Essays audiobooks

This Ain’t No Holiday Inn

By: James Lough

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer, Gabrielle de Cuir, Robertson Dean...

Length: 8 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: No

During its heyday, the Chelsea Hotel in New York City was a home and safe haven for Bohemian artists, poets, and musicians such as Bob Dylan, Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, Janis Joplin, and Dee Dee Ramone.This oral history of the famed hotel peers behind the iconic façade and delves into the mayhem, madness, and brilliance that stemmed from the... Read more

Thailand - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

By: Roger Jones

Narrated by: Charles Armstrong

Length: 2 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

For many outsiders, Thailand still conjures up images of the East at its most mysterious and enchanting—a view largely formed by Hollywood films like The King and I. Never conquered by foreigners, this proud and ancient land has been shaped by Buddhism, the monarchy, and the military. Today, it is a representative democracy with a populist... Read more

Infinite Variety

By: Amit Varma

Narrated by: Amit Varma

Length: 14 minutes

Abridged: No

India may seem sexually repressed and prudish – but in the past, we just been just the opposite. In episode 10 of The Book Club, Amit Varma discusses 'Infinite Variety', Madhavi Menon's eye-opening history of desire in India. Read more

Romania - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

By: Debbie Stowe

Narrated by: Charles Armstrong

Length: 3 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

A land of mountains, hills, and fertile plains, Romania is a tourist destination waiting to be discovered. It is a rich and complex country: a place whose cities are home to beautiful parks and vibrant cultural scenes and whose people welcome guests warmly into their homes, sharing the best of whatever they have and partying into the night,... Read more

Netherlands - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide To Customs & Culture

By: Sheryl Buckland

Narrated by: Charles Armstrong

Length: 3 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

Taking listeners beyond the stereotypical images of windmills, clogs, and tulips, this pocket-sized guide helps visitors understand the complex layers of identity in this small, densely populated country on Europe's northwestern seaboard. With roots as a maritime nation that built a network for transportation, defense, and trade, the Netherlands... Read more

Im Grunde gut - Eine neue Geschichte der Menschheit (Ungekürzte Lesung)

By: Rutger Bregman

Narrated by: Julian Mehne

Length: 13 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: No

Der Historiker und Journalist Rutger Bregman setzt sich in seinem neuen Buch mit dem Wesen des Menschen auseinander. Anders als in der westlichen Denktradition angenommen ist der Mensch seinen Thesen nach nicht böse, sondern im Gegenteil: von Grund auf gut. Und geht man von dieser Prämisse aus, ist es möglich, die Welt und den Menschen in ihr... Read more

The Eye You See With

By: Robert Stone & Madison Smartt Bell

Narrated by: Robert Fass

Length: 11 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

The definitive collection of nonfiction—from war reporting to literary criticism to the sharpest political writing—from the “legend of American letters” (Vanity Fair)

Robert Stone was a singular American writer, a visionary whose award-winning novels—including Dog Soldiers, Outerbridge Reach, and Damascus Gate—earned him comparisons to literary... Read more

Pretty Bitches

By: Lizzie Skurnick

Narrated by: Andrea Lopez, Shayna Small, Carolyne Leys, Kase...

Length: 8 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

These empowering essays from leading women writers examine the power of the gendered language that is used to diminish women -- and imagine a more liberated world.

Words matter. They wound, they inflate, they define, they demean. They have nuance and power. "Effortless," "Sassy," "Ambitious," "Aggressive": What subtle digs and sneaky implications... Read more

Happísland

By: Cédric H. Roserens

Narrated by: Angus Freathy

Length: 49 minutes

Abridged: No

Un avant-goût d'Islande avec un arrière-goût de requin fermenté. Une petite introduction sans prétention à la psyché islandaise, centrée sur Reykjavík. L'espion helvétique Hans-Ueli Stauffacher est envoyé un an en Islande pour comprendre pourquoi les Islandais sont plus heureux que les Suisses... Read more

Fantasviss

By: Cédric H. Roserens

Narrated by: Angus Freathy

Length: 1 hour 2 minutes

Abridged: No

Un guide alternatif de la Suisse, avec un brin d'ironie et un soupçon de soude caustique. Un condensé d'Helvétie, un voyage initiatique dans la psyché helvétique. L'espion islandais Sigmundur Sig parcourt les 26 chefs-lieux des 26 cantons en un mois pour comprendre pourquoi les Islandais sont moins heureux que les Suisses. Read more

Animal Kind

By: Emma Lock

Narrated by: Justine Eyre

Length: 2 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

The Beauty of Animal Companionship



For hundreds of years, humans and animals have had special bonds with each other. We've lived side-by-side through thick and thin—these relationships are not just about raising pets and farm animals. Our animal companions offer inspiration, friendship, health, and real-life opportunities for recovery that we... Read more

Too Much

By: Rachel Vorona Cote

Narrated by: Suehyla El-Attar & Rachel Vorona Cote

Length: 11 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

Lacing cultural criticism, Victorian literature, and storytelling together, "TOO MUCH spills over: with intellect, with sparkling prose, and with the brainy arguments of Vorona Cote, who posits that women are all, in some way or another, still susceptible to being called too much." (Esmé Weijun Wang)

