Literary Criticism audiobooks

The Enchanted Places

By: Christopher Milne

Narrated by: Peter Dennis

Length: 5 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

This is Christopher Milne’s first autobiography, which was followed by Part 2—The Path through the Trees. From his much publicized childhood on Cotchford Farm to his war experiences, his marriage, and his proprietorship of a successful bookshop in a small English town, the life of the famous author’s son was one of much joy and some pain. It was... Read more

William Power: Hamlet's Blackberry

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 7 minutes

Abridged: No

William Power, author of Hamlet's Blackberry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age talks about how he and his family disconnected from their communication devices in order to reconnect with life. Read more

Leaves of Grass

By: Walt Whitman

Narrated by: Mel Foster

Length: 15 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

Abraham Lincoln read it with approval, but Emily Dickinson described its bold language and themes as "disgraceful." And Ralph Waldo Emerson found Leaves of Grass "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed," calling it a "combination of the Bhagavad Gita and the New York Herald." Published at the author's own... Read more

Detective Fiction

By: M. Lee Alexander

Narrated by: M. Lee Alexander

Length: 7 hours 5 minutes

Abridged: No

From mysterious origins, through the Victorian sleuths and the "Golden Age" of the genre (the 1920s through the 1940s), and to the present day, detective fiction, mysteries, and spy thrillers have consistently topped best-seller lists around the world. Professor M. Lee Alexander provides listeners with a lively discussion of groundbreaking... Read more

Democracy, Culture and the Voice of Poetry

By: Robert Pinsky

Narrated by: Lloyd James

Length: 1 hour 47 minutes

Abridged: No

The place of poetry in modern democracy is no place, according to conventional wisdom. The poet, we hear, is a casualty of mass entertainment and prosaic public culture, banished to the artistic sidelines to compose variations on insipid themes for a dwindling audience. Robert Pinsky, however, argues that this gloomy diagnosis is as wrongheaded... Read more

10 Books Every Conservative Must Read

By: Benjamin Wiker

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Length: 10 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

Offering a “CliffsNotes guide” to some of the most important literary works of our time, Wiker, author of 10 Books That Screwed Up the World, turns his discerning eye from the great texts that have done damage to Western civilization to the great texts that could help rebuild it. This book features a range of works, from classics such as... Read more

Thalia Book Club: Aimee Bender's The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

By: Aimee Bender

Narrated by: Heidi Julavits & Lillo Wei

Length: 1 hour 26 minutes

Abridged: No

Aimee Bender sits down with Heidi Julavits to discuss her book, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. Lillo Wei reads an excerpt from the book. Read more

Wes Moore: The Other Wes moore

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 7 minutes

Abridged: No

Judy Woodruff talks to Baltimore native Wes Moore about his new book, The Other Wes Moore which explores the stories of two inner-city young men who share the same name, but lead very different lives. Read more

Thalia Book Club: Rick Riordan's The Kane Chronicles

By: Rick Riordan

Narrated by: Rick Riordan, Matthew Cody & Sonia Manzano

Length: 40 minutes

Abridged: No

Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) sits down with Matthew Cody to discuss his novel The Kane Chronicles. Sonia Manzano reads an excerpt. Read more

Tim O'Brien

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 7 minutes

Abridged: No

Thirty five years after the conclusion of the Vietnam War, Tim O'Brien's collection of stories about an American platoon, The Things They Carried, is being reissued as it celebrates its own 20th anniversary. Jeffrey Brown talks to the author about the experiences that led him to write the book. Read more

Thalia Book Club: Pam Muñoz Ryan's The Dreamer

By: Pam Munoz Ryan

Narrated by: Pam Munoz Ryan, Madeline Cohen & Rita Wolf

Length: 1 hour 5 minutes

Abridged: No

Pam Munoz Ryan sits down with Madeline Cohen to discuss her book, The Dreamer. Rita Wolf reads an excerpt. Read more

Thalia Book Club: Rereading Middlemarch with Jennifer Egan, Siri Hustvedt and Margot Livesey

By: George Eliot

Narrated by: Jennifer Egan, Siri Hustvedt, Hope Davis & Marg...

