Showing results by narrator "Michael Crouch" in All Categories

Otto Digmore is a 26-year-old gay guy with dreams of being a successful actor, and he's finally getting some attention as a result of his supporting role on a struggling sitcom. But he's also a burn survivor with scars on half his face, and all indications are that he's just too different to ever find real Hollywood success.

The moment a mysterious boy moves in next door to Sydney and Allyson Tate, both of their lives begin to change in ways that neither of them can ignore. When Allyson meets Graham Copeland, she instantly feels like he's a kindred spirit - shy and awkward like her, someone who has trouble making friends. It's almost impossible to resist having a crush on him.

After a mostly successful stint at Hills Village Middle School, Rafe is excited to visit the incredible city of London with his class. Sightseeing around a foreign country sounds like a blast - until Rafe finds out his roommate will be none other than Miller the Killer, bully extraordinaire! Then Rafe is forced to work on a class project side by side with his crush, Jeanne Galletta, and her too-perfect boyfriend, which might be even more torturous than rooming with Miller.

Seventeen-year-old Klee's father was the center of his life. He introduced Klee to the great museums of New York City and the important artists on their walls, he told him stories made of myths and magic. Until his death. Now, forced to live in the suburbs with his mom, Klee can't help but feel he's lost all the identifying parts of himself. That is until he meets wild and free Sarah in art class, with her quick smiles and jokes. But when an act of betrayal sends him reeling, Klee lands in what is bitingly referred to as the "Ape Can", a psychiatric hospital for teens in Northhollow.

Holly Larson wants to step out of her family's shadow and live her own life. Her mind is full of sexy fantasies, but she doesn't have anyone to share them with - until she calls upon her gorgeous childhood crush, Dalton Thomas. Now she's ready to check every box on her list....

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli, read by Michael Crouch. Straight people should have to come out too. And the more awkward it is, the better. Simon Spier is 16 and trying to work out who he is - and what he's looking for. But when one of his emails to the very distracting Blue falls into the wrong hands, things get all kinds of complicated. Because for Simon, falling for Blue is a big deal.... It's a holy freaking huge awesome deal.

Trembling in the wake of devastating treachery, can the Loxely sisters finally bring down the royals and all they stand for? Jessa and Sasha are finally united in the cause of saving their kingdom and bringing their family back together. The sisters will face their greatest tests yet. Jessa's wedding is coming up faster than she can stop it, but it's Sasha who is running out of time. Things aren't as they seem in the palace, and the one person who can save them is the one they swore to never trust again.

They think I’m an idealistic young law student, that I’m passionate about reforming a corrupt and brutal system. They think I’m working hard to impress them. They think I’m here to save an innocent man on death row. They're wrong. I’m going to bury him.

Based on his popular Instagram comics, Nathan W. Pyle presents a delightful, heartfelt, and clever book that young and old beings alike will enjoy exploring together. When the nearest star rises, Lifegiver has an exciting quest planned for Offspring! Follow along as they observe a strange creature that sneaks, hides, and vibrates around their house. Hilarity ensues as the blue beings try to mimic this talented creature.

A Key to Treehouse Living is the adventure of William Tyce, a boy without parents, who grows up near a river in the rural Midwest. In a glossary-style list, he imparts his particular wisdom on subjects ranging from ASPHALT PATHS, BETTA FISH, and MULLET to MORTAL BETRAYAL, NIHILISM, and REVELATION. His improbable quest - to create a reference volume specific to his existence - takes him on a journey down the river by raft. But as he goes about defining his changing world, all kinds of extraordinary and wonderful things happen to him.

Wyatt is 15, and nobody in his homophobic small town of Lincolnville, Oregon, knows that he’s gay. Not even his best friend (and accidental girlfriend) Mackenzie. Then he discovers a secret from actual history: Abraham Lincoln was in love with another guy! Since everyone loves Lincoln, Wyatt’s sure that if the world knew about it, they would treat gay people differently, and it would solve everything about his life.

Pete Milano has always been the class clown and proud of it. What's the point of having friends if you can't make them laugh, right? Even if doing so has the unfortunate side effect of constantly getting him into trouble. But, for once, Pete's tricks have led him to just the right place at just the right time. Now he's about to become famous, because he's been asked to audition for the hottest new movie with the hottest girl costar. But balancing real life with movie life is way harder than it sounds.

Cole Weston - former friend, former boyfriend - has become dangerous, erratic. Something needs to be done. Getting rid of Cole is practically a public service. So high school seniors Holly Morse, Grayson Hobbs, Logan Bailey, and Meeka Miller devise a plan. Kill Cole. Bury him in the woods behind Meeka's house. Bury him deep, deep in the ground along with four old cell phones, wiped except for their video confession as insurance that no one will ever betray the group.

From James Leo Herlihy (author of Midnight Cowboy) comes a series of grim yet insightful short stories in his first collection, The Sleep of Baby Filbertson. Both an examination of the darker themes of alienation and isolation and an elevation of the oddities and quirks that make up human nature, Herlihy’s seven tales tackle the anxieties of fragile people and get to the heart of a world inhabited by perennial outsiders.

Kyle Baker thought his family was happy. Happy enough, anyway. That’s why, when Kyle learns that his mother has been having an affair and his father has been living with the secret, his reality is altered. He quits baseball, ghosts his girlfriend, and generally checks out of life as he’s known it. With his older sisters out of the house and friends who don’t get it, the only person he can talk to is his cousin Emily - who is always there on the other end of his texts but still has her own life, hours away.

Throughout this striking debut collection, we meet characters who have lied, who have sometimes created elaborate falsehoods, and who now must cope with the way that those deceptions eat at the very fabric of their lives and relationships. In the title story, the narrator, desperate to save a love affair on the rocks, hires an actor to play a friend he invented in order to seem less lonely, after his boyfriend catches on to his compulsion for lying and demands to know this friend is real.

Janie and Micah, Micah and Janie. That's how it's been ever since elementary school, when Janie Vivien moved next door. Janie says Micah is everything she is not. Where Micah is shy, Janie is outgoing. Where Micah loves music, Janie loves art. It's the perfect friendship - as long as no one finds out about it. But then Janie goes missing, and everything Micah thought he knew about his best friend is colored with doubt.

All Alex Dassan needs to do is win second place in the debate team finals. The second place prize is a trip to the Nottingshire Retreat in London, where she'll have a chance to take a class with her writing idol, Mary Noelle Simmons. Alex knows that once she meets Mary, then her life will fall into place and her dreams of becoming a writer will be possible (and less scary). Nothing is going to stand in Alex's way - especially not a dad who's never home and a mom who left to go "find herself" in India.

This prize-winning collection brings to life skiers, ranchers, cyclists, suffragettes, tourists, super models, dead pigs, burro racers, religious beet farmers, immigrant miners, scorned lovers, penitent centenarians, and musicians. Some historical, some contemporary, its stories revel in their Western settings, as varied as the region’s landscape. Yet each story explores the ways society’s values clash with our individual desires, compelling us, despite tears or laughter, to weave our lives through these opposing forces, often creating not a lifeline, but a noose.

Jamie Goldberg is cool with volunteering for his local state candidate - as long as he’s behind the scenes. There’s no way he’d ever knock on doors to ask people for their votes...until he meets Maya. Maya Rehman’s having the worst Ramadan ever. Her best friend is too busy to hang out, her summer trip is cancelled, her parents are separating and now her mother thinks the solution to her problems is political canvassing - with some awkward guy she hardly knows....