A weeping woman is a monster. So too is a fat... Read more

The Book of Spice

By: John O'Connell

Narrated by: Kyle Tait

Length: 8 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

A tasty compendium of spices and a fascinating history and wide array of uses of the world’s favorite flavors―The Book of Spice: From Anise to Zedoary reveals the amazing history of spices both familiar and esoteric. John O’Connell’s erudite chapters combine history with insights into art, religion, medicine, science, and they’re richly seasoned... Read more

Short Life in a Strange World

By: Toby Ferris

Narrated by: Jot Davies

Length: 9 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

Sure to be hailed alongside H is for Hawk and The Hare with Amber Eyes, an exceptional work that is at once an astonishing journey across countries and continents, an immersive examination of a great artist’s work, and a moving and intimate memoir.In 2012, facing the death of his father and impending fatherhood, Toby Ferris set off on a... Read more

Selma Lagerlöf

By: Vivi Edström

Narrated by: Anja Cederved Schmidt

Length: 6 hours 29 minutes

Abridged: No

Selma Lagerlöf hade hunnit bli 33 år när hon debuterade med "Gösta Berlings Saga", och efter det levde hon sitt liv som en mycket produktiv författare som skrev flertalet välkända romaner och noveller. Idag räknas Lagerlöf som en av Sveriges främsta författare någonsin. Men vem var hon egentligen? Och vilka uppoffringar tvingades hon att göra... Read more

Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies

By: Tara Schuster

Narrated by: Tara Schuster

Length: 11 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

Brutally honest, often hilarious, hard-won lessons in learning to love and care for yourself from a former vice president at Comedy Central who was called “ahead of her time” by Jordan Peele

“You’re going to want Tara Schuster to become your new best friend.”—Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed

“Compelling, persuasive,... Read more

Israel - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

By: Jeffrey Geri & Marian Lebor

Narrated by: Charles Armstrong

Length: 3 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

This edition provides important insights for listeners, revealing what to expect and how to behave, how to avoid misunderstandings, and how to form good social and business relationships when on visit to Israel. While Israel is a modern and largely secular country, it is one steeped in biblical history—a place where religion still plays an... Read more

The Magicians

By: Marcus Chown

Narrated by: Marcus Chown

Length: 9 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: No

The spellbinding stories of the scientists whose eureka! breakthroughs in modern physics reveal science's astonishing predictive power. 'An excellent popular science book.' DARA Ó BRIAIN 'A thoroughly informative and entertaining read.' ANNA BURNS, Booker Prize-winning author of Milkman 'One of the best-written books about phsyics I have... Read more

Suite Italiana

By: Javier Reverte

Narrated by: Jordi Salas

Length: 10 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

Un libro sobre libros, viaje y paisaje, a medio camino entre el diario y el ensayo literario, bañado por la maravillosa luz del Mediterráneo italiano. En este nuevo relato viajero, el escritor Javier Reverte ha seguido un camino que nos lleva a las ciudades de Venecia y Trieste y que concluye con un recorrido por la isla de Sicilia. Y no sólo... Read more

The Opposite of Rape Culture is Nurturance Culture

By: Nora Samaran

Narrated by: Nora Samaran

Length: 38 minutes

Abridged: No

As Nora Samaran writes, "violence is nurturance turned backwards." In its place, she proposes "nurturance culture" as the opposite of rape culture, suggesting that models of care and accountability — different from "call-outs" — can move communities toward dismantling systems of dominance and oppression.This audiobook contains the viral 2016... Read more

Too Much and Not the Mood

By: Durga Chew-Bose

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller

Length: 6 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

An entirely original portrait of a young writer shutting out the din in order to find her own voice.



On April 11, 1931, Virginia Woolf ended her entry in A Writer's Diary with the words "too much and not the mood." She was describing how tired she was of correcting her own writing, of the "cramming in and the cutting out" to please other readers,... Read more

Ecuador - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

By: Russel Maddicks

Narrated by: Charles Armstrong

Length: 4 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

Squeezed between Colombia in the north and Peru in the south, Ecuador is named for its location on the Equator and has a landscape so varied that it has been described as a microcosm of every microclimate found in South America. This diversity makes it a magnet for tourists, mountain trekkers, volunteers, and increasing numbers of US retirees... Read more

Censorship Now!!

By: Ian F. Svenonius

Narrated by: Ian F. Svenonius

Length: 5 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

Ian F. Svenonius’s new collection of sixteen essays and stories, entitled Censorship Now!!, is reorganizing people’s ideas about censorship; Ikea; documentary film-making; the Berlin Wall; the film Heathers; the twist; the frug; the mashed potato; shaving one’s body; Apple, Inc.; Nordic functionalism; the supposed benevolence of the Wikipedia;... Read more

Something That May Shock and Discredit You

By: Daniel M. Lavery

Narrated by: Daniel M. Lavery

Length: 6 hours 47 minutes

Abridged: No

“One of our smartest, most inventive humor writers, Ortberg combines bathos and the devotional into a revelation.” —Jordy Rosenberg, The New York Times Book Review

From the New York Times bestselling author of Texts From Jane Eyre and Merry Spinster, writer of Slate’s “Dear Prudence” column, and cofounder of The Toast comes a hilarious and... Read more