Literary Criticism audiobooks

Divine Might

By: Natalie Haynes

Narrated by: Natalie Haynes

Length: 9 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

New York Times bestselling author Natalie Haynes returns to the world of ancient Greek myth in this scintillating follow-up to Pandora’s Jar.Few writers today have reshaped our view of the ancient Greek myths more than revered bestselling author Natalie Haynes. Divine Might is a female-centered look at Olympus and the Furies, focusing on the... Read more

Wonderworks

By: Angus Fletcher

Narrated by: Jacques Roy

Length: 15 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

This “fascinating” (Malcolm Gladwell, New York Times bestselling author of Outliers) examination of literary inventions through the ages, from ancient Mesopotamia to Elena Ferrante, shows how writers have created technical breakthroughs—rivaling scientific inventions—and engineering enhancements to the human heart and mind.

Literature is a... Read more

The Ministry of Truth

By: Dorian Lynskey

Narrated by: Andrew Wincott

Length: 13 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: No

"Rich and compelling. . .Lynskey’s account of the reach of 1984 is revelatory.”
--George Packer, The Atlantic 

An authoritative, wide-ranging, and incredibly timely history of 1984--its literary sources, its composition by Orwell, its deep and lasting effect on the Cold War, and its vast influence throughout world culture at every level, from high... Read more

The Light Room

By: Kate Zambreno

Narrated by: Kate Zambreno

Length: 6 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

“Kate Zambreno has invented a new form. It is a kind of absolute present, real life captured in closeup.“  —Annie Ernaux, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 

From “one of our most formally ambitious writers” (Esquire), a moving account of caretaking in a time of uncertainty and loss

In The Light Room, Zambreno offers her most profound and... Read more

Ordinary Wonder Tales

By: Emily Urquhart

Narrated by: Anne Wessel

Length: 7 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

A journalist and folklorist explores the truths that underlie the stories we imagine—and reveals the magic in the everyday.“I’ve always felt that the term fairy tale doesn’t quite capture the essence of these stories,” writes Emily Urquhart. “I prefer the term wonder tale, which is Irish in origin, for its suggestion of awe coupled with... Read more

No Judgment

By: Lauren Oyler

Narrated by: Lauren Oyler

Length: 8 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

""The essay collection everyone’s talking about.""—New YorkA MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2024: Elle, The Millions, LitHub, Nylon, BookPage, PureWow, and moreFrom the national bestselling novelist and essayist, a groundbreaking collection of brand-new pieces about the role of cultural criticism in our ever-changing world.In her writing for Harper’s,... Read more

Why We Read

By: Shannon Reed

Narrated by: Paige McKinney

Length: 8 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

A hilarious and incisive exploration of the joys of reading from a teacher, bibliophile, and Thurber Prize Semifinalist

We read to escape, to learn, to find love, to feel seen. We read to encounter new worlds, to discover new recipes, to find connection across difference, or simply to pass a rainy afternoon. No matter the reason, books have the... Read more

Geek Feminist Revolution

By: Kameron Hurley

Narrated by: C.S.E. Cooney

Length: 8 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

Kameron Hurley—one of the most influential young voices in science fiction and geek culture—presents The Geek Feminist Revolution: Essays on Subversion, Tactical Profanity, And the Power of Media. The Geek Feminist Revolution is Bad Feminist for the Comic-Con crowd. This powerful collection of essays is about overcoming misogyny in geek culture,... Read more

One in a Millennial

By: Kate Kennedy

Length: 9 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

This program is read by the author.

From pop culture podcaster and a voice of a generation, Kate Kennedy, a celebration of the millennial zeitgeist

One in a Millennial is an exploration of pop culture, nostalgia, the millennial zeitgeist, and the life lessons learned (for better and for worse) from coming of age as a member of a much-maligned... Read more

Words Are My Matter

By: Ursula K. Le Guin

Narrated by: Laural Merlington

Length: 13 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

Words Are My Matter gathers talks, essays, introductions to beloved books, and book reviews by Ursula K. Le Guin, one of our foremost public literary intellectuals. A must-listen collection, Words Are My Matter is a manual for investigating the depth and breadth of contemporary fiction—and, through the lens of deep considerations of contemporary... Read more

Happily

By: Sabrina Orah Mark

Narrated by: Gilli Messer

Length: 5 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD • A beautifully written memoir-in-essays on fairy tales and their surprising relevance to modern life, from a Jewish woman raising Black children in the American South—based on her acclaimed Paris Review column “Happily”

“One of the most inventive, phenomenally executed books I’ve read in decades.”—Kiese... Read more

Thalia Book Club: Emma Donoghue's Room

By: Emma Donoghue

Narrated by: Michael Cunningham, John Connolly & Maria Tucci

Length: 1 hour 28 minutes

Abridged: No

Emma Donoghue discusses her extraordinary new novel with author Michael Cunningham (The Hours and By Nightfall). This wondrous book is told from the point of view of a five-year-old boy who lives with his mother in an 11-by-11 foot room. Performance playlist: Reading by Michal Friedman, a conversation between Emma Donoghue and Michael... Read more

Books for Living

By: Will Schwalbe

Narrated by: Jeff Harding

Length: 7 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: No

From the author of the beloved New York Times best-selling The End of Your Life Book Club, an inspiring and magical exploration of the power of books to shape our lives in an era of constant connectivity.


