MARCH 20, 2020
Editor Kat is Geek-ing out
In the midst of calamity, there is inherent appeal in fiction so immersive and immediate that its story and your own bleed together, never to be untangled again. Katherine Dunn’s masterpiece of misfits, Geek Love, first ripped me open decades ago; now it’s helping put me (somewhat) back together via the life-giving tonic of Christina Moore’s fully committed narration. The Binewskis—a deliberately engineered brood of sideshow freaks—are probably the most indelible characters I’ve ever met, almost as real to me as the family I’m cooped up with for the foreseeable future. I’ve been thinking a lot about how my kids will be affected by this truly strange time; Geek Love offers not just the balm of escape but solace in the wisdom of children, the gift of weirdness, and the life-affirming persistence of art.—Kat
Editor Abby is nurturing her creative side
With so much around me out of my control, it’s been important to remind myself to fill my creative well and work on the things that make me feel whole. In normal times I’d hie myself off to a museum, where I’d both enjoy a variety of art forms and fervently wish I had the talent to create my own. For now I’ve turned to the newly released How To Be An Artist by Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic Jerry Saltz, which is pushing away the self-doubt and emboldening my creative soul in ways that go well beyond the art world.—Abby
Editor Rachel is listening to her colleagues (and their picks)
I'm thankful for my coworkers, who have been there for a virtual chat whenever I feel too cooped up in my NYC apartment. The other day, editor Aaron asked what I would pick as my all-time favorite book, which was impossible—I had to pick three: Moby-Dick, Prep, and Priestdaddy. When I asked him the same question, he didn't hesitate before answering—RachelJesus' Son—I think it's the best short story collection ever.As I steal a few minutes here and there to go outside for some fresh air in between working and taking care of my family, an immersive short story collection beloved by a friend with great literary taste is exactly what I need right now.
Editor Tricia finds a sense of control in the chaos
I searched for a listen to help me feel more in control of my life—and decided to go with something quite on the nose: Take Control of Your Life: How to Silence Fear and Win the Mental Game. How is it working? Well, Mel Robbins’s tone of voice alone makes me feel like a boss. I immediately felt validated and empowered to do something different—something beyond the knee-jerk and often-times ineffective coping mechanisms I resort to when under stress. I also felt a sense of camaraderie with the six real-life people Mel has sessions with. Dare I say it was fun to listen in on their conversations? We’re all in this thing called life together—we can learn from each other and benefit from a little self-reflection. Mel also gives actionable advice I look forward to trying out right away. Who knows, I may emerge from all of this more in control than ever.—Tricia
Editor Sean isn’t afraid of the dark side
If I’m feeling unpleasant emotionally, I tend to lean into it. So in times of anxiety and fear, I listen to The Conspiracy Against the Human Race. It’s sorta like horror-philosophy; a polemic against hopefulness that makes a deeply unpleasant but convincing case that identity is simply the illusive result of an evolutionary mistake: consciousness. Ligotti’s book is the basis for Rust Cohle’s philosophy in the TV show True Detective—another deep dive into unpleasantness fit for any cynic in isolation.—Sean
Editor Emily is visiting another time and place
I'm deep into Constance Sayer's A Witch in Time right now and finding that it's the perfect antidote to cabin fever. Following the tumultuous and doomed romance of a woman over several lifetimes as she tries to outrun an unbreakable curse, this feels like the perfect mix of Outlander, A Discovery of Witches, and The Time Traveler's Wife, all in one epic historical fantasy. It's an instant escape every time I hit play.—Emily
Editor Michael is coping with love in close quarters...
