Biography & Memoir audiobooks

Name All the Animals - Abridged

By: Alison Smith

Narrated by: Alison Smith

Length: 6 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: Yes

The critically acclaimed, heartbreaking memoir that is at once a gorgeous, profound, and redemptive story of a family holding desperately to the memory of a lost child; and a touching, intelligent, and inspiring coming-out story.

A luminous, true story, Name All the Animals is an unparalleled account of grief and secret love: the tale of a family... Read more

Hollywood Animal - Abridged

By: Joe Eszterhas

Narrated by: Eric Bogosian

Length: 5 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: Yes

He spent his earliest years in post WWII–refugee camps. He came to America and grew up in Cleveland—stealing cars, rolling drunks, battling priests, nearly going to jail. He became the screenwriter of the worldwide hits Basic Instinct, Jagged Edge, and Flashdance. He also wrote the legendary disasters Showgirls and Jade. The rebellion never... Read more

Tour of Duty - Abridged

By: Douglas Brinkley

Narrated by: Douglas Brinkley

Length: 5 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: Yes

One of our most acclaimed historians explores the decorated military service of one of America’s most intriguing politicians—the leading Democratic presidential candidate for 2004—and its profound effects on his career and lifeIn Tour of Duty, Brinkley explores Senator John Kerry’s career and deftly deals with such explosive issues as U.S.... Read more

America's Women - Abridged

By: Gail Collins

Narrated by: Jane Alexander

Length: TBA

Abridged: Yes

Rich in detail, filled with fascinating characters, and panoramic in its sweep, this magnificent, comprehensive work tells for the first time the complete story of the American woman from the Pilgrims to the 21st-centuryIn this sweeping cultural history, Gail Collins explores the transformations, victories, and tragedies of women in America over... Read more

How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life - Abridged

By: Peter Robinson

Narrated by: Peter Robinson

Length: 5 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: Yes

On February 6, 2001, my nine-year-old daughter happened to wander into the room during a television segment marking Ronald Reagan's ninetieth birthday. She watched for a moment. Then she turned to me and asked, ""Dad, is that the President you worked for?""What answer could I give her? How could I make her see? I wanted my daughter to recognize... Read more

American Sucker - Abridged

By: David Denby

Narrated by: David Boutsikaris

Length: 9 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Join David Denby, New Yorker critic and otherwise sensible man, on a whirlwind ride through an exuberant stock market, investment feeding frenzy, and the cataclysmic result of greed and illusion. Read more

The Meaning of Everything

By: Simon Winchester

Narrated by: Simon Winchester

Length: 7 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

From the best-selling author of The Professor and the Madman, The Map That Changed the World, and Krakatoa comes a truly wonderful celebration of the English language and of its unrivaled treasure house, the Oxford English Dictionary. 
Writing with marvelous brio, Winchester first serves up a lightning history of the English language--""so vast,... Read more

The Professor and The Madman

By: Simon Winchester

Narrated by: Simon Winchester

Length: 7 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

A New York Times Notable Book  The Professor and the Madman is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary—and literary history.The making of the OED was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the... Read more

Professor and The Madman - Abridged

By: Simon Winchester

Narrated by: Simon Jones

Length: TBA

Abridged: Yes

A New York Times Notable Book  The Professor and the Madman is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary—and literary history.The making of the OED was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the... Read more

The Bushes

By: Peter Schweizer & Rochelle Schweizer

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Length: 23 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

Get the inside story on America’s most powerful political dynasty.


President George W. Bush leads our nation in a time of unprecedented peril. But how well do we really know him or his remarkable family, whose history often mirrors the history of America? Now, in the first full-scale biography of the Bushes, Peter and Rochelle Schweizer trace... Read more

Ted Williams

By: Leigh Montville

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 21 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

He was The Kid. The Splendid Splinter. Teddy Ballgame. One of the greatest figures of his generation, and arguably the greatest baseball hitter of all time. But what made Ted Williams a legend – and a lightning rod for controversy in life and in death? What motivated him to interrupt his Hall of Fame career twice to serve his country as a... Read more

Why Courage Matters

By: John McCain & Mark Salter

Narrated by: Dan Cashman

Length: 4 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this inspiring meditation on courage, Senator John McCain shares his most cherished stories of ordinary individuals who have risked everything to defend the people and principles they hold most dear.

