Art bestsellers
The top 50 Art audiobooks on Libro.fm based on sales from our 1,700+ partner bookstore locations.
All bestsellers Bestsellers by genreBestseller #1
The Chiffon Trenches
A Memoir
By André Leon Talley
Narrated by: André Leon Talley
Length: 9 hours 38 minutes
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the pages of Vogue to the runways of Paris, this “captivating” (Time) memoir by a legendary style icon captures the fashion world from the inside out, in its most glamorous and most cutthroat moments.
“The Chiffon Trenches honestly and candidly captures fifty sublime years of fashion.”—Manolo Blahnik
NAMED ONE OF... Read more »
Bestseller #2
1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows
A Memoir
By Ai Weiwei
Narrated by: David Shih
Length: 13 hours 7 minutes
The “intimate and expansive” (Time) memoir of “one of the most important artists working in the world today” (Financial Times), telling a remarkable history of China over the last hundred years while also illuminating his artistic process
“Poignant . . . An illuminating through-line emerges in the many parallels Ai traces between his life and... Read more »
Bestseller #3
Leonardo da Vinci
By Walter Isaacson
Narrated by: Alfred Molina
Length: 17 hours 1 minutes
The #1 New York Times bestseller from Walter Isaacson brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography that is “a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it…Most important, it is a powerful story of an exhilarating mind and life” (The New Yorker).
Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s astonishing... Read more »
Bestseller #4
The Wretched of the Earth
By Frantz Fanon
Narrated by: Sebastain Brown
Length: 12 hours 28 minutes
First published in 1961, Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth is a masterful and timeless interrogation of race, colonialism, psychological trauma, and revolutionary struggle. In 2020, it found a new readership in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests and the centering of narratives interrogating race by Black writers. Bearing singular...
Read more »Bestseller #5
Dress Code
Unlocking Fashion from the New Look to Millennial Pink
By Véronique Hyland
Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya
Length: 9 hours 20 minutes
In the spirit of works by Jia Tolentino and Anne Helen Peterson, a smart and incisive essay collection centered on the fashion industry—its history, its importance, why we wear what we wear, and why it matters—from Elle Magazine’s fashion features director.
Why does fashion hold so much power over us? Most of us care about how we dress and how we...
Read more »Bestseller #6
Recessional
The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch
By David Mamet
Narrated by: Jim Frangione
Length: 6 hours 19 minutes
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!
“Savagery appeased can only grow. Once you give in to it, it must escalate, like a fire searching for air.”
The man who won the Pulitzer Prize for GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS, who wrote the classic films THE VERDICT and WAG THE DOG sounds his alarm about the Visigoths at our gates.
In RECESSIONAL he calls out, skewers, mocks,...
Read more »Bestseller #7
The House of Fragile Things
Jewish Art Collectors and the Fall of France
By James McAuley
Narrated by: Derek Perkins
Length: 10 hours 21 minutes
A powerful history of Jewish art collectors in France, and how an embrace of art and beauty was met with hatred and destruction
In the dramatic years between 1870 and the end of World War II, a number of prominent French Jews—pillars of an embattled community—invested their fortunes in France's cultural artifacts, sacrificed their sons to the... Read more »
Bestseller #8
Rogues' Gallery
The Rise (And Occasional Fall) of Art Dealers, the Hidden Players in the History of Art
By Philip Hook
Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
Length: 10 hours 8 minutes
Here for the first time is the history of art dealers, those extraordinary men and women who, over centuries (and almost entirely out of the public eye), built their profession on a singular skill: identifying the intangible but infinitely desirable qualities that characterize the greatest works of art—and finding clients for whom those... Read more »
Bestseller #9
Hooked
How Crafting Saved My Life
By Sutton Foster
Narrated by: Sutton Foster
Length: 7 hours 5 minutes
From the 2-time Tony Award-winner and the star of TV’s Younger, funny and intimate stories and reflections about how crafting has kept her sane while navigating the highs and lows of family, love, and show business (and how it can help you, too).
