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Inked!

Wild Game author and Aspen Words Executive Director Adrienne Brodeur shares her favorite books.

What to read or listen to on your next journey? These enticing tomes—all of which are the perfect Audible companion, too—make the ultimate travel accessory.

Friends and Strangers

BY J. COURTNEY SULLIVAN (KNOPF)

“A funny, wise, and captivating novel that explores a life-changing friendship between a new mother and her college-age babysitter.”

How Much of These Hills is Gold

BY C PAM ZHANG (RIVERHEAD)

“Set against the backdrop of the American gold rush, this debut novel by a former Aspen Words Emerging Fellow is electric and masterful: an adventure story, a sibling story, and an immigration story—all told in an original and unforgettable voice.” 

Afterlife

BY JULIA ALVAREZ (ALGONQUIN)

“Fifteen years after her last adult novel, the bestselling author of  How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and  In the Time of Butterflies takes on what it means to be human in this big-hearted novel about immigration, loss, and hope.”

Stray

BY STEPHANIE DANLER (KNOPF)

“A brilliant memoir by a former Aspen Words Emerging Fellow, this must-read is about legacy, addiction, and trauma. It explores what we choose—and decide not—to inherit.”

The Autobiography of Malcom X

AS TOLD BY ALEX HALEY AND NARRATED BY LAWRENCE FISHBURNE (AUDIBLE)

“You’ll want to listen to the astonishing Lawrence Fishburne narrate a book that is the definitive statement of a movement and a man whose work was not completed, but whose message is timeless.”

Recollections of My Nonexistence

BY REBECCA SOLNIT (VIKING)

“Famous for her landmark book, Men Explain Things to Me, Solnit returns with this stunning memoir which charts her awakening as a feminist, environmentalist, and fighter of injustices.”

Rodham

BY STEPHANIE DANLER (KNOPF)

“The story of what might have been had Hillary Rodham not married Bill Clinton (I, for one, am dying to know!).”

The Vanishing Half

BY BRITT BENNETT (RIVERHEAD)

“This provocative novel, written by The New York Times bestselling author of The Mothers, examines the destinies of light-skinned twin sisters who end up occupying different worlds: one as a Black woman living in the Southern town of their birth, the other secretly passing for white in California.”

HOT TYPE

ADRIENNE BRODEUR’S WILD GAME: MY MOTHER, HER LOVER, AND ME

When a book tops Amazon’s #1 Best Memoir of the Year and is included in Oprah’s Best Book Club Picks, readers can count on an enticing literary ride. Brodeur’s timeless memoir reveals how the people close to us can break our hearts simply because they have access to them, and the lies told in order to justify choices we make.  This remarkable story of resilience is a reminder that we need not be the parents our parents were to us.