Essays audiobooks

The Funny Thing Is...

By: Ellen DeGeneres

Narrated by: Ellen DeGeneres

Length: 3 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

An indispensable reference for anyone who knows how to read—or wants to fool people into thinking they do—The Funny Thing Is... is sure to make you laugh.

Ellen DeGeneres published her first book of comic essays, the #1 bestselling My Point...And I Do Have One, way back in 1996. Not one to rest on her laurels, the witty star of stage and screen... Read more

Blues City - Abridged

By: Ishmael Reed

Narrated by: Ishmael Reed

Length: 2 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Oakland is a blues city, brawling and husky . . .

Often overshadowed by San Francisco, its twinkling sister city across the Bay, Oakland is itself an American wonder. The city is surrounded by and filled with natural beauty—mountains and hills and lakes and a bay—and architecture that mirrors its history as a Spanish mission, Gold Rush outpost,... Read more

Cosmopolitan - Abridged

By: Toby Cecchini

Narrated by: Toby Cecchini

Length: 2 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Cosmopolitan is a memoir of the bartending life structured as a day in the life of Passerby, the bar owned and run by Toby Cecchini. It is, as well, a rich study of human nature—of the outlandish behavior of the human animal under the influence of alcohol, of lust, and of the sheer desire to bust loose and party. As the typical day progresses,... Read more

The Partly Cloudy Patriot

By: Sarah Vowell

Narrated by: Conan O'Brien, Seth Green, Stephen Colbert, Pau...

Length: 5 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: No

From This American Life contributor and self-described “history nerd” Sarah Vowell comes a collection of humorous and personal essays investigating American history, pop culture, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

In this insightful and funny collection of personal stories Vowell travels through the American past and in doing so ponders a number of... Read more

The Borderlands of Science

By: Michael Shermer

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 13 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

As author of the bestselling Why People Believe Weird Things and How We Believe, and Editor-in-Chief of Skeptic magazine, Michael Shermer has emerged as the nation's number one scourge of superstition and bad science. Now, in The Borderlands of Science, he takes us to the place where real science (such as the big bang theory), borderland science... Read more

Home on the Prairie

By: Garrison Keillor

Length: 4 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

The latest in a line of bestselling collections that began with News from Lake Wobegon, this set selects monologues from four years (1999-2002) of live radio programs. Some were broadcast from the Fitzgerald Theatre, the show's St. Paul home. Others were recorded on the road in Dublin, Pasadena, Grand Forks, and other exotic places. Read more

Blues City

By: Ishmael Reed

Narrated by: Richard Allen

Length: 5 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

Oakland is a blues city, brawling and husky . . .

Often overshadowed by San Francisco, its twinkling sister city across the Bay, Oakland is itself an American wonder. The city is surrounded by and filled with natural beauty—mountains and hills and lakes and a bay—and architecture that mirrors its history as a Spanish mission, Gold Rush outpost,... Read more

True Believers - Abridged

By: Joe Queenan

Narrated by: Joe Queenan

Length: 5 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Bestselling author Joe Queenan's True Believers explores the world of sports fans in an attempt to understand the inexplicable: What does anyone get out of it?

For Yankee, Cowboy, and Laker fans the answer is fairly clear: the return on investment is relatively high. But why do people root so passionately for formerly inept teams like the Boston... Read more

Hallowed Ground - Abridged

By: James M. McPherson

Narrated by: James M. McPherson

Length: 1 hour 58 minutes

Abridged: Yes

James M. McPherson, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom, and arguably the finest Civil War historian in the world, walks us through the site of the bloodiest and perhaps most consequential battle ever fought by Americans: the Battle of Gettysburg.

The events that occurred at Gettysburg are etched into our collective... Read more

Adventure Capitalist - Abridged

By: Jim Rogers

Narrated by: Jim Rogers

Length: 5 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Drive . . . and grow rich!

The bestselling author of Investment Biker is back from the ultimate road trip: a three-year drive around the world that would ultimately set the Guinness record for the longest continuous car journey. In AdventureCapitalist, legendary investor Jim Rogers, dubbed “the Indiana Jones of finance” by Time magazine, proves... Read more

Who's Your Caddy? - Abridged

By: Rick Reilly

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 5 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: Yes

The funniest and most popular sportswriter in America abandons his desk at Sports Illustrated to caddy for some of the world’s most famous golfers, and some celebrity duffers, recounting it all in this hilarious and revealing look at the world of golf.

Who knows a golfer best? Who’s with them every minute of every round, hears their muttering,... Read more

A Short History of Nearly Everything - Abridged

By: Bill Bryson

Narrated by: Bill Bryson

Length: 5 hours 47 minutes

Abridged: Yes

One of the world’s most beloved and bestselling writers takes his ultimate journey -- into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer.

