Nonfiction November

The 1619 Project

A New Origin Story

By: Caitlin Roper, Ilena Silverman & Jake Silverstein
Narrated by: Nikole Hannah-Jones & Full Cast
Length: 18 hours 56 minutes

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • NPR • Marie Claire
 
In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of... Read more

How the Word Is Passed

A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

By: Clint Smith
Narrated by: Clint Smith
Length: 10 hours 6 minutes

“Smith has crafted a resource, narrative and detailed explanation into how we teach the legacy of slavery. He recounts visits from everywhere from NYC to the Whitney Plantation, integrating stories of people and visitors today. This book is lays a beautiful written foundation for interrogating the history we've been taught. Particularly... Read more

On Animals

By: Susan Orlean
Narrated by: Susan Orlean
Length: 10 hours

“Loved the Libro.fm version of this book! Read by the author, it is engaging and entertaining. It is not deep or heavy, but whether you are an animal enthusiast or not, this book works! Read more

RedHanded

An Exploration of Criminals, Cannibals, Cults, and What Makes a Killer Tick

By: Suruthi Bala & Hannah Maguire
Narrated by: Suruthi Bala, Hannah Maguire & Denise Mina
Length: 8 hours 43 minutes

Based off Hannah Maguire and Suruthi Bala's popular podcast of the same name, RedHanded explores real-life true crime cases to help answer once and for all if a killer is born or made.

Features an audiobook exclusive interview: Suruthi and Hannah interview award-winning author Denise Mina on the "the less dead", equality and bigotry in crime, the... Read more

The Last Nomad

Coming of Age in the Somali Desert

By: Shugri Said Salh
Narrated by: Waceke Wambaa
Length: 9 hours 39 minutes

“Shugri Said Salh delivers a poignant memoir about her life in Somalia, beginning with her life as a nomadic child with her grandmother in the desert. Shugri's struggles morph as she grows: hunger and thirst as a young nomadic child; an unstable home life back in the city; an escape from her home country when civil war breaks out; and so much... Read more

Carefree Black Girls

A Celebration of Black Women in Popular Culture

By: Zeba Blay
Narrated by: Zeba Blay
Length: 6 hours 16 minutes

One of Kirkus Review's Best Books About Being Black in America

"Powerful... Calling for Black women (in and out of the public eye) to be treated with empathy, Blay’s pivotal work will engage all readers, especially fans of Mikki Kendall’s Hood Feminism." —Kirkus (Starred)

This program is read by the author.

An empowering and celebratory portrait of... Read more

A Two-Spirit Journey

The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder

Critical Studies in Native History: Book #18

By: Ma-Nee Chacaby
Narrated by: Marsha Knight
Length: 11 hours 57 minutes

A Two-Spirit Journey is Ma-Nee Chacaby’s extraordinary account of her life as an Ojibwa-Cree lesbian. From her early, often harrowing memories of life and abuse in a remote Ojibwa community riven by poverty and alcoholism, Chacaby’s story is one of enduring and ultimately overcoming the social, economic, and health legacies of colonialism.... Read more

Please Don't Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes

Essays

By: Phoebe Robinson
Narrated by: Phoebe Robinson
Length: 9 hours 29 minutes

“[A]nother hilarious essay collection from Phoebe Robinson.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Strikes the perfect balance of brutally honest and laugh out loud funny. I didn’t want it to end.”
—Mindy Kaling, New York Times bestselling author of Why Not Me?

With sharp, timely insight, pitch-perfect pop culture references, and her always unforgettable... Read more

Hidden Valley Road

Inside the Mind of an American Family

By: Robert Kolker
Narrated by: Sean Pratt
Length: 13 hours 8 minutes

“This came out in 2020, and I absolutely did not have the bandwidth to read it then. I revisited it this month via audiobook. Hidden Valley Road's focus is the Galvin family where six of the twelve children develop schizophrenia by the mid 1970s. Kolker expertly weaves together the strands of history of the Galvin's, the disease, and the... Read more

What Happened to You?

Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing

By: Oprah Winfrey & Bruce D. Perry
Narrated by: Bruce D. Perry & Oprah Winfrey
Length: 8 hours 27 minutes

"[Oprah Winfrey and Bruce D. Perry] are both capable, likable narrators who are sincerely engaged with their subject matter...The performances of these two humanitarians make this a must-hear for anyone recovering from their traumatic past." —AudioFile

This program is read by the authors.

Our earliest experiences shape our lives far down the... Read more

Empire of Pain

The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

By: Patrick Radden Keefe
Narrated by: Patrick Radden Keefe
Length: 18 hours 6 minutes

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE NOMINEE • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A grand, devastating portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, famed for their philanthropy, whose fortune was built by Valium and whose reputation was destroyed by OxyContin. From the prize-winning and bestselling author of... Read more

Wintering

The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

By: Katherine May
Narrated by: Rebecca Lee
Length: 6 hours 53 minutes

“This was the perfect listen at the right time. Memoir, mythology, and meditations on an ever ignored fact that we must change our lifestyle in order to adapt to this sometimes brutal season. I will definitely come back to this one many times. Read more

Taste

My Life Through Food

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

“If I did not already love Stanley Tucci before this, I would most certainly love him now. In true Stanley Tucci fashion, this memoir/cookbook/food writing tome is witty, acerbic, candid, and very, delicious. This book is a gift for foodies and non-foodies alike, but I dare you not to become a foodie after reading. I especially enjoyed the... Read more

Misfits

A Personal Manifesto

By: Michaela Coel
Narrated by: Michaela Coel
Length: 1 hour 35 minutes

“I loved this book! It is a manifesto of sorts for folks working in creative industries that have been historically unwelcoming to the so-called 'misfits.' Coel talks about her own experiences working in television and makes a really compelling points about transparency, power, and the importance of story telling. Read more

Maid

Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive

By: Stephanie Land
Narrated by: Stephanie Land
Length: 8 hours 34 minutes

“Stephanie Land’s Maid is a must-read of the highest order, a memoir of a single mother struggling to survive while performing the household labor that many of us take for granted. While at once deeply personal — you’ll fall hard for Stephanie and her daughter, Mia — it is also essential social commentary about how we treat the myriad domestic... Read more

Being Seen

One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism

By: Elsa Sjunneson
Narrated by: Elsa Sjunneson
Length: 6 hours 36 minutes

A deafblind writer and professor explores how the misrepresentation of disability in books, movies, and TV harms both the disabled community and everyone else.

As a deafblind woman with partial vision in one eye and bilateral hearing aids, Elsa Sjunneson lives at the crossroads of blindness and sight, hearing and deafness—much to the confusion of... Read more

Entangled Life

How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures

By: Merlin Sheldrake
Narrated by: Merlin Sheldrake
Length: 9 hours 32 minutes

“An ecological, fungi-based restructuring of your world view given to us as only a brilliant biologist could offer. Sheldrake says, 'Without this fungal web my tree would not exist. Without [...] fungal webs no plant would exist anywhere. All life on land, including my own, depends on these networks.' Read more

Braiding Sweetgrass

Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

By: Robin Wall Kimmerer
Narrated by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
Length: 16 hours 44 minutes

As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our... Read more

The Book of Hope

A Survival Guide for Trying Times

Global Icons Series

By: Jane Goodall & Douglas Abrams
Narrated by: Douglas Abrams & Jane Goodall
Length: 6 hours 49 minutes

“Listening to this on audio has been a special experience simply due to the fact that Jane Goodall’s voice as she delivers her philosophies on hope in regards to the environment is both a balm to a troubled mind and spark of inspiration towards action. There is someone in your life that needs this book and it would make a great gift for them. Read more

Seeing Ghosts

A Memoir

By: Kat Chow
Narrated by: Kat Chow
Length: 9 hours 53 minutes

This "graceful, captivating" (New York Times Book Review) story from a singular new talent paints a portrait of grief and the search for meaning as told through the prism of three generations of her Chinese American family—perfect for readers of Helen Macdonald and Elizabeth Alexander.

Kat Chow has always been unusually fixated on death. She... Read more