Essays audiobooks

We're Just Like You, Only Prettier

By: Celia Rivenbark

Narrated by: Cynthia Darlow

Length: 6 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

Celia Rivenbark's hilarious observations of life below the Mason-Dixon Line have made her a Southeast Booksellers Association best-selling author. In this collection of essays she shows how to be a true Southerner. For starters, don't forget that Chuck E. Cheese's is a place where a kid can be a kid- while mommie gets hammered on watered-down... Read more

The Possessed

By: Elif Batuman

Narrated by: Elif Batuman

Length: 9 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

One of The Economist's 2011 Books of the Year 


THE TRUE BUT UNLIKELY STORIES OF LIVES DEVOTED―ABSURDLY! MELANCHOLICALLY! BEAUTIFULLY!―TO THE RUSSIAN CLASSICS

No one who read Elif Batuman's first article (in the journal n+1) will ever forget it. "Babel in California" told the true story of various human destinies intersecting at Stanford University... Read more

We Should All Be Feminists

By: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Narrated by: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Length: 45 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The highly acclaimed, provocative essay on feminism and sexual politics—from the award-winning author of Americanah

"A call to action, for all people in the world, to undo the gender hierarchy." —Medium

In this personal, eloquently-argued essay—adapted from the much-admired TEDx talk of the same name—Chimamanda Ngozi... Read more

Killings

By: Calvin Trillin

Narrated by: Robert Fass

Length: 11 hours 5 minutes

Abridged: No

True stories of sudden death in the classic collection by a master of American journalism

“Reporters love murders,” Calvin Trillin writes in the introduction to Killings. “In a pinch, what the lawyers call ‘wrongful death’ will do, particularly if it’s sudden.” Killings, first published in 1984 and expanded for this edition, shows Trillin to be... Read more

Kingdom of Olives and Ash

By: Michael Chabon & Ayelet Waldman

Narrated by: Fred Sanders & Gabra Zackman

Length: 16 hours 4 minutes

Abridged: No

A groundbreaking collection of essays by celebrated international writers bears witness to the human cost of fifty years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.In Kingdom of Olives and Ash, Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, two of today's most renowned novelists and essayists, have teamed up with the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence—an... Read more

The Guinea Pig Diaries

By: A. J. Jacobs

Narrated by: A. J. Jacobs

Length: 6 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

A collection of A.J. Jacobs’s hilarious adventures as a human guinea pig, including “My Outsourced Life,” “The Truth About Nakedness,” and a never-before-published essay.

One man. Ten extraordinary quests.

Bestselling author and human guinea pig A.J. Jacobs puts his life to the test and reports on the surprising and entertaining results. He goes... Read more

You Gotta Want It

By: Jake Paul

Narrated by: Jake Paul

Length: 4 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

In this extremely positive, motivational, and often laugh-out-loud memoir, Jake Paul pauses long enough from his supercharged day-to-day as a nineteen year old social media heartthrob and costar on the Disney Channel series Bizaardvark to share his takes on life, love, fame, and shooting for the moon.

Growing up as a regular kid in Ohio, Jake... Read more

Hungry Heart

By: Jennifer Weiner

Narrated by: Jennifer Weiner

Length: 13 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: No

"Generous and entertaining." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay * Nominated for “Best Memoir & Autobiography” by Goodreads Choice Awards 2016 * Named a “Best Book of the Year” by New York Post

"You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll want to read it again." —TheSkimm

“I'm... Read more

Sweet Spot

By: Amy Ettinger

Narrated by: Kathleen McInerney

Length: 8 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

A journalist channels her ice-cream obsession, scouring the United States for the best artisanal brands and delving into the surprising history of ice cream and frozen treats in America.
 
For Amy Ettinger, ice cream is not just a delicious snack but a circumstance and a time of year—frozen forever in memory. As the youngest child and only... Read more

Chasing the Monsoon

By: Alexander Frater

Narrated by: Bernard Mayes

Length: 11 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

This is the inspiring story of how one man realized his dream of witnessing firsthand the most dramatic of meteorological events: the Indian monsoon.Alexander Frater spent the first six years of his life on a South Pacific island, where his father, the only doctor within a thousand square miles, encouraged his fascination and respect for the... Read more

The Fun Stuff

By: James Wood

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 12 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

A new, far-ranging collection of essays from "the strongest…literary critic we have." (New York Review of Books)Following The Broken Estate, The Irresponsible Self, and How Fiction Works—books that established James Wood as the leading critic of his generation—The Fun Stuff confirms Wood's preeminence, not only as a discerning judge but also as... Read more

Tell Me Where It Hurts

By: Nick Trout

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 9 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

It all begins at 2:47 a.m. Then over one twenty-four-hour period, Dr. Trout fights for the life of a ten-year-old German shepherd, battles disease in the operating room, unravels tricky diagnoses, reassures frantic pet parents, and reflects on the humor, heartache, and inspiration in his life as an animal surgeon. And he wants to take you along... Read more

