Staff non-cookbook favorites

Essential Labor

Mothering as Social Change

By: Angela Garbes
Narrated by: Angela Garbes
Length: 6 hours 21 minutes

From the acclaimed author of Like a Mother comes a reflection on the state of caregiving in America, and an exploration of mothering as a means of social change.The Covid-19 pandemic shed fresh light on a long-overlooked truth: mothering is among the only essential work humans do. In response to the increasing weight placed on mothers and... Read more

A Thousand Ships

A Novel

By: Natalie Haynes
Narrated by: Natalie Haynes
Length: 8 hours 33 minutes

“With A Thousand Ships, Natalie Haynes has secured herself a seat at the table with Madeline Miller as a great contemporary-classical novelist. I'm so glad that I listened to this one on audio, as Haynes is able to lend her literal voice to these characters and do them a great service. On a related note, I'll wait in line for stand-alone works... Read more

Ghosts

A novel

By: Dolly Alderton
Narrated by: Holliday Grainger
Length: 10 hours 11 minutes

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the author of Everything I Know About Love comes a smart, sexy, laugh-out-loud romantic comedy about ex-boyfriends, imperfect parents, friends with kids, and a man who disappears the moment he says "I love you."

“An absolute knock-out. Wickedly funny and, at turns, both cynical and sincere… feels like your very... Read more

The Love Hypothesis

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

“This is an incredibly fun and funny romance that will teach you a lot about the life of a research PhD student and her love life. Olivia has never had much luck with love, and prefers to focus on her work and her friends. But then a dating situation goes awry and she finds herself pretending to date the department’s most ornery (and sexiest)... Read more

The Last Graduate

A Novel

The Scholomance: Book #2

By: Naomi Novik
Narrated by: Anisha Dadia
Length: 13 hours 26 minutes

“If you fell in love with El like I did, you will be thrilled to know she is her same snarky self. A grander scheme will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end. And oh... what an ending! Once again, flawlessly narrated by Anisha Dadia. Read more

A Deadly Education

A Novel

The Scholomance: Book #1

By: Naomi Novik
Narrated by: Anisha Dadia
Length: 10 hours 58 minutes

“A Deadly Education is absolutely delicious, and I enjoyed every page! The Scholomance is a ruthlessly dangerous magic school, where even sitting in the wrong seat at breakfast could mean death. El is a third year student with an affinity for mass destruction, who is struggling to NOT kill all her classmates. Full of scheming, sarcastic teenage... Read more

The Midnight Library

A GMA Book Club Pick (A Novel)

By: Matt Haig
Narrated by: Carey Mulligan
Length: 8 hours 50 minutes

“At the end of this book, I cried with life-affirming joy. At the end of this book, you will know with certainty that it is good to be alive, and you will know that you make a difference. Nora Seed is so full of regret and sadness that she wants to end her life. She discovers that between life and death there is the Midnight Library and each... Read more

Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul

Celtic Wisdom for Reawakening to What Our Souls Know and Healing the World

By: John Philip Newell
Narrated by: Angus King
Length: 7 hours 17 minutes

A leading spiritual teacher reveals how Celtic spirituality—listening to the sacred around us and inside of us—can help us heal the earth, overcome our conflicts, and reconnect with ourselves.

John Philip Newell shares the long, hidden tradition of Celtic Christianity, explaining how this earth-based spirituality can help us rediscover the... Read more

This Is How You Lose The Time War

By: Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
Narrated by: Cynthia Farrell & Emily Woo Zeller
Length: 4 hours 15 minutes

“I want to eat every sentence in this book. I think it's possibly some of the most poetic narrative prose I have ever read in my life; I want to read it for the first time again and again. One of the reviews on the back says something along the lines of Hopkins having his hands in the inspiration for the novel, but I found it resonated more... Read more

The Overstory

By: Richard Powers
Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
Length: 22 hours 58 minutes

