Essays audiobooks

Dear Girls

By: Ali Wong

Narrated by: Ali Wong & Justin Hakuta

Length: 6 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Heartfelt and hilarious essays from the Emmy and Golden Globe Award–winning actress, star of the Netflix original series Beef, and two-time member of Time’s 100 Most Influential People of the Year list
 
“A collection of letters to her baby girls that are barn-burning reflections on being a working mom, marriage, sex,... Read more

Inciting Joy

By: Ross Gay

Narrated by: Ross Gay

Length: 8 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

From New York Times bestselling author Ross Gay comes a "brilliant" intimate and electrifying collection of essays about the joy that comes from connection (Ada Limón, U.S. poet laureate).

In these gorgeously written and timely pieces, prizewinning poet and author Gay considers the joy we incite when we care for each other, especially during... Read more

Fight of the Century

By: Michael Chabon & Ayelet Waldman

Narrated by: an All Star Cast

Length: 11 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

The American Civil Liberties Union partners with award-winning authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman in this “forceful, beautifully written” (Associated Press) collection that brings together many of our greatest living writers, each contributing an original piece inspired by a historic ACLU case.

On January 19, 1920, a small group of... Read more

Lifeform

By: Jenny Slate

Narrated by: Jenny Slate, George Saunders, Vanessa Bayer & W...

Length: 4 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

Comedian and New York Times bestseller Jenny Slate’s wild, hilarious, genre-bending essays read in her singular voice depict life and motherhood as you’ve never seen it before. Featuring narration from friends Vanessa Bayer and Will Forte (“Schumacher 2”), and George Saunders (“The Therapist”).
 
What happened was this: Jenny Slate was a human... Read more

The Fire Next Time

By: James Baldwin

Narrated by: Jesse Martin

Length: 2 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - The book that galvanized the nation, gave voice to the emerging civil rights movement in the 1960s—and still lights the way to understanding race in America today. - “The finest essay I’ve ever read.” —Ta-Nehisi CoatesAt once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin’s early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the... Read more

All We Can Save

By: Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katharine K. Wilkinson

Narrated by: Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Katharine K. Wilkinson...

Length: 15 hours 5 minutes

Abridged: No

Provocative and illuminating essays from women at the forefront of the climate movement who are harnessing truth, courage, and solutions to lead humanity forward.
 
There is a renaissance blooming in the climate movement: leadership that is more characteristically feminine and more faithfully feminist, rooted in compassion, connection,... Read more

The Socrates Express

By: Eric Weiner

Narrated by: Eric Weiner

Length: 11 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

The New York Times bestselling author of The Geography of Bliss embarks on a rollicking intellectual journey, following in the footsteps of history’s greatest thinkers and showing us how each—from Epicurus to Gandhi, Thoreau to Beauvoir—offers practical and spiritual lessons for today’s unsettled times.

We turn to philosophy for the same reasons... Read more

I'm Just a Person

By: Tig Notaro

Narrated by: Tig Notaro

Length: 5 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: No

One of America’s most original comedic voices delivers a darkly funny, wryly observed, and emotionally raw account of her year of death, cancer, and epiphany.In the span of four months in 2012, Tig Notaro was hospitalized for a debilitating intestinal disease called C. diff, her mother unexpectedly died, she went through a breakup, and then she... Read more

Buffering

By: Hannah Hart

Narrated by: Hannah Hart & Judy Young

Length: 5 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

The wildly popular YouTube personality and author of the New York Times bestseller My Drunk Kitchen is back! This time, she’s stirring up memories and tales from her past.By combing through the journals that Hannah has kept for much of her life, this collection of narrative essays deliver a fuller picture of her life, her experiences, and the... Read more

Homestand

By: Will Bardenwerper

Narrated by: Dan Bittner

Length: 10 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

A poignant memoir exploring small town baseball as a lens into what’s right and wrong with modern America—written by an acclaimed journalist and Army Ranger who, after returning from Iraq to a painfully divided country, rediscovered its core values in the bleachers of a minor league ballpark in Batavia, New York.

What happens when a minor league... Read more

Cassandra Speaks

By: Elizabeth Lesser

Narrated by: Xe Sands

Length: 6 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

What story would Eve have told about picking the apple? Why is Pandora blamed for opening the box? And what about the fate of Cassandra who was blessed with knowing the future but cursed so that no one believed her? What if women had been the storytellers?Elizabeth Lesser believes that if women’s voices had been equally heard and respected... Read more

The Source of Self-Regard

By: Toni Morrison

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

Length: 16 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Here is the Nobel Prize winner in her own words: a rich gathering of her most important essays and speeches, spanning four decades that "speaks to today’s social and political moment as directly as this morning’s headlines” (NPR).

