Summer is here – or on the way – for many of us, and our just-released third collection of Literary Fiction has been scientifically structured to meet any vacation you might be planning. To prove it, here’s my Summer Holiday Audiobook Matchmaking Guide (scientific, remember). Just pick the type of holiday that best suits you, and I’ll let you know which audiobook you’ll want from our new collection:

For the World-Aware

Your dream vacation involves joining protestors in Libya, building houses for the poor, working a community garden in a rainforest, or keeping writers distracted on Twitter from finishing their novels. You should download:
– Amphibian, by Carla Gunn, read by Anita Roy Dobbs (Coach House Books).
“Carla Gunn’s prose crackles with energy in this illuminating, heart-gripping novel.” — Sheree Fitch

For the Urban Escapist

You seek a no-frills return to nature, with or without hugging trees or cleaning your teeth with pine needles. Your holiday dream involves rainbow trout jumping for mayflies, waking up with the sunrise, and a sky whose stars you can’t find on Google maps, because you’re out of cellphone range. You should listen to:
– The Painting and the City, by Robert Freeman Wexler, read by Robert Keiper and Ulf Bjorklund (PS Publishing).
“A complex, enthralling novel, concerned with relations between art and commerce.” — Booklist

For the Urban Enthusiast

Maybe it’s the other way around, and you’re charmed by exploring thriving foreign places. Going from Chinatown to Little Italy in two blocks in NYC. Having a dozen pints of beer in Kreuzberg and stumbling nose first into the remains of the Berlin Wall: If you plan to go around the world in a city’s day, how about:
– Then We Saw the Flames, by Daniel A. Hoyt, read by Charles Bice (University of Massachusetts Press).
With plenty of entertainment crammed between the covers, Then We Saw the Flames is a great short fiction pick.” — Midwest Book Review

For the Beach-Comber

Okay, there’s nothing about Matt Bell’s collection that makes me think of fuzzy fruity drinks, but if I had to peg a metaphor on the collection, it would be one of floating on the surface of the sea in full snorkeling gear, for a gull’s-eye view through magnified lenses of the wild of reef life. Trust me and download:
– How They Were Found, by Matt Bell, read by Mark F. Smith (Keyhole Press).
“Fierce, unflinching, funny, How They Were Found is just the book we need right now…” – Laird Hunt

For the Budget Backpacker

For the chance to explore the shadier side of the world, you’re willing to sleep on trains with one eye open, or in hostels in sketchy neighbourhoods, with your valuables tucked under your head. If sharing your life’s story and a bottle of wine with fellow travelers is your idea of summer bliss, you need to listen to:
– The Autobiography of Jenny X, by Lisa Dierbeck, read by Darla Middlebrook (Mischief + Mayhem).
“Fast-paced, psychologically taut … beguiling … sly and sharp.” —New York Observer

For the Insolvent Writer

You’re not going anywhere this summer outside of your own head. You’re determined to finish this draft of your book this summer, if you can stay off Twitter for long enough. You hope it’s not as self-indulgent as your blog posts for Iambik. The thought that it might be has you obsessing over every word, and wanting a vacation. Check out:
– With or Without You, by Lauren Sanders, read by Lee Ann Howlett (Akashic Books).
“A wickedly crafted whydunit.” –Entertainment Weekly

For the Around-the-World Cruiser

You’ve got cash to spend, or credit card debt to accumulate. You’re willing to show off, so pick up:
– Complete Literary Collection 3 , all six titles for only $29.99. I know this is too good a deal for your lifestyle: use the cash you’ll save for a caviar facial treatment.