http://www.janinaspeaksvolumes.biz/

Janina Edwards, Atlanta, GA (2026)

10/20/2026

The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2026 edited by Megan Abbott and Steph Cha is available now in audio performed with Steph Cha, Megan Abbott, Elizabeth , , , , , and .araya. Listen now: https://bit.ly/3UaRovz

➡️ Description:
Featuring multiple narrators, each story is brought vivdly to life.

“Crime fiction has always been outsider fiction, and this anthology, too, is a safe harbor for misfits and outcasts,” writes guest editor Megan Abbott. Full of wacky, peculiar, and eccentric characters, The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2026 features an enterprising dental hygienist who makes some extra money by collecting corpses for a funeral home, a sixth-grade girl who uses her competitive jump-roping skills to protect herself from looming danger, and a broke young car thief who falls for a married woman who entices him into a criminal act. From traditional and masterfully crafted whodunits to experimental tales, these stories will have chills running down your spine and your heart knocking in your chest.

10/15/2026

Payback - Southside Collection from author Natalie Y. Moore, an Amazon Original Stories, is available today in audio. Listen Now: https://bit.ly/4yBmlYh

➡️ Description:
More than two decades after Darrell Cannon was tortured into a false confession of murder, he was finally released from prison with hardly an apology. He wasn’t the only one with a story to tell.

Award-winning author Natalie Y. Moore reveals the fight for justice and reparations engineered by Chicago’s Black People Against Police Torture movement. More than one hundred African Americans were brutalized by Chicago Police Department Commander Jon Burge’s sadistic, state-sanctioned “interrogation” ring that operated within the department for decades. The racist CPD cover-up had no chance against the appalling evidence leveled by survivors. In this landmark hearing, “sorry” wasn’t going to cut it.

Natalie Y. Moore’s Payback is part of Southside, a collection of five true stories about racism and reform, crime and corruption, justice and injustice in Chicago - from the Pulitzer Prize-winning team at The Marshall Project. Each story can be listened to in a single sitting.

10/13/2026

Combing Cotton - Transform Your Ancestry into Your Competitive Advantage written by entrepreneur Robin Wilson is available now in audio from : https://bit.ly/3U6NkMP

➡️ Description:
Every visionary entrepreneur faces the same brutal truth: the path to building something extraordinary is tangled with doubt, loss, pivots that feel like starting over, and moments when giving up seems easier than pushing forward. What separates those who merely survive from those who thrive?

They learn to comb through the knots and metaphorically open the cotton ball, observe the debris, and begin to comb out the strands to uncover their fullest potential—ultimately becoming their best self through the work.

In Combing Cotton, Robin Wilson shares the powerful metaphor that transformed her life, including life lessons inherited from her paternal grandfather, a Texas sharecropper who understood that the hardest work comes before the harvest, and her maternal grandfather, a merchant who "passed" while doing business in the city and lived his authentic self in the country. This dual work ethic philosophy propelled Wilson from a childhood shadowed by severe allergies to the helm of Clean Design Home, a revolutionary allergen-aware lifestyle brand that redefined an industry and generated over $100 million in licensed brand revenue.

With unflinching honesty and hard-won wisdom, Wilson reveals personal stories and shows the parallels between how she transformed her deepest struggles into her most potent strengths. This isn't just another business book filled with empty platitudes—it's a practical guide forged in real-world experience, illuminated by intimate stories of failure, reinvention, and resilience through the peaks and valleys of life and entrepreneurship.

10/08/2026

From Academy Award–nominated actress and 2023 SeeHer award recipient Listen now to a vibrant and varied collection of first-person accounts from prominent figures about the experience of growing up between cultures.

