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Available with Skokie Public Library card 
Available in Library only
Audiobooks
| For the newest titles in the Library's collection, see: | |
 Adult Audiobooks: Fiction Adult Audiobooks: Nonfiction |
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Skokie Public Library Audiobook Lists
African American Audiobooks
Within this list of audiobooks an amazing cast of African American authors, readers, and characters provides rich landscapes of fiction, mysteries, poetry, biography, and nonfiction for your listening pleasure.
Classics
This is a select list of classic works of American and world literature available on audio.
Family Favorites
If you're taking the family on a road trip be sure to check out one or more of these audiobook titles. Our staff has come up with a number of suggestions which are suitable for kids ages 10 and above and can be enjoyed by both kids and adults.
Good Listening
The excellent rendering on many audiobooks magnifies our enjoyment of these works. This select list of titles includes staff favorites and some award winners.
Humor
Enough with the gloom and doom — sometimes you just need a good laugh. Try one of these audiobooks to lighten your mood!
Short Stories
Make your commute or your to-do list seem shorter by listening to one of these collections of short stories on CD or cassette!
Award-Winning Audiobooks
Audie Awards
The Audio Publishers Association (APA) sponsors the Audie Awards to honor excellence in audio publishing. APA consists of over 200 member companies, including audiobook publishers, retailers, distributors, suppliers, and other related industries.
Grammy Awards
The Recording Academy annually recognizes audiobooks of superior quality. Awards are given to Best Spoken Word Album and Best Spoken Comedy Album. It is a peer honor, awarded by the voting membership to honor excellence.
Listen Up Awards
Every year Publishers Weekly picks audiobooks that are "truly outstanding." Titles are judged for content, narration, production values, packaging, and creativity. It is a way to honor the audiobook industry.
Audiobook Reviews
AudioFile
Magazine
More than two hundred reviews of audiobooks are published online each time the print magazine is published, and are browseable by genre or title. Additional reviews are available online for a yearly fee. Distinguished narrators are profiled in the Golden Voices section of the site. AudioFile provides a list of reviewed and recommended titles for teens and families.
Books For Ears
Books For Ears is a website dedicated to reviewing audiobooks and helping readers select books that will meet their needs. On this site you can search for audiobook reviews by type, such as books read by the author or award winners, in addition to searching by author, reader, or title.
Downloadable Books
North Suburban
Digital Consortium
As a member of the North Suburban Digital Consortium, any Skokie Public
Library cardholder may download both eBooks and digital audiobooks to their
home computer or laptop for a loan period of three weeks. These materials
include popular fiction and nonfiction titles, are available 24/7, and can
be accessed through our website and online catalog from anywhere. The
digital audiobooks can be burned to CDs or downloaded to a computer or MP3
player. Visit the North Suburban Digital Consortium site to access this
collection and download the free, required software.
Guides to North Suburban Digital Consortium eBooks and eAudiobooks
The Online
Books Page
This index connects its users to thousands of full text books that are available online.
TumbleTalkingBooks
TumbleTalkingBooks is an online collection of over three hundred full length audiobooks which you can listen to from any computer with an Internet connection. Titles are arranged in the general categories of Fiction, Non-Fiction, Classics, Children, and Read-Along. You can browse titles in these categories or further narrow your search by subcategory. No special software or listening devices are needed.
Fiction
| For the newest titles in the Library's collection, see: | |
| Adult Fiction Recent and Upcoming Bestsellers |
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General Fiction
AllReaders.Com
In addition to thousands of reviews of fiction and nonfiction books, this site features a Precision Booksearch engine where readers can create their own customized lists of books by specifying genre, plot characteristics, setting, time period, and other criteria.
Banned Books Online
Use this page to find out what books were banned and for what reasons as well as additional information on censorship topics.
BookBrowse.com
This all-purpose booklover’s site recommends new books every week and provides excerpts and multiple reviews for each title.
