Literary Criticism audiobooks

Bad Feminist

By: Roxane Gay

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

Length: 11 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

“Roxane Gay is so great at weaving the intimate and personal with what is most bewildering and upsetting at this moment in culture. She is always looking, always thinking, always passionate, always careful, always right there.”  — Sheila Heti, author of How Should a Person Be?A New York Times BestsellerBest Book of the Year: NPR • Boston Globe •... Read more

What We Talk About When We Talk About Books

By: Leah Price

Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers

Length: 5 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

Reports of the death of reading are greatly exaggerated Do you worry that you've lost patience for anything longer than a tweet? If so, you're not alone. Digital-age pundits warn that as our appetite for books dwindles, so too do the virtues in which printed, bound objects once trained us: the willpower to focus on a sustained argument, the... Read more

Poetry Unbound

By: Pádraig Ó Tuama

Narrated by: Pádraig Ó Tuama

Length: 7 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

In the tumult of our contemporary moment, poetry has emerged as an inviting, consoling outlet with a unique power to move and connect us, to inspire fury, tears, joy, laughter, and surprise. This generous anthology pairs fifty illuminating poems with poet and podcast host Pádraig Ó Tuama's appealing, unhurried reflections. With keen insight and... Read more

The Bright Book of Life

By: Harold Bloom

Narrated by: Stephen Mendel

Length: 21 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

America's most original and controversial literary critic writes trenchantly about forty-eight masterworks spanning the Western tradition—from Don Quixote to Wuthering Heights to Invisible Man—in his first book devoted exclusively to narrative fiction.

In this valedictory volume, Yale professor Harold Bloom—who for more than half a century was... Read more

Year of the Monkey

By: Patti Smith

Narrated by: Patti Smith

Length: 4 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

Riveting, elegant, and humorous, New York Times bestseller Year of the Monkey is a moving and original work, a touchstone for our turbulent times.
 
Following a run of new year’s concerts at San Francisco’s legendary Fillmore, Patti Smith finds herself tramping the coast of Santa Cruz, about to embark on a year of solitary wandering. Unfettered by... Read more

Wonderworks

By: Angus Fletcher

Narrated by: Jacques Roy

Length: 15 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

This “fascinating” (Malcolm Gladwell, New York Times bestselling author of Outliers) examination of literary inventions through the ages, from ancient Mesopotamia to Elena Ferrante, shows how writers have created technical breakthroughs—rivaling scientific inventions—and engineering enhancements to the human heart and mind.

Literature is a... Read more

Devotion

By: Patti Smith

Narrated by: Patti Smith

Length: 2 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

From the renowned artist and author Patti Smith, an inspired exploration of the nature of creative invention.A work of creative brilliance may seem like magic—its source a mystery, its impact unexpectedly stirring. How does an artist accomplish such an achievement, connecting deeply with an audience never met? In this groundbreaking book, one of... Read more

No Judgment

By: Lauren Oyler

Narrated by: Lauren Oyler

Length: 8 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

""The essay collection everyone’s talking about.""—New YorkA MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2024: Elle, The Millions, LitHub, Nylon, BookPage, PureWow, and moreFrom the national bestselling novelist and essayist, a groundbreaking collection of brand-new pieces about the role of cultural criticism in our ever-changing world.In her writing for Harper’s,... Read more

The Light Room

By: Kate Zambreno

Narrated by: Kate Zambreno

Length: 6 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

“Kate Zambreno has invented a new form. It is a kind of absolute present, real life captured in closeup.“  —Annie Ernaux, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 

From “one of our most formally ambitious writers” (Esquire), a moving account of caretaking in a time of uncertainty and loss

In The Light Room, Zambreno offers her most profound and... Read more

Ordinary Wonder Tales

By: Emily Urquhart

Narrated by: Anne Wessel

Length: 7 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

A journalist and folklorist explores the truths that underlie the stories we imagine—and reveals the magic in the everyday.“I’ve always felt that the term fairy tale doesn’t quite capture the essence of these stories,” writes Emily Urquhart. “I prefer the term wonder tale, which is Irish in origin, for its suggestion of awe coupled with... Read more

Burning Questions

By: Margaret Atwood

Narrated by: Margaret Atwood & Full Cast

Length: 18 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

In this brilliant selection of essays, the award-winning, best-selling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments offers her funny, erudite, endlessly curious, and uncannily prescient take on everything from whether or not The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopia to the importance of how to define granola—and seeks answers to Burning Questions... Read more

Unfinished Business

By: Vivian Gornick

Narrated by: Vivian Gornick

Length: 4 hours 27 minutes

Abridged: No

One of our most beloved writers reassess the electrifying works of literature that have shaped her life.“I sometimes think I was born reading…I can’t remember the time when I didn’t have a book in my hands, my head lost to the world around me.”Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader is Vivian Gornick’s celebration of passionate... Read more

Books for Living

By: Will Schwalbe

Narrated by: Jeff Harding

Length: 7 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: No

From the author of the beloved New York Times best-selling The End of Your Life Book Club, an inspiring and magical exploration of the power of books to shape our lives in an era of constant connectivity.


