Essays audiobooks

Scam Goddess

By: Laci Mosley

Narrated by: Laci Mosley

Length: 5 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

A delightfully subversive essay collection from Laci Mosley, host of the award-winning “Scam Goddess” podcast, about the frauds, cons, and schemes that make up our world—and how the scammer mindset has affected her own upbringing, career, friendships, love life, and more. ​

From an early age, comedian and actress Laci Mosley knew her path would... Read more

Why We Love Baseball

By: Joe Posnanski

Narrated by: Joe Posnanski & Ellen Adair

Length: 11 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES bestseller

Winner of the CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year

National Sports Media Association Sports Book of the Year 

An NPR "Book of the Day"

#1 New York Times bestselling author Joe Posnanski is back with a masterful ode to the game: a countdown of 50 of the most memorable moments in baseball’s history, to make you fall... Read more

Turning to Stone

By: Marcia Bjornerud

Narrated by: Rebecca Stern

Length: 9 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

Earth is vibrantly alive and full of wisdom for those who learn to listen.

Earth has been reinventing itself for more than four billion years, keeping a record of its experiments in the form of rocks. Yet most of us live our lives on the planet with no idea of its extraordinary history, unable to interpret the language of the rocks that surround... Read more

Eating the Dinosaur

By: Chuck Klosterman

Narrated by: Chuck Klosterman

Length: 6 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

After a bestselling and acclaimed diversion into fiction, Chuck Klosterman, author of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, returns to the form in which he’s been spectacularly successful with a collection of essays about our consumption of pop culture and sports.

Q: What is this book about?

A: Well, that’s difficult to say. I haven’t read it yet—I’ve... Read more

Así veo las cosas

By: Jorge Ramos

Narrated by: Jorge Ramos, Joel Luna & Annie González

Length: 10 hours 47 minutes

Abridged: No

El libro más personal, íntimo y revelador de Jorge Ramos en casi cien columnas y tres puentes.   "Jorge Ramos […] es una persona íntegra y de esas hay muy pocas en este mundo. A leer estas páginas de su memoria me entero de algunos secretos, me entretengo, me conmuevo y me reencuentro con el amigo de siempre, con el periodista que me pone al día... Read more

Weird but Normal

By: Mia Mercado

Narrated by: Mia Mercado

Length: 6 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: No

Birth control. Body hair removal cream. Boobs. It’s all weird, but also pretty normal.Navigating racial identity, gender roles, workplace dynamics, and beauty standards, Mia Mercado's hilarious essay collection explores the contradictions of being a millennial woman, which usually means being kind of a weirdo. Whether it’s spending $30 on a... Read more

Save Me the Plums

By: Ruth Reichl

Narrated by: Ruth Reichl

Length: 7 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A delicious insider account of the gritty, glamorous world of food culture.”—Vanity Fair

In this “poignant and hilarious” (The New York Times Book Review) memoir, trailblazing food writer and beloved restaurant critic Ruth Reichl chronicles her groundbreaking tenure as editor in chief of Gourmet.

A BEST BOOK OF THE... Read more

The Universe in Verse

By: Maria Popova

Narrated by: Maria Popova & Lili Taylor

Length: 1 hour 28 minutes

Abridged: No

In this audiobook Maria Popova, creator of The Marginalian, presents a celebration of the human search for truth and beauty through the lenses of science and poetry.

Poetry and science, as Popova writes in her introduction, "are instruments for knowing the world more intimately and loving it more deeply." In 15 short essays on subjects ranging... Read more

Everything's Trash, But It's Okay

By: Phoebe Robinson

Narrated by: Phoebe Robinson

Length: 8 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

DON’T MISS PHOEBE ROBINSON’S COMEDY SERIES EVERYTHING’S TRASH—NOW ON FREEFORM!

New York Times bestselling author and star of 2 Dope Queens Phoebe Robinson is back with a new, hilarious, and timely essay collection on gender, race, dating, and the dumpster fire that is our world.

Wouldn't it be great if life came with instructions? Of course, but... Read more

Bring Your Baggage and Don't Pack Light

By: Helen Ellis

Narrated by: Helen Ellis

Length: 2 hours 49 minutes

Abridged: No

The bestselling author of American Housewife and Southern Lady Code returns with an “inspiring, hilarious, straight-to-the-point” (Entertainment Weekly) collection of essays on friendship among grown-ass women.

"Ellis' prose is filled with so many laugh lines, you might want to go ahead and book the Botox.” —NPR

When Helen Ellis and her lifelong... Read more

Southern Lady Code

By: Helen Ellis

Narrated by: Helen Ellis

Length: 3 hours 10 minutes

Abridged: No

"I loved it." —Ann Patchett 

The bestselling author of American Housewife ("Dark, deadpan and truly inventive." --The New York Times Book Review) is back with a fiercely funny collection of essays on marriage and manners, thank-you notes and three-ways, ghosts, gunshots, gynecology, and the Calgon-scented, onion-dipped, monogrammed art of living... Read more

Scrappy Little Nobody

By: Anna Kendrick

Narrated by: Anna Kendrick

Length: 6 hours

Abridged: No

The New York Times bestselling collection of humorous autobiographical essays by the Academy Award nominated actress and star of Up in the Air and Pitch Perfect.

