the largest-ever forest fire in America, a tragedy that cemented Teddy Roosevelt's legacy.
Format: Audiobook CD
Availability: All copies in use
View The Big Burn: [Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America]