Length: 1 hour 17 minutes

Abridged: No

Jennifer Egan, Siri Hustvedt, and Margot Livesey once again convene to discuss George Eliot's classic novel, Middlemarch. Hope Davis reads an excerpt from the book. Read more

Thalia Book Club: David Levithan and John Green's Will Grayson, Will Grayson

By: David Levithan & John Green

Narrated by: David Levithan & John Green

Length: 1 hour 18 minutes

Abridged: No

Green (An Abundance of Katherines) and Levithan (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Executive Editorial Director at Scholastic) discuss their collaborative novel with teens ages 14 and up. In the book, they alternate chapters, each lending his own unique voice to two teens named Will Grayson, one of them gay and one of them straight. The event... Read more

Giants of French Literature: Balzac, Flaubert, Proust, and Camus

By: Katherine Elkins

Narrated by: Katherine Elkins

Length: 8 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

In this series of lectures, Professor Katherine Elkins details the lives and works of the premier French writers of the last two centuries. With keen insight into her subject material, Professor Elkins discusses the attributes that made classics of such works as Balzac's Human Comedy, Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Proust's In Search of Lost Time,... Read more

Talking about Detective Fiction

By: P. D. James

Narrated by: Diana Bishop

Length: 4 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

To judge by the worldwide success of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie's Poirot, it is not only the Anglo-Saxons who have an appetite for mystery and mayhem. Talking about the craft of detective writing and sharing her personal thoughts and observations on one of the most popular and enduring forms of literature, P. D.... Read more

Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin and Colm Toibin's Brooklyn

By: Colum McCann & Colm Toibin

Narrated by: Isaiah Sheffer & Michael Cerveris

Length: 1 hour 24 minutes

Abridged: No

Isaiah Sheffer sits down with two great contemporary authors, Colum McCann and Colm Toibin, to discuss their books, Let the Great World Spin and Brooklyn. Michael Cerveris reads excerpts from the two novels. Read more

Michael Lewis: The Big Short

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 7 minutes

Abridged: No

Jeffrey Brown takes a look inside the doomsday machine of the subprime lending crisis with author Michael Lewis in a conversation about his new book, The Big Short. Read more

Thalia Book Club: A Conversation with Laurie Halse Anderson

By: Laurie Halse Anderson

Narrated by: Maureen Johnson

Length: 1 hour 12 minutes

Abridged: No

The two-time National Book Award finalist (Speak and Chains) talks with Maureen Johnson (13 Little Blue Envelopes) about the compelling novels that have earned her numerous awards and fans of all ages. Her latest release, Forge (the sequel to Chains) is a gripping story filled with plot twists and unforgettable characters. Read more

Thalia Book Club: Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson's Peter and the Sword of Mercy

By: Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson

Narrated by: Matthew Cody

Length: 1 hour 9 minutes

Abridged: No

Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson sit with Matthew Cody to discuss and read from their children's book Peter and the Sword of Mercy. Read more

Thalia Book Club: Kate DiCamillo's The Magician's Elephant

By: Kate DiCamillo

Narrated by: Lisa Von Drasek & Rita Wolf

Length: 57 minutes

Abridged: No

Kate DiCamillo (Because of Winn-Dixie) sits down with Lisa Von Drasek to discuss her book The Magician's Elephant. Rita Wolf reads an excerpt. Read more

James McGrath Morris

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 7 minutes

Abridged: No

PBS Newshour’s Jeffrey Brown talks to biographer James McGrath Morris – a former Missourinet reporter – about Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power, his biography on Joseph Pulitzer, the media baron who helped shape the news business. Read more

French Club for Kids

By: Rosi McNab

Length: 30 minutes

Abridged: No

Collins, the world's foremost language learning publisher, introduces a fun way for kids to learn French. Our French Club audio is packed with songs, rhymes, jokes and tongue twisters designed to be engaging, memorable and enjoyable. Children as young as 3 and as old as 12 will enjoy singing along to the catchy rhythms of French... Read more

Liebe, Lust und Leidenschaft - Abridged

By: Barbara Vinken

Narrated by: Barbara Vinken

Length: TBA

Abridged: Yes

Die Liebe wir alle glauben, sie zu kennen. Und doch scheint jeder anders zu lieben: die Leidenschaft der Sappho lässt sie erglühend erzittern und raubt ihr das Bewusstsein. Didos rasende Liebe zu ihrem Ein und Alles Aeneas führt nach dem Liebesverrat zum Selbstmord. Der vom Eros begeisterte Platoniker vervollkommnet sein Ich und steigt durch die... Read more

Thalia Book Club: Walter Dean Myers' Riot

By: Walter Dean Myers

Narrated by: Madeline Cohen

Length: 1 hour 10 minutes

Abridged: No

The two-time National Book Award finalist discusses his historical novel about the New York City Draft Riots in 1863 with middle graders and teens, ages 12 and up. The event includes a discussion with the audience.

Performance playlist: Reading with the Audience by Walter Dean Myers, then conversation between Walter Dean Myers and Madeline Cohen. Read more