Each month, we highlight a selection of the top titles borrowed from the Listening Books collection - the audiobooks our members have borrowed the most this month.
Harry Potter thinks he is an ordinary boy. He lives with his Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and cousin Dudley, who make him sleep in a cupboard under the stairs. Then Harry starts receiving mysterious letters and his life is changed for ever. He is whisked away by a beetle-eyed giant of a man and enrolled in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The reason: Harry Potter is a wizard!
Borrow Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K Rowling
On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, Tomás and his reluctant son, Liam, are working for the great Ordnance Survey project to map the whole of Ireland. The year is 1865, and in a country not long since ravaged and emptied by the Great Hunger, the task is not an easy one. Tomás, however, is determined that his maps will be a record of the disaster. The British soldiers in charge are due to arrive any day, expecting the work to be completed, but Tomás is sent off course by an unsettling encounter in a copse. His life, and those of his family, will never be the same again. Liam is terrified by the sudden change in his taciturn father. What was it that caused such cracks to open in Tomás and how is Liam, aged only ten, going to finish the mapping, and get them both home? Land is a story of buried treasure, overlapping lives, ancient woodland, persistent ghosts, a particularly loyal dog, and how, when it comes to both land and history, nothing ever goes away.
Borrow Land by Maggie O'Farrell
Cleo knows she should be happy for her brother Mark. He's managed to find someone new after the sudden death of his first wife - but something about Evie just doesn't feel right... When Evie starts having accidents at home, her friends grow concerned. Could Mark be causing her injuries? Called out to their cliff-top house one night, Sergeant Stephanie King finds two bodies entangled on blood-drenched sheets. Where does murder begin? When the knife is raised to strike, or before, at the first thought of violence? As the accused stands trial, the jury is forced to consider - is there ever a proper defence for murder?
Borrow And So It Begins by Rachel Abbott
London, 1916. It's only when her father dies that Louisa and her mother realise just how much debt their once-wealthy family is in. The only way she can save them is by marrying old, rich and leery Mr Mullen - Louisa can't imagine a fate worse than that. So when charming up-and-coming businessman Dickie Newman offers to marry her after a chance encounter, it seems like the perfect escape. She has no idea how dangerous her new husband is. 1934. Being Dickie's daughter has given Grace a life of luxury that many people can't imagine. She's never thought about where all the money comes from. But there's only so long she can live in blissful ignorance. Once her eyes are opened to her truth, there's no going back. But Dickie has no intention of letting her walk away...
Borrow Fall From Grace by Kitty Neale
With the dust finally settling after her near-fatal shooting, Lady Amelia Smallhope is looking forward to a period of rest and recuperation. A chance for her and Pennyroyal to plan their next lucrative adventure and drink margaritas in the sun. Yeah - like that's ever going to happen. An unexpected phone call blows everything out of the water. They've been targeted. By someone all-too familiar with Pennyroyal's murky past. But who would dare? There's only one way to find out - and the road ahead is dangerous. But as Smallhope likes to say... When things are bad - make them worse.
Borrow A Family Affair by Jodi Taylor
When Vice Admiral Boyer, RN (retd) died without leaving a will, his estranged daughter inherited his - not inconsiderable - estate. Called home to sort through his belongings, she found an AegisBox - a tamper proof safe within a safe designed to self-destruct if anyone without the code attempts to open it. Unable to walk away without the truth, she uncovered something so horrifying it launched the biggest investigation in the National Crime Agency's history. Five years later, Washington Poe is unwittingly, and unwillingly, sucked into its gravity... Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw are enjoying their new jobs as private detectives or - as the sign on their door says - 'Gumshoes for Hire'. When a teenage girl walks into their office, looking for the mother she long believed to be dead, they agree to take the case. As Poe and Tilly investigate the girl's claims, they find themselves drawn into a murky world of trafficking, pornography and prostitution.
Borrow The Killer's Mark by M.W. Craven
In a famed but crumbling university city overrun by vegetation, where power is held in a fragile balance between the academics and a contingent of rogue gardeners, Agathe spends her days listlessly propping up the career of her fraudulent professor boss. One day, a campus scandal erupts: Adam, a contrarian and the pet student of her boss, comes into heated conflict with a rising young professor, with both men claiming discrimination. As the crisis consumes the university, Agathe’s boss instructs her to gather information by befriending Adam. Agathe soon finds herself both caught up in the events tearing the city apart and increasingly drawn towards the alluring student at the heart of it all. But can anyone be taken at their word in a struggle over the truth?
Borrow The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams
Lucie comes from a long line of witches, powers passed down from mother to daughter. Her own mum was formidable in her powers, but ashamed of her magic. Perhaps as a result, Lucie's own gift is weak: she can see into the future, sometimes - but more often, she can only see the present of some other location. Not very useful. And the worst part? All she can ever see are insignificant details - a scrap of outfit, the colour of the sky. Lucie's own children are initiated into their family's peculiar womanhood when they reach twelve years of age, and in a few short months, Maud and Lise are crying the curious tears of blood that denote their magical powers. Having learned, they take off quickly and fly the nest. Literally. The Witch brings the mysteries of womanhood and motherhood into sharp relief and leaves us teetering on the edge, unbalanced by questions as seemingly unbreakable relationships break down left and right.
Borrow The Witch by Marie NDiaye
Manchester, 1982. The houses on the street are almost identical but number 51 has always been slightly neater, a shiny penny next to number 49. The people inside have their differences too but still their lives are entwined, most especially for young girls Abi and Christy. From questionable fashion choices, illicit nights out and doomed romances, growing up together they share everything. Including the secret that eventually tears them apart. Two decades later, Abi's life is one of marriage, family and stability. Christy, always the wilder of the two, has travelled and partied and risen high in the world of TV. Until, unexpectedly, they're living next door to each other again. Is it finally time to confront the past and speak the truth?
Borrow The Truth of Us by Sara Cox
A penniless and out-of-work actor picks up a job working for Dr Blend, a university professor who is conducting a psychological experiment. How will Dr Blend's students react to someone zipped into on oversized bag, sitting at the back of the lecture hall over a series of autumn term lectures? The role, eagerly accepted, soon has unexpected consequences. A professor of post-humanism develops research questions of her own, in particular can you love someone secreted away inside a black bag? Meanwhile, the actor's childhood friend and flatmate forms a vision for monetising this new situation . . . A warped campus novel, an investigation into the crisis of masculinity and an off-kilter love story, Black Bag is a firework of a novel: blazingly funny and profoundly humane.
Borrow Black Bag by Luke Kennard