American Like Me is performed in audio by a full cast including myself, America Ferrera, Bambadjan Bamba, Joy Cho, Auli'I Cravalho, Tim Chiou, Jennifer Ikeda, Lameece Issaq, Eugene Kim, Jennifer Lim, Sunil Malhotra, Ramón de Ocampo, Roxana Ortega, Geena Rocero, and Martin Sensmeier. Listen today from .audio: https://bit.ly/4gWtKKy

➡️ Description:
America Ferrera has always felt wholly American, and yet, her identity is inextricably linked to her parents’ homeland and Honduran culture. Speaking Spanish at home, having Saturday-morning-salsa-dance-parties in the kitchen, and eating tamales alongside apple pie at Christmas never seemed at odds with her American identity.

Still, she yearned to see that identity reflected in the larger American narrative.

Now, in American Like Me, America invites thirty-one of her friends, peers, and heroes to share their stories about life between cultures. We know them as actors, comedians, athletes, politicians, artists, and writers. However, they are also immigrants, children or grandchildren of immigrants, indigenous people, or people who otherwise grew up with deep and personal connections to more than one culture. Each of them struggled to establish a sense of self, find belonging, and feel seen. And they call themselves American enthusiastically, reluctantly, or not at all.

Ranging from the heartfelt to the hilarious, their stories shine a light on a quintessentially American experience and will appeal to anyone with a complicated relationship to family, culture, and growing up.

10/06/2026

The Narrative of Sojourner Truth is available today from . Listen today: https://bit.ly/4A1JWCX

➡️ Description:
One of the most important slave narratives of all time, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth tells the story of an African-American woman who struggled against the bondages of slavery in the mid-1800s. With the strength of her spirituality, she overcame obstacles to become a leading abolitionist and champion of women's rights.

Published originally in 1850 and later updated, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth was dictated by Sojourner Truth to her neighbor, Olive Gilbert.

10/01/2026

From and author Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, listen to Race for Profit:
How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership today in audio: https://bit.ly/3SDLfYe

➡️ Description:
By the late 1960s and early 1970s, reeling from a wave of urban uprisings, politicians finally worked to end the practice of redlining. Reasoning that the turbulence could be calmed by turning Black city-dwellers into homeowners, they passed the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968, and set about establishing policies to induce mortgage lenders and the real estate industry to treat Black homebuyers equally. The disaster that ensued revealed that racist exclusion had not been eradicated, but rather transmuted into a new phenomenon of predatory inclusion.

Race for Profit uncovers how exploitative real estate practices continued well after housing discrimination was banned. The same racist structures and individuals remained intact after redlining's end, and close relationships between regulators and the industry created incentives to ignore improprieties. Meanwhile, new policies meant to encourage low-income homeownership created new methods to exploit Black homeowners.

Narrating the story of a sea-change in housing policy and its dire impact on African Americans, Race for Profit reveals how the urban core was transformed into a new frontier of cynical extraction.

09/29/2026

For fans of Out There Screaming and Never Whistle at Night, a chilling anthology of tales centered around the longest nights of the year, with modern horror authors like Alma Katsu and Josh Malerman paying homage to the time-honored Victorian tradition of ghost stories, edited by Chuck Palahniuk and Michael Bailey.

Listen to Silent Nightmares today from .audio: https://bit.ly/4xFRKZB

➡️ Description:
Great writers of centuries past like Charles Dickens, Edith Wharton, and Bram Stoker understood that darkness is always hiding amid the holiday cold and cheer, revealing sinister secrets. That in the stillness of winter, when the world is wrapped in a blanket of snow, the festive spirit masks the lurking horrors that dwell beneath the surface.

From haunted halls to malevolent delights, from vengeful spirits of the past to creatures lurking in the shadows, expect to encounter beings that celebrate the season in frightful ways in this Victorian-inspired horror anthology.

Join Chuck Palahniuk, Michael Bailey, Josh Malerman, Joe R. Lansdale, Alma Katsu, Ramsey Campbell, Cynthia Pelayo, Gabino Iglesias, and more for stories that promise nostalgia and dread, reminding us that sometimes the most silent nights can be the deadliest.

09/29/2026

The wife of a popular and powerful megachurch pastor upends her charmed “rags-to-Rolex” life when her secret past comes roaring into the spotlight—in this "funny and juicy and sexy and delicious peek behind the pulpit" (Samantha Irby) from the acclaimed and beloved author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies.