My girlfriend and I have been doing long distance for the past year, and she visited just in time for us to be quarantined at my parent’s house looking after my dad. It’s been a bit of a transition, to say the least, and Esther Perel’s bible on domestic relationships has been a crucial anchor for me in the past week. Mating in Captivity highlights important aspects of healthy relationships many of us take for granted or even actively try to do away with. Mystery, uncertainty, and suspense (for example) are important things to nurture in moderation. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be hiding in the car, nurturing uncertainty.—Michael
...while Editor Katie finds solace in Romance
Christina Lauren (which is actually a best-friend writing duo) have been there for me during some truly dark days in my life. I’ve listened to them while sad and dealing with loss, and I’ve even listened to them in an ER waiting room (I never travel without my headphones #audiophile). I have listened to and loved every single one of their titles (including their YA books), but The Unhoneymooners has been the right one for me as I deal with my own anxieties during this pandemic. It’s an enemies-to-lovers romcom of errors, with pitch-perfect narration from Cynthia Farrell and Deacon Lee. If you’re looking for a little levity and a little love right now (with a side of Hawaiian vacation!), this is your listen.—Katie
Other things to note:
- It’s World Storytelling Day. Tweet us two emoji and we’ll give you a recommendation.
- Many of us added
homeschool teacher
to our job titles this week, including media mogul Shonda Rimes, who soon surmised that teachers should makea billion dollars a year.
Audible Stories, our new, free streaming kids’ content service, is here to help! - Roseanne Cash reminded us that, while quarantined during the bubonic plague, The Bard produced King Lear. How’s your isolation art coming along?
- The pandemic hasn’t hampered creative output for many modern-day creators, including narrator Edoardo Ballerini, who took Twitter requests for poem recordings.
- Our favorite therapist-turned-author, Lori Gottlieb, offered advice on how to stay emotionally healthy in a pandemic.
Audiobooks in This Edition
-
Geek Love
- By: Katherine Dunn
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one wants to be a victim, but most find the event too hypnotic to ignore. In order to save their traveling carnival from bankruptcy, the Binewskis are creating their own brood of sideshow freaks. Under Al's careful direction, the pregnant Lil ingests radioisotopes, insecticides, and arsenic to make her babies "special".
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-
Shudderingly Good!
- By reader on 08-22-09
-
Moby Dick
- By: Herman Melville
- Narrated by: William Hootkins
- Length: 24 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Call me Ishmael." Thus starts the greatest American novel. Melville said himself that he wanted to write "a mighty book about a mighty theme" and so he did. It is a story of one man's obsessive revenge-journey against the white whale, Moby-Dick, who injured him in an earlier meeting. Woven into the story of the last journey of The Pequod is a mesh of philosophy, rumination, religion, history, and a mass of information about whaling through the ages.
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-
Excellent, EXCELLENT reading!
- By Jessica on 02-18-09
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Prep
- A Novel
- By: Curtis Sittenfeld
- Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie
- Length: 17 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lee Fiora is an intelligent, observant 14-year-old when her father drops her off in front of her dorm at the prestigious Ault School in Massachusetts. She leaves her animated, affectionate family in South Bend, Indiana, at least in part because of the boarding school’s glossy brochure, in which boys in sweaters chat in front of old brick buildings, girls in kilts hold lacrosse sticks on pristinely mown athletic fields, and everyone sings hymns in chapel.
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“Lee Goes to High School”
- By Ree on 03-28-20
-
Priestdaddy
- A Memoir
- By: Patricia Lockwood
- Narrated by: Patricia Lockwood
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Father Greg Lockwood is unlike any Catholic priest you have ever met - a man who lounges in boxer shorts, who loves action movies, and whose constant jamming on the guitar reverberates "like a whole band dying in a plane crash in 1972". His daughter is an irreverent poet who long ago left the church's country. When an unexpected crisis leads her and her husband to move back into her parents' rectory, their two worlds collide.
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-
Terrible narration--read, don't listen
- By Penelope on 08-06-17
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Jesus' Son
- By: Denis Johnson
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 2 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Denis Johnson's now classic story collection Jesus' Son chronicles a wild netherworld of addicts and lost souls, a violent and disordered landscape that encompasses every extreme of American culture. These are stories of transcendence and spiraling grief, of hallucinations and glories, of getting lost and found and lost again. The insights and careening energy in Jesus' Son have earned the book a place of its own among the classics of twentieth-century American literature.