“The Overstory is a difficult novel to encapsulate in a sentence or two. It is an epic novel of interconnected stories that all revolve in one way or another to trees and our kinship with the natural world. I listened to this over a few months and found it captivating, especially the sections of the stories that deal with the non-violent direct... Read more

A Promised Land

By: Barack Obama
Narrated by: Barack Obama
Length: 29 hours 9 minutes

“No one really needs my blurb to help sell this book, but I wanted to give it anyway, especially for the audiobook, narrated by Barack Obama himself. If you want to know his incredible knowledge and wisdom that guided him through major decisions, and also hear him drop a few F-bombs, you need to listen to this fantastically written book. Read more

Mediocre

The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America

By: Ijeoma Oluo
Narrated by: Ijeoma Oluo
Length: 10 hours

From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller So You Want to Talk About Race, an  “illuminating” (New York Times Book Review) history of white male identity.

What happens to a country that tells generation after generation of white men that they deserve power? What happens when success is defined by status over women and people of color,... Read more

Our Time Is Now

Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America

By: Stacey Abrams
Narrated by: Stacey Abrams
Length: 9 hours 20 minutes

"This is a narrative that describes the urgency that compels me and millions more to push for a different American story than the one being told today. It's a story that is one part danger, one part action, and all true. It's a story about how and why we fight for our democracy and win."

This program is read by the author

Celebrated national... Read more

Shit, Actually

The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema

By: Lindy West
Narrated by: Lindy West
Length: 7 hours 16 minutes

“Lindy West makes true observations about movies in ways that will make you laugh out loud, and cause you to re-think some of your 90s/00s favorite films! Her witty commentary is what we all NEED in this post 2020 world, even if you have not seen the films. It’s written by someone smart and hilarious who has strong opinions about things that... Read more

The Witches Are Coming

By: Lindy West
Narrated by: Lindy West
Length: 6 hours 27 minutes

“Lindy West is hilarious and timely in this must-listen audio book! It is more enjoyable because Lindy reads it herself, so the jokes are perfectly timed and hearing her words in her own voice works very well for this book. Round up all your fellow witches and gather your coven, the witches are coming for the patriarchy! Read more

So You Want to Talk about Race

By: Ijeoma Oluo
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
Length: 7 hours 41 minutes

In this #1 New York Times bestseller, Ijeoma Oluo offers a revelatory examination of race in AmericaA current, constructive, and actionable exploration of today’s racial landscape, offering straightforward clarity that readers of all races need to contribute to the dismantling of the racial divideIn So You Want to Talk about Race,... Read more

Like a Mother

A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy

By: Angela Garbes
Narrated by: Roxana Ortega & Angela Garbes
Length: 7 hours

What to read after What to Expect . . . .  A badass, feminist, and personal deep-dive into the science and culture of pregnancy and early motherhood that debunks myths and dated assumptions, offering guidance and camaraderie to women navigating one of the biggest and most profound changes in their lives.Like most first-time mothers, Angela... Read more

Rodham

A Novel

By: Curtis Sittenfeld
Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie
Length: 13 hours 58 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of American Wife and Eligible . . . He proposed. She said no. And it changed her life forever.
 
“A deviously clever what if.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
“Immersive, escapist.”—Good Morning America
“Ingenious.”—The New York Times

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New Yorker • NPR • The Washington... Read more

The Water Dancer (Oprah's Book Club)

A Novel

By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Narrated by: Joe Morton
Length: 14 hours 14 minutes

“Ta-Nehisi Coates understands something big and he understands it better than anyone else right now. The Water Dancer led me on a journey up and down the landscape of American slavery with a narrative that feels like The Book of Exodus meets, well, Ta-Nehisi Coates. Over 400 pages I have cried, I have laughed, I have been educated, and I have... Read more

Trick Mirror

Reflections on Self-Delusion

By: Jia Tolentino
Narrated by: Jia Tolentino
Length: 9 hours 45 minutes

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