Whether she’s playing an “age-defying” book editor on television or dazzling audiences on the... Read more »
Bestseller #10
Tacky
Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer
By Rax King
Narrated by: Rax King
Length: 7 hours 12 minutes
An irreverent and charming collection of deeply personal essays about the joys of low pop culture and bad taste, exploring coming of age in the 2000s in the age of Hot Topic, Creed, and frosted lip gloss—from the James Beard Award-nominated writer of the Catapult column "Store-Bought Is Fine”
Tacky is about the power of pop... Read more »
Bestseller #11
Celebrating Birds
An Interactive Field and Listening Guide Inspired by the Wingspan Game
By Natalia Rojas & Ana Maria Martinez
Narrated by: Inés del Castillo, Timothy Andrés Pabon & Laura Jennings
Length: 6 hours 44 minutes
A gorgeously illustrated and interactive full-color guide to more than 181 birds of North America, featuring recorded vocalizations of each, based on the bestselling board game, Wingspan.
Praised for its gorgeous illustrations, accurate portrayal of bird habitats, and its gameplay, the bird-focused board game Wingspan has become an international...
Bestseller #12
The Art of the Con: The Most Notorious Fakes, Frauds, and Forgeries in the Art World
By Anthony M. Amore
Narrated by: Michael Johnson
Length: 8 hours 7 minutes
Art scams are today so numerous that the specter of a lawsuit arising from a mistaken attribution has scared a number of experts away from the business of authentication and forgery, and with good reason. Art scams are increasingly convincing and involve incredible sums of money. The cons perpetrated by unscrupulous art dealers and their... Read more »
Bestseller #13
On Freedom
Four Songs of Care and Constraint
By Maggie Nelson
Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
Length: 10 hours 5 minutes
An expansive, exhilarating work of criticism by one of the most significant writers of our day.
So often deployed as a jingoistic, even menacing rallying cry, or limited by a focus on passing moments of liberation, the rhetoric of freedom both rouses and repels. Does it remain key to our autonomy, justice, and well-being, or is freedom's long... Read more »
Bestseller #14
The 99% Invisible City
A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design
By Roman Mars & Kurt Kohlstedt
Narrated by: Roman Mars
Length: 10 hours 48 minutes
From the creators of the wildly popular 99% Invisible podcast, comes a guidebook to the unnoticed yet essential elements of our cities. Narrated by Roman Mars, with a bonus Q&A and a Full Episode of 99% Invisible.
Have you ever wondered what those bright, squiggly graffiti marks on the sidewalk mean?
Or stopped to consider why you don't see...
Read more »Bestseller #15
Beeswing
Losing My Way and Finding My Voice 1967-1975
By Richard Thompson
Narrated by: Richard Thompson
Length: 7 hours 19 minutes
An intimate look at a period of great cultural tumult, chronicling the early years of one of the world's most significant and influential guitarists and songwriters.
Known for his brilliant songwriting, his extraordinary guitar playing, and his haunting and lovely songs, Richard Thompson has garnered a longtime cult following and is considered... Read more »
Bestseller #16
Ninth Street Women
Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art
By Mary Gabriel
Narrated by: Lisa Stathoplos
Length: 40 hours 12 minutes
Five women revolutionize the modern art world in postwar America in this "gratifying, generous, and lush" true story from a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist (Jennifer Szalai, New York Times).