BooksInPrint.com
This comprehensive database contains listings of over five million in-print or forthcoming books, audiobooks, and videos/DVDs, many with summaries and reviews. In addition to finding materials by author or title, you can explore the winners and nominees of numerous awards, browse for books by subject, or locate fiction titles in a favorite series or featuring a particular character.
BookSleuth®
Remember something about the plot or characters of a book but not its author or title? First, ask a librarian, and we might be able to help you. If that fails, you can also post a question to this forum. Readers from all over the world read these postings, and one of them might have an answer for you.
BookSpot
The websites featured at BookSpot are hand-selected and organized into intuitive categories such as bestseller lists, genres, book reviews, online books, book news, and more.
Illinois! Illinois!
This extensive annotated bibliography of fiction about Illinois or set in Illinois is arranged chronologically from pre-statehood years through 1997. Resources include author, title, and subject indexes.
NoveList
This enormous online guide to fiction helps readers locate novels by plot characteristics and also includes summaries, book reviews, and lists of award winners. Information is searchable by author, title, subject, and genre.
Overbooked
Overbooked provides many useful booklists including lists of books that have received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus, and Library Journal.
What's
Next
Looking for books in a series or for sequels of your favorite book? This site, maintained by the Kent Public Library in Michigan, will help keep those series straight, and is searchable by author, title, or series name.
Historical Fiction
Crime Thru
Time
Devotes itself to mysteries set in the past and includes a timeline, book reviews, access to a discussion list concerning historical mysteries, a monthly book club, advance notice of recent and upcoming historical mysteries and useful links to historical websites.
HistFiction.net
Soon-Yong Choi’s directory of historical fiction resources on the Internet includes links to author sites, lists of recommended books, collections of book reviews, and resources for writers of historical fiction.
Uchronia: The Alternate History List
This site provides a comprehensive guide to that type of speculative fiction known as "alternate history" in which writers imagine the consequences if historical events had turned out differently, such as the South winning the Civil War. Whether you're looking for a novel, short story, essay, or anthology, you’ll probably find information about it included here.
Horror
Classic Horror
Short Stories
Billed as "the greatest horror short story collection," this site includes full text short stories from such classic authors of horror as Ambrose Bierce, Sheridan Le Fanu, H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe, and H.G. Wells.
Horror Writers Association
The official website of the Horror Writers Association includes links to author web pages, the Bram Stoker Awards for horror fiction, horror conventions, and many other websites of interest to horror fans.
Horrorfind.com
Horrorfind.com is a directory and search engine dedicated to horror, Halloween, and spooky subjects.
Mysteries and Suspense
| For the newest titles in the Library's collection, see: | |
| Adult Mysteries |
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Award Winning Mysteries
If you enjoy reading a well-written mystery, try one of these titles which has been awarded an Agatha Award, an Anthony Award, a Dagger Award, an Edgar Allen Poe Award, a Lambda Award, or a Shamus Award.
ClueLass.com
This site is one of the most comprehensive links to everything mysterious including: mystery groups; recent mystery releases; award winners and nominees; conferences and classes; bookstores and online bookstores; TV shows and movies; books on writing mysteries; and cybercrime (such as sites about crime-related locations, forensic sites, and criminal means).
Crime Thru
Time
Devotes itself to mysteries set in the past and includes a timeline, book reviews, access to a discussion list concerning historical mysteries, a monthly book club, advance notice of recent and upcoming historical mysteries and useful links to historical websites.
The Gumshoe Site
This online connection to late-breaking mystery news also includes links to award nominees and winners and alphabetical links to mystery writers.
Mystery Authors You May Have Missed from Skokie Public Library
There are many talented mystery authors who, while not household names, are read and enjoyed by mystery readers in the know! These newsletters compiled by the staff of the Readers' Services Department are each dedicated to one of those authors and offer biographical information, links to their titles in our catalog, and awards which they have won.
The Mystery Reader
A companion to the popular The Romance Reader site, The Mystery Reader features reviews of mystery novels.
Mystery Writers of
America
This is the official website of the Mystery Writers of America, a professional organization of mystery and crime writers in all categories. They are also the sponsors of the prestigious Edgar Awards for best mysteries.
