I’m beginning to think there’s a Bad Take Troll out there somewhere with regular reminders in his calendar to start desmadre, and one of his favorite pots to stir is the one about audiobooks counting as reading. Why he decided to send the psychologist from Law & Order SVU as his messenger this time around is beyond me, but let’s just clear this up now: audiobooks count as reading, y punto. Full stop. Shoutout to Roxane Gay (and countless others) for calling out this foolishness.
Audiobooks have saved my reading over the last several years. They’ve helped me balance the reading required of me for my job with reading for pleasure. They’ve allowed me to engage differently with poetry and nonfiction, where hearing the words read by their authors added a new layer to the reading experience. They’ve allowed me to keep reading, period, when my focus was too frazzled to do eyeball reading, and pulled me out of the roughest of reading slumps in difficult times. So today, I’m rounding up a few of my favorite audiobooks by Latine authors, and tossing up the bird to anyone who deserves it.
First, a few quick shoutouts to some books that I’ve recommended either very frequently or very recently: I just talked about Hola Papi by John Paul Brammer last week and how JP made me snort-laugh iced cafecito. Cristina Rivera Garza’s Liliana’s Invincible Summer is a must-read—Victoria Villarreal’s performance kicked me in the teeth. Elizabeth Acevedo could read me my rights and I’d pay for the privilege, or I could just re-read With the Fire On High. And I’ve recently sung the praises of Vincent Tirado’s You Should Have Been Nicer to My Mom, a modern work of gothic horror read by Danyeli Rodriguez del Orbe.
Que disfruten, and remember: just say no to the Bad Take Troll.
Oye by Melissa Mogollon
Read by Elena Rey
This recent coming-of-age story is a different kind of epistolary than you might be used to: the entire book is told through the one-sided phone calls of a queer Colombian American teen navigating telenovela-level drama in the wake of a hurricane. It’s funny, dramatic, and unexpectedly tender. Elena Rey performs Luciana perfectly, really nailing her exasperation and the tone you take at that age when everything happening to you feels like the worst thing that’s ever happened to anyone.
How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz
Read by Kimberly M. Wetherell, Rossmery Almonte
Speaking of (mostly) one-sided conversations, here’s another one. Cara Romero is in her mid-50s and has just been laid off from the factory job she thought she’d retire from, so she’s back in the job market in the middle of the Great Recession. In what are supposed to be job search status reports, Cara instead tells her life story to a job counselor who didn’t realize she’d signed up to hear about Cara’s neighbors and relatives, her roller coaster of a love life, her fraught relationships with her son, and many more flavors of chisme. This is a book so funny that you don’t quite see it coming when it punches you in the gut. Thanks to Rossmery Almonte’s brilliant narration, it feels like you’re listening to your tía spill that tea.
The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera
Read by Frankie Corzo
I had a list of 20+ titles I was considering just to sing the praises of Frankie Corzo, who stays working and for good reason. She does a beautiful job with this Pura Belpré Award and Newbery Medal-winning middle grade science fiction novel. Petra wants to be a cuentista, a storyteller, just like her abuelita, but there are more pressing matters at hand: a comet has destroyed planet Earth, and Petra and her family are among the few hundred people selected to board a spaceship to a new planet and carry on the human race. But when Petra awakes hundreds of years later, invaders have taken over the ship and purged the memories of everyone on board. She’s the only one who remembers Earth, and might be humanity’s only hope for the future.
Canto Contigo by Jonny Garza Villa
Read by Alejandro Antonio Ruiz
I love when an audiobook incorporates musical elements, so I audibly squealed when I heard the first chords of mariachi music in the audiobook of Canto Contigo, a rivals-to-lovers YA romance about two high school mariachi singers that I was destined to swoon over. It’s such a good audio performance AND bonus: Jonny Garza Villa put together this amazing Spotify playlist of songs that are mentioned in the book. The range, y’all: it includes Vicente and Alejandro Fernandez, Carla Morrison, Becky G, Bad Bunny, Las Ketchup (asereje!), Mariachi Vargas, Omar Aollo, Selena, Natalia Lafourcade, and a whole lot more.
The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonido Reyes
Read by Karla Serrato
I can personally very much relate to a story about being one of the only Mexican students at the Catholic school you’ve just transferred to and immediately realizing you are not in the same income bracket as most of your classmates. Yami Flores’ father was deported a few years ago, her brother is in and out of trouble, and she’s hiding her lesbian identity at this new school after being outed at her last school by her ex-best friend. But when she meets out-and-proud lesbian Bo, she begins to wonder if she might be ready to live her truth out loud and trust again. The YA novel handles some heavy topics like racism, homophobia, immigration and deportation, and suicidal ideation, all of which are handled head-on, but with care. Karla Serrato is a perfect pick to voice Yami, who is funny, tough, and tender all at once.
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