Essays audiobooks

The Family Meadow

By: John Updike

Narrated by: John Updike

Length: 15 minutes

Abridged: No

The extraordinarily evocative stories depict the generation born in a small-town America during the Depression and growing up in a world where the old sexual morality was turned around and material comforts were easily had. Yet, as these stories reflect so accurately, life was still unsettling, and Updike chronicles telling moments both joyful... Read more

The Bulgarian Poetess

By: John Updike

Narrated by: John Updike

Length: 36 minutes

Abridged: No

The extraordinarily evocative stories depict the generation born in a small-town America during the Depression and growing up in a world where the old sexual morality was turned around and material comforts were easily had. Yet, as these stories reflect so accurately, life was still unsettling, and Updike chronicles telling moments both joyful... Read more

Ace in the Hole

By: John Updike

Narrated by: John Updike

Length: 22 minutes

Abridged: No

The extraordinarily evocative stories depict the generation born in a small-town America during the Depression and growing up in a world where the old sexual morality was turned around and material comforts were easily had. Yet, as these stories reflect so accurately, life was still unsettling, and Updike chronicles telling moments both joyful... Read more

The Man Who Loved Extinct Mammals

By: John Updike

Narrated by: John Updike

Length: 18 minutes

Abridged: No

The extraordinarily evocative stories depict the generation born in a small-town America during the Depression and growing up in a world where the old sexual morality was turned around and material comforts were easily had. Yet, as these stories reflect so accurately, life was still unsettling, and Updike chronicles telling moments both joyful... Read more

The Orphaned Swimming Pool

By: John Updike

Narrated by: John Updike

Length: 13 minutes

Abridged: No

The extraordinarily evocative stories depict the generation born in a small-town America during the Depression and growing up in a world where the old sexual morality was turned around and material comforts were easily had. Yet, as these stories reflect so accurately, life was still unsettling, and Updike chronicles telling moments both joyful... Read more

The Persistence of Desire

By: John Updike

Narrated by: John Updike

Length: 26 minutes

Abridged: No

The extraordinarily evocative stories depict the generation born in a small-town America during the Depression and growing up in a world where the old sexual morality was turned around and material comforts were easily had. Yet, as these stories reflect so accurately, life was still unsettling, and Updike chronicles telling moments both joyful... Read more

Local Wonders

By: Ted Kooser

Narrated by: Ted Kooser

Length: 6 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

Ted Kooser describes with exquisite detail and humor the place he calls home in the rolling hills of southeastern Nebraska, an area known as the Bohemian Alps. Nothing is too big or too small for his attention, including memories of his grandmother’s cooking. Kooser also reminds us that the closing of local schools, thoughtless county weed... Read more

As They See 'Em

By: Bruce Weber

Narrated by: Charley Steiner

Length: 13 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

Millions of American baseball fans know, with absolute certainty, that umpires are simply overpaid galoots who are doing an easy job badly. Millions of American baseball fans are wrong. As They See 'Em is an insider's look at the largely unknown world of professional umpires, the small group of men (and the very occasional woman) who make sure... Read more

The Cloud Forest

By: Peter Matthiessen

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 9 hours 49 minutes

Abridged: No

For twenty thousand miles, Peter Matthiessen crisscrossed the South American wilderness, traveling from the Amazonian rain forests to Machu Picchu high in the Andes, down to the edge of the world at Tierra del Fuego and back. In the course of his journey, he followed the trails of old explorers; encountered river bandits, wild tribesmen, and the... Read more

Walden and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

By: Henry David Thoreau

Narrated by: Robin Field

Length: 13 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: No

In the early spring of 1845, Henry David Thoreau built and lived in a cabin near the shore of Walden Pond in rural Massachusetts. For the next two years, he enacted his own Transcendentalist experiment, living a simple life based on self-reliance, individualism, and harmony with nature. The journal he kept at that time evolved into his... Read more

What's Next

By: Max Brockman

Narrated by: Erik Davies & Kirsten Potter

Length: 7 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

Will climate change force a massive human migration to the Northern Rim?

How does our sense of morality arise from the structure of the brain?

What does the latest research in language acquisition tells us about the role of culture in the way we think?

What does current neurological research tell us about the nature of time?

