Essays audiobooks

Irons in the Fire

By: John McPhee

Narrated by: Nelson Runger

Length: 7 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: No

Fabulously entertaining and filled with the intriguing trivia of life, Irons in the Fire is another impeccably crafted collection of seven essays by John McPhee. His peerless writing-punctuated with a sharp sense of humor and fascinating detail-has earned him legions of fans across the country. Whether he's riding with a cattle brand inspector... Read more

Goodbye to a River

By: John Graves

Narrated by: Henry Strozier

Length: 10 hours 27 minutes

Abridged: No

A classic from the Lone Star State, John Graves' Goodbye to a River is a poignant narrative of one man's journey by canoe down the river of his memories. Along the way, he describes the colorful Texas landscape and recounts its rich history. When Graves learns that the river he knew and loved as a youth-the Brazos in north-central Texas-is... Read more

The Father of All Things

By: Tom Bissell

Narrated by: Kerin McCue

Length: 16 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

In his fourth book, journalist and fiction writer Bissell (Chasing the Sea) revisits the much-trodden territory of the Vietnam War to offer a fresh perspective: that of the adult children of the war's veterans. On assignment for GQ magazine, Bissell and his ex-Marine father, John, retrace the elder Bissell's tour of duty through a now mostly... Read more

Sailing Alone Around the World

By: Joshua Slocum

Narrated by: Nelson Runger

Length: 6 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: No

Joshua Slocum was the first man ever to sail around the world single-handedly. He completed his voyage in 1895, without radio and modern technology, when native pirates roamed the seas. It makes for an exciting tale-all 46,000 miles and three years of it. Read more

The Colossus of New York

By: Colson Whitehead

Narrated by: Colson Whitehead

Length: 3 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

In a dazzlingly original work of nonfiction, the award-winning novelist Colson Whitehead re-creates the exuberance, the chaos, the promise, and the heartbreak of New York. Here is a literary love song that will entrance anyone who has lived in-or spent time-in the greatest of American cities. A masterful evocation of the city that never sleeps,... Read more

Introduction by Nick Hornby - Abridged

By: Ben Karlin

Narrated by: Full Cast

Length: 1 hour 8 minutes

Abridged: Yes

The Emmy award-winning former executive producer of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report has assembled a stellar lineup of men who have one thing in common: all have been dumped...and are willing to share their pain and the lessons learned.

Relationships end. And in almost all of them, even the most callow among us take something away. This... Read more

The Medusa and the Snail

By: Lewis Thomas

Narrated by: Stuart Langton

Length: 4 hours 19 minutes

Abridged: No

Lewis Thomas has been said to be a philosopher who uses the language of biology. His fascinating observations on the quirkiness of the world's infinite creations causes listeners to ponder the workings of the cosmos through the most microscopic of life forms.The medusa, a tiny jellyfish that lives on the ventral surface of a sea slug found in... Read more

The Geography of Bliss

By: Eric Weiner

Narrated by: Eric Weiner

Length: 11 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: No

Now a new series on Peacock with Rainn Wilson, THE GEOGRAPHY OF BLISS is part travel memoir, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide that takes the viewer across the globe to investigate not what happiness is, but WHERE it is.

Are people in Switzerland happier because it is the most democratic country in the world? Do citizens of Qatar,... Read more

Our Hearts Were Young and Gay

By: Cornelia Otis Skinner & Emily Kimbrough

Narrated by: Celeste Lawson

Length: 7 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

"To know Emily is to enhance one's days with gaiety, charm and occasional terror."—Cornelia Otis Skinner of her coauthor, Emily KimbroughActress Cornelia Otis Skinner and journalist Emily Kimbrough offer a lighthearted, hilarious memoir of their European tour in the 1920s, when they were fresh out of college from Bryn Mawr. Some of the more... Read more

Mainzer Sagen und Legenden

By: Katharina Hammann & Kristina Hammann

Narrated by: Heiner Giersberg

Length: TBA

Abridged: No

Welche sagenhaften Geheimnisse birgt die Stadt Mainz am Rhein? Die Geschichte der größten Stadt des deutschen Bundeslandes Rheinland-Pfalz geht bis in die Zeit der Römer und Kelten zurück, von deren Gottheit Mogon (Mogontiacum: Land des Mogon) auch der heutige Name der Landeshauptstadt abgeleitet wurde. Hören Sie die schönsten Sagen und Legenden... Read more

Secret Ingredients

By: David Remnick

Narrated by: Various

Length: 24 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

Since its earliest days, The New Yorker has been a tastemaker–literally. As the home of A. J. Liebling, Joseph Wechsberg, and M. F. K. Fisher, who practically invented American food writing, the magazine established a tradition that is carried forward today by irrepressible literary gastronomes including Calvin Trillin, Bill Buford, Adam Gopnik,... Read more

The Anti-Chomsky Reader

By: Peter Collier & David Horowitz

Narrated by: Kirk Jordan

Length: 7 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

Noam Chomsky’s defense of Pol Pot and the genocidal Khymer Rouge, as well as his bizarre associations with Holocaust revisionists, may surprise those who think they know what he believes. Other Chomsky views, such as his claim that the United States has taken the place of Nazi Germany on the world stage, will be more familiar. With Chomskyism... Read more

The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank

By: Erma Bombeck

Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat

Length: 4 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

Erma Bombeck's humorous insights about family life always tickle readers' funny bones. Her New York Times best-sellers have sold millions of copies to gleeful readers around the world. In The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank, Bombeck joins the station wagon train to the suburbs. In new lands like the Suburbian Gems subdivision,... Read more

Good Dog. Stay.