These pages give us her searing prayer for the dead of 9/11, her Nobel lecture on the power of... Read more

The Disordered Cosmos

By: Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt

Length: 10 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

From a star theoretical physicist, a journey into the world of particle physics and the cosmos—and a call for a more liberatory practice of science.

A Finalist for the 2022 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award
A Finalist for the 2021 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Science & Technology
A Smithsonian Magazine Best Science Book of... Read more

Eat, Pray, Love

By: Elizabeth Gilbert

Narrated by: Elizabeth Gilbert

Length: 12 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

A transformational journey through Italy, India, and Bali searching for pleasure and devotion—the massive bestseller from the author of The Signature of All Things

This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the... Read more

Based on a True Story

By: Norm Macdonald

Narrated by: Norm Macdonald & Tim O'Halloran

Length: 7 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Driving, wild and hilarious” (The Washington Post), here is the incredible “memoir” of the legendary actor, gambler, raconteur, and Saturday Night Live veteran.

When Norm Macdonald, one of the greatest stand-up comics of all time, was approached to write a celebrity memoir, he flatly refused, calling the genre “one... Read more

World of Wonders

By: Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Narrated by: Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Length: 3 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

Barnes & Noble 2020 Book of the Year
A Kirkus Prize Finalist for Nonfiction
A Southern Book Prize Finalist
An NPR Best Book of 2020
An Esquire Best Book of 2020
A BookPage Best Book of 2020
A New York Public Library Best Book of 2020
A Wall Street Journal Holiday Gift Pick for 2020
An Indie Next Pick, September 2019
A Publishers Weekly "Big Indie... Read more

My Life in France

By: Julia Child

Narrated by: Kimberly Farr

Length: 11 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

In her own words, here is the captivating story of Julia Child’s years in France, where she fell in love with French food and found her “true calling.”

From the moment the ship docked in Le Havre, en route to Paris, in the fall of 1948, Julia had an awakening that changed her life. Soon this tall, outspoken gal from Pasadena, California, who... Read more

Fieldwork

By: Iliana Regan

Narrated by: Iliana Regan

Length: 9 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

Not long after Iliana Regan’s celebrated debut, Burn the Place, became the first food-related title in four decades to become a National Book Award nominee in 2019, her career as a Michelin star–winning chef took a sharp turn north.Long based in Chicago, Iliana and her new wife, Anna, decided to create a culinary destination, the Milkweed Inn,... Read more

Walden

By: Henry David Thoreau

Narrated by: Mel Foster

Length: 11 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

Walden is the classic account of two years spent by Henry David Thoreau living at Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts. The story is detailed in its accounts of Thoreau's day-to-day activities, observations, and undertakings to survive out in the wilderness for two years. Thoreau's journal is an exquisite account of a man seeking a more... Read more

Unreliable Narrator

By: Aparna Nancherla

Narrated by: Aparna Nancherla

Length: 9 hours 27 minutes

Abridged: No

The New Yorker Best Books of 2023

NPR's Books We Love 2023

“A deeply honest and funny look at how exhausting it can be to live a human life, Unreliable Narrator is a book for anyone who wants to laugh and feel less alone.”—Amy Poehler  

A hilarious and insightful collection of essays exploring impostor syndrome, from the inside and out, by the... Read more

National Dish

By: Anya von Bremzen

Narrated by: Kathleen Gati

Length: 12 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

Named a Best Book of 2023 by Financial Times, The Guardian, and BBC's The Food Programme

“Anya von Bremzen, already a legend of food writing and a storytelling inspiration to me, has done her best work yet. National Dish is a must-read for all those who believe in building longer tables where food is what bring us all together.” —José Andrés

“If... 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

Girls Can Kiss Now

By: Jill Gutowitz

Narrated by: Jill Gutowitz

Length: 7 hours 4 minutes

Abridged: No

“Wickedly funny and heartstoppingly vulnerable…every page twinkles with brilliance.” —Refinery29

Perfect for fans of Samantha Irby and Trick Mirror, a hilarious, whip-smart collection of personal essays exploring the intersection of queerness, pop culture, the internet, and identity, introducing one of the most undeniably original new voices... Read more

Abroad in Japan

By: Chris Broad

Narrated by: Chris Broad

Length: 8 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

Brought to you by Penguin.

When Englishman Chris Broad landed in a rural village in northern Japan he wondered if he'd made a huge mistake. With no knowledge of the language and zero teaching experience, was he was about to be the most quickly fired English teacher in Japan's history?

Abroad in Japan charts a decade of living in a foreign land and... Read more