Why is it that we read? Is it to pass time? To learn something new? To escape from reality? For Will Schwalbe, reading is a way to entertain... Read more

Thalia Book Club: Emma Donoghue's Room

By: Emma Donoghue

Narrated by: Michael Cunningham, John Connolly & Maria Tucci

Length: 1 hour 28 minutes

Abridged: No

Emma Donoghue discusses her extraordinary new novel with author Michael Cunningham (The Hours and By Nightfall). This wondrous book is told from the point of view of a five-year-old boy who lives with his mother in an 11-by-11 foot room. Performance playlist: Reading by Michal Friedman, a conversation between Emma Donoghue and Michael... Read more

Mazaltob

By: Blanche Bendahan

Narrated by: Diana Blue

Length: TBA

Abridged: No

Raised in the Judería or Jewish quarter of Tetouan, Morocco, at the turn of the twentieth-century, sixteen-year-old Mazaltob finds herself betrothed to José, an uncouth man from her own community who has returned from Argentina to take a wife. Mazaltob, however, is in love with Jean, who is French, half-Jewish, and a free spirit. In this classic... Read more

Fabeljäger

By: Leon Schweitzer

Narrated by: Sebastian Dunkelberg

Length: 9 hours

Abridged: No

Eine Stadt voll magischer Geschöpfe nimmt unwissentlich das einzige Fabelwesen auf, das es wirklich gibt. Während skrupellose Fabeljäger Jagd auf alle magischen Wesen machen, wächst Veit mit seinen Freunden im Hinterland auf. Stets in der Nähe zum Schwarzen Wald, Heimat etlicher Unholde und Kinderschreckfiguren. Ohne ihre Ziehmutter Daria... Read more

Let's Go Exploring: Calvin and Hobbes

By: Michael Hingston

Narrated by: John Pirhalla

Length: 3 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

A fascinating investigation of a beloved comic strip The internet is home to impassioned debates on just about everything, but there’s one thing that’s universally beloved: Bill Watterson’s comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. Until its retirement in 1995 after a ten-year run, the strip won numerous awards and drew tens of millions of readers from all... Read more

An Angel Walks Through the Stage and Other Essays

By: Jon Fosse

Narrated by: Kåre Conradi

Length: TBA

Abridged: No

Winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature Jon Fosse said farewell to theory early in his career, choosing poetry, fiction, and drama as his mediums of choice. Here, however, in a selection from his two books of essays, we see just how incisive a critic and memoirist he can be. Not only including a generous portion of Fosse's writing on... Read more

The Genius of Judy

By: Rachelle Bergstein

Narrated by: Mia Barron

Length: 7 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: No

An intimate and expansive look at Judy Blume’s life, work, and cultural impact, focusing on her most iconic—and controversial—young adult novels, from Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret to Blubber.

Everyone knows Judy Blume.

Her books have garnered her fans of all ages for decades and sold tens of millions of copies. But why were people so... Read more

Los que sueñan el sueño dorado

By: Joan Didion

Narrated by: Susie Caraballo

Length: 13 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: No

Una antología de los mejores artículos y ensayos de la periodista y escritora Joan Didion. «En la tierra dorada el futuro siempre es atractivo, porque nadie recuerda el pasado.» Joan Didion es una de las cronistas fundamentales de la segunda mitad del siglo XX. En una edición a cargo de Claudio López de Lamadrid, Los que sueñan el sueño dorado... Read more

Modern Genre Theory

By: Andrew Judd

Narrated by: Les Horovitz

Length: 9 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

Genre theory has experienced a renaissance in the last thirty years, but biblical studies has been left in the dark ages of rigid taxonomies and stubborn essentialism. The Bible deserves better. This book offers students in biblical studies an accessible but comprehensive introduction to modern genre theory, providing access to literary tools... Read more

Women’s Libraries in Late Medieval Bourbonnais, Burgundy, and France

By: S. C. Kaplan

Narrated by: S. C. Kaplan

Length: 4 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

How were the libraries of aristocratic women in the late French-speaking Middle Ages developed? Which reading trends and topics were embraced by female readers of the fifteenth century? What substantial gaps in evidence and data loss impede our knowledge of medieval women’s libraries? Combining literary, historical, and cultural studies, Women’s... Read more

El coloso de Nueva York

By: Colson Whitehead

Narrated by: Víctor Sabi

Length: 3 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

Un tributo a la ciudad que nunca duerme, un homenaje literario al paisaje urbano y al ambiente fascinante y febril que dibujan sus habitantes. Por el autor galardonado con el Premio Pulitzer y el National Book Award por El ferrocarril subterráneo. A través de trece episodios, Colson Whitehead traza un recorrido visual por las calles de la... Read more

Big Fiction

By: Dan Sinykin

Narrated by: Mike Lenz

Length: 11 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

In the late 1950s, Random House editor Jason Epstein would talk jazz with Ralph Ellison or chat with Andy Warhol while pouring drinks in his office. By the 1970s, editors were poring over profit-and-loss statements. The electronics company RCA bought Random House in 1965, and then other large corporations purchased other formerly independent... Read more