From author Deesha Philyaw, listen to Lady Freeman now available in audio from Mariner Books: https://bit.ly/4ykHYvU

➡️ Description:
From the moment Scharisse Freeman ditched her humble roots and married a megachurch pastor fifteen years her senior, she’s been labeled too brash and too “of the world” by church folks who grudgingly accepted her into their fold, and too holy by her estranged childhood bestie Petra. Schar doesn’t have many allies, but that hasn’t stopped her from building an enviable business empire spanning books to clothing to branded products, and living the comfortable life her husband's power affords her.

On the eve of her 40th birthday, Schar gets the final bit of validation she’s always dreamt of: a coveted invitation to participate in the First Lady USA pageant. This is her chance to be accepted by the other pastors’ wives—First Ladies—who are “like Jesus’ disciples if they had been a group of mean girls.” Finally, blissfully, the ice between Schar and the other First Ladies begins to thaw.

But as the pageant nears, a sensational scandal breaks with Schar at its center, and her carefully curated life implodes. Schar faces down shame and terrible secrets from her childhood and is reminded that in the eyes of the church, optics can matter more than the truth.

Unflinchingly funny, frank, and splendidly unruly, The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman exults in the luscious, messy pleasure of finally feeling free.

09/24/2026

From author , listen to Reasonable Insanity today in audio: https://bit.ly/4696lRk

➡️ Description:
More than meets the eye

On the outside, clinical psychologist Dr. Olivia C. Maxwell appears to live a life others only dream about. She has a sexy husband, a big house, luxury cars, and two gorgeous children, and she attends all the see-and-be-seen events. To add to the mix, she is beautiful, tall, fit, and intelligent. But what people can't see is that inside, Olivia is living a nightmare.

As the only dark-skinned member of her family, Olivia grew up hating the skin she's in and she's spent her life desperately searching for acceptance. It's not long before those deep insecurities sabotage everything she loves.

Friends 'til the end....

After being estranged best friends for 10 years, Savvy Menefee is back in Olivia's life. And her reappearance is right on time because Olivia is teetering on the edge. A whirlwind of crazy reactions is leading Olivia into a slow, out-of-control spiral. And Savvy must try to save her friend before destructive impulses leave Olivia in the midst of mayhem and murder.

09/23/2026

Black Earth Wisdom: Soulful Conversations with Black Environmentalists by author Leah Penniman is available today in audio. Performed with Karen Chilton, Bill Andrew Quinn, and Landon Woodson, listen today from Amistad: https://bit.ly/4yivUew

➡️ Description:
A soulful collection of illuminating essays and interviews that explore Black people’s spiritual and scientific connection to the land, waters, and climate, curated by the acclaimed author of Farming While Black

Author of Farming While Black and co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, Leah Penniman reminds us that ecological humility is an intrinsic part of Black cultural heritage. While racial capitalism has attempted to sever our connection to the sacred earth for 400 years, Black people have long seen the land and water as family and understood the intrinsic value of nature.

This thought-provoking anthology brings together today’s most respected and influential Black environmentalist voices —leaders who have cultivated the skill of listening to the Earth —to share the lessons they have learned. These varied and distinguished experts include Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Alice Walker; the first Queen Mother and official spokesperson for the Gullah/Geechee Nation, Queen Quet; marine biologist, policy expert, and founder and president of Ocean Collectiv, Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson; and the Executive Director of the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers, Land Loss Prevention Project, Savi Horne. In Black Earth Wisdom, they address the essential connection between nature and our survival and how runaway consumption and corporate insatiability are harming the earth and every facet of American society, engendering racial violence, food apartheid, and climate injustice.

Those whose skin is the color of soil are reviving their ancestral and ancient practice of listening to the earth for guidance. Penniman makes clear that the fight for racial and environmental justice demands that people put our planet first and defer to nature as our ultimate teacher.

Janina Edwards

10/20/2026

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10/13/2026

10/08/2026

10/06/2026

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