Steven Raichlen’s Martha’s Vineyard

By: Steven Raichlen

Narrated by: Steven Raichlen

Length: 1 hour 7 minutes

Abridged: No

Join celebrated PBS TV host and New York Times bestselling author, Steven Raichlen, for a personal guided tour of Martha's Vineyard, including his favorite places to shop for the freshest seafood and best local produce. This original companion audio to Raichlen's debut novel, Island Apart, takes us right into Steven's kitchen as he brings the... Read more

Lost in Language and Sound

By: Ntozake Shange

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson

Length: 4 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

Lost in Language and Sound is a vibrant and vital collection that celebrates the three most important muses in the life and work of Ntozake Shange: language, music, and dance. In this deeply personal book, the celebrated writer reflects on what it means to be an artist, a woman, and a woman of color through a beautiful combination of memoir and... Read more

Context

By: Cory Doctorow

Narrated by: Richard Powers

Length: 6 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

One of the web's most celebrated high-tech culture mavens returns with this second collection of essays and polemics. Discussing complex topics in an accessible manner, Cory Doctorow's visions of a future where artists have full freedom of expression is tempered with his understanding that creators need to benefit from their own creations. From... Read more

We Are All Stardust

By: Stefan Klein

Narrated by: Gildart Jackson, Simon Vance, Kate Reading & Se...

Length: 8 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

A sterling roster of natural and social scientists in conversation with top-flight journalist Stefan Klein—shedding new light on their work, their lives, and what they still hope to discoverWhen acclaimed science writer Stefan Klein asks Nobel Prize–winning chemist Roald Hoffmann what sets scientists apart, Hoffmann says, “First and foremost,... Read more

Meaty

By: Samantha Irby

Narrated by: Samantha Irby

Length: 7 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

Smart, edgy, hilarious, and unabashedly raunchy New York Times bestselling author Samantha Irby explodes off the printed page in her uproarious first collection of essays. 

Irby laughs her way through tragicomic mishaps, neuroses, and taboos as she struggles through adulthood: chin hairs, depression, bad sex, failed relationships, masturbation,... Read more

A Stone of Hope

By: Jim St. Germain & Jon Sternfeld

Narrated by: Ron Butler

Length: 8 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

In the tradition of The Other Wes Moore and Just Mercy, a searing memoir and clarion call to save our at-risk youth by a young black man who himself was a lost cause—until he landed in a rehabilitation program that saved his life and gave him purpose.Born into abject poverty in Haiti, young Jim St. Germain moved to Brooklyn’s Crown Heights, into... Read more

Frantumaglia

By: Elena Ferrante

Narrated by: Hillary Huber

Length: 13 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: No

The writer known as Elena Ferrante has taken pains to hide her identity in the hope that readers would focus on her body of work. But in this volume, she invites us into her workshop and offers a glimpse into the drawers of her writing desk—those drawers from which emerged her three early standalone novels and the four installments of the... Read more

How to Drink like a Billionaire

By: Mark Oldman

Narrated by: Mark Oldman

Length: 6 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

Would you like to know the mysteries of how the one percent drink? Mark Oldman, one of America’s most popular wine experts, demystifies the secrets of the wine world, so you can drink, enjoy, and savor wine better—and cheaper.Mark Oldman imparts his vast knowledge of wines into this easy-to-read, humorous guide, complete with in-depth how-tos on... Read more

America 51

By: Corey Taylor

Narrated by: Corey Taylor

Length: 7 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

A skewering of the American underbelly by the New York Times bestselling author of Seven Deadly Sins, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Heaven, and You're Making Me Hate You

The always-outspoken hard rock vocalist Corey Taylor begins America 51 with a reflection on what his itinerant youth and frequent worldwide travels with his multiplatinum... Read more

A Paris All Your Own

By: Eleanor Brown

Narrated by: Various

Length: 8 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: No

A collection of all-new Paris-themed essays written by some of the biggest names in women’s fiction, including Paula McLain, Therese Anne Fowler, Maggie Shipstead, and Lauren Willig, edited by Eleanor Brown, the New York Times bestselling author of The Weird Sisters and The Light of Paris.
 
“My time in Paris,” says New York Times–bestselling... Read more

The Meaning of Michelle

By: Veronica Chambers

Narrated by: January LaVoy & Prentice Onayemi

Length: 4 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

“Whenever I think about Michelle Obama, I think, ‘When I grow up, I want to be just like her. I want to be that intelligent, confident, and comfortable in my own skin’.” ―Roxane Gay

“Even after eight years of watching them daily in the press, the fact that the most powerful man in the world is a Black man is still breathtaking to me. The fact... Read more

Free Women, Free Men

By: Camille Paglia

Narrated by: Camille Paglia

Length: 11 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

From the fiery intellectual provocateur— and one of our most fearless advocates of gender equality—a brilliant, urgent essay collection that both celebrates modern feminism and challenges us to build an alliance of strong women and strong men. 

Ever since the release of her seminal first book, Sexual Personae, Camille Paglia has remained one of... Read more