This wide-ranging... Read more

Bubba Talks

By: Dan Jenkins

Narrated by: James Jenner

Length: 1 hour 51 minutes

Abridged: No

One of America's most acclaimed sportswriters, Dan Jenkins has won countless fans with his bawdy sense of humor. Bubba Talks is a series of reflections from the quintessential American redneck-a lover of hot ladies, football, cheeseburgers, and Firebirds. Read more

Bright Lights, Big Ass

By: Jen Lancaster

Narrated by: Jamie Heinlein

Length: 17 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

Unabridged ? 10 hours

Jen Lancaster hates to burst your happy little bubble, but life in the big city isn't all it's cracked up to be. Contrary to what you see on TV and in the movies, most urbanites aren't party-hopping in slinky dresses and strappy stilettos. But lucky for us, Lancaster knows how to make the life of the lower crust mercilessly... Read more

Pretty in Plaid

By: Jen Lancaster

Narrated by: Jamie Heinlein

Length: 7 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

Unabridged CDs * 7 CDs, 9 hours

The hardcover debut from the New York Times– bestselling author of Such a Pretty Fat. Read more

Such a Pretty Fat

By: Jen Lancaster

Narrated by: Jamie Heinlein

Length: 8 hours 29 minutes

Abridged: No

A NOTE FROM JEN LANCASTER:"To whom the fat rolls…I'm tired of books where a self-loathing heroine is teased to the point where she starves herself skinny in hopes of a fabulous new life. And I hate the message that women can't possibly be happy until we all fit into our skinny jeans. I don't find these stories uplifting; they make me want to... Read more

Red and Me

By: Bill Russell

Narrated by: Peter Jay Fernandez

Length: 5 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

New York Times Bestseller""On the subject of his love of Red Auerbach and his Celtic teammates, Russell is loud and clear. He might object to my use of the word 'love,' but deny it though you will, Mr. Russell, that's what sits at the heart of this beautiful book."" — Bill Bradley, New York Times Book ReviewIn Red and Me, Boston Celtics... Read more

Now or Never

By: Jack Cafferty

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 12 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

In this take-no-prisoners survey of a nation in the grip of multiple crises, Jack Cafferty turns his unflinching sights on what needs to go right in President Obama's first term. Putting his own signature stamp on Obama's campaign slogan, he tells the charismatic new leader that this is a time for "change we will believe in when we see... Read more

Who Is Mark Twain?

By: Mark Twain

Narrated by: John Lithgow

Length: 5 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

“[Twain] was, in the phrase of his friend William Dean Howells, ‘the Lincoln of our literature’... At the heart of his work lies that greatest of all American qualities: irreverence.”
— Washington Post “More than 100 years after [Twain] wrote these stories, they remain not only remarkably funny but remarkably modern.... Ninety-nine years after... Read more

NPR Road Trips: Postcards from Around the Globe

By: NPR

Length: 1 hour 13 minutes

Abridged: No

Meet Colin Angus and Julie Wafael, who spent two years circumnavigating the globe using their hands and feet. Turn on the radio in Katmandu and hear music from the 70s. Learn how robot jockeys are solving a human rights problem in Dubai. (It has to do with camel races.) Get ready for carnival in Rio. And walk through old Beijing before it’s... Read more

Just When I Thought I'd Dropped My Last Egg

By: Kathie Lee Gifford

Narrated by: Kathie Lee Gifford

Length: 5 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

As one of America’s most recognized faces, Kathie Lee Gifford has been a part of our morning routine for more years than she cares to count. And that’s why it may come as a surprise to hear that there are still sides of this fiftysomething (!) devoted mother and dedicated television personality yet to be revealed.

Just When I Thought I’d Dropped... Read more

We Are Our Mothers' Daughters

By: Cokie Roberts

Narrated by: Cokie Roberts

Length: 7 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

“[A] paean to feminism and the solidarity of womenkind. . . . This book is a celebration of women in their various roles: mother, sister, civil rights advocate, consumer advocate, first-class mechanic, politician—which Roberts’ own mother once was.”
—Washington Post “The perfect combination of powerful feelings and a modulated style.”
— Los... Read more

Life Is Like a Sailboat

By: John Grogan

Narrated by: John Larroquette

Length: 6 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

From columnist and author of Marley and Me, John Grogan, comes a collection of more than 80 newspaper articles. In pieces that reflect his unique understanding of the crazy-quilt world we inhabit, Grogan shows us all sides of the human condition. From the fragility of life at a crosswalk to cell phones driving us to distraction (as we drive!),... Read more

The Face on Your Plate

By: Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

Narrated by: Fred Stella

Length: 5 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

Somewhere in between Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, between eating at McDonald’s and killing a pig for dinner, there is a need for an audiobook that will probe more deeply and provide greater understanding and insight into the psychological factors that influence decisions about what we eat and why – and how these choices affect... Read more

The Bullpen Gospels

By: Dirk Hayhurst

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Length: 10 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

From the humble heights of a Class-A pitcher's mound to the deflating lows of sleeping on his gun-toting grandmother's air mattress, veteran reliever Dirk Hayhurst steps out of the bullpen to deliver the best pitch of his career—a raw and unflinching account of his life in the minor leagues. Whether training tarantulas to protect his room from... Read more