Mallory O'Meara's Audiobook Picks
"I love fascinating, surprising and delightful nonfiction! All these books are deeply compelling and will have you rushing to tell someone, "Hey, did you know?" —Mallory O'Meara, author of The Lady from the Black Lagoon and Girly Drinks.
Photo by Allan Amato.
Twisted
The Tangled History of Black Hair Culture
By Emma Dabiri
Narrated by: Emma Dabiri
Length: 7 hours 42 minutes
From Guardian contributor and prominent BBC race correspondent Emma Dabiri comes a timely and resonant essay collection exploring the ways in which black hair has been appropriated and stigmatized throughout history, with ruminations on body politics, race, pop culture, and Dabiri’s own journey to loving her hair.
Emma Dabiri can tell you the...
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The Drunken Botanist
The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks
By Amy Stewart
Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
Length: 10 hours 15 minutes
Every great drink starts with a plant. Sake began with a grain of rice. Scotch emerged from barley. Gin was born from a conifer shrub when medieval physicians boiled juniper berries with wine to treat stomach pain. The Drunken Botanist uncovers the surprising botanical history and fascinating science and chemistry of over 150 plants, flowers,...
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Four Lost Cities
A Secret History of the Urban Age
By Annalee Newitz
Narrated by: Chloe Cannon
Length: 8 hours 14 minutes
Four Lost Cities
“Analee Newitz looks at the fate of four so-called 'lost' cities on three continents in this book. They describe the way modern day archeologists are turning their findings into stories about what life was like in these early urban centers. For a book about falling civilizations, I found it incredibly optimistic! Political and environmental factors may have led to their downfall, but Newitz discusses the way people found ways to resettle and thrive elsewhere (and as someone who sometimes worries about political and environmental issues, I found this very comforting!)”
Lisa, The Booksmith
White Magic
Essays
By Elissa Washuta
Narrated by: Kyla García
Length: 11 hours 26 minutes
Throughout her life, Elissa Washuta has been surrounded by cheap facsimiles of Native spiritual tools and occult trends, "starter witch kits" of sage, rose quartz, and tarot cards packaged together in paper and plastic. Following a decade of abuse, addiction, PTSD, and heavy-duty drug treatment for a misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder, she felt... Read more »
Why Fish Don't Exist
A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life
By Lulu Miller
Narrated by: Lulu Miller
Length: 4 hours 55 minutes
Why Fish Don't Exist
“Despite having no general interest in ichthyology, taxonomy, or old white eugenicists, Why Fish Don't Exist was one of the most engaging stories I have ever read. The audio edition, read by the author, is ridiculously charming. It meanders between a biography and a memoir, and it's refreshing to read a narrative that isn't afraid to change its course when presented with new information. It made me want to read more about the philosophy of science, as well as anything Miller writes in the future.”
Ian, Page 1 Books
Dark Archives
A Librarian's Investigation Into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin
By Megan Rosenbloom
Narrated by: Justis Bolding
Length: 6 hours 58 minutes
On bookshelves around the world, surrounded by ordinary books bound in paper and leather, rest other volumes of a distinctly strange and grisly sort: those bound in human skin. Would you know one if you held it in your hand? In Dark Archives, Megan Rosenbloom seeks out the historic and scientific truths behind anthropodermic bibliopegy?the... Read more »