Set amid the most turbulent social and political period of modern times, Ninth Street Women is the impassioned, wild, sometimes tragic,... Read more »
Bestseller #17
William Blake vs the World
By John Higgs
Narrated by: John Higgs
Length: 11 hours 12 minutes
A glittering stream of revelatory light . . . Fascinating' THE TIMES'Rich, complex and original' TOM HOLLAND'One of the best books on Blake I have ever read' DAVID KEENAN'Absolutely wonderful!' TERRY GILLIAM'An alchemical dream of a book' SALENA GODDEN'Tells us a great deal about all human imagination' ROBIN INCE***Poet, artist, visionary and... Read more »
Bestseller #18
Sexual Personae
Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson
By Camille Paglia
Narrated by: Emily Durante
Length: 35 hours 14 minutes
In this brilliantly original book, Camille Paglia identifies some of the major patterns that have endured in western culture from ancient Egypt and Greece to the present. According to Paglia, one source of continuity is paganism, which, undefeated by Judeo-Christianity, continues to flourish in art, eroticism, astrology, and pop culture. Others,... Read more »
Bestseller #19
The Secret Lives of Color
By Kassia St. Clair
Narrated by: Kassia St. Clair
Length: 8 hours 5 minutes
One of USA Today's “100 Books to Read While Stuck at Home During the Coronavirus Crisis”
A dazzling gift, the unforgettable, unknown history of colors and the vivid stories behind them in a beautiful multi-colored volume.
“Beautifully written . . . Full of anecdotes and fascinating research, this elegant compendium has all the... Read more »
Bestseller #20
The Queens of Animation
The Untold Story of the Women Who Transformed the World of Disney and Made Cinematic History
By Nathalia Holt
Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
Length: 11 hours 37 minutes
From the bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls, the untold, "richly detailed" story of the women of Walt Disney Studios, who shaped the iconic films that have enthralled generations (Margot Lee Shetterly, New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Figures).
From Snow White to Moana, from Pinocchio to Frozen, the animated films of Walt... Read more »
Bestseller #21
The Design of Everyday Things
Revised and Expanded Edition
By Don Norman
Narrated by: Neil Hellegers
Length: 10 hours 39 minutes
Design doesn't have to complicated, which is why this guide to human-centered design shows that usability is just as important as aesthetics.
Even the smartest among us can feel inept as we fail to figure out which light switch or oven burner to turn on, or whether to push, pull, or slide a door.
The fault, argues this ingenious -- even... Read more »
Bestseller #22
The Power Broker: Volume 2 of 3
Robert Moses and the Fall of New York: Volume 2
By Robert A. Caro
Narrated by: Robertson Dean
Length: 23 hours 1 minutes
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • A modern American classic, this huge and galvanizing biography of Robert Moses reveals not only the saga of one man’s incredible accumulation of power but the story of his shaping (and mis-shaping of twentieth-century New York. One of the Modern Library’s hundred greatest books of the twentieth century.
Robert Caro's... Read more »
Bestseller #23
Golem Girl
A Memoir
By Riva Lehrer
Narrated by: Riva Lehrer & Cassandra Campbell
Length: 14 hours
The vividly told, gloriously illustrated memoir of an artist born with disabilities who searches for freedom and connection in a society afraid of strange bodies
“Golem Girl is luminous; a profound portrait of the artist as a young—and mature—woman; an unflinching social history of disability over the last six decades; and a hymn to life, love,... Read more »
Bestseller #24
Into Every Generation a Slayer Is Born
How Buffy Staked Our Hearts
By Evan Ross Katz
Narrated by: Evan Ross Katz & Deanna Anthony
Length: 11 hours 42 minutes
Explore the history and cultural impact of a groundbreaking television show adored by old and new fans alike: Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Over the course of its seven-year run, Buffy the Vampire Slayer cultivated a loyal fandom and featured a strong, complex female lead, at a time when such a character was a rarity. Evan Ross Katz explores the... Read more »Bestseller #25
The Golden Thread
How Fabric Changed History
By Kassia St. Clair
Narrated by: Helen Johns
Length: 11 hours 25 minutes
The bestselling author of The Secret Lives of Color returns with this rollicking narrative of the 30,000-year history of fabric, briskly told through thirteen charismatic episodes.
From colorful 30,000-year-old threads found on the floor of a Georgian cave to the Indian calicoes that sparked the Industrial Revolution, The Golden Thread weaves... Read more »
Bestseller #26
Pop Song
Adventures in Art & Intimacy
By Larissa Pham
Narrated by: Cindy Kay
Length: 7 hours 30 minutes
Pop Song
“Pop Song is an engaging blend of art criticism, memoir, and travelogue with the raw and confessional style of the microblogging generation. Larissa Pham’s prose bounces seamlessly and dexterously from looking outward to inward and back with equal attention, passion, and insight.”
