Biography & Memoir audiobooks

The Editor

By: Sara B. Franklin

Narrated by: Eunice Wong

Length: 11 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

An Economist Best Book of 2024

Legendary editor Judith Jones, the woman behind some of the most important authors of the 20th century—including Julia Child, Anne Frank, Edna Lewis, John Updike, and Sylvia Plath—finally gets her due in this “surprising, granular, luminous, and path-breaking biography” (Edward Hirsch, author of How to Read a... Read more

A Last Supper of Queer Apostles

By: Pedro Lemebel

Narrated by: Vico Ortiz, Idra Novey & Gwendolyn Harper

Length: 7 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

“Intoxicating . . . Sexy, political and deeply humane . . . We all owe Penguin Classics a round of shots for A Last Supper of Queer Apostles.” —The Washington Post

A galvanizing look at life on the margins of society by a crowning figure of Latin America's queer counterculture who celebrated “melodrama, kitsch, extravagance, and vulgarity of all... Read more

Glorious Lessons

By: Richard Brookhiser

Narrated by: Rick Adamson

Length: 9 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: No

The complicated life and legacy of John Trumbull, whose paintings portrayed both the struggle and the principles that distinguished America's founding moment



John Trumbull (1756–1843) experienced the American Revolution firsthand—he served as aid to George Washington and Horatio Gates, was shot at, and was jailed as a spy. He made it his mission... Read more

She Called Me Woman

By: Chitra Nagarajen, Azeenarh Mohammed & Rafeeat A...

Narrated by: Christel Mutombo & Carol Nuga

Length: 12 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

“We decided to put together this collection of thirty narratives to correct the invisibility, the confusion, the caricaturizing and the writing out of history.”This stirring and intimate collection brings together 30 unique narratives to paint a vivid portrait of what it means to be a queer Nigerian woman. Covering an array of experiences—the... Read more

King Hancock

By: Brooke Barbier

Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley

Length: 9 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

Americans are more familiar with his signature than with the man himself. In this spirited account of John Hancock's life, Brooke Barbier depicts a patriot of fascinating contradictions—a child of enormous privilege who would nevertheless become a voice of the common folk; a pillar of society uncomfortable with radicalism who yet was crucial to... Read more

The Hamilton Scheme

By: William Hogeland

Narrated by: William Hogeland

Length: 17 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: No

Alexander Hamilton has become a global celebrity. Millions know his name and imagine knowing the man. But what did he really want for the country? What risks did he run in pursuing those vaulting ambitions? Who tried to stop him? How did they fight? It's ironic that the Hamilton revival has obscured the man's most dramatic battles and... Read more

Zev's Los Angeles

By: Zev Yaroslavsky

Narrated by: Graham Rowat

Length: 16 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

This is the story of Zev Yaroslavsky, the son of Ukrainian Jews who immigrated to the United States in the early 1920s. His memoir charts the journey of a young social activist who battled to free Soviet Jews before becoming one of the most consequential elected officials in Southern California. Fiercely independent, he combined an activist's... Read more

In Pursuit of Justice

By: Dr. Stephen D. Engle

Narrated by: David Colacci

Length: 19 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: No

Widely known as the "poor man's lawyer" in antebellum Boston, John Albion Andrew (1818–1867) was involved in nearly every cause and case that advanced social and racial justice in Boston in the years preceding the Civil War. Inspired by the legacies of John Quincy Adams and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and mentored by Charles Sumner, Andrew devoted... Read more

There Was Nothing You Could Do

By: Steven Hyden

Narrated by: Steven Hyden

Length: 8 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: No

A thought-provoking exploration of Bruce Springsteen’s iconic album, Born in the U.S.A.—a record that both chronicled and foreshadowed the changing tides of modern America

On June 4, 1984, Columbia Records issued what would become one of the best-selling and most impactful rock albums of all time. An instant classic, Bruce Springsteen’s Born in... Read more

The War We Won Apart

By: Nahlah Ayed

Narrated by: Nahlah Ayed

Length: 11 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

INSTANT #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Love, betrayal, and a secret war: the untold story of two elite agents, one Canadian, one British, who became one of the most decorated couples of WWII.

On opposite sides of the pond, Sonia Butt, an adventurous young British woman, and Guy d’Artois, a French-Canadian soldier and thunderstorm of a man, are preparing... Read more

Sheikh Abdullah

By: Chitralekha Zutshi

Narrated by: Jeed Saddy

Length: 13 hours

Abridged: No

Written by the leading historian of modern Kashmir, this is a comprehensive portrayal of one of the most enigmatic politicians in modern South Asia, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, known as the Lion of Kashmir.



Abdullah (1905–1982) devoted much of his life to mobilizing Kashmiris to assert their rights, to trying to achieve a fair resolution for their... Read more

Spain’s Explorers in the Age of Discovery

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: Jim Walsh

Length: 4 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: No

The most seminal event of the last millennium might also be its most controversial. As schoolchildren have been taught for over 500 years, “In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” In October of that year, the Italian Christopher Columbus immortalized himself by landing in the New World and beginning the process of European settlement in the... Read more

Moral Vision

By: Marvin Olasky

Narrated by: Tim H. Dixon

Length: 14 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: No

What makes a leader truly great? Is it simply a matter of management style and personality? Or is it character that matters most? Moral Visions takes an insightful look into America’s leaders of the past to answer these questions and demonstrates that values and moral convictions are critical to the strength of a nation.

