Marissa's Books Staff Picks

The Blade Itself

The First Law Trilogy: Book #1

By: Joe Abercrombie
Narrated by: Steven Pacey
Length: 22 hours 15 minutes

The first novel in the First Law Trilogy and debut fantasy novel from New York Times bestseller, Joe Abercrombie.

Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck. Caught in one feud too many, he's on the verge of becoming a dead barbarian -- leaving nothing behind him but bad songs, dead friends, and a lot of happy enemies.... Read more

Recursion

A Novel

By: Blake Crouch
Narrated by: Jon Lindstrom & Abby Craden
Length: 10 hours 46 minutes

“As soon as I saw Blake Crouch’s name, I scooped this book up. As a huge fan of Dark Matter, I knew I was in for a treat. In his newest, Crouch quickly reveals the cause of the ‘fake memories’ that are plaguing the population, but the twists and thrills just keep coming. I haven’t been this satisfied with a book in a long time. Hitting and... Read more

The Bell Jar

By: Sylvia Plath
Narrated by: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Length: 7 hours 24 minutes

A realistic and emotional look at a woman who falls into the grips of insanity written by the iconic American writer Sylvia Plath“It is this perfectly wrought prose and the freshness of Plath’s voice in The Bell Jar that make this book enduring in its appeal.” — USA TodayThe Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant,... Read more

I'm Glad My Mom Died

By: Jennette McCurdy
Narrated by: Jennette McCurdy
Length: 6 hours 25 minutes

“There is something about listening to a memoir narrated by the person who wrote it that makes one’s experience feel complete. McCurdy’s writing 'voice' and actual one give dry humor and a low folksy charm while describing truly harrowing abuses from her mother. She doesn’t hold anything back whether it’s her time on set on iCarly to her first... Read more

The Love Hypothesis

By: Ali Hazelwood
Narrated by: Callie Dalton & Teddy Hamilton
Length: 11 hours 51 minutes

“Ali Hazelwood's debut is a HIT! This book has it all. On the serious side, we've got valuable conversations of asexuality and a focus on women in STEM and the realities of the academic world. On the tropey side, we've got fake dating, a bit of the grump/sunshine dynamic, and a hilarious play on "there was only one bed"! This book has so many... Read more

All Boys Aren't Blue

A Memoir-Manifesto

By: George M. Johnson
Narrated by: George M. Johnson
Length: 5 hours 11 minutes

This program is read by the author.

In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson's All Boys Aren't Blue explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia.

A New York Times Bestseller!
Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, Today Show, and MSNBC feature stories

... Read more

The Eye of the World

Book One of The Wheel of Time

Wheel of Time: Book #1

By: Robert Jordan
Narrated by: Rosamund Pike
Length: 32 hours 55 minutes

A 2023 Audie Award winner for Best Female Narrator!

"Rosamund Pike brings a fresh narration to the first book in the beloved Wheel of Time series. At 33 hours, this audiobook is no small undertaking, but Pike's impressive performance leaves listeners wanting more." —AudioFile (Earphones Award winner)

“Through her smooth, dramatic performance,... Read more

Stiff

The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

By: Mary Roach
Narrated by: Shelly Frasier
Length: 7 hours 59 minutes

An oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem.

For 2,000 years, cadavers—some willingly, some unwittingly—have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They've tested France's first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory... Read more

The Starless Sea

A Novel

By: Erin Morgenstern
Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman & Various
Length: 18 hours 36 minutes

“Love, ghosts, libraries, presents, pasts, finding and losing, seeking and discovering, all intertwined in a puzzle-ring through which narrative lines twine and weave, until the reader's delight at knowing the characters and seeing the world bursts with glorious epiphany. Not since "Little, Big" have I read a book that so caught my fancy, nor... Read more

Carry On

By: Rainbow Rowell
Narrated by: Euan Morton
Length: 13 hours 37 minutes

#1 New York Times bestselling author!

Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who's ever been chosen.

That's what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he's probably right.