Why is it that we read? Is it to pass time? To learn something new? To escape from reality? For Will Schwalbe, reading is a way to entertain... Read more

Dorothy Parker in Hollywood

By: Gail Crowther

Narrated by: Samantha Desz

Length: 7 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

An expansive, illuminating, and “welcome addition to understand” (Shelf Awareness) the legendary writer Dorothy Parker, this unique biography explores her life and legacy in Hollywood—from the author of the “fascinating” (Town & Country) Three Martini Afternoons at the Ritz.

The glamorous extravagances and devasting lows of her time in... Read more

The Black Box

By: Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman

Length: 7 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

A New York Times Notable Book

“Henry Louis Gates is a national treasure. Here, he returns with an intellectual and at times deeply personal meditation on the hard-fought evolution and the very meaning of African American identity, calling upon our country to transcend its manufactured divisions.” — Isabel Wilkerson, author of The Warmth of Other... Read more

Brown Album

By: Porochista Khakpour

Narrated by: Porochista Khakpour

Length: 6 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

From the much-acclaimed novelist and essayist, a beautifully rendered, poignant collection of personal essays, chronicling immigrant and Iranian-American life in our contemporary moment.

Novelist Porochista Khakpour's family moved to Los Angeles after fleeing the Iranian Revolution, giving up their successes only to be greeted by an alienating... Read more

Burning Questions

By: Margaret Atwood

Narrated by: Margaret Atwood & Full Cast

Length: 18 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

In this brilliant selection of essays, the award-winning, best-selling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments offers her funny, erudite, endlessly curious, and uncannily prescient take on everything from whether or not The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopia to the importance of how to define granola—and seeks answers to Burning Questions... Read more

Unfinished Business

By: Vivian Gornick

Narrated by: Vivian Gornick

Length: 4 hours 27 minutes

Abridged: No

One of our most beloved writers reassess the electrifying works of literature that have shaped her life.“I sometimes think I was born reading…I can’t remember the time when I didn’t have a book in my hands, my head lost to the world around me.”Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader is Vivian Gornick’s celebration of passionate... Read more

The Real Lolita

By: Sarah Weinman

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 7 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

“The Real Lolita is a tour de force of literary detective work. Not only does it shed new light on the terrifying true saga that influenced Nabokov’s masterpiece, it restores the forgotten victim to our consciousness.” —David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower MoonVladimir Nabokov’s Lolita is one of the most beloved and notorious novels of... Read more

Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops

By: Shaun Bythell

Narrated by: Peter Kenny

Length: 2 hours

Abridged: No

A wickedly witty field guide to bookstore customers by the curmudgeonly shop owner and author of Confessions of a Bookseller. Shaun Bythell knows them all—from the “Person Who Doesn’t Know What They Want (But Thinks It Might Have a Blue Cover)” to the “Parents Secretly after Free Childcare.” The business of books has never been funnier.In a... Read more

Updike

By: Adam Begley

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 20 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

A masterful, much-anticipated biography of one of the most celebrated figures in American literature: Pulitzer Prize–winning author John Updike—a candid, intimate, and richly detailed look at his life and workIn this magisterial biography, Adam Begley offers an illuminating portrait of John Updike, the acclaimed novelist, poet, short-story... Read more

A Bit of Brontës, a Dollop of Dickinson, an Offering of Austen

By: Elliot Engel

Narrated by: various narrators, Joan Allen, Stephanie Beacha...

Length: 6 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

They are icons of the literary world whose soaring works have been discussed and analyzed in countless classrooms, homes, and pubs. Yet for most readers, the living, breathing human beings behind the classics have remained unknown—until now. In this utterly captivating book, Dr. Elliot Engel, a leading authority on the lives of great authors,... Read more

Reading Magic

By: Mem Fox

Narrated by: Mem Fox

Length: TBA

Abridged: No

We all hope and expect our children will learn to read, but how many of us realize we can get our kids on the road to reading simply by reading aloud to them every day? With passion and humor, Mem Fox explains why reading aloud to young children has such an impact on their ability to read—and on their entire lives. Writing as an ordinary mother... Read more

If I Had Lunch with C. S. Lewis

By: Alister McGrath

Narrated by: Ralph Lister

Length: 4 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

Have you ever wondered… whether God exists? whether life has meaning? whether pain and suffering have a purpose? This audio book is my invitation to sit down with C. S. Lewis and me to think about some of the persistent questions and dilemmas every person faces in life. We’ll explore Lewis’s thoughts on everything from friendships to heaven,... Read more