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-
Some books are better read.
- By dngold77 on 09-02-18
-
How to Be an Artist
- By: Jerry Saltz
- Narrated by: Jerry Saltz
- Length: 2 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Art has the power to change our lives. For many, becoming an artist is a lifelong dream. But how to make it happen? In How to Be an Artist, Jerry Saltz, one of the art world’s most celebrated and passionate voices, offers an indispensable handbook for creative people of all kinds. From the first sparks of inspiration - and how to pursue them without giving in to self-doubt - Saltz offers invaluable insight into what really matters to emerging artists: originality, persistence, a balance between knowledge and intuition, and that most precious of qualities, self-belief.
-
-
Terrible Book Waste of Money
- By Classic on 04-22-20
-
Geek Love
- By: Katherine Dunn
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one wants to be a victim, but most find the event too hypnotic to ignore. In order to save their traveling carnival from bankruptcy, the Binewskis are creating their own brood of sideshow freaks. Under Al's careful direction, the pregnant Lil ingests radioisotopes, insecticides, and arsenic to make her babies "special".
-
-
Shudderingly Good!
- By reader on 08-22-09
-
Moby Dick
- By: Herman Melville
- Narrated by: William Hootkins
- Length: 24 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Call me Ishmael." Thus starts the greatest American novel. Melville said himself that he wanted to write "a mighty book about a mighty theme" and so he did. It is a story of one man's obsessive revenge-journey against the white whale, Moby-Dick, who injured him in an earlier meeting. Woven into the story of the last journey of The Pequod is a mesh of philosophy, rumination, religion, history, and a mass of information about whaling through the ages.
-
-
Excellent, EXCELLENT reading!
- By Jessica on 02-18-09
-
Prep
- A Novel
- By: Curtis Sittenfeld
- Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie
- Length: 17 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lee Fiora is an intelligent, observant 14-year-old when her father drops her off in front of her dorm at the prestigious Ault School in Massachusetts. She leaves her animated, affectionate family in South Bend, Indiana, at least in part because of the boarding school’s glossy brochure, in which boys in sweaters chat in front of old brick buildings, girls in kilts hold lacrosse sticks on pristinely mown athletic fields, and everyone sings hymns in chapel.
-
-
“Lee Goes to High School”
- By Ree on 03-28-20
-
Priestdaddy
- A Memoir
- By: Patricia Lockwood
- Narrated by: Patricia Lockwood
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Father Greg Lockwood is unlike any Catholic priest you have ever met - a man who lounges in boxer shorts, who loves action movies, and whose constant jamming on the guitar reverberates "like a whole band dying in a plane crash in 1972". His daughter is an irreverent poet who long ago left the church's country. When an unexpected crisis leads her and her husband to move back into her parents' rectory, their two worlds collide.
-
-
Terrible narration--read, don't listen
- By Penelope on 08-06-17
-
Jesus' Son
- By: Denis Johnson
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 2 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Denis Johnson's now classic story collection Jesus' Son chronicles a wild netherworld of addicts and lost souls, a violent and disordered landscape that encompasses every extreme of American culture. These are stories of transcendence and spiraling grief, of hallucinations and glories, of getting lost and found and lost again. The insights and careening energy in Jesus' Son have earned the book a place of its own among the classics of twentieth-century American literature.
-
-
Some books are better read.
- By dngold77 on 09-02-18
-
How to Be an Artist
- By: Jerry Saltz
- Narrated by: Jerry Saltz
- Length: 2 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Art has the power to change our lives. For many, becoming an artist is a lifelong dream. But how to make it happen? In How to Be an Artist, Jerry Saltz, one of the art world’s most celebrated and passionate voices, offers an indispensable handbook for creative people of all kinds. From the first sparks of inspiration - and how to pursue them without giving in to self-doubt - Saltz offers invaluable insight into what really matters to emerging artists: originality, persistence, a balance between knowledge and intuition, and that most precious of qualities, self-belief.
