The Wild Robot (The Wild Robot #1), by Peter Brown (author), Kate Atwater (narrator)

Hachette Audio, ISBN 9781478909002, April 2016

Roz is a robot, being shipped to her intended destination, when a storm wrecks the ship that she and the other robots bound for the same destination. Their crates sink, or break up on the rocks, and Roz's is the only one that washes ashore on an island.

Some otters find the crate, and, being curious critters, they investigate, and accidentally press the button that turns her on. Roz sees the world for the first time in a place she was never meant to be, with a large database of information, and no instructions on what she's supposed to do. The otters are scared off when she speaks, and are no source of help in figuring things out.

Black Holes: The Key to Understanding the Universe, by Brian Cox (author), Jeff Forshaw (author, narrator)

HarperAudio, ISBN 9780062936721, March 2023

In this book, read by Jeff Forshaw, Forshaw and Brian Cox discuss black holes, and how they affect every part of our universe, and indeed are key to understanding the physics and history of our universe.

Black holes are famously where general relativity and quantum physics meet but can't be made to work together. Is relativity wrong? is quantum physics wrong? So far, they each enable serious discoveries in their fields. They don't seem to be wrong. We most likely are just missing something important.

The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles #1), by T.J. Klune (author), Daniel Henning (narrator)

Macmillan Audio, ISBN 9781250264299. March 2020

Linus Baker is a case worker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, a..k.a. DICOMY. He's been doing it for 17 years, is carefully attentive to the regulations, and believes what he's doing--including maintaining distance from the children in the orphanages--is helping to keep the children safe. The orphanages are generally rather stark, and often rundown, but Linus's inspection visits help keep them from being abusive. He has not hesitated to recommend closure of orphanages where he finds the children are being mistreated.

Linus isn't popular at work, or for that matter anywhere. He lives a quiet life, is devoted to his work, loves his old record albums played on his even older Victrola, and cares for his rather cranky cat. It's quite a surprise when, at work, he is summoned to a meeting with Extremely Upper Management, to be given a highly classified assignment. He is to visit the Marsyas Island Orphanage, where there are six very dangerous children.

Summon the Keeper (Keeper's Chronicles #1), by Tanya Huff

DAW, 2005 (original publication May 1998)

Claire Hansen is a Keeper, one of the select few charged with ensuring the universe stays properly knitted together and in one piece. She's been summoned to her latest mission, along with her cat, Austin.

Austin is a handsome, dignified, tuxedo cat--who talks. He's very opinionated, and dedicated, firstly to protecting Claire, and secondly, to protecting the continued stable existence of the universe.

The place they've been summoned to is a rundown bed & breakfast called the Elysian Fields Guesthouse, run by an unpleasant old man who grudgingly checks her in and assigns her a room. Dean, the handsome young handyman, takes her luggage up, and, still with no clear idea of where the "hole" she'll need to fix is, she goes to sleep.

The Undermining of Twyla and Frank (Hart & Mercy #2), by Megan Bannen (author), Nicol Zanzarella (narrator)

Hachette Audio, ISBN 9781668642139, July 2024

Twyla Banneker and Frank Ellis lived next door to each other for years, in the town of Eternity, on the island of Tanria. Along with their spouses, they've been friends for years. But Twyla's husband died, and Frank's wife left him, and their children are all grown.

They're still friends, and still living next door. In fact, they are now both Tanrian marshals, Frank with two more years of service than Twyla. They're also regarded as a very cute couple by everyone but themselves.

They are tasked with patrolling the dangerous area that was the former prison of the Old Guards, and they love their rather exciting work. Twyla found it a welcome break from being a mother and perceived as nothing else.

Except it's not so dangerous, or so exciting, anymore. The creatures called drudges have been eliminated, and the old prison territory is much, much safer.

They're spending a lot more time doing, essentially, community outreach.

Galileo: Science, Faith, and the Catholic Church, by Guy Consolmagno (author, narrator)

Now You Know Media, Inc., January 2015

Galileo is the favorite example of how religion generally, and the Catholic Church in particular, hates science. It's trotted out as proof whenever the subject is raised.

Have you ever asked yourself why other, equally impressive, examples of the Catholic Church's hostility to science aren't also used? Yeah, it's because there aren't others. The Church learned from the Galileo mistake. It wasn't Rome that denounce Darwin's theory of evolution. It was some Protestant churches that were scandalized by it. The first pope to speak about evolution was Pius XII, in 1950. He said that there wasn't enough evidence yet to accept it as a proven doctrine, but there was nothing in it that inherently contradicted Catholic doctrine. The Catholic Church has never favored strictly literal reading of the Bible, including Genesis, and this makes flexibility of mind on certain scientific issues and how they interact with faith rather easier.

Don't Touch That!: A Sci-Fi & Fantasy Parenting Anthology, by Jaymee Goh (editor)

Mike Chen, K.A. Doore, Keena C. Roberts, publishers, September 2022

This is an anthology of stories about parenting, in diverse and strange settings, by diverse authors, and with quite varied takes on the subject.

Brit E.B. Hvide gives us a story of mysterious visitors to a village who recruit children to leave their homes and families and go off on an adventure, from which they might or might not return. When this particular village receives its third mysterious visitor in a year, a visitor looking for that particular child of portent, one mother knows that this time he's going to take her son. And her son is really all she has left that matters to her. She decides this story of adventure will start a little differently.

The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times, by Adrienne Mayor (author), Donna Postel (narrator)

Tantor Media, ISBN 9781705276761, February 2021 (original publication April 2000)

I'm not sure it should really surprise me, but the Greeks, Romans, and other ancient cultures did a fair amount of paleontology.

Now, they didn't have our dating techniques, so while they had a good sense that Earth was old, and that the bones they found were from creatures that existed before us and were now gone, they had no idea how old, and didn't necessarily have a good sense of what came before what.

They also couldn't reliably tell what bones belonged with which other bones in the more jumbled and confused fossil sites. Earthquakes exposed a lot of fossils, but also jumbled them together.

Constituent Service: A Third District Story, by John Scalzi (author), Amber Benson (narrator)

Audible Audio, October 2024

Ashley Perrin is the fresh out of college new hire as the community services liaison for the city's Third District--the only district where the human citizens are the minority. The majority are aliens from a wide variety of alien worlds.

This includes all her coworkers in the Third District office, one of whom is a potted plant, whose assistant is very froglike in appearance. Oh, and she and her coworkers will go out for karaoke night. She'll have to sing. It's the traditional initiation.

But first, there's her first round of complaints and service requests.

Ecdysis (Orville Nesbit Mysteries #1), by Debra Doyle & James D. Macdonald

 

James D. Macdonald, Smashwords, ISBN 2940011288968, May 2011

Phil Paran is a police detective, investigating the latest in a string of serial killings. It's especially nasty, with the victims, always young women working as strippers, found dead and completely stripped of their skin. Remarkably neatly, too; very little blood found.