The Cat Who Saved Books, by Sōsuke Natsukawa (author), Louise Heal Kawai (translator), Kevin Shen (narrator)

HarperAudio, ISBN 9780063095755, December 2021

Rintaro Natsuki is a bookish, unsocial high school student living with his grandfather, helping to run his grandfather's secondhand bookstore. When his grandfather dies, he gets even more withdrawn. An aunt he barely knows organizes the funeral, and makes plans to close down the bookstore, and take him home to live with her.

But during the week between the funeral and the day she'll come take him home, and the removal company will take away the books, some very strange events happen. The first strange events don't quite register how strange they are. Rintaro knows he doesn't have any friends at school, so he doesn't quite know what to make of it when he gets visits at the bookstore from a boy, Ryota Akiba, who wonders why he's not attending school and also wants to buy some books, and from a girl, Sayo Yuzuki, who is his class representative. She's worried about his non-attendance, and brings him his homework. It's a bit more undeniably weird when the talking cat shows up.

Misfits (Liaden Universe stories #15), by Sharon Lee (author), Steve Miller (author)

Pinbeam Books, ISBN 9781935224181, June 2008

Ichliad Brunner is a member of a minor line of Clan Lysta, a meteorologist, and for most of the events of this story, working under contract at a space station orbing the planet Klamath, which is unfortunately engaged in a nasty war.

Miri Robertson, at this point, is not yet Val Con's lifemate and one half of Delm Korval. In fact, she hasn't met him, is still hardly more than a kid, and is a corporal in Liz Lizardi's Lizardi's Lunatics mercenary company.

Winterfair Gifts (Vorkosigan Saga (Publication Order) #13.1), by Lois McMaster Bujold (author), Grover Gardner (narrator)

Blackstone Publishing, ISBN 9781481539791, July 2008

Winterfair has come to Vorbarr Sultana, and Miles Vorkosigan and Ekaterin Vorsoisson are about to be married. The wedding is planned, the garden is laid out for it (yes, in the winter; Ekaterin designed the garden and Miles is determined to have the wedding there), the gifts are arriving, and so are the guests.

Elli Quinn, Miles' successor as Admiral of the Dendarii Free Mercenaries, is not coming, but has apparently sent two gifts. One is a Cetagandan genetically-engineered living blanket, which purrs. It's accompanied by one of Elli's ribald limericks. The other, arriving separately and a little later, is a beautiful string of pearls, with no limerick. 

Unthinkable: What the World's Most Extraordinary Brains Can Teach Us About Our Own, by Helen Thomson (author, narrator)

HarperAudio, ISBN 9780062847959, June 2018

Helen Thomson is a science writer with New Scientist, who became fascinated by the human brain, its complexity, and what can happen when that complexity goes wrong. In this book, she recounts her meetings and experiences with people with nine different, unusual brain conditions. This isn't a clinical textbook; it's about Thomson exploring how these conditions affect the lives of the individuals living with them. She also talks about what we've learned about these conditions and their origins, but that's not the main focus, here. The people are. And no matter how strange the conditions are, she always treats these people with respect, not as mere examples of how bizarre humans can be.

Emergency Landing A Short Horror Story (Come Join Us By The Fire, Volume 2: Book #15), by: Seanan McGuire (author), Natalie Naudus (narrator)

Tom Doherty Associates, ISBN 9781250811684, March 2021 (original publication March 2019)

Caitlin Wilson is a scientist, an epidemiologist, who, in the current situation, is glad to be able to say that she doesn't actually work for the government. She's a consultant. This doesn't help as much as she'd like.

What is the current situation? She traveling on business, this time flying out of the Atlanta airport. They've just taken off when she sees some flashes of light and feels what a less observant and less informed person would think was merely atmospheric disturbance. When Caitlin realizes that it was falling bombs and they were likely the last people to get out of the Atlanta airport, she flags down a flight attendant she knows from previous flights. She recommends that when wifi is turned on, it should be made free to all passengers, because as soon as some people have access to information about what just happened, unequal access is likely to lead to conflict and panic. 

