‘How Dare the Sun Rise’ Shines Light on Refugee Issues

Driven out of their home in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by warring factions, 10-year-old Sandra Uwiringiyimana and her family were living in the Gatumba refugee camp in 2004, when Sandra’s mother and six-year-old sister were shot, and her sister killed, as she watched. Sandra was able to escape, and she and the remaining members of her family resettled in the U.S. in 2007 via a United Nations refugee program. Uwiringiyimana is currently studying at Mercy College in New York City. Since arriving in the U.S., she has been an outspoken advocate for justice for human rights abuses in Africa and elsewhere, girls’ education, ending child marriage, and supporting immigrants and refugees. How Dare the Sun Rise is Uwiringiyimana’s story of how she survived brutality and tragedy and worked to adjust to a new culture and country, and her hopes and dreams for her life ahead. She recorded her book for HarperAudio, and it goes on sale May 16.

Sidibe Reveals Her Brave Face at Audible

Gabourey “Gabby” Sidibe, the actress known for the TV series Empire and American Horror Story and nominated for an Academy Award for her role in the 2009 film Precious, has recorded her memoir This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare for Audible Studios. The New York City native details her battles with depression, anxiety, and bulimia and shares her experience of undergoing weight-loss surgery last year. This Is Just My Face will be released simultaneously in print (by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) and audio on May 1.

Blackstone Hosts People’s Choice Casting at BookExpo and BookCon

In an unusual move, the narrator for Blackstone’s forthcoming recording of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne will be chosen by online voters during this year’s BookExpo (May 31–June 2) and BookCon (June 3–4). At blackstonepublishing.com/peopleschoice, voters will be able to listen to three anonymous narrator auditions and vote for their favorite. The winner will be announced during the final day of BookCon on June 4, and the audiobook is scheduled for September 2017 release.

Franco’s in the Dead Zone for S&S

Fresh off his star turn in Hulu’s 2016 miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s novel 11.22.63, Oscar-nominated actor James Franco went into the studio to record King’s The Dead Zone for Simon & Schuster Audio. Though it was adapted for film in 1983, the 1979 sci-fi thriller about a man who awakens from a five-year coma with the ability to see people’s futures and pasts when he touches them is not currently available on audio. The title is scheduled for an April 25 release.

HighBridge Gives Voice to Stolen Girls of Boko Haram

In April 2014, the terrorist group Boko Haram abducted 276 girls from a boarding school in northeast Nigeria. Some of the girls escaped their captors and recounted their stories to German journalist Wolfgang Bauer. The result is Bauer’s book Stolen Girls, in which the girls share their ordeals and express their dreams for the future. Narrator Bahni Turpin offered this reaction to the material she recorded for HighBridge Audio: “For the reader, Stolen Girls gives a glimpse into the reign of terror Boko Haram inflicted on Nigerian villages. It was certainly not limited to kidnapping and rape. These interviews chronicle the harrowing experiences of survivors in a still unstable part of the country. I found myself asking how this could happen—how could humanity be so brutal?—and wondering what powerful countries were complicit, and pulling the strings.” Stolen Girls will be available in e-book and audiobook editions from HighBridge on April 11.

Foudy Kicks into Audio at Dreamscape

Soccer star and ESPN commentator Julie Foudy, who won three Olympic medals and two World Cups as a member of the U.S. national team, recently recorded her inspirational book Choose to Matter: Your Guide to Being Courageously You for Dreamscape Audio. Foudy created profiles of 10 women who she thinks exhibit impressive leadership skills—including Good Morning America host Robin Roberts, soccer superstars Mia Hamm and Alex Morgan, and Afghan teenager Fahima Noori—and engaged with them in casual chats she terms “sock talks” to learn how each of them discovered their inner leader. Choose to Matter goes on sale May 2.

Garcia Remembers Prince at Hachette

Mayte Garcia, the first wife of the late music legend Prince, provides a candid and intimate look into Prince’s life and career and the couple’s years together, in her memoir The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince, released April 4, almost a year after the musician’s untimely death last April. Garcia recently recorded the audiobook for Hachette Audio in Los Angeles.

Penguin Audio Unleashes Osbourne Memoir

Kelly Osbourne has largely grown up in the glare of the reality TV spotlight as the daughter of rocker Ozzy Osbourne and media personality Sharon Osbourne, and later as a TV host and personality in her own right. In the audiobook version of her memoir, There Is No F*cking Secret: Letters from a Badass Bitch, Kelly reads a series of jaw-droppingly honest letters to various people and places in her life that reveal the array of influences that have shaped her. The Penguin Audio title goes on sale April 25.

Audible Goes Back to the Future for ‘Handmaid’s Tale’

On the eve of the Hulu TV series adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, which debuts April 26, Audible Studios has released (on April 4) a special edition of the audiobook featuring newly recorded bonus material and the 2013 Audie-winning performance of the novel by Emmy-winning actor Claire Danes.

The Audible-exclusive edition extends the novel beyond its original ending, which is set during an academic postmortem symposium in 2195, with a q&a session between the symposium’s leader and the audience in attendance. This new section was performed by a full cast. Additional bonuses include an introductory essay by author Valerie Martin, read by actress Alysson Johnson, and a new afterword written and recorded by Atwood.

Atwood shared her thoughts on this latest incarnation with her producers at Audible: “I’m delighted to see the novel that I wrote over 30 years ago come alive on new platforms every year,” she said. “The roots of my original book are in audio—Offred’s story was recorded, not written, and even the historical notes are a voice—so I was excited to extend the story with additional material meant specifically to be heard. The Handmaid’s Tale is alive, it seems—and like all living things, it grows and multiplies!”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article stated that both Sandra Uwiringiyimana​'s mother and sister were killed in a shooting; her mother is still alive. We regret the error.