Biography & Memoir audiobooks

Young Stalin

By: Simon Sebag Montefiore

Narrated by: James Adams

Length: 16 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

Young Stalin tells the story of an exceptional, charismatic, darkly turbulent young man born into obscurity, fancying himself a poet and a priest, and finally embracing revolutionary idealism as his Messianic mission in life. Equal parts scholar and terrorist, a mastermind of bank robberies, extortion, piracy, and murder, he was so impressive in... Read more

Escape - Abridged

By: Carolyn Jessop & Laura Palmer

Narrated by: Alison Fraser

Length: 4 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: Yes

The dramatic first-person account of life inside an ultra-fundamentalist American religious sect, and one woman’s courageous flight to freedom with her eight children.

When she was eighteen years old, Carolyn Jessop was coerced into an arranged marriage with a total stranger: a man thirty-two years her senior. Merril Jessop already had three... Read more

Schulz and Peanuts - Abridged

By: David Michaelis

Narrated by: Holter Graham

Length: 12 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Charles M. Schulz, the most widely syndicated and beloved cartoonist of all time, is also one of the least understood figures in American culture. Now acclaimed biographer David Michaelis gives us an in-depth biography of the brilliant, unseen man behind Peanuts.It is the most American of stories: How a barber's son grew up from modest... Read more

Switching Time

By: Richard Baer

Narrated by: Lloyd James

Length: 12 hours 58 minutes

Abridged: No

Switching Time is the first story centering on multiple personality disorder to be told by the treating physician. It is the incredible saga of a young woman stranded in unimaginable darkness who, in order to survive, created seventeen different versions of herself.



In 1989, Karen Overhill walked into the office of psychiatrist Richard Baer... Read more

The Jesuit and the Skull

By: Amir D. Aczel

Narrated by: Barrett Whitener

Length: 8 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

In December 1929, in a cave near Peking, a group of anthropologists and archaeologists that included a young French Jesuit priest named Pierre Teilhard de Chardin uncovered a prehuman skull. The find quickly became known around the world as Peking Man and was acclaimed as the missing link between erect hunting apes and our Cro-Magnon ancestors.... Read more

The Center Cannot Hold

By: Elyn R. Saks

Narrated by: Alma Cuervo

Length: 12 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

Professor of psychiatry Elyn R. Saks writes about her struggle with schizophrenia in this unflinching account of her mental illness. In The Center Cannot Hold, Saks draws readers into a nightmare world of medications, a misguided health care system, and social stigmas. But she would not be defeated. With a strength and force of will that most... Read more

American Gangster and Other Tales of New York

By: Mark Jacobson

Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner

Length: 10 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

In the 1970s, Frank Lucas was the king of the Harlem drug trade, bringing in over a million dollars a day. He lived a glamorous life, hobnobbing with athletes, musicians, and politicians, but Lucas was a ruthless gangster. He was notorious for using the coffins of dead GIs to smuggle heroin into the United States and, before being sentenced to... Read more

Clapton

By: Eric Clapton

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 10 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

With striking intimacy and candor, Eric Clapton tells the story of his eventful and inspiring life. More than a rock star, Eric Clapton is an icon, a living embodiment of the history of rock music. Well known for his reserve in a profession marked by self-promotion, flamboyance, and spin, he now chronicles, for the first time, his remarkable... Read more

Clapton - Abridged

By: Eric Clapton

Narrated by: Bill Nighy

Length: 5 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: Yes

“I found a pattern in my behavior that had been repeating itself for years, decades even. Bad choices were my specialty, and if something honest and decent came along, I would shun it or run the other way.”

With striking intimacy and candor, Eric Clapton tells the story of his eventful and inspiring life in this poignant and honest autobiography.... Read more

Blue Skies, No Fences - Abridged

By: Lynne Cheney

Narrated by: Lynne Cheney

Length: 5 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: Yes

In Blue Skies, No Fences: A Memoir of Childhood and Family, Lynne Cheney re-creates the years after World War II in a small town on the high plains of the West. Portraying an era that started with the Ink Spots on the Zenith Radio in her family's living room and ended with Elvis on the jukebox at the local canteen, she tells of coming of age in... Read more

The Year of Living Biblically - Abridged

By: A. J. Jacobs

Narrated by: A. J. Jacobs

Length: 6 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Now a TV series Living Biblically streaming on CBS All Access!

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Know-It-All comes a fascinating and timely exploration of religion and the Bible. A.J. Jacobs chronicles his hilarious and thoughtful year spent obeying―as literally as possible―the tenets of the Bible.

Raised in a secular family but... Read more

Foreskin's Lament

By: Shalom Auslander

Narrated by: Shalom Auslander

Length: 6 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

A bitingly funny memoir of growing up in a dysfunctional Jewish family and wrestling with a vengeful God. Read more

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry

By: Kathleen Flinn

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 10 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

Read Kathleen Flinn's posts on the Penguin Blog.

