Biography & Memoir audiobooks

Takedown - Abridged

By: Rick Cowan & Douglas Century

Narrated by: Christopher Meloni

Length: 5 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Seldom has the netherworld of the mafia been revealed with such fascinating detail and sheer suspense. Like the classics of the genre-from The Godfather to The French Connection toWise Guy-Takedown leads us to the inner ring of a conspiracy of corruption and terror that held the city in its grip for nearly fifty years. 

Rick Cowan was a young... Read more

On the Big Blackfoot

By: Norman Maclean

Narrated by: John Maclean & Norman Maclean

Length: 1 hour

Abridged: No

On the Big Blackfoot is Norman Maclean's memoir about his Montana youth that inspired his beloved story, A River Runs Through It. Read more

Educating Esmé - Abridged

By: Esmé Raji Codell

Narrated by: Esmé Raji Codell

Length: 2 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Codell's portrait of an inner-city elementary school is funny, poignant, and inspiring. Read more

Report from Engine Co. 82 - Abridged

By: Dennis Smith

Narrated by: Lloyd James

Length: 2 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Report from Engine Co. 82 is the story of one company of New York firefighters battling unimaginable death and destruction every day. Read more

No Such Thing as a Bad Day - Abridged

By: Hamilton Jordan

Narrated by: Hamilton Jordan

Length: 4 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Since serving in the Carter White House in the late 1970s, Hamilton Jordan has survived non-Hodgkins lymphoma, melanoma, and prostate cancer. Read more

The Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. Bach - Abridged

By: Peter Schickele

Narrated by: Peter Schickele

Length: 1 hour 15 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Professor Peter Schickele's account of the life of little-known composer P.D.Q. Bach. Read more

My Losing Season - Abridged

By: Pat Conroy

Narrated by: Jay O. Sanders

Length: 6 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: Yes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A deeply affecting coming-of-age memoir about family, love, loss, basketball—and life itself—by the beloved author of The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini
 
During one unforgettable season as a Citadel cadet, Pat Conroy becomes part of a basketball team that is ultimately destined to fail. And yet for a military... Read more

I May Be Wrong But I Doubt It - Abridged

By: Charles Barkley

Narrated by: Charles Barkley

Length: 2 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: Yes

If there’s one thing Charles Barkley knows, it’s the crying need for honest, open discussion in this country—the more uncomfortable the subject, the more necessary the dialogue. And if the discussion leader can be as wise, irreverent, (occasionally) profane and (consistently) funny as Charles Barkley, so much the better. Many people are going to... Read more

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt - Abridged

By: Edmund Morris

Narrated by: Harry Chase

Length: 8 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time

Described by the Chicago Tribune as "a classic," The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt stands as one of the greatest biographies of our time. The publication of The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt on September 14th, 2001 marks the 100th anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt ... Read more

Worth the Fighting For - Abridged

By: John McCain & Mark Salter

Narrated by: John McCain

Length: 5 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: Yes

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Senator John McCain tells the story of his great American journey, from the U.S. Navy to his electrifying campaign for the presidency in 2000, interwoven with heartfelt portraits of the mavericks who have inspired him through the years.

After five and a half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, naval aviator John McCain... Read more

Motherhood and Hollywood

By: Patricia Heaton

Narrated by: Patricia Heaton

Length: 4 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: No

“The really important things in life are your family and friends. And what will people say about you at your funeral—that you won an Emmy once, or that you were a good person, kind and generous? Well, as for me, I hope it's the latter. And the fact that I recently commissioned an Emmy-shaped coffin just eliminates the need for anyone to bring it... Read more

Elvis Presley

By: Bobbie Ann Mason

Narrated by: Karen White

Length: 5 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

PEN/Hemingway Award-winner Bobbie Ann Mason turns her acumen on one of twentieth-century America's most mysterious icons, The King himself. This new biography eschews sensational speculation to paint a thoughtfully researched but wholly felt portrait of the man-child who metamorphosed into a hero, one of the most popular and least supported... Read more

Winston Churchill

By: John Keegan

Narrated by: Richard Matthews

Length: 5 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

"[Keegan is] the best military historian of the world."—Tom Clancy
 
When today’s world leaders require inspiration and strength in times of crisis, they often invoke Winston Churchill. The son of a member of Parliament, Churchill, a poor academic student, wanted to be a solider early in life. At this he succeeded brilliantly, fighting... Read more

