Essays audiobooks

The Anthropocene Reviewed

By: John Green

Narrated by: John Green

Length: 10 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

“Masterful. The Anthropocene Reviewed is a beautiful, timely book about the human condition—and a timeless reminder to pay attention to your attention.” —Adam Grant, #1 bestselling author of Think Again and host of the podcast Re:Thinking

The instant #1 bestseller from John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All the Way Down, is... Read more

Crying in H Mart

By: Michelle Zauner

Narrated by: Michelle Zauner

Length: 7 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

From the indie rockstar of Japanese Breakfast fame, and author of the viral 2018 New Yorker essay that shares the title of this book, an unflinching, powerful memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity.

In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far... Read more

The Message

By: Ta-Nehisi Coates

Narrated by: Ta-Nehisi Coates

Length: 5 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The renowned author of Between the World and Me journeys to three resonant sites of conflict to explore how the stories we tell—and the ones we don’t—shape our realities.

“Ta-Nehisi Coates always writes with a purpose. . . . These pilgrimages, for him, help ground his powerful writing about... Read more

On Tyranny

By: Timothy Snyder

Narrated by: Timothy Snyder

Length: 1 hour 47 minutes

Abridged: No

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “bracing” (Vox) guide for surviving and resisting America’s turn towards authoritarianism, from “a rising public intellectual unafraid to make bold connections between past and present” (The New York Times)

“Timothy Snyder reasons with unparalleled clarity, throwing the past and future into sharp relief. He has... Read more

I'll Have What She's Having

By: Chelsea Handler

Narrated by: Chelsea Handler

Length: 6 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In hilarious and tender essays, Chelsea Handler shares her unforgettable story of becoming the woman she always wanted to be.

“A raw and raucous exploration of Handler’s ongoing search for self . . . [She’s] disarming us with humor to get at our softest selves and meeting us with her own.”—Oprah Daily

There’s a... Read more

Gathering Moss

By: Robin Wall Kimmerer

Narrated by: Robin Wall Kimmerer

Length: 7 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. Gathering Moss is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites listeners to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses.



Robin Wall Kimmerer's book is not an identification guide,... Read more

Sucker Punch

By: Scaachi Koul

Narrated by: Scaachi Koul

Length: 6 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

"Certain authors are their own best narrators.... Here, Koul's accomplished reading comes with the bonus of regular vocal interjections from her father." —Library Journal on One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter

This program is read by the author.

The long-awaited follow-up from one of the most original and hilarious voices... Read more

Want

By: Gillian Anderson

Narrated by: Gillian Anderson & Anonymous

Length: 11 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

A collection of sexual fantasies from women around the world, Want is a revelatory, sensational, and game-changing exploration of women’s sexuality that asks, and answers: How do women feel about sex when they have the freedom to be totally anonymous?

“The book you hold in your hands started as an invitation to women across the world, a call for... Read more

Everything I Know About Love

By: Dolly Alderton

Narrated by: Dolly Alderton

Length: 8 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

New York Times Bestseller""There is no writer quite like Dolly Alderton working today and very soon the world will know it.” —Lisa Taddeo, author of #1 New York Times bestseller Three Women“Dolly Alderton has always been a sparkling Roman candle of talent. She is funny, smart, and explosively engaged in the wonders and weirdness of the world.... Read more

The Harder I Fight the More I Love You

By: Neko Case

Narrated by: Neko Case

Length: 7 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

From a beloved Grammy-nominated musician, a "heartbreaking and funny" memoir of a poverty-stricken childhood, obsessive desires, and indispensable friendships that reflects on the way art and music and a deep connection to nature guided her journey towards stardom (Maggie Smith, NYT bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful). ... Read more

Surviving Autocracy

By: Masha Gessen

Narrated by: Masha Gessen

Length: 5 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

“When Gessen speaks about autocracy, you listen.” —The New York Times

“A reckoning with what has been lost in the past few years and a map forward with our beliefs intact.” —Interview

As seen on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and heard on NPR’s All Things Considered: the bestselling, National Book Award–winning journalist offers an essential guide to... Read more

Raw Dog

By: Jamie Loftus

Narrated by: Jamie Loftus

Length: 9 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: No

One of BookPage's Best Audiobooks of 2023

"Loftus is a charming narrator...goofy, engaging, and always game to do a silly voice." —The New York Times

"There’s something terribly irresistible about her narration, which is often incredibly funny." —BookPage

Part travelogue, part culinary history, all capitalist critique—comedian Jamie Loftus's debut,... Read more

Happy-Go-Lucky

By: David Sedaris

Narrated by: David Sedaris

Length: 7 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

An Audie Award Winner

David Sedaris, the “champion storyteller,” (Los Angeles Times) returns with his first new collection of personal essays since the bestselling Calypso.