This is the funny and inspiring account of Kathleen Flinn’s struggle in a stew of hot-tempered chefs, competitive classmates, her own “wretchedly inadequate” French, and the basics of French cuisine. Flinn was a thirty-six-year-old middle manager trapped on the corporate ladder—until her boss... Read more

The Difficult Second Book - Abridged

By: Chris Moyles

Narrated by: Chris Moyles

Length: 6 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Brought to you by Penguin.


Superman was a hero. Clark Kent was a geek.

Spiderman saved lives. Peter Parker sold photographs to his local paper.

Chris Moyles entertains 8 million people each week on BBC Radio 1. Then he goes home and plays Xbox on his sofa, while wearing only his underpants.

Welcome to the real world of Chris Moyles.

The Difficult... Read more

Cochrane

By: David Cordingly

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 13 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

From the bestselling author of Under the Black Flag comes the definitive biography of the swashbuckling nineteenth-century maritime hero upon whom Jack Aubrey and Horatio Hornblower are based.



Nicknamed le loup des mers ("the sea wolf") by Napoleon, Thomas Cochrane was one of the most daring and successful naval heroes of all time. In this... Read more

Agent Zigzag

By: Ben Macintyre

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 10 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

Eddie Chapman was a charming criminal, a con man, and a philanderer. He was also one of the most remarkable double agents Britain has ever produced. Inside the traitor was a man of loyalty; inside the villain was a hero. The problem for Chapman, his spymasters, and his lovers was to know where one persona ended and the other began.

In 1941, after... Read more

The Joke’s Over

By: Ralph Steadman

Narrated by: James Adams

Length: 11 hours 58 minutes

Abridged: No

In early 1970, artist Ralph Steadman went to America in search of work and found more than he bargained for. At the Kentucky Derby he met a former Hell’s Angel, one Hunter S. Thompson. Thompson wrote later that “The rest of that day blurs into madness. The rest of that night, too. Steadman was lucky to get out of Louisville without serious... Read more

Running the Table

By: L. Jon Wertheim

Narrated by: Butch Engle

Length: 9 hours 47 minutes

Abridged: No

In many sports, the pinnacle is Wheaties-box fame and notoriety. But in the world of pool, notoriety is the last thing a hustler desires. Such is the dilemma that faces Danny Basavich, an affable, generously proportioned Jewish kid from Jersey, who flounders through high school until he discovers the one thing he excels at – the felt – and hits... Read more

Beyond the White House - Abridged

By: Jimmy Carter

Narrated by: Jimmy Carter

Length: 6 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: Yes

The president’s personal and passionate account of his twenty-five years in the service of humanitarian effort that won him the Nobel Peace Prize was received with the admiring respect of reviewers and readers and it will stand as the record of his brilliant post-presidential career.

This is the story of President Jimmy Carter’s post-presidency,... Read more

Running the Table - Abridged

By: L. Jon Wertheim

Narrated by: Robert Forster

Length: 5 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: Yes

In many sports, the pinnacle is Wheaties-box fame and notoriety. But in the world of pool, notoriety is the last thing a hustler desires. Such is the dilemma that faces Danny Basavich, an affable, generously proportioned Jewish kid from Jersey, who flounders through high school until he discovers the one thing he excels at – the felt – and hits... Read more

A Royal Duty

By: Paul Burrell

Narrated by: Paul Burrell

Length: TBA

Abridged: No

In A Royal Duty, Paul Burrell reveals the truth about Princess Diana - and presents a faithful account of her thoughts. He was the favourite footman who formed a unique relationship with the Queen. He was the butler who the Princess of Wales called 'my rock' and 'the only man I can trust'. He was accused of theft, then acquitted following the... Read more

Louder Than Words

By: Jenny McCarthy

Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert

Length: 4 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

If someone you love is diagnosed with autism, Louder Than Words is the first book you should read.One morning, Jenny McCarthy was having a cup of coffee when she sensed something was wrong. She ran into her two-year-old son Evan's room and found that he was having a seizure. In that moment, Jenny went from being the mother of an average toddler... Read more

Mi Vida Saxual

By: Paquito D'Rivera

Narrated by: Paquito D'Rivera

Length: 11 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: No

Paquito D'Rivera nacio en La habana el 4 de Junio de 1948, y fue eso que suelen llamar un "nino prodigio," pues empezo su carrera musical a los seis anos, gracias a la intuicion ayuda de un padre musico. Desde entonces, ya en plena madurez artistica, ha sido reconocido y aclamado, actuando en muchos escenarios del mundo, junto a grandes figuras... Read more

El amante turco

By: Esmeralda Santiago

Narrated by: Esmeralda Santiago

Length: 13 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

Las memorias de Esmeralda Santiago, Cuando era puertorriquena, continua con El amante turco. A los 21 anos, Esmeralda se mueve desde Brooklyn para comenzar una vida con Ulvi, una dominante, condescendiente turcos inmigrantes varios anos mayor que ella. Despues de anos de abuso, Esmeralda encuentra la fuerza para obtener un titulo de Harvard y... Read more