Sherlockian.Net
"Everything the Web offers about Sherlock Holmes" is available here, including the "Canon" of Sherlock Holmes stories, information on England and the Victorian era, and links to other Sherlockian sites.
Stop, You're
Killing Me!
Use this site for its comprehensive index of mystery books by author and series character.
Tangled Web UK
This online crime and mystery fiction journal includes reviews, new books, genre bibliographies and lists. and a large collection of crime, mystery, fantasy, and science fiction author profiles.
Romance
| For the newest titles in the Library's collection, see: | |
| Adult Romance |
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All About Romance
Billed as the "Back Fence for Lovers of Romance Novels," this site includes over two thousand reviews of romances with book descriptions, sensuality ratings, and bibliographic information. It provides links to other reviews of a particular author's works and to author interviews. One of the longest-running romance columns on the Internet, "At the Back Fence," is a featured part of the site. In addition, there are many printable lists of various subgenres of romance, as well as message boards and discussion lists.
Good Ton
"A resource for readers of Regency romance novels," the Good Ton includes notices of new releases, indexes of Regency romances by author and plot, and even a lexicon of terms used in Regency novels.
The Romance
Reader
The Romance Reader is an online magazine featuring romance reviews, columns, interviews, booklists, and reader recommendations.
Romantic
Times BOOKclub Magazine
This "Magazine for Lovers of Romance, Mystery & Women's Fiction" includes reviews of upcoming romances, the magazine's "Top Picks" of the month, and tips and resources for romance writers and readers.
Science Fiction and Fantasy
| For the newest titles in the Library's collection, see: | |
| Adult Science Fiction |
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Fantastic
Fiction
A goldmine for fans of fantastic fiction, this site contains comprehensive bibliographies for over seven thousand authors of mostly fantasy and science fiction, including graphic novels. It provides advance notice on upcoming books; indicates whether new or used copies of a particular title are available online; and supplies useful lists of books by series.
Fantasy 100
This site has lists and reviews of the top one hundred favorite fantasy books, films, and television shows for many different fantasy genres. The lists are based on popular polls, award information, and critical opinion.
The
Locus Guide to Science Fiction Awards
This comprehensive index to award-winning science fiction, fantasy, and horror materials is presented by Locus Magazine and can be searched by award, author, and year. These are awards primarily related to books, writers, and publishing (rather than films and television). This index and the awards compiled here range from professional honors to reader polls, academic prizes, and awards made by the community of "fans" who are devoted to the literary science fiction genre.
Locus Online
This is the online version of Locus, the premier magazine for science fiction, horror, and fantasy book reviews. The site includes headline news, excerpts from the current print issue of Locus, lists of award winners, reviews, bestseller lists, and listings of upcoming author appearances.
SciFan
"Helping readers discover new science fiction and fantasy books and authors" is the primary objective of this site. Other goals are to build a comprehensive and accurate database of science fiction and fantasy writers with bibliographies, biographies, pictures, new book releases and series, and links to relevant websites. Books and read-a-likes are listed by broad themes such as nanotechnology, parallel universes, and time travel.
SF Site
SF Site has links to many reviews, author interviews and websites, conventions, awards, genre magazines, comics, TV, and movies. New content is posted twice a month and a complete index of back issues is included.
Uchronia: The Alternate History List
This site provides a comprehensive guide to that type of speculative fiction known as "alternate history" in which writers imagine the consequences if historical events had turned out differently, such as the South winning the Civil War. Whether you're looking for a novel, short story, essay, or anthology, you’ll probably find information about it included here.
Westerns
Western Writers of
America
Western Writers of America features links to author websites and survey results of the best Westerns of the 20th Century, including authors, novels, short stories, TV shows, and films. You can also find information about the Spur Awards for distinguished writing in the Western field. A list of Spur Award winners available at Skokie Public Library is available online.
World Languages
World Language Collection at Skokie Public Library
The Library has many books in other languages. See the list below for the languages included in the collection. These materials are shelved in the Readers' Services room and may be checked out for three weeks. The Library also owns many foreign films.