-
-
Terrible Book Waste of Money
- By Classic on 04-22-20
-
Take Control of Your Life
- How to Silence Fear and Win the Mental Game
- By: Mel Robbins
- Narrated by: Mel Robbins
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mel Robbins is back! The international bestselling phenomenon and creator of The Five Second Rule and Kick Ass with Mel Robbins returns to help you tackle the single biggest obstacle you face: fear. This life-changing Audible Original features a powerful mix of one-on-one life-coaching sessions and a personal narrative with vital take-aways that you can start using immediately.
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Stop living in fear
- By Nike7 on 02-08-19
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A Witch in Time
- By: Constance Sayers
- Narrated by: Courtney Patterson, Claire Christie, Brittany Wilkerson, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Helen Lambert has lived several lives-a young piano virtuoso in 1890s Paris, an actress in 1930s Hollywood, a rock star in 1970s Los Angeles - only she doesn't know it. Until she meets a strange man who claims he's watched over her for centuries, bound to her from the beginning. At first, Helen doesn't believe him. Her life is as normal as any other modern career woman's. Then she begins having vivid dreams about ill-fated love and lives cut short. Caught in a curse, Helen will be forced to relive the same tragic events that ruined her previous lives.
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Tired of Heroines’ Repeatedly Making Stupid Decisions
- By Neecie on 03-26-20
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Mating in Captivity
- Reconciling the Erotic & the Domestic
- By: Esther Perel
- Narrated by: Esther Perel
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Esther Perel takes on tough questions, grappling with the obstacles and anxieties that arise when our quest for secure love conflicts with our pursuit of passion. She invites us to explore the paradoxical union of domesticity and sexual desire, and explains what it takes to bring lust home.
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Slices of life
- By Eric on 12-03-18
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The Unhoneymooners
- By: Christina Lauren
- Narrated by: Cynthia Farrell, Deacon Lee
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Olive Torres is used to being the unlucky twin: from inexplicable mishaps to a recent layoff, her life seems to be almost comically jinxed. By contrast, her sister Ami is an eternal champion...she even managed to finance her entire wedding by winning a slew of contests. Unfortunately for Olive, the only thing worse than constant bad luck is having to spend the wedding day with the best man (and her nemesis), Ethan Thomas.
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Cute, in a creepy way.
- By Susan 🎧Audible-a-holic🎧 Crowe on 05-16-19
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King Lear
- Arkangel Shakespeare
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: Trevor Peacock, Clive Merrison, full cast
- Length: 3 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This shattering drama of isolation and loss is one of the greatest tragedies in world literature. King Lear of Britain has three daughters: the hard-hearted Goneril and Regan, and the good and gentle Cordelia. He determines to divide his kingdom between them, giving the largest share to she who can say she loves him the best. Lear's tragic lack of judgment and self-knowledge is paralleled by the blindness of the loyal Gloucester who is persuaded to reject his virtuous son, Edgar, in favor of the villainous Edmund.
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tragedy par excellence
- By turbopro on 08-10-16
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The Conspiracy Against the Human Race
- A Contrivance of Horror
- By: Thomas Ligotti
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
His fiction is known to be some of the most terrifying in the genre of supernatural horror, but Thomas Ligotti's first nonfiction book may be even scarier. Drawing on philosophy, literature, neuroscience, and other fields of study, Ligotti takes the penetrating lens of his imagination and turns it on his audience, causing them to grapple with the brutal reality that they are living a meaningless nightmare, and anyone who feels otherwise is simply acting out an optimistic fallacy.
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Sad and honest
- By Amazon Customer on 01-06-20