In A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trail -- well, most of it. In In A Sunburned Country, he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to... Read more

Hallowed Ground

By: James M. McPherson

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 2 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

James M. McPherson, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom, and arguably the finest Civil War historian in the world, walks us through the site of the bloodiest and perhaps most consequential battle ever fought by Americans: the Battle of Gettysburg.

The events that occurred at Gettysburg are etched into our collective... Read more

The Lord God Made Them All

By: James Herriot

Narrated by: Christopher Timothy

Length: 11 hours 29 minutes

Abridged: No

Now available as an audio book for the first time, The Lord God Made Them All is the bestselling sequel to All Things Wise and Wonderful and the fourth volume in James Herriot's classic collections of animal stories--the basis for the PBS Masterpiece television series, All Creatures Great and Small.

In this repackaged volume, after serving in the... Read more

James Herriot's Animal Stories

By: James Herriot

Narrated by: Christopher Timothy

Length: 2 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

Available for the first time on CD, ten more delightful stories from the pen of the world's most beloved veterinarian—a perfect gift book guaranteed to delight the Yorkshire vet's worldwide legions of fans.

When you enter the world of James Herriot's Animal Stories, you'll share his wonder and humor, his adventures and misadventures as he... Read more

James Herriot's Cat Stories

By: James Herriot

Narrated by: Christopher Timothy

Length: 3 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

James Herriot's Cat Stories is the purr-fect gift for anyone who loves cuddling kitties.

Kittens and cats of all kinds abound in this program and, like their flesh-and-blood counterparts, they will purr their way into the hearts and minds of everyone who hears their stories. This warm and joyful volume of stories collects some of the Yorkshire... Read more

All Things Wise and Wonderful

By: James Herriot

Narrated by: Christopher Timothy

Length: 15 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

Readers adore James Herriot's tales of his life as a Yorkshire animal doctor in All Creatures Great and Small and All Things Bright and Beautiful.

Now here's a third delightful volume of memoirs rich with Herriot's own brand of humor, insight, and wisdom, and the basis for the PBS Masterpiece drama.

In the midst of World War II, James is training... Read more

All Creatures Great and Small

By: James Herriot

Narrated by: Christopher Timothy

Length: 15 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

The classic multimillion copy bestseller

Delve into the magical, unforgettable world of James Herriot, the world's most beloved veterinarian, and his menagerie of heartwarming, funny, and tragic animal patients.

When this book was first published, it was merely a simple volume of memoirs by an unknown Scottish veterinarian. But within a year,... Read more

All Things Bright and Beautiful

By: James Herriot

Narrated by: Christopher Timothy

Length: 13 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: No

The basis for the PBS Masterpiece series and the second volume in the multimillion copy bestselling series.

Millions of readers have delighted in the wonderful storytelling and everyday miracles of James Herriot in the fifty years since his animal stories were first introduced to the world.

All Things Bright and Beautiful is the beloved sequel to... Read more

Who's Your Caddy?

By: Rick Reilly

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 7 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

The funniest and most popular sportswriter in America abandons his desk at Sports Illustrated to caddy for some of the world’s most famous golfers—and some celebrity duffers—with hilarious results.

Who knows golfers best? Who’s with them every minute of every round, hears their muttering, knows whether they cheat? Their caddies, of course. So... Read more

Adventure Capitalist

By: Jim Rogers

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer

Length: 12 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

Drive . . . and grow rich!

The bestselling author of Investment Biker is back from the ultimate road trip: a three-year drive around the world that would ultimately set the Guinness record for the longest continuous car journey. In Adventure Capitalist, legendary investor Jim Rogers, dubbed “the Indiana Jones of finance” by Time magazine, proves... Read more

The Sweet Potato Queens' Big-Ass Cookbook (and Financial Planner)

By: Jill Conner Browne

Narrated by: Jill Conner Browne

Length: 6 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

They’re wild, beloved, and all-around fabulous, but with the Sweet Potato Queens, there’re just never enough good times—or enough good eats. Well, now all fabulous women everywhere can have their own mountains of royal fun and food, because bestselling author and Boss Queen Jill Conner Browne is revealing her big-ass top secret recipes—and the... Read more

The Physics of Christmas

By: Roger Highfield

Narrated by: Gerard Doyle

Length: 8 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: No

Can reindeer fly? Why is Santa Claus fat? Could scientists clone the perfect Christmas tree? Was the Star of Bethlehem really a comet? Why is Rudolph’s nose red? How does Santa manage to deliver presents to an estimated 842 million households in a single night? What could we do to guarantee a white Christmas every year?

These are among the... Read more

Lost Discoveries

By: Dick Teresi

Narrated by: Peter Johnson

Length: 14 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: No

Lost Discoveries, Dick Teresi's innovative history of science, explores the unheralded scientific breakthroughs from peoples of the ancient world -- Babylonians, Egyptians, Indians, Africans, New World and Oceanic tribes, among others -- and the non-European medieval world. They left an enormous heritage in the fields of mathematics, astronomy,... Read more