new arrivals: audiobooks

A juicy new crop of audiobooks have landed on eMusic, from seminal works of fiction to today’s biggest headline grabbers. Here are a few that should be on your radar, whether you choose to listen to them or read them the good old fashioned way…

The Road
A post-apocalyptic masterpiece for which Cormac McCarthy won both the Pulitzer Prize and a slot in Oprah’s Book Club. Be sure to read this one now, so that when the film version comes out this November you can talk about how much better the book is…

Shalimar the Clown and The Enchantress of Florence
The latest two novels by Salman Rushdie. Confession: I haven’t yet read either of these just yet, as Midnight’s Children is still sitting neglected on my nightstand. But I’m particularly keen on listening to Shalimar, given that it’s narrated by Aasif Mondvi of The Daily Show fame.

The Sportswriter
The first novel in Richard Ford’s Frank Bascombe trilogy (followed by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Independence Day and The Lay of the Land). Suburban angst at its devastating best.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter and Dexter in the Dark
The books that inspired the TV show, Dexter, for those of us who like our serial killers to be adorably lovable.

The Forever War
Dexter Filkins is a New York Times war correspondent whose dispatches from the Middle East feel more honest and more illuminating than the scads of reportage from various pundits and bloggers.

The Shadow Factory
James Bamford has uncovered a slew of revelations about the National Security Agency in the post-9/11 world. The hard copy version of the book doesn’t hit stores until October, but the audio download is available right now, so be among the first to get in on the secrets.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
This captivating thriller by Swedish journalist Stieg Larsson (published posthumously following the author’s death in 2004) promises to be one of the most buzzed about page turners of the fall.