Matt Stowe, Greenlight Bookstore
Bestseller #27
I Like to Watch
Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution
By Emily Nussbaum
Narrated by: Emily Nussbaum
Length: 13 hours 42 minutes
From The New Yorker’s fiercely original, Pulitzer Prize-winning culture critic, a provocative collection of new and previously published essays arguing that we are what we watch.
“Emily Nussbaum is the perfect critic—smart, engaging, funny, generous, and insightful.”—David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF... Read more »
Bestseller #28
M Train
By Patti Smith
Narrated by: Patti Smith
Length: 6 hours 31 minutes
National Best Seller
From the National Book Award–winning author of Just Kids: an unforgettable odyssey of a legendary artist, told through the prism of the cafés and haunts she has worked in around the world. It is a book Patti Smith has described as “a roadmap to my life.”
M Train begins in the tiny Greenwich Village café where Smith goes... Read more »
Bestseller #29
Vanishing Fleece
Adventures in American Wool
By Clara Parkes
Narrated by: Clara Parkes
Length: 5 hours 55 minutes
A fast-paced account of the year Clara Parkes spent transforming a 676-pound bale of fleece into saleable yarn, and the people and vanishing industry she discovered along the way.
Join Clara Parkes on a cross-country adventure and meet a cast of characters that includes the shepherds, dyers, and countless workers without whom our knitting... Read more »
Bestseller #30
Art and Faith
A Theology of Making
By Makoto Fujimura
Narrated by: David Shih
Length: 5 hours 59 minutes
From a world-renowned painter, an exploration of creativity's quintessential—and often overlooked—role in the spiritual life
Conceived over thirty years of painting and creating in his studio, this book is Makoto Fujimura's broad and deep exploration of creativity and the spiritual aspects of "making." What he does in the studio is theological... Read more »
Bestseller #31
How to Be an Artist
By Jerry Saltz
Narrated by: Jerry Saltz
Length: 2 hours 20 minutes
"Inspiration leaps off the pages from Jerry Saltz's new book on creativity. . . . This book is for the artist or non-artist, for the person who gets plain English, for the person who understands that practical talk can coax out the mystical messages that lie underneath." —Steve Martin
Art has the power to change our lives. For many, becoming an... Read more »
Bestseller #32
Shadows in the Vineyard
The True Story of the Plot to Poison the World's Greatest Wine
By Maximillian Potter
Length: 8 hours 40 minutes
Journalist Maximillian Potter uncovers a fascinating plot to destroy the vines of La Romance-Conti, Burgundy's finest and most expensive wine.
In January 2010, Aubert de Villaine, the famed proprietor of the Domaine de la Romance-Conti, the tiny, storied vineyard that produces the most expensive, exquisite wines in the world, received an... Read more »
Bestseller #33
Walk Through Walls
A Memoir
By Marina Abramovic
Narrated by: Marina Abramovic
Length: 14 hours 55 minutes
Walk Through Walls
“Considered one of the best performance artists of our time, Marina Abramovic narrates the story of her own fascinating life -- the inspiration behind many pieces, the outcome and response to them, the people she grew to know and love during her time around the world. She shares her difficult home life, the intimacy of her love affair with Ulay, and more fascinating details from throughout her life to this point.”
Amber, Quail Ridge Books
Bestseller #34
Black Futures
By Kimberly Drew & Jenna Wortham
Narrated by: Kimberly Drew, Kevin R. Free, Dominic Hoffman, Robin Miles, Adenrele Ojo, Bahni Turpin & Jenna Wortham
Length: 11 hours 10 minutes
An archive of collective memory and exuberant testimony
A luminous map to navigate an opaque and disorienting present
An infinite geography of possible futures
What does it mean to be Black and alive right now?
Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham have brought together this collection of work—essays, memes, dialogues, recipes, tweets, poetry, and... Read more »
Bestseller #35
What Would Frida Do?
