Literary Criticism audiobooks

Thalia Book Club: Claire Messud: The Woman Upstairs

By: Claire Messud

Narrated by: Meghan O'Rourke & Patricia Kalember

Length: 1 hour 18 minutes

Abridged: No

The New York Times best-selling author of the literary page-turner The Emperor's Children discusses her richly drawn new novel with Meghan O'Rourke (The Long Goodbye). Her latest release is a riveting compulsively readable confession of a 37-year-old elementary school teacher in Cambridge, Mass, drawn into the complex world of her new neighbors... Read more

When Does Genetic Modification of Animals Cross a Line?

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 7 minutes

Abridged: No

Emily Anthes, author of the book Frankenstein's Cat, talks to Ray Suarez about the ethical limits when using animals in biotech research and development. Read more

The Morally Indefensible Actions of WWII

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 6 minutes

Abridged: No

Author Rick Atkinson talks with PBS NewsHour senior correspondent Ray Suarez about what went into writing his latest book, The Guns at Last Light. Read more

Coleshill

By: Fiona Sampson

Narrated by: Fiona Sampson

Length: 37 minutes

Abridged: No

Deep in limestone country, at the corner of Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, lies the village of Coleshill.

This haunting new collection from Fiona Sampson is a portrait of place, both real and imaginary; a dreamscape with its roots deep in the local soil.

The poems hum with an evocative music of their own: there are hymns of the... Read more

Thalia Book Club: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Americanah

By: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Narrated by: Robin Desser & Francesca Choy-Kee

Length: 1 hour 11 minutes

Abridged: No

The author of the critically acclaimed Half of a Yellow Sun and Purple Hibiscus presents her newest novel Americanah, a story of love and race centered around a young man and woman from Nigeria facing challenges in the countries they come to call home. Read more

Thalia Book Club: An Evening with Jane Gardam

By: Jane Gardam

Narrated by: Stacy Schiff & Paul Hecht

Length: 1 hour 21 minutes

Abridged: No

In a rare New York appearance, the beloved British author of Old Filth and The Man in the Wooden Hat, the funny, romantic and surprising paired novels about a 50-year marriage between a crusty British barrister and his sparkling surprising Betty, discusses these books and her brand-new third chapter in this remarkable series, Last Friends. Paul... Read more

Ta-Nehisi Coates: We accept violence

By: Ta-Nehisi Coates

Narrated by: Ta-Nehisi Coates & Hari Sreenivasan

Length: 6 minutes

Abridged: No

In his new book, Between the World and Me, Atlantic magazine columnist Ta-Nehisi Coates writes about the looming violence that African-Americans endure every day, in the form of a letter to his 14-year-old son. Hari Sreenivasan speaks with Coates about the legacy of racism and white supremacy in America. Read more

Thalia Book Club: Ann Petry's The Street with Sapphire, Sonia Manzano, and Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts

By: Ann Petry

Narrated by: Sapphire, Sonia Manzano, Roslyn Ruff & Sharifa ...

Length: 1 hour 29 minutes

Abridged: No

Sapphire (Push), Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts (Harlem is Nowhere), and actress Sonia Manzano (The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano) discuss the gritty, emotional 1946 classic set in Harlem. Actress Roslyn Ruff (The Piano Lesson; The Help) will read an excerpt.// Other narrators: Sonia Manzano, Roslyn Ruff Read more

Istanbul

By: Orhan Pamuk

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 9 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

From the Nobel Prize winner and acclaimed author of My Name is Red comes a portrait of Istanbul by its foremost writer, revealing the melancholy that comes of living amid the ruins of a lost empire.  

"Delightful, profound, marvelously origina.... Pamuk tells the story of the city through the eyes of memory." —The Washington Post Book World

A... Read more

Sandra Day O'Connor Explores SCOTUS

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 8 minutes

Abridged: No

Sandra Day O'Connor made Supreme Court history as the first female justice to serve on the bench. In her new book, Out of Order, she explores other aspects of history at the high court, as well as her own approach to service. O'Connor talks with Judy Woodruff about making tough decisions and women in the legal profession. Read more

Ender’s World

By: Orson Scott Card

Narrated by: Orson Scott Card, Stefan Rudnicki, Gabrielle de...

Length: 7 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game is a classic of science fiction. Though it began its life as a short story, it was later expanded into a Hugo and Nebula Award–winning novel, served as a springboard for a much larger universe of stories, and finally, has been made into a feature film.In Ender's World over a dozen writers of science fiction,... Read more

Tales of Murder, Murderers and the Death Penalty at the Supreme Court

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 6 minutes

Abridged: No

A new book examines the murders, murderers and capital punishment overseen by the highest court in the U.S. Jeffrey Brown talks with veteran journalists Martin Clancy and Tim O'Brien about Murder at the Supreme Court, which documents some of the most notorious crimes and subsequent penalties. Read more

The Modern Novel

By: Katherine Elkins

Narrated by: Katherine Elkins

Length: 4 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

A recipient of the Whiting Foundation Teaching Fellowship, Katherine Elkins is also the co-director of the Integrated Program in the Humane Studies at Kenyon College. In this lecture series, Elkins examines the development of the modern novel by investigating four great modernist authors: James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Marcel Proust, and Virginia... Read more

The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time

By: Will Durant

Narrated by: John Little

Length: 3 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: No

A wise and witty compendium of the greatest thoughts, greatest minds, and greatest books of all time—listed in accessible and succinct form—by one of the world's greatest scholars. From the "Hundred Best Books" to the "Ten Greatest Thinkers" to the "Ten Greatest Poets," here is a concise collection of the world's most significant knowledge. For... Read more

Thalia Book Club: Jeanette Winterson: Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal?