Even before she made a name for herself on the silver screen starring in films like Pitch Perfect, Up in the Air, Twilight, and Into the Woods, Anna Kendrick was unusually small, weird,... Read more

What If? 2

By: Randall Munroe

Narrated by: Wil Wheaton

Length: 6 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of What If? and How To answers more of the weirdest questions you never thought to ask
 
The millions of people around the world who read and loved What If? still have questions, and those questions are getting stranger. Thank goodness xkcd creator Randall Munroe is here to help. Planning to ride a fire... Read more

Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama

By: Bob Odenkirk

Narrated by: Bob Odenkirk, Steve Rudnick & Leo Benvenuti

Length: 7 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

In this“essential” (Entertainment Weekly), “hilarious” (AV Club)memoir, the star of Mr. Show, Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul opens up about the highs and lows of showbiz, his cult status as a comedy writer, and what it’s like to reinvent himself as an action film ass-kicker at fifty.

“I’ve known Bob Odenkirk for more than thirty years, and... Read more

So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y'all Don't Even Know

By: Retta

Narrated by: Retta

Length: 6 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

"This book feels like a real conversation. When we enter Retta's world we are at the best party and in the hands of a gracious, self-perceptive, and deeply hilarious host." — Amy Poehler

This program is read by the author.

In this hilarious audiobook essay collection, Parks and Recreation star Retta shares the stories that led to her success in... Read more

Intimations

By: Zadie Smith

Narrated by: Zadie Smith

Length: 1 hour 50 minutes

Abridged: No

“[Smith’s] slim collection of essays captures this peculiar moment with startling clarity. . . . The personal and political intermingle for a powerful indictment of America’s social systems.” —TIME, The 100 Must-Read Books of 2020

“While quarantined amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Smith penned six dazzling, trenchant essays burrowing deep into our... Read more

Crying in the Bathroom

By: Erika L. Sánchez

Narrated by: Erika L. Sánchez

Length: 7 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

“Equal parts pee-your-pants hilarity and break your heart poignancy- like the perfect brunch date you never want to end!"--America Ferrera, Emmy award-winning actress in Ugly Betty

From the New York Times bestselling author of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, an utterly original memoir-in-essays that is as deeply moving as it is... Read more

Black Nerd Problems

By: William Evans & Omar Holmon

Narrated by: William Evans & Omar Holmon

Length: 7 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

The creators of the popular website Black Nerd Problems bring their witty and unflinching insight to this engaging collection of pop culture essays—on everything from Mario Kart to issues of representation—that “will fill you with joy and give you hope for the future of geek culture” (Ernest Cline, #1 New York Times bestselling author).

When... Read more

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

By: John Koenig

Narrated by: John Koenig

Length: 4 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“It’s undeniably thrilling to find words for our strangest feelings…Koenig casts light into lonely corners of human experience…An enchanting book. “ —The Washington Post

A truly original book in every sense of the word, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows poetically defines emotions that we all feel but don’t have the... Read more

I've Tried Being Nice

By: Ann Leary

Narrated by: Ann Leary

Length: 5 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

New York Times bestselling author Ann Leary offers a literary feast of humor and wisdom told from the perspective of a recovering people pleaser.

Having arrived at a certain age (her prime), Ann Leary casts a wry backward glance at a life spent trying—and often failing—to be nice. With wit and surprising candor, Leary recounts the bedlam of home... Read more

Hola Papi

By: John Paul Brammer

Narrated by: John Paul Brammer

Length: 4 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

LGBTQ advice columnist John Paul Brammer writes a “wise and charming” (David Sedaris) memoir-in-essays chronicling his journey from a queer, mixed-race kid in America’s heartland to becoming the “Chicano Carrie Bradshaw” of his generation.

“A master class of tone and tenderness.” —The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)
“Should be... Read more

The End of the End of the Earth

By: Jonathan Franzen

Narrated by: Robert Petkoff

Length: 6 hours 47 minutes

Abridged: No

This program has been updated with a new epilogue written and read by the author.

A sharp and provocative new essay collection from the award-winning author of Freedom and The Corrections

The essayist, Jonathan Franzen writes, is like “a fire-fighter, whose job, while everyone else is fleeing the flames of shame, is to run straight into them.”... Read more

If I Knew Then

By: Jann Arden

Narrated by: Jann Arden

Length: 3 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Jann Arden—bestselling author, recording artist and late-blooming TV star—is back with this funny, heartfelt and fierce memoir on becoming a woman of a certain age. The power, gravity and freedom she's found at fifty-seven are superpowers she believes all of us can unleash.

Digging deep into her strengths, her failures and her... Read more

Wolfish

By: Erica Berry

Narrated by: Lessa Lamb

Length: 15 hours 36 minutes

Abridged: No

"Lessa Lamb narrates with a fine tone and timbre. She inhabits the youthful sound and elegant style of this layered audiobook. Her timing and sense of occasion add richness to its informed foray into all things wolf as she captures the drama, fear, and anxiety that underlie the immersive presentation." - AudioFile Magazine (Earphones Award... Read more