Powell's Staff Picks

Pure Colour

A Novel

By: Sheila Heti
Narrated by: Sheila Heti
Length: 3 hours 49 minutes

Pure Colour is a galaxy of an audiobook: explosive, celestially bright, huge, and streaked with beauty. It is a contemporary bible, an atlas of feeling, and an absurdly funny guide to the great (and terrible) things about being alive. Sheila Heti is a philosopher of modern experience, and she has reimagined what a book can hold.

Here we are, just... Read more

My Mess Is a Bit of a Life

Adventures in Anxiety

By: Georgia Pritchett
Narrated by: Katherine Parkinson
Length: 4 hours 13 minutes

“Georgia Pritchett is a singularly hilarious person. Her book is a delightful and perfect reflection of her. Its tenderness sneaks up on you and really packs a punch. What a magnificent read!”—Julia Louis DreyfusJenny Lawson meets Nora Ephron in this joyful memoir-in-vignettes on living—and thriving—with anxiety from a multiple Emmy... Read more

The Sentence

By: Louise Erdrich
Narrated by: Louise Erdrich
Length: 11 hours 49 minutes

“The Sentence is a ghost story, although it is as comforting as it is haunting. It’s an intimate picture of bookselling, and of bookselling during a pandemic and social justice reckoning, set in Erdrich’s own store in Minneapolis. Its heroine, queer Indigenous ex-con Tookie, is so alive she leaps right off the page—gritty, passionate, and human.... Read more

Taste

My Life Through Food

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

“I loved Tucci's wry writing and very unique take on food! This is a book you can gift just about everyone because it includes so many recipes as well as stories from Tucci's life and career. Though in proportion to food, the book involves very little Hollywood gossip Tucci does drop in jokes and asides about his famous friends and costars that... Read more

Wandering in Strange Lands

A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots

By: Morgan Jerkins
Narrated by: Morgan Jerkins
Length: 8 hours 3 minutes

“Wandering in Strange Lands by Morgan Jerkins is a fascinating look at the history of the Great Migration through Jerkins' exploration of her own family history and legacy. Jerkins provides an additional dimension to understanding Black lineage in the United States and the complexity of what it means to be Black in America. Read more

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain

In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life

By: George Saunders
Narrated by: George Saunders, Phylicia Rashad, Nick Offerman, Glenn Close, Keith David, Rainn Wilson, BD Wong & Renée Elise Goldsberry
Length: 14 hours 43 minutes

“In this literal master class on literature and writing, Saunders earnestly yet playfully dissects 19th-century Russian short stories to discover how they exude life to this very day, while highlighting methods any aspiring writer can employ. The huge bonus: reading the wondrous stories themselves, and experiencing Tolstoy’s authority, Chekhov’s... Read more

Fight Night

By: Miriam Toews
Narrated by: Miriam Toews & Georgia Toews
Length: 6 hours 19 minutes

“Not since Scout Finch have I enjoyed a child protagonist so much. Swiv is precocious, spunky, and hilarious. We hear her family’s story from her viewpoint and from that of her grandmother, Elvira, who is also smart, spunky, and hilarious. They live with Swiv’s mother, a wonderful but less central character. Much of the story of these three... Read more

Iron Widow

Iron Widow: Book #1

By: Xiran Jay Zhao
Narrated by: Rong Fu
Length: 12 hours 13 minutes

“Iron Widow is the feminist bloodthirsty rage antihero fantasy saga of my DREAMS! Pacific Rim meets The Hunger Games. Much like in the movie Pacific Rim, as our protagonist, Zetian is mentally co-piloting gigantic transforming mechas that humanity is relying on to battle massive aliens come to dominate the planet. And much like in The Hunger... Read more

Furious Hours

Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee

By: Casey Cep
Narrated by: Hillary Huber
Length: 11 hours 15 minutes

“In Cold Blood and To Kill a Mockingbird kept me up reading all night as a teen, and I can now add Furious Hours to the list of couldn’t-put-it-down tomes. I was enthralled, educated, and awestruck by Casey Cep’s well-researched and masterfully written true-crime account of a rural minister, his lawyer, and his killer. Thankfully, Cep discovered... Read more

Long Bright River

A Novel

By: Liz Moore
Narrated by: Allyson Ryan
Length: 13 hours 18 minutes

“This was a great book to listen to on audio. Based in the heart of the opioid epidemic in Philadelphia, this book was well-crafted with very realistic characters that made it feel and read like a memoir. It is suspenseful and unpredictable and kept me guessing (incorrectly) until the end. I recommend this for people looking for a somewhat... Read more