Supposedly, we learn... Read more

Hope Over Fate

By: Scott MacMillan

Narrated by: Scott MacMillan

Length: 15 hours 36 minutes

Abridged: No

Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times called him "one of the unsung heroes of modern times." Fazle Hasan Abed was a mild-mannered accountant who may be the most influential man most people have never even heard of. A former finance executive with almost no experience in relief aid, he founded BRAC, originally the Bangladesh Rehabilitation... Read more

The American Film Institute's 5 Greatest Actresses

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: Mary Rossman

Length: 5 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

In 1999, the American Film Institute released its list of the 50 greatest Hollywood stars of the 20th century, and selecting the best actresses out of the bunch was certainly a tall task. The competition was so stacked that women like Ginger Rogers, Grace Kelly and Rita Hayworth were not even among the Top 10. So who were the Top 5 women... Read more

Looking for Andy Griffith

By: Evan Dalton Smith

Narrated by: Evan Dalton Smith

Length: 5 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

Andy Griffith (1926-2012) is one of North Carolina's most beloved exports, capturing America's heart as Sheriff Andy Taylor. Evan Dalton Smith was born in the North Carolina Piedmont over four decades after Andy, just an hour south of Griffith's hometown of Mount Airy. Both were small-town boys who grew up in similar places, where the counties... Read more

Schoolboy

By: Waite Hoyt

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

Length: 8 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

Waite "Schoolboy" Hoyt's improbable baseball journey began when the 1915 New York Giants signed him as a high school junior, for no pay and a five-dollar bonus.



Based on a trove of Hoyt's writings and interview transcripts, Tim Manners has reanimated the baseball legend's untold story, entirely in Hoyt's own words.



Over his twenty-three-year... Read more

You Deserve Good Gelato

By: Kacie Rose

Narrated by: Kacie Rose

Length: 5 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

In this funny and honest feel-good memoir, social media star Kacie Rose offers a refreshingly honest take on navigating a new life abroad.

In 2021, Kacie decided to leave her life as a pro dancer in New York City and move to Italy – and she never looked back. Okay, that isn't strictly true… In You Deserve Good... Read more

Accordion Eulogies

By: Noé Álvarez

Narrated by: Asa Siegel

Length: 5 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

Searching, propulsive, and deeply spiritual, Accordion Eulogies is an odyssey to repair a severed family lineage, told through the surprising history of a musical instrument



Growing up in Yakima, Washington, Noé Álvarez never knew his grandfather. Stories swirled around this mythologized, larger-than-life figure: That he had abandoned his family,... Read more

Pasajes de la Guerra Revolucionaria

By: Ernesto Che Guevara

Narrated by: Ignacio Rodríguez De Anca, Irene Machado, Ramsé...

Length: 9 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

En abril de 1965, el Che Guevara se marcha de La Habana al Congo para dirigir a 200 veteranos cubanos que asisten al movimiento de liberación africana contra los colonialistas belgas, cuatro años después del asesinato del presidente socialista democráticamente electo, Patrice Lumumba.
Porque el diario trata el admitido "fracaso" del Che, examina... Read more

Reverend Ike

By: Xavier Eikerenkoetter & Mark Victor Hansen

Narrated by: Xavier Eikerenkoetter

Length: 10 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

The unlikely and sometimes harrowing journey of an iconic evangelist, known to millions as simply Reverend Ike, will draw you into his remarkable story of rising from extreme poverty and leading millions of poor Blacks to unprecedented financial success, independence, and joyful living by understanding the profound Biblical promises of... Read more

The Call to Serve

By: Jon Meacham

Narrated by: Jon Meacham

Length: 2 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

In honor of the one hundredth anniversary of George H. W. Bush’s birth, this visually stunning chronicle features never-before-published photos and memories celebrating the forty-first president’s vision of leadership as service to country—curated by Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer Jon Meacham.

Lavishly illustrated, The Call to Serve is an... Read more

Bear With Me, Amma

By: M.T. Vasudevan Nair

Narrated by: Jeremy Francis

Length: 6 hours

Abridged: No

MT, as he is popularly known, is one of the most illustrious writers and film-makers from modern Kerala. His life’s work has won him the Jnanpith Award, the Sahitya Akademi Award, the National Film Award and the Padma Bhushan, among others. MT grew up in the village of Kudallur in Kerala and his writings constantly evoke the landscape of the... Read more

The American Film Institute's 5 Greatest Actors

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: Mary Rossman

Length: 5 hours 24 minutes

Abridged: No

In 1999, the American Film Institute released its list of the 50 greatest Hollywood stars of the 20th century, and selecting the best actors out of the bunch was certainly a tall task. The competition was so stacked that men like Gary Cooper and John Wayne were not even among the Top 10. So who were the Top 5 men selected by the AFI?One man has... Read more