Karen's Picks

I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself

A Novel

By: Marisa Crane
Narrated by: Bailey Carr
Length: 8 hours 29 minutes

Dept. of Speculation meets Black Mirror in this lyrical, speculative debut about a queer mother raising her daughter in an unjust surveillance stateIn a United States not so unlike our own, the Department of Balance has adopted a radical new form of law enforcement: rather than incarceration, wrongdoers are given a second (and sometimes, third,... Read more

Big Swiss

A Novel

By: Jen Beagin
Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman, Carlotta Brentan, Stephen Graybill, Joy Osmanski & Matt Pittenger
Length: 11 hours 15 minutes

“Big Swiss is the sort of strange and beautiful novel that you have to read to believe. It's utterly shocking, absolutely hysterical, and beautifully cynical. I laughed out loud on every other page, rolled my eyes at the pervasive hipster things Big Swiss pokes fun at, and thoroughly enjoyed the quirky atmosphere. Raging feminism, bunk... Read more

Chronic City

A Novel

By: Jonathan Lethem
Narrated by: Mark Deakins
Length: 14 hours 58 minutes

The acclaimed author of Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude returns with a roar with this gorgeous, searing portrayal of Manhattanites wrapped in their own delusions, desires, and lies.

Chase Insteadman, a handsome, inoffensive fixture on Manhattan's social scene, lives off residuals earned as a child star on a beloved sitcom called... Read more

They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us

By: Hanif Abdurraqib
Narrated by: Hanif Abdurraqib
Length: 8 hours 37 minutes

“For anyone who has ever felt our collective beating heart in the crowd of a concert. Read more

The Most Fun We Ever Had

A Novel

By: Claire Lombardo
Narrated by: Emily Rankin
Length: 20 hours 33 minutes

“Claire Lombardo has written a rich and rewarding novel brimming with the messiness of families. Secrets kept and revealed provide a backdrop for the life-long love affair of Marilyn and David Sorenson as they raise their four daughters. The years are filled with joy, angst, anger, longing, and love as the members of the Sorenson family struggle... Read more

Red, White & Royal Blue

A Novel

By: Casey McQuiston
Narrated by: Ramon de Ocampo
Length: 12 hours 15 minutes

“I have never been so mad to realize a title was an author's debut. Sweet, tender, funny, I devoured this book. I wanted to cancel plans for this book! Spending time with these characters was the literary equivalent of curling up by the fireplace with a cup of hot chocolate while it's snowing outside. McQuiston's words were a direct line to my... Read more

In the Dream House

A Memoir

By: Carmen Maria Machado
Narrated by: Carmen Maria Machado
Length: 5 hours 28 minutes

“Mesmerizing and harrowing, In the Dream House takes the listener through Machado's turbulent, abusive relationship as she were taking you on a tour of a dream house turned nightmare. Both intensely personal and also a deconstruction of literary and pop culture tropes, the author's narration adds a layer to the already insightful, poignant voice... Read more

How the Word Is Passed

A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

By: Clint Smith
Narrated by: Clint Smith
Length: 10 hours 6 minutes

“Poet Clint Smith’s personal, intimate examination of sites of historical significance to slavery is as soulful and accessible as it is urgent and important. The opening chapter on Jefferson’s Monticello is one of the best chapters of American historical writing in recent memory, and should be required reading on the legacy of America’s founders.... Read more

End of the World House

A Novel

By: Adrienne Celt
Narrated by: Nancy Wu
Length: 9 hours 33 minutes

Groundhog Day meets Ling Ma’s Severance in this “brilliant” (PopSugar) and “exhilarating” (The Millions) comedic novel about two young women trying to save their friendship as the world collapses around them.

Bertie and Kate have been best friends since high school. Bertie is a semi-failed cartoonist, working for a prominent Silicon Valley tech... Read more

How to Party With an Infant

By: Kaui Hart Hemmings
Narrated by: Joy Osmanski
Length: 7 hours 14 minutes

“Mommyhood gets hilariously tricky in this novel from the author of The Descendents” (Cosmopolitan). How to Party With an Infant follows a quirky single mom who finds friendship and love in this “smart, funny send-up of modern motherhood, San Francisco-style” (San Francisco Chronicle).