A Guide to Living Boldly
By Arianna Davis
Narrated by: Marisa Blake
Length: 5 hours 24 minutes
Revered as much for her fierce spirit as she is for her art, Frida Kahlo stands today as a brazen symbol of daring creativity. She was a woman ahead of her time whose paintings have earned her generations of admirers around the globe. But perhaps her greatest work of art was her own life.What Would Frida Do? explores the feminist icon's... Read more »
Bestseller #36
The Gift
How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World
By Lewis Hyde
Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
Length: 13 hours 35 minutes
A modern classic cherished by many of the greatest artists of our time, The Gift is a brilliant, life-changing defense of the value of creative labor.
Drawing on examples from folklore and literature, history and tribal customs, economics and modern copyright law, Lewis Hyde demonstrates how our society—governed by the marketplace—is poorly...
Read more »Bestseller #37
Remembering Shanghai
A Memoir of Socialites, Scholars and Scoundrels
By Isabel Sun Chao & Claire Chao
Narrated by: Rachel Yong, Claire Chao & Isabel Sun Chao
Length: 7 hours 58 minutes
Rubery Award BOOK OF THE YEAR
Writer’s Digest GRAND PRIZE
An Extraordinary Multigenerational Saga
Audiobook narrated by two-time Asian American Film Lab best actress winner Rachel Yong and authors Isabel Sun Chao and Claire Chao
“Jaw-dropping, touching, insightful.” Historic Shanghai
A high position bestowed by China's empress dowager grants power... Read more »
Bestseller #38
ArtCurious
Stories of the Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful in Art History
By Jennifer Dasal
Narrated by: Jennifer Dasal
Length: 9 hours 48 minutes
A wildly entertaining and surprisingly educational dive into art history as you've never seen it before, from the host of the beloved ArtCurious podcast
We're all familiar with the works of Claude Monet, thanks in no small part to the ubiquitous reproductions of his water lilies on umbrellas, handbags, scarves, and dorm-room posters. But did you... Read more »
Bestseller #39
The Lonely City
Adventures in the Art of Being Alone
By Olivia Laing
Narrated by: Susan Lyons
Length: 9 hours 55 minutes
An expertly crafted work of reportage, memoir, and biography on the subject of loneliness told through the lives of six iconic artists, by the acclaimed author of The Trip to Echo Spring.
You can be lonely anywhere, but there is a particular flavor to the loneliness that comes from living in a city, surrounded by thousands of strangers. The...
Read more »Bestseller #40
Room to Dream
By David Lynch & Kristine McKenna
Narrated by: David Lynch & Kristine McKenna
Length: 15 hours 45 minutes
An unprecedented look into the personal and creative life of the visionary auteur David Lynch, through his own words and those of his closest colleagues, friends, and family — adapted by David Lynch from the print book especially for this audio program
In this unique hybrid of biography and memoir, David Lynch opens up for the first time about... Read more »
Bestseller #41
Born to Be Posthumous
The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey
By Mark Dery
Narrated by: Adam Sims
Length: 14 hours 47 minutes
The definitive biography of Edward Gorey, the eccentric master of macabre nonsense.
From The Gashlycrumb Tinies to The Doubtful Guest, Edward Gorey's wickedly funny and deliciously sinister little books have influenced our culture in innumerable ways, from the works of Tim Burton and Neil Gaiman to Lemony Snicket. Some even call him the... Read more »
Bestseller #42
A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes
A Son’s Memoir of Gabriel García MArquez and Mercedes Barcha
By Rodrigo Garcia
Narrated by: Rodrigo Garcia
Length: 2 hours 16 minutes
A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes
“A beautiful, heartbreaking "son's memoir" from Rodrigo Garcia, son of "Gabo" Garcia Marquez. Despite its short, sparse chapters, this book is powerful and sad, powerfully sad. Of course, I wept (a lot), but in a good way. A poignant memoir about the terrible loss of memory, grief, and a son's abiding love for his father.”