Half the time, Simon can't even make his wand work, and the other half, he starts something on fire. His mentor's avoiding him, his... Read more

The Hobbit

Lord of the Rings

By: J.R.R. Tolkien
Narrated by: Andy Serkis
Length: 10 hours 24 minutes

THE GREAT MODERN CLASSIC AND PRELUDE TO THE LORD OF THE RINGS
Deep down here by the dark water lived old Gollum, a small slimy creature. I don’t know where he came from, nor who
or what he was. He was Gollum—as dark as darkness, except for two big round pale eyes in his thin face. He had a little
boat, and he rowed about quite quietly on the lake;... Read more

Working on a Song

The Lyrics of HADESTOWN

By: Anaïs Mitchell
Narrated by: Anaïs Mitchell & Steve Earle
Length: 5 hours 2 minutes

"Working On A Song is one of the best books about lyric writing for the theater I've read."—Lin-Manuel Miranda

Anaïs Mitchell named to TIME's List of the 100 Most Influential People in the World of 2020

An illuminating book of lyrics and stories from Hadestown—the winner of eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical—from its author, songwriter... Read more

The Song of Achilles

A Novel

By: Madeline Miller
Narrated by: Frazer Douglas
Length: 11 hours 14 minutes

“It is unbelievably easy to get lost in the long-forgotten world Miller recreates. Easier still with such incredible narration from Douglas. At once rich mythology and modern love story, The Song of Achilles dazzles like Ichor. Beautifully written, with characters you love to hate and love all at once. Though I’ve heard The Iliad many times, this... Read more

Kindred

By: Octavia E. Butler
Narrated by: Kim Staunton
Length: 10 hours 54 minutes

The first science fiction written by a Black woman, Kindred has become a cornerstone of Black American literature. This combination of slave memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction is a novel of rich literary complexity. Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably... Read more

Under the Banner of Heaven

A Story of Violent Faith

By: Jon Krakauer
Narrated by: Scott Brick
Length: 12 hours 31 minutes

“So often it seems that people approach events like these wondering how someone could possibly do something so terrible. Jon Krakauer bypasses the 'how' and goes immediately for the 'why.' With a keen eye for discrepancies and Scott Brick's intense narration for the audiobook, Krakauer leaves no stone unturned when it comes to detailing what led... Read more

Blood Meridian

Or the Evening Redness in the West

By: Cormac McCarthy
Narrated by: Richard Poe
Length: 13 hours 4 minutes

Author of the National Book Award winner All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy is one of the most provocative American stylists to emerge in the last century. The striking novel Blood Meridian offers an unflinching narrative of the brutality that accompanied the push west on the 1850s Texas frontier. His birth ended his mother's life in... Read more

All Quiet on the Western Front

By: Erich Maria Remarque
Narrated by: Frank Muller
Length: 6 hours 57 minutes

Paul Baumer is just 19 years old when he and his classmates enlist. They are Germany's Iron Youth who enter the war with high ideals and leave it disillusioned or dead. As Paul struggles with the realities of the man he has become, and the inscrutable world to which he must return, he is led like a ghost of his former self into the war's final... Read more

The Hiding Place

By: Corrie ten Boom
Narrated by: Nadia May
Length: 8 hours 14 minutes

At one time, Corrie ten Boom would have laughed at the idea that she had a story to tell. For the first fifty years of her life, nothing out of the ordinary ever happened to her. She was an old-maid watchmaker living contentedly with her sister and their elderly father in the tiny Dutch house over their shop. Their uneventful days, as regulated... Read more

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

By: Mark Manson
Narrated by: Roger Wayne
Length: 5 hours 17 minutes

#1 New York Times BestsellerOver 10 million copies soldIn this generation-defining self-help guide, a superstar blogger cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be "positive" all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people.For decades, we’ve been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. "F**k... Read more

The Little Prince

By: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Narrated by: Anton Stephans
Length: 1 hour 44 minutes

The Little Prince became Saint-Exupéry's most successful work, selling an estimated 140 million copies worldwide, which makes it one of the best-selling and most translated books ever published. Read more