By: Anna Quindlen

Narrated by: Anna Quindlen

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

"The life of a good dog is like the life of a good person, only shorter and more compressed."

So writes Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anna Quindlen about her beloved black Labrador retriever, Beau. With her trademark wisdom and humor, Quindlen reflects on how her life has unfolded in tandem with Beau's, and on the lessons she's learned by... Read more

Münchner Sagen und Legenden

By: Kristina Hammann

Narrated by: Michael Nowack

Length: TBA

Abridged: No

München ist nach Berlin und Hamburg die drittgrößte Stadt Deutschlands und hat sich trotz der stetig wachsenden Bevölkerungszahl den urbayerischen Charme erhalten und alte Traditionen bewahrt. So finden sich in der Hauptstadt des Freistaates Bayern noch heute zahlreiche Orte, an denen sich wundersame Dinge zugetragen haben sollen. Wie entstand... Read more

Kerplunk!

By: Patrick F. McManus

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 6 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: No

This is the latest hilarious collection of folksy, humorous, and wonderfully wise stories about country life from the bestselling author of The Blight Way.



Patrick F. McManus has garnered legions of faithful fans with his monthly column in Outdoor Life and his many celebrated books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Grasshopper Trap and... Read more

Hate Mail from Cheerleaders

By: Rick Reilly

Narrated by: Lloyd James

Length: 10 hours 5 minutes

Abridged: No

Each week, when Sports Illustrated's 21 million readers open up their magazine, many turn right to the last page because that's where to find SI's most popular feature: the Life of Reilly column written by bestselling author Rick Reilly. A twenty-one-year veteran of the magazine and ten-time Sportswriter of the Year, Reilly took over SI's back... Read more

This I Believe - Abridged

By: Jay Allison & Dan Gediman

Narrated by: Jay Allison & Dan Gediman

Length: 53 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Based on the NPR series of the same name, This I Believe features 80 Americans—from the famous to the unknown—completing the thought that begins with the book's title. The pieces that make up the program compel listeners to re-think not only what and how they have arrived at their own personal beliefs, but also the extent to which they share... Read more

Secret Ingredients - Abridged

By: David Remnick

Narrated by: Various

Length: 6 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Since its earliest days, The New Yorker has been a tastemaker–literally. As the home of A. J. Liebling, Joseph Wechsberg, and M.F.K. Fisher, who practically invented American food writing, the magazine established a tradition that is carried forward today by irrepressible literary gastronomes, including Calvin Trillin, Bill Buford, Adam... Read more

Schulz and Peanuts - Abridged

By: David Michaelis

Narrated by: Holter Graham

Length: 12 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Charles M. Schulz, the most widely syndicated and beloved cartoonist of all time, is also one of the least understood figures in American culture. Now acclaimed biographer David Michaelis gives us an in-depth biography of the brilliant, unseen man behind Peanuts.It is the most American of stories: How a barber's son grew up from modest... Read more

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar...

By: Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein

Narrated by: Johnny Heller

Length: 4 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

Outrageously funny, Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . . has been a breakout bestseller ever since authors-and born vaudevillians-Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein did their schtick on NPR's Weekend Edition. Lively, original, and powerfully informative, Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar..... is a not-so-reverent crash course through the... Read more

NPR Driveway Moments All About Animals

By: NPR

Length: 1 hour 24 minutes

Abridged: No

What’s a “driveway moment”? It’s when you’re so captivated by a story you’re hearing on NPR that you stay in your car to hear it to the end—even if you’re sitting in your driveway with the motor running. For years, listeners have written to NPR to describe such moments. Now animal lovers especially will want to make sure their tanks are... Read more

Dave Barry's History of the Millennium (So Far)

By: Dave Barry

Narrated by: Patrick Frederic

Length: 4 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

A brilliantly funny look at the tumultuous recent past from the Pulitzer Prize–winning humorist.

Remember when everything was going to go to hell when Y2K struck?

That didn’t happen, right?

But what did happen? To provide a little perspective on a really messed-up millennium (so far), the one and only Dave Barry slips into his historian’s robe... Read more

India with Sanjeev Bhaskar

By: Sanjeev Bhaskar

Narrated by: Sanjeev Bhaskar

Length: 6 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

Sanjeev Bhaskar, comedian and writer behind 'The Kumars at No. 42' embarks on an epic and highly personal journey through modern India. Sanjeev’s characteristic humour and unique perspective form the heart of this audiobook that accompanies his travels for the BBC2 series. Exotic and diverse, richly colourful and... Read more