Karen's Picks

Red, White & Royal Blue

A Novel

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

“This book is so much more than a captivating romance—it's a bubble bath, a warm hug, a delicious dessert, a catharsis full of feeling and hope and queer joy that still makes me cry and laugh even as I've reread it 10+ times! The audiobook is skillfully narrated, and de Ocampo does far better British and Texan accents than my brain could come up... Read more

In the Dream House

A Memoir

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

“This is a spellbinding memoir that will stand the test of time. Carmen Maria Machado has crafted a memoir that turns the form on its head, that creates a stunning, chilling and winding narrative that stays true to the nature of human beings: complex and nuanced. The LGBTQ archive of intimate-partner violence needed this and helped pave a way for... 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

“From plantation to Angola Prison. From Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, VA to the African Burial Ground in New York City. From Île de Gorée to Whitney Plantation. From the Emancipation Proclamation to Juneteenth. Clint Smith takes us on an unforgettable journey through the history of slavery in the United States, revealing many truths we’ve... 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

“Candace Chen is a first-generation Chinese millennial immigrant who tries to make a life in New York City by succumbing to the role of the office drone who helps create cheap bibles. But when Shen Fever—a plague that causes its victims to perform a rote task until death—hits, only a few survive, including Candace. She soon finds herself in a... Read more

Wow, No Thank You.

Essays

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

A Stonewall Honor Book * A Time Magazine Best YA Book of All TimeFrom Stonewall and Lambda Award–winning author Kacen Callender comes a revelatory YA novel about a transgender teen grappling with identity and self-discovery while falling in love for the first time.Felix Love has never been in love—and, yes, he’s painfully aware of the irony. He... 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 part.

"I'm wrecked with love for this funny, joyful, bighearted book." --Becky Albertalli, bestselling author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Elouise (Lou) Parker is determined to have the absolute best, most impossibly epic summer of her... Read more

Crying in H Mart

A Memoir

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

“This is a beautiful memoir and it totally lives up to the hype! Zauner offers an honest account of her struggle with her Korean American upbringing and her relationship with her dying mother, and what the loss of her meant in the end. The shared experience of cooking and enjoying Korean food was central to their relationship, and her vivid... 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

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY People • The New York Times... 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

No One Is Talking About This

A Novel

By: Patricia Lockwood
Narrated by: Kristen Sieh
Length: 4 hours 43 minutes

“This compact novel captures the life of a social media influencer in such a stunning way—I listened to this book with my jaw on the floor. Incredible (though if you've never opened Instagram or Twitter, this might not be for you). Read more

Bunny

A Novel

By: Mona Awad
Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
Length: 11 hours 44 minutes

“Mona Awad tells a harrowing story of a writer trying to overcome her writer’s block while simultaneously refusing to look deeper into herself or acknowledge her own needs or desires. This lack of self-knowledge leads her to a friendship with a group of young MFA students who are always ‘workshopping’…with disastrous consequences. The writing... Read more