Essays audiobooks

Crying in H Mart

By: Michelle Zauner

Narrated by: Michelle Zauner

Length: 7 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

From the indie rockstar of Japanese Breakfast fame, and author of the viral 2018 New Yorker essay that shares the title of this book, an unflinching, powerful memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity.

In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far... Read more

The Anthropocene Reviewed

By: John Green

Narrated by: John Green

Length: 10 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

“Masterful. The Anthropocene Reviewed is a beautiful, timely book about the human condition—and a timeless reminder to pay attention to your attention.” —Adam Grant, #1 bestselling author of Think Again and host of the podcast Re:Thinking

The instant #1 bestseller from John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All the Way Down, is... Read more

Happy-Go-Lucky

By: David Sedaris

Narrated by: David Sedaris

Length: 7 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

An Audie Award Winner

David Sedaris, the “champion storyteller,” (Los Angeles Times) returns with his first new collection of personal essays since the bestselling Calypso.

Back when restaurant menus were still printed on paper, and wearing a mask—or not—was a decision made mostly on Halloween, David Sedaris spent his time doing normal things. As... Read more

Raw Dog

By: Jamie Loftus

Narrated by: Jamie Loftus

Length: 9 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: No

One of BookPage's Best Audiobooks of 2023

"Loftus is a charming narrator...goofy, engaging, and always game to do a silly voice." —The New York Times

"There’s something terribly irresistible about her narration, which is often incredibly funny." —BookPage

Part travelogue, part culinary history, all capitalist critique—comedian Jamie Loftus's debut,... Read more

Calypso

By: David Sedaris

Narrated by: David Sedaris

Length: 6 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: No

David Sedaris returns with his most deeply personal and darkly hilarious book.

If you've ever laughed your way through David Sedaris's cheerfully misanthropic stories, you might think you know what you're getting with Calypso. You'd be wrong.

When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast, Sedaris envisions long, relaxing vacations spent... Read more

Leslie F*cking Jones

By: Leslie Jones

Narrated by: Leslie Jones & Chris Rock

Length: 16 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER with 5+ hours of bonus material not found in the print version and read by Leslie Jones. AudioFile Magazine awarded the recording an ‘Earphones Award’, saying: “No listener can leave this memoir unaffected as Jones laughs and sobs, sharing the highs and lows, joys and sorrows of her full life.”

Hey you guys, it’s... Read more

Yearbook

By: Seth Rogen

Narrated by: Seth Rogen & Full Cast

Length: 6 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: No

A collection of funny personal essays from one of the writers of Superbad and Pineapple Express and one of the producers of The Disaster Artist, Neighbors, and The Boys. (All of these words have been added to help this book show up in people’s searches using the wonders of algorithmic technology. Thanks for bearing with us!) The... Read more

Hijab Butch Blues

By: Lamya H

Narrated by: Ashraf Shirazi

Length: 7 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

A queer hijabi Muslim immigrant survives her coming-of-age by drawing strength and hope from stories in the Quran in this “raw and relatable memoir that challenges societal norms and expectations” (Linah Mohammad, NPR).

“A masterful, must-read contribution to conversations on power, justice, healing, and devotion from a singular voice I now trust... Read more

Scrappy Little Nobody

By: Anna Kendrick

Narrated by: Anna Kendrick

Length: 6 hours

Abridged: No

The New York Times bestselling collection of humorous autobiographical essays by the Academy Award nominated actress and star of Up in the Air and Pitch Perfect.

Even before she made a name for herself on the silver screen starring in films like Pitch Perfect, Up in the Air, Twilight, and Into the Woods, Anna Kendrick was unusually small, weird,... Read more

Wow, No Thank You.

By: Samantha Irby

Narrated by: Samantha Irby

Length: 10 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: No

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

Kitchen Confidential

By: Anthony Bourdain

Narrated by: Anthony Bourdain

Length: 8 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

When Chef Anthony Bourdain wrote "Don't Eat Before You Read This" in The New Yorker, he spared no one's appetite, revealing what goes on behind the kitchen door. In Kitchen Confidential, he expanded the appetizer into a deliciously funny, delectably shocking banquet that lays out his twenty-five years of sex, drugs, and haute cuisine.