The Cell - Abridged

By: John Miller & Michael Stone

Narrated by: John Miller

Length: TBA

Abridged: Yes

In New York City, a a handful of veteran FBI agents, police officers and investigative journalists had known for years that a terrorist event on the scale of 9/11 was likely. Ironically, one of the men who had been most aware of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden had recently left the FBI, where he had been following the movements of bin Laden... Read more

A Ranger Born - Abridged

By: Robert W. Black

Narrated by: Charles Stransky

Length: 1 hour 57 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Even as a boy growing up amid the green hills of rural Pennsylvania, Robert W. Black knew he was destined to become a Ranger. With their three-hundred-year history of peerless courage and independence of spirit, Rangers are a uniquely American brand of soldier, one foot in the military, one in the wilderness—and that is what fired Black’s... Read more

God Save the Sweet Potato Queens

By: Jill Conner Browne

Narrated by: Jill Conner Browne

Length: 6 hours 27 minutes

Abridged: No

Hallelujah! The Sweet Potato Queens are back!

In 1999, Jill Conner Browne, royal boss of Jackson, Mississippi's own glorious Sweet Potato Queens, introduced them to the world in the hilarious bestseller The Sweet Potato Queen's Book of Love (which contained everything you ever need to know about Love, Life, Men, Marriage, and the importance of... Read more

Let's Roll!

By: Lisa Beamer

Narrated by: Lisa Helm

Length: 8 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

2003 ECPA Gold Medallion Award winner!
Lisa Beamer, wife of September 11 hero Todd Beamer, reveals what really happened on the ill-fated United Flight 93, and shares poignant glimpses of a genuine American hero. She talks candidly about her life with Todd and the devastating day her children learned their daddy had died, the mix of grief and joy... Read more

A Long Way From Home

By: Tom Brokaw

Narrated by: Dan Cashman

Length: 6 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

Reflections on America and the American experience as he has lived and observed it, by the bestselling author of The Greatest Generation.

In this beautiful memoir, Tom Brokaw writes of America and of the American experience. From his parents’ life in the 1930s, on to his boyhood along the Missouri River and on the prairies of South Dakota in... Read more

Worth the Fighting For

By: John McCain & Mark Salter

Narrated by: Dan Cashman

Length: 18 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Senator John McCain tells the story of his great American journey, from the U.S. Navy to his electrifying campaign for the presidency in 2000, interwoven with heartfelt portraits of the mavericks who have inspired him through the years.

After five and a half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, naval aviator John McCain... Read more

21 Dog Years

By: Mike Daisey

Narrated by: Mike Daisey

Length: TBA

Abridged: No

In 1998, when Amazon.com began to recruit employees, they gave temp agencies a simple directive: send us your freaks. Mike Daisey -- slacker, onetime aesthetics major -- fit the bill. His subsequent ascension, over the course of twenty-one dog years, from lowly temp to customer service representative to business development hustler is the stuff... Read more

Touch the Top of the World

By: Erik Weihenmayer

Narrated by: Nick Sullivan

Length: 11 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

Erik Weihenmayer was born with retinoscheses, a degenerative eye disorder that would leave him blind by the age of thirteen. But Erik was determined to rise above this devastating disability and lead a fulfilling and exciting life. In this poignant and inspiring memoir, he shares his struggle to push past the limits imposed on him by his visual... Read more

An Unfinished Marriage

By: Joan Anderson

Narrated by: Joan Anderson

Length: 5 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

In A Year by the Sea, Joan Anderson documented her brave decision to take a year of solitude away from her marriage. Her frank assessment of herself in midlife and openness in sharing her fears struck a chord with thousands. In this moving sequel, Anderson gives fresh hope for all women and men negotiating their own marital passages. Using the... Read more

Master of the Senate - Abridged

By: Robert A. Caro

Narrated by: Stephen Lang

Length: 8 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Book Three of Robert A. Caro’s monumental work, The Years of Lyndon Johnson—the most admired and riveting political biography of our era—which began with the best-selling and prizewinning The Path to Power and Means of Ascent.

Master of the Senate carries Lyndon Johnson’s story through one of its most remarkable periods: his twelve years, from... Read more

Ronald C. White Jr: Lincoln's Greatest Speech

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 9 minutes

Abridged: No

In his book, Lincoln's Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural, historian Ronald White reveals how Americans, including Frederick Douglas and John Wilkes Booth, responded to the 16th president's declarations on March 4, 1865 and Lincoln's intentions. In this interview, White quotes from the book, explains why he believes the speech was Lincoln's... Read more