Page 1 Books Staff Picks!

Eating Animals

By: Jonathan Safran Foer
Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
Length: 10 hours 11 minutes

“In Eating Animals Foer explores the horrors of modern day factory farming. This book is not for the faint of heart. Even meat eaters will walk away shocked! I appreciate Foer's approach here because he doesn't condemn meat eaters or push veganism but instead implores us to do better in our treatment of animals and how we consume meat. Read more

Mood Machine

The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist

By: Liz Pelly
Narrated by: Liz Pelly
Length: 11 hours 50 minutes

“The horrors of streaming music platforms like Spotify extend beyond the appalling payouts to artists. It has also distorted the music lovers idea of what music is in the modern age. The lie of music discovery and mood playlists as curated by "taste makers" has led many artists to chase sounds and composition styles just to be heard but at the... Read more

Interpretation of Cats

Understanding the Psychology of Our Feline Companions

By: Claude Béata
Narrated by: Neil Gardner
Length: 7 hours 27 minutes

“Looking to better understand your feline companion? Claude Béata does a wonderful job here of sharing anecdotes and research to help us better cohabitate with cats. You will learn about many feline quirks and why cats engage in particular behaviors that may strike us as odd or silly but are in fact quite telling of the emotions and environment... Read more

Butcher’s Crossing

By: John Williams
Narrated by: Anthony Heald
Length: 10 hours 22 minutes

“My first western and it did not disappoint! This book is simultaneously brutal and beautiful where the main character is the wilderness and the setting. It's a story of survival, ambition amidst a rapidly changing world. I think many of the themes presented in Butcher's Crossing are incredibly insightful to anyone grappling with meaning in a... Read more

Convenience Store Woman

By: Sayaka Murata
Narrated by: Nancy Wu
Length: 3 hours 21 minutes

“Keiko loves rules. Having worked a part-time job in a Japanese convenience store for 18 years, she loves having a corporate script to recite, sales goals to reach, and a list of tasks to complete. What she doesn't love - or even understand - are the more complicated rules of society at large. She doesn't want a husband, or children, or a real... Read more

My Year of Rest and Relaxation

By: Ottessa Moshfegh
Narrated by: Julia Whelan
Length: 7 hours 14 minutes

“A darkly comic novel in which a young woman, bogged down by the daily stresses and grievances of life commits to sleeping for an entire year. Perfect in literally every way. A druggie New York City diva living her best Xanax-fueled life. Brat before Brat was a thing. Drug abuse, bodega coffee, and deep dark bouts of depression abound. Read more

Martyr!

A novel

By: Kaveh Akbar
Narrated by: Arian Moayed
Length: 10 hours 39 minutes

“I honestly have a hard time verbalizing exactly what I love about this novel, except to say that I am writing this staff pick months after reading it because it's still on my mind. Cyrus Shams was a baby when his mother's plane was shot down over the Persian Gulf. Following her death, Cyrus and his father move to Indiana; his father dies as... Read more

Carmilla - Unabridged

By: Sheridan Le Fanu
Narrated by: Sara Nichols
Length: 3 hours 9 minutes

“Loved this melodramatic, gothic, gift of a novella as a queer person, loved it as a horror fan, loved it as a classics enjoyer. Yay! Lesbian vampire! She did it first. Read more

Howards End

By: E. M. Forster
Narrated by: Steven Crossley
Length: 11 hours 51 minutes

“An eternally clever and nuanced novel about sisterhood, houses, and Beethoven's Fifth. Also, a cautionary tale about standing under too-full bookshelves. Read more

All The Beauty in the World

The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me

By: Patrick Bringley
Narrated by: Patrick Bringley
Length: 6 hours 3 minutes

“A truly lovely book that captures the sort of reverence and passion I feel for art museums. If you know me, you know that taking me to any art museum is bound to result in a whole day spent there. Bringley's memoir and his musings here are entertaining, moving, and resonate deeply. Read more

The Language of the Night

Essays on Writing, Science Fiction, and Fantasy

By: Ursula K. Le Guin
Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan & Michael Crouch
Length: TBA

“Delightful, refreshing, composed of words most warm and ever-welcoming. As a lover of all things Le Guin, even I expected this collection to be a rather dense, academic read (she is, after all, a brilliant mind, and essays on writing by such an author...I was excited for the challenge). I feel very humbled, by her humility. My surprise feels a... Read more

Grey Dog

By: Elliott Gish
Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
Length: 10 hours 52 minutes

“Grey Dog, a diary-style narrative, offers a gripping exploration of one woman's descent into madness and subsequent liberation, akin to a blend of A24's Midsommar and M. Night Shyamalan's The Village. Gish's adept characterizations and captivating prose make it a must-read, leaving me in breathless anticipation for her future works. Read more

Matrix

A Novel

By: Lauren Groff
Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
Length: 8 hours 51 minutes

“Lauren Groff said “medieval historical fiction about Marie de France & Eleanor of Aquitaine,” and she had my curiosity. Lauren Groff said “prophesying Sapphic warrior nuns” and she had my attention. Narrated by literal actual goddess Adjoa Andoh, this book is bananas good. It was as if Groff was looking directly at my "Auto-Read" criteria... Read more

James

A Novel

By: Percival Everett
Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
Length: 7 hours 48 minutes

“An amazing reverse imagining of Huckleberry Finn, I loved the way Everett uses language to distinguish James from his performative personality of Jim. Language is how James keeps his sense of self and listening to him make the shift I found both drew me in and left me implicated in the dual versions he is forced to maintain. Listening gave an... Read more

The Song of Achilles

A Novel

By: Madeline Miller
Narrated by: Frazer Douglas
Length: 11 hours 14 minutes

“Did this book leave me devastated and sobbing? Yes. Is it one of my favorite books ever? Also, yes! Madeline Miller knows how to write historical fiction beautifully. This novel follows the tragic story of Achilles' and Patroclus. While Miller stays true to the classic legend, she adds to the romantic relationship between the two that was... Read more

Devotions

The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver

By: Mary Oliver
Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
Length: 6 hours 19 minutes

“Reading any collection of beautiful poetry in a short period of time is immersive, dare I say life-altering. Reading Devotions is somehow more intimate than even that. Oliver’s way of viewing the world is so crystal-clear, so inviting. Every poem is like taking a step outside and breathing in a lungful of crisp, clean, cold air. Her way of... Read more

On Beauty

By: Zadie Smith
Narrated by: Peter Francis James
Length: 18 hours 48 minutes

“"All is fair in love and...academia." On Beauty is an unflinching, harsh, full-bodied approach to family, politics, and academia. In this novel, a microcosm of opinionated, muddled, chaotic people unravels; their high-and-mighty ideals are called into question. Smith's novel is a challenging read; while scrutinizing the Belseys and the Kipps,... 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

“Part romance, part mind blowing sci-fi novella Read more

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

By: David Sedaris
Narrated by: David Sedaris
Length: 6 hours 18 minutes

“I will read everything this man ever writes. Read more

Transitional

In One Way or Another, We All Transition

By: Munroe Bergdorf
Narrated by: Mia Juul
Length: 4 hours 17 minutes

“Munroe ❤️ This book is gorgeous. Bergdorf's honesty and vulnerability in telling her story made me feel like a trusted confidante. She delivers her personal experiences with the edge of an activist showing her audience how all the dots connect, how her experience is not unique because the path she had to walk was formed by institutionalized... Read more