From his... Read more

How Far the Light Reaches

By: Sabrina Imbler

Narrated by: Sabrina Imbler

Length: 5 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

A fascinating tour of creatures from the surface to the deepest ocean floor: this "miraculous, transcendental book" invites us to envision wilder, grander, and more abundant possibilities for the way we live (Ed Yong, author of An Immense World). A queer, mixed race writer working in a largely white, male field, science and conservation... Read more

The Book of Delights

By: Ross Gay

Narrated by: Ross Gay

Length: 5 hours

Abridged: No

The winner of the NBCC Award for Poetry offers up a spirited collection of short lyric essays, written daily over a tumultuous year, reminding us of the purpose and pleasure of praising, extolling, and celebrating ordinary wonders. Ross Gay's The Book of Delights is a genre-defying book of essays- some as short as a paragraph; some as long as... Read more

Trick Mirror

By: Jia Tolentino

Narrated by: Jia Tolentino

Length: 9 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “From The New Yorker’s beloved cultural critic comes a bold, unflinching collection of essays about self-deception, examining everything from scammer culture to reality television.”—Esquire
 
Book Club Pick for Now Read This, from PBS NewsHour and The New York Times • “A whip-smart, challenging book.”—Zadie Smith • “Jia... Read more

Ten Steps to Nanette

By: Hannah Gadsby

Narrated by: Hannah Gadsby

Length: 13 hours 47 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Multi-award-winning Hannah Gadsby broke comedy with their show Nanette. In this “enthralling” (The Washington Post) memoir, they take us through the defining moments in their life and their powerful decision to tell the truth—no matter the cost.

Don’t miss Hannah Gadsby’s new stand-up show, Woof!, on tour now!

“Hannah... Read more

Little Weirds

By: Jenny Slate

Narrated by: Jenny Slate

Length: 4 hours 19 minutes

Abridged: No

Step into Jenny Slate's wild imagination in this "magical" (Mindy Kaling), "delicious" (Amy Sedaris), and "poignant" (John Mulaney) New York Times bestseller about love, heartbreak, and being alive -- "this book is something new and wonderful" (George Saunders).

You may "know" Jenny Slate from her Netflix special, Stage Fright, as the creator of... Read more

These Precious Days

By: Ann Patchett

Narrated by: Ann Patchett

Length: 11 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: No

The beloved New York Times bestselling author reflects on home, family, friendships and writing in this deeply personal collection of essays.  ""The elegance of Patchett’s prose is seductive and inviting: with Patchett as a guide, readers will really get to grips with the power of struggles, failures, and triumphs alike."" —Publisher's... Read more

How To Tell When We Will Die

By: Johanna Hedva

Narrated by: Johanna Hedva

Length: 15 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

The long-awaited essay collection from one of the most influential voices in disability activism that detonates a bomb in our collective understanding of care and illness, showing us that sickness is a fact of life.   In the wake of the 2014 Ferguson riots, and sick with a chronic condition that rendered them housebound, Johanna Hedva turned to... Read more

A Thousand Ways to Pay Attention

By: Rebecca Schiller

Narrated by: Rebecca Schiller

Length: 11 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

It should have been Rebecca Schiller's dream come true: moving her young family to the English countryside to raise goats and coax their own fruit and vegetables from the land. But, as she writes: The summer of striding out toward a life of open fields and sacks of corn, I brought a confused black hole of something pernicious but not yet... Read more

Shit, Actually

By: Lindy West

Narrated by: Lindy West

Length: 7 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

**Your Favorite Movies, Re-Watched**
New York Times opinion writer and bestselling author Lindy West was once the in-house movie critic for Seattle's alternative newsweekly The Stranger, where she covered film with brutal honesty and giddy irreverence. In Shit, Actually, Lindy returns to those roots, re-examining beloved and iconic movies from... Read more

Quietly Hostile

By: Samantha Irby

Narrated by: Samantha Irby

Length: 9 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A GLAMOUR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A hilarious new essay collection from Samantha Irby "engages readers with her characteristic combination of laugh-out-loud moments, heartfelt passages and plenty of awkward experiences.... Quietly Hostile will delight established fans and newcomers alike (Parade).
 
“Brilliant and one... Read more

Broken (in the best possible way)

By: Jenny Lawson

Narrated by: Jenny Lawson

Length: 8 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

"Jenny Lawson returns to narrate her third installment in a disheveled saga of finding the light at the end of a long, winding, ludicrous tunnel...Another treasure in the Lawson collection, this audiobook shines with a powerful message: Depression and anxiety suck, but we can rise above them." -- AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner

From... Read more

All Creatures Great and Small

By: James Herriot

Narrated by: Nicholas Ralph

Length: 15 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

**This program is read by Nicholas Ralph, star of the PBS Masterpiece series**

"Nicholas Ralph’s readings of Herriot’s stories are as comforting an experience as the show, and even more immersive." —The Houston Chronicle

A tie-in to the PBS Masterpiece series and Christmas special, available on streaming and home video.

All Creatures Great and... Read more

Sitting Pretty

By: Rebekah Taussig

Narrated by: Rebekah Taussig

Length: 7 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

A memoir-in-essays from disability advocate and creator of the Instagram account @sitting_pretty Rebekah Taussig, processing a lifetime of memories to paint a beautiful, nuanced portrait of a body that looks and moves differently than most.Growing up as a paralyzed girl during the 90s and early 2000s, Rebekah Taussig only saw disability depicted... Read more