Mark's Picks

The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven

By: Nathaniel Ian Miller
Narrated by: Olafur Darri Olafsson
Length: 10 hours 52 minutes

“Poor misanthropic Sven, his great Arctic adventures tend toward the bumbling and catastrophic, but he persists in his dream to be alone in the great north - only to find that the few friends (including a very shaggy dog) he has made in his travels are what he needs most. It's a lovely, wry and insightful novel, and Olafur Dari Olafsson's deep... Read more

Happy-Go-Lucky

By: David Sedaris
Narrated by: David Sedaris
Length: 7 hours 30 minutes

“Unsurprisingly, Sedaris delivers a thoughtful, funny, somber, and occasionally gross examination of the world today. This includes COVID-19, MeToo, BLM, the transition from Trump to Biden, and the death of his father who was, in his words, a 'character.' I couldn't stand to live in a world without David Sedaris. And him reading his own work is... Read more

Homeland Elegies

A Novel

By: Ayad Akhtar
Narrated by: Ayad Akhtar
Length: 10 hours 19 minutes

“A masterful blend of memoir and fiction, this is an unforgettable journey through the lives of a Muslim family finding their place in a post-9/11 America. A searing navigation of the loves we try to reconcile — familial, religious, societal — and the definition of home. Written with wisdom, wit, and unsparing honesty, this an important book that... Read more

Taste

My Life Through Food

By: Stanley Tucci
Narrated by: Stanley Tucci
Length: 6 hours 50 minutes

“Stanley Tucci tells his life's story through food, complete with recipes. Taste is a book of love, of family and friends, and of how food connects us all. Tucci is an endearing narrator, heartwarming and sincere, filled with gratitude, funny and self-deprecating...I listened to Taste on audio @librofm and arrived at work each day drooling. When... Read more

The Only Plane in the Sky

An Oral History of September 11, 2001

By: Garrett M. Graff
Narrated by: A Full 45-Person Cast
Length: 15 hours 54 minutes

“Today I had a day off and listened to Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff on Libro.fm. I was in tears after the first 30 minutes. Has it really been 18 years since 9-11-01? It seems like it happened yesterday since it's still all so raw. I listened to the whole book nonstop until I was finished today. The style of the book reminds me of... Read more

The Second Mountain

The Quest for a Moral Life

By: David Brooks
Narrated by: Arthur Morey
Length: 12 hours 57 minutes

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Everybody tells you to live for a cause larger than yourself, but how exactly do you do it? The author of The Road to Character explores what it takes to lead a meaningful life in a self-centered world.

“Deeply moving, frequently eloquent and extraordinarily incisive.”—The Washington Post

Every so often, you meet... Read more

Dirt

Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French Cooking

By: Bill Buford
Narrated by: Bill Buford
Length: 16 hours 51 minutes

“You can almost taste the food in Bill Buford’s Dirt, an engrossing, beautifully written memoir about his life as a cook in France.” —The Wall Street Journal

What does it take to master French cooking? This is the question that drives Bill Buford to abandon his perfectly happy life in New York City and pack up and (with a wife and three-year-old... Read more

Shadow Divers

The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II

By: Robert Kurson
Narrated by: Michael Prichard
Length: 15 hours 39 minutes

In 1991, acting on a tip from a local fisherman, two scuba divers discovered a sunken German U-boat–complete with its crew of 60 men–not too far off the New Jersey coast. The divers, realizing the momentousness of their discovery, began probing the mystery. Over the next six years, they became expert and well-traveled researchers, taught... Read more

Beautiful Ruins

A Novel

By: Jess Walter
Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
Length: 12 hours 53 minutes

The acclaimed, award-winning author of the national bestseller The Financial Lives of the Poets returns with his  funniest, most romantic, and most purely enjoyable novel yet: the story of an almost-love affair that begins on the Italian coast in 1962 . . . and is rekindled in Hollywood fifty years later.  

