Literary Criticism audiobooks

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain

By: George Saunders

Narrated by: George Saunders, Phylicia Rashad, Nick Offerman...

Length: 14 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

From the New York Times bestselling, Booker Prize–winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo and Tenth of December comes a literary master class on what makes great stories work and what they can tell us about ourselves—and our world today.

For the last twenty years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA... Read more

One in a Millennial

By: Kate Kennedy

Length: 9 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

This program is read by the author.

From pop culture podcaster and a voice of a generation, Kate Kennedy, a celebration of the millennial zeitgeist

One In a Millennial is an exploration of pop culture, nostalgia, the millennial zeitgeist, and the life lessons learned (for better and for worse) from coming of age as a member of a much-maligned... Read more

Meet Me in the Margins

By: Melissa Ferguson

Narrated by: Talon David

Length: 7 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: No

You’ve Got Mail meets The Proposal—this romance is one for the books.Savannah Cade’s dreams are coming true. The Claire Donovan, editor-in-chief of the most successful romance publishing company in the country, has requested to see the manuscript Savannah’s been secretly writing. The only problem: she’s an editor for a different company, and... Read more

Mythology

By: Edith Hamilton

Narrated by: Suzanne Toren

Length: 14 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

Dive into the timeless tales of gods and heroes in this bestselling A-to-Z encyclopedia detailing classic myths and legends—perfect for curious readers and academics alike. Edith Hamilton's mythology succeeds like no other book in bringing to life for the modern reader the Greek, Roman and Norse myths that are the keystone of Western culture-the... Read more

Trick Mirror

By: Jia Tolentino

Narrated by: Jia Tolentino

Length: 9 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “From The New Yorker’s beloved cultural critic comes a bold, unflinching collection of essays about self-deception, examining everything from scammer culture to reality television.”—Esquire
 
Book Club Pick for Now Read This, from PBS NewsHour and The New York Times • “A whip-smart, challenging book.”—Zadie Smith • “Jia... Read more

Monsters

By: Claire Dederer

Narrated by: Claire Dederer

Length: 8 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A timely, passionate, provocative, blisteringly smart interrogation of how we make and experience art in the age of cancel culture, and of the link between genius and monstrosity. Can we love the work of controversial classic and contemporary artists but dislike the artist?

"A lively, personal... Read more

Minor Feelings

By: Cathy Park Hong

Narrated by: Cathy Park Hong

Length: 6 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • ONE OF TIME’S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE • A ruthlessly honest, emotionally charged, and utterly original exploration of Asian American consciousness

“Brilliant . . . To read this book is to become more human.”—Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen

In... Read more

Divine Might

By: Natalie Haynes

Narrated by: Natalie Haynes

Length: 9 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

New York Times bestselling author Natalie Haynes returns to the world of ancient Greek myth in this scintillating follow-up to Pandora’s Jar.Few writers today have reshaped our view of the ancient Greek myths more than revered bestselling author Natalie Haynes. Divine Might is a female-centered look at Olympus and the Furies, focusing on the... Read more

Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs

By: Kerry Howley

Narrated by: Nikki Massoud

Length: 7 hours

Abridged: No

A NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • A NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR • A VANITY FAIR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

“Riveting and darkly funny and in all senses of the word, unclassifiable.” – The New York Times

A wild, humane, and hilarious meditation on post-privacy America—from the acclaimed author of Thrown

Who are you? You are data... Read more

The Heroine's Journey

By: Gail Carriger

Narrated by: Starla Huchton

Length: 7 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

Tired of the hero's journey?Frustrated that funny, romantic, and comforting stories aren't taken seriously?Sad that the books and movies you love never seem to be critically acclaimed, even when they sell like crazy?The heroine's journey is here to help. Multiple New York Times bestselling author Gail Carriger presents a clear concise analysis... Read more

Metaphysical Animals

By: Clare Mac Cumhaill & Rachael Wiseman

Narrated by: Alex Dunmore

Length: 12 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A vibrant portrait of four college friends—Iris Murdoch, Philippa Foot, Elizabeth Anscombe, and Mary Midgley—who formed a new philosophical tradition while Oxford's men were away fighting World War II.

The history of European philosophy is usually constructed from the work of men. In... Read more

The Iliad

By: Homer

Narrated by: Alfred Molina

Length: 16 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: No

From the renowned translator of Rilke, Tao Te Ching, and Gilgamesh, a vivid new translation of Western civilization’s foundational epic: The Iliad.