Back when restaurant menus were still printed on paper, and wearing a mask—or not—was a decision made mostly on Halloween, David Sedaris spent his time doing normal things. As... Read more

The Book of Delights

By: Ross Gay

Narrated by: Ross Gay

Length: 5 hours

Abridged: No

The winner of the NBCC Award for Poetry offers up a spirited collection of short lyric essays, written daily over a tumultuous year, reminding us of the purpose and pleasure of praising, extolling, and celebrating ordinary wonders. Ross Gay's The Book of Delights is a genre-defying book of essays- some as short as a paragraph; some as long as... Read more

How Far the Light Reaches

By: Sabrina Imbler

Narrated by: Sabrina Imbler

Length: 5 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

A fascinating tour of creatures from the surface to the deepest ocean floor: this "miraculous, transcendental book" invites us to envision wilder, grander, and more abundant possibilities for the way we live (Ed Yong, author of An Immense World). A queer, mixed race writer working in a largely white, male field, science and conservation... Read more

On the Hippie Trail

By: Rick Steves

Narrated by: Rick Steves

Length: 4 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

Stow away with Rick Steves for a glimpse into the unforgettable moments, misadventures, and memories of his 1978 journey on the legendary Hippie Trail.

In the 1970s, the ultimate trip for any backpacker was the storied “Hippie Trail” from Istanbul to Kathmandu. A 23-year old Rick Steves made the trek, and like a travel writer in training, he... Read more

All Creatures Great and Small

By: James Herriot

Narrated by: Nicholas Ralph

Length: 15 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

**This program is read by Nicholas Ralph, star of the PBS Masterpiece series**

"Nicholas Ralph’s readings of Herriot’s stories are as comforting an experience as the show, and even more immersive." —The Houston Chronicle

A tie-in to the PBS Masterpiece series and Christmas special, available on streaming and home video.

All Creatures Great and... Read more

Kitchen Confidential

By: Anthony Bourdain

Narrated by: Anthony Bourdain

Length: 8 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

When Chef Anthony Bourdain wrote "Don't Eat Before You Read This" in The New Yorker, he spared no one's appetite, revealing what goes on behind the kitchen door. In Kitchen Confidential, he expanded the appetizer into a deliciously funny, delectably shocking banquet that lays out his twenty-five years of sex, drugs, and haute cuisine.

From his... Read more

Something in the Woods Loves You

By: Jarod K. Anderson

Narrated by: Jarod K. Anderson

Length: 11 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

An inspiring blend of nature writing and memoir that explores nature’s crucial role in our emotional and mental health

Bats can hear shapes, plants can eat light, and bees can dance maps. When his life took him to a painfully dark place, the poet behind The CryptoNaturalist, Jarod K. Anderson, found comfort and redemption in these facts and the... Read more

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century

By: Alice Wong

Narrated by: Alejandra Ospina & Alice Wong

Length: 8 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

One in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some disabilities are visible, others less apparent—but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture. Now, just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, activist Alice Wong brings together this urgent, galvanizing collection of... Read more

You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey

By: Amber Ruffin & Lacey Lamar

Narrated by: Amber Ruffin & Lacey Lamar

Length: 5 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

Writer and performer on Late Night with Seth Meyers Amber Ruffin writes with her sister Lacey Lamar with humor and heart to share absurd anecdotes about everyday experiences of racism.

Now a writer and performer on Late Night with Seth Meyers and host of The Amber Ruffin Show, Amber Ruffin lives in New York, where she is no one's First Black... Read more

Hijab Butch Blues

By: Lamya H

Narrated by: Ashraf Shirazi

Length: 7 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

A queer hijabi Muslim immigrant survives her coming-of-age by drawing strength and hope from stories in the Quran in this “raw and relatable memoir that challenges societal norms and expectations” (Linah Mohammad, NPR).

“A masterful, must-read contribution to conversations on power, justice, healing, and devotion from a singular voice I now trust... Read more

Broken (in the best possible way)

By: Jenny Lawson

Narrated by: Jenny Lawson

Length: 8 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

"Jenny Lawson returns to narrate her third installment in a disheveled saga of finding the light at the end of a long, winding, ludicrous tunnel...Another treasure in the Lawson collection, this audiobook shines with a powerful message: Depression and anxiety suck, but we can rise above them." -- AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner

From... Read more

Little Weirds

By: Jenny Slate

Narrated by: Jenny Slate

Length: 4 hours 19 minutes

Abridged: No

Step into Jenny Slate's wild imagination in this "magical" (Mindy Kaling), "delicious" (Amy Sedaris), and "poignant" (John Mulaney) New York Times bestseller about love, heartbreak, and being alive -- "this book is something new and wonderful" (George Saunders).

You may "know" Jenny Slate from her Netflix special, Stage Fright, as the creator of... Read more