Karen Garcia

There’s never been an evil man that Cassidy Callaghan couldn’t sniff out. Her life in 1870s Nevada is built on justice… and revenge. Every bounty she ropes in is a stone turned over in her search for the one man she hasn’t been able to find. Jack Ransom, the man who murdered her parents. Outlaw turned lawman James Moone dutifully stands guard, always awaiting Cassidy’s return. She’s got a sour disposition and a worse temper. Moone is the only man in the West who’d call her a friend. One who’s won her hard-earned trust.

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.

Why we think it’s a great listen: Some books are meant to be read; others are meant to be heard – Water for Elephants falls into the second group, and is one of the best examples we have of how a powerful performance enhances a great story. Nonagenarian Jacob Jankowski reflects back on his wild and wondrous days with a circus. It's the Depression Era and Jacob, finding himself parentless and penniless, joins the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.