“We are taught to understand, correctly, that courage is not the absence of fear but the capacity for action... Read more

George Washington - Abridged

By: James MacGregor Burns & Susan Dunn

Narrated by: Richard Rohan

Length: 5 hours 10 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Leading scholars define the special contributions and qualifications of our first president
Washington's legacy is a successful experiment in collective leadership, great initiatives in establishing a strong executive branch and the formulation of innovative and lasting economic and foreign policies. Along with highlighting these accomplishments,... Read more

Elizabeth and Mary - Abridged

By: Jane Dunn

Narrated by: Isla Blair

Length: 6 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: Yes

The first dual biography of two of the world’s most remarkable women—Elizabeth I of England and Mary Queen of Scots—by one of Britain’s “best biographers” (The Sunday Times).

In a rich and riveting narrative, Jane Dunn reveals the extraordinary rivalry between the regal cousins. It is the story of two queens ruling on one island, each with a... Read more

Cork Boat - Abridged

By: John Pollack

Narrated by: John Pollack

Length: 5 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: Yes

In the late 1990s John Pollack was working as a Washington speechwriter when, frustrated by the cynicism and hypocrisy on Capitol Hill, he quit his job to pursue a boyhood dream: to build a boat made entirely of wine corks and take it on an epic journey.

Cork Boat tells the story of Pollack’s improbable quest. Overcoming one obstacle after... Read more

Martin Luther

By: Martin E. Marty

Narrated by: Paul Michael

Length: 5 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: No

A superb work of intellectual history, this slim volume by one of today's foremost theologians takes you through the mind and times of Europe's firebrand, Martin Luther. Deeply convinced that man and God could have a spiritual relationship unmediated by the pomp, offices, money and power of the Catholic Church, he strove ceaselessly to gain an... Read more

Jim Morrison

By: Stephen Davis

Narrated by: Paul Michael

Length: 17 hours 58 minutes

Abridged: No

As the lead singer of the Doors, Jim Morrison’s searing poetic vision and voracious appetite for sexual, spiritual, and psychedelic experience inflamed the spirit and psyche of a generation. Since his mysterious death in 1971, millions more fans from a new generation have embraced his legacy, as layers of myth have gathered to enshroud the life,... Read more

High Calling - Abridged

By: Evelyn Husband

Narrated by: Evelyn Husband

Length: 4 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Rick Husband wanted to be an astronaut since his fourth birthday, but it wasn't always for the right reasons. Initially, he thought it would be neat . . . cool . . . a fun thing to do. It wasn't until he came to a spiritual crossroads and was able to give that dream up to discover the true desires of his heart before he actually got into the... Read more

Mornings On Horseback - Abridged

By: David McCullough

Narrated by: Edward Herrmann

Length: 8 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: Yes

The National Book Award–winning biography that tells the story of how young Teddy Roosevelt transformed himself from a sickly boy into the vigorous man who would become a war hero and ultimately president of the United States, told by master historian David McCullough.

Mornings on Horseback is the brilliant biography of the young Theodore... Read more

The Darkest Jungle - Abridged

By: Todd Balf

Narrated by: Ray Childs

Length: 6 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: Yes

“Commit yourself to the Virgin Mary, for in her hands is the way into the Darién—and in God’s is the way out.”

The Darkest Jungle tells the harrowing story of America’s first ship canal exploration across a narrow piece of land in Central America called the Darién, a place that loomed large in the minds of the world’s most courageous adventurers... Read more

Idyll Banter - Abridged

By: Chris Bohjalian

Narrated by: Chris Bohjalian

Length: 4 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: Yes

In March 1986, while living in Brooklyn, Chris Bohjalian and his wife were cab-napped on a Saturday night and taken on a forty-five-minute joy ride in which the driver ignored all traffic lights and stop signs. Around midnight he deposited the young couple on a near-deserted street, where police officers were about to storm a crack house.... Read more

Love in the Driest Season

By: Neely Tucker

Narrated by: Michael Kramer

Length: 7 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

Foreign correspondent Neely Tucker and his wife, Vita, arrived in Zimbabwe in 1997. After witnessing firsthand the devastating consequences of AIDS on the population, especially the children, the couple started volunteering at an orphanage that was desperately underfunded and short-staffed. One afternoon, a critically ill infant was brought to... Read more

All the Shah's Men

By: Stephen Kinzer

Narrated by: Michael Prichard & Jonathan Yen

Length: 11 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

Half a century ago, the United States overthrew the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, Mohammad Mossadegh, whose "crime" was nationalizing the country's oil industry.



In a cloak-and-dagger story of spies, saboteurs, and secret agents, Kinzer reveals the involvement of Eisenhower, Churchill, Kermit Roosevelt, and the CIA in... Read more

David Herbert Donald: We Are Lincoln Men

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 8 minutes

Abridged: No

Margaret Warner speaks with Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Herbert Donald about his book We Are Lincoln Men: Abraham Lincoln and His Friends. Read more