Whiskers in the Dark (Mrs. Murphy #28), by Rita Mae Brown (author), Sneaky Pie Brown (author), Kate Forbes (narrator)

Recorded Books, ISBN 9781980029946, June 2019

After a major nor'easter hits northern Virginia, Harry Harristeen and her friends join the groundskeeping efforts for the National Beagle Club at Aldie. There's a major charity event coming up, Hounds for Heroes, a benefit for war veterans. Harry's two cats, Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and two dogs, Tucker the corgi and new addition, six-month-old Irish wolfhound puppy, Pirate, have come with her.

What should have been a pleasant and productive couple of days changes abruptly when one of those friends, Jason Holzknect, is found dead, with his throat cut. This terrible event is made worse by the fact that there is simply no evidence of who did it, or what their motive was.  It's clear the killer is frighteningly competent at killing, and very familiar with the grounds.

The Days of Flaming Motorcycles by Catherynne M. Valente (author), Natalie Naudus (narrator)

Tom Doherty Associates, ISBN 9781250807489, March 2021

Caitlin is a young woman living in Augusta, Maine, during the zombie apocalypse. She's surrounded by zombies; all the non-zombies, except her, have left Augusta for safer regions. She's even sharing her home with a zombie, her father. Her mother, who also became a zombie, wandered off.

Caitlin is recording her thoughts, observations, and experiences in a children's school notebook. The current one has a picture of flaming motorcycles on the cover. Her observations contradict much of the official information, still broadcast by tv and radio stations in places where the zombies haven't displaced the non-zombies. One of those observations is that the zombies have a culture.

Ten Little Fen: A Spade/Paladin Conundrum, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

WMG Publishing, November 2021

Spade, SMoF (Secret Master of Fandom), forensic accountant, and amateur detective for sf conventions when necessary, is program director of SierraCon, an sf convention held at a relatively isolated hotel in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, just barely on the California side of the California/Nevada state line. Oh, and this convention is in November. He's filling in for the original program director, who is recovering from chemotherapy for cancer, and not able to do the job. He's not fond of either mountains, or snow, but once the convention starts, no one really has to go out, and the locals say the snowstorms are overblown and don't generally create real problems. Getting ready of the official start of the convention, Spade ignores the weather.

That's a mistake. As the official start of the convention approaches, a major blizzard closes in, flights are canceled, both attendees and guests cancel, and Spade has to remind the hotel's general manager of the unusual terms of their contract regarding cancelations. At least their Writer Guest of Honor arrived early, and the "Usual Set," a group of New York-based writers and editors who travel a lot, show up unexpectedly, just before that becomes impossible, and can be used to fill program holes created by the cancelations. Except, of course, Spade's troubles haven't even started. That happens during dinner that night, when one well-known fan nearly chokes to death, is saved by fandom's other traveling detective, Paladin, performing the Heimlich maneuver, and subsequently proves to have been poisoned. 

Origin Story A Short Horror Story (Come Join Us By The Fire, Volume 2: Book #7), by T. Kingfisher (author), Natalie Naudus (narrator)

Tom Doherty Associates, ISBN 9781250811677, March 2021 (original publication October 2020)

The last survivor of three fairy sisters works in a slaughterhouse, because even a fairy has to eat. She's the best butcher in the slaughterhouse, and she can handle animals too difficult for others. Her coworkers slowly realize she's living there, too, but that's no great concern.

Even more slowly, they realize she's making things, small things. like things somewhere between birds and bats, out of leftover pieces and parts from the slaughtered animals. That's creepy and wrong and very disturbing. But she's the best butcher there, and the foreman says that when one of them is the best butcher he has, he'll listen to the complaints. Then one day an old mare is brought in, who isn't really ready for death, but she can't do her old job anymore, and can't be sold for enough to keep her out of the slaughterhouse. The fairy persuades the butcher to let her have the mare, and makes a promise to the mare.

Tales from Both Sides of the Brain: A Life in Neuroscience, by Michael S. Gazzaniga (author), Johnny Heller (narrator)

HarperAudio, ISBN 9780062373410, February 2015

Michael S. Gazzaniga is a leading scientist in the field of cognitive neuroscience, having in fact helped to create the field as the study of the brain advanced. In this book, he discusses his life and his research. He did important, even critical, research on split brains (brains where the corpus callosum, the nerve bundle connecting the left and right sides of the brain) was severed--sometimes in accidents, but often intentionally, in cases where epileptic seizures were unmanageably severe and frequent. It was effective enough to be considered justified in very severe cases--especially as it seemed to have no obvious impact on normal functioning.