Free Audiobooks, Excerpts, Samplers, and Exclusive Author Events

It Happened One Summer (29-Minute Excerpt) - Abridged

A Novel

By: Tessa Bailey
Narrated by: Charlotte North
Length: 29 minutes

USA TODAY BESTSELLERTessa Bailey is back with a Schitt’s Creek-inspired rom-com about a Hollywood “It Girl” who’s cut off from her wealthy family and exiled to a small Pacific Northwest beach town... where she butts heads with a surly, sexy local who thinks she doesn’t belong. As seen on E!Online, PopSugar, CNN, EliteDaily, Vulture, Buzzfeed,... Read more

Quarantine Session #67: Zakiya Dalila Harris + Brit Bennett

By: Zakiya Dalila Harris
Narrated by: Brit Bennett
Length: 1 hour 1 minute

Author Zakiya Dalila Harris alights at Greenlight to launch her debut novel The Other Black Girl, a whip-smart thriller and crackling social commentary on the trials of being a Black woman in an overwhelmingly white industry. Harris talks with Brit Bennett (bestselling author of The Mothers and The Vanishing Half) about navigating the whiteness... Read more

Island Queen (37-Minute Excerpt) - Abridged

A Novel

By: Vanessa Riley
Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
Length: 37 minutes

“Richly detailed, vividly depicted, and sweeping in scope, Island Queen is historical fiction at its absolute finest. A stunning must-read!”—Chanel Cleeton, New York Times bestselling author of The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba
A remarkable, sweeping historical novel based on the incredible true life story of Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, a free woman of... Read more

Afterparties (43-Minute Excerpt) - Abridged

Stories

By: Anthony Veasno So
Narrated by: Jason Sean
Length: 43 minutes

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA Roxane Gay's Audacious Book Club Pick!Named a Best Book of Summer by: Wall Street Journal * Thrillist * Vogue * Lit Hub * Refinery29 * New York Observer * The Daily Beast * Time * BuzzFeed * Entertainment Weekly A vibrant story collection about Cambodian-American life—immersive and comic, yet unsparing—that... Read more

Morowa Yejidé: Creatures of Passage

By: Morowa Yejidé
Narrated by: Mary Kay Zuravleff
Length: 58 minutes

River Bend hosted a virtual event celebrating the release of Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejidé. The event featured authors Morowa Yejidé and Tananarive Due in conversation with Mary Kay Zuravleff. A discussion of magical realism, horror, and contemporary Black literature. Read more

The Reading List (23-Minute Excerpt) - Abridged

A Novel

By: Sara Nisha Adams
Narrated by: Tara Divina, Sagar Arya & and Paul Panting
Length: 22 minutes

A BEST OF SUMMER READ ACCORDING TO NEWSWEEK, PARADE MAGAZINE, NBC NEWS, LITHUB, AND POPSUGAR!"The most heartfelt read of the summer...a surprising delight of a novel."--ShondalandAn unforgettable and heartwarming debut about how a chance encounter with a list of library books helps forge an unlikely friendship between two very different people... Read more

Razorblade Tears 21-Minute Excerpt) - Abridged

A Novel

By: S. A. Cosby
Narrated by: Adam Lazarre-White
Length: 21 minutes

“Superb...Cuts right to the heart of the most important questions of our times.” —Michael Connelly,
#1 New York Times bestselling author

A Black father. A white father. Two murdered sons. A quest for vengeance.

Ike Randolph has been out of jail for fifteen years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. But a Black man with cops at... Read more

Quarantine Session #65: Maggie Shipstead + Brandon Taylor

By: Maggie Shipstead
Narrated by: Brandon Taylor
Length: 59 minutes

Author Brandon Taylor interviews fellow novelist and travel writer Maggie Shipstead about her epic novel Great Circle, a world-spanning tale of women “navigating the ice floes of patriarchy.” From evolving ways of defining (or not defining) gender through the past two centuries, to Hollywood gossip and the perennial challenge of writing... Read more

Dear Miss Metropolitan (20-Minute Excerpt) - Abridged

A Novel

By: Carolyn Ferrell
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
Length: 20 minutes

Introducing an extraordinary and original writer whose first novel explores the intersections of grief and rage, personal strength and healing—and what we owe one another.