Mobituaries

Great Lives Worth Reliving

By: Mo Rocca
Narrated by: Mo Rocca
Length: 11 hours 45 minutes

“I have been enjoying Mobituaries both for the fun of the individual stories and the joy that Mo seems to take in telling them. I don't often recommend a book as the audiobook over hardcover but in this case I think that the audiobook is the way to go. Read more

How to Hide an Empire

A History of the Greater United States

By: Daniel Immerwahr
Narrated by: Luis Moreno
Length: 17 hours 25 minutes

“Daniel Immerwahr dives into a more thorough history of the United States -- filling those holes glossed over by history books. Extending beyond the Mainland or "50 States" map, he brings many lost or shadowed histories into the light. Very good listen! Read more

Angels in America

A Gay Fantasia on National Themes

By: Tony Kushner
Narrated by: Andrew Garfield, Nathan Lane, Susan Brown, Denise Gough, Beth Malone, James McArdle, Lee Pace, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Bobby Cannavale & Edie Falco
Length: 6 hours 52 minutes

Presenting an original audiobook performance of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, starring the cast of the National Theatre's 2018 Broadway revival.

In this production, adapted especially for the listening experience, Andrew Garfield, Nathan Lane, and the entire cast recreate their acclaimed performances from the 2018 Tony Award-winning National... Read more

Vespertine

By: Margaret Rogerson
Narrated by: Caitlin Davies
Length: 12 hours 6 minutes

An international bestseller!

From the New York Times bestselling author of Sorcery of Thorns and An Enchantment of Ravens comes a thrilling, “dark coming-of-age adventure” (Culturess) about a teen girl with mythic abilities who must defend her world against restless spirits of the dead.

The spirits of the dead do not rest.

Artemisia is training... Read more

Plunder

A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure

By: Menachem Kaiser
Narrated by: Menachem Kaiser
Length: 9 hours 7 minutes

A New York Times Critics’ Best Nonfiction Book of 2021
Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Biography

From a gifted young writer, the story of his quest to reclaim his family’s apartment building in Poland—and of the astonishing entanglement with Nazi treasure hunters that follows 

Menachem Kaiser’s brilliantly told story, woven from improbable... Read more

Leave the World Behind

A Novel

By: Rumaan Alam
Narrated by: Marin Ireland
Length: 7 hours 26 minutes

“Riveting! I hurried through this apocalyptic novel about two families thrown together during an earth shattering event. Alam builds tension even during a relaxing family day at the beach and expertly paces the reader through idle, dreamy stages and amps up the speed during stressful times. A thought-provoking study of humanity. Read more

Eating to Extinction

The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them

By: Dan Saladino
Narrated by: Dan Saladino
Length: 16 hours 13 minutes

This audiobook is read by the author.

Dan Saladino's Eating to Extinction is the prominent broadcaster’s pathbreaking tour of the world’s vanishing foods and his argument for why they matter now more than ever

Over the past several decades, globalization has homogenized what we eat, and done so ruthlessly. The numbers are stark: Of the roughly six... Read more

A Thousand Ships

A Novel

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

“A Thousand Ships transports the reader back in time to the Trojan War, but in such an intriguing way. Rather than the women playing "bit parts" in the story, Natalie Hayes puts them front and center relegating the "heroes" of the past to the back burner. Her brilliant format weaves together smaller stories and experiences of ordinary women and... Read more

Brown Girls

A Novel

By: Daphne Palasi Andreades
Narrated by: Tashi Thomas
Length: 4 hours 26 minutes

“What an absolutely gorgeous debut. The audiobook, narrated by Tashi Thomas, was more of a breathtaking performance than a mere narration. I highly recommend listening to this book and getting swept up in the life Thomas gives it. This book follows a female friend group from Queens over the course of their lives, taking us through the different... Read more

See No Stranger

A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love

By: Valarie Kaur
Narrated by: Valarie Kaur
Length: 13 hours 14 minutes

An urgent manifesto and a dramatic memoir of awakening, this is the story of revolutionary love.

Finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize • “In a world stricken with fear and turmoil, Valarie Kaur shows us how to summon our deepest wisdom.”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love
 
How do we love in a time of rage? How do we fix a broken... Read more