Katia, Bookstore1Sarasota
Bestseller #43
Funny Weather
Art in an Emergency
By Olivia Laing
Narrated by: Sophie Aldred
Length: 9 hours 39 minutes
"One of the finest writers of the new non-fiction" (Harper's Bazaar) explores the role of art in the tumultuous twenty-first century.
In the age of Trump and Brexit, every crisis is instantly overridden by the next. The turbulent political weather of the twenty-first century generates anxiety and makes it difficult to know how to react. Olivia... Read more »
Bestseller #44
A Month in Siena
By Hisham Matar
Narrated by: Hisham Matar
Length: 3 hours 23 minutes
A Month in Siena
“Matar wrote this book in between books. The one he had just finished, The Return (which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2017), was a memoir of his attempt to discover the fate of his father, who was disappeared by the Libyan regime when Matar was a child, and so his month in this Italian city was intended as a respite. And it reads that way: not as a vacation, but as a chance for Matar to wander, in body and mind, a project for which the ancient walled city turns out, paradoxically, to be ideal. Drawn at first by his almost inexplicable longtime attraction to the paintings of the Sienese School, Matar turns out to be equally drawn to chance encounters with locals (often fellow outsiders like himself) and to the play of his thinking through days of near silence. It's a small book about a small city that opens the space for large thoughts.”
Tom, Phinney Books
Bestseller #45
Craftfulness
Mend Yourself by Making Things
By Rosemary Davidson & Arzu Tahsin
Narrated by: Joan Walker
Length: 4 hours 27 minutes
Integrating mindfulness, neuroscience, positive psychology, and creativity research, Craftfulness offers a thought-provoking and surprising reconsideration of craft, and how making things with your hands can connect us to our deepest selves and improve our well-being and overall happiness.
We should get this out of the way: Craftfulness is not a...
Read more »Bestseller #46
Twelve Caesars
Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern
By Mary Beard
Narrated by: Mary Beard
Length: 10 hours 11 minutes
This audiobook narrated by bestselling author Mary Beard explores how images of Roman autocrats have influenced art, culture, and the representation of power
What does the face of power look like? Who gets commemorated in art and why? And how do we react to statues of politicians we deplore? In this book—against a background of today’s “sculpture...
Bestseller #47
Fashionopolis
The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes
By Dana Thomas
Narrated by: Dana Thomas
Length: 9 hours 14 minutes
*NYTBR Paperback Row Selection*
An investigation into the damage wrought by the colossal clothing industry and the grassroots, high-tech, international movement fighting to reform it
What should I wear? It’s one of the fundamental questions we ask ourselves every day. More than ever, we are told it should be something new. Today, the clothing... Read more »
Bestseller #48
The Rise
Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery
By Sarah Lewis
Narrated by: Sarah Lewis
Length: 6 hours 19 minutes
From celebrated art historian, curator, and teacher Sarah Lewis, a fascinating examination of how our most iconic creative endeavors—from innovation to the arts—are not achievements but conversions, corrections after failed attempts.
The gift of failure is a riddle: it will always be both the void and the start of infinite possibility. The... Read more »
Bestseller #49
What Are You Looking At?
The Surprising, Shocking, and Sometimes Strange Story of 150 Years of Modern Art
By Will Gompertz
Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
Length: 13 hours 59 minutes
For skeptics, art lovers, and the millions of us who visit art galleries every year—and are confused—What Are You Looking At? by former director of London's Tate Gallery Will Gompertz is a wonderfully lively, accessible narrative history of Modern Art, from Impressionism to the present day.
What is modern art? Who started it? Why do we either... Read more »
Bestseller #50
The White Road
Journey into an Obsession
By Edmund de Waal
Narrated by: Michael Maloney
Length: 11 hours 53 minutes
An intimate narrative history of porcelain, structured around five journeys through landscapes where porcelain was dreamed about, fired, refined, collected, and coveted.
Extraordinary new nonfiction, a gripping blend of history and memoir, by the author of the award-winning and bestselling international sensation, The Hare with the Amber...