Fern seeks refuge from her mother’s pill-popping and boyfriends via Soul Train; Gwen finds salvation in the music of Prince much to her congregation’s dismay and Jessenia,... Read more

Quarantine Session #63: Stephanie Danler + Emma Roberts & Karah Preiss

By: Stephanie Danler
Narrated by: Emma Roberts & Karah Preiss
Length: 1 hour 4 minutes

Bestselling memoirist Stephanie Danler celebrates the paperback release of her most recent work Stray with author Kara Preiss and actor Emma Roberts, co-founders of the literary website Belletrist. The trio talk about writing as a way to survive a troubled home life, the challenges, regrets, and requirements of memoir, and the fascinating... Read more

Ibi Zoboi (My Life) with Rita Williams Garcia at Greenlight Bookstore

By: Ibi Zoboi
Narrated by: Rita Williams Garcia
Length: 57 minutes

Rising star Ibi Zoboi (author of the young adult novels American Street and Pride) presents her middle grade fiction debut My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich , in a conversation with her mentor, iconic young people’s fiction author Rita Williams-Garcia, centered on the culture of 1980s Harlem, hip-hop, and sci-fi and black girl nerdiness.... Read more

Quarantine Session #20: Raven Leilani + Samantha Irby

By: Raven Leilani
Narrated by: Samantha Irby
Length: 57 minutes

In this electrifying pre-publication event, Raven Leilani launches her highly anticipated novel Luster in conversation with fiercely brilliant comedian Samantha Irby. Leilani's novel of a young Black woman's artistic and sexual trajectory is the starting point for a passionate and hilarious conversation about (among other things) the... Read more

Blythe Roberson (How to Date Men When You Hate Men) at Greenlight Bookstore

By: Blythe Roberson
Narrated by: Blythe Roberson
Length: 56 minutes

Blythe Roberson, writer, comedian, and researcher at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, launches her debut book How to Date Men When You Hate Men . The audiobook is a humorous guide for dating in the modern age (without going insane), especially for those facing difficulties like how to daydream about a gender that is actively oppressing them.... Read more

Quarantine Session #11 Meredith Talusan + Alok Vaid-Menon

By: Meredith Talusan
Narrated by: Alok Vaid-Menon
Length: 58 minutes

Award-winning author and journalist Meredith Talusan’s talks about her memoir Fairest — a coming of age story about a precocious boy with albinism, a “sun child” from a rural Philippine village, who would grow up to become a woman in America — with her friend (and former roommate), writer and performance artist Alok. Topics of conversation... Read more

Shoe Dog (45-Minute Excerpt)

By: Phil Knight
Narrated by: Norbert Leo Butz
Length: 44 minutes

In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. Read more

Quarantine Session #62: Adam Mansbach + Saeed Jones

By: Adam Mansbach
Narrated by: Saeed Jones
Length: 59 minutes

Adam Mansbach, best known as creator of the parodic children’s book Go the F*ck to Sleep as well as several award-winning novels, opens up about his memoir of his brother’s suicide I Had a Brother Once in conversation with poet and memoirist Saeed Jones. Their moving and vulnerable conversation circles around the ways that grief runs up against... Read more

Ezra Klein (Why We're Polarized) with Ta-Nehisi Coates (Between the World and Me) at Greenlight Bookstore

By: Ezra Klein & Ta-Nehisi Coates
Length: 1 hour 11 minutes

Acclaimed podcaster and political analyst Ezra Klein of Vox talks with Ta-Nehisi Coates (Between the World and Me) in front of a packed house about the evolution of America’s broken system as outlined in his book Why We’re Polarized. (Recorded at St. Joseph’s College on February 2, 2020) Read more

The Moment of Tenderness (35-minute audiobook excerpt 'The Fact of the Matter')

By: Madeleine L 'Engle
Narrated by: Caitlin Davies
Length: 35 minutes

Enjoy this free short story from award-winning author Madeleine L'Engle's newest book, The Moment of Tenderness, a collection of 18 short stories, some never before published. It was a frigid winter day when Old Mrs. Campbell stormed into the Franklins' general store, decrying the devilish nature of her daughter-in-law-a sentiment that deeply... Read more

Quarantine Session #8 Nicole Dennis-Benn + Imani Perry

By: Nicole Dennis-Benn
Narrated by: Nicole Dennis-Benn
Length: 1 hour 1 minute

Patsy, in an evening that grapples with intergenerational trauma as well as embracing Black joy. The energetic and inspiring conversation delves into Black women's identity, oppression, and power; post-colonialism and racism; mental health and its stigmas; sexual identity and freedom; the intersection of language and class; literary influences;... Read more

Steve Jobs (43-Minute Excerpt)

By: Walter Isaacson
Narrated by: Dylan Baker
Length: 42 minutes

From the author of the bestselling biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein, this is the exclusive biography of Steve Jobs. Read more