Tolstoy called the Iliad a miracle; Goethe said that it always thrust him into a state of astonishment. Homer’s story is thrilling, and his Greek is perhaps the most beautiful poetry ever sung or... Read more

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

By: Friedrich Nietzsche

Narrated by: Kevin Theis

Length: 12 hours 49 minutes

Abridged: No

Embark on a profound journey of self-discovery and philosophical enlightenment with "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" by Friedrich Nietzsche, now available as a captivating audiobook. In this seminal work, listeners will delve into the profound musings and provocative ideas of one of history's most influential thinkers.As the narrative unfolds, listeners... Read more

The Gulag Archipelago Volume 2

By: Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

Narrated by: Frederick Davidson

Length: 27 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

“BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE 20TH CENTURY.” —TimeVolume 2 of the Nobel Prize-winner’s towering masterpiece: the story of Solzhenitsyn's entrance into the Soviet prison camps, where he would remain for nearly a decade. Features a new foreword by Anne Applebaum.

“The greatest and most powerful single indictment of a political regime ever leveled in... Read more

The Bookseller's Tale

By: Martin Latham

Narrated by: Roy McMillan

Length: 10 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

Brought to you by Penguin.

'The right book has a neverendingness, and so does the right bookshop.'

This is the story of our love affair with books, whether we arrange them on our shelves, inhale their smell, scrawl in their margins or just curl up with them in bed. Taking us on a journey through comfort reads, street book stalls, mythical... Read more

40th Anniversary of Tuck Everlasting with Natalie Babbitt

By: Natalie Babbitt

Narrated by: Natalie Babbitt, Gregory Maguire, Colby Minifie...

Length: 1 hour 11 minutes

Abridged: No

The award-winning author discusses her unforgettable novel , first published in 1975, with author Gregory Maguire (Wicked). Babbitt's classic story centers on a young girl who stumbles upon the mysterious Tuck family and their secret, magic spring. The moving prose and rich imagery have made this story a favorite among young readers. Samuel F.... Read more

She’s In CTRL

By: Anne-Marie Imafidon

Narrated by: Anne-Marie Imafidon

Length: 7 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

Brought to you by Penguin.

An inspirational exploration of why women are under-represented in tech, why it matters, and what we can do about it.

Our eyes are now open to the dangerous fact that our technology is built by a series of big decisions made by a small number of people, mainly men. It means our technology is derived from the gender,... Read more

Pandora's Jar

By: Natalie Haynes

Narrated by: Natalie Haynes

Length: 9 hours 24 minutes

Abridged: No

“Funny, sharp explications of what these sometimes not-very-nice women were up to, and how they sometimes made idiots of . . . but read on!”—Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's TaleThe national bestselling author of A Thousand Ships returns with a fascinating, eye-opening take on the remarkable women at the heart of classical stories Greek... Read more

Bad Feminist

By: Roxane Gay

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

Length: 11 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

“Roxane Gay is so great at weaving the intimate and personal with what is most bewildering and upsetting at this moment in culture. She is always looking, always thinking, always passionate, always careful, always right there.”  — Sheila Heti, author of How Should a Person Be?A New York Times BestsellerBest Book of the Year: NPR • Boston Globe •... Read more

What We Talk About When We Talk About Books

By: Leah Price

Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers

Length: 5 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

Reports of the death of reading are greatly exaggerated Do you worry that you've lost patience for anything longer than a tweet? If so, you're not alone. Digital-age pundits warn that as our appetite for books dwindles, so too do the virtues in which printed, bound objects once trained us: the willpower to focus on a sustained argument, the... Read more

Poetry Unbound

By: Pádraig Ó Tuama

Narrated by: Pádraig Ó Tuama

Length: 7 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

In the tumult of our contemporary moment, poetry has emerged as an inviting, consoling outlet with a unique power to move and connect us, to inspire fury, tears, joy, laughter, and surprise. This generous anthology pairs fifty illuminating poems with poet and podcast host Pádraig Ó Tuama's appealing, unhurried reflections. With keen insight and... Read more

The Bright Book of Life

By: Harold Bloom

Narrated by: Stephen Mendel

Length: 21 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

America's most original and controversial literary critic writes trenchantly about forty-eight masterworks spanning the Western tradition—from Don Quixote to Wuthering Heights to Invisible Man—in his first book devoted exclusively to narrative fiction.

In this valedictory volume, Yale professor Harold Bloom—who for more than half a century was... Read more

Year of the Monkey

By: Patti Smith

Narrated by: Patti Smith

Length: 4 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

Riveting, elegant, and humorous, New York Times bestseller Year of the Monkey is a moving and original work, a touchstone for our turbulent times.
 
Following a run of new year’s concerts at San Francisco’s legendary Fillmore, Patti Smith finds herself tramping the coast of Santa Cruz, about to embark on a year of solitary wandering. Unfettered by... Read more

Wonderworks

By: Angus Fletcher

Narrated by: Jacques Roy

Length: 15 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

This “fascinating” (Malcolm Gladwell, New York Times bestselling author of Outliers) examination of literary inventions through the ages, from ancient Mesopotamia to Elena Ferrante, shows how writers have created technical breakthroughs—rivaling scientific inventions—and engineering enhancements to the human heart and mind.

Literature is a... Read more