By: Jeanette Winterson

Narrated by: A.M. Homes

Length: 1 hour 30 minutes

Abridged: No

The author of the international best-selling novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit tackles her own reality in her riveting memoir. In this remarkable book she confronts the various paths her childhood took, from being raised by a religious zealot who kept a gun in the dresser to pondering her sexuality and other core parts of her identity and the... Read more

Thalia Book Club: Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady with Jennifer Egan, Siri Hustvedt and Margot Livesey

By: Henry James

Narrated by: Jennifer Egan, Siri Hustvedt, Fritz Weaver & Ma...

Length: 1 hour 29 minutes

Abridged: No

Novelists Egan (Pulitzer Prize-winner for A Visit from the Goon Squad), Hustvedt (The Summer Without Men) and Livesey (The Flight of Gemma Hardy) - the trio that brought Middlemarch and Anna Karenina to life at this book club - are back by popular demand to revisit James' classic. With a reading from the novel by Fritz Weaver. // Other... Read more

Thalia Book Club: Jamaica Kincaid: See Now Then

By: Jamaica Kincaid

Narrated by: Ian Frazier

Length: 1 hour 24 minutes

Abridged: No

The author of Annie John, Lucy, and The Autobiography of My Mother delves into her long-awaited new novel about a complicated modern family, featuring Mr. and Mrs. Sweet and their two children, Heracles and Persephone, who live in the Shirley Jackson house in Vermont. Kincaid discusses her novel with her old friend Ian Frazier (The Cursing... Read more

Rosa Parks Trained for Life Full of Activism

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 9 minutes

Abridged: No

Gwen Ifill talks with biographer Jeanne Theoharis, whose book The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks offers a complex portrait of the woman best known for refusing to give up her seat on an Alabama bus in 1955. Read more

Celts and Germans

By: Timothy B. Shutt

Narrated by: Timothy B. Shutt

Length: 5 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

One of the Modern Scholar's most popular lecturers, Professor Timothy B. Shutt of Kenyon College examines the contributions of the peoples of northern Europe through their vibrant literary legacy. As Professor Shutt's textual analysis reveals, Celtic and Germanic values shine through these works, exhibiting such characteristics as courage,... Read more

The Norsemen

By: Michael Drout

Narrated by: Michael Drout

Length: 5 hours

Abridged: No

Professor Michael D.C. Drout of Wheaton College immerses listeners in the extraordinary legacy of Viking civilization that developed in what is now Scandinavia during the early Middle Ages. During the course of these lectures, Professor Drout explores how these peoples conquered all of Northern Europe, traveled as far as Byzantium in the East... Read more

How to Read Literature Like a Professor

By: Thomas C. Foster

Narrated by: David de Vries

Length: 9 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

The go-to bestselling guide to help young people navigate from a middle school book report to English Comp 101In How to Read Literature Like a Professor: For Kids, New York Times bestselling author and professor Thomas C. Foster gives tweens the tools they need to become thoughtful readers.With funny insights and a conversational style, he... Read more

Bink en Pip gaan naar Engeland

By: Vincent Bijlo & Mariska Reijmerink

Narrated by: Vincent Bijlo & Mariska Reijmerink

Length: 48 minutes

Abridged: No

Vincent Bijlo (de cabaretier) en Mariska Reijmerink stellen je graag voor aan Bink en Pip Plezier, misschien wel de nieuwsgierigste tweeling van Nederland. Ze zijn bijna zeven en gaan logeren bij oom Bill en tante Chips in Engeland. Dat is wel 22 uur roeien, maar dan hebben ze tenminste tijd om nog wat Engels te leren... Bink en Pip gaan naar... Read more

Is Shakespeare Dead?

By: Mark Twain

Narrated by: Robin Field

Length: 3 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

Is Shakespeare Dead? is a short, semi-autobiographical work by American humorist Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. It explores the controversy over the authorship of the Shakespearean literary canon via satire, anecdote, and extensive quotation of contemporary authors on the subject. The original publication spans only 150 pages, and... Read more

Novelist Louise Erdrich

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 6 minutes

Abridged: No

Novelist Louise Erdrich examines what happens when crimes are committed on Native American reservations, a decidedly non-fictional problem, through the eyes of her fictional protagonist, a 13-year-old boy named Joe. Jeff Brown talks to Erdrich about her novel The Round House, set on the N.D. reservation of the Ojibwe tribe. Read more