Our 2023 Favorite Listens

How Far the Light Reaches

A Life in Ten Sea Creatures

By: Sabrina Imbler
Narrated by: Sabrina Imbler
Length: 5 hours 40 minutes

“This utterly absorbing collection of essays merges marine biology and memoir, diving into such subjects as disordered eating via a starving mother octopus, the power of queer spaces through the science and survival of deep sea wildlife, gendered violence and the Sandstriker (formerly named after Lorena Bobbit), being mixed-race and rainbow fish... Read more

What an Owl Knows

The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds

By: Jennifer Ackerman
Narrated by: Jennifer Ackerman
Length: 9 hours 13 minutes

An instant New York Times bestseller!

A New York Times Notable Book of 2023

Named a Best Book of 2023 by Publishers Weekly

From the author of The Genius of Birds and The Bird Way, a brilliant scientific investigation into owls—the most elusive of birds—and why they exert such a hold on human imagination

With their forward gaze and quiet flight, owls... Read more

Life in Five Senses

How Exploring the Senses Got Me Out of My Head and Into the World

By: Gretchen Rubin
Narrated by: Gretchen Rubin
Length: 7 hours 20 minutes

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Project discovers a surprising path to a life of more energy, creativity, luck, and love: by tuning in to the five senses.

“An inspiring and practical guide to living in the moment.”—Susan Cain, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Bittersweet and Quiet

For more than a decade, Gretchen... Read more

The Greeks

A Global History

By: Roderick Beaton
Narrated by: Anna Crowe
Length: 16 hours 38 minutes

A sweeping history of the Greeks, from the Bronze Age to today  

More than two thousand years ago, the Greek city-states, led by Athens and Sparta, laid the foundation for much of modern science, the arts, politics, and law. But the influence of the Greeks did not end with the rise and fall of this classical civilization. As historian Roderick... Read more

Hidden Potential

The Science of Achieving Greater Things

By: Adam Grant
Narrated by: Adam Grant, Maurice Ashley, R.A. Dickey, Evelyn Glennie, Sara Maria Hasbun, Francis Idehen, Alison Levine, Benny Lewis, Kari Louhivuori, Nelli Louhivuori, Brandon Payne, Richard Pine, Gil Winch & Various
Length: 7 hours 21 minutes

“Hidden Potential is easily digestible and more compelling than your basic self-help book. His real world anecdotes yield practical everyday tips on how to live your best life. Here was just one helpful tip: 'Progress is not only reflected in the peaks you reach - it's also in the valleys you cross'. Read more

The Bright Ages

A New History of Medieval Europe

By: Matthew Gabriele & David M. Perry
Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
Length: 9 hours 30 minutes

""Traveling easily through a thousand years of history, The Bright Ages reminds us society never collapsed when the Roman Empire fell, nor did the modern world did wake civilization from a thousand year hibernation. Thoroughly enjoyable, thoughtful and accessible; a fresh look on an age full of light, color, and illumination."" —Mike Duncan,... Read more

The Art Thief

A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession

By: Michael Finkel
Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini & Michael Finkel
Length: 5 hours 39 minutes

“Over the course of eight years, master thief Stephane Breitwieser carried out over 200 brazen heists of fine art from museums and cathedrals across Europe! Amassing a private art collection with an estimated value of two billion dollars (in the top floor of his mother's home where he lived with his girlfriend and accomplice), Breitwieser saw... Read more

Wednesday's Child

Stories

By: Yiyun Li
Narrated by: Yiyun Li
Length: 9 hours 38 minutes

This program is read by the author and includes an audio-only bonus story, Call Me Ishmael's Mother.

A new collection—about loss, alienation, aging, and the strangeness of contemporary life—by the award-winning, and inimitable, author of The Book of Goose.

A grieving mother makes a spreadsheet of everyone she’s lost. Elsewhere, a professor... Read more

Fen, Bog and Swamp

A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis

By: Annie Proulx
Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
Length: 5 hours 6 minutes

*Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker and Literary Hub!* A Finalist for the 2022 NBCC Awards in Nonfiction, the 2023 Phillip D. Reed Environmental Writing Award, and the NEIBA 2023 New England Book Award*

From Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Proulx, this riveting deep dive into the history of our wetlands and what their systematic... Read more

Our Share of Night

A Novel

By: Mariana Enriquez
Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
Length: 27 hours 16 minutes

“A masterpiece of supernatural horror.”—The Washington Post
“An enchanting, shattering, once-in-a-lifetime reading experience.”—The New York Times (Editors’ Choice)

ONE OF TIME AND THE ATLANTIC’S TEN BEST NOVELS OF THE YEAR • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S TEN BEST HORROR BOOKS OF THE YEAR • LONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD • GOOD MORNING... Read more

Hill Women

Finding Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian Mountains

By: Cassie Chambers
Narrated by: Cassie Chambers
Length: 7 hours 31 minutes

After rising from poverty to earn two Ivy League degrees, an Appalachian lawyer pays tribute to the strong “hill women” who raised and inspired her, and whose values have the potential to rejuvenate a struggling region.

“Destined to be compared to Hillbilly Elegy and Educated.”—BookPage (starred review)

“A gritty, warm love letter to Appalachian... Read more

Finding Me

A Memoir

By: Viola Davis
Narrated by: Viola Davis
Length: 9 hours 15 minutes

“A powerful story about self-understanding and determination to seizing the life you want. Read more

Elsewhere

A Novel

By: Alexis Schaitkin
Narrated by: Ell Potter
Length: 7 hours 55 minutes

“Alexis Schaitkin's Elsewhere is an eerie, suspenseful dystopia taking place in a cloud-covered village in the mountains where an 'affliction' resides that causes mothers to mysteriously disappear. The residents of the village don't know why this happens, but solemnly accept these disappearances as the possible outcome for experiencing the beauty... Read more

Nothing to See Here

By: Kevin Wilson
Narrated by: Marin Ireland
Length: 6 hours 40 minutes

“When Lillian and Madison first meet at a fancy boarding school, one is the wealthy heir of a department store fortune, the other a white trash scholarship kid. After an incident at the school breaks them apart, they don't see each other for many years until the magnetic Madison, now the wife and strategist for a powerful Tennessee politician,... Read more

Exit West

A Novel

By: Mohsin Hamid
Narrated by: Mohsin Hamid
Length: 4 hours 41 minutes

“Exit West will take your breath away as it magically weaves together a story of falling in love while the world falls apart. Spirited Nadia captures the heart of the thoughtful Saeed, but as their different paths in life converge, ordinary life gives way to the insults of war. Mohsin Hamid conveys the story of these young refugees with... Read more