When Mele Bart told her boyfriend Bobby she was pregnant with... Read more

The Fact of a Body

A Murder and a Memoir

By: Alex Marzano-Lesnevich
Narrated by: Alex Marzano-Lesnevich
Length: 10 hours 37 minutes

“Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich didn't set out to investigate murder of six-year-old Jeremy Guillory in Louisiana; it was the case she happened upon as a young law school intern in 1992. In a fascinating twist, this becomes not only the true story of a heinous crime for which the perpetrator is in prison, but also of the investigation that unlocks... Read more

Severance

A Novel

By: Ling Ma
Narrated by: Nancy Wu
Length: 9 hours 53 minutes

“A disaffected young woman just scraping by in the big city. A rag-tag group of survivors on a journey through a post-apocalyptic landscape. These are familiar tropes in contemporary fiction (albeit not usually in the same novel). But with Ling Ma's steely-eyed, wry treatment, they grow into something far more complex. In an alternate 2011, Shen... Read more

Wow, No Thank You.

Essays (Lambda Literary Award)

By: Samantha Irby
Narrated by: Samantha Irby
Length: 10 hours 3 minutes

A new rip-roaring essay collection from the smart, edgy, hilarious, unabashedly raunchy, and bestselling Samantha Irby.

Irby is forty, and increasingly uncomfortable in her own skin despite what Inspirational Instagram Infographics have promised her. She has left her job as a receptionist at a veterinary clinic, has published successful books and... Read more

Becoming Duchess Goldblatt

By: Anonymous & Duchess Goldblatt
Narrated by: Gabra Zackman, J. Smith-Cameron & Lyle Lovett
Length: 5 hours 30 minutes

“After the collapse of her marriage and her whole life, the anonymous author of Becoming Duchess Goldblatt started a Twitter account, speaking in the voice of an imperious, slightly dotty, always caring 81-year-old writer. The Duchess became the focus of intense adoration and eventually helped her creator to reconnect with the ‘real world’ even... Read more

Felix Ever After

By: Kacen Callender
Narrated by: Logan Rozos
Length: 8 hours 23 minutes

“Captivating own voices story about finding your identity and love. Read more

Hot Dog Girl

By: Jennifer Dugan
Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
Length: 7 hours 28 minutes

A fresh and funny contemporary YA rom-com about teens working as costumed characters in a local amusement park.

Elouise (Lou) Parker is determined to have the absolute best, most impossibly epic summer of her life. There are just a few things standing in her way:

She's landed a job at Magic Castle Playland . . . as a giant dancing hot dog.Her... Read more

Crying in H Mart

A Memoir

By: Michelle Zauner
Narrated by: Michelle Zauner
Length: 7 hours 22 minutes

“Please listen to this book! Hearing from Michelle is truly an emotional journey. Grab your tissues, and snacks because you will definitely be hungry while listening to her story. Read more

Tenth of December

Stories

By: George Saunders
Narrated by: George Saunders
Length: 5 hours 39 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST FICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY AND BUZZFEED • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

One of The New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

NAMED ONE... Read more

Her Body and Other Parties

Stories

By: Carmen Maria Machado
Narrated by: Amy Landon
Length: 8 hours 41 minutes

“Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado is a blend of urban legends and horror stories all focusing on the roles women play in society. Machado writes in the most beautiful, haunting way, and each story is truly unique and almost always a little uncomfortable. Read more

Swamplandia!

By: Karen Russell
Narrated by: Arielle Sitrick & David Ackroyd
Length: 13 hours 6 minutes

From the celebrated twenty-nine-year-old author of the everywhere-heralded short-story collection St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves (“How I wish these were my own words, instead of the breakneck demon writer Karen Russell’s . . . Run for your life. This girl is on fire”—Los Angeles Times Book Review) comes a blazingly original debut... Read more