“Why mince words? Beautiful Ruins is an... Read more

Eat a Peach

A Memoir

By: David Chang & Gabe Ulla
Narrated by: David Chang
Length: 9 hours 6 minutes

“Chef David Chang provides a candid glimpse into the culinary world, but this memoir isn't just for foodies. It's a story about a first generation Korean-American grappling with his personal and cultural identity. Chang does not paint a perfect picture of himself. He is honest about his shortcomings and struggles with mental health. A great... Read more

The Soul of an Octopus

A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness

By: Sy Montgomery
Length: 9 hours 10 minutes

In this astonishing book from the author of the best selling memoir The Good Good Pig, Sy Montgomery explores the emotional and physical world of the octopus—a surprisingly complex, intelligent, and spirited creature—and the remarkable connections it makes with humans. Read more

Talking to Strangers

What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know

By: Malcolm Gladwell
Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
Length: 8 hours 57 minutes

“This is an audio experience. Malcolm Gladwell talks about it a bit in the beginning. He chose to use audio recordings of interviews, etc., wherever available instead of just reading the quotes himself. There’s music spattered throughout. It’s kind of a book/podcast. It is not just a direct reading of the text. Also, Malcolm Gladwell has a... Read more

A Gentleman in Moscow

A Novel

By: Amor Towles
Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
Length: 17 hours 51 minutes

“Within the pages of this captivating novel lies a poignant portrayal of a turbulent era in Russian history, rendered with remarkable depth, detail, and grace. Alexander Rostoff, initially portrayed as a haughty aristocrat, undergoes a profound transformation as he navigates the intricate web of relationships that will shape the next three... Read more

Sapiens

A Brief History of Humankind

By: Yuval Noah Harari
Narrated by: Derek Perkins
Length: 15 hours 17 minutes

“I think this book should be a required read if you consider yourself a member of the human race. This was an interesting and dynamic text on the evolution of early humans to modern man. Sapiens helps recreate a narrative of our existence in relation to other early human subspecies, as well as helps elaborate on how we came to be today. I learned... Read more

Before the Fall

By: Noah Hawley
Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
Length: 12 hours 55 minutes

“When a private plane plunges into the ocean off Martha's Vineyard, the media and the government want answers. The two survivors -- a middle-aged artist along for the ride and the 4-year-old son of a prominent and powerful family - have little to say. Before the Fall takes the reader on a thrilling ride through the past lives of the other... Read more

Lab Girl

A Memoir

By: Hope Jahren
Narrated by: Hope Jahren
Length: 11 hours 37 minutes

“This book has it all: nature, love, science, drama, heartbreak, joy, and plenty of dirt. Not since Cheryl Strayed's Wild have I read such a rich and compelling nonfiction narrative. Lab Girl is the story of Jahren's life in science, and her writing on the wonders of nature will renew your sense of awe. But more than that, it is an exploration... Read more

The Boys in the Boat

Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

By: Daniel James Brown
Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
Length: 14 hours 24 minutes

“This is one of my favorite non-fiction reads of all time, containing everything that I love to find in a book: suspense, unbreakable friendships, insurmountable obstacles, and unlimited perseverance! As told to the readers at the beginning of the book, this story is not one of Brown’s own experience but one that he heard and shared with the... Read more

When Breath Becomes Air

By: Paul Kalanithi
Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra & Cassandra Campbell
Length: 5 hours 34 minutes

“With a message both mournful and life-affirming, When Breath Becomes Air chronicles a young doctor's journey from literature student to promising neurosurgeon and finally to a patient in his own hospital after being diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. Always profound, never sentimental, this important book refuses to take refuge in platitudes,... Read more

Stumbling on Happiness

By: Daniel Gilbert
Narrated by: Daniel Gilbert
Length: 7 hours 25 minutes

A smart and funny book by a prominent Harvard psychologist, which uses groundbreaking research and (often hilarious) anecdotes to show us why we’re so lousy at predicting what will make us happy – and what we can do about it.

Most of us spend our lives steering ourselves toward the best of all possible futures, only to find that tomorrow rarely... Read more

H Is for Hawk

By: Helen Macdonald
Narrated by: Helen Macdonald
Length: 11 hours 6 minutes

The instant New York Times bestseller and multiaward-winning sensation, Helen Macdonald’s story of adopting and raising one of nature’s most vicious predators has soared into the hearts of millions of readers worldwide.When Helen Macdonald’s father died suddenly on a London street, she was devastated. An experienced falconer captivated by hawks... Read more